Doctrines of Prayer, Faith, and Peace by James Hastings: Hastings, James - Doctrine of Faith: 0.3. Preface

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Doctrines of Prayer, Faith, and Peace by James Hastings: Hastings, James - Doctrine of Faith: 0.3. Preface



TOPIC: Hastings, James - Doctrine of Faith (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 0.3. Preface

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PREFACE.

THIS is not a theological treatise on the one hand, nor on the other is it a volume of sermons. Like its predecessor, the volume on Prayer, it has a distinct office to fulfil, an office that in the judgment of the editor is of immense importance. For between the professor’s lecture-room and the preacher’s study there is a great gulf fixed. In the lecture-room the lectures on systematic theology are laboriously entered into notebooks, which are useful for the exit examinations. But when the active work of the ministry begins, and so many sermons have to be prepared every week, the cupboard into which those notebooks have been stowed away is left undisturbed. The preacher begins to spin his sermons out of his own brains, with the assistance of such popular books as happen to be at his hand.

This volume aims at bridging that gulf. It is a study of the doctrine of Faith so arranged that each chapter can be taken by itself and made the basis of a sermon or lecture; but, if read right through, offers an account of that doctrine which is sufficiently complete, and sufficiently systematic, to enable the preacher to grasp the subject in its entirety and to feel that he has made it his own.

The great question for the preacher, young preacher and old preacher alike, is materials. All the great sermons are full of matter. Take up a volume of Robertson’s, of Liddon’s, of Watkinson’s, of Paterson’s, of Macgregor’s, of Jowett’s—every sermon is full of matter, lit up at every turn with illustration or example.

The editor has command of a large library and has used it freely. Let the preacher take this volume for a winter’s course in the Bible Class, the Prayer Meeting, or the Church; let him read each chapter till he knows its ideas and their order; then let him speak his message, quoting the illustrations as he finds that they appeal to him, and quoting them accurately, or substituting other illustrations of his own. In that way the volume on Prayer has been used by men who have written to the editor to say that it has been the means of restoring the Bible Class and the Prayer Meeting to something of their old interest and influence.

JAMES HASTINGS.