Excerpt from The Duke Divinity School Bulletin, Vol. 8: May, 1943 Despite the extempore nature of preaching much time was spent in general preparation, such as reading, Bible study, prayer, and meditation. The circuit riders went from their knees to the pulpit. Henry Smith states that to have preached to a congrega tion without having previously been on his knees in prayer would have brought to the preacher a sense of fear. Before religious services, Valentine Cook spent so much time in prayer that friends Often had to hunt for him and bring him from his knees to the pulpit. The Bible was the source book in the preparation of sermons, for it was the constant companion of the circuit riders. They read it not only daily but Often hourly as they rode to and from their appointments. At ordination services Bishop Asbury would hold up the Bible and say: This is the minister's battle axe; this is his sword; take this therefore and conquer The diaries of the preachers tell of rising early in the morning to spend time in the reading and study of the Bible. Closely related to prayer and Bible reading was the practice of meditation. George F. Pierce is described as continually thinking about and brooding over themes. The long rides between appoint ments gave the preachers much time for meditation on sermons. Matthew Simpson adopted the habit Of collecting texts in a note book, meditating upon them, and then suddenly using one as the basis of a sermon. In the last analysis, the preachers relied upon the Holy Spirit for their messages. James Erwin states that my method was, and I think the general practice of Methodist ministers of that time, to pray for our texts and subjects, and keep the mind open for any suggestions that the Holy Spirit was pleased to make - sometimes I would go into the pulpit without a text. And without knowing a word that I would say. He declared. However, that God never failed him. Nathan Bangs believed that, if the preacher was a man of God, he would always be helped by the Holy Spirit in delivering the sermon. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.