He was shy, spoke rapidly, had a stiff sermon delivery and terrible eye contact -- usually staring at the sounding board above his head, according to his biographers.

Yet Phillips Brooks drew tremendous crowds and became known as one of the great "princes of the pulpit" of the nineteenth century. What was the secret of this paradoxical preacher?

Phillips Brooks' effectiveness resulted from several factors. One was his careful preparation and study of the text. He also spoke conversationally, with a sincerity and intensity that overcame his shyness. Still another element was his pastor's heart; he visited his congregation regularly, and believed this personal contact was an essential part of his effectiveness in the pulpit.

Perhaps as significant as any factor of content or delivery was Brooks' commitment to his calling as a proclaimer of the Word. He once described the ministry as "the noblest and most glorious calling to which a man can give himself."

Born in Boston in 1835, Brooks graduated from Harvard at age 19 and taught school for a few months before entering the Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Alexandria, Virginia. His first parish was the Church of the Advent in Philadelphia; during that two-year pastorate his preaching underwent remarkable improvement. He moved to the Church of the Holy Trinity in the same city, then in 1869 began a long and significant ministry as rector of Boston's Trinity Church.

At the age of 42, Brooks delivered the Lyman Beecher Lectures in Preaching at Yale. His published Lectures on Preaching are probably the most widely read of the entire Yale series, and still offer tremendous insights and inspiration to the contemporary preacher. It was in those lectures that Brooks offered his now-famous definition of preaching as the "communication of truth through personality."

Brooks was attacked as both a liberal and a conservative, depending on the opponent. He was committed to his denomination -- in 1891 he accepted the post of bishop of Massachusetts for the Episcopal Church -- but was cooperative with other groups. He supported Dwight L. Moody's Boston revivals at a time when many other churchmen refused.

The great Boston preacher died in 1893 at the age of 57. More than 20,000 mourners gathered to lament the loss of one of the greatest orators of the American pulpit.

The selections that follow -- taken from his Yale lectures and from several sermons -- offer a glimpse into the pulpit ministry of Phillips Brooks, who in his own preaching provided an example of the "communication of truth through personality."

From "Lectures on Preaching"

Definers and defenders of the faith are always needed, but it is bad for a church, when its ministers count it their true work to define and defend the faith father than to preach the Gospel. Beware of the tendency to preach about Christianity, and try to preach Christ. To discuss the relations of Christianity and Science, Christianity and Society, Christianity and Politics, is good. To set Christ forth to men so that they shall know Him, and in gratitude and love become His, that is far better. It is good to be a Herschel who describes the sun; but it is better to be a Prometheus who brings the sun's fire to the earth.