aith and all that
is not everything that the young minister must do for his fellow man.
"Faith without works is dead." Everybody who has read the Bible
understands that.

But this paper is on "The Young Man and the Pulpit"--an attempt to
give him an idea of how the people he is going to preach to look at
this matter, how they regard him, and, above all else, what the people
to whom his life work is devoted really need and really want above
everything else in this world.

Don't preach woe, punishment, and all mournfulness to the people all
the time. Where you find sin, go ahead and denounce it mercilessly;
but do it crisply, cuttingly, not dully and innocuously. Speak to
kill. Do not forget that the Master told the people of His day that
they "were a generation of vipers."

But that was not the burden of His appeal. He knew that there were
other things in the world and human nature besides sin. Mostly He
spoke of "things lovely and of good report." Remember that His coming
was announced as a bringing of "good tidings of great joy."

The Sermon on the Mount is the perfection of thought, feeling, and
expression. Make it your example. You will recall that it begins:
"Blessed are the poor in spirit." It is full of "blessed" and
blessings, of consolations and encouragements and loving promises of
beautiful certainties. "Ye are the light of the world," He said. The
Sermon on the Mount radiates sense and kindness and prayer.

The One understood that most glorious truth of all truths--that there
is some good in each of us, and that if that good only could be
recognized and encouraged it would overcome the bad in us. You will
remember the saying: "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump."

So don't be an orator of melancholy. There is enough sadness in the
world without your adding to it by either visage, conduct, or sermon.
Besides, it is not what you are directed to do. The people would be
very glad if you could say with Isaiah that

"The Lord hath anointed me to preach _good tidings_ unto the meek; ...
he hath sent me _to proclaim liberty_ to the captives, and the
opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim _the
acceptable year_ of the Lord ... to _comfort_ all that mourn ... to
give unto them _beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the
garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness_."

That is the kind of talk that will cheer the people, and it is the
kind of talk that will do the people good.