Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Hotes.

[blocks in formation]

The first sermons at Victoria Chapel, Wandsworth Road, will be preached on Lord's-day, April 6, by Pastors F. Tucker and J. A. Spurgeon; on April 7, in the evening, by Dr. Landels. On Lord's-day, April 13, Pastor Mayers of Battersea, and Mr. Henderson, the future Pastor, will preach; and on April 16, in the afternoon, at Three o'clock, C. H. Spurgeon. A public meeting will be held in the evening of the 18th.

The Secretary of the Baptist Union requests us to announce a Soirée, at the Cannon Street Hotel, in the evening of April 28. Messrs. Landels, Pattison, and Tymms are to deliver addresses. Tickets, including tea and coffee, 2s. each, to be procured at the Mission House.

[ocr errors]

The fourth number of the " Interpreter' has been issued. Friends who have not yet begun to take it, can procure the former numbers.

Lectures on behalf of Nonconformity have been delivered in the Tabernacle

A. E. I. S. B.

Lecture Hall, by Mr. Rogers, of Clapham, and Dr. Edmunds, of Highbury, very much to the benefit of those who heard them.

A collection was made at the Tabernacle, March 16, towards the fund for building a new chapel for the church and congregation meeting at Surrey Chapel, under the care of Mr. Newman Hall. Veneration for the memory of Rowland Hill, as well as brotherly fellowship with a very useful neighbouring church suggested this step. We had great pleasure in sending one hundred guineas to Mr. Hall.

Thanks are due to a friend who has sent us a supply of Draper's Lichröic ink; it is, in our judgment, the very best for rapid writing. Mr. Mudie's Select inks are also very excellent.

Good news have reached us from Mr. Stokes, of Port Elizabeth, South Africa, who is abundantly pros] ering. We salute him in the name of all the brethren.

The church at Sittingbourne is enjoying a gracious revival. May it long

continue.

Baptisms at Metropolitan Tabernacle by Mr. J. A. Spurgeon:-February 24th, two; February 27th, six: and by Mr. V. J. Charlesworth :-February 24th, five.

Pastors' College, Metropolitan Tabernacle.

Statement of Receipts from February 20th to March 19th, 1873.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

£ s. d.
0 10 0
036
1 0
035

Trowel," Forres

A Friend

Mrs. Adams

Mr. C. Foster

Miss H. Fells

Stockwell Orphanage.

Statement of Receipts from February 20th to March 19th, 1873.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small]
[merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

0 5 0

Mrs. Fowles

[merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors]
[merged small][ocr errors]

Anonymous, per Rev. J. Aldis

Matt. XXV., 40

Children of Trinity Sunday School,

Mrs. Macpherson

5 0 0

Eliza

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

0 5 0

1 18

0

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]

Mr. and Mrs. Dean...

A Humble Servant

Friends at Wotton-Under-Edge and

Kingswood, per Mrs. Griffiths

210 0

[ocr errors]

026

12 18 7

[ocr errors]

1 0 0

Mr. J. Griffiths

A Marriage Offering, D. and H. A.

[blocks in formation]

215 050

Mrs. Harris

[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

Mrs. J. McCammond

[blocks in formation]

100

[ocr errors]

100
100

A Friend at Limbury, per Mr. Menlove
Mr. and Mrs. Goddard

010

400

...

[blocks in formation]

050

[ocr errors][ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

626

Master C. W. Jackson

[merged small][ocr errors]

Mr. W. Hall

0911

Mrs. W. Ranford

[merged small][ocr errors]

0 2 6

100

Lambeth, South London, and Clapham

Auxiliaries Sunday School Union

020

050

P. O. Q.
A.

18 19 0 400 0

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors][merged small][merged small]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]
[blocks in formation]

A Loaf of Bread from Exeter

Mrs. H. Dale

66

0 12 6 050 030

List of Presents for the Orphanage.-PROVISIONS:-Sack of Flour, Mr. Nye; 6 Bags of Vegetables, Challon; a Sheep, per Mr. Kidner.

CLOTHING, ETC.-7 Shirts, Redditch Baptist Church, per Miss Simms; Wool Cover for Sofa Cushion, per Miss Bonsor; a large Bath, Mr. Vickery.

Donations, etc., per Mr. Charlesworth:-Miss Biliter, £1; Master Dalby, 5s: Sale of Antimacassar, 38 6d; ditto, Remnant, 68; ditto, Old Clothing, £1 10s;-£1 19s 6d: Balance from Sale of Bones, etc., £3.-Total, £6 4s 6d.

Parcels received for the Orphanage from :-The Misses Croggon, Mrs. Cardwell, Mrs. Reynolds, Mrs. Gummoe, Mrs. Read, Miss Read, Miss Geldart, Mrs. Gaved, Mrs. Stocker, Mrs. T. Stocker, Mrs. Moreland, Mrs. Andrew, Florrie, Bessie, and R. S.

Received for College Buildings:-Mr. and Mrs. Griffiths, £2; Church at Middleton Cheney, per Rev. J. Dodwell, £1 15s.

Received for Mr. Pegg's Chapel at San Domingo :-Mr. Cockrell, £2; Mr. Green, £2; S. P., £1 1s; Mrs. Lewis, 10s; Collection after Prayer-meeting at Tabernacle, £13 9s 9d; Mr. Westrop, 2s 6d; Mr. May, £10; Mr. C. Davies, £1; Mr. Dougharty, 10s 6d; A Friend, 7s; Mr. Dowsett, £1; Mr. E. Edgley, £1 1s; A Working Man, Dumfries, £1; His Friend, £1; Mr. W. Romford, £1; Mr. stiff, £10; Mr. T. Gregory, £1; Mr. Fisher, £5; Mr. Kinnear, £1 108; Mrs. Skates, 5s; F., 3s; Mr. J. Campbell, £1; Friends, per Mrs. Woolford, 7s 9d; Mr. W. Birt, £10; Mr. and Mrs. Goddard, £2; Mr. Romang, Junior, 2s.

The Watch and Jewelery acknowledged last month was intended for the Orphanage, and should have appeared as "A Thankoffering for mercies received."

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

THE

SWORD AND THE TROWEL.

MAY, 1873.

The Manifestation of the Spirit of Scripture in Public Discourses.

A PAPER READ AT THE COLLEGE CONFERENCE, 1873.

BY PROFESSOR DAVID GRACEY.

HERE is a peculiarity which we must all have noticed in public discourses. We have observed it sometimes in all preachers, always in some. To the one class it is the law of their ministry, to the other it is a passing accident. What I refer to is the absence of the spirit of Scripture. I do not speak of that blessed Spirit who gave the word, nor only of that temper, and manner, and tone in which the word is given. I have in view that remarkable adaptation of external form to inner meaning, that singular sympathy between the thoughts and the expression, that wondrous unity which underlies all the diverse parts of the word of God, and which holds the scattered truths together, as if by a living link. This rare mingling of qualities has too much of the exuberance of life to be termed a mere artistic mannerism; and yet it has so much of manner, so distinct and so inseparable, that it cleaves to that life in its most diverse manifestations. We can never escape feeling this combination of influences when it is present. We can never succeed in expressing it fully when we feel it. But for the word spirit it would be to us for the most part unutterable.

In using the word spirit in this sense, we are not without the authority of common examples. We speak of the spirit of a man when we would set forth the bent of his character. We speak of the spirit of

a book when we would describe the tendency of its teaching. And he who would undertake to give a description of a man or of a book without telling us of the spirit of the one or other would leave us wholly in the dark as to the secret of the value and character of both. And yet this is exactly the condition in which the hearer is often left, after patiently listening to a discourse of three quarters of an hour on some scriptural theme. In the discourse he feels nothing of that spirit which he knows he should find in Scripture itself. We often call such a deficiency the absence of power, of profitable instruction, of gracious influence, of unction, of the Evangelical element, yea, even of Christ himself. But we may often more correctly resolve it into the partial or utter absence, or concealment, of the spirit of Scripture. Where this is present, and in its appropriate place, those high excellencies follow in its train. The reason is plain and simple. The man who would breathe this spirit throughout a discourse must himself have inhaled it first. And to inhale the spirit of Scripture in any particular passage he must have discovered the secret of the meaning of that passage, he must have traced the special application of its truth, he must have noted the circumstances under which it was uttered, the times, the characters to whom addressed; he must have laid bare his own heart, so that the force of the truth might strike home to his own conscience; he must have strained memory and imagination in gathering together its minute threads and colours; and he must have exercised his judgment in selecting, arranging, blending, and weaving them into the texture of his discourse after the example and pattern of heavenly things. And after all this, little has been done, nothing has been carried to perfection, in touching the whole with a divine purpose, in clothing the whole with an invincible might, in infusing into it the savour and fragrance which are everywhere present throughout the word of God, unless the light of the spirit of love has shone upon his mind, and a gale from the "mountains of frankincense" has blown upon his heart.

This, then, is sufficient to show that what I venture to call the spirit of Scripture ought not only to be a constituent part, but a primary and essential element in all discourses to believers and to unconverted men. And the deep necessity there is for this spirit, and the direct tendency it has to foster a healthy and enlightened piety, as well as the withering and blighting which true godliness suffers in its absence, are my apology for asking your attention for a little to the subject.

And, to follow the old-fashioned plan of divisions, I shall speak, first, briefly, of some of the things contained in the manifestation of the spirit of Scripture; and, secondly, more briefly, of some of the advantages flowing from it.

With regard to the first point, I remark that there is contained in the manifestation of the spirit of Scripture

1. An exhibition of the truths of Scripture.

In laying down this proposition we may be accused of turning over soil often tilled before, of harping upon a string of which men's ears are already weary. It may be so; but our conviction is that this piece of ground is not yet exhausted, that this string has not yet given out its last note of music. There is abroad but too wide-spread a

conviction-if such things as convictions still survive-that any sort or thought, and any kind of knowledge, has intrinsically within itself some moral, some heavenly influence. In this notion you find the Roman Catholic dogmatist and the advanced Rationalist-the two opposite extremes of thought-virtually agreeing. The Romish Bishop will not allow the secular schoolmaster to advance more than a step or two in the multiplication table, lest he trench upon the domain of morality. And the Rationalist deems it the most religious exercise he can conceive of to discourse to his fellow-men on the results of that same multiplication table as applied to stars, and seas, and geologic strata. It may be a very great triumph in mathematics to calculate the relative magnitudes of the star Alcyone in the Pleiades, and of Aldebaran in the eye of Taurus; but that doing so should necessarily make a man fitter for heaven exceeds our credulity quite as much as the notion that the knowledge that two and two make four should make a man "wise unto salvation." In contrast with this, our belief is that every truth has its own peculiar influence, that the truths of Scripture alone contain, and alone can contain, the spirit of Scripture. The truths of Scripture are the particles of the great mass which the spirit moves, the members of the great body which it animates and controls. Break a limb, the spirit is impeded; kill the body, the spirit is fled. Introduce other truths which are not those of Scripture, and in vain you seek to breathe into them, and through them to the people, the inspiring breath which blows in the word of God. There is no affinity, there can be no cooperation. This doctrine does not deny the existence of other truths, it does not set at nought their value, it does not ignore their influence; it simply refuses to admit that other truths, no matter what they may be, can have the same moral significance to the soul of man that the truths of Scripture have. We gladly acknowledge that other truths may have their assigned place in a code of ethics, their mystic symbolism in a system of metaphysics, their well-known value in the higher and bolder theories of science, or among the social, economical, and political questions of the day: but when they are brought into the pulpit, and the preacher seeks to raise them there to the dignity of a new or another Evangel, his failure is complete and disastrous. No tongue, no pen need record it. It is already written in ominous and unmistakeable characters in the hearts and lives of the people! He may have given pleasure, he may have merited applause, he may have thereby won for himself the eulogy of Sir Philip Sydney, who was described as "The secretary of eloquence, the breath of the muses, the honey-bee of the daintyest flowers of witt and arte, the pith of morale and intellectual virtues." And yet all this would have enkindled no more heavenly fire in the souls of his hearers than the majestic tones of an organ in some ancient minster, reverberating among the graves and memorials of the dead. In the pulpit it is not the truths of the zeitgeist, nor the time Spirit itself, that is required to turn heavenward the hearts of men, but the truths of the Spirit of Eternity, and the Eternal Spirit himself, whose quickening and sanctifying influences are equally potent and equally necessary in every age. And he who holds the truths in which this benign spirit dwells is possessed of a lyre more mighty than that of Orpheus in taming savage men. He has a harp

« AnteriorContinuar »