This is one of the services that the preacher can perform for his people. This is preaching direct in its appeal, discerning in its insight, disarming in its intimacy, and deceptive in its simplicity. The preacher is not interested in sermon-making as a literary art or in the sermon as an object to be achieved, much less as an end in itself. He is interested in his people -- in their problems, their perplexities, their dark doubts and drab dismay in the face of life as they have to live it. His style is simple, lucid, vivid, as transparent as light, leaving no cloud on his meaning and yet a style which, in spite of itself, speaks at times in stinging sentences and in epigrams which flash like lightning.

Edgar De Witt Jones says: "Listening to Dr. Fosdick, your heart beats faster, your cheeks are warm, something stirs within you in reponse to the preacher and you feel that a real discipleship of Jesus Christ in these days is the mightiest challenge and the greatest thing in the world. His sermons are powerful and the result of painstaking toil. He is an able speaker who makes few gestures, talks right on and always to the point; comes to close grips with life; uses effectively illustrations taken not only from books but from the daily experiences of men and women as they meet pain, disappointment and temptation. He is never detached or remote in his preaching. His is exciting preaching which is not merely emotional but highly intelligent and spiritually powerful."

In the preface to his book On Being Fit To Live With, sermons which sprang from and dealt with the conditions following the Second World War, he says: "Sermons are not meant to be read as essays are. The dominant factor in an essay is the subject to be elucidated; the dominant factor in a sermon is the object to be attained. A good sermon is direct personal address, individual consultation on a group scale, intended to achieve results. A sermon should certainly get things done, then and there, in the minds and lives of the audience. It should be a convincing appeal to a listening jury for decision. If a printed sermon is to seem real, the reader must read as though he were listening."

Fosdick is a man for all seasons; he speaks to us as clearly today as he did at the height of his influence. He published more than thirty books in his career, perhaps the most important, in addition to his collection of sermons, being the trilogy published in his early years: The Meaning of Prayer, The Meaning of Faith, and The Meaning of Service; The Modern Use of the Bible, A Guide to Understanding the Bible, and his autobiography The Living of These Days.

Ralph Sockman was asked in an interview on television, "Will you in thirty seconds sum up Fosdick as a man and a minister?" This was his answer: " He has helped to make religion intellectually respected, socially responsible, and spiritually redemptive. He has never sacrificed his intellectual integrity to curry favor with ecclesiastical critics or the popular crowd. He has kept his message so Christ-centered that he has been at the center of every vital social issue for four decades and has helped to make the Christian Church feel its corporate responsibilities. And how far his work has been spiritually redemptive is known only to the Divine Accountant who keeps the record of those helped by his counseling sessions, his radiant sermons, and his inspiring books. Perhaps for myself I can best sum up Fosdick by using the words of the memorable hymn: he has interpreted the "God of grace and glory" for "the living of these days."