EFFECT OF DRY WORDS
Many make a mistake in their preaching in not stopping while the interest is up. They go on speechifying until the interest that had risen in the minds of the hearers dies out and the people are really wearied with words of no special weight or interest. Stop before you get there. Stop when you have nothing of special importance to say. Do not go on with dry words that only excite prejudice and do not soften the heart. You want to be so united to Christ that your words will melt and burn their way to the soul. Mere prosy talk is insufficient for this time. Arguments are good, but there may be too much of the argumentative and too little of the spirit and life of God.
BETTER PREPARATION, SHORTER DISCOURSES
The discourses given upon present truth are full of important
matter, and if these discourses are carefully considered
before being presented to the people, if they are condensed
and do not cover too much ground, if the Spirit of
the Master goes with the utterances, no one will be left in
darkness, no one will have cause to complain of being unfed.
The preparation, both in preacher and hearer, has very
much to do with the result.
I will here quote a few words that have come under my
notice just now: “I always know by the length of Cannon’s
sermon whether he has been much from home during the
week,” said one of his flock. “When carefully studied, his
discourses are of a moderate length, but it is almost impossible
for his hearers to forget the teachings conveyed in
them. When he has had no time for preparation, his sermons
are unreasonably long, and it is equally impossible to get
anything out of them which will stick to the memory.”
Another able minister was asked
how long he was accustomed to preach.
“When I prepare thoroughly, half an hour;
when only partially, an hour; but when I
enter the pulpit without previous preparation,
I go on for any length of time you
like; in fact, I never know when to stop.”
Here is another forcible statement:
“A good shepherd,” says a writer, “should always have abundance
of bread in his scrip, and his dog under command. The
dog is his zeal, which he must lead, order, and moderate. His
scrip full of bread is his mind full of useful knowledge, and he
should ever be in readiness to give nourishment to his flock.”
NEEDLESS EXPENDITURE OF VITALITY
Some pray too long and too loud, which greatly exhausts
their feeble strength and needlessly expends their vitality;
others frequently make their discourses one-third or one-half
longer than they should. In so doing they become excessively
weary, the interest of the people decreases before the
discourse closes, and much is lost to them, for they cannot
retain it. One-half that was said would have been better than
more. Although all the matter may be important, the success
would be much greater were the praying and talking less
lengthy. The result would be reached without so great weariness.
They are needlessly using up their strength and vitality,
which, for the good of the cause, it is so necessary to retain.
It is the long-protracted effort, after laboring to the point of
weariness, which wears and breaks.
This article is excerpted from the book The Voice in Speech and
Song, pp 251-253, by Ellen G. White.
