Jonathan Edwards on Reading Sermons

The reading of sermons is a dull way of preaching.  Sermons, when read, are not delivered with authority and in an affecting way…When sermons are delivered without notes, the looks and the gesture of the minister [are] great means to command attention and stir up affection.  Men are apt to be drowsy in hearing the Word, and the liveliness of the preacher is a means to stir up the attention of the hearers and beget suitable affection in them.  Sermons that are read are not delivered with authority; they savor [of the] sermons of the scribes (Matthew 7:29).  Experience shows that sermons read are not so profitable as others.

From: The Preaching of Jonathan Edwards by John Carrick (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2008), p. 411.  Quoting from Edwards’ sermon “The Defects of Preachers Reproved” (1723).

 

John Carrick on Jonathan Edwards

In 1977, when I was still working as a schoolmaster in Somerset, England, I travelled up to London to consult Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones with regard to entering the ministry.  In the course of our conversation at his home in Ealing, I asked him if he would give me some advice on the matter of reading.  Without any hesitation, he replied, “Read Jonathan Edwards!”  I had, in fact, already acquired a copy of the two-volume Banner of Truth edition of Edwards’ “Works” and had begun to read them; but Dr. Lloyd-Jones’ advice spurred me on to read Edwards more, and I began to read his sermons and treatises with greator vigour.  Thus began my interest in, and love for, the great American preacher-philosopher-theologian – an interest and a love that have lasted more than thirty years.

From: The Preaching of Jonathan Edwards by John Carrick (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 2008), p. ix.