Remember, preacher, that you are the servant, directly and primarily, of Christ. You are the servant of his people, for his sake, and under his control. Remember that the Savior’s scrutinizing gaze and searching fire will try your work. Ask yourself concerning every doctrine—Will this stand the day of account? Will Jesus applaud me in that day, as having taught his pure truth and his whole truth?

   Let us remember, too, that the teaching, both in its substance and in its style, manifests the heart of the teacher. The earnest student of Scripture will come forth freighted with God’s word. The hankerer after philosophy will savor of its vanities. He who is ambitious of a name for eloquence will make it apparent to God, and most probably to his hearers also. If our aim be to astonish and to captivate, we shall employ one style. If our desire be to build for eternity and the eye of Christ, we shall exhibit another and a soberer one. 

   The showy sermon, the popular doctrine, may win the largest congregation now; but will they stand the day of the Lord? Do they even now produce the best results? Who oftenest hit the target? The archer that with eye intent on the mark steadily draws his arrow to the head, regardless of all around, careful only of the mark before him, or he who desires to be accounted an elegant bowman, and who therefore stands in an elegant attitude, and with graceful action shoots high into air?  

Entrance Into the Kingdom - Robert Govett