How Your Moral Convictions
Affect Your Speech

1. Religion. A truly successful orator must be a religious man-that is, one of Godward bearing. This will put upon his utterance the unmistakable stamp of honesty and sincerity, so that men will instinctively believe in him.

2. Character. Character and reputation are not synonymous. One is what a man is, the other what people believe him to be. Doctor Conwell names four essentials in the character of a public speaker:

•  Reputation, in the better sense of what a man truly is.
•  Good sense, or zeal with knowledge.
•  Expert acquaintance with his subject, or evidence of special research and superior knowledge.
•  Philanthropy, or a sincere interest in the welfare of an audience and a desire to move them to action.

Henry "Ward Beecher in his "Yale Lectures on Preaching' ' says: "A minister ought to be entirely, inside and out, a pattern man; not a pattern man in abstention, but a man of grace, generosity, magnanimity, peaceableness, sweetness, tho of high spirit and self-defensory power when required ; a man who is broad, and wide, and full of precious contents. You must come up to a much higher level than common manhood, if you mean to be a preacher."

3. Sympathy. Nervous, sensitive, diffident natures frequently produce the best speakers, as these qualities are common to the sympathetic temperament. This faculty when developed enables one to enter whole-heartedly into the lives and interests of .others. The ability to direct the mind at will into emotional channels and instantly arouse appropriate feeling, is of great value to any speaker.

Gentleness of manner, sincerity of purpose, and breadth of view, are parts of the sympathetic nature.

4. Fearlessness. This rests primarily on personal character and increases with the right kind of knowledge and experience. The realization of being right, of espousing a worthy cause even against great odds, or a deep sense of duty, will often give courage to an otherwise timid speaker.

This unflinching attitude is illustrated in Garrison, when he said: "I am in earnest! I will not equivocate-I will not excuse-I will not retreat a single inch-and I will be heard!''

The things that contribute most to fearlessness in a public speaker are: character; a thorough knowledge of the subject in hand; a wide and varied vocabulary; a deep-rooted belief in the cause advocated; a knowledge of the audience to be addressed; and a subordinating of self-interests.

5. Self-renunciation. To be preeminently successful, an orator should relinquish all self-interest. Upon great oratorical occasions a speaker practically offers himself a living sacrifice to his cause. His subject is so much larger than himself that he is unconsciously lost in it. This self-renunciation must be voluntary and complete.

6. Perseverance and Industry. The most successful orators have been men of indomitable perseverance and untiring industry. They have worked long and late, studying, observing, reflecting, writing, revising and practicing aloud their speeches.

Alexander Hamilton once said: "Men give me some credit for genius. All the genius I have lies in this: When I have a subject in hand, I study it profoundly. Day and night it is before me. I explore it in all its bearings. My mind becomes pervaded with it. Then the effort which I make is what the people are pleased to call the fruits of genius. It is the fruit of labor and thought."

Carlyle says: "Sweat of the brow, and up from that to sweat of the brain; sweat of the heart, up to that agony of bloody sweat/ which all men have called divine! Oh, brother, if this is not worship, then I say, the more pity for worship! for this is the noblest thing yet discovered under God's sky."

7. Strong Opinions and Convictions. A man can not hope to be a leader of others unless he has clear, vigorous and settled views upon the subject under consideration. If his ideas are like a weathercock, changing at every turn of the wind, he will utterly to convince his fellow men.

His motto should be like that of the late Joseph Cook: "Clearness at any cost."