When we left Benjamin Beddome last episode, he had been set apart to preach by the London Baptist church where he was a member. The year was 1740. He immediately got busy in that work, though only 22. He returned to the rural and small town area of his birth and began to preach throughout it. Although well educated in many senses, he was undoubtedly raw in exercising his preaching gifts. His father recognized that his zeal needed to be tempered in certain ways. So he wrote to his son, kindly, but with strong advice, saying, “I wish from my heart I could prevail with you not to strain your voice so much in the delivery of your sermons; and if you would make them shorter and less crowded with matter, it would be more acceptable and edifying to your hearers, and more safe and easy for yourself.” He went on, “If you deliver the great truths of the gospel with calmness, and with a soft, mellow voice, they will drop as the gentle rain or dew. For the good of souls, then, and for your own good, be persuaded to strive after this.” A little while later, he also wrote, “soften your voice, and shorten your sermons…let two hours be the longest time you spend in the pulpit at any place”!
