The Preacher's Ideals and Inspirations (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1917 edition. Excerpt: ..."In these days of popular ignorance of the Bible, yet increasing interest in the Bible, in these days of rampant and widely advertised misinterpretations of the Bible, I believe it is impossible to interest this community in the one book concerning which I am supposed to speak with expert knowledge and authority"? Do not the people of the community read that silent notice, when they read our advertisement of what we regard as a more attractive program than that of Biblical preaching? Why do we not possess our possessions? I believe one reason to be this: All of us as preachers are affected, infected by the American tendency to change. With childlike simplicity we stake our success upon method. / The method fails, it must be wrong; we must try another method. We tried the Boys' Scouts. They " petered out." We tried the Knights of King Arthur. We gave up that organization. Why? Was there anything wrong about the method? There may have been everything right about the method. No method will work, unless there is a man to work the method. We tried to preach Biblical sermons, but the people were not interested. Was there anything wrong about the method? The prime necessity is not a new method, but a new conscience, a new confidence, a new enthusiasm, a new man. Old things are passed away, behold they are become new. In parenthesis it ought perhaps to be said that there are doubtless circumstances that will beat any man. It is to be questioned whether a man can successfully preach Biblical sermons or any other kind of sermons in a church which ought to be burned to the ground in the interest of the kingdom of God. It ought also to be added that most of us are victims of "the lust for statistics." I would not indeed...