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9. We  have  used  words of  man's wisdom. We  have  forgotten Paul's

               resolution  to avoid the enticing  words of man's wisdom, lest he should make the cross of
               Christ of none effect. We have reversed his reasoning as well as his resolution, and acted as if
               by well-studied, well-polished, well- reasoned discourses, we could so gild and beautify the
               cross as to make it no longer repulsive, but irresistibly attractive to the carnal eye! Hence we
               have often sent men home well satisfied with themselves, convinced that they were religious
               because they were affected by our eloquence, touched by our appeals or persuaded by our
               arguments. In this way we have made the cross of Christ of none effect and sent souls to hell
               with a lie in their right hand. Thus, by avoiding the offense of the cross and the foolishness of
               preaching  we have had to labor in vain, and mourn over an unblest, unfruitful ministry.



               10. We have not fully preached  a free gospel.  We have been afraid  of making it too free,
               lest men should be led into licentiousness; as if it were possible to preach too free a gospel, or
               as if its freeness could lead men into sin. It is only a free gospel that can bring peace, and it is
               only a free gospel that can make men holy. Luther's preaching  was summed up in these two
               points—"that we are justified by faith alone, and that we must be assured that we are
               justified"; and it was this that he urged his brother Brentius to preach usque ad fastidium; and
               it was by such free, full, bold preaching of the glorious gospel, untrammeled  by works,
               merits, terms, conditions, and unclouded by the fancied humility of doubts, fears,
               uncertainties, that such blessed success accompanied his labors. Let us go and do likewise.
               Allied to this is the necessity of insisting on the sinner's immediate  turning  to  God,  and
               demanding  in  the  Master's  name  the sinner's immediate surrender of heart to Christ.
               Strange that sudden conversions should be so much disliked by some ministers. They are the
               most scriptural of all conversions.



               11. We have not duly studied and honored the Word of God. We have given a greater
               prominence to man's writings, man's opinions, man's systems in our studies than to the
               WORD. We have drunk more out of human cisterns than divine. We have held more
               communion with man than God. Hence the mold and fashion of our spirits, our lives, our
               words, have been derived more from man than God. We must study the Bible more. We must
               steep our souls in it. We must not only lay it up within us,

               but transfuse it through the whole texture of the soul.





               12. We have not been men of prayer. The spirit of prayer has slumbered amongst  us. The
               closet has been too little frequented  and delighted  in. We  have  allowed  business,  study  or
               active  labor  to  interfere  with  our closet-hours. And the feverish atmosphere in which both
               the church and nation  are enveloped  has found  its way into our closet,  disturbing  the sweet
               calm of its blessed solitude. Sleep, company,  idle visiting,  foolish talking and jesting, idle
               reading, unprofitable  occupations,  engross time that might have been redeemed for prayer.
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