Preaching and Preachers

Preaching andPreacherswas also a popular movement. It was not confined to the learned andthe professors i it came down to the people because there were thesegreat preachers who were anointed with the Spirit.There was a man called John Bradford who obviously was a verygreat preacher in this same sense. He was one of the early Protestantmartyrs. The same was true of other countries also at that time. Therewas a mighty preacher in Scotland at the end of the sixteenth centurycalled Robert Bruce. A little book concerning him has recently beenrepublished. In that book you can read the account of what happenedon one occasion when he was at a conference of ministers in Edinburgh.At that time things were very bad indeed and most discouraging.The ministers were talking to one another and conferring, butthey were all very depressed. Themore they talked the more depressedthey became-as is not unusual in general assemblies and otherreligious conferences. Robert Bruce tried to get them to pray, andthey were trying to pray. However it was clear to Bruce that theywere but 'trying to pray', and he did not regard that as praying. So hewas 'stirred in his spirit', as Paul was at Athens, and said that he wasgoing to 'knock' the Holy Spirit into them. So he began to thump thetable with his fists; and he certainly achieved something. They thenreally did begin to pray 'in the Spirit' and they were lifted up out oftheir depression to the heights and given great assurance from Godthat He was still with them and that He would 'never leave them, norforsake them'. They went back to their work re-invigorated and witha new hope and confidence.But come to what is in many ways my favourite illustration. It concernsJohn Livingstone who lived at the beginning of the seventeenthcentury in Scotland. John Livingstone was also a very able man asmost of those men were. Those early Reformed ministers in Scotlandwere a succession of tremendous men from the standpoint of ability,learning and knowledge; but the thing that characterised them aboveeverything else was their knowledge and experience of this spiritualpower and unction.John Livingstone, as I say, was a very fine scholar and a great316