“Christ, therefore, uses the preached word as a means of revelation and self-communication in much the same way as He uses the other signs of His presence and grace in His historic acts of revelation. Thus Calvin can refer to preaching as a token of the presence of God, and as a means whereby He …
Christ in the Sermon
“The task of the preacher of the Word is to expound the scripture in the midst of the worshipping Church, preaching in the expectancy that God will do, through his frail human word, what He did through the Word of His prophets of old, that God by His grace will cause the word that goes …
Christ in the Sermon
“The task of the preacher of the Word is to expound the scripture in the midst of the worshipping Church, preaching in the expectancy that God will do, through his frail human word, what He did through the Word of His prophets of old, that God by His grace will cause the word that goes …
Master of the Plain Style
“This does not mean that Calvin was unaware of rhetoric. He was a master of it! He knew Aristotle, Cicero, and Quintilian well. He had carefully schooled himself in John Chrysostom and Augustine, both accomplished in the art of rhetoric. As is often said of very great artists, he had mastered his art so completely …
An Essential Part of the Offering
“The exposition of Scripture in course became one of the biggest planks in their platform of Christian revival. To them it was an essential component of a Christian worship that was according to Scripture and after the example of the ancient church. To these Reformers the sermon was an act of worship. It was the …
Your Wretched Regulations
“To the pure mind, none of the powers of manhood are common or unclean. Humour can be consecrated, and should be . . . some preachers are so unnatural themselves, that the human nature of their hearers refuses to subject itself to their operations. O ye who are evermore decorously dull, before ye judge a …
And Are Reckoned Crazy in the Meantime
“Men who are in advance of their age are abused for principles which in due time become accepted” (Spurgeon, Eccentric Preachers, 117).
Scattering Metaphors With Two Hands
“It is this jaundiced eye of cold matter-of-fact which is unable to perceive the beauty of sparkling metaphors and images, and therefore sees instead mere eccentricity . . . Doubtless there are many others who are condemned for their eccentricity by the simpletons around them, because they have wealthy creative minds, and scatter pearls with …
All the Regular Fudge
“It is easy enough among Dissenters to find regulations as rigid as could be invented by any bench of bishops; you may not vary the length of the hymn or the order of the service by a hair’s breadth, or you will sin against your own reputation and the feelings of the conservative portion of …
A True Oddball
“But of this I feel quite sure, that if any man will make up his mind that he will only say what he believes to be strictly true, he will be thought odd and eccentric before the sun goes down” (Spurgeon, Eccentric Preachers, p. 79).