Here’s some more memorable and important quotes from R.L. Dabney’s book “Evangelical Eloquence.”
“The preacher’s business is to take what is given him in the Scriptures, as it is given to him, and to endeavor to imprint it on the souls of men.” (37)
“The exclusive preaching of doctrine to professed Christians tends to cultivate an Antinomian spirit. The exclusive inculcation of duties fosters self-righteousness. The edifications of the Church, then, demands the diligent intermixture of both kinds.” (58)
“The great Reformation was emphatically a reformation of the pulpit in this particular, and a revival of expository preaching.” (85)
The DIFFICULT Task of Faithful Expository Preaching:
“I avow, young gentlemen, that it is not easy to apprehend exactly the mental wants of those whom you would instruct, so as to give just the explanations which are germane, to conceive correctly the precise scope of the Holy Ghost in the passage; to state this perspicuously to the common reason; to evince the correspondence of your statements with the very minds of the Spirit by a plain, homely, exegetical logic without pedantry, which shall be clear and convincing to common sense; to apply the truth to heart and conscience; to select the most appropriate and useful inferences; to preserve throughout the “analogy of the faith,” and to superfuse the whole with evangelical warmth,–this is not easy. But if it be well done, it will prove “the power of God and wisdom of God unto salvation.” (90)
“It is a noble thing to make the TRUTH beautiful” (133)
“Sermons should be living growths, like plants or trees; none of them indeed monsters, none maimed, but each one modified within the bounds of the rudimental laws of its nature, by its own circumstances of growth; so that they together present an endless and charming variety.” (139)
“The able expounder exhibits not the processes, but the results, of his learning.” (161)
“Hence I draw these rules: That the purpose of persuading should not be pre-announced: Let the work be done, and not advertised. And that it is useless to urge right feeling by mere hortation: Let the preacher present, instead, those truths which are the objects of moral emotion.” (242)
“Let your aim be to persuade men in Christ’s name, and not to be praised for skill in persuading.” (260)
“The pastor’s character speaks more loudly than his tongue.” (261)
“To preach a sermon is a great and awful task” (344)
