LET the preacher labor to be heard intelligently, willingly, obediently; and let him not doubt that he will accomplish this rather by the piety of his prayers than the eloquence of his speech. By praying for himself, and for those whom he is to address, let him be their beadsman before their Teacher; and approaching God with devotion, let him raise to Him a thirsting heart, before he speaks of Him with his tongue that he may speak what he hath been taught, and pour out what hath been poured in.
I cease not therefore to ask from our Lord and Master, that He may, either by the communication of His Scriptures, or the conversations of my brethren, or the internal and sweeter doctrine of His own Spirit, deign to teach me things so to be proposed and asserted, that I may ever hold me fast to the Truth: from this very Truth I desire to be taught the many things I know not, and I have received the few I know. I beseech this Truth that, loving-kindness preventing and following me, He would· teach me the wholesome things that I know not; keep me in the true things I know; correct me wherein I am (which is human) in error, confirm me wherein I waver; preserve me from false and noxious things and make that to proceed from my mouth which, as it shall be chiefly pleasing to the Truth Himself, so it may be accepted by all the faithful; through the Same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen. (Oremus, 1925, p.31-32).