“There is prodigious power in this plainness of presentation. It is the power of actual contact. A plain writer, or speaker, makes the truth and the mind impinge on each other. When the style is plain, the mind of the hearer experiences the sensation of being touched; and this sensation is always impressive, for a …
God Loves Cliffhangers
As we deal — as we all must do — with troubles, affliction, difficulties and so on, the toughest thing to remember is that God is handstitching these problems for us, and He is doing this so that they will fit us perfectly. We don’t grasp this because we are victims of a metaphor. When …
Spiritual Gifts and Unspiritual Men
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) The Basket Case Chronicles #153 “But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way.” (1 Cor. 12:31). Paul is now moving into his very famous chapter on love, and the last verse of chapter 12 is …
Only Blood Can Answer
One of the central things we have to remember about accusation is that condemnation has a point. “The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law” (1 Cor. 15:56). It will not do for us to say that the devil accuses the brethren day and day (Rev. 12:10), and the …
The Meaning of Blamelessness
Introduction With just a few variations, this chapter is also found in Scripture as Psalm 18. A common feature of ancient Hebrew writing is to conclude an extended narrative with a song, as Deuteronomy does, or as we see with Jacob’s prophecies at the end of Genesis. In this case, we find the narrative of …
Simplicity and the Sensate
Cultures pass through aesthetic phases as they rise and fall, and the last phase is the phase of decadence. It is the phase in which sensate spectacle is glorified, and it is a sign, not of glory but of decrepitude. Our generation is in the thick of this last phase. Our culture is attracted to …
Just Enough
This Table has been set for us by God as a means of grace. The bread and the wine are for us rations of grace. One of the remarkable things about these rations is that they are exactly suited to the difficulties that each one of you will encounter in the coming days. Some of …
Pulpit Smoke
“A certain grand-looking obscurity is often pleasing to some hearers and readers, who suppose that it shows vast learning, or great originality, or immense profundity. To treat subjects in this fashion is no new thing” (Broadus, Preparation and Delivery, p. 339).
My Sunny Ecumenical Side
One last post on the whole issue of Protestantism, and then I will give it a rest. But this time I want to give things a push from the other direction. In this post, I want my little ecumenical self come out to play in the sunshine. In my last post I mentioned that at …
Transparent Style
“The most important property of style is perspicuity. Style is excellent when, like the atmosphere, it shows the thought, but itself is not seen” (Broadus, Preparation and Delivery, p. 339).