For all the hubris of its title, The Best Method of Preaching (Reformation Heritage Books, 2013) is actually a very humble—and humbling—little book. Petrus van Mastricht, a 17th-century Dutch preacher, found huge manuals of sermon preparation to be unhelpful, so he wrote what in its original Latin folio edition came to 12 pages of indispensable instruction for those who want their congregations to flourish. A joint project with the Dutch Reformed Translation Society, Reformation Heritage’s English edition (the first ever translated) runs 60 pages. With the logical acumen characteristic of its era and a tightly packed condensation of material rare for any era, van Mastricht’s work will greatly benefit anyone who wants to apply the Word of God to his own soul....