_Divine and Human._ Speak as though the mouth were God's; but let the voice be a man's.
_First and Second Aims._ All gifts (presence, voice, gesture, culture, style, and so on) may be wings, if kept behind one's back; the moment they are seen they become dead weights.
Two strings to one's bow will do with any shafts but the arrows of the King. Letters, the press, the lyre, the porch, must stand in the background behind "this one thing."
Think less and less of everything else, and more and more of thy message.
_Aims and No Aims._ Aim at something, you will hit it; also draw your bow at a venture.
"_Make full proof of thy ministry._" Try every method--writing, reading, committing, extending, extemporising. Imitate every man, but mimic none. Nothing makes a preacher like preaching.
Whence comes it that my nature is subdued To that it works in, like the dyer's hand.
_Pulpit Form._ Respect your hearers. Do not gird at them; angle for them--and agonize. Address yourself to one at a time--first to the man in the pulpit. He who has hit himself first will not miss others. He who trembles at the word of the Lord, men will tremble at his word. (Borrowed) A preacher must either be afraid of his audience or his audience of him.
_Janua Domini._ Always enter the pulpit by the Door (John x. 7).
_Contents and Omissions._ Put everything you can into every address. Omit everything you can from every address.
"_Faith cometh by hearing._" Therefore, to begin with, be audible. The Sermon on the Mount commences thus: "He opened His mouth" (Matt. v. 2).
_Time and Eternity._ Speak to men's fleeting hopes and passing interests; speak also to their grey hairs and to their midnight hours.
_Ultimata._ Desire to prophesy (1 Cor. xiv. 1); covet to prophesy (_ib._ 39); do not preach if thou darest be silent (1 Cor. ix. 16).