E.M.Bounds: The Man Makes the Preacher

The character as well as the fortunes of the gospel is committed to the preacher. He makes or mars the
message from God to man. The preacher is the golden pipe through which the divine oil flows. The pipe must
not only be golden, but open and flawless, that the oil may have a full, unhindered, unwasted flow.

The man makes the preacher. God must make the man. The messenger is,
if possible, more than the message.
The preacher is more than the sermon. The preacher makes the sermon. As the life-giving milk from the
mother's bosom is but the mother's life, so all the preacher says is tinctured, impregnated by what the preacher
is. The treasure is in earthen vessels, and the taste of the vessel impregnates and may discolor. The man, the
whole man, lies behind the sermon. Preaching is not the performance of an hour. It is the outflow of a life. It
takes twenty years to make a sermon, because it takes twenty years to make the man. The true sermon is a
thing of life. The sermon grows because the man grows. The sermon is forceful because the man is forceful.
The sermon is holy because the man is holy. The sermon is full of the divine unction because the man is full of
the divine unction.



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