1.I 07. Sermon-Making

Sermon-Making. A written sermon will be more likely to be orderly.

It can contain a greater variety of material than one will be apt to carry in his memory, or to introduce with skill in an extemporaneous discourse. It may abound with liner lines of thought, employ a more skilful analysis, and deal with more subtle elements.

It may be made more compact, move in straighter lines, and with cleaner execution. But, 011 the other hand, it is liable to be uttered with stale fervour.

It is likely to be devoid of freshness, to lack naturalness, by the substitution of purely literary forms, and to be deficient in How and power. This will be especially true of the sermons of mercurial, versatile men, whose feelings and thoughts, endlessly changing, cannot long fit themselves to the mould of the sermon in which they have been expressed, so that, whatever may have been the inspiration of the composing hour, the delivery will be artificial. Cautious natures men who think slowly and express them selves with a sort of fastidious conscientiousness will find the written form of sermon adapted to their nature. The responsibility of preaching is very much alleviated, in tender and sensitive minds, by the consciousness that the sermon is all prepared, and that little or nothing is left to the contingencies of the hour of speaking.