Chapter V
THE PREACHER'S INNER LIFE
"The zeal for God that is not according to knowledge is a zeal
that dies in the middle years by the pessimism of experience; but
the zeal that is fed by His broken Body and His outpoured Blood
devours us still, in an age of weariness and cynicism."
Bernard Manning.
THERE is a Franciscan story which tells how the saint on one occasion invited a young novice to accompany him on a preaching expedition through the town, and how they passed through one street after another and eventually returned to their starting-point, and not a word had been spoken. "But, father," said the probationer, puzzled and disappointed, "I thought we were going to preach?" " We have preached," replied Francis, "we were observed as we walked. They marked us as we went. It was thus we preached."
You have chosen a vocation—or rather, Christ has chosen you for it—which more than any other calling in the world depends upon the quality of life and the total witness of character which by the grace of God a man may bring to it. "Preaching," inquires Bishop Quayle, "is the art of making a sermon and delivering it?"—and he answers his own question: "Why, no, that is not preaching. Preaching is the art of making a preacher and delivering that. It is no trouble to preach, but a vast trouble to construct a preacher."
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