“Behind every extemporaneous sermon, as really as behind every written sermon, the whole duration of the preacher’s life, with all the culture and learning it has brought with it, should lie” (Shedd, Homiletics and Pastoral Theology, pp. 219-220).
Or Ought to Live
“But the chief and top of his knowledge consists in the book of books, the storehouse and magazine of life and comfort, the holy Scriptures. There he sucks, and lives” (George Herbert, The Country Parson, p. 58).
Avoiding Word Salads in the Pulpit
“If he has no imagination, and no ideas, not even rambling and disconnected ones, then there is nothing left for him but to declaim, and exhort; and this manner of preaching is, perhaps, the most ineffectual and worst of all . . . It is a sin, for the preacher to be a mere rhapsodist. …
Exactly So
“The Parson is very strict in keeping his word, though it be to his own hindrance, as knowing, that if he be not so, he will quickly be discovered, and disregarded: neither will they believe him in the pulpit, whom they cannot trust in his Conversation” (Herbert, The Country Parson, p. 57).
That Would Seem to Follow
“No mind can be constructive, that does not actually construct” (Shedd, Homiletics and Pastoral Theology, p. 214).
Remembering the Task
“A Pastor is the Deputy of Christ for the reducing of Man to the Obedience of God” (George Herbert, The Country Parson, p. 55).
He Means Outlining
“Skeletonizing is to sermonizing, what drawing is to painting” (Shedd, Homiletic and Pastoral Theology, p. 213).
Stick to the Point
“Let unity run clear through the sermon, and clear out. If there be other lessons to be taught from the text, teach them in other sermons” (Shedd, Homiletics and Pastoral Theology, p. 210).
On Not Finishing Lame
“The peroration should be distinguished by vehemence, by the utmost intensity, energy, vividness, and motion” (Shedd, Homiletics and Pastoral Theology, p 203).
Drawn Out to Apply
“Hence, inferences should be entirely free from a theoretic aspect, and from abstract elements. Neither is it enough, that they be practical in the moderate sense of the word. They should be intensely practical. By this is meant, that their address and appeal should be solely and entirely, to the most moral, earnest, and living …