privilege to hear"--and he paused, while the audience wondered for a second whom

it was his privilege to hear--"the great evangelist"--and he paused again; we

knew a little more about the man he had heard, but still wondered to which

evangelist he referred; and then he concluded: "Dwight L. Moody." Mr. Bryan

paused slightly again and continued: "I came to regard him"--here he paused

again and held the audience in a brief moment of suspense as to how he had

regarded Mr. Moody, then continued--"as the greatest preacher of his day." Let

the dashes illustrate pauses and we have the following:

 

"It was my privilege to hear--the great evangelist--Dwight L. Moody.--I came to

regard him--as the greatest preacher of his day."

 

The unskilled speaker would have rattled this off with neither pause nor

suspense, and the sentences would have fallen flat upon the audience. It is

precisely the application of these small things that makes much of the

difference between the successful and the unsuccessful speaker.

 

_4. Pausing After An Important Idea Gives it Time to Penetrate_

 

Any Missouri farmer will tell you that a rain that falls too fast will run off

into the creeks and do the crops but little good. A story is told of a country

deacon praying for rain in this manner: "Lord, don't send us any chunk floater.

Just give us a good old drizzle-drazzle." A speech, like a rain, will not do

anybody much good if it comes too fast to soak in. The farmer's wife follows

this same principle in doing her washing when she puts the clothes in water--and