There is also the power of conviction. The man who He is not preaches the word believes what he is preaching. speaking, God speaks. This word shall not return void. The speaker can say, I know whom I With Augustine the preacher affirms, "I shall accomplish. have believed." do not ask to understand that I may believe, but to believe that I may understand." This potentiality is seen again in its fearlessness. It opens the mouth boldly. Nothing hinders its onward march. Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward.' Sin is called sin. The sinner is at heart a coward, the truth overcomes him, and perhaps wins him. The proud invader of Greece said of Demosthenes, "I dread the words of that man more than the feats of arms of the Athenians. He puts arms and oars into their hands, he makes them into new men." This the word of God has done to the preacher. The compromising faith and apologetic ministry soon lose all power and respect. "Why preach literature?" a pastor was asked. "It will not offend,' was the reply. But, may I ask, why are we preachers, if not to offend; to offend sin, and to drive it out fearlessly? Wisdom can be an ally to such utterance, for we cannot preach without it, and if we lack wisdom, we are to ask of God." True, the preaching of God's word will certainly awaken criticism. One cannot preach to please, and at the same time preach the word, for God's word will arouse, and the sleeping man may be abusive if aroused. 66 It has power over conscience. "The word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." If we are not preaching to the conscience, we are not preaching the word. Norman McLeod, with his marvelous gifts, could have gained large popular effects, by using his vivid imagination and gifts of word painting; but we are told that he held these in strict subordination to the one necessity of awakening the conscience." Recently a man was asked why he did not attend church. He replied, As well as I like the preacher, I cannot listen to him and continue in a sin which I am not willing to give up; he always whips my conscience." Compare with this, a statement as to another. " You ought to hear our pastor. He is such a clever and witty man, and you know, he is a recognized authority on literature and art." It also gives the power of reproduction. The preacher dies, his sermons cease, the word of God lives eternally and is incarnate in the hearers. It lives on from generation to generation. When asked by one of our prominent publishers to prepare a volume for the press, Dr. Babcock tersely replied that he did not care "to go down to posterity in half calf, but in the lives of men." Why has the Scottish pulpit been so powerful? The example set by Knox and his followers in constructive exposition of the scriptures replies. Generation has spoken to generation, the effect of the sermons havė been reproduced. The word of God lives in Scotland. Thirdly, if testimony and potentiality confirm our text, has it not a message to the ministry of today? Does the world need sermonizers or preachers? Is not the resolve of one of our influential Brooklyn divines worth while? He would no longer preach an essay with a subject, but a message with an object." Tell your friend, wrote Dr. Babcock, to a young man about to enter a new charge, "to preach as if each sermon were his last." The church of Christ does not need a greater scholarship than she has. The very versatility of scholarship in some preachers seems to rob them of strength. All creeds and politics are today demanding men who know and can preach the word of God with intelligence and force. Recently, in a northern city, a young man was unsuccessfully sought by three denominations. Scores of men about him were his intellectual superiors. Still, his own pulpit was almost pre-eminent in power and attraction. Discussing his success, the unanimous agreement of his colleagues centered in his devotion and consis Pulpit tency in feeding on and preaching the word of God. committees look through their files in vain and say with a sigh, "Where is the man whose soul is on fire with the word of God, who can say, 'I am determined to know nothing among you but Jesus Christ and Him crucified?' '' Not men who preach at or about the word, but who preach the word." If the word is constantly before us, if we fill our minds, eyes and hearts with it, it will be the pre-eminent expression of our lives, and all that we see, read or think, will conform to this vital message. It is a great mistake to think that biblical phraseology is out of date. Nothing can surpass it in power when aptly and appropriately used. The pleasing composite phraseology of the modern literary student may be as popular temporarily as it is powerless permanently. It may be as flashing as a rocket, but it has little of the anthracite about it. Beware when men term preaching "beautiful ” or brilliant." Remember it is a dynamic. It is the power of God unto salvation." President Porter wrote, Life is not so long that its vigor may all be spent in getting ready to live." These are days of utmost need, need of God's word, to purify and construct. Critics are telling more what men say and think about the Bible than the words of scripture, themselves. We need neither “fervid ignorance nor scholastic apathy;" we need God's word from souls aflame. "O, let all the soul within you For the truth's sake go abroad. Strike! Let every nerve and sinew But we cannot preach the word unless we know the word; we cannot know the word unless we become the word. The Word was with God, and the Word was God." "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us;" and to as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become. By devotion and communion we may become the word incarnate to our people. Let us then take the temperature of our souls tonight, together with the hour in which we live. Are we not intoxicated with affairs; feverish with excitements; overworked and tired with executive? John Flavel said, "It is easier to declaim like an orator against a thousand sins, than to mortify one sin in self; to preach twenty sermons to our people, than one to our hearts." Can we not seek the wilderness with Christ each day, that we may learn of Him, and learn from Him to "preach the word?" Are we individually taking even an hour each day for personal devotional study of the word, and for conversational prayer with Christ? Such communion would soon cause our themes to outnumber our opportunities to preach them, and our words would light, and warm and burn. As Sheridan said of Rowland Hill, he liked to go to hear him, "because his ideas came red hot from the heart." Turning from all criticism of others, our sole ambition will become that of Paul's advice to Timothy, that we may preach the "word.” Artificial fountains that play within the parks of our cities refresh many a weary passerby, and cool and rest all who listen to their play, or drink of their waters, but they can never substitute for the mountain springs, and the streams of the valley, the sources of life's permanent supply. Shall we give men simply the artificial refreshment, or lead them to the springs which feed the river of life? Whoso drinketh of this water shall thirst again; but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life." MEN OF FAITH. Address Given to the Graduating Class, May 10, 1906. BY PRESIDENT GEORGE BLACK STEWART. The baptism and temptation of Jesus are full of the keenest human interest, for we seem here to get a fuller view of the man that was in him than we do at many other points in |