HERALDS OF GOD
take the closing words of Psalm cx: "He shall drink of the brook in the way, and go on with lifted head." It would be pedantic to deny your right to use such words for a sermon on some of the soul-refreshing streams—Nature, Art, Friendship, the Lord's Day, the Bible, Prayer—which God has provided along our pilgrim road. But the strongest and most helpful preaching is that which expounds a text or passage in dynamic relationship to its actual setting in Scripture. Loyalty to the Word of God demands scrupulous care in exegesis. Doubtless it would be possible, on the basis of the text "The simplicity that is in Christ," to paint a vivid picture of the homeliness of the Galilean ministry simple in its lowly origins, simple in speech, in companionship, in teaching, in faith. But we are using Scripture quite illegitimately if we fail to show that what the apostle had in mind was not primarily the simplicity of Jesus at all, but the necessity of simple and single-hearted devotion towards Jesus on the part of Christian converts. Or again, it is more than questionable to use King Agrippa's famous dictum, "Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian," in the sense that here was a soul openly acknowledging the ultimate dilemma, avowedly trembling on the verge of spiritual decision. In point of fact, it seems to have been stinging disdain that inspired the words (though, of course, the bravado may have been self-defence, a smart retort disguising an uneasy conscience): "At this rate, Paul, you will be thinking you have made a Christian of me!" The point is that it is imperative to allow the Scripture
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