there would be little doubt of its magical and enduring effect upon the
hearts of men. The wooing tone of the lover is what the preacher needs
in his pulpit style rather than the voice of declamation and
denunciation.

The study of conversation serves to guide the public speaker not only in
the free and natural use of his voice, enunciation, and expression, but
also in his use of language. He will here learn to choose the simple
word instead of the complex, the short sentence instead of the involved,
the concrete illustration instead of the abstract. He will acquire ease,
spontaneity, simplicity, and directness, and when he rises to speak to
men he will employ tones and words best known and understood by them.

A preacher may spend too much time in study and solitude. If he does he
will soon realize a distinct loss through lack of social intercourse
with his fellow men. The faculties most needed in pulpit preaching are
those very powers that are so largely exercised in ordinary
conversation. The ability to think quickly, to marshal facts and
arguments, to introduce a vivid story or illustration, to parry and
thrust as is sometimes needed to hold one's own ground, and the general
mental activity aroused in conversation, all tend to produce an
interesting, vivacious, and forceful style in public speaking.

We should not underestimate the value of meditation and silence to the
public speaker. These are necessary for original and profound thinking,
for the cultivation of the imagination, and for the accumulation of
thought. But conversation offers an immediate outlet for this stored-up
knowledge, testing it as a finished product in expression, and
projecting it into life and reality by all the resources of voice and
feeling. This exercise is as necessary to the mind as physical exercise