If there is any excuse for this book, it is that it is an attempt to answer a question that I have been asked, certainly hundreds of times during the course of my work of preaching. The question has taken many forms, but it is essentially the same. It is an enquiry concerning methods of preparation in expository preaching. Individual preachers and groups of preachers have asked me to tell them how I work. I have always felt it difficult to reply. During the three years which I was President of Cheshunt College, Cambridge, I attempted to talk to the students on the subject. The notes of what I then said are embodied in these Lectures. -From the Preface