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 PREFACE

HAVE chosen the title of this book to stress one fundamental fact, namely, that preaching exists, not for the propagating of views, opinions and ideals, but for the proclamation of the mighty acts of God. This is demonstrably the New Testament conception of the preacher's task; and it is this that will always give preaching a basic and essential place at the very heart of Christian worship.

To write about preaching is therefore to deal with an enterprise with which not only the man in the pulpit but the whole worshipping community is vitally and intimately concerned: a fact which emboldens me to hope that the pages which follow, addressed originally as Lectures in the Universities of Edinburgh and St. Andrews to Divinity students and ministers, will have something to say to the wider circle of those who Sunday by Sunday are hearers of the Word of God, "loving the habitation of His house and the place where His honour dwelleth," and perhaps even to the critic in the back pew.

I desire here to record my thanks to the Trustees of the Warrack Lectureship, for their invitation to 5