Smiles of assent swept across the Upperville, Va., Baptist Church on an August morning in 1846. The visiting speaker was rapidly winning the full sympathy of his audience. No preacher had ever before so fully justified the toil and sacrifices by which these farmers were growing rich. It was right, he declared, for the Christian to gather property and provide well for his family.
Just as he had his audience in his hand, Dr. A. M. Poindexter suddenly and dramatically appealed for them to “consecrate their wealth to the highest ends of existence, to the good of mankind, and the glory of Christ.” It was a torrent, a tornado that swept everything before it. Then with no lesser power, he urged his hearers to dedicate their mental gifts and possible attainments to the work of the ministry.
One young man was so powerfully moved by the Spirit of God that immediately after the service he sought his pastor and choked out, “Brother Grimsley, the question is decided; I must try to be a preacher.”
Dr. Poindexter’s sermon, and a preceding one, had just changed the life course of John A. Broadus. In the providence of God, Broadus’ preaching, teaching, and writing were in turn destined to influence and change countless lives, far beyond his own lifetime. It has been said of his text Preparation and Delivery of Sermons that “No other work in the field of homiletics has had so wide and extended use in the history of theological education.”
None of this could have been foreseen that morning in the Blue Ridge Mountains. No one could have imagined that Broadus was destined to be chosen someday to deliver the Lyman Beecher lectures on preaching at Yale University. At Broadus’ death, Dr. William Rainey Harper, president of the University of Chicago, declared, “No man ever heard him preach but understood every sentence; no one heard him preach who did not feel the truth of God sink deep into his heart. As a teacher of the New Testament as well as of homiletics, it is perhaps not too much to say that he had no superior in this country.”
John Albert Broadus was born January 24, 1827, in Culpepper County, Va., in the country where, he observed, “everybody ought to be born.” Following his conversion during a protracted (evangelistic) meeting, he was baptized “in Mountain Run just above where the bridge crosses the stream.”
After teaching school about two years, he quit in 1846 to enter the University of Virginia, planning to become a doctor. But he had not been able to dismiss the haunting appeal of the ministry. Finally, Dr. Poindexter’s powerful messages settled the issue for him; he enrolled in the university, but with a ministerial career in view. There he became active in Sunday school work, students’ prayer meetings, and a debating society, meanwhile drinking in learning,
After graduation, Broadus accepted the pastorate of the Charlottesville Baptist Church, where he preached to congregations ranging from slaves to university professors. At the same time, Broadus served as assistant professor of classics, at the University of Virginia, and for a time as university chaplain. He was gaining stature in Latin and Greek, the latter particularly, a most invaluable asset for his life work.
Outbreak of the Civil War
In 1859, Broadus and three others joined the original faculty of the newly established Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, in Greenville, S. C. Before he was fairly launched on his new career, the Civil War broke out, forcing the infant school to close for the duration.
But if one door closed, others swung open, with unprecedented opportunities. Broadus ministered in small country churches, and preached in many military bases, meanwhile working on his commentary on Matthew and keeping up a steady stream of correspondence with friends and relatives.
Dr. J. William Jones, who carried on a remarkable ministry himself, had appointments for Dr. Broadus “three times every day, and occasionally four times. He drew large crowds, and as he looked into the eyes of those bronzed heroes of many a battle, and realized that they might be summoned at any hour into another battle, and into eternity, his very soul was stirred within him, and I never heard him preach with such beautiful simplicity and thrilling power the old gospel which he loved so well.” Once General Gordon sent special couriers with notice that Dr. Broadus would preach, and an immense crowd of probably 5,000 attended, Generals Lee, Hill, Ewell, Early, and a number of others among them. “The wreaths and stars and bars of rank mingled with the rude garb of the private … as the men sat on the bare ground. After a stirring song service, Broadus led in fervent, melting prayer, then announced his text: “Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace” (Prov. 3:17). Hundreds came forward to ask for prayer, or profess a new-found faith.
The pulpit was not Dr. Broadus’ only ministry. At Winchester, Va., he helped hand out slices of buttered bread, coffee, and buttermilk to wounded soldiers retreating after Gettysburg. Seeking opportunities for witness, he also would distribute tracts in hospitals.
Amid the overwhelming difficuties of a prostrate economy, the seminary bravely reopened November 1, 1865—with seven students. Dr. Broadus had just one in homiletics—and he was blind! Added to the other burdens was that of health, which finally forced Broadus to spend a year abroad. He returned refreshed and enriched.
It was uphill work, seeking to enlist support and raise funds for the struggling seminary during the difficult days of reconstruction. There was no Marshall plan, no government grant. Once he wrote an associate that students were constantly inquiring whether seminary classes would be suspended or continue another session. “I don’t know how we are going to manage—but I hope and pray,” he added, “that God will put it into the hearts of the brethren to help manfully and immediately.”
During this time, renowned institutions actively sought Broadus as president, and many influential churches, both north and south, would have welcomed him as pastor. But he never wavered in his devotion to the seminary.
Although South Carolinian Baptists loved the seminary wholeheartedly, it was simply not possible to obtain necessary support for it there. After much prayer, thought, and work, it was decided to move in 1877 to Louisville, Kentucky. Immediately the student enrollment increased. And demands for Broadus to speak in churches of all evangelical denominations multiplied. In 1889, he was named seminary president.
Preaching with a Purpose
Dr. Broadus, who had a high conception of the preacher’s office, preached with a purpose. He always sought to lead his hearers to some spiritual decision: conversion, commitment, decisive Christian living. A. T. Robertson, who had heard Beecher, Spurgeon, D. L. Moody, and David Lloyd George, said, “Broadus was the equal of any man I have ever heard.”
Broadus believed that the Word of God is true, “but it does not follow that our interpretations are infallible.” He believed in progressive orthodoxy, pointing out that while the truth does not change, we progress in our understanding of that truth. Findings of archaeology, for example, have “prepared us to interpret the Bible more wisely.”
In the classroom, he was exacting, compelling, fascinating. His successor as seminary president paid tribute to him as possessing “a sort of faculty of divination; an extraordinary scientific and historical imagination. Of all the teachers I have encountered on this side of the water, Broadus laid the most distinguished emphasis upon the duty of original research.”
One of Dr. Broadus’ daughters recalled, “When we heard him preach, what he said never seemed in different character from his home self, but only something more from the same source.” Coming home from school one day, one of his children asked whether it was right to try to get ahead of others so as to be best in a class. He answered, “It is right to try to do better than they, but it would be wrong to keep them from doing well, or to begrudge their success.”
While Dr. Broadus wrote many books and tracts, perhaps his crowning achievement was his textbook Preparation and Delivery of Sermons, which stemmed from careful preparation of full lectures for his blind student. In it he wanted to help both “young ministers who have no course of instruction in homiletics and give some useful hints to older ministers.” Thousands of students and ministers over the years can testify to the extent of his success. First published in 1870, the book has since been completely revised, and has reached a circulation of nearly 60,000. John Albert Broadus was indeed a teacher of preachers.
BERNARD R. DEREMER
Chicago, Illinois
