Thoughts on preaching by J. W. Alexander (Available from Amazon or free here) - Commence the 'The matter of preaching' by reading up to point 1 that begins 'We apprehend that preachers are in little danger of excess in setting forth Christ objectively to their hearers'.
The first result is that God should be the great, overshadowing object set forth in the preacher's message.
The second result is that the attitude of the preacher is made known: 'The great object of the preacher should be to make him know and feel that he is a dependent, rational, and accountable creature, owing fealty to his Maker—that he was made to love, serve, commune with, and enjoy him; that herein is life and bless, and that alienation from God by sin is death and woe. These truths, the more earnestly they are pressed, find a responsive attestation in every conscience not sacred as with a hot iron. And they are all the more felt, in proportion as God is apprehended in his goodness and holiness, his sovereignty and omniscience.'
The third result is that the minister preaches Christ and him crucified. This will be expanded upon in next week's reading.
Today there was an excellent anecdote given as a footnote about different kinds of preaching: 'We have been credibly informed that two distinguished living preachers, when formerly stationed in the same Western city, had, for an occasional auditor, an irreligious officer of the army. This gentleman said to our informant, that he listened to the one with the greater pleasure ; to the other with less satisfaction, but with greater respect and reverence, if not profit. Being asked to explain himself, he said, " The former exalts the dignity of man, and I always come away pleased with myself. The latter so magnifies God, that I seem nothing, and I always seem oppressed with a sense of my own insignificance and unworthiness." If preaching is to be estimated by the crowds it draws, we believe this man-exalting divine is now facile princeps among American preachers.'
May we be God-exalting, not man-exalting, in our preaching
Conclude the
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