Preaching

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Charles Buck Theological Dictionary [1]

Is the discoursing publicly on any religious subject. It is impossible, in the compass of this work, to give a complete history of this article from the beginning down to the present day. This must be considered as a desideratum in theological learning. Mr. Robinson, in his second volume of Claude's Essay, has prefixed a brief dissertation on this subject, an abridgment of which we shall here insert, with a few occasional alterations. From the sacred records we learn, that, when men began to associate for the purpose of worshipping the Deity, Enoch prophesied,  Judges 1:14-15 . We have a very short account of this prophet and his doctrine; enough, however, to convince us that he taught the principal truths of natural and revealed religion. Conviction of sin was in his doctrine, and communion with God was exemplified in his conduct,  Genesis 5:24 .  Hebrews 11:5-6 . From the days of Enoch to the time of Moses, each patriarch worshipped God with his family; probably several assembled at new moons, and alternately instructed the whole company.

Noah, it is said, was a preacher of righteousness,  2 Peter 2:5 .  1 Peter 3:19-20 . Abraham commanded his household after him to keep the way of the Lord, and to do justice and judgment,  Genesis 18:19; and Jacob, when his house lapsed to idolatry, remonstrated against it, and exhorted them and all that were with him to put away strange gods, and to go up with him to Bethel,  Genesis 25:2-3 . Melchisedek, also we may consider as the father, the prince and the priest of his people, publishing the glad tidings of peace and salvation,  Genesis 18:1-33 :   Hebrews 7:1-28 : Moses was a most eminent prophet and preacher, raised up by the authority of God, and by whom, it is said, came the law,   John 1:17 . This great man had much at heart the promulgation of his doctrine; he directed it to be inscribed on pillars, to be transcribed in books, and to be taught both in public and private by word of mouth,  Deuteronomy 28:8 .  Deuteronomy 6:9 .  Deuteronomy 31:19 .  Deuteronomy 17:18 .  Numbers 5:23;  Deuteronomy 4:9 . Himself set the example of each; and how he and Aaron sermonized, we may see by several parts of his writings. The first discourse was heard with profound reverence and attention; the last was both uttered and received in raptures,  Exodus 4:31 .  Deuteronomy 33:7-8 .

Public preaching does not appear under the aeconomy to have been attached to the priesthood: priests were not officially preachers; and we have innumerable instances of discourses delivered in religious assemblies by men of other tribes besides that of Levi,  Psalms 68:11 . Joshua was an Ephraimite; but being full of the spirit of wisdom, he gathered the tribes to Shechem, and harrangued the people of God,  Deuteronomy 34:9 . Joshua 34: Solomon was a prince of the house of Judah, Amos a herdsman of Tekoa; yet both were preachers, and one at least was a prophet,  1 Kings 2:1-46 :   Amos 7:14-15 . When the ignorant notions of Pagans, the vices of their practice, and the idolatry of their pretended worship, were in some sad periods incorporated into the Jewish religion by the princes of that nation, the prophets and all the seers protested against this apostacy, and they were persecuted for so doing. Shemaiah preached to Rehoboam, the princes, and all the people, at Jerusalem,  2 Chronicles 12:5 . Azariah and Hanani preached to Asa and his army,  2 Chronicles 15:1-19;  2 Chronicles 16:1-14;  2 Chronicles 17:1-19;  2 Chronicles 18:1-34;  2 Chronicles 19:1 , &c.  2 Chronicles 16:7 . Micaiah to Ahab. Some of them opened schools, or houses of instruction, and there to their disciples they taught the pure religion of Moses. At Naioth, in the suburbs of Ramah, there was one, where Samuel dwelt; there was another at Jericho, and a third at Bethel, to which Elijah and Elisha often resorted. Thither the people went on Sabbath days and at new moons, and received public lessons of piety and morality,  1 Samuel 19:18 .  2 Kings 2:3;  2 Kings 2:5;  2 Kings 4:2-3 .

Through all this period there was a dismal confusion of the useful ordinance of public preaching. Sometimes they had no open vision, and the word of the Lord was precious or scarce: the people heard it only now and then. At other times they were left without a teaching priest, and without law. And, at other seasons again, itinerants, both princes, priests, and Levites, were sent through all the country to carry the book of the law, and to teach in the cities. In a word, preaching flourished when pure religion grew; and when the last decayed, the first was suppressed. Moses had not appropriated preaching to any order of men: persons, places, times, and manners, were all left open and discretional. Many of the discourses were preached in camps and courts, in streets, schools, cities, and villages, sometimes with great composure and coolness, at other times with vehement action and rapturous energy; sometimes in a plain blunt style, at other times in all the magnificent pomp of Eastern allegory. On some occasions, the preachers appeared in public with visible signs, with implements of war, yokes of slavery, or something adapted to their subject. They gave lectures on these, held them up to view, girded them on, broke them in pieces, rent their garments, rolled in the dust, and endeavoured, by all the methods they could devise agreeably to the customs of their country, to impress the minds of their auditors with the nature and importance of their doctrines.

These men were highly esteemed by the pious part of the nation; and princes thought proper to keep seers and others, who were scribes, who read and expounded the law,  2 Chronicles 34:29-30;  2 Chronicles 35:15 . Hence false prophets, had men who found it worth while to affect to be good, crowded the courts of princes. Jezebel, an idolatress, had four hundred prophets of Baal; and Ahab, a pretended worshipper of Jehovah, had as many pretended prophets of his own profession,  2 Chronicles 18:5 . When the Jews were carried captive into Babylon, the prophets who were with them inculcated the principles of religion, and endeavoured to possess their minds with an aversion to idolatry; and to the success of preaching we may attribute the re-conversion of the Jews to the belief and worship of one God; a conversion that remains to this day. the Jews have since fallen into horrid crimes; but they have never since this period lapsed into idolatry,  Hosea 2:1-23 d and 3d chap.   Ezekiel 2:1-10 d, 3d, and 34th chap. There were not wanting, however, multitudes of false prophets among them, whose characters are strikingly delineated by the true prophets, and which the reader may see in the 13th chapter of Eze 56;   Isaiah 23:1-18 d Jeremiah. When the seventy years of the captivity were expired, the good prophets and preachers, Zerubbabel, Joshua, Haggai, and others, having confidence in the word of God, and aspiring after their natural, civil, and religious rights, endeavoured by all means to extricate themselves and their countrymen from that mortifying state into which the crimes of their ancestors had brought them. They wept, fasted, prayed, preached, prophesied, and at length prevailed.

The chief instruments were Nehemiah and Ezra: the first was governor, and reformed their civil state; the last was a scribe of the law of the God of heaven, and addressed himself to ecclesiastical matters, in which he rendered the noblest service to his country, and to all posterity. He collected and collated manuscripts of the sacred writings, and arranged and published the holy canon in its present form. To this he added a second work as necessary as the former: he revived and new-modelled public preaching, and exemplified his plan in his own person. The Jews had almost lost in the seventy years' captivity their original language: that was now become dead; and they spoke a jargon made up of their own language and that of the Chaldeans and other nations with whom they had been confounded. Formerly preachers had only explained subjects; now they were obliged to explain words; words which, in the sacred code, were become obsolete, equivocal, or dead. Houses were now opened, not for ceremonial worship, as sacrificing, for this was confined to the temple; but for moral obedience, as praying, preaching, reading the law, divine worship, and social duties. These houses were called synagogues; the people repaired thither morning and evening for prayer; and on sabbaths and festivals the law was read and expounded to them. We have a short but beautiful description of the manner of Ezra's first preaching,  Nehemiah 8:1-18 : Upwards of fifty thousand people assembled in a street, or large square, near the Water-gate.

It was early in the morning of a sabbath day. A pulpit of wood, in the fashion of a small tower, was placed there on purpose for the preacher; and this turret was supported by a scaffold, or temporary gallery, where, in a wing on the right hand of th pulpit, sat six of the principal preachers; and in another, on the left, seven. Thirteen other principal teachers, and many Levites, were present also on scaffolds erected for the purpose, alternately to officiate. When Ezra ascended the pulpit, he produced and opened the book of the law, and the whole congregation instantly rose up from their seats, and stood. Then he offered up prayer and praise to God, the people bowing their heads, and worshipping the Lord with their faces to the ground; and, at the close of the prayer, with uplifted hands, they solemnly pronounced, Amen, Amen. Then, all standing, Ezra, assisted at times by the Levites, read the law distinctly, gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading. The sermons delivered so affected the hearers, that they wept excessively; and about noon the sorrow became so exuberant and immeasurable, that it was thought necessary by the governor, the preacher, and the Levites, to restrain it. Go your way, said they; eat the fat, drink the sweet, send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared.

The wise and benevolent sentiments of these noble souls were imbibed by the whole congregation, and fifty thousand troubled hearts were calmed in a moment. Home they returned, to eat, to drink, to send portions and to make mirth, because they had understood the words that were declared unto them. Plato was alive at this time, teaching dull philosophy to cold academics; but what was he, and what was Xenophon or Demosthenes, or any of the Pagan orators, in comparison with these men? From this period to that of the appearance of Jesus Christ, public preaching was universal: synagogues were multiplied, vast numbers attended, and elders and rulers were appointed for the purpose of order and instruction. The most celebrated preacher that arose before the appearance of Jesus Christ was John the Baptist. He was commissioned from heaven to be the harbinger of the Messiah. He took Elijah for his model; and as the times were very much like those in which that prophet lived, he chose a doctrine and a method very much resembling those of that venerable man. His subjects were few, plain, and important. His style was vehement, images bold, his deportment solemn, his actions eager, and his morals strict; but this bright morning-star gave way to the illustrious Sun of Righteousness, who now arose on a benighted world. Jesus Christ certainly was the prince of preachers. Who can but admire the simplicity and majesty of his style, the beauty of his images, the alternate softness and severity of his address, the choice of his subjects, the gracefulness of his deportment, and the indefatigableness of his zeal? Let the reader charm and solace himself in the study and contemplation of the character, excellency, and dignity of this best of preachers, as he will find them delineated by the evangelists. The apostles exactly copied their divine Master. They formed multitudes of religious societies, and were abundantly successful in their labours.

They confined their attention to religion, and left the school to dispute, and politicians to intrigue. The doctrines they preached, they supported entirely by evidence; and neither had nor required such assistance as human laws or worldly policy, the eloquoence of the schools or the terror of arms, the charm of money or the tricks of tradesmen, could afford them. The apostles being dead, every thing came to pass as they had foretold. The whole Christian system underwent a miserable change; preaching shared the fate of other institutions, and this glory of the primitive church was now generally degenerated. Those writers whom we call the Fathers, however, imitation, do not deserve that indiscriminate praise ascribed to them. Christianity, it is true, is found in their writings; but how sadly incorporated with Pagan philosophy and Jewish allegory! It must, indeed, be allowed, that, in general, the simplicity of Christianity was maintained, though under gradual decay, during the three first centuries. The next five centuries produced many pious and excellent preachers both in the Latin and Greek churches, though the doctrine continued to degenerate. The Greek pulpit was adorned with some eloquent orators. Basil, bishop of Caesarea, John Chrysostom, preacher at Antioch, and afterwards patriarch (as he was called) of Constantinople, and Gregory Nazianzen, who all flourished n the fourth century, seem to have led the fashion of preaching in the Greek church: Jerom and Augustin did the same in the Latin church.

For some time, preaching was common to bishops, elders, deacons, and private brethren in the primitive church: in process, it was restrained to the bishop, and to such as he should appoint. They called the appointment ordination; and at last attached I know not what ideas of mystery and influence to the word, and of dominion to the bishop who pronounced it. When a bishop or preacher travelled, he claimed no authority to exercise the duties of his function, unless he were invited by the churches where he attended public worship. The first preachers differed much in pulpit action; the greater part used very moderate and sober gesture. They delivered their sermons all extempore, while there were notaries who took down what they said. Sermons in those days were all in the vulgar tongue. The Greeks preached in Greek, the Latins in Latin. They did not preach by the clock (so to speak, ) but were short or long as they saw occasion, though an hour was about the usual time. Sermons were generally both preached and heard standing; but sometimes both speaker and auditors sat, especially the aged and the infirm. The fathers were fond of allegory; for Origen, that everlasting allegorizer, had set them the example. Before preaching, the preacher usually went into a vestry to pray, and afterwards to speak to such as came to salute him. He prayed with his eyes shut in the pulpit. The first word the preacher uttered to the people, when he ascended the pulpit, was "Peach be with you, " or "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with you all;" to which the assembly at first added, "Amen:" and, in after times, they answered, "And with thy spirit." Degenerate, however, as these days were in comparison with those of the apostles, yet they were golden ages in comparison with the times that followed, when metaphysical reasonings, mystical divinity, yea, Aristotelian categories, and reading the lives of saints, were substituted in the place of sermons. The pulpit became a stage, where ludicrous priests obtained the vulgar laugh by the lowest kind of wit, especially at the festivals of Christman and Easter. But the glorious reformation was the offspring of preaching, by which mankind were informed: there was a standard, and the religion of the times was put to trial by it.

The avidity of the common people to read Scripture, and to hear it expounded, was wonderful; and the Papists were so fully convinced of the benefit of frequent public instruction, that they who were justly called unpreaching prelates, and whose pulpits, to use an expression of Latimer, had been bells without clappers for many a long year, were obliged for shame to set up regular preaching again. The church of Rome has produced some great preachers since the reformation, but not equal to the reformed preachers; and a question naturally arises here, which it would be unpardonable to pass over in silence, concerning the singular effect of the preaching of the reformed, which was general, national, universal reformation. In the darkest times of popery there had arisen now and then some famous popular preachers, who had zealously inveighed against the vices of their times, and whose sermons had produced sudden and amazing effects on their auditors, but all these effects had died away with the preachers who produced them, and all things had gone back into the old state. Law, learning, commerce, society at large, had not been improved.

Here a new scene opens; preachers arise less popular, perhaps less indefatigable and exemplary; their sermons produce less striking immediate effects: and yet their auditors go away, and agree by whole nations to reform. Jerome Savonarola, Jerome Narni, Capistran, Connecte, and many others, had produced by their sermons, great immediate effects. When Connecte preached, the ladies lowered their headdresses, and committed quilled caps by hundreds to the flames. When Narni taught the populace in Lent, from the pulpits of Rome, half the city went from his sermons, crying along the streets, Lord have mercy upon us; Christ have mercy upon us; so that in only one passion week, two thousand crowns worth of ropes were sold to make scourges with; and when he preached before the pope to cardinals and bishops, and painted the crime of non-residence in its own colours, he frightened thirty or forty bishops who heard him, instantly home to their dioceses. In the pulpit of the university of Salamanca he induced eight hundred students to quit all worldly prospects of honour, riches, and pleasures, and to become penitents in divers monasteries. Some of this class were martyrs too. We know the fate of Savonarrola, and more might be added: but all lamented the momentary duration of the effects produced by their labours.

Narni himself was so disgusted with his office, that he renounced preaching, and shut himself up in his cell to mourn over his irreclaimable contemporaries; for bishops went back to court, and rope-makers lay idle again. Our reformers taught all the good doctrines which had been taught by these men, and they added two or three more, by which they laid the axe to the root of apostacy, and produced general information. Instead of appealing to popes, and canons, and founders, and fathers, they only quoted them, and referred their auditors to the Holy Scriptures for law. Pope Leo X. did not know this when he told Prierio, who complained of Luther's heresy. Friar Martin had a fine genius! They also taught the people what little they knew of Christian liberty; and so led them into a belief that they might follow their own ideas in religion, without the consent of a confessor, a diocesan, a pope, or a council. They went farther, and laid the stress of all religion on justifying faith. This obliged the people to get acquainted with Christ, the object of their faith; and thus they were led into the knowledge of a character altogether different from what they saw in their old guides; a character which it is impossible to know, and not to admire and imitate.

The old papal popular sermons had gone off like a charge of gunpowder, producing only a fright, a bustle, and a black face; but those of the nerve learninge, as the monks called them, were small hearty seeds, which, being sown in the honest hearts of the multitude, and watered with the dew of heaven, softly vegetated, and imperceptibly unfolded blossoms and fruits of inestimable value. These eminent servants of Christ excelled in various talents, both in the pulpit and in private. Knox came down like a thunder-storm; Calvin resembled a whole day's set rain; Beza was a shower of the softest dew. Old Latimer, in a coarse frieze gown, trudged afoot, his Testament hanging at one end of his leathern girdle, and his spectacles at the other, and without ceremony instructed the people in rustic style from a hollow tree; while the courtly Ridley in satin and fur taught the same principles in the cathedral of the metropolis. Crammer, though a timorous man, ventured to give king Henry the Eighth a New Testament, with the label, Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge; while Knox, who said, there was nothing in the pleasant face of a lady to affray him, assured the queen of Scots, that, "If there were any spark of the Spirit of God, yea, of honesty and wisdom in her, she would not be offended with his affirming in his sermons, that the diversions of her court were diabolical crimes evidences of impiety or insanity." These men were not all accomplished scholars; but they all gave proof enough that they were honest, hearty, and disinterested in the cause of religion. All Europe produced great and excellent preachers, and some of the more studious and sedate reduced their art of public preaching to a system, and taught rules of a good sermon. Bishop Wilkins enumerated, in 1646, upwards of sixty who had written on the subject.

Several of these are valuable treatises, full of edifying instructions; but all are on a scale too large, and, by affecting to treat of the whole office of a minister, leave that capital branch, public preaching, unfinished and vague. One of the most important articles of pulpit science, that which gives life and energy to all the rest, and without which all the rest are nothing but a vain parade, either neglected or exploded in all these treatises. It is essential to the ministration of the divine word by public preaching, that preachers be allowed to form principles of their own, and that their sermons contain their real sentiments, the fruits of their own intense thought and meditation. Preaching cannot be in a good state in those communities, where the shameful traffic of buying and selling manuscript sermons is carried on. Moreover, all the animating encouragements that arise from a free unbiased choice of the people, and from their uncontaminated, disinterested applause, should be left open to stimulate a generous youth to excel. Command a man to utter what he has no inclination to propagate, and what he does not even believe; threaten him, at the same time, with all the miseries of life, if he dare to follow his own ideas, and to promulgate his own sentiments, and you pass a sentence of death on all he says. He does declaim; but all is lanquid and cold, and he lays his system out as an undertaker does the dead. Since the reformers, we have had multitudes who have entered into their views with disinterestedness and success; and, in the present times, both in the church and among dissenters, names could be mentioned which would do honour to any nation; for though there are too many who do not fill up that important station with proportionate piety and talents, yet we have men who are conspicuous for their extent of knowledge, depth of experience, originality of thought, fervency of zeal, consistency of deportment, and great usefulness in the Christian church. May their numbers still be increased, and their exertions in the cause of truth be eminently crowned with the divine blessing!

See Robinson's Claude, vol. 2: preface; and books recommended under article Minister

Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament [2]

The essential nature of apostolic preaching is expressed in the two main words used throughout the NT: κηρύσσειν, ‘to proclaim as a herald’ (κῆρυξ), and εὐαγγελίζειν, ‘to tell good tidings’ (εὐαγγέλιον, ‘the gospel’), both of which are translated ‘to preach.’ Sometimes the full expression κηρύσσειν τὸ εὐαγγέλιον, ‘to proclaim the gospel’ ( Galatians 2:2,  1 Thessalonians 2:9), occurs, while εὐαγγελίζειν frequently characterizes the content of the good tidings, specifically as ‘the gospel’ (τὸ εὐαγγέλιον,  1 Corinthians 15:1,  2 Corinthians 11:7,  Galatians 1:11), or more variously as ‘Jesus Christ’ ( Acts 5:42), ‘peace’ ( Ephesians 2:17), or ‘the word’ ( Acts 15:35). Other expressions, such as ‘proclaim Christ’ (καταγγέλλειν Χριστόν,  Philippians 1:17 f.) and ‘testify the gospel (διαμαρτύρεσθαι τὸ εὐαγγέλιον) of the grace of God’ ( Acts 20:24), help to make clear that preaching was primarily the proclamation of good tidings from God, the heralding of Jesus Christ as the Saviour of men.

To get back to the NT standpoint it is necessary to rid one’s mind of the preconception that preaching was giving a sermon or delivering a discourse elaborated in accordance with certain recognized homiletical canons. Still less was it the detailed exegesis and exposition of a so-called text or isolated passage of Scripture, such as prevailed in the synagogue preaching. That the message was often supported by quotations from the OT is not doubted; but the apostolic preaching did not confine itself to appeals to Scripture. It was rather the spontaneous, authoritative announcement of a truth felt to be new to the experience of man, and explicable only in the light of the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ as Saviour of men.

1. Preaching and teaching.-The function of preaching, as above outlined, is to be distinguished from teaching (διδαχή), in which the truths and duties of Christianity were more deliberately unfolded and applied. The content of the preaching and of the more elaborated instruction was necessarily often the same ( Acts 5:42;  Acts 15:35,  Colossians 1:28). The preacher (κῆρυξ) was sometimes also a teacher (διδάσκαλος), especially in the more settled state of the early Church ( 1 Timothy 2:7,  2 Timothy 1:11). But, even so, a clearly marked distinction is made in the case of Paul ‘preaching (κηρύσσων) the kingdom of God, and teaching (διδάσκων) the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ’ ( Acts 28:31). The ability to preach or to teach was regarded as a gift of the Holy Spirit, but due regard was given to the ‘diversities of gifts’ and ‘diversities of ministrations’ even in these closely related activities. ‘To one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom, and to another the word of knowledge, … to another prophecy’ ( 1 Corinthians 12:4-11; cf.  Romans 12:6 ff.). That a clearly marked differentiation of function was believed to be Divinely appointed appears from the two formal lists of spiritually gifted members, in which ‘teachers’ are mentioned after apostles and prophets ( 1 Corinthians 12:28,  Ephesians 4:11). Preaching was the function of the apostles (in the wider meaning of the word) and of the prophets. Both travelled about, the former continuously in their missionary activities, the latter frequently settling down in one locality where their preaching would tend to edification and exhortation.

2. Qualification.-The work of preaching in the 1st cent. was regarded not as an office but as a ‘calling’ due to the gift of the Spirit. Apostolic preaching began with the command of Christ to the Twelve ( Matthew 10:7,  Mark 16:15;  Mark 16:20); but it was after the bestowal of the Spirit at Pentecost as a ‘tongue of fire’ that this gift (χάρισμα) of inspired utterance became general in the early Church. Those who preached the gospel did so because they were under Divine compulsion ( Acts 4:8;  Acts 4:20;  Acts 6:10;  Acts 8:26). The Holy Spirit qualified them for this special work, and authenticated their message. They felt that they were commissioned by no mere human authority. Subjectively their call to preach consisted in a feeling of ‘necessity’ ( 1 Corinthians 9:16), but an objective test was applied to them and their message by the spiritual communities to which they ministered ( 1 Thessalonians 5:21,  1 Corinthians 12:3;  1 Corinthians 12:10,  1 John 4:1 f.). The Didache shows that at a later stage the tests were practical, if not drastic. The prophet must ‘have the ways of the Lord’ (xi. 8); he must practise what he preaches, and not ask for money (xi. 9-12). But the preacher, when duly approved, had the right to expect support ( 1 Corinthians 9:4 ff.,  2 Corinthians 11:8 f., Did. xiii. 1-3), and was to be treated with great honour (Did. iv. 1). ‘The picture of these wandering preachers, men burdened by no cares of office, with no pastoral duties, coming suddenly into a Christian community, doing their work there and as suddenly departing, is a very vivid one in sub-apostolic literature’ (T. M. Lindsay, The Church and the Ministry in the Early Centuries, 1902, p. 73).

3. Preaching and faith.-That preaching was the Divinely ordained means for the diffusion of Christianity appears from the successful appeal it made to the capacity for faith which is latent in all men. ‘Belief cometh of hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ’ ( Romans 10:17). The ancient world was familiar with much propaganda work done by travelling teachers of various philosophical schools. But the basis of appeal in these cases was to the speculative curiosity of their hearers. The preachers of the gospel, on the contrary, did not depend upon the assent of reason ( 1 Corinthians 2:1;  1 Corinthians 2:4). Not that the gospel had no place in a rational view of man and his relation to the universe and God; there was a ‘wisdom’ to be spoken among mature believers (v. 6). But the message of the early Christian preachers was more in the nature of a Divine summons to the human heart to trust in the fatherly love of God and to believe in Jesus Christ as the pledge of His redeeming grace. It was a call to the human will, estranged by sin, to yield in trustful submission to the Divine will. The faith which the preacher sought to arouse was no mere intellectual belief in a system of doctrine, but an act of the whole personality, in which trust, belief, and volition united in a self-commitment to a Divine Person-God or Christ. And a careful study of the NT shows that such a close connexion between preaching and faith was established: ‘So we preach, and so ye believed’ ( 1 Corinthians 15:11). The philosophic teacher might capture the intellect, the mystery-monger might stir superstitious hopes and fears, but ‘the first Christian preachers testified that they had found salvation through faith in the Gospel of the Cross as they presented it. With the consciousness of the same need awakened, their hearers believed the testimony that was thus given them; they embraced the Saviour who was thus presented to them; and so believing, they entered into the same experience of salvation as belonged to their teachers’ (W. L. Walker, The Cross and the Kingdom2, 1911, p. 25 f.). The gifts of the Spirit received by the ‘hearing of faith’ authenticated both the believer ( Galatians 3:2) and the preacher ( 1 Corinthians 2:4).

4. Kinds of preaching.-The preaching of the Apostolic Age was marked by great variety. The sources available for a characterization are the historical portions of Acts, together with the actual discourses contained therein, and also what may legitimately be inferred from the Epistles. The Epistles should not be regarded as specimens of apostolic preaching, being rather, in form and content, examples of primitive teaching. But they contain many allusions to preaching, and thus help us to reconstruct historically the conditions under which it took place, the forms it assumed, and its main doctrinal contents.

The variety of apostolic preaching was determined by the individuality of the speakers, the nature of their audiences, and the stage in the doctrinal development of the message. But beneath all differences a unity was preserved round the central theme of the Person and work of Jesus Christ in human redemption. It was ‘preaching Christ,’ whatever might be the local or personal conditions under which the message was proclaimed. Three main characteristics are to be noted. (a) First in historical order came the preaching to the Jews, which may be called Messianic. St. Peter’s addresses in Jerusalem and St. Paul’s sermons in the synagogues on his missionary journeys appeal to the resurrection of Jesus in proof of His Messiahship, and support it by quotations from the OT. Exhortations to repentance naturally followed this kind of preaching, especially as the exaltation and second coming of the Christ were emphasized. (b) Next there was the preaching to the Gentiles, which may be described as missionary. The evangelization of heathen without any knowledge of the Scriptures or of the facts concerning Jesus naturally employed different methods of appeal. On the negative side it exposed idolatry, superstition, and degrading notions of God, and condemned human sin. The positive element was the proclamation of Jesus Christ as the Saviour of all men. This included the facts of His earthly life, and His death and resurrection ( Galatians 4:4,  1 Corinthians 15:3 f.). (c) The third kind of preaching was what may broadly be called edifying. It was addressed to congregations composed of Jewish Christians and converts won from heathenism. In these spiritual communities meetings for edification were held, in which every one who had a ‘gift’-whether of prophecy or interpretation, or ‘tongues,’ or praise ( 1 Corinthians 14:26 f.)-used it for the upbuilding of the Church. It was in such gatherings that preaching, in the more generally accepted sense of the term, was exercised.

In St. Paul, who is the preacher par excellence of the Apostolic Age, we see all the foregoing kinds of preaching illustrated, together with a marvellous variety of modes of address to win his hearers. In the case of Jews he appealed, like St. Peter, to the OT ( Acts 13:40;  Acts 13:47;  Acts 15:15 f.,  Acts 17:2 f.). In Athens he did not hesitate to quote a pagan pcet ( Acts 17:28), and expounded the philosophy of the Christian religion. To the people of Lystra ( Acts 14:15 f.) he used the arguments of natural theology. But it was in Corinth that he opposed his central theme of ‘Christ crucified’ to the impurity, commercialism, and superstitions of the city ( 1 Corinthians 1:22;  1 Corinthians 2:2). Attention has also been drawn (A. C. McGiffert, History of Christianity in the Apostolic Age, 1897, p. 255) to the fact, which is often overlooked, that St. Paul in his preaching did much personal work among individuals ( Acts 18:2,  1 Thessalonians 2:9), in addition to addressing audiences. The effective preaching of Philip to the Ethiopian eunuch ( Acts 8:35) may be quoted as an earlier example of this ‘hand-to-hand work’ in Christian evangelization.

5. Content of apostolic preaching.-The elaborated doctrinal aspects of the gospel proclaimed by the apostles are dealt with in the artt._ Gospel and Teaching and those concerned with the points of biblical theology involved. All that can be attempted here is to indicate the main outlines of the subject-matter of the preaching of the apostles.

(a) God and Christ.-Our Lord proclaimed as good tidings the coming of the Kingdom of God. But after His death and resurrection a new content appears in the preaching of His followers, viz. the Person and work of Christ Himself. Not that the subject of the Kingdom was dropped ( Acts 8:12;  Acts 20:25;  Acts 28:31); but it became subordinated to the gospel concerning Christ, through whom the Divine sovereignty was to be established on earth, and to the ultimate question about the nature of God and His grace, through which alone such a Kingdom could come among sinful men. As a basis for missionary Christological preaching the doctrine of the existence and unity of God would form a large element in the glad tidings to heathen living under the distractions of polytheism and demonism ( Acts 17:22 ff.,  1 Thessalonians 1:9). But undoubtedly in the forefront was the proclamation to all nations of the ‘unsearchable riches of Christ’ ( Ephesians 3:8). In one word, Christ was the main content of apostolic preaching. Among those who under stress of persecution went about ‘preaching the word’ was Philip, who in Samaria ‘proclaimed unto them the Christ’ (ἐκήρυσσεν τὸν Χριστόν,  Acts 8:4 f.), while to the Ethiopian eunuch he ‘preached Jesus’ (εὐηγγελίσατο τὸν Ἰησοῦν,  Acts 8:35). Others came to Antioch ‘preaching the Lord Jesus’ (εὐαγγελιζόμενοι τὸν Κύριον Ἰησοῦν,  Acts 11:20). St. Paul warns the Corinthians against anyone who ‘preacheth another Jesus, whom we did not preach’ (ἐκηρύξαμεν,  2 Corinthians 11:4) and he rejoices when, even under conditions of faction, ‘Christ is proclaimed’ (Χριστὸς καταγγέλλεται,  Philippians 1:18). The very Person of Jesus Christ constituted a gospel worth preaching. He embodied and expressed in human nature the final revelation of God (cf.  John 14:9).

(b) Resurrection and Messiahship of Jesus.-It was no mere abstract conception of the personality of Jesus that was preached. As pointed out by B. Weiss, ‘like Jesus Himself, His apostles commence, not with a religious doctrine or an ethical demand, but with the proclamation of a fact’ (Biblical Theol. of NT, Eng. tr._, 1882-83, i. 173). That fact was the Messiahship of Jesus. But another fact formed the basis of this proclamation-and that was the fact that Jesus had been raised from the dead. ‘The resurrection of Jesus,’ says G. V. Lechler, ‘appears in primitive Christian preaching as the fundamental fact, the Alpha and Omega of apostolic announcement’ (Apostolic and Post-Apostolic Times, Eng. tr._, 1886, i. 267). Hence it was after the Resurrection and the supernatural gift at Pentecost that the apostles ‘ceased not to teach and preach (εὐαγγελιζόμενοι) Jesus as the Christ’ ( Acts 5:42;  Acts 2:36;  Acts 3:14 f.,  Acts 4:10,  Acts 5:31). This close connexion between the Resurrection and Messiahship of Jesus appears also in the preaching of the Apostle of the Gentiles. St. Paul declared in the synagogue at Thessalonica: ‘it behoved the Christ to suffer, and to rise again from the dead; and this Jesus whom I proclaim unto you is the Christ’ ( Acts 17:3; cf.  1 Thessalonians 1:10). Later in Corinth he testified that ‘Jesus was the Christ’ ( Acts 18:5), reminding them afterwards that the ‘gospel preached’ unto them was that ‘Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures … and that he hath been raised on the third day according to the scriptures’ ( 1 Corinthians 15:1-4). It must be remembered that the good tidings of the resurrection of Jesus carried with it the glad message also of the believers’ share in the Messianic blessings ( Acts 3:19-26), and a participation in the future resurrection ( 1 Corinthians 15:20 ff.; cf.  Acts 17:18 St. Paul ‘preached Jesus and the resurrection’).

(c) Death and Atonement of Christ.-The earliest hearers of the gospel, however, could not lose sight of the prior sinister fact of the crucifixion and death of Jesus. That was a ‘stumbling-block’ to the Jews and ‘foolishness’ to the Greeks. But St. Paul found in the death of Christ the central theme of his preaching, for in it he discerned Christ’s redeeming work as Saviour of all men. ‘We preach’ (κηρύσσομεν), he says, ‘a Messiah crucified’ ( 1 Corinthians 1:23). ‘I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified’ ( 1 Corinthians 2:2). It was because ‘the word of the cross’ ( 1 Corinthians 1:18) was also the ‘word of reconciliation’ ( 2 Corinthians 5:19) that St. Paul preached it so fervently, and because he had proved in his own experience that this, ‘his gospel,’ was the ‘power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth’ ( Romans 1:16). ‘Only a man,’ says W. Beyschlag, ‘in whom the Lord who is the Spirit has come to dwell, who exhibits the love of Christ in its transforming power, can kindle that flame of divine life in others; and the fire is spread, not by instruction in a doctrinal system, but by testimony to a personal experience of the gospel of God coming from the heart with individual truth and freedom’ (NT Theology, 1895, ii. 169). That this conception of the redeeming efficacy of the death of Christ formed a large part of apostolic preaching may be inferred from many different passages ( Hebrews 9:13 f.,  1 Peter 1:18 f.,  1 John 1:7;  1 John 2:2).

To ‘preach Christ,’ then, was to proclaim, as good news to sinful and dying men, the many-sided fact of Christ, the whole scheme of salvation-pardon, regeneration, spiritual enrichment, personal immortality-involved in Christ’s death, resurrection, and exaltation. This may be seen from several expressions in which the term ‘preaching’ does not apply to the gospel message, e.g. ‘Moses hath in every city them that preach (κηρύσσοντας) him’ ( Acts 15:21), where the whole Mosaic dispensation is the content of the preaching. Again, ‘the baptism which John preached’ (ἐκήρυξεν,  Acts 10:37), and to ‘preach circumcision’ ( Galatians 5:11), indicate clearly other and wider contents than ‘baptism’ and ‘circumcision.’ if to ‘preach Moses’ meant to proclaim the validity of the whole Mosaic legislation, then to ‘preach Christ’ involves not only the proclamation of the religions significance of Jesus Christ but the whole evangelical scheme of redemption and reconciliation that centres in Him. Hence one can ‘preach peace’ ( Ephesians 2:17) in view of the results of the gospel, or ‘preach the faith’ ( Galatians 1:23), or ‘preach the word of God’ ( Acts 13:5) as a Divinely given message to be proclaimed and as a gospel of salvation.

Literature.-In addition to the works quoted above, see J. Ker, Lectures on the History of Preaching, 1888; M. Dods, ‘The Foolishness of Preaching.’ in Expositor’s Bible, ‘1 Corinthians,’ 1889; artt._ on ‘Preaching,’ by W. F. Adeney, in HDB_ and DCG_, and art._ on ‘Preaching Christ,’ by J. Denney, in Dcg_; A. W Momerie, Preaching and Hearing, 1886; J. B. Lightfoot, Ordination Addresses, 1890 pp. 3-119; J. H. Jowett, Apostolic Optimism, 1910, p. 262; W. T. Davison, Strength for the Way, 1902, p. 137; R. W. Dale, Christian Doctrine, 1894, p. 302; J. M. E. Ross, The Christian Standpoint, 1911, p. 15; A. M. Fairbairn, Christ in the Centuries, 1893, p. 23.

M. Scott Fletcher.

Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary [3]

is the discoursing publicly on any religious subject. From the sacred records, says Robert Robinson, we learn that when men began to associate for the purpose of worshipping the Deity, Enoch prophesied,  Judges 1:14-15 . We have a very short account of this prophet and his doctrine; enough, however, to convince us that he taught the principal truths of natural and revealed religion. Conviction of sin was in his doctrine, and communion with God was exemplified in his conduct,  Genesis 5:24;  Hebrews 11:5-6 . From the days of Enoch to the time of Moses, each patriarch worshipped God with his family: probably several assembled at new moons, and alternately instructed the whole company. "Noah," it is said, "was a preacher of righteousness,"  1 Peter 3:19-20;  2 Peter 2:5 . Abraham commanded his household alter him to keep the way of the Lord, and to do justice and judgment,  Genesis 18:19; and Jacob, when his house lapsed to idolatry, remonstrated against it, and exhorted all them that were with him to put away the strange gods, and go up with him to Bethel,  Genesis 35:2-3 . Melchisedec, also, we may consider as the father, the priest, and the prince, of his people; publishing the glad tidings of peace and salvation, Genesis 14; Hebrews 7.

Moses was a most eminent prophet and preacher, raised up by the authority of God, and by whom, it was said, came the law,  John 1:17 . This great man had much at heart the promulgation of his doctrine: he directed it to be inscribed on pillars, to be transcribed in books, and to be taught both in public and private by word of mouth,  Deuteronomy 4:9;  Deuteronomy 6:9;  Deuteronomy 17:18;  Deuteronomy 27:8;  Deuteronomy 31:19;  Numbers 5:23 . He himself set the example of each; and how he and Aaron preached, we may see by several parts of his writings. The first discourse was heard with profound reverence and attention; the last was both uttered and received with raptures,  Exodus 4:31;  Deuteronomy 33:7-8 , &c. Public preaching does not appear under this economy to have been attached to the priesthood: priests were not officially preachers; and we have innumerable instances of discourses delivered in assemblies by men of other tribes beside that of Levi,  Psalms 68:11 . Joshua was an Ephraimite; but, being full of the spirit of wisdom, he gathered the tribes to Shechem, and harangued the people of God,  Deuteronomy 34:9; Joshua 24. Solomon was a prince of the house of Judah; Amos, a herdsman of Tekoa; yet both were preachers, and one at least was a prophet, 1 Kings 2;  Amos 7:14-15 . When the ignorant notions of Pagans, the vices of their practice, and the idolatry of their pretended worship, were in some sad periods incorporated into the Jewish religion by the princes of that nation, the prophets and all the seers protested against this apostasy; and they were persecuted for so doing. Shemaiah preached to Rehoboam, the princes, and all the people at Jerusalem,  2 Chronicles 12:5; Azariah and Hanani preached to Asa and his army,  2 Chronicles 15:1;  2 Chronicles 16:7; Micaiah, to Ahab. Some of them opened schools, or houses of instruction; and there to their disciples they taught the pure religion of Moses. At Naioth, in the suburbs of Ramah, there was one where Samuel dwelt; and there was one at Jericho, and a third at Bethel, to which Elijah and Elisha often resorted. Thither the people went on Sabbath days and at new moons, and received public lessons of piety and morality,  1 Samuel 19:18;  2 Kings 2:2;  2 Kings 2:5;  2 Kings 4:2-3 . Through all this period, however, there was a dismal confusion of the useful ordinance of public preaching. Sometimes they had no open vision, and the word of the Lord was precious, or scarce; the people only heard it now and then. At other times they were left without a teaching priest, and without law. And at other seasons again, itinerants, both princes, priests, and Levites, were sent through all the country, to carry the book of the law, and to teach in the cities. In a word, preaching flourished when pure religion grew; and when the last decayed, the first was suppressed. Moses had not appropriated preaching to any order of men: persons, places, times, and manners, were all left open and discretional. Many of the discourses were preached in camps and courts, in streets, schools, cities, villages; sometimes, with great composure and coolness; at other times, with vehement action and rapturous energy; sometimes, in a plain, blunt style; at other times, in all the magnificent pomp of eastern allegory. On some occasions, the preachers appeared in public with visible signs, with implements of war, with yokes of slavery, or something adapted to their subject. They gave lectures on these, held them up to view, girded them on, broke them in pieces, rent their garments, rolled in the dust, and endeavoured, by all the methods they could devise, agreeably to the customs of their country, to impress the minds of their auditors with the nature and importance of their doctrines. These men were highly esteemed by the pious part of the nation; and princes thought proper to keep seers and others who were scribes, who read and expounded the law,  2 Chronicles 34:29-30;  2 Chronicles 35:15 . Hence, false prophets, bad men, who found their account in pretending to be good, crowded the courts of princes. Jezebel, an idolatress, had four hundred prophets of Baal; and Ahab, a pretended worshipper of Jehovah, had as many pretended prophets of his own profession,  2 Chronicles 18:5 .

When the Jews were carried captive into Babylon, the prophets who were with them inculcated the principles of religion, and endeavoured to possess their minds with an aversion to idolatry; and, to the success of preaching, we may attribute the re-conversion of the Jews to the belief and worship of one God; a conversion that remains to this day. The Jews have since fallen into horrid crimes; but they have never since this period lapsed into gross idolatry, Hosea 2, 3; Ezekiel 2; 3:34. There were not wanting, however, multitudes of false prophets among them, whose characters are strikingly delineated by the true prophets, and which the reader may see in Ezekiel 13; Isaiah 56; Jeremiah 23. When the seventy years of the captivity were expired, the good prophets and preachers, Zerubbabel, Joshua, Haggai, and others, having confidence in the word of God, and being concerned to possess their natural, civil, and religious rights, endeavoured, by all means, to extricate themselves and their countrymen from that mortifying state into which the crimes of their ancestors had brought them. They wept, fasted, prayed, preached, prophesied, and at length prevailed. The chief instruments were Nehemiah and Ezra; the former was governor, and reformed the civil state; the latter was a scribe of the law of the God of heaven, and applied himself to ecclesiastical matters, in which he rendered the noblest service to his country, and to all posterity. He collected and collated MSS. of the sacred writings, and arranged and published the books of the holy canon in their present form. To this he added a second work, as necessary as the former: he revised and new modelled public teaching, and exemplified his plan in his own person. The Jews had almost lost, in the seventy years captivity, their original language; that was now become dead; and they spoke a jargon made up of their own language and that of the Chaldeans, and other nations, with whom they had been mingled. Formerly, preachers had only explained subjects: now they were obliged to explain words; words which, in the sacred code, were become obsolete, equivocal, or dead. Houses were now opened, not for ceremonial worship, as sacrificing, for this was confined to the temple; but for moral and religious instruction, as praying, preaching, reading the law, divine worship, and social duties. These houses were called synagogues; the people repaired thither for morning and evening prayer; and on Sabbaths and festivals, the law was read and expounded to them. We have a short but beautiful description of the manner of Ezra's first preaching, Nehemiah 8. Upward of fifty thousand people assembled in a street, or large square, near the water gate. It was early in the morning of a Sabbath day. A pulpit of wood, in the fashion of a small tower, was placed there on purpose for the preacher; and this turret was supported by a scaffold, or temporary gallery, where, in a wing on the right hand of the pulpit, sat six of the principal preachers; and in another on the left, seven. Thirteen other principal teachers, and many Levites, were present also, on scaffolds erected for the purpose, alternately to officiate. When Ezra ascended the pulpit, he produced and opened the book of the law, and the whole congregation instantly rose up from their seats, and stood. Then he offered up prayer and praise to God. The people bowing their heads and worshipping the Lord with their faces to the ground; and at the close of the prayer, with uplifted hands, they solemnly pronounced, "Amen! Amen!" Then all standing, Ezra, assisted at times by the Levites, read the law distinctly, gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading. The sermons delivered so affected the hearers, that they wept excessively; and about noon the sorrow became so exuberant and immeasurable, that it was thought necessary by the governor, the preacher, and the Levites, to restrain it. "Go your way," said they, "eat the fat, and drink the sweet, send portions to them for whom nothing is prepared." The wise and benevolent sentiments of these noble souls were imbibed by the whole congregation, and fifty thousand troubled hearts were calmed in a moment. Home they returned, to eat, to drink, to send portions, and rejoice, because they had understood the words that were declared unto them. Plato was living at this time, teaching dull philosophy to cold academics; but what was he, and what was Xenophon, or Demosthenes, or any of the Pagan orators, in comparison with these men? From this period to that of the appearance of Jesus Christ, public preaching was universal; synagogues were multiplied, vast numbers attended, and elders and rulers were appointed for the purpose of order and instruction.

The most celebrated preacher that arose before the appearance of Jesus Christ was John the Baptist. He was commissioned from heaven to be the harbinger of the Messiah. His subjects were few, plain, and important. His style was vehement, his images bold, his deportment solemn, his action eager, and his morals strict. But this bright morning star gave way to the illustrious Sun of righteousness, who now arose on a benighted world. Jesus Christ certainly was the Prince of teachers. Who but can admire the simplicity and majesty of his style, the beauty of his images, the alternate softness and severity of his address, the choice of his subjects, the gracefulness of his deportment, and the indefatigableness of his zeal? Let the reader charm and solace himself in the study and contemplation of the character, excellency, and dignity of this divine teacher, as he will find them delineated in the evangelists.

The Apostles copied their divine Master. They formed multitudes of religious societies, and were abundantly successful in their labours. They confined their attention to religion, and left the schools to dispute, and politicians to intrigue. The doctrines they preached they supported entirely by evidence; and neither had nor required such assistance as human laws or worldly policy, the eloquence of schools or the terror of arms, could afford them.

The Apostles being dead, every thing came to pass as they had foretold; the whole Christian system, in time, underwent a miserable change; preaching shared the fate of other institutions, and the glory of the primitive church gradually degenerated. Those writers whom we call the fathers, however, held up to view by some as models for imitation, do not deserve that indiscriminate praise ascribed to them. Christianity, it is true, is found in their writings; but how sadly incorporated with Pagan philosophy and Jewish allegory! It must, indeed, be allowed, that, in general, the simplicity of Christianity was maintained, though under gradual decay, during the first three centuries. The next five centuries produced many pious and excellent preachers, both in the Latin and Greek church, though the doctrine continued to degenerate. The Greek pulpit was adorned with some eloquent orators. Basil, bishop of Caesarea, John Chrysostom, preacher at Antioch, and afterward patriarch, as he was called, of Constantinople, and Gregory Nazianzen, who all flourished in the fourth century, seem to have led the fashion of preaching in the Greek church; Jerom and Augustine did the same in the Latin church. The first preachers differed much in pulpit action; the greater part used very moderate and sober gestures. They delivered their sermons all extempore, while there were notaries who took down what they said. Sermons in those days were all in the vulgar tongue: the Greeks preached in Greek, the Latins in Latin. They did not preach by the clock, so to speak, but were short or long as they saw occasion; though an hour was about the usual time. Sermons were generally both preached and heard standing; but sometimes both speaker and auditors sat, especially the aged and the infirm. The fathers were fond of allegory; for Origen, that everlasting allegorizer, had set them the example. Before preaching, the preacher usually went into a vestry to pray, and afterward to speak to such as came to salute him. He prayed with his eyes shut in the pulpit. The first word the preacher uttered to the people when he ascended the pulpit was, "Peace be with you;" or, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost, be with you all;" to whom the assembly first added, "Amen," and in after times they answered, "And with thy spirit." Degenerate, however, as these days were, in comparison of those of the Apostles, yet they were golden ages in comparison with the times that followed, when metaphysical reasoning, mystical divinity, yea, Aristotelian categories, and reading the lives of saints, were substituted in the place of sermons. The pulpit became a stage where ludicrous priests obtained the vulgar laugh by the lowest kind of wit, especially at the festivals of Christmas and Easter.

But the glorious Reformation was the offspring of preaching, by which mankind were reformed; there was a standard, and the religion of the times was put to the trial by it. The avidity of the common people to read the Scriptures, and to hear them expounded, was wonderful; and the papists were so fully convinced of the benefits of frequent public instruction, that they, who were justly called unpreaching prelates, and whose pulpits, to use an expression of Latimer, had been "bells without clappers" for many a long year, were obliged for shame to set up regular preaching again. The church of Rome has produced some great preachers since the Reformation, but none equal to the reformed preachers. And a question naturally arises here, which it would be unpardonable to pass over in silence, concerning the singular effect of the preaching of the reformed, which was general, national, universal reformation. In the dark times of popery there had arisen now and then some famous popular preachers, who had zealously inveighed against the vices of the times, and whose sermons had produced sudden and amazing effects on their auditors; but all these effects had died away with the preachers who had produced them, and all things had gone back into their old state. Law, learning, commerce, society at large had not been improved. Here a new scene opens; preachers arise less popular, perhaps less indefatigable and exemplary; their sermons produce less striking immediate effects; and yet their auditors go away and agree by whole nations to reform. Jerom Savonarola, Jerom Narni, Capistran, Connecte, and many others, had produced, by their sermons, great immediate effects. When Connecte preached, the ladies lowered their head dresses, and committed quilled caps by hundreds to the flames. When Narni taught the people in lent, from the pulpits of Rome, half the city went from his sermons crying along the streets, "Lord, have mercy upon us;" so that in only one passion week, two thousand crowns' worth of ropes were sold to make scourges with; and when he preached before the pope to the cardinals and bishops, and painted the sin of non-residence in its own colours, he frightened thirty or forty bishops, who heard him, home to their diocesses. In the pulpit of the university of Salamanca, he induced eight hundred students to quit all worldly prospects of honour, riches, and pleasure, and to become penitents in divers monasteries. We know the fate of Savonarola, and others might be added; but all lamented the momentary duration of the effects produced by their labours. Narni himself was so disgusted with his office, that he renounced preaching, and shut himself up in his cell to mourn over his irreclaimable contemporaries; for bishops went back to the court, and rope makers lay idle again.

Our reformers taught all the good doctrines which had been taught by these men, and they added two or three more, by which they laid the axe to the root of the apostasy, and produced general reformation. Instead of appealing to popes and canons, and founders and fathers, they only quoted them, and referred their auditors to the Holy Scriptures for law. Pope Leo X did not know this when he told Prierio, who complained of Luther's heresy, "Friar Martin has a fine genius." They also taught the people what little they knew of Christian liberty; and so led them into a belief that they might follow their own ideas in religion, without the consent of a confessor, a diocesan, a pope, or a council. They went farther, and laid the stress of all religion on justifying faith.

Since the reformers we have had multitudes who have entered into their views with disinterestedness and success; and in the present times, both in the church and among other religious societies, names might be mentioned which would do honour to any nation; for though there are too many who do not fill up that important station with proportionate piety and talents, yet we have men who are conspicuous for their extent of knowledge, depth of experience, originality of thought, fervency of zeal, consistency of deportment, and great usefulness in the Christian church.

The preceding sketch will show how mighty an agent preaching has been in all ages, in raising, and maintaining, and reviving the spirit of religion. Wherever it has had this power, let it however be remarked, it has consisted in the declaration, the proclamation, of the truth of God, as contained in his early revelations to man, and afterward embodied in the Holy Scriptures. The effect too has been produced by preachers living themselves under the influence of this truth, and filled "with faith and the Holy Ghost," depending wholly upon God's blessing for success, and going forth in his name, with ardent longing to "win souls," and to build up the church in knowledge and holiness. For preaching is not a profession; but a work of divine appointment, to be rightly discharged only by him who receives a commission from God, and fulfils it as under his eye, and in dependence upon his promise, "Lo, I am with you alway."

Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible [4]

PREACHING . In the OT ‘preaching’ is referred to explicitly in the case of Jonah’s preaching in Nineveh (  Jonah 3:2 ). The word here used means strictly ‘proclamation,’ and corresponds to the NT word used with reference to our Lord ‘proclaiming’ (as a herald) the advent of the Kingdom of God ( e.g.   Matthew 4:17 ), which, in its initial stages, was closely associated with the preaching of John the Baptist (cf.   Matthew 3:1-2 ). Christian preaching is often described in the NT as a declaration of ‘glad tidings’ (‘evangel,’ ‘gospel’). Strictly, the ‘proclamation’ ought to be distinguished from the ‘teaching’ that followed on it. But in its more extended application ‘preaching’ covers all instruction in religious matters of a homiletlcal character, and especially such as is associated with public worship .

The prophetic preaching hardly falls within this category. The prophets undoubtedly as a rule spoke their discourses (before writing them down). But these allocutions were special in character, and formed no regular part of the public worship.

The preaching of John the Baptist and of Jesus was largely prophetic in character the gospel may be described as a ‘revival of the spirit of prophecy’ but nevertheless it possessed some affinities with the synagogue preaching, which had become an institution of worship, though in many respects in marked contrast with and independent of it (our Lord constantly addressed the multitudes in the open air).

Preaching as a regular part of the service of public worship was a comparatively late development. Its real beginning can be traced back to the custom inaugurated by Ezra of reading a part of the ‘Law’ or ‘Torah’ at the Sabbath-day assemblages of the people, and on other holy days. On these occasions the lesson from the Law was read in the original Hebrew, and explained in the form of a paraphrase in the Aramaic vernacular by a methurgemân (dragoman) or interpreter. Such translations were called Targums. It was from this practice that preaching in the synagogue was developed probably as early as the 4th cent. b.c. (cf.   Acts 15:21 ). Thus originally the sermon was essentially an exposition (of a legal kind) of some part of Scripture. Two famous teachers of the Law of the 1st cent. b.c. are styled darshanim (‘preachers,’ Pes. 70b), though they were primarily expounders of the Law on its strictly legalistic side. But in process of time the sermon assumed to a large extent a purely edifying character; it utilized the tale, parable, allegory, in enforcing the lessons of morality and religion, and developed truly homiletical features, without, however, losing its Scriptural colouring.

By NT times preaching had evidently become an integral part of the ordinary synagogue service, and in this way it became one of the chief instruments in the propagation of the ‘new teaching.’ Our Lord constantly ‘taught in the synagogues’ (cf.  Matthew 4:23 ,   Mark 1:21;   Mark 6:2 ,   John 6:59;   John 18:20 ). St. Luke (  Luke 4:16 f.) has preserved a compressed account of one such sermon, while in Acts (  Acts 13:14-41 ) a fuller report of an exhortation by the great missionary Apostie, delivered in a synagogue, is set forth.

Our Lord’s teaching, and that of the Apostles which He inspired, were marked by a freshness, a spontaneity and power which filled their hearers, accustomed as they were to the more set and laborious exhortations of the scribes, with the utmost surprise. But original as they were in substance, these addresses were still Semitic in form, and we must guard against importing our Western ideas of rhetoric into what were essentially Eastern homilies. The differences between the two are fundamental. While the Western develops a main and principal thought or theme through its logical subdivisions, and usually in a more or less abstract way, the Eastern adds point to point, theme to theme, often in striking antithesis, and strives to employ concrete illustrations and embodiments either figurative or parabolic of the thought. The ‘Sermon on the Mount’ (though its form in the First Gospel is doubtless an extended one) is an excellent illustration of Eastern method in some of these respects. The following example of an old Rabbinic address, based on the words ‘He hath clothed me with garments of salvation,’ which come from the chapter in Isaiah (61) from which Jesus took His text in His address in the synagogue at Nazareth, will illustrate the character of contemporary Jewish sermons:

Seven garments the Holy One blessed be He has put on, and will put on from the time the world was created until the hour when He will punish the whole of wicked Edom (= the Roman Empire). When He created the world, He clothed Himself in honour and majesty, as it is said ( Psalms 104:1 ): “Thou art clothed in honour and majesty.” Whenever He forgave Israel’s sins He clothed Himself in white; for we read (  Daniel 7:9 ): “His garment was white as snow.” When He punishes the people of the world, He puts on the garment of vengeance, as it is said (  Isaiah 59:17 ): “He put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak.” The sixth garment He will put on when the Messiah comes; then He will clothe Himself in a garment of righteousness, for it is said: “And he puts on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head.” The seventh garment He will put on when He punishes Edom; then He will clothe Himself in Adom i.e. red; for it is said (  Isaiah 63:2 ): “Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel?” But the garment which He will put upon the Messiah, this will shine far, from one end of the earth to the other; for it is said (  Isaiah 61:10 ): “As a bridegroom decketh himself with a garland.” And the Israelites will partake of His light, and will speak:

“Blessed is the hour when the Messiah shall come!

Blessed the womb out of which He shall come!

Blessed His contemporaries who are eye-witnesses!

Blessed the eye that is honoured with a sight of Him!

For the opening of His lips is blessing and peace;

His speech is a moving or the spirits;

The thoughts of His heart are confidence and cheerfulness;

The speech of His tongue is pardon and forgiveness;

His prayer is the sweet incense of offerings;

His petitions are holiness and purity.

Oh, how blessed is Israel for whom such has been prepared!”

For it is said ( Psalms 31:19 ): “How great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee!” ’

Several specimens of the Apostolic preaching are given in the Acts (cf. chs. 2, 7, 8 etc.). To the Jews the Apostles preached the Messiahship of Jesus, basing their appeal mainly on two arguments, viz. (1) the resurrection, and (2) OT prophecy. On this depended the forgiveness of sins, and salvation through Christ. These reports, abbreviated as they obviously are, reveal their essential genuineness by their undeveloped theology ( e.g. of the Atonement).

Preaching long continued free and spontaneous among the Christian societies, being exercised in the assembly by private members who possessed the gift of prophecy (cf. e.g.   1 Corinthians 14:31 ), though, of course, the Apostles, while they were alive, would naturally assume, and be accorded, the chief place in this, as in other respects.

G. H. Box.

Bridgeway Bible Dictionary [5]

The Bible often mentions preaching and teaching together, for the two are closely related. It seems at times that there is little difference between them. The same person was usually both a preacher and a teacher ( Matthew 4:23;  Matthew 11:1;  Acts 5:42;  Acts 15:35;  Colossians 1:28;  1 Timothy 2:7;  2 Timothy 4:2; see TEACHER).

Sometimes preaching is proclamation, such as in announcing the good news of the gospel to those who need it ( Luke 4:18;  Luke 9:6;  Acts 8:4;  Acts 8:12;  Acts 8:40;  Acts 17:18;  Galatians 1:11;  Galatians 1:16;  1 Thessalonians 2:9), while teaching is more concerned with the instruction of those who already believe the gospel ( John 14:26;  Acts 18:11;  Acts 20:20;  1 Corinthians 4:17;  Colossians 2:7;  Colossians 3:16;  1 Timothy 4:11). Teaching is necessary also for those who do not believe ( Luke 4:31;  Luke 5:3;  Luke 21:37;  Acts 4:2;  Acts 5:21;  Acts 5:25;  Acts 18:11;  2 Timothy 2:24-26), while preaching the great facts of the gospel of Jesus Christ is still necessary to challenge the believer ( Romans 1:15;  Romans 16:25;  2 Corinthians 4:5;  Colossians 1:28;  2 Timothy 4:2).

It is therefore probably better not to make too sharp a distinction between preaching and teaching. To preach the gospel is to preach Christ. God’s message for believers and non-believers centres in him. The gospel is more than just the message of salvation; it is the whole new life in Jesus Christ ( 1 Corinthians 1:23-25;  1 Corinthians 15:1-2;  1 Corinthians 15:11-12;  2 Corinthians 1:19-22;  2 Corinthians 4:5-6; see Gospel ).

Authority in preaching

God wants the world to learn about him, to know him personally and to be instructed in what he desires for them. He has therefore revealed himself; he has spoken to the human race he created. He has done this dramatically through his Son Jesus Christ, but he has also given a written revelation through the Scriptures ( John 1:1;  John 1:14;  2 Timothy 3:16-17;  Hebrews 1:1-2;  2 Peter 1:20-21).

Since God has given these Scriptures to his people, those who preach and teach them have a special responsibility to God. God has entrusted his revelation to them, and therefore they must be careful how they use it. They must make it known in a manner that is faithful to its meaning and at the same time beneficial to the hearers ( 1 Corinthians 4:1-2;  2 Timothy 2:15).

Preachers and teachers, though they reveal and announce a message that is not their own, should treat that message as if it were their own. It must become, as it were, part of them before they give it out to others ( Jeremiah 20:8-9;  Ezekiel 2:8-10;  Ezekiel 3:1-3;  Revelation 10:8-11). They are doing more than merely passing on someone else’s message; they are instructing their hearers ( Acts 20:20). But the only authority in their instruction is that of the Word they preach ( Acts 20:27). The spiritual authority of the message comes from God, not from the preacher ( 1 Corinthians 1:17;  1 Corinthians 2:1-5;  1 Corinthians 4:1-2;  2 Corinthians 4:7).

Honesty in preaching

If preachers are dependent on God for the benefits their preaching brings to others, they will express their dependence through constant prayer. They will also live righteously, so that their lives are consistent with their message ( 1 Thessalonians 1:5;  1 Timothy 4:16). Yet they must put thought and effort into their ministry ( Colossians 1:28-29) and must work constantly at improving the quality of their performance ( 1 Timothy 4:13-15).

Among the dangers that preachers face is the temptation to adjust the message to win approval from the audience. This is the fault for which false prophets were consistently condemned in the Old Testament ( Isaiah 30:8-11;  Jeremiah 5:31;  Jeremiah 23:16-17;  Jeremiah 23:21-22). By contrast true messengers of God say what needs to be said, whether or not it is what people want to hear ( Jeremiah 1:17;  Micah 3:8;  Mark 12:14;  2 Timothy 4:2). Whatever Scripture he is expounding, they interpret and apply it honestly. They do not twist it to make it mean something different from what the biblical author intended ( 2 Corinthians 4:2). At all times their concern is to gain God’s approval, not to win people’s praise ( 2 Timothy 2:15; cf.  John 12:43).

American Tract Society Bible Dictionary [6]

The public and oral inculcation of the truths of religion, especially of the gospel of Christ,  Isaiah 61:1   Acts 8:4   2 Corinthians 5:20   Ephesians 3:8 . Public instruction in religion was no doubt given in the earliest ages. Enoch prophesied,  Judges 1:14-15; and Noah was a preacher of righteousness,  2 Peter 2:5 . Frequent instances of religious addresses occur in the history of Moses, the judges, and the prophets; and these were to some extent in connection with the Jewish ritual,  Nehemiah 1:1-11 .

The psalms sung in the temple-conveyed instruction to the people. After the captivity, numerous synagogues were erected, in which the word of God was read and expounded from Sabbath to Sabbath. Under the gospel dispensation, the preaching of Christ crucified, by those whom he calls to be his ambassadors, is an established ordinance of prime importance-God's chief instrumentality for the conversion of the world,  Mark 16:15   1 Corinthians 1:21   2 Timothy 2:2   4:2 .

Morrish Bible Dictionary [7]

This is often used in the N.T. for 'announcing, or making known,' without the idea of preaching in a formal way, as the word is now understood. When there was persecution in the church at Jerusalem, they were all scattered, except the apostles, and they went everywhere 'preaching the word.'  Acts 8:1-4 .

Solomon in the Ecclesiastes calls himself 'the preacher,' and it is said of Noah that he was 'a preacher of righteousness.' Paul was appointed a preacher (herald), and it pleased God by 'the foolishness of the preaching' to save them that believe. Preaching is still used of God as the means for making known the love of God and the work of Christ.

Webster's Dictionary [8]

(1): ( p. pr. & vb. n.) of Preach

(2): ( n.) The act of delivering a religious discourse; the art of sermonizing; also, a sermon; a public religious discourse; serious, earnest advice.

King James Dictionary [9]

PRE'ACHING, ppr. Proclaiming publishing in discourse inculcating.

PRE'ACHING, n. The act of preaching a public religious discourse.

Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [10]

is usually and with literal correctness defined as the act of delivering religious discourses. But this definition fails to suggest the most important signification of the term. That can only be reached by considering it as designating the objective idea of a great and peculiar appointment of the Lord Jesus Christ. In this broad but legitimate sense, preaching means more than an individual act or series of acts. It represents an institution of Christianity which has been in existence some nineteen centuries, and an agency of religious influence destined to continue in action throughout the whole period of human affairs.

I. The Proper Chcaracter And Design Of Preaching. As Christ himself was the Divine Word made flesh, so, lessening to employ human agency for the promotion of his kingdom among men, he made a special appropriation of man's distinguishing faculty of speech by appointing it as the primary and principal means of diffusing God's word of truth and message of salvation throughout the world. Having chosen disciples from among his own earliest hearers, "he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach" (Mark 3, 14). To those disciples he said, "What I tell you in darkness that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear that preach ye upon the house-tops" ( Matthew 10:27). As had been foreshadowed in prophecy, so Christ represented the preaching of the Gospel to the poor as the distinguishing characteristic of his kingdom. The great Preacher himself, having completed his earthly mission, crowned it with the ever-binding command given to his disciples, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature" ( Mark 16:15). Christian preaching, therefore, implies not only preachers, but hearers. It presupposes a personal conviction and a deep sense of truth in the mind of the preacher, accompanied by a purpose to transfer his convictions to the minds and hearts of his hearers. Although preaching is designed to embody an important element of instruction yet, if properly executed, it rises in character superior to lecturing, or any (If the forms of didactic discourse. It resembles the best forms of demonstrative address, but transcends all secular oratory in the moral grandeur of its themes, and especially in its specific design of enlightening and quickening the consciences of men as a means of affecting their earthly character and their eternal destiny.

II. Historical Development. Prior to Christ, preaching was but little more known among the Jews than among the Gentiles. It had been to some extent anticipated by several of the prophets, the greatest and last of whom was John the Baptist; but, from the time that Christ began his public ministry, preaching became common and constant. Following our Lord's ascension, the apostolic ministry of preaching was elevated and vitalized by the gift of the Holy Ghost. The gift of tongues and the manifestation of the tongues of fire were alike designed to aid and encourage them in their work of evangelization. Hence, whether in the Temple, in synagogues, or in prisons, they preached Christ and him crucified as the power of God and the wisdom of God; and, when scattered abroad by persecution, "they went everywhere preaching the Word" ( Acts 8:4). It was thus that the Gospel became rapidly diffused throughout the Roman empire, which, in an important sense, represented "all the world" of that period.

It seems safe to believe that, had the apostolic zeal and fidelity in preaching been maintained without interruption, the triumphs of the Gospel would have been continuous, and perhaps ere this coextensive with the habitable world. But, unfortunately, the 2nd and 3rd centuries witnessed the introduction into the Church of two classes of influences which had a tendency to reduce the number of preachers and limit the work and influence of preaching. The first was that of asceticism (q.v.), which, by a powerful but mistaken impulse, sent into deserts and caves, and afterwards into monasteries, thousands of earnest men, whose lives were thus withdrawn from evangelical activity and wasted in penances and self- torture. The second was that of ceremonialism, (See Ceremony), by which the preaching office was taken away from the majority of the clergy, and for the greater part limited to bishops. Bingham states the limitation in these words:

"Preaching anciently was one of the chief offices of a bishop; insomuch that in the African churches a presbyter was never known to preach before a bishop in his cathedral church till Austin's time, and St. Austin was the first presbyter in that part of the world that ever was allowed to preach in the presence of his bishop.... It is true, in the Eastern churches presbyters were sometimes allowed to preach in the great church before the bishop; but that was not to discharge him of the duty, for still he preached a sermon at the same time after then 11 the lesser churches of the city and country about, this office was devolved upon presbyters as the bishop's proper assistants; 1and the deacons, except in the aforementioned cases (of reading the homilies of the liathers, and when the presbyter was sick or infirm), were not authorized to perform it" (Antiq. Christian Church, bk. 14 ch. 4).

Not only was preaching shorn of its aggressive power by being thus limited and subordinated under the influence of a growing ceremonialism, but in some places it was for long periods scandalously neglected. Sozomen, the historian, "relates of the Church of Rome in his time that they had no sermons either by the bishop or any other." Some have thought Sozomen mistaken; but Cassiodorus, who was a senator and consul at Rome, quotes the same out of Sozomen in his Historia Tripartita, without correction, and further says that no one can produce any sermons preached to the people by any bishop of Rome before those of Leo. The revival of preaching by Leo appears to have been but temporary; for, according to Surius, a Roman writer, it was afterwards discontinued for five hundred years together, till Pius Quintus, like another Leo, revived the practice. Not merely at Rome, but through large portions both of the Latin and Greek churches, preaching, instead of being a constant custom, was rare and exceptional during the long period between the 6th and 16th centuries. It ceased to be a regular part of the services of the Sabbath, although it was retained as a part of the ceremonial of ordinations, while on festival days it took the form of panegyrics or eulogies upon the Virgin and the saints.

The preaching of the Crusades (q.v.) by Peter the Hermit, St. Bernard, and others, and the organization of the Dominicans (q.v.) as a preaching order of monks, may be considered as exceptional to the usual practice of the mediteval Church. Some other exceptions, however, of a far better character, and followed by better results, are also to be credited to the Church of the Middle Ages, while on the other hand it was disgraced by Tetzel and others, who used preaching as an agency for the sale of indulgences. But preaching never again became general till after the Reformation. It was seized tupon by Luther and the other reformers as a means of propagating scriptural truth and exposing the corrupt doctrines and practices which had crept into the Church, and from that time forward preaching became frequent and universal among Protestants. Its influence in the Protestant world has reacted upon Romanism, so that long since, in all Protestant countries, and to some extent elsewhere, preaching has become a regular Sunday service in Roman Catholic churches, performed not only by bishops, but by presbyters and deacons, as well as by monks of several different orders.

III. Preaching-Places And Customs. In New Testament times our Lord and his apostles found places for preaching wherever people could be assembled. The mountain-side, the shores of seas and rivers, the public street, private houses, the porch of the Temple, the Jewish synagogue, and various other places were found available for the proclamation of the Gospel. So far as the preaching customs of the first period of Christianity can be inferred from authentic records, they were simple in the extreme. Sometimes the message of the preacher was communicated in conversation, and when delivered in a more formal manner it rarely had any other accompaniments than the reading of the Sacred Word and prayer. For a considerable time there could have been no Church edifices adapted to the convenient preaching and hearing of the Word; but the earliest structures erected for Christian worship doubtless had that design in view. It was, therefore, a corruption in practice when churches began to be constructed for ceremonial display-as with altars for the celebration of mass, niches for images, and long-drawn aisles for processional parades. The conversion of heathen temples and basilicas into Christian churches, which in the 4th century became common, tended largely to foster and extend that form of corruption. At the period named, the most common form of preaching was that of the exhortation and the homily. A few of the great preachers, like Cyril, Chrysostom, and Augustine, delivered courses of homilies in daily succession, especially during Lent. More commonly short exhortations, sometimes two, three, or even four in succession, were delivered either at morning or evening prayer, or both. This was more particularly true in cities and the large churches, and it was only when presbyters and deacons were authorized to preach that preaching could be furnished with frequency or regularity in villages or country-places. Sometimes large assemblies were gathered at the graves of martyrs to hear panegyrics upon the virtues of those who had suffered death in persecution.

The custom of preaching extempore was at first general, but after a time yielded, in the case of ordinary preachers, to that of reciting discourses not infrequently composed by others. Preachers frequently preceded their discourses by a brief prayer for divine assistance. Following prayer was the salutation "Peace be unto you," or "The Lord be with you;" to which the people responded, "Peace be with thy spirit." Sometimes the salutation gave place to a benediction, as may be seen in several of Chrysostom's homilies. Sometimes a text of Scripture was taken as a basis of the discourse, sometimes several were taken for the same object, and sometimes none. Generally the discourse was concluded with a doxology. It was usual for preachers to sit and the people to stand during the delivery of the discourse. It was common for the people when pleased by the utterances of a preacher to give applause by clapping their hands and by vocal acclamations. Sometimes handkerchiefs were waved and garments tossed aloft. At other times groans and sobs and tears were the responses made by sympathetic hearers. So great value was attached to the discourses of some of the more venerable and eloquent preachers that ready writers were employed to report the words they uttered. Copies of reported discourses were circulated among those who prized them, and were held for reading to other assemblies. In this way the homilies of the fathers descended to later times, when they could be better preserved and more rapidly multiplied by printing. During the medieval period, where preaching was not wholly abandoned, sermons and homilies were to a great extent substituted by postils (q.v.), which were very brief addresses delivered at the conclusion of the mass, and holding about the same relation to the preceding ceremonies of worship that a postscript holds to a letter, or a marginal note to the text of a book.

The preaching customs of modern times differ in minor particulars somewhat with reference to differences of national habits, but more with reference to the predominance of the idea of worship or of religious address. In a certain class of churches the services are conducted with primary reference to forms of worship. In churches of that class, by whatever name designated, preaching is made subordinate. In other churches the leading idea of a Sabbath assembly is that of an audience gathered together to receive instruction from the Word of God, both as read from the sacred page and as declared by his appointed messengers. In the latter, preaching is regarded as of principal importance, prayer and psalmody being auxiliary to it.

The principal places for preaching in modern times are churches constructed with primary reference to that object. It may be here remarked that even in Europe church architecture has been greatly modified since the period of the Reformation, in a perhaps unconscious adaptation to the more general practice of preaching. Few large cathedrals have been built, but many churches of smaller proportions, and more available as auditoriums. Protestant churches in all countries are supplied with permanent seats for audiences, and, with rare exceptions, the pulpit occupies the central position allotted in Roman Catholic countries to the principal altar. On the continent of Europe movable seats only are used in the Roman Catholic churches, but in countries distinctively Protestant, pews or fixed sittings are generally introduced to accommodate hearers during the preaching services. But preaching, especially among Protestants, has by no means been limited to churches. While maintained with regularity in them, it has been extended as a missionary agency to highways and market places, to public commons, to natural amphitheatres, to groves, to ships' decks, to extemporized tabernacles, and even to music-halls and theatres. In short, zealous evangelists show themselves ready, both in civilized and heathen countries, to preach wherever and whenever their fellow men can be gathered to hear them.

IV. Literature. The literature of preaching may be divided into two classes-the first embracing publications relating to the art and science of preaching, and t he second embracing the printed products of preaching, whether postils, homilies, or sermons. Of the first class, an extensive list is given in connection with the article on HOMILETICS (See Homiletics) (q.v.). Of the second, it would be easy to enumerate authors and books by hundreds. For select and classified lists, (See Pulpit Eloquence); (See Sermons). Of recent books of the first class. the following may be named: Mullois (M. l'Abb É Isidore; translated by George Percy Badger), The Clergy And The Pulpit In Their Relations To The People (N. Y. 1867, 12mo); Hood, Lamps, Pitchers, And Trumpets: Lectures On The Vocation Of The Preacher (1James, 2 d series, ibid. 1869, 2 vols. 12mo); Parker, Ad Clerum: Advices To A Young Preacher (Bost. 1871, 12mo); Broadus, Preparation And Delivery Of Sermons (Phila. 1871, 12mo); Beecher, Yale Lectures On Preaching (1James, 2 nd, and 3rd series, N. Y. 1872-74, 3 vols. 12mo); Storrs, Preaching Without Notes (ibid. 1875, 12mo); Hall, God'S Word Through Preaching (ibid. 1875 12mo); Broadus, Lectures On The History Of Preaching (ibid. 1876, 12mo); Taylor, The Ministry Of The Word (ibid. 1876, 12mo); Brooks, Lectures on Preaching (ibid. 1877, 12mo); Dale, Nine Lectures on Preaching (ibid. 1878, 12mo). (D. P. K.)

References