A friend recently gave me a book, “The Path of Prayer” by Samuel Chadwick, an English pastor in the late 1800's and early 1900's. She said that her own prayers have been deeply impacted by what he wrote.  I started reading about the author, about his first pastorate at the age of 21 in Lancashire.  Here’s an excerpt, “It was no dream appointment; the congregation was self-satisfied.  Yet Chadwick threw himself in with great optimism.  He had been trained to prepare well-researched and interesting sermons as the sure way to bring in the crowds.  He recalled later: ‘This led unconsciously to a false aim in my work.  I lived and labored for my sermons, and was unfortunately more concerned about their excellence and reputation than the repentance of the people.’

“Soon, however, his sermons were exhausted and nothing had changed.  Staring defeat in the face and sensing his lack of real power, he felt an intense hunger kindled within him for more of God.  At this point he heard the testimony of someone who had been revitalized by an experience of the Holy Spirit, so with a few friends he covenanted to pray and search the Scriptures until God sent revival.

“One evening as he was praying over his next sermon, a powerful sense of conviction settled on him.  His pride, blindness and reliance on human methods paraded before his eyes as God humbled him to the dust.  Well into the night he wrestled and repented, then he got out his pile of precious sermons and set fire to them!  The result was immediate: the Holy Spirit fell upon him.  In his own words: ‘I could not explain what had happened, but it was a bigger thing than I had ever known.  There came into my soul a deep peace, a thrilling joy, and a new sense of power.  My mind was quickened.  I felt I had received a new faculty of understanding.  Every power was vitalized.  My body was quickened.  There was a new sense of spring and vitality, a new power of endurance, and a strong man’s exhilaration in big things.’” 

Thereafter, it goes on to describe the change in him and what happened as he preached the gospel.  I was pretty impressed that any pastor (in the 19th, 20th or 21st century) would burn the sermons that he had labored long and hard to produce without having a Plan B!  Or that he had actually been willing to see and receive the Holy Spirit’s revelation of his own “pride, blindness, and reliance on human methods.”  Needless to say, I was interested in reading this book.

In the process of reading it, I noticed that Chadwick had written another, similar book (actually a compilation of short articles he had written) titled “The Way to Pentecost.”  Without having finished the first book, on the strength of being impressed with that sermon burning, I ordered the second book.  Oh my!  I am in the midst of reading it and my heart is filled with love for Christ, a soaring desire for the deeper work of the Holy Spirit in my life, and a longing to walk in and possess all of what God has for His children.

In short, read one or both of these little books - even if it’s just because you, too, like the idea of a pastor who is so passionate about the power and reality of Christ in his life that he would burn his own sermons to possess it! 

(I found it for $7.99 on Amazon.)