Ben F. Vick, Jr.
An excerpt from Recollections of Men of Faith on B.F. Hall is given here for the benefit of all, especially preachers. The author tells of B.F. Hall having spoken and Tolbert Fanning having been in the assembly.
Many years ago, in his palmy days, he [B.F. Hall] delivered a series of discourses in Nashville, Tenn. It is said that they were very excellent, some of them considered by good judges as being quite eloquent. Tolbert Fanning, president of Franklin College, was present part of the time during the meeting. His last discourse was delivered with much more than his usual fervor and animation. The audience seemed spell-bound. He called for a song at the conclusion and invited persons forward to confess Christ. But to his great disappointment and chagrin, not a soul accepted the invitation. This was so disheartening that, turning to Bro. Fanning, he remarked in a loud, clear tone of voice, “My brother, I am through with my efforts to save this people. I have done my best, I can do no more; offer an exhortation and tell us what is in the way-tell us why no one in this vast and attentive audience has had the moral courage to come to the Lord Jesus Christ.” President Fanning was never at a loss for something to say. He was full of facts, if lacking in fancy. Besides, he generally spoke his mind freely, never at any time, or under any circumstances, mincing, but aiming directly at the point before him.
He arose with great calmness and gave the key that unlocked the secret of the Doctor’s disappointment. “The people,” he remarked, “were so impressed with the fine sentences, the drapery, the splendor in this sermon, and perhaps in all that they have heard, that, enjoying an intellectual feast, they have had neither time nor inclination to think of the salvation of their souls.” It was no small misfortune that the Doctor should attract greater attention to the outer than the inner, the finish, the trappings of the sermon, rather than to the thought, the weightier matter, that alone which could accomplish permanent or beneficial results.
The multitudes that came nightly to hear the gospel had been merely entertained, profoundly, no doubt, but had not been cut to the heart, or convicted by the truth, as should have been the case. He spoke not this in anger, or in the line of censorious criticism, but as a fact – as a solution of the problem before him. The Doctor accepted the solution gracefully, as well as the compliment, yet at the same time feeling rebuked and mortified at being so unfortunate as to direct the attention of the people to himself, rather than to the obedience of the faith and the saving of their souls.
Are there many preachers in our ranks to-day who think more of interesting, entertaining or pleasing the people than all things else? Are there those among us whose sole purpose is to so shape their discourses and deliver them that they may be numbered among the distinguished, the renowned and eloquent pulpit orators of the past and present?
On this point Daniel Webster speaks words of wisdom. He says: “I want my pastor [misuse of the word -bfv] to come to me in the spirit of the gospel, saying, ‘You are mortal; your probation is brief; your work must be done speedily. You are immortal, too. You are hastening to the bar of God! The Judge standeth before the door.’ When I am thus admonished, I have no disposition to muse or sleep. These topics,” said Mr. Webster, “have often occurred to my thoughts; and if I had time I would write upon them myself.”
Rogers, W. C., Recollections of Men of Faith, Old Paths Book Club, 1960, pp.94-96.
T. B. Larimore wrote a letter to one of his boys (students) on how to preach. He said:
Fortunately, I have never been drilled in elocution, oratory, gesture, etc. I escaped all that in my boyhood days, and providentially was spared the ruinous torture after I grew up. To my mind, it would be a wonderful advance in the right direction to spend all the time wasted in colleges and other schools in teaching how to gesture, etc., in teaching how to kill snakes, how to get out of a neighbor’s watermelon patch when you hear something “drap,” how to pull a hen off the roost,” and other useful and practical things of that kind. The way to preach is to preach. Just get full of spirit and turn yourself loose. As a good old brother once expressed it, “Just fill the barrel full, knock the bung out, and let’ er come.” That’s the way to preach.
F.D. Srygley, Smiles and Tears, or Larimore and His Boys, Gospel Advocate Publishing Company, 1955, p. 150.
A.J. McCarty advised: “Young man, get brimful and running over with the word of God and it will come out.”
Paul wrote to Timothy, a young preacher: “I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.” (2 Tim. 4:1–5.)