1.I 03. Characteristics of Modern Preaching

Characteristics of Modern Preaching. The pulpit, as it has come down to us, has had an extraordinary history. For one reason and another it has, in many periods of time, been almost the exclusive source of knowledge among the common people. Before books were either plenty or cheap; before the era of the newspaper, the magazine, or the tract; before knowledge was poured in, as now, from a hundred quarters, an era almost flooded with it, the people imbibing it, so to speak, through the very pores of their skin, the pulpit was the school, the legislative hall, the court of law; in short, the university of the common people. By change of circumstances, many elements of success in one age cease to be operative in another. Preaching will be proper or improper, wise or successful, in proportion as it adapts itself to the special want of the different peoples and the different classes of people in any one time. It may be said, in general, that the length and breadth of topics will be in inverse ratio to the civilization and refinement of the people; that is to say, the pulpit in a rude neighbourhood, where the knowledge of the people will mainly be derived from it, must cover a broader ground, and must instruct the people in a hundred different things which in civilized and refined communities they learn from other sources. As refinement increases, how ever, the tax laid upon a minister’s resources augments immeasurably. In order to maintain authority and influence, he must riot be behind his own auditory.

If knowledge is increasing among his people, every year will require him to develop new resources. I do not think there is any profession that demands so much of a man as that of the Christian ministry.

Besides the double oration on Sunday, the prayer meeting, the conference meeting, and various other forms of neighbourhood meetings, are drawing incessantly upon him. He is the root and trunk through which a thousand leaves are drawing sap.