You cannot do this without study. "After you have shot off a gun you
have got to load it before you can shoot it off again," said a wise
old preacher who retained the hold of his youth upon his
congregations. Never cease to renew yourself from every possible
source of thought and knowledge.
Books, society, solitude, the woods, the crowded streets--all things
in this varied universe have in them replenishings for your mind.
Don't become burnt powder. Keep young. That is your problem and
life's. For mind and soul that is no hard problem, after all.
Don't repeat your sermons if you can help it. That is hard advice, I
know; but to repeat your sermons is a phase of arrested development
and a method of bringing it about. It is unfortunate for you that
things are so ordered that you must preach a new sermon every Sunday.
The Saviour did not do it, nor did any of his personal followers. They
taught when "the spirit moved them." I think none of the great
preachers ever spoke with machine-like periodicity--certainly
Savonarola did not. He preached only when occasion demanded it.
But that is neither here nor there. Preaching every Sunday is our
custom and therefore preach every Sunday you must.
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