"Faith without works is dead." Everybody who has read the Bible
understands that.
But this paper is on "The Young Man and the Pulpit"--an attempt to
give him an idea of how the people he is going to preach to look at
this matter, how they regard him, and, above all else, what the people
to whom his life work is devoted really need and really want above
everything else in this world.
Don't preach woe, punishment, and all mournfulness to the people all
the time. Where you find sin, go ahead and denounce it mercilessly;
but do it crisply, cuttingly, not dully and innocuously. Speak to
kill. Do not forget that the Master told the people of His day that
they "were a generation of vipers."
But that was not the burden of His appeal. He knew that there were
other things in the world and human nature besides sin. Mostly He
spoke of "things lovely and of good report." Remember that His coming
was announced as a bringing of "good tidings of great joy."
The Sermon on the Mount is the perfection of thought, feeling, and
expression. Make it your example. You will recall that it begins:
"Blessed are the poor in spirit." It is full of "blessed" and
blessings, of consolations and encouragements and loving promises of
beautiful certainties.
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