HERALDS OF GOD
weapon of the preacher–the element of surprise. On the other hand, it will be found that most congregations will welcome an occasional course of reasonable length: they will feel with relief that there is a satisfactory definiteness in it, as contrasted with the preaching which bandies them about in a desultory fashion from Genesis to Revelation, without plan or system.
"An occasional course"–I emphasize that: for it is inexpedient to stereotype your methods, running one series of sermons after another all the year round without a break. And "of reasonable length"—that is vitally important. You may have only three or four sermons in a course. As a maximum I would suggest eight or nine. Six would be an ample number. Dr. Alexander Whyte once preached for a whole winter in St. George's, Edinburgh, on one text, Luke xi. I, "Lord, teach us to pray": but then he was a giant of the pulpit, and could dare things not permitted to lesser men. It is told of one of the early eighteenth-century ministers of the City Temple, Robert Bragge, that he announced a course of sermons on the mystical meaning of Joseph's coat of many colours, and continued it Sunday by Sunday for four months. As a contemporary described it:
Eternal Bragge, in never-ending strains,
Unfolds the wonders Joseph's coat contains;
Of every hue describes a different cause,
And from each patch a solemn mystery draws.
The extraordinary thing is that Bragge's popularity with his congregation appears to have survived even
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