I could easily record the names of clergymen still living, who add to the constant labors of the ministry, regular and persistent efforts to discipline the understanding and enrich the heart by private study. Engrave it upon your souls, that the whole business of your life is to prepare yourself for the work, and that no concentration of powers can be too great. Ministerial study is a sine qua non of success. The preacher who is constantly pouring out, and seldom pouring in, can pour but a little while. This is the secret of preaching.
Ministerial study is twofold special and general.
The clerical scholar, however, diligent, punctual, and persistent, who throws his whole strength into the preparation of sermons, and never rises to higher views, or takes a larger career through the wide expanse of methodized truth, must infallibly grow up cramped, lopsided, and defective. These are evils which can be prevented only by the resolute pursuit of general studies, irrespectively of special pulpit performance. The objection to regular studies which meet us most frequently is, that there is no time for labor in the pressure of parochial cares. I desire to suggest a few considerations which will, perhaps, clear the path, and open some light through the seeming forest. Keep one sacred object in view in every study you undertake.