This blog is for those of us who speak in public: let’s keep it short, shall we? And if your pastor tends to think more is better, you might share this.

I was struck by two sentences in an article entitled “Lincoln’s Vision of Democracy” by Allan C. Guelzo, published in the Wall Street Journal, November 8, 2022. What struck me had little to do with the main points of the article, which is worth reading. Rather, I was struck by the contrast between the two speakers at Gettysburg. It sets up this way:

The featured orator would be the august Edward Everett. But for the actual dedication sentences—a “few, appropriate remarks,” as David Wills described them in his invitation letter—the organizers turned to Lincoln.

Later the author remarks:

Lincoln’s address at Gettysburg wasn’t an explosion of rhetorical fireworks. That kind of speaking was reserved for Everett’s 13,000-word oration, teeming with classical allusions to Thucydides and Pericles but without a single sentence anyone could remember afterward. – emphasis mine

13,000 words! My longest book has about that many words, as I recall. It took two hours to deliver, “without a single sentence anyone could remember afterward.”

By contrast, Lincoln’s speech was 271 words in this version and lasted about two minutes. And part of it was incorrect. Lincoln said, “The world will little note nor long remember what we say here…” True about Everett’s speech but not about Lincoln’s!

My friend the late Skip Gray said, “A sermon does not have to be eternal to be immortal.”

The more words that are spoken, the more smoke there is in the air. And who is any better off? (Ecclesiastes 6.11, MSG)

Let your words be few. (Ecclesiastes 5.2, ESV)