“Preaching is the communication of truth by man to men. It has in it two
essential elements, truth and personality. Neither of those can it
spare and still be preaching. The truest truth, the most authoritative
statement of God’s will, communicated in any other way than through the
personality of brother man to men is not preached truth.
Suppose it
written on the sky, suppose it embodied in a book which has been so long
held in reverence as the direct utterance of God that that the vivid
personality of the men who wrote its pages has well-nigh faded out of
it; in neither of these cases is there any preaching.
And on the other
hand, if men speak to other men that which they do not claim for truth,
if they use their powers of persuasion or of entertainment to make other
men listen to their speculations, or do their will, or applaud their
cleverness, that is not preaching either. The first lacks personality.
The second lacks truth. And preaching is the bringing of truth through
personality. It must have both elements.” Philips Brooks
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