f we were not told what his text
that forenoon was. His text that never-to-be-forgotten Fast-day forenoon
was in Luke xiii. 7--'Cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?' And a
very smart sermon he made upon the place. First, he showed what was the
occasion of the words, namely, because the fig-tree was barren. Then he
showed what was contained in the sentence, to wit, repentance or utter
desolation. He then showed also by whose authority this sentence was
pronounced. And, lastly, he showed the reasons of the point, and then
concluded his sermon. But he was very pertinent in the application,
insomuch that he made all the elders and all their people in Mansoul to
tremble. Sidney Smith says that whatever else a sermon may be or may not
be, it must be interesting if it is to do any good. Now, pertinent
preaching is always interesting preaching. Nothing interests men like
themselves. And pertinent preaching is just preaching to men about
themselves,--about their interests, their losses and their gains, their
hopes and their fears, their trials and their tribulations. Boanerges
took both his text and his treatment of his text from his Master, and we
know how pertinently The Master preached. His preaching was with such
pertinence that the one half of His hearers went home saying, Never man
spake like this man, while the other half gnashed at Him with their
teeth. Our Lord never lectured on Euroclydon. He knew what was in man
and He lectured and preached accordingly. And if we wish to have praise
of our best people, and of Him whose people they are, let us look into
our own hearts and preach. That will be pertinent to our people which is
first pertinent to ourselves. Weep yourself, said an old poet to a new
beginner; weep yourself if you would make me weep. 'For my own part,'
said Thomas Shepard to some ministers from his death-bed, 'I never
preached a sermon which, in the composing, did not cost me prayers, with
strong cries and tears. I never preached a sermon from which I had not
first got some good to my own soul.'

'His office and his name agree;
A shepherd that and Shepard he.'

And many such entries as these occur in Thomas Boston's golden journal:
'I preached in Ps. xlii. 5, and mostly on my own account.' Again:
'Meditating my sermon next day, I found advantage to my own soul, as also
in delivering it on the Sabbath.' And again: 'What good this preaching
has done to others I know not, yet I