How to wire a powerful amp with two speakers to avoid damage

Sean, would the amp be working really hard at NOT feeding the current? Would it then be running really hot? If so, you may want to pack ice around the amp (kidding) and don't allow small kids or animals near it(not kidding).
Or just the opposite and barely be breaking a sweat?

Paul (& Angela) the amp would barely be working hard at all & probably wouldn't get much warmer than it runs at idle dissipation. You can in fact operate very high powered amps into low-wattage speakers without doing any harm at all, provided that you exercise reasonable restraint. We once drove some 100-watt-rated B&W speakers with a Mac2500 amp (500 w/ch. conservative) with no problems. In fact since the Mac never went into clipping, we were able to drive the B&W's at about 300 watts before they were audibly straining to handle that amount of power. At any higher power level we would have gotten in trouble burning up a voice coil, but as long as you're even reasonably careful then there is no problem in doing this.

Sean is correct. More speakers get damaged from underpowered amps than from overpowered ones. The amount of power delivered to the speakers is dependant upon the voltage delivered to the speaker, which is dependant upon the volume control. If you play the speakers at a comfortable level the big amp will not harm them in any way.

The heat generated by an amp is mostly caused by the current in the output stage. In a pure 'Class A' design the output current is at a very high level all the time and thus the amp is hot all the time. In a 'Class AB' design the output current is at a low level unless a lot of current is being delivered to the load. Under low listening levels or with very efficient speakers the output current is small and the heat being generated is also small.
Chris

I have never had a problem running a very efficient speaker with high wattage as long as the volume is kept low to be certain it does not clip! (as mentioned above)

Thanks, Chris and Bob. Good knowledge to tuck away. AJ