evils of modern society cannot be healed except by a return to the mother Church, yet the mere fact of the existence of such a school is evidence enough that Roman Catholics, too, acknowledge the predominance of the Protestant spirit in modern times and generations.

Now all this cannot be accidental. There must be a why and a wherefore for facts so important; and, in reality, this status of affairs does stand in the closest possible connection with the inner character and spirit of Protestantism and Roman Catholicism. The latter having set up its false standards of pope, council, and ecclesiastical decree, cannot but be in constant fear that research and investigation will produce results contradicting these erroneous standards. In the nature of the case progress and enterprise are inconsistent with the spirit of the Church of Rome. Then the Church does the thinking for her members, presenting a set of beliefs and creeds as a fait accompli for blind acceptance. There is no encouragement for independent thought, for further study and investigation. On the other hand, Protestantism in making religion a matter of the individual's relation to his God, naturally constitutes a stimulus to thought. Making the man individually responsible for his creeds and deeds makes him in his conscience bound to think and study. Naturally Protestantism favors progress and further research. Having set up the standard of the truth, the Word of God, and it alone, its own interests demand active, intelligent, and reasonable adherence, encouraging all advance and progress in thought and work, knowing that all true progress and advancement not only cannot contradict, but only place in a clearer light the great teachings of God's Revelation.

But while Protestantism has been the chief factor in modern civilization, and as the revival of the principles of original Christianity has been the sources of the greatest blessings, it has by no means been the sole active agent, and is by no means responsible for the evils that exist yet in such abundance. This both its false friends and its foes would like to have men believe. Among Roman Catholic writers it is considered as equivalent to an axiom that the Reformation was practically a revolution, a rebellion against legitimate authority, and accordingly the absolute sway of individualism subjected to no authority in heaven or on earth. Not infrequently is it claimed that the French Revolution was the natural outcome of the Reformation, the fact being entirely ignored that it was Roman Catholic France which enacted this greatest tragedy of modern history. Liberalism, rationalism, socialism, and all the other evils of the body politic are directly traced to the teachings of Luther and the other reformers. This fire is fed by false adherents, and a good principle cannot be damaged worse than by an abuse in the house of its pretended friends. The rationalist Bretschneider dedicated his dogmatics to the "manes" of Luther; the rationalistic Protestant Verein of Germany appeals to his name; and the new radical school of Ritschl pretends to be the restorer of his true teachings.

Yet all this is based upon a totally false conception of the Reformation of the sixteenth century and of evangelical Christianity. It is the very opposite of truth that the Reformation overthrew all authority, and thus permitted individualism untrammelled and unfettered to run riot. The principle of authority obtains in genuine Protestantism more than it does in Roman Catholicism. It is true that the Reformation threw aside the claims and authority of Papacy; but in the room of the false authority thus discarded it substituted the true authority-namely, the Word of Revelation. The formal principle of the Reformation and of the evangelical churches is, that the Word of God, and it alone, is the guide and norm of faith and life. Any Protestantism based on another standpoint has no legitimate or historic right to the name; and, accordingly, all those movements in biblical criticism, the social, literary, and educational world, and elsewhere, which proceed from the premises that man is not bound by the authority of the Word, are not the legitimate and lawful outcome of the Reformation or of true Protestantism. These are anything but negative in character; essentially they are conservative and positive. It is true that they are negative in so far as they reject the teachings and tenets of Rome, but these negative features are merely preliminary and preparatory to the real work of evangelical Protestantism-that of re-establishing and restoring the original teachings of Scripture in the hearts and minds and lives of the people. It is for this reason that the general prevalence of

the

name

"Protestant" is somewhat unfortunate. While in itself it is a positive term, yet historically it is of a negative character; and in Germany, the original home of the word, it has generally been displaced by the more acceptable term "Evangelical."

If such has been the mission and province of Protestantism in the past, it requires neither a prophet nor a prophet's son to predict what its mission and work must be in the future. problems in the public life of the nations will depend upon the spread of Protestant principles; and this for the simple and sole reasons that genuine Evangelical Protestantism seeks the one end, of making the teachings and doctrines of the Scriptures actual realities in the life of the nations and of the individuals. Only Evangelical Christianity can solve the problems of the day, because only the teachings of Christ can be a panacea for all the ills of time as well as of eternity. An illustrative example is found in that problem which is most prominent before the world at present-the social question. Purely scientific economics cannot solve it, because it is more than a question of dollars and cents. Force cannot solve it, as experience has proved. The Roman Catholic Church, notwithstanding its recent loud claims, cannot solve it, because, as appears from its views on monasticism, it does not entertain Biblical views of labor. Only Evangelical Christianity, the leading tenet of whose practical work must be the command of the Lord to love our neighbors as ourselves, has within itself the possibility of a solution, in such a degree as this ideal can be realized

The solution of the almost numberless

in actual life. The social problem is fundamentally a moral and ethical question and not one of political economy, merely to be discussed on the basis of the law of supply and demand. Only a Christian solution can settle that question satisfactorily.

In this way the interests of true civilization and culture are identical with the interests of genuine Evangelical Protestantism, simply because the latter is the exponent and expression of the teachings of Christ and the apostles. The progress of human society is identical with the progress of Protestantism.

V.-ELEMENTS OF EFFECTIVE PREACHING.

BY REV. R. T. CROSS, MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.

By effective preaching we do not understand that preaching which simply draws a crowd, or which simply draws to itself human praise, or which simply draws wealth and fashion, or which simply draws tears by arousing deep feeling and stirring the emotions. Effective preaching may do these things, but if these are the limits of its effectiveness then the pulpit is on a level with the theatre, for the theatre is effective in all these directions. By effective preaching we understand that preaching which draws men to Christ and which builds them up in Christ, which makes bad men good and good men better, which edifies, or builds up the Church, which does indeed arouse deep feeling and stirs the emotions, but which does it as a means to an end. And it so does it that when feelings and emotions have passed away like the morning dew, as they surely will, there shall be left. a crystallized residuum of earnest purpose and determined resolution to live a better life.

The first element of such preaching is that it be scriptural, scriptural as opposed to the preaching of science, natural or social. Science can be effectively and extensively used for illustration, but the bare preaching of science is wofully ineffective for spiritual results. It should be scriptural, too, as opposed to speculative preaching. The writer once asked a college professor to give a lecture before a teachers' institute. He replied that he would if he could take such a subject as would enable him to evolve the lecture out of his own consciousness, instead of being to the trouble of looking up facts as a basis for the lecture. A sermon that is evolved out of the preacher's own consciousness, instead of being evolved from the Bible is apt to be very ineffective, however beautiful or rhetorical or forcible it may be. Such preaching does not convert sinners or feed Christians. That our preaching should be scriptural in order to be effective appears from the following considerations:

1. It is so commanded. "Preach the Word." "Preach the Gospel to every creature." "Christ sent me to preach the Gospel, not with wis

dom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect"i.e., should be ineffective.

2. The example of Christ, of the apostles, and of the most effective preachers of all ages. How often Christ in His preaching referred to what

was written in the Old Testament! Read the sermons of Peter on and after the Day of Pentecost and see how largely he dealt in scriptural facts. Who have been in the past, and who are to-day the most effective preachers? Agree on the list and then see if they are not those whose preaching has been, or is, eminently scriptural.

3. And there is also a plain philosophical reason why scriptural preaching is effective. It is because the Bible has authority with most of our hearers. Peter's hearers believed in the Old Testament, which he so wisely and so largely quoted. Most of our hearers believe in the Old and the New Testaments. Not only do they contain the Word of God, but our hearers believe that they contain it. Hence, just so far as we sustain our propositions and assertions by scriptural proof, so far they are convincing and effective with the mass of our hearers.

4. And God has promised that His Word shall not be ineffective. It shall not return unto him void, but it shall accomplish that which He pleases, and prosper in the thing whereto he sends it. "Hitch your wagon to a star," said Emerson. Hitch your preaching to the Word of God and it will be effective preaching.

We

The second element of effective preaching that we name is that it be illustrative. The particular and the concrete are vastly more interesting to the average mind than the general and the abstract. There is no doubt of this. Men and women are but children of a larger growth in this respect. have all noticed how people begin to give better attention when a speaker passes from general statements to illustrative facts. Some preachers illustrate very little if any. In this they are wise above the Bible and above Christ Himself. The Bible is an effective book largely because it is so full of illustrations. Its stories, its biographies, its histories, its parables are all vivid illustrations of general truths. The preaching of Christ abounded in illustrations, and without a parable, without an illustration He did not speak to the people. His miracles, too, were impressive illustrations, in the form of object lessons.

But there are illustrations and illustrations.

There is a choice of illus

To illustrate means to

trations and a choice of methods in using them. make bright, or illuminate. Illustrations should throw light on the subject, just as the footlights of a stage, hid from view themselves, throw light on whatever is on the stage. Often an illustration, condensed into one or two sentences or words, can be made to throw a sudden flash of light, like a flash of lightning in a dark night, upon the whole landscape of truth that one is presenting.

Illustrations should be drawn first of all from the Bible, and when thus drawn one's preaching is both scriptural and illustrative. Next to the

Bible they should be drawn from nature, which is God's other Bible, and a wonderfully prolific one for illustrative purposes. The writer's favorite natural science is mineralogy. By continued careful thought he found in the crystal illustrations of moral truth sufficient for fifty short sermons to children. History is a prolific source of illustration, especially the incidents of the history of the present as they are spread before us in the papers. "The Bible and the Newspaper" is the title of a book by Spurgeon, in which important Bible truths are illustrated by incidents. which the newspaper brought to the author during a period of three months. The daily life of our hearers, at home, at school, on the street, in the shop is another fruitful source of effective illustrations, all the more effective because we can preface them with the words, "You know." Familiarity on the part of our hearers with the facts of an illustration adds greatly to its effectiveness, while familiarity with the use of those facts as an illustration takes away from their effectiveness.

The Bible, nature, history, daily life-Christ drew illustrations from all these sources; so should we. As the eagle rises on high and scans the earth far and near for her prey, so we, from a high view point, should scan all departments of human life, and all branches of human knowledge, for effective illustrations, to use as feathers for our arrows of truth, to wing them on their way.

A third element of effective preaching is the personal element. By this we do not mean indulging in personalities, or that other offensive form of the personal element which we call egotism, but that interesting form of it which we call experience. It is related to both the scriptural and the illustrative elements. Our preaching must be scriptural, but to be effective the Scripture must first be digested and assimilated by us. We must experience it. It must pass through our personality. Personal experience is not only interesting, it is effective, as we have all noticed in times of revival. Sermons evolved out of our own consciousness are not effective, but sermons evolved out of the Bible and passed through our consciousness, our personality, are effective. How full the sermons and letters of Paul were of this personal element, which was not egotism, though it sometimes looks like it on the surface. In listening for years to Charles G. Finney there seemed to the writer to be no end to the effective uses which he could make of his own experience, especially of his experience in conversion. He seemed to be the personification of some of the great truths of the Bible, and it was one of the secrets of his power.

If in giving an illustration one can tell something that he has seen, it adds effectiveness to it, still more so if he can introduce the personality of his hearer. A minister used a certain Rocky Mountain view as an illustration while preaching at the East. A theological professor, who rarely used illustrations himself, was in the audience and his face lighted up with great interest and enthusiasm because he had been there and had seen that view himself. But the personal clement must be used cautiously. One