DR. JOHNSON ON PREACHING

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 25, 1858

DR. JOHNSON ON PREACHING.

I talked of preaching, and of the great success which those called Methodists have obtained. Johnson answered, “Sir it is owing to their expressing themselves in a plain, familiar manner, which is the only way to do good to the common people, and which clergymen of genius and learning ought to do from a principle of duty, when it is suited to their congregations—for which they will be praised by men of sense. To insist against drunkenness as debasing reason, the noblest faculty of man, would be of no service to the common people; but to tell them that they may die in a fit of drunkenness, can not fail to make an impression.”—Boswell’s Life of Johnson.