HERALDS OF GOD
Effie's life before the king and queen? "Writing winna do it—a letter canna look, and pray, and beg, and beseech, as the human voice can do to the human heart. A letter's like the music that the ladies have for their spinets—naething but black scores, compared to the same tune played or sung. It's word of mouth maun do it, or naething, Reuben." There is something there worth pondering by those whose task it is to plead with men, beseeching them in Christ's stead to be reconciled to God.
It would be very unwise, of course, to prescribe any general rule on this matter. Each man must find his own method for himself. You might decide, for instance, as many preachers have done, to use alternately both methods described, reading one sermon each Sunday and speaking the other. But let me pass on to three facts bearing on this whole debate, which are apt to be strangely overlooked.
First, the preacher's method must be adapted to the needs of the present age. It is no good saying, for example, that because the tradition of read sermons satisfied a former generation it is necessarily valid to-day. It is our lot to have been called to the ministry at a time when the Church is being challenged to get out into the open. All the evidences indicate that this demand will grow even more insistent in the coming years. Can you imagine a preacher facing a crowd in the open-air, the factory, the camp, and reading his address off a manuscript? The thing is absurd. And if your open-air preaching thus delivers you from bond-
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