Special ingredients for a sonorous voice

SIR – On a dreich day, when not even a short walk appealed, Christopher Howse’s Sacred Mysteries column (“How many thousands can hear your unamplified voice?” December 8) kept me entertained.

Part of CH Spurgeon’s secret for a strong voice was plenty of pepper (cayenne or black) in his food, a glass of chilli vinegar, water to sip in the pulpit, then beef tea, with as much pepper as he could tolerate.

After 47 years I am still preaching most Sundays. I use plenty of pepper in my food but pass on the chilli vinegar and much prefer a good slosh of sherry in my Bovril, as did Noel Coward’s naval officer in the 1942 film, In Which We Serve.

Reverend Dr John S Ross

Fort William, Inverness-shire

SIR – I can verify a fact in the Bible concerning an occasion when Jesus was pressed by so many people at Capernaum that he got into a boat and continued preaching from Lake Tiberias, also known as the Sea of Galilee.

I had always doubted this story, thinking that without amplification no one on the beach would have heard the Messiah.

However, in the late Eighties, I was travelling in Israel with the Reverend Frank Cooke. We arrived in Capernaum and Frank, who shared my scepticism about the story, thought we ought to put it to the test.

While he stayed on land, I took a small boat, rowed out onto the water and delivered the speech from Julius Caesar: “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.”

I rowed back and asked Frank if he had heard anything I had uttered. He confirmed that he had heard every word, clear as a bell.

Perhaps Jesus wasn’t wasting his time after all. John Milton Whatmore

Mathern, Monmouthshire