Broadus, J.A. – On the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons

On the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons
By Rev. John A. Broadus, D.D., LLD.
17 th EDITION. Crown
A. C. ARMSTRONG & SON,
51 East Tenth St. , Hew York.
1893.

Keywords: Sermons, Sermon Preparation, Delivery of Sermons.

COPYRIGHT SHELDON & COMPANY 1876.

John Broadus was a Baptist theologian and preacher, and his famous work presented here on Preparation and Delivery of Sermons is a guide for young preachers in their sermon construction. One of the key points of effective preaching is in preparing the sermon correctly, and of course the delivery of sermons such that they reach into men’s hearts.

CONTENTS.

LECTURE I. SPECIMENS OF PREACHING IN THE BIBLE.
Design of the lectures 5
Judah before Joseph 6
Moses and Joshua 7
Jotham 8
David 8
Solomon 10
The Prophets 10
Elijah 12
Amos 13
Jonah 14
Isaiah 14
Jeremiah 16
Ezekiel 17
John the Baptist 19
Our Lord as a Preacher . . .22-36
Authoritative 22
Relation to the common mind 24
Controversial 25
Repetitions 27
Variety 81
Use of paradox and hyperbole 81
Tone and spirit 33
Mel
The Epistles 36
Paul 38
His style 39
Adaptation 40
Christian Rhetoric 43

LECTURE II. PREACHING IN THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES.

First period 44
Second century 45
Informal preaching 46
Lay-preaching 47
Forgotten laborers 49
Not many wise 50
Origen 51
As scholar and teacher. 52
As to allegorizing. . . 53
As a preacher 56
Second period 57
Eusebius 63
Athanasius 63
Ephraem Syrus 64
Macarius 65
Asterius 66
Basil the Great 67
Gregory Nazianzen 71
Chrysostom 73
Ambrose 79
Augustine 81
General remarks, as to entrance on the ministry 84
As to education 86
A Theological Seminary 89
As to Christian classics 91
Blank after Chrysostom and Augustine , 91

LECTURE III. MEDIEVAL AND REFORMATION PREACHING.
Reasons for attention to Medieval Preaching 93
Peter the Hermit :… 95
St. Bernard 97
Dominicans and Franciscans ……. 100
Antony of Padua 101
Thomas Aquinas 106
Why all in twelfth and thirteenth centuries 109
Tauler 110
Huss and Savonarola 112
Reformation Preaching 1 13
A revival of preaching 113
A revival of Biblical and expository preaching 114
Of controversial preaching 116
Of preaching upon the doctrines of grace 117
Contrast between Luther and Calvin 118
Yet both great preachers 119
Calvin as a commentator and a preacher 121
Luther as a preacher 122
Personality in preaching 124
Zwingle 127
Public debates 128
Anabaptist preachers, viz
Hiibmaier 129
Grebel 132
Menno 133
Use of printing to aid preaching 188

LECTURE IV. THE GREAT FRENCH PREACHERS.
Keltic eloquence 185
Ageol Louis XIV 180
Prosperity of France 137
An age of great intellectual activity 141
Of elegant general literature , 144
Excellence of the French language 145
Art 146
Catholics stimulated by the Reformed and by the Jansenists 147
The king s penchant for eloquent preaching . 148
Fashionable to admire pulpit eloquence 149
Low stage of the Catholic pulpit before Bossuet 151
Able Reformed preachers before Bossuet, viz.
Du Moulin 153
Faucheur 154
Daille 156
Bossuet 158
Bourdaloue 164
Fenelon 170
Du Bosc 171
Claude 172
Massillon 174
Saurin 177
Decline of the French pulpit in the eighteenth century . . . 180
Eloquent French preachers in the nineteenth century …. 182
Certain faults of the great French preachers 183
Letter from M. Bersier . . . 185

LECTURE V. THE ENGLISH PULPIT.
Five periods 186
Wyclif 188
Colet 191
Latimer 192
John Knox 194
Decline after the Reformation 197
Revival in the next century 20(1
Jeremy Taylor 201
Leighton , 203
Baxter 204
Owen… … 206
Flavel 207
Bunyan 207
John Howe 209
Barrow 212
South 217
Tillotson 217
Threatened decline in the eighteenth century 219
Atterbury, Watts, Doddridge 221
Whitefield 222
Wesley 222
Robert Robinson 223
Robert Hall 224
Christmas Evans 226
William Jay 227
Chalmers 227
Recent English preachers 228
Expository preachers 229
Importance of reading old books 230
Suggestions for the future, viz.
As to Physical Science and Theology 231
Reaction from skepticism 231
Humanity of Christ 232
Humanitarian and liberal tendencies 233
Freedom as to methods of preaching 233
Love of sensation 234
Genuine eloquence 234
Conclusion . . .235

APPENDIX. ON THE LITERATURE OF THE SUBJECT.

PREFACE

THESE lectures were delivered at the Newton Theological Institution, near Boston, in May last. I had been requested to discuss subjects connected with Homiletics, and the place of delivery was the lecture-room of the church. It was therefore necessary that the lectures should be popular in tone, and should abound in practical suggestions. Under such circumstances, I could not fail to perceive the difficulty of treating, in four or five lectures, so vast a subject as the History of Preaching. For this history is interwoven with the general history of Christianity, which itself belongs inseparably to the history of Civ ilization. Yet I greatly desired to develop, however imperfectly, the leading ideas involved in the history of preaching ; to show what causes brought about the prosperity of the pulpit at one time and its decline at another ; to indicate the great principles as to preaching which are thus taught us. I trust that my at tempt may be of service to those who have never made any survey of this wide field, and may stimulate some persons to study particular portions of it with thoroughness, and thus gradually to fill up the gap which here exists in English religious literature.

The principal helps which are accessible, chiefly in other languages, are mentioned in the Appendix. While using them with diligence, I have scarcely ever simply borrowed their statements, and in such cases have always indicated the fact. Where not giving the results of my own study and teaching in the past, I have sought to test by personal examination the ideas and critical judgments of others, before adopting them. At some points my knowledge has of necessity been quite limited. If errors have arisen as to matter of fact, I shall esteem it a favor to have them pointed out. As regards the merits of particular preachers, there is of course much room for difference of opin ion. The sketches of eminent preachers are usually very slight, but it could not be otherwise if space wai to be saved for general ideas and for practical hints.

Some further explanations will be found at the be ginning and end of the closing lecture.

The kind reception given to the lectures at New ton by a general audience of ladies and gentlemen, as well as by the Faculty and Students, has led me to hope that they may find readers who are not ministers, but who take interest in preaching, in Christianity, in history.

God grant that the little volume may be of some real use.

GREENVILLE, S. C. OCT. 1876

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