This book will provide hope and comfort to all those who have sat under the well-intentioned tedium of a dull sermon. It is evidently intended for those of the Reformed churches who are preparing for ministry and to reinvigorate those already in leadership positions within those churches. Shepherd, through the creative use of poetry and a wide reference to the classics of the spiritual life, attempts to extricate ‘sermonizing’ from a predicament of its own making. It is to be hoped that his suggestions will make the experience of hearing the word of God as delivered from the pulpit as stimulating as, heaven knows, it deserves to be.