Preaching and Preachers

The Preparation of the Preacheranything they proposed. Looking back 1 am glad that 1 had the senseand the wisdom to do that.• • •1 must say a word about music. Music does not help everyone, but itgreatly helps some people j and 1 am fortunately one of them. Someonerecently said to me that he was astonished when reading theobituary notices at the time of the death of Karl Barth to find thatBarth used to start the morning by listening to a record of music byMozart. He said that he could not understand this. 1 said, 'What isyour difficulty?' 'Well,' he replied, 'I am surprised that a thinker likeKarl Barth went to Mozart; 1 would have expected him to go toBeethoven or Wagner or perhaps Bach.' He was astonished. My feelingabout this man was that he evidently did not know the real valueof music, or how to use it. '1 can tell you why Karl Barth went toMozart' 1 said, 'He did not go to him for thoughts or ideas, he went toMozart because Mozart did something to him in a general sense.Mozart put him into a good mood, and made him feel happy in hisspirit. He released him, and set him free to do his own thinking.' Ageneral stimulus in that way is often more helpful than a more particularintellectual one. The man himself is bigger than his intellect. Isnot that the reason why the prophets of old had music played to themon the harp or some other instrument? I shall refer to this again later.Anything that does you good, puts you into a good mood or condition,anything that pleases you or releases tensions and relaxes you is ofinestimable value. Music does this to some in a wonderful way.Remember that we are still dealing with the ways in which thepreacher treats and handles himself and prepares himself. So put onyour gramophone record, or whatever it is-anything you know thatwill help you.I end as I began, by saying-Know yourself. You will find thatthere will be variations in your life; you will pass through phases andexperience various states. Get to know yourself. You will find thatthere will be periods, perhaps of days, even weeks, when for some183