Preaching and Preachers

Preaching and Preachersthere are exceptions to all the rules which can be laid down in thesematters, but that does not affect the rule. There are others who whilethey do not read their sermons look out through one of the windowsof the building while they are preaching to a congregation. That is nobetter, of course; you might as well be reading a manuscript. I haveknown men who have given the impression that they felt that this wasa highly spiritual procedure-they were great mystics looking intosome unseen depths!But let me hasten to say that what many other preachers do, namelyto memorise this written sermon, is to me almost as bad. Not quiteperhaps; but it comes very near. It is a little better, because while youare reciting or declaiming you can look at the people. You havewritten your sermon; then you have read it through a number oftimes; and if you have a good memory you can easily memorise mostof it. I have known many who do this. Though I agree that it is a littlebetter, I still do not like it. My chief reason is that it binds the man, itinterferes with the element of freedom. While reciting or declaimingyou are really not making contact with the people. You are concentratingon what you have memorised and are trying to recall it; and to thatextent it comes between you and the people whom you are addressing.The living element is lessened and the mechanical element comes inmore. This is a very difficult matter, and many preachers have had toexperiment and to change their procedure from time to time.I always like to think that a distinction which can be drawn in therealm of secular speaking-political speaking if you like-has a validityin the realm of preaching also. There is a difference, is there not,between rhetoric and oratory. What is the difference? It is surely thedifference that this point I am making brings out. The rhetorician istied to his preparation, he is declaiming something which he hasprepared very carefully. The most notable example of a rhetorician inrecent history was the late Sir Winston Churchill. He is often calledan orator; but he was not an orator, he was a rhetorician. His father,Lord Randolph was an orator, but Sir Winston never was. In hisyounger days he used to write every word of his speeches and then228