Preaching

by G. Campbell Morgan

"If there is any excuse for this book, it is that it is an attempt to answer a question that I have been asked, certainly hundreds of times during the course of my work of preaching. The question has taken many forms, but it is essentially the same. It is an enquiry concerning methods of preparation in expository preaching. Individual preachers and groups of preachers have asked me to tell them how I work. I have always felt it difficult to reply. During the three years which I was President of Cheshunt College, Cambridge, I attempted to talk to the students on the subject. The notes of what I then said are embodied in these Lectures." -From the Preface

90 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1980

About the author

Reverend Doctor George Campbell Morgan D.D. was a British evangelist, preacher and a leading Bible scholar. A contemporary of Rodney "Gipsy" Smith, Morgan preached his first sermon at age 13. He was the pastor of Westminster Chapel in London from 1904 to 1919, and from 1933 to 1943, pausing briefly between to work at Biola in Los Angeles, which he eventually handed over to Martyn Lloyd Jones.

Morgan was a prolific author, writing over 60 works in his lifetime, not counting the publishing of some of his sermons as booklets and pamphlets. In addition to composing extensive biblical commentaries, and writing on myriad topics related to the Christian life and ministry, his essay entitled "The Purposes of the Incarnation" is included in a famous and historic collection called The Fundamentals—a set of 90 essays edited by the famous R. A. Torrey, who himself was successor to D. L. Moody both as an evangelist and pastor—which is widely considered to be the foundation of the modern Christian Fundamentalist movement.

Reviews

[Benjamin Clow · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're monitoring my Goodreads Account at all (who would) you might notice I am bingeing preaching books at the moment. And I arrived at a slim, forgotten about book written by a preacher who's modern reputation solely consists of being D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones's predecessor at Westminster Chapel. I found this incredibly useful; most of what he said didn't feel like I had reread before in another preaching book. His prose is the opposite of verbose. Here are a few quotes worth mentioning:

"For Years I have made it a very careful and studied rule never to look at a commentary on a text, until I have spent time on the text alone."

"I don't think any preacher ever can lift his hearers above the level of his own experience."

"A man was formerly said to 'handle his text.' If he handles his text he cannot preach at all. But when his text handles him, when it grips and masters and possesses him, and in experience he is responsive to the thing he is declaring, having the conviction of the supremacy of truth and experience of the power of truth, I think that must create passion."

[Lyndon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can see why the few on Goodreads who have read and rate this gave it 3 stars. It's not an indepth treatise nor very comprehensive in its treatment of the topic of sermon preparation. And yet, initially given as a series of lectures in the 1920s and then compiled in 1937, this handbook does provide the rationale for some profound principles on preaching. At only 90 pages, I thought it worthy of a few hours of time and thought.

[Sam Chretien · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very short book in pages , it's depths are a mere ocean of wisdom and grace. A true classic form a master teacher and preacher theologian.