This two volume hardcover set was first published in 1905, and was written as a tribute to Dargan's homiletics professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, John Albert Broadus. Dargan later became a colleague and then the successor to Broadus in the chair of Homiletics at SBTS in Louisville, KY. The inspiration for these volumes came from the yearly "delightful lectures on the History of Preaching" from Broadus.