p. 101 | Plain Preaching

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 24, 1863

Plain Preaching.

The late Rev. Dr. C. Evans, of Bristol, having once to travel from home, wrote to a congregation to say that he should have occasion to stay a night in their village, and that if it were agreeable to them, he would give them a sermon. The poor people hesitated for some time, but at length permitted him to preach. After sermon he found them in a happier mood than when he first came among them, and could not forbear inquiring into the reason of all this. "Why, sir, to tell you the truth," said one of them, "knowing that you were a very learned man, and that you were a teacher of young ministers, we were much afraid we could not understand you; but you have been quite as plain as any minister we ever hear."

"Ay, ay," the doctor replied, "you certainly misunderstand the nature of learning, my friend; its design is to make things so plain that they cannot be misunderstood." Similar was the view of Archbishop Leighton, who says in one of his charges to his clergy: "How much learning, my brethren, is required to make these things plain?"