be if the papers were cast aside!

 

Nowhere is the read-address so common as in the pulpit--the pulpit, that in

these days least of all can afford to invite a handicap. Doubtless many

clergymen prefer finish to fervor--let them choose: they are rarely men who sway

the masses to acceptance of their message. What they gain in precision and

elegance of language they lose in force.

 

There are just four motives that can move a man to read his address or sermon:

 

1. Laziness is the commonest. Enough said. Even Heaven cannot make a lazy man

efficient.

 

2. A memory so defective that he really cannot speak without reading. Alas, he

is not speaking when he is reading, so his dilemma is painful--and not to

himself alone. But no man has a right to assume that his memory is utterly bad

until he has buckled down to memory culture--and failed. A weak memory is

oftener an excuse than a reason.

 

3. A genuine lack of time to do more than write the speech. There are such

instances--but they do not occur every week! The disposition of your time allows

more flexibility than you realize. Motive 3 too often harnesses up with Motive

1.

 

4. A conviction that the speech is too important to risk forsaking the