Preaching and Preachers

Preaching and Preachersbecause it had happened while he was not there-such is the pride ofwhich we all tend to be guilty. However, he hurried back with theintention of controlling what he felt was an outburst of emotionalismor some kind of 'wild fire'. Having returned he gathered the peopletogether into the chapel and began to preach to them. To his utterastonishment and before he was halfway through his sermon, peoplebegan to walk forward under deep conviction of sin. What he hadfailed to get them to do for twenty years they were now doing spontaneously.Why? Because the Holy Spirit was doing the work. Hiswork always shows itself. It must do so of necessity, and always hasdone so. This surely needs no demonstration or argument. The workof God always shows itself whether in nature and creation or in thesouls of men.I have had many experiences along this line. I shall be saying somethinglater about the romance of the work of the preacher and theminister; and this is one aspect of it. I remember how during thedepths of the Second World War when everything was about as discouragingas it could be-bombing had scattered our congregationand so on-and I was facing great discouragement. I suddenly receiveda letter from the Dutch East Indies, now known as Indonesia.It was from a Dutch soldier who wrote saying that his conscience hadbeen pricking him and, at last, had driven him to write to tell me whathad happened to him eighteen months before. He explained how hehad come to England with the Dutch Free Army and while stationedin London had attended our services for some time. While doing sohe had been convinced of the fact that he had never been a Christianat all though he had thought he was. He had then passed through adark period of conviction of sin and hopelessness, but, eventually, hehad seen the Truth and had been rejoicing in it ever since. He hadnever come to tell me about this for various reasons, but was nowdoing so in this letter.My reaction to that is this. What does it matter whether I know ornot? It matters of course from the standpoint of one's encouragementin the work, but it does not matter from the standpoint of the work278