Young Preachers Encouraged.

A SHORT ADDRESS, DELIVERED TO THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE COUNTRY MISSION, BY C. H. SPURGEON.

A

CERTAIN venerable minister once told me that when his young people took to preaching he did his best to choke them off of it. Whether he was right or wrong is not a question which I shall now discuss: I can only say I have acted upon the opposite principle, and have endeavoured not to choke but to cheer those who try to speak for Jesus. I am not old enough to have forgotten the struggles of my own early days, or the influence of a cheering word upon my young heart, and so I take a loving and lively interest in those who sincerely endeavour to do their best for their Master, even though that best be raw and uncouth. "Would God that all the Lord's servants were prophets, and that far greater numbers of labourers were sent into the harvest of the great Householder.

Let all who have gifts for the work open their mouths and preach Jesus, for the gospel cannot have too many faithful heralds. At this time I will only dwell upon one truth, that for men to speak of Christ to others is a great blessing to themselves. Brother workers, the endeavour to win souls by preaching Christ is a grand means of grace to our own hearts. The apostle Paul thought preaching to be a high privilege and a means of good to himself; for he said "Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ." It is a token for good to us when God employs us, nay more, the holy service is the channel of incalculable benefit to us. So far as I am concerned, I scarcely know how I could keep alive spiritually if I did not refresh my own heart by preaching the gospel to others. So is it with my brethren. Many are warmed by holy exertion who else might have been cold; many are cheered who else would have been despondent; many are instructed who else had been ignorant; many are made to grow who else had been stunted. The first blessing is to be saved yourself, but the next in value is to be the means of saving your neighbours. Salvation from sin includes salvation from selfishness, and this is in a large measure effected by our beginning to care for the souls of others, and showing that care by earnestly speaking to them. The man whose first and last concern is about his own safety is not half saved yet, if saved at all. It is wretched work to be for ever prying into the vault of one's own inner feelings and spying out in the murky darkness new causes for disquietude; better far to look around on dying men, and spend the divine life within you in trying to glorify God by proclaiming his infinite love. By morbidly brooding over self you will hatch new griefs, but by blessing others you will open fresh sources of rejoicing.

Public speech for Christ helps to develop us. I believe it is as good for young men to try and preach the gospel as it is for children to attempt to walk. How they tumble about!-I mean both the preachers and the children. As for the children, their battered noses and broken knees are part payment for the privilege of ultimately walking on two legs; and who regrets the bruises in after days when it is his joy to run without

weariness? The break-downs of young speakers are much the same, they pain them for the time, and perhaps leave a bruise in the form of a story which makes them wince when it is repeated, but by these things men learn to speak without fear, and the preacher is trained to ready utterance. If there were no miserable defeats there would be no happy successes. Preachers are like the sycamore figs of Amos, they must be bruised by failure before they will ripen and sweeten into great usefulness. I like to hear of men beginning to speak for Jesus; they remind me of young eagles stretching their callow wings and taking their first venturous flight: they will in due time soar into the heavens, none the less surely because now they can scarcely wing their way from one point to another. I recollect my own beginnings, and I know how tremblingly, and yet how trustingly, I took each tottering step. Some of the holiest feelings of our renewed nature are called into ⚫ action at such a time: I could wish that in after years we were as prayerful and dependent as at that season. The effort arouses the noblest part of us, and gives it a chance to indulge its aspirations, and so far it must be good.

It is an admirable thing for young men to begin early to preach the truth, for it is the best way of learning it. My college course was after this fashion. I was for three years a Cambridge man, though I never entered the university. I could not have obtained a degree because I was a Nonconformist; and, moreover, it was a better thing for me to pursue my studies under an admirable scholar and tender friend, and preach at the same time. I was, by my tutor's often expressed verdict, considered to be sufficiently proficient in my studies to have taken a good place on the list had the way been open. "You could win at a canter," said he to me. I had, however, a better college course, for I studied theology as much as possible during the day, and then at five in the evening I became a travelling preacher, and started into the villages to tell out what I had learned. My quiet meditation during the walk helped me to digest what I had read, and the rehearsal of my lesson in public, by preaching it to the people, fixed it on my memory. I do not mean that I ever repeated a single sentence from memory, but I thought my reading over again while on my legs, and thus worked it into my very soul. I must have been a singularlooking youth on wet evenings. During the last year of my stay in Cambridge, when I had given up my office as usher, I was wont to sally forth every night in the week, except on Saturday, and walk three, five, or perhaps eight miles out and back again on my preaching work, and when it rained I encased myself in waterproof leggings and a mackintosh coat, and a hat with a waterproof covering, and I carried a dark lantern to show me the way across the fields. I had many adventures, of which I will not now speak, but the point is, that what I had gathered by my studies during the day I handed out to a company of villagers in the evening, and was greatly profited by the exercise. always found it good to say my lesson when I had learned it; children do that, you know, and it is equally good for preachers, especially if they say their lesson by heart. No better means of fixing knowledge can be devised. My dear brethren, who are young preachers, will learn their theology while preparing their sermons and while delivering them,

if the Spirit of God be much sought and depended on. To translate the ideas of your own mind into language which others can understand and receive is a fine lesson both in thinking and in speaking.

I am glad to see the men in our churches attempting to preach, because it is likely to give them a deeper sympathy with their ministers, and we need the sympathy and love of all around us. Some thoughtless persons imagine that the preacher stands up and opens his mouth and sermons leap forth; they know nothing of the intense study and wear and tear of mind which are necessary to maintain freshness and vigour from Sabbath to Sabbath. When these young men open their mouths, they find that instructive matter does not flow forth spontaneously; they discover that the same thing is very apt to come over and over again, or that they are too embarrassed to say anything at all. They are perplexed and worried to know where to find themes, and thus they learn the need of searching the Scriptures, and storing their minds. This is good for them. Better still, they find that they must pray over their subjects, and get their hearts into a right state before God, or else they cannot discourse to profit. They soon perceive that minds are not always fresh and fertile, and they learn to bear with a dull sermon, caused by a headache or a sleepless night. Those who have preached themselves will pray for those of us who have all the year round to instruct huge congregations, and to make the old, old story new and attractive to the same people throughout a lifetime.

I am sure, too, that it keeps men out of mischief to set about spreading the knowledge of Christ. The most useful members of a church are usually those who would be doing harm if they were not doing good. They cannot be chips in the porridge, they must flavour it one way or another. I know very well if I was not always at work I should be sure either to worry myself or others, for my brains will not imitate the dormouse, and take a long sleep. To have nothing to do would kill some of us outright. Active-minded idlers are a curse to any community. Lazy members of churches, if they have restless dispositions, become critical hearers, grumblers, gossips, heretics, or schismatics. They find pleasure in giving pain. It is fine to see a sluggard lean over a rail and find fault with those who are hard at work in their shirtsleeves; he says they are out of order, and ought to wear dress coats. It would be better if they would dress his coat for him. On a very hot day it is very pleasant to sit in a boat and find fault with the two fellows who are rowing so hard that they drip with sweat. I know some who enjoy this delight in a spiritual sense, and also add to it the further joy of criticizing the way in which the rowers feather their oars. If the workers should turn round and say, "Try and do better yourself," they would be justified in the observation, and I wish the idle gentlemen would accept such a bit of practical wisdom. Now, you with fault-finding tongues, use your mouths for a better purpose, and we shall be less troubled by you. Spare energy soon runs wild if it be not yoked to the gospel plough. Vines which bear little fruit go all to wood, and many of the branches run over the wall.

It is a good thing for our young brethren to begin to preach, because it arouses their natures. They discover points in themselves that they never knew were there; frequently these discoveries are not flattering,

but humiliating, and this greatly benefits them, for anything is good which lowers self-conceit. Other discoveries comfort and cncourage them, for they find out faculties and talents which were unperceived while they were silent. No one knows what he can do till he has tried, nor even what he cannot do till he has made the attempt. When a man begins to agonize for souls, to persuade, and entreat them to come to Christ, he discovers his own weakness, and his need of the Holy Spirit; while further on, when the Lord blesses him, he gladly perceives what great strength can be put into him, and how much his very infirmities may be overruled to the glory of God.

Though a man cannot preach at all, it may do him great good to make the attempt, if he has any strong impulses in that direction; for if he be a man of sense the clear evidence of his inability will satisfy his conscience, and enable him quietly to attend to more suitable work. We cannot all preach, and there is no need we should, for it cannot be desirable that the church should be all mouth, since that would amount to its being one great vacuum, a sort of cave by the sea, famous for nothing but contending noises. There must be ears to hear the gospel as well as lips to preach it; and it is not an ill thing for a man to have attempted to preach when his failure leads him to become a good hearer, and a diligent labourer in service more suitable to his abilities.

It is good for young men to begin to preach because it is from among their ranks that the ministry must be recruited, and lay-preaching associations are often the means of raising up and qualifying men who become able ministers of the new covenant. Many a small church has been a nursery of preachers. The very need of the people has compelled them to search out and encourage native talent. When a man stands up in the street to preach, or talks to a dozen people in a cottage, he is putting out his pound to interest as his Lord desires, and it grows by being thus employed, till one talent becomes two, and two become five, and five become ten. By exercising his gift the chosen servant of Christ goes from strength to strength. Some of those who now occupy the foremost pulpits, and are doing the greatest good, owe their capacity under God to the constant habit of preaching, which commenced at first in a very small way. How many times I have enjoyed preaching the gospel in a farmer's kitchen, or in a cottage or in a barn. Perhaps many people came to hear me because I was then a boy; but I owed my earliest opportunities to the Cambridge Lay-preachers' Association, which placed me upon its plan, and kept me in constant work, till I became a village pastor. I, therefore, advocate such societies, and wish to see one of the like in every town.

In my young days I fear I said many odd things and made many blunders, but my audiences were not hypercritical, and no newspaper writers dogged my heels, and so I had a happy training-school, in which by continual practice I attained such a degree of ready speech as I now possess. There is no way of learning to preach which can be compared with preaching itself. If you want to swim you must get into the water, and if you at the first make a sorry exhibition, never mind, for it is by swimming as you can that you learn to swim as you should. Hence we ought to be lenient with beginners, for they will do better by-and-by. If young speakers in Cambridge had been discouraged

and silenced, I might not have found my way here; and therefore I hope I shall be the last to bring forth a wet blanket for any who sincerely speak of Christ, however humble may be their endeavours. If we slay the striplings, where shall we find our veterans? The fear of there being too many preachers is the last which will occur to me. I rejoice in that passage of the psalm-"The Lord gave the word, great was the company of those that published it." Go forth, young men, and proclaim among the people of this vast city all the words of this life. Among these millions you will all of you be few enough. The Lord make you to be all good men and true. I pray him to anoint you with his Spirit; fill your baskets with living seed, and in due season bring you back laden with many sheaves. My heart is with you, my soul rejoices in your successes, and I look to the great Head of the church through your means to gather in his blood-bought ones.

SE

Grateful though sorrowful,

EEING that all our troubles and afflictions come from God, we ought to humble and submit our hearts and minds unto him, and to suffer him to work in us according to his most holy will and pleasure. If unseasonable weather should hurt the corn and the fruits of the earth, or a wicked man should misreport us or slander us, why should we murmur and grudge against the elements, or seek to revenge us of our enemy? for if we lift not up our minds, and consider that it is God that layeth his hands upon us, and that it is he that striketh us, we are even like unto dogs, which, if a man cast a stone at them, will bite the stone, without any respect to who did cast it.

Pliny the Second, an heathen man, when he would comfort a friend of his, whose dear spouse was departed out of this world, wrote after this manner: "This ought to be a singular comfort unto thee that thou hast had and enjoyed such a precious jewel for so long a time: for forty-four years did she live with thee, and there was never any strife, brawling, or contention between you, nor never one of you once displeased the other. Yea,' but now thou wilt say, 'so much the more loath and unwilling am I to be without her, seeing I lived so long a time so pleasantly with her. For we forget soon such pleasures and commodities as we have proved and tasted but a little time only.' But to answer to this, take thou heed that thou be found not unthankful, if thou wilt only weigh and consider what thou hast lost, and not remember how long thou didst have and enjoy it."

So if we will not set and weigh the one thing against the other, we are like unto children, who, if any man happen to disturb or hinder their game a little, or take any manner of thing from them, will by-andby cast away all the rest also, and fall to weeping.-Saltmarsh.