J.A. Broadus (1827–1895)

Very helpful book. On the philosophy of preaching and worship, it was pretty flat and not super helpful, more of a survey of different views. But regarding the actual nuts and bolts of preperation and preaching, this book is invaluable. Deals with mechanics but also with the personal aspects of preaching—of the necessity of deep thought, prayer, emotional connection, and awareness of the message and audience of a sermon. Really great material.

Superior to later editions, this volume was edited and "updated" by Broadus' student Dagon and reissued; this sadly became the practice of the editors which followed Dagon until the currently available editions are the watered down shadows of the former great "Treatise."

This later edition of the original is weak in it's revisions, a collectors item, but not so good in quality. The original is better.

The farther the editions of this classic work get from the original author, the more diluted the work has become. The editior of this edition tried to insert materials on the use of computers in sermon preperation, but obviously had never used, or maybe even touched a computer, for example.