1.H 05. Thrust-Power

Thrust-Power.

I desire to call your attention to this force-giving power, that which lends impetuosity, that which gives what I might call limgc to a man’s preaching.

Why should you waste your time every Sunday morning and night, without being conscious of having done anything? You can afford to do it occasionally, as there is wastage in all systems; but a man who goes on preaching when there is no evidence of accomplishment is like a windmill that the boys put on the top of a house; it goes around and around, but it grinds nothing below. Preaching is business, young gentlemen. It means the hardest kind of work.

There is nothing else in this world that requires so many resources, so much thought, so much saga city, so much constant application, so much freshness, such intensity of conception within, and such power of execution without, as genuine preaching.

Ministers sometimes think they do their duty by resting chiefly on their faithful pastoral labours, but they do not half bring out the preaching-power, when they rely on the indirect and social influences that are connected with it. One should help the other. You arc to bring out the preaching-element, if it is in you; for, in this age, preaching is almost everything. This is pre-eminently the talking age. A preacher must be a good talker, arid must have something in him that is worth talking about.

People say, " Show me a man of deeds, and not of words." You might as well say, " Show me a field of corn; I don’t care about clouds and rain." Talking makes thought and feeling, and thought and feeling make action. Show me a man of words who knows how to incite noble deeds!