Ebook A History of Preaching

The remarkable lack Of treatises on the History of Preaching, especially in English, early impressed me, and aroused a desire to do something, however little, towards supplying the need. The difficulty of the task and the pressure of other and heavy burdens have occasioned many misgivings and delays, and there have been Of necessity changes of plan in the execution of the work. As now planned the present volume is the first Of three proposed books. It deals with the history up to and including the Reformation, the next will treat of Modern European preaching, and the last will present a History Of Preaching in the United States. Some material is in hand for these later works, and should this one be fort unate enough to find a public, and should life and leisure be granted me, I hope in time to produce them. For the completion of the present volume Opportunity was kindly afforded by the Trustees of the Seminary in granting me leave of absence for some months to Visit Europe. While abroad from June, 1902, to January, 1903, I had time not only to write up much material already gathered, but to visit some of the places made famous in the history Of the pulpit, and to read somewhat in a number of the great libraries, including those at Berlin.