THE PREACHER'S TECHNIQUE
VIII
As regards pace, I am disposed to propound a mild form of heresy. The orthodox attitude would be to warn you against the errors of a too rapid delivery, and to beg and beseech you to go slow: put on the brake, and keep it on! I suggest that too much Andante with never a touch of Allegro or even Presto can be quite as fatal. You will not, of course, emulate the preacher whom Spurgeon described, "tearing along like a wild horse with a hornet in its ear." Common sense will teach you to regulate speed in accordance with the acoustics of the building in which you are speaking. But just as a dragging organ accompaniment can ruin congregational praise, so a too deliberate pulpit delivery can gravely decelerate interest in the message. Preaching ought to resemble a purposeful, rhythmic march rather than a slow-paced saunter: it is degraded when it becomes a slouch or a shuffle. There are speakers who proceed with such irritating leisureliness that those listening to them can forecast, before each sentence is half-finished, exactly how it is going to end. No congregation ought to be subjected to such a horrid ordeal. If you are temperamentally inclined to dash ahead like an express train, let reasonableness moderate your impetuosity. But if the voice of orthodoxy in these matters has almost persuaded you that Largo di molto must be the invariable rule of the pulpit, you would do well to consider whether this tempo—deliberate and stately and dignified, verging sometimes
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