Phillips Brooks Books: A Guide to All 10 and Where to Start
Phillips Brooks (1835–1893) was rector of Trinity Church in Boston for twenty-two years and, for the last fifteen months of his life, Bishop of Massachusetts. He was the most popular preacher of his day in America, and he wrote "O Little Town of Bethlehem." Nearly all his books began as spoken words: sermons from his pulpit, or lectures given to students. TheWay Library has ten of them, all free to read: two books of lectures and nine of sermons, four of them published after his death. For his life story, see who was Phillips Brooks.
This guide describes each book and tells you where to begin.
Where to start
It depends on why you've come.
- If you preach or teach, start with Lectures on Preaching. It's the book that made his name among ministers, and it's still read in seminaries.
- If you want to hear him preach, start with The Candle of the Lord and Other Sermons. Its title sermon is the best-known thing he ever preached.
- If you're grieving or worn out, start with Sermons, which opens with "The Purpose and Use of Comfort."
- If you're making a fresh start, try New Starts in Life.
- If you want his picture of Christ, read The Influence of Jesus.
Every quotation below is checked against the book it comes from. For many more, see our collection of Phillips Brooks quotes.
Lectures
Lectures on Preaching (1877)
Eight lectures Brooks gave to divinity students at Yale. He begins with his famous definition, that preaching is "the bringing of truth through personality," and then works out what it means: the preacher's own character and health, his freedom and study, the idea and the making of a sermon, how to know a congregation, and how to preach in an age of doubt and change. The last lecture names what he thought lay at the heart of all good preaching, a Christlike sense of the worth of the human soul.
The preacher's instinct is that which feels instantly how Christ and human need belong together, neither thinks Christ too far off for the need, nor the need too insignificant for Christ.
Lectures on Preaching, The Two Elements in Preaching
It's practical as well as inspiring. He talks about whether to write sermons out, how long to preach, and why a minister must keep his own soul alive. Pastors who read it once tend to read it again. Read Lectures on Preaching.
The Influence of Jesus (1879)
Four lectures, given in Philadelphia, on how Jesus changes human life. Brooks says he won't treat Christianity as a system but as the influence of a person. His key idea is that Jesus, knowing Himself the Son of God, shows us both the fatherhood of God and our own calling to be God's children. He then follows that truth into four parts of life: the moral life, where duty becomes a child's obedience; the social life, where brotherhood grows from that shared relation to the Father; the emotional life of joy and pain; and the life of the mind.
Jesus the Friend, the Teacher, the Patriot, is always first Jesus the Son of God.
The Influence of Jesus, On the Social Life of Man
This is his most connected argument, and a good book for readers who like to think things through. Read The Influence of Jesus.
Books of sermons
Brooks's sermons usually take one text and open it out into a long meditation on life. He didn't divide them into neat points. He built them up, image by image, until the whole truth stood in front of you. They read best slowly, one at a time.
Sermons (1878)
His first published volume, twenty sermons in all. It opens with "The Purpose and Use of Comfort," on comfort that God gives to make us strong, not soft, and "The Withheld Completions of Life," on Peter's question, "Lord, why cannot I follow thee now?" Others treat keeping the faith, the soul's refuge in God, the consolations of God, All Saints' Day, the man with one talent and keeping unspotted from the world. There are sermons for Good Friday, Easter and Trinity Sunday, and a closing group on humility and the shortness of life.
The duty should open into joy, but it may fail of joy and still be duty.
Sermons, The Withheld Completions of Life
This collection is sometimes known by the title of its first sermon, The Purpose and Use of Comfort. Read Sermons.
The Candle of the Lord and Other Sermons (1881)
Twenty-one sermons, beginning with "The Candle of the Lord" on Proverbs 20:27, "The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord." The human spirit, Brooks says, is a candle made to be lit by God, and it only becomes what it was made for when His fire burns in it. Other sermons include "The Joy of Self-Sacrifice," "The Young and Old Christian," "The Man of Macedonia," "The Heroism of Foreign Missions," "The Manliness of Christ," "The Curse of Meroz" on the sin of standing aside, and "The Accumulation of Faith."
You feed on Christ and then go and live your life, and it is Christ in you that lives your life, that helps the poor, that tells the truth, that fights the battle, and that wins the crown.
The Candle of the Lord and Other Sermons, Christ the Food of Man
If you read only one book of his sermons, make it this one. Read The Candle of the Lord.
Sermons Preached in English Churches (1883)
Fourteen sermons Brooks preached in London and other English churches during a visit in 1883. "The Pattern in the Mount" holds that God has a plan for every life, as He showed Moses the pattern of the tabernacle. "The Fire and the Calf" takes Aaron's lame excuse that the golden calf simply "came out" and turns it on people who blame their surroundings for what they've become. Others treat loving God with the mind, the sufficient grace of God and Christ's willing surrender of His rights.
No man in this world has a right to all his rights; that is the paradox which states our truth.
Sermons Preached in English Churches, Sermon XI: The Willing Surrender
Read Sermons Preached in English Churches.
Twenty Sermons (1888)
A later collection, rich in imagination. "Visions and Tasks" draws from Peter's rooftop vision the link between seeing heaven and doing daily duty. "The Mother's Wonder" takes Mary's question to the boy Jesus in the temple. There are sermons on the church, on brotherhood in Christ, on missions, on the man with two talents who learns he is not insignificant, and on "Everything Beautiful in His Time." "Going Up to Jerusalem" contains Brooks's most famous lines, "Do not pray for easy lives," and the book closes with "The Great Expectation" on the apostles' hope of Christ's coming.
Every true life has its Jerusalem, to which it is always going up.
Twenty Sermons, Going Up to Jerusalem
The Light of the World and Other Sermons (1890)
Twenty-one sermons, opening with "The Light of the World" from John 8:12. Brooks's theme is that just as the earth is truly itself only in the light, a person is truly himself only in Christ. Others teach the priority of God, the seriousness of life, the silence of Christ before His accusers, how to abound and how to be abased, "Deep Calling unto Deep," and "New Experiences," on Joshua's words, "Ye have not passed this way heretofore."
Everywhere God is first; and man, coming afterward, enters into Him and finds in God the setting and the background of his life.
The Light of the World and Other Sermons, The Priority of God
Sermons published after his death
After Brooks died in 1893, more volumes of his sermons were printed from his manuscripts. They're in the same voice as the books above and just as good to read one at a time.
New Starts in Life, and Other Sermons (1896)
Twenty sermons, opening with a short sonnet by Brooks. The title sermon, on the master sending laborers into his vineyard, is about the freshness of beginning work for God. Others take up the tares and the wheat, Satan's sneer "Doth Job fear God for nought?", the unseen helpers Elisha's servant saw on the hills, Jesus weeping at Lazarus's grave and Peter's "To whom shall we go?"
Here is strength waiting for work. Here is work waiting for strength.
New Starts in Life, and Other Sermons, Chapter I: New Starts in Life
The Law of Growth, and Other Sermons (1902)
Twenty-one sermons. The title sermon reads "To him that hath shall be given" as the law by which small graces, faithfully used, grow larger. Others treat half-hearted living, Christ as our life, Cain's question "Am I my brother's keeper?", Christ's invitation to rest, the peace that passes understanding, the danger of success and delight in God's law.
Whatever a man does, no matter how secular he chooses to call his action, he may do it in the name of Christ.
The Law of Growth, and Other Sermons, Chapter VI: Christ Our Life
Seeking Life, and Other Sermons (1904)
Twenty-one sermons. The title sermon calls us to seek life by sharing God's own life. Others take "a little child shall lead them," the nearness of God, the possessions death can't take, Christians as living epistles, the new birth of John 3, the bruised reed and smoking flax, and a New Year's sermon on new wine in new bottles. Read Seeking Life.
A note on these editions
The Light of the World and Twenty Sermons were restored from scans of the original printings and still have scattered misread words and a few dropped letters. They read well overall, but you'll notice the odd slip. The books added most recently also come from scans and are still being proofread.
Why read Brooks today
Brooks writes about Christ and the human soul with a warmth and seriousness that are hard to find. He takes ordinary life, its duties, griefs and fresh starts, and shows that God stands behind all of it. Begin with Lectures on Preaching or The Candle of the Lord, and you'll soon want the rest. All ten books are on the Phillips Brooks author page, and you'll find more preachers of his era in our guide to the best classic sermon collections.