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Monday, March 19, 2007

As the actor said to the preacher

Lawrence Oliver's Hamlet
At our Reformed Minister's Fraternal in Honiton Devon, Fred Serjeant drew our attention to what we can learn from the preaching ministries of G. Calmpbell Morgan (Lloyd-Jones predecessor at Westminster Chapel) and A. W. Tozer. Cambell Morgan said that true preaching has three basic elements - truth, clarity and passion. To illustrate the point about passion in preaching, Campbell Morgan told the story of a conversation between a preacher and a famous actor. The unsuccessful preacher wondered why people thronged to see the actor and hung on his every word. The actor replied that it was because he proclaimed fiction as if it were the truth while the preacher proclaimed the truth as if it was fiction.
Do we believe what we preach? Do we feel and perform the truth in our preaching?
John Bunyan who preached what he "smartingly did feel".
"List, list, O list." Said the ghost of Hamlet's father. For once, this is a proper post rather than a list. Normal service will be resumed shortly.

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