Power of the Pulpit - Spring - I - Chapters 1 (The fact illustrated, that the pulpit has power) & 2 (The same subject continued)

Required reading
The Power of the Pulpit by Gardiner Spring (Available from Amazon or free here) - Read Chapters 1 (The fact illustrated, that the pulpit has power) and 2 (The same subject continued).

My summary
Today we begin a new book on preaching.

After giving us an idea of where Spring will go with his work, he begins with his first branch of his subject: 'the pulpit has power.

Firstly Spring teaches us that 'the institution of such an order as religious teachers is deeply imbedded in the common principles, and common wants of man, as fallen by his iniquity'.

Secondly Spring explains that the power of the pulpit is indicated by 'those immediate and direct influences, which it exerts in producing and sustaining the interests of truth and godliness among men, and fitting them for a higher and nobler state of being.'

What grabbed me
Spring doesn't appear to be easy to read but he does have helpful things to say.

I liked his description of the ministerial office: 'Yet it was not egotism in Paul, to 'magnify his office'. The work of the Christian Ministry is one which possesses strong peculiarities, and one which has strong claims. There is nothing that resembles it in the ordinary employments of men. While it has its full share of toil, it has solicitudes and discouragements, dependencies and disabilities, that are peculiarly its own. It has too its successes, its expectations, its honors and its rewards. It knows its own bitterness, and "a stranger does not intermeddle with its joy.'

Being a minister is indeed a peculiar employment!

Next week's reading
Read Chapters 3 (The same subject continued) and 4 (The same subject continued).

Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.