ability to apply the “laws” to selected passages or books. Such can never be merely learned in the classroom but must result from extensive practice in the field. My students normally take about twenty-five hours to complete a sermon for my hermeneutics course. I tell them that after they have been preaching for three years, they will do a better message in half the time. It is all about learning the fine art of preparing messages. I will try to demonstrate the hermeneutical “art” with numerous examples