is a sermon sadly spoiled by a _long introduction_. It tells
us much about the circumstances of the inspired writer, but so as to
throw little light on the message of the text. Here is another, on the
wonderfully definite hope of blessedness after death given us in Phil.
i. 21. This also is ruined by its introduction, which truly begins _ab
ovo_, discussing the genesis of man's belief in immortality! That
preface would leave, in the actual delivery of the sermon, about five
minutes for the handling of the precious words, "To depart and to be
with Christ, which is far better." Generally, be shy of much
introduction and preface in the pulpit. I do not mean that we are never
to elucidate connexions and contexts. But, remember limits. Your minutes
are few, ah, so few, for such a Message,--Christ Jesus in His fulness,
for man's need in its depth. Pass quickly through the porch into that
Church.

BE ACCURATE IN STATEMENT.

(_i_) When you refer to _Scripture facts_, be accurate; a slip-shod
habit there may fatally prejudice a not quite friendly hearer who knows
something of the Bible; and it will certainly do no good to _any_
hearer. Here is a sermon on Phil. i. 21, and it speaks of St Paul as
writing to Philippi from his "_dark cell_." But St Luke says that he was
"in his own hired house," [Acts xxviii. 30.] or at worst, "his own hired
rooms." Here again I read of David as returning to "Jerusalem, _the city
of his fathers_." But his fathers had lived and died at Bethlehem; and
Jerusalem was in heathen hands till David himself took it!

2. _Remarks on Points in the Substance of the Sermons._

(_a_) Are you quite sure that the Patriarchs had no anticipation of a
life eternal? Many lecturers, and many editors, now say so. But the
Epistle to the Hebrews says that "they desired a better country, that is
an heavenly" [Heb. xi. 16.]; and that is better evidence for this
purpose than any inferences (or beliefs) of modern "scholarship." True,
the old saints say little explicitly about their hope. But many things
lie deep in a man's faith, and in his experience too, about which, for
various reasons, he may say very little.

REVELATION WAS NOT INTUITION.

(_b_) I do not like this sentence, which says that the later Prophets
had a "_fuller perception_ of" the eternal future than their
predecessors. Not that I blame the phrase in itself; but I dislike its
associations. There runs a strong drift in modern theology, as we all
know,