HERALDS OF GOD
His followers when the hour of emergency leapt upon them, and they were dragged before rulers and governors. The sudden crisis. He assured them, would bring with it a sudden reinforcement." As thy days, so shall thy strength be." That is manifestly true, in the twentieth century no less than in the first. But when we as preachers count upon the aid of the Holy Spirit to give us utterance, we would do well to reflect that the promise is conditional upon the loyalty of common days. The Spirit of the Lord will be upon us in proportion as our work has been earnest and faithful and ungrudging.
There are, of course, those who would argue that the place of preaching has long been grossly exaggerated. They minimize its value. Long hours of preparation they regard as waste of energy and effort. They are particularly scornful of anything which may be called "popular preaching." This they would exclude as incompatible with the worship of God. Moreover, they say, its very popularity proves that it is riddled with insincerity. Preaching—"mere" preaching, as the derogatory phrase expresses it—has had its day: let us be finished with the cult of preaching, or at least reduce it to a quite subsidiary place. Let those hours in the study be devoted to more profitable and practical ends! But the pulpit need not fear the battery of such superior critics. It is likely to outlive them all. William Cowper, speaking of the pulpit in that same poem, The Task, from which I have already quoted, confesses:
116
