Nine great preachers

Dedication

To his former pupils, students of his classes in Oberlin Theological Seminary during the twenty-six years of his service in that institution as instructor in the art of preaching, whose careers he has followed with sympathetic interest ever since they went forth at graduation to the great work of preaching the Gospel, this volume is affectionately dedicated by

The Author

Preface

The biographical studies contained in this volume have been culled from a delightful field of literature. For many years the author has roamed about this field with pleasure and profit. From the experience thus obtained he heartily concurs in the opinion of Professor Benjamin Jowett, the famous Master of Balliol College, Oxford University, that "Of great men it may be truly said that it does us good only to look at them. The lives of great and good men are the best sermons; and the preacher may do well sometimes to shield himself behind them and so to speak with greater authority than his own words could fairly claim." Professor Jowett's volume of "Biographical Sermons" affords a good illustration of the truth of his words.

If "history is philosophy teaching by example," as an eminent writer has said, biography of this kind is even more; it is both philosophy and Christianity exemplified in the most impressive object-lessons.

The author cherishes the hope that the studies given in this volume which relate to preachers of different denominations, will convince its readers that "All faiths afford the constant and the wise" — a better acquaintance with whom through its pages will be found stimulating and profitable. It is his belief that we do well as Christians to recognize

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the comprehensive character of Christianity and the essential agreement of its adherents of different names. Our hymnals contain, and we use in our public worship with hearty enjoyment and spiritual benefit, hymns composed by Catholics, Anglicans, Presbyterians, Methodists, Quakers, Unitarians and other religious hymn- writers. They assist the devotions and kindle to the adoration of God and faith in Christ all Christian believers. A similar effect is produced by the lives and sermons of the preachers of different denominations. They reveal "one faith, one hope, one baptism"; they inspire and nourish in us the same religious sentiments, and convey to us the essential truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Whatever, then, the religious denomination one may belong to, his attitude to other Christians should be one of brotherly kindness and tolerance instead of sectarian coldness. No good reason can be given why they should not heartily unite in the promotion and support of measures of approved value for the social and moral welfare of mankind, or for the establishment and support of whatever form of worship and Christian fellowship may seem best, or alone feasible, in the community where they live.

"I cannot," says Richard Baxter, "be so narrow in my principles of church communion as many are, that are so much for a liturgy, or so much against it; so much for ceremonies, or so much against them, that they can hold communion with no church that is not of their mind and way. I

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am not for narrowing the church more than Christ himself alloweth us, nor for robbing him of any of bis flock."

By scorning such narrowness and cordially fraternizing with all who sincerely profess to love and honor Christ we best honor his name and illustrate the harmony of feeling and practice existing among the Christians expressed in one of the best of our Christian hymns :

"O Lord and Master of us all!

Whate'er our name or sign, We own thy sway, we hear thy call. We test our lives by thine."

Whittier.

Of the biographical studies composing this volume, two, Bossuet and John Bunyan, have previously appeared in the Bibliotheca Sacra, and the author is indebted to the kindness of the publishers of that quarterly for the permission to insert them here. Of the rest, none have been published before.

Oberlin, O., January 25th, 1912.

IX

Table Of Contents

PAGE

I. Introduction: The Interest and

Value of Ministerial Biographies 3

Introduction

INTRODUCTION

The Interest and Value of Ministerial Biographies

We desire to present to the consideration of our readers some special reasons that recommend this class of literature to them for their perusal and study. Before entering, however, upon the consideration of these reasons one or two objections sometimes made to such studies claim brief notice.

It may be said that the writers of these biographies are usually partial friends or blind heroworshippers, and that they do not give a true and reliable account of the men whom they pretend to describe; they exaggerate their merits, and they hide or extenuate their faults to such a degree that the result is entirely untrustworthy and misleading. Such men as they describe, it may therefore be said, never really lived, and the admirable portraits of them which they present are largely creations of their own imaginations. So the admiration they excite in us is unwarranted and not likely to prove beneficial, as no good can be expected from what is false. To this objection it may be replied that it is easy to make all proper deductions for the possible partiality and hero-worship. We do this continually in our estimates of those whom the fond partiality of relatives or friends clothes with unreal perfections. It is possible and easy to discern the shadow of truth underneath the exaggerations. They represent, we may say, what the clearer vision of love perceives — the soul of excellence in spite of every fault. They represent, if not what the persons portrayed really were as judged by an uncharitable world, yet what they aimed to be and often seemed to be. And it may be insisted that there is profit in the contemplation of this, though somewhat of hallucination is experienced. It is good for men to believe in the possibility of such excellence. The hallucination, if such there be, is similar to that which some celebrated piece of antique statuary like the Venus di Milo, or the Hermes of Praxiteles, recovered from the ruins of Olympia, exerts upon an admiring art student or susceptible spectator, who though he must own and regret the mutilations that mar its beauty, yet in spite of them discerns the glorious ideal that the artist had in mind and to a large extent expressed in his work, and which still survives the marring effect of its mutilation.

It may be also objected to such studies that they are likely to prove more injurious than beneficial by inducing a slavish imitation of the subjects of them to the loss of one's independence of mind. There is, perhaps, some danger of this. Phillips Brooks, who highly extols the value of biographical literature, candidly confesses the danger. "Here," he says, "is the only danger I know in the reading of biographies, lest he who reads should lose himself, shall come to be not himself, but the feeble repetition of some other man." The same danger, however, attends our highest blessings; the blessings of friendship, of social intercourse, of study of the great masters of style, and of the inspiring authors of remarkable works of literature.

But we do not because of this danger refuse to form friendships, or decline the pleasure of intercourse with attractive people, or the benefit that comes from familiarity with the masters of literature. We guard against the danger by trying to get from these blessings their proper benefit. This, in every case, is not that of servile imitation, but of inspiration or suggestion. Instead of surrendering our personal independence and "swamping" ourselves or suppressing our own creative powers in the endeavor to imitate them, we are incited, if we use them aright, to improve ourselves and perfect our work by the suggestions they give. Their effect on the mind is that of a fertilizing agency, by which its natural powers are not dwarfed or extinguished but stimulated to answer the ends of its existence. It is like the influence of Milton on Burke, or of Tillotson on Dryden, by which these eminent writers became not copyists of the styles of Milton and Tillotson, but makers, each of them, of a better style of their own. The same thing is true of the ideas obtained from the study of the masterpieces of literature. The mind thus becomes not only a casket of pearls gathered from the writers studied, but a producer of pearls itself. The pearls of thought gathered are seed thoughts. Sown in the mind, they make it a fruitful bed of pearls, i, e., they produce harvests of similar ideas, often expressed and shaped with similar felicity, but a felicity of their own.

Let us now consider some reasons that commend ministerial biographies to us as profitable for perusal and study.

I. There is a strong presumption in favor of such books, as likely to afford profitable reading, from the fact that they belong to the same class of literature as the Gospels and the book of Acts. The whole Bible, indeed, may be described as a collection of biographies rather than of religious dogmas and precepts. Its method of teaching is not so much didactic as illustrative. It instructs us in the nature and obligations of religion principally by examples and object-lessons rather than by doctrinal statements and definitions. How precious and impressive these sacred biographies of the Bible are, whether of the Old Testament or of the New! The longest of them is not a word too long; the shortest of them is so significant that an ocean of meaning seems to be contained in a drop of words. Take that of Enoch, for example. What is said of him is compressed in a few sentences. There is nothing here to satisfy vain curiosity, no elaborate narrative touching things private or public, but little more than is summed up in the declaration — "And Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him." But how sublimely significant, nevertheless, this declaration is ! It is like the enbalmed heart of a king, the rest of whose body has turned to indistinguishable dust. Nothing more is needed to give us the assurance that here was one of earth's great men, and that he deserved a place in the roll of God's saints.

Still more may be said of the biographies of the New Testament. That of Christ in the Gospels is an inestimable treasure; that of the apostles an unfailing inspiration. By means of these sacred biographies of the Bible the knowledge of God and of the effect of his saving truth has been spread abroad and is kept alive in the world. Generation after generation feed upon them and derive spiritual life from them. By them our faith is firmly anchored in the teachings of our religion. By them the church of God continually renews its ideals of Christian character and duty. According to the study given them and the observance paid to their teachings is its standard of piety and endeavor. If they are neglected, its spiritual life declines; if they are thoughtfully read and pondered, this life is invigorated and it exerts a transforming influence over the world.

The influence of ministerial biographies is in the same line with the power of the sacred Scriptures. The subjects of them, almost without exception, fully believed in and loved the Bible. They were diligent students of its pages, they embraced its invitations, they relied upon its promises, they obeyed its precepts. Their religious faith was shaped by its instruction; from it they "fetched the sacred fire that kindled their sacrifices." They were, in short, Bible Christians; their ministry was a Bible ministry, and whatever success they had in the world they owed to this fact. It may, therefore, be truthfully said that the credit of their characters and work gives new luster and credit to the Bible, inasmuch as they are embodiments of its great ideas. Embodying its great ideas, they exhibit its best fruit — that of an earnest vital piety. And if the perusal of their biographies do nothing else but quicken the piety of their readers and give them a higher standard of piety, they receive from them the best thing they can get and what is most essential to their own welfare and the good of society. These biographies, furthermore, illustrate and confirm the truth of the Scriptures; they stamp it as divine. Now that the attesting power of the early miracles, authenticating Christianity as from God, has become somewhat enfeebled by lapse of time, and the record of its mighty works in the beginning has by familiarity grown less impressive, and doubt and incredulity are beginning to rise in men's minds with palsying effect, this truth has received a fresh attestation of its divine origin and authority from these examples of its indestructible vitality.

By reason of them the believing people of God can say: "Now we know that it is no transient superstition, nor cunningly devised fable, as the emboldened scepticism of the age asserts. In it there dwells a supernatural potency — an undecaying vitality. Like the Christ, whom it presents, it is "the same yesterday, today and forever." Age doth not wither it, nor the growth of knowledge discredit it. It is authenticated as the truth of God in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by mighty works quite as marvelous as those which attested it in the first century. Its continual operation in the world has been, and is such as to create what Doctor Storrs called "a standing miracle" — "the standing miracle of Christendom," to bear constant and indubitable witness to its truth. The lives of eminent missionaries of the past century to the unchristian peoples of the world — of Judson, Coan, Williams, Paton, Thoburn, Hume and many others too numerous to mention, and the lives of humble city missionaries, such as Lord Shaftsbury speaks of as his helpers in the effort to evangelize and uplift the poor of London, and of such devoted lay-preachers and Christian toilers among the poor of New York as those described in "Down in Water Street," and in Dr. J. W. Chapman's "Life of S. H. Hadley": and the lives of devoted ministers and evangelists, as Edward Pay son, C. L. Goodell, Charles G. Finney and Mr. Moody, are filled with wonderful works as great and marvelous as those of the apostles. Doctor Pierson cannot be accused of exaggeration in calling the story of their achievements "A New Acts of the Apostles." These "New Acts," equally with the Old, prove the Gospel "the power of God unto salvation." It is not an extinguished torch whose oil is entirely consumed and whose wick has burned to a cinder. It is on the contrary an inextinguishable torch whose flame is fed from inexhaustible sources and which burns without being consumed like the burning bush, which the Church of Scotland has made the symbol of its enduring faith and inextinguishable life.

II. These ministerial biographies are very entertaining. Nowhere in the whole range of literature, can we spend more delightful hours, or find more healthful mental recreation than among the published reminiscences of clergymen, such as Charles Kinglsey, F. W. Robertson and C. H. Spurgeon of England; and Lyman Beecher, Charles G. Finney, Henry Ward Beecher, Phillips Brooks and Edward Everett Hale, of our country. A good example was given the past year in The Outlook for Nov. 12th, in the "Reminiscences of Edward Everett Hale" by George S. Merriam. It seemed to us in reading it a charming and effective piece of portraiture, by which every trait of that admirable man was set forth with abundant wealth of illustration and felicity of style. He possessed a rare combination of qualities, mental, moral and social and he was largely endowed with each kind. His inventiveness and fertility of mind were apparent from the number of his writings. But numerous as these were — flowing seemingly from an inexhaustible spring — their excellence was as remarkable as their quantity. Mr. Merriam says: "He had wit, he had humor, and something more — a vein of fancy, a happy and merry make-believe. . . . His peculiar humor and fancy blossomed out in a fairy-story quality which he often threw into his writings. It gave sometimes a whimsical form to his inveterate optimism. He turned to it for his own and his friends' delectation as a child turns to its play. It tinges many of his stories of serious purpose like 'Ten Times One is Ten.' Truth to tell, the roseate hue sometimes is followed by a touch of disheartenment in the listeners.

Real drunkards are not always so surely and swiftly reformed; the visible Kingdom of God does not seem to advance by a tenfold multiplication annually. . . . But his rainbows made the tramp along the dusty highway more cheerful even if you never found the pot of gold." His moral and social qualities made him a wise and sympathetic counsellor of people of every class — of those in perplexity and trouble, and those afflicted with sore bereavement. His "happy and merry make-believe" made him the welcome companion of children and imaginative young people, and his fancy with its bias to drollery mingled with wisdom wove wholesome fictions and extravagances that forced smiles and approval from both the fun-loving and the serious-minded. His religious creed and his preaching were marked by the broadest charity; and he sought to win men to his religious belief not by arguments and theological controversy, but by "the way of life which he taught and which he lived and which . . . generates an atmosphere in which scepticism withers." "Life — that," says Mr. Merriam, "was his characteristic word, and the motto on his church stationery was, 'I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly.' " To meet this man on the street, and receive his greeting of "Good Morning," was a benediction that made the whole day good. Similar is the effect of perusing these "Reminiscences," in which his friend has embalmed his memory.

One rises from the perusal refreshed, morally invigorated and inspired with the purpose of fulfilling Mr. Hale's parting exhortation on one occasion to this friend: "Make good society where you are." Not all the reminiscences of clergymen, we admit, are equally interesting with this example, but generally, we repeat, ministerial biographies are entertaining. Our judgment is based upon quite a wide acquaintance with them; which experience, candidly weighed, leads us to recognize the truth of a witty remark once made in our hearing in regard to the ministry by the Rev. Daniel Butler, familiarly known as "Bible Butler," as representing the American Bible Society in Boston and the churches of New England. Witnessing their sparkling sallies of wit and racy wisdom before the meeting, as they gathered at the entrance of the church and upon the lawn, on an occasion that brought a large number of ministers together, Mr. Butler dryly said: "The hilarity of my ministerial brethren at these gatherings always reminds me of the words of the Psalmist : ' The trees of the Lord are full of sap ! ' '

III. The biographies of eminent servants of God in the work of the ministry — whether ecclesiastically ordained thereto, or unordained — afford an effective cure for religious discouragement and depression. Sometimes in their religious works and Christian activities good people are dismayed at the number and greatness of the obstacles opposed to them. Because of the infirmity of our human nature their zeal abates and their spirits flag. It seems to them, then, that their work is altogether vain; that they

n accomplish little or nothing by it, that their best efforts result only in weariness and disappointment. "Why attempt anything further?" "Why spend our strength for naught?" the discouraged heart then cries. These suggestions have a paralyzing effect. The strongest and most energetic and courageous men, like Elijah and John the Baptist and the great reformers, Luther, Knox, and the most heroic missionaries, have all felt the depressing spell and been almost overcome by it, so as to sink down into a state of dull apathy and despair. At such times a good biography — with its thrilling account of noble and beneficent achievement — is a wholesome spiritual tonic. It energizes and inspires the tired heart and jaded spirits with fresh life and renewed vigor. The subject of it encountered similar obstacles and felt similar discouragement — but roused by the voice and strengthened by the power of God, he rose up and renewed the fight and won at last. Its effect is like that of martial music upon soldiers weary with long marches and faint with hunger. The trumpet peal revives their courage — rekindles their ardor and nerves them to a conquering pitch of endeavor. It is a familiar story of classic literature that Themistocles, the leader of the Greeks at Salamis, was stimulated to those daring efforts which gave them the victory by the remembered example of Miltiades the Greek leader at Marathon. So the leaders of the Church have often been incited to triumphant effort by the examples of those who had wrought righteousness in the service of God. This is one of God's ways of inspiring man, a method of his providence. The coals from off his altar, by which his chosen ones have had their lips touched to eloquence and their sins of indolence and cowardice purged away, are the bright records of those who have laid themselves upon his altar and worked for his glory. $

IV. In the reading and study of ministerial biographies, we receive interesting and valuable suggestions as to the best methods of ministerial work, and the best means of attaining the highest success in the ministry. Such knowledge is particularly valuable to ministers themselves, who more than any other class are likely to be readers of these biographies. The subjects of them were among the most eminent and successful in their sacred calling. But for their distinction in it, in some way or other, their biographies would not have been given to the world. The fact of a biography in every case implies that the subject of it was believed to be more than ordinary; that his life contained important lessons, or was marked by extraordinary achievements; or that he possessed a character of such beauty and moral excellence as make it deserving of general admiration and worthy of emulation. But his eminence and success may have been due as much to the wise methods he used as to his superior moral and mental qualities, or his genius. In respect to the latter, he may be — probably is — inimitable; in respect to the former, his example can be profitably studied and to some extent copied. We think it may be truly affirmed that ordinary abilities trained and directed by wise methods will often appear to better advantage and achieve more usefulness than extraordinary abilities ill-directed. This remark will be found true of the whole range of ministerial activity. Whether we consider his pulpit performances or his pastoral work, a good method counts for much. Such methods are often discovered or suggested in the biographies of eminent ministers. These methods were peculiar to the persons whose ministry they distinguished. There is wisdom in studying them and often great advantage in adopting them. By doing this, one is saved from mistakes and the loss of time and the toil involved in painfully and slowly groping for a way to success, when a clear and practicable way has been already discovered and its value well tested.

We venture to particularize some valuable accomplishments that may be thus acquired: Several things are involved in the art of effective preaching. Foremost among these are personal piety, a familiar acquaintance with the Bible, a good understanding of its teaching, the ability to reason soundly, and the skill to put one's thoughts logically and attractively together. Besides these, an opulent and forcible diction ready to the tongue, the power of apt illustration, of natural and easy gesture and a good voice, which the preacher knows how to manage so as impressively to express the varying shades of thought and feeling that occur in speaking; these are usual adjuncts of pulpit power.

As illustrating the value of a good voice, well managed, we quote what President Francis

Wayland, of Brown University, says of the preaching of Dr. Eliphalet Nott: "When settled in Albany, his reputation as a preacher was unparalleled. Those who heard his sermon on the death of Hamilton declared it was the most eloquent discourse they ever heard. So far as I can recall his manner, after the lapse of many years, the excellency which gave him so great power was in the tones of his voice. I would almost say they were so perfect that a man who did not understand English would, from his tones alone, have been able to form an idea of the train of thought he was pursuing. When he uttered a sentence, the emphasis, inflections and tones were so perfect that every part was distinctly connected with that to which it belonged and you never failed to comprehend his meaning precisely. When to this were joined the tones of emotion adapted to every range of human feeling, you may possibly perceive what must have been the effect." In the biography of Doctor Guthrie we have a similar testimony as to the power and charm of his voice: "He had a powerful, clear and musical voice, the intonations of which were varied and appropriate, managed with an actor's skill though there was not the least appearance of art." This power of the voice, characteristic of almost all eminent preachers and orators, is almost never a natural gift. It is largely the result of elocutionary training. It was so with Guthrie and Nott. Whitefield and Beecher, and a study of their biographies will reveal their methods of improving it. Guthrie thus tells how it was with himself: "When a divinity student I paid more than ordinary attention to the art of elocution, knowing how much of the effect produced upon the audience depended on the manner as well as on the matter; that in point of fact the manner is to the matter as the powder is to the ball. I attended elocution classes winter after winter, walking across half the city and more after eight o'clock at night, fair night and foul, and not getting back to my lodgings until about 10:30 o'clock. There I learned to find out and correct many acquired and more or less awkward defects in gesture, to be in fact natural; to acquire a command over my voice so as to suit its force and emphasis to the sense, and to modulate it so as to express the feelings, whether of surprise or grief or indignation or pity. I had heard very indifferent discourses made forcible by a vigorous delivery, and able ones reduced to feebleness by a poor pithless delivery. I had read of the extraordinary pains Demosthenes and Cicero took to cultivate their manner of public speaking and become masters of the arts of elocution, and I knew how by a masterly and natural use of them Whitefield could sway the crowds that gathered to hear him at early morn on the commons of London."

Guthrie likewise possessed to an eminent degree the power of apt, impressive illustration. Joined to the witchery of his voice, it amounted sometimes to a power of enchantment. His auditors were then spellbound by it. An amusing instance is presented in the conduct of a Highland cattledrover one day in Guthrie's congregation in Free

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St. John's. The man stood throughout the service in one of the crowded aisles within a few yards of the pulpit. From the first he was riveted, a pinch of snuff every now and then evincing his satisfaction. Toward the end of the sermon and just as the preacher was commencing a prolonged illustration the stranger applied to his horn mull. Arrested, however, he stood motionless, his hand raised with the snuff between his fingers, his head thrown back, his eyes and mouth wide open. The instant that the passage was finished and before the audience had time to recover their breath, the drover applied the snuff with gusto to his nostrils, and forgetting in his excitement alike the place and the occasion, turned his head to the crowd behind and exclaimed, "Na, Sirs, I never heard the like of that!" Such a power of vivid illustration is invaluable to a preacher. It is characteristic of the greatest preachers. Chrysostom had it, and so bound his hearers as with a spell that pickpockets plied their trade without detection among them while he was preaching. Beecher had it to a remarkable degree, as the writer remembers well from having often sat spellbound when a young man under his preaching. To be sure, natural gifts of imagination and fancy are required, as a bird must have wings to fly. But these gifts must be exercised and suitably directed. The faculty of skilful and appropriate illustration is a product of diligent self -culture with a basis of native endowment. This was the case with Guthrie and Beecher. Both of these preachers developed it by painstaking effort, having early in their ministry discovered its effectiveness in addresses to popular audiences.

It gives me pleasure to be able to quote the following testimony of the late Dr. William M. Taylor, of New York, in support of my opinions. He says: "If I may speak from my own experience there is no faculty which is more susceptible of development by culture than that of discovering analogies. When I commenced my ministry, it was a rare thing with me to use an illustration. My style then was particularly argumentative, and my aim was to convince and satisfy the understanding, and then to make my appeal warmly to the heart. But shortly after my removal from my Scotch parsonage to Liverpool, Guthrie's "Gospel in Ezekiel" was published, and this was followed a few months later by Mr. Beecher's "Life Thoughts." These two books opened my eyes to see what was lying all around me. Under the inspiration which they communicated to me, I began to look for spiritual analogies in everything. The books I read; the places I visited; the incidents that passed under my observation; the discoveries of science with which I became acquainted — all were scanned by me for the purpose of finding in them, if possible, something that might be used in pulpit illustration. And so it came that when I sat down to my desk, appropriate analogies would rise to my pen, and the difficulty was not how to get illustrations, but which to choose out of the many that offered themselves for my purpose." (See "The Ministry of the Word," page 192.)