1.I 19. Trust your Audiences

Trust your Audiences. Do not undervalue the capacity of the common people. Children, even, will follow discussions with interest which seem to be far above their heads.

Before I was ten years old, I remember that discussions on the subject of fore-ordination, free-will, and decrees, held mo with a perfect fascination. The Bible was made for common people, and the themes that are in it are comprehensible by common people; and those sermons which cannot be under stood with profit by the common people of your congregation will probably be of little profit to any body, not even to yourself.

While there is a principle of adaptation to be observed and applied, it should he remembered that the great bulk of a minister’s work does not consist in the unfolding of abstruse problems or mysteries, but the themes which he mainly handles are those which appeal to the great moral instincts and to that fundamental common sense belonging to all men. You need not fear to carry an elaborate argument down to the common people. You need not fear to address a sermon of emotion and homely application to the most cultivated audience. Let a man preach in the city as he would in the country. Let a man preach in the country as he would in the city. Preach before a cultivated audience as you would before an audience of farmers, and preach before a congregation of farmers as you would before a congregation of students. It is true that, as I have already explained, you must vary your discourses from week to week for purposes of adaptation; but the great subject-matter is common to all men.