1.E 07. Faith
Faith. The other element that I wish to discuss is Faith, in the sense of belief. I do not mean now by faith what I did in the other instance, namely, the realization of the invisible, but the believing spirit which you must have, the conviction of what you teach. A man who does not believe what he is preaching will very seldom make his people believe it; and, therefore, I say, if your minds are much in doubt in respect to the grounds or the great truths of Christianity, and if you are thinking about that all the time, you will never be preachers. You must get rid of that feeling. You can get over it by bringing yourselves to deal with the wants of men, and accustoming yourselves to practical life. There is no study like mixing with men, and helping them.
There is nothing that will make you believe in God so much as trying to be like God yourselves to your fellow-men, nor anything that will bring Christ so near to you as trying to do what Christ did by giving up your will for your people, and conforming yourself to their dispositions, and presenting to them everything you have realized in respect to the great doctrines of Christianity. I do not understand how men can preach these doctrines who are occupied all the week in raising questions of doubt. There is abroad a habit of mind which is called “ constructive criticism “ by philosophers, which is now prevalent in Germany, and somewhat so in England, and is even throwing its shadow upon our own land, and exciting men’s minds. A man under that influence is, as it were, congealed, and loses his electrical power, by which only a man preaches with any effect. There was something almost omnipotent and altogether triumphant in the expression, “ I know in whom I believe.” A man who is the very embodiment of conviction, and who pours it out upon people so that they can see it and feel it, can preach.
He can make men believe things that are true, and even those that are not true such as that ordinances arc indispensable which are not indispensable. He can do almost everything with people, for he really believes his own doctrine. See Roman Catholic priests go into a community, and there are many of them that might be our exemplars in piety and self-denial, and with that intense faith and zeal which have made them martyrs among savages, see them labour among the people, and lead them into the fold of the Roman Church. That is largely the result of the Faith-power.
If you are going to preach, do not take things about which you are in doubt to lay before your people. Do not prove things too much. A man who goes into his pulpit every Sunday to prove things gives occasion for people to say, “ Well, that is not half so certain as I thought it was.” You will, by this course, raise up a generation of chronic doubters, and will keep them so by a little drilling in the nice refinement of doctrinal criticism. You can drive back from the heart the great surges of faith with that kind of specious argument, and even the true witness of the Spirit of God in men may be killed in your congregation by such doubting logic. Do not employ arguments any more than is necessary, and then only for the sake of answering objections and killing the enemies of the truth; but in so far as truth itself is concerned, preach it to the consciousness of men. If you have not spoiled your people, you have them on your side already. The Word of God and the laws of truth are all conform able to reason and to the course of things that now are; and, certainly, everything that is required in a Christian life, repentance for sin and turning from it, the taking hold of a higher manhood, the nobility and disinterestedness of man, goes with God’s Word and laws naturally. Assume your position, there fore; and if a man says to you, “ How is it you are so successful while using so little argument? “ tell him that is the very reason of your success. Take things for granted, and men will not think to dispute them, but will admit them, and go on with you and become better men than if they had been treated to a logical process of argument, which aroused in them an argumentative spirit of doubt and opposition.
Remember, then, Imagination, Emotion, Enthusiasm, and Conviction are the four foundation-stones of an effective and successful ministry.