Expositions of Holy Scripture | Page 8

mouth, unless he is sure that he has
received something to impart to men as a gift from the Divine Spirit. To preach our
doubts, to preach our own opinions, to preach poor platitudes, to talk about politics and
morals and taste and literature and the like in the pulpit, is profanation and blasphemy.
Let no man open his lips unless he can say: 'The Lord hath showed me this; and this I
bring to you as His word.' Nor has a Christian organisation any right to exist, unless it
recognises the communication and reception and further spreading of this spiritual gift as
its great function. Churches which have lost that consciousness, and, instead of a divine
gift, have little more to offer than formal worship, or music, or entertainments, or mere
intellectual discourse, whether orthodox or 'advanced,' have no right to be; and by the law
of the survival of the fittest will not long be. The one thing that warrants such a
relationship as subsists between you and me is this, my consciousness that I have a
message from God, and your belief that you hear such from my lips. Unless that be our
bond the sooner these walls crumble, and this voice ceases, and these pews are emptied,
the better. 'I have,' says, Paul, 'a gift to impart; and I long to see you that I may impart it
to you.' Oh! for more, in all our pulpits, of that burdened consciousness of a divine
message which needs the relief of speech, and longs with a longing caught from Christ to
impart its richest treasures.
That is the one lesson. And the other one is this. Have you, dear friends, received the gift
that I have, under the limitations already spoken of, to bestow? There are some of you
who have listened to my voice ever since you were children--some of you, though not
many, have heard it for well on to thirty years. Have you taken the thing that all these

years I have been--God knows how poorly, but God knows how honestly--trying to bring
to you? That is, have you taken Christ, and have you faith in Him? And, as for those of
you who say that you are Christians, many blessings have passed between you and me
through all these years; but, dear friends, has the chief blessing been attained? Are you
being strengthened day by day for the burdens and the annoyances and the sorrows of life
by your coming here? Do I do you any good in that way; are you better men than when
we first met together? Is Christ dearer, and more real and nearer to you; and are your
lives more transparently consecrated, more manifestly the result of a hidden union with
Him? Do you walk in the world like the Master, because you are members of this
congregation? If so, its purpose has been accomplished. If not, it has miserably failed.
I have said that I have to thank God for the unbroken affection that has knit us together.
But what is the use of such love if it does not lead onwards to this? I have had enough,
and more than enough, of what you call popularity and appreciation, undeserved enough,
but rendered unstintedly by you. I do not care the snap of a finger for it by comparison
with this other thing. And oh, dear brethren! if all that comes of our meeting here Sunday
after Sunday is either praise or criticism of my poor words and ways, our relationship is a
curse, and not a blessing, and we come together for the worse and not for the better. The
purpose of the Church, and the purpose of the ministry, and the meaning of our
assembling are, that spiritual gifts may be imparted, not by me alone, but by you, too, and
by me in my place and measure, and if that purpose be not accomplished, all other
purposes, that are accomplished, are of no account, and worse than nothing.
III. And now, lastly, note the lowly consciousness that much was to be received as well
as much to be given.
The Apostle corrects himself after he has said 'that I may impart unto you some spiritual
gift,' by adding, 'that is, that I may be comforted (or rather, encouraged) together with you
by the mutual faith both of you and me.' If his language were not so transparently sincere,
and springing from deep interest in the relationship between himself and these people, we
should say that it was exquisite courtesy and beautiful delicacy. But it moves in a region
far more real than the region of courtesy, and it speaks the inmost truth about the
conditions on which the Roman Christians should receive--viz. that they should