Holland, France, Great Britain and the United States have in this way
furnished copious illustrations of the gifts of their illustrious
preachers. Such treasures are found in the Latin and even in the Greek
Church. Protestant communions especially, in line with the supreme
significance which they attach to the work of the pulpit, have thus
sought to magnify the calling and to perpetuate the memory and the
influence of their distinguished sons. Still more comprehensive attempts
have been made to collate the products of representative preachers in
different Protestant communions, and thus to bring into prominence
various types of sermonic literature. It is in this way that the
Christian world has come to know its pulpit princes and to value their
achievements.

The collection contained in the volumes before us is, however, more
varied and comprehensive, reaching as it does from the fourth to the
twentieth century, than any collection known to the writer. In the
selection Professor Kleiser has brought to his task a personal knowledge
of homiletic literature that is the product of much observation and
study during many years, and an enthusiasm for his work that has been
fostered by close intercourse in professional service with preachers and
theological students. He has had the assistance also of men whose
acquaintance with homiletic literature is very extensive, whose critical
judgments are sound and reliable and who may be regarded as experts in
this branch of knowledge. These volumes, therefore, may be accepted as a
judiciously selected collection of sermons by many of the most notable
preachers of the ancient and modern Christian world. Their value as
illustrating varieties of gift, diversities of method, racial, national
and ecclesiastical peculiarities, and above all progress in the science
and art of preaching, may well be recognized even by a generation that
is likely to regard anything that is more than twenty-four hours old as