“The closer you get to what makes Christianity ghastly, the closer you get to what makes it glorious” (Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, p. xi)
Sin and Grace as Fundamental Fact
“The intermediary of the pulpit, then, is due to sin, and is a part of the machinery of redemption. And this redemptive connotation of preaching is the index of the institution to such an extent, that preaching, as it is, fits in the picture only of a world in which sin and grace are the …
And Sometimes It Is a Carcase, Not a Body
“We preachers are in danger of being so occupied with the body and form of preaching that the soul or essence of preaching escapes us. A course in homiletics is likely to go no further than the body of preaching” (Volbeda, The Pastoral Genius of Preaching, pp. 21-22).
Working at Crosspurposes
“Woe to him who seeks to pour oil upon the waters when God has brewed them into a gale” (Father Mapple of Moby Dick, quoted by Stott, Between Two Worlds, p. 307).
Indispensable Courage
“Courage . . . is the indispensable requisite of any true ministry . . . If you are afraid of men and a slave to their opinions, go and do something else. Go and make shoes to fit them” (Phillips Brooks, as quoted in Stott, Between Two Worlds, p. 300).
Making Sermons Shorter the Hard Way
“It depends on the occasion and the topic, on the preacher’s gift and the congregation’s maturity . . . ‘The true way to shorten a sermon,’ said H.W. Beecher, ‘is to make it more interesting'” (Stott, Between Two Worlds, p. 292).
More Skilfully
“We preachers ought to use satire more skilfully and more frequently, ensuring always that in laughing at others we are also laughing at ourselves within the solidarity of human pomp and folly” (Stott, Between Two Worlds, p. 290).
This Is Acceptable Because They Have Been Dead for Centuries
“It is hardly surprising that the use of humour in preaching and teaching has had a long and honourable tradition. It is particularly florished during the sixteenth-century Reformation, for both Martin Luther on the Continent and Hugh Latimer in England used their earthy descriptive powers to the full. They drew cartoons with words, which still …
Pulpit Tinder
“Fire in preaching depends on fire in the preacher, and this in turn comes from the Holy Spirit” (Stott, Between Two Worlds, p. 285).
Argument on Fire
“What is needed today then is the same synthesis of reason and emotion, exposition and exhortation, as was achieved by Paul . . . Earlier in his book, [J.W.] Alexander has made a plea for ‘theological preaching’. What interests people, he says, is ‘argument made red-hot’, for ‘argument admits of great vehemence and fire’ (Stott, …