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Alexander MacLaren was known as the "prince of expository preachers, and was a man with a scholar's mind and
a pastor's heart. Exposition and illustration were his strengths. He had fresh, fertile illustrations of the textual
analysis and was a powerful reader of Scripture."
The Wycliffe Biographical Dictionary of the Church said of MacLaren, "MacLaren's expository sermons have perhaps
next to Spurgeon's been the most widely read sermons of their time, and are still greatly appreciated. . .(He was)
a humble, modest man who shrank from publicity. A profound and instructive Bible Scholar whose theological position
was thoughtfully and candidly evangelical."
Alexander MacLaren (1826-1910) was one of Great Britain's most famous preachers. Born in Glasgow to Baptist parents,
he was baptized in 1840 and trained at Stepney College. He ministered successfully at Portland Chapel, Southampton
(1846-58), and Union Chapel, Manchester (1858-1903), where he acquired the reputation of "the prince of expository
preachers." His sermons drew vast congregations and his methods of subdivision and analogies drawn from nature
and life have been widely imitated ever since. In the pulpit he expounded evangelical certainties, yet his writings
and private conversations show him prepared to accept a critical position. Because of his devotion to studying
the Word, he rarely involved himself in denominational or civic affairs. Rather, he invested his time studying
the Word in the original and sharing its truths with others in sermons which are models of effective expository
preaching.
MacLaren's sermons, once available as a multi-volume set, are now out of print. The complete
set comprises 32 volumes containing about 1,500 separate discourses. |
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