The Comforts of Preaching

More than anything else, Huguenot ministers defined themselves as preachers. They had a sacred duty to instruct believers in the central tenets of faith, especially through their sermons. As Calvin explained in the Genevan Church ordinance he helped to draft: ‘Their office is to announce the Word of God, in order to indoctrinate, admonish, exhort and repeat it both in public and in private’. ¹ This precept was echoed by the Huguenot author Samuel Chappuzeau (1625–1701), who argued in his handbook L’orateur chretien (1675) that ‘among the different duties of this sacred Ministry, none is more excellent than that of teaching the people with a loud voice, to speak to them with authority on behalf of God, and to set out His wishes to them’. Citing Jesus’ exhortation to His disciples to preach His message around the world (Mark 16:15), Chappuzeau concluded that ‘preaching is the first and foremost duty of the Ministry of the Gospel’. ²