THE PREACHER'S TECHNIQUE
tress?" with the gracious invitation of our Lord, "Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out"; or the churlishness of Bethlehem, "There was no room," with the hospitality of the king's feast, "Yet there is room!" Or take the Psalmist's cry, "Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away and be at rest," in juxtaposition with the apostolic injunction, "Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier"; and immediately you touch the very nerve of one of the most radical tensions in human experience. Sometimes, too, a single word, occurring suggestively in different contexts, will go to work within your mind, and give you the nucleus of a strong and well-knit sermon. You have been impressed, let us say, by the prevalence of two diametrically opposite attitudes in religion: on the one hand, the attitude of some professing Christians who confidently assume that Christ is of their company, whereas in point of fact they have lost Him utterly; and on the other, the attitude of those seeking souls who feel desolately that He is far beyond their reach, whereas in truth He is standing by their side. Do you remember Joseph and Mary who lost Jesus on the Jerusalem road, "supposing Him to have been in the company," and Mary Magdalene who met Him in the garden and knew Him not, "supposing Him to be the gardener"? There the word common to the two passages gives you your theme, and from it you develop your sermon on "Mistaken Suppositions"—the contrasted errors of those who think Christ present when He is absent, and of those who think
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