A Temple of Topaz by F W Boreham.
One Sunday evening, about twenty years ago, I was standing in my pulpit at Hobart, Tasmania. I was commencing that night my ‘Winter Series of Addresses.’ The addresses, as the printed syllabus showed, were to be delivered at fortnightly intervals. During the hymn before the announcements, I was deliberating on the precise phraseology in which I should refer to the course on which I was embarking. It suddenly flashed upon me that, by emphasizing the address that was to be delivered a fortnight hence, I was virtually inviting the more casual members of my congregation to absent themselves on the following Sunday.
Could I not say a word that would make the intervening Sunday attractive? It happened that, during the week, I had been reading the Life of Luther, and had been impressed by the way in which the Reformation sprang from a single text. Whilst I was still engrossed in this study, the hymn came to an end and the people resumed their seats. I announced my fortnightly addresses according to the printed syllabus; and then astonished myself by intimating that, on the following Sunday evening, I should commence an alternating series of The Texts That Made History. ‘Next Sunday evening,’ I added, with extraordinary temerity, ‘I shall deal with Martin Luther's Text!’ At the close of the service, one of my most trusted officers came to me in great delight. ‘That's a noble idea,’ he explained enthusiastically; ‘it will be the best series that you ever preached!’
