A Great Journey
While I have not officially reviewed the books, over the past few months, I have been reading all five volumes of Hardeman’s Tabernacle Sermons. I have tried to space them out over the course of 18 months, and I finished reading the fifth (and final) volume a couple of days ago.
As I read these old sermons, they did not seem that old. It is amazing how the simple Gospel message seems so new when presented in sincerity and love. N.B. Hardeman had a way of turning a phrase, so one could hear (or read) these sermons in any era and feel as though they were needed right then.
These sermons, presented in five separate meetings from the 1920s-1940s in Nashville, are a treasure chest of Bible knowledge and knowledge of the contemporary world. Hardeman had a way of preaching to a contemporary need without using a bunch of psychology, sociology or even history. Instead, he told what was going on and then pointed to the Bible. To say that this kind of preaching is needed today is a gross understatement!
It may seem strange for a youth minister to read these books. The language is a bit old (although not as old as you might think), and these are basically “first principles” sermons. Why would I read them? Two reasons: (1) my young people need to hear these principles, and (2) I need to hear them again!
If you have never taken this journey to Depression-era Nashville and read these sermons, do yourself a favor and read them. Preachers, let’s never forget the first principles sermons. They may be old to some, but they are forever new!
