Publisher's Synopsis
This handsomely printed little book is a volume in the series entitled "The Presbyterian Pulpit." The author is so well-known throughout the church and so highly beloved that the Board has done us a great service in bringing a volume of Dr. Van Dyke's sermons within the reach of all. All the charm of his highly valued "Fisherman's Luck," "The Ruling Passion" and the "Blue Flower" is found in these too short sermons. A master of a style so perfect and delightful he has here proven himself equally the master of the art of preaching. They bear the impress of the preacher's genial personality and bring to our studies the pleasant atmosphere which always surrounds the man's kindliness of nature. If you have been fortunate enough to have met Dr. Van Dyke it is almost like renewing the acquaintance to read these eight sermons. If you have stood as one of an immense congregation, listening with delight to his presentation of the Gospel message, you will almost fancy yourself back again in the church as you read his sermon on the "Open Door," preached to the One Hundred and Fourteenth General Assembly. If you have never heard him preach then by all means send for this volume of the Presbyterian Pulpit. It is the next best thing you can do to read what you missed hearing. One wishes that his sermon on Joseph had been included in this volume and that on Happiness preached at the last General Assembly in Los Angeles. But there is an abundance of good sermons covering a wide range. There is the Moderator's sermon for 1902, a Baccalaureate sermon on "Resurrection Now," and another on "Salt," besides sermons on "A Divine Impossibility," "The Making of St. John," "The Angel of God's Face" and "The Real Life." Dr. Van Dyke believes in Foreign Missions as witness his sermon wherein he has a powerful and convincing presentation of their value and success. That one sermon ought of itself to persuade you to become at once one of the widening circle of his admirers. After you have read it and the others in this book, you will gladly join the circle and understand why so many of us regard this famous son of a famous father an honor to the Church and far up on its honor list. It is a temptation hard to resist not to quote largely some of his brilliant and epigrammatic paragraphs, so delicate in their literary beauty and so filled with the spirit of the Master, so penetrative in their thought and loyal to the ageless Gospel. If the other volumes in the series are to be judged by this specimen volume no Presbyterian library is complete without it and our pulpit is not today very far below the high standard of the past.
-The Wisconsin Presbyterian Review, Vol. 1."