In 1870 the old southern Presbyterian giant Robert Louis Dabney published a magisterial work on preaching entitled, Sacred Rhetoric, which Banner of Truth reprinted a century later as Evangelical Eloquence.

One of the more valuable parts of his discussion on evangelical – contemporary men would call this “gospel-centered” – preaching is how he speaks of the Spirit’s work in the pastor’s delivery.

THE SPIRIT’S ANNOINTING

Dabney says evangelical tone includes “that quality which is happily denoted by the French divines, unction.” The Union Theological man’s definition of this oft-talked about element in sacred discourse is wonderful:

[Unction] expresses that temperature of thought and elocution, which the Spirit of all grace sheds upon the heart possessed by the blessed truths of the gospel. It is not identical with animation. Every passion in the preacher does not constitute unction. While it does not expel intellectual activity, authority, and will, it superfuses these elements of force with the love, the pity, the tenderness, the pure zeal, the seriousness, which the topics of redemption should shed upon the soul of a ransomed and sanctified sinner. . . .

It is, in short, a quality not merely intellectual or sentimental, but spiritual. Although not identical with ardent piety, it is the effluence of ardent piety alone. A correct taste alone cannot communicate it. It cannot be taught by rhetoric alone. It cannot be acquired from the imitation of others. But it is the Holy Spirit who communicates it to the cultivated mind and pure taste, by enduing the soul which is thus prepared with an ardent zeal for God’s glory and a tender compassion for those who are perishing.

LET THE SPIRIT FALL

Yearn for the Spirit’s unction in every message; the ardent zeal burning for God’s glory in Christ. May every man who ascends to the sacred desk this weekend preach with this power.