Reader, our preaching must not be a mere recital of facts which sinners have to accept. We must not be content with a mere correct ticking of the boxes, orthodox expositions of Scripture, the reading of moral lectures based on theological topics, repeated recipes for living the Christian life. We must not be satisfied with a conventional turning of the conventional handle, with sinners being conventionally addressed, if at all, in the final, dying moments of the conventional discourse. Routine, unreality, it all seems to say. All in the head, it is, to borrow Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s words, too often ‘faultily faultless, icily regular, splendidly null, dead perfection’ |