Thursday, December 15, 2005

Quotes from B. H. Carroll


B. H. Carroll was one of the giants in the earlier days of SBC life, serving as a pastor and then as the founding president of Southwestern Seminary. He is fun to read and to read about. He was a colorful, thoughtful, profound and passionate man. I have recently come across some old copies of his Interpretation of the English Bible in our library, and they are worth reading. You can find them in reprints and in electronic format.

Here I simply want to pass along two quotes from his ‘Sermons to Preachers’ (1892):

“My brother, if you would magnify your office, make the Word of God your life study. Let down your buckets into the well of salvation; lengthen your cords and let them down deep, and draw up the water fresh and sparkling every day, and give it out freely to your thirsty congregations.”

“how can a man magnify his office who is too lazy to study that Word which it is his business to preach? Who lives year after year in ignorance of the rudiments of Bible teaching? Who has not studied that sacred library, book by book, and chapter by chapter?”

Amen! May we exemplify these truths.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is that my nose swollen and bloody from one of Carroll's left jabs? That piece of pie is still stuck in my throat.

Ray Van Neste said...

OK, Barry J. You've got me stumped here. I have no idea what you're talking about!

Anonymous said...

How many times have I heard that from my congregation?! I was referring specifically to the second Carroll quote you provided. As one prone to lazy study, Carroll knocked some sense into me (hence the "jab" reference). In an awkward change of metaphors, the truth of that quote was hard to swallow but I'll get it down for my own good (hence the "pie" reference).

Sorry for the confusion. It's nothing a good Aberdeenian swat won't correct.

Ray Van Neste said...

No problem! I now follow. I thought you may have been alluding to some incident from Carroll's life assuming I knew of it when I didn't! It is entirely possible that there is some story about him punching someone in the nose.
But, my previous comment was no swat. :) It was simply an expression of my inablity to follow the allusions of your creative pen (or do we say keyboard in the modern situation?)