It would be strange, indeed, if in the procession of annual volumes ofwhich this lecture is an unit, there did not arrive a book aboutpreaching. The work of the preacher holds so large a place in theservice and worship of God; it is, to all appearance, so essential tothe accomplishment of the purposes of the Redeemer; its content andquality mean so much to the life and health of the Church; it hasplayed—and is destined to play—so great a part in the saving ofmankind, that, sooner or later, it was bound to come within the purviewof this lectureship.
Now that, at last, the inevitable has happened, it may be said that thefollowing pages have been written under the conviction that one of thegreatest needs of the present day is a pulpit revival—a revivalwhich will issue in a new endeavour to realise the highestpossibilities of the divinest of callings. Many of late years havewandered from the fold of the Church; mighty is the multitude of thosewho have never been within her fellowship. The author is more thanconvinced that any attempt to claim and reclaim must, to be successfulon a large scale, commence in a renaissance of Gospel preaching. Withthe preacher, more than with the ecclesiastic or the musician or thetheologian, not to mention the Biblical critic and the religio-socialworker, rests the task of solving the great problem of twentiethcentury Christianity. This problem is neither a critical nor atheological one, but simply that of the age-long campaign:—How shallwe so commend the Christ as to draw the world to His feet?
To this avowal, the writer would venture to add a brief personalexplanation. Strongly convinced, though he is, of the soundness of theview expressed above, he did not enter willingly upon the task of thisbook. His brother preachers will know what it is to be captured by atext which comes uninvited and persistently demands to be preachedupon. How often such an arrest finds its subject unwilling, doubtfulof his powers, afraid to be obedient to the unsought command! So camethe subject of this essay to the writer thereof. For long he triedstrenuously, though vainly, to make his escape to the refuge of someother topic wherein he might, less daringly, discharge theresponsibilities of this lectureship. He discl