1.D 03. Example of the Apostles
Example of the Apostles.
It is said that ministers ought not to know any thing but “ Jesus Christ and him crucified,” 1m’t that, is said in a different manner from that of the apostle.
He did not say, “ I preach nothing but the historical Christ and him crucified.” He said that he put the whole dependence of his ministry upon the force that was generated from Christ and him crucified; and not upon his own personal power, presence, or eloquence. He relied upon the living presence of Almighty God, as revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ.
He depended upon moral power; and it is a perversion to say that men are to preach nothing but the literal, textual Christ, or the literal, textual four Gospels, or the literal, textual Epistles; for all of life is open to you. You have a right to preach from everything, from the stars in the zenith to the lowest form of creation upon earth. All things belong to you, for you are Christ s. The earth is the Lord s, and the fulness of it. The Lord is our Father, and therefore we are heirs.
It is also said, “ Are we wiser than the apostles were? “ I hope so. I should be ashamed if we were not. “Are we better preachers than they were? “ Yes; we ought to be better preachers in our time than they would be. They were adapted to their times, admirably; but I think it is as much a misapplication of things to bring down literally the arguments of the apostles from Jerusalem to our times, as it would have been, were it possible, to carry back all the scientific knowledge, and all the developed political economy which we now have, and preach them in old Jerusalem, within the Temple.
We should be barbarians to them, and they would be comparative barbarians to us. Adaptation to the times in which we, live, is the law of Providence. The apostles were adapted to their times. We must be similarly adapted not in a passive, servile way, but in a living, active way, and by taking an interest in the things which men do now. What did the apostles preach? Did they not preach like Jews to Jews, and Greeks to Greeks? They had liberty, and they took the things they found to be needful in their time, to the people to whom they ministered. The following of the apostolic example is not to pursue, blindly, their external forms, but to follow the light of their humanity and that of the gospel. This was the example they set: Whatever tended to elevate men from the lower to the higher sphere, the apostles thought lawful for them to employ in their ministry.
You may ask if they did not understand human nature without all the study that I am recommending. I think that they did understand a great deal of human nature. It does not follow, however, that you should not attempt to understand as much, and more, than they did; for such an argument as that would really be not only against a more scientific basis of knowledge of human nature for the modern preacher, but against all development of every kind, against all growth, against all culture and all refinement. You must not pattern yourselves on the antique models, altogether, except in principle.