Preacher: Spread Your Table Quickly

C. H. Spurgeon's counsel on the preacher's introduction:

As a rule, do not make the introduction too long. It is always a pity to build a great porch to a little house. . . . Spread your table quickly, and have done with the clatter of the knives and the plates. . . . I prefer to make the introduction of my sermon very like that of the town-crier, who rings his bell and cries, "Oh, yes! Oh, yes! This is to give notice," merely to let people know that he has news for them, and wants them to listen. To do that, the introduction should have something striking in it. It is well to fire a startling shot as the signal gun to clear the decks for action. Do not start at the full pitch and tension of your mind, but yet in such way that all will be led to expect a good time. 

 —“Attention,” in Lectures to My Students, Book I, 143.