Two Lectures
Addressed to the students of
The Pastors' College, Metropolitan Tabernacle,
by
C. H. Spurgeon,
President
London: Passmore & Alabaster, Paternoster Buildings
1890
(All rights reserved)
The present volume is the second of a series of works useful to
Students and Ministers prepared by Mr. Spurgeon; and published at
2s. 6d. The first volume is "Lectures to my Students: a Selection
from Addresses delivered to the Students of the Pastors' College,
Metropolitan Tabernacle". Passmore and Alabaster, Paternoster
Buildings.
Mr. Spurgeon has other works of a similar character in contemplation, which will be issued, if the Lord will. It is hoped that The College Series may render efficient service to preachers of the gospel. Friends who appreciate the books will greatly oblige by making them known to others. The same motive which prompted the author to write, leads him to desire a large circle of readers.
When I issued the first volume of "Lectures to my Students" it was my intention to prepare another series as soon as time permitted, and I meant to include two addresses upon Commenting in the proposed selection. It struck me, however, that a better thing was possible. The two lectures might introduce the topic of exposition, and then a catalogue of Commentaries might help the student to carry the advice into practice. The making of that catalogue would, of course, be no small labour; but, once accomplished, it might be of service to many, and effect more in the direction aimed at than the most earnest exhortations. I therefore resolved to attempt the work, and here is the result.
It would be easy to point out the deficiencies of the modern pulpit, and hold up one's own ideal of what preaching ought to be, but this has been so often attempted by others with such slender results that we decline the task. A judicious critic would probably complain that many sermons are deficient ill solid instruction, Biblical exposition, and Scriptural argument: they are flashy, rather than fleshy; clever, rather than solid; entertaining, rather than impressive. He would point to rhetorical discourses in which doctrine is barely discernible, and brilliant harangues from which no food for the soul could ever be extracted. Having done this, he would probably propose that homilies should flow out of texts, and should consist of a clear explanation, and an earnest enforcement of the truths which the texts distinctly teach. Expository preaching he would advocate as the great need of the day, its best protection against rising errors, and its surest means of spiritual edification. To such observations most of us would offer no opposition; we should confess them to be full of wisdom, and worthy of being pondered. We should not unite in any indiscriminate censuring of hortatory addresses, or topical sermons, nor should we agree with the demand that every discourse should be limited to the range of its text, nor even that it should have a text at all; but we should heartily subscribe to the declaration, that more expository preaching is greatly needed, and that all preachers would be the better if they were more able expounders of the inspired Word.
To render such a result more probable, every inducement to search the Holy Scriptures should be placed in the way of our ministers, and to the younger brethren some guidance should be proffered as to the works most likely to aid them in their studies. Many are persuaded that they should expound the Word, but being unversed in the original tongues they can only fall back upon the help of their English Concordances, and are left floundering about, when a sound comment would direct their thoughts. True, the Holy Spirit will instruct the seeker, but he works by means. The Ethiopian eunuch might have received divine illumination, and doubtless did receive it, but still, when asked whether he understood the Scripture which he read, he replied, "How can I unless some man shall guide me?" The guiding man is needed still. Divines who have studied the Scriptures have left us great stores of holy thought which we do well to use. Their expositions can never be a substitute for our own meditations, but as water poured down a dry pump often sets it to work to bring up water of its own, so suggestive reading sets the mind in motion on its own account. Here, however, is the difficulty. Students do not find it easy to choose which works to buy, and their slender stores are often wasted on books of a comparatively worthless kind. If I can save a poor man from spending his money for that which is not bread, or, by directing a brother to a good book, may enable him to dig deeper into the mines of truth, I shall be well repaid. For this purpose I have toiled, and read much, and passed under review some three or four thousand volumes. From these I have compiled my catalogue, rejecting man, yet making a very varied selection. Though I have carefully used such judgment as I possess, I have doubtless made many errors; I shall certainly find very few who will agree with all my criticisms, and some persons may be angry at my remarks. I have, however, done my best, and, with as much impartiality as I can command, I have nothing extenuated nor set down aught in malice. He who finds fault will do well to execute the work in better style; only let him remember that he will have my heifer to plough with and therefore ought in all reason to excel me.
I have used a degree of pleasantry in my remarks on the Commentaries, for a catalogue is a dry affair, and, as much for my own sake as for that of my readers, I have indulged the mirthful vein here and there. For this I hope I shall escape censure, even if I do not win commendation.
The preface to the Catalogue will be found on pages 33 and 34???, which the reader is requested to peruse before attempting to use the list.
To God I commend this labour, which has been undertaken and carried out with no motive but that of honoring his name, and edifying his Church by stimulating the study of his Word. May he, for his Son's sake, grant my heart's desire.
The preparation of the present work was suggested by the author's connection with the Pastors' College, and the Library of that Institution has in a high degree assisted in its execution, therefore the reader must permit the College to be noticed in these pages in the same manner as in the former volume of this series. To make it known, and to win for it willing friends is confessedly one object, of these publications, which may indeed be viewed as merely the giving forth to a wider area the instruction carried on within the College walls.
The Institution is intended to aid useful preachers in obtaining a better education. It takes no man to make him a minister, but requires that its pupils should, as a rule, have exercised their gifts for at least two years and have won souls to Jesus. These we receive, however poor or backward they may be, and our endeavours are all turned towards the one aim that they should be instructed in the things of God, furnished for their work, and practised in the gift of utterance. Much prayer is made by the Church that this end may be accomplished, nor has the prayer been in vain, for some 330 men are now declaring the gospel of Jesus who were trained in this manner. Besides the students for the regular ministry, several hundreds of street preachers, city missionaries, teachers, and workers of all kinds have passed through our evening classes, and a band of 250 such men are now with us, pursuing their callings by day and studying in the evening. We ask for much prayer from all our brethren, that the supply of the Spirit may sanctify the teaching, and anoint every worker for the service of the Lord.
As it would be quite unwarrantable for us to interfere with the arrangements of other bodies of Christians, who have their own methods of training their ministers, and as it is obvious that we could not find spheres for men in denominations with which we have no ecclesiastical connection, we confine our college to Baptists; and in order not to be harassed with endless controversies, we invite those only who hold those views of divine truth which are popularly known as Calvinistic,--not that we care for names and phrases, but as we wish to be understood, we use a term which conveys our meaning as nearly as any descriptive word can do. Believing the grand doctrines of grace to be the natural accompaniments of the fundamental evangelical truth of redemption by the blood of Jesus, we hold and teach them not only in our ministry to the masses, but in the more select instruction of the class room. Latitudinarianism with its infidelity, and unsectarianism with its intolerance, are neither of them friends of ours: we delight in the man who believes, and therefore speaks. Our Lord has given us no permission to be liberal with what is none of ours. We are to give an account of every truth with which we are put in trust.
Our means for conducting this work are with the most High God, possessor of heaven and earth. We have no list of subscribers or roll of endowments. Our trust is in Him whom we desire to serve. He has supported the work for many years, by moving his stewards to send us help, and we are sure that he will continue to do so as long as he desires us to pursue this labour of love. We need, at least, 100 pounds every week of the year. Since our service is gratuitous in every sense, we the more freely appeal to those who agree with us in believing that to aid an earnest young minister to equip himself for his life work is a worthy effort. No money yields so large a return, no work is so important, just now none is so absolutely needful.
Nightingale Lane,
Clapham, Surrey.
C. H. Spurgeon
In order to be able to expound the Scriptures, and as an aid to
your pulpit studies, you will need to be familiar with the
commentators: a glorious army, let me tell you, whose acquaintance
will be your delight and profit. Of course, you are not such
wiseacres as to think or say that you can expound Scripture without
assistance from the works of divines and learned men who have
laboured before you in the field of exposition. If you are of that
opinion, pray remain so, for you are not worth the trouble of
conversion, and like a little coterie who think with you, would
resent the attempt as an insult to your infallibility. It seems
odd, that certain men who talk so much of what the Holy Spirit
reveals to themselves, should think so little of what he has
revealed to others. My chat this afternoon is not for these great
originals, but for you who are content to learn of holy men, taught
of God, and mighty in the Scriptures. It has been the fashion of
late years to speak against the use of commentaries. If there were
any fear that the expositions of Matthew Henry, Gill, Scott, and
others, would be exalted into Christian Targums, we would join the
chorus of objectors, but the existence or approach of such a danger
we do not suspect. The temptations of our times lie rather in empty
pretensions to novelty of sentiment, than in a slavish following of
accepted guides. A respectable acquaintance with the opinions of
the giants of the past, might have saved many an erratic thinker
from wild interpretations and outrageous inferences. Usually, we
have found the despisers of commentaries to be men who have no sort
of acquaintance with them; in their case, it is the opposite of
familiarity which has bred contempt. It is true there are a number
of expositions of the whole Bible which are hardly worth shelf
room; they aim at too much and fail altogether; the authors have
spread a little learning over a vast surface, and have badly
attempted for the entire Scriptures what they might have
accomplished for one book with tolerable success; but who will deny
the preeminent value of such expositions as those of Calvin, Ness,
Henry, Trapp, Poole, and Bengel, which are as deep as they are
broad? and yet further, who can pretend to biblical learning who
has not made himself familiar with the great writers who spent a
life in explaining some one sacred book? Caryl on Job will not
exhaust the patience of a student who loves every letter of the
Word; even Collinges, with his nine hundred and nine pages upon one
chapter of the Song, will not be too full for the preacher's use;
nor will Manton's long metre edition of the hundred and nineteenth
Psalm (
First among the mighty for general usefulness we are bound to
mention the man whose name is a household word, Matthew Henry.
It would not be possible for me too earnestly to press upon you
the importance of reading the expositions of that prince among men,
John Calvin!
The edition of John Calvin's works which was issued by the
Calvin Translation Society, is greatly enriched by the remarks of
the editors, consisting not merely of notes on the Latin of Calvin,
and the French translation, or on the text of the original
Scriptures, but also of weighty opinions of eminent critics,
illustrative manners and customs, and observations of travellers.
By the way, gentlemen, what a pity it is that people do not, as a
rule, read the notes in the old Puritan books! If you purchase old
copies of such writers as Brooks, you will find that the notes in
the margin are almost as rich as the books themselves. They are
dust of gold, of the same metal as the ingots in the centre of the
page. But to return to Calvin. If you needed any confirmatory
evidence as to the value of his writings, I might summon a cloud of
witnesses, but it will suffice to quote one or two. Here is the
opinion of one who is looked upon as his great enemy, namely,
Arminius: "Next to the perusal of the Scriptures, which I earnestly
inculcate, I exhort my pupils to peruse Calvin's commentaries,
which I extol in loftier terms than Helmich
Quaint Robert Robinson said of him, "There is no abridging this sententious commentator, and the more I read him, the more does he become a favourite expositor with me." Holy Baxter wrote, "I know no man since the apostles' days, whom I value and honour more than Calvin, and whose judgment in all things, one with another, I more esteem and come nearer to."
If you are well enough versed in Latin, you will find in Poole's
Synopsis,
His work was based upon an earlier compilation entitled Critici Sacri, containing the concentrated light of a constellation of learned men who have never been excelled in any age or country.
Matthew Poole also wrote Annotations
Would it be possible to eulogise too much the incomparably
sententious and suggestive folios of John Trapp?
A very distinguished place is due to Dr. Gill.
He was always at work; it is difficult to say when he slept, for he wrote 10,000 folio pages of theology. The portrait of him which belongs to this church, and hangs in my private vestry, and from which all the published portraits have been engraved, represents him after an interview with an Arminian gentleman, turning up his nose in a most expressive manner, as if he could not endure even the smell of freewill. In some such a vein he wrote his commentary. He hunts Arminianism throughout the whole of it. He is far from being so interesting and readable as Matthew Henry. He delivered his comments to his people from Sabbath to Sabbath, hence their peculiar mannerism. His frequent method of animad-version is, "This text does not mean this", nobody ever thought it did; "It does not mean that", only two or three heretics ever imagined it did; and again it does not mean a third thing, or a fourth, or a fifth, or a sixth absurdity; but at last he thinks it does mean so-and-so, and tells you so in a methodical, sermon like manner. This is an easy method, gentlemen, of filling up the time, if you are ever short of heads for a sermon. Show your people firstly, secondly, and thirdly, what the text does not mean, and then afterwards you can go back and show them what it does mean. It may be thought, however, that one such a teacher is enough, and that what was tolerated from a learned doctor would be scouted in a student fresh from college. For good, sound, massive, sober sense in commenting, who can excel Gill? Very seldom does he allow himself to be run away with by imagination, except now and then when he tries to open up a parable, and finds a meaning in every circumstance and minute detail; or when he falls upon a text which is not congenial with his creed, and hacks and hews terribly to bring the word of God into a more systematic shape. Gill is the Coryphaeus of hyper-Calvinism, but if his followers never went beyond their master, they would not go very far astray.
I have placed next to Gill in my library Adam Clarke,
The author thought that lengthy reflections were rather for the preacher than the commentator, and hence it was not a part of his plan to write such observations as those which endear Matthew Henry to the million. If you have a copy of Adam Clarke, and exercise discretion in reading it, you will derive immense advantage from it, for frequently by a sort of side light he brings out the meaning of the text in an astonishingly novel manner. I do not wonder that Adam Clarke still stands, notwithstanding his peculiarities, a prince among commentators. I do not find him so helpful as Gill, but still from his side of the question, with which I have personally no sympathy, he is an important writer, and deserves to be studied by every reader of the Scriptures. He very judiciously says of Dr. Gill, "He was a very learned and good man, but has often lost sight of his better judgment in spiritualising the text"; this is the very verdict which we pass upon himself, only altering the last sentence a word or two; "He has often lost sight of his better judgment in following learned singularities"; the monkey, instead of the serpent, tempting Eve, is a notable instance.
As I am paying no sort of attention to chronological order, I
shall now wander back to old Master Mayer,
In 1653, Arthur Jackson,
Need I commend Bishop Hall's Contemplations
Among entire commentators of modern date, a high place is
usually awarded to Thomas Scott,
To all young men of light purses let me recommend The Tract
Society's Commentary,
Gentlemen, if you want something full of marrow and fatness,
cheering to your own hearts by way of comment, and likely to help
you in giving to your hearers rich expositions, buy Dr. Hawker's
Poor Man's Commentary.
"Albert Barnes", say you, "what, do you think of Albert Barnes?"
Albert Barnes is a learned and able divine, but his productions are
unequal in value, the gospels are of comparatively little worth,
but his other comments are extremely useful for Sunday School
teachers and persons with a narrow range of reading, endowed with
enough good sense to discriminate between good and evil. If a
controversial eye had been turned upon Barnes's Notes years ago,
and his inaccuracies shown up by some unsparing hand, he would
never have had the popularity which at one time set rival
publishers advertising him in every direction. His Old Testament
volumes are to be greatly commended as learned and laborious, and
the epistles are useful as a valuable collection of the various
opinions of learned men. Placed by the side of the great masters,
Barnes is a lesser light, but taking his work for what it is and
professes to be, no minister can afford to be without it, and this
is no small praise for works which were only intended for Sunday
School teachers.
Upon the New Testament Doddridge's Expositor
Then, of course, gentlemen, you will economise rigidly until you
have accumulated funds to purchase Kitto's Pictorial Bible. You
mean to take that goodly freight on board before you launch upon
the sea of married life. As you cannot visit the Holy Land, it is
well for you that there is a work like the Pictorial Bible, in
which the notes of the most observant travellers are arranged under
the texts which they illustrate. For the geography, zoology,
botany, and manners and customs of Palestine, this will be your
counsellor and guide. Add to this noble comment, which is sold at a
surprisingly low price, the eight volumes of Kitto's Daily
Readings.
The Gnomon of the New Testament, By John Albert Bengel,
Men with a dislike for thinking had better not purchase the five precious volumes, for they will be of little use to them; but men who love brain work will find fine exercise in spelling out the deep meaning of Bengel's excessively terse sentences. His principles of interpretation stated in his "Essay on the Right Way of Handling Divine Subjects", are such as will make the lover of God's word feel safe in his hands: `Put nothing into the Scriptures, but draw everything from them, and suffer nothing to remain hidden, that is really in them." "Though each inspired writer has his own manner and style, one and the same Spirit breathes through all, one grand idea pervades all." "Every divine communication carries (like the diamond) its own light with it, thus showing whence it comes; no touchstone is required to discriminate it." "The true commentator will fasten his primary attention on the letter (literal meaning), but never forget that the Spirit must equally accompany him; at the same time we must never devise a more spiritual meaning for Scripture passages than the Holy Spirit intended." "The historical matters of Scripture, both narrative and prophecy, constitute as it were the bones of its system, whereas the spiritual matters are as its muscles, blood vessels, and nerves. As the bones are necessary to the human system, so Scripture must have its historical matters. The expositor who nullifies the historical ground work of Scripture for the sake of finding only spiritual truths everywhere, brings death on all correct interpretations. Those expositions are the safest which keep closest to the text."
His idea of the true mode of dying touched me much when I first saw it. He declared that he would make no spiritual parade of his last hours, but if possible continue at his usual works, and depart this life as a person in the midst of business leaves the room to attend to a knock at the door. Accordingly he was occupied with the correction of his proof sheets as at other times, and the last messenger summoned him to his rest while his hands were full. This reveals a calm, well balanced mind, and unveils many of those singular characteristics which enabled him to become the laborious recensor of the various M.S.S., and the pioneer of true Biblical criticism.
The Critical English Testament.
Alford's Greek Testament,
What I have said of his Greek Testament applies equally to
Alford's New Testament for English Readers,
I must confess also a very tender side towards Bloomfield's
Greek Testament,
The Commentary by Patrick, Lowth, Arnald, Whitby,, and Lowman,
Dr. Wordsworth's Holy Bible, With Notes and Introductions,
I am not so enamoured of the German writers as certain of my
brethren appear to be, for they are generally cold and hard, and
unspiritual. As Dr. Graham says, "there are about twenty or thirty
names in the literary world who have gained a conspicuous place in
theological circles; and in German commentaries these are
perpetually introduced. In some of them the bulk of the work is
made up of these authoritative names, and quotations from their
works. This gives their writings the appearance of prodigious
learning and research. Every page is bristling with hard words and
strange languages, and the eye of the common reader is terrified at
the very appearance, as the peaceful citizen is at the pointed
cannon of a fortress." I do, however, greatly prize the series
lately produced under the presidency of Dr. Lange.
The Speaker's Commentary
I must also add to the list A Commentary, Critical,
Experimental, and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments.
Several other works I omit, not because they are worthless, or
unknown to me, but because for scant purses the best will be best.
I must not omit upon the New Testament the goodly volume of
Burkitt.
The best commentators, after all, are those who have written upon only one book. Few men can comment eminently well upon the whole Bible, there are sure to be some weak points in colossal works; prolixity in so vast an undertaking is natural, and dulness follows at its heels--but a life devoted to one of the inspired volumes of our priceless Bible must surely yield a noble result. If I find myself able to do so, at some future time I will introduce you to a selection of the great one book writers. For the present this much must suffice.
Having introduced you to the commentators, I must now press upon you one of the most practical uses of them, namely, your own public commenting upon the Scriptures read during divine, service. Preaching in the olden time consisted very much more of exposition than it does now. I suppose that the sermons of the primitive Christians were for the most part expositions of lengthy passages of the Old Testament; and when copies of the gospels, and the epistles of Paul had become accessible to the churches, the chief work of the preacher would be to press home the apostolical teachings by delivering an address, the back bone of which would be a complete passage of Scripture: there would probably be but faint traces of divisions, heads and points, such as we employ in modern discoursing, but the teacher would follow the run of the passage which was open before him, commenting as he read. I suppose this to have been the case, because some of the early Christian modes of worship were founded very much upon that of the synagogue. I say some of the modes, since I suppose that as the Lord Jesus left his disciples free from rubrics and liturgies, each church worshipped according to the working of the free Spirit among them; one with the open meeting of the Corinthians, and another with a presiding minister, and a third with a mixture of the two methods. In the synagogue, it was the rule of the Rabbis that never less than twenty two verses of the law should be read at one time, and the preaching consisted of notes upon a passage of that length. Such a rule would be a mere superstition if we were slavishly bound by it, but I could almost wish that the custom were reestablished, for the present plan of preaching from short texts, together with the great neglect of commenting publicly upon the word is very unsatisfactory. We cannot expect to deliver much of the teaching of Holy Scripture by picking out verse by verse, and holding these up at random. The process resembles that of showing a house by exhibiting separate bricks. It would be an astounding absurdity if our friends used our private letters in this fashion, and interpreted them by short sentences disconnected and taken away from the context. Such expositors would make us out to say in every letter all we ever thought of, and a great many things besides far enough from our minds; while the real intent of our epistles would probably escape attention. Nowadays since expository preaching is not so common as it ought to be, there is the more necessity for our commenting during the time of our reading the Scriptures. Since topical preaching, hortatory preaching, experimental preaching, and so on--all exceedingly useful in their way--have almost pushed proper expository preaching out of place, there is the more need that we should, when we read passages of Holy Writ, habitually give running comments upon them.
I support my opinion with this reason, that the public reading of the abstruser parts of Scripture is of exceedingly little use to the majority of the people listening. I can recollect hearing in my younger days long passages out of Daniel, which might have been exceedingly instructive to me if I had obtained the remotest conception of what they meant. Take again, parts of the prophecy of Ezekiel, and ask yourselves what profit can arise from their perusal by the illiterate, "unless some man shall guide them"? What more edification can come from a chapter in English which is not understood than from the same passage in Hebrew or Greek? The same argument which enforces translation demands exposition. If but a few explanatory words are thrown in by a judicious reader, it is wonderful how luminous obscure portions may be made. Two or three sentences will often reveal the drift of a whole chapter; the key of a great difficulty may be presented to the hearer in half a score words, and thus the public reading may be made abundantly profitable. I once saw a school of blind children among the charming ruins of York Abbey, and could not help pitying their incapacity to enjoy so much beauty: how willingly would I have opened their eyes! Are ignorant people wandering among the glories of Scripture much less to be pitied? Who will refuse them the light?
Abundant evidence has come before me that brief comments upon Scripture in our ordinary services are most acceptable and instructive to our people. I have often heard from working men, and their wives, and from merchants and their families, that my own expositions have been most helpful to them. They testify that when they read the Bible at home in the family, the exposition makes it doubly precious to them; and the chapter which they had unprofitably read in course at family prayers, when they pursue it the next time, recollecting what their minister has said upon it, becomes a real delight to them. The mass of our hearers, in London at least, do not, to any appreciable extent, read commentaries or any other books which throw a light upon the Scriptures. They have neither the money nor the time to do so, and if they are to be instructed in the Word of God in things which they cannot find out by mere experience, and are not likely to have explained to them by their associates, they must get that instruction from us, or nowhere else; nor do I see how we are to give them such spiritual assistance except through the regular practice of exposition.
Besides, if you are in the habit of commenting, it will give you an opportunity of saying many things which are not of sufficient importance to become the theme of a whole sermon, and therefore would probably remain unnoticed, to the great loss of the Lord's people and others. It is astounding what a range of truth, doctrinal, practical, and experimental, Holy Scripture brings before us; and equally worthy of admiration is the forcible manner in which that truth is advanced. Hints given in the way in which the word of God offers them are always wise and opportune; as, for instance, the rebukes which the word administers might have seemed too severe had they been made by the pastor, unsustained by the word and unsuggested by it, but arising out of the chapter they cannot be resented. You can both censure sins and encourage virtues by dilating upon the histories which you read in the inspired records, whereas you might never have touched upon them had not the chapter read brought the matter before you. If you want to make full proof of your ministry, and to leave no single point of revelation untouched, your easiest mode will be to comment upon Scripture habitually. Without this much of the word will be utterly unknown to many of your people. It is a very sad fact that they do not read so much as they should at home; the ungodly, in England, scarcely read the Bible at all; and if only that part which we preach upon be expounded to them, how little of the Bible can they ever know! If you will mark your Bibles with lines under the texts from which you have spoken, as I have always done with an old copy which I keep in my study, you will discover that in twelve or fourteen years very little of the book has been gone through; a very large proportion of it remains unmarked, like a field unploughed. Try, then, by exposition to give your people a fair view of the entire compass of revelation; take them as it were to the top of Nebo, and show them the whole land from Dan to Beersheba, and prove to them that everywhere it floweth with milk and honey.
Earnestly do I advocate commenting. It is unfashionable in England, though somewhat more usual beyond the Tweed. The practice was hardly followed up anywhere in England a few years ago, and it is very uncommon still. It may be pressed upon you for one other reason, namely, that in order to execute it well, the commenting minister will at first have to study twice as much as the mere preacher, because he will be called upon to prepare both his sermons and his expositions. As a rule, I spend much more time over the exposition than over the discourse. Once start a sermon with a great idea, and from that moment the discourse forms itself without much labour to the preacher, for truth naturally consolidates and crystallises itself around the main subject like sweet crystals around a string hung up in syrup; but as for the exposition, you must keep to the text, you must face the difficult points, and must search into the mind of the Spirit rather than your own. You will soon reveal your ignorance as an expositor if you do not study; therefore diligent reading will be forced upon you. Anything which compels the preacher to search the grand old Book is of immense service to him. If any are jealous lest the labour should injure their constitutions, let them remember that mental work up to a certain point is most refreshing, and where the Bible is the theme toil is delight. It is only when mental labour passes beyond the bounds of common sense that the mind becomes enfeebled by it, and this is not usually reached except by injudicious persons, or men engaged on topics which are unrefreshing and disagreeable; but our subject is a recreative one, and to young men like ourselves the vigorous use of our faculties is a most healthy exercise. Classics and mathematics may exhaust us, but not the volume of our Father's grace, the charter of our joys, the treasure of our wealth.
A man to comment well should be able to read the Bible in the
original. Every minister should aim at a tolerable proficiency both
in the Hebrew and the Greek. These two languages will give hint a
library at a small expense, an inexhaustible thesaurus, a mine of
spiritual wealth. Really, the effort of acquiring a language is not
so prodigious that brethren of moderate abilities should so
frequently shrink from the attempt. A minister ought to attain
enough of these tongues to be at least able to make out a passage
by the aid of a lexicon, so as to be sure that he is not
misrepresenting the Spirit of God in his discoursings, but is, as
nearly as he can judge, giving forth what the Lord intended to
reveal by the language employed. Such knowledge would prevent his
founding doctrines upon expressions in our version when nothing at
all analogous is to be found in the inspired original. This has
been done by preachers time out of mind, and they have shouted over
an inference drawn from a shall, or an if gathered out of tim
translation, with as much assurance of infallibility and sense of
importance as if the same language had occurred in the words which
the Holy Ghost used. At such times, we have been reminded of the
story told by the late beloved Henry Craik, in his book on the
Hebrew language. At one time, the Latin Vulgate was so constantly
spoken of as the very word of God, that a Roman Catholic theologian
thus commented upon
Fail not to be expert in the use of your Concordance. Every day I live I thank God more and more for that poor half crazy Alexander Cruden. Of course you have read his life, which is prefixed to the concordance; it exhibits him as a man of diseased mind, once or twice the inmate of a lunatic asylum, but yet for all that successfully devoting his energies to producing a work of absolutely priceless value, which never has been improved upon, and probably never will be; a volume which must ever yield the greatest possible assistance to a Christian minister, being as necessary to him as a plane to the carpenter, or a plough to the husbandman. Be sure you buy a genuine unabridged Cruden, and none of the modern substitutes; good as they may be at the price, they are a delusion and a snare to ministers, and should never be tolerated in the manse library. To consider cheapness in purchasing a concordance is folly. You need only one: have none but the best. At the head of each notable word, Cruden gives you its meaning, and very often all its particular shades of meaning, so that he even helps you in sermonising. When you have read his headings, by following out the concordance, you will observe connections in which the word occurs, which most advantageously and correctly fix its meaning. Thus will the word of God be its own key. A good textuary is a good theologian; be then well skilled in using Cruden.
I make but small account of most reference Bibles; they would be very useful if they were good for anything; but it is extremely easy to bring out a reference Bible which has verbal and apparent references, and nothing more. You will often turn to a reference, and will have to say, "Well, it is a reference, certainly, in a way, for it contains the same word, but there is no reference in the sense that the one text will explain the other." The useful reference cuts the diamond with a diamond, comparing spiritual things with spiritual; it is a thought reference, and not a word reference. If you meet with a really valuable reference Bible, it will be to you what I once heard a countryman call "a reverence Bible", for it will lead you to prize more and more the sacred volume. The best reference Bible is a thoroughly good concordance. Get the best, keep it always on the table, use it hourly, and you will have found your best companion.
Need I after my previous lectures commend to you the judicious reading of commentaries! These are called "dead men's brains" by certain knowing people, who claim to give us nothing in their sermons but what they pretend the Lord reveals direct to themselves. Yet these men are by no means original, and often their supposed inspiration is but borrowed wit. They get a peep at Gill on the sly. The remarks which they give forth as the Spirit's mind are very inferior in all respects to what they affect to despise, namely, the mind of good and learned men. A batch of poems was sent me some time ago for The Sword and the Trowel, which were written by a person claiming to be under the immediate influence of the Holy Spirit. He informed me that he was passive, and that what was enclosed was written under the direct physical and mental influence of the Spirit upon his mind and hand. My bookshelves can show many poems as much superior to these pretended inspirations as angels are to blue bottles; the miserable doggerel bore on its face the evidence of imposture. So when I listen to the senseless twaddle of certain wise gentlemen who are always boasting that they alone are ministers of the Spirit, I am ashamed of their pretensions and of them. No, my dear friends, you may take it, as a rule that the Spirit of God does not usually do for us what we can do for ourselves, and that if religious knowledge is printed in a book, and we can read it, there is no necessity for the Holy Ghost to make a fresh revelation of it to us in order to screen our laziness. Read, then, the admirable commentaries which I have already introduced to you. Yet be sure you use your own minds too, or the expounding will lack interest. Here I call to mind two wells in the courtyard of the Doge's palace at Venice, upon which I looked with much interest. One is filled artificially by water brought in barges from a distance, and few care for its insipid contents; the other is a refreshing natural well, cool and delicious, and the people contend for every drop of it. Freshness, naturalness, life, will always attract, whereas mere borrowed learning is flat and insipid. Mr. Cecil says his plan was, when he laid a hold of a Scripture, to pray over it, and get his own thoughts on it, and then, after he had so done, to take up the ablest divines who wrote upon the subject, and see what their thoughts were. If you do not think and think much, you will become slaves and mere copyists. The exercise of your own mind is most healthful to you, and by perseverance, with divine help, you may expect to get at the meaning of every understandable passage. So to rely upon your own abilities as to be unwilling to learn from others is clearly folly; so to study others as not to judge for yourself is imbecility.
What should be the manner of your public commenting? One rule should be always to point out very carefully wherever a word bears a special sense; for rest assured in Holy Scripture the same word does not always mean the same thing. The Bible is a Book meant for human beings, and therefore it is written in human language; and in human language the same word may signify two or three things. For instance, "a pear fell from the tree"; "a man fell into drunken habits". There the meaning of the second word, "fell", is evidently different from the first, since it is not literal, but metaphorical. Again, "the cabman mounted the box"; "the child was pleased with his Christmas box"; "his lordship is staying at his shooting box". In each case there is the same word, but who does not see that there is a great difference of meaning? So it is in the word of God. You must explain the difference between a word used in a peculiar sense, and the ordinary meaning of the word, and thus you will prevent your people falling into mistakes. If people will say that the same word in Scripture always means the same thing, as I have heard some assert publicly, they will make nonsense of the word of God, and fall into error through their own irrational maxims. To set up canons of interpretation for the Book of God which would be absurd if applied to other writings is egregious folly: it has a show of accuracy, but inevitably leads to confusion.
The obvious literal meaning of a Scripture is not always the true one, and ignorant persons are apt enough to fall into the most singular misconceptions--a judicious remark from the pulpit will be of signal service. Many persons have accustomed themselves to misunderstand certain texts; they have heard wrong interpretations in their youth, and will never know better unless the correct meaning be indicated to them.
We must make sure in our public expositions that obscure and
involved sentences are explained. To overleap difficulties, and
only expound what is already clear, is to make commenting
ridiculous. When we speak of obscure sentences, we mean such as are
mostly to be found in the prophets, and are rendered dark through
the translation, or the Orientalism of their structure, or through
their intrinsic weight of meaning. Involved sentences most abound
in the writings of Paul, whose luxuriant mind was not to be
restrained to any one line of argument. He begins a sentence, and
does not finish it perhaps until eight verses further on, and all
the interstices between the commencement and the end of the
sentence are packed full of compressed truth, which it is not
always easy to separate from the general argument. Hints consisting
of but two or three words will let your hearers know where the
reasoning breaks off, and where it is taken up again. In many
poetical parts of the Old Testament the speakers change; as in
Solomen's Song, which is mostly a dialogue. Here perfect nonsense
is often made by reading the passage as if it were all spoke, by
the same person. In Isaiah the strain often varies most suddenly,
and while one verse is addressed to the Jews, the next may be
spoken to the Messiah or to the Gentiles. Is it not always well to
notify this to the congregation? If the chapters and verses had
been divided with a little common sense, this might be of less
importance, but as our version is so clumsily chopped into
fragments, the preacher must insert the proper paragraphs and
divisions as he reads aloud. In fine, your business is to make the
word plain. In Lombardy I observed great heaps of huge stones in
the fields, which had been gathered out from the soil by diligent
hands to make room for the crops; your duty is to "gather out the
stones", and leave the fruitful field of Scripture for your people
to till. There are Orientalisms, metaphors, peculiar expressions,
idioms, and other verbal memorabilia which arise from the Bible
having been written in the East; all these you will do well to
explain. To this end be diligent students of Oriental life. Let the
geography of Palestine, its natural history, its fauna and its
flora, be as familiar to you as those of your own native village.
Then as you read you will interpret the word, and your flock will
be fed thereby.
The chief part of your commenting, however, should consist in applying the truth to the hearts of your hearers, for he who merely comprehends the meaning of the letter without understanding how it bears upon the hearts and consciences of men, is like a man who causes the bellows of an organ to be blown, and then fails to place his fingers on the keys; it is of little service to supply men with information unless we urge upon them the practical inferences therefrom. Look, my brethren, straight down into the secret chambers of the human soul, and let fall the divine teaching through the window, and thus light will be carried to the heart and conscience. Make remarks suitable to the occasion, and applicable to the cases of those present. Show how a truth which was first heard in the days of David is still forcible and pertinent in these modern times, and you will thus endear the Scriptures to the minds of your people, who prize your remarks much more than you imagine. Clean the grand old pictures of the divine masters; hang them up in new frames; fix them on the walls of your people's memories, and their well instructed hearts shall bless you.
Is a caution needed amongst intelligent men? Yes, it must be given. Be sure to avoid prosiness. Avoid it everywhere, but especially in this. Do not be long in your notes. If you are supremely gifted do not be long; people do not appreciate too much of a good thing; and if your comments are only second rate, why, then be shorter still, for men soon weary of inferior talking. Very little time in the service can be afforded for reading the lessons; do not rob the prayer and the sermon for the sake of commenting. This robbing Peter to pay Paul is senseless. Do not repeat commonplace things which must have occurred even to a Sunday School child. Do not remind your hearers of what they could not possibly have forgotten. Give them something weighty if not new, so that an intelligent listener may feel when the service is over that he has learned at least a little.
Again, avoid all pedantry. As a general rule, it may be observed that those gentlemen who know the least Greek are the most sure to air their rags of learning in the pulpit; they miss no chance of saying, "The Greek is so and so." It makes a man an inch and a half taller by a foolometer, if he everlastingly lets fall bits of Greek and Hebrew, and even tells the people the tense of the verb and the case of the noun, as I have known some do. Those who have no learning usually make a point of displaying the pegs on which learning ought to hang. Brethren, the whole process of interpretation is to be carried on in your study; you are not to show your congregation the process, but to give them the result; like a good cook who would never think of bringing up dishes, and pans, and rolling pin, and spice box into the dining hall, but without ostentation sends up the feast.
Never strain passages when you are expounding. Be thoroughly honest with the word: even if the Scriptures were the writing of mere men, conscience would demand fairness of you; but when it is the Lord's own word, be careful not to pervert it even in the smallest degree. Let it be said of you, as I have heard a venerable hearer of Mr. Simeon say of him, "Sir, he was very Calvinistic when the text was so, and people thought him an Arminian when the text was that way, for he always stuck to its plain sense." A very sound neighbour of ours once said, by way of depreciating the grand old reformer, "John Calvin was not half a Calvinist", and the remark was correct as to his expositions, for in them, as we have seen, he always gave his Lord's mind and not his own. In the church of St. Zeno, in Verona, I saw ancient frescoes which had been plastered over, and then covered with other designs; I fear many do this with Scripture, daubing the text with their own glosses, and laying on their own conceits. There are enough of these plasterers abroad, let us leave the evil trade to them and follow all honest calling. Remember Cowper's lines--
"A critic on the sacred text should be
Candid and learn'd, dispassionate and free;
Free from the wayward bias bigots feel,
From fancy's influence and intemperate zeal;
For of all arts sagacious dupes invent,
To cheat themselves and gain the world's assent,
The worst is--Scripture warped from its intent."
Use your judgment more than your fancy. Flowers are well enough, but hungry souls prefer bread. To allegorize with Origen may make men stare at you, but your work is to fill men's mouths with truth, not to open them with wonder.
Do not be carried away with new meanings. Plymouth Brethren delight to fish up some hitherto undiscovered tadpole of interpretation, and cry it round the town as a rare dainty; let us be content with more ordinary and more wholesome fishery. No one text is to be exalted above the plain analogy of faith; and no solitary expression is to shape our theology for us. Other men and wiser men have expounded before us, and anything undiscovered by them it were well to put to test and trial before we boast too loudly of the treasure trove.
Do not needlessly amend our authorized version. It is faulty in many places, but still it is a grand work taking it for all in all, and it is unwise to be making every old lady distrust the only Bible she can get at, or what is more likely, mistrust you for falling out with her cherished treasure. Correct where correction must be for truth's sake, but never for the vainglorious display of your critical ability. When reading short psalms, or connected passages of the other books, do not split up the authors utterances by interjecting your notes. Read the paragraph through, and then go over it again with your explanations; breaking it up as you may think fit at the second reading. No one would dream of dividing a stanza of a poet with an explanatory remark; it would be treason to common sense to do so: sound judgment will forbid your thus marring the word of God. Better far never to comment than to cut and carve the utterances of inspiration, and obscure their meaning by impertinently thrusting in untimely remarks of your own. Upon many passages comments would be gross folly: never think of painting the lily or gilding refined gold; leave the sublime sentences alone in their glory. I speak as unto wise men; prove your wisdom in this thing also.
If I were bound to deliver a sermon upon the subject in hand, I
could not desire a better text than
In all that I have said I have given you another reason for seeking the aid of the Holy Spirit. If you do not understand a book by a departed writer you are unable to ask him his meaning, but the Spirit, who inspired Holy Scripture, lives forever, and he delights to open up the Word to those who seek his instruction. He is always accessible: "He dwelleth with you and shall be in you." Go to him for yourselves and cry, "Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law"; and, this being granted you, entreat him to send forth his light and power with the Word when you expound it, that your hearers also may be led into all truth. Commentaries, expositions, interpretations, are all mere scaffolding; the Holy Ghost himself must edify you and help you to build up the church of the living God.