( CHAPTER 1 ) - [ CHRISTIAN LEADERS OF THE 18TH CENTURY ] - { PT. 8 }


{ PT.  8 } - They spoke like men who had received a message from God to the people, and they knew that they had to deliver it and had to have your attention while they delivered it. They threw heart and soul and feeling into their sermons, and their hearers went home convinced that the preacher was sincere and desired the eternal well-being of the people. They believed that they had to speak from the heart if they wanted to speak to the heart. They knew that there had to be unmistakable faith and conviction within the pulpit if there was to be faith and conviction among the pews. All this had become almost obsolete a hundred years ago. Can we be surprised that it took people by storm and produced an immense effect? What was the substance and subject matter of the preaching that produced such a wonderful impact a hundred years ago? I will not insult my reader's common sense by only saying that it was simple, earnest, fervent, real, congenial, brave, lifelike, and so forth, but I want you to know that it was highly doctrinal, dogmatic, and distinct.                                          ______________________________________________________ 

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