FIRST YEAR OF APOSTOLATE Spring of 1209-Summer of 1210 The very next morning Francis went up to Assisi and began to preach.

His words were simple, but they came so straight from the heart that all who heard him were touched.
It is not easy to hear and apply to one's self the exhortations of preachers who, aloft in the pulpit, seem to be carrying out a mere formality; it is just as difficult to escape from the appeals of a layman who walks at our side.

The amazing multitude of Protestant sects is due in a great degree to this superiority of lay preaching over clerical.

The most brilliant orators of the Christian pulpit are bad converters; their eloquent appeals may captivate the imagination and lead a few men of the world to the foot of the altar, but these results are not more brilliant than ephemeral.

But let a peasant or a workingman speak to those whom he meets a few simple words going directly to the conscience, and the man is always impressed, often won.
Thus the words of Francis seemed to his hearers like a flaming sword penetrating to the very depths of their conscience.