CHAPTER XIV

PARTS OF THE SERMON

By A. M. Hills

The Conclusion

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[pages 100-106 missing]

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Dr. John A. Kern in his noble "Lectures on Homiletics" writes: "Had I occasion to revise all my old sermons, I should wish to give attention chiefly to their conclusions. Here the defects seem to be the gravest, the missed opportunities most numerous. And I have almost always found the sermon handed me for criticism to be similarly defective. Now if, in the act of delivering the sermon, a more forcible conclusion than the one prepared be suggested, make use of it unhesitatingly. Hold yourself free to modify, or even dismiss altogether, what you have already in hand. But have a conclusion; and let it be premeditated. It should be the freest part of the whole sermon; but for this very reason it must be carefully prepared" (Page 344).

Such words from such a master of the art of preaching ought to make a profound impression on anyone young in the ministry, or on anyone who expects to enter it. Let no one, however gifted by nature, be so conceited as to think that he needs no teaching, no instruction, no suggestions from anybody. Exactly the opposite is true. The more gifts God has conferred upon a person, the more important it is that those faculties should be trained, lest the noble treasures should be partially wasted by misuse.

There are manifest reasons why very gifted men often fail of great efficiency and large usefulness in the pulpit. It is quite possible that one reason may be a failure of these truly talented preachers to grip the consciences and move the wills of their audiences by the conclusion of their sermons.

We may say, here, the great thought of the final appeal may be anticipated and partially distributed along through the different parts of the entire sermon and then be summarized at the end with accumulated power.

A young preacher preached in London to as vast congregation on "The Great Day of Atonement." A trained and thoughtful mind listened to him, and thirty years afterward wrote: "I distinctly remember carrying away the ineraseable impression of power that could not be explained, and refused to be measured, power shown in lucid statement, vivid picturing, pungent appeal and red-hot earnestness. . . . The Levitical sacrifices were as real as though offered but yesterday, and their meaning as clear and indisputable as the shining of the August sun; and yet the center of interest was not in the Jewish offerings, but in the needs of the soul. And besides them, the preacher saw nothing except Christ as God's sure remedy for sin. Not for a moment did he lose the grip of his hearer, or forget the listening soul and the present God." What a virile preacher young Spurgeon must have been to make such an impression upon a cultured auditor. And we may be sure at the end he hurled a veritable thunderbolt of truth at the hearts of his audience.

All this is wise sacred oratory. It is dealing with an audience as if you had a passion for their souls, and you were preaching to them as you will wish you had when you come to stand before them at the bar of God.

There are many kinds of appeal that can be made in perfect harmony with the text.

1. One could preach from any one of a multitude of texts about the mercy or mercies of God, as for example: (1) "Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness, according to the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions" (Psalm 51:1). (2) "Who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies" (Psalm 103: 4). There is a multitude of such texts. After preaching a sermon from one of them, then do as St. Paul did: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service" (Rom. 12:3).

2. One can preach about the awful perils of breaking the law of God, and the sure judgments that will follow unless they are cancelled and covered by the atoning blood. After this great subject has been set forth, then a conclusion can be made as St. Paul did, "Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men" (2 Cor. 5:11). And what a persuasive appeal it would be -- one that would appall the heart of a guilty Felix, and make his knees smite together.

That is what the great Jonathan Edwards did when he preached on "Sinners in the hands of an angry God!" and made his conclusions so vivid that his hearers grasped the seats and threw their arms around the pillars that supported the gallery of the church lest they should slip into hell! No wonder a spiritual awakening was started that swept over the English speaking world.

3. You can preach on the goodness of God and there is super-abounding material for such a sermon. You can preach till your hearers will think, "O that men would praise the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men!" Then appeal to them as Paul did: "Despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance, but after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up for thyself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; who will render to every man according to his works . . . -- wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that worketh evil" (Rom. 2:4-9, R.V.).

It is perfectly evident that St. Paul knew how to draw a legitimate conclusion, or make an appropriate appeal vitally related to the subject of discourse. In them all, there was manifest a passion for souls and an unswerving purpose, either to build up saints in the likeness of Christ, or to rescue sinners from a yawning hell.

We may all take lessons from this master preacher. He seemed never to forget what he was in the pulpit for, and what was the great end of his profession. When the Prince of apostles and preachers addressed sinners it was, "Behold now is the acceptable time." "I beseech you as in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God!" When he preached to Christians he held up "Christ in you the hope of glory; whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." The conversion of sinners! the sanctification of believers! The two themes never neglected or forgotten.

We are just now passing through a period when too often contemptible infidels are occupying the chairs in the theological "cemeteries," and are training young preachers to believe in nothing but a monkey ancestry. And so we have a multitude of pulpiteers in our churches who believe in nothing to speak of. They do not believe either in the personality of God or the devil; either in sin, sinners, or salvation. They take the crown of deity from the brow of Christ and reduce Him to the level of a deluded half-insane bastard, denying His miracles, His atonement, His resurrection and ascension. They scout morals as a passing fashion. Their chief employment is to play the part of a pulpit dude and fawn upon Mr. and Mrs. Money-bags and their charming daughters, for the thrift that follows fawning.Their object of worship, like that of the Orientals, is their monkey-ancestry, whom they greatly resemble. "Ye hypocrites, how can ye escape the damnation of hell!" "Whose damnation is just!"

I do not write for these. It would be useless waste of ink. But, to the many souls still left in the ministry who do desire to win souls, we say, "Study the masters, and see how they concluded their sermons."

Here is the conclusion of Spurgeon's sermon on James 4:34: "The thought of death will be one of two things to us; it will be a ghost to haunt us if we remain out of Christ, unreconciled to God and unrenewed in heart. To godless and Christless persons, death will be the king of terrors in prospect and in reality. Ungodly men cannot think of being called away. This morning they feel very uncomfortable while I am treating upon this troublesome subject. I hope they will not soon recover their composure, but will remain uncomfortable till they yield to divine love, and trust in the living Savior. Death is an awful thing to those who have their all in this world. If they could but live here forever, they would be at peace; but it cannot be so. God will not give men an immortality in this life, to spend in disregarding Him. They must die. They may put Christ far from them, but they cannot put death far from them; they may avoid the cross, but they cannot avoid the grave.

"The ungodly may frown upon death because death frowns upon him. Death is the skeleton in his closet; it is the spectre at the foot of his bed; it is the canker of his fairest joy. I would not like to be in such a position. Count me down all the red gold that could buy this round world, yet would I not accept it if I must live in fear of death.

"But death will become another thing to you if you are renewed in heart. To a Christian it is an angel beckoning him onward and upward. It were not worth while to live on earth if this life were not to be crowned by death; I mean by leaving this world to go unto the Father. We are not of those who voyage the sea of this life for the sake of it. We ask not forever to sail over this rough ocean; we long for land. It is our delight to think of the port ahead; our joy to see the snow-white cliffs of our heavenly Albion. We do not desire to live here always. Why should we? Banished from God, liable to sin, subject to temptation, vexed with infirmities, struggling with corruptions. O Lord, what wait we for?

"Believers have everything to gain by dying. 'To die is gain.' We shall lose nothing which will be a loss to us. If one should take from us a jewel, but should give us another a thousand times its value, we should not regret the exchange. We lose this life, let it be such a jewel as you like, but we win the life to come, which is infinitely more precious. Beloved, instead of fearing death, we would be willing rather to depart and be with Christ which is far better. Why should we be unwilling to be glorified? Our departing day is our marriage day. Oh! that the bells would ring it in! It is our homecoming from the school where we have been in training here below. Why are the minutes so slow, the years so long? Let the holidays, the holy days, come soon, when we shall be at home in the Father's house. It doth not yet appear what we shall be, but it very soon will appear, and it will be no mere appearing -- it will be real joy and lasting pleasure, solid, substantial, eternal, like the God who has prepared it for us from of old. It is a blessed thing to be able to go through the world thanking God for this life, but blessing Him yet more that it will land us at His right hand. Death is thus stripped of all dread; the curse is turned into a blessing. At the thought of it I feel ready to join in that rough but sweet verse:

'Since Jesus is mine, I'll not fear undressing,

But gladly put off these garments of day;

To die in the Lord is a covenant blessing

Since Jesus to glory through death led the way.'

"God grant us so to live and die that we may live to die no more, for Christ's sake. Amen."

Spurgeon knew how to close a sermon.

Here is an ending of one of Torrey's sermons. "One night in Chicago, in the Pacific Garden Mission, there came in a poor fellow, a complete physical and moral wreck. He had been in a railroad accident and was a total cripple, helpless on both feet, dragging himself along on crutches. For fourteen years he had been a victim of whisky and alcohol in all its forms, and of opium as well. He was an opium fiend, and an alcoholic fiend. My friend, Colonel Clark, spoke to him and told him the gospel of Jesus Christ, but he refused to believe. But on LaSalle Street, one of our busiest commercial streets, next day Colonel Clark saw this same man dragging himself along on his crutches, and as he got to the entrance of an alleyway Colonel Clark drew him into the alley and said to him, "My friend, Jesus has power to save you," and after talking to him a while, there and then the man got down as best he could on his crutches beside the strong man of God, and put his trust in Jesus Christ. And when that man came out of that alley, he came out a child of God and he is today a preacher of the gospel.

"Thank God for a gospel that can save anybody. You cannot find me a man in all London that Jesus Christ has not power to save if he will only believe on Him. Put your confidence in Him. Will you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ tonight?"

This latter is an appeal by illustration. It was the favorite method of Moody, and the same can be said of Brother Torrey. These men are masters of the art of winning souls, and their methods are by no means to be under-rated or despised. Illustrations from life may be so used as to quicken the imagination, stir the feelings and move the will to holy choice, which is the desired end.

Even Jesus had a conclusion to His sermon on the mount which was skilfully designed to bring men to repentance and life. Just here is where multitudes of ministers utterly fail.