HERALDS OF GOD
decisions and ratify new vows, knowing that to them also it has been given—as veritably and as vividly as to those men and women long ago—to encounter the Saviour of the world.
VI
Let me add, in passing from this question of the choice of texts and subjects, two final remarks. It is possible that, in spite of vigilance and fidelity, bad weeks will occur when inspiration seems to have deserted you: no theme lays a coercive grip upon you, no text cries peremptorily "Preach on me." What are you to do then?
O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention!–
But waiting for that kindling moment is a risky business, with Sunday rushing on inexorably. Nor is it advisable in days when the going is difficult and the fire burns low to take the easy way out and preach an old sermon over again. Certainly there is no reason, if you have once toiled over a sermon and put your best into it, why you should not use it a second time; and the advice sometimes given, "burn the lot," is surely more reckless than heroic. Thomas Chalmers once had an unusual experience. He was growing weary of the gaping crowds that thronged his ministry; and one Sunday morning, being determined to end this displeasing vogue and to prevent the annoyance of overcrowding, he intimated that in the evening he proposed to preach, not a different sermon, but the
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