Daily Yellowstone journal., 1888-01-27
TAlMAGe MAKING A SERMON.
- Noted Preachers Methods OF Pre-
pairing a Discourse--A Crisis.

- Noted Preachers Methods OF Pro-
pairing a Discourss--A Crisis.
I make most Of my m walking
ne floor. can always think better ON
nay feet. | very often dictate TO
. stenographer, and after he has written
cut his notes | read it over. and by that
time l have placed the substance of it
permanently in my memory. / can
think better standing before an audience
shan | can in the privacy of my home;
hut it would be a very unsafe thing, de-
pending on the inspiration of the mo-
ment. A minister will not do so unless
he is thoroughly lazy. My own rule is
not TO go into the pulpit or upon the
platform without enough ideas TO occupy
the time usefully, whether / use those
ideas or not. No minister has a right Il
60 before a congregation u~nprepared,
especially in these days, when through
the newspapers and many other forms OF
distribution of knowledge the audience
may happen to know as much as he
does.
NY idea is that IL q man sits in his
study and carefully writes out a theologi-
cal essay, it may do well for a review or
magazine, but it will not interest a con-
sregation; but no man can lay down q
rule for others. Many are ruined for life
% far as work is concerned by trying to
DO as others do. Extemporaneousness Of
speech is best for some, and a thorough
use Of manuscript is decidedly best for
others. The temptation which almost
svery minister has felt who has acquired
any facility in public utterance is to in
dolence. The extemporaneous faculty
has been so much talked about and ex-
tolled that a great many ministers have
sacrificed all their effectiveness in trying to
DO things impromptu. Unless aman uses
his pen a good deal in the act of compost
sion he will soon lack terseness and CON-
pactness of expression. / find that my
best days for work are Wednesdays and
Thursdays-equal distances from the
Sabbath, and the morning of each day
I am generally not observable; but
V is difficult to make an iron rule
IN these cities as 70 when you will
Be seen and when you will not be
seen. l think Brooklyn is a first rate
place for ministers. The people generally
allow q pSstor in these regions to work in
his own way, and the congregations are
lnient and not unreasonable in their de-
nanis.
began the ministry by writing out
my sermons with great care, and taking
every manuscript into the pulpit and con-
6ning myself strictly to it. But coming
out Of a theological seminary with but
little preparation in the way Of sermon
material. / found the preparation of two
sermons and a lecture a week a complete
physical exhaustion, 50 ! retracted from
that habit and used no notes at all. My
first experience in this new departure
was marked and unusual. 1t was in my
village church at Bellville, N. ]. Find
ing that / must stop the exhaustive work
of Epreparation l resolved on a certain
Sunday night to extemporize. The church
had ordinarily been lighted with lamps.
rs there WAS no gas in the village, but
the trustees had built a gas house in the
rear OF the church. and the new mode of
lighting the edifce was to be tested the
very night l had decided to begin my ex-
tcmporaneous speaking. The church wa
thronged with people who had come to
ee the new mode Of lighting. ] had
about ten minutes Of my sermon inmanu-
script and put it down or the Bible, in
tending when the manuscript gave out
II launch out on the great sea of ex-
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES. Although it was q
cool night IL was a very hot ore for me,
and the Thermometer seemed 10 lie about
up to 100 degs. AT a very slow rate l
went on with my sermon, making my
manuscript last as long a. possible.
Coming within three or four sentences
Of what ! had written ana in great trepida-
ton as to what would happen when be-
gan to extemporize. suddenly the gas
lights lowered to half their intended size.
I said within myself ''Oh. il the gas
would only go outi' and sure enough. as
I uttered the last word of my manuscript
the lights were suddenly extinct. | said:
"Brethren, it is impossible for US TO pro-
coed. Receive the benediction. went
home greatly relieved, feeling that had
been rescued from q great crisis, but
fully resolved that | would break the
bondage of manuscript and be a free man
in the pulpit, and my habit has been TO
extemporize ever since. God has made
three books for pulpit texts-the Book Of
Revelation, the Book Of Nature and the
Book Of Providence. All these books are
inspired. Christ took most II his texts
from the Book Of Nature-''Consider the
io'blies," Behold the fowls Of the air, ;"
''Salt is good, "As a hen gathered her
chickens under her wing" | have only
one idea in the sermon, and that Is help
fulness. Every man needs help, unless
he be- a fool. In some part Of his nature
or in some Of the circumstances Of his
Life he needs reinforcement. II men find
q practical ~helpfulness in the sermons,
prayers and singing Of a church they wi
70 there. A. Mex" in Brooklyn
Eagle.