He is going to give once more old and well-worn precepts which are often
very tedious to the hearer, and not much less so to the speaker. He can
only say that to him the repetition of familiar injunctions is not
'irksome,' and that to them it is 'safe.' The diseased craving for
'originality' in the present day tempts us all, hearers and speakers
alike, and we ever need to be reminded that the staple of Christian
teaching must be old truths reiterated, and that it is not time to stop
proclaiming them until all men have begun to practise them. But a
speaker must try to make the thousandth repetition of a truth fresh to
himself, and not a wearisome form, or a dead commonplace, by freshening
it to his own mind and by living on it in his own practice, and the
hearers must remember that it is only the completeness of their
obedience that antiquates the commandment. The most threadbare
commonplace becomes a novelty when occasions for its application arise
in our own lives, just as a prescription may lie long unnoticed in a
drawer, but when a fever attacks its possessor it will be quickly drawn
out and worth its weight in gold.