Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 29:116 (Oct 1872)
Article: The Influence Of The Pulpit
Author: John Bascom

BSac 29:116 (Oct 1872) p. 698

The Influence Of The Pulpit

Rev. John Bascom

The figures that chiefly occupy the historic field, that move across it with pomp and power, drawing after them great masses of their fellow-men, are kings and warriors. There is one character, however, more quiet and stealthy in movement, more sombre in aspect, in the rear of armies and thrones, deriving its force from the constant fears and hopes of men, that has possessed a stronger influence over the character and destiny of society than these — the stately, long-robed, solemn priest. He has rarely done the bidding of kings; kings have often done his bidding. He has seldom feared kings; kings have frequently feared him. By rarest accident has the spiritual power slipped from his hand; more than once has he found it easy to grasp a temporal sceptre. Dominion has been divided and subdivided, ad-

BSac 29:116 (Oct 1872) p. 699

justed and readjusted by kings; but great revolutions of races and religions, the epochs of ideas, have been characterized by his presence.

The priest, who has been casting a shadow, always portentous, often dark and distressful, on human affairs, was displaced in the Christian economy by the preacher. His ghostly functions, his solemn ceremonial, his representative capacity gave way to instruction, guidance, stimulus — a simple participation with others in God’s truth. This was the dethronement of the priest, and the birth of power for the preacher. A new power, a new eloquence thenceforward found place in society and in the schools; and sacred oratory stood the peer, and more than the peer, of deliberative oratory in theme and influence. Both arose with liberty, and an influential pulpit seals the largest liberty — that of the mind and heart. But kings do not easily forget their crowns, nor the people their servitude. The horn that was broken began to grow again, and the priestly function came forward in Catholicism with more tyrannical claims and outstretched power than ever before. It bent its new, spiritual force to a secular end, and set up a more pronounced and permanent regency of heaven on earth. In Protestantism there came a second establishment of religious liberty, and a planting of the pulpit once more as the point of contact and diffusion in the spiritual world, the seminal centre of religious truth and influence. So stands the question to-day in the free and progressive portions of the earth. Christianity has its advocates, those who imbue themselves with its truths and its spirit, who administer its simple ritual and strengthen its organizations; who stand ready to do, as they are able, the religious work of the world, whether of evangelization or instruction, of rebuke, stimulus, or consolation. Their commission is the simple one of preaching the gosp...