“Thoroughly Drenched in the Word”

Here is another excerpt from Adam Nicolson’s, God’s Secretaries: The Making of the King James Bible. Here Nicolson is describing the widespread attentiveness to Scripture and the in depth, intense preaching of the day. Something to aspire to:

“…week after week, preachers would occupy their pulpits analysing texts, pursuing moral and theological arguments, exercising the difficult and demanding skills that hold a congregation’s attention.  They were clearly good at it.  Laurence Chaderton, the moderate Puritan leader, once paused after two hours of a Cambridge sermon. The entire congregation stood up and shouted, ‘For God’s sake go on!’ He gave them another hour.

There can never have been a time in which Englishmen were so thoroughly drenched in the word.” (181-82)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *