A Packet of Surprises: The Best Essays and Sermons of F. W. Boreham
Overview
Choosing the best essays of F. W. Boreham is as excruciating as selecting some children to get the honors and telling the others that they did not make the grade. The selection of the essays in this volume are subjective. But there is some rhyme and reason to the choices. Some were voted in by current Boreham readers so they appear by popular demand. Others are clearly Boreham's choice or were popular in his day. In compiling this selection an effort has been made to include essays on a range of themes, those which illustrate different homiletical methods and others that are drawn from different periods in Boreham's career. The sermon "The Whisper of God" may at face value have not made the cut in Boreham's best but it is included because it is the best of his earliest sermons and it illustrates how his preaching changed in style, structure, and length. The Best Essays and Sermons of F. W. Boreham demonstrates the way that Boreham worked hard to remodel his writing and preaching through such things as the removal of wordy clutter, for it is clear to see the emergence of a simple and flowing style. These essays and sermons have been brought together not for literary inspection and homiletical interest but so they might speak powerfully to readers in this contemporary age. The great hope for this new book is that it might stimulate among its readers one of the major themes of F. W. Boreham—that each person, with their God-given gifts might develop their unique style. This book also includes: a profile of Boreham written by T. Howard Crago, and name and topical indexes.
Top Highlights
“Like the eagle, He bids us do what we have not strength to do in order that, in attempting it, we may acquire the strength to do it. Any fool can do what he can do: it takes a man of some faith to do what he cannot do. Yet it is by such men that nations are saved, for they are the salt of the earth. ‘Always do what you are afraid to do!’” (Page 38)
“I learn that life’s greatest peril is the peril of distraction” (Page 24)
“Men make more noise in one hour’s work in the harvest field than God’s rain and sunshine and heat and cold have made in producing the crops that they harvest. A man makes more noise in clearing the snow off his front path than the sun makes in melting a million tons of it. God is so wonderfully silent because He is so wonderfully active.” (Page 127)
“I had always supposed that the glory of God was embarrassing, bewildering, dazzling! I had thought of it as repelling, terrifying, paralyzing! But now I see that it is nothing of the kind. ‘They saw God, and did eat and drink.’” (Page 215)
“yet it is always easier to believe that there is a Savior for the world than to believe that there is a Savior for me.” (Page 54)
Praise for the Print Edition
Of the books that have played the greatest role in molding me, I count many volumes by especially one writer: F. W. Boreham. He authored more than fifty books of essays and pastored congregations in New Zealand, Tasmania, and Australia. He was not the classical preacher, not even a profound, deep preacher, but he was marvelous at seeing beauty in the simple things of life. He heeded John Wesley's charge to young preachers to blend simplicity with sublimity, 'the strongest sense in the plainest language.'
—Ravi Zacharias
Product Details
- Title: A Packet of Surprises: The Best Essays and Sermons of F. W. Boreham
- Author: F. W. Boreham
- Publisher: John Broadbanks
- Publication Date: 2008
- Pages: 298