Walking With the Giants

Tobacco
Most of the preachers listed in this book lived in much more conservative climates than our church today. While their collective views on alcohol seem to be similar there is a stark contrast in the public view of cigar smoking. It was one of the themes I noted throughout the book and here are a few examples:“[R.W.] Dale wore his hair cut short, but he had a full beard and mustache. Some of the older people in his church were scandalized when the mustache appeared, and some people even wrote letters to the newspapers in protest! They felt it gave him ‘an air of levity and worldliness.’ There is no record that anybody was upset over his smoking. ‘Food and drink he could forego without a pang,’ wrote his son, ‘but cut off from tobacco, he was little better than a lost soul.'” “It is well known that Spurgeon smoked, although it must be admitted that many famous British preachers smoked. (I have been told by one who ought to know that Campbell Morgan smoked as many as eight cigars a day!) Once Spurgeon was gently reprimanded for his smoking by a Methodist preacher. ‘If I ever find myself smoking to excess, I promise I shall quit entirely,’ Spurgeon said. ‘What would you call smoking to excess?’ the man asked. ‘Why, smoking two cigars at the same time!’ was the answer.” “In spite of his mother’s pleas, [Phillips] Brooks continued to smoke; his ideal vacation was made up of ‘plenty of books and time and tobacco.'” “T.H. Darlow wrote; ‘It was weird to watch him [W. Robertson Nicoll] as he lay there, amid a medley of newspapers and books and pipes and cigarette ashes, and to know that his brain was busy absorbing knowledge and incubating ideas all the time.'”
Great Preaching Quotes from Preachers
In addition to Wiersbe’s commentary, here are a handful of quotes from these famous preachers that really stood out to me.“All God’s giants have been weak men, who did great things for God because they reckoned on His being with them.” Hudson Taylor “Let a man be a true preacher, really uttering the truth through his own personality, and it is strange how men will gather to listen to him.” Phillips Brooks “One never knows what is going to happen when he puts a truth to soak in the juices of the mind.” Charles E. Jefferson “We are not, gentlemen, heathen philosophers finding out things; we are expositors of a revelation that settled things.” John Hall
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