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James Stalker
James Stalker (February 21, 1848 – February 5, 1927) was a Scottish preacher, scholar, and author whose calling from God within the United Free Church of Scotland ignited a passion for biblical exposition and evangelistic preaching across five decades. Born in Crieff, Perthshire, Scotland, to a joiner father and a mother whose details are unrecorded, he grew up in a modest Presbyterian family. Converted during the 1873 Moody and Sankey revival at age 25—an event that left an evangelical glow on his ministry—he excelled at the University of Edinburgh, winning prizes in every class, and studied divinity at New College, Edinburgh, later spending summers at Berlin and Halle under theologians like Tholuck and Dorner. Stalker’s calling from God was affirmed with his ordination in 1874, leading him to serve as minister of St. Brycedale Free Church in Kirkcaldy (1874–1887) and St. Matthew’s Free Church in Glasgow (1887–1902), where his sermons called vast audiences to faith with commanding eloquence and devotional depth. Appointed Professor of Church History at United Free Church College in Aberdeen (1902–1926), he preached to students and delivered the 1891 Yale Lectures on Preaching, published as The Preacher and His Models, emphasizing the preacher’s divine commission. Author of over 20 works, including The Life of Jesus Christ (1879) and The Life of St. Paul (1884), he became Scotland’s most renowned preacher in America. Never married, he passed away at age 78 in Aberdeen, Scotland.
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James Stalker delves into the concept of a seared conscience as described in 1 Timothy 4:2, highlighting how repeated disobedience can lead to a numbing of the conscience, allowing individuals to commit heinous acts without remorse. He emphasizes the importance of obedience to conscience, which sharpens it and refines character, contrasting the outcomes of a hardened versus a tender conscience on the soul and body.
Sharp Conscience
"Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron" (1 Tim. 4:2). The Scripture speaks of some whose consciences are seared as with a hot iron. As a hot iron, touching the fingertips, would harden the skin, so that the fine sense of touch located there could not act, so may the conscience be seared in such a way that it does not prompt to do the right or inflict pain when the wrong is done. It is appalling to what lengths this moral insensibility may go. You will see a young man, after a few years of the sins of the city, breaking his mother's heart and bringing his father's grey hairs down with sorrow to the grave, apparently without a qualm. The hardened debauchee will ruin a fair life and introduce shame and desolation into a honored home, and then go among his companions and boast of it. But we may all see now and then the beginnings of this hardening process in ourselves. Acts which at first we touch with shame and fear we do at last without any inward pain. The conscience is ceasing to perform its functions, and atrophy is setting in. What produces such a state? It is disobedience. If the conscience is constantly called upon to condemn the same sin, which is constantly repeated, it gradually ceases to perform the useless function. If its warnings are neglected, they become less and less distinct, and at last cease altogether. On the contrary, obedience to conscience sharpens it, and makes it a more and more perfect instrument. There are virgin souls which blush in secret at the most transient thought of sins in which others wallow without remorse. There are men who wince, as high-blooded horses do at the touch of the whip, at the first sound in their hearing of words which in other companies form the staple of conversation. The conscience may be trained to tremble at the least approach of dishonor, as the needle of a perfect compass indicates the least turn of the ship. This is the path to all fineness of character. It gradually elevates the whole man, stamping the aspect of dignity and purity even on the external appearance. A hardened conscience coarsens and brutalises soul and body, but a tender conscience refines both.
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James Stalker (February 21, 1848 – February 5, 1927) was a Scottish preacher, scholar, and author whose calling from God within the United Free Church of Scotland ignited a passion for biblical exposition and evangelistic preaching across five decades. Born in Crieff, Perthshire, Scotland, to a joiner father and a mother whose details are unrecorded, he grew up in a modest Presbyterian family. Converted during the 1873 Moody and Sankey revival at age 25—an event that left an evangelical glow on his ministry—he excelled at the University of Edinburgh, winning prizes in every class, and studied divinity at New College, Edinburgh, later spending summers at Berlin and Halle under theologians like Tholuck and Dorner. Stalker’s calling from God was affirmed with his ordination in 1874, leading him to serve as minister of St. Brycedale Free Church in Kirkcaldy (1874–1887) and St. Matthew’s Free Church in Glasgow (1887–1902), where his sermons called vast audiences to faith with commanding eloquence and devotional depth. Appointed Professor of Church History at United Free Church College in Aberdeen (1902–1926), he preached to students and delivered the 1891 Yale Lectures on Preaching, published as The Preacher and His Models, emphasizing the preacher’s divine commission. Author of over 20 works, including The Life of Jesus Christ (1879) and The Life of St. Paul (1884), he became Scotland’s most renowned preacher in America. Never married, he passed away at age 78 in Aberdeen, Scotland.