Preachers Condemning Other Preachers

QUESTION: Is it for the advancement of holiness for a preacher professing this grace to scandalize in his own pulpit a minister of the Gospel because he occasionally takes his open air recreation by playing lawn tennis?

ANSWER: "Love suffereth long and is kind, hopeth all things and thinketh no evil." We advise this preacher, who thinks he is appointed a judge over his fellow laborers in the Lord's vineyard, to make a thorough study of Paul's eulogy of love, the 13th chapter of I Corinthians. Uncharitableness does not promote any good cause, especially Christian holiness.

— Steele's Answers p. 271.

Taking Questions During the Sermon

QUESTION: Would it not add much interest to the hearers of sermons and greatly increase their number if they were permitted to interrupt the preacher by asking questions as Christ allowed his disciples and others to do, and as our missionaries in Asia do now allow in their street preaching?

ANSWER: It would probably increase the number of hearers, but diminish the number of preachers. None but the quick-witted, like the cosmopolitan evangelist, William Taylor, could stand it. Young preachers especially would be confused when there were fired at them such stock conundrums as "Where did Cain get his wife?" "Locate the Garden of Eden." "Explain the origin of sin." Then, again, the reverence of our public worship would be greatly damaged, if not destroyed, as it is in our Sunday schools. Yet it would have some advantages. It would promote extemporaneous preaching, banish the manuscript, and stop the mouths of those who sneeringly say; "The pulpit is the coward's castle."

— Steele's Answers p. 241.

The Gift of Ministerial Power

QUESTION: What is the gift in I Tim. 4:14, "Neglect not the gift, that is in thee," etc.? (2) Also II Tim. 1:14, "That good thing * * * committed to thee"?

ANSWER: The ability to read the Scriptures publicly, to exhort and to teach, which ability had been solemnly recognized by Paul and the elders in his public ordination in which the unction of the Spirit necessary to success is invoked and received by the candidate through faith. (2) This is that spoken of in verse 6, "Stir up the gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my hands." This gift of ministerial power could slumber, like embers beneath the ashes, unless Timothy should enkindle and quicken it into a flame. A pulpit on fire is a great attraction. If the fire has gone out or is smothered, the pews will soon become empty.

— Steele's Answers pp. 217, 218.

The High Calling of the Preacher

The humblest pulpit is higher than the dome of any state house in our country, yea, higher than the Federal Capitol itself. "He that winneth souls is wise. They that are wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as stars for ever and ever."

Robert Hall once said that if two angels were sent down from heaven, one to sweep the streets of London and the other to be its lord mayor, they would not debate on the way the question, Which is the greater honor? All men are to be equally honored who equally fulfill their duty, whether to rock a cradle or to command the army at Gettysburg.

But to do as the God-man did when he preached up and down Galilee and Judea seems to be the most exalted occupation to which mortals can aspire. "I paint for immortality" was the reply of an artist who was asked why he lingered so long over one picture. The preacher who sways souls from sin to holiness preaches for eternity. His theme is the cross of Christ, the central point of human history. Scientific men may sneer at such a preacher as narrow because he confines himself to one theme, Christ crucified, not considering that this theme touches all human interests. It gives the amplest scope to mental, moral and spiritual development. The preacher may apply elevating and transforming truth to every state of society and to every subject of human thought. In God's ancient temple the layman could enter no farther than the court of the Jews, but the high priest could enter every apartment. The preacher is God's high priest in the temple of Christian truth to apply truth to all human transactions from the king on the throne to the beggar on the dunghill.

— Jesus Exultant Chapter 5.