Catherine Booth on preaching . . .

“The main idea of much of the preaching of this day seems to be that of teaching people — instructing them — which too often results in hardening their hearts . . . It is like giving a dissertation on the relative value of a vegetarian and an animal diet to a man dying of hunger. What good will your dissertation do unless you get the man to eat the food about which you are descanting? . . . I have felt like saying to the minister, ‘My brother, if you have nothing better than this to offer, let us have a prayer meeting and get something direct from the great Father Himself, without your intervention.’

Would to God there were more preachers in the fix of a Baptist minister . . . who has been so stirred up and awakened to his responsibilities, that on a recent occasion when he had read his text, he broke down weeping, which had more effect than all the sermons he had preached during the years he had been in that town. His people wept too, and many of them got converted. I wish that a few thousand ministers could be brought to a similar state of mind before next Sunday; what a commotion there would be in the land.”