A Vast Responsibility for the Preacher

His throne is the pulpit; he stands in Christ’s stead; his message is the word of God; around him are immortal souls; the Saviour, unseen, is beside him; the Holy Spirit broods over the congregation; angels gaze upon the scene, and heaven and hell await the issue. What associations, and what a vast responsibility.

(Matthew Simpson, Lectures on Preaching. Phillips & Hunt, New York, 1879. p. 98. Quoted by John Stott in Between Two Worlds: The Art of Preaching in the Twentieth Century. Published by Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, MI. 1982.)