1 Corinthians 14:23-25 - Homilies By E. Hurndall

Conversion prepared for.

I. CONVERSION EFFECTED BY MEANS .

1. The door of the sanctuary should be an open one ( 1 Corinthians 14:23 ). Restrictions and hindrances to attendance should be swept away. Non churchgoers are often such through the action of churchgoers.

2. Means should constantly be employed in the sanctuary. The gospel should be preached. The presence of "unbelievers" should constantly be borne in mind, and of those altogether "unlearned" in the truth. Casual hearers should not be forgotten; the bow drawn at a venture has often done signal execution.

II. PROBABLE MEANS OF CONVERSION .

1. Order and propriety in the sanctuary. The building itself should not be regarded as altogether unimportant. There are some church buildings in which it is very difficult to be converted! Wherever practicable, a suitable structure should be secured; not bare and ugly, to repel, nor unduly ornate, to distract. And the services should be well ordered and decorous, else some coming in may suppose that we are "mad." But dullness and coldness are not decorous. Vigour and enthusiasm are in the highest degree proper. If we want to move others we must be moved ourselves. There can be great freedom in the service without overstepping bounds. Modern Christian services tend to be too stilted, formal, frigid, unemotional.

2. Church worship. Song and prayer have won not a few from the kingdom of Satan. But the song service is sometimes a hindrance to edification; the music attempted is such as no angel could learn, and, for the matter of that, such as no angel would ever want to! Song, which should quicken, may freeze; and a freezing soul is very difficult to convert. Sanctuary song should be united song. In heaven the host sings, not a selected choir. Prayer should be earnest, real, intelligible. There are such things as mock prayers—prayers without any praying in them. Prayers of words and time; nothing in them except letters and minutes. Often too many of these.

3. The preaching of the gospel. This, the pre-eminent means, should be:

III. TESTS OF THE SUITABILITY OF MEANS .

1. What do the unbelieving and ignorant think of the means employed? Some will indeed scoff, but what will the common sense and sincere ones think? What ought they to think?

2. What results follow? What are the effects of our services and work? We say no man can be responsible for results. This, in one sense, is a great truth, and in another a great lie. Do men under our ministrations fall down in contrition and humility, worship God, and declare that God is amongst us of a truth? If they do not, there is something amiss; and if we look for that something in ourselves and in our modes of work, we shall probably look in the right place. We must not ruin the usefulness of means by regarding them as anything more than means. To rest in them alone is suicidal. We need the power of the Holy Ghost, For this we should yearn, agonize, pray, as we humbly obey the command "not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together," and to "preach the gospel."—H.