- Home
- Speakers
- Phillips Brooks
- Truth And Duty Are Always Wedded
Phillips Brooks
Phillips Brooks (1835–1893) was an American preacher, Episcopal priest, and hymn-writer whose eloquent ministry and towering presence made him one of the most celebrated clerics of 19th-century America. Born on December 13, 1835, in Boston, Massachusetts, he was the second of six children of William Gray Brooks, a merchant, and Mary Ann Phillips, both from prominent New England families with Puritan roots. Raised in a devout household where daily Scripture reading shaped his faith, Brooks graduated from Harvard College in 1855 with a degree in Classics. After a brief stint teaching at Boston Latin School, he pursued ministry, studying at Virginia Theological Seminary and graduating in 1859. He never married, dedicating his life to his calling and intellectual pursuits. Brooks’s preaching career began with his ordination in 1859 and his first pastorate at the Church of the Advent in Philadelphia, followed by Holy Trinity Church in the same city from 1862 to 1869, where his sermons—delivered at a rapid 200 words per minute—drew massive crowds and earned him national acclaim during the Civil War era. In 1869, he became rector of Trinity Church in Boston, overseeing its relocation to Copley Square and consecrating its iconic building in 1877, a pulpit he held until 1891. Known for his warmth, intellectual depth, and ability to connect with diverse audiences, Brooks authored the beloved Christmas hymn “O Little Town of Bethlehem” in 1868. Elected Bishop of Massachusetts in 1891, he served briefly until his sudden death from diphtheria on January 23, 1893, at age 57, leaving a legacy as a preacher whose lyrical sermons and hymns, preserved in works like Sermons (1878), continue to inspire. He was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, mourned by thousands who filled Boston’s streets for his funeral.
Download
Topic
Sermon Summary
Phillips Brooks emphasizes the inseparable connection between truth and duty in God's word. He highlights that every revelation from God not only imparts new truth but also assigns a corresponding duty, stressing that our understanding of truth should directly impact the way we live. Brooks encourages believers to embrace both truth and duty, continually seeking new revelations from God and faithfully fulfilling the responsibilities that come with them, even if it means sacrificing worldly pleasures or comforts.
Truth and Duty Are Always Wedded
"My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work" (John 4:34). And the world of God includes two notions, one of revelation and one of commandment. Whenever God speaks by any of His voices, it is first to tell us some truth which we did not know before, and second to bid us do something which we have not been doing. Every word of God includes these two. Truth and duty are always wedded. There is no truth which has not its corresponding duty. And there is no duty which has not its corresponding truth. We are always separating them. We are always trying to learn truths, as if there were no duties belonging to them, as if the knowing of them would make no difference in the way we lived. That is the reason why our hold on the truths we learn is so weak. He who takes any new word of God completely gets both a new truth and a new duty He, then, who lives by every word of God, is a man who is continually seeing new truth and accepting the duties that arise out of it. And it is for this, for the pleasure of seeing truth and doing its attendant duty, that he is willing to give up the pleasures of sense, and even, if need be, to give up the bodily life to which the pleasures of sense belong.
- Bio
- Summary
- Transcript
- Download
Phillips Brooks (1835–1893) was an American preacher, Episcopal priest, and hymn-writer whose eloquent ministry and towering presence made him one of the most celebrated clerics of 19th-century America. Born on December 13, 1835, in Boston, Massachusetts, he was the second of six children of William Gray Brooks, a merchant, and Mary Ann Phillips, both from prominent New England families with Puritan roots. Raised in a devout household where daily Scripture reading shaped his faith, Brooks graduated from Harvard College in 1855 with a degree in Classics. After a brief stint teaching at Boston Latin School, he pursued ministry, studying at Virginia Theological Seminary and graduating in 1859. He never married, dedicating his life to his calling and intellectual pursuits. Brooks’s preaching career began with his ordination in 1859 and his first pastorate at the Church of the Advent in Philadelphia, followed by Holy Trinity Church in the same city from 1862 to 1869, where his sermons—delivered at a rapid 200 words per minute—drew massive crowds and earned him national acclaim during the Civil War era. In 1869, he became rector of Trinity Church in Boston, overseeing its relocation to Copley Square and consecrating its iconic building in 1877, a pulpit he held until 1891. Known for his warmth, intellectual depth, and ability to connect with diverse audiences, Brooks authored the beloved Christmas hymn “O Little Town of Bethlehem” in 1868. Elected Bishop of Massachusetts in 1891, he served briefly until his sudden death from diphtheria on January 23, 1893, at age 57, leaving a legacy as a preacher whose lyrical sermons and hymns, preserved in works like Sermons (1878), continue to inspire. He was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, mourned by thousands who filled Boston’s streets for his funeral.