The ministry of the Word

Preface

This book is not a Treatise on Homiletics, Neither is it a ministerial autobiography. But it is an attempt to give to my younger brethren in the pulpit, and to those who are preparing for the ministry, some practical hints which I should have been thankful to have received twenty years ago, and which have been suggested to me as much by the blunders as by the successes of my public life.

To my seniors they may seem to be of little importance ; but I was not writing for them. My aim has been to set before my readers a few first principles emphasized by experience, and if my book shall be to any young minister like the hand of an elder brother held back to help him forward, I shall rejoice even more than he.

The course was prepared especially for the theological students of Yale College, as the " Lyman Beecher Lectures " for 1876 ; but selections from it were delivered also to the members of Union, Princeton, and Oberlin Theological Seminaries.

To these young brethren, with whom I have been brought so pleasantly into fellowship; to the members oi the Faculties of the Seminaries which I have named, and to all interested in the education of " the Sons of the Prophets," I dedicate this volume, with the prayer that lie "whose I am, and whom I serve," may make it largely useful to those who are preparing to give themselves to " the ministry of the Word."

New York, April, 1876.