I have the conviction that no sermon is ready for preaching, not ready for writing out, until we can express its theme in a short,
pregnant sentence as clear as crystal. I find the getting of that
sentence is the hardest, the most exacting, and the most fruitful
labor in my study.… I do not think any sermon ought to be
preached, or even written, until that sentence has emerged,
clear and lucid as a cloudless moon!

—J. H. Jowett