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Preaching: Quotations from Burning Words

Jesus chose this method of extending the knowledge of Himself throughout the world; He taught His truth to a few men, and then He said, "Now go and tell that truth to other men."— PHILLIPS BROOKS

Remember, there are only a few model preachers. We have read of only one perfect Model, and He was crucified many centuries ago.— C. H. FOWLER

The object of preaching is, constantly to remind mankind of what mankind are constantly forgetting; not to supply the defects of human intelligence, but to fortify the feebleness of human resolutions; to recall mankind from the by-paths where they turn, into that broad path of salvation which all know, but few tread.— SYDNEY SMITH

It is easier to declaim like an orator against a thousand sins in others than to mortify one sin in ourselves; to be more industrious in our pulpits than in our closets; to preach twenty sermons to our people than one to our own hearts.— JOHN FLAVEL

Language the most forcible proceeds from the man who is most sincere. The way to speak with power, or to write words that pierce mankind to the quick, is to speak and write honestly.— E. L. MAGOON

I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than to be one of the twenty to follow mine own teachings.— SHAKSPEARE

His words had power because they accorded with his thoughts; and his thoughts had reality and depth because they harmonized with the life he had always lived. It was not mere breath that this preacher uttered; they were the words of life, because a life of good deeds and holy love was melted into them. Pearls, pure and rich, had been dissolved into the precious draught.— NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE

Let him who would move and convince others, be first moved and convinced himself.— T. L. CUYLER

Always carry with you into the pulpit a sense of the immense consequences which may depend on your full and faithful presentation of the truth.— R. S. STORRS

The orator is thereby an orator that he keeps his feet ever on a fact.— R. W. EMERSON

Settle in your mind, that no sermon is worth much in which the Lord is not the principal speaker. There may be poetry, refinement, historic truth, moral truth, pathos, and all the charms of rhetoric; but all will be lost, for the purposes of preaching, if the word of the Lord is not the staple of the discourse.— JOHN HALL

Every sermon ought to have the doctrine of Christ in it in form or in solution. To get, then, the mind of Christ, and to declare it, is the primary end of the teaching offices of the church. The living body of sympathetic men, saturated with the truth and feeling of the Book, must bring it into contact with other men, through that marvelous organ the human voice, and with such aid as comes from the subtle sympathy that pervades assemblies of human beings.— JOHN HALL

Every sermon must have a solid rest in Scripture, and the pointedness which comes of a clear subject, and the conviction which belongs to well-thought argument, and the warmth that proceeds from earnest appeal.— PHILLIPS BROOKS,

Let us never forget that, to be profited, that is, to be spiritually improved in knowledge, faith, holiness, joy, and love, is the end of hearing sermons, and not merely to have our taste gratified by genius, eloquence, and oratory.— JOHN ANGEL JAMES

The most intelligent hearers are those who enjoy most heartily the simplest preaching. It is not they who clamor for superlatively intellectual or æsthetic sermons. Daniel Webster used to complain of some of the preaching to which he listened. "In the house of God" he wanted to meditate " upon the simple varieties, and the undoubted facts of religion;" not upon mysteries and abstractions.— AUSTIN PHELPS

Tell men that God is love; that right is right, and wrong, wrong; let them cease to admire philanthropy, and begin to love men; cease to pant for heaven, and begin to love God; then the spirit of liberty begins.— F. W. ROBERTSON

But even genuine argument for the truth is not preaching the gospel, neither is he whose unbelief is thus assailed likely to be brought thereby into any mood but one unfit for receiving it. Argument should be kept to books; preachers ought to have nothing to do with it, - at all events in the pulpit. There let them hold forth light, and let him, who will, receive it, and him who will not, forbear. God only can convince.— GEORGE MACDONALD

I would have every minister of the gospel address his audience with the zeal of a friend, with the generous energy of a father, and with the exuberant affection of a mother.— FENELON

The accent of conviction is made up of a mixture of faith, power, and love combined, forming a characteristic which is at once simple, pious, and grand, redolent of inspiration and sanctity. Here are no fabulous joys and woes; no hollow, fantastic sentimentalities; no wire-drawn refinings, either in thought or feeling; the passion that is traced before us has glowed in a living heart; the opinion he utters has risen in his own understanding, and been a light to his own steps.— T. CARLYLE

Direct your arrows at objects without being personal; come near your hearers. Letters dropped into the post-office without address go to the dead-letter office, and are of no use to any body.— JOHN HALL

I preached right to their consciences, and the result was a great revival of religion came up there; and after that I never heard any thing about infidelity.— LYMAN BEECHER

I like to go and hear Rowland Hill, because his ideas come red-hot from the heart. -— R. B. SHERIDAN

The truth is, no preaching ever had any strong power that was not the preaching of doctrine. The preachers that have moved and held men have always preached doctrine. No exhortation to a good life that does not put behind it some truth as deep as eternity can seize and hold the conscience. Preach doctrine, preach all the doctrine that you know, and learn forever more and more; but preach it always, not that men may believe it, but that they may be saved by believing it.— PHILLIPS BROOKS

To preach practical sermons as they are called, that is, sermons upon virtues and vices, without inculcating those great Scripture truths of redemption, grace, etc., which alone can incite and enable us to forsake sin and follow after righteousness, what is it but to put together the wheels, and set the hands of a watch, forgetting the spring, which is to make them all go? --— BISHOP HORNE

Avoid all controversy in preaching, talking, or writing; preach nothing down but the devil, and nothing up but Jesus Christ.— BERRIDGE

The old fable tells us of a boy who mounted a scavenger's cart with base intent to throw dirt at the moon; whereat another boy, with better intentions, but scarcely less folly, came running with a basin of water to wash the moon, and make its face clean again. Certain skeptics are forever inventing new infidelities with which they endeavor to defile the fair face of the gospel, and many ministers forsake the preaching of Christ and Him crucified, to answer their endless quibbles; to both of these the ancient fable may be instructive. If the truth were known, many sermons are prepared and preached with more regard for the sermon than the souls of the hearers.— GEORGE F. PENTECOST

His admired discourses remind me of the colored shavings with which we fill empty grates in the summer time.— LYNCH

Elegance of language must give way before simplicity in preaching sound doctrine.— SAVONAROLA

Embellish truth only with a view to gain it the more full and free admission into your hearer's minds; and your ornaments will, in that case, be simple, masculine, natural.— BLAIR

Style should be like window-glass, perfectly transparent, and with very little sash.— EMMONS

Style is the gossamer on which the seeds of truth float through the world.— GEORGE BANCROFT

The greatest thoughts are wronged, if not linked to beauty; and they win their way most surely and deeply into the soul when arranged in this their natural and fit attire.— W. E. CHANNING

You don't want a diction gathered from the newspapers, caught from the air, common and unsuggestive; but you want one whose every word is full-freighted with suggestion and association, with beauty and power.— RUFUS CHOATE

John Bunyan, while he had a surpassing genius, would not condescend to cull his language from the garden of flowers; but he went into the hayfield and the meadow, and plucked up his language by the roots, and spoke out in the words that the people used in their cottages.— C. H. SPURGEON

The great bell of Moscow is too large to be hung, the question arises, what was the use of making it? Some preachers are so learned that they cannot make themselves understood, or else cannot bring their minds to preach plain, gospel sermons; here, too, the same question might be asked.— C. H. SPURGEON

It is a great mistake to think any thing too profound or rich for a popular audience. No train of thought is too deep, or subtle, or grand-but the manner of presenting it to their untutored minds should be peculiar. It should be presented in anecdote, or sparkling truism, or telling illustration, or stinging epithet; always in some concrete form, never in a logical, abstract, syllogistic shape.— RUFUS CHOATE

In general, rely mainly on Scriptural arguments, and prefer those that are plain and unquestionable. mon.— BROADUS

The text should sustain, suggest, and give tone to the ser- The main thought of the text should usually be the main thought of the sermon. A text must not be a pretext.— JOHN HALL

Never confine yourself to the contemplation of themes. Make themes your means for reaching persons; and give the mind force by giving it concentration. When a preacher was censured by his brethren for the bad habit of exaggeration, he assured them he had “often bitterly repented of it; it had cost him barrels of tears." For such a case there is no cure.— THE NEW YORK OBSERVER

Whether you do your work with notes or without them, do it courageously, earnestly, with devotion; with a glad sense of the greatness of it, and a full consecration of every force and faculty to it.— R. S. STORRS

We doubt whether a man ever brings his faculties to bear with their whole force on a subject, until he writes upon it.— W. E. CHANNING

A leading Welsh minister - and Welsh ministers are, I think, among the best preachers - was invited to preach an anniversary sermon before one of the great societies in London. Naturally anxious to disregard no propriety, he consulted the proper authority, the secretary. "Should I read my sermon?" "Oh, it is no matter, only bring some of your Welsh fire with you." "But you cannot, my dear sir, carry fire on paper." "No, that is true; but you may use the paper to kindle the fire."— JOHN HALL

If any of you ever go into the pulpit "simply upon the cold legs of custom," be very careful to take a manuscript with you. But if you go to speak to the assembly because your mind is full of the truth, and you long to impart that truth to them, for their sake and for God's sake, - then charge your mind with it, and speak with all the force you can give it, without any notes.— R. S. STORRS