PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY ^^:^m^&mm^M: ' ■ - 7?^<^^^MIm^ r .^' ^ ? "iO ■^^ U(^ rt: :il^/^'f: 1/ ^ x.^-^^^^#^l^^^_^ ,._, 7' -<-- , .^s^ J , \i- ? . — , — JLL i f . , t /^ (^ r ■' M '. ^ _-^7/S^A^' Si(^hf^ l^-. ^T: /\^ /" v-^ ■/■ / '{^'^^^^^^ ^' ^^^ 11 1953 The Preacher >x his Sermon A TREATISE ON HOMILETICS BY REV. JOHN W.ETTER.D.D. DAYTON, OHIO United Brethren Publishing House 1888 Copyright, 1883, By W. J. SHUEY. Introductory Testimonials. "I have examined in manuscript a proposed work on Homiletics by the Rev. J. W. Etter. The arrangement of the book is philosophical, and its style clear and ani- mated. It is full of happy sugsestions, calculated to elevate a student's views of the sacred ministry, and at the same time stimulate and instruct him. I cheerfully and heartily commend the work to students of theology, and to active pastors who desire to know more perfectly how to 'divide the word of truth.'" Rev. S. F. UPHAM, D. D., Professor of Practical Theology, Drew Theological Seminary. "It affords me pleasure to indorse the favorable judgment of Dr. Upham on Rev. J. W. Etter's proposed book on Homiletics. In freshness and vigor of style, and in the thorough grasp of the whole subject, it will no doubt take its place among the standard works of the time, and will command a reading not only by students and ministers, but also by intelligent laymen. II can not fail to inerefise the effectiveness of our rising ministry." Rev. HENRY A. BUTTZ, D. D., President, and Professor of New Testament Exegesis, Drew Theological Seminary. " I have carefully looked over your proposed book on Homiletics, especially the introductory part on the use of a text, and am very much pleased with its direct and simple clearness. I hope you will complete it, as I think it will make a valuable text-book." Pkof. JAMES STRONG, S. T. D., Professor of Exegetical Theology, Drew Theological Seminary, and Member of Bible- Revision Committee. "The outline plan and a number of chapters of the new work on Homiletics, 'The Preacher and His Sermon,' have been before me. I have read them with inter- est. The arrangement is methodical, yet natural and simple, and it will be serviceable to students, ministers, and laymen. The author shows familiarity with the literature of this subject, which is voluminous, and he brings to us the most valuable conclusions from it. The style is clear. You are never left in doubt as to what the author means, and withal there is freshness of statement. It is the most suitable text-book that has yet appeared, and I doubt not will be used in this Seminary. Rev. G. a. FUNKHOUSER, D. D., Professor of New Testament Exegesis and Homiletics, Union Biblical Seminary. " Having examined with care the outlines and several written chapters of Rev. J. W. Etter's proposed work on Homiletics, or, ' The Preacher and His Sermon,' I can honestly say, that numerous as are works on this subject, this one promises to be the best of those that are adapted for use as a text-book in the class-room. What is taken from other books is wisely chosen and presented with skill and freshness. What is original, entirely new matter, is a valuable addition (o the science of Homiletics." liEV. WILLIAM H. IIORNBLOWER, D. D., Late Professor of Sacred Rhetoric, Western Theological Seminary. I XI Introductory Testimonials, "I have read your chapter on 'Sermons to Children,' with great interest. It is- plain, practical, suggestive, and calculated to be eminently useful. I am very glad you have written it; and if it shall, as I trust it may, lead many of our' brethren in the ministry to give their earnest and hearty attention to this most important part of our work for Christ, you will have done that which must greatly tend to promote the glory of God, and the best welfare of his church." Rev. RICHARD NEWTON, D. D., Author of "Sermons to Children," etc. " I have read the manuscript of your forthcoming book on Homiletics with much interest, and take pleasure in giving it my unqualified approval. It gives us the best thoughts of the best writers on this valuable science, which, with your own thoughts, fresh and vigorous, makes it a book adapted not only to the ministry of our own Church, but to all who may wish the better to prepare themselves for extended usefulness in the ministerial vocation. It ought to be in the hands of all our preachers, especially the younger, and will, I predict, at an early day, become a text-book in the theological seminaries of the country." Rev. J. DICKSON, D. D., Bishop in the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. " I have examined the manuscript which you did me the honor to submit to my criticism; this I have done with some care. I am glad to say that I can give you my judgment in favor of its publication. The field of Homiletics as a science is a well- gleaned field. It is almost hopeless to think to say anything new. All wo can do is to give in a fresh and convenient form principles and rules which the wisdom of gen- erations has evolved. I think you have been able to do this, and your book will prove a readable and helpful work. I have been specially pleased with the part on Exposi- tory Preaching. Wliat you say is well put, and timely." Rev. C. a. STORK, D. D., Presideiit, and Professor of Homiletics, GettysVjurg Theological Seminary. "It has been my privilege to examine the general plan, and to read in manuscript several written chapters, of a new work on Homiletics, to be styled ' The Preacher and His Sermon,' by Rev. J. W. Etter. The division of the subject is natural and system- atic. The discussion shows a full understanding of the theme. The thoughts are presented with clearness, beauty, and force, and in plain, concise, and vigorous lan- guage. 1 believe the book to be well adapted to the better preparing of our mmistry^ so that the man of God may be ' thoroughly furnished unto every good work.' It will be a valuable acquisition to the library of every intelligent layman, us well as an excel- lent text-book for tlie theological student. The author will do the church and the public a great favor by speedily preparing it for the press." Rev. H. a. THOMPSON, D. D., President of Otterljein University. " I have examined the original manuscript on Homiletics with great satisfaction. Being somewhat acquainted with excellent treatises on this subject, I felt that little remained to be said, and that a new author in this field of literature would experience more than the ordinary perils of authorship; but I am now persuaded that you are not simply otl'ering one book more to the market, but that you have made a valuable contribution to ecclesiastical literature. Two features of the work appear to mo to be especially meritorious: (1.) The succcs^ul ministers of the past and present are made to speak freely upon all the subjects treated, and their words scintillate from every side of the question, suggesting the rich and manifold character of truth. (2.) The treatise shows that the field of Homiletics is more extensive than has heretofore been explored, and new and valuable territory has been opened up. This alone is suffi- cient to entitle the volume to a hearty welcome on the part of those who are interested in ministerial duties and qualifications." Rev. D. D. DeLONG, A. M., President of Lebanon Valley College. PREFACE. In presenting a new work upon the subject of preaching, the author is aware that the literature of Homiletics is already quite voluminous. In addition to the many older treatises in various languages, a number of books of great merit have recently been published. But, numerous as are the existing works on Homiletics, and able as many of them are in the treatment of the topics considered, no treatise upon this sub- ject has yet appeared which meets the wants of our times in its range of subjects. In the present work, while not refusing to follow the old beaten track, I have given special attention to recent demands of the pulpit, and to modern developments in Homiletics, be- lieving that the bringing together of the old and new material into one treatise would justify the addition of another work to the already extensive literature of this branch of theology. In this new department may be mentioned, especially, Preach- ing to Children, Revival Sermons, Out-door Sermons, Funeral Sermons, Illustrated Sermons, Lay Preaching, and Bible-read- ings, some of which have heretofore received only a passing notice, while others have been entirely forgotten by our hom- iletical writers. If I have handled the old topics too summa- rily, and the new ones too elaborately, it is because the former are old, and the latter new. Part I. has many new features, while Part IV. will suggest new methods of preaching. In the preparation of this work, the literature of the sub- ject has been carefully examined, and its best teachings ii Pi'eface. have been adopted, and presented in a new form. In the conii^sition of new material I have been compelled to origi- nate my own method. The book is not the luiblication of a course of lectures on preaching, but every chapter has been especially prepared for this work, except Chapter II. in Part I., which appeared in a series of articles in the " Religious Telescope " a few years ago, and is here reproduced with alterations and additions. In the arrangement of subjects, I have tried, as far as possi- ble, to follow the most natural order. In the actual construc- tion of a sermon the order is : (1.) Selection of a text. (2.) Interpretation of the text. (3.) Generalizing it into a theme. (4.) Framing of proposition. (5.) Composition, including in- vention and disposition. (6.) Delivery. But in a scientific treatise this order can not be followed consecutively, for there are other subjects connected with the sermon, nOt included in the contents of this order, which require independent discus- sion. Yet the S3^stematic need not inter jere with the natural; scientifically, as well as homiletically, the most general order would suggest that the Preparatory should precede the Theo- retical, the Theoretical the Practical, and the Practical the Concomitant. After giving a general view of the Preacher and his Sermon, I introduce the Text; between this and the Composition of the sermon I pause to consider the different species and varieties of sermons, one of which the sermonizer must always choose before actually beginning to compose. The Com})Osition of Introduction, Discussion, and Conclusion, or the actual construction of the entire sermon, seems to be a si)ecial department in Theoretical Homiletics. In the Prac- tical department are discussed the subjects belonging to the delivery of sermons. In this way the subjects follow in nat- ural sequence, and in suitable form for the instruction of the learner. The work is chiefly designed for a text-book in tlie class- room, for junior preachers, and active pastors; but the intro- duction of many topics of general interest, and the mode of Preface. Hi discussion, will, no doubt, also make it instructive to laymen, especially to Sunday-school superintendents and teachers, class-leaders, lay preachers, and all public speakers. I desire to make honorable mention of Dr. C. A. Stork, Pres- ident and Professor of Homiletics in the Theological Seminary at Gettysburg, Pa. ; Dr. William H. Hornblower, late Professor of Sacred Rhetoric in Western Theological Seminary; Dr. Henry A. Buttz, President of Drew Theological Seminary; Dr. S. F. Upham, Professor of Practical Theology in Drew Theological Seminary ; Dr. James Strong, member of the Bi- ble-revision Committee ; Dr. Richard Newton, of Philadelphia ; Rev. D. D. DeLong, A. M., President of Lebanon Valley Col- lege; Bishop J. Dickson, D. D. ; Dr. H. A. Thompson, Presi- dent of Otterbein University, and Dr. G. A. Funkhouser, Professor of Homiletics in Union Biblical Seminary, who have rendered me valuable service in the examination of different parts of my manuscript, and greatly encouraged me in the preparation of this work. The Table of Contents, and Index, have been prepared by Rev. W. A. Shuey, A. M., who has also performed excellent service in the work of issuing the book from the press. With a full sense of imperfection, and the responsibility of my task, I now submit this book to the church, and to Him who can use the weakest instrument for his glory. Mount Joy, Pa., August 1, 1883. CONTENTS. PART I. PREPARATORY. CHAPTER I. THE PREACHER. PAGE I I. The Title Defined 17 Dignity of the Preacher's Office ?2 ^ II. Preaching, the Chief Duty of the Preacher 23 g III. Christ, the Preacher's Theme 25 g IV. His Rehition to Scientific and Popular Skepticism 30 CHAPTER II. GENERAL PREPARATION. Preliminary Remarks 37 g I. A Proper Conception of the Ministerial Oflfice 38 1. A Ministry of Truth 40 2. A Ministry of Duty 42 3. Objectof the Ministry 43 g II. Physical Preparation 46 g III. Intellectual Preparation 53 § IV. Spiritual Preparation 60 Call to the Ministry 65 g V. Common Sense 67 CHAPTER III. SPECIAL PREPARATION. Preliminary Remarks 70 .§ I. Theoretical Ilomiletics 70 Literature of 71 V m Conte7its, PAQK I II. Practical Homiletics 77 Sermonic Literature 77 Models of 77 Masterpieces of Sermons 86 I III. Gathering of Iloiniletical Material 87 I. Sources of Iloniiletical Material 88 1. The Bible 88 2. ]Iistory 92 3. Science 93 4. Pliilosophy 94 5. General Literature 96 6. Surroundings of Daily Life 100 7. The Mind 102 II. How to Gather Material from these Sources 103 1. By a System of Reading and Study 103 2. By a System of Preserving the Results of Read- ing and Study 105- III. How to Ai5proi>riate and Use in the Sermon the Gath- ered Material 107 Originality and Plagiarism lOQ' PART II. THEORETICAL. CHAPTER I. THE SERMON. \ I. Definition and Description 117 \ II. Brief History of the Sermon 124 g III. Relation of the Sermon to Homiletics 127 \ IV. The Sermon should be No Ordinary Effort 129 § V. The Sermon of To-day ought to Excel that of any Former Pe- riod _ 133 \ VI. General Properties of the Sermon 137 1. Must be Evangelical 137 2. Must be Instructive 138 3. Must be Interesting 140 4. Must be Edifying 141 I VIL Length of the Sermon , 143 g VIII. Repeating Sermons 145 g IX. Series of Sermons 148 g X. One or Two Sermons a Sabbath? 148 1. One Sermon System Beneficial to the Preacher 149 2. One Sermon System Beneficial to the Congregation 151 Contents. . vii chapter ii. 'the text of the sermon. PAGE A Brief History of its Use 153 ^ I. Objections to ihe Use of Texts 155 g II. Reasons for Selecting a Text 156 g III. From Wliat Portion of the Bible should the Text be Selected? 158 g IV. How to Select a Text 161 Preliminary Considerations 161 Rules for Selection 161 I V. When to Choose a Text 169 I VI. A Systematic Record of Texts from which to Select 169 \ VII. Interpretation of the Text 170 I. Difficulties of Interpretation 172 II. Prerequisites 173 III. Brief Rules of Interpretation ,. 174 I VIII. How to Obtain a Proper Theme from the Text 175 CHAPTER III. SPECIES OF SERMONS. I I. Sermons of Two Species 178 I II. The Topical Sermon 180 I. The Proposition 181 II. Divisions 186 Reasons for 187 Examples of. 189 1. Variety 191 2. Exhaustiveness 192 3. Number of Divisions 194 4. Arrangement of Divisions 196 5. Subdivisions 198 6. Transition 198 7. Should the Divisions be Stated beforehand? 200 § III. The Textual Sermon 201 Modes of Treating a Textual Discussion 202 CHAPTER IV. VARIETIES OP SERMONS. Preliminary Remarks 207 I I. Introductory, Farewell, and Political Sermons 208 'i II. Sermons for Special Occasions 209 1. Holidays 209 2. Miscellaneous Occasions , 210 I HI. Sermons to Special Classes of Hearers 211 1. The Young 212 2. The Aged 213 viii Conte7tts. PAGE 3. The Sisters 1214 4. The Young Converts 214 5. The Various Professions and Occupations 216 g rV. Doctrinal Sermons 217 \ V. Historical and Biographical Preaching 219 § VI. Practical and Experimental Sermons 221 I VII. Illustrated Sermons 224 g VIII. Funeral Sermons 227 I IX. Out- Door Sermons 230 CHAPTER V. REVIVAL SERMONS. g I. General Remarks 236 § II. A Fundamental Requisite for Effective Revival Preaching 240 I III. Character of Revival Preaching 241 1. As to the General Matter of the Sermon 242 2. As to the Special Matter of the Sermon 244 3. As to the Manner of Revival Preaching 245 § IV. Questions on Revival Preaching 249 § V. Character of the Preaching of Some of the most Eminent Re- vivalists 251 CHAPTER VI. SERMONS TO CHILDREN. Preliminary Remarks 256 g I. Reasons for Preaching to Cliildren ; 257 g II. Qualifications for Preaching to Children 2o3 \ III. Different Methods of Preaching to Children 265 1. The Sermonette 205 2. The Duplex INIethod 266 3. The Service of Song 267 4. The Children's Church 268 \ IV. Matter for the Cliildren's Sermon 270 \ V. Manner of Preaching to Children 274 \ VI. Benefits Resulting from Preaching to Children 279 1. To the Preacher 279 2. To the Adult Hearers 279 3. To the Children 2S0 CHAPTER VII. EXPOSITORY SERMONS. I I. General Remarks 2S2 g II. The Advantages and Disadvantages of Expository Preaching Compared 284 illl. General Management of Ilomiletic Exposition 286 Contents. ix PAGE Unity of Structure 287 Examples of Outlines of Expository Sermons 289 g rV. Continuous Series of Exposition 292 Preparation for 292 1. Construction of Expository Sermons 293 2. Management of Practical Suggestions, Exhortation, and Application 295 3. DiflScult, Mysterious, and Controverted Passages 297 4. Delicate Passages 297 ^ V. Portionsof Scripture Especially Adapted to Expository Preach- ing 298 ^ VI. Some Valuable Aids to Expository Preaching 300 CHAPTER VIII. THE INTRODUCTION. ^ I. Introductory Remarks on the Composition of the Sermon 302 Parts of a Sermon..... 303 \ II, Definition of Introduction 304 § III. Design of an Introduction 307 \ IV. The Materials or Sources of Introduction 308 1. The Text 308 2. The Subject 309 3. The Relations of the Subject 310 4. Various Present Circumstances 311 (1.) Of Time 311 (2.) Of Place 312 (3.) Of the Condition of the Congregation 312 (4.) Of the Occasion 312 5. Miscellaneous Sources 312 § V. Improper Material for an Introduction 314 § VI. Character or Quality of the Introduction 315 1. Unity 315 2. Pertinency 316 3. Brevity 317 4. Simplicity and Modesty 318 5. Variety 319 § VII. Suggestions on the Composition of the Introduction 320 CHAPTER IX. THE DISCUSSION. Definition of Discussion 323 \ I. Origination of Material 323 1. Invention 324 Kidder's Rules for 328 2. Suggestive Reading 327 I II. Arrangement of Material 329 X Contents. PAGE \ III. Qualities of the Discussion 330 1. Unity 330 2. S^mmetiy 331 3. Progress 33l> I IV Explanation 332 Definition of Explanation 333 Advice as to Use of Explanation 333 Means of Explanation 333 I. Exegesis 333 II. Definition 334 III. Narration 335 IV. Description 336 How to Increase Power of. 337 V. Illustration 338 Reasons for Use of. 338 Cultivation of Power of 339 Other Means of Explanation 340 I V. Conviction 341 Definition of 341 Importance of Understanding the Laws of Reasoning 341 Apodixis Biblica 342 Modes of Argument 343 1. A priori Method 343 2. A posteriori Method 344 3. A fortim-i Method 345 4. Experience 346 5. Testimony 347 (I.) The Witnesses 347 (2.) The Nature of the Facts Attested 348 6. Induction 348 7. Deduction 349 § VI. Refutation 350 I. Relative Value of Affirmative and Negative Argu- mentation 351 II. Modes of Refutation 352 1. Proving the Contradictory 352 2. Exposing Fallacies 352 3. Argumentum ad Homincm 353 lieduclio ad absurdum 353 4. Analogy 353 5. Irony 354 III. Arrangement of Refutation 354 § VII. Fallacies 355 I. Verbal Fallacies • 355 1. Words 356 2. Construction of Sentences 357 II. Other Fallacies 358 1. Petitio Principii 358 Hume's Argument Against Miracles 358 Contents. xi PAGE 2. Kiuds of Argument which are Fallacious when Unfairly Used 359 Proving too much 359 Use of Jests, Puns, Epitliets 3ri9 \ VIII. Suggestions on the Composition of the Discussion 359 1. Logical Proof Not to be Too Much Depended upon 359 2. Mode of Treatment, Determination of 361 3. Arrangement, Correction, Final Criticism 362 CHAPTER X. THE CONCLUSION. § I. Its Importance 365 \ II. Design of the Conclusion 367 \ III. Material for Conclusion 369 I. Recapitulation 370 II. Application 371 1. Inferences 373 2. Remarks 374 3. Appeal 376 Composite Conclusion 380 § IV. Improper Material for Conclusion 380 'i V. General Character of the Conclusion 381 § VI. Suggestions on the Composition of the Conclusion 384 PART III. PRACTICAL. CHAPTER I. PULPIT ELOQUENCE. General Remarks 389' Persuasion, and Motives 390 Prejudice Against Eloquence 392 g I. What it is Not 394 g JI. What iDls 395 1. Origin of Eloquence 397 2. Relation of Imagination to Eloquence 398 g III. How to Produce Eloquence 399 1. By Vivid, Vigorous Thought 399 2. By Emotion Springing from Genuine Sympathy 400 (1.) With the Truth 400 (2.) With Human Life 401 3. By the Character of the Speaker 403 4. By Christian Faith 404 5. By the Influence of the Holy Spirit 405- xii Co7i tents. CHAPTER II. STYLE. FAGB Definition, and General Remarks 408 I I. Primary (Qualities of Style , 410 I. Perspicuity 410 1 Distinct and Clear Conception of Subject 412 2. Precision of Language 413 3. Words in Common Circulation 413 4. Amplitude 415 Prolixity 416 Undue Brevity, or Terseness 417 n. Energy 419 Origin of Energy 420 Requisites of Energetic Style 420 1. An Energetic Nature 420 2. Penetrative Tliought 421 3. Language must possess — (1.) Energetic Brevity 422 (2.) Energetic Construction 423 (3.) Energetic Imagery 424 in. Beauty 426 The Result of Union of Other Qualities 427 1. Poetical Language 427 2. Simplicity of Language 429 3. Figurative Language 429 Relative Importance of Primary Qualities of Stylo 429 ,g II. Secondary Qualities 430 1. The Scriptural Style 430 2. Sublimity of Style 431 3. Naturalness of Style 432 g III. Means of Acquiring a Good Style 433 CHAPTER IIL MODES OF DELIVERY. \ I. Brief History of the Diilerent Modes of Delivery 439 \ II. The Reading Method 444 I. Advantages ■ 415 II. Disadvantages 416 I ill. The Memoriter Method 451 g IV. Tlio Extemporaneous Method 453 Advantages 453 Objections to this INtethod 454 I V. The Composite Method 402 g VI. Some I'ractical Suggestions and .\dvicc 462 1. When and How to Uso the Memoriter Method 462 2. When and liow to Use the Reading Method 464 Contents. xiii PACK 3. What Mode should be Adopted by the Beginner? 465 4. What should be done by Those Already Accustomed to Reading or Reciting? 467 5. The Important Requisites for Extemporaneous Preaching 468 6. How to Prepare for Immediate Delivery 470 7. How to Extemporize in the Pulpit 472 CHAPTER IV. ELOCUTION, AND CONDUCT IN THE PULPIT. Definition and Importance of Elocution 476 § I. The Voice 480 1. Quality of Voice 481 2. Volume of Voice 485 3. Some Directions in - egard to Voice 486 § II. Gesture 489 1. Position 490 2. Action 490 Tables of Gestures, with generic signification 491 3. Some Directions in regard to Gesture 494 4. Facial Expression 495 I III. Conduct in the Pulpit 498 1. Earnestness of Manner 498 2. Self-Possession 500 3. Witticism 601 4. Levity 502 5. Formality 602 6. Affectation 502 7. Propriety 503 PART IV. CONCOMITANT TO THE SERMON, CHAPTER I. DEVOTIONAL EXERCISES. Nature and Importance of Devotional Exercises 613 g I. Reading of Scripture 515 1. Selecting a Scripture-Lesson 515 2. The Artof Reading the Scriptui-e-Lesson 517 3. Preparatiou of the Reading- Lesson 522 I n. Hymns 523 Power of Music > 523 Congregational and Choir Singing 525 xiv Co7ife7its. PAOK The Effect of the Song-service Depends on 1. The Kind of Hymns Used 525 2. Manner of Reading Hymns 529 I 111. Public Prayer 531 1. General Requisites for Public Prayer 531 2. Important Qualities of Public Prayer 533 (1.) As to its Substance 533 (2.) As to its Method 534 (3.) As to its Language and Stj'le 535 (4.) As to its Tone and Utterance 53G (5.) As to its Length 537 § rv. The Benediction..... 537 CHAPTER IL MISCELLANEOUS ADDRESSES. Oeneral Remarks - - , 540 § I. Platform Addresses 541 Requisites for 542 ^ II. Prayer- meeting Addresses 544 1. Importance of Preparation 544 Method of Preparation 545 2. The Selecting of Topics 545 List of Uniform Topics 548 3. General Character of a Prayer-meeting Address 549 § III. Pulpit Addresses 551 I. Exhortation 551 Following the Sermon 551 Substitute for the Sermon 552 Character of. 553 II. Lay Preaching 553 Duty of 553 Brief History of 554 Necessity of 555 Objections to, Answered 555 Character of 557 m. Bible-Readings 557 Introduction of 557 Definition and Description of 557 Examples of '. 558 Preparation of 5G2 Delivery of 564 Advantages of 565 Concluding Remarks 566 Index 567 Parx I The Preacher and His Sermon. Part I. PREPARATORY CHAPTER I. THE PREACHER. The Title Defined — Dignity of the Preacher's OfQce — Preaching, hia Chief Duty — His Theme, Christ — His Relation to Scientific and Popular Skepticism. § I. THE TITLE DEFINED. The 'preacher and his sermon, — not the pastor and his parish. These two phrases, while they together compose the work and office of the Christian ministry, yet divide it into two portions clearly distinct from each other. The minister is both a preacher and a pastor; he constructs sermons and builds up parishes; but the nature, qualifica- tions, and duties of the one are so difierent from those of the other, that the pastor and preacher often appears more like two men than like one man, when the quality and efficiency of his preaching and parochial abilities are viewed and compared. Herein is an anomaly, that the same man should be one thing in the pulpit and another in the parish ; and yet it is an acknowledged fact that not every good preacher is also a good pastor, and vice versa. To be equally successful in the pulpit and in the parish is the exception rather than the rule. It is not our purpose 17 1 8 The Preacher and His Sermon, here to account for this inequality, but merely to state a fact, and thus limit our subject to one hemisphere of the Christian ministry — 'preaching^ leaving the other half of the work for some future task. The, preacher and his sermon, — not a preacher and his sermon. There are preachers many and sermons many, ranging over every degree of quality from the most inco- herent postil of a mere novice in the profession to the most perfect discourse of a pulpit champion. A preacher, a sermon, may stand for any possible or imaginable kind, like the algebraic expression of an unknown quantity. It is, however, the province of homiletics to describe the preacher, the sermon; to hold up a models constructed out of the best of the miscellaneous material and examples which the pulpit has produced, and present it as a standard of excellence to be imitated by all ministers. It is there- fore more ideal than real, as every scientific treatise must necessarily be which gives the rules and principles of an art. Again, the preacher and Ms sermon suggests a resem- blance between the two. The sermon is much like the preacher because it is Afs, the product of his own brain, the offspring of his own character. There is a difierence between possessing a thing by pro- creation and by appropriation. In the former case, there is a resemblance between the creature and its creator, but none whatever in the latter case. The artist paints a picture from his own mental concep- tion. It is his in the proper sense, and can never be trans- ferred or deeded to another, for it bears the semblance of its author. The child is like its parent; the book is like its author. It is a universal law of generation, that each shall produce "after its kind." ( Preaching, which is lui abbreviiited form of the title of tliis trejitise. The Title Defined. 19 But the material wealth which a man possesses is his in a much inferior sense. He has it by assignment, and becomes its manager rather than its owner. It is no part of himself, and therefore bears no likeness to its possessor. Nothing is really ours except the propagation of our own mind, the offspring of our own individual self, which re- sembles the ego of its origin. The picture, the book, the invention, the slave, the mansion, in the higher sense, can never become the real property of another by purchase, because we can not buy the artist, the author, the inventor, the parent, the architect, who produced it, and whose image it bears, and whose equal we could not produce. Hence it becomes ours in a secondary sense by appropria- tion, and not in the primary sense by procreation. Posses- sion by personal creation is the basis on which rests the proposition that the sermon resembles the preacher. It is an emanation of his soul developed into a thing of form, proportion, and almost life itself, and becomes akin to him as soon as he breathes into it the breath of his life. The sermon resembles its author, first, and chiefl.y, in iht mode and character of its thought. The individuality of his intellect, the depth or superficiality of his reasoning, the peculiarities of his doctrine, and the degree of his convic- tions, are all transmitted to his sermon. The method of his thinking and inventing will also be seen in its plan and arrangement. It is a mental photograph of its author, and made after the pattern of his mind, or, in the language of the phrenologist, an exact impression of his head. It resembles its author, secondly, in the language. There are certain modes of expression and idiom, a style of diction, and fullness or scantiness of vocabulary, which distinguish each speaker's conversation and composition. This character of language, when added to that of thought, makes the resemblance between the sermon and the preach- 20 TJie Preacher a?id His Sermon. er more intimate. It is in this way that many anonymous letters and documents can be traced to their true authors; and upon this kind of internal evidence is the epistle to the Hebrews ascribed to Paul, because its style of thought and language possesses a Pauline character. It resembles its author, in the third place, in its moral tone. There are degrees of piety as well as degrees of intelligence. ITot all preachers are equally holy, devoted, and consecrated to the truth. Who would say that thia does not have a marked influence upon the discourse, infusing it with the most evangelical and saving truth, or giving it a formal, scientific, or even secular tone, accord- ing to the spiritual temperature of the sermonizer? A man's religious status will be stamped upon his sermon. Lastly, we might add that it resembles its author in its manner of delivery. As a religious discourse can not be a Bermon until it is spoken, as will be stated hereafter,* its delivery is part of its general composition, and will par- take of the vocal capacity, force, earnestness, and emotions of the speaker. From these points of analogy, we see that the most natural and easy thing is to preach sermons which are like ourselves; and that the most unnatural and difficult thing is to preach another man's sermon without detection that it is not our own; for its kind of thought, language, and unction will betray our plagiarism, and reveal the fact that it resembles some one else more than ourselves. So intimate and intermingled is the resemblance between the preacher and his sermon that in a treatise on preaching we can scarcely speak of the one without also speaking of the other, since both are blended in the subject of homi- letics. It is a kind of bi-unity. Hence the title: The Preacher and his Sermon. I Part II., Chapter I., g I. The Title Defiiied. 2i Once more, the preacher and his sermon suggests also a contrast between the two. If the two are similar to each other, and together form the subject of homiletics, they are also different from each other. A similarity is not an identity. The preacher is not the sermon, and the sermon is not the preacher, just as the soul is distinct from the body, though both are neces- sary to constitute one human being. The sacred discourse, viewed separately and independently of its author, is a transient creature, living only during the brief time of its delivery. We listen to it for awhile, are comforted and blessed under its sound; then it passes away forever, like the moments of our life, no more to return except through memory, while its author — the preacher — lives on to repeat his efforts again and again, and thus becomes the progen- itor of a large family of sermonic children. The preacher is also distinguished from his sermon by his superiority to his sermon. Philosophically, this must be the relation between every creature and its creator. Occasionally, in the happiest moods and under a special endowment of the Holy Spirit, the se»^mon may surpass the preacher; but this is not the rule. As the law that forbids water to rise naturally above its own level can be overcome by mechanical means, so a supernatural influence may temporarily lift a preacher's eloquence above his natural level, and bring something extraordinary out of something ordinary. For this he should pray. But thib is not a natural result. It is more natural to find most of his eflbrts below his level, and to be an imperfect expression of what he thinks and feels. To transfer a fac- simile of what is in him to the mind of the hearer through the aid of language is almost an impossibility. There is nearly always something left unexpressed which lie can not communicate, — a reserve-force, an inexhausted 22 The Preacher and His Sermon. fertility, a superior character, which in ahiiost every case makes the preacher greater than his sermon.' There being, then, a separation as well as an affinity be- tween a sermon and its author, somewhat similar to that between the science and the art of preaching, for which homiletics is the technical term, we prefer to choose the title, The Preacher and His Sermon, as the most concrete description of a treatise on the theory and practice of preaching. But in this initial chapter we wish to speak more par- ticularly of the preacher; .especially as he stands related to some of the more important duties of his office. He is Christ's embassador. " JSTow then we are embas- sadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us* we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God." (II. Cor. V. 20.) Here he is clearly set forth as the repre- sentative of the great King, who is to carry forward the work which he here began by his own personal ministry while in the flesh. The interests he is authorized to rep- resent and promote are divine. Hence he is properly called "a divine," "a man of God," "reverend," etc., which indicate the source of his high authority and appoint- ment. In one sense every Christian should be a preacher for Christ; but the right of an embassador, acting in Christ's stead, is an honor conferred upon the select few chosen from among men by the great Sovereign himself. God might have converted the world through the preach- ing of Christ, or appointed an angelic and sinless apostle- ehip to take up the work where Christ left it and carry it on to its completion; but there seems to be a divine fitness^ in prosecuting the redemption of the world through hu- man instrumentality. "A human intellect, human sensi- 1 "The man is felt to be greater than what ho says. It is a pan of which he is th«. . vhole; and his personality is behind his speech." — John Hall in YaiL . '4*res. Preaching, His Chief Duty. 23 bilities, a human voice, are chosen before the trump of archangels." The preacher is to fill a wonderful sphere of influence. "Were the pulpit silenced, and no one left to proclaim the gospel, the world would soon lapse into heathenism; but ministers become guardians of public virtue and propaga- tors of the true spirit of progress. It has been observed that nearly all our colleges were originated by ministers, and that many of our cities and towns were founded by them in the wilderness.^ They stimulate thoughtfulness, morality, manliness, Christianity, and all the virtues of a community which are the forerunners of its advancement. They elevate society and radiate an influence that lives the longest and deepest in the hearts of its recipients. Every one born into the kingdom of God and kept there through their labors is a lasting monument of their efforts, living to perpetuate the greatness of their work not only to the third and fourth generation, but through the eternal ages. The pulpit is destined to be a perpetual agency. llToth- ing can supersede its necessity or take its place. " The long line of preachers extends in unbroken succession from Christ himself to the present hour. A line, did I say? More than a line, a pyramid, of which he is the apex, which each succeeding year rises in altitude and widens its base — and will rise and will widen until it covers all lands, and the living preacher shall be seen and heard by every child of Adam and Eve on the globe." ^ § II. PREACHING, THE CHIEF DUTY OF THE PREACHER, Every professional office is essentially an office of one idea. That of the physician is the understanding of dis- j " New Haven, by John Davenport; Hartford, by Thomas Hooker and Samuel Stone; Providence, by Roger Williams; Salem, by Francis Higginson; Cambridge and Dorchee- tei ly John Warham." — Hoppin's Homiletics, page 30. Binhop M. Simpson's Yaie Lectures. 24 The Preacher and His Sermon. ease; that of the lawyer, the law; that of the painter, the picture; that of the preacher, the sermon. Preaching is his first and most important work. We would not underrate the value and importance of his pastoral duties, which are necessary adjuncts to preaching in order to success in the ministerial ofiice, and which too often are slighted or very imperfectly performed. But by asserting that preaching is his chief duty, we make it the funda- mental and central work of the Christian minister, de- serving the concentration of the sum total of his efforts. Every other duty of his office is subordinate and auxili- ary to it. Even the whole round of parochial duties is performed for the purpose of learning how to adapt his preaching to his hearers, or as a supplement to the Sun- day sermon. Indeed, everything that deserves to engage his efforts is made to contribute to his power in preaching the word; and nothing extraneous, such as authorship, lecturing, or teaching, must interfere with or usurp the place and supremacy of the sermon. Preaching is the appointed means of saving the world; and the oft-repeated scriptural injunction is, "Preach the word," "lie charged us to preach unto the people." "He sent them forth to preach." " Christ sent me to preach." And even our great Example, Christ himself, was " anoint- ed to preach." The most successful way of awakening men to a knowledge of sin, of leading them to repentance and faith in Christ, and of building up the church in all her doctrines and influence, is by preaching. True, the prayer - meeting, class - meeting, Sunday - school, Young Men's Christian Association, etc., are indispensable insti- tutions of Christianity; but these are all moved by the pulpit, which becomes the mainspring in the whole work- ing machinery of church-enterprise, and therefore becomes the principal lever and source of power to the minister. Christ, the Preacher s Theme. 25 In this busy age of the world, when there exist so many lepartments and divisions of labor, each demanding the best skill, men must become specialists, and devote their best endeavors to the perfection of their special art. " Life is 80 short, and man's powers so limited, that he can do but one thing well, and the preacher should therefore not expect to do aught else but preach." ^ He can aiford to neglect many things in order that he may become profi- cient in one thing. " In the secular sphere, it is conceded that the powerful minds are those who rigorously confine themselves to one department of thought. Newton culti- vated science, and neglected literature. Kant wrought in the quicksilver mines of metaphysics for fifty years, and was happy and mighty in his one work. These men made epochs, because they did not career over the whole encyclo- pedia."^ And if preachers wish to increase the efficiency of their great office, they must centralize their efibrts more vigorously, — not by contracting the circle of their study and activity, but by bringing the result of their study and activity in a focus of power upon the pulpit. They will find enough, and more than enough, to do to make them- selves " able ministers of the word." § m. CHRIST, .THE PREACHER's THEME. In secular oratory, themes are continually changing with times and circumstances. In preaching, the theme is one. The ministry of the gospel is essentially a ministry of out text only — "Jesus Christ the Lord." The "gospel" which we are commanded to preach, in its truest sense, embraces the life, work, character, and king- dom of the great Messiah. Says Hoppin, " Let it be remem- bered that the gospel is Christ. It is wholly and entirely Ohrist." And in another place he continues, "As Christ is I Hoppin'3 Homileties, page 265. 3 Shedd's Homileties and Postural Theology, page 247. 26 The Preacher and His Sermon. the life and center of divine truth, and thus must be the end of all preaching, how can he be really absent from any true sermon?" Viuet remarks, "In every sermon we must either start from Christ, or come to him." And Murphy, in his "Pastoral Theology," adds, "A sermon which does not in some way contain the salvation of Christ, can not with any propriety be called a gospel sermon." There is not wanting an abundance of eminent testimony agreeing in these statements. But how shall the minister understand and apply the oft-repeated appeal to "preach Christ?" Must every text mention or directly refer to him? Or should every sermon devote a portion to this great theme, whatever the text may be? Evidently not. To learn how to preach him we must study him as presented in the Bible. That book tells us only one grand story; and that is the story of Jesus. God has given us a brief history of his Son, — not in the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, for therein is found only a sketch of his incar- nation. One must read the whole Bible to know who Christ was. The main object of the whole canon of inspi- ration was to bring out in bold relief, and place upon the foreground, the life and work of Christ. If there are other incidents and characters woven into the fabric of our gospel-theme, they are only incidentals, — the foliage around and upon the Tree of Life, the root and stem of which is the Son of David. Christ is the subject and hero of the Bible. We read, it may be often unconsciously, about him from Genesis to Eevelation. In the Pentateuch, in the major and minor prophets, in the Psalms and the Can- ticles, in the Gospels and in the Epistles, and in Revelation, throughout he is wrapped up or disguised in a multitude of types, shadows, prophecies, and parables; and he must be a dull reader and a superficial observer who does not Christ, the Preachers Theme. 27 see Christ shining out of every page and gleaming forth from every chapter of the sacred Scriptures. The entire book is a unit upon the theme of a great, bleeding Re- deemer. The Old Testament is but a preface to the ITew. It introduces to the world " Him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write." And our Lord himself, after his resurrection, taught his disciples how to interpret the Word when, "beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself." The biblical record is a closely con- nected history of our one theme. Take him out of the Bible and you would have an empty cage, a hollow shell; rob it of its hero and you have a palace without a prince, an organ without a sound. Blot out this great luminary and humanity would be a failure, the world a dark, dreary wilderness, and eternity a vast horror. To preach Christ, then, is to preach in the spirit, tone, life, and substance of scriptural truth as it relates to the person, work, and infi- nite blessings of Christ. The whole body of sacred truth, in its form of history, poetry, experience, and philosophy, must be stripped of its external drapery and made to reveal the doctrine of the cross, "the truth as it is in Jesus." Thus nearly every passage of Sacred Writ has something of this theme. " Don't you know," said a Welsh minister, " that from every town and village and hamlet in England there is a road to London? So from every text in script- ure there is a road to the great metropolis of the Script- ures, that is, Christ." " I never yet found a text that had not a road to Christ," said Spurgeon. As the sun in our sohir system holds and guides all the planets and sat- ellites, so Christ is the center of our Christian system — a system of grace and doctrine; and without hira our holy religion would be shattered to atoms and torn into shreds. Our antagonists, Strauss, Renan, Paulus, Schenkel, 2 8 The Preacher and His Sermon. Baur, and others, understood this, and their stoutest blows were directed against the person of Christ. "Why? Because he is the Rock upon which the Church is built, and if they had succeeded in shaking our faith in the divine Son of Mary, down would have toppled the whole structure of our Christianity. To declare the fullness and freeness of Christ's salvation, redemption, faith in him, regeneration, sanctification, and everlasting happiness through him, must be the great burden of true gospel preaching. In this spirit the apostles " went everywhere preaching the word;" and Paul, the representative apostle, says, " We preach Christ crucified;" "I preach the unsearchable riches of Christ;" "We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord." Here we have his theme: 1. Jesus; 2. Christ; 3. The Lord; Jesus being his human name, given him by his foster-father; Christ, meaning anointed^ his divine title; f>nd Lord [aduiiai, the old plural form for the Greek x\o(oc^ being the Jewish name for Jehovah. Paul preached the humanity, divinity, and trinity of Christ. This was his whole system of theology, of which he " deter- mined to know nothing else." To him Jesus Christ him- self was the gospel. The man was the doctrine; the doctrine was the man. To him the first, last, and essential was, objectively, Christ himself, and, subjectively, faith in him. And the same kind of preaching needed in Paul's day is needed in our day. Though we live in other times, have new customs and modes of preaching, we have no new gospel; and the preacher, to be true to the charge commit- ted to him, must, in the midst of a changing world and vacillating creeds, be an unerring compass upon the ship of Zion, always pointing, like a John the Baptist, to the Pole-Star of our faith, no matter what way the wind blows, how high the waves dash, or which way the ship turns. Christ, the Preacher s Theme. 29 On the importance of the preacher's great theme, South says: "1. He is text; and all preaching beside Christ is beside the text: therefore keep to your text. 2. Christ is the very foundation and subject matter of preaching; and all preaching without Christ is building castles in the air. 3. Christ is the life and soul of preaching; and preaching without him is like a body without life and spirit. 4. Christ is the great end of preaching; preaching is to mani- fest his glory; and if Christ is not preached, the great end is lost." " A religion without a Savior is the temple without the Shekinah, and its worshipers will all desert it. Few men in the world have less pretensions, as a preacher, than my- self— my voice, my look, my manner, all of a very com- mon kind; yet I thank God there is scarcely a corner in our little church where you might not find a streaming eye and a beating heart. The reason is that I speak of Christ; and if there is not a charm in the name, there is in the train of fears and hopes and joys which it carries along with it. The people feel, and then they must listen." 1 In confining our preaching to Christ, we are not circum- scribed or compelled to repeat the same thing about our theme from want of variety. In reality we have the whole range of truth through which to present the one great theme in its new and various aspects. We may take truth from the immediate neighborhood of the cross, or from the remotest domain of Christianity, and when its re- lation to Christ and his salvation is exhibited, Christ is preached. Thus we may discuss a great variety of topics under one great theme. I CunHiDgham. 30 The Preacher a?td His Sermon. § IV. HIS RELATION TO SCIENTIFIC AND POPULAR SKEPTICISM. The gospel always was opposed or ridiculed by false philosophies and hostile heresies. The apostles had to contend with Stoic and Epicurean infidelity which de- nounced the gospel as " foolishness." Soon came Celsus, Julian, and Lucian, pouring out a flood of satire against Christianity and its founder; and not long ago Strauss and Renan assailed the divinity of Christ. But the present stands unprecedented in the opposition which the Bible re- ceives from scientific investigation or speculation; and the breach between revelation and scientific culture has never been wider and deeper than now. Such a state of un- friendliness to the Bible demands a consideration of the question, What has the preacher to do in this scientific conflict? One thing is certain. The preacher must not ignore this scientific babel of confusion as a matter of no inter- est to him. Instead of becoming alarmed, with serious forebodings as to the result of this cultured opposition to Christianity, he should welcome the revival and progress of scientific knowledge; for "the truth of revelation can not be imperiled by the progress of true science. * * * * The labors of some modern scientists are like the strokes of giants guided by a higher intelligence than their own, so that they build better than they know. But in spite of the atheistic intent impelling their activity, * * * * they are none the less the authors of spiritual light." ^ Nothing can be feared from the investigation of facts, for facts are unchangeable and permanent; only theories concerning them are changeable and evanescent. This religio-scientific contest will undoubtedly termi- nate in a more valuable contribution to the efliciency of I Doppin's Homiletics, page 472. Scientific and Popular Skepticism. 31 the pulpit; and the Christian teacher may injure his influ- ence or the cause he desires to promote, hy a willful igno- rance of the position of scientific inquiry in this day and the results of its investigation. An acquaintance with every new development of truth is important to the preacher in order to sustain his reputation as a member of one of the learned professions, and an educated member of society; for the theology which he preaches claims to be the highest and noblest science, to which every other sci- ence is tributary and auxiliary. It also throws light upon scripture interpretation, modifying within certain limits our modern philosophy and exegesis, which must always yield to new developments in the advancement of truth. ^' The only change that can improve theology comes from improvement in the interpretation of the language of the Scriptures, of which theology is the systematic expres- sion."^ One of the leading Christian scientists. Dr. Dawson, has well said, "Above all, those who aim to be Christian teachers should be fully armed to contend for the truth, and should have a clear and intelligent appreciation of the weapons and tactics which may be employed against it. They should also comprehend the habits of thought of specialists in science, and their followers, and the aspects in which religious truth may present itself to their minds. Further, they should be prepared to take broad views of the relations between spiritual and natural things, and should have their minds attuned to the harmonies which exist in God's revelation of himself in nature and in his "Word; otherwise they may fail to attain the highest use- fulness, or to be worthy expounders of a revelation from him who is at once the God of nature and of grace." But in urging a study of scientific investigation we do not z Frinceton Review, January, 1879. 32 The Preacher a?id His Sermon. mean that the preacher should become an original investi- gator and scientific specialist, but by a kind of eclecticism make himself master of the results of the investigation of specialists whose lives are devoted to scientific research. Let him keep his eye upon the scientific bulletin-board, and especially acquaint himself with the critiques which these theories have called forth from orthodox scholars. But the main question of interest is, how shall the preacher in the pulpit deal with the scientific skepticism of the day? In the first place, let him not attempt to reply to any such skepticism in his preaching; for this work properly belongs to the press and the platform, and not to the duties of the ministerial ofiice. Besides, it is not to be expected that the average preacher, whose strength and vocation lie in another sphere, should be able, upon their own ground, to cope with eminent scien- tists who have devoted their whole life and labor in these special departments of work. What folly it would be, while engaged in preaching, to attack the categories of Kant and Hegel, to discuss the fallacies of Herbert Spen- cer, or to follow Tyndall, Huxley, Darwin, and Hackel into the minutice of their teachings. Such may be the mission of our scholarly laymen, who should buckle on the armor for battle with the enemy, and go forth to slay these scien- tific Goliaths who defy the armies of the living God. But if a physician, however skilled in his profession of medi- cine, should venture to discuss the principles of jurispru- dence with a jurist, he would likely be worsted if not defeated. So the pulpit, by laying aside its own function and going into other fields to wrestle with champions of error, may share a similar fate, and return with broken lance and bruised limb. " One should be sure before he raises the devil that he is able to slay him." But even if a minister should make controversy with. Sciejitific and Popular Skepticism. 33 scientific skepticism a specialty, and could fully meet all its arguments, a course of scientific disputation in the 'pul- jpit would not be judicious; for the very opponents against whom he directs his blows are not usually his hearers, and will not so much as learn that anything was ever said in reply by the preacher. The hearers of the gospel are gen- erally believers in the Christian faith, and know little about- the real objections of cultured skepticism. One of the weak points in Albert Barnes' preaching was that argument against infidelity was "poured out in profusion, often when, probably, not a hearer was present who could be directly benefited by it." ^ Sometimes the popular audience may be harmed and the truth weakened by reviewing infidelity in their pres- ence. "When a great deal of time is taken to confute imputations and answer objections, the impression is made that the cause, if not exactly a weak one, is nevertheless vulnerable. The feeling is awakened in many minds that the truth of Christianity is, after all, a matter very much litigated; that there are arguments on either hand; and such as distrust their power to hold the balance are, in a degree, bewildered and thrown into uncertainty."^ The pulpit may thus, with the best motive to the contrary, seduce men into disbelief of every kind. But although the preacher in the pulpit should abstain from open war against cultured skepticism by the use of counter- arguments, his sermon, nevertheless, has something to do with a system that comes in such vital contact and conflict with the doctrine he preaches. Many to whom he ministers are under skeptical influences, and are made to believe that the Christian faith is the dogma of unlearned bigots, and that science — falsely so called — has outgrown the X Phelps' Theory of Preaching, p. 449, a Princeton Review, January, 1878 34 The Preacher and His Sermon. Bible. Iq reference to this blatant skepticism, the preacber, instead of direct reply to the arguments of skepticism, should show as much skill in establishing and defending the doctrines of scripture as those doubters do in assailing them. Let him teach the opposite of scientific heresy; let him drive an additional spike into the fortress of truth for every charge from the enemy's camp, instead of returning shot. " He who is building up health is thereby conquer- ing disease. He who is preaching truth is thereby confut- ing error." The men who most successfully fight skepticism are always the positive, not the negative men; not the ones who pelt error, but who make faith. Incidentally he may give side-blows with good effect, as he engages in the inculcation of positive truth; but as a rule, he should fol- low the instruction of Paul, which is especially applicable to our times, — "Keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called." By emphasizing the opposite of skeptical doctrine he gains two advantages, — he avoids needless controversy with error, which often engenders unbelief by putting his hearers in possession of objections which they never knew before; and he forearms the believer with ars-uments in favor of the disputed points of scriptural doctrine, which will save him from perplexity in case he may subsequently, from other sources than the pulpit, hear of the objection of infidelity. It is better to forestall infidelity than to state or define it. But such a treatment of learned doubt requires a knowledge of the doubter's position in order to state and enforce its anteposition. The pulpit should assert its dignity by maintaining that the doctrines of the gospel we preach rank as highest in the scale of science and philosophy; that while indirectly it has to do with every aggressive science, it nevertheless Scientific and Popular Skepticism, 35 should not compromise its dignity by stooping to contend with every antagonistic theory that rises and falls in the ever-shifting tide of scientific opinion. As long as the pulpit believes in the divine inspiration of scripture, it must, in order to be consistent, hold it as infallible; and " the assumption that the Scriptures stand upon a common level with the teachings of science, and are to be called in question as any other subject of human thought, can not for a moment be admitted by the gospel preacher." "We have at command a power against which no skepticism is proof. " They that be with us are more than they that be with them." If any think that Christianity is a weak system, whose advocates have contributed little to the ad- vancement of knowledge, we can mention such renowned thinkers as Copernicus, Galileo, Bacon, Newton, Pascal, Butler, Chalmers, Morse, Dana, Agassiz, McCosh, and a host of others, whose scholarly defense of Christian truth has never been shaken by the best of Bible opponents. *' The gospel preacher should maintain the dignity of the science which he represents, and resent the arrogance of any science that would ignore this highest of all sciences. While he should not ignore, but keep abreast with, the advanced science and learning of his age, and be able to warn the people against imposture, yet, speaking officially in the name of Christ from the pulpit, he should, like the apostle, know nothing among his flock ' save Jesus Christ and him crucified.' The church of God relies not upon the pulpit for the discussion of questions of science and philosophy with unbelievers. For that, she has not lacked m time past, nor at this day, faithful sons filling other positions, able to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints."^ But there is a kind of popular skepticism, to which the preacher also stands related, which is one in source, and X Princeton Review, January, 1879. 2,6 The Preacher and His Ser^non. really one in character, with the skepticism of the schools and of the scholars. It does not consist in the disbelief of Bible doctrine, but is a common-place phenomenon of doubt, arising from the conflict of life with faith, of tlieory with practice, or the discrepancies between real Chris- tianity and current Christianity. This milder form of skepticism is becoming so prevalent in our day, inside as well as outside the church, that the pulpit must in some way arrest its growing tendency. How shall the preacher grapple with this antichrist? Since the infection is of a practical rather than a literary character, the method of meeting it must not be an argu- ment^ but a man, a character, an illustration of divine truth embodied in the individual believer. Hence in proportion as the preacher's life corresponds with the Model Example of his faith, and as he succeeds in making the disciple more or less like the Master, may he hope to overcome the tide of popular skepticism. And here, again, as in every moral disease, we find the only antidote to consist in the faithful presentation of Christ, brought to the lives of men as the only true type of faith and practice; and the only sure way of meeting the popular perplexity arising from the inconsistency of doctrine and life is, instead of defining doctrine, to show man a God, a Christ. Says Phillips Brooks: " If there be a revival which is needed to make Christianity strong against the enemies which beset it, and clear the sight of the mul- titude who are bewildered about it, it certainly must be the re-coronation of its personal idea, the re-assertion of the fact that Christ is Christianity, and that not to hold that this or that concerning him is true, but to follow him with love and with that degree of knowledge of him which has been given us, is to be a Christian. * * * * Make known the real to man, by every means you can command, the personal Christ, — not doctrine about him, but Am." CHAPTER II. GENERAL PREPARATION. A Proper Conception of the Ministerial Oflace — Physical Preparation — Intellectual —Spiritual— Common Sense. Having examined the preacher's relation to certain duties, we are now prepared to speak more particularly of his preparation for the pulpit. The consideration of this part of a minister's work is fully as important as that of any other function of his office. The perfection of his professional ability will be according to the perfection of his previous preparation. No man is born a philosopher, a doctor, or a preacher. He may inherit certain aptitudes which become an index to his calling; but these are in an embryo state, and need devel- opment. He is born a novice, and without cultivation would remain such. So susceptible are we to improvement that there can be no limit to the extent of our preparation. We are never so well qualified for an office of duty but that we might not be qualified a little better. The only limit is the short ness of life, which allows us only a short fragment of time to prepare for life; and as the demand for qualified minis- ters increases, we must seek better methods of education, by which the completest preparation may be acquired in the shortest time. 37 38 The Preacher and His Sermoii. § I. A PROPER CONCEPTION OF THE MINISTERIAL OFFICE. Perhaps the best antecedent quahfication for the office of the Christian ministry is a proper conception of its nature and purpose. Robert Hall, who did so much to adorn his holy profession and raise the pulpit to its true dignity and importance, said, " The moment we permit ourselves to think lightly of the Christian ministry, our right arm is withered, and nothing but imbecility and relaxation remains." The reason that the ministry — this royal court of the Lord — is crowded with so many ineffi- cient occupants, who fail to give full proof of their min- istry, is because they have failed to apprehend the dignified and lofty character of their mission. The preacher's prepa- ration for and effort in the ministry will be according to his appreciation of the importance of his work. If he considers it only tantamount to that of the legal or medi- cal profession, he will put forth no greater efforts than if he were to be a lawyer or a doctor. The preacher's work demands the best talent, and the best culture that industry and discipline can give that talent. His is a higher calling, graver in its responsibilities, and infinitely wider in its influence than any other. When the already gifted Solo- mon assumed the kingship of God's people, he asked for wisdom to qualify him for his responsible office. But a more tremendous responsibility is imposed upon the hum- blest minister of Christ than Solomon was called to assume. He is charged with a higher trust, and for the due dis- charge of it needs especially, and in a larger measure, the gift of practical wisdom. No human language can describe the supereminence of that work which once engaged a Savior's heart, and still inspires his soul, and which made Paul exclaim, " Who is sufficient for those things?" Paul was successful as a preacher because he magnified Proper Conception of the Ministerial Office. 39 his office. To magnify our office is not to have exaggerated views of it, but to see it as it is in its true importance and requirements. The microscope does not enlarge an object, but only our view of it, and presents it to us in its real aspect, adding nothing to our gaze which is not found in the object, but rather leaving it partially veiled to our sense-perception. "We too often look at the ministry as the astronomer looks through a telescope at an orb so far away from him that he can see it only in miniature form. In the constellation of human professions the ministry is a star of the first magnitude. All others are secondary, and come within the range of its influence. The minister's work has to do with everybody. He is to preach the gospel to " every creature," of whatever rank or profession, of whatever name or nation. The scholar and the igno- ramus, the millionaire and the pauper, the aristocrat and the plebeian, the holy Christian and the vile sinner, all, from the mightiest king down to the poorest wretch of human kind, are the subjects of his ministry. He is to wield such a power over them all, in presenting the claims of God upon their souls, as to dash to the ground all their proud and empty hopes, and make them forget sublunary things in view of their dreadful responsibility to God. To do this requires no ordinary preacher. "What, then, ought to be the sanctity of his conduct and the elevation of his character? Kot every man is qualified. The preacher must be vigorous, a king among men, fitted to rule by force of mind and weight of character, yet at the same time must habitually bow in lowliness before the cross of the Lord Jesus. He may belong to no earthly dynasty, but he belongs to the royalty of heaven — an embassador from another world, of greater pomp than this nether earth, commissioned by the King of kings to carry his message of salvation to wrecked and ruined humanity, and in- 40 The Preacher and His Seinnon. trusted, not with the wealth of nations, but with the immortal souls of living men. 1. The true nature of the Christian ministry is essen- tially contained in one idea. It is a ministry of truth, eter- nal, immutable, triumphant truth. The difference between the gospel and all forms of scientific intelligence is that the one is a revelation of divine truth, the other a school of uncertain knowledge; or, the former is God-thought, the latter man-thought; and like their respective authors, the one is perfect, the other imperfect. Hence, all human investigation is stamped with error; but the " Word is truth," — absolute truth. There is a chasm between the human and the divine mind which nothing can bridge but a revelation from heaven. Then, all human knowledge is subordinate to the gospel. Finite reason must submit to infinite. We must not go to our knowledge to correct the gospel, but must in every case correct our knowledge by the gospel; or, as Claudius expresses it, " To improve religion by means of reason appears to me just as if I were to try to set the sun by my old wooden clock." On the one side we have truth; on the other, uncertain knowledge. The one is eternal, the other transitory; the one immutable, the other changeable; the one triumphant, the other disastrous. Amid the mutations of human sys- tems and the revolutions of human thought, divine truth, as a grand illustration of the survival of the fittest, has stood unmoved amid all literary epochs, and is to-day just what it was a thousand years ago, and will be a thousand years hence. Abstract philosophy is an ever-changing Proteus. It has arrived at no positive results. From Thales and Pytha- goras to Schopenhauer and Ilartmann, one system has taken the place of another, while criticism has demolished Proper Conception of the Ministerial Office. 41 the old schools of philosophy. Men have become wiser in tearing down than in building up. Their results required correction by experience, and the test of time has laid them open to ridicule and contempt.^ Theories of philosophy and science are reeds shaken by the wind. They may attract notice for a time, but will pass away as the morning cloud when truth's "eternal years of God" shall come. Mr. Hux- ley may draw audiences for a time to hear his exposition of physical life; but what chance of endurance can it have? Like the tiny plant whose roots have no deepness of earth but which is scorched by the rays of the sun, such theories can have but a short and fitful existence, and will wither away beneath the blaze of eternal truth. Dr. Shedd says, " Other species of literature may decline in interest and value as the redemption of the human race advances, but this species [that is, the sermon] will steadily tend to its culmination. Like the Christian grace of charity, which will outlive prophecy and knowledge and tongues, sacred eloquence will outlive, or rather transform into its own likeness, all other forms of literature. Whether there be poetry, it may fail ; whether there be philosophy, it may cease; whether there be literature, it may vanish away; but the word of God liveth forever." This truth is technically called divinity, which is a " doc- trine treating of the nature, attributes, and works of the great God, as he stands related to rational creatures, and the way how rational creatures may serve, worship, and enjoy him. And if so, is not the subject of it the greatest, and the design and business of it the noblest, in the world, as being no less than to direct an immortal soul to its end- less and eternal felicity? ^ ^ ^ ^ And now, can we think that a doctrine of that depth, that height, and that I For example, Hegel believed that he had philosophically proved that there could be not more than eleven planets. Since his time, however, more exact astronomical inves- tigation has added many more to this number. 42 The Preacher and His Serrno7i. vast compass, grasping within it all tlie perfections and dimensions of human science, does not worthily claim all the preparations whereby the wit and indnstry of man can fit him for it? All other sciences are but handmaids to divinity; and shall the handmaid be richer adorned and better clothed and set oft' than her mistress?"* 2. Another important function of the ministry consists in the inculcation of duty. It aims at the development of practical Christianity — not only the teaching of creed, but also the formation of character. Its office is twofold: truth and duty, or, truth in thought and truth in action, truth in the mind and truth in the life. " The one is creed, the other conduct; the first is belief, the second is obe- dience; the one faith, the other works. "Without the truth, duty will be fruitless and empty, — the first, steam without cylinder or piston; the second, an engine without force. " The mission of duty is the noblest, grandest ideal of life, beyond which nothing can be desired or hoped for in the realm of human achievements. Its rewards are its own benedictions, which are peace, happiness, a good conscience, and the absence of all that troubles human breasts. It is, therefore, the height of human excellence. Living or dying, it is man's greatest boon. It is the foundation of character. We are not measured by our reputation, intelligence, or any acquired distinction, but by our dis- charge of moral obligation. "We are, not what we seem, but what we do. The ministry of the gospel which "engages in the unselfish and benevolent work of educating men in the sublime art of fulfilling duty toward humanity and Deity, is doing more for the world than any other bus- iness or profession on earth; for it produces true characters, 1 South's Sermons, Phil, ed., Vol. 11., p. 79; quoted by Hoppin in Homiletics, pp. xxil. xziii. Proper Conception of the Ministerial Office. 43 witlaout which the world and all its business is demor- alized. Duty results in 'perfection. To meet all the demands of human obligation and discharge them cheerfully to the ex- tent of our ability is duty; and this duty, indeed, is the only kind of perfection possible for finite beings. The sphere of knowledge and goodness is not circumscribed or circumscribable, but that of doing has a limit, and its acme is clearly defined by the word duty. Hence, acts of super- erogation are impossible, because they imply an excess of perfection. Within the range of human possibility men can aspire to nothing higher than duty, since it leaves nothing really necessary undone; and he whose epitaph can be truthfully inscribed over his last resting-place, " I have done my whole duty," is a perfect man. Whatever else men may have done, this they do not wish left undone. That, then, must be the most princely ofiice which interests itself in leading men to the acquisition of such royal great- ness in morals and such magnanimity of character, whose excellence can be compared with nothing less than that of angels. Duty and trutli^ then, are the fundamental subjects of pulpit teaching which include all other subjects, and which furnish the preacher with such charming materials for his eloquence. 3. Our idea of the ministry is elevated when we re- member the 'pur'pose for which it was instituted. All truth is in a certain sense divine, because God is its author; but the truth which especially forms the basis of the ministry is not only eternal, unchangeable, and triumphant, but spir- itual, and as such most momentous in its effects. Duty, which is truth practiced and obeyed, is the summum bonum, and leads to the highest development of man — his salva- tion and eternal advancement in knowledge and happiness. This is the supreme object of the ministry as the appointed 44 2^^ Preacher and His Sermon. instrument and agency of God. Every minister, in the highest sense, is a "merchantman seeking goodly pearls," — not gems of earthly glitter or kingly worth, but souls, the grandest jewels on this side the pearly gates of heaven, and each one beyond the value of the Kohinoor, the Orlow, or the Regent. Many who have formed correct ideas of the ministry have spoken of its importance in the most fitting words. Mr. Gunn says, "The work of the ministry is the most momentous and excellent in which a mortal can engage, and one in which no man who has a just impression of its nature and consequences will lightly think of entering." Mr. Law says, " The pulpit is the battle-field where we win triumphs or sustain defeat. The angels have no such throne." Mr. "Whitefield says, " The greatest preferment under heaven is to be an able, painful, weeping, successful, Buffering, cast-out minister of the New Testament." Oow- per says, "The pulpit (in the sober use Of its legitimate, peculiar powers) Must stand acknowledged, while the world shall stand, The most important and effectual guard, Support, and ornament of Virtue's cause." A proper conception of the object of a preacher's pro- fession has made many enthusiastic in soul-saving. Pay- eon had a continual passion for men's souls. Rutherford affirmed that they were the object of his tears, cares, fears, and daily prayer, and said, " My witness is above, that your heaven would be two heavens to me, and the salva- tion of you all as two salvations to mo." John Welsh had such a sense of the worth of men's souls that often in the coldest winter night he was found weeping and wrestling with the Lord on account of his people; and in answer to his wife's inquiry as to this solicitude he said, "I have the Proper Conception of the Ministerial Office. 45 souls of tiiree thousand to answer for, while I know not how it is with many of them." Such an all-absorbing interest in the salvation of men, as the object of our preaching, is the first and great qualification of a Christian minister. Do we realize the truth of our preaching — sin and sal- vation, heaven and hell, immortality and human responsi- bility? The jurist, legislator, and statesman have no such themes; and yet they are often more eloquent than we. The pulpit is put to shame by the superior eloquence of the bar and platform; and never was a criticism on Christian oratory more just than that of Garrick, in answer to a minister's question why the stage attracts more hearers than the pulpit. His answer was, "Because we speak fic- tion as if it were truth; but you speak truth as if it were fiction." Such, then, is the nature and object of the sacred minis- try of the gospel that it demands in combination the eloquence of an orator, the acumen of a scholar, the pro- foundness of a, philosopher, and the piety of a saint. It requires the full complement of human excellence. No accomplishment can be too great; no qualification too thorough. Hence every one called of God to the holy oflSce of the ministry, and who has entered into the true idea of its work, can not be indifferent as to his special preparation, but will endeavor by the aid of discipline, labor, perseverance, and prayer, to be all that is possible within the sphere of his capability, and to bring all his natural and acquired abilities to bear upon the great work to which he is called. Bishop Ken thus describes a preacher: " Give me a priest whose graces shall possess Of an embassador a joint address; A father's tenderness, a shepherd's care, A leader's courage which the cross can bear, 46 The Preacher and His Sermon. A ruler's awe, a watchman's wakefulness, A father's patience, and a laborer's toil, A guide's dexterity to disembroil, A prophet's inspiration from above, A teacher's knowledge, and a Savior's love." Oowper, the sweet poet of Oluey, says, — " Would I describe a preacher, such as Paul, Were he on earth, would hear, approve, and own — Paul should himself direct me. I would trace His master strokes, and draw from his design. I would express him simple, grave, sincere; In doctrine uncorrupt; in language plain, And plain in manner; decent, solemn, chaste, And natural in gesture; much impress'd Himself, as conscious of his awful charge, And anxious mainly that the flock he feeds May feel it too; affectionate in look, And tender in address, as well becomes A messenger of grace to guilty men."' § n. PHYSICAL PREPARATION. "We have spoken of the nature of the Christian ministry as a basis upon which to predicate the several qualifications for the office of preaching. Of course, we must omit treat- ing of many particulars, such as official and social qualifi- cations, which belong to the pastor rather than to the preacher, for we purpose speaking only of a minister's qualification for the pulpit, and not for the parish. He who comprehends and feels the weight of his responsi- bility, and the demands of the ministry, will not fail to lay under tribute and bring into requisition every attaina- ble power whereby he may accomplish the grandest results in this one great business of his life. First, then, there should be a physical fitness. "Another observation is founded on the fact that the duties of the I 7'a,s7v-, Book n. Physical Preparation. 47 constituted preacher are arduous and constant. It is that he must have a good physical organization. He must be able to bear frequent and copious draughts upon his nerv- ous energy. * * * * "Wr^ have every reason to believe that prophets and apostles and evangelists of the Old Testament and the IlTew were men of strong physical structure, or, at least, of sound health. We think of Moses climbing the cliffs of Sinai, Samuel hewing Agag in pieces, Jeremiah trudging off" to the Euphrates and back twice for a single lesson to Judah, Elijah traversing the wilderness, the apostles journeying into all lands, as men of muscle and sound physical organs."^ Extreme bodily weakness is a disqualification for effect- ive preaching. A full development of physical force is needed for intellectual and spiritual power; for generally the men who have achieved great results in the cause of God were those who have preserved the mentem sanam in corpore sano. It is not necesssary here to show the subtle relation between physiology and psychology. Experience has taught us that those special faculties which are most needed in public speaking — namely, judgment, will, mem- ory, imagination, and the power of rapidly originating and combining thought, — depend most eminently on vital force, the health of athletic soundness, and an Herculean body. These quicken our mental activity and sharpen our comprehension of the various relations of truth. This in turn reacts upon our spirituality. A sluggish, phlegmatic spirit is often the result of a morbid physical condition. Our affections and feelings rise and fall with the tide of physical and mental power. It was for this reason Paul said, "I keep under my body;" and to give this saying the right sense, we are to keep under the body as a ship keeps the water beneath it. So keep the body in constant I Dr. Howard Crosby's Yale Lecturet, pp. 20-22. 48 TJie Preacher a?2d His Sennan. subjection to the mind, that the whole intellectual force may securely rise and rest upon it. It should be the sup- port and servant of the mind; and when strong and hale, and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, it will propel the mind forward with wonderful alacrity. There are some cases where a feeble and sickly state of body has exhibited power in a particular direction. The mind will sometimes show abnormal activity when the brain is in anything but a healthful condition. The emo- tional nature may be especially excitable, but its power of propagating emotion in others is not in like manner in- creased when the body is sufi'ering from a diseased sensi- bility. In such a state the preacher may be sympathetic, but it is generally with' the shadows that are in the world. He can not enter into the sentiment of those more joyful and stirring themes of the gospel with a spirit that blos- soms like Aaron's rod. Force, buoyancy, elasticity, vigor, come to the mind from the sound and energetic physical force which underlies and sustains it. Dr. Howard Crosby, in speaking of the close connection that often exists between bodily weakness and erroneous doctrine, says, "We do not say that a man's liver might cause him to reject the atonement, or his neuralgia might make him a Swedenborgian. We do not attribute to any degree of physical disease a destruction of the biblical system of doctrine in the subject of disease, but we are confident that the coloring of a preacher's teaching is largely affected by his morbosity. Gloomy views of the Christian life, a false estimate of the relations which Chris- tians should sustain toward the moving world around them, and ascetic admixture with the duties of religion, a lack of practical sympathy with the varieties of disposition found in a congregation of a thousand souls, and a failure to feel and exhibit the just inter-proportions of scriptural Physical Preparation. 49 doctrine, are natural results of an enfeebled constitution, where the wheels of physical life work jarringly and pain- fully." Again, great physical vigor is necessary for impressive delivery. The narrow chest, feeble voice, diseased throat, and nervous temperament, which produce a " kind of men- tal paralysis in the presence of an audience, that makes a public appearance a kind of martyrdom," do not indicate a man formed for public speech. When we think of eloquence, we naturally call to mind such massive men as Webster, Punshon, and Whitefield, — speakers of large bodily capacity, whose overwhelming rhetoric pressed every thought upon men's minds with the immense current of their physical energy. They were full of force, like a fountain, and flowed over at the eye, at the lip, at the heart, and all the time, with every species of action and demonstration. Physical power was a fire under their mental machinery. There is a peculiar physical adap- tation to powerful oratory which every minister may covet. But not every minister is endowed by nature with such a i^hysique, nor can he create it for himself; and yet every one, by training, may correct many natural defects and improve many valuable gifts. A man called of God to preach is as morally bound to cultivate his physical organs as he is to educate his mental faculties and give them the capacity which his vocation demands. The penman, the painter, the sculptor, will train his hand and muscle by long processes for the execution of graceful lines and deli- cate touches. Not any hand can produce a Madonna or an Angelo's Moses. The athlete and gymnast, the man who is to swing upon the trapeze, develops each muscle and gives each nerve its proper training for the feats he accomplishes, until the results are simply amazing. Re- member the pains men take to train themselves in other 4 50 The Preacher and His Sermon. and lower departments of effort; and let us be ashamed if we are not willing to give to this grandest office on earth the discipline which is so much needed for success in it. Hence the importance of improving the voice by subject- ing ourselves to a course of elocutionary drill and vocal culture; of enlarging the chest; of increasing muscular strength and facilitating gesture by proper athletic exercise; of increasing and preserving vigorous health by attention to diet, sleep, exercise; of applying ourselves faithfully to those processes which give vitality and recuperative force to the explosive power by which we can the better be able to thrust the truth out upon the hearts and consciences of men. " What may be done where the mind is resolutely bent on accomplishing it, for supplying the deficiencies and correcting faults in elocution, Demosthenes has taught us; and were half or a tenth part of the pains taken by us to obtain a powerful and effective method of pulpit address which were submitted to by this prince of orators to become an effective speaker, * h^ * * •^g too should become orators, and that in a yet better cause than his."^ Plutarch tells us that by unwearied perseverance Demos- thenes surmounted all the disadvantages that arose from his person and address. The stammering of his tongue he corrected by practicing speech with pebbles in his mouth; he strengthened his voice by declaiming by the sea-shore; he practiced at home with a naked sword hanging over his shoulder, that he might check an ungraceful movement to which he was subject; ran up a hill pronouncing some passage in a poem during the difficulty of breathing which that caused. Surely, if his country's cause " prompted the Athenian orator to such studies and such efforts for self- improvement, ought not the love of souls, zeal for God, and the interests of eternity to prompt us to similar I James' Eamat Ministry, page 126. Physical Preparati07i. 51 endeavor?" It can not be that the parliament and the forum alone demand such oratorical drill. Again, a minister ought to improve bodily fitness by abandoning and abstaining from those habits which pros- trate the physical system. ITo minister has a right to desecrate and injure that body which God gave him to be wholly consecrated to the service of the gospel; and if by any indulgence he violates the laws of nature so as to cripple his bodily vigor, he becomes not only a sufferer, but a sinner. Formerly, preachers, in order to stimulate mental activity, used alcoholic liquors to the damage of their health, and not unfrequently to their shame and the scandal of the church. " In many churches both wine and brandy are kept in the vestry for the use of the min- ister both before and after preaching. On my first visit to the old countries, the kind sextons seemed to be as much astonished that I would not accept them as I was amazed at their being offered. I have known some young ministers who used a few drops of paregoric, or a small quantity of opium, to give them temporary strength in the pulpit. I am glad to say that I have known but few such cases; but I must add that these were led in the end to either physical or moral ruin." ^ At present nearly all use coffee and tea. " The effect of these stimulants is unquestionably to give greater strength to the system for the time; but all such artificial strength is a draft which must be repaid with interest. The unnatural excitement will be followed by subsequent depression."^ And since the use of alcohol has been denounced, many have adopted the use of tobacco, in some form, to the ruin of their health, the utter prostration of their nervous system and their memory, and the demoralization of their manliness. " There may be a few cases where persons are very phleg- s Bishop M. Simpson's Yale Lectures. 2 Ibid. 52 The Preacher and His Sermon. matic and inclined to corpulency, where a small amount of tobacco may be of service medicinally. So, too, in certain stages of bronchial difficulty, a temporary use may be of some relief; but for persons of nervous organization, as ministers usually are, it is an unmixed evil. It gives tem- porary tension, to produce ultimate relaxation. Not a few cases have I known of most promising and talented young men who have been by it hastened to an untimely grave."* ^ITot a few ministers resort to some stimulant or narcotic, with the delusive idea that the temporary excitement is a source of strength. The result is, dyspepsia, nervousness, and general debility, and at last, like the robust Barrow, on account of his excessive use of tobacco, — the only shadow upon his reputation, — they die at a premature age. " God does not require us to use artificial strength in the pulpit. We must give ourselves in our best vigor and culture to his service, but we should so give ourselves that the service of one hour shall not destroy our power for subsequent usefulness. I believe one reason why so many ministers complain of 'blue Monday' is that they have keyed up their system by extra efforts beyond its natural tension, and the excitement passing away leaves them de- pressed."^ Every minister, before entering the sacred office, for the sake of efficiency in the cause of his Master, should first slay every giant habit that is preying upon his vital forces. Let him before entering upon the ministry, and during his continuance in it, give attention to physical culture and habits. He needs all the power he can command to preach a life-giving and life-preserving gospel. I Bishop M. Simpson's YaU Leeturu. a Ibid. Intellectual Preparation. 53 § III. INTELLECTUAL PREPARATION. Another indispensable requisite for preaching is knowl- edge. Physical force as a momentum in the act of preach- ing is to knowledge somewhat as dynamics is to statics in physical science. As there can be no phenomenon without substance, so there can be no genuine oratory produced out of a mental vacuum. Knowledge is a preacher's capital, and bodily force is the apparatus with which to handle it; but there must be something to be handled. Hence, a minister must not only first gather a fund of knowledge, but every day add to his acquired resources as the race moves forward to higher attainments, else intellectual bankruptcy will be the sure result. Such a fitness is required by the sacred Scriptures. " Therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the king- dom of heaven, is like unto a man that is a householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old." (Matt. xiii. 52.) " I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding." (Jer. iii. 15.) Paul says that a preacher must be " apt to teach," and that the gospel is to be com- mitted to " faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also." (II. Tim. ii. 2.) Often are preachers designated as "teachers." (See Matt, xxviii. 20; Eph. iv. 11.) And the profoundest truths that can engage the human mind are the subjects of their teaching. Intellectual preparation is an essential qualification for the sacred office of preaching. A few may regard this idle; and we are surprised to read these words: "To say a man must study divinity on the same principle that a mechanic would learn a trade, or a student prepare himself for the practice of medicine or law, with a view to become a min- ister of Christ, is to convert the gospel into a commodity 54 The Prea£her and His Ser^non. of commerce, which may be acquired by human effort, and disposed of for pecuniary gain. * * * * The plea that a minister must devote much time in making prepara- tion for the pulpit seems to us a singular idea."^ Was it "a singular idea" that Paul, after his conversion and call to the ministry, should spend three years in Arabia in prepa- ration for his great work? With all his previous scholar- ship, acquired in the school of Hillel, from the great teacher Gamaliel, he would not rush into the arena of hia public ministry unarmored and unaccustomed to the weap- ons. Was it " a singular idea" that Christ, a greater than Paul, spent thirty years at his home in Nazareth in making preparation for the three crowning years of his life? "K I were sure of living ten years, I should spend nine of them in preparing to preach during the tenth," said an able preacher. Jackson's idea of mental preparation is so low an esti- mate of the minister's office as to amount almost to dese- cration. It regards the lower and secular interests of life with greater though tfuln ess than the higher and eternal interests of men. Who would think now of becoming a mechanic, or of entering the ranks of the medical or legal profession, without previous training? No one could do it without depreciating the worth of the oiSce in which he serves, and thereby rendering it less efficient and effectual according to the number of unworthy representatives that crowd its ranks. Every unqualified preacher in the minis- terial office, instead of counting ^^ws, will sadly be a minus in the value of its efficiency. If, according to Jackson, God has no need of our learning, he can have still less need of our ignorance. Some entirely ignore all manner of preparation for the pulpit, both general and special, and look for immediate z John Jackson's Dissertation on the Christian Ministry. hitellectual Preparation. 55 inspiration, sucli as was promised to men under extraor- dinary circumstances, to whom Christ said, " Take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak." The passage forbids undue anxiety; but no more forbids human fore- thought and human means than the other direction, "Take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or. What shall we drink? or, wherewithal shall we be clothed? * * * * for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things," forbids us to provide for our food and cloth- ing. Both commands seem to imply God's assistance whenever needed, but no promise that he will do for us anything which we can do ourselves. We sometimes hear it said that the apostles were un- learned men. True, they never passed through a course of training such as is now provided for our young men; but they were far from being unlearned in theology. Their professional training was extensive, and even ex- traordinary. They enjoyed for three years the personal instruction of the world's great Teacher. He taught them the deep things of God, stimulated thought, awakened in- quiry, startled them with wonders of the gospel. They did not sit at ease while he taught them. They worked upon his great ideas. They tasked themselves to grasp his meaning, and to become filled with his spirit. More- over, the apostles were divinely inspired to preach the kingdom of God, to " heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, and cast out devils." (Matt. x. 7, 8.) What modern preacher can boast of such an instructor, or enjoy so divine an endowment? The best and most talented man of to-day, after having passed through a thorough curriculum of theological study, in the presence of our apostolic brethren would have to feel that he is far their inferior in preparation for the ministry. 56 Tlu Preacher a7id His Sermon. There is no ground for believing that in our day Christ will communicate the necessary learning to his minis- ters. At the commencement of the church inspiration was necessary to show that Christianity had its origin not in the wisdom of schools, that it derived its au- thority not from the researches and deductions of the learned, but from the immediate inspiration and will of God. No such necessity now exists, and therefore extraor- dinary gifts are no longer imparted; not that the office requires less fitness now than formerly, but because there are now other means provided for our preparation that must, in a measure, take the place of inspiration. Hence, we find that the most successful ministers since the days of the apostles have been men of learning and study. Among the church - fathers, Clement, Ignatius, Justin Martyr, Origen, Cyprian, Eusebius, Chrysostom, and Augustine, all gave evidence of extensive learning. In the days of the Reformation, Wyclifie, Huss, Luther, Melanch- thon, Zwingli, and Calvin were all school-men. The French pulpit can boast of such profoundly educated preachers as Bossuet, Bourdaloue, Fenelou, Claude, Massillon, and Saurin. To think of the leading English preachers is to think of learning and power. Jeremy Taylor, who is justly called the "Shakespeare of the pulpit," was a grad- uate of Cambridge, and for a time held the vice-chancellor- Bhip of Trinity College, Dublin. Barrow's early attain- ments were wonderful. He was made fellow of Trinity at nineteen, with the king's remark, "I have given it to the best scholar in England. " He also held the chair of math- ematics at Cambridge, and afterward resigned his chair to his pupil. Sir Isaac Newton. South received his education at Westminster and his degree at Oxford. Passing by many others of note, we remember that the pious non-con- formists, Owen, Bates, Flavel, Howe, Doddridge, etc., were Intellectual Preparation. 5 7 all college-bred men. Scotland has been electrified with the eloquent preaching of the learned Knox, Bruce, Guth- rie, Livingstone, and Blair. More recently, we mention as examples of learning and eloquence Chalmers, Monod, Vaughan, Newman Hall, Coquerel, Bersier, M. de Pressense, "Wesley, "Whitefield, Edwards, Finney, and Otterbein. All these are preachers who have given formation to Christian and national character, and stamped their age with the spirit of their teaching. Even to-day the nations of the world owe far more to the faithful ministers of the church than to the ministers of the state. A classical and theological education is almost an indis- pensable preparation, and should be acquired at the college and seminary; but when this is impracticable or impos- sible, the course as usually prescribed by such schools, or its equivalent, should be studied and mastered by the junior preacher. "We are not pleading so much for a collegiate and pro- fessional course as for thorough mental culture, wherever and by whatever means it may be acquired. The formality of graduation can never take the place of true schol- arship, for " graduated " and " educated " are not always synonymous either theoretically or practically. In what- ever way this solid education be imparted, whether in or out of the schools, it will always be an advantage to sup- plement it with a few months or years of travel, especially in Bible-countries, where our theological knowledge may be compared, corrected, confirmed, and in many ways en- riched for the pulpit. "Scholarly culture is also valuable, because it tends to make one intellectually humble. Earnest study keeps down self-conceit, since it causes a man to see how little he knows, and what are the limitations of human knowledge, and what is truth's vastness. To know these things is really 58 The Preacher and Hts Sermon. the philosophical foundation of Christianity, which is the realization of human nothingness, and its need of higher enlightenment. True theology is humble, because it has gained some conception of the incomprehensibility of the infinite. A man who studies any branch of science sees what a life-long toil it requires to make himself proficient in it, to say nothing of mastering it. By study in any di- rection, in any department of knowledge, one is brought to 80 many doors leading into entirely new kingdoms of knowledge, which he can have no hope ever to explore, that he grows less self-confident every step he takes."* One good reason for a highly educated ministry is that truth may be made clear and simple. It requires no little learning to be plain. It is the half-educated men who con- found their audiences with great pufiings of vg^nity and exhibitions of bombast. The thoroughly educated preacher is lucid, simple, and intelligible, because his words are well chosen, his plans well digested, his logic correct. Learning is not to veil truth, but to bring it to Tight. It makes us plain and powerful preachers, fitted for appre- ciation by the learned and the ignorant. We see this fact illustrated in secular literature. Shakespeare is the poet of the masses, as well as of the " laureate fraternity," because his vivid images fiow from a thorough comprehension and perfect knowledge of men and nature. Lord Bacon's under- standing addressed both peasant and philosopher, because it grasped firmly and saw entirely through what it looked at. In each of these cases there was much learning in the sense of clear and thorough knowledge. In no sphere is there greater need of this learned plainness than in preach- ing. To illuminate the darkened understanding and to dispel the mist from doubting minds is the crowning work of preaching. X Hoppin'a Office and, Work of the Chriatian Ministry, pp. 4;J7, 4;i8. Intellectual Preparation. 59 A little learning is dangerous. It not only perverts doctrine by misconception, but clouds simple truth with obscurity. It is a mistake to suppose that the common people can not understand a profoundly deep preacher. K the water is clear, the depth is easily seen; cloudy water obscures even shallow bottom. "When Bourdaloue, than whom France never had a more learned divine, preached in the small village churches, it is said that the people were astonished at his simplicity, and said, " Is this the great Paris preacher? Why, we understood all he said." The same thing is said of the learned Archibald Alexander, Tillotson, and others. True knowledge reduces the Bible to a few simple but weighty doctrines. Leigh Richmond used to say that two great subjects pervade the Bible, sin and salvation from sin, and that these ought to form the basis of the Christian ministry. Said a dying theologian, "My theology is now reduced to these two- points — that I am a guilty sinner, and that the blood of Christ expiates human guilt. " "If we examine the preaching of the great and evangel- istic divines of the church in all ages, we find but one general strain and tone. Everything is tinged with sin and redemption. The fall and recovery of the human soul, paradise lost and paradise regained, are the substance of their sermonizing. Like some of the great painters, they are monochromatic; they employ only one principal color."^ Again, our age especially demands a highly educated ministry. Within a few years a great change has been pro- duced in the intellectual level of all our communities. How much easier it was to prepare a sermon up to the level of an ordinary congregation fifty years ago than it is to produce one to-day that will satisfy the people. Our schools are I Discourse delivered by Dr. W. G. T. Shedd on Clerical Education before the American Education Society, May 28th, 1855. 6o The Preacher and His Semnon. every year sending out a large class of men and women who become gospel auditors. The minister is to be their instructor. How can he instruct unless he keeps himself intellectually in advance of them? Besides, good preach- ing has become so abundant that people will no longer listen to a common-place sermon. " The people of America, of whatever class, are free to hear whom they choose, or not to hear at all, unless ad- dressed in a manner adapted to please or profit them. Corresponding to this state of things, the preachers of all churches, together with errorists of every description, are in active competition for the ears and hearts of the masses. The people, too, having great advantages for education, and no reverence for prescriptive authority, demand the best forms of Christian address, and such appeals to their reason and their emotion as challenge their respect." ^ This is a restless, critical, fastidious age; and to prove equal to the present demands, the minister of to-day must be a man of greater ability than his predecessor. So also the existing conflict with educated skepticism calls for a learned ministry. IsTot that the preacher should waste his time in combating, in the pulpit, the present scientific heresies, but he should show as much ability in his voca- tion, and establish the doctrine of the Bible with as mas- terly a hand, as do those literary skeptics in advocating their theories. The time is coming, and is now, when the interests of the church will require a far broader and fuller education in the ministry than now exists. § IV. SPIRITUAL PREPARATION. "We come now to speak of that most important prepa- ration, without which no man is fit for the pulpit, what- ever his other abilities may be. This third is the bond I McClintock and Strong's Ci/clopedi-x, Art. Homiletics. spiritual Preparation. 6 1 of perfectness in our triplet of qualifications; and though a preacher possess the physical power of a Hercules, the vast knowledge of a Milton, or the wonderful imag- ination of a Shakespeare, yet without a deep, vital, Christian experience, he would be a sounding brass or tinkling cymbal. This eminent fitness is not to be acquired through the exercises of a gymnasium or the curriculum of a school. Books, teachers, study, and an infiexible will may produce anything but a true preacher. "ITone but He who made the world can make a minister of the gospel. If a young man has capacity, culture and application may make him a scholar, a philosopher, or an orator; but a true minister must have certain principles, motives, feel- ings, and aims which no industry or endeavors of men can either acquire or communicate. They must be given from above, or they can not be received."^ First, then, need I say that a minister must be genuinely converted in heart and life? How can a man show a sinner the way to Christ if he does not know it himself? There are some instances of true conversion under the labors of an unregenerate ministry; and no doubt some souls have adorned their profession and gone to heaven, while those who first led them to Christ were wicked men, and have since gone to perdition. But these exceptional cases, instead of being an argument in favor of a success- ful ministry without the requisite of conversion, are only instances of God's universal government, who " maketh even the wrath of men to praise him." ITor should the minister's conversion be involved in uncertainty, so as to be in doubt as to the time, genuineness, and circumstances of that most important change in himself. Shall a man be sure of his title to everything except his title to heaven? How can one without the clear witness of his own spirit, 1 John Kewton's Wotrki, Vol. t., p. 62. 62 The Preacher and His Sermon. as well as the Spirit of God, to the truth of his conversion, give instruction and counsel to inquiring souls? Like Otter- bein at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, advice will be " scarce." A second spiritual qualification for a true preacher is a large share of the spirit of the great Master. Christ is our model. What was the secret of his power? He had the eloquence of angels, and spoke as never man spake; pos- sessed all knowledge, and could unfold all mysteries. But it was not this that made him the triumphant preacher. It was love^ the deepest, highest, broadest, and grandest the world has ever seen. It knew no bounds save those of the human race; and like the sun, his light shone upon the good and the evil. Here, then, is the true philosopher's stone, the alchemy of heaven, that converts all the baser passions of men into the golden, heavenly loveliness of Christ's image. Neptune's trident and Moses' rod wielded no such influence over man and nature as did the love of Christ over the hearts of men. This is our " in hoc signo vinces." To be furnished with Christ's great spirit of love is to move through the world with the silent, potent power of gravitation, that can carry the masses and communities of men in steady orbits around the cross of Christ. John Wesley, that holy man, who dwelt upon the mount of communion with God, whence he came down, like Moses to the people, radiant with the glory on which he was gazing, drew the multitude around him by the magnet of his broad, unselfish love, not as his worshipers, but as his satellites, moving with him around the same great Sun. No palisade around his home, no sectional wall of ecclesiastical caste, could prevent the outgo and over- flow of his world-wide love; and it was that spirit of full-orbed benevolence and broad philanthropy that made him exclaim, " The world is my parish." We must be baptized with His Sj^irit and transfigured witli His love if spiritual Prepa7'ation. 63 we would become good Samaritans, or lovers of the uni- versal brotherhood; and we must be lovers of men if we would win them to Christ. The Lord is seeking for a character — a peculiar temper or spirit that is found like unto his own glorious Spirit. Christ loved all men for the sake of their souls; and we must be in earnest sympathy with him in his great enter- prise of redemption. We must travail for souls in tears and prayers; have a deep sense of the misery and desert of sin; realize the value of a soul saved from death, and labor earnestly with Him to rescue the temple of fallen humanity from the curse of a broken law; must be willing, like Moses, to lead a life of sacrifice and self-denial, and to turn away from the allurements of wealth and influence, feeling that the humble path we have chosen has rewards greater than those of Egypt. The preacher must be hum- ble in spirit, cheerfully laying all his ac(^uirements at the feet of Jesus; and though weak and unworthy, he will trust in that grace which is all-sufficient. He must be a man of deep piety and loving spirit, and possess a reputa- tion and a character " above suspicion," which have upon them no tarnish of anything that is evil. In brief, he must be a good man. Whatever his intelligence, he must be of strong faith, true spirituality, and deep earnestness; a man like Stephen, "full of faith and of the Holy Ghost." If, as the ancient rhetoricians taught, the orator must be a good man, how necessary that the preacher should be a holy man in order to be eloquent. Give us muscular, healthy, intellectual men; but above all, give us holy men to preach the gospel. "Give us," in the language of Dr. Spring, " abler, better, and more spiritual preachers, even if they must be fewer." What the church wants is not more ministers, but better ones. Says one of much experience, *' I have heard hundreds of preachers on both sides of the 64 The Preacher and His Sermon. Atlantic, the past twenty-five years, and am convinced that our great lack is not in the matter ot originality, but in consecration of heart and brain aiid voice and style to the one aim of exalting Christ before the eyes of men." Thus far we have spoken of a proper idea of the Chris- tian ministry, and of a physical, mental, and religious preparation, as adaptations or qualifications for the sacred ofi&ce of preaching; but were we to stop here, we should omit the first and greatest indispensable fitness. Important as are all these, they yet are only secondary. The primary and all-important qualification is a divine call to the work of preaching. Without it, no one, however otherwise well adapted, will intrude on this " holy ground " or venture to minister from the sacred desk; with it, he possesses the highest credential fitness, whether he be learned or igno- rant, strong or weak, male or female. God does sometimes choose "the foolish things of the world to confound the wise," and "the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;" but he does not call them to re- main "foolish" and "weak." Self-help and divine aid must co-operate to make such ones " mighty in word and deed." In this respect there has been many a Bunyan. Though in our list of qualifications we mention a divine call last, yet this really is the first in the order of a preach- er's preparation. Having once obtained this fundamental requisite, it is his duty to become all that is possible in body, mind, and heart. But what we now insist on is that he must be sure of a call from God to preach his gospel. Of the ministry of to-day it may be said, as it was of the ancient priesthood, "No man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron." (Heb. V. 4.) No doubt many have mistaken their calling, and after serving for a time in the ministry have discov- ered their mistake and gone to some other business. spiritual Preparation. 65 Francis "Wayland, in his excellent "Letters on the Ministry of the Gospel," says of such, "A sort of medium course is taken. Hence, to-day all sorts of places are filled with ministers. Colleges, academies, schools, derive their in- structors, in a large proportion, from men who have been educated for the ministry. Agents for colleges, solicitors for their funds, and for the funds of all our benevolent as- sociations, are taken from our educated clergy. Editors of religious newspapers, and a large part of the staff of such an establishment, are taken from the same class. The cir- culation of religious books is done by ministers." Have all ministers who are thus engaged mistaken their calling? When God calls a man to the ministry, is that call life-long, and the regular work never to be abandoned under any circumstances? We believe that an answer to these questions must admit exceptions; for many minis- ters, such as Melanchthon, Witsius, Witherspoon, Dwight, and Graham, have served Christ as faithfully in the school- room or university as in the pulpit. Yet it is, nevertheless, true that many who have exchanged the pulpit for other and lower pursuits never had a call from God to the work of preaching; at least their conviction of duty while in the ministry has not been strong enough to hold them to their post. What are the evidences of a true call to the ministry? These are various, and are generally internal and mediate, rather than external and immediate. ITo one now must expect God to speak to him in audible tones from heaven, or wait for an extraordinary and miraculous call. The Lord employs means. These are: First. A strong desire to preach. This desire must be a disinterested one. 'No worldly consideration, such as intel- lectual taste, literary ease, opportunity for popularity, or any of the secondary aspects, must ever become a desidera- 6 66 The Preacher and His Sermon. turn in our choice of the ministry. Our motive for the work must be the salvation of souls. This desire must be abiding. No young man at the beginning can know ex- perimentally all the difficulties and temptations that may in after years make him regret his choice ; but having at the outset estimated everything at its right figure, his desire to preach continues with him when tempting offers of wealth or comfort come in to try him, and even grows more intense under the test of trial and by the lapse of years until it becomes a yearning. Second. A deep conviction of duty. Let no one preach unless inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost. " Do not enter the ministry if you can help it," was the wise cohnsel of a divine to one who sought his judgment; and our great rea- son for entering the ministry and abiding there through life is this deep, settled feeling: "Necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is me if I preach not the gospel." Against such a call it is dangerous to offer resistance. " Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker." (Isaiah xlv. 9.) Remem- ber Jonah. "Even in its faintest form there is this dis- tinction between a call to the ministry and a choice of other professions: a young man may ivish to be a physi- cian; he may desire to enter the army; he would like to be a farmer; but he feels he ought to be a minister. It is this feeling of ought, or obligation, which, in its feeblest form, indicates the divine call. It is not in the aptitude, taste, or desire, but in the conscience, that its root is found. It is God's voice to the human conscience, saying, 'You ought to preach.' " * Third. The judgment and appi'ovcd of God's j^eople. (See Acts vi. 1-6.) Yet this approval is not final. The maxim, " Vox populi vox Dei," is neither infallible nor safe, and only to be estimated in proportion to the intelligence and piety I Simpsoa's i'ale Lectures, p. 4G. Common Sense. Gj of those consulted. In the act of setting apart a man to the sacred office of the ministry, both candidate and people must have convictions of the most solemn responsibility. Here, again, I quote Dr. "Wayland: "If the candidate declares out of mere form that he is inwardly moved to preach; if those who give him their sanction do it without inquiry, examination, or satisfactory knowledge of his qualifications, then both are guilty of lying to the Holy ■Ghost. K both parties act as it becomes men under such responsibilities, there will be no great danger of mistake. A fallible being will fail somewhere; but there is here as little liability to failure as falls to men in any of the ordi- nary affairs of life." ^ These three motives we consider the main evidences of a divine call. There are, it is true, other minor considera- tions that enter into the list of evidences, such as a high estimate of the ministry, and some physical and mental adaptation. With these marks, any man who is honest with himself in applying these tests in his self-examina- tion will have no occasion to err in solving this important problem. Let him ask himself the question, "Why do I wish to preach?" And if he can get the candid response from within, " Because God and the church demand it, and my own passion for souls will give me no rest until I yield to this request," then let him no longer question his divine appointment, but at once begin the work of special prepa- ration and consecration so necessary to success in his new calling. § V. COMMON SENSE. This is not a thing common to all, but on the other hand is a somewhat rare gift. It is the master-talent, inas- much as it tempers and regulates all the other ministerial qualifications so that they appear seemly and beautiful in X Letters on the Ministry of the Oospel, p. 35. 68 The Preacher and His Se7'moii, the possessor, neither offending others by their abuse nor distinguishing himself by eccentricities. Theremin, wha founds eloquence in virtue, says that the moral action is also good sense, since ethics includes the whole conduct of man, and must therefore furnish the means requisite to attain rational ends.^ Common sense, according to Shedd, "is that innate sagacity of the understanding which detects truth by a sort of instinct." Prof. Stowe, of Andover, used to define it as " the ability to see things as they are, and the knack of doing things as they ought to be done." Another preacher of clear discrimination says, "We raay describe it as an intuitive perception of the fitness of things, so that he who is endowed with it will always do that which is appropriate to the circumstances. It is different from caution, or what is generally known as prudence; inas- much as that is the result of calculation, while common sense is rather an immediate perception. * * * * jje who lacks this quality has no right to be a minister, for he turns the most sacred things into a laughing-stock, and makes a burlesque of the ofiice itself. * * * * Common sense can not be acquired. Yet in those who have it, it may be cultivated and increased." ^ The utter lack of common sense on the part of a preacher is a serious and incurable defect. Nothing can take its place or lead to its attainment. It is an original endow- ment, and its absence is an evidence of unfitness for preaching. Whenever a student commenced his course of study in a certain Presbyterian school, the president was accustomed to address him thus: " Young man, if you want learning, we are here to give it you; if you want grace, we can tell t Cf. Systematic Rhetoric, pp. 86, 87. ■ W. M. Taylor's Yalt Lectures, pp. 76, 7«. Common Sense. 69 you where to get it; but if you lack common sense, may God have mercy on you. "We know of no source of sup- ply either in the heavens above, or the earth beneath, or the waters under the earth." Happy the candidate who possesses it! Let him improve it with jealous care. Good common sense is especially needed by public speak- ers, who address themselves to other people in a way that attracts the most conspicuous notice, and gives intelligent observers the best opportunity of detecting their saddest infirmities. In the Christian minister, as the representa- tive of every moral excellence, is it especially desirable, for people certainly expect something reasonable from the gospel, and from those who teach and advocate it. No one can be truly eloquent without it, for " fools can persuade none but fools." To persuade men of sense you must first convince them that you yourself have sense, that you are not a dolt, but the most sensible of men, who seeks to satisfy their understanding of the reasonableness of what you propose to them. For want of common sense preachers become visionary, bombastic, pedantic, ignorant, and uncultured. Even their best mental acquirements will not save them from impro- prieties and erroneous judgment. Affectation, or the desire to appear to be what we are not, is a proof of its absence. The most natural thing then becomes the most unnatural. All kinds of dramatical, sensational, and nonsensical means are employed for the sake of effect. It is, indeed, a pitiable eight when a minister becomes the victim of such unrea- eonableness. CHAPTER III. SPECIAL PREPARATION. Theoretical Homiletics — Practical Homiletics — Gathering of HomileticaJ Material. The preacher needs not only a general preparation foi the ministry, but also a special preparation in his own art» "It is not enough that he be acquainted with those leading departments in which every educated, and especially every professional man, is interested; he must also be master of that specific art and department, upon which the clerical profession is more immediately founded."' A good theologian may be a poor preacher. A healthy^ pious man, with all the requirements that go to make up the pulpit orator, may be no orator at all. He needs a special culture. The student of every literary profession needs a general adaptation for his calling, as a foundation for success' therein, but by far the most important requi- sition is the study and mastery of his own special art. Hence, a brief outline of theoretical and practical homi- letics, together with a cursory survey of the field from which most homiletical material is derived, is the object of this chapter. § I. THEORETICAL HOMILETICS. This treats of preaching as a science, based upon funda- mental principles in the application of rhetoric to homi- letics. X Shedd's Homiletics and Pastoral Theology, p. 62. 70 Theoretical Homiletics. *]\ A systematic classification might be arranged into four departments; namel}'', Historical Homiletics, which consists in a history of preaching in all times and countries;^ De- finitive Homiletics, to which belongs all that pertains to the principle, nature, object, and variety of the sermon; Constructive Homiletics, or the actual composition of the sermon; and Operative Homiletics, which includes all that is connected with the delivery of sermons. All these sub- jeas are more or less discussed in every systematic treatise on preaching. Dr. Dale, in his " Yale Lectures," advises young minis- ters to read every book on preaching that they can buy or borrow, whether it is old or new. Catholic or Protestant, English, French, or German; but as their number is too great to justify any preacher in reading them all, we will mention only such as deserve careful perusal. 1. ^'■Concerning the Priesthood" (Ih/je ' kfiojauvrj) by Chry- sostom, is a celebrated treatise on the priesthood, written at an early period of his ministry, in which he treats of the dignity and elevation of the Christian priesthood in words that set one's spirit aglow. Nothing can exceed the earnestness with which he urges the importance of spir- itual, moral, and intellectual qualification for an office the highest that can be filled by man. It has been translated by B. H. Cowper. 2. '■'■Concerning Christian Teaching" {De Doctrina Chris- tiana), by Augustine. The first three books of this work are on invention, the fourth on utterance. It is an admi- rable treatise, combining good sense and burning feeling. Its translation into English may be found in the " Biblical Repository," I., p. 569. 3. " Dialogues on Eloquence, and particularly that of the 1 This subject is so extensive in its matter that it should be treated in a work by Itself. 72 The Preacher and His Sermon. Pulpit," by M. de Fenelon, Arclibishop of Cambray. This work is a classic, and was, no doubt, suggested by Cicero's dialogues on oratory; but they have been admired throughout the Protestant and Catholic worlds. They were translated from the French in 1722, and are to be found in a volume entitled, " Preacher and Pastor." 4. ''Eloquence a Virtue," by Dr. Francis Theremin, was translated from the German into English in 1859. This work proceeds on the principle of the highest ethical char- acter of all true eloquence; that its basis is virtue. There- min was the first who fully unfolded and illustrated the idea of the ancients, that the orator must be a good man, and this is the vitalizing principle of the whole subject of his Systematic Rhetoric. The introduction, by the transla- tor. Dr. Shedd, is excellent. 5. "Hints on Extemporaneous Preaching," by Henry "Ware, jr., is a brief but able and valuable treatise on the subject of its title. It is now printed in Ripley's " Sacred Rhetoric." M. Bautain's "Art of Extempore Speaking" may be read in connection with "Ware with great profit. 6. " Lectures on Homiletics and Preaching, and on Public Prayer," by Ebenezer Porter, D. D., was the first system- atic work on homiletics written in America, and was published just before the author's death. It is an instruct- ive and valuable discussion on the subject of preaching and prayer. Though out of print in this country, it has been republished in England. 7. "JEcclesiastes Anglicanus; a Treatise on Preaching, as adapted to a Church of England Congregation," by W. Gres- ley, has many points of merit to ministers of all countries and denominations. 8. "Homiletics; or, The Theory of Preaching," by Alex. Vinet, D. D., is a posthumous work consisting of notes taken by students of the addresses of the author. Though Theoretical Homiletics. 73 incomplete in its range of subjects, it is a book of rare merit, and is extensively used by the clergy even in our day. It was ably translated by Thomas H. Skinner, D. D., in 1853. 9. "J.n Earnest Ministry the Want of the TimeSy' by J. Angell James, of Birmingham. This work is an enlarged edition of a sermon preached by him at the anniversary celebration of Cheshunt College. It is devoted to the enforcement of earnestness in the matter, manner, delivery, and means of preaching, and is marked by that distinct- ness, point, and fervor for which the author was so emi- nently distinguished. 10. ^'Delivery of Sermons," by A. Monod, is a lecture delivered while the author was professor in the French Protestant Theological School at Montauban. It is full of good and practical advice on the subject. It is published in Fish's " Select Discourses." 11. ^'Thoughts on Preaching," by Daniel Moore, is cath- olic in spirit, sensible and scholarly in its treatment. 12. " Thoughts on Preaching," by J. W. Alexander, D. D. This is a posthumous publication. The author was in the habit of jotting down from time to time whatever occurred to him on the subject of preaching. These notes, with a series of letters to young ministers, and several articles published in the " Princeton Review," constitute the pres- ent volume. It is fragmentary and poorly arranged, but brimful of fresh, vivid, practical, and eminently useful thoughts. 13. '■^Letters on the Ministry of the Gosjpel," by Francis "Wayland. This is a small book, containing many excellent hints for the preacher. 14. " The Duty and the Discipline of Extemporaneous Preaching," by F. B. Zincke, contains much of the au- thor's own experience in acquiring an extemporaneous 74 1^^^^ Preacher and His Sermon. style of preaching, with some remarks on the composition of sermons, and the aims and subjects of sermons. 15. " Treatise on Homiletics" by Daniel P. Kidder, D. D., late of Drew Theological Seminary, Madison, N. J., was written while the author was professor in the Biblical In- stitute at Evanston, 111. (Methodist), and revised in 1868. The work is well adapted for a text-book, covers a wide range of subjects containing much valuable instruction^ and presents the most complete list of homiletical litera- ture of any work extant, although the author's idea of a sermon is somewhat complicated, and lacks simplicity in form. 16. "Homiletics and Pastoral Theology,''^ by W. G. T. Shedd, D. D. The first part, on homiletics proper, is not by any means complete in its range of topics, but every subject, under his skillful hand, is fully and vigorously dis- cussed in a scholarly and earnest Christian manner, which makes it the best treatment to be found on the subjects considered. It is the union of the philosophy and practice of homiletics that gives it a stamp of great merit. 17. ^'A Treatise on the Preparation and Delivery of Ser- mons," by John A. Broadus, D. D., LL. D. This is un- doubtedly the best text-book on homiletics for the use of students and junior preachers that has yet been issued. It touches on nearly all topics of interest to the preacher^ many of which are treated in a very able and practical manner. The author is fully acquainted with the htera- ture on the subject, and his valuable treatise is the result )f much investigation and reflection. 18. ''For the Work of the Ministry," by W. G. Blaikie^ D. D., LL, D. This is a manual of homiletical and pas- toral theology, most of which was delivered by the author to the students of the New College, Edinburgh, in hia " Course of Ecclesiastical and Pastoral Theology." The part on homiletics is admirable. Theoretical Homiletics. 75 19. ^^ The Theory of Preaching" bj Austin Phelps, D. D., late professor of Sacred Rhetoric in Andover Theological Seminary. This is an elaborate discussion on the " Text, Explanation, Introduction, Proposition, Divisions, Devel- opment, and Conclusion of the Sermon," which constitutes the entire bulk of the work. These lectures are constructed on the practical method. Nine tenths of the book, we are told, consists of answers to inquiries of students. It is read- able, and contains much worth noting, but is too limited in its range of subjects for a complete "Theory of Preaching." It contains a valuable appendix on homiletical and pas- toral studies. 20. ''Homiletics;' by J. M. Hoppin, of Yale College. This late work is an enlarged and revised edition of his former work on " The Office and Work of the Chris- tian Ministry," issued in 1869, and this the author intends to follow with another, upon pastoral theology. The part on " History of Preaching " is very extensive, covering two- hundred and thirty pages, and is a valuable addition to hia former treatise on the subject. To this list of homiletical literature we might add the several series of lectures on preaching, delivered in the Lyman Beecher Lectureship of the Theological Depart- ment in Yale College, during the last decade, by the fol- lowing preachers: Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, 1872-1874; Rev. John Hall, D. D., 1875; Rev. W. M. Taylor, D. D., 1876; Rev. Phillips Brooks, D. D., 1877; Rev. R. W. Dale, D. D., 1878; Bishop M. Simpson, D. D., 1879; Rev. Howard Crosby, D. D., 1880; Rev. Joseph Duryea, D. D., 1881.^ Every preacher should read Spurgeon's " Lectures to my Students," delivered to the students of the Pastors' Col- lege, Metropolitan Tabernacle, London.^ I Dr. Duryea failed after his first lecture in consequence of ill health. 3 The second series of these lectures has never been published in this country exoopt In the Homiietia Monthly, published by Funk .S: Wagnalls, X. Y. 76 The Preacher aiid His Sertnon. The student might read with much profit several excel- lent articles on various subjects of homiletics in some of the leading reviews and quarterlies, such as: in "Biblio- theca Sacra," " Pulpit Eloquence," Vol. II. ; " American Pulpit," Vol. III.; " Reinhardt's Sermons," Vol. VI.; "The Three Fundamental Methods of Preaching," 1871; and " Power in the Pulpit," Vol. III. In " Princeton Eeview," <' Textual and Topical Preaching," 1875; "The Pulpit and Skeptical Culture," 1879; "Materialism and the Pulpit," 1878. In " Edinburgh Review," " Whitefield and Froude," Vol. LXVIII. In "North British Review," "Modern Preaching," Vol. XXIV. In " British and Foreign Evan- gelical Review," "The Preaching for the Age," Vol. III. Of course, the preacher will not overlook the principal magazines, devoted to homiletics which are now published in America and Europe.^ On historical homiletics we would recommend: Moule's ^'Christian Oratory during the First Five Centuries;" ITeale's "Medieval Preachers and Preaching;" Broadus' "History of Preaching;" Paniel's " Pragmatische Ge- schichte der Christlichen Beredsamkeit;" and Lentz' "Geschichte der Christlichen Homiletik. " But as homiletics is based upon rhetoric, we should also be acquainted with the best authors on rhetoric, first among whom stands Aristotle. His rules of rhetoric apply to every sort of composition. They are founded on human nature, and must remain the same, therefore, as long as human nature continues unchanged. The subjects of Proof ( fJcffzii:), Elocution (Ae^e^), and Disposition {Td^c^)y constitute the most general arrangement of his work. Books I. and II. treat of the first, and Book III. of the second and third. Cicero's JDe Oratore abounds with I Among the principal tnaf^azincs of this class we mention The ITomilctie Monthl;/, 'Sevr York; 7'he Homiletic Quarterly, (now magazine) London and Now York; The. Homilist, Lon- •don; The World Pulpit, London; and The Lay Preacher, hondon. Practical Homiletics. 77 excellent practical hints, although "his system is not so complete as that of Aristotle, for he delighted more in the practice than in the theory of his art." Quintilian, in hia "Institutes," is systematic, and maintains, with more em- phasis than Cicero, that eloquence is ethical in nature and that the orator must be a good man ; but he can not be said to have much extended the philosophical views of his pred- ecessors. Campbell's "Philosophy of Rhetoric" possesses much practical and permanent value. If the clerical stu- dent desires to further extend his knowledge of rhetoric, let him acquaint himself with Horace, Whately, Bain, Haven, and Day, where useful instruction can always be obtained. § II. PRACTICAL HOMILETICS. This treats of preaching as an art. It is the rules of homiletics applied to actual practice, as illustrated in the preaching of our most successful ministers. It is not enough that the clerical student understand tools; he must also know the work and the workers; that is, he must study sermons and preachers in such a way as to discover wherein lies the secret of their success. " Learn on what principles the great preachers of other churches, as well as of your own, of ancient as well as of modern times, have done their work."^ The number of printed sermons is legion, and the preacher must pass by the great mass of ordinary ser- monic literature and read only those of standard value. We will mention a few such acknowledged models which he should carefully study. 1. John^ surnamed Chrysostom, the " Golden -mouthed pulpit orator of the Greek Church," may properly be selected, as the best model, from the many preachers of the ancient and medieval church. X Dr. Dale's Yale Lectures, 78 The Preacher and His Sej^mon. As a preacher, he was earnest, practical, and eminently scriptural and eloquent. The union of the natural, pa- thetic, and grand made him the greatest orator of the primitive church. " The people were often completely carried away by his eloquence, and acted like drunken persons; they pressed up to the pulpit where he spoke, so as not to lose a single word; they said, when he was about to be banished, 'Better that the sun should cease to shine than that our Chrysostom's mouth should be stopped;' even the cold Gibbon praises his golden eloquence, and another has said, 'His tongue flowed like the stream of the Nile.'"^ His sermons, extant, over six hundred in number, though destitute of plan or method, are plain and clear in style, full of vivid illustrations, and expository in mode of treatment. It is especially in this last respect that they Are worthy models of imitation, even in our time. His best sermons are those on Lazarus, images, repent- ance, the parable of the debtor, forgiveness, and alms- giving. One might spend a whole year in studying these expository discourses, which contain nearly every variety of pulpit excellency. 2. Martin Luther. He rescued preaching from the low, secular, and formal state into which it had sunk during the corruption of the church, and restored it to its true evangeli- cal and scriptural character; and it was chiefly through his stirring sermons that the Reformation was inaugurated and prosecuted. His pulpit discourses are largely doctrinal, with a con- troversial drift against the pope and the Roman hierarchy, but exhibit a deep Christian experience and faith, great convictions and feelings, and an earnestness of which Melanchthon said, "Luther's words were born, not on his lips, but in his soul." 1 J. M. Hoppiu's HomiUtici, p. 101. Practical Hojniletics, 79 As to their simplicity, Luther himself says, "When T preach, I regard neither doctors nor masters, of which there are in the church about forty. But I have an eye to the multitude of young people, children, and servants. I preach to them." 3. Jeremy Taylor, " The Poet Preacher," was the greatest ornament of the English pulpit up to the middle of the •eighteenth century. His sermons exhibit a variety of style ranging from the best to the worst. He is pre-eminently distinguished for his poetic imagination and classic erudi- tion. ITo imagination ever made loftier and more advent- urous voyages into gorgeous, cloudy regions than that of Jeremy Taylor. His affluence of elegant diction and charming imagery is absolutely unparalleled. "Along with all this there is poured out upon us a profusion of learning as from a golden horn of plenty."^ But his ser- mons also have many defects. The copiousness of his diction often terminates in pleonasm and bombast, his sen- tences usually are long and circuitous, and his language is profusely studded with classical allusions and quotations; but all in all, he was, nevertheless, the most brilliant, if not the most evangelical, preacher of his time.^ The study of his sermons will be profitable for their richness of thought and copiousness of language; and one whose style is natu- rally dry and sluggish should daily read one of Taylor's sermons as a stimulant to warmer effusions of thought and language. 4. Isaac Barrow. Here we have at once a philologist, a mathematician, and a preacher. His intellect was of the highest order, and his sermons are noted for argumentation and exhaustiveness; and on this account Charles II. called him "an unfair preacher, because he exhausted every sub- 1 Princeton Review, Vol. XXVI., July, 1854. 2 Cf. Hoppin's HomUetics. 8o The Preacher a?id His Sermon. ject and left nothing for others to say after him." He was also an original thinker. His discourses are store-houses of fresh, vigorous thought, and are read by a multitude of speakers and thinkers. Even the great Chatham took him for a model, reading over some of his sermons as often as twenty times. From a desire to spread the whole subject before his hearers, he often became prolix and redundant; but his lengthy discussions are characterized by massive streng-th rather than by diffuseness of style. " Read Jeremy Taylor to enrich the fancy, but Barrow to enrich the intel- lect, and to show how the greatest copiousness may unite with great compactness and great energy of movement."^ 5. Robert South. His sermons are excellent models of the sermonic art. We are speaking only of his style, without recommending the spirit of many of his sermons; for " he is greater as a sermon-maker than as a genuine preacher of the gospel. He had more grit than grace."* He is witty and sarcastic, his bitterest ridicule being chiefly directed against the Puritans; but in point of style, he furnishes the best model of pulpit eloquence. Few can equal him in vigor of language, especially in his command of Saxon -English style. In his delineation of human nature he is the peer of Shakespeare. He is clear, strong, incisive, and practical; and he does not indulge in classi- cism, as do his eminent contemporaries. We know of no better model for the orator, and "his sermons are well worthy of frequent perusal by every young preacher." 6. Bourdaloue, " The Prince of French Preachers." In the triumvirate of the great Roman Catholic preachers, — Bourdaloue, Bossuet, and Massillon,— Bourdaloue is the greatest, and affords the best model. He has been called "the founder of modern pulpit eloquence among the I Broadua' Uistary of Preaching, p. 216. a Hoppin's Homiletics, p. 191. Practical Homiletics. 8 1 French." He had every physical and mental qualification required for an orator; possessed what is a rare combina- tion,— solid reasoning-force, together with a lively imagina- tion. His sermons are a study for logicians as well as orators. They appeal to the intellect and the conscience, and are full of interest and spiritual power, giving his utterances the impress of a strong and earnest faith in the spiritual life. He despised the empty rhetoric of his pred- ecessor's, and labored to bring back the merely ornamental style of French preaching to its pristine soberness and vigor. He did not utterly ignore elegant expressions, but uttered real and rousing thought in pleasing forms of dic- tion, which gives strength and beauty to all his sermons. 7. Saurin. Saurin was a great thinker and a true orator. In the French Protestant Church no preacher equals him in solid thought and evangelical spirit. He possessed an energetic nature which swelled into passionate earnestness during the delivery of his sermons. They are full of eloquent thought, aimed chiefly at the edification of the hearer, and comprise in the range of subjects an entire system of theology. His discourses are modeled after the plan of the classic oration; and for this reason some think that he is too much of a declaimer, dealing too mucli in abstract and general thoughts, and neglecting to apply truth to the practical duties of daily life. But as a faith- ful preacher, strong reasouer, and accomplished orator, he deserves careful study. Among the many able French divines, we should select for our reading, mainly, Bourda- loue and Saurin. 8. John Wesley. The great founder of Methodism did much, to revive the true evangelical spirit of preaching in the eighteenth century. " He preached, with the ear- nestness of intense conviction, the full, free, and sovereign grace of God in the salvation of every soul that would 82 The Preacher and His Sermon. trust itself to it for eternal life. He blew again the gospel trumpet and rallied the hosts of God to hope and faith and a new life. His style of preaching was clear and flow- ing, and more calm and orderly than that of Whitefield, He was a man of logical and literary culture, and did not despise learning. His agreeable manners, unassuming dig- nity and authority, and his saintly simplicity of life aided his power as a preacher. * * * * Wesley's sermons are short, pithy, clearly-arranged, pointed, and very plain in style." ^ 9. Bohert Hall was one of the greatest of extempora- neous preachers. His sermons which we have to-day were taken down either by short-hand reporters, or were written out by himself after delivery. He was a scholar, but espe- cially a model preacher; and as an orator, he ranks with Bourdaloue and Saurin. He was one of the most evenly- balanced men that the English pulpit ever had, possessing an admirable proportion and harmony of mental powers. Perhaps too abstract in the matter of his sermons, his style of expression is unique and perfect. Dugald Stewart says, " Whoever wishes to see the English language in its perfec- tion must read the writings of Rev. Robert Hall. He combines the beauties of Johnson, Addison, and Burke without their imperfections." He should be studied for his excellent style. 10. Thomas Chalmers. No student of divinity should fail to read Chalmers' sermons, especially his "Astronomical Discourses." He possessed a wide scientific knowledge, and was endowed with a powerful imagination. "The 'body of divinity,' or ethics, which in the hands of other analysts became a skeleton of rattling bones, by his plastic touch was transformed into an image of living, breathing beauty, warm and bright with a glorious life. The abstractions of I Hoppin's Homtietics, p. 209. Practical Homiletics. 83 colder and more logical minds were to Mm concrete, embodied realities."^ He is especially remarkable for his great energy, and quantity of afl'ection, which, in the act of preaching, " carried all before him as a river that inun- dates and sweeps its banks." Another distinguishing feat- ure of his preaching is his rotary mode of discussion. His sermons usually consist of one idea, which is developed from one common center, and unfolded in convolutions, rather than by progression in a straight line; and hence, Robert Hall said of his sermons that their movement was on hinges, not on wheels. For beauty of amplitude, Chal- mers is, indeed, an excellent model. 11. F. W. Hobertson. He was another extemporaneous preacher, who seldom used larger memorandum-notes in the pulpit than could be penciled on an ordinary-sized vis- iting-card. His style of sermonizing commends itself as a specimen of excellent rhetorical skill in both matter and manner of treatment. He extracts his material from the very heart of the text, going down beneath the letter to the vital roots and life of the passage. His plan is simple, consisting mostly of only two main divisions, and rarely of more than three; and these leading thoughts lie deeply imbedded in the inspired Word, and yet stand out in bold relief before the general hearer. The truth he preached was deeply felt in his own soul, and presented in a prac- tical way, making Christ the great theme of his charming •eloquence. 12. C. H. Sjpurgeon. It must be acknowledged by all that Spurgeon's success as a preacher is without a parallel in the history of the pulpit since the days of the apostles. He is king of preachers, and to-day reigns without a rival; and every young preacher should study both the man and his sermons. X Moore, quoted in McClintock & Strong's Oydopedia, Art. Chalmers. $4 1f^^ Preacher and His Sermo7i. The secret of Spurgeon's power consists in a commin- gling of three popular qualities, which are usually promi- nent in every great preacher: (1.) Kis scriptural and practical variety. Like Robertson^ the text forms the germ from which every discourse re- ceives its development and peculiar flavor; and this is really the source of his inexhaustible variety and richness of material, which for the past twenty-five years have found no end. But it is his intensely practical method, suited to every want of human life, that gains that sympathy and magnetic power which seems to unite speaker and hearer during the delivery of his sermons. (2.) His simplicity of thought and language. The sublim- est truths are skillfully brought down to the comprehen- sion of the most ordinary minds, and his style is the purest idiomatic Anglo-Saxon — the style of Bunyan, Matthew Henry, and the best of the Puritans. (3.) Sis command of voice. " As soon as he begins ta speak, tones of the richest melody are heard. A voice full, sweet, and musical falls on every ear, and awakens agreeable emotions in every soul in which there is sympa- thy for sounds. That most excellent voice is under perfect control, and can whisper or thunder at the wish of its pos- sessor. * * * * When to these we add the influence of thrilling description, touching anecdote, sparkling wit, startling episode, striking simile, all used to illustrate and enforce the deep, earnest, home-truths of the Bible, we surely have a combination of elements which must make up a preacher of wonderful attraction and of marvelous power."^ It is this combination of popular qualities which attracts, delights, and edifies cabinet ministers, lords, and scholars as much as it does the common people of London, and its visitors. X Yarrow's Life and Work of Chas. H. Spurgeon, pp. 3'J, 40. Practical Homiletics. 85 His published sermons (of whicli over 500,000 volumes have been published and sold in America) are now trans- lated into German, French, Swedish, Italian, and some even into Arabic, Spanish, Danish, and Russ, thus almost gird- ling the entire globe with the gospel notes of this won- derful preacher of the present century. His plan of preparation for the pulpit is simple. Retir- ing for an hour suffices to select and arrange his thoughts for the pulpit. Upon a bit of paper a- few inches long he jots down two or three easy, natural divisions, heavily underscored, each supported by a few subdivisions, with a few catch-words, perhaps, under the most important thoughts. This is all. " But behind this is the reading of a life-time. Mr. Spurgeon is in the best sense 'a full man.' " 13. Henry Ward Beecher is the great pulpit orator of America. But in saying this we speak of his sermons rather, than of himself; for it is they^which excel as examples for young men who wish to preach with eftect a simple, life- giving gospel to the common people. His discourses are popularly philosophical without being coldly metaphysical, abounding in apt illustrations derived from all sources, exuberant with life and spirit, and in every way eminently adapted to the universal experience of human life. Besides, nearly every discourse is pervaded with a sweet, loving sympathy which is most subduing and persuasive. We believe that the perusal of his sermons will aid a young preacher's eloquence in the pulpit.^ In this list of sermonic literature we have limited our notice to representative preachers of past and present time, omitting many names of great if not of equal im- portance. The preacher may derive much benefit from the study of such eminent preachers as Augustine, Fried- I For a brief sketch of other emiuent preachers, see chapter on Revival aermons. 86 The Preacher and His Se7^7?zon. rich Schleiermacher, F. A. G. Tholuck, J. Miiller, Bossuet, Massillon, Alex. Yinet, John Howe, Timothy Dwight, Richard Baxter, Nathanael Emmons, Horace Bushnell, Samuel Davies, Robert Leighton, Archibald Alexander, J. H. Newman, J. M. Mason, Phillips Brooks, T. De Witt Talmage, and Joseph Parker. But no one can expect to read all these sermons. Let the preacher, therefore, select from them the best, and study them as he would any other text-book. In the annals of Bermonic art are found a few masterpieces of eloquence which criticism has pronounced the ablest sermons that have ever been preached. Let no preacher fail to read and re-read them again and again. "We give a list of their titles : . 1. "The Sermon on the Mount." By Christ. 2. "The Small Number of the Saved." By Massillon. ^ 3. "Passion of Christ." By Bourdaloue. 4. "Funeral Oration on Turenne." By Bossuet. 5. "The Nature and Control of the Passions." By Saurin. 6. "The Crucifixion of Christ." By Barrow. 7. "The Image of God in Man." By South. 8. " The Foolish Exchange"and "The Marriage King." By Jer. Taylor* 9. "The Redeemer's Tears." By John Howe. 10. "Modern Infidelity." By Robert Hall. 11. "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." By J. Edwards. 12. "Expulsive Power of a New Affection." By Chalmers. 13. "The Compassion of Christ to Weak Believers." By S. Davies. 14. "The Gospel for the Poor." By J. M. Mason. 15. "The Great Assize." By Wesley. 16. "God is Love." By A. Monod. 17. "And there shall be no Night There." By Melville. 18. "Glorying in the Cross." By McLaurin.* Before leaving the subject of practical homiletics, we will add a remark upon the manner of reading other men's sermons. Of course, we should not read them in X A very interesting and useful hi.itorv of these master-sermons might be written. Gathering of Homiletical Material. Sy searcli of material or suggestive thought, out of which to manufacture our sermons, but for the sake of discover- ing and comparing the principles upon which the great preachers of all times and denominations constructed their discourses. This will be a discipline in the art of plan- ning and composing sermons by studying and combin- ing the various excellencies of successful preaching; and by placing before our minds great ideals and great models of the art, it will inspire and elevate our own endeavors as well as afford opportunity to appropriate whatever is good in any or in all. This is not imitating great men, but unconsciously imbibing their spirit, or learning how to direct and use our own original powers. "We less resemble models the more we wish to resemble them." * The proper way to read other men's sermons is to notice the preacher, the text selected, the plan, development, style, and any qualities which are striking or peculiar to their author. Analyze methods, compare models, observ- ing the different ways in which different ministers treat the same subject, as well as your own way. In this way will you preserve your own individuality, keep fresh your inventive genius, and at the same time be a student of and receive benefit from other men's thoughts. Good instruction may be derived from the reading of select ministerial biography, and from a careful examina- tion of our own preaching. § III. GATHERING OF HOMILETICAL MATERIAL. A knowledge of the rules and practice of homiletics is not the only specific preparation needed for the pulpit. There is a fund of sermonic material that must be accumu- lated, and stored away as so much capital in the business of preaching, before we are prepared to compose sermons. I Vinet's Homileiics, p. 48. 88 The Preacher and His Sermon. I. Sources from Which to Gather Homiletieal Material. 1. The Bible. The preacher must essentially be a homo unius libri. Whatever else he studies is only auxil- iary to help him to understand the Holy Scriptures and to turn them to homiletieal uses. As a verhi divini minister, it would be a shame for him not to be thoroughly conver- sant with his subject; and while there may be an apology for a minister not being familiar with all standard works on theology, there is none for a willful neglect of God's Word. "N^o man ever did or ever can become truly eloquent, without being a constant reader of the Bible, and an admirer of its purity and sublimity." ^ Says Dr. J. W. Alexander: "Constant perusal and re-perusal of the Scriptures is the great preparation for preaching. You get good even when you know it not." There are three books that should be a preacher's con- stant study: the book of nature, the book of humanity, and the book of divine revelation. In the first two we learn much theology from the handwriting of God. But the last is the Urim and Thummim in which we see the mind of the Lord with all clearness; and this pre-eminently is the preacher's sanctum sanctorum. And what a store-house of material is imbedded in this golden mine of God's vol- ume— full of divine gems in spiritual truth, as the book of nature is full of them in physical matter! What age could ever exhaust the fertility of the mineral earth? So the Bible is a world of many undiscovered treasures; and no preacher, nor age of preachers, can ever bring all to light, even though they should make it their daily and nightly study. The preacher should study his Bible exegetically, histor- ically, doctrinally, and prayerfully. First. Exegetically. The etymology of the term exegesis I Fisher Ames. Gather i7ig of Homiletical Material. 89 i^i^TjyioiJLae) implies a leading-out into clearer light. Its province is to bring forth the true idea which lies concealed in language, and it is a fruitful source of homiletical mate- rial. Indeed, it forms the basis of all biblical theology, whether historical, doctrinal, or practical. Such a study of the Bible, however, requires a knowledge of the sacred lan- guages, such as Hebrew, Chaldee, and Hellenistic Greek, with Syriac and Arabic as cognate and auxiliary. The biblical exegete who devotes no small part of his time to a study of the original will have fresh thought for all his sermons. There is an abundance of good help in the ■exposition of all parts of the Bible; but an ability to ex- amine the original for one's self is more valuable than any commentary in our libraries. Second. Historically. The Bible is the oldest and best history, and most abundant in facts. It is the interpreter of all history, showing the long-waging struggle between the spirit of truth and the spirit of error, and its ultimate result. The preacher should avail himself of whatever help he can get to an understanding of the scripture narra- tive.^ He should, also, acquaint himself with the biog- raphy of its characters, especially that of Christ, who is the hero of the Bible, the fundamental in Christianity, and against whom anti- Christian writers have directed their stoutest blows. Let him be thoroughly familiar with the life and character of Him who is the great theme of the ministry. The books on this subject are abundant, important among which we mention ISTeander's "Life of Christ," Pressense's " Life of Christ," Ellicott's " Life of Christ," and Farrar's " Life of Christ." He should not be ignorant of the writings of antagonists on the rationalistic side which have attracted the most popular attention, — namely, Strauss' " Life of Jesus," and Benan's " Vie de X Dr. Smith's histories of the Old and New Testament are very valuable aids 90 The Preacher and His Sermon. Jesus," and should study the reply to these works by Ear- less, Hoffman, ITeander, UUman, Tholuck, etc. Christology is becoming an important study in our time, and divides itself into three parts, — Christology of the Bible, Chris- tology of the Church, and Christological Heresies, such as Gnosticism, Arianism, Kestorianism, Socinianism, Unita- rianism, etc., all of which the preacher should study. Third. Doctrinally. The Bible is not a manual of clas- sified knowledge, but a book of heterogeneous and iso- lated facts relating to human happiness. Scripture was given in fragments, at intervals during a period of sixteen hundred years; for God "by divers portions and in divers manners" revealed truth to different persons, who "spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." Hence, exter- nally it is a miscellany, but internally it is a unity. To collect and arrange into logical and scientific form the doc- trines contained sporadically throughout the Scriptures is the work of systematic theology. The advantages of such a study of revelation are, — 1st. Facility in collecting matter for sermonizing by having the Bible topically arranged. 2d. Force of confirmation, by enabling one to give a reason of the hope that is within him. The minister should never cease studying his Bible topically. Let him always have on file some topic in the- ology and compile all the passages that relate to and prove the doctrine under consideration. Let him read and medi- tate upon it until he is full and running over. Better spend a year on one topic and master it, than spend a whole life -time in a rambling, superficial reading of scripture that is without method or efliciency. Most successful preachers are close systematic Bible-stadents. Especially should the preacher be veraed in the doctrines of his own church. Gathering of Homiletical Material. 91 Fourth. Prayerfully, The Bible is a revelation of God's thoughts through human agencies adapted to our capaci- ties and understanding; but, no doubt, much lies beyond the ken of human reason which the unassisted intellect can not discover. True, Origen was seeking for too much in his "spiritual interpretation," and Swedenborg carried out this view to the extreme in his doctrine of correspond- ence, when he gave to every word of scripture a spiritual and mystical meaning which he claimed was revealed to him by the angels; but it is, nevertheless, true that there are undiscovered treasures lying concealed in other depths of this sacred revelation which exegesis and history and systemization can not penetrate. A man may be able, like Chrysostom, to repeat the entire Bible from memory, read it in a dozen different languages, and explain every doc- trine, and yet be a stranger to that which is " the mind of the Spirit" underlying the mere phraseology. The intel- lectual eye often can not pry into the lower and deeper strata of its meaning. Hence the necessity of reading our Bible upon our knees as did John Knox. IS'ot only should the preacher implore divine assistance to illuminate the written page and keep him from error and misconception of the Holy Oracle, but he should also pray for a clearer insight into the hidden things of God which are kept from the wise and prudent and revealed to the prayerful and the pious. " The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him;" and prayer is the key that unlocks the vault of inspired truth, and opens up a new vein of thought at once inspiring and original. If we should search books for truth, why not also seek it from Him who is " the Truth." The one who studies and prays over his Bible will bring out of the treasury of the Lord things both new and old. We will now speak of those materials which are unin- 92 The Preacher a7id His Sermon. spired. These are more abundant but less important than the kind just now considered. 2. History. All history, in a certain sense, is divine. Lamartine says, " Providence conceals itself in the details of human afiairs, but becomes unveiled in the generalities of history." Cervantes says, " History is a sacred kind of writing, because truth is essential to it; and where truth is, there God is, so far as truth is concerned." And Kossuth says, " History is the revelation of Providence." The value of this kind of study consists in the wide field of illustration which it affords. In religious history we have a development of the religious spirit of mankind in all the varied forms in which it has appeared since the world began. It embraces a history of all religions, idola- trous, mythological, and Christian. Church-history com- mences with the birth of Christ, and is an unfolding of the religious organization that proceeded from him. On early Christianity the best books are Neander's " Planting and Training of the Christian Church by the Apostles," and Schaff"'s "History of the Apostolic Church." Dr. Hurst's "Outlines of Church-History" should be used as prelim- inary, or in connection with the study of general church- history. The minister should also be acquainted with secular history, both fabulous and authentic. Among the most important are Philip Smith's "History of the World," Raw- linson's "Five Great Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern World," Dean Milman's " History of the Jews," Josephus' "Antiquities of the Jews," Schiller's " Thirty Years' War," Liddell's "Pome," C. C. Felton's "Greece, Ancient and Mod- ern," Ilallam's " Middle Ages," Macaulay's or Froude's "History of England," Ilildreth's "United States," D'Au- bigne's " Reformation," Motley's " Dutch Republic." The preacher's library should also contain soni»e of the best Gatkerifig- of Homiletical Material. 93 biographies, such as Plutarch's "Lives," Boswell's "John- son," Lewes' "Goethe," "Macaulay's Life and Letters," and the Christian biographies of McCheyne, Knox, Cookman, etc.; also, a classical dictionary. He should also have ref- erence to Thomas' "Biographical Dictionary," or Allibone's " Dictionary of British and American Authors." McClin- tock and Strong's "Cyclopedia," and the "Encyclopedia Britannica" (American reprint) are valuable for reference. 3. Science. "What moral and religious knowledge do we find here? Revelation is a supplement to the phenomenal creation, only more clear, authoritative, and sufficient. The author of nature and revelation is the same. The physical cosmos, like the Bible, is a book full of divinity. The one is inspired, the other not ; the one is infallible, the other not; the one manifests his will, the other his work; the one is the Shekinah revealed, the other the Shekinah concealed. Both furnish arguments in religious instruction and discus- sion— the one a 'priori^ the other a 'posteriori. The differ- ence between the two is expressed by an author who says, " Science is nature revealed, while religion is nature's God revealed." The facts of nature are frequently set forth in scripture as a source of religious information. (See Psalms xix. 1-4; Isaiah xl. 26; Acts xiv. 15-17; Romans i. 19-21.) "When we study science properly, we do not step outside the field of theology; for God is in science as he is in reve- lation, though not as Xenophenes and Spinoza thought; nor as it appeared to the Greek and Roman mind, who deified the forces and phenomena of nature, instead of Him who originated and controlled them; nor as Darwin and his school philosophized by excluding God from their science. Science is divine. It shows the effects of a great First Cause. And how wide a field of religious contem- plation this! Geology shows me what Hand established 94 1^^^^ Preacher and His Sermon. the earth; hotany reveals Him in the floral and vegetable kingdom \ physics, in the laws and operations of the mate- rial world; physiology, in the wonderful mechanism of the human body; astronomy, in the "Heavens that declare the glory of God, and the firmament that showeth his handiwork." Every pebble, every leaf and blade of grass, every dew-drop that sparkles in the morning light, every prismatic color of the rainbow, afibrd thoughts and themes for the preacher. All the objects and phenomena in the material world around us and in the heavens are manifes- tations of the thoughts of God, and are, therefore, so many illustrations, when properly interpreted, of the Bible. Kep- ler, the astronomer, in his investigation of science, truly Baid, " 0 God, I think thy thoughts after thee! " Bishop Butler, in his "Analogy of Religion," and Joseph Cook, in his " scientific method," have shown us how much religious thought may be derived from this source. Galileo said, " To despise science is to despise the Script- ures, which teach the greatness and glory of Almighty God." 4. Philosophy. Here we have a department co-exten- sive with that of science. The material we find here is precisely the same as that of the empirical sciences, and differs from it only in its form, method, and results. They " derive their material directly from experience; they find it at hand and take it up just as they find it. Philosophy, on the other hand, is never satisfied with re- ceiving that which is given simply as it is given, but rather follows it out to its ultimate grounds; it examines each individual thing in its relations to a final principle, and considers it as one element of a complete system of knowledge. In this way philosophy removes from the particulars of experience their immediate, individual, and accidental character; from the sea of empirical individu- Gathering of Homiletical Material. 95 alities it brings out the universal, and subordinates the infinite and orderless mass of contingencies to necessary laws. In short, philosophy deals with the totality of expe- rience under the form of an organic system in harmony with the laws of thought." ^ Hence, it is the province of phi- losophy to generalize and from the individual facts of our knowledge discover universal truths. It bears the same relation to general scientific knowledge that systematic theology bears to the written revelation, and will be of similar service to the preacher, only that its matter is not 60 akin to the sacred discourse, since its inductions rest mainly on physical science, while those of theology rest on the written Word. The fund of homiletical material to be derived from this department is extensive. Speculative philosophy ranges from the day of Thales to the present time. Here is much that is worthless and much that is valuable. The preacher can afi:brd to pass by the whole pre-Socratic period, but he should not fail to acquaint himself with intellectual Ath- ens, the great philosophical museum where Paul, the Christian philosopher, stood in contact with heathen phi- losophy and declared unto them the living God whom they ignorantly worshiped. The philosophies of " The Garden," " The Porch," " The Lyceum," and " The Acad- emy" are worth careful study, especially the last two. Ueberweg's "History of Philosophy" is a very desirable work. Mental and moral philosophy demand the preach- er's special attention. In Christian philosophy, such works as Christlieb's " Modern Doubt and Christian Belief, " Bowne's " Studies in Theism," " Philosophy of Natural Theology" by Dr. Jackson, of England, and "Seneca and Kant"^ by Dr. W. T. Jackson, are all good. 1 Schwegler's History of Philosophy, translated by Seelye, edition of 1880, pp. 15, 16. 2 A brief but admirable discussion of stoic and rationalistic ethics, with a compari* son and criticisna of the two systems. gS The Preacher and His Sermon. 6. General Literature. This is a great thesaurus of miscellaneous information, and we must go through it in the same way that a magnet would sweep through a pile of mingled dirt and iron-filings, drawing to itself nothing but the filings. We should read only the solids, not the gases, in literature. Mr. Allibone says, " It has been estimated that of the six hundred and fifty thousand volumes in the English lan- guage about fifty thousand would pay a perusal;" but it does not pay the minister to peruse a one hundredth part of even that number. Helvetius, though an immoral man, used to say, "In our day the secret of being learned is heroically to deter- mine to be ignorant of many things in which men take pride." "Keep," says Fenelon, "the pruning-knife in hand to cut away all that is needless." Bacon's quaint remark is of great practical use to the theological student: "Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested." According to this rule we may venture to mention a few books that may constitute a source of useful information for material in sermonizing. Among those to be "tasted" in your leisure hours, but never in your hours set apart for earnest, solid study, and to be taken as a dessert after dinner, we may mention: First. Some books of fiction, as "^sop's Fables," "Don Quixote," "Schonberg Cotta Family," Hawthorne's "Scarlet Letter" and "Marble Faun," Longfellow's "Hyperion." Second. Some books in poetry, as Goethe's "Faust," Shakespeare's "Hamlet," "Macbeth," " Othello," " Tempest," " Henry VIII.," " Romeo and Ju- liet." Thii'd. Some of devotional reading, as Jeremy Taylor's "Holy Living and Dying," Thomas a Kempis* "Imitation of Christ," Bishop Huntington's "Christian Believing and Living," Bowen's "Daily Meditations," Gathering of Homiletical Material, 97 Howe's "Delight in God," and Flavel's "Keeping the Heart," are worth frequent tasting. Among those to be "swallowed," or read entire with considerable attention, we name as examples, Dryden*8 " Translation of Yirgil," Chapman's or Bryant's " Transla- tion of Homer," Pope's "Essay on Man," Young's "Mght Thoughts," Coleridge's "Aids to Reflection," etc. Among those "few" to be "chewed and digested" — that is, read and re-read, studied and incorporated into our mental constitution, if not committed to memory, and sprinkled through our sermons, — are the three master- pieces of three master-minds: (1.) BunyarCs ^'■PilgrinCs ProgressJ^ Though in literary attainments, the "immortal tinker" could not be com- pared with the masters of English literature, yet if we consider literary success to consist in power over men, it may be doubted whether Bunyan should not be placed in the very front rank.' " The impersonations of Shake- speare will undoubtedly be as permanent as are the traits of human nature which he has photographed; but it can be said with equal truth that the impersonations of Bunyan, rude and unfinished as they sometimes seem, will possess an interest so long as the process of man's redemption from sin is a thing which angels or men desire to look into." In scripture-knowledge he was pre-eminent, — was emphatically a man of one book. ISo one can thoroughly understand the " Pilgrim's Progress " without becoming an accomplished theologian, for the pious writer became almost an inspired prophet in his religious fiction; and I The brilliant Lord Macaulay, in his Essay on Southey's "Bunyan," written in 1831 {Edinburgh Review), says, "We are not afraid to say that though there were many clerer men in England during the latter half of the seventeenth century, there were only two great creative minds: one of these minds produced the Paradice Lost, the other the HI- grim's Progress.'" In his History of England, Chapter VII., he says, "Bunyan is, indeed, aa decidedly the first of allegorists as Demosthenes is the first of orators, or Shakespeare the first of dramatists." 7 98 The Preacher and His Sermon. when "Watson, and Calvin, and Edwards have ceased to be recognized as authorities, " the theology they taught, changed from the abstract to the concrete, will be studied and accepted in the simple adventures of Christian and family, in the deeds of Faithful and the experience of Hopeful, and in the wonderful sight of the Delectable Mountains."^ (2.) Milton's '^Paradise Lost." John Milton, the great epic poet of Christianity, was perhaps the most learned man that ever lived ; at least, the only one of whom it was said, " He possessed all the knowledge of his day." Like Rabe- lais, Milton may be said to have traversed every region in the world of knowledge. No species of literature, no lan- guage, no book, no art or science seems to have escaped his notice or the patience of his industry. His " Paradise Lost" may be considered as "a vast arsenal of ideas drawn from every region of human speculation, and either them- selves the condensed quintessence of knowledge and wis- dom, or dressing and adorning the fairest and most majestic conceptions."^ The first book is probably the most splendid and perfect of human composition, while throughout the whole this Christian " Iliad " is aglow with thoughts that breathe and words that burn. A tide of gorgeous elo- quence rolls on from beginning to end, like a river of molten gold, out-blazing everything of the kind in any other poetry. (3.) Dante's ^^Divine Comedy." Dante Alighieri is the literary embodiment of medieval Christianity, and one of the most monarchal figures in literary history. The treas- ures of classical learning, the dialectics of Aristotle and the schools, and the literature of the church were his own property. From the dim light which truth cast upon his 1 John P. Gulliver, D. D. a Shaw's Chttlincs of £iif/(/s/i Lilfntilrre, p. 168. Gathering of Homiletical Material. 99 ^ge, we should not expect him always to be free from error; and to judge him by the light of our day would be unfair. Suffice it that he was very far in advance of his contem- poraries, as well as of his predecessors. His delighted countrymen almost regard him as one of the "old prophets risen again;" and his titles, '■'■II Divino" '■'■II Teologo,'^ tes- tify their reverence. Milton and Dante resemble each other in intellectual features, as well as in Christian life. Both were deeply versed in the subtleties of theology; both were animated by a stern and intense religious enthusiasm; but they differ from each other in their manner of writing. Dante is intensely earnest in his creations, while the blind English bard is idealizing the phantoms of imagination. Dante is more like Tasso, while Milton is Homeric. The one creates after a concrete kind, the other soars into abstractions. This can easily be seen by comparing the "Divine Comedy" with " Paradise Lost." These three works should be the great fountains of thought in general literature, at which the preacher should drink deeply and frequently. They are all eminently Christian in character, and to be recommended, — the first for its simplicity of Bible-language and imagery, the sec- ond for sublimity of thought and grandeur of diction, and the third for its intense speculative and theological character. To the classes of literature already spoken of, we may add others that are indispensable as homiletical material. The literature of Christian missions should engage the preacher's earnest attention, for his work is essentially missionary in character. Let him read the history of missions, and become acquainted with the operations of the various missionary associations, both of his own and of sister churches, so as to be able to present to his lOO The Preacher and His Sermon. congregation the progress of tlie churcti in this enter- prise, as well as the pressing want and demands of the world upon Christian people. Books of travel — especially those relating to Bible countries — and sketches of heathen lands, written by missionaries, are very valuable. Benefit will be derived from the reading of such works as Robin- son's "Researches," Thomson's "The Land and the Book,'* Dean Stanley's "Sinai and Palestine," G. Williams' "Holy City," and Dr. Wilson's " The Lands of the Bible Visited and Described." Of course, the minister will take some of the leading reviews and periodicals which will inform him of the current of present events and thoughts. 6. SuRROUiMDiNGS OP Daily Life. Books are not the only source of homiletical material. Let the preacher remember, that no amount of antiquarian, historical, sci- entific, or literary lore will make a pulpit orator, without intimate acquaintance with the ways of the world about him, with the tastes, sentiments, passions, and modes of thought of the men and women of the age in which he lives, whose minds it is his business to sway. He who de- pends entirely and exclusively upon his library for material for preaching will be insipid and uninteresting, and will fail to edify his hearers, who are struggling, not with books, but with life, — life that is real and earnest, and not what solitary book-worms would make it appear. The preacher must not lock himself in his study from Monday morning until Saturday evening, like a sedentary monk in his cell. Let him walk out into the wide, wide world, full of objects, men, toils, conflicts, joys, sorrows, incidents, customs, illus- trations. Spring, summer, autumn, winter, day, night, the ground on which we tread, the faces we meet, the pastoral calls we make, the sick-beds we visit, all are full of mate- rial for the most powerful and eloquent sermons. The wide- awake and practical preacher transmutes everything he sees Gathering of Homiletical Material, lOl into sermon as the poet converts everything into poetry. He makes every man in the neighborhood, be he Christian or infidel, contribute to his Sunday sermon. He finds ** sermons in stones, and good in everything." Christ, from the water in the well, preached salvation to the Samaritan woman. Look upon the world's great laboratory! Here are the gorgeousness of art; the wonders of invention and discovery; the activities of business life; merchants, politi- •ciaus, soldiers, and sailors loaded with the spoils of enter- prise; mothers weeping, homes broken, hopes disappointed, fond wishes deceived, innocence mocked, honors dashed. Here are heard the buzzing voices of rival schemes, literary warfare, men fighting with tongues strong as Indian's vengeance. Life is a kaleidoscope of innumerable phe- nomena, and the preacher must not fail to study it. Henry "Ward Beecher owes much of his pulpit power to his famil- iarity with human experiences. He is a student in what he calls "Life- School," studies to understand men and deal with them face to face, keeps out among people, and is a man among men. The people — men, women, and children of all sorts — are his familiar acquaintances.^ Dr. Chalmers used to say that he preached back to his people on Sunday what they preached to him in the week- days; and Mr. Moody's sermons are made up of the word of God and facts and incidents obtained from conversation with inquirers. The preacher should understand human nature in all its protean phases. He must be a close ob- server, and go through the world with his eyes open — we might add, with pencil and paper to note down whatevei is worthy of a place in the sacred discourse. His study I " I take great pleasure, if ever I can get the chance, in riding on the top of an om- nibus with the driver, and talking with him. What do I gain? Why, my sympathy goes out for these men, and I can recognize in them an element of brotherhood. * * ••' * If I ever saw one of these men in my church I could preach to hfm and hit him under th« fifth rib with an illustration much better than if I had not been acquainted with him. I bave driven the truth under many a plain jacket." — Beecher's Yal& Lectures. 102 The Preacher and His Sermon. should be everywhere, — in the house, in the street, itt the fields, in the busy haunts of men, and among chil- dren. 7. The Mind. After pointing out, in the reahii of hooka and in the world of daily life, the various fields from which to gather material for sermonizing, and which together furnish a vast fund of matter not belonging to ourselves, but from which we may borrow, we must, lastly, name the great mint where all thought is coined — the deepy exhaustless mind. Here is man's most valuable capital, which he inherited from his Creator, and of which he ia made the owner. What comes from this source is strictly his own, or original, and should be sought for as men seek for diamonds. God has made the human mind a deposi- tory of intellectual wealth, though we may be as " uncon- scious of its worth as the mine is of its ore," arid he wha turns to his mental resources in quest of thought will find out that the more he gives from his own creations the- more he will have to give; for thought is self-propaga- ting— one idea begetting another and another, ad infinitum. This searching for treasures in the deep of our own minds- will repay all the labor it costs. How one exults at the discovery of a new thought; and with what eloquence he- will deliver it! The intuitive faculty furnishes us with primitive truths. Advancing from these, by induction or deduction, we arrive at new conclusions. But of all the mental faculties, the im- agination is the most fertile in material. It is an originat- ing and constructive faculty, and is most prominent in the work of invention. "Imagination docs not create thought;, but it organizes thought into forms as new as the eques- trian statue of bronze is unlike the metallic ores when they lay in the mine. * * * * 'Historical imagination,' in reproducing the past, is one of the favorite ideas of our Gathering of Homiletical Material. 103 day. * * * * And not only as to the past. Imagination is requisite if we are justly to conceive and vividly to real- ize the scripture revelations concerning the unseen world and the eternal future." ^ The use of the imagination in the poetical and ethical sphere is a power in the pulpit which no preacher should neglect to cultivate. II. How to Gather Material from these Sources. "We have taken a general survey of the field of knowl- edge 80 far as it relates to the preacher's sermons; but how Bhall he obtain and appropriate this material that liea unquarried in its golden bed? 1. By a System of Reading and Study. The preacher must be a hard, life-long student. No collegiate or theo- logical preparation, however protracted and thorough, must excuse him from observing regular and systematic hours of study as long as he lives. In the midst of his parochial and domestic duties he can find much time for gathering information by adopting a system of study and by utilizing the spare moments, which, if carefully garnered and im- proved each day as they pass, will bring him a store of valuable knowledge which otherwise would be lost.^ "Who uses minutes, has hours to use; Who loses minutes, whole years must lose." The Savior's command to his disciples, " Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost," is a good rule when applied to the economizing of time in ministerial labor. "I have lost ten minutes forever," was uttered in deep regret by John Wesley, after waiting at the door for his chaise which had been delayed; and when we remem- 1 Broadus' Preparation and Delivery of Sermons, pp. 398, 399, 400. 2 Elihu Burritt, while earning his living as a blacksmith, learned eighteen languages *nd twenty-two dialects, by simply improving his odd moments. Kirk White, also icarned Greek while walking to and from a lawyer's office; and Jonathan Edwards meditated his profound work on the WUl as he walked in the shades of a glorious elm, «t Northampton. I04 TJie PreacJier and His Sermo7i. ber the many volumes which he published, the five thou- sand miles which he yearly traveled, the thousand discourses which he annually delivered, the thousand sick-beds he yearly visited, and perhaps thrice that number of letters he yearly wrote, we see the worth of his motto: "IS^ever be unemployed." Besides, every minister should set apart the entire fore- noon of each week-day for hard, faithful study, devoting not the whole time to sermonizing, but at least one half to study or reading in his library. He should commence at an early hour and continue until the bell calls the dinner hour. TVe sleep too much and too late, and therefore miss the golden morning hour that enriches the early worker. Gibbon was in his study every morning, summer and win- ter, at six o'clock. Bowditch said : "Before nine o'clock in the morning I learned all my mathematics." The success- ful Burnet and Jewell commenced their studies every mornins: at four o'clock. Dr. Doddridge said: "Whatever I have accomplished in the way of commentary on the Scriptures is to be traced to the fact of rising at four in the morning." More has been accomplished in literary acqui- sition between the hours of four and ten in the morning than the world dreams of ; and ministers of the gospel would greatly profit and improve their efficiency in the pulpit by imitating the example of these literary toilers in their respective fields of usefulness. These hours of systematic study should be sacred, and preserved from interruptions or intrusions.^ I " I waited upon the Rev. Matthew Wilks, of London," said an American minister, "and was received with courtesy. We entered into conversation, which was briskly kept up until the most important religions intelligence in possession of each had been im- parted. Suddenly, there was a pause. It was broken by Mr. Wilks, who inquired, 'Have you anything more to communicate?' ' No; nothing of special interest.' 'Any further inquiries to make?' 'None.' ' Then you must leave me. I have my Master's business to attend to.' " Richard Baxter was once called upon by a young man who had no par- ticular reason for making the visit. Baxter, aft-er a few moments, became uneasy. "Per- haps I trouble you," remarked the young man. "Of course you do," decidedly yet kindly replied Baxter. Gaihermg- of Homiletical Material. 105 " Let there be, in the study, no idleness, no reverie, and no reading outside of the prescribed circle. Let the mind begin to work as soon as the door is shut, and let it not cease until the clock strikes the appointed hour; then stop study, and stop composition, and devote the remainder of the day to parochial labors, the amenities of life, and the relaxation of lighter literature."^ Ko one need fear that such a rigorous course of study will result in over-exertion, mental and physical debility, and ultimately, in premature death. Far from it. Let the preacher who desires good health, mental strength, and a long life of usefulness, observe Franklin's rule of life, which was, out of every twenty-four hours (except Sunday) to devote one third to sleep, one third to mental, spiritual, and physical recreation, and one third to hard study. Instead of intense mental labor conducing to early exhaustion or death, it has been proved, by carefully pre- pared statistics and medical research, that the world's hardest mental workers and noblest benefactors have usu- ally been the very long-lived.^ By such a system of study every preacher, without the danger of sacrificing his health, will gather a large stock of theological information for homiletical uses. 2. By a System of Preserving the Results of Reading and Study. By a faithful and persevering industry a preacher may traverse a vast field of general knowledge even pre- paratory to his entering upon his professional duties; but it is said that the generality of men forget during a life-time 1 Shedd's Homileiics and Pastoral Theology, p. 369. 2 One of our eminent physicians asserts that "longevity increases very greatly with the advance of civilization;" and this, in a measure, accounts for the faxjt that the great- est and hardest brain-workers of history have lived longer, on an average, than bram- workers of ordinary ability and industry. And it is a well attested fact that clergymen are, as a rule, longer-lived than any other class of brain -workers. The early death of hard mental workers, such as Byron, Raphael, Pascal, Mozart, and Keats, is the excep- tion, while the rule has been often demonstrated that the average longevity of eminent Bcholars is seventy years. lo6 The Pi'eacher and His Sermon. ninety per cent of all they ever learned. Memory is imper- fect, and, like a leaking vessel, will lose much that is valua- ble. Hence, every minister should adopt some method by which he may hold and preserve in some convenient form the results of his past study, reading and reflection. Many different plans have been used for this purpose, for the same plan will not always adapt itself to all; but the fol- lowing may be suggestive : Prepare a blank book for jottings, in which to record whatever has been suggested, or heard, or read where it could not again be accessible. These notes should be entered miscellaneously in the order in which they come to our knowledge, without regard to either subjects or classification, but only numbered for reference; and the jotting-books labeled A, B, C, etc. Begin, also, a series of scrap-books. A, B, C, etc., in which to place clippings, in the same manner as items are entered in the jotting-books. In addition, arrange, as you read, an index to your library, as a memorandum of whatever you consider valua- ble for future use and to which you might not be able to refer, in a moment, when needed. Enter subject and ref- erence in the same manner as in the others, except the numbering, which is to be omitted. Lastly, procure a blank-paged Bible, and opposite each passage make references to whatever may throw light on the passage.' But to complete this system of literary mnemonics there s required a general index rerum, to be used as a ledger, to which to carry, or post, under alphabetically - arranged heads, everything which is contained in the jottings, scraps, library, or even Bible. Thus, in the mdex reruin, for exam- I Bagster's blank-leaved Bible, which contains a long list of subjects, alphabetically arranged, in the back part, with blank leaves opposite for references, is the best. Gathering of Homiletical Material. 107 pie, under heading, Atonement^ J., A, 125; S., B, 12; L.> 1176; Matt. vi. 24, would refer to jotting-book labeled A, number of jotting, 125; scrap-book labeled B, number of scrap, 12; library index, page 1176; blank-paged Bible, under Matthew vi. 24. In this way a vast amount of useful information may be systematically arranged and condensed into small space in the index rerum^ which will place at your command all your acquired knowledge, and permit a reference to every- thing which you have ever read, heard, or thought upon a given subject. Pope wisely said, — " Though index-learning turn no student pale, It holds the eel of science by the tail." And that hold will enable one to secure the entire fish. By the use of a system somewhat like the above we form, at once, a growing cyclopedia, which will increase in value with time and study, and which, in course of time will be the most useful volume in the library. It will save much time, which, without it, would be spent in hunting up partially-remembered items of reading, and will pre- serve such items as otherwise would be irrecoverably lost. Prof. Olmsted, of Yale College, used to tell his students how quickly he prepared a certain lecture, but that he had been gathering material for twenty years. Small savings lead to wealth in study as in business. Especially should such a professional man as the preacher, who is forever drawing from his treasure-house, be always engaged in gathering, storing, and saving everything which comes under his notice that can be turned to homiletical use. III. How to Appropriate and Use in the Sermon the Gath- ered Material. Having selected a certain theme, then commences the work of invention, selection, separation, and extraction, — probing the intellectual resources for suitable material;. io8 The Preacher and His Sermoji. firBt, the biblical, then historical, scientific, and general, whatever he can recall of his former study, reading, obser- vation, and reflection, should be carefully compiled for the sermon after taxing his powers to the utmost in the work of original invention. But the sermonizer must by no means use everything that comes within his reach on a given subject. Let him learn the art of rejecting. Not everything that could be said ought to be said on a given theme; nor should he use a fact because it is pretty, inter- esting, or novel. ITothing but the most salient points and pertinent facts, the cream and quintessence of his infor- mation, should be incorporated in the sermon. "Bring nothing but the beaten oil into the sanctuary," says Dr. Humphrey. The preacher may learn an instructive lesson from the bee which passes by the common herbage, goes only to the flowers, and from them extracts only the honey. But the material selected, from whatever source, must be fashioned into its homiletic use, just as a stone quarried from the mountains is not placed in a building in its rude, native state, but cut to suit its place and purpose. Histor- ical facts are often needed, but must not be inserted in the sermon in the same form in which they are found in the original record, else the discourse might be a history of an event, person, or place instead of a sermon. The homilet- ical use of science is to illustrate scripture. It is one thing to employ it as Chalmers did in his " Astronomical Dis- courses;" it is another, to make the pulpit a scientific platform. K the preacher occasionally refers to philo- sophical theories by way of illustration, he does not under- take to teach philosophy in his sermon. He may, like Christ, transmute the facts of the world into religious instruction. " He may range over all fields, like the bee, if he only makes his gleanings subservient to the one great object of edifying souls, and brings sweetness and attract- Gathering of Homiletical Afaterial. 109 iveness to the Bible as the bee converts into honey, and brino-s all to the hive." But the last query is : How shall material thus accumu- lated and metamorphosed, be appropriated to the sermon? Of course, everything derived from any of the sources indi- cated must pass through the alembic of our own minds, be fused in the furnace of our own thinking, until it is molded into a new mass by a sort of re-creation, as a new coin is made out of fragments of old specie. To explain more fully, we may here consider the question of originality and 'plagiarism. Strictly speaking, man can not originate. Everything that exists, whether in the world of matter or of mind, has been created by God; and man can not add thereto nor take therefrom a single iota. He only derives, or borrows, from a vast store-house not his own. He may discover or invent, but not originate. When Kepler exclaimed, " 0 God, I think thy thoughts after thee," and Agassiz caught and repeated the same senti- ment in asserting that his researches were but an interpre- tation of the thoughts of the Creator, they acknowledged that they discovered laws and phenomena which had ex- isted long before they were made known to man. When Galileo invented the pendulum-clock, and Torricelli the barometer, they merely discovered and combined forces and elements which existed from the beginning of time. "Only God can create de nihilo, and only God can make a commu- nication of truth that is absolutely new."^ Broadus speaks of absolute originality in preaching; but such a thing is evidently impossible for man so long as we allow the word absolute its true and accepted meaning. In rare cases, men may discover new thoughts which had never before been revealed to any human mind; but even this we prefer to call second-hand originality, since they 1 Shedd's EomUetics and Pastoral Theology, p. 8. no The Preacher and His Sermon. previously must have existed as eternal archetypes in the divine Mind, and are therefore derived from a source not ourselves. In our time such originality is almost a hopeless thing; for, as John Stuart Mill has said, "nearly all the thoughts which can be reached by mere strength of original faculties, have long since been arrived at," and what we consider original in this high sense at the time of dis- covery may have been discovered long before by some one unknown to or unheard of by us. " The ancients have stolen all our best ideas," quotes Broadus. "Were all our sermons to consist of nothing but such a kind of origin- ality, they would indeed be like "angels' visits — few and far between." But the originality which enters most largely into our sermons is third-handed, and consists of our own, or other men's ideas, appropriated to ourselves by a process of mental digestion and assimilation, and expressed in words and methods of our own. This does not forbid, bu-t encour- ages, the reading of other men's thoughts. The labors of our ancestors have left a legacy of valuable material that is calculated to benefit the world to-day. "We are the heirs of all ages, and are permitted to gather around the festal-board of accumulated knowledge that is spread out sumptuously before the modern thinker. Not only have we a right, but our highest efiiciency and useful- ness demand that we avail ourselves of the truths that have been revealed to the world, whether from God or man, and which were not intended to be only ornaments of admiration, but creatures of activity and utility for all ages. If the ideas acquired through reading and study have been assimilated as by a chemical combination into our own mental constitution, thus forming part of our own intellectual self, they are ours as truly as the bread we eat, becoming identified with our flesh and blood and bone, thus constituting a part of our bodily self, is ours. Gathering of Homilefical Material. 1 1 1 This is all that modern human originality can claim or aspire to; and the best productions are of this kind. Ma- lone tells us that many of the ideas in Shakespeare can be found in previous authors, and Emerson says that investi- gation hardly leaves a single drama of his (Shakespeare's) absolute invention. The plot of "Paradise Lost" was in great part derived from various sources. Byron was largely indebted to Goethe for his "Manfred." Spenser borrowed from the models of Geoffrey. Emerson' also re- marks: "Plato, like every other great man, consumes his ■own times. * * * When we are praising Plato, it seems that we are praising quotations from Solon, and Sophron, and Philolaus." Spurgeon freely confesses that he is in- debted for many of his sermons to others. Indeed, many ■of the thoughts in the parables and sayings of our Savior have been traced to various currents of previous thinking -and sayings which had come down to his day. These thinkers had constructed their new productions, in part, •out of thoughts gathered from various writers, who, in turn, had gathered them from their predecessors. Thus, nearly all our present thoughtful works could be traced to other sources. But they are original, because the thoughts were freshly conceived, differently combined, and newly expressed, thus stamping them with their authors' individ- uality, when perhaps no one else would have thought of •constructing and expressing the same thoughts in that way. This originality is, nevertheless, a kind of quotation in the fiense in which Emerson, no doubt, used the word when he said, "Every book is a quotation; and every house is a quotation out of all forests and mines and stone-quarries; and every man is a quotation from all his ancestors." Plagiarism consists in using the "thoughts, words, and method of another, without, in some way, giving due credit for them. The violation consists not in using another's 112 The Preacher and His Sennon, thoughts, * * * but in not candidly acknowledging their Bource."^ This is literary theft, and to be guilty of it is highly dishonorable and dishonest. Conviction and expos- ure of such an ignoble deed would greatly injure a minis- ter's usefulness. Plagiarism may be committed, — 1st. By appropriating verbatim entire sermons. In rare cases, another man's sermon of unusual merit and adap- tation to your hearers might be read to them from print at a prayer-meeting; but to copy them from books, to exchange with other preachers, or to buy prepared manu- scripts for the pulpit and offer them as your own, is notori- ous plagiarism. 2d. By using the plans of sermons. Too much can not be said in condemnation of the many books filled with " sketches " and " outlines " for the use of preachers. They are a public nuisance, and should be banished from every preacher's library. 3d. By incorporating quotations and extracts from au- thors without proper acknowledgment. The "Word of God, being the basis of instruction which we are com- manded to preach, and nearly every passage of which must be already familiar to the hearer without indicating its source, is an exception ; but all literal interpolations used from other sources, except what has become common prop- erty, must be accredited to their lawful authors. 4th. By imitating other preachers, either in thought, style, or manner. "How ridiculous it would look, if a goose should attempt to soar like the eagle or sing like the nightingale. So each man, and especially each preacher, should be himself. * * * * The parrot-man can not be true to his own convictions." In seeking originality and avoiding plagiarism two errors are to be avoided. The one is, such independence of thought I Hoppin's Homiletics, p. 680. Gathering of Homiletical Material, 113 as to refuse reading anything upon the theme of discussion lest it might impair originality. " "We have seen the works of a painter, who would see no Rafiaelles or Van Dycks, lest he should spoil his native manner. He has certainly succeeded in avoiding all that one beholds in these great masters."* The other error is excessive reading, and cram- ming the discourse with an indigested mixture of other men's ideas, making the sermon nothing but a compila- tion of miscellaneous quotations. In composing a sermon the preacher " will do what the bee does, which rifles the flowers — exactly what the bee does; for, by an admirable instinct which never misleads it, it extracts from the cup of flowers only what serves to form the wax and the honey, the aromatic and the oleagi- nous particles. But, be it well observed, the bee first nour- ishes itself with these extracts, digests them, transmutes them, and turns them into wax and honey solely by an operation of absorption and assimilation." ^ X J. W. Alexander, quoted by Broadus. 3 Bautain's Art of Extempore Speaking. 8 Part II. ' Part II. THEORETICAL. CHAPTER I. THE SERMON. Definition and Description — Brief History of the Sermon — Relation of the Sermon to Homiletics — The Sermon should be no Ordinary EflFort — The Sermon of To-Day Ought to Excel that of any Former Period — General Properties of the Sermon — Length of the Sermon — Repeat- ing Sermons — Series of Sermons — One or Two Sermons a Sabbath. § I. DEFINITION AND DESCRIPTION. Sermon, from the Latin word sermo, literally signifies a conversation, or discourse, which " originally implied ques- tion and answer."' Technically, however, it is the name of a religious discourse, more systematically arranged than the ancient homily, and adapted to the popular hearer. The term itself, although never used in scripture, is, nev- ertheless, scriptural, for its equivalent occurs frequently under names which define its nature; such as, to talk fa- miliarly, 6/jidew, Acts XX. 11, from which originates the English word homily; to declare glad tidings, euayYsXc^ofxai, Luke ii. 10, from which comes our word evangelize; to teach or declare, KarayyiUo), Colossians i. 28; to preach, to pro- claim as a herald, xv^puaaco, from xijpu^, a herald, Matthew X. 7 ; to discuss, to reason, duuiyo/jiai. Acts xvii. 4. To dis- tinguish this kind of discourse from all others of the bar, senate, or platform, it is called a sermon; and it is z Hoppin's Homiletics, p. U. 117 ii8 The Preacher and His Sermon. a noteworthy fact, that in the early church the term loyoZy oration, was applied to all kinds of oratory which were not religious in character, in much the same sense in which the term lecture or speech is now used in our country. The sermon, then, is characteristic of Christianity, and a specialty of the Christian ministry,^ — for without it the church would lose its aggressive power and relinquish its keenest sword of evangelization. Vinet defines a sermon thus: " It is a discourse incorporated with public worship, and designed, concurrently or alternately, to conduct to Christian truth one who has not yet believed in it, and to explain and apply it to those who admit it."^ Phelps, in his recent work on " The Theory of Preaching," says, "A sermon is an oral address to the popular mind, upon relig- ious truth contained in the Scriptures, and elaborately treated with a view to persuasion." ^ From these definitions we perceive that a sermon differs from an essay or a book by the presence and expression of a living speaker. Thought in written form may be invigor- ating, but it is laid out in material substance, and in stiff, formal, hypostatic types of ideas, which are nothing in themselves but the representatives of ideas. It is like a Webster transferred to canvas or carved into marble — a true transcript of the man, indeed, yet how tlifferent from the man that stood pleading in the Senate! Thought expressing itself through a living organism, beaming from the eye, ringing in the voice, and gushing forth from a spirit stimulated by contact with spirit, is not only invig- orating, but inspiring. It animates the written page, — a 1 "No false religion has ever* provided for the regular and frequent a8se«r»V'n,^ of the masses of men to hear religious instruction and exhortation." — Broadus* > ^•'•xi- turn and Delivery of Sermoru, p. 17. 2 HomUeties, p. 28. 3 P. 21. This Idea, in his book, is developed at length from p. 1 to p. 28. Definition and Description, 119 dead carcass of ideas ; makes thought to breathe and words to glow. "When a man who is apt in teaching, whose soul is on fire with the truth which he trusts has saved him and hopes will save others, speaks to his fellow-men, face to face, eye to eye, and electric sympathies flash to and fro between him and his hearers, till they lift each other up, higher and higher, into the intensest thought, and the most impassioned emotion — higher and yet higher, till they are borne as on chariots of fire above the world, — there is a power to move men, to influence character, life, destiny, such as no printed page can ever possess." ' "Why do peo- ple go to a theater to hear Hamlet performed upon the stage, rather than to a library to read the same from a printed page? There is certainly an additional force in the incarnate, personated presence of an idea; and it was mainly for this reason that the "Word was made flesh,*' and that afterward a living ministry was instituted as a supplement and complement to the written Revelation, in order that the gospel might be addressed to living men in a living way. Communication through human lips gives to divine truth freshness of spirit. "As the water that issues from a fountain comes originally from the clouds, but in its passage through the earth acquires the sharpness and sparkle of spring-water; so divine truth, coming first from above, but passing through the soul of the preacher, acquires that element of freshness on which, under God, its efficiency depends."^ The sermon, then, is the vitalizing instrument of truth — a living logos^ instead of a written composition, permeated with the divine Spirit and power as it issues forth fresh and warm from human lips. It is the word addressed objectively to the understanding of men, and enforced sub- I Broadus' fVep. and Del. of Sermons, p. 18 . a Blaikie, For the Work of the Mnutry, p. 96 120 The Preacher and His Sermon. jectively in the heart by the Spirit of Christ. Without vocal expression it may be a religious essay, poem, or tract; but a sermon it can not be until it is spoken, or transmuted into the bread of life. What arc called printed sermons are only the fossil remains of what were once real sermons. They may give us some idea of what they were in respect to material and form, but they lack the living voice, the beating heart, the glowing fire. They are dead bodies without souls. The original sermon lived only during the period of its delivery, and its mission was accomplished during that brief life-time, though its influence and im- pression may linger in the hearer's mind, like the memo- ries of departed love, long after the preacher's voice is silent, and though its body may be embalmed in printed form, and preserved as a relic of what we call preaching. No one could print Whitefield's sermons. No one can read sermons. We must hear them to know what they are. They are to be found only in pulpits, — never in books. Another distinguishing feature of the sermon is, that it diflfers from the oration, or any other oral address, by being based upon the Word of God, and aimed principally at the sal- vation of the hearer. In secular and civil eloquence, the highest object is to please, to instruct, or to incite to civic measures, and its arguments may rest upon any data^ premise, or authority whatever within the range of human knowledge. Not so in sacred eloquence. The sermon, so far as material is concerned, is exclusively an interpretation of the Scriptures,' — an elucidation of the divine will; and a man's horailetical skill consists in communicating their true sense to the minds of the hearers in the clearest and strong- est light. It must not contain everything interesting iu science, exciting in politics, beautiful in art, or pleasing in literature, except as aids in illustrating or unfolding the I Of. Sliedd'a Homiletics and Pusloral Theology, pp. 1-7. Definition and Description. 12 1 word of God. The sermon is the word of God, ampli- fied and illustrated, though not inspired, like the original. It gravitates around its central theme — Christ; and to this sacred mooring the sermon must be anchored during all ages and epochs, .under all changes and revolutions of science, philosophy, and religion; and the moment it vio- lates the terms of its divine charter, by indulging in illegal or unscriptural speculations, does it cease to be a sermon. Herein lies the secret of the sermon's power and perma- nence; namely, its intensely evangelical or scriptural char- acter. The works of secular literature and art may be grand in conception, but they are dim in the presence of a highly biblical production. Dante's supremacy over the ancients is due to the use he made of scripture thought and imagery. What a contrast in enduring power between Milton's "Paradise Lost" and Pope's " Essay on Man!'* The one the incarnation of the deep Puritanic faith of the seventeenth century, the other the reflection of the deism of the eighteenth. " The grandest architecture of the world, its finest sculpture, painting, musical composi- tions, and its most profound thought, and its progressive civilization, can never throw ofi' their allegiance to the Bible; "^ and the sermon of Barrow on the "Crucifixion'* will outlast in power of impression the finest ode of Pindar or the best chorus of Sophocles. " All the world's litera- ture veils its face when brought into the presence of those gospel biographies of the God-man, the portraiture of that Personage who fills all history as the sun fills the hemi- sphere." But the dignity of the sermon is increased by the other characteristic, that it is not only biblical, but designed for the accomplishment of the highest object in life — the sal- vation of men. It could not accomplish this end without X Townsend's Sword and Garment, p. 74. 122 The Preacher a?id His Serynon. fidelity to its divine authority; nor could it be called a sermon without this end in view as the rulins: motive. Any literary production, whether written or spoken, may be the outgrowth of scripture, but its primary object is always a secondary or insignificant matter in comparison with that of the sermon, which addresses itself to the dearest and highest interest of man as its object; and for this reason the sermon has the largest audience. The largest circulation of the best book outside the Bible is only a few millions, while three hundred millions go every Sunday to listen to a sermon. Nothing in science, art, literature, or commerce, — in fine, no species of human enterprise can have such claim upon the attention of man- kind; for nothing can be grander in its purpose than that which constituted the mission of Christ himself. Herein lies the secret of the preacher's inspiration and eloquence. If a proper conception of the value and eternal destiny of immortal souls can not inspire the speaker with rhetorical power, he will not likely succeed in any other and inferior field of oratory. The mission of the sermon is to apply religious truth wisely and forcibly to the present and eternal welfare of man. Man is ruined; society is to be regenerated; the depraved condition of wrecked humanity is to be improved. The preacher in this respect is a Phidias, who is to con- ceive, and, from rude stones taken rough out of the quarry, to fashion, forms of superhuman dignity and beauty. His sermon is to aim at the reformation of our universal broth- irhood, and give it a character tar superior to that of More's "Utopia," or Plato's "Republic." He is to be inspired by no intellectual ideality, but the reality of a most blessed reign of peace, that will be displayed in the coming Millennium. But the great purpose of the sermon is to educate men Definition and Description. 123 for eternity, and it is destined to exert an influence that will be felt when earth and time shall have passed away. "What should more engage our efforts than the salvation of an immortal soul? He who wins a kingdom may astonish the world, hut he who wins a soul to Christ sends a thrill through heaven. Consider the awful circumstances in which the preacher delivers his message. He stands in the presence of the Almighty, whose minister he is; he appeals to man, whose destiny may hang on the decision of an hour — heaven glittering from above, hell rumbling from beneath, sinners hesitating, and the time for decision coming to a close. Under such solemn moments, when so much is at stake, can any stop to think of self — of his reputation, or of the applause which his musical sentences and fine intonations are to secure? Ko one who under- stands and feels the high object of his preaching will make his sermon either a play or a display. His "joy and his crown" will be the conversion of souls. Such it will appear to have been when the joys of the redeemed and the torments of the lost shall be felt in their everlasting weight, and when the magnitude of God's redemption and the wondrous results that flow from it shall be unfolded. Do we believe what we preach — that the conversion of a soul is of more consequence than the creation of a world; that our voices will be echoed through the eternal ages as instrumental in the fixed destinies of many immortal beings? Then will we tremble, and preach as Apelles painted — for eternity. According, then, to the foregoing definition and descrip- tion, the sermon is the noblest and strongest instrumen- tality in the world. In its composition are included all of the preacher's personality in character, experience, and mtellect, and the personality of the divine Mind as revealed in the Scriptures, all for the supreme purpose of persuad- 124 Tlie Preacher and His Sermon. ing men to become reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. " The Spirit of God and the spirit of man are in it and ■wield it." It is the combination of human and divine agencies in the work of saving souls. § n. BRIEF HISTORY OP THE SERMON. In the early history of the church the sermon was called homily. Originally, the homily was a familiar interloc- utory address, conducted between speaker and hearer, without regard to much system. The pseudo-Clementine homilies are supposed to be the talks and disputations of Peter with Simon Magus. The preaching of Christ was properly the initiatory and model Christian sermon. In the first and second centuries it was simple and artless, consisting, perhaps, in running commentary on scripture or answers to questions. Sometimes it was really eloquent and somewhat systematic, when produced by the more educated and pious; while in the third and fourth centu- ries it assumed a more rhetorical structure, " bringing in all the helps to be derived from learning and eloquence," and thus gradually reached a rhetorical structure, having unity and order. Origen was, perhaps, one of the first to construct the formal homily, built somewhat on the rules of Greek eloquence, and to give it an expository character; though scripture exegesis or interpretation was no essential characteristic of the homily, as Yinet incorrectly supposes. After the sixth century began a tendency to mere artistic skill and self-display, which continued to sink the sermon lower and lower until the Reformation. In the early period of the Church of Rome, when few priests were capable of preaching, discourses were framed from the Fathers, to be read from the pulpit. In the medieval age, homilaria, or collections of homilies, were used, the most celebrated of which was that known as Brief History of the Sermon. 125 " Charlemagne's Ilomilarium." It was, however, not until at an early period of the Reformation that the term homily received its fixed or technical use, meaning a sermon pre- pared by a bishop to be preached by the inferior clergy. Since the Reformation the term homily has fallen out of use, and the word sermon, with some modification, is now used to designate every form of pulpit discourse, as a more appropriate term to be applied to such address. Peter's discourse on the day of Pentecost has been called "the first Christian sermon;" but Christ's Sermon on the Mount claims precedence — not only in time, but also in importance. The sermon in the primitive church was more didactic and missionary in form and substance than now, and, no doubt, for this reason was called a " simple address " by Neander. The discourses of Ambrose and Augustine in the Latin Church, and of Basil, Gregory ITazianzen, Cyril, and Chrysostom in the Greek, shed a glory over the fourth and fifth centuries, and are distinguished for their exposi- tory character, making the exposition of the Scriptures the basis and material of instruction. From the fifth to the sixteenth century, during the medieval period, under the influence of sacerdotalism, the sermon lost much of its spiritual and scriptural character, and became formal, speculative, and even secular. Yain ecclesiastics made it their chief aim to secure the applause of their hearers. " In imitation of the pagan theaters, it became an exten- sive custom for hearers to express their approbation of a sermon by tumultuous applause, such as stamping, clap- ping, waving of handkerchiefs, and loud acclamations."' As a result of such preaching the dark ages were marked by the prevalence of ritualism and spiritual death. At the Reformation the sermon again returned to its primitive I Porter's lieeturet on Homiletics, p. 68. 126 The Preacher and His Sermon. evangelical character. The reformers unfurled the true banner, and Luther preached the gospel of Christ in words that " were half-battles." The German sermon, though retaining something of the fire of the reformers, has, however, not sustained the fame of Luther's and Melanchthon's preaching. The mataphys- ical and philosophical cast so characteristic of the German mind is seen in the sermons of Schleiermacher and Tho- luck. Since the recovery of that philosophical land from the withering blight of rationalism, there has been a re- vival of evangelical preaching, which, among its leading preachers, has not yet been extinguished by learning and thought. The French sermon, as a rule, was brilliant, especially in the time of Louis XIY., which was the golden age of French pulpit eloquence. Among the Protestant preach- ers, Du Moulin, Faucheur, Du Bosc, Claude, and Saurin were the principal representatives. Among the Roman Catholics, Bossuet, Bourdaloue, and Massillon were elo- quent and elaborate, and addressed mostly courtiers and the elite circles of society, who would listen to nothing but what was faultless in style and diction. Among the more recent French preachers — Yinet, D'Aubigne, Malan, Mo- nod, Lacordaire, the elder Coquerel, Father Hyacinthe, Bersier, and M. De Pressense, — we find many specimens of true Christian eloquence. The English, or British sermon has never been so sys- tematic in structure and finish as the French, but excels every other in variety of style, and especially in master- pieces of pulpit eloquence. The non-conformists were noted for fullness of doctrinal statement and evangelical intensity, while the churchmen addressed themselves to the practical ethics of daily life. " They had a great faculty of planning and arranging, often a remarkable breadth of Relation of the Sermon to Homiletics. 127 view, embracing all the aspects of their subject, and a great power of clear, correct, and forcible expression." The British pulpit can boast of such names as Howe, Owen, Baxter, Bishop Hall, South, Barrow, Jeremy Taylor, Dod- dridge, Whitefield, Wesley, Robert Hall, Jay, Chalmers, Robertson, Guthrie, McCheyne, Spurgeou, and a host of other famous preachers, whose sermons will never cease to be admired and studied as models of pulpit eloquence. The American sermon, in the early history of our country, was biblical in form, but scholarly and dogmatic in spirit, owing greatly to the fact that the educational work of the country was confined to the ministerial class. Afterward it combined deep spiritual earnestness with metaphysical thought, which found an exponent in the preaching of Jonathan Edwards, who may be called the champion of the American pulpit, at least for the last century and a half. During the past forty years it has been literary and argu- mentative, aiming, perhaps, too much at a philosophical systemization of divine truth. At this time the sermon is, perhaps, no less systematical, but more biblical and search- ing. Henry Ward Beecher, T. DeWitt Talmage, John Hall, T. L. Cuyler, Chas. F. Deems, J. P. Newman, and Phillips Brooks bring the gospel truth into vital contact with the human heart, touch its feelings, and transfix it with the arrow of conviction. § in. RELATION OP THE SERMON TO HOMILETICS. It is now agreed by nearly all homilists that the relation of homiletics to rhetoric is that of species to genus; but no such relation exists between the sermon and homiletics. Homiletics is the science which treats of the principles, theories, and rules belonging to preaching. Preaching is the art which consists in the practice and application of the principles, theories, and rules of homiletics in actual 128 The Preacher and His Sermon. speaking; and the sermon 18 the result of both theory aii J and practice. Homiletics, then, is the instrument, and the sermon the product; and as the fabric is greater than the tools used in its construction, so the sermon is superior to homiletics. Matter is more important than form. The science of preaching has to do with the manipulating of material, — selecting, arranging, and expressing ideas. It can not originate or create thought; it can not give unction and elo- quence; it simply fabricates the sermonic material. Method and form are important; but piety, knowledge, and the blessing of God are essential. Without these the best form can not produce a good sermon. "Rules are the summary, the generalization of particular experiences."' All that homiletics can do is to reduce the result of experience of the most successful preaching into a science, or rules, for the guidance of the inexperienced. It simply tells how one does preach when he preaches suc- cessfully. But it can no more make a successful preacher than the doctrines of Christianity can make a Christian. Yet rules have their important use. " They aid our views, they keep us from false views; they shorten the time and the uncertainty of walking in the dark."^ And herein con- sists their value. But they have exhausted their purpose as soon as skill in their use has been acquired. Like the law, they are a "school-master." Homiletics was made for the sermon, and not the sermon for homiletics. Homiletics must be regarded as a means to an end. "When writers on homiletics give rules and precepts for sermonizing, they do not put an iron harness upon the preacher, under whose gritty yoke he must work out every sermon, no matter how galling it may be. The ministry might well languish under the reign of such I Viaet's HomUetiet, p. 47. a Ibid. The Sermon Should be no Ordinary Effort. 129 homiletical tyranny. They are rather framers of a decla- ration of independence that accords to every preacher the inalienable right of liberty within the sphere of efficiency and usefulness. Homiletics seeks to discover the best methods that will produce a good sermon. It does not claim infallibility under the test of every variety of minis- terial experience; yet the preacher who habitually — perhaps unconsciously — constructs his sermons after homiletical rules will undoubtedly produce a better sermon than he who ignores such help. The conclusion, then, is that the sermon is greater than the rule, as the gospel is greater than the law; and that homiletics will be of service only so far as it promotes efficient preaching. § IV. THE SERMON SHOULD BE NO ORDINARY EFFORT. It should be of a higher order than the common oration. Nothing deserves so much censure as a dull sermon, one that makes no impression whatever, but allows people to fall asleep under its delivery. If the sermon is uninterest- ing, the people may be blamed for their listlessness, but the preacher deserves most of the blame for his dullness — his inability to arouse them. The matter and spirit of his discourse must be such as to compel men to listen, in spite of their indifference. It must give them something to think about, something to arrest their attention, something to prick their consciences, something that will keep them too busy with the sermon to think about anything else. There is no reason why a sermon should be dull. Of all forces, none are so great as thought-force. Thoughts rule our affections and our wills. Like the silent, invisible power of universal gravitation, they affect all minds, and move them with a force which nothing but Omnipotence can resist. Of all thoughts, none are so powerful as relig- ious thoughts. For religion's sake men will sacrifice every- 9 130 The Preacher and His Sermon. thing, — sufl'er shame and martyrdom and death. Relig- ious controversies are the sharpest. Religious wars are the fiercest. Men will employ every resource of human power and skill for the defense of a religious opinion. But of all religious thoughts none are so powerful aa Christian thoughts — thoughts about Christ and his doc- trines. For over eighteen hundred years Christianity has molded society; crowded libraries with numberless books, pamphlets, and periodicals upon Christian themes that stir men's blood; reared the finest specimens of architectural beauty; girdled the earth with songs of praise, and filled heaven with redeemed saints. Here, then, is the power of the pulpit — the wielding of religious, Christian thought. The preacher does not deal with the small atomic forces of life, but with themes of mammoth proportions, whose roots are the deepest and broadest in philosophy, whose ques- tions touch the greatest problems of our being and the most tender affections of our nature. A preacher that will handle such subjects in cold blood can have but little ex- perimental knowledge of the power of gospel truth. Again, the sermon ought to be good, not only on account of the intrinsic worth of its subject-matter, but because it is the product of all the preacher's previous study and experience. Behind every sermon is the sum total of the preacher's life, with all its weight of culture, learning, reflection, piety, and toil. The actual preparation of the sermon may be performed in a few days, yet it is the result of a man's whole past life, extracted from the best resources of his accumulated strength, and put into one effort of eloquence. Sir Joshua Reynolds painted a small cabinet picture in five days, for which he charged what seemed to the purchaser to be an extravagant price. "Why charge so much for a work that cost you only five days' labor?" asked the purchaser. "Five days!" said Reynolds. "Why, The Sermon Should be no Ordinary Effort. 131 sir, I have expended the work of thirty-five years upon it." What was true of the painter's picture is also true of the preacher's sermon. It represents all the years of his professional toil. Dr. Lyman Beecher preached his cele- brated sermon on the " Government of God " during a powerful revival in Philadelphia. He was asked by one of the astonished hearers, " Doctor, how long did it take you to prepare that sermon?" To which he promptly replied, "About forty years." Such sermons are not the growth of a momentary inspiration; they do not spring up in a day, like the mushroom, but develop like the oak. The true model sermon should aim high in its purposes and results. A man's supreme efibrt, which contains the whole force of his life, expended upon the most inspiring, religious, Christian thought, should accomplish no little amount of good upon the hearer. It should aim at a radi- cal change of character and life, should inspire men with the purest motives, make their life the best and noblest possible, and the fittest preparation for the life to come. Some of the hearers have come from sick-beds, fierce con- flicts, sore bereavements and losses, and will return to them again; others have come to seek spiritual food for their hunger, relief from doubt, and counsel to direct them in their penitence. Some are there for the first time, some for the last time. The preacher speaks in every sermon to men whom he may never address again. How much depends upon the issue of that one sermon ! If men would always perceive and feel the responsibility and magnitude of their situation as they stand appealing to men, by divine commis- sion, their words would not fall so lightly upon men's ears. Every sermon should awaken consciences, soften hearts, transport minds to the great future, and show them things to come. It ought to mold human destiny, send people home weeping over sin, and "make every one go away 132 The Preacher and His Sermon. silent .and grave, and hastening to be alone, to meditate and pray the matter over in secret." How different in effect is such a sermon from one that awakens only applause or admiration for the preacher and his eloquence. The true preacher hides himself behind the cross, and asks men not to look at him, but at Christ. In his sermon is a higher aim than mere success — than ambition to produce great sermons that will be admired and praised by men. But a sermon's usefulness does not terminate with the hour of service. It is destined to follow men through coming years, and to be a silent power with them during every hour of their lives. In hours of toil and in hours of rest, in times of adversity and in times of prosperity, in the family and in the store, it should be a solace in the Chris- tian pilgrimage, — slumbering, perhaps, while life flows smoothly, but awakening in the day of trial, and comfort- ing the soul in the hour of death. In short, it should be a sermon that will be cherished in time, and remembered by many in eternity. In achieving these results "we need more of Baxter's determination ' to get within men and to bring each truth to the quick;' more of St. Jerome's endeavor, * not to draw applause, but rather sighs and groans from the people, and let their tears praise you;' more of holy Herbert's conviction, that 'sermons are dangerous things — no one goes out of church as he came in, but either better or worse;' more of that holy violence that comes from a burdening belief that there is an infinite weight of weal or woe in every sermon for every present soul, and that the preacher and congregation shall be judged by it at the great and terrible day."^ It is well for a young preacher to keep habitually before his mind a very high ideal of what a sermon ought to be. He should frequently listen to the ablest preachers, and I Church Review, January, 1800. The Sermo7t of To- Day Ought to Excel. 133 select, for reading and study, the productions of some of the great masters of the art. ITo one will attain to excel- lence who keeps in view a low standard of preaching. Let him cherish the deep conviction that on every occasion he ought to do his very best. " Much will be attained if the mental habit be formed in the young preacher of fre- quently interrupting himself in the course of his prepara- tion with the question, ' Is this the best that, with God*s grace, I can do ? ' It matters little if, as the result, many first attempts should be consigned to the flames, and he should still find himself, after hours of efibrt, apparently, but not really, at the beginning of his undertaking."^ Another way of improving our sermons is by occasionally putting ourselves in the hearer's place, either in thought or in reality, and thereby forming an estimate of what a sermon ought to be. Ministers too often estimate their own sermons from their own feelings and stand -point. Dr. Cuyler, while visiting some neighboring churches, during his vacation, applied this test with profit. "While listening and soliloquizing he said, "Well, God helping me, if I ever get back to my pulpit again I will try to preach as if I had another self sitting in the seat before me, and I was preaching at him. I realize now, as never before, how it feels to be preached to, and what it is that meets my soul's necessities." § V. THE SERMON OF TO-DAY OUGHT TO EXCEL THAT OF ANT FORMER PERIOD. The past has been productive of many good preachers and sei-mons, some of which, in many respects, stand un- rivaled by anything in modern sermonology. But, for good reasons, the average sermon of to-day ought to be better — and it is better — than that of the past. 1 Blaikie, For the Work of the Ministry, p. 116. 134 ^/^^ Preacher a7id His Sermon. First. Our times demand a better quality of preaching than was formerly demanded. The masses have advanced more rapidly during the last half century than the literary and professional circles, so that to-day our lay congregations are not so far behind the clergy in general knowledge as they were a century ago. Sermons are so numerous now that the ordinary one of fifty years ago will scarcely get a respect- ful hearing in our modern churches. The age is critical, fastidious, and not satisfied with that which is only medi- ocre. It is, therefore, necessary to occupy higher grounds if we would elevate the pulpit to the same relative position which it occupied in the past. Second. The sermon of to-day ought to be superior because of the improved facilities of preachi7ig which this age affords. Among the many advantages, we mention the professional schools for the study of theology and preach- ing, which are now accessible to nearly all. The time was when the privilege of acquiring a theological education in the seminary was, with the student, a question of pecun- iary ability. iNTow, with the many beneficiary funds and endowments for the aid of indigent students, it is only a question of adaptation and of a divine call to the ministry on the part of the applicant, as to whether or not he can acquire a thorough preparation.' With a little economy and perseverance, the poorest of the poor may now become educated in the schools, and in preaching-ability rise to a level with, if not pre-eminence above, the most opulent. Another facility for the production of a superior sermon is furnished in the abundance of our homiletical literature. We are in possession of all that the wisdom of the past has gathered for our instruction and profit. The present number of printed sermons, from the ablest and best of I We do not say that such assistance is always a help to a young man. We or '» refer to the advantage it affords when properly used. The Sermon of To-Day Oiight to Excel. 135 preachers of all times, is legion, affording an almost infi- nite variety of style, plan, and method, by the study of which our preaching may be greatly improved. Books and cyclopedias of illustrations are at command to enrich the sermon with attractive examples of fact and incident. Commentary and Bible biography yield their increase and drop their fatness into the preacher's study; and, "par excel- lence^ the most valuable aid is found in the many able treatises on homiletics which now crowd our libraries, the best of which have appeared during the last few decades. America, at present, stands unrivaled in the production of the most excellent text-books on preaching. In point of systematic treatment and practical merit, our modern au- thors on homiletics stand unsurpassed by anything that the past has evolved. Never before were there so many lecture courses on preaching, so many discussions of the subject in our reviews and periodicals, by our ablest teachers and preachers, solving the vexed problems of the pulpit and throwing light along the preacher's pathway. Hence, to-day, no one need lack knowledge of the best method of addressing the gospel to the hearts and minds of men. This, indeed, is the golden age of homiletical literature; and with such rich resources of material and implement we ought surely to see marked effects in an improved order of the sermon and a higher efficiency in the pulpit. Third. Another reason why our modern sermon should excel, is because we possess to-day an imjproved system of theology. Theology can not be improved or changed in its essential doctrines and truths. These are as immutable as God himself. But in the progress of study and investiga- tion, these truths of the gospel may be more accurately defined and more clearly presented. There may be great improvement in stating, explaining, guarding, applying, and defending them. Apparent difficulties may be cleared 136 The Preacher and His Sermon, away, objections obviated, and doctrinal proof strength- ened. In these respects our theology is greatly in advance of that of the ancient and medieval church, and will still advance in time to come. Much improvement comes to theology from investigations in science and archaeology, such as the researches of the geologist, the opening of the tombs of the Pharaohs and the ruins of many ancient cities, and the explorations in Bible lands. Egypt, the Sinaitic Peninsula, Palestine, and Assyria have been traversed and examined, and the discoveries have been published to the world. Hieroglyphics and cuneiform inscriptions are no longer unsolved problems. Cyprus, Ephesus, Troy, and Mycense have unfolded many rich treasures of archaeology. Even in Rome we have only by recent investigation ac- quired a full knowledge of the palace of the Csesars, the Forum, the Coliseum, and the Catacombs. From the many researches in the Holy Land, Palestine has not improperly been called by Renan " the fifth gospel." Kow an improvement in theology should efiect a corre- sponding improvement in the sermon, for it is the exponent and ofispring of theology. Our preaching ought to be clearer in statement, simpler in form, more positive in assertion, more convincing in proof, in order to be express- ive of our modern theology. It ought to carry along with it the weight of authority, and all the prestige which time, scholarship, and piety can give it. Because of these facilities for improvement in preaching, and many others that might be enumerated, such as the late Bible revision, rapid multiplication of theological works, etc., we have a right to demand a better quality of sermon; and from these indications of progress we may predict a continuous advancement of pulpit eloquence while these facilities increase, without ever reaching the ideal, or ne plus ultra, of excellence. General Properties of the Sermon. 137 § VI. GENERAL PROPERTIES OF THE SERMON.' 1. It must be evangelical. A sermon is evangelical when it is steeped in the very essence of saving truth, and pre- sented in a spirit conformable thereto. On the one hand, it consists of gospel truth, as exhibited in the mission of Christ in the salvation of the human race; and on the other hand, it consists of Christian truth to be observed in the practical duty of piety and holiness. Daniel Webster once said, " Many ministers take their texts from Paul and preach from the newspaper." This was not the case with Archbishop Tillotson; for when asked to preach on "The Times," he said, " I would rather, by far, discourse on eter- nity." Sometimes philosophy takes the place of the gos- pel, which was what Cowper meant when he said, — " How oft, when Paul has served us with a text, Has Epictetus, Plato, Tully preached ! " "We repeat, the sermon must be Christian. It may be adapted to a Presbyterian, a Methodist, a Congregational, or a Lutheran congregation, but it must be gospel and Christian as to substance and spirit. There are times and occasions for denominational doctrine, but the staple of the sermon should be Christian. As such it must be devoted largely to evangelical doctrines, such as depravity, the con- templation of Christ, redemption through his blood, the necessity of repentance and conversion, justification by faith, and sanctification by the Spirit. It must bring out clearly the duties and privileges of Christianity, and incul- cate the cultivation of a self-denying spirit of love and goodness to all. As to the spirit of evangelical preaching, Paul expresses I We distinguish between the properties and the qualities of the sermon. The latter are treated in the chapter on Sfvle. Quality is essential to a sermon as inherent in itp structure. Property is an added quality, and can be removed without destroying tho identity of the sermon. 138 The Preacher and His Sermon. it chiefly in one word — "love." "Speaking the truth in love." This does not imply the excessive use of endearing epithets, or the opposite of manliness, nor does it forbid the utterance of painful truth with holy indignation; but it requires a spirit of solemnity, meekness, affectionateness, and sympathy, in the application of every gospel truth. " This tone is especially to be cultivated when disagreeable truth has to be spoken, or where a spirit of opposition has to be overcome; for the preacher is one who is to win souls, and there is no way of winning without love. The preacher is the representative of the great Father, whose great power for winning men back to himself is love. 'I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love.' (Hosea xi. 4.) The gospel of which he has charge is the gospel of infinite love,"^ and is most evangelical when proclaimed in the spirit of the Master, the author of evangelical truth. To give this character to the discourse, the preacher needs vital piety and the pure motive of glorifying God and edify- ing the hearer. The most evangelical truth uttered by pro- fane or ungodly lips, no matter how learned the speaker or how eloquent the discourse, would not be an evangelical ser- mon, for it needs the spirit as well as the form of Christian thought. Whatever relation the ordinary sermon may sustain to the services of the sanctuary, such a sermon, drawn from the true wells of salvation, is worship as truly as is singing and praying, or any other devotional exercise which is calculated to draw souls heavenward in holy meditation and praise. 2. It must be instructim. " Moreover, because the Preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge." (Ecc. xii. 9.) This was the example of Solomon. And Paul described the preacher as one " apt to teach." Instruction is a fundamental design of preaching, and I Hhiikio, Fw the Work of the Ministry, p. 104. General Properties of the Sermon. 139 requires not only that the minister be a perpetual student of Revelation, but that he acquire the facility of imparting instruction to others out of the treasury of the Lord in things both new and old. With such an inexhaustible wealth and depth of discovered and undiscovered knowl- edge as is contained in the Scriptures, the pulpit should never cease to be a fountain of religious knowledge for both mind and heart. It should not, however, become an academical chair of instruction, dealing out dry technicali- ties in a scholastic, formal manner. It should transmute all kinds of theology into a sermon^ which means, reducing it into fragments and adapting it to the wants of daily life. It should turn knowledge into life. The difference between a lecture- on theology and a sermon is that the former is a scientific discussion for scholarly minds, while the latter is spiritual food for the common people. We must keep the intellectualism of the lecture ever separate from the instructiveness of the sermon by broad and distinct lines of demarkation. Our theological seminaries may map out the field of theological learning, and deal out general bib- lical knowledge, so to speak, by the wholesale method; but the preacher must give out knowledge by retail, and prepare it as a spiritual refreshment for all classes of hearers.^ With this discrimination, then, we remark that a pulpit discourse upon every evangelical topic must give knowledge to the understanding, and nutriment to the soul. It must give both light and heat, must both instruct and afiect, con- vince and persuade. These two properties are essential to sacred oratory. There may be a great preponderance of the one element over tlie other, but neitlier should be wanting in any perfect model of sermon. In physics, the I He "breaks the bread of life now into smaller, now into larger pieces; if need be, be reduces it to crumbs." — Vinet's Homiletics, p. 21. 140 The PreacJier a7id His Sermon. momentum of a body is found by multiplying its weight by its velocity; and the same rule is good in sacred dis- course. The one that has the most weight of matter and most activity of feeling is the greatest sermon. It should make the hearer not only better, but also wiser, informing him of the real import of the subject discussed, suggesting to his mind new lines of thought, and telling him how best to improve his privileges, practice his duties, and obey the teachings of God's Word. A discourse that consists of nothiuo^ but exhortation or uninstructive address will not do much to enlighten and convict the sinner, or to build up the faith of the Christian. 3. It must be interesting. It is not enough that a ser- mon be evangelical and instructive, it must also be inter- esting. The first property renders it official and legal by giving it the divine signet, the second makes it useful by adapting it to human wants, and the third makes it popu- lar by engaging the attention of the hearer. The first two contribute much to the composition of the third, or rather are among its most essential constituents, for interest is the result of a variety of properties and faculties. It must possess adaptation to the audience, and earnest- ness of delivery, and be addressed to the various faculties of the mind. Logic and feeling must be mingled together. Cold reasoning alone, like that of Butler's "Analogy," would be utterly unbecoming and uninteresting in a popu- lar sermon; and excited emotions can not long survive unless sustained occasionally by fresh logical thought. The imagination, as the handmaid of logic, may often be engaged to add freshness, originality, and beauty to the sermon by casting old ideas into new forms. Address to the conscience, also, will arouse attention. Thus, by engag- ing the diflerent faculties and feelings of the soul, we pro- duce a variety of pleasant sensations, and avoid monotony of feeling, which is so fatal to the interest of a discourse. General Properties of the Sermon. 141 The sermon in one way or another must get at the act- ual thoughts and feelings that commonly stir the breasts of the hearer; it must touch some vital part, and arrest attention. Let the preacher resolve never to be dull; and above all, let him remember that if he would interest oth- ers he must first interest himself. He must originate the spirit and life of his discourse himself. When once cre- ated in his own soul, it will spontaneously disseminate itself through the audience. Interest begets interest, as coldness begets coldness. To give vividness and freshness to his discourse, let him spurn the rechauffe of other men's thoughts; let him keep out of ruts, pass everything through the alembic of his own mind, and fuse it into freshness. If he can not reanimate an old sermon with the original or with increased interest, let him cast it aside as so much dregs. !N'one but such thoughts and feelings as are alive in the speaker's mind and spring up fresh like a sparkling fountain can interest the hearer. 4. It must be edifying. Preaching is edifying only so far as it accomplishes its supreme object, which is not evan- gelical orthodoxy, efficient instruction, or glowing interest, but the glorifying of God in the salvation of men. The first three properties are important, but the last is essen- tial. To lack any of the former would be a defect, but the absence of the latter would be a total failure. " The ser- mon that does good is a good sermon," was Dr. Adam Clarke's maxim. It may be imperfect in some of its impor- tant scientific elements; nevertheless, if with these faults it is the means of making a man better, it is a success- ful sermon. Louis XIY. once said, "When I go away after hearing some of the court-preachers, I say. What a wonderful preacher he is! What splendid powers of elo- quence he has! What a great man he is! But when I go away from hearing Eather Massillon, I leave saying. What 142 The Preacher and His Sermon. a poor sinner I am! How wicked I am! " A sermon is to be praised not for the noise it makes, the entertainment it aftbrds, but for the good it does ; and however orthodox, instructive, eloquent, learned, and flowery it may be, if it does not lift the hearer nearer to God it is scarcely worth the name of a sermon. The true object of preaching is stated by Paul, in Ephe- sians iv. 12, 13. It is to build up the soul in righteousness and true holiness. The immediate aim of preaching ia soul-enlightenment and soul-conversion; but the ultimate object of all true preaching is soul-edification — the forma- tion of a true manhood in Christ. In order to render each sermon edifying, it is necessary to have a definite aim in view, and to bend all eflforts to its accomplishment. "As you sit down to prepare your discourse, let your question be, "What is my purpose in this sermon? and do not move a step until you have shaped out before your mind a definite answer to that inquiry. * * * * The way to walk in a straight line over a trackless field, is to fix the eye, and keep it fixed, on some object that is stationary and sufficiently elevated, and then to move towards that."^ In the Yale lectureship John Hall, also, says, "Direct your arrows at objects without being personal; come near your hearers. Letters dropped into the post-office without address go to the dead-letter office, and are of no use to anybody." Having fixed your gazo upon some object, preach with the expectation of seeing its fruits, and resolve not to receive as a commendation of your efforts any favorable opinion of the hearers, except such as report real spiritual benefit received from your sermon. I W. M. Taylor, in role Lectures, p. 111. Lengih of the Sermon. 143 § VII. LENGTH OF THE SERMON. As to the length of the sermon, no fixed rule can be given. In the early church the Latins did not usually occupy more than half an hour, — often not more than ten minutes. The Greek fathers were, however, always more lengthy.^ St. Ambrose usually preached about half an hour. Chrysostom's sermon on Lazarus must have occu- pied nearly an hour in delivery. William Jay said, "I never surpassed forty -five minutes, at most''' Mullois says that seven minutes are long enough for a sermon in France, and remarks, " Believe me, and I speak from experience, the more you say the less will the hearers retain ; the less you say the more will they profit." This, of course, is the opinion of a French author on homiletics. In ritualistic churches the sermons are usually very short. The Puritans, on communion occasions, often preached sermons of no less than two hours in length. Paul preached at Troas all night, with only a short intermission to restore a dead man to life and to break bread. Cecil advises young preachers to preach only thirty minutes if they read their sermons, and not to exceed forty minutes if they do not.^ It would be unwise to limit the discussion in every ser- mon to a certain number of minutes, for there are occasions 1 Cf. Moule's Oratory, p. 56. 2 "Sermons in early times seem to have been comparatively short. Some of these extant by the Latin fathers would not occupy, as they stand, more than ten minutes, or quarter of an hour; many of Bede's consist only of a very few lines. Therefore, we are not safe in resting upon such data — as these are evidently short-hand notes. Long sermons were the product of the post-reformation, especially of Puritan times. Yet some of the earlier divines were lengthy. Bishop Aleock preached at St. Mary's, Cambridge, 'a good and pleasant sermon,' which lasted from one o'clock to half-past three. Sometimes the audiences in olden times, in England, scraped their feet, and thus compelled th« preacher to desist. «■>:•■!'<' Bishop Alderson, however, was strongly opposed to lonj^ sermons; when once asked his opinion as to the proper lengih of a discourse, he an- swered, ' Twenty minutes, with a leaning to the side of mercy.' Isaac Barrow's Spital aermon was three hours and a half long. Edward Irving, in later days, also preached a sermon of three hours and a half in length for the London Missionary Society, in Tot- tenham Court Road Chapel. He paused thrice, and the devout and patient congregation sang hymns in the interval, but they nevei forgave him that sermon." — £tacA;ioood'« Magazine, February, 1869, quoted by Hoppin. 144 '^^^^ Pi'eacher a7id His Sermon. and subjects that require an extended discourse, and can be made very interesting for one hour, while other topics and times would not warrant an interesting attention for more than twenty or thirty minutes. The apparent length of a sermon depends much on the manner of its treatment. A long discourse full of interesting thought may seem short, and a dull one, however short, may seem long. It is to be observed, however, that in this age of rapid thought and short methods the sermon should be shorter than formerly. " Audiences a century ago would patiently listen to discourses of two hours in length, and would fol- low the sermonizer through a series of divisions and subdi- visions that would be intolerable to a modern hearer. * * * Mental operations are on straight lines, like the railroad and telegraph, and are far more rapid than they once were. The public audience now craves a short method, a distinct, sharp statement, and a rapid and accelerating movement, upon the part of its teachers."^ Lament thinks that noth- ing can justify a long sermon. If it be a good one it need not be long, and if it be a bad one it ought not to be long. Luther would not have preachers torment their hearers with long and tedious preaching; and Whitefield thinks that no one will be converted after the first half hour. In our day of multiplied sermons it certainly would be better to make a sermon intensive rather than extensive, and to measure its worth by its depth rather than by ita length. Its average length will vary from thirty minutes to forty -five, sometimes more, sometimes less; for its time will vary with the grandeur of the theme and the circum- stances of time, place, and people. "As a general rule, short sermo7is, short sermons. One subject, one thought, one duty, fully handled, fully illustrated, fully brought home to the conscience and heart, is enough for one ser- 1 Shedd's Homileiica arid Pastoral Theology, pp. 55, 56. Repeating Sermons. 145 mon; and, would that young ministers, as well as older ones, could have the sagacity, humility, and independence, to see and follow this rule ! " ^ § Vni. REPEATING SERMONS. "We can see no reason for never using a good sermon more than once. The lecturer on the platform delivers the same lecture for a number of years. Phillips, Gough, and Joseph Cook have lectures which they have delivered re- peatedly. The politician goes through the entire campaign, often repeating the same speech every day. The songs of the sanctuary are none the less sweet because they have been sung several times. If repetition is permitted to the medical, legal, and theological lecturer for each succeeding class, why may not the preacher repeat a religious dis- course which has commanded his best efforts and been preached to the great edification of the people? Chalmers sometimes delivered the same sermon in the afternoon that Ite preached in the morning. "Whitefield repeated one of his discourses forty times, and said that he never felt per- fect master of a sermon until he had preached it the one hundredth time. Oliver Wendell Holmes says, " Old lect- ures are a man's best, commonly ; they improve by age. * * * * One learns to make the most of their strong points and to carry off their weak ones."^ A sermon that has been carefully prepared,^ and continues to glow in the preacher's mind with its original force, will not only bear a second and third hearing, but ought to improve with every repetition. Murphy gives the following rules as to when sermons may be repeated: "A sermon may be repeated after some time 1 Hoppin's Ogice and Work of the Christian Ministry, p. 65. a Autoarat of the Breakfast Table. 3 Of. Part in., Chapter III., p. 470. 10 \/\6 The Preacher and His Sernio?i. when it has been prepared for a class of persons who were not present at its first delivery; when it was carefully pre- pared, but, the weather beiug unfavorable, there were at first but few present; when unexpected calls upon the minister's time render a new preparation utterly impossi- ble; when, beiug very carefully prepared, new circumstan- ces in the congregation promise great good from its repe- tition; when judicious persons in the church earnestly request that it should be preached again ; "* to which we may add two other rules, viz.: when pastors exchange pulpits with each other; when they are appointed by con- ference to a new charge. Let us, however, caution the young minister never to repeat a sermon through indolence, with no other motive in view than to avoid the labor of preparing a new one. A progressive preacher will not depend on his stock of old sermons, but will continually compose new and better ones, as his mind develops by study and experience, and will never use the fruit of his past labor unless he can improve it, or render it a second time with great profit to himself and his hearers. The following plea for not destroying old sermons, from "a friend of old sermons" whose name is unknown, we give entire: Is it well to burn old sermons? This question has been largely dis- cussed recently, and opinion is greatly divided upon it. 1 have seen nothing more to the point on the negative side than the following story, which I quote in substance from one of my exchanges: Near the buildings of a farm lay a pile of wood. Some of it was decaying, but there were many sound sticks in it. They had already served a purpose, and were awaiting another use. One day its owner said to a workman: "Here, Pompey, I want you to burn up this pile of wood.'' "Burn up dat pile of wood, Massal" echoed the colored man in astonishment. "Dar lots of good wood in dar. It'll be of sarv- I Pastoral Theology, pp. 221, 'I'l'l. Repeati7ig Sermans. 147 ice some day or 'nodher. If yer burn it all up, den when yer want a stick it won't be dar." "No matter," was the reply, "burn it all. Thia is old and has been used once. We can get new and strong sticks from the woods; new wood is better than old any time. Burn up every stick," said the farmer; "a pile of wood around makes me lazy." The colored man obeyed, muttering as he did so, " Massa's a good man, but some- fin's de matter wid him once in awhile. 'Tain't lazy, dough. Wood-pile around make a man lazy ! Pshaw I Not if he want to work. If he don't want to work, you can't make him by burnin' his wood-pile." Shortly after the pile was burned, a neighbor's heavily-loaded wagon became mired in the road near the farmer's house. The teamster shouted for help, and asked them to bring a rail from the wood-pile. ■"No rails there," replied the farmer. "Pile is all burned; but I'll go to the woods and cut a stick." While the farmer was gone Pompey ap- peared and told the story of the burning of the wood-pile. "Lazy!" ejaculated the man. "Crazy, you mean. If he had left it, see how he might have helped me now!" The teamster and Pompey had suc- ceeded in getting the wagon out just as the farmer was coming from the woods with a stick. There were other occasions when he needed aid from the wood-pile. One day, when asked why he burned the pile, he said, " It seemed heroic." " Heroic!" said the inquirer. "Not a bit of heroism in that. To have left it standing, and then gone by it to get your timber from the woods, might have been heroic; but your act proves you to be something else than heroic, and something less." Some sermons had better be burned. It would have been well if they had never been written ; but sermons which are the result of years of thought — sermons which were prepared under a special inspiration, and which have been consecrated by the Holy Ghost by usefulness, ought not to be burned, but sacredly preserved and used when circum- stances indicate their adaptation to the people. The greatest and most useful ministers of Cliristendom have kept and repeated their sermons. It is urged that a stock of sermons promotes laziness; but the want of it may also. Some in a few hours prepare what, for charity's sake, maybe called a sermon. This laziness is not hidden by their empty fluency. Talk of heroism in burning sermons! It is much more like cowardice. If a man's conscience and will are not strong enough to keep him to his duty in the presence of a pile of sermons, he will fail in greater trials. 148 The Preacher and His Sermon. § IX. SERIES OF SERMONS. A succession of sermons on one general subject is some- times desirable, — first, when a theme is too fertile or com- prehensive to be clearly and fairly treated in the time usually allotted for one sermon; second, when one wishes to take time to fully investigate an important subject. The series may consist of one sermon upon each of the various phases or divisions of a subject. The subject may be such as the Old Testament Christology, biblical em- blems of Christ, Messianic psalms^ biblical descriptions of heaven and hell, revivals recorded in the Scriptures, bibli- cal doctrine of the millennium, or the representative char- acters of the Old and iTew Testaments; or, it may consist of consecutive passages of scripture relating to one subject, 8uch as the ten commandments, the Lord's Prayer, the beatitudes, the Sermon on the Mount, a parable, or a mira- cle. The various phases or divisions, upon each of which a sermon is to be constructed, may be selected from differ- ent portions of the Scriptures which relate to the theme in hand. II" a series is lengthy, extending over a course of six, ten, or more sermons, it is often better to preach one of the sermons every week or fortnight than to deliver them con- secutively. By interspersing the serial with an occasional discourse on another subject, a congregation's relish for variety will be satisfied. § X. ONE OR TWO SERMONS A SABBATH? This question, of course, has reference to stations where the custom prevails of preaching two sermons each Lord's- day to the same congregation. In favor of such a custom it may be said that it doubtless prevailed in the primitive church, and is founded on the example of tlie apostles. Basil commonly preached twice on the Christian Sabbath. One or Two Sermons a Sabbath? 149 Augustine in his afternoon sermon often alludes to his morning discourse; and Chrysostom entitles one of his homilies, "An Exhortation to those who are Ashamed to Come to Sermon after Dinner." It may also be said in favor of the double-sermon system, that it affords an opportunity for all classes to hear at least one sermon a week. Servants, the aged, and the afflicted, can not all attend service at the same stated hour during the day or night. Hence, several preaching-services a day may be so arranged as to accommodate the greatest number of hear- ers, and secure the attention of others who might be idle or unworthily engaged if one sermon were suspended. In favor of one sermon a Sabbath to the same congrega- tion, much, lately, has been said and written. To change a custom as old and universal as that of preaching twice each Sabbath, would require a change of popular sentiment upon the question, rather than of logical argument in its favor; and its advocate must run the gauntlet of criti- cism. At the time when the double-sermon system was originated, it may have been highly expedient as the prin- cipal means of indoctrinating the people in the principles of Christianity; but to-day, under widely different condi- tions, the multiplication of religious books, the publication of numerous sermons, the increase of efficient teachers, the introduction of the prayer-meeting, class-meeting, and Sunday-school, supersede, to a great extent, the necessity of so much preaching. There may be circumstances in certain congregations that require two sermons a week, but cceteris paribus one sermon will be an advantage. 1. To the Preacher. It will allow him more time for general study, and remove a barrier to a young minister's improvement. To discipline the mind in preaching-ability requires more than the exercise of composing sermons. There must be time for general reading, study, and reflec- 150 The Preacher and His Sermo7i, tion. To convince men of sin, righteousness, and a judg- ment to come, to prove the doctrines of Cliristianity as a system, to impress the tremendous and engaging truths of religion upon men, requires that the preacher compasa the earth and heavens, yea, scour the universe, for argu- ments. He is to compel into his service, first, revelation; then, nature, art, philosophy, poetry, logic, illustration, times, men, realities, and fancies, — anything and every- thing within the range of gospel propriety, to woo and win the sinner from ruin to righteousness. Every minister needs, at least, three hours each day for the study of these subjects. If he neglects this work of acquiring fresh knowledge he will soon exhaust his mental resources, or become threadbare and uninteresting. He must be a feeder, else a dwarf. Where there is an outlet there must also be an inlet, or the stream will soon become shallow or entirely dried up. You can take no more out of an acre than you put into it, is a rule of agriculture and of liter- ary professions. Few ministers will prepare two good sermons each week, besides attending to all their other pastoral and official duties, and then have much time left for general improvement. Two sermons a Sabbath, together with one or two Sabbath-school sessions, and perhaps a Bible-service or other religious meeting thrown in between, not only inflict an injustice on ministers, by necessitating, for the due discharge of all their duties, an amount of preparation which is oppressive, but also ati'ect disadvan- tageously the quality of pulpit services, and consequently exert reflexly a deteriorating influence on the spiritual life of the church. Another advantage, to the preacher, of the one-sermon system is that it enables him to prepare more fully for the pulpit. This benefit will accrue naturally from the general improvement in preaching which the system afibrds, but 07ie or Two Sermons a Sabbath? 151 especially from the double amount of time allowed for tlie preparation of each discourse. The weekly time usually allotted to sermon-preparation can be best utilized by devoting it to the study of one theme. It is better for the minister to concentrate his thoughts into one im- pressive sermon than to spread them over two, when the last, perhaps, is only half- remembered and imperfectly digested and improved. One good sermon a week, driven home to the consciences of men, will do more good than half a dozen ordinary ones hastily prepared under the pressure of too much work. "What we need to-day is not less jpreaching, but a decrease in its quantity, and an in- crease in its quality; condensation and pungency rather than expansion and dullness. Our motto should be, not how much, but how well. A dollar in gold is as much money as a dollar in copper. The only difterence consists in the relative proportion of their bulk. The one-sermon regime would not produce less preaching, but sermons of greater value and efficiency. 2. To the Worshiping Congregation. One reason why so many hearers become restless under a sermon of ordinary length, and appreciate so little of what is really good, is because they must listen to too much preaching. The minister pours into their minds such frequent and abundant spiritual refreshments that they finally become overcharged and even disgusted with the good feast, and so fail to appreciate or profit by the food, on account of a debilitated digestion, caused by overfeeding. Would not a smaller quantity, but more substantial kind, of preaching improve the spiritual health of our congregations? Our religion, perhaps, is made to consist too much in the duty of oecoming "hearers of the word," rather than "doers;" and hence we hear many defend their morality or religion on the plea that they "go to church." Vinet, nearly half 152 The Preacher and His Sermon. a century ago, said what is more applicable in oui- time than it was when it was penned. In speaking of preach- ing he says, "It is almost everything with us. * * * * The temple is an auditory. It seems to have no other purpose than to gather hearers around a man who speaks to them. Thus we say of the Catholic, he goes to mass; of the Protestant, he goes to sermon. "We thus unconsciously give perhaps too exclusive predominance to preaching in Protestant worship."^ Christian people need to do more than to listen to sermons. Unless the sermon produces actual fruit in the life and actions of the hearer, it be- comes a mere form, and the congregation a mass of passive hearers. People now need spiritual exercise more than religious instruction. Modern Christianity should be active, rather than receptive. To meet this condition we need more relig- ious services in which the people can participate, — such as prayer, class, praise, or Bible meetings, — and an im- proved order instead of an increased number of sermons. Let the hour of the second preaching-service be devoted to such a general meeting, or to the cultivation of religious knowledge and piety in the home circle, or to some char- itable or missionary work among the poor and degraded in the neighborhood. This kind of Christian activity, as the sequel of more earnest, vigorous preaching, would undoubtedly conduce to a more genuine and aggressive Christianity; while too much common-place preaching, to the exclusion of earnest Christian work, has put to sleep many a live church and produced dead and formal profess- ors of religion. X Homiletict, pp. 21, 22. CHAPTER II. THE TEXT OF THE SERMON. Objections to the Use of Texts— Reasons for Selecting a Text — From What Portion of the Bible should the Text be Selected ? — How to Select a Text — When to Choose a Text — A Systematic Record of Texts from which to Select — Interpretation of the Text — How to Obtain a Proper Theme from the Text. The formal quoting of a passage of scripture at the beginning of a religious discourse is, as Palmer has said, a mere matter of ecclesiastical usage.^ But no one should question the propriety of the old, established custom of using passages of scripture as the basis of sacred discourse — a custom as old as the Bible itself. The first inspired preachers — Enoch, ISToah, and Moses, — spoke directly from Jehovah. Our Savior himself, in the synagogue of Naza- reth, founded his first sermon on a passage from the Prophet Isaiah, Ixi. 1, 2.^ Peter, soon after the ascen- sion, preached a discourse from Psalms cix. 8;^ and again, on the day of Pentecost, he preached from Joel ii. 28-32.* The early Christian fathers, having learned it, no doubt, from their predecessors, usually quoted texts at the begin- ning of the sermon, though they seldom adapted their themes to them. "While the general historical use of texts, or the founding of the sermon directly upon the word of God, is to be traced back to the earliest ages, the use of the single brief text in the more confined 1 Palmer's Evangelische HomiLehk, p. 315. 2 See Luke iv. 16-29. 3 See Acts i. 15., et seq. See Acts ii. 14-36. 153 154 ^^^^ FreacJicr mid 1 1 is Ser7no?i. manner of our times, as standing for the particular themo of the discourse, is ascribed to the Presbyter Musaeus of Marseilles, in the fifth century."^ It was during the decline and corruption of the church in the Middle Ages, that quotations from uninspired literature, such as the dia- lectics of Aristotle, were often substituted for scriptural themes. The medieval preachers frequently discoursed without texts, while the Venerable Bede, and Peter of Celiac, selected their texts from Latin hymns. Protestant divines of that age, on some occasions, took texts from the catechisms.^ However, the learned Keckermann^ tells us that the evangelical churches of his time preferred the taking of scripture texts."* To take passages from uninspired authors as texts, no matter how religious the sentiment, would be considered a desecration of the divine office of the ministry, which must base all its teachings upon the inspired, infallible word. "Preach the word," was Paul's advice to his spiritual son Timothy. The root-origin of the word text"^ implies that it is some- thing given to us, a fabric prepared, which we are to un- ravel, or draw out into a line of discourse. The Bible is the preacher's text -book, woven by divine inspiration, and handed down from heaven as the fojis et origo of all preaching; and the "gospel net" (Matt. xiii. 47.) be- comes available to him only so far as used according to 1 Hoppin's Bomiletics, p. 289. 2 See J. M. Neale's Medieval Preachers and Preaching, xliii. 54. Riddle, in his CkrisHan Antiquities, p. 448, describes a religious service in which the text for the sermon was from Theodore Parker. 3 liheiorica Ecclesiastieae, Chapter I. 4 Voltaire's familiar objection to the custom of using scripture texts has, no donbt, ariaon from the abuse, rather than from the proper use, of texts. He 3ays, "It were to be wished that Rourdaloue, in banishing from the pulpit the bad taste which disgraced it^ had also banished the custom of preaching on a text. Indeed, to speak long on a quota tion of a line or two, to exhaust one's self in subjecting a whole discourse to the control of this line, seems a trifling labor, little worthy of the dignity of the ministry. The text becomes a sort of motto, or rather enigma, which the discourse develops." 5 Tcxtum is something woven — a web. Objectio7is to the Use of Texts, 155 the direction of the Master, who said, "Preach the gospel." Hence we should select a text only from the received canon of inspiration. '•' If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God."^ § I. OBJECTIONS TO THE USE OF TEXTS. There are still some preachers and authors of homiletics who speak disparagingly of the use of texts as the themes of sermons, for the following reasons : 1. They contract the range of discourse, confining one to too small a circle of ideas. " Experience also is a book," says Viuet; "experience also furnishes texts." To this objection it may be replied that a contracted theme is better than an expanded one. It tends to thorough- ness and depth of discussion, rather than to a rambling over the surface of an extended field. Every passage suited for pulpit discourse, however brief, is an exhaustless well of thought to him who will fathom its depth. Besides, the range of scripture-subjects is as wide as the range of human experience, and will furnish something for every individual case. 2. They are not adapted to topical discourse, because not every text possesses perfect unity. But, however numerous the distinctive members of a text, and however capable of yielding a variety of difi'er- ent subjects, there is always a main idea underlying the text which forms the unifying center of a topical sermon. Even in textual discussions, the several text-divisions must all fall under one general head. 3. The use of texts stift'ens the routine of the pulpit. Kot more than seed will introduce formalit}^ in vegeta- tion. Texts are the necessary seed-thoughts that yield an I Revised Version renders this passage, '* If any man speakefh, speaking as it were ora- cles of God " (I. Peter iv. 11). 156 The Preacher and His Sermon. endless variety of fresh material. Instead of losing inter- est, every hearer will especially give close attention to the announcement of the text. It is upon this that everything centers. The custom of employing a text as the subject of a sermon is not peculiar to preaching; it is, in fact, characteristic of all public speaking. The Greek and Roman orators often spoke upon some definite proposition. Demosthenes generally spoke upon some indictment or specific statement; and in our day, legislative and forensic addresses are based upon resolutions, motions, bills, or legal forms of indictment. When Daniel Webster com- menced his famous reply to Hayne, in the United States Senate, he said, " Mr. President, I call for the reading of the resolution before the Senate." Such direction of speech to some particular point or formal specification is equiva- lent to the use of a text of scripture in preaching. § n. REASONS FOR SELECTING A TEXT. 1. Because we thereby recognize and honor the au- thority of the divine Word. This gives weight and author- ity to our words and arguments, and at once demands the attention of all; for the preacher is not to indulge in speculative philosophy — setting up his own notions and fancies, or any other human dictum.; but with an open Bible before him, he shows that he has a message from heaven as he announces the " Thus saith the Lord." Here is a valid basis of instruction which men will honor and respect. Besides, one great purpose in preaching is to unfold some idea of inspiration. If this be not our inten- tion, we need no text at all, — we may as well take one from Bacon's "Essays." Without a text of scripture our dis- course may be an oration, a speech, a lecture, an essay; but it can never be called a sermon.' I Of. F. Wayland's Letters on the Ministry of the Gospel. Reasons for Selecting a Text. 157 2. Because it confines our remarks to one particular topic, and thus affords opportunity for thorough analysis and keen penetration into each passage, without rambling superficially over a number of homogeneous texts, only touching and never transpiercing the thought. Preachers given to loose, wandering habits of study should cultivate concentration of thought by selecting, not those texts that are fertile or comprehensive, but rather the opposite. Look through the microscope oftener, and less through the id- escojpe. 3. Because it affords variety in preaching. The Bible is an emporium of religious commodity. Its shelves and cases are stored with an endless wealth and variety of themes, insomuch that, for hundreds of years, thousands of seraphic orators have drawn their eloquent appeals from the same exhaustless fountain of inspiration with such astonishing diversity that, out of the multitude of sermons preached, no two are perfectly alike. 4. Because it aids the memory of the hearer. " The best texts contain a comprehensive view of the whole scope of the sermons founded upon them. The most felicitously chosen texts are the sermons in miniature. The sermons are in them like an oak in the acorn. To recall them is to recall the train of thought which the sermons develop."^ In recalling a sermon the mind generally first thinks of the text, and thereby calls up the treatment. It is thus that people remember the sermon heard many years ago ; and every casual recurrence of the text brings to their minds the preacher, audience, and effect produced in their minds, recalling again the scene of long ago, and making the text a precious jewel in their Bibies. Texts thus become/ociof recollections or sepulchers of embalmed memories.^ The first inquiry is, — S Phelps' Theory of Preaching, p. 58. • The text " recurs again and again to such a hearer amid the manifold changes and 158 The Preacher and His Sermon. § III. FROM WHAT PORTION OF THE BIBLE SHOULD THE TEXT BE SELECTED? True, one book may be more evangelical and practical than another; the Old Testament may not be so rich in Christian tone as the ISTew, for the latter is the flower of which the former is only the bud; yet every book, from Genesis to Revelation, contains something of Christ — the hero of the Bible, and the only great theme for preaching. "When we preach from the Old Testament, we should surely seek to find the New Testament in it — the testimony of Christ, the analogy of faith. Some one quaintly says that 'ELe who understands the art of distinguishing between Moses and Christ, may indeed be called a doctor.' The Old Testament is the New Testament in its germ, and there- fore can not be neglected by the preachers of Christ; but we should choose our texts, and treat them in such a way as that they may all bear upon the 'truth as it is in Jesus.' "^ Hence we may find texts flavored with the Christ sentiment in all portions of the Bible. The book of Psalms is full of such texts. In the New Testament we may find those of an historical character chiefly in the beginning; those of an experimental, chiefly in the middle; and those of a prophetical, chiefly in the end. Some preachers hesitate to take texts from the books of Daniel, Ecclesiastes, II. Peter, Hebrews, and lievelation, be- cause their canonical autliority and authenticity have been controverted. In fact, every book of the Bible has been assailed at some time; but this is no reason why we should pass them over in selecting our texts. There is abundant evidence of the divine inspiration of the above named trials of life; and as its light was the first gleam of heaven that fell upon his soul, so piTiulvonture, it is the last tliat ghiddens and sustiiins him as he closes his sojourn, itrikes his tent, and breasts the river." — Blaikie, p. 160. 1 lloppin's Jlomilelics, jip. 2'.i'J,o00. Where to Select the Text, 159 "books, which alone is a valid basis for using them in preaching. Here let us refer to the impropriety of preaching from passages which are quotations from profane writers, — for not " all that lies between the covers of the Bible is divine," — such as, " We are also his offspring" (Acts xvii. 28);^ " Cre- tans are always liars, evil boasts, idle gluttons" (Titus i. 12, R. Y.);^ "Evil company doth corrupt good manners" (I. Cor. XV. 33, E. Y.) f Jude 14, 15 is probably a quotation from the book of Enoch.* Many proverbs quoted by Christ, such as, "Physician, heal thyself" (Luke iv. 23), and " Strain out the gnat, and swallow the camel" (Matt, xxiii. 24, R. Y.), which are supposed to be from the fables of ^sop, are less objectionable, but should not be used as texts so long as we can find other inspired passages that express the same idea. Equally as much should we avoid the erroneous sayings of uninspired men, whose words are recorded in Scripture. " Many such sayings found in the Bible are in themselves utterly untrue, inspiration being responsible only for the fact that they were actually spoken. N'o one would think of treating as true the vaunting speech of Rabshakeh (II. Kings xviii), * * >!^ *= The well-known words of Gamaliel (Acts v. 38, 39) are very instructive as his saying under the circumstances, but the principle laid down is not true without qualification. In the book of Job, many of the things said by those friends are quite erroneous."^ Saul 1 This is a quotation from the Phenomena, an astronomical poem by the Greek poet Aratus. Cleanthus also expresses the same sentiment in his writings. 2 From Epimenides of Crete, a philosophical poet who lived in the sixth century B. C. By Plato he is called "a divinely-inspired man;" by Plutarch, a man dear to the Gods." 3 From the Greek poet Menander in his play called Thais. The same sentiment is found in ^schylus, Sevm Against Thebes, ver. 605. " In every matter there is nothing more deleterious than evil communications." Also, in Diodorus Siculus, Lib. xvi, cap. £4, " With these evil communications he corrupts the morals of men." 4 See an article on the Book of Enoch, in McClintock anp Strong's Cyclopedia. 5 Broadus, Preparation and Delivery oj Sermons, p. 49. i6o The Preacher ajid His Ser77ion. and Ahab are no authority for divine instruction. Manj uninspired sentiments of the Bible contradict each other and usually contradict the teachings of the Holy Spirit They are untrue, and therefore unfit for texts of sacred dis- course. In order to avoid spurious and interioolated passages, let the preacher use the Revised Version of the Scriptures, from which all texts of doubtful genuineness, such as Acts viii. 37, ix. 6, xxviii. 29, I. John v. 7, etc., are omitted. ISo sacred discourse should be built on so fallible a foundation as human opinion. From whatever portion of scripture the text may be se- lected, it must always be presented in its correct translation. The preacher should consult commentaries, translations, versions, and especially the original text, in order to arrive at its true meaning. Many erroneous doctrines and false opinions have been built up by texts which mean some- thing quite difl'erent from the sense in which they were used. Thus, the passage, "Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian," has often been used as a text for a sermon upon "Almost a Christian;" whereas a philological exami- nation of the passage will show an almost opposite mean- ing. " For now we see through a glass darkly," signifies more than would appear by the rendering. A truer trans- lation would be, " For now we see in a mirror, obscurely." It does not onl}' imply an imperfect vision, but a mystery concealed behind an imperfect vision. "'I know nothing by myself,' is really, ' I am not conscious to myself of any guilt,' and yet I am not thereby justified; showing that even the unconsciousness of his sins can not justify the sinner — an important homiletical and practical sense."' The faithful preacher will always be careful to preach noth- ing but the unadulterated word of God. I Iloppin's Homiletics, p. 3(11. How to Select a Text, i6i § IV. HOW TO SELECT A TEXT. A text always implies a theme; for in selecting a text we also select a theme, and vice versa. We therefore some- times use these two terms interchangeably. In choosing a text, several things should be taken into consideration. 1st. The ability of the preacher. He should not undertake what is beyond his limit of comprehension — for this would evidently result in confusion and defeat, without profiting himself or his hearers; nor yet should he be content with too familiar subjects, but take such as are most in accord with his information and individuality. The themes which a minister habitually selects are generally an index of his character. 2d. This first consideration must often be modified by another; namely, the character and ability of his congregation. He should always try to adapt himself to the wants and capacity of the people whom he addresses. 3d. The sermons already preached — looking toward a suitable variety. As we can not expect to preach on all the various scripture-topics, our selections should be judi- cious, so that during our pastorate at one place we shall have passed over, at least, the important and essential doc- trines of our Christian faith and practice. 4th. The occasien. The subject should have reference to the circumstances under which the auditors are assembled. True eloquence, says Webster, is " in the man, in the sub- ject, and in the occasion." 5th. lite object of the sermon. This is an important con- sideration. We must take aim, and hit some mark. Outside 01 these considerations, cceteris paribus, the fol- lowing rules -will be of service in selecting a text: Rule 1. Select one toward which the mind naturally 102 The Preacher and His Sermon. gravitates at the time. " The right text is one which comes up of itself, during reading or meditating, — which accom- panies you in your walks, goes to bed with you, and rises with you. On such a text thoughts swarm and cluster like bees upon a branch. The sermon ferments for hours and days, and at length, after patient waiting, and almost spontaneous working, the subject clarifies itself. * * * * Those texts which come up of themselves * * * * are the right ones, and are different from those which are sought out."^ In this way the Holy Spirit often directs us to the proper theme when other methods of searching out a text fail us, or the text already selected is unsatisfactory or uninteresting. "Whatever becomes the most interesting text at the time of choosing is to us a " Palace Beautiful," through which we can go weeping, singing, and rejoicing. We should not omit seeking divine guidance in the selec- tion of our subjects. " If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally." Yet no one should rely exclusively on such help, but should also use the means placed at his own hands for self-help. Rule 2. Seek for great themes. "We do not mean abstruse or philosophically profound, but religiously great themes, — themes that constitute the great pyramids of the Script- ures. "We again quote the excellent words of J. "W. Alex- ander, on what he calls " The great themes : " " They are such as move the feelings, the great questions which have agitated the world, which agitate our own bosom, which we would like to have settled before we die, which we would ask an apostle, if he were here. These are to general scripture-truth what great mountains are in geog- raphy. Some, anxious to avoid hackneyed topics, omit the greatest, just as if we should describe Switzerland and omit the Alps. Some ministers preach twenty years, and I J. VV. Alexander's Thoughts on Preaching, pp. 38, 39. How to Select a Text. 163 yet never preacli on the judgment, hell, the crucifixion, nor on those great themes which in all ages affect children and affect the common mind." Rule 3. Avoid themes that are petty, odd, and frivo- lous. In the dark ages such questions were discussed as, ""Whether Ahel was slain with a club, and of what species of wood; ""From what sort of tree was Moses' rod taken?" In the seventeenth century preachers took for their themes " The Four Seasons; " " The Seven Planets; " " The Secret of Roses and Flowers." A pastor of Werni- gerode preached from Matthew x. 30, and deduced from it the subject, " Our Hair." ^ A writer in the last century tells of a time when homiletical instruction was given upon the subject of silk -worms. Some preacher dis- coursed upon the "Substitute for Tea and Coffee" at a time when those commodities were scarce; another preached upon the Christian mode of cultivating red-beets; another, upon the truly pious method of raising tobacco. Luther used to say that the time would come when men would preach on blue ducks. Exceedingly unbecoming was the petty smartness of one of Dr. Philip Doddridge's students, who, on preaching a sermon in public before his venerable instructor, announced as his text, " Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip?" Even in our modern pulpits we hear of a great deal of eccentricity in the selection of texts. One preaches on " There appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman;" another selects the word " grace," and preaches upon it alphabetically, making this division: great grace, rich grace, almighty, covenant, eternal grace.^ In order to draw 1 See Dr. Hurst's History of Ratkmnlism, pp. 70,71 ; also, Christlieb's Modem Doubt and Christian Belief. 2 Spe Broadus' Preparation and Delivery of Sermons, p. 46, where many examples of odd subjects are given. 164 The Preacher a7id His Sermon. people to church through curiosity, sensational subjects are often announced in the Saturday papers; such as, "The Girl of the Period," " The Man in the Moon," " The Devil's Funeral Sermon," " The Greatest Liar in Town." Bishop Simpson speaks of one who advertised, "'Words that were Spoken by neither God, Man, nor Devil;' and when his wondering congregation came, his words were the utter- ances of Balaam's ass." A preacher in Kew Jersey preached on the " Marriage of Adam ;'' another in Massa- chusetts, on the " Sin of Raising Apples for Cider." "Where in this world is buffoonery so much out of place as in the pulpit? * * * * The origin of this sinful and ab- surd manner of entertaining an audience on the Lord's day most generally is in a desire to copy after some erratic, or possibly unprincipled, preacher, who, by his recklessness as to the way of handling the truth of God and by his genius, has risen to a temporary popularity."^ A preacher who resorts to such illegitimate means of drawing the people will not succeed in making much religious impres- sion upon his hearers. A trivial manner of using the sacred word in the pulpit is not only beneath the dignity of a serious minister, but is actually sinful. '"Tis pitiful To court a grin, when you should woo a soul ; To break a jest, when pity would inspire Pathetic exhortation ; and to address The skittish fancy with facetious tales, When sent with God's commissiou to the heartl"- RuLE 4. Select a text that embraces a theme. In order to give some unity to a discourse, every text must em- brace enough words to make complete sense or contain a truth.' " For sake of brevity a passage is sometimes mu- 1 Murphy's FasioTal Theology, pp. 206,206. a CowptT, The Task, Book II. 3 We have heard of a preachor who select