Page:Heralds of God.djvu/130

HERALDS OF GOD lacking? "Suppose you preach me one of your sermons here and now," said Parker; and his visitor, not without some trepidation, complied. When it was over, the Doctor told him to sit down. "Young man," he said, "you asked me to be frank, I think I can tell you what is the matter. For the last half-hour you have been trying to get something out of your head instead of something into mine!" That distinction is crucial. Wrestle with your subject in the study, that there may be clarity in the pulpit. "For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?"

Now comes the actual writing of the sermon. Immediately the question confronts you, How to begin? It was the almost invariable habit of the preachers of a bygone generation, having announced a text, to start off by expounding its Scripture setting and historical background. Nor is this method by any means to be despised to-day. For one thing, it provides a corrective of that arbitrary treatment of Scripture which, breaking all the canons of exegesis, imports meanings into texts in complete disregard of what the original writer meant to say. For another thing, the historical setting, if briefly and vividly sketched, will illuminate and make doubly relevant the message of the text itself. Thus, for example, a sermon on Zechariah's young man with the measuring-line might well begin with some account of the danger which the prophet sensed in the rebuilding of Jerusalem—the danger, namely, that the new community might be constructed precisely upon the 124