HERALDS OF GOD
This will be true, not only of sermons belonging to what is sometimes called the prophetic function of the ministry, but also of those in which the teaching note predominates, A ministry extending over many years in one place can be effective and fruitful only if much of its strength is given to systematic exposition of the Bible and regularly planned instruction on the great doctrines of the Christian faith. But what I am concerned to insist on at the moment is that even your teaching sermons ought to have in them, and can have, something of the authentic thrill of the evangel. Do not believe the defeatist moan that the production of two vital sermons each week is neither mentally nor spiritually possible. For if there are indeed "unsearchable riches" in Christ, you will always be pioneering and exploring, always discovering new depths in the Gospel, and the streams of the river of life will never for you run dry. The longest ministry is too short by far to exhaust the treasures of the Word of God. Certainly if you preach your own theories and ideas, using Scripture texts merely as pegs to hang them on, you will soon be at the end of your resources and the sooner the better. But if you will let the Scriptures speak their own message, if you will realize that every passage or text has its own quite distinctive meaning, you will begin to feel that the problem is not lack of fresh material, but the very embarrassment of riches; and with the Psalmist you will cry, "I rejoice at Thy Word, as one that findeth great spoil." Thus in teaching and exposition no less than in direct
46
