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Our Scripture verse on preaching is 2 Timothy 3:15-16 which reads: "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness."   Our quote on preaching today is from Walter Chantry. He said, "Much of modern preaching is anaemic, with the life-blood of God's nature absent from the message. Evangelists centre their message upon the man. Man has sinned and missed a great blessing. If man wants to retrieve his immense loss he must act thus and so. But the Gospel of Christ is very different. It begins with God and His glory. It tells men that they have offended a holy God, who will by no means pass by sin. It reminds sinners that the only hope of salvation is to be found in the grace and power of this same God. Christ's Gospel sends men to beg pardon of the Holy One."   Our first topic is titled "The Call to the Ministry, Part 8" from "Lectures to My Students" by Charles H. Spurgeon. He writes:   Prophets whose words are powerless, sowers whose seed all withers, fishers who take no fish, soldiers who give no wounds–are these God's men? Surely it were better to be a mud-raker, or a chimney-sweep, than to stand in the ministry as an utterly barren tree. The meanest occupation confers some benefit upon mankind, but the wretched man who occupies a pulpit and never glorifies his God by conversions is a blank, a blot, an eyesore, a mischief. He is not worth the salt he eats, much less his bread; and if he writes to newspapers to complain of the smallness of his salary, his conscience, if he has any, might well reply, "And what you have is undeserved."   ...   Our second topic is titled "The Qualifications of the Preacher, Part 21" from "The Preacher and his Preaching" by Alfred P. Gibbs.   This section is titled: HE MUST BE FIT FOR THE WORK (PART 6)   The preaching gift must be developed in the atmosphere of spirituality. Spiritual gifts require spiritual power for their operation. This demands that the preacher himself must be spiritual. We cannot do better than quote the weighty words of an honored servant of Christ, the late Henry Groves. Speaking of the early disciples, he said, “It was a spiritual work they had to do, therefore He spiritualized the men who were to do it. It was faith they had to plant, therefore He made His missionaries men of faith. They had to deliver the nations from the idolatry of gold and silver, therefore He took care His messengers should have none.   ...   Our third topic is titled "Tools of the Trade, Part 5" from "Biblical Preaching" by Haddon W. Robinson. He writes:   Topical exposition faces two problems. First, the topic we are considering may be dealt with in several passages of Scripture. Each of the individual passages, therefore, must be examined in its context. Isolating a single passage on which to base a teaching may ignore tensions built into the biblical record. Usually, topical exposition takes more study than exposition based on a single passage.   ...