"Though he is infinitely above all, and stands in no need of creatures; yet he is graciously pleased to take a merciful notice of poor worms in the dust." - Servants of Grace
"The first thing not to do when preaching from the Old Testament Prophets is to preach about the prophet. Instead preach the message of the divinely inspired book that bears the prophet’s name." - 9 Marks
"Make your delivery as personal as you can. The camera never blinks and exaggerates how you communicate nonverbally. You will connect better with your listeners by doing the things that make for effective one-on-one communication." - BPNews
"While 75 percent of respondents said they 'listen carefully,' 17 percent acknowledged that they 'get distracted' while 10 percent reported that they ’fact check’ the sermon. Millennials were the generation with the highest percentage of respondents who said they fact-check, with 16 percent admitting that they do this" - CPost
"I have heard (and preached!) sermons that intend to be expositional, yet fall somewhat short. Below are a dozen pitfalls: five that don’t make the message of the passage the message of the sermon and thus abuse the text, five that fail to connect the text the congregation, and two that fail to recognise that preaching is ultimately God’s work." - 9 Marks
"The highest privilege and greatest honor in pastoring is not standing in the church pulpit but praying by the hospital bed." - Challies
"By inspiring some things hard to understand, God has unleashed in the world desperation which leads to supplication—the crying out to God for help." - F&T
The Art of Illustration: Being Addresses Delivered to the students of The Pastor’s College, Metropolitan Tabernacle
By C. H. Spurgeon, 1905
Lecture 2: Anecdotes from the Pulpit (continued; read the series)
I shall make up this present address by quoting the examples of great preachers, beginning with the era of the Reformation, and following on without any very rigid chronological order down to our own day. Examples are more powerful than precepts; hence I quote them.
First, let me mention that grand old preacher, Hugh Latimer, the most English of all our divines; and one whose influence over our land was undoubtedly most powerful. Southey says, “Latimer more than any other man promoted the Reformation by his preaching”; and in this he echoes the more important utterance of Ridley, who wrote from his prison, “I do think that the Lord hath placed old father Latimer to be his standard-bearer in our age and country against his mortal foe, Antichrist.”
