WORDS TO PREACHERS

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 22, 1876

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 47, No. 25.

Read the full edition

WORDS TO PREACHERS.

All apologies are founded in self-deception or pride.

Move directly to your subject; the sooner you get at the main idea the better.

One telling illustration is better than a dozen, even if each of the dozen are quite strong.

Let the subject be of such importance as to invest you with an inspiration until the closing sentence.

Encourage rather than scold.

Do not make many points; two or three well insisted on will be longer remembered than half a dozen.

Never think of yourself, but of a soul saved or lost.

Have only two or three leadings and one application—clear, short, and to the point, so that it may still be ringing in the ears of the people as they are dispersing.

If you cannot preach from a text without an intimation that a different translation would improve it, select some other passage, or a different subject.

Feel that this sermon may be your last.

Let the thought of self pass in, and the beauty of a great action is gone, like the bloom from a soiled flower.—Sel.