The advice which Coffin gives in his lectures on preaching is based on his own practice throughout his ministry. He was preeminently a preacher of and from the Bible, thus reflecting the high reverence for the Word of God as the source and test of truth that is so characteristic of the Scottish tradition in which he was bred. He had the insight and the imagination to see the fresh relevance of the old incidents and old words and to make them spring to life again for modern minds. A study of his published sermons will show that they are serious and thought-provoking, demanding careful listening on the part of the hearers. There is no attempt to talk down to the congregation or to catch their interest with trivialities. But they are enlivened by the use of illustrations from literature, history, and life.

Coffin's biography describes the pattern of his days during his pastorate. After breakfast and family prayers, he held a brief service with his staff at the church, and after dealing with his mail would return home to his study by 10:00 o'clock to work on his Sunday sermons. "He had a remarkable capacity for doing creative work on schedule. Wednesday noon would usually see his Sunday morning sermon completed, pounded out on his own typewriter. Friday noon would find the evening sermon finished, in outline at least, and the prayers for both services prepared. His assistants -- who marvelled at his seemingly inexhaustible flow of ideas -- were occasionally relieved to find that he was only human after all and that once in a while the sermon would not come and he would be obliged to complete it under pressure toward the end of the week,"8 After lunch the hours were devoted to pastoral calling. His preaching was never a cloistered product. It grew not only out of his intimacy with the Bible, but equally out of his happy intimacy with his people.

In 1952, Coffin contributed a sermon and an account of his preaching methods to a book edited by Donald Macleod, Here Is My Method. Some of his sermons took their rise in a situation in the congregation, some in the experience of one of his members, some in a book he had read, some in a public crisis, some in a text or passage of Scripture which demanded to be preached on. He always kept a notebook at hand for texts, illustrations, and outlines. When text and theme had been chosen, he would sketch an outline and note illustrations under each point. He took great pains over the introduction and conclusion.

When he was ready to start writing, he would talk the sentences to himself to keep the style conversational. He would begin writing with a pencil and continue until his thought was flowing, and then begin again on the typewriter. He would omit all unnecessary words, believing that a lean style keeps the listeners alert.

He would only use enough illustrations to illumine his thought. He recognized that it is possible to make illustrations take the place of precise thinking. Once when Halford Luccock as a student at Union had preached a sermon in Coffin's classroom, the teacher made this comment at the end: "Mr. Luccock has given us some fine illustrations, and if he can find some ideas to go with his stories, he will have a good sermon." In his lectures at Evanston, Coffin said: "A preacher must collect illustrations as systematically as he collects texts, and he must employ them with a skill that makes them illustrate his message, and not become either so absorbing or so opaque that listeners recall them rather than the Gospel."9