Heralds of God

HERALDS OF GOD by JAMES S. STEWART. PREFACE: I HAVE chosen the title of this book to stress one fundamental fact, namely, that preaching exists, not for the propagating of views, opinions and ideals, but for the proclamation of the mighty acts of God. This is demonstrably the New Testament conception of the preacher's task; and it is this that will always give preaching a basic and essential place at the very heart of Christian worship. To write about preaching is therefore to deal with an enterprise with which not only the man in the pulpit but the whole worshipping community is vitally and intimately concerned: a fact which emboldens me to hope that the pages which follow, addressed originally as Lectures in the Universities of Edinburgh and St. Andrews to Divinity students and ministers, will have something to say to the wider circle of those who Sunday by Sunday are hearers of the Word of God, loving the habitation of His house and the place where His honour dwelleth, and perhaps even to the critic in the back pew. I desire here to record my thanks to the Trustees of the Warrack Lectureship, for their invitation to me to undertake this task ? and to my friend^ the Rev. Graham W. Hardy, B. D., who has revised the proofs. James S. Stewart, NORTH MORNINGSIDE CHURCH, EDINBURGH. Contents include: PREFACE 5 CHAPTER I. THE PREACHER'S WORLD 9 II. THE PREACHER'S THEME . . . . 58 III. THE PREACHER'S STUDY . 100 IV. THE PREACHER'S TECHNIQUE ... 141 V. THE PREACHER'S INNER LIFE . . .190. CHAPTER I: THE PREACHER'S WORLD. There shall always be the Church and the World And the Heart of Man Shivering and fluttering between them, choosing and chosen, Valiant, ignoble, dark, and full of light Swinging between Hell Gate and Heaven Gate. And the Gates of Hell shall not prevail. Darkness now, then Light. T. S. ELIOT, The Rock. MONG the tributes paid to the memory of Sir Walford Davies, one of the noblest was that of a brother musician. Dr. Vaughan Williams. He dwelt on the sacrifice which Walford Davies had chosen to make quite deliberately the sacrifice of the more aloof, self-centred life of the composer, for that of the organizer, the advocate, the musical propagandist, the educator of popular taste and opinion; and then he added: It is an eternal problem that confronts all those who feel they have the creative impulse ' shall I shut myself up from the world and follow the dic tates of my artistic conscience, or shall I go down to the world of men and show them what I have learnt about eternity and beauty?' Walford Davies had no doubts he was a born preacher and he determined to go and preach to the Gentiles. This decision, declared Vaughan Williams, was probably right fancy that no one who knows what Walford Davles did for music in this generation will dispute that verdict. Now the same problem, the same critical decision to which Vaughan Williams called attention in the realm of creative art, reappears even more forcibly in religion; and here it is a problem, not for the few who possess the elusive quality of genius, but for the whole company of believers. Shall I, as a Chris tian, be content to pursue the religious quest as a private hobby, and to develop my own spiritual life; or shall I concern myself personally for those outside, and take upon my heart deliberately the whole world's need for Christ ? ...