Lyman Abbott 
Supernatural [PDF ebook] 

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. The teacher in the medical school teaches physiology and anatomy and hygiene; but when we get sick and send for a doctor, we do not send in order that we may receive a lec ture on physiology or anatomy or hygiene. We send for the doctor that he may use his knowledge of physiology or anatomy or hy giene to make us well. You break a bone you do not want the doctor to tell you about bones, you want him to set the bone. So the object of ministers is not to lecture us on the philosophy of religion; neither is it to ignore the philosophy of religion; it is to use the philosophy of religion to help men and women to live better, nobler, diviner lives. The truth, says Christ, shall make you free. Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth. Truth is, then, an instrument. The object of truth is to set men free; it is to sanctify men, to make them holy. The minister who simply expounds the truth does not understand his mission. His mission is so to use truth that men shall be made free; that men shall be made holy. His ministry is, therefore, to be determined by fruits in the life. That is the best sermon, not which is a great pulpit effort, but which is helpful. If, young men, you have preached a sermon and some one comes up to you and says that was a great pulpit effort, hide your head in shame and go home and never write another like it. But if some one comes to you, with a little’quaver in the voice and a little moisture in the eye, and says, Thank you; you have helped me this morning, thank God and go home and try to write another like it. That is the end of preaching – to use theology to help life. The test of the sermon is its fruitfulness in life; and that is the test of theology.