Edwards was an immensely passionate man, and it oozed through his personality. Piper concludes, "By precept and example Edwards calls us to [quoting Edwards] 'an exceeding affectionate way of preaching about the great things of religion' and to flee from a 'moderate, dull indifferent way of speaking.'"19

Thomas Chalmers, the celebrated Scottish preacher, was described by James Stewart as preaching "with a disconcertingly provincial accent, with an almost total lack of dramatic gesture, tied rigidly to his manuscript, with his finger following the written lines as he read."20 His secret? His "blood earnestness."21 A universe of homiletical wisdom is contained in that phrase. However we preach, we must have a "blood earnestness."

Spurgeon asked, '"What in a Christian minister is the most essential quality for securing success in winning souls for Christ?' I should reply, 'Earnestness;' and if I were asked a second or a third time, I would not vary the answer, for personal observation drives me to the conclusion that, as a rule, real success is proportionate to the preacher's earnestness."22

"Be earnest, earnest, earnest -- Mad if thou wilt; Do what thou dost as if the stake were Heaven, And that thy last deed before the judgment Day" (Charles Kingsley).23

I have a framed picture of Charles Simeon that was printed in 1836, the year of his death. Simeon was the man who almost singlehandedly brought the evangelical resurgence to the Church of England. Fellow of King's College, Cambridge, he had secured the pulpit of Holy Trinity, Cambridge, where he preached for over fifty years. For the first ten years of his ministry, his unhappy parishioners chained their pews closed, so that all listeners had to sit in the aisles. But Simeon persevered. His twenty-one volumes of sermons, Horae Homilaticae (Hours of Homilies), set the standard for preaching in the following generations.

His Friday night tea was used to disciple a generation of preachers and missionaries, men like Henry Martyn. He not only prevailed but three times gave the university lectures. When you visit Cambridge, you can view his artifacts at his church: the black Wedgewood teapot from which he served students at his Friday night study group, his umbrella (the very first in Cambridge), and his 21 volumes of sermons.

Today if you visit the National Gallery in London, you can see a famous set of silhouettes depicting Simeon in various homiletical postures as he implored his people from the pulpit of Holy Trinity. A contemporary wrote:

"I have been at Trinity church thrice today. In the morning a very good sermon by Simeon, a decent one by Thomason, and in the evening to a crowded congregation, a superlative discourse by Simeon (on Acts 4:12), vital, evangelical, powerful, and impressive in his animated manner. John Stoughton has a similar recollection. He felt that Simeon's sermon: far from having the slow penetrating force of the dew came down like 'hailstones and coals of fire.' I was struck with the preacher's force, even vehemence. He spoke as one who had a burden from the Lord to deliver -- and one who, like Paul, felt 'Woe unto me if I preach not the gospel.'"24