Preaching and Preachers

The Preparation of thePreachereverything is his realisation that ifhe is to be what he should be, ifheis to be a true preacher, a spiritually minded man who is concernedabout ministering to the glory of God and the edification and salvationof souls, he must do this. That should compel him to exercise thisdiscipline. Ifhe has the right motive and the right objective, if he istruly called, he will be so anxious to do all he has to do in the mosteffective manner that he will take the trouble to find out how best toorder and organise himself and his day. I have known many men whohave got into difficulties because they have had a system imposed uponthem which was not suited to them.I approach the next matter with great diffidence, much hesitation, anda sense of utter unworthiness. I suppose we all fail at this next pointmore than anywhere else; that is in the matter of prayer. Prayer is vitalto the life of the preacher. Read the biographies, and the autobiographiesof the greatest preachersthroughoutthe centuries andyouwill find that this has always been the great characteristic of theirlives. Theywere always great men of prayer, and they spent considerabletime in prayer. I could quote many examples but I must refrainas there are so many, and they are well known. These men found thatthis was absolutely essential, and that it became increasingly so asthey went on.I have always hesitated to deal with this subject. I have preached onprayer when it has come in a passage through which I have beenworking; but I have never presumed to produce a book on prayer, oreven a booklet. Certain people have done this in a very mechanicalmanner, taking us through the different aspects, and classifying it all.It all seems so simple. But prayer is not simple. There is an elementof discipline in prayer, of course, but it surely cannot be dealt with inthat way because of its very nature. All I would say is this-and againI am speaking here from personal experience-that once more it isvery important for one to know one's self in this matter. Whether thisis a signof a lack of deep spirituality or not I do not know - I do not169