Biblia

PREACHER

PREACHER

And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand, two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.

—Rev. 11:3

4677 Longest Recorded Sermon

The longest sermon on record was preached by Rev. Robert Marshall, minister of the Birmingham Unitarian Church, Michigan, in 1976. He preached for 60 hours and 31 minutes. The previous record holder was Robert McKee who preached for 52 hours. He said that it took him two-and-a-half years to write the 500,000-word sermon.

4678 Shortest Sermon

When Roy DeLamotte was chaplain at Paine College in Georgia, he preached the shortest sermon in the college’s history. However, he had a rather long topic. It was, “What Does Christ Answer When We Ask, “Lord, What’s in Religion for Me?”” The complete content of his sermon was one word: “Nothing.” He explained later that the one-word sermon was meant for people “brought up on the “gimme-gimme” gospel.” When asked how long it took him to prepare the message, he said, “Twenty years.”

—Ray O. Tones

4679 Survey Of Sermons Preached In U. S.

In connection with my volumes of Best Sermons, I have sent invitations during the last 20 years to more than 120,000 clergymen who do preach. From the 15,000 to 22,500 sermon invitations issued for each volume, the average number of sermon manuscripts received for reading and consideration has increased from 5,000 for the first volume to 6,000, 7,000, 7,500, and now nearly 8,000 per volume.

Ministers of 198 different denominations have been invited to submit sermons; men of 165 different denominations have responded with a total to-date of more than 55,755 sermons. Sermons have been received in 15 different languages from ministers in 55 foreign countries.

About one minister in each thousand preaches in blank verse; one younger man preaches in blank verse every Sunday of the year!

Today, the better the sermon, the shorter it tends to be—18 to 20, 22, or 25 minutes. Generally speaking, the leading ministers and best preachers use more short illustrations rather than a few, long stories. The best preaching is done in the great city churches of New York, Washington, Boston, Dallas, New Orleans, Miami, Los Angeles, Chicago.

A distinct difference marks most northern from southern preaching. In the South long illustrations—perhaps three or four—are customary in a sermon, while northern sermons may have 30 to 40 short, pithy allusions. Strong preachers are not limited to any specific locale, however, but may be found anywhere.

—Christianity Today

THE PREACHER’S PREPARATIONS

4680 Give Pastor “Leisure”

Earl Radmacher said in Moody Monthly: “It is interesting that the Greek word for “scholar,” which comes from the word scholeo has the idea of the word “leisureliness.”

Do we ask ourselves why we don’t have Bible scholars today? Maybe it is because we don’t let our pastors take time to be leisurely in the Word of God and to let God really speak.

4681 Wasting An Audience’s Time

When one addresses an audience of one hundred people for thirty minutes, it is equivalent to taking 3,000 minutes of one person’s time. That means fifty hours, or more than six days of eight hours each. It would be little short of criminal deliberately to waste one person’s time for six working days.

Yet that is precisely what happens when a speaker without complete and thorough preparation takes the time of an audience of one hundred persons.

—Herbert V. Prochnow

4682 The Whole Morning Was His

Many of the great preachers of the past had the practice of spending extended time in preparation. Dr. G. Campbell Morgan, for example, closeted himself with the Bible and his study aids every morning. He did not permit anything to interfere unless it was a genuine emergency. And when this well-known British preacher arose to preach he had something to say that had value for his listeners.

—Robert Wilson

4683 Matthew Henry’s Schedule

Matthew Henry used to be in his study at four, and remain there till eight; then, after breakfast and family prayer, he used to be there again till noon; after dinner, he resumed his book or pen till four, and spent the rest of the day in visiting his friends.

—Foster

4684 Some Popular Preachers

Henry Melvill is the most popular preacher in London. He prepares and preaches but one sermon in a week, which he always writes twice, very often three times.

Prof. Park, in his eloquent memoir of the late Mr. Homer, said: “The editor of Massilon’s Lent Sermons regards it as a prodigy, that he finished a discourse in so short a time as ten or twelve days. This eminent preacher sometimes rewrote a single sermon fifteen or even twenty times. A distinguished scholar in our own land rewrote the most useful of his sermons thirteen or fourteen times, and labored, in connection with a literary theme, two whole days on as many sentences.”

—W. Balkam

4685 Bishop With Unfinished Studies

Some time after Louis XIV had invited the celebrated Bossuet to the bishopric of Meaux, he asked the citizens how they liked their new bishop. “Why, your Majesty, we like him pretty well.”

“Pretty well! Why, what fault have you to find with him?”

“To tell your Majesty the truth, we would have preferred having a bishop who had finished his education; for whenever we wait upon him we are told that he is at his studies.”

—Walter Baxendale

4686 How Alexander Maclaren Prepares Sermons

Alexander Maclaren was one of the greatest preachers of the nineteenth century.

“A man who reads one of Alexander Maclaren’s sermons,” said Robertson Nicoll, “must either take his outline—or take another text.”

How did he do it? The answer is simple: Through hard work, disciplined study, and concentration on the one important thing—preaching the Word. He turned down most speaking and social invitations. He stayed home, did his work, and built a great church.

“I began my ministry,” he told a group of young preachers, “with the determination of concentrating all my available strength on the work, the proper work of the Christian ministry, the pulpit … I have tried to make my ministry a ministry of exposition of Scripture.”

To Alexander Maclaren, preparing messages was hard work. He often said he could never prepare sermons while wearing slippers; he always wore his outdoor boots. He was known to devote sixty hours to the preparation of a single sermon.

4687 “Would I Want To Hear Myself?”

Last night I took that book from the shelf again and looked at the question I had written inside the cover: “Would I come to church twice on Sunday to hear myself preach?”

I was preparing for the ministry when my former pastor, then quite old, wrote those words. We had been talking about preaching, and I was showing him a college textbook, The Preparation of Sermons, by Andrew Blackwood. Suddenly he took the book from my hands and wrote. When I read what he had written, I was startled. Since that day, I have often asked myself that question as I stood up to preach. It has had a profound effect upon my ministry.

—Robert L. Owen

4688 Loving The People

“You love to preach, don’t you?” asked Henry Ward Beecher of a young minister. “I surely do,” was the glowing reply. “But do you love the people to whom you preach?” Beecher then asked.

4689 “I Love This Audience”

Before each performance, the famous magician Thurston used to stand for a minute in the wings and say, “I love this audience. I’m going to give my best to them and they are going to respond splendidly.” It put Thurston over—it will do the same for you.

—Wilfred L. Peterson

4690 Wasting God’s Gift

A colorless voice is a waste of God’s gift to men. As C. H. Spurgeon comments: “What a pity that a man who from his heart delivered doctrines of undoubted value, in language the most appropriate, should commit ministerial suicide by harping on one string, when the Lord has given him an instrument of many strings to play upon.”

—Pastor’s Manual

4691 The Voice’s Tone

One other fault a preacher must avoid is giving a wrong emphasis or tone of voice to a particular word or phrase. How different, for example, should be the tone which he uses for each of the following sentences:

—And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

—He is not here, he is risen, as he said.

—O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered the children together, and ye would not.

—As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this shall surely die.

—Ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise.

—God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes: and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain.

—E. Browning

4692 Saying “Oh!” Like Whitefield

Garrick, the actor, and Whitefield, the preacher, were contemporaries and were friends and admirers. Garrick said he would give a thousand guineas for the capacity to use the exclamation “Oh!” as George Whitefield used it.

One triumphed in the Drury Lane Theatre; the other triumphed on Moorfields Common, where thousands of souls under his ministry cried out for God.

—Talmage

THE PREACHER’S MESSAGE

4693 Why I Go To Church

Like most laymen, I go to church to hear heralded the mind of Christ, not the mind of man. I want to hear expounded the timeless truth contained in the Scriptures, the kind of preaching that gets its power from “Thus saith the Lord.” Such preaching is hard to find these days.

—J. Howard Pew,

Board Chairman, Sun Oil Co.

4694 Why Webster Went To That Church

Daniel Webster, the famous American politician and orator, once spent a summer in New Hampshire, and every Lord’s Day went to a little country church morning and evening. His niece asked him why he went there, when he paid little attention to far abler sermons in Washington. He replied: “In Washington they preach to Daniel Webster, the statesman, but this man has been telling Daniel Webster, the sinner, of Jesus of Nazareth” “All have sinned” (Rom. 3:23). Preach Christ.

—Glad Tidings

4695 What Has Science To Say To Her?

Said Dr. Joseph A. Parker: “Some have found fault with me. They say I am old-fashioned and out of date; I am always quoting the Bible; why not turn to science this morning.

“There is a poor widow here who has lost her only son. She wants to know if she will see him again. Science shall give the answer, and I will put the Book away.” So he took the Book and put it on the seat behind. “Will this woman see her son again? Where is he? Does death end all? What has science to say?” Here a long pause. “We are waiting for an answer, the woman is anxious.” Another long pause. “The woman’s heart is breaking. Science must speak. Nothing to say? Surely?

“Then we must take the Book,” and here he reverently replaced it, and with great deliberation opened it and read: “I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me … The dead shall arise … for this corruptible must put on incorrruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. O death, where is thy sting. … I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God.””

Closing the Book, and patting it affectionately, he said, “We will stick to the Book!”

4696 Competing With The Experts

If preachers insist on competing with psychiatrists as counselors, with physicians as healers, with politicians as statesmen and with philosophers as speculators, then these specialists have every right to tell them how to preach.

If a minister’s message is not based on “Thus saith the Lord,” then as a sermon it is good-for-nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot of the specialists in the department with which it deals.

—John H. Gerstners

4697 Embarrassing The President

Ten years ago, a furor was raging over the remarks made by an Episcopalian rector, Dr. Gotesworth Pinckney Lewis, in a sermon he preached concerning the Vietnam war. The problem arose over the fact that the President of the United States was in the congregation that Sunday morning. The rector was charged with “exquisitely bad taste,” and some have suggested that he overstepped his bounds when he voiced these views to a “captive audience, which included the President.”

The newspapers and news magazines had a field day citing the criticisms and laudations. Government officials, religious personalities, and self-styled experts on what constitutes ethics or etiquette voiced opinions or issued denunciations. Strange, isn’t it, what a few words, spoken in a particular context, will do to stir up trouble. Dr. Lewis’ same statement, had the Chief Executive not been in attendance, would have gone unnoticed.

4698 First Things First In Greenland

When the first Moravian missionaries went to Greenland to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they thought it was necessary, first of all, to instruct the people in the doctrines of natural religion. The result was that they were there seventeen years before they had a single convert.

One day a man called Kajarnak, who was a very wicked man, entered the missionary’s hut and by accident heard him read the story of the last week in the life of Christ. Somehow this wicked Greenlander got a glimpse of the fact that Jesus suffered and died for sinners and that through Him a sinner might be saved. “How was that?” he said. “Tell me that again, for I, too, wish to be saved.”

The missionary was astonished. It was not long before Kajarnak, his wife, and two children were happily converted to Christ and became the firstfruits of Greenland unto the Saviour. It also taught the missionaries that the first thing to preach to a sinning man anywhere is the atoning sacrifice of Christ.

—The Teacher

4699 A (Brief) Comparison

The Ten Commandments contains 297 words. The Bill of Rights is stated in 463 words. Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address contains 266 words. A recent Federal directive to regulate the price of cabbage contains 26,911 words.

—Atlanta Journal

4700 Three Brief Documents

There is too much speaking in the world, and almost all of it is too long. The Lord’s Prayer, the Twenty-third Psalm, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, are three great literary treasures that will last forever; no one of them is as long as 300 words. With such striking illustrations of the power of brevity it is amazing that speakers never learn to be brief.

—Bruce Barton

4701 Prodigal Son Story

Remember that Jesus used only 504 words to tell the Parable of the Prodigal Son, judged by some to be the greatest story ever written.

—James Hastings

4702 Delivering It Briefly

The Sermon on the Mount could be delivered in 20 minutes. You could preach Peter’s sermon at Pentecost in ten minutes. You wouldn’t need that long to give Paul’s message before Agrippa.

—Christianity Today

4703 “Take Him?”—”Took”

The Texas oilman was getting married and was nervous about it. He told the minister that the fee would be in proportion to the brevity of the service, and that if he used a long service, he wouldn’t receive a cent. When the wedding day came, the couple stood before the minister, in the bride’s home, and the minister said to the man, “Take her?”—to the woman, “Take him?” and then closed the ceremony by pronouncing “Took”—a whole ceremony in five words.

P. S. He got a $500.00 fee—or to be brief—$100 a word.

4704 Chapel Hero

They gave him twenty minutes

but he finished up in ten.

Oh, there’s prince of speakers

and servant unto men.

His diction wasn’t such a much,

he hemmed and hawed a bit;

But still he spoke a lot of sense,

and after that—he quit.

At first we sat plumb paralyzed,

then cheered and cheered again;

For they gave him twenty minutes

and he finished up in ten.

—The Skiff

4705 Epigram On Preacher (Message)

•      Billy Sunday once said: “Here is my first rule in homiletics: Never preach to the intellectual giraffes in your congregation. And the second … Always leave some cookies on the bottom shelf.”

—Charles F. Hall

•      A good sermon helps people in two ways. Some rise from it greatly strengthened, others wake from it refreshed.

—E. C. Mckenzie

•      A certain minister posted a sign at his parking space in the church lot. The sign read: “Old Chinese Proverb—He who parks in minister’s space must preach Sunday sermon.”

PREACHER IN ACTION

4706 Skeleton In Church

Bolton, England (EP)—The Rev. David Harrison, a pastor here, has a new way to hold the attention of his congregation.

He hangs a human skeleton from the pulpit whenever he preaches.

“If you don’t rivert their attention, you are lost,” the pastor said.

—Gospel Herald

4707 Preaching Subdues Gunman

As the Greyhound bus approached Daytona Beach, Florida, last month, a passenger pulled a gun and ordered the driver to “take me to Tampa or I’ll shoot you.” A fellow passenger, Ena Cuff, a member of the Baptist Church of the Good Shepherd in Miami, knew just what to do. She began preaching

Within minutes the man dropped his gun and was subdued and led off to jail. The bus went on its way. “The teachings of the word of Jesus Christ were enough to make his hand go limp,” explained Ms. Cuff.

—Christianity Today

4708 Clergymen On Motorbikes

“We’re simply moving with the times,” explained Bishop Maurice Wood of Norwich, England, as he sent forth thirty-six vicars on Hondas to spread the Word of God. With only 500 clergy to cover 760 parishes in Norfolk County, Wood decided it was time to switch from horses and gaiters to Hondas and crash helmets.

The parsons are not “a rodeo of reverend gentlemen,” commented Wood. “They are seriously out to reach the people.”

4709 When Some People Talk In Church

A clergyman was annoyed by people talking and giggling in church. He paused, looked at the disturbers, and said, “I am always afraid to expose those who misbehave, for this reason: Some years ago, as I was preaching, a young man who sat before me was laughing, talking and making uncouth grimaces. I paused and administered a severe rebuke.

“After the service a gentleman said to me, ’Sir, you have made a great mistake. That young man, whom you reproved is an idiot. ’ Since then I have been afraid to reprove those who misbehave themselves in church, lest I should repeat the mistake and reprove another idiot.” During the rest of the service there was good order.

—Aquilla Webb

4710 Spurgeon Got Saved

A faithful class leader thought it worthwhile to hold a service with seventeen present in a little Wesleyan Chapel in Colchester, England, on a stormy Sunday. A young man present accepted Christ at the meeting. His name was Charles H. Spurgeon.

4711 Weary In, Not Of, Work

George Whitefield preached judgment in the fields of both old and New England. Near the end of his life, a friend advised him to go to bed rather than keep a preaching appointment. But Whitefield prayed, “Lord Jesus, I am weary in Thy work, but not of it. If I have not yet finished my course, let me go and speak for Thee once more in the fields, seal Thy truth, and come home and die!” A few hours later he preached his last sermon, then died the following morning.

4712 Voice In The Lumber Camp

Stephen Grellet, the noted Friend, once felt a burden on his heart and the leading of the Holy Spirit to preach the gospel to men in an American lumber camp. But when he arrived at the camp he found it deserted, for the men had gone further into the forest. Feeling, nevertheless, that he had been sent there by the Holy Spirit, he stood up in the empty mess hall and delivered his sermon, heard, as he thought, only by the broad walls of the building and the lofty trees of the forest.

Years afterward, crossing London Bridge in the evening gloom, he was somewhat rudely stopped by a man who accosted him and said, “You are the man I have been looking for all these years. I have found you at last.”

“There must be some mistake,” said Grellet, “I have never seen thee.”

“No,” said the man. “But did you not preach at a lumber camp in the American forest?”

“Yes, but there was no one there.”

“I was there,” responded the man, “and I heard the sermon.”

Then he went on to relate how he had come back from where the men were working to get a saw that had been left behind, when he was startled and alarmed at hearing the sound of a man’s voice.

Approaching the building, he looked through a chink of the logs and saw Grellet standing by himself preaching the sermon. He listened to the preacher, was convicted of sin, got hold of a copy of the Scriptures, learned the way of life, was saved, and brought others with him into the Kingdom of Heaven.

—C. E. Macartney

4713 Newton And Scott’s Commentary

Once, when John Newton preached in a village, such was the indifference that only a handful came to hear him. But he was loyal to Christ, and gave the best he had. Among that little number of hearers was Thomas Scott. The sermon turned his thoughts toward the truth, and the influence of Scott’s Commentary may be traced to that sermon.

—Walter Baxendale

4714 Livingstone The Organ Pumper Was There

It was a cold wintry night when Dr. Moffat, a missionary from Africa, arrived to preach a sermon in a New England church. He had come to appeal for men to go to Africa as missionaries.

When Moffat looked over the small congregation, he saw a number of women but, to his consternation, only one male in the entire church: a boy pumping the organ in the loft. At first Dr. Moffat felt he should change his sermon, but then he decided to go ahead with the one he had planned. Its text—Proverbs 8:4, “Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of men.”

The boy listened intently, drinking in words that thrilled him, words which proved that we never really know how what we say may affect other people. When he grew up and obtained his degree in medicine, it was that boy who remembered Dr. Moffat’s plea and gave a lifetime of unselfish devotion to Africa and to Christianity. His name was David Livingstone.

—The Bible Friend

4715 Someone Outside Was Listening

The following true incident was told by a woman of the Quaker faith:

A Quaker was once passing a meetinghouse in the country when suddenly he felt an impulse to go in and preach, although there was no audience. He acted according to his impulse, preached a short sermon and then left the building.

Some years later, while in London, he was accosted by a man who said to him, “Sir, you saved my life.”

Astonished at such a remark, he said, “What do you mean? I do not know you.”

“Well,” said the man. “I was passing a certain meetinghouse one day and hearing a voice, I listened outside the window.” And then he added in a low voice, “I was an ex-convict and in despair, but your words saved me.”

—The Youth’s Companion

4716 He Digressed From Text

One Sunday evening, in his own Church, Dr. Hall was delivering a written sermon on temptation, and suddenly felt that his address was unlike his usual style, and too argumentative for many of the people. He paused, looked away from his manuscript, and, appealing with a loud voice to the more-distant of his audience, said: “Perhaps among those pressing in at the door there may be someone so miserable as to think of throwing himself over yonder bridge, saying, “It’s too late to tell me not to enter into temptation. I have done it; I am in it. There’s no hope for me!” Stop! Stop! There is hope. Christ died for thee. He will forgive. He will save even thee!”

A few weeks afterward one of the members of his church told him that he had called to see a woman who had made up her mind to throw herself over Blackfriars Bridge, one Sunday evening, but she thought it was too light and a policeman might stop her; so in order to wait for the darkness she went into the church and stood in the crowd inside the door. Standing there it seemed to her that Dr. Hall had called to her directly to stop, and come to Christ, and she went back to her home to pray, and became a true and happy Christian.

—Bible Expositor and Illuminator

4717 Pastor Mentioned Their Son

I once received a letter from the pastor of a Baptist church in suburban Philadelphia who wrote of having attended my church on a Sunday night. His letter contained this paragraph.

“Last August I buried my three-year-old nephew and the following Sunday his parents attended your evening service with us. You preached from I Peter 5:10, and probably without knowing the reason you said, “God had a purpose in taking your three-year-old son …” and that “God would strengthen, establish, and settle the sorrowing heart.” Those parents are born again but your message brought increased faith and strength.”

—Donald Grey Barnhouse

4718 Matches! Matches!

Rowland Hill once commenced a sermon by shouting, “Matches! matches! matches! You wonder,” he continued in his usual tone, “at my text. But this morning, while I was engaged in my study, the devil whispered to me, “Ah! Rowland, your zeal is indeed noble, and how indefatigably you labour for the salvation of souls!”

“At that very moment a poor man passed under my window, crying, “Matches!” very lustily. And conscience said to me, “Rowland, you never laboured to save souls with half the zeal that this man does to sell matches.””

—Clerical Anecdotes

4719 Luther On Preaching

“Do your best. If you cannot preach an hour, then preach half an hour or a quarter of an hour. Do not try to imitate other people. Center on the shortest and simplest points, which are the very heart of the matter, and leave the rest to God. Look solely to His honor and not to applause. … Although I am old (he was 48) and experienced, I am afraid every time I have to preach.”

—Martin Luther

4720 In The Closet

Of Mr. John Shepherd, of the United States, it is recorded that he was greatly distinguished for his success in the pulpit. When on his death-bed he said to some young ministers who were present, “The secret of my success is in these three things:

“1st. The studying of my sermons very frequently cost me tears. 2nd. Before I preached a sermon to others I derived good from it myself. 3rd. I have always gone into the pulpit as if I were immediately after to render an account to my Master.”

All who knew that devoted man would have united in expressing his secret in three words—”In the closet.”

—Clerical Library

4721 That Recording Angel

Macartney in his Illustration, writes: “Delayed once for several hours in the town of Dijon in France, I went into the venerable cathedral there. What I remember now about the cathedral is the finely-wrought stone pulpit, and just beneath it the figure of a recording angel, holding a tablet in one hand and a pen in the other, with face upward turned toward the pulpit, waiting to hear and record what the preacher says.

“Always the angel stands below our pulpits. He is not waiting to put down things which the congregation might like to record—in pleasure or displeasure—but whether or not the words of the preacher are true to the gospel with which he has been entrusted.”

—Ministers’ Research Service

4722 Listening Angels On Altar Rails

It is said that Chrysostom had a vision in which he saw the altar rails of Saint Sophia crowded with angels listening to the sermon. No wonder his words broke like thunder against the social scandals and loose living of the wicked city on the Bosphorus. No wonder the hatred of the emperor and empress was soon kindled against him, and that he was deposed and arrested. But the man who had seen God and angels listening did not fear.

—Prairie Overcomer

4723 Christ At His Elbow

Robert Hume, the Scottish philosopher and skeptic, would walk many miles on the Lord’s Day to hear John Brown of Haddington preach. Asked why he did it, Hume said: “I go to hear him because he always preaches as though Jesus Christ is at his elbow.”

—Watchman-Examiner

4724 Wesley’s Extemporaneous Preaching

Mr. Wesley related the following anecdote to Mr. Thomas Letts of All-hallows Church, London. While he was putting on his gown in the vestry he said to him, “It is fifty years, sir, since I first preached in this church. I remember it from a peculiar circumstance that occurred at that time. I came without a sermon, and going up the pulpit under much mental confusion and agitation. A woman who was there noticed that I was deeply agitated, and she inquired, “Pray, sir, what is the matter with you?” I replied, “I have not brought a sermon with me.”

“Putting her hand upon my shoulder, she said, “Is that all? Can’t you trust God for a sermon?” That question had such an effect upon me that I ascended the pulpit and preached extempore, with great freedom to myself and acceptance to the people, and I have never since taken a written sermon into the pulpit.”

—Current Anecdotes

4725 Fosdick’s Sermon Method

Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick gives us the following instructive and interesting explanation of the procedure he uses in preparing his sermons: “I always write out my sermons in full in advance. To the best of my recollection, after nearly forty years of preaching, I have never preached a sermon that was not written out fully. I do not see how any one can keep his substance serious, and his style flexible and varied unless he writes in full. At any rate, for myself there is no other method that is conceivable.”

—Herbert V. Prochnow

4726 “Give Us One Hour”

While in Norfolk, Virginia, I saw in a magazine an advertisement for a television station. The ad was seeking to enlist more viewers for the station’s one-hour-long evening news program. Here was the appeal: “Give us one hour, and we’ll give you the world.”

—Prairie Overcomer

4727 Bunyan’s Resolve

When liberty was offered to John Bunyan, then in prison, on condition of abstaining from preaching, he consistently replied, “If you let me out to-day I shall preach again to-morrow.”

4728 Preacher’s Highest Praise

I have heard many great orators, said Louis XIV to Massilon, and have been highly pleased with them: but whenever I hear you, I go away displeased with myself.

This is the highest accolade that could be bestowed on a preacher.

—C. Simmons

4729 He And I Alone

“I have no recollection how he began his sermon,” said A. C. Benson, author and son of an archbishop, referring to Moody’s message, “but he had not spoken half a dozen sentences before I felt as though he and I were alone in the world!”

4730 Conditional Preaching

The following is a bishop’s description of preaching sometimes addressed to fashionable congregations: “Brethren, unless you repent, in a measure, and be converted, as it were, you will, I regret to say, be damned to some extent.”

4731 Praise Or Action

It has been said of Cicero that after a speech of his, the people went away saying, “What a fine orator is Cicero!” But after a speech of Demosthenes people went away not saying anything about Demosthenes but “Let us go and fight Philip!”

—James E. Denton

4732 “As You Mend, I’ll Mend”

Dr. Hickington, chaplain to Charles II, used to preach at the king’s vices. This the king took to himself; and so, one day, he said, “Doctor, you and I ought to be better friends; give up being so sharp on me, and see if I don’t mend on your hand.” “Well, well,” retorted the doctor, “I’ll make it up with your Majesty on these terms: as you mend, I’ll mend.”

—Foster

4733 “The Parson Forgot His Text”

Mr. Frederick Landis, who has recently been nominated for Congress in the eleventh district of Indiana in a close contest with the veteran Steele who has been in office for sixteen years, is only thirty years old.

Shortly after Landis had commenced to practice law, some boys who had been arrested for disturbing church services came to him for help. The prosecuting attorney was thorough. When the time came for the trial he called the deacons and elders of the church for the prosecution, and, though they all agreed on the disorder of the boys, under cross-examination by Mr. Landis not one could recall the minister’s text or a single point in the sermon. The preacher himself, to his confusion, could not give his own text.

Then the miscreants, who had been carefully coached, were called to the witness stand, and decorously recited the main points of the sermon and the text, to the satisfaction of the court, which decided that their knowledge was proof of close attention and good behavior. The judge gave a verdict of acquittal.

—Saturday Evening Post

4734 My Pastor

My pastor shapes his sermons

From A to final Z

In clear and forthright language,

And aims them straight at me.

And when he gets to preaching,

I look around to see

If there might be another

Deserving more than me.

But every soul looks saintly—

Their hearts to heaven turn—

While I, in my conviction,

Can only sit and squirm.

You know, I often wonder

If I should miss a day;

Would he, without his target,

Have anything to say?

—Author Unknown

4735 Epigram On Preacher in Action

•     The best preacher is the heart; the best teacher is time; the best book is the world; the best friend is God.

—The Talmud

•     Great sermons begin in great hearts, and hearts are made great by tilling them with the needs of a brokenhearted, suffering world. Jesus’ trained ears could hear a beggar’s cry above the shouts of the throng.

•     After his return from church one Sunday a small boy said, “You know what, Mommie? I’m going to be a minister when I grow up.”

“That’s fine,” said his mother, “but what made you decide you want to be a preacher?”

“Well,” said the boy pensively, “I’ll have to go to church on Sunday anyway, and I think it would be more fun to stand up and yell than to sit still and listen.”

—Sunshine Magazine

See also: Missions ; Pastor ; Soul-Winning ; Matt. 24:14; II Tim. 4:2; Rev. 7:4.