BY REV. ELEAZAR T. FITCH, D. D.,

FORMERLY PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY, AND PASTOR OF THE CHURCH, IN YALE COLLEGE, NEW HAVEN, CT.

THE MODE OF PREACHING THE GOSPEL THAT IS ADAPTED TO SUCCESS.

"THEY both went together into the Synagogue of the Jews and so spake that a great multitude both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed.”—ACTS 14; 1.

THIS is the testimony which Luke, the inspired historian, has given of the preaching of Paul and Barnabas at Iconium. We are not to doubt, therefore, that the testimony is true; and it assures us not only that a great multitude were at that particular time cordially converted to the faith of Jesus, but also that the Apostles preached in such a manner as was adapted to secure this very result. "They so spake," that a great multitude believed; or, as the original Greek may be more fully translated, they spake in such a manner "as that a great multitude believed."

But

The preaching of the Gospel is sometimes represented as having no tendency whatever to promote the conversion of sinners; as being as little adapted to secure such a result as was the lifting of the rod by Moses over the Red Sea, to part the waters, or as was the blowing of ram's horns around the city of Jericho, to prostrate its walls. so thought not this early and inspired historian of the Church. Conversions he represented as changes wrought in the soul by spiritual influence, and not has physical miracles. He believed that the ministrations of Paul and Barnabas in the synagogue of Iconium were adapted to secure the blessed result which ensued the conversion of a great multitude.

The interesting occasion on which we are assembled leads us to contemplate the nature and objects of the Christian ministry. And I flatter myself that I shall not conduct you into an inappropriate or uninteresting field of contemplation if I follow out the theme which this sacred historian has set before me, namely that there is a mode of preaching the Gospel which is adapted to secure the cordial faith of hearers.

I will attempt to show that there is such a mode of preaching the Gospel, and to point out some of the things in which it essentially

consists.

I. There is a mode of preaching the Gospel which is adapted to secure the faith of hearers.

The testimony of the inspired Luke on this subject, as I have already intimated, is decisive. The testimony is direct and positive to the very point in question, given in language so plain as not to admit of evasion; and sanctioned as authoritative by the Spirit of Inspiration. I see not why I need argue a point which is settled at once by the summary and satisfactory process of referring to an unequivocal declaration of the Word of God.

Yet since the testimony of inspiration is always harmonious with itself and with all other truth, it may serve perhaps to render the whole subject more clear to our apprehension if we look at some considerations which directly concur with the declaration of Luke. I will ask you, therefore, to consider attentively the two following observations which go to confirm its truth; one, that the Gospel itself is adapted to beget the cordial faith of mankind; and the other, that there is a mode of preaching it which brings its power more fully on the minds of hearers.

The Gospel itself is adapted to beget cordial faith and repentance in men. For evidence of this, I would call your attention to the fact that the Holy Spirit employs the Gospel for this very purpose. The fact itself is very obvious. Indeed, no reason can be conceived why the Holy Spirt caused the words of the Gospel to be recorded and published in their present permanent form, but to furnish a means for calling men to a cordial faith in Christ and reconciliation. with God, and for perfecting believers in their sanctification and fitness for heaven. Yet we have his own explicit testimony that it is through his own word of grace that he calls men to repentance and faith. What other interpretation can be given to those numerous passages which speak of believers as being called of God? These passages assert that God calls them-that he calls them out of darkness into light, into the grace of Christ, to the fellowship of his Son, to holiness, to his kingdom and glory, to eternal life. The very idea of a call from God implies that it is made through the medium of some

word from God like the Gospel. It implies that men are, through some medium, intelligibly addressed by some word of command or invitation proceeding forth from God, and that, when effectual, it enkindles in their hearts a willing compliance and obedience. And what other medium is there beside the Gospel. Just so Paul interprets the matter. To the Romans, after speaking of his appointment to the apostleship for the purpose of promoting obedience to the faith among all nations, he immediately subjoins: "among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ." They were in this very way, through the preaching of the Gospel of Christ, effectually reached by the voice of mercy, and induced to yield obedience to the faith as it is in Christ. To the Galatians the same apostle hesitates not to declare that he himself, when he came in his apostolic office to preach the Gospel among them and was received by them as an angel of God, even as Jesus Christ, that he himself called them. into the grace of Christ. And still more explicitly, while speaking to the Thessalonians of their salvation through sanctification of spirit and belief of truth, he says: Whereunto" unto which holy temper and cordial faith, "whereunto he called you by our Gospel." The truth is before us in noon-light clearness that the Holy Spirit employs the Gospel as his means of calling men to repentance and faith.

Yet some are disposed to say, in face of all this testimony, that there is another work of the Holy Spirit entirely different from his calling men to repentance, faith and holiness-the work of regeneration; that this work is done first by the Spirit alone, without the Gospel, in order that there may be something within man which the call of the Gospel may afterwards reach. But this is mere human invention and philosophy; it is not the testimony of God. Whether regeneration is a distinct thing from effectual calling or not-though I hold it to be clear as evidence can render it that they are but different modes of describing precisely the same thing-yet it is clear that the Spirit effects regeneration itself by means of the Gospel. The very change itself, whatever it is, is wrought by the Gospel in the hands of the Spirit, and applied by his power. For proof I rest on the following declarations. James says, in his general circular to all Christians: "Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth." Peter says of all Christians, "Being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible, by the Word of God;" and he adds: "this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you." And Paul, referring to the Gospel as the means of regeneration, scruples not at all in addressing the Corinthians to say of himself: "In Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel." Whatever regeneration is, these declarations show beyond all dispute that it is effected by means of the Word of God. But since the Spirit of God produces the change, these testimonies of Scripture show that he employs the

word of truth as the means. The fact is that without any mystery on this subject, effectual calling to repentance and faith is a literal representation of the kind of change which the Spirit effectsin man by applying the Gospel to his conscience and heart; and that begetting again and being born anew is a figurative description of the very same thing. And the former literal view is the only one given by the Westminster Divines in their admirable compend of doctrine under the head of "effectual calling; nor was it till a later age that divines, seizing on the figures employed to represent the greatness of the spiritual change wrought in the heart of believers, threw every thing into the figures of begetting the soul again, its being born again, neglecting, at the same time, the equally expressive symbols of its being recreated and its being raised from the dead.

دو

Now with this great fact before us that the Spirit employs the Gospel of Christ as the means of leading men to faith and repentance, I would simply ask whether he does not employ a wise and suitable means; whether he does not employ a means adapted in its very nature to secure the end-a means which is powerful in his hand to touch the conscience and heart of man and lead him to repentance? If not, then the end is not accomplished by the means at all; and you must maintain, in opposition to all the Scriptural testimony which has been alleged, that the Spirit produces it alone, by simple physical power, without the Gospel. But God says he does it by "the word of truth." He approaches, reaches, touches, sways, changes the mind through that medium of truth-the Gospel. And therefore it remains indisputable that the Gospel, itself, which the Spirit employs, is a system of truth adapted to secure repentance and faith.

Here God

For further evidence of this I would call your attention again to the very nature of the Gospel. It is a system of truth which, as Paul declares to the Romans, is the power of God to salvation. It embodies all the moral influences of the deity on the side of the recovery of man from sin to faith and reconciliation. in all the united glories of his benevolence, holiness, righteousness, grace, God testifying to his wondrous doings for man in the orderings of his holy government, the beneficence of his provideuce, and the sacrifice of his beloved Son, God uttering threatenings and promises of what he will do in a coming eternity; here God himself distinctly calls on man to give up his rebellions and sins and follies, to turn to him with all the heart, to submit himself to his disposal and be cordially reconciled to his character and government, and have eternal peace and joy in his friendship and love. And is not this course of procedure adapted to reach his erring creature, and bring him back in penitence to the joys of his favor

and kingdom? Why this is the very way-and the only way-for one intelligent being ever to influence the heart of another and bring him to a change of feeling and purpose, by addressing considerations intelligently to his understanding and affectionately to his heart, as God does with man through the Gospel. And the considerations embodied in the Gospel are the strongest in kind which the mind of God can present or the heart of God can urge, to influence and persuade men to repent and return to him with cordial faith and reconciliation. Here hell is made bare and laid open to rouse the fears of man and deter him from continued rebellion; and heaven is presented in its immortal glory and blessedness to excite his desires and invite his return to God. Here condemnation and wrath and the penalty of a governing God speak to his conscience to oppress him with the evil of sin; and the blood of Christ proclaims for all the contrite the peace of free and full forgiveness. Here the idols on which the sinner has set his heart are exhibited in their vanity, and Jehovah, in his overflowing fullness, that he may be induced to forsake the inferior and take the supreme good as his portion and joy. And how were it possible for God to inspire in man that fear of his name, that ingenuous sorrow for sin, that trust in the Saviour, and devotedness to his glory and kingdom which exist in his children, if these considerations which he urges in the Gospel were not competent to do it? Certain it is that all who are made his willing subjects and are drawn of the Father to cordial submission and faith in his Son are, in fact, moved to it by the very considerations which the Gospel urges. They are persuaded by the terrors of the Lord. They are constrained by the love of Christ. They escape from the servitude of sin and become the servants of God, like the Romans, by obeying from the heart the form of doctrine delivered unto them through the Gospel. They purify' their souls, like the Christians of the twelve tribes to whom Peter wrote, by obeying the truth. They renounce the love of the world as the odious idolatry which is enmity against the Father, and with their whole hearts choose the friendship of God as their portion and his benevolent service as their joyful employment just as he proposes it to them, and urges it upon their acceptance through the Gospel. Is not the Gospel then a suitable and proper means, adapted in its very nature to call sinners to repentance and reconciliation with God?

But methinks I hear some one suggest that men naturally hate the light, and are at enmity with God; and that the Gospel, so far from being adapted to lead them to repentance is fitted precisely for the very contrary to inflame their hatred, to increase their enmity, to harden their hearts, to destroy their souls. But why