Trepidation Mitigated

Joseph Parker stepped into the pulpit of the City Temple in London for his Thursday sermon and announced that he was under some trepidation that day because of a letter he had received. It seemed that a gentleman wrote to tell Parker that he would be in the congregation that day for the express purpose of making a philosophical analysis of the sermon. After a long pause, Parker said, “I may add that my trepidation is somewhat mitigated by the fact that the gentleman spells philosophical with an ‘f.’”

Wycliffe Handbook of Preaching & Preachers, Moody, 1984, p. 214