I once asked him
how long it took him to prepare a sermon, and he replied, "Sometimes
longer, sometimes shorter, generally two or three years. Of course I
do not think of it all that time, but I seldom preach on a subject
when it first enters my mind, but let it mature. I always have several
subjects on hand at once, and when I am reading I retain whatever
strikes me as pertaining to anyone of my subjects." "When do you do
most of your thinking?" I asked. "Whenever I can; mostly on
horseback."
His education was never finished; he was a student to the day of his
death. Even during his last sickness he asked me to return a volume of
Macaulay's "History of England" that I had borrowed, so that some
one could read to him from it.
In July, 1859, he was sick for some time; but in September reports
thus: "Since I recovered from my sickness I have held a series of
meetings,--one near Atchison, which resulted in eight additions; one
at Big Springs, at which four were added by baptism; and one at
Pardee, where there was one baptized.
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