mountains," as the prophet writes—that is, coming down with a message from the eternal hills.
In the beginning it was the Bishops alone who preached. The needs of the faith compelled them to delegate this, their chief office, to the priesthood. Dionysius the Areopagite calls them therefore illuminators. They were then preachers, messengers, and evangelists. They were not pulpit orators.
1. The preaching of the Apostles was the voice of their Divine Master prolonged in all its majestic simplicity. The people "wondered at the words that proceeded out of His mouth." Surely "no man ever spoke like this Man." And yet a child could understand His words; they were as transparent as the light; they were few and persuasive. It was the intelligence of God Incarnate speaking to man in human speech. It was the Truth Himself in articulate words penetrating the intelligence of men. For brevity, simplicity, plainness, the words of Jesus are an example to preachers, as His life is an example to the pastors of His flock. We cannot conceive in our Divine Master the studied efforts of rhetoric or gesture. Calmness, majesty, and the might of truth were the attributes of His words to men.
The sermons of S. Stephen, S. Peter, S. Paul,
