A GREAT PREACHER.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3279, 26 July 1911, Page 6

A GREAT PREACHER.

REV. DR. CAMPBELL AT WESTMINSTER.

In an interesting article in the “British Weekly” the Rev. Norman M'Lean, of the Park Parish Chruch, Glasgow, describes his impressions of the services conducted at Westminster Chapel by the Rev. Dr. Campbell Morgan, who he regards as a remarkable and powerful preacher. “His is an unusual figure to look at,” writes Mr M'Lean. “A long head poised on a long neck, cadaverous cheeks, a long Roman nose, an arrow, high forehead, a mass of grey hair so arranged that it lay profusely above ahe left ear, and gold-rimmed spectacles constituted an uncommon figure. An uncommon figue, but by no means arresting. But he no sooned says ‘Let us pray’ than a great hush falls on the massed congregation. ‘Lead us, O Lord, into quiet resting placess,’ is the sum of the opening prayer. .And one feels than the the shepherd is going before his flock, leading them to the waters of stillness. ‘The sermon on each Sunday was ore of a series, of expositions of the teaching of Christ regarding salvation. The one sermon was the continuation of the preceding sermon. On the second Sunday the text was the ‘Son of Man came to seek and to save that which v yt ,s lost.’ At Jtli.e commencement the preacher was what would be called heavy. The. subject for the day had to be placed in relation to what went. before and relation to what was to come. Then suddenly the power of the man leaped forth—and at its leaping there was a gasp of respones on the part of the great congestion. It was the way he said ‘came.’ The Son of Man ‘came’—that, implied His pre-existence. And the veil was suddenly rent, and the int-easura I)se depths beneath—the mystery of the Incarnation—became in a flash visible to the eye. ‘This was preaching indeed. This man did not skip upon the surface—he sank his shaft deep into the mines and brought forth the gold. It was not his purpose to startle the congregation with theories new fangled; his purpose was to make them realise how the old is ever new. His preaching -was wholly expository. He showed' (1) the purpose of the coming, and 2) thp manner of mg iho purpose. It is a good tiling tor a minister to sit in a pew and realise, if he can, what it is that men want to hear from the pulpit. v\hnt did the crowd sitting there go forth to hear? There was noth in a there of the sensational. There was perfect elocution, great dramatic powrf’x i le aci bty of direct speech. Bui/ there was no eloquence—no purple patches. II hat was it ? There was —the man preached. He did not read a- newspaper article under the guise of a sermon. One cannot imagine the Son of Man producing a written bomdy, and reading it on the Mount of the beatitudes; nor vet St Paul producing a lIS. on Mans Hill. Uus man looked his audience in the race, and his thought was not how will I impress this people with the beautv of my literary style, but how will T deliver my message. And as he spoke, the prophet’s fire glowed behind the words And' this man, too, knew whi1€ tT g ? n Jr £ Many preachers They start forth, not knowing whither they are going. And inevithim 1 R e°+f 1 - egatl ° 1 \ fail Ixs 2° with nim. But this man knew. His purpose was to make the Gospel message live, and. he made it live. And the message' itself was his own—his own realisation of it, and not another’s. There was not a single quotation—not one.”