Christian Literature a sermon delivered May 8th, 1870, in Kensington Chapel, at the seventy-first anniversary of the Religious Tract Society

Delivered on May 8, 1870, in a London chapel celebrating a longstanding missionary society, this sermon opens with a quiet awe at the sheer magnitude of Christ’s acts. The speaker invokes John’s confession that even the world could not contain a record of every miracle, framing the talk as a humble supplement to the Gospel’s already vast narrative. The tone is reverent yet probing, inviting listeners to share the preacher’s wonder at what remains unscribed.

He then turns to the history of Christian writing, recalling the bustling bookshops of ancient Alexandria and Rome, the proliferation of pamphlet tracts, and the early believers’ zeal to preserve the “life‑blood” of divine teaching. By comparing those early collections to the modern surge of religious literature, the sermon underscores a paradox: the more we write, the more we glimpse the infinite depth of the message. Listeners are left with a gentle encouragement to cherish the scriptures as living vessels that continue to shape hearts.