What the church needs today is not merely more men in its pulpits, but better men, better preachers. It needs messengers of God, not merely servants of men; it needs the living incarnated Word, not merely the professional repetition of truth. The very noblest gifts, the highest talents, the richest equipment, the best training, is not too much for the minister of Christ.
And of the utmost importance, the church must have men who regard preaching, as the loftiest and most difficult art, who have the highest conceptions of its importance and dignity, who are not lazy or insincere or superficial, but who will drive themselves and hold themselves to the realization of all its possibilities.
The preacher who is to speak ably and well in public must labor hard at this business. Some few men may find it easy to speak in public, but no man finds it easy to speak well in public. There are, of course, occasions and circumstances which may rouse the mind into high action, and the result may be surprising displays of eloquence without much effort at preparation. But life is not made up of occasions of extraordinary excitement.
Every man who is determined to become an efficient and successful preacher must bid farewell to easy indulgence, resist all temptation to mental sloth, and make a covenant with labor as his portion and pleasure under the sun.
The business of choosing, and adapting, and arranging, and analyzing subjects of discourse; of comparing, correcting, polishing, and applying discourse itself ; of so living and disciplining the heart as to keep one's self in the necessary mood and tone of mind for the enunciation and delivery of discourse—such is work not to be otherwise done by any man than by laborious and indefatigable application and persistence.