My favourite piece of hagiography

For delightful reading, John Kennedy's The Days of the Fathers in Ross-shire is unbeatable. For a study of the ministers and men of Ross-shire in Scotland in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century, it is indispensable.

In the following passage Kennedy describes the preachers of his youth, and some of a previous generation. There is a lot of license, and probably not a little exaggeration, in these lines, but they set before us the best kind of preaching and preachers. It's a passage I never tire of quoting, and trying to apply:

As preachers, they were all remarkable. There are some who preach before their people, like actors on the stage, to display themselves and to please their audience. Not such were the self-denied preachers of Ross-shire.

There are others who preach over their people. Study­ing for the highest, instead of doing so for the lowest, in intelligence, they elaborated learned treatises, which float like mist, when delivered, over the heads of their hearers. Not such were the earnest preachers of Ross­shire.

There are some who preach past their people. Directing their praise or their censure to intangible abstractions, they never take aim at the views and the conduct of the individuals before them. They step carefully aside, lest their hearers should be struck by their shafts, and aim them at phantoms beyond them. Not such were the faithful preachers of Ross-shire.

There are others who preach at their people, serving out in a sermon the gossip of the week, and seemingly possessed with the idea that the transgressor can be scolded out of the ways of iniquity. Not such were the wise preachers of Ross-shire.

There are some who preach towards their people. They aim well, but they are weak. Their eye is along the arrow towards the hearts of their hearers, but their arm is too feeble for sending it on to the mark. Superficial in their experi­ence and in their knowledge, they reach not the cases of God's people by their doctrine, and they strike with no vigour at the consciences of the ungodly. Not such were the powerful preachers of Ross-shire.

There are others still, who preach along their congregation. Instead of standing with their bow in front of the ranks, these archers take them in line, and, reducing their mark to an individual, never change the direction of their aim. Not such were the discriminating preachers of Ross-shire.

But there are a few who preach to the people directly and seasonably the mind of God in His Word, with authority, unction, wisdom, fervour, and love. Such as these last were the eminent preachers of Ross-shire.

(Days of the Fathers in Ross-shire, 1927, pp23-4)

As a blueprint for eminence in preaching, Kennedy's description is hard to beat!