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Of right and wrong he taught
Truths as refined as ever Athens heard;
And (strange to tell) he practis'd what he preach'd.
Author: John Armstrong
Source: Art of Preserving Health (bk. IV, l. 301)
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I met a preacher there I knew, and said,
Ill and overworked, how fare you in this scene?
Bravely! said he; for I of late have been
Much cheered with thoughts of Christ, the living bread.
Author: Matthew Arnold
Source: East London
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I preached as never sure to preach again,
And as a dying man to dying men.
Author: Richard Baxter
Source: Love Breathing Thanks and Praise (pt. 2, st. 29)
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Do as we say, and not as we do.
[Lat., Faites ce que nous disons, et ne faites pas ce que nous
faisons.]
Author: Giovanni Boccaccio
Source: Decameron, from the French of Sabatier de Castres "Troisieme Journee", novelle VII
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For the preacher's merit or demerit,
It were to be wished that the flaws were fewer
In the earthen vessel, holding treasure,
But the main thing is, does it hold good measure
Heaven soon sets right all other matters!
Author: Robert Browning
Source: Christmas Eve (canto XXII)
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Hear how he clears the points o' Faith
Wi' rattling an' thumpin'!
Now meekly calm, now wild in wrath,
He's stampin', and he's jumpin'!
Author: Robert Burns
Source: Holy Fair (st. 13)
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And pulpit, drum ecclesiastic,
Was beat with fist instead of a stick.
Author: Samuel Butler (1)
Source: Hudibras (pt. I, canto I, l. 11)
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Take time enough: all other graces
Will soon fill up their proper places.
Author: John Byrom
Source: Advice to Preach Slow
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Oh, for a forty-parson power to chant
Thy praise, Hypocrisy! Oh, for a hymn
Loud as the virtues thou dost loudly vaunt,
Not practise!
Author: Lord Byron (George Gordon Noel Byron)
Source: Don Juan (canto X, st. 34)
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But Cristes loore, and his Apostles twelve
He taughte, but first he folowed it hymselfe.
Author: Geoffrey Chaucer
Source: The Canterbury Tales (prologue, l. 527)
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There goes the parson, oh illustrious spark!
And there, scarce less illustrious, goes the clerk.
Author: William Cowper
Source: On Observing Some Names of Little Note
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I venerate the man whose heart is warm,
Whose hands are pure, whose doctrine and whose life,
Coincident, exhibit lucid proof
That he is honest in the sacred cause.
Author: William Cowper
Source: Task (bk. II, l. 372)
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Would I describe a preacher,
. . . .
I would express him simple, grave, sincere;
In doctrine uncorrupt; in language plain,
And plain in manner; decent, solemn, chaste,
And natural in gesture; much impress'd
Himself, as conscious of his awful charge,
And anxious mainly that the flock he feeds
May feel it too; affectionate in look,
And tender in address, as well becomes
A messenger of grace to guilty men.
Author: William Cowper
Source: Task (bk. II, l. 394)
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He that negotiates between God and man,
As God's ambassador, the grand concerns
Of judgment and of mercy, should beware
Of lightness in his speech.
Author: William Cowper
Source: Task (bk. II, l. 463)
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The things that mount the rostrum with a skip,
And then skip down again, pronounce a text,
Cry hem; and reading what they never wrote
Just fifteen minutes, huddle up their work,
And with a well-bred whisper close the scene!
Author: William Cowper
Source: Task (bk. II, l. 463)
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A kick that scarce would move a horse,
May kill a sound divine.
Author: William Cowper
Source: Yearly Distress (st. 16)
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The priest he merry is, and blithe
Three-quarters of a year,
But oh! it cuts him like a scythe
When tithing time draws near.
Author: William Cowper
Source: Yearly Distress (st. 2)
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Go forth and preach impostures to the world,
But give them truth to build on.
Author: Dante ("Dante Alighieri")
Source: Vision of Paradise (canto XXIX)
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God preaches, a noted clergyman,
And the sermon is never long;
So instead of getting to heaven at last,
I'm going all along.
Author: Emily Dickinson
Source: Poems (VI, A Service of Song)
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The proud he tam'd, the penitent he cheer'd:
Nor to rebuke the rich offender fear'd.
His preaching much, but more his practice wrought;
(A living sermon of the truths he taught:)
For this by rules severe his life he squar'd:
That all might see the doctrines which they heard.
Author: John Dryden
Source: Character of a Good Parson (l. 75)
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Alas for the unhappy man that is called to stand in the pulpit,
and not give the bread of life.
Author: Ralph Waldo Emerson
Source: An Address to the Senior Class in Divinity College, Cambridge
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But in his duty prompt at every call,
He watch'd and wept, he pray'd and felt for all.
Author: Oliver Goldsmith
Source: The Deserted Village (l. 165)
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They shall knaw a file, and flee unto the mountains of Hepsidam
whar the lion roareth and the Wang Doodle mourneth for its first
born--ah!
Author: Oliver Goldsmith
Source: The Deserted Village (l. 165)
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Judge not the preacher; for he is thy judge:
If thou mislike him, thou conceiv'st him not.
God calleth preaching folly. Do not grudge
To pick out treasures from an earthen pot.
The worst speak something good. If all want sense,
God takes a text, and preaches patience.
Author: George Herbert
Source: The Temple--The Church Porch (st. 72)
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Even ministers of good things are like torches, a light to
others, waste and destruction to themselves.
Author: Richard Hooker
Source: quoted by Gladstone, 1880, see Morley's "Life of Gladstone", bk. VIII, ch. I
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