“But whatever church he wound up joining, the pastor of it would have his hands full—Mr. Lambeth is as fully heathen as the king of the Amalekites.”
When “Won by Sweetness” Means Not Being Won at All
Calvin (aside): We seen plenty of those who are most venomous when corrections and warnings are used.
Dissenters: Et quoy! Is that the way to teach? Ho! we want to be won by sweetness.
Calvin: You do? Then go and teach God his lesson.
Calvin (aside): Look at our fastidious gentlemen who cannot bear one single reproof when it is put to them! And why?
Dissenters: Ho! we want to be taught another way.
Calvin: Then go to the devil’s school. He will flatter you alright—to your destruction.
Parker, Calvin’s Preaching, p. 145
The Way Things Ought to Be
“Mrs. Fuller was a true boardinghouse cook—cheerful, plump, a feminine mechanic among the pans, and a mysterious force of nature among the sauces.”
The Man in the Dark, p. 7
The Opposite of Hoity Toity
Calvin “is certainly thinking of familiere in terms of language; for a little later he censures ambitious preachers who ‘babble in refined language.’ To make the Scriptural message familiere Calvin used a familiar, homely style of speaking.”
Parker, Calvin’s Preaching, pp. 139-140
Unstrung Pearls
“The sermon began mysteriously to meander, and though many good things were still said, they all seemed like pearls rolling around on a table without any thread to make them into a necklace.”
The Man in the Dark, p. 3
Not a Babbling Brook
“The sermons are like rivers, moving strongly in one direction, alive with eddies and cross-currents, now thundering in cataracts, now a calm mirror of the banks and sky; but never still, never stagnant.”
Parker, Calvin’s Preaching, p. 132
Truly Centered, In Other Words
“He admired his abilities and cheerfulness, and yet he was put off somewhat by Trevor’s moral center apparently having nothing whatever to do with any procedure manuals.”
Which Comes as a Surprise to Some
“It is that faith is never without combats; that we cannot serve God without being men of war.”
Calvin, as quoted in Parker, Calvin’s Preaching, p. 118
Standing Straight in the Corner
“He had gotten the internship because of the pull his grandmother had, and her convictions and demeanor were of a similar nature to his. If she had been a piano, she would have been a nineteenth-century upright.”
Drive It Home Like a Spear
“Calvin frequently said that it was useless for the preacher merely to declare the truths of the Bible and leave the congregation to accept them or not without more ado.”
Parker, Calvin’s Preaching, p. 114