How to Declare the Gospel
Aurelius Augustine
When I begin my sermons I dare the person not to listen to me. Not that I'm that great — it's just that I've got something to say that's too important to ignore.
Charles Swindoll
If it were only texts or men we had to handle! But we have to handle the gospel.
P. T. Forsyth
Preaching right is a little like dressing right: You have to know what goes with what. Most pastors learn early on not to wear a paisley tie with a plaid shirt or white bucks with gray pinstripes.
In the following chapter, Aurelius Augustine instructs preachers to dress their speech appropriately if they will declare the gospel with convincing results.
But how does one fashion a sermon for the circumstances? When should a preacher shout, when plead, when whisper, when reason? Augustine ventures different styles — the temperate and the majestic — and proposes occasions for their use. He suggests the language to use and the effects to seek. For instance, in dissuading civil war in Mauritania, he knew applause counted little; only a deeper response signaled conviction.
Augustine, one of the ancient church's greatest theologians, served as bishop of Hippo in a pagan North African culture from A.D. 395 until his death in 430. His two most famous works, Confessions and The City of God, have become classics of Christian literature.
Augustine wrote in Latin, and most English translations date from the late eighteen hundreds. So we've tried to update the language where appropriate in order to make your reading easier. If you stay with the chapter, we think you'll find this excerpt from
On Christian Doctrine has timeless application to the task of preaching to convince.
The teacher of Holy Scripture must teach what is right and refute what is wrong. In doing this, he must ...
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