Preaching Without Fear Or Favour

David Searle has performed a most valuable service in both transcribing and translating these materials, thus making them accessible to a contemporary audience. The publication of this work will do much to enhance our appreciation of Bruce as a distinguished preacher, scholar and spiritual leader of his time.

-- David Fergusson (Professor of Divinity, University of Edinburgh)

 Bruce’s sermons are deeply theological, expounding among other themes the nature of faith and justification.  At the same time, they are direct and personal, with amazing pastoral insight, graphic illustration and pithy application.

-- A.T.B. McGowan (Former Director, Rutherford Centre for Reformed Theology, Dingwall, Scotland)

… allows the force of Bruce’s theology, whose training in rhetoric and scholastic organisation of material allows for a prose that is compelling as it is nourishing, to come right through. … a detailed Reformed treatment of a seminal biblical text brought to light.

-- Mark Elliot (Professor of Historical and Biblical Theology, University of St Andrews, Scotland)

What kind of preaching is needed in the churches? Today, as at all times, it is surely preaching which is direct, clear, truthful and appropriately simple. All these qualities are present in the preaching of Robert Bruce whose sincerity and passion break down the walls of the centuries separating our day from his, impressing on us both the nature and glory of  faith. 

-- Stephen Williams (Professor of Systematic Theology, Union Theological College, Belfast, Northern Ireland)

Robert Bruce, therefore, was no abstract theologian. He knew the pastoral and missional context of his people and is not afraid to apply the Word of God to their real and felt needs. What is even more striking is how relevant his applications are to us in the 21st century.

-- Trevor W. J. Morrow (Minister Emeritus, Lucan Presbyterian Church, Ireland)

The ‘lessons’ Bruce brings out from the text, appear to be relevant, courageous and specific for his original hearers. Valuable, also, for earnest Christians, who are eager to learn of and live out the enduring principles of faith expounded in Bruce’s searching sermons.

-- Martin Allen (Retired minister of Chryston Church of Scotland and former chairman of The Crieff Ministers’ Fellowship)

Bruce’s understanding of the struggles of the as yet imperfectly sanctified believer, always leaves us with hope, and greater zeal to follow the Lord more fully. Read this excellent work, and you will find it will build your faith, and draw you closer to Christ. Your reading and meditation will more than compensate David Searle for the immense effort he has put in to this translation.

-- Douglas F. Kelly (Professor of Theology Emeritus, Reformed Theological Seminary, Charlotte, North Carolina)

David Searle has done us a great service: making available a rich Biblical resource of potent evangelical conviction and powerful pastoral instruction which otherwise would have remained for ever illusive and inaccessible to the ordinary person.

-- Frank Sellar (Former Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Irel