Personal devotion in Christian preaching emphasizes a believer's intimate, daily commitment to God through prayer, Bible reading, and reflection. Illustrations often depict heartfelt encounters with Scripture or moments of quiet worship, highlighting how these practices nurture faith and transform character (Psalm 1:2-3, Luke 5:16).
Early love for Scripture shaped Daniel Webster’s life and thoughts profoundly.
Daniel Webster said: “Prom the time that, at my mother’s feet, or on my father’s knee, I first learned to lisp verses from the sacred writings, they have been my daily study and vigilant contemplation. If there be anything in my style or thoughts to be commended, the credit is due to my parents in instilling into my mind an early love of the Scriptures.”
Early Christian service was marked by personal faith and revival through prayer meetings.
The following letter was written by the late Prof. Borden P. Bowne, of Boston University, when he was a boy in Pennington Seminary. It foreshadows his long life of Christian service:
Pennington, October 10.
Dear ----:
His name is still Jesus, for He saves His people from their sins. By His grace I have kept the faith, and have not denied His name. On Sunday night we had service in the chapel of the institution. I told of the power of Jesus’ blood to cleanse from all sin. There seemed to be none that believed my report; at least none gave in such a testimony. I felt rather deprest in spirit; but after service was over, as I was talking to some other brother, I heard a noise in one of the rooms; proceeding thither, we found that a young man had just been blest. We rejoiced with him and we held an impromptu prayer-meeting, and then God was pleased to make Himself known in power to four or five more; and together we glorified the God of Israel. Glory to Jesus! I was comforted and blest. The tempter whispered to me sweetly that I had best not mention the matter of sanctification any more. But by God’s grace I shall hold up the standard of holiness to the Lord. There are one or two who profess it here, but they don’t seem to say much about it. ----, it is my ambition to be one of the best of men. I want to be able to look at the promise alone; and because God has said it I believe it. I have instituted family worship with my room-mate; morning and evening I endeavor to call upon God with him. He is not religious; he is a young boy fifteen or sixteen years old, a very nice young fellow. May the Lord lead him to Himself. Amen and amen.
Delaying religious instruction risks allowing weeds to grow instead of spiritual fruit.
“Let the child wait till he has grown and then choose his own religion,” said an English statesman in the hearing of Coleridge. Coleridge, leading his friend into the garden, said: “I have decided not to put out any vegetables this spring, but to wait till August and let the garden decide for itself whether it prefers weeds or strawberries.” This is the logic of the delayed instruction theory.--A. B. BUNN VAN ORMER, “Studies in Religious Nurture.”
Without teaching of God, a child invents false gods and suffers spiritual disappointment.
In the psychological confession of a writer (Sentenis), a German philosopher whom his father had submitted to the experiment advised by the author of “Émile,” he tells us that, left alone by the death of a tenderly loved wife, this father, a learned and thoughtful man, had taken his infant son to a retired place in the country; and not allowing him communication with any one, he had cultivated the child’s intelligence through the sight of natural objects placed near him, and by the beauty of language, almost without books, and in carefully concealing from him all idea of God. The child reached his tenth year without having either read or heard that great name. But then his mind formed what had been denied it. The sun which he saw rise each morning seemed the all-powerful benefactor of whom he felt the need. He soon formed the habit of going at dawn to the garden to pay homage to that god that he himself had made. His father surprized him one day, and showed him his error by teaching him that all fixt stars are so many suns distributed in space. But such was the keen disappointment and the grief of the child deprived of his worship, that the father, overcome, acknowledged to him that there is a God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth.--A. B. BUNN VAN ORMER, “Studies in Religious Nurture.”
Finishing a powerful book moved a preacher to tears, preparing him for heartfelt preaching.
I can still remember plainly the circumstances under which I finished it. (“Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”) I had got well into the second volume. It was Thursday. Sunday was looming up before me, and at the rate at which I was going there would not be time to finish it before Sunday, and I could never preach till I had finished it. So I set myself to it and determined to finish it at once. I had got a considerable way into the second volume, and I recommended my wife to go to bed. I didn’t want anybody down there. I soon began to cry. Then I went and shut all the doors, for I did not want any one to see me. Then I sat down to it and finished it that night, for I knew that only in that way should I be able to preach on Sunday.
— HENRY WARD BEECHER
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