In the final chapter of his very worthwhile
Leading God's People: Wisdom from the Early Church for Today (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012) Christopher A. Beeley cites a passage from St Augustine that in his words "deserves to be framed and displayed in the study of every preacher" (119):
Just as our hearers are delighted if you speak agreeably, in the same way they are swayed if they love what you promise them, fear what you threaten them with, hate what you find fault with, embrace what you commend, deplore what you strongly insist is deplorable; if they rejoice over what you say is a cause for gladness, feel intense pity for those whom your words present to their very eyes as objects of pity, shun those whom you proclaim in terrifying tones are to be avoided; and anything else that can be done by eloquence in the grand manner to move the souls of the listeners - not merely to know what is to be done, but to do what they already know is to be done.
Christian Teaching 4.12.27 (pronouns for the hearer altered from singular to plural)
