(1) Singing the Gospel.
Christ has not left it as a matter of indifference whether the Gospel be sung, read, or preached by His official servants. The ostentatious zeal of some has recently led them to “sing the Gospel.” (Moody and Sankey). The phrase is new to the Church, and we are made to wonder where authority has been obtained for such a device. The very rudiments or first principles of religion teach us that without faith it is impossible to please God, and that faith rests upon the Word of God. But where or what portion of Scripture does faith rest upon, when the minister of God sings the Gospel? If no command exists in the perfect law of God we cannot do otherwise than esteem the practice to be will-worship, and those who maintain and uphold it, to be teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. It may be felt to be attractive. It may bring many together who would otherwise despise or neglect religious assemblies; there may be a pious look about it, and we do not deny that it may produce a type of devout feelings. But, after all, this kind of preaching is only as “a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal,” as the voice of “a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play skilfully on an instrument,” and the solemn question may be appropriately addressed to the votaries of this novelty: “Who hath required this at your hand?”
(2) Reading Sermons.
This custom, not a little prevalent in ecclesiastical bodies, has been characteristically described by an eminent divine of the seventeenth century, as “this offensive innovation.” This may be taken as a fair expression of popular opinion on the subject. Scripture does not inform us without a reason that Christ, when in the synagogue of Nazareth, closed the book before commencing His sermon. Sometimes the monosyllable “speak” is employed to denote “preach”. Hence the prayer of the Apostle, “Grant unto Thy servants that with all boldness they may speak Thy Word” (Acts iv. 29); and again in verse 31: “they spake the Word of God with boldness.” We are told of Christ Himself, “and He spake many things unto them in parables.” Now speaking is opposed to reading; when we speak to any one we do not read to him; to speak is to employ language extempore. “Praying that God would open unto us a door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ.” Thus we have Scripture interpreting Scripture, and proving that the preaching which is spoken of in the Bible, and which is incumbent on every minister of the Gospel, is not reading. No Scriptural warrant can be found for the latter. This conclusion is supported by both the nature and the matter of preaching, and is opposed to the exercise of those gifts which God has ever given, and has promised to give, to His ambassadors. If it be eloquence that is the gift of the preacher, as in the case of Apollos, where is the scope for eloquence in reading? If it is the exercising of reasoning that the minister — like Paul — excels in, then, by reading the reasoning loses that vigour and power which are so essential to it? Neither can we conceive of James and John — the sons of thunder — preaching after such a manner. The minister of the sanctuary has no right to exclude the exercise of the memory from that part of the Gospel worship in which God claims a special propriety, and challenges the bringing into His service of every power and faculty of the mind.
The Editor of Calvin’s Letters, speaking of Farel, whom he described as “the most illustrious missionary in French Switzerland”, says: “Farel was a genuine orator. All his contemporaries speak with admiration of his eloquent discourses, of his beautiful exhortations, and of his prayers, so fervent that no one could hear them without being charmed. But it appears that his discourses were all extempore; none of them has been preserved, but they had a few of the defects of improvisation. Their fault was prolixity. Calvin, in his preface to the Psalms, paid, among other things, a brilliant tribute to the eloquence of his friend, and to those thunders of the Word (tonitrua) by which he had been enchained at Geneva.”
Further, read sermons are calculated to hinder the edification of the people. There ought to be the eye of the preacher, meeting the eye of his audience, and a kindled animation that will not only fascinate the attention, but that will make the words of the preacher living words, and that will give them such force and power as that they will be sent home, and retained, at least, by the memory, if not by the judgment and affections; whereas in reading, the voice gets strained and uniform, and the people dull and listless.
Reading the Gospel, instead of preaching, appears to have been unknown in the primitive Church. The late Dr Lee, in his speech in the Established Church Assembly, pleading in defence of his innovations, though not sanctioned, points to other things allowed in the Church without any authority. He says: “You read your sermons. There is no law on that subject, but in the early period of the Church the reading of sermons was unknown, and the first man that attempted it in the High Church of Edinburgh is characterised by Baillie as a ‘presumptuous puppy.’
The tendency of this innovation has been to degenerate sermons into elaborate essays, and to give more attention to rhetoric, philosophy, and logic, than to the affectionate and suitable setting forth of Gospel truth to the varied capacities of the people.
We will close this sketch with a quotation from one of Calvin’s Letters, addressed to the Protector, Somerset, who was Regent of England under the minority of Edward the Sixth. The letter is dated from Geneva, 22nd October, 1548, and is not at all complimentary to those ministers who at that time read their sermons. Calvin says: “What I have thus suggested as to the manner of instructions is only that the people be so taught as to be touched to the quick, and that they may feel that what the Apostle says is true (Heb. iv) that ‘the Word of God is a two-edged sword, piercing even through the thoughts and affections to the very marrow of the bones.’ I speak thus because it appears to me that there is very little preaching of a lively kind in the Kingdom, but that the greater part deliver it by way of reading from a written discourse. I see very well the necessity which constrains you to that; for, in the first place, you have not, as I believe, such well approved and competent pastors as you desire. Wherefore, you need forthwith to supply this want. Secondly, there may very likely be among them many flighty persons who would go beyond all bound, sowing their own silly fancies, as often happens on occasions of a change. But all these considerations ought not to hinder the ordinance of Jesus Christ from having free course in the preaching of the Gospel. Now, this preaching ought not to be lifeless, but lively, to teach, to exhort, to reprove; as the Apostle Paul says in speaking thereof to Timothy (II Tim. iii). So, indeed, that if an unbeliever enter he may be so effectually arrested and convinced as to give glory to God, as Paul says in another passage (I Cor. xiv). You are also aware how he speaks of the lively power and energy with which they ought to speak, who would approve themselves as good and faithful ministers of God, who must not make a parade of rhetoric only to gain esteem for themselves; but that the Spirit of God ought to sound forth by their voice, so as to work with mighty energy.”
“If ye never had a sick night and a pained soul for sin, ye have not yet lighted upon Christ”.
Samuel Rutherford