“A parish of critics would be killing, but a critic here and there is a tonic.”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 147
Just Glorious
“These three rules seem to have in them the practical sum of the whole matter. I beg you to remember them and apply them with all the wisdom that God gives you. First. Have as few congregations as you can. Second. Know your congregation as thoroughly as you can. Third. Know your congregation so largely and deeply that in knowing it you shall know humanity.”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 143
File This One Away
“It is a strange thing to say, but when the number of any public body exceeds that of forty or fifty, the whole assembly has an element of joyous childhood in it, and each member revives at times the glad, mischievous nature of his schoolboy days.”
Arthur Helps, as quoted in Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 139
Which Is Odd
“I have known many ministers who were frank and simple and unreserved with other people for whom they did not feel a responsibility, but who threw around themselves a cloak of fictions and reserves the moment that they met a parishioner.”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 138
With the Accent on Intelligent
“The real power of your oratory must be your own intelligent delight in what you are doing.”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 134
Don’t Meander
“Give your sermon an orderly consistent progress, and do not hesitate to let your hearers see it distinctly, for it will help them first to understand and then to remember what you say.”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 134
Exactly
“The true way to get rid of the boniness of your sermon is not by leaving out the skeleton, but by clothing it with flesh.”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 134
First Things First
“Here as everywhere the love of truth for itself is the only salvation. Love the truth, and then, for your people’s good and for your own delight, make it as beautiful as you can.”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 132
Write Down Every Other Word
“I think that the best sermons that ever have been preached, taking all the qualities of sermons into account, have probably been extemporaneous sermons, but that the number of good sermons preached from manuscript have probably been far greater than the number of good sermons preached extemporaneously; and he who can put those two facts together will arrive at some pretty clear and just idea of how it will be best for him to preach.”
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 132
Was It Ever Fresh?
“The real question about a sermon is, not whether it is extemporaneous when you deliver it to your people, but whether it ever was extemporaneous, whether there ever was a time when the discourse sprang freshly from your heart and mind” ().
Phillips Brooks, The Joy of Preaching, p. 130