Breaking the Bread of Life to Souls
Many of those for whom our ministers labor are ignorant of the
truths of the Bible and the requirements of God, and the simplest
lessons on practical godliness come to them as a new revelation. These
need to know what is truth, and in laboring for them the minister
should not take up lines of thought that will simply please the fancy
or gratify curiosity. Let him instead break the bread of life to these
starving souls. Never should he preach a sermon that does not help his
hearers to see more plainly what they must do to be saved.
The immediate requirements, the present trials—for these, men
and women need present help. The minister may take a high range into
the heavens by poetical descriptions and fanciful presentations, which
please the senses and feed the imagination, but which do not touch the
life experience, the daily necessities. He may think that by his fanciful
eloquence he has fed the flock of God; his hearers may think that they
never before saw the truth clothed in language so beautiful. But trace,
from cause to effect, the ecstasy of feeling caused by these fanciful
representations, and it will be seen that although some truths may have
been presented, such sermons do not fortify the hearers for the daily
battles of life.
He who in his preaching makes eloquence his highest aim, causes
the people to forget the truth that is mingled with his oratory. When
the emotion has passed away, it will be found that the word of God
has not been fastened upon the mind, nor have the hearers gained
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in understanding. They make speak in terms of admiration of the
minister’s eloquence, but they are not brought any nearer to the point
of decision. They speak of the sermon as they would of a play, and of
the minister as they would of an actor. They may come again to listen
to the same kind of discourse, but they will go away unimpressed and
unfed.
It is not flowery discourses that are needed, not a flood of words
without meaning. Our ministers are to preach in a way that will help
people to grasp vital truth. My brethren, do not soar where the common
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