His Message.
In what does the evangelist's message consist? "_Philip_," we are
told, "_preached unto him_ JESUS." And what that included we have
already seen. It was the story of the life, and the death, and the
resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, a new story then, an old story now,
but still "the old, old story" for us.
The duty of the Christian teacher must be first of all to proclaim
Christ and His salvation, to announce the glad tidings of mercy and of
love to sinful men.
This is not, of course, to say that every address or sermon is to be
occupied with the objective facts of Christ's life and death. Such
teaching would soon become monotonous and wearisome, and fail in the
very purpose it set before it. Nor have men only to be awakened to the
truth, they must be built up in it. And the practical question for us
all is to learn how to apply and carry out in our daily lives, the
truths we have received, how to make our conduct correspond to our
creed. That opens up an endless field for the evangelist's work: that
introduces us to lectures on Home Missions and Foreign Missions, to the
story of noble lives; to all, in fact, that is likely to deepen and to
quicken our moral nature. But still this remains as the fundamental
object of the whole evangel, to preach Jesus, to bring those to Him who
know Him not, to strengthen and to comfort those who do.
When, then, men call upon the Christian teacher to leave the objective
facts of the gospel alone, and to occupy himself with the philosophic
and social questions of the day, they are calling upon him to surrender
his special function and duty. He must indeed endeavour so to present
the truth so as to meet the peculiar wants of his own time. The form
in which the gospel was presented in one age may not be the best form
of presenting it in another. At one time it may be necessary to
emphasise one aspect of the truth, at another, another. But underneath
all its changing forms and aspects, _the_ truth remains unchanged; and
it is that which must be taught.
And after all, has not the simple gospel message ever proved itself the
one message that can touch the hearts and meet the wants of men? What
was it, for example, in the preaching of Savonarola that so mightily
moved Florence, the elegant, refined, wicked, pagan Florence of the
fifteenth century? He himself tells us that it was the preaching of
Scripture truth. When he discoursed in a philosophical manner, the
ignorant and the learned were alike inattentive: but "the word"
mightily delighted the minds of men, and showed its divine power in the
reformation of their lives. Or, to take another instance from nearer
home. Archdeacon Wilson describes somewhere the experience of the
promoters of a certain evening-class, which they had instituted for the
benefit of some of the more ignorant and degraded inhabitants of
Bristol. All that they could think of they did for the benefit of the
men who gathered to it. They read to them; they sang to them: they
taught them to read and write. Yet, in course of time, interest
flagged. Every expedient failed, and they were on the point of
abandoning the work in despair, when it occurred to them to apply to
the men themselves. "What would you like us to tell you about next?"
they asked. "Could you tell us something about Jesus Christ?" answered
one of the men. That was the one thing needful, the one abiding
satisfaction for their deepest needs.
And so ever. It may be strange, but it is true, that it is "_the Man
of Sorrows_" who has won the love of men; it is the Saviour who has
been lifted up on high out of the earth, who has drawn all men to
Himself. Christ: Christ crucified: Christ risen: that is the message
which every Christian evangelist has to declare.