and principles out of which he manufactures the daily bread on
which the ordinary man must live. Without his aid the richest
repository ever clasped between the covers of a book would remain
a _fons signatus a hortus conclusus_. The prophet of God saw the
dry bones scattered over the valley of desolation till the breath
of a new power passed over them, and lo! (I) "the bones came
together each one to its joint; (2) the sinews and the flesh came
upon them . . . (3) and the skin was stretched out over
them . . . and the spirit came into them and they lived."

The attorney and the theologian gather the dry bones, but on the
preacher and the barrister lie the fourfold task of mortising the
joints into each other, binding them with the sinews of argument,
clothing them in living beauty and vitalizing the whole structure
with the flame of impassioned earnestness. Only when this has
been done will they live.

So thoroughly distinct are the two offices it rarely happens that
a professional theologian becomes an efficient preacher. The
concentration and exclusive exercise of one faculty unfits him
for a task demanding many.

People do not come to church to hear spoken treatises or witness
dissecting operations on subtle distinctions. They come to be
instructed, pleased and moved.

Again, for the perfect fulfilment of the preacher's task, amongst
other gifts he must have imagination; but to the master of an
exact science like theology an exuberant fancy might prove a
fatal dowry.