Preaching and Preachers

The Preparation of the Preachertold the questioner would begin to smile, because he had also beenlistening to much the same thing. There were slight variations ofcourse, but essentially it wasthe samesermonI These poor men hadbecome dependentupon books for their ideas.I remember anotherminister,who was a goodpreacher, tellingmeon one occasion when I happened to be travelling in the same compartmentin a train and found himreadingRobertBridges' Testamentof Beautythathe 'got' muchmorefrom'thesefellows' thanhe did fromanybodyelse. What he meant wasthat he got moreideasand preachingmaterialthere. There are men whoget their ideasfrom booksandjournals, indeed from all sorts of strange places.I maintainthat this is not the primaryobjectof reading. What thenis its main purpose and function? It is to provide information; butstillmoreimportant, it is because it is the best general stimulus. Whatthe preacheralways needs is a stimulus.In a sense one should not go to books for ideas; the business ofbooksis to makeonethink.We are not gramophone records,weare tothinkoriginally. Whatwepreachisto bethe resultofourownthought.We do not merelytransmit ideas. The preacheris not meant to be amere channelthrough whichwaterflows; he is to be morelike a well.So the functionof readingis to stimulateus in general, to stimulateusto think, to think for ourselves. Take all you read and masticate itthoroughly. Do not just repeatit as you havereceived it; deliverit inyour own way, let it emerge as a part of yourself, with your stampupon it. That is why I emphasise the generalprinciplethat that is thechieffunctionof learning. Itis tragicwhenmen become meregramophonerecords, or tape-recording machines with the samething beingchurned out and repeated endlessly. Such a man will soon becomebarren; he willsoon be in difficulties; and his people willhaverecognisedit long beforehe does.... ...One further remarkabout reading. Generalreadingis also important.Why? Well, if there were no other reason-merely for the sake of181