Epea Aptera: Unspoken Sermons (3 vols.)

by George MacDonald

Publishers:

Alexander Strahan & Co.; Longman

, 1867–1889

Overview

George MacDonald was a born preacher because he had a real living message to deliver, and the power to speak it.

—Joseph Johnson (1848–1926), hymn writer and author

George MacDonald was highly regarded as a preacher. The fantastic reach of his imagination elabled him to deliver majestic illustrations in his message of God’s boundless love and mercy, and his experience as a pastor in the Congregational church afforded him the experience to speak to real human needs. His Unspoken Sermons remain among his only surviving sermons—and their survival due only to the fact of his poor health, which often kept him out of the pulpit. This three-volume collection of sermons were written from the bedside of the preacher sick and suffering, but going to any means to deliver God’s message of love and mercy.

Key Features

• Powerful sermons written when he was unable to speak
• Inspired many twentieth-century preachers and students
• Speaks to the mercy and love of God in our lives

Product Details

• Title: Epea Aptera: Unspoken Sermons
• Author: George MacDonald
• Volumes: 3
• Pages: 824
• Christian Group: Evangelicals, Reformed, Anglican
• Resource Type: Sermons

Epea Aptera: Unspoken Sermons

• Author: George MacDonald
• Publisher: Alexander Strahan
• Publication Date: 1867
• Pages: 245

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

George MacDonald’s Unspoken Sermons includes sermons arranged in a progressive series, building upon one another. Throughout the series MacDonald is more concerned with people developing a love of God than developing dogmas. His sermons are focused more on doing the will of God than believing true things about God. In volume one, MacDonald examines the characteristics of faith, God’s love, and God’s call to love others.

The purpose of Unspoken Sermons is to arouse the reader’s will so to choose, by imparting a clearer understanding of what God’s will is. It is not to argue doctrines intellectually. It is not to formulate a systematic theology. MacDonald’s insights are not for the mind alone, but for the heart. They afford the reader glimpses of truths which to the child-heart of the true Christian are undeniable.

—Rolland Hein, professor emeritus of English, Wheaton College

Epea Aptera: Unspoken Sermons, Second Series

• Author: George MacDonald
• Publisher: Longmans, Green, and Co.
• Publication Date: 1885
• Pages: 317

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

The second volume Unspoken Sermons presents practical studies on the nature of Christian life, prayer, the book of Job, and self-denial. MacDonald’s sermons are arranged in a progressive series, building upon one another. MacDonald is more concerned with a person developing a love of God than developing dogmas. His sermons focus more on doing the will of God than on believing true things about God.

My own debt to this book is almost as great as one man can owe to another: and nearly all serious inquirers to whom I have introduced it acknowledge that it has given them great help—sometimes indispensable help toward the very acceptance of the Christian faith.

—C. S. Lewis, chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature, Cambridge University

Epea Aptera: Unspoken Sermons, Third Series

• Author: George MacDonald
• Publisher: Longmans, Green, and Co.
• Publication Date: 1889
• Pages: 262

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

The third volume of Unspoken Sermons contains some of MacDonald’s most controversial theology, as well as his most moving sermons. Notable sermons include “Justice,” “Kingship,” and “Righteousness.” MacDonald also examines the nature of Christian conversion and apocalyptic themes. MacDonald’s sermons are arranged in a progressive series, building upon one another. Throughout the series, MacDonald is more concerned with a person developing a love of God than developing dogmas. His sermons are focused more on doing the will of God than believing true things about God.

About George MacDonald

George MacDonald (1824–1905) was a Scottish novelist, poet, and minister. Though he only achieved wide-spread fame posthumously, his work—especially his poignant fairy tales—was highly influential on many of the twentieth century’s most important writers, including Lewis Carroll, W. H. Auden, J. R. R. Tolkien, E. Nesbit, Madeleine L’Engle, G. K. Chesterton, Oswald Chambers, and Elizabeth Yates. C. S. Lewis openly regarded MacDonald as his “master.” MacDonald was educated at Aberdeen and Highbury College. He was raised in the Congregationalist Church, but was uncomfortable with some Reformed doctrines, and he at times departed from Calvinist orthodoxy.