“Men who are in advance of their age are abused for principles which in due time become accepted” (Spurgeon, Eccentric Preachers, 117).
Scattering Metaphors With Two Hands
“It is this jaundiced eye of cold matter-of-fact which is unable to perceive the beauty of sparkling metaphors and images, and therefore sees instead mere eccentricity . . . Doubtless there are many others who are condemned for their eccentricity by the simpletons around them, because they have wealthy creative minds, and scatter pearls with …
All the Regular Fudge
“It is easy enough among Dissenters to find regulations as rigid as could be invented by any bench of bishops; you may not vary the length of the hymn or the order of the service by a hair’s breadth, or you will sin against your own reputation and the feelings of the conservative portion of …
A True Oddball
“But of this I feel quite sure, that if any man will make up his mind that he will only say what he believes to be strictly true, he will be thought odd and eccentric before the sun goes down” (Spurgeon, Eccentric Preachers, p. 79).
When the Whole Man Fights
“The man who serves his God with his whole heart is apt to forget his surroundings, and to fling himself so completely into his work that the whole of his nature comes into action, and even his humour, if he be possessed of that faculty, rushes into the battle” (Spurgeon, Eccentric Preachers, pp. 75-76).
Ensconced in the Establishment
Assuming an anabaptist start, the project started to go off the rails early. Not only did Gentiles start to come into the kingdom in the first few decades of gospel preaching, but so also did some of their rulers (Acts 13:12). And there is no sign or hint of Sergius Paulus having to step away …
Mischief in the Midst of It
INTRODUCTION:In all of Scripture, David was one of God’s most favored servants. He was also one of the most tested and tried of all His servants, and there is a connection between the two conditions. It is through much tribulation that we enter the kingdom of heaven, we are told, and this does not mean …
Don’t Toy with the Text
“Moderation is not the virtue of many. If one man casts a sprinkling of the salt of wit into his sermon straightway some half idiotic brother must set the people grinning all the sermon through. If one, to whom it is natural, is so carried away by his earnestness that his action becomes at time …
The Holy Spirit and Sermon Prep
We must first smite and slay the extempore bias. From at least the time of Rousseau, we have been taught that that which is spontaneous is that which is honest, fresh, sincere, and untrammeled. On the other end, we have been taught that that which is prepared beforehand is stiff and insincere. But like many …
Pulpit Sins
Pulpit sins can be divided into two general categories — sins of attitude and sins of delivery. Mechanics of the pulpiteering arts want to reduce everything to the latter, but the real adjustments in our day have to begin with the former. This is nothing less than the classic Pauline division between credenda and agenda, …