Upon finishing his sermon, the young man went to the old pastor to ask how he had done: "What do you think of my sermon, sir?" he asked.
"A very poor sermon indeed," he said.
"A poor sermon!" said the young man, "it took me a long time to study it."
"Ay, no doubt of it."
"Why, then, do you say it was poor; did you not think my explanation of the text to be accurate?"
"Oh yes," said the old preacher, "very correct indeed."
"Well,then, why do you say it is a poor sermon? Didn't you think the metaphors were appropriate, and the arguments conclusive?"
"Yes, they were very good, as far as that goes, but still it was a very poor sermon."
"Because," said the old Pastor, "THERE WAS NO CHRIST IN IT."
"Well," said the young man, "Christ was not in the text; we are not to be preaching Christ always, we must preach what is in the text."
So the old man said, " Don't you know, young man, that from every town, and every village, and every little hamlet in England, wherever it may be, there is a road to London?"
"Yes," said the young man.
"Ah!" said the old preacher, "and so from EVERY TEXT in Scripture there is a road to the metropolis of the Scriptures, that is CHRIST. And, my dear brother, your business is, when you get to a text, to say, 'Now, what is the road to Christ?' and then preach a sermon, running along the road towards the great metropolis - Christ. And," he said, "I have never yet found a text that had no such road, I will make a road, I would go over hedge and ditch but I would get at my master, for a sermon is neither fit for the land nor yet for the dung hill, unless there is a savour of Christ in it."
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