Digital Logos Edition
The final volume in Charles Simeon's Horae Homileticae not only analyzes Revelation but also includes four of Simeon's sermons and Reverend John Claude's essay on sermon composition. This wide variety of resources makes Volume 21 one of the most useful in the renowned Horae Homileticae series.
These expository outlines (or "skeletons") are not a verse-by-verse explanation of the English Bible. Rather, they are a chapter-by-chapter study with explanations of the most important and instructive verses in each chapter. Simeon's aim with this commentary is "Instruction relative to the Composition of Sermons." To this end, his exposition of the Scriptures is designed to maintain a focus on the more general aspects of a passage over and above possible treatments of particulars. His test for a sermon, as he teaches in Horae Homileticae, is threefold: does it humble the sinner, exalt the Saviour and promote holiness?
Opposing all human systems of divinity, Simeon's commentary is also marked by an avoidance of any possible systemization of God's Word and entanglement with theological controversies. A self-described "moderate Calvinist" or, more plainly, a "Biblical Christian," Simeon believed that the Bible should speak for itself. "Be Bible Christians, not systems Christians" was his maxim; "My endeavor is to bring out of Scripture what is there, and not to thrust in what I think might be there. I have a great jealousy on this head; never to speak more or less than I believe to be the mind of the Spirit in the passage I am expounding." With Horae Homileticae this conviction is soundly applied.
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“Many are discouraged because ‘they have but little strength.’ But what a mercy is it to possess any strength at all!” (Page 109)
“Did any offender, under the law, come to God without a sacrifice? So neither can ye, without that great Sacrifice which has been offered for the sins of the whole world. Nor did any come but through the mediation of the priest, who was appointed to present his sacrifice to God: so neither can ye, but through the mediation and intercession of the Lord Jesus. Were lustrations and sprinklings appointed by the law? So must ye also have the Holy Spirit poured out upon you, to sanctify you throughout. Do not imagine that these are mere notions, which may be disregarded, without any loss to your souls. Indeed it is not so. To what purpose has God revealed these truths, if they are not to be received and acted upon by us?” (Page 5)
“Every body can read Scripture with notes and comments to obtain simply the sense: but we cannot instruct, solve difficulties, unfold mysteries, penetrate into the ways of divine wisdom, establish truth, refute error, comfort, correct, and censure, fill the hearers with an admiration of the wonderful works and ways of God, inflame their souls with zeal, powerfully incline them to piety and holiness, which are the ends of preaching, unless we go farther than barely enabling them to understand Scripture.” (Page 292)
“Satan would have cast, not some of that Church, but all; not into prison only, but into hell; not for ten days only, but for ever; not that they might he tried, but that they might perish.” (Page 46)
[Horae Homileticae] is the best place to go for researching Simeon's theology. You can find his views on almost every key text in the Bible … What Simeon experienced in the word was remarkable. And it is so utterly different from the counsel that we receive today that it is worth looking at …
—John Piper
If Wilberforce is the most famous evangelical layman in the Church of England, then Simeon is the most famous evangelical clergyman.
—Who's Who in Christian History
[The volumes of Horae Homileticae] have been called 'a valley of dry bones': be a prophet and they will live.
—Charles Spurgeon