challenge the respect, if not the admiration, of every listener?

The preparation should begin not on the day the sacred oils are
poured on the young priest's hands, but on the day he enters
college. His eyes should be kept fixed on the goal before him. "I
am to be a preacher, and every obstacle that stands on my path
must go down, and every advantage that goes to make a great
orator, at all costs, I must make my own." This ambition should
be nourished till it consumes him, till it becomes "his waking
thought, his midnight dream." His reading, recitation and debates
should be studied under the light of this lodestar of his
destiny: at first shining afar off, but swiftly nearing as each
vacation ends.

[Side note: Objectors answered I.]

Those who champion the method of extemporary preaching lay great
stress on two points. (I) The extemporary preacher has a natural
warmth and earnestness of conviction that goes straight to the
heart. (2) These, they maintain, can never accompany the prepared
discourse. Let us examine these two statements. It is true that
when men speak under the influence of strong emotions, passion
may, in a large measure, compensate for accurate expression and
sequence of thought, especially with a rude or half educated
audience. In proof of this, Peter the Hermit and Mahomet are
striking examples. We are dealing, however, not with
extraordinary but the ordinary demands on a priest's powers, and
it would be poor wisdom to stake all his success on the chance
moods of his temperament. To-day the tempest may rock his soul
and his words bear the breath of flame; but, by next Sunday, the