to proclaim. Not only the introduction but the sermon itself is destined for a less than optimal treatment. William Taylor offered advice that must be applied in the preaching of the sermon and the introduction specifically. ‘If, therefore, you have no positive convictions, keep out of the pulpit until you get them; and when you get them, they will make for themselves a manly and earnest utterance.’13 Again, Taylor insists upon earnestness in preaching as he wrote: ‘It is the irrepressible in a man