.,j\| of Pr// 
 
 ^ NOV CO 1889 < 
 
 _-c- 
 
 B\r42Tr^S6SS 1889 
 Spurgeon, C. H. 1834-1892 
 second series of lectures 
 my students 
 
Lectures to my Students 
 
 SELECTION FROM ADDRESSES DELIVERED TO 
 
 THE STUDENTS OF THE PASTORS' COLLEGE, 
 
 METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, LONDON 
 
 HEV. c. H. sFunaEoisr 
 
 President 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 ROBERT CARTER & BROTHERS 
 
 530 Hroadway 
 
■v 
 
COJ^TEJSTTS. 
 
 LECTURE I. 
 
 FAQH 
 
 The Minister's Self- watch 11 
 
 LECTURE IL 
 The Call to the Ministry 35 
 
 LECTURE in. 
 The Preacher's Private Prayer G6 
 
 LECTURE IV. 
 Our Public Prayer 81 
 
 LECTURE V. 
 Sermons — their Matter 113 
 
 LECTURE VL 
 On the Choice of a Text 130 
 
 LECTURE Vn. 
 Oq Spiritualizing 156 
 
 LECTURE VIII. 
 On the Voice 178 
 
4 CONTENTS. 
 
 LECTURE IX. 
 
 PAOB 
 
 Attention 205 
 
 LECTURE X. 
 Tbe Faculty of Impromptu Speech 227 
 
 LECTURE XL 
 TLe Minister's Fainting Fits 249 
 
 LECTURE XIL 
 Tlie Minister's Ordinary Conversation 268 
 
 LECTURE XIIL 
 To Workers witli Slender Apparatus 282 
 
INTRODUCTION AND APOLOGY. 
 
 In reply to many requests from tliosc ministers wlic 
 m their student days listened to my lectures, I submit a 
 selection to the press. This, however, I cannot do with- 
 out an apology, for these addresses were not originally 
 prepared for the public eye, and are scarcely presentable 
 for criticism. 
 
 My College lectures are colloquial, familiar, full of 
 anecdote, and often humorous : they are purposely made 
 so, to suit the occasion. At the end of the week I meet 
 the students, and find them weary Avith sterner studies, 
 and I judge it best to be as lively and interesting in my 
 prelections as I well can be. They have had their fill of 
 classics, mathematics, and divinity, and are only in a 
 condition to receive something which will attract and 
 secure their attention, and fire their hearts. Our rever- 
 end tutor, Mr. Kogers, compares my Friday work to the 
 sharpening of the pin : the fashioning of the head, the 
 straightening, the laying on of the metal and the polishing 
 have been done during the week, and then the process 
 concludes with an effort to give point and sharpness. To 
 succeed in this the lecturer must not be dull himself, 
 nor demand any great effort from his audience. 
 
 I am as much at home with my young brethren as in 
 the bosom of my family, and therefore speak without 
 restraint. Generous minds will take this into account 
 
6 IIS'TRODUCTION AND APOLOGY. 
 
 ill reading these lectures, and I shall hope that all who 
 favor me with their criticisms will be of that noble order. 
 
 Possibly caustic remarks may be made ujion my fre- 
 quent references to myself, my own methods of procedure, 
 and personal reminiscences. These also were intentional. 
 I have purposely given an almost autobiographical tinge 
 to the whole, because my own experience, such as it is, 
 is the most original contribution which I can offer, and, 
 4«id with, my oion students, quite as weighty as any othei 
 within my reach. It would have been impossible for me 
 to quote the experiences of other men if they had not 
 been bold enough to record them, and I make an honest 
 attempt to acknowledge my debt to my greater prede- 
 cessors by writing down my own. Whether this arises 
 from egotism or not, each reader shall decide according 
 to the sweetness or acidity of his own disposition. A 
 father is excused when he tells his sons his own life-story 
 and finds it the readiest Avay to enforce his maxims ; the 
 old soldier is forgiven when he " shoulders his crutch, 
 and shows how fields were won ;" I beg that the license 
 which tolerates these may, on this occasion, be extended 
 to me. 
 
 It would have saved me much labor had I reserved 
 these lectures for re-delivery to new companies of fresh- 
 men, and I am conscious of no motive in printing them 
 but that of desiring to keep my counsels alive in the 
 memories of those who heard them years ago, and im- 
 l)ressing them upon others who dwell beyond the pre- 
 oincts of our class-room. The age has become intensely 
 practical, and needs a ministry not only orthodox and 
 spiritual, but also natural in utterance, and practically 
 shrewd. Ofldcialism is sick unto death ; life is the true 
 heir to success, and is coming to its heritage. Manner- 
 isms, pomposities, and proprieties, once so potent in the 
 
INTRODUCTION AND APOLOGY. 7 
 
 religions world, are becoming as obsolete in the reverence 
 of men as those gods of high Olympus for whom in past 
 ages poets tuned their lyres, and sculptors quickened 
 marble into beauty. Truth and life must conquer, and 
 their victory is nearest when they cease to be encumbered 
 with the grave-clothes of conventionalism and pretence. 
 It i& delicious to put one's foot through the lath and 
 plaster of old affectations, to make room for the granite 
 walls of reality. This has been a main design with me, 
 and may God send success to the effort. 
 
 The solemn work with which the Christian ministry 
 concerns itself demands a man's all, and that all at its 
 best. To engage in it half-heartedly is an insult to God 
 and man. Slumber must forsake our eyelids sooner than 
 men shall be allowed to perish. Yet we are all prone to 
 sleep as do others, and students, among the rest, are apt 
 to act the part of the foolish virgins ; therefore have I 
 sought to speak out my whole soul, in the hope that I 
 might not create or foster dulness in others. May He in 
 whose hand are the churches and their pastors bless these 
 words to younger brethren in the ministry, and if so, I 
 shall count it more than a full reward, and shall grate- 
 fully praise the Lord. 
 
 Should this publication succeed, I hope very soon to 
 issue in similar form a work upon Commenting, contain- 
 ing a full catalogue of Commentaries, and also a second 
 set of lectures. I shall be obliged by any assistance 
 rendered to the sale, for the price is unremunerative, and 
 persons interested in our subjects are not numei"0U3 
 enough to secure a very large circulation ; hence it is 
 only by the kind aid of all appreciating friends that I 
 filiall be able to publish the rest of the contemplated series. 
 
 The Pastors' College was commenced upon a very 
 small scale in the year I80G. Since that date it has ed- 
 
8 • INTRODUCTION AND APOLOGY. 
 
 iicated and sent forth into the ministry not less than three 
 hundred and fifty men, of whom, after deductions by 
 death and other causes, about three hundred remain in 
 tlie Baptist denomination, preaching the gospel of Jesua 
 Christ. In addition to this, a far larger number of men 
 I'eceive gratuitous education in the evening, sucli as may 
 fit them to be city missionaries, colporteurs, or useful 
 private Christians. 
 
 The institution receives no man in order to make him 
 a preacher, but it is established to help in the further 
 education of brethren who have been preaching with some 
 measure of success for two years at the least. Many men 
 of earnest spirit and established Christian character are 
 hindered in their efforts to do good by the slenderness of 
 their knowledge. Conscious of their own defects, they 
 endeavor to improve themselves, but the absence of a 
 guide, their need of books, and their scanty time, all pre- 
 vent their making progress. These are the men whom 
 the Pastors' College welcomes. Men in whom piety, zeal, 
 and the indwelling Spirit are to be found, need not fear 
 refusal at our doors on account of poverty, if they pos- 
 sess those gifts of utterance which are essential to the 
 preacher. 
 
 The College aims at training preachers rather than 
 scholars. To develop the faculty of ready speech, to help 
 them to understand the word of God, and to foster the 
 spirit of consecration, courage, and confidence in God, 
 are objects so important that we j)ut all other matters 
 into a secondary j^osition. If a student should learn a 
 tliousand things, and yet fail to preach the gospel accept- 
 ably, his College course Avill liave missed its true design. 
 Sliould the pursuit of literary prizes and tlie ambition 
 for classical honors so occupy his mind as to divert his 
 attention from his life work, they are perilous rather than 
 
INTEODUCTION AXD APOLOGY. 9 
 
 beneficial. To be wise to wiu souls is the wisdom miuis- 
 ters should possess. 
 
 In the Pastors' College definite doctrines are held and 
 taught. AVe hold the doctrines of grai 9 and the old 
 ortliodox faith, and have no sympathy with the countless 
 theological novelties of the present day, which are novel- 
 ties only in outward form : in substance they are repeti- 
 tions of errors exploded long ago. Our standing in 
 doctrinal matters is well known, and we make no profes- 
 sion of latitudinarian charity, yet we find no failure in 
 the number of earnest spirits who rally to our standard, 
 believing that in truth alone can true freedom be found. 
 
 The support of the College is derived from the free- 
 will offerings of the Lord's people. We have no roll of 
 Rubscribers, although many friends send us aid at regular 
 intervals. Our confidence is that God wi-ll supply all our 
 needs, and he has always done so hitherto. The Presi- 
 dent has never derived a farthing from the work for 
 himself in any shape, but on the contrary delights to give 
 to the work all that he can, both of money and gratis 
 service ; and therefore he more confidently appeals to 
 others to assist him in maintaining the Institution. No 
 work can possibly confer a greater benefit upon mankind 
 than the training of ministers whom God has chosen, for 
 around them sj)ring up churches, schools, and all the 
 agencies of religion and philanthropy. As we are com- 
 manded to jjray for laborers in the Lord's harvest, so 
 are we bound to prove the honesty of our prayers by our 
 actions. 
 
 At least £100 is required every week to carry on the 
 work 
 
 C. H. Spurgeon. 
 
 NlQHTINaALE LANE, CLAPHAM, SURREY. 
 

 LECTURE I. 
 THE MINISTER'S SELF-WATCH. 
 
 ' Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine."— I. Timothy Iv. 16. 
 
 Every workman knows the necessity of keeping liia 
 tools in a good state of repair, for "if the iron be blunt, 
 and he do not whet the edge, then must he put to more 
 strength." If the workman lose the edge from his adze, 
 he knows that there will be a greater draft upon his 
 energies, or his work will be badly done. Michael Angelo, 
 the elect of the fine arts, understood so well the impor- 
 lance of his tools, that he always made his own brushes 
 Avith his own hands, and in this he gives us an illustration 
 of the God of grace, who with special care fashions for 
 himself all true ministers. It is true that the Lord, like 
 Quintin ^latsys in the story of the Antwerp well-cover, 
 can work with the faultiest kind of instrumentality, as 
 he does when he occasionally makes very foolish preach- 
 ing to be useful in conversion ; and he can even work 
 without agents, as he does when he saves men without a 
 preacher at all, applying the word directly by his Holy 
 Spirit ; but Ave cannot regard God's absolutely sovereign 
 acts as a rule for our action. He may, in his absolute- 
 ness, do as pleases him best, but we must act as his plainer 
 dispensations instruct us ; and one of the facts Avhich is 
 clear enough is this, that the Lord usually adapts means 
 to ends, from which the plain lesson is, that we shall be 
 
13 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 likely to accomplish most when we are in the best spirit- 
 ual condition ; or in other words, we shall usually do our 
 Lord's work best when our gifts and graces are in good 
 order, and we shall do worst when they are most out of 
 trim. This is a practical truth for our guidance ; when 
 the Lord makes excej^tions, they do but prove the rule. 
 
 We are, in a certain sense., our own tools, and there- 
 fore must keep ourselves in order. If I want to preach 
 the gospel, I can only use my own voice ; therefore I 
 must train my vocal powers. I can only think with my 
 own brains, and feel with my own heart, and therefore I 
 must cultivate my intellectual and emotional faculties. 
 I can only weep and agonize for souls in my own renewed 
 nature, therefore must I watchfully maintain the tender- 
 ness which was in Christ Jesus. It will be in vain for 
 me to stock my library, or organize societies, or project 
 schemes, if I neglect the culture of myself ; for books, 
 and agencies, and systems, are only remotely the instru- 
 ments of my holy calling ; my own spirit, soul, and body, 
 are my nearest machinery for sacred service ; my spirit- 
 ual faculties, and my inner life, are my battle-axe and 
 weapons of war. M'Cheyne, writing to a ministerial 
 friend, who was travelling with a vicAV to perfecting 
 himself in the German tongue, used language identical 
 with our own : ''I know you will apply hard to German, 
 but do not forget the culture of the inner man — I mean of 
 the heart. How diligently the cavalry officer keeps his 
 sabre clean and sharp ; every stain he rubs off with the 
 greatest care. Eemember you are God's sword, his iustru 
 ment — I trust, a chosen vessel unto him to bear his name. 
 In great measure, according to the purity and perfection of 
 the instrument, will be the success. It is not great talents 
 God blesses, so much as likeness to Jesus. A holy min- 
 ister is an awful weapon in the hand of God." 
 
THE minister's SELF- WATCH. 13 
 
 For the herald of the gospel to be spiritually out of 
 order in his own proper person is, both to himself and to 
 his work, a most serious calamity ; and yet, my brethren, 
 how easily is such an evil produced, and with what 
 watchfulness must it be guarded against ! Travelling 
 one day by express from Perth to Edinburgh, on a sudden 
 we came to a dead stop, because a small screw in one of 
 the engines — every railway locomotive consisting virtually 
 of two engines — had been broken, and when we started 
 again we were obliged to crawl along with one piston-rod 
 at work instead of two. Only a small screw was gone, if 
 that had been right the train would have rushed along 
 its iron road ; but the absence of that insignificant piece 
 of iron disarranged the whole. A train is said to have 
 been stopped on one of the United States' railways by 
 flies in the grease-boxes of the carriage wheels. The anal- 
 gy is perfect ; a man, in all other respects fitted to be 
 useful, may by some small defect be exceedingly hindered, 
 or even rendered utterly useless. Such a result is all the 
 more grievous, because it is associated Avith the gospel, 
 which in the highest sense is adapted to effect the grandest 
 results. It is a terrible thing when the healing balm 
 loses its efficacy through the blunderer who administers 
 it. You all know the injurious effects frequently pro- 
 duced upon water flowing along leaden pipes ; even so 
 the gospel itself, in flowing through men who are spirit- 
 ually unhealthy, may be debased until it grows injurioui 
 to their hearers. It is to be feared that Calviniscic 
 doctrine becomes most evil teaching when it is set forth 
 by men of ungodly lives, and exhibited as if it were a 
 cloak for licentiousness ; and Arminianism, on the other 
 hand, with its wide sweep of the offer of mercy, may do 
 most serious damage to the souls of men, if the careless 
 tone of the preacher leads his hearers to believe that tliey 
 
14 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 ca7i repent Avhenever they please ; and that, therefore, no 
 urofency surrounds the gospel message. Moreover, when 
 a preacher is poor in grace, any lasting good which may 
 be the result of his ministry, will usually be feeble and 
 utterly out of proportion with what might have been ex- 
 pected. Much sowing will be followed by little reaping ; 
 the interest upon the talents will be inappreciably small. 
 In two or three of the battles which were lost in the late 
 American war, the result is said to have been due to the 
 bad gunpowder which was served out by certain " shoddy" 
 contractors to the army, so that the due effect of the 
 cannonade was not produced. So it may' be with us. 
 We may miss our mark, lose our end and aim, and waste 
 our time, through not possessing true vital force within 
 ourselves, or not joossessing it in such a degree that God 
 could consistently bless us. Beware of being "shoddy" 
 preachers. 
 
 It should be one of oue fiest cares that we 
 ourselves be saved men. 
 
 That a teacher of the gospel should first be a joartaker 
 of it, is a simple truth, but at the same time a rule of tlie 
 most weighty importance. We are not among those who 
 accept the apostolical succession of young men simply 
 because they assume it ; if their college experience has 
 been rather vivacious than spiritual, in their honors have 
 been connected rather with athletic exercises than with 
 labors for Christ, we demand evidence of another kind 
 than they arc able to present to us. No amount of fees 
 paid to learned doctors, and no amount of classics received 
 in return, appear to us to be evidences of a call from 
 above. True and genuine piety is necessary as the first 
 indispensable requisite; whatever *'call" a man may 
 
THE minister's SELF- WATCH. )5 
 
 pretend to have, if lie has not been called to holiness, he 
 certainly has not been called to the ministry. 
 
 " First be trimmed thyself, and then adorn thy broth- 
 er," say the rabbins. ''The hand," saith Gregory 
 " that means to make another clean, must not itself be 
 dirty." If your salt be unsavory how can you seasou 
 others ? Conversion is a sine qua non in a minister. 
 Ye aspirants to our pulpits, "ye must be born again." 
 Nor is the possession of this first qualification a thing to 
 be taken for gi-anted by any man, for there is very great 
 possibility of our being mistaken as to whether we are 
 converted or not. Believe me, it is no child's play to 
 " make 3'our calling and election sure." The world is 
 full of counterfeits, and swarms with panderers to carnal 
 self-conceit, who gather around a minister as vultures 
 around a carcass. Our own hearts are deceitful, so that 
 truth lies not on the surface, but must be drawn up from 
 the deepest well. AVe must search ourselves very anx- 
 iously and very thoroughly, lest by any means after hav- 
 ing preached to others we ourselves should be castaways. 
 
 How horrible to be a preacher of the gospel and yet 
 to be unconverted ! Let each man here whisper to hia 
 own inmost soul, "What a dreadful thing it will ho for 
 me if I should be ignorant of the power of the truth 
 which I am preparing to proclaim ! " Unconverted min- 
 istry involves the most unnatural relationships. A grace- 
 less pastor is a blind man elected to a professorship of 
 optics, philosophizing upon light and vision, discoursing 
 upon and distinguishing to others the nice shades and 
 delicate blendings of the prismatic colors, while he him- 
 Bclf is absolutely in the dark ! He is a dumb man ele- 
 vated to the chair of music ; a deaf man fluent upon sym- 
 phonies and harmonies ! He is a mole professing to edu- 
 cate eaglets ; a limpet elected to preside over angels. To 
 
16 LECTURES TO MY STrDEKTS. 
 
 such a relationship one might apply the most absurd and 
 grotesque metaphors, except that the subject is too 
 solemn. It is a dreadful position for a man to stand in 
 for he has undertaken a work for which he is totally, 
 wholly, and altogether unqualified, but from the respon- 
 sibilities of which, this unfitness will not screen him, 
 because he wilfully incurred them. Whatever his natural 
 gifts, whatever his mental powers may be, he is utterly 
 out of court for spiritual work if he has no spiritual life ; 
 and it is his duty to cease the ministerial ofiice till he 
 has received this first and simplest of qualifications for it. 
 
 Unconverted ministry must be equally dreadful in 
 another resjiect. If the man has no commission, what a 
 very unliappy position for him to occupy ! "What can 
 he see in the experience of his people to give him comfort ? 
 How must he feel when he hears the cry of penitents ; 
 or listens to their anxious doubts and solemn fears ? 
 He must be astonished to think that his words should 
 be owned to that end ! The word of an unconverted 
 man may be blessed to the conversion of souls, since the 
 Lord, while he disowns the man, will still honor his own 
 truth. How perplexed such a man must be when he is 
 consulted concerning the difficulties of mature Christians ! 
 In the pathway of experience, in which his own regen- 
 erate hearers are led, he must feel himself quite at a loss. 
 How can he listen to their death-bed joys, or join in their 
 rapturous fellowships around the table of their Lord ? 
 
 In many instances of young men put to a trade which 
 they cannot endure, they have run away to sea sooner than 
 follow irksome business ; but where shall that man flee 
 who is apprenticed for life to this holy calling, and yet 
 is a total stranger to the j^ower of godliness ? How can 
 he daily bid men come to C'hrist, while he himself is a 
 stranger to his dying love ? sirs, surely this must be 
 
THE minister's SELF- WATCH. 17 
 
 perpetual slavery. Such a man must liatc tlie sight of a 
 pulpit as much as a galley-slave hates the oar. 
 
 And ]ioio iinserviceable such a man must be. lie 
 has to guide travellers along a road which he has never 
 trodden, to navigate a vessel along a coast of which he 
 knows none of the landmarks ! He is called to instruct 
 others, being himself a fool. What can he be but a cloud 
 without rain, a tree with leaves only. As when the 
 caravan in the wilderness, all athirst and ready to die 
 beneath the broiling sun, comes to the long-desired well, 
 and, horror of horrors ! finds it without a drop of water ; 
 so when souls thirsting after God come to a graceless 
 ministry, they are ready to perish because the water of 
 life is not to be found. Better abolish pulpits than fill 
 them with men who have no experimental knowledge of 
 what they teach. 
 
 Alas ! the unregenerate pastor becomes terribly niis- 
 cMevons too, for all the causes which create infidelity, 
 ungodly ministers must be ranked among the first. I 
 read the other day, that no phase of evil presented so 
 marvellous a power for destruction, as the unconverted 
 minister of a parish, with a £1200 organ, a choir of 
 ungodly singers, and an aristocratic congregation. It 
 was the opinion of the writer, that there could be no 
 greater instrument for damnation out of hell than that. 
 People go to their place of worship and sit down comfort- 
 ably, and think they must be Christians, when all the 
 time all that their religion consists in, is listening to an 
 orator, having their ears tickled with music, and perhaps 
 their eyes amused with graceful action and fashionable 
 manners ; the whole being no better than what they hear 
 and see at the opera — not so good, perhaps, in point of 
 aesthetic beauty, and not an atom more spiritual. Thou- 
 sands are congratulating themselves, and even blessing 
 
18 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 God that they are devout worshippers, when at the same 
 time they are hving in an nnregenerate Christlcss state, 
 having the form of godliness, hut denying the power 
 thereof. He who presides over a system which aims at 
 nothing higher than formalism, is far more a servant of 
 the devil than a minister of God. 
 
 A formal preacher is mischievous while he preserves 
 his outward equilihrium, but as he is without the pre- 
 serving balance of godliness, sooner or later he is almost 
 sure to make a trip in his moral character, and what a 
 position is he in then ! How is God blasphemed, and 
 the gospel abused ! 
 
 Terrible is it to consider wJiaf a death must await 
 such a man! and what must he his after-condition! 
 The prophet pictures the king of Babylon going down 
 to hell, and all the kings and princes whom he had 
 destroyed, and whose capitals he had laid waste, rising 
 up from their places in Pandemonium, and saluting the 
 fallen tyrant with the cutting sarcasm, " Art thou become 
 like unto us ?" And cannot you suppose a man who has 
 been a minister, but who has lived without Christ in his 
 heart, going down to hell, and all the imprisoned spirits 
 who used to hear him, and all the ungodly of his parish 
 rising up and saying to him in bitter tones, "Art thou 
 also become as we are ? Physician, didst thou not heal 
 thyself ? Art thou who claimed to be a shining liglit 
 cast down into the darkness for ever ? " Oh ! if one 
 must be lost, let it not be in this fashion ! To be lost 
 under the shadow of a pulpit is dreadful, but how much 
 more so to perish from the pulpit itself ! 
 
 There is an awful passage in John BiTuyan's treatise, 
 entitled ''Sighs from Hell," Avhich full often rings iu 
 my ears : " How many souls have blind priests been 
 the means of destroying by their ignorance ? Preaching 
 
THE minister's SELF-WATCII. 10 
 
 that was no better for their souls than ratsbane to the 
 body. Many of them, it is to be feared, have whole 
 towns to answer for. Ah ! friend, I tell thee, thou that 
 liast taken in hand to preach to the people, it may be tliou 
 hast taken in hand thou canst not tell what. Will it not 
 grieve tlice to see thy whole parish come bellowing after 
 thee into hell ? crying out, ' This we have to thank thee 
 'for, thou Avast afraid to tell us of our sins, lest we should 
 not put meat fast enough into thy mouth. cursed 
 wretcli, wlio wast not content, blind guide as thou wast, 
 to fall into the ditch thyself, but hast also led us thither 
 with thee.' " 
 
 Eichard Baxter, in his "Eeformed Pastor," amid 
 much other solemn matter, writes as follows : " Take 
 heed to yourselves lest you should be void of that saving 
 grace of God which you offer to others, and be strangers 
 to the effectual working of that gospel which you preach ; 
 and lest, while you proclaim the necessity of a Saviour 
 to the world, your hearts should neglect him, and 3'ou 
 should miss of an interest in him and his saving benetits. 
 Take heed to yourselves, lest you perish while you call 
 upon others to take heed of perishing, and lest you famisli 
 yourselves wliile you prepare their food. Though there 
 be a promise of shining as stars to those that turn many 
 to rigliteousness (Dan. xii. 3), this is but on supposition 
 that they be first turned to it themselves : such promises 
 are made cmteris paribus, et siqjj^ositis supponendis. 
 Their own sincerity in the faith is the condition of their 
 glory simply considered, though their great ministerial 
 labors may be a condition of the promise of their greater 
 glory. Many men have warned others that they come 
 not to that place of torment, which yet they hasted to 
 themselves ; many a preacher is now in hell, that hatli 
 an hundred times called upon his hearers to use the 
 
 c^ 
 
20 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 utmost care and diligence to escape it. Can any reason- 
 able man imagine that God should save men for offering 
 Ealvation to others, while tliey refused it themselves, and 
 for telling others those truths which they themselves 
 neglected and abused ? Many a tailor goes in rags that 
 maketli costly clothes for others ; and many a cook scarce 
 licks his fingers, when he hath dressed for others the 
 most costly dishes. Believe it, brethren, God never saved 
 any man for being a preacher, nor because he was an able 
 preacher ; but because he was a justified, sanctified man, 
 and consequently faithful in his Master's work. Take 
 heed, therefore, to yourselves first, that you be that 
 which you persuade others to be, and believe that which 
 you persuade them daily to believe, and have heartily 
 entertained that Christ and Spirit which you offer unto 
 otliers. He that bade you love your neighbors as your- 
 selves, did imply that you should love yourselves and 
 not hate and destroy both yourselves and them." 
 
 My brethren, let these weighty sentences have due 
 effect upon you. Surely there can be no need to add 
 more ; but let me pray you to examine yourselves, and 
 so make good use of what has been addressed to you. 
 
 This first matter of true religion being settled, it is 
 
 OF THE KEXT IMPORTANCE TO THE MINISTER THAT 
 HIS PIETY BE VIGOROUS. 
 
 lie is not to be content with being equal to the rank 
 iiud file of Christians, he must be a mature and advanced 
 believer ; for the ministry of Christ has been truly called 
 " the clioicest of his choice, the elect of his election, a 
 churcli picked out of the church." If he were called to 
 an ordinary position, and to common work, common grace 
 might perhaps satisfy him, though even then it would be 
 an indolent satisfaction : but being: elect to extraordi- 
 
THE minister's SELF-WATCII. 21 
 
 nary labors, and called to a place of imusual peril, ho 
 should be anxious to possess that superior strength which 
 alone is adequate to his station. His pulse of vital god- 
 liness must beat strongly and regularly ; his eye of faith 
 must be bright ; his foot of resolution must be firm ; liia 
 hand of activity must be quick ; his whole inner man 
 must be in the highest degree of sanity. It is said of the 
 Egyptians tliat they chose their priests from the most 
 learned of their philosophers, and then they esteemed their 
 priests so highly, that they chose their kings from them. 
 We require to have for God's ministers the pick of all 
 the Christian host ; such men indeed, that if the nation 
 wanted kings they could not do better than elevate them 
 to the throne. Our weakest-minded, most timid, most 
 carnal, and most ill-balanced men are not suitable can- 
 didates for the pulpit. There are some works which we 
 should never allot to the invalid or deformed. A man 
 may not be qualified for climbing lofty buildings, his 
 brain may be too weak, and elevated work might place 
 him in great danger ; by all means let him keep on the 
 ground and find useful occupation where a steady brain 
 is less important : there are brethren who have analogous 
 spiritual deficiencies, they cannot be called to service 
 Avliich is conspicuous and elevated, because their heads 
 are too Avcak. If they were permitted a little success they 
 would be intoxicated with vanity — a vice all toocommon 
 among ministers, and of all things the least becoming in 
 them, and the most certain to secure them a fall. Should 
 we as a nation be called to defend our hearths and homes, 
 we should not send out our boys and girls with swords 
 and guns to meet the foe ; neither may the church send 
 out every fluent novice or inexperienced zealot to plead 
 for the faith. The fear of the Lord must teach the 
 young man wisdom, or he is barred from the pastorate ; 
 
22 -LECTUKES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 the grace of God must mature liis spirit, or he had better 
 tarry till power be given him from on high. 
 
 The highest moral character must be sedulously 
 maintained. Many are disqualified for office in the church 
 who are well enough as simple members. I hold very 
 etern opinions with regard to Christian men who have 
 fallen into gross sin ; I rejoice that they may be truly 
 converted, and may be with mingled hope and caution 
 received into the church ; but I question, gravely ques- 
 tion whether a man who has grossly sinned should be 
 very readily restored to the pulpit. As John Angel] 
 James remarks, " When a preacher of righteousness has 
 stood in the way of sinners, he should never again open his 
 lips in the great congregation until his repentance is as 
 notorious as his sin." Let those who have been shorn 
 by the sons of Amnion tarry at Jericho till their beards 
 be grown ; this has often been used as a taunt to beard- 
 less boys to whom it is evidently inapplicable ; it is an 
 accurate enough metaphor for dishonored and character- 
 less men, let their age be what it may. Alas ! the beard 
 of reputation once shorn is hard to grow again. Open 
 immorality, in most cases, however deep the repentance, 
 is a fatal sign that the ministerial graces were never in 
 the man's character. Caesar's wife must be beyond sus- 
 picion, and there must be no ugly rumors as to ministe- 
 rial inconsistency in the past, or the hope of usefulness 
 Avill be slender. Into the church such fallen ones are to 
 be received as penitents, and into the ministry they may 
 be received if God puts them there ; my doubt is not 
 about that, but as to whether God ever did place them 
 there ; and my belief is that Ave should be very slow to 
 help buck to the pulpit men, who having been once tried, 
 liave proved themselves to have too little grace to stand 
 the crucial test of ministerial life. 
 
THE minister's SELF-WATCH. 23 
 
 For some work we choose none but the strong ; and 
 when God calls ns to ministerial labor we should en- 
 deavor to get grace that Ave may be strengthened into 
 fitness for our position, and not be mere novices carried 
 away by the temptations of Satan, to the injury of the 
 church and our own ruin. We are to stand equipped 
 with the whole armor of God, ready for feats of valor not 
 expected of others : to us seK-denial, self-forgetfulness, 
 patience, perseverance, longsuffering, must be every-day 
 virtues, and who is sufficient for these things ? We had 
 need live very near to God, if we would approve ourselves 
 in our vocation. 
 
 Eecollect, as ministers, that your whole life, your 
 whole pastoral life especially, will be affected by the 
 vigor of your piety. If your zeal grows dull, you will 
 not pray well in the pulpit ; you will pray worse in the 
 family, and worst in the study alone. When your soul 
 becomes lean, your hearers, without knowing how or 
 why, will find that your prayers in public have little 
 savor for them ; they will feel your barrenness, perhaps, 
 before you perceive i t yourself. Your discourses will next 
 oetray your declension. You may utter as well-chosen 
 words, as fitly-ordered sentences, as aforetime ; but there 
 will be a perceptible loss of spiritual force. You will 
 shake yourselves as at other times, even as Samson did, 
 but you will find that your great strength has departed. 
 In your daily communion with your people, they will 
 not be slow to mark the all -pervading decline of your 
 graces. Sharp eyes will see the gray hairs here and there 
 long before you do. Let a man be afflicted with a dis- 
 ease of the heart, and all evils are wrapped np in that 
 one — stomach, lungs, viscera, muscles, and nerves will 
 all suffer ; and so, let a man have his heart weakened in 
 spiritual things, and very soon his entire life will feel the 
 
24 LECTURES TO MY STUDE^STTS. 
 
 withering influence. Moreover, as the result of your 
 own decline, everyone of your hearers will suffer more or 
 less ; the vigorous amongst them will overcome the de- 
 *" pressing tendency, but the weaker sort will be seriously 
 damaged. It is with us and our hearers as it is with 
 watches and the pviblic clock ; if our watch be wrong, 
 ^ery few will be misled by it but ourselves ; but if the 
 Horse Guards or Greenwich Observatory should go 
 amiss, half London would lose its reckoning. So it is 
 with the minister ; he is the parish-clock, many take 
 their time from him, and if he be incorrect, then they 
 all go wrongly, more or less, and he is in a great meas- 
 ure accountable for all the sin which he occasions. This 
 we cannot endure to think of, my brethren. It will not 
 bear a moment's comfortable consideration, and yet it 
 must be looked at that we may guard against it. 
 
 You must remember, too, that we have need of very 
 vigorous piety, because our danger is so much greater 
 tlian that of others. Upon the whole, no place is so 
 assailed with temptation as the ministry. Despite the 
 popular idea that ours is a snug retreat from temptation, 
 it is no less true that our dangers are more numerous 
 and more insidious than those of ordinary Christians. 
 Ours may be a vantage-ground for height, but that height 
 is perilous, and to many the ministry has proved a 
 Tarpeian rock. If you ask what these temptations 
 are, time might fail us to particularize them ; but among 
 them are both the coarser and the more refined ; the 
 coarser are such temptations as self-indulgence at the 
 ta])lc, enticements to which are superabundant among 
 a hospitable people ; the temptations of the flesh, which 
 are incessant with young unmarried men set on high 
 among an admiring throng of young women : but enough 
 of this, your own observation will soon reveal to you a 
 
THE minister's self-watcii. 25 
 
 tliousand snares, unless indeed your eyes are blinded. 
 There are more secret snares than these, from which wc 
 can less easily escape ; and of these the worst is the 
 temptation to ministerialism — the tendency to read our 
 Bibles as ministers, to pray as ministers, to get into doing 
 the whole of our religion as not ourselves personally, but 
 only relatively, concerned in it. To lose the personality 
 of repentance and faith is a loss indeed. " No man," 
 says John Owen, " preaches his sermon well to others if 
 he doth not first preach it to his own heart." Brethren, 
 it is eminently hard to keep to this. Our office, instead 
 of helping our piety, as some assert, is through the evil 
 of our natures turned into one of its most serious hin- 
 drances ; at least, I find it so. How one kicks and 
 struggles against officialism, and yet how easily doth it 
 beset us, like a long garment which twists around the 
 racer's feet and impedes his running ! Beware, dear 
 brethren, of this and all the other seductions of your 
 calling ; and if you have done so until now, continue 
 ■(till to watch till life's latest hour. 
 
 VVe riMve noted but one of the perils, but indeed they 
 are Icgiou The gr( at enemy of souls takes care to leave 
 no stone unturned f c .• the preacher's ruin. " Take heed to 
 yourselves," says Baxter, " because the tempter will make 
 his first and sharpest onset upon you. If you Avill be the 
 leaders against him, he will spare you no further than 
 God restraineth him. He beareth you the gi'catest mal- 
 ice that are engaged to do him the greotest mischief. 
 Aq he hateth Christ more than any of us, because he is 
 tl>e General of tht field, and the ' Captain of our salva- 
 tion,' and doth more than all the world besides against 
 tlie kingdom of darkness ; so doth he note the leaders 
 under him more than the common soldiers, on the like 
 account, in their proportion. lie knows what a rout he 
 
26 LECTUKES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 may make among tlie rest, if the leaders fall before their 
 eyes. He hath long tried that way of fighting, * neither 
 with small nor great,' comparatively, but these ; and of 
 'smiting the shepherds, that he may scatter the flock.' 
 And so great has been his success this way, that he will 
 follow it on as far as he is able. Take heed, therefore, 
 brethren, for the enemy hath a special eye upon you. 
 Yon shall have his most subtle insinuations, and incessant 
 solicitations, and violent assaults. As wise and learned 
 as you are, take heed to yourselves lest he overwit you. 
 The devil is a greater scholar than you, and a nimbler 
 disputant : he can * transform himself into an angel of 
 light ' to deceive. He will get within you and trip your 
 heels before you are aware ; he will play the juggler Avith 
 you undiscerned, and cheat you of your faith orinnocen- 
 cy, and you shall not know that you have lost it ; nay, 
 he will make you believe it is multiplied or increased 
 when it is lost. You shall see neither hook nor line, 
 much less the subtle angler himself, while he is offering 
 you his bait. And his baits shall be so fitted to your 
 temper and disposition, that he will be sure to find ad- 
 vantages within you, and make your own principles and 
 inclinations to betray you ; and whenever he ruineth you, 
 he will make you the instrument of your own ruin. Oli, 
 what a conquest will he think he hath got, if he can 
 make a minister lazy and unfaithful ; if he can tempt a 
 a minister into covetousness or scandal ! He will glory 
 against the church, and say, ' These are your holy preacli- 
 ers : you see what their precisencss is, and whither it will 
 bring them,' He will glory against Jesus Christ himself, 
 and say, ' These are tliy champions ! I can make tliy 
 chiefest servants to abuse thee ; I can make the stewards 
 of thy house unfaithful.' If he did so insult against God 
 apon a false surmise, and tell him he could make Job to 
 
THE minister's SELF-WATCII. 27 
 
 curse him to his face (Job i. 2), Avhat Avould he do if he 
 should indeed prevail against us ? And at last he will 
 insult as much over you that ever he could draw you to 
 be false to your great trust, and to blemish your holy 
 profession, and to do him so much service that was your 
 enemy. do not so far gratify Satan ; do not make him 
 so much sport : suffer him not to use you as the Philistines 
 did Samson — first to deprive you of your strength, and 
 then to put out your eyes, and so to make you the matter 
 of his triumph and derision." 
 
 Once more. We must cultivate the highest degree of 
 godliness because our work ijnjjeratively requires it. The 
 labor of the Christian ministry is well performed in exact 
 proportion to the vigor of our renewed nature. Our 
 work is only well done when it is well with ourselves. As 
 is the workman, such will the work be. To face the 
 enemies of truth, to defend the bulwarks of the faith, to 
 rule well in the house of God, to comfort all that mourn, 
 to edify the saints, to guide the perplexed, to bear with 
 the froward, to win and nurse souls — all these and a 
 thousand other works beside are not for a Feeble-mind 
 or a Eeady-to-halt, but are reserved for Great-heart whom 
 the Lord has made strong for himself. Seek then 
 strength from the Strong One, wisdom from the Wise 
 One, in fact, all from the God of all. 
 
 Thirdly, let the minister take care that his per- 
 sonal CHARACTER AGREES IN ALL RESPECTS WITH HI3 
 MINISTRY. 
 
 We have all heard the story of the man who preached 
 so well and lived so badly, that when he was in the pul- 
 pit everybody said he ought never to come out again, and 
 when he was out of it they all declared he never ought 
 to enter it again. From the imitation of such a Janua 
 
28 LECTUKES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 may tlie Lord deliver us. May we nerer be priests of 
 God at tlie altar, and sons of Belial outside the taber- 
 nacle door ; but on the contrary, may we, as Nazianzen 
 Bays of Basil, * thunder in our doctrine, and lighten in 
 our conversation." We do not trust those persons who 
 liave two faces, nor will men believe in those whose ver- 
 bal and practical testimonies are contradictory. As 
 actions, according to the proverb, speak louder than 
 words, so an ill life will effectually droAvn the voice of 
 the most elequent ministry. After all, our truest build- 
 ing must be performed with our hands ; our characters 
 must be more persuasive than our speech. Here I would 
 not alone warn you of sins of commission, but of sins of 
 omission. Too many preachers forget to serve God when 
 they are out of the pulpit, tlieir lives are negatively in- 
 consistent. Abhor, dear brethren, cne tnought of being 
 clockwork ministers who are not ahve by abidiiig grace 
 within, but aie wound up by temporary mfiuences , men 
 Avho are only ministers for the time being, under the 
 stress of the hour of ministering, but cease to be minis- 
 ters when they descend the pulpit stairs. True minis- 
 ters are always nc '^.isters. Too many preachers are like 
 those sand- toys we buy for our children ; you turn the box 
 upside down, and the little acrobat revolves and re- 
 volves till the sand is all run down, and then he hangs 
 motionless ; so there are some who persevere in the 
 ministrations of truth as long as there is an official neces- 
 sity for their work, but after that, no pay, no paternoster ; 
 no salary, no sermon. 
 
 It is a horrible thing to be an inconsistent minister. 
 Our Lord is said to have been like Moses, for this reason, 
 that he was " a prophet mighty in word and in deed." 
 Tlie man of God should imitate his Master in this ; he 
 Bhould be mighty both in the word of his doctrine and in 
 
THE MIlSriSTER'S SELF-"\VATCn. 29 
 
 tlie cleed of liis example, and mightiest, if possible, iu 
 tlie second. It is remarkable that the only church his- 
 tory we have is, '' T]ie Acts of the apostles." The Holy 
 Spirit has not preserved their sermons. They were very 
 good ones, better than we shall ever preach, but still the 
 Holy Spirit has only taken care of their " acts." We 
 have no books of the resolutions of the apostles ; when 
 we hold our church-meetings we record our minutes and 
 resolutions, but the Holy Spirit only puts down the 
 " acts." Our acts should be such as to bear recording, 
 for recorded they will be. We must live as under the 
 more immediate eye of God, and as in the blaze of the 
 great all-revealing day. 
 
 Holiness in a minister is at once his chief necessity 
 and his goodliest ornament. Mere moral excellence is 
 not enough, there must be the higher virtue ; a consis- 
 tent character there must be, but this must be anointed 
 with the sacred consecrating oil, or that which makes us 
 most fragrant to God and man will be wanting. Old John 
 Stoughton, iu his treatise entitled " The Preacher's Dig- 
 nity and Duty," insists upon the minister's holiness in 
 sentences full of weight. " If Uzzah must die but for 
 tatiching the arJc of God, and that to stay it when it was 
 like to fall ; if the men of Beth-shemesh for looJcinrj into 
 it; if the very beasts that do but come near the holy 
 mount be threatened ; then what manner of persons 
 ought they to be Avho shall be admitted to talk with God 
 familiarly, to ' stand before him,' as the angels do, and 
 ' behold his face continually ; ' 'to bear the ark upon 
 their shoulders,' ' to bear his name before tlie Gentiles ;' 
 in a word, to be his ambassadors ? ' Holiness becometh 
 thy house, Lord ;' and were it not a ridiculous thing to 
 imagine, that the vessels must be holy, the vestures must 
 >e holy, all must be holy, but only he upon whose very 
 
30 LECTUKES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 garments must be written ' holiness to the Lord,' might 
 be unholy ; that the bells of the horses should have an 
 inscription of holiness upon them, in Zecliariah, and the 
 saints' bells, the bells of Aaron, should be unhallowed ? 
 No, they must be ' burning and shining lights,' or else 
 their influence will dart some malignant quality ; tJiey 
 must ' chew the cud and divide the hoof,' or else they 
 are unclean ; they must 'divide the word aright,' and 
 walk uprightly in their life, and so join life to learning. 
 If holiness be wanting, the ambassadors dishonor the 
 country from whence they come, and the prince from 
 whom they come ; and this dead Amasa, this dead doc- 
 trine not quickened with a good life, lying in the Avay, 
 stops the people of the Lord, that they cannot go on 
 cheerfully in their spiritual warfare." 
 
 The life of the preacher should be a magnet to draw 
 men to Christ, and it is sad indeed when it keeps them 
 from him. Sanctity in ministers is a loud call to sin- 
 ners to repent, and when allied with holy cheerfulness it 
 becomes wondrously attractive. Jeremy Taylor in his 
 own rich language tell us, " Herod's doves could never 
 have invited so many strangers to their dove-cotes, if 
 they had not been besmeared with opobalsamum : but, 
 
 tav fivpu ;ifp;'o'»;c Tflf Tr£pigTepag,Kac i^udev a?Juig a^ovaiv. Said Didy- 
 
 mus ; ' make your pigeons smell sweet, and they will 
 allure whole flocks;' and if your life be excellent, if 
 your virtues be like a precious ointment, you will soon 
 invite your charges to run 't7i oclorem unguentorum,'' 
 ' after your precious odors : ' but you must be excellent, 
 not ' tanquam unus depopulo,' but ' ianquamliomo Dei ; ' 
 you must be a man of God, not after the common man- 
 ner of men, but ' after God's own heart ; ' and men will 
 stri\ e to be like you, if you be like to God : but when 
 you only stand at the door of virtue, for nothing but to 
 
THE minister's SELF-WATCH. 31 
 
 keep sill out, you will draw into the fold of Christ none 
 but such as fear drives in. ' Ad majorem Dei gloriam,' 
 * To do what will most glorify God,' that is the line you 
 must walk by : for to do no more than all men needs must 
 is servility, not so much as the affection of sons ; much 
 less can yon be fathers to the people, when you go not so 
 far as the sons of God : for a dark lantern, though there 
 be a weak brightness on one side, will scarce enlighten 
 one, much less will it conduct a multitude, or allure 
 many followers by the brightness of its flame. 
 
 Another equally admirable episcopal divine* has well 
 and pithily said, " The star which led the wise men unto 
 Christ, the pillar of fire which led the children unto 
 Canaan, did not only shine, but go before them. Matt. 
 ii, 9 ; Exod. xiii. 21. The voice of Jacob will do little 
 good if the hands be the hands of Esau. In the law, no 
 jicrson who had any blemish was to offer the oblations 
 of the Lord (Lev. xxi. 17-20); the Lord thereby teaching 
 us what graces ought to be in his ministers. The priest 
 was to have in his robes bells and pomegranates ; the one 
 a figure of sound doctrine, and the other of a fruitful 
 life. Exod. xxviii. 33, 34. The Lord will be sanctified 
 in all those that draw near unto him (Isa. lii. 11); for 
 the sins of the priests make the people abhor the offering 
 of the Lord (1 Sam. ii. 17); their wicked lives do shame 
 their doctrine ; Passionem Christi annimciant i^vofitendo, 
 male agendo exhonorant, as St. Austin speaks : with their 
 doctrine they build, and with their lives they destroy. 
 I conclude this point with that wholesome passage of 
 Ilierom ad Kepoiiamim. Let not, saitli he, thy works 
 shame thy doctrine, lest they who hear thee in the church 
 tacitly answer, Why doest thou not thyself what thou 
 tcachest to others ? lie is too delicate a teacher who 
 * Bisliop Reynolds. 
 
32 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 persuadetli others to fast with a full belly. A robber 
 may accuse covetousness. Sacerdotis Cliristi os, "ueiis, 
 manusque concordent ; a minister of Christ should have 
 his tongue, and his heart, and his hand agree." 
 
 Very quaint also is the language of Thomas Playfero 
 in his " Say Well, Do Well." " There was a ridiculoug 
 actor in the city of Smyrna, who, pronouncing ccelimi! 
 heaven ! pointed with his finger towards the ground ; 
 which Avhcn Polemo, the chiefest man in the place, saw, 
 he could abide to stay no longer, but went from the 
 company in a great chafe, saying ' This fool hath made 
 a solecism with his hand, he has spoken false Latin witli 
 his finger.' And such are they who teach well and do 
 ill ; that however they have heaven at their tongue's end, 
 yet the earth is at their finger's end ; such as do not 
 only speak false Latin with their tongue, but false divin- 
 ity with their hands ; such as live not according to their 
 preaching. But^ he that sits in the heaven will laugh 
 them to scorn, and hiss them off the stage, if they do 
 not mend their action." 
 
 Even in little things the minister should take care 
 that his life is consistent with his ministry. He should 
 be esjiecially careful never to fall short of his Avord. 
 This should be pushed even to scrupulosity ; we cannot 
 be too careful ; truth must not only be in us, but shine 
 from us. A celebrated doctor of divinity in London, who 
 IS now in heaven I have no doubt — a very excellent and 
 godly man — gave notice one Sunday that he intended to 
 visit all his people, and said, that in order to be able to 
 get round and visit them and their families once in the 
 year, he should take all tlie seat-holders in order. A 
 person well known to me, who was then a poor man, 
 was delighted with the idea tliat the minister was coming 
 to his house to see him, and about a week or two before 
 
THE minister's SELF-WATCH. 33 
 
 he conceived it would be liis turn, liis wife was very 
 careful to sweep the hearth and keep the house tidy, and 
 the man ran home early from work, hoping each night 
 to Jind the doctor there. This went on for a considerable 
 time. He eitlier forgot his promise, or grew weary in 
 ])Giforming it, or for some other reason never went to 
 tliis poor man's house, and tlie result was this, the man 
 lost confidence in all preachers, and said, " They care 
 for the rich, but they do not care for us who are poor." 
 That man never settled down to any one place of worship 
 for many years, till at last he dropped into Exeter Hall 
 and remained my hearer for years till providence removed 
 him. It was no small task to make him believe that any 
 minister could be an honest man, and could impartially 
 love both rich and poor. Let us avoid doing such mis- 
 chief, by being very particular as to our Avord. 
 
 We must remember that Ave are very much looked at. 
 Men hardly have the impudence to break the law in the 
 open sight their fellows, yet in such publicity we live and 
 move. We are watched by a thousand eagle eyes ; let 
 us so act that we shall never need to care if all heaven, 
 and earth, and hell, SAvelled the list of spectators. Our 
 public position is a great gain if we are enabled to exhibit 
 tlie fruits of the Spirit in our lives ; take heed, brethren, 
 that you throAV not away the advantage. 
 
 When we say to you, my dear brethren, take care of 
 your life, we mean be careful of even the minutias of 
 your character. Avoid little debts, unpunctuality, gos- 
 siping, nicknaming, petty quarrels, and all other of those 
 little vices Avhich fdl the ointment with flics. The seK- 
 indulgences Avhich have lowered the repute of many must 
 not be tolerated by us. The familiarities Avhicli have laid 
 others under suspicion, we must chastely avoid. The 
 roughnesses which have rendered some obnoxious, and 
 2* 
 
34 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 the fopperies which liave made others contemptible, we 
 must put away. We cannot afford to run great risks 
 througli little things. Our care must be to act on the 
 rule, "giving no offence in anything, that the ministry 
 be not blamed." 
 
 By this is not intended that we are to hold ourselves 
 bound by every whim or fashion of the society in which 
 we move. As a general rule, I hate the fashions of soci- 
 ety, and detest conventionalities, and if I conceived it 
 best to put my foot through a lav/ of etiquette, I should 
 feel gratified in having it to do. No, we are men, not 
 slaves ; and are not to relinquish our manly freedom, to 
 be the lacqueys of those who affect gentility or boast 
 refinement. Yet, brethren, anything that verges upon 
 the coarseness which is akin to sin, we must shun as we 
 would a viper. The rules of Chesterfield are ridiculous 
 to us, but not the example of Christ ; and he was never 
 coarse, low, discourteous, or indelicate. 
 
 Even in your recreations, remember that you are 
 ministers. When you are off the parade you are still 
 officers in the army of Christ, and as such demean your- 
 selves. But if the lesser things must be looked after, 
 how careful should you be in the great matters of mo- 
 rality, honesty, and integrity ! Here the minister must 
 not fail. His private life must ever keep good tune with 
 his ministr}^, or his day will soon set with him, and the 
 sooner he retires the better, for his continuance in his 
 office will only dishonor the cause of God and ruin 
 himself. 
 
 Bretliren, the limits of a lecture are reached, and wo 
 wust adjourn 
 
LECTURE 11. 
 
 THE CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 
 
 AxT Christian has a right to disseminate the gospel 
 who has the_ability to do so ; and more, he not only has 
 the right, but it is his duty so to do as long as he lives. 
 Rev, xxii. 17. The propagation of the gospel is left, not 
 to a few, but to all the disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ : 
 according to the measure of grace intrusted to him by 
 tlie Holy Spirit, eacli man is bound to minister in his 
 day and generation, both to the church and among unbe- 
 lievers. Indeed, this question goes beyond men, and 
 even includes the whole of the other sex ; wliether 
 believers are male or female, they are all bound, when 
 enabled by divine grace, to exert themselves to the utmost 
 to extend the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our 
 service, however, need not take the particular form of 
 preaching — certainly, in some cases it must not, as for 
 instance in tlie case of females, whose public teaching is 
 expressly prohibited : 1 Tim. ii. 12 ; 1 Cor. xiv. 34. But 
 yet if Avc have the ability to preach, we are bound to 
 exercise it. I do not, however, in this lecture allude to 
 occasional preacliing, or any other form of ministry 
 common to all the saints, but to tlie work and office of the 
 bishopric, in which is included both teaching and bearing 
 rule in the church, which requires the dedication of a 
 man's entire life to spiritual work, and separation from 
 every secular calling, 2 Tim. ii. 4 ; and entitles the man 
 
36 LECTUEES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 to cast himself for temporal supplies upon the church of 
 God, since he gives up all his time, energies, and endeav- 
 ors, for the good of those over whom he presides. 1 Cor. 
 ix. 11 ; 1 Tim. v. 18. Such a man is addressed by Peter 
 in the words, " Feed the flock of God which is among 
 you, taking the oversight thereof." 1 Pet. v. 2. Now, 
 all in a church cannot oversee, or rule — there must be 
 some to be overseen and ruled ; and we believe that the 
 Holy Ghost appoints in the church of God some to act as 
 overseers, while others are made willing to be watched 
 over for their good. All are not called to labor in word 
 ^nd doctrine, or to be elders, or to exercise the office of 
 a bishop ; nor should all aspire to such works, since the 
 gifts necessary are nowhere promised to all ; but those 
 should addict themselves to such important engagements 
 who feel, like the apostle, that they have '' received this 
 ministry." 2 Cor. iv. 1. No man may intrude into the 
 sheep-fold as an undcr-shepherd ; he must have an eye to 
 the chief Shepherd, and wait his beck and command. Or 
 ever a man stands forth as God's ambassador, he must 
 wait for the call from above ; and if he does not so, but 
 rushes into the sacred office, the Lord Avill say of him 
 and others like him, "I sent them not, neither com- 
 manded them ; therefore they shall not profit this people 
 at all, saith the Lord." Jer. xxiii. 32. 
 
 By reference to the Old Testament, you will find the 
 messengers of God in the old dispensation claiming to 
 hold commissions from Jeliovah. Isaiah tells us tliat 
 one of the seraphim touched his lips with a live coal from 
 off the altar, and the voice of the Lord said, " Whom 
 shall I send, and who will go for us ? " Isa. vi. 8. Then 
 said the proplict, " Here am I, send me." He ran n(jfc 
 before he had been thus especially visited of the Lord 
 and qualified for his mission. "How shall theypreacli, 
 
CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 37 
 
 except they be sent ? " were words as yet unuttered, but 
 their solemn meaning was well understood. Jeremiah 
 details his call in his first chapter : "Then the Avord of 
 the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in 
 the l)elly I knew thee ; and before thou earnest forth out of 
 Avonib, I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet 
 unto the nations. Then said I, Ah, Lord God ! behold, 
 I cannot speak ; for I am a child. But the Lord said 
 unto me, Say not, I am a child : for thou shalt go to all 
 that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee 
 thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces : for I am 
 with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. Then the 
 Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth ; and 
 the Lord said unto me. Behold, I have put my words in 
 thy mouth. See, I have this day set thee over the na- 
 tions and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull 
 down, and to destroy, and to throw down, and to build, 
 and to plant." Jer. i. 4-10. Varying in its outward 
 form, but to the same purport, was the commission of 
 Ezekiel ; it runs thus in his own words : ''And he said 
 unto me, Son of man, stand upon thy feet, and I will 
 speak nnto thee. And the Spirit entered into me when 
 he spoke unto me, and set me upon my feet, that I heard 
 him that spake nnto me. And he said unto me. Son of 
 man, I send thee to the children of Israel, to a rebellious 
 nation that hath rebelled against me : they and their 
 fathers have transgi'cssed against me, even unto this very 
 day." Ezek. ii. 1-3. " Moreover he said unto me, Sou 
 of man, eat that thou findcst ; eat this roll, and go speak 
 unto the house of Israel. So I opened my mouth, and 
 he caused me to eat that roll. And he said unto me, Son 
 of man, cause thy belly to eat, and fill thy bowels with 
 this roll that I give thee. Then did I eat it ; and it was 
 in my mouth as honey for sweetness. And he said unto 
 
38 LECTURES TO MY STUDEKTS. 
 
 me, Sou of man, go, get thee unto the house of Israel, 
 and speak with my words unto them." Ezek. iii. 1-4. 
 Daniel's call to prophesy, although not recorded, is abun- 
 dantly attested by the visions granted to him, and the 
 exceeding favor which he had with the Lord, both in 
 liis solitary meditations and public acts. It is not need- 
 ful to pass all the other prophets in review, for they all 
 claimed to speak with " thus saith the Lord." In the 
 present dispensation, the priesthood is common to all the 
 saints ; but to prophesy, or what is analogous thereto, 
 namely, to be moved by the Holy Ghost to give one's self 
 up wholly to the proclamation of the gospel, is, as a matter 
 of fact, the gift and calling of only a comparatively small 
 number ; and surely these need to be as sure of the right- 
 fulness of their position as were the prophets ; and yet how 
 can they justify their office, excei:)t by a similar call ? 
 
 Nor need any imagine that such calls are a mere 
 delusion, and that none are in this age separated for the 
 peculiar work of teaching and overseeing the church, for 
 the very names given to ministers in the New Testament 
 imply a previous call to their work. The apostle says, 
 " Now then we are ambassadors for God ; " but does not 
 the very soul of the ambassadorial office lie in the appoint- 
 ment which is made by the monarch represented ? An 
 ambassador unsent would be a laughing-stock. Men who 
 dare to avow themselves ambassadors for Christ, must 
 feel most solemnly that the Lord has " committed " to 
 them the word of reconciliation. 2 Cor. v. 18, 19. If 
 is be said that this is restricted to the apostles, I answer 
 that the epistle is written not in the name of Paul only, 
 but of Timothy also, and hence included other ministry 
 besides apostleship. In the first epistle to the Corin- 
 thians we read, " Let a man so account of us (the us 
 here meaning Paul and Sosthenes, 1 Cor. i. 1), as of the 
 
CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 39 
 
 »>.fnistcr3 of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of 
 God." 1 Cor. iv. 1. Surely a steward must hold liis 
 office from the Master. He cannot be a steward merely 
 because he chooses to be so, or is so regarded by others. 
 If any of us should elect ourselves stewards to the Mar 
 quis of Westminster, and proceed to deal with his prop- 
 erty, we should have our mistake very speedily pointed 
 out to us in the most convincing manner. There must 
 evidently be authority ere a man can legally become a 
 bishop, **' the steward of God." Titus i. 7. 
 
 The A^jocalyptic i\t\Q oi Angel (Rev. ii. 1) means a 
 messenger ; and how shall men be Christ's heralds, un- 
 less by his election and ordination ? If the reference of 
 the \fOY(\. Angel to the minister be questioned, we should 
 be glad to have it shown that it can relate to any one 
 else. To whom would the Spirit write in the church as 
 its representative, but to some one in a j)osition analogous 
 to that of the presiding elder ? 
 
 Titus was bidden to make full proof of his ministry — 
 there was surely something to prove. Some are " ves- 
 sels unto honor, sanctified and meet for the Master's use, 
 and prepared unto every good work." 2 Tim. ii. 21. 
 The Master is not to be denied the choice of the vessels 
 which he uses, he will still say of certain men as he did 
 of Saul of Tarsus, " He is a chosen vessel unto me, to 
 bear my name before the Gentiles." Acts ix. 15. When 
 our Lord ascended on high he gave gifts unto men, and 
 it is noteworthy that these gifts were men set apart for 
 various works : " He gave some, apostles ; and some, 
 prophets ; and some, evangelists ; and some, pastors and 
 teachers " (Eph. iv. 11) ; from Avhich it is evident that 
 certain individuals are, as the result of our Lord's ascen- 
 sion, bestowed upon the churches as pastors ; they arc 
 given of God, and consequently not self-elevated to their 
 
40 LECTUEES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 position. Brethren, I trust you may be cable one day to 
 speak of the flock over whom " the Holy Ghost has made 
 yon overseers" (Acts xx. 28), and I pray that every one 
 of you may be able to say with the apostle of the Gen- 
 tiles., that your ministry is not of man, neither by man, 
 but that you have received it of the Lord. Gal. i. 1. lu 
 you may that ancient promise be fulfilled, ^'I will give 
 them pastors according to mine heart." Jer. iii. 15. "I 
 will set uj) shepherds over them, which shall feed them." 
 Jer. xxiii. 4. May the Lord himself fulfil in your sev- 
 eral persons his own declaration: ''I have set watch- 
 men upon thy walls, Jerusalem, which shall never 
 hold their peace day nor night." May you take forth 
 the precious from tlie vile, and so be as God's mouth. 
 Jer. XV. 19. May the Lord make manifest by you tlie 
 savor of the knowledge of Jesus in every place, and 
 make you " unto God a sweet savor of Christ, in them 
 that nre saved, and in them that perish." 2 Cor. ii. 15. 
 ILiving a priceless treasure in earthen vessels, may the 
 excellency of the divine power rest upon you, and so may 
 you both glorify God and clear yourself from the blood 
 of all men. As the Lord Jesus went up to the Mount 
 and c'llled to him whom he would, and then sent them 
 forth to preach (Mark iii. 13), even so may he select you, 
 call you upward to commune with himself, and send you 
 forth as his elect servants to bless both the church and 
 the world. 
 
 Ho'o may a young man know whctlter he is called or 
 not? That is a weighty inquiry, and I desire to treat it 
 most solemnly. for divine guidance in so doing ! 
 That hundreds have missed their way, and stumbled 
 against a pulpit is sorrowfully evident from the fruitless 
 ministries and decaying churches which surround us. Tt 
 is a fearful calamity to a man to miss his calling; and, to 
 
CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 41 
 
 the chnrcli upon wliom he imiioscs himself, his mistake 
 involves an atlliction of the most grievous kind. It 
 would be a curious and painful subject for reflection — 
 the frequency with which men in the possession of rea- 
 son mistake the end of their existence, and aim at objects 
 which they were never intended to pursue. The writer 
 who penned the following lines must surely have had 
 his eye upon many ill-occupied pulpits : 
 
 " Declare, ye sages, if ye find 
 'Mongst animals of every kind, 
 Of each condition, sort, and size, 
 From whales and elephants to fliea, 
 A creature that mistakes his plan. 
 And errs so constantly as man I 
 
 " Each kind pursues its proper good. 
 And seeks enjoyment, rest, and food, 
 As nature points, and never errs 
 In what it chooses or prefers ; 
 Man only blunders, though possessed 
 Of reason far above the rest. 
 
 " Descend to instances and try : 
 An ox will not attempt to fly. 
 Or leave his pasture in the wood 
 With fishes to explore the flood, 
 Man only acts, of every creature. 
 In opposition to his nature." 
 
 When I think upon the all but infinite mischief whicl 
 may result from a mistake as to our vocation for the 
 Christian pastorate, I feel overwhelmed with fear lest any 
 of us should be slack in examining our credentials ; and 
 I had rather that we stood too much in doubt, and 
 examined too frequently, than that we should become 
 cumberers of the ground. There are not lacking many 
 exact methods by which a man may test his call to the 
 
i2 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 mioistry if lie earnestly desires to do so. It is imperative 
 upon him not to enter the ministry until he has made 
 solemn quest and trial of himself as to this point. His 
 own personal salvation being secure, he must investigate 
 as to the further matter of his call to office ; the first is 
 vital to himself as a Christian, the second equally vital 
 to him as a pastor. As well be a professor without con- 
 version, as a pastor without calling. In both cases there 
 is a name and nothing more. 
 
 1. The first sign of the heavenly call is an intense, 
 all-absorbing desire for the work. In order to a true call 
 to the ministry there must be an irresistible, overwhelm- 
 ing craving and raging thirst for telling to others what 
 God has done to our own souls ; what if I call it a kind 
 of cTopy?}, such as birds have for rearing their young when 
 the season is come ; when the mother-bird would sooner 
 die than leave her nest. It was said of Alleine by one 
 who knew him intimately, that '' he was infinitely and 
 insatiably greedy of the conversion of souls." When he 
 might have had a fellowship at his university, he preferred 
 a chaplaincy, because he was " inspired with an impa- 
 tience to be occupied in direct ministerial work." " Do 
 not enter the ministry if you can help it," was the deeply 
 sage advice of a divine to one who sought his judgment. 
 If any student in this room could be content to be a 
 newspaper editor, or a grocer, or a farmer, or a doctor, 
 or a lawyer, or a senator, or a king, in the name of 
 heaven and earth let him go his way ; he is not the man 
 in whom dwells tlie Spirit of God in its fulness, for a 
 man so filled with God would utterly weary of any pursuit 
 but that for which his inmost soul pants. If on the 
 other hand, you can say that for all the wealth of both 
 the Indies you could not and dare not espouse any other 
 calling so as to be put aside from preaching the gospel 
 
CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 43 
 
 of Jesus Clirist, then, depend upon it, if othei things be 
 equally satisfactory, you have the signs of this apostle- 
 ship. We must feel tliat woe is unto us if we preach not 
 the gospel ; the word of God must be unto us as lire in our 
 Dones, otherwise, if we undertake the ministry, we shall 
 be unhappy in it, shall be unable to bear the self- 
 denials incident to it, and shall be of little service to 
 those among whom we minister. I speak of self-denials, 
 and well I may ; for the true pastor's work is full of them, 
 and without a love to his calling he will soon succumb, 
 and either leave the drudgery, or move on in discontent, 
 burdened with a monotony as tiresome as that of a blind 
 horse in a mill. 
 
 " There is a comfort in the strength of love ; 
 'Twill make a thing endurable which else 
 Would break the heart." 
 
 Girt with that love, you will be undaunted ; divested of 
 that more than magic-belt of irresistible vocation, you 
 will pine away in wretchedness. 
 
 This desire must be a tliougldfid one. It should not 
 be a sudden impulse unattended by anxious consider- 
 ation. It should be the outgrowth of our heart in its 
 best moments, the object of our reverent aspirations, the 
 subject of our most fervent prayers. It must continue 
 with us when tempting offers of wealth and comfort 
 come in to conflict with it, and remain as a calm, clear- 
 headed resolve after everything has been estimated at its 
 right figure, and the cost thoroughly counted. "When 
 living as a child at my grandfather's in the country, I 
 saw a company of huntsmen in their red coats riding 
 through his fields after a fox. I was delighted ! My 
 little heart was excited ; I was ready to follow the hounds 
 over hedge and ditch. I have always felt a natural taste 
 
44 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 for that sort of business, and, as a child, Avhen asked what 
 I would be, I usually said I was going to be a huntsman. 
 A fine p]-ofession, truly ! Many young men ha^'e the 
 same idea of being parsons as I had of being a hunts- 
 man — a mere childish notion that they would like the 
 coat and the horn-blowing ; the honor, the respect, the 
 ease ; and they are probably even fools enough to think, 
 the riches of the ministry. (Ignorant beings they must 
 be if they look for wealth in connection with the Baptist 
 ministry.) The fascination of the preacher's office is 
 very great to weak minds, and hence I earnestly caution 
 all young men not to mistake whim for inspiration, and 
 a childish preference for a call of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 Mark well, that the desire I have spoken of must be 
 iliorongliJy disinterested. If a man can detect, after the 
 most earnest self-examination, any other motive than 
 the glory of God and the good of souls in his seeking the 
 bishopric, he had better turn aside from it at once ; for 
 the Lord will abhor the bringing of buyers and sellers 
 into his temple : the introduction of anything mercenary, 
 even in the smallest degree, will be like the fly in the 
 pot of ointment, and will spoil it all. 
 
 This desire should be one which continues with us, 
 a passion which bears the test of trial, a longing from 
 which it is quite impossible for us to escape, though we 
 may have tried to do so ; a desire, in fact, which grows 
 more intense by the lapse of years, until it becomes a 
 yearning, a pining, a famishing to proclaim the Word. 
 This intense desire is so noble and beautiful a thing, that 
 •v^henever I see it glowing in any young man's bosom, I 
 am always slow to discourage him, even though I may have 
 my doubts as to his abilities. It may be needful, for rea- 
 sons to be given you further on, to repress the flame, but 
 it should be reluctantly and wisely done. I have such a 
 
CALL TO THE MIXISTRT. 45 
 
 profo'jud respect for tliis " fire in the bones," that if I 
 did not feel it myself, I must lenve the ministry at once. 
 If you do not feel the consecrated glow, I beseech you 
 return to your homes and serve God in your proper 
 spheres ; but if assuredly the coals of juniper blaze within, 
 do not stifle them, unless, indeed, other considerations 
 of great moment should prove to you that the desire is 
 not a fire of heavenly origin. 
 
 2. In the second place, combined with the earnest 
 desire to become a pastor, there must be aptness to teach, 
 and some measure of the other qualities needful for the 
 office of a public instructor. A man to prove his call 
 must make a successful trial of these. I do not claim 
 that the first time a man rises to speak he must preach 
 as well as Kobert Hall did in his later days. If he 
 preaches no worse than that great man did at first, he 
 must not 00 condemned. You are aware that Kobcrc 
 Hall broke down altogether three times, and cried, " If 
 this ioes not humble me, nothing will." Some of the 
 noblest speakers were not in their early days the most 
 fluent. Even Cicero at first suffered from a weak voice 
 and a difficulty of utterance. Still, a man must not con- 
 sider that he is called to preach until he has proved that 
 he can sjoeak. God certainly has not created behemoth 
 to fly ; and should leviathan have a strong desire to 
 ascend with the lark, it would evidently be an umvise 
 aspiration, since he is not furnished with wings. If a 
 man be called to preach, he will be endowed with a degree 
 of speaking ability, which he will cultivate and increase. 
 If the gift of utterance be not there in a measure at 
 first, it is not likely that it will ever be developed. 
 
 I have heard of a gentleman who had a most intense 
 desire to preach, and pressed his suit upon his minister, 
 until after a multitude of rebuffs he obtained leave to 
 
46 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 preach a trial sermon. That opportunity was the end 
 of his importunity, for upon announcing his text he 
 found himself bereft of every idea but one, which he de- 
 livered feelingly, and then descended the rostrum. " My 
 brethren," said he, "if any of you think it an easy thing 
 to preach, I advise you to come up here and have all the 
 conceit taken out of you." The trial of your powers 
 will go far to reveal to you your deficiency, if you have 
 not the needed ability. I know of nothing better. We 
 must give ourselves a fair trial in this matter, or wc can- 
 not assuredly know whether God has called us or not ; 
 and during the probation we must often ask ourselves 
 whether, upon the whole, we can hope to edify others 
 with such discourses. 
 
 We must, however, do much more than put it to our 
 own conscience and judgment, for wc are poor judges. 
 A certain class of brethren have a great facility for dis- 
 covering that they have been A'cry wonderfully and 
 divinely helped in their declamations ; I should envy 
 them their glorious liberty and self-complacency if there 
 were any ground for it ; for alas ! I very frequently have 
 to bemoan and mourn over my non-success and short- 
 comings as a speaker. There is not much dependence 
 to be placed upon our own opinion, but mucli may be 
 learned from judicious, spiritual-minded persons. It is 
 by no means a law which ought to bind all persons, but 
 still it is a good old custom in many of our country 
 churches for the young man who aspires to the ministry 
 to preach before the church. It can hardly ever be a 
 very pleasant ordeal for the youthful aspirant, and, iu 
 many cases, it will scarcely be a very edifying exercise 
 for the people ; but still it may prove a most sahitai'y 
 piece of discipline and save the public exposure of ram- 
 
CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 47 
 
 pant ignorance. Tlic church book at Arnshy coutaina 
 tlie following entry : 
 
 A sJiort account of the Call of Eohert Hall, Junior, to the woik 
 of the Ministry, by the Church at Arnsby, August 13, 1780. 
 
 " The said Robert Hall was born at Arnsby, May 2d, 17G4 ; and 
 was even from bis childhood, not only serious, and given to secret 
 prnyer before he could speak plain, but was wholly inclined to the 
 work of the ministry. He began to compose hymns before lie was 
 quite seven years old, and therein discovered marks of piety, deep 
 thought, and genius. Between eight and nine years he made 
 several hymns, which were much admired by many, one of which 
 was printed in the Gospel Magazine about that time. He wrote 
 his thoughts on various religious subjects, and select portions of 
 Scripture. He was likewise possessed of an intense inclination 
 for learning, and made such progress that the country master 
 under whom he was could not instruct him any further. He was 
 then sent to Northampton boarding school, under the care of Rev. 
 John Ryland, where he continued about one year and a-half, and 
 made great progress in Latin and Greek. In October, 1778, he 
 went to the Academy at Bristol, under the care of the Rev. Mr, 
 Evans ; and on August 13th, 1780, was sent out to the ministry 
 by this church, being sixteen years and three months old. The 
 manner in which the church obtained satisfaction with his abili- 
 ties for the great work, was his speaking in his turn at conference 
 meetings from various portions of Scripture ; in which, and iu 
 prayer, he had borne a part for upwards of four years before ; and 
 having when at home, at their request, preached on Lord's-day 
 mornings, to their great satisfaction. They therefore earnestly 
 and unanimously requested his being in a solemn manner set 
 apart to public employ. Accordingly, on the day aforesaid, he was 
 examined by his father before the church, respecting his inclina- 
 tion, motives, and end, in reference to the ministry, and was like- 
 wise desired to make a declaration of his religious sentiments. 
 All which being done, to the entire satisfaction of the church, 
 they therefore set him apart by lifting up their right hands, and 
 by solemn prayer. His father then delivered a discourse from 
 2 Tim. ii. 1. ' Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that 
 is iu Christ Jesus.' Being thus sent fortli, lie [jreached in the after- 
 
46 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 noon from 2 Tliess. i. 7, 8. ' May tlie Lord bless liim, and grant 
 liim great success 1 ' " * 
 
 Considerable weight is to be given to the judgment 
 of men and women who hve near to God, and in most 
 instances their verdict will not be a mistaken one. Yet 
 this appeal is not final nor infallible, and is only to be 
 cstimntcd in proportion to the intelligence and piety of 
 those consulted. I remember well how earnestly I was 
 dissuaded from preaching by as godly a Christian matron 
 as ever breathed ; the value of her opinion I endeavored 
 to estimate with candor and patience — but i*"- was out- 
 weighed by the judgment of persons of wider experience. 
 Young men in doubt will do well to take with them their 
 wisest friends when next they go out to the country chapel 
 or village meeting-room and essay to deliver the Word. 
 I have noted — and our venerable friend, Mr. Rogers, 
 has observed the same — that you, gentlemen, students, 
 as a body, in your judgment of one another, are seldom 
 if ever wrong. There has hardly ever been an instance, 
 take the whole house through, where the general o]n"nion 
 of the entire college concerning a brother has been erro- 
 neous. Men are not quite so nnable to form an opinion 
 of each other as they are sometimes supposed to be. 
 Meeting as you do in class, in prayer-meeting, in conver- 
 sation, and in various religious engagements, you gauge 
 each other ; and a wise man will be slow to set aside the 
 verdict of the house. 
 
 I should not complete this point if I did not add, 
 that mere ability to edify and aptness to teach is not 
 enough, there must be other talents to complete the pas- 
 toral character. Sound judgment and solid experience 
 luust instruct you ; gentle manners and loving affections 
 
 * Biographical Recollections of tLe Rev. Robert Hall, A. M 
 By J. M Morris. 1833. 
 
CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 49 
 
 must sway 3^011 ; firmness and courage must be manifest ; 
 and tenderness and sympathy must not be lacking. Gifts 
 administrative in ruling well will be as requisite as gifts 
 instructive in teaching well. You must be fitted to lead, 
 prepared to endure, and able to persevere. In grace, 
 you should be head and shoulders above the rest of the 
 people, able to be their father and counsellor. Head 
 carefully the qualifications of a bishop, given in 1 Tim. 
 iii. 2-7, and in Titus i. 6-9. If such gifts and graces 
 be not in you and abound, it may be possible for you to 
 succeed as an evangelist, but as a pastor you will be of 
 no account. 
 
 3. In order further to prove a man's call, after a lit- 
 tle exercise of his gifts, such as I have already spoken of, 
 he must see a measure of conversion-worh going on under 
 his efforts, or he may conclude that he has made a mis- 
 take, and, therefore, may go back by the best way he can. 
 It is not to be expected that upon the first or even twen- 
 tieth effort in public we shall be apprized of success ; and 
 a man may even give himself a life trial of preaching if 
 he feels called to do so, but it seems to me, that as a man 
 to be set apart to the ministry, his commission is without 
 seals until souls are won by his instrumentality to the 
 knowledge of Jesus. As a worker, he is to work on 
 whether he succeeds or no, but as a minister he cannot 
 be sure of his vocation till the results are apparent. How 
 my heart leaped for joy when I heard the tidings of my 
 first convert ! I could never be satisfied with a full con- 
 gregation, and the kind expressions of friends ; I longed 
 to hear that hearts had been broken, that tears had been 
 Been streaming from the eyes of penitents. How did I 
 rejoice, as one that findeth great spoil, over one j^oor 
 laborer's wife who confessed that she felt the guilt of sin, 
 and had found the Saviour under my discourse on 
 3 
 
50 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 Sunday afternoon : I have the cottage in which she 
 lived in my eye now ; believe me, it always appears pic- 
 turesque, I remember well her being received into the 
 church, and her dying, and her going home to heaven. 
 She was the first seal to my ministry, and, I can assure 
 you, a very precious one indeed, No mother was ever 
 more full of happiness at the sight of her first-born son. 
 Then could I have sung the song of the Virgin Mary, for 
 my soul did magnify the Lord for remembering my low 
 estate, and giving me the great honor to do a work for 
 which all generations should call me blessed, for so I 
 counted the conversion of one soul. There must be some 
 measure of conversion-work in your irregular labors be- 
 fore you can believe that preaching is to be your life-work. 
 Remember the Lord's words by the prophet Jeremiah ; 
 they are all very much to the point, and should alarm all 
 fruitless preachers. "I have not sent these prophets, 
 yet they ran ; I have not spoken to them, yet they proph- 
 esied. But if they had stood in my counsel, and had 
 caused my people to hear my words, then they should 
 liave turned them from their evil way, and from the evil 
 of their doings.' Jer. xxiii. 21, 22. It is a marvel to 
 me how men continue at ease in preaching year after year 
 Avithout conversions. Have they no bowels of compassion 
 for others ? no sense of responsibility upon themselves ? 
 Dare they, by a vain misrepresentation of divine sover- 
 eignty, cast the blame on their Master ? Or is it their 
 belief that Paul plants and Apollos waters, and that God 
 gives no increase ? Vain are their talents, their philos- 
 ophy, their rhetoric, and even their orthodoxy, without 
 the signs following. How are they sent of God who bring 
 no men to God ? Prophets whose words are powerless, 
 sowers whose seed all withers, fishers who take no fish, 
 soldiers who sive no wounds — are these God's men ? 
 
CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 51 
 
 Surely it were better to be a mud-raker, or a chimney- 
 sweep, tliau to stand in the ministry as an utterly barren 
 tree. The meanest occupation confers some benefit upon 
 mankind, but the wretched man who occupies a pulpit 
 and never glorfiies his God by conversions is a blank, a 
 blot, an eyesore, a mischief. lie is not worth the salt he 
 eats, much less his bread ; and if he writes to newspapers 
 to complain of the smallness of his salary, his conscience, 
 if he has any, might well reply, ''And what you have is 
 undeserved." Times of drought there may be ; ay, and 
 years of leanness may consume the former years of use- 
 fulness, but still there will be fruit in the main, and fruit 
 to the glory of God ; and meanwhile the transient bar- 
 renness will fill the soul with unutterable anguish. 
 Bretliren, if the Lord gives you no zeal for souls, keep 
 to the lapstone or the trowel, but avoid the j)ulpit as you 
 value your heart's peace and your future salvation. 
 
 4. A step beyond all this is however needful in our 
 inquiry. The will of the Lord concerning pastors is 
 made known through the prayerful judgment of his 
 church. It is needful as a proof of your vocation that 
 your preacliing should he acceptable to the people of God. 
 God usually opens doors of utterance for those whom he 
 calls to speak in his name. Impatience would push open 
 or break down the door, but faith waits upon the Lord, 
 and in due season her opportunity is awarded her. 
 When the opportunity comes then comes our trial. 
 Standing up to preach, our spirit will be Judged of the 
 assembly, and if it be condemned, or if, as a general rule, 
 the church is not edified, the conclusion may not be dis- 
 puted, that we are not sent of God. The signs and 
 marks of a true bishop are laid doAvn in the "Word for 
 the guidance of the church ; and if in following such 
 guidance the brethren sec not in us the qualifications. 
 
52 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 aud do not elect us to office, it is plain enough that how- 
 ever well we may evangelize, the office of the pastor is 
 not for us. Churches are not all wise, neither do they 
 all judge in the power of the Holy Ghost, but many of 
 them judge after the flesh ; yet I had sooner accept the 
 opinion of a company of the Lord's people than my own 
 upon so personal a subject as my own gifts and graces. 
 At any rate, whether you value the verdict of the church 
 or no, one thing is certain, that none of you can be pas- 
 tors without the loving consent of the flock ; and therefore 
 this will be to you a practical indicator if not a correct 
 one. If your call from the Lord he a real one you will 
 not long be silent. As surely as the man wants his hour, 
 so surely the hour wants its man. The church of God 
 is always urgently in need of living ministers ; to her a 
 man is always more precious than the gold of Ophir. 
 Formal officials do lack and suffer hunger, hut the 
 anointed of the Lord need never be without a charge, 
 for there are quick ears which will know them by their 
 speech, and ready hearts welcome them to their appointed 
 place. Jie fit for your work, and you will never be out 
 of it. Do not ru"A about inviting yourselves to preach 
 here and there ; be more concerned about your ability 
 than your opportunity, and more earnest about your 
 walk with God than about either. The sheep Avill know 
 the God-sent shepherd ; the porter of the fold will open 
 to you, and the flock will know your voice. 
 
 At the time of the first delivery of this lecture, I had 
 not read John Newton's admirable letter to a friend on 
 this subject ; it so nearly tallies with my own thoughts, 
 that at the risk of being thought to be a copyist, which 
 I certainly am not in this instance, I will read you 
 the letter : 
 
 ** Your case reminds me of my own ; my first desires 
 
CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 53 
 
 towards the ministry were attended with great uncer- 
 tainties and difficulties, and the perplexity of my own 
 mind was heightened by the various and opposite judg- 
 ments of my friends. The advice I have to offer is the 
 result of painful experience and exercise, and for this 
 reason, perhaps, may not be unacceptable to you. I pray 
 our gracious Lord to make it useful. 
 
 " I was long distressed, as you are, about what was 
 or was not a proper call to the ministry. It now seems 
 to me an easy point to solve ; but, perhaps, it will not 
 be so to you, till the Lord shall make it clear to your- 
 self in your own case. I have not room to say so much 
 as I could. In brief, I think it principally includes 
 three things : 
 
 ''1. A warm and earnest desire to be employed in 
 this service. I apprehend the man who is once moved 
 by the Spirit of God to this work, will prefer it, if at- 
 tainable, to thousands of gold and silver ; so that, though 
 he is at times intimidated by a sense of its importance 
 and difficulty, compared with his own great insufficiency 
 (for it is to be presumed a call of this sort, if indeed 
 from God, will be accompanied with humility and self- 
 abasement), yet he cannot give it up. I hold it a good 
 rule to inquire in this point, whether the desire to preach 
 is most fervent in our most lively and spiritual frames, 
 and when we are most laid in the dust before the Lord? 
 If so, it is a good sign. But if, as is sometimes the 
 case, a person is very earnest to be a preacher to others, 
 when he finds but little hungerings and thirstings after 
 grace in his own soul, it is then to be feared his zeal 
 springs rather from a selfish principle than from the 
 Spirit of God. 
 
 " 2. Besides this affectionate desire and readiness 
 to preach, there must in due season appear some com- 
 
64 LECTUKES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 petent sufficiency as to ^fts, knowledge, and utterance. 
 Surely, if the Lord sends a man to teach others, he will 
 furnish him with the means. I believe many have in- 
 tended Avell in setting up for preachers, who yet went 
 beyond or before their call in so doing. The main dif- 
 ference between a minister and a private Christian, seems 
 to consist in those ministerial gifts, which are imparted 
 to him, not for his own sake, but for the edification of 
 others. But then I say these are to appear in due season; 
 they are not to be expected instantaneously, but grad- 
 ually, in the use of proper means. They are necessary 
 for the discharge of the ministry, but not necessary as 
 prerequisites to warrant our desires after it. In your 
 case, you are young, and have time before you ; there- 
 fore, I think you need not as yet perplex yourself with 
 inquiring if you have these gifts already. It is sufficient 
 if your desire is fixed, and you are willing, in the way of 
 praying and diligence, to wait upon the Lord for them ; 
 as yet you need them not.* 
 
 " 3. That which finally evidences a proper call, is 
 a correspondent opening in providence, by a gradual train 
 of circumstances pointing out the means, the time, the 
 place, of actually entering upon the work. And until 
 tills coincidence arrives, you must not expect to be always 
 clear from hesitation in your own mind. The principal 
 caution on this head is, not to be too hasty in catching 
 at first appearances. If it be the Lord's will to bring 
 you into his ministry, he has already appointed your 
 place and service, and though you know it not at present, 
 you shall at a proper time. If you had the talents of an 
 angel, you could do no good with them till his hour ie 
 
 * We should hesitate to speak precisely in this manner. The 
 gifts must be somewhat apparent before the desire should be en- 
 couraged. Still in the main we agree with Mr. Newton. 
 
CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 55 
 
 come, and till lie leads you to the people Avliom he has 
 dctermiued to bless by your means. It is very difficult 
 to restrain ourselves within the bounds of prudence here, 
 when our zeal is warm : a sense of the love of Christ 
 upon our hearts, and a tender compassion for poor sin- 
 ueis, is ready to prompt us to break out too soon ; but 
 he that believeth shall not make haste. I was about 
 five years under this constraint ; sometimes I thought I 
 must preach, though it was in the streets. I listened to 
 everything that seemed plausible, and to many things 
 which were not so. But the Lord graciously, and as it 
 were insensibly, hedged up my way with thorns ; other- 
 wise, if I had been left to my own spirit, I should have 
 put it quite out of my power to have been brought into 
 such a S2)liere of usefulness, as he in his good time has 
 been jileased to lead me to. And I can now see clearly, 
 that at the time I would first have gone out, though my 
 intention was, I hope, good in the main, yet I. overrated 
 myself, and had not that spiritual judgment and expe- 
 rience which are requisite for so great a service." 
 
 Thus much may suffice, but the same subjects Avill 
 be before you if I detail a little of my experience in deal- 
 ing Avith aspirants for the ministry. I have constantly 
 to fulfil the duty which fell to the lot of Cromwell's 
 Triers. I have to form an opinion as to the advisability 
 of aiding certain men in their attempts to become pas- 
 tors. This is a most responsible duty, and one which 
 requires no ordinary care. Of course, I do not set my- 
 eelf up to judge whether a man shall enter the ministry 
 or not, but my examination merely aims at answering 
 the question whether this institution shall help him, or 
 leave him to his own resources. Certain of our charita- 
 ble neighbors accuse us of having '* a parson manufac- 
 
66 LECTURES TO MY STUDEJTTS. 
 
 tory " here, but the cliarge is not true at all. We never 
 tried to make a minister, and should fail if we did; we 
 receive none into the College but those who profess to 
 be ministers already. It would be nearer the truth if 
 they called me a parson killer, for a goodly number of 
 beginners have received their quietus from me ; and I 
 have the fullest ease of conscience in reflecting upon 
 what I have so done. It has always been a hard task for 
 me to discourage a hopeful young brother who has applied 
 for admission to the College. My heart has always 
 leaned to the kindest side, but duty to the churches has 
 compelled me to judge with severe discrimination. After 
 hearing what the candidate has had to say, having read 
 his testimonials and seen his replies to questions, when I 
 have felt convinced that the Lord had not called him, I 
 have been obliged to tell him so. Certain of the cases 
 are types of all. Young brethren apply Avho earnestly 
 desire to enter the ministry, but it is painfully apparent 
 that their main motive is an ambitious desire to shine 
 among men. Tliese men are, from a common point of 
 vicAV, to be commended for aspiring ; but then the pul- 
 pit is never to be the ladder by which ambition is to 
 climb. Had such men entered the army they would 
 never have been satisfied till they had reached the front 
 rank, for they are determined to push their way up — all 
 very laudable and very proper so far ; but they have em- 
 braced the idea that if they entered the ministry they 
 Avould be greatly distinguished ; they have felt the bud- 
 dings of genius, and have regarded themselves as greater 
 than ordinary persons, and, therefore, they have looked 
 upon the ministry as a platform upon which to display 
 their supposed abilities. Whenever this has been visible 
 I have felt bound to leave the man " to gang his aiu 
 gate," as the Scotch say ; believing that such spirits 
 
CALL TO THE MI^TISTKY. 57 
 
 alwaj's come to nought if tliey enter the Lord's service. 
 We find that we have nothing whereof to glory, and if 
 we had, the very worst place in which to hang it out 
 Avon Id be a pulpit ; for there we are brought daily to 
 feel our own insignificance and nothingness. 
 
 Men who since conversion have betrayed great fee- 
 bleness of mind and are readily led to embrace strange 
 doctrines, or to fall into evil company and gross sin, I 
 never can find it in my heart to encourage to enter the 
 ministry, let their professions be what they may. Let 
 them, if truly penitent, keep in the rear ranks. Unstable 
 as water, they will not excel. 
 
 So, too, those who cannot endure hardness, but are 
 of the kid-glove order, I refer elsewhere. We want 
 soldiers, not fops, earnest laborers, not genteel loiterers. 
 Men who have done nothing up to their time of appli- 
 cation to the college, are told to earn their spurs before 
 they are publicly dubbed as knights. Fervent lovers of 
 souls do not wait till they are trained, they serve their 
 Lord at once. 
 
 Certain good men appeal to me who are distinguished 
 by enormous vehemence and zeal, and a conspicuous 
 absence of brains ; brethren who would talk for ever and 
 ever upon nothing — who would stamp and thump the 
 Bible, and get nothing out of it all ; earnest, awfully 
 earnest, mountains in labor of the most painful kind ; 
 but nothing comes of it all, not even thej^idictihis mus. 
 There are zealots abroad who are not capable of conceiv- 
 ing or uttering five consecutive thoughts, whose capacity 
 is most narrow and their conceit most broad, and these 
 can hammer, and bawl, and rave, and tear, and rage, but 
 the noise all arises from the hollowness of the drum. I 
 conceive that these brethren will do quite as well without 
 3* 
 
58 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 education as with it, and therefore I have usually deeliued 
 their applications. 
 
 Another exceedingly large class of men seek tlie pulpit 
 they knoAv not wliy. 'They cannot teacli and will not 
 learn, and yet must fain be ministers. Like the man 
 who slept on Parnassus, and ever after imagined himself 
 a poet, they have had impudence enough once to tlirust 
 a sermon upon an audience, and now nothing will do 
 but preaching. They are so hasty to leave off sewing 
 garments, that they will make a rent in the church of 
 which they are members, to accomplish their design. 
 The counter is distasteful, and a pulpit cushion is coveted ; 
 the scales and weights they are weary of, and must needs 
 try their hands at the balances of the sanctuary. Such 
 men, like raging waves of the sea, usually foam forth their 
 own shame, and we are happy when we bid them adieu. 
 
 Physical infirmities raise a question about the call of 
 some excellent men. I would not, like Eusthenes, judge 
 men by their features, but their general physique is no 
 small criterion. That narrow chest does not indicate 
 a man formed for public speech. You may think 
 it odd, but still I feel very Avell assured, that when a 
 man has a contracted chest, with no distance between 
 his shoulders, the all-wise Creator did not intend him 
 habitually to preach. If he had meant him to speak he 
 would have given him in some measure breadth of chest 
 sufficient to yield a reasonable amount of lung force. 
 AYhen the Lord means a creature to run, he gives it 
 ]iimble legs, and if he means another creature to i)reacli, 
 he will give it suitable lungs. A brother who has to 
 pause in the middle of a sentence and work his air-pump, 
 ehould ask himself whether there is not some other occu- 
 pation for which he is better adapted. A man who can 
 scarcely get through a sentence without pain, can hardly 
 
CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 59 
 
 be called to " Cry aloud and spare not." There may be 
 exceptions, but is there not weight in the general rule ? 
 Brethren witli defective mouths and imperfect articulation 
 are not usually called to preach the gospel. The same 
 apijlies to brethren with no palate, or an imperfect one. 
 
 Application was received some short time ago from a 
 young man who had a sort of rotary action of his jaw of 
 the most painful sort to the beholder. His j^astor com- 
 mended him as a very holy young man, who had been 
 the means of bringing some to Christ, and he expressed 
 the hope that I would receive him, but I could not see 
 the pro})riety of it. I could not have looked at him while 
 preaching, without laughter, if all the gold of Tarshish 
 had been my reward, and in all probability nine out of ton 
 of his hearers would have been more sensitive than myself. 
 A man with a big tongue which filled up his mouth and 
 caused indistinctness, another without teeth, another who 
 stammei'ed, another who could not pronounce all the 
 alphabet, I have had the pain of declining on the ground 
 that God had not given them those physical appliances, 
 which are, as the prayer-book would put it, ''gen- 
 erally necessary. " 
 
 One brother I have encountered — one did I say ? I 
 have met ten, twenty, a hundred brethren, who have 
 pleaded that they were sure, quite sure that they were 
 called to the ministry — they were cpiite certain of it, be- 
 cause they had failed in everything else. This is a sort 
 of model story : " Sir, I was put into a lawyer's office, 
 but I could never bear the confinement, and I could not 
 feel at home studying law ; Providence clearly stopped 
 up my road, for I lost my situation. " " And what did 
 you do then ? " Why sir, I was induced to open a grocer's 
 shop." " And did you prosper? " " "Well, I do not think, 
 sir, I was ever meant for trade, and the Lord seemed quite 
 
60 LECTUEES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 to shut my way up there, for I failed and was in great 
 difficulties. Since then I have done a little in life-assur- 
 ance agency, and tried to get up a school, besides selling 
 tea ; but my path is hedged up, and something within 
 me makes me feel that I ought to be a minister." My 
 answer generally is, ''Yes, I see ; you hare failed in 
 everything else, and therefore you think the Lord has 
 especially endowed you for his service ; but I fear you 
 have forgotten that the ministry needs the very best of 
 men, and not those who cannot do anything else." A 
 man who would succeed as a preacher would probably do 
 right well either as a grocer, or a lawyer, or anything else. 
 A really valuable minister would have excelled at any- 
 thing. There is scarcely anything impossible to a man 
 who can keep a congregation together for years, and be 
 the means of edifying them for hundreds of consecutive 
 Sabbaths ; he must be possessed of some abilities, and be 
 by no means a fool or ne'er-do-well. Jesus Christ de- 
 serves the best men to preach his cross, and not the 
 empty-headed and the shiftless. 
 
 One young gentleman with whose presence I was once 
 honored, has left on my mind the photograph of his ex- 
 quisite self. That same face of his looked like the title- 
 page to a whole volume of conceit and deceit. He sent 
 word into my vestry one Sabbath morning that he must see 
 me at once. His audacity admitted him ; and when he 
 was before me he said, " Sir, I want to enter your College, 
 and should like to enter it at once." " Well, sir," said I, 
 ** I fear we have no room for you at present, but your 
 case shall be considered." "But mine is a very remark- 
 able case, sir ; you have probably never received such an 
 application as mine before. " " Very good, we'll see about 
 it ; the secretary will give you one of the application 
 papers, and you can see me on Monday." He came on 
 
CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 61 
 
 the Monday bringing with liim the questions, answered in a 
 most extraordinary manner. As to books, he claimed to 
 have read all ancient and modern literature, and after 
 giving an immense list he added, " this is but a selection ; 
 I have read most extensively in all departments." As to 
 his preaching, he could produce the highest testimonials, 
 but hardly thought they would be needed, as a personal 
 interview would convince me of his ability at once. Ilis 
 surprise was great when I said, *' Sir, I am obliged to tell 
 you that I cannot receive you." " Why not, sir ? " 
 "I will tell you plainly. You are so dreadfully clever 
 that I could not insult you by receiving you into our 
 College, where we have none but rather ordinary men ; 
 the president, tutors, and students, are all men of mod- 
 erate attainments, and you would have to condescend too 
 much in coming among us." He looked at me severely, 
 and said with dignity, " Do you mean to say, that because 
 I have an unusual genius, and have produced in myself a 
 gigantic mind such as is rarely seen, I am refused admit- 
 tance into your College." " Yes," I replied, as calmly as I 
 could, considering the overpowering awe which his genius 
 inspired, "for that very reason." " Then, sir, you ought 
 to allow me a trial of my preaching abilities ; select me 
 any text you like, or suggest any subject you please, and 
 here in this very room I will speak upon it, or preach 
 upon it without the slightest deliberation, and you will 
 be surprised." *'No, thank you, I would rather not 
 have the trouble of listening to you." " Trouble, sir I 
 I assure you it would be the greatest possible pleasure 
 you could have." I said it might be, but I felt myself 
 unworthy of the privilege, and so bade him a long fare- 
 well. The gentleman was unknown to me at the time, 
 but he has since figured in the police court as too clever 
 by half. 
 
62 LECTURES TO MY STUDEK"TS. 
 
 "We have occasionally had applications at wliicli, per- 
 haps, you would be amazed, from men who are evidently 
 fluent enough, and who answer all our questions very 
 well, except those upon their doctrinal views, to which 
 repeatedly we have had this answer : " Mr. So-and-so is 
 prepared to receive the doctrines of the College whatever 
 they may be ! " In all such cases we never deliberate a 
 moment, the instantaneous negative is given. I mention 
 it because it illustrates our conviction that men are not 
 called to the ministry who have no knowledge and no 
 definite belief. When young fellows say that they have 
 not made ap their minds upon theology, they ought to 
 go back to the Sunday-school until they have. For a man 
 to come shuffling into a College, pretending that he holds 
 his mind open to any form of truth, and that he is emi- 
 nently receptive, but has not settled in his mind such 
 things as whether God has an election of grace, or whether 
 he loves his people to the end, seems to me to bo a per- 
 fect monstrosity. " Not a novice," says the apostle ; yet 
 a man who has not made up his mind on siich points as 
 these, is confessedly and egregiously "a novice," and 
 ought to be relegated to the catechism-class till he has 
 learned the first truths of the gospel. 
 
 After all, gentlemen, we shall have to prove our call 
 by the practical proof of our ministiy in after life, and it 
 will be a lamentable thing for us to start in our course 
 without due examination ; for if so, we m^ay have to leave 
 it in disgrace. On the whole, experience is our surest 
 test, and if God upholds us from year to year, and gives 
 ns his blessing, we need make no other trial of our voca- 
 tion. Our moral and spiritual fitnesses will be tried by 
 the labor of our ministry, and this is the most trustworthy 
 of all tests. From some one or other I heard in conversa- 
 tion of a plan adopted by Matthew Wilks, for examining 
 
CALL TO THE MINISTRY. 63 
 
 a young man who wanted to be a missionary ; the drift, 
 if not the detail of the test, commends itself to my judg- 
 ment though not to my taste. The young man desired 
 to go to India as a missionary in connection with th 
 London Missionary Society. Mr. Wilks was apiwinted 
 to consider his fitness for such a post. He wrote to the 
 young man, and told him to call upon him at six o'clock 
 the next morning. The brother lived many miles off, 
 but he was at the house at six o'clock punctually. Mr. 
 Wilks did not, however, enter the room till hours after. 
 The brother waited wonderingly, but patiently. At last 
 Mr. Wilks arrived, and addressed the candidate thus, in 
 his usual nasal tones, ''Well, young man, so you want 
 to be a missionary ?'* "Yes, sir." "Do you love the 
 Lord Jesus Christ ?" " Yes, sir, I hope I do." " And 
 have you had any education?" " Yes, sir, a little." 
 " Well, now, we'll try you ; can you spell * cat ' ? " The 
 young man looked confused, and hardly knew how to 
 answer so preposterous a question. Ilis mind evidently 
 halted between indignation and submission, but in a 
 moment he replied steadily, " C, a, t, cat." "Very 
 good," said Mr. Wilks; "now, can you spell "dog' ?" 
 Our young martyr hesitated, but Mr. Wilks said in his 
 coolest manner, " Oh, never mind ; don't be bashful ; 
 you spelt the other word so well that I should think you 
 will be able to spell this : high as the attainment is, it 
 is not so elevated but what you might do it without 
 blushing." The youthful Job replied, " D, o, g, dog." 
 " Well, that is right ; I see you will do in your spelling, 
 and now for your arithmetic ; how many are tvfiee two ? " 
 It is a wonder that Mr. Wilks did not receive "twice 
 two " after the fashion of muscular Christianity, but the 
 patient youth gave the right reply and was dismissed, 
 Matthew Wilks at the committee meeting said, " I cor- 
 
64 " LECTURES TO MY STUDEKTS. 
 
 dially recommend that young man ; his testimonials and 
 character I have duly examined, and besides that, I have 
 h»9e given him a rare personal trial such as few could 
 bear. I tried his self-denial, he was up in the morning 
 early ; I tried liis temper, and I tried his humility ; he 
 can spell 'cat' and ' dog,' and can tell that 'twice two 
 make four,' and he will do for a missionary exceedingly 
 well." Now, what tlie old gentleman is thus said to have 
 done with exceedingly bad taste, we may Avith much pro- 
 priety do with ourselves. "We must try whether we can 
 endure brow-beating, weariness, slander, jeering, hard- 
 ship ; and whether we can be made the off-scouring of all 
 tilings, and be . treated as nothing for Christ's sake. It 
 we can endure all these, we have some of those points 
 which indicate the possession of the rare qualities which 
 should meet in a true servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 I gravely question whether some of us will find our ves- 
 sels, when far out at sea, to be quite so seaworthy as we 
 think them. my brethren, make sure work of it while 
 you are yet in this retreat ; and diligently labor to fit 
 yourselves for your high calling. You will have trials 
 enough, and woe to you if you do not go forth armed 
 from head to foot Avith armor of proof. You Avill have 
 to run Avith horsemen, let not the footmen Aveary you 
 Avliile in your i^reliminary studies. The devil is abroad, 
 and with him are many. ProA'e your own selves, and 
 may the Lord j)repare you for the crucible and the fur- 
 nace Avhich assuredly aAvait you. Your tribulation may 
 not in all respects be so severe as that of Paul and his 
 companions, but you must be ready for a like ordeal. 
 Let me read you his memorable words, and let me entreat 
 you to pray, while you hear them, that the Holy Ghost 
 may strengthen you for all that lies before you. " Giving 
 no cffence in anything, that the ministry be not blamed : 
 
CALL TO THE MIJflSTRT. Go 
 
 but in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of 
 God, in much patience, in affliction, in necessities, in 
 distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in 
 labors, in watcliings, in fastings ; by pureness, by knowl- 
 edge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, 
 by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power 
 of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand 
 and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report 
 and good report : as deceivers, and yet true ; as unknown, 
 and yet well known ; as dying, and, behold, we live ; as 
 chastened, and not killed ; as sorrowful, yet always re- 
 joicing ; as poor, yet making many rich ; as having 
 nothing, and yet possessing all things." 
 
LECTURE HI. 
 
 THE PEE ACKER'S PRIVATE PRAYER. 
 
 Of course the preacher is above all others distinguished 
 as a man of prayer. He prays as an ordinary Christian, 
 else he were a hypocrite. He prays more than ordinary 
 Christians, else he were disqualified for the office which 
 he has undertaken. " It would be wholly monstrous," 
 says Bernard, " for a man to be highest in office and 
 lowest in soul ; first in station and last in life." Over all 
 his other relationships the preeminence of the pastor's 
 responsibility casts a halo, and if true to his Master, he 
 becomes distinguished for his prayerfulness in them all. 
 As a citizen, his country has the advantage of his inter- 
 cession ; as a neighbor those under his shadow are re- 
 membered in supplication. He prays as a husband and 
 as a father ; he strives to make his family devotions a 
 model for his flock ; and if the fire on the altar of God 
 should burn low anywhere else, it is well tended in the 
 house of the Lord's chosen servant — for he takes care 
 that the morning and evening sacrifice shall sanctify his 
 dwelling. But there are some of his prayers which con- 
 cern his office, and of those our plan in these lectures 
 leads us to speak most. He offers peculiar supplica- 
 tions as a minister, and he draws near to God in this 
 respect, over and above all his ajDproaches in his other 
 relationships. 
 
 I take it that as a minister lie is always praying. 
 
PKIVATE PRAYER. 67 
 
 WhcncYcr his mind turns to his work, whetlier he is in 
 it or out of it, he cjacukitcs a petition, sending up his. 
 lioly desires as well-directed arrows to the slcies. He is 
 not always in the act of prayer, but he lives in the spirit 
 of it. If his heart be in his work, he cannot eat or drink, 
 or take recreation, or go to his bed, or rise in the morn- 
 ing, without evermore feeling a fervency of desire, a 
 weight of anxiety, and a simplicity of dependence upon 
 God ; thus, in one form or other he continues in prayer. 
 If there be any man under heaven, who is compelled to 
 carry out the precept — " Pray without ceasing," surely 
 it is the Christian minister. He has peculiar tempta- 
 tions, special trials, singular difficulties, and remarkable 
 duties ; he has to deal with God in awful relationships, 
 and with men in mysterious interests ; he therefore needs 
 much more grace than common men, and as he knows 
 this, he is led constantly to cry to the strong for strength, 
 and say, " I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from 
 whence cometh my help." Alleine once wrote to a dear 
 friend, " Though I am apt to be unsettled and quickly 
 set off the hinges, yet, methinks, I am like a bird out of 
 the nest, I am never quiet till I am in my old way of 
 communion Avith God ; like the needle in the compass, 
 that is restless till it be turned toward the pole. I can 
 say, through grace, with the church, ' With my soul have 
 I desired thee in the night, and Avith my spirit within 
 me have I sought thee early.' My heart is early and late 
 Avith God ; 'tis the business and delight of my life to 
 seek him." Such must be the even tenor of your Avay, 
 men of God. If yon as ministers are not very prayer- 
 ful, you are much to be pitied. If, in the future, yon 
 shall be called to sustain pastorates, large or small, if you 
 become lax in secret devotion, not only will you need to 
 be pitied, but your people also ; and, in addition to that. 
 
68 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 you shall be blamed, and the day cometh in which you 
 shall be ashamed and confounded. 
 
 It may scarcely be needful to commend to you the 
 sweet uses of private devotion, and yet I cannot forbear. 
 To you, as the ambassadors of God, the mercy-seat baa 
 a virtue beyond all estimate ; the more familiar you are 
 with the court of heaven the better shall you discharge 
 your heavenly trust. Among alL -the formative influ- 
 ences which go to make up a man honored of God in the 
 ministry, I know of none more mighty than his own 
 familiarity with the mercy-seat. All that a college course 
 can do for a student is coarse and external compared 
 with the spiritual and delicate refinement obtained by 
 communion with God. While the unformed minister is 
 revolving upon the wheel of preparation, prayer is the 
 tool of the great potter by which he moulds the vessel. 
 All our libraries and studies are mere emptiness com- 
 pared with our closets. We grow, we wax mighty, we 
 prevail in private prayer. 
 
 Your prayers will be your ablest assistants ivMle your 
 discourses are yet ujpon tlie anvil. W^liile other men, like 
 Esau, are hunting for their portion, you, by the aid of 
 prayer, will find the savory meat near at home, and 
 may say in truth what Jacob said so falsely, " The Lord 
 brought it to me," If you can dip your pens into your 
 hearts, appealing in earnestness to the Lord, you will 
 write well ; and if you can gather your matter on your 
 knees at the gate of heaven, you will not fail to speak 
 well. Prayer, as a mental exercise, will bring many 
 subjects before the mind, and so help in the selection of 
 a topic, while as a high spiritual engagement it will 
 cleanse your inner eye that you may see truth in the 
 light of God. Texts will often refuse to reveal their 
 treasures till you open them with the key of prayer. 
 
PRIVATE PRAYER. 69 
 
 How wonderfully were tlie books opened to Daniel when 
 he was in supplication ! How much Peter learned upon 
 the housetop I The closet is the best study. The com- 
 mentators are good instructors, but the Author himself 
 is far better, and prayer makes a direct appeal to him 
 and enlists him in our cause. It is a gi'eat thing to pray 
 one's self into the spirit and marrow of a text ; working 
 into it by sacred feeding thereon, even as the worm bores 
 its way into the kernel of the nut. Prayer supplies a 
 leverage for the uplifting of ponderous truths. One 
 marvels how the stones of Stonehenge could have been 
 set in their places ; it is even more to be inquired after 
 whence some men obtained such admirable knowledge of 
 mysterious doctrines : was not prayer the potent ma- 
 chinery Avhich wrought the wonder ? Waiting upon 
 God often turns darkness into light. Persevering in- 
 quiry at the sacred oracle uplifts the veil and gives grace 
 to look into the deep things of God. A certain Puritan 
 divine, at a debate, was observed frequently to write 
 upon the paper before him ; upon others curiously seek- 
 ing to read his notes, they found nothing upon the page 
 but the words, " More light. Lord," " More light. Lord," 
 repeated scores of times : a most suitable prayer for the 
 student of the "Word when preparing his discourse. 
 
 You will frequently find fresh streams of thought 
 leaping up from the passage before you, as if the rock 
 had been struck by Moses' rod ; new veins of precious 
 ore will be revealed to your astonished gaze as you quarry 
 God's Word and use diligently the hammer of prayer. 
 You will sometimes feel as if you Avere entirely shut up, 
 and then suddenly a new road will open before you. He 
 who hath the key of David openeth, and no man shut- 
 teth. If you have ever sailed down the Ehine, the water 
 scenery of that majestic river will have struck you as be- 
 
70 LECTUEES TO MY STUDEKTS. 
 
 ing very like in effect to a series of lakes. Before and 
 behind the vessel appears to be enclosed in massive walls 
 of rock, or circles of vine-clad terraces, till on a sudden 
 you turn a corner, and before you the rejoicing and 
 abounding river flows onward in its strength. So the 
 laborious student often finds it with a text ; it appears 
 to be fast closed against you, but prayer propels your 
 vessel, and turns its prow into fresh waters, and you be- 
 hold the broad and deep stream of sacred truth flowing 
 in its fulness, and bearing you with it. Is not this a 
 convincing reason for abiding in supplication ? Use 
 prayer as a boring rod, and wells of living "Avater will 
 leap up from the boAvels of the Word. Who will be con- 
 tent to thirst when living waters are so readily to be 
 obtained ! 
 
 The best and holiest men have ever made made 
 prayer the most important part of jiulpit preparation. 
 It is said of M'Cheyne,* '^'Anxious to give his people on 
 the Sabbath Avhat had cost him somewhat, he never, 
 without an urgent reason, went before them without 
 much previous meditation and prayer. His principle on 
 this subject was embodied in a remark he made to some 
 of us who were conversing on the matter. Being asked 
 his view of diligent preparation for tlie pulpit, he 
 reminded us of Exodus xxvii. 20. * Beaten oil — beaten 
 oil for the lamps of the sanctuary.'' And yet his prayer- 
 fulness was greater still. Indeed, he could not neglect 
 fellowship with God before entering the congregation. 
 He needed to be bathed in the love of God. His minis- 
 try was so much a bringing out of views that had first 
 sanctified his own soul, that the healthiness of his soul 
 
 * Memoir and Remains of the Rev. Robert Murray M'Cliej'ne, 
 page 61. This iw one of the best and most profitable volumes 
 ever published. Every minister should read it often. 
 
PRIVATE PRATER. 71 
 
 was absolutely needful to the vigor and power of liis 
 ministrations." 'MYitli him the commencement of all 
 labor invariably consisted in the preparation of his own 
 soul. The Avails of his chamber were witnesses of his 
 praycrfulncss and of his tears, as well as of his cries." 
 
 Prayer will singularly assist you in the delivery of 
 your sermon; in fact, nothing can so gloriously fit you 
 to preach as descending fresh from the mount of com- 
 munion with God to speak with men. None are so able 
 to plead with men as those who have been wrestling with 
 God on their behalf. It is said of Alleine, '' He poured 
 out his very heart in prayer and preaching. His suppli- 
 cations and his exhortations were so affectionate, so full 
 of holy zeal, life, and vigor, that they quite overcame his 
 hearers ; he melted over them, so that he thawed and 
 mollified, and sometimes dissolved the hardest hearts." 
 There could have been none of this sacred dissolving of 
 heart if his mind had not been previously exposed to the 
 tropical rays of the Sun of Eighteousness by private fel- 
 lowship with the risen Lord. A truly pathetic delivery, 
 in which there is no affectation, but much affection, 
 can only be the offspring of prayer. There is no rheto- 
 ric like that of the heart, and no school for learning it 
 but the foot of the cross. It were better that yoiT never 
 learned a rule of human oratory, but were full of the 
 power of heaven-born love, than that you should master 
 Quintilian, Cicero, and Aristotle, and remain witliout 
 the apostolic anointing. 
 
 Prayer may not make you eloquent after the human 
 mode, but it will make you truly so, for you will speak 
 out of the heart ; and is not that the meaning of the 
 word eloquence ? It will bring fire from heaven 
 upon your sacrifice, and tlius prove it to be accepted of 
 the Lord. 
 
72 LECTUEES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 As fresli springs of thought will frequently break up 
 during preparation in answer to prayer, so will it be in 
 the delivery of the sermon. Most preacliers who depend 
 upon God's Spirit will tell you that their freshest and 
 best thoughts are not those which were premeditated, 
 but ideas wliich come to them, flying as on the wings of 
 angels ; unexpected treasures brouglit on a sudden by 
 celestial hands, seeds of the flowers of paradise, wafted 
 from the mountains of myrrh. Often and often when I 
 have felt hampered, both in thought and expression, my 
 secret groaning of heart has brought me relief, and I 
 have enjoyed more than usual liberty. But how dare we 
 pray in the battle if we have never cried to the Lord 
 while buckling on the harness \ The remembrance of 
 his wrestlings at home comforts the fettered j)reacher 
 when in the pulpit : God will not desert us unless we 
 have deserted him. You, brethren, will find that prayer 
 will insure you strength equal to your day. 
 
 As the tongues of fire came upon the apostles, when 
 they sat watching and praying, even so will tliey come 
 upon you. You will find yourselves, when you might 
 perhaps have flagged, suddenly upborne, as by a seraph's 
 power. Wheels of fire will be fastened to your chariot, 
 which had begun to drag right heavily, and steeds 
 angelic will be in a moment harnessed to your fiery car, 
 till you climb the heavens like Elijah, in a rapture of 
 flaming inspiration. 
 
 After the sermon, how would a conscientious pi'eachc] 
 give vent to his feelings and find solace for his soul if 
 access to the mercy-seat were denied him ? Elevated to 
 tlie highest pitch of excitement, hoAv can we relieve our 
 souls but in importunate pleadings. Or depressed by a 
 fear of failure, how shall we be comforted but in moan- 
 ing out our complaint before our God. How often have 
 
PRIVATE rRATER. 73 
 
 some of us tossed to and fro upon our couch luilf the 
 night because of conscious shortcomings in our testi- 
 mony ! IIow frequently have we longed to rush back 
 to the pulpit again to say over again more vehemently, 
 •what we have uttered in so cold a manner ! Where 
 could we find rest for our spirits but in confession of sin 
 and passionate entreaty that our infirmity or folly might 
 in no way hinder the Spirit of God ! It is not possible 
 in a public assembly to pour out all our heart's love to 
 our flock. Like Joseph, the affectionate minister will 
 seek where to weep ; his emotions, however freely ho 
 may express himself, will be pent up in the pulpit, and 
 only in private prayer can he draw up the sluices and 
 bid them flow forth. If we cannot prevail with men for 
 God, we will, at least, endtnifor to prevail with God for 
 men. "\Ye cannot save them, or even persuade them to 
 be saved, but we can at least bewail their madness and 
 entreat the interference of the Lord. Like Jeremiah, 
 we can make it our resolve, " If ye will not hear it, my 
 soul shall weep in secret places for your pride, and mine 
 eye shall weep sore aiid run down with tears." To such 
 pathetic appeals the Lord's heart can never be indiffer- 
 ent ; in due time the weeping intercessor will become 
 the rejoicing winner of souls. There is a distinct con- 
 nection between importunate agonizing and true success, 
 even as between the travail and the birth, the sowing in 
 tears and the reaping in joy. *' How is it that your 
 seed comes up so soon ? " said one gardener to another. 
 " Because I steep it," was the reply. We must steep all 
 our teachings in tears, " when none but God is nigh," 
 and their growth will surprise and delight us. Could 
 any one wonder at Brainerd's success, when his diary 
 contains such notes as this : '' Lord's Day, April 2oth — 
 This morning spent about two hours in sacred duties, 
 4 
 
74 LECTUEES TO MY STUDEXTS, 
 
 and was enabled, more than ordinarily, to agonize for 
 immortal souls ; thougli it was early in the morning, and 
 the sun scarcely shone at all, yet my body was quite wet 
 with sweat," The secret of Luther's power lay in the 
 same direction. Theodorus said of him: ''I overheard 
 him in prayer, but, good God, with what life and spirit 
 did he j^ray ! It was with so much reverence, as if he 
 were speaking to God, yet with so much confidence as if 
 he were speaking to his friend." My brethren, let me 
 beseech you to be men of prayer. Great talents you 
 may never have, but you will do well enough without 
 them if you abound in intercession. If you do not pray 
 over what you have sown, God's sovereignty may possibly 
 determine to give a blessing, but you have no right to 
 expect it, and if it comes it will bring no comfort to your 
 own heart. I was reading yesterday a book by Father 
 Faber, late of the Oratory, at Brompton, a marvellous 
 compound of truth and error. In it he relates a legend 
 to this effect. A certain preacher, whose sermons con- 
 verted men by scores, received a revelation from heaven 
 that not one of the conversions was owing to his talents 
 or eloquence, but all to the prayers of an illiterate lay- 
 brother, who sat on the pulpit steps, pleading all the 
 time for the success of the sermon. It may in the all- 
 revealing day bo so with us. We may discover, after 
 having labored long and wearily in iireaching, that all 
 the honor belongs to another builder, Avhose prayers were 
 gold, silver, and precious stones, while our .sermonizings 
 being apart from prayer, were but hay and stubble. 
 
 When we liave done with preaching, we shall not, if 
 we are true ministers of God, have done with praying, 
 because the Avhole church, with many tongues, Avill be 
 crying, in tlie language of the Macedojiian, " Come over 
 and help us " in prayer. If you are enabled to prevail 
 
PRIVATE PKATER. 75 
 
 in prayer yoii "will have many requests to offer for otliera 
 who will flock to you, and heg a share in your intcrcca- 
 sions, and so you will find yourself commissioned with 
 errands to the mercy-seat for friends and hearers. Such 
 is always my lot, and I feel it a pleasure to have such 
 requests to present before my Lord. Never can you be 
 short of themes for prayer, even if no one should suggest 
 them to you. Look at your congi-egation. There are 
 always sick folk among them, and many more who arc 
 soul-sick. Some are unsaved, others are seeking and 
 cannot find. Many are desponding, and not a few be- 
 lievers are backsliding or mourning. There are widows' 
 tears and orphans' sighs to be put into our bottle, and 
 poured out before the Lord. If you are a genuine min- 
 ister of God you will stand as a priest before the Lord, 
 spiritually wearing the ephod and the breast-plate "where- 
 on you bear the names of the children of Israel, pleading 
 for them within the veil. I have known brethren who 
 have kept a list of persons for whom they felt bound 
 especially to pray, and I doubt not such a record often 
 reminded them of what might otherwise have slipped 
 their memory. Nor will your people wholly engross 
 you ; the nation and the world will claim their share. 
 The man who is mighty in prayer may be a wall of fire 
 around his country, her guardian angel and her shield. 
 AVe have all heard how the enemies of the Protestant 
 cause dreadedthe prayers of Knox more than they feared 
 armies of ten thousand men. Tlie famous Welch was 
 also a great intercessor for his country ; he used to say, 
 *' he wondered how a Christian could lie in his bed all 
 night and not rise to pray." When his wife, fearing that 
 lie would take cold, followed him into the room to w^hich 
 he had withdrawn, she heard him pleading in broken 
 Bentenccs. " Lord, "wilt thou not grant me Scotland ?" 
 
76 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 that we were thus wrestling at midnight, crying, " Lord, 
 wilt thou not grant us our hearers' souls ? " 
 
 The minister who does not earnestly pray over his 
 work must surely be a vain and conceited man. He acts 
 as if he thought himself sufficient of himself, and there- 
 fore needed not to appeal to God. Yet what a baseless 
 pride to conceive that our preaching can ever be in itself 
 so powerful that it can turn men from their sins, and 
 bring them to God without the working of the Holy Ghost. 
 If we are truly humble-minded we shall not venture down 
 to the fight until the Lord of Hosts has clothed us with 
 all power, and said to us, '* Go in this thy might." The 
 preacher who neglects to pray much must be very care- 
 less about his ministry. He cannot have comprehended 
 his calling. He cannot have computed the value of a 
 soul, or estimated the meaning of eternity. Hejnust be 
 a mere official, tempted into a pulpit because the piece 
 of bread which belongs to the priest's office is very neces- 
 sary to him, or a detestable hypocrite who loves the' 
 praise of men, and cares not for the praise of God. He 
 will surely become a mere superficial talker, best approved 
 where grace is leas^ valued and a vain show most admired. 
 He cannot be one of those who plough deep and reap 
 abundant harvests. He is a mere loiterer, not a laborer. 
 As a preacher he has a name to live and is dead. He 
 limps in his life like the lame man in the Proverbs, whose 
 legs were not equal, for his praying is shorter than his 
 preaching. 
 
 I am afraid that, more or less, most of us need self- 
 examination as to this matter. If any man here should 
 venture to say that he prays as much as he ought, as a 
 student, I should gravely question his statement ; and if 
 there be a minister, deacon, or elder present who can say 
 that he believes he is occupied with God in prayer to the 
 
PRIVATE PRATER. 77 
 
 full extent to wliicli he might be, I should be pleased to 
 know him. I can only say, that if he can claim this ex- 
 cellence, he leaves me far behind, for I can make no such 
 claim : I wish I could ; and I make the confession with 
 no small degree of shame-facedness and confusion, but I 
 am obliged to make it. If we are not more negligent 
 than others, this is no consolation to us ; the short- 
 comings of others are no excuses for us. How few of us 
 could compare ourselves with Mr. Joseph Alleine, whose 
 character I have mentioned before ? "At the time of 
 his health," writes his wife, '' he did rise constantly at or 
 before four of the clock, and would be much troubled if 
 he heard smiths or other craftsmen at their trades before 
 he was at communion with God ; saying to me often, 
 * How this noise shames me. Does not my Master deserve 
 more than theirs ? ' From four till eight he spent in 
 prayer, holy contemplation, and singing of psalms, in 
 which he much delighted and did daily practise alone, as 
 well as in the family. Sometimes he would suspend the 
 routine of parochial engagements, and devote whole days 
 to these secret exercises, in order to which, he would 
 contrive to be alone in some void house, or else in some 
 sequestered spot in the open valley. Here there would 
 be much prayer and meditation on God and heaven." * 
 Could we read Jonatlian Edwards' description of David 
 Brainerd and not blush? "His life," says Edwards, 
 " shows the right way to success in the works of the min- 
 istry. He sought it as the resolute soldier seeks victory 
 in a siege or battle ; or as a man that runs a race for a 
 groat prize. Animated with love to Christ and souls, how 
 did he labor always fervently, not only in word and doc- 
 trine, in public and private, but in prayers day and night 
 
 * Joseph Alleine: His Companions and Times. By Chas 
 Stanford. An admirable biography 
 
78 LECTURES TO MY STUDE^S'TS. 
 
 * wrestling with God ' in secrete, and ' travailing in birth/ 
 with nnntterablc groans and agonies ! ' until Christ were 
 formed ' in the hearts of the people to whom he was sent ! 
 Iloyr did he thirst for a blessing upon his ministry, ' and 
 watch for souls as one that must give account ! ' IIow 
 did he ' go forth in the strength of the Lord God, seeking 
 and depending on the special influence of the Spirit :o 
 assist and succeed him ! And what was the happy fruit at 
 last, after long waiting and many dark and discourag- 
 ing appearances : Like a true son of Jacob, he persevered 
 in wrestling through all the darkness of the night, until 
 the breaking of the day." * 
 
 Might not Henry Martpi's journal shame us, whero 
 we find such entries as these : "Sept. 2'ith — The deter- 
 mination with which I went to bed last night, of devot- 
 ing this day to prayer and fasting, I was enabled to put 
 into execution. In my first prayer for deliverance from 
 worldly thoughts, depending on the power and promises 
 of God, for fixing my soul while I prayed, I was helped 
 to enjoy much abstinence from the world for nearly an 
 hour. Then read the histoiy of Abraham, to see how 
 familiarly God had revealed himself to mortal men of 
 old. Afterwards, in prayer for my own sanctification, 
 my soul breathed freely and ardently after the holiness of 
 God, and this was the best season of the day."f AVe 
 might perhaps more truly join Avith him in his lament 
 after the first year of his ministry that " he judged he 
 had dedicated too much time to public ministrations, and 
 too little to private communion with God." 
 
 * The Life of the Rev. David Brainerd, Missionary to the Indiana. 
 By Jonathan Edwards, A. M., President of the College of New 
 Jersey. London. 1818. 
 
 f A Memoir of the Rev. Henry Martyn* B. D., Chaplain to the 
 Hon. East India Company. By Rev. John Sargent, M. A., Rector 
 of Lavington. 185o. 
 
rUlVATE rRAYER. 79 
 
 How much of blessing we may have missed through 
 remissness in supplication we can scarcely guess, and 
 none of us can know how poor we are in comparison with 
 Avliat we might have been if we had lived habitually 
 nearer to God in prayer. Vain regrets and surmises 
 are useless, but an earnest determination to amend will 
 1)0 far more useful. We not only ought to pray more, 
 but we must. The fact is, the secret of all ministerial 
 success lies in prevalence at the mercy-seat. 
 
 One bright benison which private prayer brings dowu 
 upon the ministry is an indescribable and inimitable 
 something, better understood than named ; it is a dew 
 from the Lord, a divine presence which you will recog- 
 nize at once when I say it is ''an. unction from the holy 
 One." What is it ? I wonder how long Ave might beat 
 our brains before we could plainly put into words what 
 is meant by ^jrcflfcA/M^ with unction ; yet he who 
 preaches knows its presence, and he who hears soon 
 detects its absence ; Samaria, in famine, typifies a dis- 
 course without it ; Jerusalem, with her feasts of fat 
 things full of marrow, may represent a sermon enriched 
 with it. Every one knows what the freshness of the 
 morning is when orient pearls abound on every blade of 
 grass, but who can describe it, much less produce it of 
 itself ? Such is the mystery of spiritual anointing ; we 
 know, but we cannot tell to others what it is. It is as 
 easy as it is foolish to counterfeit it, as some do who use 
 expressions Avhich are meant to betoken fervent love, 
 but oftener indicate sickly sentimentalism or mere cant. 
 *' Dear Lord ! " " Sweet Jesus ! " " Precious Christ !" 
 are by them poured out wholesale, till one is nauseated. 
 These familiarities may have been not only tolerable, 
 but even beautiful when they first fell from a saint of 
 God, speaking, as it were, out of the excellent glory, 
 
80 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 but when repeated flippantly they are not only intoler- 
 able, but indecent, if not profane. Some have tried to 
 imitate unction by unnatural tones and whines ; by 
 turning up the whites of their eyes, and lifting their 
 hands in a most ridiculous manner. M'Che^Tie's tone 
 and rhythm one hears from Scotchmen continually : we 
 much prefer his spirit to his mannerism ; and all mere 
 mannerism Avithout power is as foul carrion of all life 
 bereft, obnoxious, mischievous. Certain brethren aim 
 at inspiration through exertion and loud shouting ; but 
 it does not come : some we have known to stop the dis- 
 course, and exclaim, "God bless you," and others gestic- 
 ulate wildly, and drive their finger nails into the palms 
 of their hands as if they Avere in convulsions of celestial 
 ardor. Bali ! The whole thing smells of the green- 
 room and the stage. The getting up of fervor in hear- 
 ers by the simulation of it in the preacher is a loath- 
 some deceit to be scorned by lionest men. "To affect 
 feeling," says Richard Cecil, "is nauseous and soon de- 
 tected, but to feel is the readiest way to the hearts of 
 others." Unction is a thing which you cannot manu- 
 facture, and its counterfeits are Averse than worthless ; 
 yet it is in itself priceless, and beyond measure needful 
 if you Avould edify believers and bring sinners to Jesus. 
 To the secret pleader Avith God this secret is committed : 
 upon him rests the dew of the Lord, about him is the 
 perfume Avhicli makes glad the heart. If the anointing 
 which Ave bear come not from the Lord of hosts Ave are 
 deceivers, and since only in prayer can Ave obtain it, let 
 US continue instant, constant, fervent in supplication. 
 Let your fleece lie on the threshing-floor of supplication 
 till it is wet with the dew of heaven. Go not to min- 
 ister in the temple till you have Avashed in the laver. 
 Thirk not to be a messenger of grace to others till you 
 
PRIVATE PEATER. 81 
 
 have seen the God of grace for yourselves, and had tlio 
 word from liis mouth. 
 
 Time si:)ent in quiet prostration of soul before the 
 Lord is most invigorating. David " sat before the 
 liortl ; " it is a great thing to hold these sacred sittings ; 
 the mind being receptive, like an open flower drinking 
 in the sunbeams, or the sensitive photographic plate 
 accepting the image before it. Quietude, which some 
 men cannot abide, because it reveals their inward pov- 
 erty, is as a palace of cedar to the wise, for along its 
 hallowed courts the king in his beauty deigns to walk. 
 
 " Sacred sileuce ! thou that art 
 Floodgate of the deeper heart, 
 Offspring of a heavenly kind ; 
 Frost o' the mouth, and thaw o' the mind." ♦ 
 
 Priceless as the gift of utterance may be, the practice 
 of silence in some aspects far excels it. Do you think 
 me a Quaker ? Well, be it so. Herein I follow George 
 Fox most lovingly ; for I am persuaded that Ave most of 
 us think too much of speech, which after all is but the 
 shell of thought. Quiet contemplation, still worship, 
 unuttered rapture, these are mine when my best jewels 
 are before me. Brethren, rob not your heart of the 
 deep-sea joys ; miss not the far-down life, by for ever 
 babbling among the broken shells and foaming surges Df 
 the shore. 
 
 I would seriously recommend to you, when settled in 
 the ministry, the celebration of extraordinary seasons of 
 devotion. If your ordinary prayers do not keep up the 
 freshness and vigor of your souls, and you feel that you 
 are flagging, get alone for a Aveek, or even a month if 
 possible. We have occasional holidays, why not frequcLt 
 
 * Flecknott. 
 4* 
 
82 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 holy days ? "We Lear of our richer brethren finding time 
 for a journey to Jerusalem ; could Ave not spare time :or 
 the less dilhcult and far more profitable journey to the 
 heavenly city ? Isaac Ambrose, once pastor at Preston, 
 who wrote tliat famous book, " Looking unto Jesus,'' 
 always set apart one month in the year for seclusion in i\ 
 hut in a wood at Garstang. No wonder that he was so 
 mighty a divine, when he could regularly spend so long 
 a time in the mount with God. I notice that the Roman- 
 ists are accustomed to secure what they call " Retreats," 
 where a number of priests Avill retire for a time into per- 
 fect quietude, to spend the whole of the time in fasting 
 and jirayer, so as to inflame their souls with ardor. AVe 
 may learn from our adversaries. It would be a great 
 thing every now and then for a band of truly spiritual 
 brethren to spend a day or two with each other in real 
 burning agony of prayer. Pastors alone could use much 
 more freedom than in a mixed company. Times of 
 humiliation and supplication for the whole church will 
 also benefit us if we enter into them heartily. Our sea- 
 sons of fasting and ])rayer at the Tabernacle have been 
 high days indeed ; never has heaven-gate stood wider ; 
 never have our hearts been nearer the central glory. I 
 look forward to our month of special devotion, as mari- 
 ners reckon upon reaching land. Even if our public work 
 were laid aside to give us space for special prayer, it might 
 be a great gain to our churches. A voyage to the golden 
 rivers of fellowship and meditation Avould be well repaid 
 by a fi'cight of sanctified feeling and elevated thought. 
 Our silence migiit be better than our voices if our soli- 
 tnde were spent with God. That was a grand action of 
 old Jerome, when he laid all his pressing engagements 
 aside to acliieve a purpose to which he felt a call from 
 heaven, lie had a large congregation, as large a one as 
 
PRIVATE PRaYEE. 83 
 
 any of us need want : but lie said to liis people, " Now it 
 is of necessity that the New Testament should he trans- 
 lated, you must find another loreachcr : the translation 
 must be made ; I am bound for the wilderness, and shall 
 not return till my task is finished." Away he went with 
 his manuscripts, and prayed and labored, and produced 
 a work — the Latin Vulgate — which will last as long as 
 the world stands ; on the whole a most wonderful trans- 
 lation of Holy Scrijiture. As learning and prayerful re- 
 tirement together could thus produce an immortal work, 
 if we were sometimes to say to our people when Ave felt 
 moved to do so, " Dear friends, we really must be gone 
 for a little while to refresh our souls in solitude,"' our 
 profiting would soon be apparent, and if we did not write 
 Latin Vulgates, yet we should do immortal work, such aa 
 would abide the fire. 
 
LECTURE rV. 
 
 OUR PUBLIC PRAYER. 
 
 Ii lias sometimes been the boast of Episcopalians tlial 
 Churchmen go to their churches to pray and worship 
 God, but that Dissenters merely assemble to hear sermons. 
 Our reply to this is, that albeit there may be some pro- 
 fessors who are guilty of this evil, it is not true of the 
 people of God among us, and these are the only persons 
 Avho ever will in any church really enjoy devotion. Our 
 congregations gather together to worship God, and we 
 assert, and feel no hesitation in so asserting, that there is 
 as much true and acceptable prayer offered in our ordi- 
 nary Nonconformist services as in the best and most 
 jiompous performances of the Church of England. 
 
 Moreover, if the observation be meant to imply that 
 the hearing of sermons is not worshipping God, it is 
 founded on a gross mistake, for rightly to listen to the 
 gospel is one of the noblest parts of the adoration of the 
 Most nigh. It is a mental exercise, when rightly per- 
 formed, in which all tlie faculties of the spiritual man are 
 called into devotional action. Reverently hearing the 
 word exercises our humility, instructs our faith, irradi- 
 ates us with joy, inflames us with love, inspires us with 
 zeal, and lifts us up towards heaven. Many a time a 
 sermon has been a kind of Jacob's ladder upon which we 
 liave seen the angels of God ascending and descending, 
 and the covenant God himself at the top thereof. We 
 have often felt when God has spoken through his servants 
 
PUBLIC PRAYER. 85 
 
 into our souls, ''This is none other tlum the house of 
 God, and the very gate of licaven." AVe have magnilied 
 the name of tlie Lord and praised him Avith all our heart 
 Avhile he has s2)oken to ns by his Spirit which he has 
 given nnto men. Hence there is not the wide distinction 
 to be drawn between preaching and prayer that some 
 would have us admit ; for the one part of the service 
 softly blends into the other, and the sermon frequently 
 inspires the prayer and the hymn. True preaching is an 
 acceptable adoration of God by the manifestation of his 
 gracious attributes : the testimony of his gospel, which 
 preeminently glorifies him, and the obedient hearing of 
 revealed truth, are an acceptable form of worship to the 
 Most High, and perhaps one of the most spiritual in 
 which the human mind can be engaged. Nevertheless, 
 as the old Eoman poet tells us, it is right to learn from 
 our enemies, and therefore it may be possible that our 
 liturgical opponents have pointed out to us what is in 
 some instances a weak place in our public services. It is 
 to be feared that our exercises are not in every case 
 moulded into the best form, or presented in the most 
 commendable fashion. There are meeting-houses in 
 which the supplications are neither so devout nor so ear- 
 nest as we desire ; in other places the earnestness is so 
 allied with ignorance, and the devotion so marred with 
 rant, that no intelligent believer can enter into the ser- 
 vice Avith pleasure. Praying in the Holy Ghost is not 
 universal among us, neither do all pray with the under- 
 standing as well as with the heart. There is room for 
 improvement, and in some quarters there is an imperative 
 demand for it. Let me, therefore, very earnestly caution 
 you, beloved brethren, against spoiling your services hy 
 your prayers ; make it your solemn resolve that all the 
 engagements of the sanctuary shall be of the best kind. 
 
86 LECTUllES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 Be assured tliat free prayer is the most scriptural, and 
 sJiould be the most excellent form of iniblic supplication. 
 If yoii lose faith in what you are doing you will never do 
 it well ; settle it in your minds therefore, that before the 
 Lord you are worshipping in a manner which is war- 
 ranted by the word of God, and accepted of the Lord. 
 Tlie expression, " reading j)rayers," to which we are now 
 so accustomed, is not to be found in Holy Scripture, rich 
 as it is in words for conyeying religious thought : and the 
 phrase is not ther^ because the thing itself had no exist- 
 ence. Where in the writings of the apostles meet we 
 with the bare idea of a liturgy ? Prayer in the assem- 
 ' blies of the early Christians was unrestricted to any form 
 of words. Tertullian writes, " we pray without a prompter 
 becaiTse from the heart. " * Justin Martyr describes the 
 presiding minister as praying " according to his ability." f 
 It would be difficult to discover when and where liturgies 
 began ; their introduction was gradual, and as we 
 believe, coextensive with the decline of purity in the 
 church ; the introduction of them among Nonconform- 
 ists would mark the era of our decline and fall. The 
 subject tempts me to linger, but it is not the point 
 in hand, and therefore I pass on, only remarking you 
 will find the matter of liturgies ably handled by Dr. 
 John Owen, whom you will do well to consult, f 
 
 Be it ours to pj'ove the superiority of exte7npore 
 prayer hy maTcing it more spiritual a7id earnest than lit- 
 urgical devotion. It is a great pity when the observa- 
 
 * " Deuique sine monitore, quia de pectore oramus." — Tertulli- 
 ani Apologet. c. 30. 
 
 i " Ocrj 6'uvafiig avru)." — Justin Martyr, Apol. i. c. 68, p. 270. 
 Ei3. Otto. 
 
 J A Discourse concerning Liturgies and their Imposition. 
 Vol. XV. Owen's Works. Goold's edition. 
 
PUBLIC PRAYER. 87 
 
 tion is forced from the hearer, our minister preaclies far 
 better than he prays : this is not after tlie model of our 
 Lord ; he spake as never man spake — and as for his 
 ])rayers, they so impressed his discii)lcs that they said, 
 ''Lord teach us to pray." All our faculties should con- 
 centrate their energy, and the whole man should be 
 elevated to his higliest point of vigor while in public 
 l^rayer, the Holy Ghost meanwhile baptizing soul and 
 spirit Avith his sacred influence ; but slovenly, careless, 
 lifeless talk in the guise of prayer, made to fill up a 
 certain space in the service, is a weariness to man, and 
 an abomination to God. Had free prayer been univer- 
 sally of a higher order a liturgy would never have been 
 thought of, and to-day forms of prayer have no better 
 apology than the feebleness of extemi^oraneous devo- 
 tions. The secret is that we are not so really devout at 
 heart as we should be. (Habitual communion with God 
 must be maintained, or our public prayers will be vapid 
 or formal). If there be no melting of the glacier high 
 up in the ravines of the mountain, there will be no 
 descending rivulets to cheer the plain. Private prayer 
 is the drill ground for our more public exercises, 
 neither can we long neglect it Avithout being out of 
 order when before the people. 
 
 Oiir jjrayers must never grovel, they must soar and 
 mount. We need a heavenly frame of 'inind. Our 
 addresses to the throne of gi-ace must be solemn and 
 liumble, not flippant and loud, or formal and careless. 
 'L'he colloquial form of speech is out of place before the 
 Lord ; we must bow reverently and with deepest awe. 
 We may speak boldly with God, but still He is in 
 heaven and we are upon earth, and we are to avoid 
 presumjition. In supplication we are peculi.irly beforo 
 the throne of the Infinite, and as the courtier in the 
 
88 LECTURES TO MY STUDEKTS. 
 
 king's palace puts on another mien and another manner 
 than that which he exhibits to his fellow-courtiers, so 
 should it be with us. We have noticed in the churches 
 of Holland, that as soon as the minister begins to preacli 
 every man puts his hat on, but the instant he turns to 
 pray everybody takes his hat off : this was the custom iu 
 the older Puritanic congregations of England, and it 
 lingered long among the Baptists ; they wore their caps 
 during those parts of the service which they conceived 
 were not direct worship, but put them off as soon as 
 there was a direct approach to God, either in song or in 
 prayer. I think the practice unseemly, and the reason 
 for it erroneous. I have urged that the distinction 
 between prayer and hearing is not great, and I feel 
 sure no one would propose to return to the old custom 
 or the opinion of which it was the index ; but still there 
 is a difference, and inasmuch as in prayer we are more 
 directly talking with God rather than seeking the edifi- 
 cation of our fellow men, we must put our shoes from 
 off our feet, for the place whereon we stand is holy 
 ground. 
 
 Let the Lord alone he the object of your prayers. 
 Beware of having an eye to the auditors ; beware of 
 becoming rhetorical to please the listeners. Prayer 
 must not be transformed into " an oblique sermon." It 
 is little short of blasphemy to make devotion an occasion 
 for display. Fine prayers are generally very wicked 
 ]>rayers. In the presence of the Lord of hosts it ill 
 becomes a sinner to parade the feathers and finery of 
 tawdry speech with the view of winning applause from 
 his fellow mortals. Hypocrites who dare to do this have 
 their reward, but it is one to be dreaded. A heavy sen- 
 • tence of condemnation was passed upon a minister when 
 it was flatteringly said that his prayer was the most 
 
PUBLIC PRAYER. 89 
 
 eloquent ever offered to a Boston congregation. We 
 may aim at exciting tlie 3-earnings and aspirations of 
 those who hear ns in prayer ; but every word and 
 thought must be Godward, and only so far touching 
 upon tlie people as may be needful to bring them and 
 their wants before the Lord. Remember the people in 
 your prayers, but do not mould your supplications to 
 win their esteem ; (look up, look up with both eyes). 
 
 Avoid all vulgarities in prayer. I must acknowl- 
 edge to having heard some, but it would be unprofitable 
 to recount them ; the more especially as they become 
 less frequent every day. We seldom now meet with the 
 vulgarities of prayer which were once so common in 
 Methodist prayer-meetings, much commoner probably by 
 report than in reality. Uneducated people must, when 
 in earnest, pray in their own way, and their language 
 will frequently shock the fastidious if not the devout ; 
 but for this allowance must be made, and if the spirit 
 is evidently sincere we may forgive uncomely expressions. 
 I once, in a prayer-meeting, heard a poor man pray 
 thus : " Lord, watch over these young people during 
 the feast time, for thou knowest, Lord, how their ene- 
 mies watch for them as a cat watches for mice." Some 
 ridiculed the expression, but it appeared to me to be 
 natural and expressive, considering the person using it. 
 A little gentle instruction and a hint or two will usually 
 prevent a repetition of anything objectionable in such 
 cases, but Ave, who occupy the pulpit, must be careful 
 to be quite clear ourselves. The biographer of that 
 remarkable American Methodist preacher, Jacob Gru- 
 bor, mentions as an instance of his ready wit, that after 
 having heard a young Calvinistic minister violently 
 attack his creed, he was asked to conclude with prayer, 
 and among other petitions, prayed that the Lord would 
 
90 LECTURES TO MT STUDENTS. 
 
 bless tlie young man wlio had been preaching, and grant 
 him much grace, " that his heart might become as soft 
 as his head." To say nothing of the bad taste of such 
 public animadversion upon a fellow minister, every 
 right-minded man will see that the throne of the Most 
 High is not the place for uttering such vulgar witti- 
 cisms. Most probably the young orator deserved a 
 castigation for his offence of charity, but the older 
 one sinned ten times more in his want of reverence. 
 Choice words are for the King of kings, not such as 
 ribald tongues have defiled. 
 
 Another fault equally to he avoided in prayer is an 
 nnliaUowed and siclcening superabundance of endearing 
 tvords. When " Dear Lord," and " Blessed Lord," and 
 " Sweet Lord," come over and over again as vain repe- 
 titions, they are among the worst of blots. I must con- 
 fess I should feel no revulsion in my mind to the words, 
 *' Dear Jesus," if they fell from the lips of a Rutherford, 
 or a Hawker, or a Herbert ; but when I hear fond and 
 familiar expressions hackneyed by persons not at all re- 
 markable for spirituality, I am inclined to wish that they 
 could, in some way or other, come to a better under- 
 standing of the true relation existing between man and 
 God. The word " dear " has come from daily use to be 
 so common, and so small, and in some cases so silly and 
 affected a monosyllable, that interlarding one's prayers 
 witli it is not to edification. 
 
 The strongest objection exists to the constant repe- 
 tition of the word " Lord," which occurs in the early 
 prayers of young converts, and even among students. 
 The words, '^0 Lord ! Lord! Lord!" grieve ua 
 when we hear them so jierpetually repeated. " Thou 
 Elialt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain," 
 is a great commandment, and although the law may bo 
 
PUBLIC PRAYER. 91 
 
 broken nuwittingly, yet its breach is still a sin and a very 
 solemn one. God's name is not to be a stop-gap to make 
 lip for our want of words. Take care to use most I'ev- 
 erently the name of the infinite Jehovah. The Jews in 
 Ihcir sacred writings either leave a space for the word 
 "Jehovah," or else write the word, " Adonai," because 
 they conceive that holy name to be too sacred for com- 
 mon use ; we need not be so superstitious, but it were 
 well to be scrupulously reverent. A profusion of " ohs ! " 
 and other interjections may be well dispensed with ; 
 young speakers are often at fault here. 
 
 Avoid that Icind of prayer loliicli may he called — tliough 
 tlie subject is one on which language has not given us 
 many terms — a sort of pcremjytory demanding of God. 
 It is delightful to hear a man wrestle with God, and say, 
 " 1 will not let thee go except thou bless me, " but that 
 must be said softly, and not in a hectoring spirit, as 
 though we could command and exact blessings from the 
 Lord of all. Remember, it is still a man wrestling, even 
 though permitted to wrestle, with the eternal I Alsl. 
 Jacob halted on his thigh after that night's holy conflict, 
 to let him see that God is terrible, and that his prevailing 
 power did not lie in himself. We are taught to say, 
 *' Our Father," but still it is, '' Our Father loho art in 
 heaven. " Familiarity there may be, but holy familiarity ; 
 boldness, but the boldness Avhich sjDrings from grace and 
 is the work of the Spirit ; not the boldness of the rebel 
 who carries a brazen front in the presence of his offended 
 king, but the boldness of the child Avho fears because ho 
 loves, and loves because he fears. Never fall into a vain- 
 glorious style of impertinent address to God ; he is not 
 to be assailed as an antagonist, but entreated with as our 
 Lord and God. Humble and lo^ly let us be in spirit, 
 and so let us pray. 
 
92 LECTURES TO JIY STUDENTS. 
 
 Pray when y 021 profess top)Tay, anddonH talk about it. 
 Business men say, "A place for everytliing and every- 
 thing in its place ; " preach in the sermon and pray iu 
 *'the prayer. Disquisitions npon our need of help in 
 prayer are not prayer. Why do not men go at once to 
 prayer — why stand beating about the bush ; instead of 
 saying what they ought to do and want to do, why not 
 set to work in God's name and do it ? In downright 
 earnestness address yourself to intercession, and set your 
 face towards the Lord. Plead for the supply of the 
 great and constant needs of the church, and do not 
 fail to urge, with devout fervor, the special requirements 
 of the present time and audience. Let the sick, the poor, 
 the dying, the heathen, the Jew, and all forgotten classes 
 of people, be mentioned as they press upon your heart. 
 Pray for your people as saints and sinners — not as if 
 they were all saints. Mention the young and the aged ; 
 the impressed and the careless ; the devout and the back- 
 sliding. (Never turn to the right hand or to the left, 
 but i^lough on in the furrow of real prayer.) Let youi 
 confessions of sin and your thanksgivings be truthfuj 
 and to the point ; and let your petitions be presented a? 
 if you believed in God and had no doubt as to the effi- 
 cacy of prayer : I say this, because so many pray in such 
 a formal manner as to lead observers to conclude that 
 they thought it a very decent thing to pray, but, after 
 all, a very poor and doubtful business as to any practical 
 result. Pray as one who has tried and proved his God, 
 and therefore comes with undoubting confidence to 
 renew his pleadings : and do remember to pray to God 
 right through the prayer, and never fall to talking or 
 preaching — much less, as some do, to scolding and 
 grumbling. 
 
 As a rule, if called upon to preach, conduct the 
 
PUBLIC PRAYER. 93 
 
 prayer yourself ; and if you should be liiglily esteemed 
 in ilie ministry, as I trust you may be, make a point, 
 witli great courtesy, but equal firmness, to resist the 
 practice of choosing men to pray with the idea of honor- 
 ing them by giving them something to do. Our public 
 devotions ought never to be degraded into opportunities 
 for compliment. I have heard prayer and singing now 
 and then called " the preliminary services," as if they 
 were but a jireface to the sermon ; this is rare, I hope, 
 among us — if it were common it would be to our 
 deep disgrace. I endeavor invariably to take all the 
 service myself for my own sake, and I think also for the 
 people's. I do not believe that ''anybody will do for 
 the praying." No, sirs, it is my solemn conviction that 
 the prayer is one of the most weighty, useful, and hon- 
 orable parts of the service, and that it ought to be even' 
 more considered tlian the sermon. There must be no 
 putting up of anybodies and nobodies to pray, and then 
 the selection of the abler man to preach. It may hap- 
 pen through weakness, or upon a special occasion, that 
 it may be a relief to the minister to have some one to 
 offer prayer for him ; but if the Lord has made you 
 love your work you will not often or readily fulfil this 
 part of it by proxy. If you delegate the service at all, 
 let it be to one in whose spirituality and present pre- 
 paredness you have the fullest confidence ; but to pitch 
 on a giftless brother unaAvares, and put him forward to 
 get through the devotions is shameful. 
 
 " Shall we serve heaven with less respect 
 Than we do minister to our gross selves?" 
 
 Appoint the ablest man to pray, and let the sermon 
 I)e slurred sooner than the approach to heaven. Let 
 the Infinite Jehovah be served with our best ; let prayer 
 
94 LECTUEES TO MY STUBEXT3. 
 
 adilressed to the Divine Majesty be carefully wtighed. 
 and presented with all the powers of an awakened heart 
 and a spiritual understanding. He who has been by 
 communion with God prepared to minister to the peo- 
 ple, is usually of all men present the most fit to engage 
 in prayer ; to lay out a programme which puts up an- 
 other brother in his place, is to mar the harmony of the 
 service, to rob the preacher of an exercise which would 
 brace him for his sermon, and in many instances to sug- 
 gest comparisons between one part of the service and 
 Dhe other which ought never to be tolerated. If unpre- 
 pared brethren are to be sent into the pulpit to do by 
 praying for me when I am engaged to j^re^ich, I do not 
 see why I might not be allowed to pray, and then retire 
 to let these brethren do the sermonizing. I am not able 
 to see any reason for depriving me of the holiest, sweet- 
 est, and most profitable exercise which my Lord has 
 allotted me ; if I may have my choice, I will sooner yield 
 up the sermon than the prayer. Thus much I have 
 said in order to impress upon you that you must highly 
 esteem public pra3^er, and seek of the Lord for the gifts 
 and graces necessary to its right discharge. 
 
 Those who despise all extempore prayer will \)yo- 
 bably catch at these remarks and use them against it, 
 but I can assure them that the faults adverted to are 
 not common among us, and are indeed almost extinct ; 
 while the scandal caused by them never was, at the 
 worst, so great as that caused by the way in which the 
 liturgical service is often performed. Far too often is 
 the church service hurried through in a manner as in- 
 devout as if it were a ballad-singer's ditty. The words 
 are parroted without the slightest appreciation of their 
 meaning ; not sometimes, but very frequently, in the 
 places set apart for Episcopal worsliip, you may see the 
 
PUBLIC PRAYER. 05 
 
 eyes of the people, and tlio eyes of tlic choristers, and 
 the eyes of the parson hhnself, wandering about iu all 
 directions, "while evidently from the very tone cf the 
 ]-eading there is no feeling of sympathy Avith what has 
 been read.*, I have been at fnnerals when the burial 
 service of the church of England has been galloped 
 through so indecorously that it has taken all the grace I 
 had to prevent my throwing a hassock at the creature's 
 head. I have felt so indignant that I have not known 
 what to do, to hear, in the presence of mourners whose 
 hearts were bleeding, a man rattling through the service 
 as if he wei-e paid by the piece, and had more work to 
 follow, and therefore desired to get it througli as quickly 
 as possible. What effect he could think he was produ- 
 cing, or what good result could come from words jerked 
 forth and hurled out with vengeance and vehemence, I 
 cannot imagine. It is really shocking to tliink of how 
 tliat very wonderful burial service is murdered, and made 
 into an abomination, by the mode in which it is fre- 
 quently read. I merely mention this because, if they 
 criticise our prayers too severely, we can bring a formid- 
 able countercharge to silence them. Better far, liow- 
 ever, for us to amend our own blunders than find fault 
 with others. 
 
 In order to make our public prayer what it should be, 
 the first necessary is, that it imist be a matter of the heart. 
 A man must be really in earnest in supplication. It 
 nnist be true prayer, and if it be such, it will, like love, 
 cover a multitude of sins. You can pardon a man's 
 familiarities and his vulgarities too, when you clearly 
 see that his inmost heart is speaking to his Maker, and 
 that it is only the man's defects of education which create 
 
 * It is but fair to admit, and we do so witli pleasure, that of 
 late years this fault has grown more and more rare. 
 
96 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 "liis faults, and not any moral or spiritual vices of his 
 heart. The pleader in public must be in earnest ; for 
 a sleepy prayer — what can be a worse preparation for a 
 sermon ? A sleepy prayer — what can make people more 
 dislike going up to the house of God at all ? Cast your 
 Avhole soul into the exercise. If ever your whole man- 
 hood was engaged in anything, let it be in drawing near 
 unto God in public. So pray that, by a divine attrac- 
 tion, you draw the whole congregation with you up to the 
 throne of God. So pray, that by the power of the Holy 
 Spirit resting on you, you express the desires and thoughts 
 of every one present, and stand as the one voice for the 
 hundreds of beating hearts which are glowing with fer- 
 vor before the throne of God. 
 
 Next to this, our prayers must be appropr'iate. I do 
 not say go into every minute detail of the circumstances 
 of tlie congregation. As I have said before, there is no 
 need to make the public prayer a gazette of the week's 
 events, or a register of the births, deaths, and marriages 
 of your people, but the general movements that have 
 taken place in the congregation should be noted by the 
 minister's careful heart. He should bring the joys and 
 sorrows of his people alike before the throne of grace, 
 and ask that tlie divine benediction may rest upon his 
 flock in all their movements, their exercises, engagements, 
 and holy enterprises, and that the forgiveness of God 
 may be extended to their shortcomings and innumer- 
 able sins. 
 
 Then, by way of negative canon, I should say, do not 
 lei your prayer he long. I think it was John Macdonald 
 wlio used to say, '* If you are in the spirit of prayer, do 
 not be long, because other people will not be able to keep 
 pace with you in such unusual spirituality; and if you 
 are not in the sjiirit of prayer, do not be long, because 
 
PUBLIC PRAYER. 97 
 
 you will then be sure to wcury the listeners." Living- 
 stone says of liobcrt Bruce, of Edinburgh, the famous co- 
 temporary of Andre Av Melville, " No man in his time 
 spoke with such evidence and power of tlie 8})irit. No 
 man had so many seals of conversion ; yea, many of his 
 hearers thought no man, since the apostles, spake with 
 such power. . . lie was very short in prayer when 
 others were present, but every sentence was like a strong 
 bolt shot up to heaven. I heard him say that he wearied 
 when others were long in jirayer ; but, being alone, he 
 spent much time in wrestling and prayer. " A man may, 
 on special occasions, if he be unusually moved and car- 
 ried out of himself, pray for twenty minutes in the long 
 morning prayer, but this should not often happen. My 
 friend, Dr. Charles Brown, of Edinburgh, lays it doAvn, 
 as a result of his deliberate judgment, that ten minutes 
 is the limit to which public prayer ought to be prolonged. 
 Our Puritanic forefathers used to pray for three-quarters 
 of an hour, or more, but tlien you must recollect that 
 they did not know that they would ever have the o])i>or- 
 t unity of praying again before an assembly, and there- 
 fore, took their fill of it ; and besides, people were not 
 inclined in those days to quarrel with the length of 
 prayers or of sermons so much as they do nowadays. 
 You cannot pray too long in private. We do not limit 
 you to ten minutes there, or ten hours, or ten v\^eeks if you 
 like. The more you are on your knees alone the better. 
 We are now speaking of those public prayers which come 
 before or after the sermon, and for these ten minutes is a 
 better limit than fifteen. Only one in a thousand would 
 complain of you for being too short, while scores will 
 murmur at your being wearisome in length. " He jirayed 
 me into a good frame of mind," George Whitfield once 
 said of a certain preacher, *' and if he had stopped there, 
 5 
 
98 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 it would have been very well ; but be prayed me out of 
 it again by keeping on." The abundant longsuirering 
 of God has been exemplified in his sparing some preach- 
 ers, who have been great sinners in this direction ; they 
 have done much injury to the piety of God's peojole by 
 their long-winded orations, and yet God, in his mercy, 
 has permitted them still to officiate in the sanctuary. 
 Alas ! for those who have to listen to pastors who pray in 
 public for five-and-twenty minutes, and then ask God to 
 forgive their " shortcomings " I Do not be too long, 
 for several reasons. First, because you weary yourselves 
 and the people ; and secondly, because being too long in 
 prayer, puts your people out of heart for hearing the 
 sermon. All those dry, dull, prolix talkifications in 
 prayer, do but blunt the attention, and the ear gets, as 
 it were, choked up. Nobody would think of blocking 
 up Ear-gate with mud or stones when he meant to storm 
 the gate. No, let the portal be cleared that the batter- 
 ing-ram of the gospel may tell upon it when the time 
 comes to use it. Long prayers consist of repetitions, or 
 else of unnecessary explanations which God does not 
 require ; or else they degenerate into downright preach- 
 ings, so that there is no difference between the praying 
 and the preaching, except that in the one the minister 
 has his eyes shut, and in the other he keeps them open. 
 It is not necessary in prayer to rehearse the Westminster 
 Assembly's Catechism. It is not necessary in prayer to 
 relate the experience of all the jieople who are present, 
 or even your own. It is not necessary in prayer to string 
 a selection of texts of Scripture together, and quote 
 David, and Daniel, and Job, and Paul, and Peter, and 
 every other body, under the title of " thy servant of old." 
 It IS necessary in prayer to draw near unto God, but it i3 
 
PUBLIC PRATER. 99 
 
 not required of you to prolong your speech till everyone 
 is longing to hear the word "Amen." 
 
 One little hint I cannot Avitlihold — never appear to be 
 closing, and then start off again for another five minutes. 
 Wlien friends make up their minds that you are about to 
 conclude, they cannot with a jerk proceed again in a de- 
 vout spirit. I have known men tantalize us with the 
 hope that tliey were draAving to a close, and then take a 
 fresh lease two or three times ; this is most unwise and 
 unpleasant. 
 
 Another canon is — do not use cant phrases. My 
 brethren, have done with those vile things altogether; 
 they have had their day, and let them die. These pieces 
 of spiritual fustian cannot be too much reprobated. Some 
 of them are pu]-e inventions ; others are passages taken 
 from the Apocrj^j^ha ; others are texts fathered upon 
 Scripture, but which have been fearfully mangled since 
 they came from the Author of the Bible. In the Baptist 
 Magazine for 18G1 1 made the following remarks upon the 
 common vulgarities of prayer-meetings. " Cant phrases 
 are a great evil. Who can justify such expressions as the 
 following ? ' We would not I'ush into tliij presence as the 
 iinthinking (! ! ) horse into the battle.^ As if horses ever 
 did think, and as if it were not better to exhibit the spirit 
 and energy of the horse than the sluggishness and stupid- 
 ity of the ass ! As the verso from which we imagine 
 this fine sentence to be derived has more to do with sin- 
 ning than with praying, we are glad that the phrase is on ■ 
 its last legs. 'Go from heart to heart, as oil from vessel 
 to vessel,^ is probably a quotation from the nursery romance 
 of ' Ali Baba, and the Forty Thieves,' but as destitute of 
 sense, Scripture, and poetry, as ever sentence could be 
 conceived to be. We are not aware that oil runs from 
 one vessel to another in any very mysterious or wonderful 
 
100 LECTUEES TO MT STUDEKTS. 
 
 manner ; it is true it is rather slow in coming out, and 
 is therefore an apt symbol of some people's earnestness ; 
 but surely it would be better to have the grace direct 
 from heaven than to have it out of another vessel — a 
 Popish idea which the metaphor seems to insinuate, if 
 indeed it has any meaning at all. ' Thy poor imworthy 
 dust/ an epithet generally applied to themselves by tlie 
 proudest men in the congregation, and not seldom by the 
 most moneyed and grovelling, in which case the last two 
 words are not so very inappropriate. We have heard of a 
 good man who, in pleading for his children and grand- 
 children, was so completely beclouded in the blinding in- 
 fluence of this expression, that he exclaimed, ' Lord, 
 save thy dust, and thy dust's dust, and thy dust's dust's 
 dust.' When Abraham said, 'I have taken upon me to 
 speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes,' the 
 utterance Avas forcible and expressive ; but in its mis- 
 quoted, perverted, and abused form, the sooner it is con- 
 signed to its own element the better. A miserable con- 
 glomeration of perversions of Scripture, uncouth similes, 
 and ridiculous metaphors, constitute a sort of spiritual 
 slang, the offspring of unholy ignorance, unmanly imita- 
 tion, or graceless hypocrisy ; they are at once a dishonor 
 to those who constantly repeat them, and an intolerable 
 nuisance to those whose ears are jaded with them." 
 
 Dr. Charles Brown, of Edinburgh, in an admirable 
 address at a meeting of the New College Missionary 
 Association, gives instances of current misquotations in- 
 digenous to Scotland, which sometimes, liowever, find 
 their way across the Tweed. By his permission, I shall 
 quote at length. " There is what might be called an 
 unhappy, sometimes, quite grotesque, mingling of Scrip- 
 ture texts. Who is not familiar with the following words 
 addressed to God in prayer, ' Thou art the high and lofty 
 
PUBLIC PEAYER. 101 
 
 One that inhabitctli eternity, and the praises thereof' 1 
 which is but a jumble of two glorious texts, each glori- 
 ous taken by itself — both marred, and one altogether lost 
 indeed, when thus combined and mingled. The one is 
 Isaiah Ivii; 15, ' Thus saith the high and lofty One, that 
 inhal)iteth eternity, whose name is Holy.' The other is. 
 Psalm xxii. 3, ' Thou art holy, thou that inhabitest 
 the praises of Israel.' The inhabiting of the jn-aises of 
 eternity, to say the least, is meagre ; there were no 
 praises in the past eternity to inhabit. But what a glory 
 there is in God's condescending to inhabit, take up his 
 very abode, in the praises of Israel, of the ransomed 
 church. Then there is an example nothing less than 
 grotesque under this head, and yet one in such frequent 
 use that I suspect it is very generally regarded as having 
 the sanction of Scrij^ture. Here it is, 'We would put 
 our hand on our mouth, and our mouth in the dust, and 
 cry out. Unclean, unclean ; God be merciful to us sin- 
 ners. ' This is no fcAver than four texts joined, each beau- 
 tiful by itself. First, Job xl. 4, ' Behold, I am vile ; 
 what shall I ansAver thee ? I will lay my hand upon my 
 mouth.' Second, Lamentations iii. 29, ' He putteth his 
 mouth in the dust ; if so be there may be liojte.' Third, 
 Leviticus xiii. 45, where the leper is directed to put a 
 covering upon his upper lip, and to cry. Unclean, un- 
 clean. And fourth, the publican's j)rayer. But how 
 incongruous a man's first putting his hand on his mouth, 
 then putting his mouth in the dust, and, last of all, cr}-- 
 ing out, etc. ! Tlic only other example I give is an ex- 
 pression nearly universal among us, and, I suspect, 
 almost universally thought to be in Scripture, ' In thy 
 favor is life, and thy lovingkindness is better than life.' 
 The fact is, that this also is just an unhappy combination 
 of two passages, in which the term life is used in alto- 
 
102 LECTUEES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 gether different, and even incompatible senses, namely, 
 Psalm Ixiii. 3, ' Thy lovingkindness is better than life,' 
 where, evidently, life means the present temporal life. 
 
 " A second class may be described as unhappy altera- 
 tions of Scripture language. Need I say that the loOtli 
 Psalm, ' Out of the depths,' etc., is one of the most pre- 
 cious in the whole book of the Psalms ? Why must we 
 have the words of David and of the Holy Ghost thus 
 given in public prayer, and so constantly that our pious 
 people come all to adopt it into their social and family 
 prayers, ' There is forgiveness with thee, that thou 
 mayest be feared, and plenteous redemption that tliou 
 mcujest he sought after,'' or ' unto ' ? IIow precious the 
 simple words as they stand in the Psalm (verse 4), 
 ' There is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be 
 feared ' (verses 7, 8) ; ' With the Lord there is mercy, 
 and with him is plenteous redemption ; and he shall 
 redeem Israel from all his iniquities ! ' Again in this 
 blessed Psalm, the words of the third verse, 'If thou, 
 Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, Lord, who shall 
 stand ? ' too seldom are left us in their naked simplicity, 
 but must undergo the following change, ' If thou wert 
 strict to mark iniquity,' etc. I remember in my old 
 college days, Ave used to have it in a much more offen- 
 sive shape. If thou Avert strict to mark and rigorous to 
 punish! Another favorite change is the folloAving, 
 * Thou art in heaven, and we upon earth ; therefore let 
 our Avords be Iqv^ and well ordered.'' Solomon's simple 
 and sublime ntterance (full of instruction, surely, on 
 the Avhole theme I am dealing Avith) is, ' God is in heaven, 
 and thou upon earth ; therefore let thy Avords he fciu.' 
 Ercles. \. 2. For another example under this class see 
 how Habakkuk's sublime Avords are tortured, ' Thou art 
 of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on 
 
PUBLIC PRAYER. 103 
 
 sin without abhorrence.' The words of the Holy Ghost 
 are (Heb. i. 13), 'Thou art of purer eyes than to behold 
 evil, and canst not look on iniquity.' Need I say that 
 the j)Ower of the figure, ' canst not look on iniquity ' is 
 nearly lost when you add that God can look on it, only 
 not without abhorrence ? 
 
 " A third class is made up of meaningless pleonasms, 
 vulgar, common-place redundancies of expression, in 
 quoting from the Scriptures. One of these has become 
 so universal, tlnit I venture to say you seldom miss it, 
 Avhen the passage referred to comes up at all. ' Be in 
 the midst of us ' (or, as some prefer to express it, some- 
 what unfortunately, as I think, ' in our midst '), ' to bless 
 us, and to do its good.' What additional idea is there in 
 the last expression, ' and to do us good ' ? The passage 
 referred to is Exodus xx. 24, 'In all places where I 
 record my name, I will come unto you, and I Avill bless 
 you,' Such is the simplicity of Scripture. Our addition 
 is, ' Bless us, and do us good.' In Daniel iv. 35, we 
 read the noble words, ' None can stay his hand, or say 
 unto him, AVhat doest thou ? ' The favorite change is, 
 'None can stay thy hand from loorking.' ' Eye hath 
 not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the 
 heart of man the things which God hath prepared for 
 them that love him ! ' This is changed, ' Neither hath 
 it entered into the heart of man to conceive the things.' 
 Constantly we hear God addressed as ' the hearer and 
 answerer of prayer,' a mere vulgar and useless pleonasm, 
 for the Scripture idea of God's hearing prayer is just 
 his answering it — ' thou that hearest prayer, unto 
 thee shall all flesh come ; ' ' Hear my prayer, Lord ; ' 
 ' I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice and 
 my supplications.' "Whence, again, that common-place 
 of public prayer, ' The consolations are neither few nor 
 
10-i LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 small ' ? The reference, I suiDpose, is to those words of 
 Job, ' Are the consolations of God small with thee ? ' 
 So one scarce ever hears that prayer of the seventy 
 fourth Psalm, ' Have respect to the covenant, for the 
 dark places of the earth are fnll of the habitations of 
 cruelty,' without the addition, ' liorrid cruelty ; ' nor 
 the call to prayer in Isaiah, * Keep not silence, and give 
 liim no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem 
 a praise in the earth,' without the addition, ' the wliole 
 earth ; ' nor that appeal of the Psalmist, ' Whom have 
 I in heaven but thee, and there is none upon earth that 
 I desire beside thee,' without the addition, ' none in all 
 the earth,' These last may seem small matters, indeed. 
 And so they are, nor were worth finding fault with, did 
 they occur but occasionally. But viewed as stereotyped 
 common-places, weak enough in themselves, and occur- 
 ring so often as to give an impression of their having 
 Scripture authority, I humbly think they ought to be 
 discountenanced and discarded — banished Avholly from 
 our Presbyterian worship. It will, perhaps, surprise you 
 to learn that the only Scripture authority for that 
 favorite, and somewhat peculiar expression, about the 
 ' wicked rolling sin as a sweet morsel under their tongue,' 
 is the following words in the book of Job (xx. 12), 
 ' Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he 
 liide it under his tongue.'" 
 
 But enough of tliis. I am only sorry to have felt 
 bound in conscience to be so long upon so unhappy a 
 6nl)ject. I cannot, however, leave the point without 
 urging upon you literal accuracy in all quotations from 
 the word of God. 
 
 It ought to be a point of honor among ministers 
 always to quote Scripture correctly. It is difficult to be 
 always correct, and because it is difficult, it should be alJ 
 
PUBLIC PRAYER. 105 
 
 the more the object of our care. In tlie halls of Oxford 
 or Cambridge it would be considered almost treason or 
 felony for a fellow to misquote Tacitus, or Virgil, or 
 Homer ; but for a preacher to misquote Paul, or Moses, 
 or David, is a far more serious matter, and quite as Avor- 
 tliy of the severest censure. Mark, I said a "fellow," 
 not a freshman, and from a pastor Ave expect, at least, 
 equal accuracy in his OAvn department as from the holder 
 of a fellowship. You who so unwaveringly believe in the 
 verbal-inspiration theory (to my intense satisfaction), 
 ought never to quote at all until you can give the precise 
 words, because, according to your own showing, by the 
 alteration of a single word you may miss altogether God's 
 sense of the passage. If you cannot make extracts from 
 Scripture correctly, why quote at all in your petitions ? 
 JMake use of an expression fresh from your own mind, 
 .ind it Avill be quite as acceptable to God as a scriptural 
 phrase defaced or clipped. Vehemently strive against 
 garblings and perversions of Scripture, and renounce for 
 ever all cant phrases, for they are the disfigurement of 
 free prayer. 
 
 I have noticed a habit among some — I hope you haA'e 
 not fallen into it — of praying with their eyes open. It 
 is unnatural, unbecoming, and disgusting. Occasionally 
 the opened e3'e uplifted to heaven may be suitable and 
 impressive, but to be gazing about while professing to 
 address the unseen God is detestable. In the earliest 
 ages of the church the fathers denounced this unseemly 
 practice. Action in pl-aycr should be very little used, if 
 at all. It is scarcely comely to lift and move the arm, as 
 if in preaching ; the outstretched arms however, or the 
 clasped hands, are natural and suggestive when under 
 strong holy excitement. The voice should accord with 
 the matter, and should never be boisterous, or self-assert- 
 5* 
 
106 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 ing : humble and reverent let those tones be in Avhich 
 man talkctli with his God. Doth not even nature itself 
 teach you this ? If grace does not, I despair. 
 
 With special regard to your prayers in the Sabbatli 
 services, a few sentences may be iiscful. In order to 
 prevent custom and routine from being enthroned among 
 us, it Avill be well to vary tlie order of service as much 
 as possible. "Whatever the free Sjnrit moves us to 
 do, that let us do at once. I was not till lately aware 
 of the extent to which the control of deacons has been 
 allowed to intrude itself upon ministers in certain be- 
 nighted churches. I have always been accustomed to 
 conduct r-eligious services in the way I have thought most 
 suitable and edifying, and I never have heard so much as 
 a word of objection, although I trust I can say I live on 
 the dearest intimacy with my officers ; but a brother 
 minister told me this morning, that on one occasion, he 
 prayed in the morning service at the commencement in- 
 stead of giving out a hymn, and when he retired into the 
 vestry, after service, the deacons informed him that they 
 would have no innovations. "We hitherto understood 
 that Baptist churches are not under bondage to traditions 
 and fixed rules as to modes of worshijD, and yet these 
 poor creatures, these would-be lords, Avho cry out loudly 
 enough against a liturgy, would bind their minister with 
 rubrics made by custom. It is time that such nonsense 
 were for ever silenced. We claim to conduct service as 
 the Holy Spirit moves us, and as we judge best. We 
 will not be bound to sing here and pray there, but will 
 vary the order of service to prevent monotony. Mr. 
 Ilinton, I have heard, once preached the sermon at the 
 commencement of the service, so that those who came 
 late might at any rate have an opportunity to pray. And 
 why not ? Irregularities would do good, monotony v/orks 
 
PUBLIC PRATER. 107 
 
 weariness. It will frequently be a most profitable thing 
 to let the people sit quite still in profound silence for two 
 or live minutes. Solemn silence makes noble worship. 
 
 True prayer is not the noisy sound 
 
 That clamorous lips repeat, 
 But the deep silence of a soul 
 
 That clasps Jehovah's feet. 
 
 Vary the order of your prayers, then, for the sake of 
 maintaining attention, and preventing people going 
 through the whole thing as a clock runs on till the 
 weights are down. 
 
 Vari/ the lencjtU of yoiir puUic j^rayers. Do you not 
 think it Avould be much better if sometimes instead of 
 giving three minutes to the first prayer and fifteen min- 
 utes to the second, you gave nine minutes to each ? 
 "Would it not be better sometimes to be longer in the first, 
 and not so long in the second prayer ? Would not two 
 prayers of tolerable length be better than one extremely 
 long and one extremely short ? Would it not be as well 
 to have a hymn after reading the chapter, or a verse or 
 two before the prayer ? Why not sing four times, occa- 
 sionally ? Why not be content with two hymns, or only 
 one, occasionally ? Why sing after sermon ? Why, on 
 the other hand, do some never sing at the close of the 
 service ? Is a prayer after sermon always, or even often, 
 advisable ? Is it not sometimes most impressive ? Would 
 not the Iloly Spirit's guidance secure us a variety at 
 present unknown ? Let us have anything so that our 
 people do not come to regard any form of service as be- 
 ing appointed, and so relapse into the superstition from 
 which they have escaped. 
 
 Vary the current of your prayers in intercession. 
 There are many topics which require your attention ; the 
 
108 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 church in its weakness, its backslidings, its sorrows, and 
 its comforts ; the outside world, the neighborhood, un- 
 converted hearers, the young people, the nation. Do not 
 pray for all these every time, or otherwise your prayers 
 will be long and uninteresting. Whatever topic shall 
 come upjDermost to your heart, let that be uppermost in 
 your supplications. There is a way of taking a line of 
 prayer, if the Holy Spirit shall guide you therein, which 
 will make the service all of a piece, and harmonize with 
 the hymns and discourse. It is very useful to maintain 
 unity in the service where you can ; not slavishly, but 
 wisely, so that the effect is one. Certain brethren do not 
 even manage to keep unity in the sermon, but wander 
 from Britain to Japan, and bring in all imaginable sub- 
 jects ; but you who have attained to the preservation of 
 unity in the sermon might go a little farther, and exhibit 
 a degree of unity in the service, being careful in both the 
 hymn, and the prayer, and the chapter, to keep the same 
 subject prominent. Hardly commendable is the prac- 
 tice, common with some preachers, of rehearsing the ser- 
 mon in the last prayer. It may be instructive to the 
 audience, but that is an object altogether foreign to 
 prayer. It is stilted, scholastic, and unsuitable ; do not 
 imitate the practice. 
 
 As you would avoid a viper, keep from all attemjits to 
 luorh up spurious fervor in public devotion. Do not labor 
 to seem earnest. Pray as your heart dictates, under the 
 leading of the Spirit of God, and if you ai-e dull and 
 heavy tell the Lord so. It will be no ill thing to confess 
 your dcadness, and bewail it, and cry for quickening; 
 it will be real and acceptable prayer ; but simulated 
 ardor is a shameful form of lying. Never imitate those 
 who are earnest. You know a good man who groans, and 
 another whose voice grows shrill when he is carried awav 
 
PUBLIC PRATER. 109 
 
 with zeal, but do not tlicrcfore moan or squeak in order 
 to appear as zealous as they are. Just be natural the 
 whole way through, and ask of God to be guided in it all. 
 Lastly — this is a word I utter in confidence to your- 
 sel ves — prepare your prayer. You say with astonishmen t, 
 " Whatever can you mean by that V AYell, I mean what 
 some do not mean. The question was once discussed in 
 a society of ministers, " Was it right for the minister to 
 prepare his prayer beforehand ?" It was earnestly 
 asserted l)y some that it was wa'ong ; and very properly 
 so. It was with equal earnestness maintained by others 
 that it was right ; and they Avere not to be gainsayed. I 
 believe both parties to have been right. The first bretli- 
 ren understood by preparing the i^rayer, the studying 
 of expressions, and the putting together of a train of 
 thought, which they all said was altogether opposed to 
 spiritual worship, in which we ought to leave ourselves 
 in the hand of God's Spirit to be taught of him both as 
 to matter and words. In these remarks we altogether 
 agi'ce ; for if a man writes his prayers and studies his 
 petitions, let him use a liturgy at once. But the bretliren 
 in opposition meant by preparation quite another thing, 
 not the preparation of tlie head, but of the heart, which 
 consists in the solemn consideration beforehand of the 
 importance of prayer, meditation upon the needs of 
 men's souls, and a remembrance of the promises w^liich 
 w^c are to jilead ; and thus coming before the Lord with 
 a petition Avritten upon the fleshy tables of the heart. 
 This is surely better than coming to God at random, 
 rushing before the throne at haphazard, Avithout a defi 
 nite errand or desire. " I never am tired of praying," 
 said one man, " because I always have a definite errand 
 when I pray." Brethren, are your prayers of this sort ? 
 Do you strive to be in a fit frame to lead the supplica 
 
110 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 tioiis of your peoj)lc ? Do you order your cause in com- 
 ing befofe the Lord ? I feel, my brethren, that we 
 ought to prepare ourselves by private prayer for public 
 praying. By living near to God we ought to maintain 
 prayerfulness of spirit, and then we shall not fail in our 
 vocal pleadings. If anything beyond this is to be toler- 
 ated, it would be the commitment to memory of the 
 I'salms and parts of Scripture containing promises, sup- 
 plications, praises, and confessions, such as maybe help- 
 ful in the act of prayer. It is said of Chrysostom, that 
 he had learned his Bible by heart, so as to be able to re- 
 peat it at his pleasure : no wonder that he was called 
 golden-mouthed. Now, in our converse with God, no 
 speech can be more appropriate than the words of the 
 Holy Ghost — " Do as thou hast said," will always prevail 
 with the Most High. We counsel, therefore, the com- 
 mitting to memory of the inspired devotional exercises 
 of the word of truth, and then your continued reading 
 of the Scriptures will keep you always furnished with 
 fresh supplications, which will be as ointment poured 
 forth, filling the whole house of God with its fragrance, 
 when you present your petitions in public before the 
 Lord. Seeds of prayer thus sown in the memory will 
 yield a constant golden harvest, as the Spirit shall warm 
 your soul with hallowed fire in the hour of congrega- 
 tional prayer. As David used the sword of Goliath for 
 after victories, so may Ave at times employ a petition 
 already answered, and find ourselves able to say with the 
 son of Jesse, " There is none hke unto it," as God shall 
 yet again fulfil it in our experience. 
 
 Let your prayers be earnest, full of fire, vehemence, 
 prevalence. I pray the Holy Ghost to instruct every 
 student of this College so to offer public prayer, that 
 God shall always be served of his best. Let your peti- 
 
PUBLIC PRAYER. Ill 
 
 fcions be plain and hcart-fclt ; and while your people may 
 sometimes feel that the sermon was below the mark, may 
 they also feel that the prayer comj^ensated for all. 
 
 Much more miglit be said, perhaps should be said, 
 but time and strength both fail us, and so we draw to 
 a close. 
 
LECTURE V^. 
 
 SERMONS— THEIR MATTER. 
 
 SERMON'S should have real teaching in them, and 
 their doctrine should be solid, substantial, and abundant. 
 We do not enter the pulpit to talk for talk's sake ; we 
 have instructions to convey important to the last degree, 
 and we cannot afford to utter pretty nothings. Our 
 range of subjects is all but boundless, and we cannot, 
 therefore, be excused if our discourses are threadbare and 
 devoid of substance. If we speak as ambassadors for 
 God, we need never complain of want of matter, for our 
 message is full to overflowing. The entire gospel must 
 be presented from the jmlpit ; the whole faith once deliv- 
 ered to the saints must be proclaimed by us. The truth 
 as it is in Jesus must be instructively declared, so that 
 the people may not merely hear, but hnov), the joyful 
 sound. We serve not at the altar of " the unknown 
 God," but we speak to the worshippers of him of whom 
 it is written, " they that know thy name will put their 
 Jrust in thee." To divide a sermon well may be a very 
 useful art, but how if tliere is nothing to divide ? A 
 mere divisjon maker is like an excellent carver with an 
 empty dif^li before Iiim. To be able to deliver an exor- 
 dium which shall be approjiriate and attractive, to be at 
 ease in speaking with propriety during the time allotted 
 for the discourse, and to wind up with a respectable j^e- 
 roration, may appear to mere religious performers to bo 
 
SERMONS — THEIR MATTER. 113 
 
 all that is reqiiisitc ; but tlie true minister of Clirist knows,; 
 that the true value of a sermon must lie, not in its fasli-i 
 ion and manner, but in the truth which it contains.) 
 Nothing can compensate for the absence of teaching ; all 
 the rhetoric in the Avorld is but as chaff to the wheat, in 
 contrast to the gospel of our salvation. However beau- 
 tiful the sower's basket it is a miserable mockery if it be 
 Avithout seed. The grandest discourse ever delivered is 
 an ostentatious failure if the doctrine of the grace of 
 God be absent from it ; it sweeps over men's heads like 
 a cloud, but it distributes no rain upon the thirsty earth ; 
 and therefore the remembrance of it to souls taught 
 wisdom by an experience of j)ressing need is one of disap- 
 pointment, or Vv^orse. A man's style may be as fasci- 
 nating as that of the authoress of whom one said, " that 
 she should write with a crystal pen dipped in dew upon 
 silver paper, and use for pounce the dust of a butterlly's 
 wing" ; but to an audience whose souls are in instant 
 jeopardy, what Avill mere elegance be but " altogether 
 lighter than vanity " ? 
 
 Horses are not to be judged by their bells or their i / 
 trappings, but by limb and bone and blood ; and ser- 
 mons, when criticised by judicious hearers, are largely 
 measured by the amount of gospel truth and force of 
 gospel ^)\v\i which they contain. Brethren, weigh your 
 sermons. Do not retail them by the yard, but deal them 
 out by the pound. Set no store by the quantity of 
 words which you utter, but strive to be esteemed for the 
 quality of your matter. It is foolish to be lavish in 
 words and niggardly in truth. He must be very desti- 
 tute of Avit who would be pleased to hear himself de- 
 scribed after the manner of the world's great poet, who 
 says, " Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing, more 
 than any man in all ^'enicc : his reasons are as two 
 
114 LECTURES TO MY STUDEK^TS. 
 
 grains of wheat hidden in two bushels of chaff ; you 
 shall seek all day ere you find them ; and when you have 
 them they are not worth the search." 
 
 Rousing ajDpeals to the affections are excellent, but 
 if they are not backed up by instruction they are a mere 
 flash in the pan, powder consumed and no shot sent 
 home, f Rest assured that the most fervid revivalism will 
 wear itself out in mere smoke, if it be not maintained by 
 tlie fuel of teaching. yTJie divine method is to put the 
 law in the mind, an4 then write it on the heart; the 
 judgment is enlightened, and then the passions subdued. 
 Read Hebrews viii. 10, and follow the model of the cov- 
 enant of grace. Gouge's note on that place may with 
 fitness be quoted here : " Ministers are herein to imitate 
 God, and, to their best endeavor, to instruct people in 
 the mysteries of godliness, and to teach them what to 
 believe and practise, and then to stir them up in act and 
 deed, to do what they are instructed to do. Their labor 
 otherwise is like to be in vain. Neglect of this course is 
 a main cause that men fall into many errors as they do 
 in these days." I may add that this last remark has 
 gained more force in our times ; it is among uninstructed 
 iiocks that the Avolves of popery make havoc ; sound 
 teaching is the best protection from the heresies which 
 ravage right and left among us. 
 
 Sound information on scriptural subjects your hear- 
 ers crave for, and must have. Accurate explanations 
 of Holy Scripture they are entitled to, and if you are 
 "an interpreter, one of a thousand," a real messenger 
 of heaven, you will yield them plenteously. Whatev(!r 
 else may be present, the absence of edifying, instructive 
 truth, like the absence of flour from bread, will be fatal. 
 Estiinated by their solid contents rather than their 
 superficial area, many sermons arc very poor specimens 
 
BERMO]S"S — TUEIR MATTER. 115 
 
 of godly discourse. I believe tlie remark is too well 
 grounded that if you attend to a lecturer on astronomy 
 or geology,, during a short course you will obtain a tol- 
 erably clear view of his system ; but if you listen, not 
 only for twelve months, but for twelve years, to the 
 common run of preachers, you will not arrive at any- 
 thing like an idea of their system of theology. If it be 
 so, it is a grievous fault, Avliich cannot be too much de- 
 plored. Alas ! the indistinct utterances of many con- 
 cerning the grandest of eternal realities, and the dim- 
 ness of thought in others with regard to fundamental 
 truths, have given too much occasion for the criticism ! 
 Brethren, if you are not theologians you are in your pas-^ 
 torates just nothing at all. You may be fine rhetor-- 
 icians, and be rich in polished sentences ; but without 
 knowledge of the gospel, and aptness to teach it, you are 
 but a sounding lu'uss and tinkling cymbal. Verbiage is 
 too often the fig-leaf which does duty as a covering for 
 theological ignorance. Sounding jDcriods are ofl'ered 
 instead of sound doctrine, and rhetorical flourishes in the 
 place of robust thought. Such things ought not to be. 
 The abounding of empty declamation, and the absence 
 of food for the soul, will turn a pulpit into a box of 
 bombast, and inspire contempt instead of reverence. 
 Unless we are instructive preachers, and really feed the 
 people, we may be great quoters of elegant poetry, and 
 mighty retailers of second-hand windbags, but we shall 
 be like Nero of old, fiddling while Rome was burning, 
 and sending vessels to Alexandria to fetch sand for the 
 arena while the populace starved for want of corn. 
 
 We insist upon it, that there must be abunclunce of 
 matter in sermons, and next, that iliis matter must ie 
 congruuus to the text. The discourse should spring out 
 of the text as a rule, and the more evidently it does so 
 
116 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 the better ; but at all times, to say the least, it should 
 have a very close relationship thereto. In the matter 
 of spiritualizing and accommodation very large latitude is 
 to be allowed ; but liberty must not degenerate inio 
 license, and there must always be a connection, and 
 something more than a remote connection — a real 
 relationship between the sermon and its text. I 
 heard the other day of a remarkable text, which was 
 appropriate or inappropriate, as you may think. A 
 squire of a parish had given away a number of flaming 
 scarlet cloaks to the oldest matrons of the parish. These 
 resplendent beings were required to attend tlie parish 
 church on the following Sunday, and to sit in front of 
 the pulpit, from which one of the avowed successors of 
 the apostles edified the saints from the words, " Solomon 
 in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." It is 
 reported that on a subsequent occasion, when the same 
 benefactor of the parish had given a bushel of potatoes 
 to every man who had a family, the topic on the follow- 
 ing Sunday was, "And they said. It is manna." I can- 
 not tell whether the matter in that case was congruous 
 to the selection of the text ; I suppose it may have been, 
 for the probabilities are that the whole performance was 
 foolish throughout. Some brethren have done with 
 their text as soon as they have read it. Having i)aid all 
 due honor to that particular passage by announcing it, 
 they feel no necessity further to refer to it. They 
 touch their hats, as it were, to that part of Scrip- 
 ture, and pass on to fresh fields and pastures new. Why 
 do such men take a text at all ? Why limit their own 
 glorious liberty ? Why make Scripture a horsing-block 
 by which to mount upon their unbridled Pegasus ? 
 Surely the words of inspiration were never meant to be 
 
BEEilOXS — THEIR MATTER. 117 
 
 boot-hooks to help a Talkative to draw on liis scvon- 
 leagucd boots in which to leap from pole to pole. 
 / The surest way to maintain variety is to keep to the 
 nWd 6? the Holy Spirit in the particular passage under 
 consideration.^ No two texts are exactly similar ; some- 
 thing in theM3onnection or drift of the passage gives to 
 each apparently identical text a shade of difference. 
 Keep to the Spirit's track and you will never repeat 
 yourself or be short of matter : his paths drop fatness. 
 A sermon, moreover, comes with far greater power to 
 the conscience of the hearers when it is plainly the very 
 word of God — not a lecture about the Scripture, but 
 Scripture itself opened up and enforced. It is due to 
 the majesty of inspiration that when you profess to be 
 preaching from a verse you do not thrust it out of sight 
 to make room for your own thinkings. 
 
 Brethren, if you are in the habit of keeping to the 
 precise sense of the Scripture before you, I Avill further 
 recommend you to hold to the ipsissima verba, the very 
 words of the Holy Gliost ; for, although in many cases 
 topical sermons are not only allowable, but very proper, 
 those sermons which expound the exact words of the 
 Holy Spirit are the most useful and the most agreeable 
 to the major part of our congregations. They love 
 to have the words themselves explained and expounded. 
 The many are not always sufficiently capable of gras})ing 
 the sense apart from the language — of gazing, so to 
 speak, upon the truth disembodied ; but when they 
 liear the precise words reiterated again and again, and 
 each expression dwelt upon after the manner of such 
 preachers as Mr. Jay, of Bath, they are more edified, 
 and the truth fixes itself more firmly upon their memo- 
 ries. Let your matter, then, be copious, and let it grow 
 out of the inspired word, as violets and primroses spring 
 
118 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 up naturaHy from the sod, or as tlic virgin lioiiey drops 
 from the comb. 
 
 Take care that your deliverances are always lueiglity, 
 and full of really important teaching. Build not with 
 wood, hay, and stubble, but with gold, silver, and 
 precious stones. It is scarcely needful to warn you 
 against the grosser degradations of pulpit eloquence, or 
 the example of the notorious orator Henley might be 
 instanced. That loquacious adventurer, whom Pope has 
 immortalized in his "Dunciad," was wont to make the 
 passing events of the week the themes of his buffoonery 
 on week days, and theological subjects suffered the 
 same fate on Sundays. His forte lay in his low Avit and 
 in tuning his voice and balanciug his hands. The satir- 
 ist says of him, " How fluent nonsense trickles from his 
 tongue." Gentlemen, it were better never to have been 
 born, than to have the like truthfully said of us ; we are 
 on peril of our souls bound to deal with the solemnities 
 of eternity and with no eartli-born topics. There are, 
 however, other and more inviting methods of wood and 
 hay-building, and it behooves you not to be duped by 
 tliem. iThis remark is necessary, especially to those 
 gentlemen who mistake high-flying sentences for elo- 
 quence, and latinized utterances for great dci)th of 
 thought. I Certain homiletical instructors, by their ex- 
 ample, if not by their precepts, encourage rhodomontade 
 and great swelling words, and, therefore, are most peril- 
 ous to young preachers. Think of a discourse commen- 
 cing with such an amazing and stupendous assertion as 
 the following, which by its native grandeur will strike you 
 at once with a sense of the sublime and beautiful : " Man 
 IS MORAL." This genius might have added, "A catbas 
 four feet." There would have been as much novelty in 
 t])e one information as tlie other. I remember a sermon 
 
BERMOJfS — THEIR MATTER. 110 
 
 by a wonld-bo profound writer which quite stunned the 
 reader with grenadier words of six-feet length, Init 
 which, when properly boiled down, came to as inneli 
 essence of meat as this — Man has a soul, his soul will 
 live in another world, and therefore he should take care 
 that it occupies a happy place. No one can object to 
 the teaching, but it is not so novel as to need a blast 
 of trumpets and a procession of bedizened phrases to in- 
 troduce it to public attention. The art of saying com- 
 monplace things elegantly, pompously, grandiloquently, 
 bombastically, is not lost among us, although its utter 
 extinction were "a consummation devoutly to be 
 wished." Sermons of this sort have been held up as 
 models, and yet they are mere bits of bladder which 
 would lie on your finger-nail, blown out until they remind 
 you of those colored balloons which itinerant dealers 
 carry about the streets to sell at a halfpenny a-piece for 
 the delectation of the extremely juvenile ; the parallel, 
 I am sorry to say, holding good a little further, for in 
 some cases these discourses contain just a tinge of poison 
 by way of coloring, which some of the weaker sort have 
 found out to their cost. It is infamous to ascend your 
 pulpit and pour over your people rivers of language, 
 cataracts of words, in Avhich mere platitudes are held in 
 solution like infinitesimal grains of homoeopathic medi- 
 cine in an Atlantic of utterance. Better far give the 
 people masses of unprepared truth in the rough, like 
 pieces of meat from a butcher's block, chopped off any- 
 how, bone and all, and even dropped down in the saAv- 
 dust, than ostentatiously hand them out upon a china 
 dish a delicious slice of nothing at all, decorated with 
 the parsley of poetiy, and flavored with the sauce of 
 affectation. 
 
 It will be a happy circumstance if you are so guided 
 
/ 
 
 120 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 by the Holy Spirit as to give a clear testimony to all the 
 doctrines loldcli constitute or lie around the gospel. No 
 trntli is to be kept back. The doctrine of reserve, so 
 detestable in the mouths of Jesuits, is not one wliit the 
 loss villainous when accepted by Protestants. It is not 
 true that some doctrines are only for the initiated ; there 
 is nothing in the Bible which is ashamed of the light. 
 'The sublimest views of divine sovereignty have a prac- 
 'tical bearing, and are not, as some think, mere metaphys- 
 !ical subtleties ; the distinctive utterances of Calvinism 
 ;have their bearing upon every-day life and ordinary ex- 
 ^perience, and if you hold such views, or the opposite, 
 you have no dispensation permitting you to conceal your 
 beliefs. Cautious reticence is, in nine cases out of ten, 
 cowardly betrayal. The best policy is never to be politic, 
 but to proclaim every atom of the truth so far as God 
 has taught it to you. Harmony requires that the voice 
 of one doctrine shall not drown the rest, and it also 
 demands that the gentler notes shall not be omitted be- 
 cause of the greater volume of other sounds. Every 
 note appointed by the great minstrel must be sounded ; 
 each note having its own proportionate power and em- 
 phasis, the passage marked with forte must not be soft- 
 ened, and those with jjiaiio must not be rolled out like 
 thunder, but each must have its due hearing. All revealed 
 truth in harmonious proportion must be your theme. 
 
 liretliren, if you resolve in your pul})it utterances to 
 deal with important verities, you must not for ever hover 
 around the mere angles of truth. Those doctrines which 
 are not vital to the soul's salvation, nor even essential to 
 practical Christianity, arc not to be considered upon 
 every occasion of worship. Bring in all the features of 
 truth in due proportion, for every part of Scripture is 
 profitable, and you are not only to preacli the truth, but 
 
SERilONS — TUEIR MATTER. 121 
 
 tlic wliole trutJi. Do not insist perpetually upon one 
 truth alone. A nose is an important feature in the 
 liuman countenance, put to paint a man's nose alone is 
 not a satisfactory method of taking his likeness : a doc- 
 trine may be very important, but an exaggerated 
 estimate of it may be fatal to an harmonious and com- 
 ])letc ministry. Do not make minor doctrines main/ 
 points. Do not paint the details of the background of 
 the gospel picture witii the same heavy brush as the 
 gi'eat objects in the foreground of it. For instance, the 
 great jiroblems of sublapsarianism and supralapsarianism, 
 the trenchant debates concerning eternal filiation, the 
 earnest dispute concerning the double procession, and 
 ihe pre or joost millenarian schemes, however important 
 liome may deem them, are practically of very little con- 
 oeru to that godly widow Avoman, with seven children to 
 support by her needle, who wants far more to hear of 
 the loving- kindness of the God of providence than of 
 i hese mysteries profound ; if you jn-each to her on the 
 faithfulness of God to his people, she will be cheered 
 and helped in the battle of life ; but difficult questions 
 will perplex her or send her to sleep. She is, however, 
 the type of hundreds of those who most require your 
 care, pur great master theme is the good news from 
 hcaven\ the tidings of mercy through the atoning death 
 of Jesus, mercy to the chief of sinners upon their believ- 
 ing in Jesus. 
 
 We must throw all our strength of judgment, mem- 
 ory, imagination, and eloquence into the delivery of the 
 gospel ; and not give to the preaching of the cros^our 
 random thoughts while wayside topics engross our deeper 
 meditations. Depend upon it, if we brought the intel- 
 lect of a Locke or a Newton, and the eloquence of a 
 Cicero, to bear upon the simple doctrine of "believe and 
 G 
 
122 LECTUEES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 \ live," "wc should find no surplus strength. Brethren, 
 first and above all things, keep to plain evangelical 
 doctrines ; whatever else yon do or do not preach, be 
 sure incessantly to bring forth the soul-saving truth of 
 Christ and him crucified. I know a minister whose 
 slioe-latchet I am unworthy to unloose, whose preaching 
 is often little better than sacred miniature painting — I 
 might almost say holy trifling. He is great upon the ten 
 toes of the beast, the four faces of the cherubim, the 
 mystical meaning of badgers' skins, and the typical 
 bearings of the staves of the ark and the windows of 
 Solomon's temple : but the sins of business men, the 
 temptations of the times, and the needs of the age, he 
 scarcely ever touches upon. Such preaching reminds 
 me of a lion engaged in mouse-hounting, or a man-of- 
 war cruising after a lost water-butt. Topics scarcely in 
 importance equal to what Peter calls " old wives' fables," 
 are made great matters of by those microscopic divines 
 to whom the nicety of a point is more attractive than the 
 saving of souls. You will have read in Todd's '' Stu- 
 dent's Manual" that Harcatius, king of Persia, was a 
 notable mole-catcher ; and Briantcs, king of Lydia, was 
 equally cm fait at filing needles ; but these trivialities 
 by no means prove them to have been great kings : it is 
 much the same in the ministry, there is such a thing as 
 meanness of mental occupation unbecoming the rank of 
 an ambassador of heaven. 
 
 Among a certain order of minds at this time the 
 Athenian desire of telling or hearing some new thing 
 appears to be predominant. They boast of new liglit, 
 and claim a species of inspiration which warrants thoni 
 in condemning all who arc out of their brotherhood, and 
 yet their grand revelation relates to a mere circi.rastan- 
 tial of worship, or to an obscure interjiretation of proph- 
 
SERMONS — THEIR MATTER. 123 
 
 ccy : so that, at sight of their great fuss and loud cry 
 concerning so little, we are reminded of 
 
 " Ocean into tempest toss'd 
 To waft a feather or to drown a fly." 
 
 Worse still are those who waste time in insinuating 
 doubts concerning the authenticity of texts, or the cor- 
 rectness of Biblical statements concerning natural phe- \ 
 nomena. Painfully do I call to mind hearing, one Sabbath 
 evening, a deliverance called a sermon, of which the theme 
 was a clever inquiry as to whether an angel did actually 
 descend, and stir the pool at Bethcsda, or whether it was 
 an intermitting spring, concerning which Jewish super- 
 stition had invented a legend. Dying men and women 
 were assembled to hear the way of salvation, and they 
 were put off with such vanity as this ! They came for 
 bread, and received a stone ; the sheep looked up to the 
 shepherd, and were not fed. Seldom do I hear a sermon, 
 and when I do I am grievously unfortunate, for one of 
 the last I was entertained with was intended to be a 
 justification of Joshua for destroying the Canaanites, and 
 another went to prove that it was not good for man to 
 be alone. How many souls were converted in answer to 
 the prayers before these sermons I have never been able 
 to ascertain, but I shrewdly suspect that no unusual re- 
 joicing disturbed the serenity of the golden streets. 
 
 Believing my next remark to be almost universally 
 unneeded, I bring it forward with diffidence — do not over- 
 load a sermon with too much matter. All truth is not > 
 to be comprised in one discourse. Sermons are not to- be 
 bodies of divinity. There is such a thing as having too 
 much to say, and saying it till hearers are sent home 
 loathing rather than longing. An old minister walking 
 with a young preacher, pointed to a cornfield, and ob- 
 
r 
 
 124 LECTUKES TO MT STUDEN"TS. 
 
 served, ** Yonrlast sermon had too much in it, and it was 
 not clear enough, or sufficiently well-arranged; it was like 
 that field of Avheat, it contained much crude food, but 
 none fit for nse. You should make your sermons like a 
 [loaf of bread, fit for eating, and in convenient form." It 
 iis to be feared that human heads (speaking phrenological- 
 y) are not so capacious for theology as they once were, 
 or our forefathers rejoiced in sixteen ounces of divinity, 
 undiluted and unadorned, and could continue receiv- 
 ing it for three or four hours at a stretch, but our more 
 degenerate, or i^erhaps more busy, generation requires 
 about an ounce of doctrine at a time, and that must 
 be the concentrated extract or essential oil, rather than 
 the entire substance of divinity. We must in these times 
 say a great deal in a few words, but not too much, nor 
 with too much amplification. One thought fixed on the 
 mind will be better than fifty thoughts made to flit across 
 the ear. One tcnpenny nail driven home and clenched 
 will be more useful than a score of tin-tacks loosely fixed, 
 to be ^lulled out again in an hour. 
 
 Our matter sliould he well arranged according to the 
 true rules of men^^al architecture. Nor practical infer- 
 ences at the basis and doctrines as the topstoncs ; not 
 metaphors in the foundations, and propositions at the 
 summit ; not the more important truths first and the 
 minor teaches last, after the manner of an anticlimax ; 
 but the thought must climb and ascend ; one stair of 
 teaching leading to another ; one door of reasoning con- 
 ducting to another, and the whole elevating the hearer 
 to a chamber from whose windows truth is seen gleamiiig 
 in tlie light of God. In preaching, have a i)lace for 
 everything, and everything in its place. Never suffer 
 truths to fall from you pell-moll. Do not let your 
 thoughts rush as a mob, but make them march as a 
 
SERMONS — THEIR MATTER. 125 
 
 troop of soldiery. Order, which is heaven's first hiw, 
 must not bo neglected by Jieaven's ambassadors. 
 
 Yoiw doctrinal icacliing shuidd be clear and ^inrtis- 
 iakable. To be so it must first of all be clear to yourself. 
 Some men think in smoke and preach in a cloud. Your 
 people do not want a luminous haze, but the solid terra 
 firma of truth. Philosophical speculations put certain 
 minds into a semi-intoxicated condition, in which they 
 either see everything double, or see nothing at all. The 
 head of a certain college in Oxford was years ago asked 
 by a stranger what was the motto of the arms of that 
 university. He told him that it was ^' Dominus ilhimi- 
 natio mea." But he also candidly informed the stranger 
 that, in his private opinion, a motto more apjiropriate 
 might be, " Arisioteles mece tenehracB.^' Sensational 
 writers have half crazed many honest men who have con- 
 scientiously read their lucubrations out of a notion that 
 they ought to be abreast of the age, as if such a necessity 
 might not also require us to attend the theatres in order 
 to be able to judge the new plays, or frequent the turf 
 that we might not be too bigoted in our opinions upon 
 racing and gambling. For my part, I believe that the 
 chief readers of heterodox books are ministers, and that 
 if they would not notice them they would fall still-born 
 from the press. Let a minister keep clear of mystifying 
 himself, and then he is on the road to becoming intelli- 
 gible to his jieople. No man can hope to be felt who 
 cannot make himself understood. If we give our people 
 refined truth, pure Scriptural doctrine, and all so worded 
 as to have no needless obscurity about it, we shall be true 
 shepherds of the sheep, and the profiting of our people 
 will soon be apparent. 
 
 Endeacor to keep the matter of your sermonizing as I 
 fresh as you can. Do not I'ehearse five or six doctrines 
 
136 LECTUKES TO MY STUDEKTS. 
 
 with unvarying monotony of repetition. Buy a theo- 
 logical barrel-organ, brethren, with five tunes accurately 
 adjusted, and you will be qualified to practise as an iiltra- 
 Calvinistic preacher at Zoar and Jireh, if you also pur- 
 chase at some vinegar factory a good supply of bitter, 
 acrid abuse of Arminians, and duty-faith men. Brains 
 [ind grace are optional, but the organ and the wormwood 
 are indispensable. It is ours to perceive and rejoice in 
 a Avider range of truth. All that these good men hold 
 of grace and sovereignty we maintain as firmly and 
 boldly as they ; but we dare not shut our eyes to other 
 teachings of the word, and we feel bound to make full 
 proof of our ministry, by declaring the whole counsel of 
 God. With abundant themes diligently illustrated by 
 fresh metaphors and experiences, we shall not weary, 
 but, under God's hand, shall win our hearers' ears and 
 hearts. 
 
 Let your teacliings grow and advance; let them 
 deepen with your experience, and rise with your soul- 
 progress. I do not mean preach new truths ; for, on the 
 contrary, I hold that man happy who is so well taught 
 from the first that, after fifty years of ministry, he has 
 never had to recant a doctrine or to mourn an important 
 omission ; but I mean, let our depth and insight con- 
 tinually increase, and where there is spiritual advance it 
 will be so. Timothy could not preach like Paul. Our 
 earlier productions must be surpassed by those of our 
 riper years : we must never make these our models ; 
 they will be best burned, or only preserved to l)e 
 mourned over because of their superficial character. It 
 were ill, indeed, if we knew no more after being many 
 years in Christ's school ; our progress may be slow, but 
 progress there must be, or there will be cause to suspect 
 that the inner life is lacking or sadly unhealthy. / Set it 
 
SERMONS — THEIR MATTER. 127 
 
 I. 
 
 before you as most certain that you have not yet attained, / 
 and may grace be given you to press forward towards ' 
 that which is yet beyond. May you all become able 
 ministers of the New Testament, and not a whit behind 
 the very chief of preachers, though in yourselves you 
 will still be nothing. 
 
 The word *' sermon " is said to signify a thrust, and, 
 therefore, in sermonizing it must be our aim to use the 
 suhjcct in hand with energy and effect, and the subject 
 must he capable of such eDiploijmenf. To choose mere 
 moral themes will be to use a wooden dagger ; but the 
 great truths of revelation are as sharp swords. Keep to 
 doctrines which stir the conscience and the heart. Re- 
 main unwaveringly the champions of a soul-winning 
 gospel. God's truth is adapted to man, and God's grace 
 adapts man to it. There is a key which, under God, can 
 wind up the musical box of man's nature ; get it, and 
 use it daily. Hence I urge you to keep to the old-fash- 
 ioned gospel, and to that only, for assuredly it is the 
 power of God unto salvation. 
 
 Of all I would wish to say this is the sum ; my 
 brethren, preach Christ, always and evermore. He 
 is the whole gospel. His person, offices, and work must 
 be our one great, all-comprehending theme. The world 
 needs still to be told of its Saviour, and of the way to 
 reach him. Justification by faith should be far more 
 than it is the daily testimony of Protestant pulpits ; and 
 if with this master-truth there should be more generally 
 associated the other great doctrines of grace, the better 
 for our churches and our age. If with the zeal of 
 Methodists we can preach the doctrine of Puritans a 
 great future is before us. The fire of Wesley, and thei 
 fuel of Whitfield, will cause a burning which shall set 
 the forests of error on fire, and warm the very soul of this 
 
128 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 cold earth. We are not called to proclaim phiJoFopby 
 and metaphysics, but the simple gospel. Man's fall, his, 
 need of a new birth, forgiveness through an atonement, 
 and sah'ation as the result of faith, these are our battle- 
 axe and weapons of Avar. We have enough to do to 
 learn and teach these great truths, and accursed be that 
 learning which shall divert us from our mission, or that 
 Avilful ignorance which shall cripple us in its pursuit. 
 More and more am I jealous lest any views upon proph- 
 ecy, church government, politics, or even systematic 
 theology, should withdraw one of us from glorying in 
 the cross of Christ. Salvation is a theme for which I 
 would fain enlist every holy tongue. I am greedy after 
 Avitnessos for the glorious gospel of the blessed God. 
 that Christ crucified were the universal burden of men 
 of God. Your guess at the number of the beast, your 
 Napoleonic speculations, your conjectures concerning a 
 personal Antichrist — forgive me, I count them but more 
 bones for dogs ; while men are dying, and hell is filling, 
 it seems to me the veriest drivel to be muttering about 
 an Arm;igeddon at Sebastopol or Sadowa or Sedan, and 
 peeping between the folded leaves of destiny to discover 
 the fate of Germany. Blessed are they who read and 
 hear the Avords of the jjrophecy of the Kevelation, but 
 the like blessing has evidently not fallen on those who 
 pretend to expound it, for generation after generation of 
 them have been i)roved to be in error by the mere lapse 
 of time, and the present race Avill folloAV to the same 
 inglorious sepulchre. I Avould sooner pluck one single 
 brand from the burning than explain all mysteries. To 
 win a soul from going doAvn into the pit is a more glori- 
 ous aehieA^ement than to be crowned in the arena of 
 theological controversy as Doctor Sv.fficientissimus ; to 
 baA'e faithfully unveiled the glory of God in the face of 
 
SERMONS — THEIR MATTER. 129 
 
 Jgsus Christ will be in the finiil judgment accounted 
 worthier service than to have solved the problems of 
 tlic religious Sphinx, or to have cut the Gordian knot of 
 apocalyptic difficulty. Blessed is that ministry of which 
 C;hrist is all. 
 
 6* 
 
LECTURF VI 
 
 ON THE CHOICE OF A TEXT. 
 
 I TRUST, my brethren, tliat we all feel very deeply 
 tlie importance of conducting every part of divine wor- 
 ship with the utmost possible efficiency. When we 
 remember that the salvation of a soul may hang, instru- 
 mcntally, upon the choice of a hymn, we should not 
 consider so small a matter as the selection of the psalms 
 and hymns to be a trifle. An ungodly stranger, stepping 
 into one of our services at Exeter Hall, was brought to 
 the cross by the words of "Wesley's verse — '*Jesu, lover 
 of my soul." " Does Jesus love me ? " said he : " then 
 why should I live in enmity to him ? " When we reflect, 
 too, that God may very especially bless an expression in 
 our prayer to the conversion of a wanderer ; and that 
 prayer in the unction of the Holy Spirit, may minister 
 greatly to the edification of God's people, and bring 
 unnumbered blessings down upon them, we shall en- 
 deavor to pray with the best gift and the highest grace 
 Avithin our reach. Since, also, in the reading of the 
 Scriptures comfort and instruction may be plenteously 
 distributed, we shall pause over our opened Bibles, and 
 devoutly seek to be guided to that portion of Holy Writ 
 which shall be most likely to be made useful. 
 
 With regard to the sermon, we shall be most anxious, 
 first of all, respecting the selection of the text. No one 
 amongst us looks upon the sermon in so careless a light 
 
ox THE CHOICE OF A TEXT. 131 
 
 as to conceive tliat a text picked up at random will bo 
 suitable for every, or indeed, for any occasion. We arc 
 not all of S3'dney Smith's mind, when he rcccommended 
 a brotlicr at a loss for a text, to preach from " Parthians, 
 and JMedes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopo- 
 tamia ; " as though anything would do for a sermon. I 
 hope we all make it a matter of very earnest and serious 
 consideration, every week, what shall be the subjects 
 upon which we sliall address our jieople on the Sabbath 
 morning and evening ; for, although all Scripture is good 
 and profitable, yet it is not all equally appropriate for 
 every occasion.* To everything there is a season ; and 
 everything is the better for being seasonable. A wise 
 householder labors to give to each one of the family his 
 portion of meat in due season ; he does not serve out 
 rations indiscriminately, but suits the viands to the needs 
 of the guests. Only a mere official, the slave of routine, 
 the lifeless automaton of formalism, will be content to 
 snatch at the first subject which comes to hand. The 
 man Avho i)lucks topics as children in the meadows gather 
 buttercups and daisies, just as they offer themselves, may 
 act in accordance Avith his position in a church into 
 which a patron may have thrust him, and out of which 
 the people cannot eject him ; but those who profess to 
 
 * " A moment's reflection upon the eternal consequences that 
 may issue from the preaching of a single sermon in the name of 
 the great Author and Finisher of faith, should be sufficient to 
 effectually rebuke the haphazard carelessness and the reckless 
 self-conceit with which texts are sometimes taken and treated, 
 and to impress every true minister of the gospel with the duty of 
 choosing his texts in such a frame of mind as may harmonize with 
 the divine guidance as often as he may perform that important 
 task." — Daniel P. Kidder. " A Treatise on Homiletics, designed 
 to Illustrate the True Theory and Practice of Preaching the 
 Gospel." 
 
132 LECTUEES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 be called of God, and selected to their positions by tlio 
 free choice of believers, will need to make fuller proof of 
 their ministry than can be found in such carelessness. 
 Among many gems we have to select the jewel most 
 approin-iate for the setting of the occasion. AVe dare 
 not rush into the King's banquet hall with a confusion 
 of jirovisions as though the entertainment were to be a 
 vulgar scramble, but as well-mannered servitors we panse 
 and ask the great Master of the feast, "Lord, what 
 wouldst thou have ns set upon thy table this day ? " 
 
 Some texts have struck us as most unhappily chosen. 
 We wonder what Mr. Disraeli's rector did with the Avords, 
 " In my flesh shall I see God," when lately preaching at 
 a village harvest-home ! Exceedingly unfortunate was 
 tlie funeral text for a murdered clergyman (Mr. Plow), 
 from, "So he giveth his beloved sleep." Most mani- 
 festly idiotic was he who selected "Judge not, that ye 
 be not judged," for a sermon before the judges at an 
 assize. 
 
 Do not he misled hy the souoid and seeming fitness of 
 scriptural words. M. Athanase Coquerel confesses to 
 having loreached, on a third visit to Amsterdam, from 
 the words, " This is the third time I am coming to you," 
 2 Corinthians xiii. 1 — well may he add, that he "found 
 great difficulty in afterwards putting into this discourse 
 what Avas fitting to the occasion." A parallel case was 
 that of one of the sermons on the death of the Princess 
 Charlotte from, " She was sick and died. " It is still 
 worse to select words out of a miserable facetiousness, as 
 in Ihe case of a recent sermon on the death of Abraham 
 Lincoln, from the sentence, "Abraham is dead." It is 
 said that a student, who it is to be hoped never emerged 
 from the shell, preached a sermon in pubhc, before his 
 tutor. Dr. Philip Doddridge. Now the good man was 
 
OK THE CHOICE OF A TEXT. IX\ 
 
 accustomed to place himself immediately in h'ovi of tbo 
 student, and look him full in the face, judge therefore 
 of his surprise, if not indignation, when the text an- 
 nounced ran in these words, ''Have I been so long timo 
 with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip?" 
 Gentlemen, fools sometimes become students, let us hope 
 none of that order may dishonor our Alvia Mater. I 
 pardon the man who preached before that drunken Solo- 
 mon, James I. of England and VI. of Scotland, from 
 James i. 6, the temptation was too great to be resisted • 
 but let the wretch be for ever execrated, if such a man 
 ever lived, Avho celebrated the decease of a deacon by a 
 tirade from, " It came to pass that the beggar died." I 
 forgive the liar who attributed such an outrage to me, 
 but I hope he Avill not try his infamous arts upon any 
 one else. 
 
 As we would avoid a careless accidental pitching upon 
 topics, so would we equally avoid a monotonous regular- 
 ity. I have heard of a divine who had fifty-two Sunday 
 sermons, and a few extra ones for holy days, from which 
 he was wont to preach in regular order, year after year. 
 In his case, there would be no need that the people 
 should entreat that the same things should be spoken to 
 tlicm on the next Sabbath-day, nor would there be much 
 wonder if imitators of Eutychus should be found in other 
 phices beside the third loft. It is not very long ago since 
 a clergyman said to a farmer friend of mine, "Do you 
 
 know, ]\Ir. D , I was turning over my sermons the 
 
 other day, and really the parsonage is so damp, especially 
 in my study, that my sermons have become quite musty." 
 My friend, who although he was churchwarden, attended 
 a Dissenting place of worship, was not so rude as to say 
 that he tliouglit it very likely ; but as the village venera- 
 bles had frequently heard the aforesaid discourses, it is 
 
334 LECTURES TO MY STUDEIffTS. 
 
 possiljle they Avere musty in more senses than one. There 
 are persons in the ministry who, having accumulated a 
 little stock of sermons, repeat them ad nauseam, with 
 horrible regularity. Itinerating brethren must be far 
 more subject to this temptation than those who are sta- 
 tioned for several years in one place. If they fall victims 
 to the habit, it must surely be the end of their useful- 
 ness, and send an intolerable death-chill into their hearts, 
 of which their people must soon be conscious while they 
 hear them parroting forth their time-worn productions. 
 The very best invention for promoting sj)iritual idleness 
 must be the plan of acquiring a two or three years' stock 
 of sermons, and relocating them in order again and again. 
 As we, my brethren, hope to live for many years, if not 
 for life, in one place, rooted to the spot by the mutual 
 affection which will grow up between ourselves and our 
 people, we have need of a far different method from that 
 which may suit a sluggard or an itinerant evangelist. 
 
 It must be burdensome to some, and very easy to 
 others, I should imagine, to find their subject, as they 
 do whose lot is cast in the Episcopal establishment, where 
 the preacher usually refers to the gospel or the epistle, or 
 the lesson for the day, and feels himself bound — not by 
 any law, but by a sort of precedent — to preach from a 
 verse in either the one or the other. When Advent and 
 Epiphany, and Lent and Whitsuntide, bring their stereo- 
 typed round, no man needs to agonize at heart over tlie 
 question, "What shall I say unto this people?" The 
 voice of the church is clear and distinct, "Master, say 
 on ; there is your work, give yourself wholly to it." 
 There may be some advantages connected Avitli this pre- 
 arrangcment, but the Episcopalian public do not aj^pear 
 to have been made partakers of them, for their public 
 writers are always groaning over the dreariness of ser- 
 
ON" THE CHOICE OF A TEXT. 135 
 
 mens, and bemoaning the sad condition of a longsnffer- 
 ing laity who are compelled to listen to them. The slav- 
 ish habit of following the course of the sun and the 
 revolution of the months, instead of waiting upon th 
 Holy Spirit is, to my mind, quite enough to account for 
 the fact that in many churches, their own writers being 
 judges, the sermons are nothing better than specimens 
 of " that decent debility which alike guards their authors 
 from ludicrous errors, and precludes them from striking 
 beauties." 
 
 Be it then taken for granted, that we all feel it to be 
 most important, not only to j^reach the truth, but to 
 preach the right truth for each particular occasion ; our 
 effort will be to descant ujion such subjects as shall be 
 best adapted to our people's wants, and most likely to 
 prove a channel of gi-ace to their hearts. 
 
 Is there any difficulty in obtaining texts ? I remem- 
 ber, in my earlier days, reading somewhere in a volume 
 of lectures upon Homiletics, a statement which consider- 
 ably alarmed me at the time ; it was something to this 
 effect : " If any man shall find a difficulty in selecting a 
 text, he had better at once go back to the grocer's shop, 
 or to the plough, for he evidently has not the capacity 
 required for a minister." Now, as such had been very 
 frequently my cross and burden, I inquired within my- 
 self whether I should resort to some form of secular la- 
 bor, and leave the ministry ; but I have not done so, for 
 I still have the conviction that, although condemned by 
 the sweeping judgment of the lecturer, I follow a call to 
 which God has manifestly set his seal. I was so much 
 in trouble of conscience through the aforesaid severe re- 
 mark, that I asked my grandfather, who had been in the 
 ministry some fifty years, whether he was ever perplexed 
 in choosing his theme. He told me frankly that this 
 
138 LECTURES TO MY STUDEKTS. 
 
 had always been his greatest trouble, compared with 
 which, preaching in itself was no anxiety at all. I re- 
 member the venerable man's remark, *' The difhculty is 
 not because there are not enough texts, but because there 
 are so many, that I am in a strait betwixt them. " Breth- 
 ren, we are sometimes like the lover of choice flowers, 
 who finds himself surrounded by all the beauties of the 
 garden, with permission to select but one. How long he 
 lingers between the rose and the lily, and how great the 
 difficulty to prefer one among ten thousand blooming 
 lovelinesses ! To me still, I must confess, my text selec- 
 tion is a very great embarrassment — emharras de ri- 
 chesses, as the French say — an embarrassment of riches, 
 very different from the bewilderment of poverty — the 
 anxiety of attending to the most pressing of so many 
 truths, all clamoring for a hearing, so many duties all 
 needing enforcing, and so many spiritual needs of the 
 people all demanding supply. I confess that I frequently 
 sit hour after hour praying and waiting for a subject, and 
 that this is the main part of my study : much hard labor 
 have I spent in manipulating topics, ruminating upon 
 points of doctrine, making skeletons out of verses and 
 then burying every bone of them in the catacombs of 
 oblivion, sailing on and on over leagues of broken water, 
 till I see the red lights and make sail direct to the desired 
 haven. I believe that almost any Saturday in my life I 
 make enough outlines of sermons, if I felt at liberty to 
 preach them, to last me for a month, but I no more dare 
 to use them than an honest mariner would run to shore a 
 cargo of contraband goods. Themes flit before the mind 
 one after another, like images passing across the photo- 
 grapher's lens, but until the mind is like the sensitive 
 plate, which retains the picture, the subjects are value- 
 less to us. 
 
ON THE CHOICE OF A TEXT. 137 
 
 WJiat is fJie right teai? IIoiv do you know it? We 
 know it by tlic signs of a friend. Wlien a verse gives 
 your mind a hearty grip, from which you cannot release 
 yourself, you will need no further direction as to your 
 pi'oper theme. Like the fish, you nibble at many baits, 
 but when the hook has fairly i)ierced you, you will wan- 
 der no more. When the text gets a hold of us, we may 
 be sure that we have a hold of it, and may safely deliver 
 our souls upon it. To use another simile : you get a 
 number of texts in your hand, and try to break them up ; 
 you hammer at them with might and main, but your 
 labor is lost ; at last you find one which crumbles at the 
 first blow, and sparkles as it falls in pieces, and you per- 
 ceive jewels of the rarest radiance flashing from within. 
 It grows before your eye like the fabled seed which devel- 
 oped into a tree wliile tlie observer watched it. It charms 
 and fascinates you, or it weighs you to your knees and 
 loads you with the burden of the Lord. Know then that 
 this is the message which the Lord would have you deli- 
 ver; and, feeling this, you will become so bound by that 
 scripture that you Avill never feel at rest until you have 
 yielded your whole mind to its power, and have spoken 
 upon it as the Lord shall give you utterance. Wait for 
 that elect word, even if you wait till witliin an hour of 
 the service. This may not be understood by cool, calcu- 
 lating men, who are not moved by impulses as we are, 
 but to some of us these things are a law in our hearts 
 against which we dare not offend. We tarry at Jerusa- 
 lem till power is given. 
 
 " I believe in the Holy Ghost." This is one of the 
 articles of the creed, but it is scarcely believed among 
 professors so as to be acted on . Many ministers ap- 
 pear to think that tJiej/ are to choose the text ; ihey 
 are to discover its teaching ; ihei/ arc to find a discourse 
 
138 LECTURES TO MY STCJDES'TS. 
 
 in it. "We do not think so. We are to use onr own 
 volitions, of course, as Avell as our understandings and 
 affections, for we do not pretend that tlie Holy Ghost 
 will compel us to preach from a text against our wills. 
 He does not deal with us as though we were musical 
 boxes, to be wound up and set to a certain tune ; but 
 that glorious inspirer of all truth deals with us as with 
 rational intelligences, who are swayed by spiritual forces 
 congruous to our natures : still, devout minds evermore 
 desire that the choice of the text should rest with the all- 
 wise Spirit of God, and not with their own fallible 
 understandings, and therefore they humbly put them- 
 selves into his hand, asking him to condescend to direct 
 them to tlie portion of meat in due season which he has 
 ordained for his people. Gurnal says, '' Ministers have 
 no ability of their own for their work. Oh ! how long 
 may they sit tumbling their books over, and puzzling 
 their brains, until God comes to their help, and then — 
 as Jacob's venison — it is brought to their hand. If God 
 drop not down his assistance, we write with a pen that 
 hath no ink : if any one need walk dependently upon 
 God more than another, the minister is he." 
 
 If any one inquire of me, "How sliall I obtain tlte 
 most projje?' text?" I should answer, " Cry to God for 
 it." Harrington Evans, in his " Eules for Sermons,"' 
 lays down as the first, " Seek God in prayer for choice 
 of a passage. Inquire why such a passage is decided 
 upon. Let the q^iestion be fairly answered. Sometimes 
 the answer may be such as ought to decide the mind 
 against the choice." If prayer alone should not guide 
 you to the desired treasure, it will in any case be a prof- 
 itable exercise to you to have prayed. The difficulty of 
 settling upon a topic, if it makes you pray more than 
 usual, will be a very great blessing to you. Prayinir is 
 
ox THE CHOICE OF A TEXT. 139 
 
 the best studying. Lnther said so of old — " Bene orasse 
 est bene t>h((luissc," and tlic -well-worn proverb ayIII 
 bear repeating. Pray over the Scripture ; it is as the 
 treading of grapes in the wine-vat, the threshing of corn 
 on the barn floor, the melting of gold from the ore. 
 Prayer is twice blest ; it blesseth the pleading preacher, 
 and the people to whom he ministers. When your text 
 cmies in answer to prayer, it will be all the dearer to 
 you ; it will come with a divine savor and unction alto- 
 gether unknown to the formal orator to whom one theme 
 is as another. 
 
 After prayer, ice are hound with much earnestness to 
 use fitting means for concentratimj our thoughts, and 
 directing them in the Jbest channel. Consider the con- 
 dition of your hearers. Eeflect upon their spiritual state 
 as a whole and as individuals, and jirescribe the medicine 
 adapted to the current disease, or prepare the food suit- 
 able for the prevailing necessity. Let me caution you, 
 however, against considering the whims of your hearers, 
 or the peculiarities of the wealthy and influential. Do 
 not give too much weight to the gentleman and lady 
 who sit in the green pew, if you are so unfortunate as 
 to possess such an abominable place of distinction in a 
 house Avherc all are on a level. Let the large contributoi* 
 be considered by all means as much as others, and let not 
 his spiritual infirmities be neglected ; but he is not every- 
 body, and you will grieve the Holy Spirit if you think 
 him to be so. Look at the poor in the aisles with equal 
 interest, and select topics which are within their range 
 of thought, and which may cheer them in their many 
 sorrows. Do not suffer your heads to be turned by 
 respect to those one-sided members of the congregation, 
 who have a sweet tooth for one portion of the gospel, 
 and turn a deaf ear to other parts of truth j never go 
 
140 LECTURES TO MY STUDEKTS. 
 
 out of your way either to give them a feast or a scolding. 
 It may be satisfactory to think that they are pleased, if 
 they are good people, and one respects their predilections, 
 but faithfulness demands that we should not become 
 mere pipers to our hearers, playing such tunes as thoy 
 may demand of us, but should remain as the Lord's 
 mouth to declare all his counsels. I return to the 
 remark, think over Avhat your people really want for 
 their edification, and let that be your theme. That 
 famous apostle of the north of Scotland, Dr. Macdonald, 
 gives an instance to the point in his " Diary of AVork in 
 St. Kilda : " — " Friday, May 27. At our morning exer- 
 cise this day, I read and gave some illustrations of Eu 
 mans xii,, which afforded me an opportunity of stating 
 the connection between faith and practice, and that the 
 doctrines of grace are according to godliness, and lead 
 to holiness in heart and life. This I deemed necessary, 
 as from the high ground I had occupied for some days 
 past, I was afraid the people might veer towards Anti- 
 nomianism, an extreme as dangerous as Arminianism, if 
 not more so." 
 
 Consider loliat sins appear to he most rife in the 
 cliiircli and congregation — worldliness, covetousness, 
 prayerlessness, wrath, pride, want of brotherly love, 
 slander, and such like evils. Take into account, affec- 
 tionately, the trials of your people, and seek for a balm 
 for their Avounds. It is not necessary to go into minute 
 details, either in the prayer or in the sermon, as to all 
 these trials of your congregation, although this was the 
 custom of a venerable mniister who was once a great 
 bishop in this neighborhood, and has now gone to 
 heaven. He was wont, in his abundant love to his 
 people, to give such hints as to births, deaths, and mar- 
 riages, in his flock, that one of the Sunday afternoon's 
 
ON THE CHOICE OF A TEXT. 141 
 
 enjoyments of liis constant hearers must have consisted in 
 finding out to whom the minister referred in various 
 parts of his prayer and sermon. Tliis was tolerated, and 
 even admired from him — from us it would be ridiculous : 
 a patriarch may do with propriety wliat a young man 
 must scru^^ulously avoid. The venerable divine whom 
 I have Just mentioned had learned this particularizing 
 from the example of his father, for he was one of a 
 family in which the children, having observed that 
 something particular had occurred during the day, 
 would say to each other, " We must wait till family 
 prayer, when we shall know all about it." But I 
 digress ; this instance shows how an excellent habit 
 may degenerate into a fault, but tlie rule which I have 
 laid down is not affected by it. Certain trials will 
 occur, at particular junctures, to many in the congrega- 
 tion, and as these afitlictions will invite your mind into 
 new fields of thought, you will do ill to be deaf to their 
 call. Again, we must watch tlie spiritual state of our 
 people, and if we notice that they are falling into a 
 backsliding condition ; if we fear that they are likely 
 to be inoculated by any mischievous heresy or perverse 
 imagining ; if anything, in fact, in the whole physiolog- 
 ical character of the church should strike our mind, we 
 must hasten to prepare a sermon which, by God's grace, 
 may stay the plague. These are the indications among 
 his hearers Avhich the Spirit of God gives to the careful, 
 observant pastor as to his line of action. The careful 
 shepherd often examines his flock, and governs his mode 
 of treatment by the state in which he finds it. He Avill 
 be likely to supply one sort of food but sparingly, and 
 another in greater abundance, and medicine in its due 
 quantity, according as his practised judgment finds the 
 one or the other necessary. We shall be rightly directed 
 
142 LECTUEES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 if we do but associcate ourselves with ''that great Shep- 
 herd of the sheep." 
 
 Do not, however, let us allow our preaching right 
 home to our people to degenerate into scolding them. 
 They call the pulpit " Cowards' Castle," and it is a very 
 proper name for it in some respects, especially when 
 fools mount the platform and impudently insult their 
 hearers by holding up their faults or infirmities to 
 jDublic derision.' There is a personality — an offensive, 
 wanton, unjustifiable personality — which is to be studi- 
 ously avoided ; it is of tlie earth, earthy, and is to be 
 condemned in unmeasured terms ; Avhile there is another 
 personality, wise, spiritual, heavenly, which is to be 
 aimed at unceasingly. The word of God is sharper 
 than any two-edged sword, and therefore you can leave 
 the word of God to wound and kill, and need not be your- 
 selves cutting in phrase and manner. God's truth is 
 searching : leave it to search the hearts of men without 
 offensive additions from yourself. lie is a mere bun- 
 gler in portrait painting Avho needs to write the name 
 under the picture when it is hung up in the family 
 parlor where the person himself is sitting. Compel 
 your hearers to perceive that you speak of them, tliough 
 you have not in the remotest degree named them, oi 
 pointed them out. Occasions may possibly occur Avhen 
 you may be bound to go as far as Hugh Latimer, when 
 speaking upon bribery — he said, " He that took the 
 silver basin and ewer for a bribe, thinketh that it will 
 never come out. But he may know tbat I know 
 it, and I know it not alone ; there be more beside me 
 that know it. Oh, briber and bribery ! He was 
 never a good man that will so take bribes ; nor cau I 
 believe that he that is a briber will be a good Justice." 
 Here was as much prudent reticence as^iold disclosure ; 
 
ON THE CHOICE OF A TEXT. U3 
 
 and if you go no furtlier tlian this, no man dare, for 
 shame sake, accuse you of too great personality. 
 
 In the next phice, the minister in looking after his 
 text, should consider what Ids previotis topics have been. 
 1 1 would be unwise to insist perpetually upon one doc- 
 trine to the neglect of others. Some of our profoundcr 
 brethren may be able to deal with the same subject in a 
 series of discourses, and may be able, by a turn of the 
 kaleidoscope, to present new forms of b'cauty with no 
 change of subject, but the most of us, who are of less 
 fertile abilities, will find it best to study variety, and de- 
 liver ourselves upon a wide range of truth. I think it 
 well frequently to look over the list of my sermons, and 
 see whether any doctrine has escaped my attention, or 
 any Christian grace has been neglected in my ministra- 
 tions. It is well to inquire whether we have been too 
 doctrinal lately, or too barely practical, or too exclusively 
 ex])erimental. "We do not desire to degenerate into Au- 
 tinomians, nor, oq the other hand, to descend to be mere 
 teachers of a cold morality, but our ambition is to make 
 full proof of our ministry. We would give every portion 
 of Scripture its fair share in our heart and head. Doc- 
 trine, precept, history, t}'pe, psalm, proverb, experience, 
 warning, promise, invitation, threatening, or rebuke — - 
 Ave would include the whole of inspired truth within the 
 circle of our teachings. Let us abhor all one-sidedncss, 
 all exaggeration of one truth and disparagement of an- 
 other, and let us endeavor to paint the portrait of truth 
 with balanced features and blended colors, lest Ave dis- 
 honor her by presenting distortion instead of symmetry, 
 and a caricature for a faithful copy. 
 
 Supposing, however, that you haA'C prayed in that 
 little room of yours, haA'c Avrestled hard and supplicated 
 long, and have thought over your people and their Avaiits, 
 
1-44 LECTL'RES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 and still you cannot meet witli tlie text — well, do not fret 
 about it, nor give way to despair. If you were about to 
 go to a warfare at your own charges, it would be a very 
 miseraljle thing to be short of powder, and the battle so 
 near ; but as your Captain has to provide, there is no 
 doubt that all in good time he will serve out the ammu- 
 nition. If you trust in God, he will not, he cannot, fail 
 you. Continue pleading and watching, for to the indus- 
 trious student lieavenly help is certain. If you had gone 
 lip and down idly all the week, and given no heed to 
 ])roper ji reparation, you could not expect divine aid ; 
 but if you have done your best, and are now waiting to 
 knoAV your Lord's message, your face shall never be 
 ashamed. 
 
 Two or three incidents have occurred to me which 
 may seem ratlicr odd to you, but then I am an odd man. 
 When I lived at Carhbridge, I had, as usual, to preach in 
 the evening at a neighboring village, to which I had to 
 Avalk. After reading and meditating all day, I could not 
 meet with the right text. Do what I would, no response 
 came from tiie sacred oracle, no light flashed from the 
 Urim and Thummim ; I prayed, I meditated, I turned 
 from one verse to another, but the mind would not take 
 hold, or I was, as Bunyan would say, " much tumbled 
 up and down in my thoughts." Just then I walked to 
 the window and looked out. On the other side of the 
 narrow street in which I lived, I saw a poor solitary 
 canary bird upon the slates, surrounded by a crowd of 
 sparrows, who were all pecking at it as if tliey would tear 
 it to pieces. At that moment the verse came to my mind, 
 *'My heritage is unto me as a speckled bird, the birds 
 round about are against lier." I walked off with the 
 greatest possible composure, considered the passage dur- 
 ing my long and lonely wtilk. and preached upon tlie 
 
ON THE CHOICE OF A TEXT. 145 
 
 peculiar people, and tlie persecutions of their enemies, 
 witli freedom and ease to mj'self, and I believe witli com- 
 fort to my rustic audience. The text Avas sent to me, 
 and if the ravens did not bring it, certainly the sparrows 
 did. At another time, while laboring at AVaterbeach, I 
 had preached on the Sunday morning, and gone home to 
 dinner, as was my Avont, with one of the congregation. 
 Unfortunately, there were three services, and the after- 
 noon sermon came so close upon the back of the morn- 
 ing, that it was difficult to prepare tlic soul, esi)ecial]y as 
 the dinner is a necessary but serious inconvenience where 
 a clear brain is required. Alas ! for those afternoon ser- 
 vices in our English villages, they are usually a doleful 
 waste of effort. Roast beef and pudding lie heavy on 
 the hearers' souls, and the in-eacher himself is deadened 
 in his mental processes while digestion claims the mas- 
 tery of the hour. By a careful measuring of diet, I re- 
 mained, on that occasion, in an earnest, lively condition, 
 but to my dismay, I found that the jn-e-arranged line of 
 thought was gone from me. I could not find the trail of 
 my prepared sermon, and press my forehead as I might, 
 the missing topic would not come. Time was brief, the 
 hour was striking, and in some alarm I told the honest 
 farmer tliat I could not for the life of me recollect what 
 I had intended to preach about. " Oh ! " he said, " never 
 mind; you will be sure to have a good word for us." 
 Just at that moment a blazing block of wood fell out of 
 the fire upon the liearth at my feet, smoking into one's 
 eyes and nose at a great rate. *' There," said the farm- 
 er, "there's a text for you, sir — 'Is not this a brand 
 plucked out of the fire ?'" No, I thought, it was not 
 plucked out, for it fell out of itself. Here was a text, an 
 illustration, and a leading thought as a nest egg for more. 
 Furthej" light came, and the sermon was certainly not 
 7 
 
146 LECTURES TO MY STUDEXTS. 
 
 worse than my more prepared effusions ; it was better y\ 
 tlie best sense, for one or two came forward deelaririg 
 themselves to have been aroused and converted througli 
 that afternoon's sermon. I have always considered that 
 it was a happy circumstance tliat I had forgotten the 
 text from which I had intended to preach. At New 
 Park street, I once passed through a very singular expe- 
 rience, of which witnesses are present in this room. I 
 had passed hapjoily through all the early parts of divine 
 service in the evening of the Sabbath, and was giving 
 out tlie hymn before sermon. I opened the Bible to find 
 the text, which I had carefully studied as the topic of 
 discourse, when on the opposite jDage another passage of 
 Scripture sprang upon me like a lion from a tliicket, with 
 vastly more power than I had felt when considering the 
 text which I had chosen. The i^eople were singing and 
 I Avas sighing. I was in a strait betwixt two, and my 
 mind hung as in the balances. I was naturally desirous 
 to run in the track which I had carefully planned, but 
 the otlier text would take no refusal, and seemed to tug 
 at my skirts, crying, " No, no, you must preach from 
 me. God would have you follow mc." I deliberated 
 Avithin myself as to my duty, for I would neither be fanat- 
 ical nor unbelieving, and at last I thought within my- 
 self, " Well, I should like to preach the sermon which I 
 have prepared, and it is a great risk to run to strike out 
 a new line of thought, but still as this text constrains me, 
 it may be of the Lord, and therefore I will venture upon 
 it, come what may." I almost always announce my 
 divisions very soon after the exordium, but on this occa- 
 sion, contrary to my usual custom, I did not do so, for a 
 reason which soine of you may probably guess. I joassed 
 through the first head with considerable liberty, speaking 
 perfectly extemporaneously both as to thought and word. 
 
OK THE CnOPE OF A TEXT. 147 
 
 The second point was dwelt upon with a consciousness of 
 umisnal quiet efficient power, but I had no idea what the 
 third woukl or could be, for the text yielded no more 
 matter just then, nor can I tell even now Avhat I could 
 have done had not an event occurred upon which I had 
 never calculated. I had brought myself into great diffi- 
 culty by obeying what I thought to be a divine impulse, 
 and I felt comparatively easy about it, believing that God 
 would help me, and knowing that I coiild at least close 
 the service should there be nothing more to be said. I 
 had no need to deliberate, for in one moment we Avere in 
 total darkness — the gas had gone out, and as the aisles 
 were choked with people, and the place everywhere 
 crowded, it was a great peril, but a great blessing. 
 What was I to do then ? The people were a little 
 frightened, but I quieted tliem instantly by telling them 
 not to be at all alarmed, though the gas was out, for it 
 would soon be re-lighted ; and as for myself, having no 
 manuscript, I could speak just as well in tlie dark as in 
 the light, if they Avould be so good as to sit and listen. 
 Had my discourse been ever so elaborate, it would have 
 been absurd to have continued it, and so as my plight 
 was, I was all the less embarrassed. I turned at onco 
 mentally to the Avell-known text Avhich speaks of the 
 child of light walking in darkness, and the child of dark- 
 ness walking in the light, and found appropriate remarks 
 and illustrations pouring in upon me, and when the lamps 
 were again lit, I saw before me an nudience as rapt and 
 subdued as ever a mto beheld in his life. The odd thing 
 of all was, that some few church-meeting afterwards, two 
 jDersons came forward to make confession of their faith, 
 who professed to have been converted that evening ; but 
 the first owed her conversion to the former part of the 
 discourse, wli ch was on the nc\Y text that came to me, 
 
148 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 and the other traced his awakening to the latter part, 
 which was occasioned by the sudden darkness. Thns, 
 yon see, Providence befriended me. I cast myself upon 
 ())d, and his arrangements quenched the light at the 
 l"»roper time for me. Some may ridicule, but I adore ; 
 otliers may even censure, but I rejoice. Anything is 
 better than mechanical sermonizing, in which the direc- 
 tion of the Spirit is practically ignored. Every Holy 
 Ghost preacher, I have no doubt, will have such recollec- 
 tions clustering around his ministry. I say, therefore, 
 watch the course of Providence ; cast yourself upon the 
 Lord's guidance and help. If you have solemnly done 
 your best to get a text, and the subject does not start up 
 before you, go np into the pnlpit firmly convinced that 
 you will receive a message when the time comes, even 
 though yon have not a word at that moment. 
 
 In tlie life of Samuel Drew, a famous Methodist 
 preacher, we read, " Whilst stopping at a friend's house, 
 in Cornwall, after preaching, a person who had attended 
 the service, observing to him, that he had, on that occa- 
 sion, surpassed his usnal ability ; and other individuals 
 concurring in the opinion, Mr. Drew said, ' If it be true, 
 it is the more singular, because my sermon was entirely 
 unpremeditated. I went into the pulpit designing to 
 address you from another text, but looking npon the 
 Bible, whicli lay open, that passage from which you 
 heard me speak just now, ' Prepare to meet thy God, 
 Israel," arrested my attention so forcibly as to put to 
 flight my former ideas ; and though I had never consid- 
 ered the passage before, I resolved instantly to make it 
 the subject of my discourse." Mr. Drew did well to be 
 obedient to the heavenly direction. 
 
 Under certain circumstances you will be absolutely 
 compelled to cast away the well-studied discourse, antl 
 
ON THE CHOICE OF A TEXT. 149 
 
 rely upon the present help of the II0I3' Spirit, using 
 purely extempore speech. You may find yourself in the 
 position of the late Kingman Knott, when preaching in 
 the National Theatre, Ngav York. In one of his letters, 
 he says, •' The building Avas filled full, and mostly with 
 young men and boys of the roughest type. I went with 
 a sermon in my mind, but as soon as I came ujjon the 
 stage, greeted with a ' Hi ! hi ! ' and saw the motley and 
 uproarious crowd I had to do with, I let all thoughts of 
 the sermon go, and catching up the parable of the Prod- 
 igal Son, tried to interest them in that, and succeeded 
 in keeping most of them inside the house, and tolerably 
 attentive." AVliat a simpleton would he have been had 
 he pei'severed in his unsuitable prelection ! Brethren, I 
 beseech you, believe in the Holy Ghost, and practically 
 carry out your faith. 
 
 As a further assistance to a poor stranded preacher, 
 who cannot launch his mind for want of a Avave or two 
 of thought, I recommend him in such a case, to turn 
 again and again to the Word of God itself , and read a 
 chapter, and ponder over its verses one by one ; or let 
 him select a single verse, and get his mind fully exercised 
 upon it. It may be that he will not find his text in the 
 verse or chapter which he reads, but the right word will 
 come to him tlirough his mind being actively engaged 
 upon holy subjects. According to the relation of 
 thoughts to each other, one thought will suggest another, 
 and another, until a long procession will have passed 
 before the mind, out of which one or other will be the 
 predestinated theme. 
 
 Read also good siiggcstive hooTcs, and get your mind 
 aroused by them. If men Avish to get Avater out of a 
 pump Avhich has not been lately used, they first pour 
 water doA^ n, and then the jtump works. Eeach doAvn 
 
150 LECTURES TO KY STUDENTS. 
 
 one of the Puritans, and thoroughly study the work, and 
 speedily you will lind yourself like a bird on the wing, 
 mentally active and full of motion. 
 
 By way of precaution, however, let me remark, that 
 we ought to he always in training for text-getting and 
 sermon-making. We should c( instantly preserve the 
 holy activity of our minds. Woe unto the minister Avho 
 dares to waste an hour. Eead John Foster's " Essay on 
 the Improvement of Time," and resolve never to lose a 
 second of it. A man who goes up and down from ]\Ion- 
 day morning till Saturday night, and indolently dreams 
 that he is to have his text sent down by an angelic 
 messenger in the last hour or two of the Aveek, tempts 
 God, and deserves to stand speechless on the Sabbath. 
 AVe have no leisure as ministers ; we are never off duty, 
 but are on our watchtowers day and night. Students, I 
 tell 3^ou solemnly, nothing will excuse you from the most 
 rigid economy of time ; it is at your peril that you trifle 
 with it. The leaf of your ministry will soon wither 
 unless, like the blessed man in the first Psalm, 3'ou med- 
 itate in the laAV of the Lord both day and night. I am 
 most anxious that you should not throw away time in 
 religious dissipation, or in gossiping and frivolous talk. 
 Beware of running about from this meeting to that, 
 listening to mere twaddle, and contributing your share 
 to the general blowing up of windbags. A man great 
 at tea-drinkings, evening parties, and Sunday-school 
 excursions, is generally little everywhere else. Your 
 pulpit preparations are your first business, and if you 
 neglect these, you will bring no credit upon yourself or 
 your office. Bees are making honey from morning till 
 night, and we should be always gathering stores for our 
 2:)eople. I have no belief in that ministry which ignores 
 laborious preparation. When travelling in Northerr. 
 
OK THE CHOICE OF A TEXT. 151 
 
 lt..l_v, our driver at night slept in the carriage, and Avlien 
 I euiiod liim up in the morning, he leaped out, cracked 
 his whip three times, and said he was quite ready. 
 Such a rapid toilet I hardly appreciated, aud wished that 
 he had slept elsewhere, or that I had to occupy another 
 seat. You who are ready to preach in a hop, skip, and 
 jump, will pardon me if I take a pew somewhere else. 
 Habitual mental C-xercise in the direction of our work is 
 advisable. Mihisters should always be making their hay, 
 but especially while the sun shines. Do you not thid 
 yourself sometimes wonderfully ready at sermonizing ? 
 Mr. Jay said that when he felt in such a condition, he 
 Avould take out his paper and jot down texts and divis- 
 ions of sermons, and keep them in store, that they 
 might serve him at times Avhen his mind was not so ready. 
 The lamented Thomas Spencer v/rote, *'I keep a little 
 book, in Avhich I enter every text of Scripture which 
 comes into my mind Avith power and sweetness. Were 
 I to dream of a passage of Scripture I should enter it, 
 and when I sit doAvn to compose I look over the book, 
 and have never found myself at a loss for a subject." 
 Watch for subjects as you go about the city or the 
 country.* Always keep your eyes and ears open, and 
 you will hear and see angels. The world is full of ser- 
 mons — catch them on the Aving. A sculptor believes, 
 whenever he sees a rough block of marble, that there is 
 a noble statue concealed Avithin it, and that he has only 
 to chip away the superfluities and reveal it. So do you 
 belicA'e that there is vrithin tiie husk of everything the 
 kernel of a sermon for the Avise man. Be wise, and see 
 
 * '• I was led into a profitable strain of meditation, on our good 
 Shepherd's care of Lis flocic, by seeing some lambs exposed to 
 the cold, and a poor sheep perishing for want of care." — Andrew 
 Fuller's Diary. 
 
152 LECTUllES TO MY STUDE]SrTS. 
 
 the heavenly in its earthly pattern. Hear the vpiciG 
 from the skies, and translate them into the languac;G of 
 men. Always a preacher be thou, man of Clod, for- 
 aging for the pulpit, in all provinces of nature and art, 
 storing and preparing at all hours and seasons. 
 
 I am asked Avhether it is a good thing to announce 
 arrangements, and publish lists of projected sermons. I 
 answer, Every man in his own order. I am not a judge 
 for others ; but I dare not attempt such a thing, and 
 should signally fail if I were to venture upon it. Pre- 
 cedents are much against my opinion, and at the head 
 of them the sets of discourses by Matthew Henry, John 
 Newton, and a host of others, still I can only speak my 
 own personal impressions, and leave each man to be a law 
 unto himself. Many eminent divines have delivered val- 
 uable courses of sermons upon prearranged topics, but 
 we are not eminent, and must counsel others like our- 
 selves to be cautious how they act. I dare not announce 
 what I shall preach from to-morrovv^, much less what I 
 shall preach from in six weeks' or six months' time, the 
 reason being partly this, that I am conscious of not pos- 
 sessing those peculiar gifts which are necessary to interest 
 an assembly in one subject or set of subjects, for any 
 length of time. Brethren of extraordinary research and 
 profound learning can do it, and brethren with none of 
 these, and no common sense, may pretend to do it, but 
 am obliged to owe a great deal of my strength to variety 
 I cannot. I rather than profundity. It is questionable 
 whether the great majority of list preachers had not far 
 better burn their programmes if they would succeed. I 
 have a very lively, or rather a deadly, recollection of a 
 certain series of discourses on the Hebrews, which made a 
 deep impression on my mind of the most undesirable kind. 
 I wished frequently tluit the Hebrews had kept the epistle 
 
ON THE CnOK E OF A TEXT. 153 
 
 to i.Lomscl\es, for it sadly bored one poor Gentile lad. 
 I'y tlic time the seventh or eighth discourse had been 
 •J.vh'itjred only the very goodi)eoi)le could stand it: these, 
 Oi ooursc, declared that they never heard more valuable 
 expositions, but to those of a more carnal judgment it 
 rjrtpeared that each sermon increased in dulness. Paul, 
 in that epistle, exhorts us to suffe?- the word of exhorta- 
 tion, and we did so. Arc all courses of sermons like this? 
 Perhai^s not, and yet I fear the exceptions are few, foi 
 it is even said of that wonderful expositor, Joseph Caryl, 
 that he commenced his famous lectures upon Job with 
 eight hundred hearers, and closed the book with only 
 eight! A prophetical preacher enlarged so much upon 
 " the little horn " of Daniel, that one Sabbath morning 
 he had but seven hearers remaining. They doubtless 
 thought it 
 
 " Strange that a harp of thousand strings, 
 Should play one tune so long." 
 
 Ordinarily, and for ordinary men, it seems to me that 
 prearranged discourses are a mistake, are never more 
 than an appai-ent benefit, and generally a real mischief. 
 Surely to go through a long epistle must require a great 
 deal of genius in the preacher, and demand a world of 
 patience on the part of the liearers. I am moved by a 
 yet deeper consideration in what I have now said : it 
 strikes me that many a truly living, earnest preacher, 
 would feel a programme to be a fetter. Should the 
 preacher announce for next Lord's day a topic full of joy, 
 requiring liveliness and exaltation of spirit, it is very pos- 
 sible that he may, from various causes, find himself in a 
 sad and burdened state of mind ; nevertheless, he must 
 put the new wine into his old bottle, and go up to the wed- 
 ding feast wearing his sackcloth and ashes, and worst of 
 
154 LECTUEES TO MY STUDEN"TS. 
 
 all, this lie may be bound to repeat for ti "whole mouth. 
 Is this quite as it should be ? It is important that tho 
 Sjieakcr should be in tune Avith his theme, but how ia 
 this to be secured unless the election of the topic is Icfi 
 to influences which shall work at the time? A man i:j 
 not a steam-engine, to run on metals, and it is unwiso 
 to fix him in one groove. Very much of the preacher's 
 power will lie in his whole soul being in accord with the 
 subject, and I should be afraid to appoint a subject for 
 a certain date lest, when the time come, I should not be 
 in the key for it. Besides, it is not easy to see how a man 
 can exhibit dependence upon the guidance of the Spirit 
 of God, when he has already prescribed his own route. 
 Perhaps you Avill say, " That is a singular objection, for 
 why not rely upon him for twenty weeks as well as for 
 one?" True, but we have never had a promise to war- 
 rant such faith. God promises to give us grace according 
 to our days, but he sa3'S nothing of endowing us with a 
 reserve fund for the future. 
 
 " Day by day tlie manna fell ; 
 Oh, to learn this lesson well ! " 
 
 Even so well our sermons come to us, fresh from heaven, 
 when required. I am jealous of anything which should 
 hinder our daily dependence upon the Holy Spirit, and 
 therefore I register the opinion already given. To you, 
 my younger brethren, I feel safe in saying with authority, 
 leave ambitious attempts at elaborate series of discourses 
 to older and abler men. We have but a small share of 
 mental gold and silver, let us invest our little capital 
 in useful goods which will obtain a ready market, and 
 leave the wcaUliier merchants to deal in more expensive 
 and cumbrous articles. We know not what a day may 
 bring forth — let us wait for daily teaching, and do 
 
ON THE CUOICE OF A TEXT. 155 
 
 nothing 'wliicli might preclude us f]-om using tliose 
 materials wliich providence may to-day or to-niorroTV 
 cast in our way. 
 
 Perliai>s you will ask me whether you sliould preach 
 from texts ichiclb persons select for you, and request you 
 to 2}reach ujjon ! My answer would be, as a rule, tUver ; 
 and if there must he exceptions let them he few. Let 
 me remind you that you do not keep a slioj) to which 
 customers may come and give their orders. "When a 
 f:Ki"l suggests a topic, think it over, and consider 
 whether it be approjOTate, and see whether it comes to 
 you with power. Receive the request courteously, as 
 you are in duty bound to do as a gentleman and a Chris- 
 tian ; but if the Lord whom you serve does not cast his 
 light upon the text, do not preach from it, let who may 
 persuade you. 
 
 I am quite certain that if we will wait upon G od for 
 our subjects, and make it a matter of prayer that we 
 may be rightly directed, we shall be led forth by a right 
 way ; but if we are puffed up with the idea that we can 
 very easily choose for ourselves, we shall find that even 
 in the selection of a subject, without Christ we can do 
 nothing. Wait upon the Lord, hear what he would 
 speak, receive the word direct from God's mouth, and 
 then go forth as an ambassador fresh from the court of 
 heaven. " Wait, I say, on the Lord." 
 
LECTUHE VII. 
 
 ON SPIKITUALIZING. 
 
 Many writers upon Homiletics condemn in unmcuss' 
 ured terms even the occasional spiritualizing of a text.* 
 " Select texts," say they, " give a plain, literal sense ; 
 never travel beyond the obvious meaning of the passage ; 
 never allow yourself to accommodate or adapt ; it is an 
 artifice of men of artificial culture, a trick of mounte- 
 banks, a miserable display of bad taste and impudence." 
 Honor to whom honor is due, but I humbly beg leave to 
 dissent from this learned opinion, believing it to be 
 more fastidious than correct, more plausible than true, f 
 
 * " Allegorical preacliing debases tlie taste, and fetters tLe 
 understanding both of preacher and hearers." — Adam Clarke. 
 
 Wesley's rule is better : " Be sparing in allegorizing or spirit- 
 ualizing." 
 
 •}■ What, for instance, but mere fastidiousness or worse, could 
 make M. Athanase Coquerel write such criticisms as these : 
 '•For us Christians the universal and supreme priesthood of the 
 Son is not at all commended by likening it to the pontificate of 
 Melchisedek; and our pilgrimage towards the heavenly country 
 under the leadership of Jesus very little resembles that of Israel 
 towards the promised land under that of Joshua, notwithstanding 
 the identity of the names."! ! ! . . . ". . 
 
 "A great number of texts lend themselves with a marvellous 
 facility to this interpretation, which is not one. ' Lord, save us, 
 we perish ! ' cried the apostles, when the tempest upon the lake 
 of Galilee threatened to engulf their barque. ' Wilt thou be 
 made wholt ?' said Christ to the paralytic of Bethesda. We feel 
 
0?r SPIRITUALIZING. 157 
 
 A great deal of real good may be done by occasionally 
 taking forgotten, quaint, remarkable, out-of-the-way 
 texts ; and I feel persuaded that if Ave ajipeal to a jury 
 of practical, successful preachers, who are not theorizcrs, 
 but men actually in the field, we shall have a majority 
 in our favor. It may be that the learned rabbis of this 
 generation arc too sublime and celestial to condescend 
 to men of low estate ; but we ^yho have no high culture, 
 or profound learning, or enchanting eloquence to boast 
 of, have deemed it Avise to use the very method Avhicli 
 the grandees have proscribed ; for we find it one of the 
 best Avays of keeping out of the rut of dull formality, 
 and yet it yields us a sort of salt Avith Avliich to give flavor 
 to unpalatable truth. Many great soul-Avinners haA'e felt 
 it meet to give a fillip to their ministry, and to arrest 
 their people's attention by now and then striking out a 
 path which had not been trodden heretofore. Experi- 
 ence has not taught them that they Avere in error, but 
 the reverse. Within limit, my brethren, be not afraid to 
 spiritualize, or to take singular texts. Continue to look 
 
 liow easy it is to allegorize tliese words. They liave been so a 
 tliousand times ; and perhaps no preacher, especially in a day of 
 poverty of studied texts, of matured plans, refuses himself per- 
 mission to employ this resource, so much the more seducing as 
 it is extremely easy. I composed a long sermon upon the invita- 
 tion of Moses to his father-in-law, Hobab, or Jethro. Numb. x. 29. 
 ' We are journe3'ing unto the place of which the Lord said, I will 
 give it you ; come thou with us.' The division was already 
 made, by commencing with an historical exordium. This place, 
 it is heaven. The Lord alone gives it to us for our country. 
 The true believer says to each of his brethren, 'Come with 
 us.' .... And I have still to forgive myself for having 
 written and learned by heart thirty pages in quarto upon thia 
 theme." 
 
 If M. Coquerel were responsible for no greater fault than this, 
 Le would be a far better divine than he is at present. 
 
158 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 out passages of Scripture, and not only give tlicir plain 
 meaning, as you are bound to do, but also draw froin. 
 them meanings which may not lie upon their .surface. 
 Take the advice for what it is worth, but I seriously re- 
 commend you to show the superfine critics that every- 
 body does not worship the golden image which they 
 liave set up. I counsel you to employ spiritualizing 
 within certain limits and boundaries, but I pray you do 
 not, under cover of this advice, rush headlong into in- 
 cessant.- and injudicious " imaginings," as George Fox 
 would call them. Do not drown yourselves because you 
 are recommended to bathe, or hang yourselves on an 
 oak because tannin is described as a valuable astringent. 
 An allowable thing carried to excess is a vice, even as 
 fire is a good servant in the grate, but a bad master 
 when raging in a burning house. Too much even of a 
 good thing surfeits and disgusts, and in no case is this 
 fact more sure than in the one before us. 
 
 The first canon to be observed is this — do not vio- 
 lently strain a text hy iUeyitimate sjnritualizing.. This 
 is a sin against common sense. How dreadfully the word 
 of God has been mauled and mangled by a certain band 
 of preachers who have laid texts on the rack to make 
 them reveal what they never would have otherwise spoken. 
 Mr. Slopdash, of whom Rowland Hill tells us in his 
 Village Dialogues, is but a type of a numerous genera- 
 tion. That worthy is described as delivering himself of 
 a discourse upon, " I had three white baskets on my 
 head," from the dream of Pharaoh's baker. Upon this 
 the " thrice-anointed ninny-hammer," as a friend of 
 mine would call him, discoursed upon the doctrine of the 
 Trinity ! A dear minister of Christ, a venerable and ex- 
 celleiit brother, one of the most instructive ministers in 
 liis county, told me that he missed one day a laboring 
 
ON SPIRITUALIZIXO. 159 
 
 man and his wife from his chapel. He missed them 
 again and again, Sunday after Sunday, and one Monday, 
 meeting the husband in the street, he said to him, 
 "Well, John, I have not seen you lately." "No, sir," 
 was the reply, " We did not seem to profit under your 
 ministry as we used to do." " Indeed, John, I am very 
 sorry to hear it." ''Well, me and my missis likes the 
 doctrines of grace, and therefore we've gone to hear Mr. 
 Bawler lately." "Oh ! you mean the good man at the 
 High Calvinist Meeting?" "Yes, sir, and we are so 
 happy ; we get right good food there, sixteen ounces to 
 the pound. AVe were getting half starved under your 
 ministry — though I always shall respect you as a man, 
 sir." " All right, my friend ; of course you ought to go 
 where you get good for your soul, I only hope it is good ; 
 but what did you get last Sunday ?" " Oh ! we had a 
 most refreshing time, sir. In the morning we had — I 
 don't seem to like to tell you — however, we had really a 
 most precious time." "Yes, but what was it, John ?" 
 "Well, sir, Mr. Bawler led us blessedly into that pas- 
 sage, ' Art thou a man given to appetite ? Put a knife 
 to thy throat when thou sittest before a ruler.' " " What- 
 ever did he make out of that ? " " Well, sir, I can tell 
 you what he made out of it, but I should like to know 
 first what you would have said upon it." "I don't 
 know, John ; I don't think I should have taken it at all, 
 but if I must have spoken about it, I should have said 
 that a person given to eating and drinking should take 
 care what he was about Avhen he was in the presence of 
 great men, or he would ruin himself. Gluttony even in 
 this life is ruinous." "Ah! "said the man, " that is 
 your dead-letter way of rendering it. As I told my mis- 
 sis the other day, ever since we have been to hear Mr. 
 Bawler, the Bible has been opened up to us so that wo 
 
160 LECTUKES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 can see a great deal more in it than we nsed to do." 
 " Yes, but what did Mr. Bawler tell yon about his text ? " 
 ** Well, he said a man given to apj^etite Avas a young con- 
 Tert, who is sure to have a tremendous appetite for 
 preaching, and always wants food ; but he ain't always 
 nice about what sort of food it is." " What next, John ? " 
 " He said that if the young convert went to sit before a 
 ruler — that is to say, a legal preacher, or a duty-faith 
 man, it would be the worse for him." "But how about 
 the knife, John ?" "Well, sir, Mr. Bawler said it was 
 a very dangerous thing to hear legal preachers, it would 
 be sure to ruin the man ; and he might just as well cut 
 his throat at once, sir ! " The subject was, I suppose, 
 the mischievous effects of young Christians listening to 
 any preachers but those of the hyper school ; and the 
 moral drawn from it was, that sooner than this brother 
 should go to hear his former minister, he had better cut 
 his throat ! That was accommodating considerably ! 
 Ye critics, we give over such dead horses as these to your 
 doggish teeth. Eend and devour as ye will, we will not 
 upbraid. We have heard of another performer who de- 
 livered his mind upon Proverbs xxi. 17. " He that 
 loveth pleasure shall be a poor man : he that lovetli wine 
 and oil shall not be rich." The Proverbs are a favorite 
 field for spiritualizers to disport themselves v.ithal. Our 
 worthy disposed of the proverb in this fashion: "'Ho 
 that loveth pleasure,' that is, the Christian who enjoys 
 the means of grace, ' shall be a poor man,' that is, he 
 shall be poor in sj^irit ; ' and he that loveth wine and 
 oil ; ' that is to say, rejoices in covenant provisions, and 
 enjoys the oil and wine of the gospel, ' shall not be rich,' 
 that is, he shall not be rich in his own esteem ; " show- 
 ing the excellence of those who are poor in spirit, and 
 how they shall enjoy the pleasures of the gospel — a very 
 
ON SPIRITUALIZING. IGl 
 
 proper sentiment, but my carnal eyes fail to see it in the 
 text. You liave all heard of AYilliam Huntingdon's fa- 
 mous rendering of the passage in Isaiah xi. 8 : '' I'hc 
 sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and Die 
 "wcaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den." 
 " ' The sucking child,' that is, the habe in grace, ' shall 
 ])lay on the hole of the asp,' ' the asp,' that is, the Ar- 
 minian : 'the hole of the asp,' that is, the Arminian's 
 mouth." Then follows an account of the games in Avhich 
 simple minds are more than a match for Arminian wis- 
 dom. Professors of the other school of divinity have 
 usually had the good sense not to return the compliment, 
 or the Antinomians might have found themselves ranked 
 with cockatrices, and their opponents boastfully defying 
 them at the mouths of their dens. Such abuse only in- 
 jures those who use it. Theological differences are bet- 
 ter expounded and enforced than by such buffoonery. 
 
 Ludicrous results sometimes arise from sheer stupid- 
 ity inflated with conceit. One instance may suflHce. A 
 worthy minister told me the other day that he had been 
 preaching lately to his people upon the nine-and-twenty 
 knives of Ezra. I am sure he would handle these edged 
 tools discreetly, but I could not refrain fi'om saying that 
 I hoped he had not imitated the very sage interpreter 
 who saw in that odd number of knives a reference to the 
 four-and-twenty elders of the Apocalypse. 
 
 A passage in the Proverbs reads as follows : " For 
 three things the earth is disquieted, and for four which 
 it cannot bear : for a servant when he reigneth ; and a 
 fool when he is filled with meat : for an odious woman 
 when she is married ; and an handmaid that is heir to 
 lu^r mistress." A raving spiritualizer declares that this 
 is a sweet picture of the woi'k of grace in the soul, and 
 shows what it is that disquiets Arminians, and sets them 
 
162 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 by the cars. " ' A servant wlicii he veigneth,' that is, 
 poor servants like ourselves, when we are made to reign 
 with Christ ; ' a fool when he is filled with meat,' * that 
 is, poor foolish men like us, when we arc fed with the 
 finest of the wheat of gospel truth ; * an odious Avoman 
 when she is married,' that is, a sinner when he is united 
 to Christ ; ' A handmaid that is heir to her mistress,' 
 that is, when we poor handmaids that were under the 
 law, bond-slaves, come into the privileges of Sarah, and 
 become heirs to our own mistress." 
 
 These are a few specimens of ecclesiastical curiosities 
 which are as numerous and valuable as the relics which 
 are every day gathered so plentifully on the battle-field 
 of Waterloo, and accepted by the more verdant as price- 
 less treasures. But we have surfeited you, and have no 
 wish to waste more of your time. From all such rank 
 absurdity need you be admonished to turn away ! Such 
 maunderings dishonor the Bible, are an insult to the 
 common-sense of the hearers, and a deplorable lowering 
 of the minister. This, however, is no more the spirit- 
 ualizing which Ave recommend to you than the thistle in 
 Lebanon is the cedar of Lebanon. Avoid that childisli 
 trifling and outrageous twisting of texts Avhich will make 
 you a wise man among fools, but a fool among wise men. 
 
 Our second is, never spiriiualize upon indelicate sub- 
 jects. It is needful to say this, for the Slopdash family 
 are never more at home than Avhen they sjoeak in a way 
 to crimson the cheek of modesty. There is a kind of 
 beetle Avhicli breeds in filth, and this creature has its 
 prototype among men. Do I not at this moment call to 
 mind a savory divine Avho enlarged with Avonderfiil 
 gusto and sensuous unction upon the concubine cut into 
 
 * ]Miglit not this be accurately applied to hearers filled with 
 Buch noDsense? 
 
ox SPIRITUALIZING. 1G3 
 
 ten i)icccs : Grocnacre liimsclf could not have done it 
 better. What aboiniiiable tilings have been said npon 
 some of the sterner and more horrifying similes of Jere- 
 miah and Ezekiel ! Where the Holy Spirit is veiled and 
 chaste, these men have torn away the veil, and spoken 
 as none bnt naughty tongues would venture to do. I am 
 not squeamish, indeed, far from it, but explanations of 
 the new birth by analogies suggested by a monthly nursu, 
 expositions of the rite of circumcision, and minute de- 
 scriptions of married life, would arouse my temper and 
 make me feel inclined to command with Jehu that the 
 shameless one should be thrown down from the exalted 
 position disgraced by such brazen-faced impudence.* I 
 know it is said, "lloni soit qui mal y innse,"' but I aver 
 tliut no pure mind ought to be subjected to the slightest 
 breath of indelicacy from the pulpit. Caesar's wife must 
 be Avithout suspicion, and Christ's ministers must be 
 without speck in their lives or stain in their speech. 
 Gentlemen, the kissing and hugging which some pi-each- 
 ers delight in is disgusting : Solomon's Song had better 
 be let alone than dragged in the mire as it often is. 
 Young men especially must be scrupulously, jealously 
 modest and pure in word : an old man is pardoned, I 
 scarce know why, but a young man is utterly without 
 excuse should he overstep the strict line of delicacy. 
 
 Next, and thirdly, never spiritualize for the sake of 
 sliowing what an iincommonhj clever fellow you arc. 
 Such an intention will be wicked, and the method used 
 will be foolish. Only an egregious simpleton will seek 
 to be noted for doing what nine men out of ten could do 
 quite as well. A certain probationer once preached a 
 
 * South is not always dt-cent, and had he been a Dissenter he 
 would have been howled down for vulgarity. His genius is in- 
 dli-putable, but he might have washed Lis mouth. 
 
164 LECTCTRES TO V.Y STUDEK^TS. 
 
 sermon upon the Avord " but," tlins hoping to ingraiaate 
 himself with the congregation, who would, he thonght, 
 be enraptured with the powers of a brother who could 
 ''enlarge so marA'ellously upon a mere conjunction. His 
 subject appears to have been, the fact that whatever there 
 may be of good in a man's character, or admirable in a 
 num's position, there is sure to be some difficulty, some 
 trial in connection with us all : " Naaman was a great 
 man with his master, but ." When the orator de- 
 scended from the pulpit the deacons said, " Well, sir, 
 you have given us a singular sermon, but — you are not 
 the man for the place ; that we can see very clearly." 
 Alas ! for Avit when it becomes so common, and Avithal 
 puts a Aveapon into the hand of its OAvn adversaries ! 
 Remember that spiritualizing is not such a wonderful 
 display of ingenuity, even if you are able to do it Avell, 
 and that Avithout discretion it is the most ready method 
 of revealing your egregious folly. Gentlemen, if you as- 
 pire to emulate Origen in Avild, daring interpretations, 
 it may be as Avell to read his life and note attentively the 
 follies into which even his marvellous mind Avas draAvn 
 by alloAving a wild fancy to usurp absolute authority over 
 his judgment ; and if you set yourselves to rival the vulgar 
 declaimers of a past generation, let me remind you that 
 the cap and bells do not now command the same patron- 
 age as fell to their share a few years ago. 
 
 Our third caution is, never pervert Scripture to give 
 it a novel and so-called spiritual meaning, lest you be 
 found guilty of that solemn curse Avith Avhich the roll of 
 inspiration is guarded and closed, Mr. Cook, of Maiden- 
 liead, felt himself obliged to separate from William Hun- 
 tingdon because of his making the seventh command- 
 ment to mean the Lord speaking to his Son and sa^nng, 
 *' Thou slialt not covet the devil's wife, i. e., the non- 
 
ON SPIRITUALIZING. 1C5 
 
 elect." One can only say, horrible ! Perhaps it would 
 be an insult to your reason and your religion to say, loatlie 
 the thought of such profanity. You instinctively shrink 
 from it. 
 
 Once more, in no case allow your audience to forget 
 ilmt the narratives ivliich yon spiritualize are facts, and 
 not mere myths or parables. The first sense of the pas- 
 sage must never be drowned in the overflow of your ima- 
 gination ; it must be distinctly declared and allowed to 
 hold the first rank ; your accommodation of it must never 
 thrust out the original and native meaning, or even push 
 it into the background. The Bible is not a compilation 
 of clever allegories or instructive poetical traditions ; it 
 teaches literal facts and reveals ti'cmendous realities : let 
 your full persuasion of this truth be manifest to all who 
 attend your ministry. It will be an il] day for the church 
 if the pulpit should even appear to indorse the sceptical 
 liypothesis that Holy Scripture is but the record of a re- 
 fined mythology, in Avhicli globules of truth are dissolved 
 in seas of poetic and imaginary detail. 
 
 However, there is a legitimate range for spiritualiz- 
 ing, or rather for the particular gift Avhich leads men to 
 spiritualize.* Eor instance, you have frequently been 
 shown that tlie types yield ample scope for the exercise 
 of a sanctified ingenuity. Wliy need you go about to 
 find "odious Avomen" to preach upon, when you have 
 before you the tabernacle in the wilderness, with all its 
 sacred furniture, the burnt-offering, the peace-offering, 
 and all the various sacrifices which were offered before 
 
 * Men destitute of fancy and humor will deny this, even as the 
 eagles might dispute the lawfulness of hawking for flies, yet as 
 swallows are created for this last purpose, even so to some men 
 the exercise of a godly imagination is a main design of their 
 constitution. 
 
166 LECTURES TO MY STCDEXTS. 
 
 God ? Why struggle for novelties when the temple and 
 all its glories are before you ? * The largest capacity for 
 typical interpretation will find abundant employment in 
 tlie undoubted symbols of the Word of God, and it will 
 be safe to enter upon such an exercise, because the sym- 
 bols are of divine appointment. 
 
 When you have exhausted all the Old Testament types, 
 you have left to you an heirloom of a thousand meia- 
 jiJiors. Benjamiu Keach, in his laborious treatise, proves 
 most practically what mines of truth lie concealed in 
 the metaphors of Scripture. His work, by the Avay, is 
 open to much criticism on the score of making metaphors 
 run not only on all-fours, but on as many legs as a cen- 
 tijicde ; but it docs not deserve the condemnation of Dr. 
 Adam Clarke, when he says it has done more to debase 
 the taste both of preachers and people than any other 
 work of the kind. A discreet explanation of the poetical 
 allusions of Holy Scripture will be most acceptable to 
 your people, and, with God's blessing, not a little prof- 
 itable. 
 
 But supposing you have expounded all the usually 
 accepted types, and have cast light upon the emblems 
 and figurative expressions, must your fancy and delight 
 in similitudes go to sleep ? By no means. When the 
 apostle Paul finds a mystery in Melchisedek, and speak- 
 ing of Hagar and Sarah, says, " Which things arc an 
 allegory," he gives us a precedent for discovering scrip- 
 tural allegories in other places besides the two mentioned. 
 Indeed, the historical books not only yield us here and 
 there an allegory, but seem as a whole to be arranged 
 with a view to symbolical teaching. A passage from 
 Mr. Andrew Jukes' preface to his work on the types of 
 
 * Samuel Mather still remains an authority in this lore. We 
 commeud his work to the student 
 
ON Sl'IRITUALIZlXG. IG? 
 
 Genesis, will show how, without yiolcnce, a most elab- 
 orate theory may be constructed by a devout mind : "As 
 a base or ground for what is to folloAV, we first are shown 
 what springs from man, and all the different forms of life, 
 which either by nature or grace can grow out of the root 
 of old Adam. Tliis is the book of Genesis. Then Ave 
 Gee, that be it bad or good which has come out of Adam, 
 there must be redemjition ; so an elect people by the 
 blood of the Lamb and are saved from Egjqit. This is 
 Exodus. After redemption is known, we come to the 
 experience of the elect as needing access, and learning 
 the Avay of it, to God the Redeemer in the sanctuary. 
 This we get in Leviticus. Tiien in the wilderness of 
 this world, as pilgrims from Egypt, the house of bond- 
 age, to the promised land be3'ond Jordan, tlie trials of 
 the journey are learned, from that land of Avonders and 
 man's Avisdom to the land flowing with milk and honey. 
 This is the book of Numbers. Then comes the desire to 
 exchange the wilderness for the better land, from enter- 
 ing which for a season after redemption is knoA\'n the 
 elect yet shrink ; answering to the desire of the elect at 
 a certain stage to know the power of the resurrection, 
 to live even noAv as in heavenly places. The rules and 
 precepts Avhich must be obeyed, if this is to be done, 
 come next. Deuteronomy, a second giving of the laAv, 
 a second cleansing, tells the way of progress. After 
 Avhich Canaan is indeed reached. We go over Jordan : 
 we knoAv practically the death of the flesh, and what it 
 is to be circumcised, and to roll away the reproach of 
 Egypt. We knoAv now what it is to be risen Avitli Christ, 
 and to Avrestle, not with flesh and blood, but Avdth prin- 
 cipalities and powers in heavenly places. This is Joshua. 
 Then comes the failure of tlie elect in heavenly places, 
 failure arising ironx making Imgucs Avith Canaanitcti 
 
16? LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 instead of overcoming them. Tliis is Judges. After 
 which the different forms of rule, whicli the church may 
 know, pass in review in the books of Kings, from tlie 
 Grst setting up of rule in Israel down to its extinction, 
 when for their sin tlie rule of Babylon supersedes that 
 Df the elect. When this is known with all its shame, we 
 Gfe the remnants of the elect, each according to its 
 measure, doing what may be done, if possible, to restore 
 Israel ; some, like Ezra, returning to build the temple, 
 that is, to restore the forms of true worship ; and some 
 coming up, like Nehemiah, to build the wall, that is, to 
 reestablish, by Gentile permission, a feeble imitation of 
 the ancient polity ; while a third remnant in Esther is 
 seen in bonds, but faithful, providentially saved, though 
 God's name (and this is characteristic of their state) 
 never appears througliout the whole record." I should 
 be far from recommending you to become as fanciful as 
 the ingenious author I have just quoted sometimes be- 
 comes, through the large indulgence of his tendency to 
 mysticism, but nevertheless, you will read the Word witli 
 greatly increased interest if you are a sufficiently careful 
 reader to have noticed the general run of the books of 
 the Bible, and their consecutiveness as a system of types. 
 Then, too, the faculty which turns to spiritualizing 
 will be well employed in generalizing the great universal 
 2)rinciples evolved hy minute and separate facts. This 
 is an ingenious, instructive, and legitimate pursuit. 
 Perhaps you might not elect to preach upon, "Take it 
 by the tail," but the remark arising from it is natural 
 enough — "there is a way of taking everything." Moses 
 took the serpent by tlie tail, so there is a mode of grasp- 
 ins; our afflictions and finding them stiffen in our hands 
 into a wonder-working rod ; there is a way of holding 
 the doctrines of grace, a way of encoui tcring ungodly 
 
ON SPIRITUALIZING. 1C9 
 
 men, and so on. In liundrcds of scriptural incidents 
 you may find great general jirinciples which may no- 
 where be expressed in so many words. Take the follow- 
 ing instances from Mr. Jay. From Psalm Ixxiy. 14, 
 " Thou brakest the heads of leviathan in pieces, and 
 gavcst him to be meat to the people inhabiting the wil- 
 derness," he teaches the doctriiie that the greatest foes 
 of God's pilgrim people shall be slain, and tlie remem- 
 brance of the mercy shall refrcsli the saints. From 
 Genesis xxxv. 8, "But Deborah, Rebekah's nurse, died, 
 and she was buried beneath Bcth-el, under an oak : and 
 the name of it was called Allon-bachutli," he discourses 
 upon good ^servants, and the certainty of death. Upon 
 2 Samuel xv. 15, " And the king's servants said unto the 
 king, Behold, thy servants are ready to do Avhatsoever 
 my lord the king shall appoint," he shoAVS that such 
 language may with propriety be adopted by Christians, 
 and addressed to Christ. Should anyone take exception 
 to the form of spiritualizing which Mr. Jay so efficiently 
 and judiciously indulged in, he must be a person whose 
 opinion need not sway you in the least. After my own 
 ability I have taken the liberty to do the same, and the 
 outlines of many sermons of the kind may be found in 
 my little work entitled '•'Evening by Evening," and a 
 less liberal sprinkling in its companion, " Morning by 
 Morning." 
 
 A notable instance of a good sermon fixed upon a 
 strained and unjustifiable basis, is that of Everard, in his 
 "Gospel Treasury." In the discourse upon Joshua xv. 
 16, 17, where the words are, "And Caleb said. He tluit 
 smiteth Kirjath-sepher, and taketh it, to him will I 
 give Achsah my daughter to wife. And Othniel the son 
 of Kenaz, the brother of Caleb, took it : and he gave 
 him Achsah his daughter to wife ; " here the run of the 
 
170 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 preacher's utterance is based upon the translation of the 
 Hebrew proper names, so that he makes it read, "A 
 good heart said, Whosoever smiteth and taketh the city 
 of the letter, to him will I give the rending of the veil ; 
 and Othniel took it as being God's fit time or opportu- 
 nity, and he married Achsah, that is, enjoyed the rending 
 of the veil, and thereby had the blessing both of the 
 upper and nether springs." Was there no other method 
 of showing that we are to search after the inner sense 
 of the Scripture, and not rest in the mere words or 
 letter of the Book ? 
 
 The 2}araMes of our Lord in their expounding and 
 enforcement afford the amplest scope for a matured and 
 disciplined fancy, and if these have all passed before you, 
 tJie miracles still remain, rich in symbolical teaching. 
 There can be no doubt that the miracles are the acted 
 sermons of our Lord Jesus Christ. You have his " word 
 sermons " in his matchless teaching, and his " deed 
 sermons " in his peerless acts. Despite many doctrinal 
 failures, you will find Trench, on the miracles, most 
 helpful in this direction. All our Lord's mighty Avorks 
 are full of teaching. Take the story of the healing 
 of the deaf and dumb man. The poor creatures 
 maladies are eminently suggestive of man's lost estate, 
 and our Lord's mode of procedure most instructively 
 illustrates tlie plan of salvation. "Jesus took him 
 aside from the multitude " — the soul must be made to 
 feel its own personality and individuality, and must be 
 led into loneliness. He "put his finger into his ears," 
 the source of the mischief indicated ; sinners are con- 
 vinced of their state. "And spat" — the gospel is a 
 simple and a despised means, and the sinner, in order 
 to salvati(m, must humble liimself to receive it. He 
 "touched his tongue,'" — further pointing out where the 
 
ox SPIRITUALIZIXO. 171 
 
 mischief lay — our sense of need grows on ns. " lie 
 "looked up to heaven" — Jesus reminded his patient 
 that all strength must come from above — a lesson whicli 
 e/ery seeker must learn. " He sighed," showing that the 
 sorrows of the Healer are the means of our healing. And 
 when he said, " Ephphatha, Be opened " — here was the 
 effectual word of grace Avhich wrought an immediate, 
 perfect, and lasting cure. From this one exposition 
 learn all, and ever believe that the miracles of Christ arc 
 a great picture gallery, illustrating his work among the 
 sons of men. 
 
 Let it be an instruction, however, to all who handle 
 either the parables or the metaphors, to be discreet. 
 Dr. Gill is one whose name must ever be mentioned 
 with honor and respect in this house in which his pulpit 
 still stands, but his exposition of the parable of the 
 Prodigal Son strikes me as being sadly absurd in some 
 points. The learned commentator tells us, **the fatted 
 calf " was the Lord Jesus Christ ! Eeally, one shudders 
 to see spiritualizing come to this. Then also there is 
 his exposition of the Good Samaritan. The beast on 
 whicli the wounded man was j/ia,ced is again our Lord 
 Jesus, and the two pence Avhich the Good Samaritan 
 gave to the host, are the Old and New Testament, or 
 the ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper. 
 
 Despite this caution, you may allow much latitude 
 in spiritualizing to men of rare poetical temperament, 
 such as John Bunyan. Gentlemen, did you ever read 
 John Bunyan's sj^iritualizing of Solomon's Temple ? It 
 is a most remarkable performance, and even when a 
 little strained it is full of a consecrated ingenuity. Take, 
 for a specimen, one of his most far-fetched explana- 
 tions, and see if it can be improved. It is on "the 
 Leaves of the Gate of the Temple." "The leaves ot 
 
172 LECTUEES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 this gate or door, as I told you before, were folding , 
 and so, as was hinted, haA'^e something of signification 
 in them. For by this means a man, especially a young 
 disciple, may easily be mistaken ; thinking that the 
 whole passage, Avlien yet but a part, was open, whereas 
 three parts might be yet kept undiscovered to him. 
 For these doors, as I said before, were never yet set 
 wide open, I mean in the antitype, ; never man yet saw 
 all the riches and fulness which is in Christ. So that I 
 say, a neiu comer, if he judged by present sight, especially 
 if he saw but little, might easily be mistaken, where- 
 fore such for the most part are most horribly afraid that 
 they shall never get in thereat. How sayest thou, young 
 comer, is not this the case with thy soul ? So it seems 
 to thee that thou art too big, being so great, so tun-bellied 
 a sinner I But, thou sinner, fear not, the doors are 
 folding-doors, and may be opened wider, and wider 
 again after that ; Avherefore Avhen thou comest to this 
 gate, and imaginest that there is not space enough for 
 thee to enter, knock, and it shall he wide)' opened unto 
 thee, and thou shalt be received. Luke xi. 9 ; John vi. 
 37. So then, wk'^ever thou art, thou art come to the 
 door of which the temple door was a type, trust not to 
 thy first conceptions of things, but believe there is grace 
 abundant. Thou knowest not yet what Christ can do, 
 the door sarc folding -doors. He can ' do exceeding abun- 
 dantly above all we can ask or think.'' Eph. iii. 20. The 
 hinges on which these doors do hang, were, as I told 
 you, gold ; to signify that they both turned upon 
 motives and motions of love, and also that the openings 
 thereof were rich. Golden hinges the gate to God doth 
 turn upon. The posts on which these doors did hang 
 ivere of the olive tree, that fat and oily tree, to show 
 that they do never open with lothness, or sluggishness, 
 
ON SPIRITUALIZING. 173 
 
 as doors do whose hinges Avant oil. They are always 
 oily, and so open easily and quickly to those who 
 knock at them. Hence you read that he that dwells 
 in this house gives freely, loves freely, and doth us 
 good with all his heart. * Yea,' saitli he, * I will 
 rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant 
 them in this land assuredly, with my whole heart, and 
 with my whole soul.' Jer. iii. 12, 14, 22 ; xxxii. 41 ; 
 Eev. xxi. 6 ; xxii. 17. Whei'efore, the oil of grace, sig- 
 nified by this oily tree, or these olive-posts, on which 
 these doors do hang, do cause that they open glibly or 
 frankly to the soul. 
 
 AVhen Bunyan opens up the meaning of the doors 
 being made of fir wood, who but he would have said, 
 " The_^r tree is also the house of the stork, that unclean 
 bird, even as Christ is a harbor and shelter for sinners. 
 As for the stork, saith the text, the fir tree is her house ; 
 and Christ saitli to the sinners that see their want of 
 shelter, 'Come unto me, and I Avill give you rest.' He 
 is a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in time of trouble. 
 Deut. xiv. 18 ; Lev. xi. 19 ; Ps. civ. 17 ; Ixxiv. 2, 3 ; 
 Matt. xi. 27, 28; Heb. vi. 17-20." In his "House of 
 the Forest of Lebanon " he is still more puzzled, but 
 works his way out as no other man could have done. 
 He finds the three rows of pillars of fifteen each to be an 
 enigma rather too deep for him, and gives it up, but not 
 until he has made some brave attempts upon it. Mr. 
 Bunyan is the chief, and head, and lord of all allegor- 
 ists, and is not to be followed by us into the deep places 
 of typical and symbolical utterance. He was a swim- 
 mer, we are but mere waders, and must not go beyond 
 our depth. 
 
 I am tempted before I close this address to give a 
 Bketch or two of spiritualizings which were familiar to 
 
174 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 me ill my earliest days. I shall never forget a sermon 
 preached by an uneducated but remarkable man, who 
 was my near neighbor in the county. I had the notes 
 of the discourse from his own lips, and I trust they will 
 remain as notes, and never be preached from again in 
 this world. The text was, " The night-hawk, the owl, 
 and the cuckoo." That might not strike you as being 
 exceedingly rich in matter ; it did not so strike me, and 
 therefore I innocently inquired, ' ' And what were the 
 heads?" He replied most archly, "Heads? why, 
 wring the birds' necks, and there are three directly, 
 ' the night-hawk, the owl, and the cuckoo.' " He showed 
 that these birds were all unclean under the law, and were 
 plain types of unclean sinners. Night-hawks were per- 
 sons who pilfered on the sly, also people who adulterated 
 their goods, and cheated their neighbors in an under- 
 hand way Avithout being suspected to be rogues. As for 
 the owls, they typified drunkards, Avho are always liveliest 
 at night, while by day they Avill almost knock their 
 heads against a post because they are so sleepy. There 
 were owls also among professors. The owl is a very 
 small bird when he is plucked ; he only looks big be- 
 cause he wears so many feathers ; so, many professors are 
 all feathers, and if you could take away their boastful 
 professions there would be very little left of them. 
 Then the cuckoos were the church clergy, who always 
 utter the same note whenever they open their mouths in 
 the church, and live on other birds' eggs with their 
 church-rates and tithes. The cuckoos were also, I think, 
 the free-willers, who were always saying, "Do-do-do-do." 
 Was not this rather too much of a good thing ? Yet 
 from the man who delivered it the sermon would not 
 seem at all remarkable or odd. The same venerable 
 brother delivered ti sermon equally singular but far more 
 
ON SPIRITUALIZING. 175 
 
 original and useful ; those who heard it will remember 
 it to their dying day. It was from this text : " The 
 slotliful man roasteth not that which he took in hunt- 
 ing." The good old man leaned upon the top of the pul- 
 pit, and said, " Then, my brethren, he was a lazy fel- 
 low ! " That was the exordium ; and then he went on 
 to say, " He went out a hunting, and after much trouble 
 he caught his hare, and then was too idle to roast it. 
 He was a lazy fellow indeed ! " The good man made us 
 all feel how ridiculous such idleness Avas, and then he 
 said, " But then you are very likely quite as much to 
 blame as this man, for you do just the same. You hear 
 of a popular minister coming down from London, and 
 you put the horse to the cart, and drive ten or twenty 
 miles to hear him ; and then when you have heard the 
 sermon you forget to profit by it. You catch the hare 
 and do not roast it ; you go hunting after the truth, and 
 then you do not receive it." Then he went on to show, 
 that just as meat needs cooking to prepare it for assimila- 
 tion in the bodily system — I do not think he used that 
 Avord though — so the truth needs to go through a pro- 
 cess before it can be received into the mind so that we 
 may feed thereon and grow. He said he should show 
 how to cook a sermon, and he did so most instructively. 
 He began as the cookery books do — First catch your 
 hare." "So," he said, "first get a gospel sermon." 
 Then he declared that a great many sermons were not 
 worth hunting for, and that good sermons were mourn- 
 fully scarce, and it was worth while to go any distance 
 to hear a solid, old-fashioned, Calvinistic discourse. Then 
 after the sermon had been caught, there was much about 
 it which miglit be necessary because of the preacher's in- 
 firmity, which was not profitable, and must be put away. 
 Here he enlarged upon discerning and judging what we 
 
176 LECTURES TO MY STUDEN"T3. 
 
 heard, and not believing every word of any man. Then 
 followed directions as to roasting a sermon ; run the spit 
 of memory through it from end to end, turn it round 
 upon the roasting-jack of meditation, before the fire of 
 a really warm and earnest heart, and in that way the 
 sermon would be cooked and ready to yield real spiritual 
 nourishment. I do but give you the outline, and though 
 it may look somewhat laughable, it was not so esteemed 
 by the hearers. It was full of allegory, and kept up the 
 attention of the people from the beginning to the end. 
 " AVell, my dear sir, how are you ?" was my salutation to 
 him one morning, " I'm pleased to see you so Avell at your 
 age." "Yes, I am in fine order for an old man, and 
 hardly feel myself failing at alL" "I hope your good 
 health will continue for years to come, and that like 
 Moses you Avill go down to your grave with your eye 
 undimmed and your natural force unabated." "All 
 very fine," said the old gentleman, " but in the first 
 place, Moses never went down to his gi-ave at all, he 
 went up to it ; and in the next place, what is the 
 meaning of all you have been talking about ? Why did 
 not the eye of Moses wax dim ? " "I suppose, sir," 
 said I, very meekly, " that his natural mode of life and 
 quiet spirit had helped to preserve his faculties and make 
 him a vigorous old man." "Very likely," said he, 
 " but that's not what I am driving at : what's the mean- 
 ing, the si)iritual teaching of the whole matter ? Is it 
 not just this : Moses is the law, and what a glorious end 
 of the law the Lord gave it on the mount of his finished 
 work ; how sweetly its terrors are all laid to sleep with 
 a kiss from God's mouth ! and, mark you, the reason 
 why the law no more condemns us is not because its eye 
 is dim, so that it cannot see our sins, or because its force 
 is abated with which to curse and punish ; but Christ 
 
ON SPIRITUALIZIKQ. 177 
 
 has taken it up to the mount, and gloriously made an 
 end of it." Such was his usual talk and such was his 
 ministry. Peace to his ashes. He fed sheep the first 
 years of his life, and was a shepherd of men the next, 
 and, as he used to tell me, " found men by far the more 
 sheepish of the two." The converts who found the road 
 to heaven under him were so many that, when we 
 remember them, Ave are like those who saw the lame 
 man leaping through the word of Peter and John ; they 
 were disposed to criticise, but " beholding the man that 
 was healed standing with Peter and John, they could 
 say nothing against it." 
 
 With this I close, reasserting the opinion, that 
 guided by discretion and judgment, we may occasionally 
 employ spiritualizing with good effect to our people ; 
 certainly we shall interest them and keep them awake. 
 8* 
 
LECTURE VIII. 
 
 ON THE VOICE. 
 
 Ouii first rule with regard to the voice would be — 
 do nut tliinh too much about it, for recollect the sweetest 
 voice is nothing Avithout something to say, and however 
 well it may be managed, it will be like a well-driven 
 cart with nothing in it, unless you convey by it impor- 
 tant and. seasonable truths to your people. Demos- 
 thenes was doubtless right, in giving a first, second, and 
 third place to a good delivery ; but of what value will 
 that be if a man has nothing to deliver ? A man with 
 a surpassingly excellent voice who is destitute of a well- 
 informed head, and an eaniest heart, will be " a voice 
 crying in the wilderness ; " or, to use Plutarch's expres- 
 sion, " Vox et prceterea nildl." Such a man may shine 
 in the choir, but he is useless in the puljoit. Whitfield's 
 voice, without his heart-power, Avould have left no more 
 lasting effects uj)on his hearers than Paganini's fiddle. 
 You are not singers but preachers : your voice is but a 
 secondary matter ; do not be foj)S with it, or puling in- 
 valids over it, r.s so many are. A trumpet need not be 
 made of silver, a ram's-horn will suffice ; but it must be 
 able to endure rough usage, for trumpets are for war's 
 conflicts, not for the drawing-rooms of fashion. 
 
 On the other hand, do not think too little of your 
 voice, for its excellence may greatly conduce to the 
 result which you hope to produce. Plato, in confessing 
 
ON THE VOICE. 179 
 
 the power of eloquence, mentions the toneoi the speaker. 
 " So strongly," says he, " does the speech and the tone 
 of tlie orator ring in my ears, that scarcely in the third 
 or fourth day, do I recollect myself, and perceive where 
 on the earth I am ; and for awhile I am willing to 
 believe myself living in the isles of the blessed." Ex- 
 ceedingly precious truths may be greatly marred by 
 being delivered in monotonous tones. I once heard a 
 most esteemed minister, who mumbled sadly, compared 
 to " humble bee in a pitcher," a vulgar metaphor no 
 doubt, but so exactly descriptive, that it brings to my 
 mind the droning sound at this instant most distinctly, 
 and reminds me of the parody upon Gray's Elegy : 
 
 •• Now fades the glimmering subject from tlie sight, 
 And all the air a sleepy stillness holds. 
 Save where the parson hums his droning flight, 
 And drowsy tinklings lull the slumb'ring folds." 
 
 What a pity that a man who from his heart delivered 
 doctrines of undoubted value, in language the most a]")- 
 l")ropriatc, should commit ministerial suicide by harping 
 on one string, when the Lord had given him an instru- 
 ment of many strings to play upon ! Alas ! alas ! for 
 that dreary voice, it hummed and hummed like a mill- 
 wheel to the same unmusical tune whether its owner 
 spake of heaven or hell, eternal life or everlasting wrath. 
 It might be, by accident, a little louder or softer, ac- 
 cording to the length of the sentence, but its tone Avas 
 still the same, a dreary waste of sound, a howling wil- 
 derness of speech in wliich there was no possible relief, 
 no variety, no music, nothing but horrible sameness. 
 
 When the wind blows through the ^olian harp, it 
 swells through all the chords, but the heavenly wind, 
 passing through some men, spends itself upon one string, 
 
180 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 aiid that, for the most part, the most out of tune of the 
 Avhole. Grace alone could enable hearers to edify under 
 the drum — drum— drum of some divines. I think an 
 impartial jury would bring in a verdict of Justifiable 
 slumbering in many cases where the sound emanating 
 from the preacher lulls to sleep by its reiterated note. 
 Dr. Guthrie charitably traces the slumbers of a certain 
 Scotch congregation, to bad ventilation in the meeting- 
 house ; this has something to do Avitli it, but a bad con- 
 dition of the valves of the preachei^'s throat might be a 
 still more potent cause. Brethren, in the name of 
 everything that is sacred, ring the whole chime in youi 
 steeple, and do not dun your people with the ding-dong 
 of one poor cracked bell. 
 
 When you do pay attention to the voice, take care 
 not to fall into tlie liabitual and common affectations of 
 the present day. Scarcely one man in a dozen in the 
 pulpit talks like a man. This affectation is not confined 
 to Protestauts, for the Abbe Mullois remarks, "Every- 
 where else, men speak : they speak at the bar and the 
 tribune ; but they no longer speak in the pulpit, for 
 there we only meet with a factitious and artificial lan- 
 guage, and a false tone. This style of speaking is only 
 tolerated in the church, because, unfortunately, it is so 
 general there ; elsewhei'e it would not be endured. 
 What would be thought of a man who should converse 
 in a similar way in a drawing-room ? He would cer- 
 tainly provoke many a smile. Some time ago there was 
 a warder at tlie Pantheon — a good sort of fellow in his 
 way — Avho, in enumerating the beauties of the monu- 
 ment, adopted precisely the tone of many of our preach- 
 ers, and never failed thereby to excite the hilarity of the 
 visitors, who were as much amused with his style of 
 address as with the objects of interest which he pointed 
 
ON THE VOICE. 181 
 
 out to them. A man who has not a natural and true 
 dehvery, should not he allowed to occupy the pulpit 
 from thence, at least, everything that is false should he 
 
 summarily hanished In these days 
 
 of mistrust everything that is false should be set aside ; 
 and the best way of correcting one's self in that respect, 
 as regards preaching, is frequently to listen to certain 
 monotonous and vehement preachers. We shall come 
 away in such disgust, and with such a horror of their 
 delivery, that we shall prefer condemning ourselves to 
 silence rather than imitate them. The instant you 
 abandon the natural and the true, you forego the right 
 to be believed, as well as the right of being listened to." 
 You may go all around, to church and chapel alike, and 
 you will find that by far the larger majority of our 
 preachers have a holy tone for Sundays. They liave 
 one voice for the parlor and the bed-room, and quite 
 another tone for the pulpit ; so that, if not double- 
 tongued sinfully, they certainly are so literally. The 
 moment some men shut the pulpit door, they leave their 
 own personal manhood behind them, and become as 
 official as the parish beadle. There they might almost 
 boast with the Pharisee, that they are not as other men 
 are, although it would be blasphemy to thank God for it. 
 No longer are they carnal and speak as men, but a 
 whine, a broken hum-haw, an ore rotundo, or some 
 other graceless mode of noise-making, is adopted, to 
 prevent all suspicion of being natural and speaking out 
 of the abundance of tlie heart. When that gown is 
 once on, how often does it prove to be the shroud of 
 the man's true self, and the effeminate emblem of offi- 
 cialism ! 
 
 There are two or three modes of speech which I dare 
 Bay you will recognize as having freqiiently heard. That 
 
182 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 dignified, doctorial, inflated, bombastic style, which I 
 just now called the ore rotundo, is not quite so common 
 now as it used to be, but it is still admired by some. 
 (Unfortunately, the Lecturer could not here be reported 
 by any known form of letter-press, as he proceeded to 
 read a hymn with a round, rolling, swelling voice.) 
 Wlien a reverend gentleman was once blowing off steam 
 in this way, a man in the aisle said he thought the 
 preacher "had swallowed a dumpling," but another 
 whispered, "No, Jack, he ain't swaller'd un; he's got un 
 in his mouth a-wobblin." I can imagine Dr. Johnson 
 talking in that fashion, at Bolt Court ; and from men to 
 whom it is natural-it rolls with Olympian grandeur, but 
 in the pulpit away for ever with all imitation of it ; if it 
 comes naturally, well and good, but to mimic it is treason 
 to common decency ; indeed, all mimicry is in the pul- 
 pit near akin to an unpardonable sin. 
 
 There is another style, at Avhich I beseech you not to 
 laugh. (Given another illustration.) A method of 
 enunciation said to be very lady-like, mincing, delicate, 
 servant-girlified, dawdling, Dundrearyish, I know not 
 how else to describe it. AVe have, most of us, had the 
 felicity of hearing these, or some others, of the extensive 
 genus of falsettos, high-stilts, and affectations. I have 
 heard many different varieties, from the fulness of the 
 Johnsonian to the thinness of the little genteel whisper; 
 from the roaring of the Bulls of Bashan up to the chip, 
 chip, chip of a chafRncb. I have been able to trace some 
 of our brethren to their forefathers — I mean their min- 
 isterial forefathers, from whom they first of all gathered 
 these heavenly, melodious, sanctified, in every way beau 
 tiful, but I must honestly add, detestable modes of sjocech. 
 Tlie undoubted order of their oratorical pedigree is as 
 follows : Chip, which was the son of Lisp, which 
 
ox THE VOICE. 183 
 
 was the son of Simper, which was the son of Dandy, 
 which was the son of Affectation ; or Wobbler, which 
 was the son of Grandiose, which was the son of 
 Pomposity, the same was the fatlier of many sons. Un 
 derstand, that where even these horrors of ?ound are 
 natural, I do not condemn them — let every creature 
 speak in its own tongue; but the fact is, tliat in 
 nine cases out of ten, these sacred brogues, which I hope 
 will soon be dead languages, are unnatural and strained. 
 I am persuaded that these tones and semitones and mon- 
 otones are Babylonian, that they are not at all the Jeru- 
 salem dialect ; for the Jerusalem dialect has this one 
 distinguishing mark, that it is a man's own mode of 
 speech, and is the same out of the pulpit as it is in it. 
 Our friend of the affected ore rotundo school was never 
 known to talk out of the pulpit as he does in, or to say 
 in the parlor in the same tone which he uses in the pul- 
 pit, "Will you be so good as to give me another cup 
 of tea ; I take sugar, if you please. " He would make 
 himself ludicrous if he did so, but the pulpit is to be fa- 
 vored with the scum of his voice, which the parlor would 
 not tolerate. I maintain that the best notes a man's 
 voice is capable of should be given to the proclamation 
 of the gospel, and these are such as nature teaches him 
 to use in earnest conversation. Ezekiel served his Mas- 
 ter with his most musical and melodious powers, so that 
 the Lord said, *' Thou art unto them as a very lovely 
 song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can jilay well 
 on an instrument." Although this, alas ! was of no use 
 to Israel's hard heart, as nothing will be but the Spirit 
 of God, yet it well became the prophet to deliver the 
 word of the Lord in the best style of yoice and manner. 
 In the next place, if you have any idiosyncrasies of 
 qteecli, tvhich are disagreeable to the ear, correct them if 
 
184 LECTURES TO MY STUDEKTS. 
 
 possible.* It is admitted tliat this is much more easy 
 for the teacher to inculcate than for you to practise. 
 Yet to young men in the morning of their ministry, the 
 difficulty is not insuperable. Brethren from the country 
 have a flavor of their rustic diet in their mouths, remind- 
 ing us irresistibly of the calves of Essex, the swine of 
 Berkshire, or the runts of Suffolk. AVho can mistake 
 the Yorkshire or Somersetshire dialects, which are not 
 merely provincial pronunciations, but tones also ? It 
 would be difficult to discover the cause, but the fact is 
 clear enough, that in some counties of England men's 
 tbroats seem to be furred up, like long-used tea-kettles, 
 and in others, they ring like brass music, with a vicious 
 metallic sound. Beautiful these variations of nature 
 may be in their season and place, but my taste has never 
 been able to apj^reciate them. A sharp discordant squeak, 
 like a rusty pair of scissors, is to be got rid of at all haz- 
 ards ; so also is a thick, inarticulate utterance in which 
 no word is complete, but nouns, adjectives, and verbs 
 are made into a kind of hash. Equally objectionable is 
 tliat ghostly speech in which a man talks without using 
 his lips, ventriloquizing most horribly : sepulchral tones 
 may fit a man to be an undertaker, but Lazarus is not 
 called out of his grave by hollow moans. One of the 
 surest ways to kill yourself is to speak from the throat 
 instead of the mouth. This misuse of nature will be 
 terribly avenged by her ; escape the penalty by avoiding 
 the offence. It may be well in this place to urge you as 
 soon as you detect yourself interi^osing hum-haw pretty 
 plentifully in your discourse, to purge yourself of the 
 insinuating but ruinous habit at once. There is no need 
 whatever for it, and although those who are now its vic- 
 
 * " Take care of anything awkward or aflfected either in your 
 gtsture, phrase, or pronunciation." — John Wesley. 
 
ON THE VOICE. 185 
 
 tims may never be able to break the chain, you, wlio are 
 beginners in oratory, must scorn to wear the galling 
 yoke. It is even needful to say, open your moutlis when 
 you speak, for much of inarticulate mumbling is the 
 result of keeping the mouth half closed. It is not in 
 vain that the evangelists have written of our Lord, ''He 
 opened lu's month and taught them." Open wide the 
 doors from which such goodly truth is to march forth. 
 Moreover, brethren, avoid the use of the nose as an organ 
 of speech, for the best authorities are agreed that it is 
 intended to smell with. Time was, when the nasal 
 twang was the correct thing, but in this degenerate ago 
 you had better obey the evident suggestion of nature, 
 and let the mouth keep to its Avork withoiit the interfer- 
 ence of the olfactory instrument. Should an American 
 student be present he must excuse my pressing this 
 remark upon his attention. Abhor the practice of some 
 men, who will not bring out the letter ''r," such a 
 habit is "vewy wuinous and wediculous, vewy wetched 
 and wepwehensible." Now and then a brother has the 
 felicity to possess a most winning and delicious lisp. 
 This is perhaps among the least of evils, where the hvother 
 himself is little and winning, but it Avould ruin any being 
 wlio aimed at manliness and force. I can scarcely con- 
 ceive of Elijah lisping to Ahab, or Paul prettily chipping 
 his words on Mars' Hill. There may be a peculiar pathos 
 about a weak and watery eye, and a faltering style ; we 
 will go further, and admit that Avhere these are the 
 result of intense passion, they are sublime ; but some 
 possess them by birth, and use them rather too freely : 
 it is, to say the least, unnecessary for you to imitate them. 
 Speak as educated nature suggests to you, and you will 
 do well ; but let it be educated, and not raw, rude, 
 uncultivated nature. Demosthenes took, as you know, 
 
186 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 unbounded pains witli his voice, and Cicero, wlio was 
 naturally weak, made a long journey into Greece to cor- 
 rect his manner of speaking. With far nobler themes, 
 let us not be less ambitious to excel. ''Deprive me of 
 everything else," says Gregory, of Nazianzen, "but leave 
 me eloquence, and I shall never regret the voyages which 
 I have made in order to study it." 
 
 Always speak so as to be heard. I know a man who 
 weighs sixteen stone, and ouglit to be able to be heard 
 half-a-mile, who is so graciously indolent, that in his 
 small place of worship you can scarcely hear him in the 
 front of the gallery. What is the use of a preacher 
 whom men cannot b<^-ar ? Modesty should lead a voice- 
 less man to give place to others who are more fitted for 
 the work of proclaiming the messages of the King. 
 Some men are loud enough, but tliey are not distinct, 
 their words overlap each other, play at leap-frog, or trip 
 each other up. Distinct utterance is far more important 
 than wind-power. Do give a word a fair chance, do not 
 break its back in your vehemence, or run it off its legs 
 in your haste. It is hateful to hear a big fellow mutter 
 and whisper when his lungs are quite strong enough for 
 the loudest speech ; but at the same time, let a man 
 shout ever so lustily, he will not be well heard unless ho 
 learns to push his words forward with due space between. 
 To speak too slowly is miserable work, and subjects 
 active-minded hearers to the disease called the "hor- 
 rors." It is impossible to hear a man who crawls along 
 at a mile an hour. One word to-day and one to-morrow 
 is a kind of slow-fire Avhich martyrs only could enjoy. 
 Excessively rapid speaking, tearing and raving into utter 
 rant, is quite as inexcusable ; it is not, and never can be 
 powerful, except Avith idiots, for it turns what should be 
 an army of words into a mob, and most effectually 
 
ON THE VOICE. 187 
 
 drowns tlie sense in floods of sound. Occasionally, one 
 hears an infuriated orator of indistinct utterance, whose 
 impetuosity hurries him on to such a confusion of 
 sounds, that at a little distance one is reminded of 
 Lucan's lines : 
 
 " Her gabbling tongue a muttering tone confounds, 
 Discordant and unlike to human sounds ; 
 It seem'd of dogs the bark, of wolves the howl, 
 The doleful screeching of the midnight owl ; 
 The hiss of snakes, tlie hungry lion's roar, 
 The bound of billows beating on the shore ; 
 The groan of winds among the leafy wood, 
 And burst of thunder from the rending cloud ! 
 'Twas these, all these in cue." 
 
 It is an infliction not to be endured twice, to hear 
 a brother who mistakes perspiration for inspiration, tear 
 along like a wild horse with a hornet in its ear till he 
 has no more wind, and must needs pause to pump his 
 lungs full again ; a repetition of this indecency several 
 times in a sermon is not uncommon, but is most painful. 
 Pause soon enough to prevent that "hough, liough," 
 which rather creates pity for the breathless orator than 
 sympathy with the subject in hand. Your audience ouglit 
 not to know that you breathe at all — the process of respi- 
 ration should be as unobserved as the circulation of the 
 blood. It is indecent to let the mere animal function of 
 breathing cause any hiatus in your discourse. 
 
 Do not as a rule exert your voice to tlie utmost in ordi- 
 nary preaching. Two or three earnest men, now pres- 
 ent, are tearing themselves to p'eces by needless bawling ; 
 their poor lungs are irritated, and their larynx inflamcil 
 by boisterous shouting, from which they seem unable to 
 refrain. Now it is all very well to "Cry aloud and 
 spare not," but " Do thyself no harm " is apostolical 
 
188 LECTUKES TO MY STl/DENTS. 
 
 advice. When persons can hear you with lialf the 
 amount of voice, it is as well to save the superfluous 
 force for times when it may be wanted. "Waste not, 
 *'want not " may apply here as well as elsewhere. Be 
 a little economical with that enormous volume of sound. 
 Do not give your hearers head-aches when you mean to 
 give them heart-aches : you aim to keep them from 
 sleeping in their pews, but remember it is not needful 
 to burst the drums of their ears. *' The Lord is not in 
 the wind." Thunder is not lightning. Men do not 
 hear in proportion to the noise created ; in fact, too 
 much noise stuns the ear, creates reverberations and 
 echoes, and effectually injures the power of your ser- 
 mons. Adapt your voice to your audience ; when 
 twenty thousand are before you, draw out the stops 
 and give the full peal, but not in a room which will 
 only hold a score or two. Whenever I enter a place to 
 preach, I unconsciously calculate how much sound is 
 needed to fill it, and after a few sentences my key is 
 pitched. If you can make the man at the end of the 
 chapel hear, if you can see that he is catching your 
 thought, you may be sure that those nearer can hear 
 you, and no more force is needed, perhaps a little less 
 will do — watch and see. Why speak so as to be heard 
 in the street when there is nobody there who is listening 
 to you ? Whether in doors or out, see that the most 
 remote hearers can follow you, and that will be sufficient. 
 By the way, I may observe, that brethren should out of 
 mercy to the weak, always attend carefully to the force 
 of their voices in sick rooms, and in congregations 
 where some are known to be very infirm. It is a cruel 
 thing to sit down by a sick man's bed-side, and shout 
 out " THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD." If you act 
 so thoughtlessly, the poor man will say as soon as you 
 
OSr THE VOICE. 189 
 
 are down stairs, " Dear me ! ho-w my head aches. I am 
 glad the good man is gone, Mary ; tliat is a very pre- 
 cious Psalm and so quiet like, but he read it out like 
 thunder and lightning, and almost stunned me!" 
 Kecollect, you younger and unmarried men, that soft 
 whispers will suit the invalid better than roll of drum 
 and culverin. 
 
 Observe carefully the rule to vai'i/ the force of your 
 voice. The old rule was, to begin very softly, gradually 
 rise higher, and bring out your loudest notes at the end. 
 Let all such regulations be blown to pieces at the can- 
 non's mouth ; they are impertinent and misleading. 
 Speak softly or loudly, as the emotion of the moment 
 may suggest, and observe no artificial or fanciful rules. 
 Artificial rules are an utter abomination. As M. de 
 Cormorin satirically puts it, " Be impassioned, thunder, 
 rage, Aveep, up to the fifth word, of tlie third sentence, 
 of the tenth paragraph, of the tentli leaf. How easy 
 that would be ! Above all, how very natural ! " In 
 imitation of a popular preacher, to Avhom it was una- 
 voidable, a certain minister was accustomed in the 
 commencement of his sermon to speak in so low a key 
 that no one could possibly hear him. Everybody leaned 
 forward, fearing something good was being lost in tiio 
 air, but their straining was in vain, a holy mutter was all 
 they could discern. If the brother could not have spoken 
 out none should have blamed him, but it was a most 
 absurd thing to do this when in a short time he proved 
 the power of his lungs by filling the whole structure 
 by sonorous sentences. If the first half of his discourse 
 was of no importance, why not omit it ? and if of any 
 value at all, why not deliver it distinctly ? Effect, 
 gentlemen, that was the point aimed at ; he knew that 
 one who spake in that fashion had produced great effects. 
 
190 LECTURES TO MY STUDEXT9. 
 
 and he hoped to rival him. If any of you dare to com- 
 mit such a folly for such a detestable object, I heartily 
 wish you had never entered this Institution. I tell you 
 most seriously, that the thing called " effect " is hateful, 
 because it is untrue, artificial, tricky, and therefore 
 despicable. Never do anything for effect, but scorn the 
 stratagems of little minds, hunting after the approval 
 of connoisseurs in pi-eaching, who are a race as obnox- 
 ious to a true minister as locusts to the Eastern hus- 
 bandman. But I digress : he clear and distinct at the 
 very first. Your exordia are too good to be wliispercd to 
 space. Speak them out boldly, and command attention 
 at the very outset by your manly tones. Do not start 
 at the highest pitch as a rule, for then you Avill not 
 be able to rise when you warm with the work ; but still 
 be outspoken from the first. Lower the voice when 
 suitable, even to a whisper ; for soft, deliberate, solemn 
 utterances are not only a relief to the ear, but have a 
 great aptitude to reach the heart. Do not be afraid of 
 the low keys, for if you throw force into them they are 
 as well heard as the shouts. You need not speak in a 
 loud voice in order to be heard well. Macaulay says of 
 William Pitt, " His voice, even when it sank to a whis- 
 per, was heard to the remotest benches of the House of 
 Commons." It has been well said that the most noisy 
 gun is not the one which carries a ball the furthest ; 
 the crack of a rifle is anything but noisy. It is not the 
 loudness of your voice, it is the force which you put into it 
 that is effective. I am certain that I could whisper so 
 as to be heard throughout every corner of our great 
 Tabernacle, and I am equally certain that I could holloa 
 and shout so that nobody could understand me. The 
 thing could be done here, but perhaps the example is 
 heedless, as I fear some of you perform tlie businsss with 
 
ON THE VOICE. 101 
 
 remarkable success. Waves of air may dash upon the 
 ear in such rapid succession that they create no trans- 
 latable impression on the auditory nerve. Ink is 
 necessary to write with, but if you upset the ink bottle 
 over tlie sheet of paper, you convey no meaning thereby, 
 so is it with sound ; sound is the ink, but manage- 
 ment is needed, not quantity, to produce an intelligible 
 writing upon the ear. If your sole ambition be to com- 
 pete with — 
 
 " Stentor the strong, endued witli brazen lungs, 
 Whose throat surpassed the force of fifty tongues." 
 
 then bawl yourselves into Elysium as rapidly as possible, 
 but if you wish to be understood, and so to be of service, 
 shun the reproach of being " impotent and loud." You 
 are aware that shrill sounds travel the farthest : the 
 singular cry which is used by the travellers in the wilds 
 of Australia, owes its remarkable power to its shrillness. 
 A bell will be heard much farther off than a drum ; and 
 very singularly, the more musical a sound is the farther 
 it travels. It is not the thumping of the piano which is 
 needed, but the judicious sounding of the best keys. 
 You will therefore feel at liberty to ease the strain very 
 frequently in the direction of loudness, and you Avill be 
 greatly relieving both the ears of the audience and your 
 own lungs. Try all methods, from the sledge-hammer 
 to the puff-ball. Be as gentle as a zephyr and as furious 
 as a tornado. Be, indeed, just what every common- 
 sense person is in his speech when he talks naturally, 
 l^leads vehemently, Avhispers confidentially, appeals plaia- 
 tively, or publishes distinctly. 
 
 Next to the moderation of lung-force, I should placo 
 the rule, mochilate your tones. Alter the key frequently 
 and vary the strain constantly. Let the base, the trel»ic. 
 
192 LECTURES TO MY STL'DEXTS. 
 
 and the tenor, take their turn. I beseech you to do this 
 out of pity to yourself and to those who hear you. God 
 has mercy upon us and arranges all things to meet our 
 cravings for variety ; let us have mercy upon our fellow- 
 creatures, and not persecute them with the tedium of 
 sameness. It is a most barbarous thing to inflict upon 
 the lympanum of a poor fellow creature's/ear the anguish 
 of being bored and gimleted with the same sound for 
 half an hour. What swifter mode of rendering 'the mind 
 idiotic or lunatic could be conceived than the perpetual 
 droning of a beetle, or buzzing of a blue-bottle, in the 
 organ of hearing ? What dispensation have you by 
 which you are to be tolerated in such cruelty to the help- 
 less victims who sit under your drum-drum ministrations ? 
 Kind nature frequently spares the drone's unhappy vic- 
 tims the full effect of his tortures by steeping them in 
 sweet repose. This, however, you do not desire ; then 
 speak with varied voice. How few ministers remember 
 that monotony causes sleep. I fear the charge brought 
 by a writer in the "Imperial Eeview" is true to the 
 letter of numbers of my brethren. " We all know how 
 the noise of running water, or the murmur of the sea, 
 or the sighing of the south wind among the pines, or the 
 moaning of wood-doves, induces a delicious dreamy lan- 
 guor. Far be it from us to say that the voice of a mod- 
 ern divine resembles, in the slightest degree, any of these 
 sweet sounds, yet the effect is the same, and few can 
 resist the drowsy influences of a lengthy dissertation, 
 delivered without the slightest variation of tone or alter- 
 ation of expression. Indeed, the very exceptional use of 
 the phrase ' an awakening discourse,' even by those most 
 familiar with such matters, conveys the implication tliat 
 the great majority of pulpit harangues are of a decidedly 
 soporific tendency. It is an ill case when the proaclicr 
 
ox THE VOICE. 193 
 
 Leaves his hearers perplex 'd — 
 Twixt the two to detennino ; 
 'Watch and praj',' says the text, 
 ' Go to sleep/ says the sermou." 
 
 However musical year voice may be in itself, if you 
 continue to sound tlie same chord perpetually, your 
 hearers will perceive that its notes are by distance made 
 more sweet. Do in the name of humanity cease inton- 
 ing and take to rational speaking. Should this argu- 
 ment fail to move you, I am so earnest ahout this point, 
 that if you will not follow my advice out of mercy to your 
 hearers, yet do it out of mercy to yourselves ; for as God 
 in his infinite wisdom has been j)leased always to append 
 a penalty to every sin against his natural as well as moral 
 laws, so the evil of monotony is frequently avenged by 
 that dangerous disease, called dysphonia clericoruni, or, 
 " Clergyman's sore throat." When certain of our 
 brethren are so beloved by their hearers that they do not 
 object to pay a handsome sum to get rid of them for a 
 few months, when a journey to Jerusalem is recom- 
 mended and provided for, bronchitis of a modified order 
 is so remarkably overruled for good, that my present 
 argument will not disturb their equanimity ; but such is 
 not our lot, to us bronchitis means real misery, and 
 therefore, to avoid it, we would follow any sensible sug- 
 gestion. If you wish to ruin your throats, you can 
 speedily do so, but if you wish to preserve them, note 
 what is now laid before you, I have often in this rooni 
 compared the voice to a drum. If the drummer should 
 always strike in one place on the head of his drum, the 
 skin would soon wear into a hole ; but how much longer 
 it would have lasted him if he had varied his thumping 
 and had used the entire surface of the drum-head ! So 
 it is with a man's voice. If he uses always the same 
 9 
 
lOi LECTUEES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 lone, lie will "wear a hole in that part of the throat which 
 is most exercised in i^rodncing that monotony, and very 
 soon he will snffer from bronchitis. I have heard snr- 
 geons affirm, that Dissenting bronchitis differs from the 
 Church of England article. There is an ecclesiastical 
 twang which is much admired in the establishment, a 
 sort of steeple-in-the-throat grandeur, an aristocratic, 
 theologic, parsonic, supernatural, infra-mouthing of lan- 
 guage and rolling over of words. It may be illustrated 
 by the following specimen. " He that hath yaws to yaw 
 let him yaw," Avhich is a remarkable, if not impressive, 
 rendering of a Scripture text. Who does not know the 
 hallowed way of iDronouncing — '' Dearly beloved breth- 
 ren, the Scripture movetli us in diver places " ? It rolls 
 in my ears now like Big Ben — coupled with boyish mem- 
 ories of monotonous peals of " The Prince Albert, Al- 
 bert Prince of Wales, and all the Eoyal Family. . . . 
 Amen." Now, if a man who talks so unnaturally does 
 not get bronchitis, or some other disease, I can only say 
 that throat diseases must be very sovereignly dispensed. 
 At the Nonconformist hobbies of utterance I have 
 already struck a blow, and I believe it is by them that 
 larynx and lungs become delicate, and good men suc- 
 cumb to silence and the grave. Should you desire my 
 authority for the threat which I have held out to you, I 
 shall give you the opinion of Mr. Macrcady, the eminent 
 tragedian, who, since he looks at the matter from an 
 impartial but experimental standpoint, is worthy of a 
 respectful hearing. '* Eelaxed throat is usuariy caused, 
 not so miich by exercising the organ, as by the kind of 
 exercise ; that is, not so much by long or loud speaking, 
 as by speaking in a feigned voice. I am not sure that I 
 shall be understood in this statement, but there is not 
 one person in, I may say, ten thousand, who in ad- 
 
ON THE VOICE. 195 
 
 dressing a body of people, does so in his natural voice ; 
 and this habit is most especially observable in the pulpit. 
 I believe that relaxation of the throat results from vio- 
 lent elforts in these affected tones, and that severe irrita- 
 tion, and often ulceration, is the consequence. The 
 labor of a whole day's duty in a church is nothing, in 
 point of labor, compared witli the performance of one of 
 Shakespeare's leading characters, nor, I should suppose, 
 with any of the very great displays made by our leading 
 statesmen in the Houses of Parliament ; and I feel very 
 certain that the disorder, which you designate as ' Cler- 
 gyman's sore throat,' is attributable generally to the 
 mode of speaking, and not to the length of time or vio- 
 lence of effort tliat may be employed. I have known 
 several of my former contemporaries on the stage suffer 
 from sore throat, but I do not think, among those emi- 
 nent in their art, that it could be regarded as a prevalent 
 disease." Actors and barristers have mucli occasion to 
 strain their vocal powers, and yet there is no such thing 
 as a counsel's sore throat, or a tragedian's bronchitis ; 
 simply because these men dare not serve the i^ublic in so 
 slovenly a manner as some preachers serve their God. 
 Samuel Fen wick, Esq., M. D., in a popular treatise upon 
 "Diseases of the Throat and Lungs,"* has most wisely 
 said, " From what was stated respecting the physiology 
 of the vocal chords, it will be evident that continued 
 speaking in one tone is much more fatiguing than fre- 
 quent alterations in the pitch of the voice : because by 
 the former, one muscle or set of muscles alone is strained, 
 while by the latter, different muscles are brought into 
 action, and thus relieve one another. In the same way, 
 
 * A popular Treatise on the " Causes and Prevention of Dis- 
 eases," by Samuel Fenwick, M. D. Volume 1, "Diseases of the 
 Throat and Lungs." John Churchill, New Burlington street. 
 
196 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 a man raising liis arm at right angles to his bodj?, be- 
 comes fatigiied in five or ten minutes, because only one 
 set of muscles has to bear the weight ; but these same 
 muscles can work the whole day if their action is alter- 
 nated with that of others. Whenever, therefore, we 
 hear a clergyman droning through the churcli service, 
 and in the same manner and tone of voice reading, pray- 
 ing, and exhorting, Ave may be perfectly sure that he is 
 giving ten times more labor to his vocal chords than is 
 absolutely necessary." 
 
 This may be the place to reiterate an opinion which 
 I have often expressed in this place, of which I am 
 reminded by the author whom I have quoted. If min- 
 isters would speak oftener, their throats and lungs would 
 be less liable to disease. Of this I am quite sure ; it is 
 matter of personal experience and wide observation, and 
 I am confident that I am not mistaken. Gentlemen, 
 twice a week preaching is very dangerous, but I have 
 found five or six times healthy, and even twelve or four- 
 teen not excessive. A costermonger set to cry cauli- 
 flowers and potatoes one day in the week, would find the 
 effort most laborious, but when he for six successive days 
 fills streets and lanes and alleys witli his sonorous din, he 
 finds no dysphonia j^omariorum, or, " Costermonger's 
 sore throat," laying him aside from his humble toils. 
 I was pleased to find my opinion, that infrequent preach- 
 ing is the root of many diseases, thus plainly declared by 
 Dr. Fenwick. "All the directions which have been 
 here laid down will, I believe, be ineffectual without 
 regular daily practice of the voice. Nothing seems to 
 have such a tendency to produce this disease as the oc- 
 casional prolonged speaking, alternating with long inter- 
 vals of rest, to which clei-gymen are more particularly 
 subject. Any one giving the subject a moment's con- 
 
ON THE VOICE. 197 
 
 Biderntion will readily understand this. If a man, or any 
 otlier animal, be intended for any unusual muscular 
 exertion, he is regularly exercised in it, day by day, and 
 labor is thus rendered easy which otherwise it would be 
 almost impossible to execute. But the generality of the 
 clerical jirofession undergo a great amount of muscular 
 iBxertion in the way of speaking only on one day of the 
 week, whilst in the remaining six days they scarcely ever 
 raise their voice above the usual pitch. Were a smith 
 or a carpenter thus occasionally to undergo the fatigue 
 connected with the exercise of his trade, he would not 
 only be quite unfitted for it, but lie would lose the skill 
 he had acquired. The example of the most celebrated 
 orators the world has seen proves the advantages of reg- 
 ular and constant practice of speaking : and I would on 
 this account, most strongly recommend all persons sub- 
 ject to this complaint to read aloud once or twice a day, 
 using the same pitch of voice as in the pulpit, and pay- 
 ing especial attention to the position of the chest and 
 throat, and to clear and proper articulation of the words." 
 Mr. Beecher is of the same opinion, for he remarks, 
 " NeAvsboys show what out-of-door practice will do for a 
 man's lungs. What would the pale and feeble-speaking 
 minister do who can scarcely make his voice reach two 
 hundred auditors if he were set to cry newspapers ? 
 Those New York newsboys stand at the head of a street, 
 and send down their voices through it, as an athletic 
 would roll a ball down an alley. AVe advise men train- 
 ing for speaking professions to peddle wares in tlie 
 streets for a little time. Young ministers might go into 
 partnership Avith newsboys awhile, till they got their 
 mouths open and their larynx nerved and toughened." 
 
 Gentlemen, a nee Iful rale — always suit your voice 
 to your matter. Do not be jubilant over a doleful sub- 
 
108 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 ject, and on the other hand, do not drag lieavily where 
 tlie tones ought to trip along merrily, as though they 
 were dancing to the tune of the angels in heaven. This 
 rule I shall not enlarge upon, but rest assured it is of 
 the utmost importance, and if obediently followed, will 
 always secure attention, provided your matter is worth 
 it. Suit your voice to your matter always, and, above 
 all, in every tldng be natural. * A^vay forever Avith slavish 
 attention to rules and models. Do not imitate other peo- 
 ple's voices, or, if from an unconquerable propensity you 
 must follow them, emulate every orator's excellences, 
 and the evil will be lessened. I am myself, by a kind 
 of irresistible influence, drawn to be an imitator, so that 
 a journey to Scotland or Wales will for a week or two 
 materially affect my 2)ronunciation and tone. Strive 
 against it I do, but there it is, and the only cure I know 
 of is to let the mischief die a natural death. Gentlemen, 
 I return to my rule — use your own natural voices. Do 
 not be monkeys, but men ; not parrots, but men of 
 originality in all things. It is said that the most be- 
 coming way for a man to wear his beard is that in which 
 it grows, for both in color and form it will suit his face. 
 Your own modes of speech will be most in harmony with 
 your methods of thought and your own personality. 
 The mimic is for the playhouse, the cultured man in his 
 sanctified i^ersonality is for the sanctuary. I would re- 
 peat this rule till I wearied you if I thought you would 
 forget it ; be natural, be natural, be natural evermore. 
 An affectation of voice, or an imitation of the manner 
 of Dr. Silvertongue, the eminent divine, or even of a 
 ■?7ell-beloved tutor or president, will inevitably ruin you. 
 
 * When Jo]inson was asked whether Burke resembled Tullius 
 Cicero, " No, sir," was the reply, " he resembled Edmund Burke.' 
 
OS THE VOICE. 199 
 
 I charge you throw awiiy the servility of imitation and 
 rise to the manliness of originality. 
 
 We are bound to add — endeavor to educate your voice. 
 G I'udge no pains or labor in achieving this, for as it has 
 been well observed, " However prodigious may be tiie 
 gifts of nature to her elect, they can only be developed 
 and brought to their extreme perfection by labor and 
 study." Think of Michael Angelo working for a week 
 without taking off his clothes, and Uandcl hollowing 
 out every key of his harpsichord, like a spoon, by inces- 
 sant practice. Gentlemen, after this, never talk of diffi- 
 culty or weariness. It is almost impossible to sec the 
 ntihty of Demosthenes' method of speaking with stones 
 in his moutli, but any one can perceive the useful- 
 ness of his pleading with the boisterous billows, that he 
 might know how to command a hearing amidst the u])- 
 roarious assemblies of his countrymen ; and in his speak- 
 ing as he ran up hill that his lungs might gather force 
 from laborious use the reason is as obvious as the self- 
 denial is commendable. We are bound to use every pos- 
 sible means to perfect the voice by which we are to tell 
 forth the glorious gospel of the blessed God. Take great 
 care of the consonants, enunciate every one of them 
 clearly ; they are the features and expression of the 
 Avords. Practise indefatigably till you give every one of 
 the consonants its due ; the vowels have a voice of their 
 own, and therefore they can speak for themselves. In 
 all other matters exercise a rigid discipline until you 
 have mastered your voice, and have it in hand like a 
 well-trained steed. Gentlemen with narrow chests are 
 advised to use the dumb-bells every morning, or better 
 still, those clubs which the College has provided for 3'ou. 
 You need broad chests, and must do your best to get 
 them. Do not speak with your hands ?'n your waistcoat 
 
200 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 pockets so as to contract yoiii- lungs, hnt throw the 
 shoulders back, as public singers do. Do not lean over 
 a desk while speaking, and never hold the head down 
 on the breast while preaching. Upward ratlier than 
 downward let the body bend. Off with all tight cravats 
 and button-up waistcoats ; leave room for the full play 
 of the bellows and the pipes. Observe the statues of 
 the Roman or Greek orators, look at Raphael's picture 
 of Paul, and without affectation, fall naturally into the 
 graceful and appropriate attitudes there depicted, for 
 these are best for the voice. Get a friend to tell you 
 your faults, or better still, welcome an enemy who will 
 watch you keenly and sting you savagely. What a Mess- 
 ing such an irritating critic will be to a wise man, what 
 an intolerable nuisance to a fool ! Correct yourself 
 diligently and frecpiently, or you will fall into errors un- 
 awares ; false tones will grow, and slovenly habits will 
 form insensibly : therefore criticise yourself Avith un- 
 ceasing care. Think nothing little by which you may 
 be even a little more usefuL But, gentlemen, never 
 degenerate in this business into pulpit fops, who think 
 gesture and voice to be everything. I am sick at heart 
 when I hear of men taking a whole week to get up a 
 sermon, much of the getting up consisting in repeating 
 their precious productions before a glass ! Alas ! for 
 this age, if graceless hearts are to be forgiven for the 
 sake of graceful manners. Give us all the vulgarities of 
 the wildest back-woods' itinerant rathei' than the per- 
 fumed prettinesses of effeminate gentility. I would no 
 more advise you to be fastidious with your voices than I 
 would recommend you to imitate Rowland Hill's j\lr. 
 Taplash with his diamond ring, his richly-scented 
 pocket handkercliicf, and his eye-glass. Exquisites are 
 out of place in the pulpit, they should be set up in a 
 
ox THE VOICE. 201 
 
 tailoi-'s window, witliii ticket, '' Tltis style complete, in- 
 eluding MSS., £10 10s." 
 
 Perhaps here may be tlie place to observe, tliat it 
 were well if all parents were more attentive to the teclh 
 of their children, since faulty teeth may cause serious 
 damage to a speaker. There are men, wliosc articula- 
 tion is faulty, who should at once consult the dentist ; I 
 mean, of course, a thoroughly scientific and experienced 
 one ; for a few false teeth or some other simple arrange- 
 ment would be a permanent blessing to them. My own 
 dentist very sensibly remarks in his circular, "When a 
 portion or the whole of the teeth are lost, a contraction 
 of the muscles of the face and throat follows, the other 
 organs of the voice which have been accustomed to teeth 
 are impaired, and put out of their common play, pro- 
 ducing a break, languor, or depression, as in a musical 
 instrument which is deficient in a note. It is vain to 
 expect perfect symphony, and proportional and consis- 
 tent accent on the key, tone, and pitch of the voice, 
 with deficiencies in its organs, and of course the articu- 
 lation becomes defective ; such defect adds much to the 
 labor of speaking, to say the least, and in most cases 
 lisping, a too hasty or sudden drop, or a faint delivery, 
 is the result ; from more serious deficiencies a mumbling 
 and clattering is almost sure to follow." "Where this is 
 the mischief, and the cure is within reach, we are bound 
 for our works' sake to avail ourselves of it. Teeth may 
 seem unimportant, but be it remembered that nothing is 
 little in so great a calling as ours. I shall in succeeding 
 remarks mention even smaller matters, but it is with the 
 deep impression that hints ui)on insignificant things 
 may be of unknown value saving in you from scrioua neg- 
 lects or gross errors. 
 
 Lastly, I would say with regard to your throats — 
 9* 
 
202 LECTURES TO MY STUDEXTS. 
 
 take care of them. Take care always to clear them well 
 "vvlicii yoii are about to speak, but do not be constantly 
 cleai'ing tlicm while you are preaching. A very csteeniiod 
 brother of my acquaintance always talks in this way — 
 " My dear friends — hem — hem — this is a most — hem — ini- 
 portant subject Avhich I have noAV — hem — hem — to bring 
 before you, and — hem — hem — I have to call upon you to 
 give me — hem — hem — your most serious — hem — atten- 
 tion."* Avoid this most zealously. Others, from want 
 of clearing the throat, talk as if they were choked up, 
 and were just about to expectorate ; it were far better to 
 do so at once tlian to sicken tlie hearer by repeated 
 unpleasant sounds. Snuffling and sniffing are excusable 
 enough when a man has a cold, but they are extremely 
 unpleasant, and when they become habitual, they ought 
 to be indicted under the " Nuisances Act." Pray excuse 
 me, it may appear vulgar to mention such things, but 
 your attention to the plain and free observations made 
 in this lecture room may save many remarks at your 
 exjiense hereafter. 
 
 When you have done preaching, take care of your 
 tliroat by never wrajyping it up tightly. From personal 
 experience I venture with some diffidence to give tliis 
 piece of advice. If any of you possess delightfully warm 
 woollen comforters, with which there may be associated 
 the most tender remembrances of mother or sister, treas- 
 ure them — treasure them in the bottom of your trunk, 
 but do not expose them to any vulgar use by Avrapping 
 
 * A young preacher, desirous of improving liis style, wrote to 
 Jacob Oruber for advice. He had contracted the habit of prolong- 
 ing his words, especially when under excitement. The old gen- 
 tleman sent him the following laconic reply. " Dear — ah ! brother 
 ^ah ! — When — ah yon— ah go — all to — ah preach — ah, take — ah 
 care — ah you — ah do not — ah say — ah ah — ah I — Yours — ah, Jacob 
 
 —AH GkUBER — AH." 
 
ox THE VOICE. 203 
 
 them round your necks. If any brother wants to die of 
 influenza let liini wear a warm scarf round his neck, and 
 then one of tliese iiights lie will forget it, and catch such 
 a cold as will last him the rest of his natural life. You 
 seldom see a sailor wrap his neck up. No, he alwaj's 
 keeps it bare and exposed, and has a turn-down collar, 
 and )f he has a tie at all, it is but a small one loosely tied, 
 so tliat the wind can blow all round his neck. In this 
 philosophy I am a firm believer, having never deviated 
 from it for these fourteen years, and having before that 
 lime been frequently troubled witli colds, but very sel- 
 dom since. If you feel that you Avant something else, 
 wh}', then grow your beards ! A habit most natural, 
 scriptural, manly, and beneficial. One of our brethren, 
 now present, has for years found this of great service. 
 He was compelled to leave England on account of the 
 loss of his voice, but he has become as strong as Samson 
 now that his locks are unshorn. If your throats become 
 affected, consult a good physician, or if you cannot do 
 this, give what attention you please to the following 
 hint. Never purchase " Marsh-mallow Kock," " Cough- 
 no-more Lozenges," '' Pulmonic Wafers," Horehound, 
 Ipecacuanha, or any of the ten thousand emollient com- 
 pounds. They may serve your turn for a time by re- 
 moving present uneasiness, but they ruin the thro;it by 
 their laxative qualities. If you wish to improve your 
 throat take a good share of pepper — good Cayenne jiep- 
 per, and other astringent substances, as much as your 
 stomach can bear. Do not go beyond that, because you 
 must recollect that you have to take care of your stomach 
 as well as your throat, and if the digesting apparatus bo 
 out of order, nothing can be right. Common sense 
 teaches you that astringents must be useful. Did you 
 ever hear of a tanner making a piece of hide into leather 
 
204 LECTURES TO MY STUDEiS"TS. 
 
 by laying it to soak in sngar ? Neither would tolii, ipfl- 
 cacnanha, or treacle serve liis purpose, but the veil 
 reverse ; if he wants to harden and strengthen tlie skin. 
 ho jilaces it in a solution of oak-bark, or some astringent 
 substance which draws the material together and 
 strengthens it. When I began to preach at Exeter Hall 
 my voice was weak for such a place — as weak as the 
 usual run of voices, and it had frequently failed me 
 altogether in street preaching, but in Exeter Hall (which 
 is an unusually difficult place to preach in, from its ex- 
 cessive width in proportion to its length), I always had a 
 little glass of Chili vinegar and water just in front of 
 me, a draught of which appeared to give a fresh force 
 to the throat whenever it grew weary and the voice 
 appeared likely to break down. When my throat be- 
 comes a little relaxed I usually ask the cook to prepare 
 me a basin of beef-tea, as strong with jiepper as can be 
 borne, and hitherto this has been a sovereign remedy. 
 However, as I am not qualified to practise in medicine, 
 you will probably pay no more attention to me in medi- 
 cal matters tlian to any other quack. My belief is that 
 half the difficulties connected with the voice in our 
 early days will vanish as we advance in years, and find 
 in VTse a second nature. I would encourage the truly 
 earnest to jiersevere ; if they feel the Word of the Lord 
 like fire in their bones, even stammering may be over- 
 come, and fear, with all its paralyzing results, may be 
 banished. Take heart, young brother, persevere, and 
 God, and nature, and practice, will help you. 
 
 I shall not detain yoit longer, but express the hope 
 that your chest, lungs, windpipe, larynx, and all your 
 vocal oi'gans may last you till you have nothing more 
 to say. 
 
LECTURE IX. 
 
 ATTENTION ! 
 
 Our subject is one whicli I find scarcely CTcr noticed 
 in any books upon liomiletics — a very curious fact, for it 
 is a most important matter, and worthy of more tlian one 
 chapter. I suppose the homiletical savans consider that 
 their entire volumes are seasoned with this subject, and 
 that they need not give it to us in lumps, because, like 
 sugar in tea, it flavors the whole. That overlooked topic 
 
 is, How TO OBTAIN AND llETAIN THE ATTENTION OF 
 
 OUR HEARERS. Their attention must be gained, or 
 nothing can be done with them: and it must be retained, 
 or we may go on word-spinning, but no good will come 
 of it. 
 
 Over the head of military announcements our Eng- 
 lish ofiicers always place the word "Attention!" in 
 large capitals, and Ave need some sucli word over ail our 
 sermons. We need the earnest, candid, wakeful, contin- 
 ued attention of all those who are in the congregation. 
 If men's minds are wandering far away they cannot re- 
 ceive the truth, and it is much the same if they are 
 inactive. Sin cannot be taken out of men, as Eve was 
 taken out of the side of Adam, while they are fast asleep. 
 They must be awake, understanding what we are saying, 
 and feeling its force, or else Ave may as well go to 
 sleep too. There are preachers who care very little 
 whether they are attended to or not ; so long as tliey 
 can hold on through the allotted time it is of very small 
 
206 LECTUllES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 importance to tliem whether their people hear for eter- 
 nit}^, or hear in vain: the sooner such ministers sleep in 
 the churchyard and preach by the Terse on their grave- 
 stones the better. Some brethren speak uj) the venti- 
 lator, as if they sought the attention of the angels; and 
 others look down upon their book as if they were ab 
 Borbed in thought, or had themselves for an audience, and 
 felt much honored thereby. Why do not such brethren 
 preach on the prairie and edify the stars? If their 
 preaching has no reference to their hearers they might 
 do so Avith evident propriety ; if a sermon be a soliloquy, 
 the more lonely the performer the better. To a rational 
 preacher (and all are not rational) it must seem essential 
 to interest all his audience, from the eldest to the young- 
 est. AVe ought not to make even children inattentive. 
 "Make them inattentive," say you, "who does that?" 
 I say that most preachers do; and when children are not 
 quiet in a meeting it is often as much our fault as theirs. 
 Can you not put in a little story or joarable on purpose 
 for the little ones? Can you not catch the eye of the 
 boy in the gallery, and the little girl downstairs, who 
 have begun to fidget, and smile them into order ? I 
 often talk Avith my eyes to the orphan boys at the foot 
 of my pulpit. "We want all eyes fixed upon us and all 
 ears open to us. To me it is an annoyance if even a 
 blind man does not look at me with his face. If I see 
 anybody turning round, Avliispering, nodding, or looking 
 at his Avatch, I judge that I am not up to the mark, and 
 must by some means Avin these minds. Very seldom 
 have I to complain, and Avhen I do, my general plan is 
 to complain of myself, and OAvn that I have no right to 
 attention unless I knoAv how to command it. 
 
 Now, there are some congregations Avhose attention 
 you do not readily gain, they do not care to be interested. 
 
ATTENTIOIf I 207 
 
 It is useless to scold them ; that will be like throwing a 
 bush at a bird to catch it. The fact is, that in most 
 cases there is another person whom you should scold, 
 and that is yourself. It may be their duty to attend, 
 but it is far more your duty to make them do so. You 
 must attract the fish to your hook, and if they do not 
 come you should blame the fisherman and not the fish. 
 Comi)cl them to stand still awhile and hear what God 
 the Lord would speak to their souls. The minister 
 who recommended the old lady to take snuif in order to 
 keep from dozing was very properly rebuked by her 
 reply, — that if he would put more snulf into the sermon 
 she would be awake enough. TVe must plentifully cast 
 snuff into the sermon, or something yet more awakening. 
 Eecollect that to some of our people it is not so easy to 
 be attentive ; many of them are not interested in the 
 matter, and they have felt not enough of any gracious 
 operation on their hearts to make them confess that tlie 
 gospel is of any special value to them. Concerning the 
 Saviour whom you preach you may say to them, — • 
 
 " Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by. 
 Is it nothing to you that Jesus should die ? " 
 
 Many of them have through the week been borne down 
 by the press of business cares. They ought to roll their 
 burden on the Lord ; but do you always do so ? Do tjou 
 always find it easy to escajjc from anxieties ? Are yon 
 able to forget the sick Avife and the ailing children at 
 home ? There is no doubt whatever that many come 
 into the house of God loaded heavily with the thoughts 
 of their daily avocations. The farmer recollects the fields 
 that are to be ploughed or to be sown ; it is a wet Sun- 
 day, and he is reflecting upon the yellow look of the 
 young wheats. The merchant sees that dishonored bill 
 
208 LECTURES TO 3IT STUDENTS. 
 
 fluttering before his eyes, and the tradesman counts 
 over his bad debts. I should not wonder if the colo)-a 
 of the hidies' ribbons and the creak of the gentlemen's 
 boots disturl) many. There are troublesome flies about, 
 you know : Beelzebub, the god of flies, takes care tliat 
 wherever there is a gospel feast the guests should be 
 worried with petty annoyances. Often mental mosquitoes 
 sting the man while you are preaching to him, and he is 
 thinking more of trifling distractions than of your dis- 
 course ; is it so very wonderful that he does ? You must 
 drive the mosquitoes away, and secure your people's un- 
 distracted thoughts, turning them out of the channel in 
 which they have been running six days into one suitable 
 for the Sabbath. You must have sufficient leverage in 
 your discourse and its subject to lift them right up from 
 the earth to which they cleave, and to elevate them a 
 little nearer heaven. 
 
 Frequently it is v&ri) difficult for congregations to 
 attend, because of tlie place and the at'mos2)here. For 
 instance, if the place is like this room at present, sealed 
 against the pure air, with every window closed, they have 
 enough to do to breathe, and cannot tliink of anything 
 else : when people have inhaled over and over again the 
 air which has been in other people's lungs, the whole 
 machinery of life gets out of gear, and they are more 
 likely to feel an aching head than a broken heart. The 
 next best thing to the grace of God for a preacher is 
 oxygen. Pi-ay that the windows of heaven maybe opened, 
 but begin by opening the windows of your meeting- 
 house, look at many of our couutry-i^laces, and I ain 
 afraid our city chapels too, and you will find that the 
 v/indows are not made to open. The modern barbarous 
 style of building gives us no more ceiling than a barn, 
 and no more openings for ventilation than would be 
 
ATTENTION ! 209 
 
 found in an oriental dungeon, where the tyrant expected 
 his prisoner to die by inches. What would we think of 
 a liouse Avhere the Avindows could not be opened ? 
 Would any of you hire such a dwelling ? Yet Gothic 
 architecture and silly pride make many persons renounce 
 the wholesome sash window for little holes in the ceiliug, 
 or bird traps in the windows, and so places are made far 
 less comfortable than Nebuchadnezzar's furnace was to 
 Shadrach, Mesliach, and Abednego. Provided all such 
 chapels were properly insured, I could not pray for 
 their preservation from lire. Even where the windows 
 will open they are often kept closed by the montii to- 
 gether, and from Sunday to Sunday the impure atmos- 
 phere is unchanged. This ought not to be endured. I 
 know some people do not notice such things, and I have 
 heard it remarked that foxes are not killed by the stench 
 of their own holes ; but I am not a fox, and bad air 
 makes me dull, and my hearers dull too. A gust of 
 fresh air through the building might be to the people 
 the next best thing to the gospel itself, at least it would 
 put them into a fit frame of mind to receive the truth. 
 Take trouble on week days to remove the hindrance 
 arising from foul air. In my former chapel, in Park 
 street, I mentioned to my deacons several times my 
 opinion that the upper panes of the iron-framed 
 windows had better be taken out, as the windows were 
 not made to open. I mentioned this several times, and 
 ]iothing came of it ; but it providentally happened one 
 Monday that somebody removed most of those panes in 
 a masterly manner, almost as well as if they had been 
 taken out by a glazier. There was considerable con- 
 Bternation, and much conjecture as to who had com- 
 mitted the crime, and I proposed that a reward of five 
 pounds should be offered for the discovery of the offender, 
 
210 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 wlio wlion found slionld receive the amount as a present. 
 1'lie reward was not forthcoming, and therefore I liave 
 not felt it to be my duty to inform against the individual. 
 I trust none of you will suspect me, for if you do I shall 
 liave to confess that I have walked with the stick which 
 let the oxygen into that stifling structure. 
 
 Sometimes ike manners of our peoiiile are inimical to 
 attention j they are not in the habit of attending ; they 
 attend the chapel but do not attend to the preacher. 
 They are accustomed to look round at every one who 
 enters the place, and they come in at all times, sometimes 
 with much stamping, squeaking of boots, and banging 
 of doors. I was preaching once to a people who contin- 
 ually looked around, and I adopted the expedient of 
 saying, " Now, friends, as it is so very interesting to you 
 to know who comes in, and it disturbs me so very much 
 for you to look around, I will, if you like, describe each 
 one as he comes in, so that you may sit and look at me, 
 and keep up at least a show of decency." I described 
 one gentleman who came in, who happened to be a 
 friend whom I could depict Avithout offence, as " a very 
 respectable gentleman Avho had just taken his hat off," 
 and so on ; and after that one attemjit I found it was not 
 necessary to describe any more, because they felt shocked 
 at what I was doing, and I assured them that I was 
 much more shocked that they should render it necessary 
 for me to reduce their conduct to such an absurdit3^ It 
 cured them for the time being, and I hope for ever, 
 much to their pastor's joy. 
 
 We will now suppose that this is set right. You 
 have let the foul air cut af the place, and reformed the 
 manners of the people. What next ? In order to get 
 attention, the first golden rule is, alivays say soviething 
 iL'orth hearing. Most persons possess an instinct whicn 
 
ATTENTION ! 211 
 
 leads them to desire to hear a good thing. They have 
 a simihir instinct, also, wliicli you had bettor tiike note 
 of, namely, that which prevents their seeing the good of 
 attentively listening to mere words. It is not a severe 
 criticism to say that there are ministers whose Avorda 
 stand in a very large jiroportion to their thoughts. In 
 fcict, their words hide their thoughts, if they have any. 
 They Y>onY out heaps of chaff, and, perhaps, tliere may 
 be somewhere or other an oat or two, but it would bo 
 hard to say where. Congregations will not long attend to 
 words, words, words, words, and nothing else. Amongst 
 the commandments I am not aware of one which runs 
 thus : " Thou shalt not be verbose," but it may be com- 
 prehended under the command, " Thou shalt not steal" ; 
 for it is a fraud upon your hearers to give them woixls 
 instead of spiritual food. " In the multitude of words 
 there wanteth not sin," even in the best preacher. Give 
 your hearers something which they can treasure up and 
 remember ; something likely to be useful to them, the 
 best matter from the l^est of places, solid doctrine from 
 the divine "Word. Give them manna fresh from the 
 skies ; not the same thing over and over again, in the 
 same form ad nauseam, like workhouse bread cut into 
 the same shape all the year round. Give them some- 
 thing striking, something that a man might get up in 
 the middle of the night to hear, and which is worth his 
 walking fifty miles to listen to. You are quite capable 
 of doing that. Bo it, brethren. Do it continually, and 
 you will have all the attention you can desire. 
 
 Let the (/ood matter zvhich you give tliem le very dearly 
 arranged. There is a great deal in that. It is possible 
 to heap up a vast mass of good things all in a muddle. 
 Ever since the day T was sent to shop Avith a basket, and 
 purchased a pound of tea, a quarter- of -a-pound of mus- 
 
312 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 tard, and three pounds of rice^ and on my way home savf 
 a pack of hounds and felt it necessary to follow tlieni 
 over hedge and ditch (as I always did when I was a boy), 
 f and found when I reached home that all the goods were 
 amalgamated — tea, mustard, and rice — into one awful 
 mess, I have understood the necessity of packing up my 
 subjects in good stout parcels, bound round with the 
 thread of my discourse ; and this makes me keep to 
 firstly, secondly, and thirdly, however unfashionable that 
 method may now be. People will not drink your mus- 
 tardy tea, nor will they enjoy muddled up sermons, in 
 which you cannot tell head from tail, because they have 
 neither, but are like Mr. Bright's Skye terrier, whose 
 head and tail were both alike. Put the truth before 
 men in a logical, orderly manner, so that they can easily 
 remember it, and they will the more readily receive it. 
 
 Be sure, moreover, to speak plainly ; because, how- 
 ever excellent your matter, if a man does not compre- 
 hend it, it can be of no use to him ; you might as well 
 have spoken to him in the language of Kamtchatka as in 
 your own tongue, if you use phrases that are quite out 
 his line, and modes of expression which are not suitable 
 to his mind. Go up to his level if he is a poor man ; go 
 down to his understanding if he is an educated person. 
 You smile at my contorting the terms in that manner, 
 but I think there is more going up in being plain to the 
 illiterate, than there is in being refined for the polite ; 
 at any rate, it is the more difficult of the two, and mosc 
 like the Saviour's mode of speech. It is wise to walk in 
 a path where your auditors can accompany you, and not 
 to mount the high horse and ride over their heads. 
 Our Lord and Master was the King of preachers, and 
 he never was above anybody's comprehension, excepS 
 BO far as the grandeur and glory of his matter were con- 
 
ATTENTIOX ! 213 
 
 cerned ; liis words and utterances were such that he 
 spake like ''the holy child Jesus." Let your hearts 
 indite a good matter, clearly arranged and plainly put, 
 ai:d you are pretty sure to gain the ear, and so the heart. 
 
 Attend also to your onanner of address ; aim in that 
 at the promotion of attention. And here I should say, 
 as a rule do not read your sermons. There have been a 
 few readers who have exercised great power, as, for 
 instance, Dr. Chalmers, who could not have had a more 
 attentive audience had he been extemporizing ; but then 
 I do not suppose that we are equal to Dr. Chalmers : 
 men of suoli eminence may read if they prefer it, but for 
 us there is ''a more excellent way." The best reading I 
 have ever heard has tasted of paper, and has stuck in my 
 throat. I have not relished it, for my digestion is not 
 good enough to dissolve foolscap. It is better to do 
 without the manuscript, even if you are driven to recite. 
 It is best of all if you need neither to recite nor to read. 
 If you must read, mind that you do it to perfection. 
 Be the very the best of readers, and you had need to be 
 if you would secure attention. 
 
 Here let me say, (/' yoii luoiild he listened to, do not 
 extemporize in the empliatic sense, for that is as bad as 
 reading, or perhaps worse, unless the manuscript was 
 written extemporaneously ; I mean without previous 
 study. Do not go into the pulpit and say the first thing 
 that comes to hand, for tbe uppermost thing witli most 
 men is mere froth. Your people need discourses which 
 have been prayed over and laborously prepared. People 
 do not want raw food, it must be cooked and made ready 
 for them. We must give out of our very souls, in the 
 words which naturally suggest themselves, the matter 
 which has been as thoroughly j^reparcd by us as it possi- 
 bly could have been by a sermon-writer ; indeed, it should 
 
214 LECTURES TO MY STUDEKTS. 
 
 be even better prepared, if we would speak well. The 
 best method is, in my judgment, that in which the man 
 does not extemporize tlie matter, but extemporizes the 
 words ; the language comes to him at the moment, but 
 the theme has been well thought out, and like a master 
 in Israel he speaks of that which he knows, and testifies 
 of what he has seen. 
 
 In order to get attention, make your manner as pleas- 
 ing as it can possibly be. Do not, for instance, indulge 
 in monotones. ^^lry your voice continually. Vary 
 your speed as well — dash as rapidly as a lightning flash, 
 and anon, travel forward in quiet majesty. Shift your 
 accent, move your emphasis, and avoid sing-song. Vary 
 the tone ; use the bass sometimes, and let the thunders 
 roll within ; at other times speak as you ought to do 
 generally — from the lips, and let your sj)eech be conver- 
 sational. Anything for a change. Human nature craves 
 for variety, and God grants it in nature, j)rovidence and 
 grace ; let us have it in sermons also. I shall not, 
 however, dwell much ujjon this, because preachers have 
 been known to arouse and sustain attention by their 
 matter alone, when their mode of speech has been very 
 imperfect. If Richard Sibbes, the Puritan, were here 
 this afternoon, I would guarantee him fixed attention to 
 anything that he had to say, and yet he stammered 
 dreadfully. One of his contemporaries says he Sid- 
 ^lated, he lisped and hissed so much. We need not 
 look far for instances in modern pulpits, for there are 
 too many of them ; but we may remember that Moses 
 Avas slow of speech, and yet every ear was attent to 
 his words : probably Paul also labored under a similar 
 infirmity, for his speech Avas said to be contemptible, of 
 this, however, we are not sure, for it was only the criti- 
 cism of his enemies. Paul's power in the churches Avas 
 
ATTENTION 1 215 
 
 very great, and yet lie was not always able to maintain 
 attention when his sermon was long, for at least one 
 hearer went to sleep under him with serious result. Man- 
 ner is not everything. Still, if you have gathered good 
 matter, it is a pity to convey it meanly ; a king should 
 not ride in a dust-cart ; the glorious doctrines of grace 
 should not be slovenly delivered. Eight royal truths 
 should ride in a chariot of gold. Bring forth the 
 noblest of your milk-white steeds, and let the music 
 sound forth melodiously from the silver trumpets, as 
 truth rides through the streets. If people do not attend, 
 do not let them find excuses in our faulty utterance. If, 
 however, we cannot mend in this respect let us be the 
 more diligent to make up for it by the richness of our 
 matter, and on all occasions let us do our very best. 
 
 As a rule, do not mahe the introduction too long. It 
 is always a pity to build a great porch to a little house. 
 An excellent Christian woman once heard John Howe, 
 and, as he took up an hour in his preface, her observa- 
 tion was, that the dear good man was so long a time in 
 laying the cloth, that she lost her appetite; she did not 
 think there would be any dinner after all. Spread your 
 table quickly, and have done with the clatter of the 
 knives and the plates. You may have seen a certain 
 edition of Doddridge's " Else and Progress of Eeligion 
 in the Soul," with an introductory essay by John Foster. 
 TJie essay is both bigger and better than the book, and 
 deprives Doddridge of the chance of being read. Is not 
 this preposterous ? Avoid this error in your own pro- 
 ductions. I prefer to make the introduction of my ser- 
 mon very like that of the town-crier, who rings his bell 
 and cries, " Oh, yes! Oh, yes! This is to give notice," 
 merely to let people know that he has news for them, 
 and wants them to listen. To do that, the introduction 
 
216 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 should have something striking in it. It is woil to fire 
 a startling shot as the signal gun to clear the decks for 
 action. Do not start at the full pitch and tension of 
 your mind, but yet in such way that all will be led to 
 expect a good time. Do not make your exordium a pom- 
 pous introduction into nothing, but a step to sometliing 
 bet ter still. Be alive at the very commencement. 
 
 In preaching, do not repeat yourselves. I used to 
 hear a divine who had a habit, after he had uttered 
 about a dozen sentences, of saying, "As I have already 
 observed," or, "I repeat what I before remarked." Well, 
 good soul, as there was nothing particular in what he 
 had said, the repetition only revealed the more clearly 
 tbe nakedness of the land. If it was very good, and you 
 said it forcibly, why go over it again ? And if it was a 
 feeble affair, why exhibit it a second time ? Occasion- 
 ally, of course, the repetition of a few sentences may be 
 very telling ; anything may be good occasionally, and yet 
 be vei'y vicious as a habit. Who wonders that people do 
 not listen the first time Avhen they know it is all to come 
 o\er again ? 
 
 Yet further, do not repeat the same idea over and 
 over again in other words. Let there be something frcsli 
 in each sentence. Be not for ever hammering away at 
 the same nail : yours is a large Bible ; permit the people 
 to enjoy its length and breadth. And, brethren, do 
 not think it necessaiy or important every time you preach 
 to give a complete summary of theology, or a formal 
 digest of doctrines, after the manner of Dr. Gill — not 
 tluit I would discredit or speak a word against Dr. Gill — 
 his method is admirable for a body of divinity, or a com- 
 mentary, but not suitable for preaching. I knoAV a 
 divine whose sermons whenever they are printed read 
 like theological summaries, more fitted for a class-room 
 
ATTEXTIOX ! 217 
 
 than for a pulpit — they fall flat on the public ear. Our 
 hearers do not want the bare bones of definition, but 
 meat and flavor. Definitions and differences arc all very 
 well ; but when they are the staple of a sermon they re- 
 mind us of the young man whose discourse was made up 
 ( f various important distinctions. Upon this perform- 
 ance au old deacon observed, that there was one dis- 
 tinction which he had omitted, namely, the distinction 
 between meat and bones. If preachers do not make that 
 distinction, all their other distinctions will not bring them 
 much distinction. 
 
 In order to maintain attention, avoid heiiuj too long. 
 An old preacher used to say to a young man who 
 joreached an hour, *'My dear friend, I do not care what 
 else you preach about, but I wish you would always preach 
 ahont forty minutes." We ought seldom to go much 
 beyond that — forty minutes, or say, three-quarters of an 
 hour. If a fellow cannot say all he has to say in that 
 time, when will he say it ? But somebody said he liked 
 •' to do justice to his subject." Well, but ought he not 
 to do justice to his people, or, at least, have a little mercy 
 upon them, and not keep them too long ? The subject 
 will not complain of you, but the people will. In some 
 country places, in the afternoon especially, the farmers 
 have to milk their cows, and one farmer bitterly com- 
 lilained to me about a young man — I think from this 
 College — " Sir, he ought to have given over at four 
 o'clock, but he kept on till half-past, and there Avcre all 
 my cows waiting to be milked ! How loould he have liked 
 it if he had been a cowV There was a great deal of 
 sense in that question. The Society for the Prevention 
 of Cruelty to Animals ought to have prosecuted that 
 young sinner. How can farmers hear to profit when 
 they have cows-on-the-brain ? The mother feels morally 
 10 
 
219 LECTURES TO MY STUDEXTS. 
 
 certain during that extra ten minntes of yonr sermon 
 that the baby is crying, or the fire is out, and she can^ 
 not and will not give her heart to your ministrations. 
 You are keeping her ten minutes longer than she bar- 
 gained for, and she looks upon it as a piece of injustice 
 on your part. There is a kind of moral compact be- 
 tween you and your congregation that you will not weary 
 them more than an hour and a half, and if you keep 
 them longer, it amounts to an infraction of a treaty and 
 a piece of practical dishonesty of which you ought not 
 to be guilty. Brevity is a virtue within the reach of all 
 of us ; do not let us lose the opportunity of gaining the 
 credit which it brings. If you ask me how you may 
 shorten your sermons, I should say, skidy them defter. 
 Spend more time in the study that yoit may need less in 
 the pulpit. We are generally longest when we have least 
 to say. A man with a great deal of well-prepared matter 
 will probably not exceed forty minutes ; when he has 
 less to say he will go on for fifty minutes, and when he 
 has absolutely nothing he will need an hour to say it in. 
 Attend to these minor things and they will help to retain 
 attention. 
 
 If you want to have the attention of your people — to 
 have it thoroughly and always, it can only he accomplished 
 hy their being led hy the Spirit of God into an elevated 
 and devout state of mind. If your people are teachable, 
 prayerful, active, earnest, devout, they will come up fo 
 the house of God on purpose to get a blessing. They 
 will take their seats prayerfully, asking God to speak to 
 them througli you ; they will remain on the watch for 
 every word, and will not weary. They will have an ap- 
 petite for the gospel, for they know the sweetness of the 
 heavenly manna, and they Avill be eager to gather their 
 appointed portions. No man will ever have a congrega- 
 
ATTENTION ! 219 
 
 Hon to preach to which surpasses my own in this respect. 
 Indeed, those with whom the prcaclier is most at home 
 are nsually the best hearers for him. It is compara- 
 tively easy to me to preach at the Tabernacle ; my 
 people come on purpose to hear something, and their 
 expectation helps to fulfil itself. If they would hear 
 another preacher with the same expectancy, I believe 
 they would generally be satisfied ; though there are 
 exceptions. 
 
 When the preacher first settles, he cannot expe(}t 
 that his congregation will give him that solemn, earnest 
 attention which those obtain who stand up like fathers 
 among their own children, endeared to their people by a 
 thousand memories, and esteemed for age and experience. 
 Our whole life must be such as to add weight to our 
 words, so that in after years we shall be able to wield 
 the invincible eloquence of a long-sustained character, 
 and obtain, not merely the attention, but the affectionate 
 veneration of our flock. If by our prayers and tears 
 and labors our people become spiritually healthy, we need 
 not fear that we shall lose their attention. A people 
 hungering after righteousness, and a minister anxious 
 to feed their souls, will act in sweetest harmony with 
 each other when their common theme is the Word of 
 the Lord. 
 
 If you need another direction for winning attention, 
 I should say, he interested yourself, and you will interest 
 others. There is more in those words than there seems 
 to be, and so I will follow a custom which I just now 
 condemned, and repeit the sentence, — be interested 
 yourself, and you will interest other people. Your sub- 
 ject must weigh so much upon your own mind that you 
 dedicate all your faculties at their best to the deliverance 
 of your soul concerning it ; and then when your hearers 
 
220 LECTUKES TO JIT STUDEXTS. 
 
 see that tlie topic has engi-ossed you, it will by degree 
 engross them. 
 
 Do you wonder tliat people do not attend to a man 
 who does not feel that he has anything important to 
 say ? Do you wonder that they do not listen with all 
 their ears when a man does not speak with all liis heart ? 
 Do you marvel that their thoughts ramble to subjects 
 which are real to them when they find that tlie preacher 
 is wasting time over matters which he treats as if they 
 were fictions ? Eomaine used to say it was well to un- 
 derstand the art of preaching, but infinitely better to 
 know the lieart of preaching ; and in that saying there 
 is no little weight. The heart of preaching, the throw- 
 ing of the soul into it, the earnestness Avhicli pleads as 
 for life itself, is half the battle as to gaining attention. 
 At the same time, you cannot hold men's minds in rapt 
 attention by mere earnestness if you have nothing to say. 
 People wall not stand at their doors for ever to hear a 
 fellow leat a drum ; they will come out to see what he 
 is at, but when they find that it is much ado about noth- 
 ing, th.ej will slam the door and go in again, as much 
 as to say, *' You have taken us in and we do not like it." 
 Have something to say, and say it earnestly, and the 
 congregation will be at your feet. 
 
 It may I e .superfluous to remark that for the mass of 
 our people it is well that tliere sJwuld be a goodly iiumher 
 of illustr:,tions in our discoiivses. We have the example 
 of our Lorvl for that : and most of the greatest preach- 
 ers have abounded in similes, metaphors, allegories, and 
 anecdotes. But beware of overdoing this business. I 
 read the other day the diary of a German lady who has 
 been converted from Luthcranism to our faith, and she 
 speaks of a certain village where she lives : '' Tliere is 
 a mission-station here, and young men come down to 
 
ATTENTION I 221 
 
 preach to us. I do not wish to find fault with these 
 young gentlemen, but they tell us a great many very 
 pretty little stories, and I do not think there is much 
 else in what they say. Also I have heard some of their 
 little stories before, therefore they do not so much inter- 
 est me, as they would do if they would tell us some good 
 doctrine out of the Scriptures." The same thing has no 
 doubt crossed many other minds. " Pretty stories " are 
 all very well, but it will never do to rely upon them as 
 the great attraction of a sermon. Moreover, take warn- 
 ing concerning certain of these '' pretty little stories," 
 for their day is over and gone ; the poor things are worn 
 thread-bare and ought to go into the rag-bag. I have 
 heard some of them so many times, that I could tell 
 them myself, but there is no need. From stock anec- 
 dotes may both ourselves and our hearers be mercifully 
 delivered. Ancient jests sicken us when witlings retail 
 them as their own ideas, and anecdotes to which our 
 great-gi*andfathers listened have much the same effect 
 upon the mind. Beware of those extremely popular 
 compilations of illustrations which are in every Sunday- 
 school teacher's hand, for nobody Avill thank you for re- 
 peating what everybody already knows by heart ; if you 
 tell anecdotes let them have some degree of freshness 
 and originality ; keep your eyes open, and gather flowers 
 from the garden and the field with your own hands ; 
 they will be fir more acceptable than withered speci- 
 mens borrowed from other men's bouquets, however 
 beautiful those may once have been. Illustrate richly 
 and aptly, but not so much with parables imported from 
 foreign sources as Avitli apt similes growing out of the 
 subject itself. Do not, however, think the illustration 
 everything ; it is the window, but of what use is the 
 light which it admits if you have nothing for the light 
 
222 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 to reveal ? Garnish jour dishes, but remember that tlie 
 joint is tlie main point to consider, not the garnishing. 
 Eeal instruction must be given and solid doctrine taught, 
 or you will find your imagery pall upon your hearers, 
 and they will pine for spiritual meat. 
 
 In your sermons cultivate ivhat FatJier Taylor calls 
 ** the surprise potver." There is a great deal of force in 
 that for winning attention. Do not say what everybody 
 expected you would say.* Keep your sentence out of 
 ruts. If you have already said, " Salvation is all of 
 grace " do not always add, " and not by human merit," 
 but vary it and say, "Salvation is all of grace; self- 
 righteousness has not a corner to hide its head in." I 
 fear I cannot recall one of Mr. Taylor's sentences so as 
 to do it justice, but it was something like this : " Some 
 of you make no advance in the divine life, because you 
 go forward a little way and then you float back again : 
 just like a vessel on a tidal river which goes down with 
 the stream just far enough to be carried back again on 
 the return tide. So you make good progress for awhile, 
 and then all of a sudden " — what did he say ? — "you 
 hitch up in some muddy creek." Did he not also re- 
 peat US a speech to this effect, — " He felt sure that if 
 they were converted they would walk uprightly and kec}) 
 their bullocks out of their neigbor's corn" ? Occasional 
 resorts to this system of surprise will keep an audience 
 in a state of proper expectancy. I sat last year about 
 this time on the beach at Mentone by the Mediterranean 
 Sea. Tlie waves were very gently rising and falling, for 
 there is little or no tide, and the wind was still. Tiie 
 waves crept up languidly one after another, and I took 
 little heed of them, though they were just at my feet. 
 Suddenly, as if seized with a new passion, the sea sent 
 up one far-reaching billow, which drenched me 
 
ATTEXTIOX ! 223 
 
 thoroughly. Qnict asIluKl been before, you can readily 
 nonceive how quickly I was on my feet, and how speedily 
 my da3'-dreaming ended. I observed to a ministering 
 brother at my side, " This shoAvs us how to preach, to 
 wake people up we must astonish them with something 
 they were not looking for." Brethren, take them at 
 unawares. Let your thunderbolt drop out of a clear 
 sky. When all is calm and bright let the tempest rush 
 up, and by contrast make its terrors all the greater. 
 Eemember, however, that nothing will avail if you go to 
 sleep 3'ourself while you are preaching. Is that possible ? 
 Oh, possible ! It is done every Sunday. Many min- 
 isters arc more than half asleep all through the sermon ; 
 indeed, they never were awake at any time, and probably 
 never will be unless a cannon should be fired off near 
 their ear: tame phrases, hackneyed exi^ressions, and dreary 
 monotones make the staple of their discourses, and they 
 wonder that the people are so drowsy : I confess I do not. 
 A very useful help in securing attention is a pause. 
 Pull up short every now and then, and the passengers on 
 your coach will wake up. The miller goes to sleep while 
 the mill wheels revolve ; but if by some means or other 
 the grinding ceases, the good man starts and cries, 
 " AYhat now ? " On a sultry summer's day, if nothing 
 will keep off the drowsy feeling, be very short, sing more 
 than usual, or call on a brother or two to pra}'. A min- 
 ister who saw that the people would sleep, sat down and 
 observed, " I saw you were all resting, and I thought I 
 would rest too." Andrew Fuller had barely commenced 
 his sermon when he saw the people going to sleep. He 
 said, "'•' Friends, friends, friends, this won't do. I have 
 thought sometimes when you were asleep that it was my 
 fault, but now you are asleep before I begin, and it must 
 be your fault. Pray wake up and give me an oppor- 
 
23-i LECTURES TO MY STUDEIfTS. 
 
 tunity of doing you some good." Just so. Kuow how 
 to pause. Make a point of interjecting arousing paren- 
 tlieses of quietude. Speeeli is silver, but silence is golden 
 when hearers are inattentive. Keep, on, on, on, on, on, 
 with commonplace matter and monotonous tone, and 
 you are rocking the cradle, and deeper slumbers will 
 result ; give the cradle a jerk, and sleep will flee. 
 
 I suggest again that in order to secure attention all 
 through a discourse we must make the people feel tliat 
 they liavG an interest in wliat ive are saying to them. 
 This is, in fact, a most essential point, because nobody 
 sleeps while he expects to hear something to his advan- 
 tage. I have heard of some very strange things, but I 
 never did hear of a person going to sleep while a will 
 was being read in which he expected a legacy ; neither 
 have I heard of a prisoner going to sleep while the judge 
 was summing up, and his life was hanging in jeopardy. 
 Self-interest quickens attention. Preach upon practical 
 themes, pressing, present, personal matters, and you will 
 secure an earnest hearing. 
 
 It will be Avell to prevent attendants traversing the 
 aisles to meddle Avith gas or candles, or to distribute 
 plates for collections, or to open windows. Deacons and 
 sextons trotting over the place are a torture never to bo 
 patiently endured, and should be kindly, but decidedly, 
 requested to suspend their perambulations. 
 
 Late attendance, also, needs remedying, and our 
 gentlest reasonings and expostulations must be brought 
 to bear ujoon it. I feel sure that the devil has a hand 
 hi many disturbances in the congregation, Avhich jar 
 upon our nerves, and distract our thoughts : the bang- 
 ing of a pew door, the sharp fall of a stick on the floor, 
 or the cry of a child, are all convenient means in the 
 hands of the evil one for hindering us in our work ; we 
 
ATTENTION ! 325 
 
 may, therefore, rerj justifiably beg our people to pre- 
 serve our usefulness from this class of assaults. 
 
 I gave you a golden rule foi securing attention at the 
 coinmen cement, namely, always say something worth 
 hearing ; I will now give you a diamond rule, and con- 
 clude. Be yourself dollied with the Spirit of God, and 
 then no question about attention or non-attention will 
 arise. Come fresh from the closet and from communion 
 with God, to speak to men for God with all your heart 
 and soul, and you must have power over them. You 
 have golden chains in your mouth which will hold them 
 fast. "When God speaks men must listen ; and though 
 he may speak through a poor feeble man like themselves, 
 the majesty of the truth will compel them to regard his 
 voice. Supernatural power must be your reliance. We 
 say to you, perfect yourselves in oratory, cultivate all the 
 fields of knowledge, make your sermon mentally and 
 rhetorically all it ought to be (you ought to do no less 
 in such a service), but at the same time remember, *'it 
 is not by might, nor by power," that men are regenerated 
 or sanctified, but "by my Spirit, saith the Lord." Are 
 you not conscious sometimes of being clad with zeal as 
 with a cloak, and filled to the full with the Spirit of 
 God ? At such times you have had a hearing people, and 
 ere long, a believing people ; but if you are not thus 
 endowed with power from on high, you are to them no 
 more than a musician who plays upon a goodly instru- 
 ment, or sings a sweet song, with a clear voice, reaching 
 the ear but not the heart. If you do not touch the heart 
 you will soon weary the ear. Clothe yourself, then, with 
 the power of the Spirit of God, and preach to ra( n as 
 those who must soon give an account, and who desire 
 that their account may not be painful to their people 
 10* 
 
226 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 and grievous to tliemsclvcs, but tliat it may be to the 
 glory of God. 
 
 Brethren, may the Lord be with you, while you go 
 forth in his name and cry, " lie that hatli cars to hear, 
 let hiiu hear." 
 
LECTURE X. 
 
 THE FACULTY OF IMPROMPTU SPEECH. 
 
 "W'e are not about to discuss tlio question as to 
 whether sermons should be Avritten and read, or written, 
 committed to memor}^ and repeated, or whether copious 
 notes sliould be employed, or no notes at all. Xeither 
 of these is the subject now under consideration, although 
 we may incidentally allude to each of them, but we are 
 now to speak of extemporaneous speech in its truest and 
 most thorough form — speech impromptu, Avithout special 
 preparation, without notes or immediate forethought. 
 
 Our first observation shall be that we wotchl not 
 recommend any man to attempt preacJiinff in tins style as 
 a general ride. If he did so, he would succeed, we think, 
 most certainly, in producing a vacuum in his meeting- 
 house ; his gifts of dispersion would be clearly manifested. 
 Unstudied thoughts coming from the mind without pre- 
 vious research, without the subjects in hand having been 
 investigated at all, must be of a very inferior quality, even 
 from the most superior men ; and as none of us would 
 have the effronteiy to glorifiy ourselves as men of genius 
 or wonders of erudition, I fear that our unpremeditated 
 thoughts upon most subjects would not be remai'kably 
 worthy of attention. Churches are not to be held to- 
 gether except by an instructive ministry ; a mere fdling 
 up of time with oratory will not suffice. Everywhere 
 men ask to be fed, really fed. Those new-fangled relig- 
 
228 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 ionists, Tvliose public woi'sliip consists of tlie prelections 
 of any brother who chooses to jump up and talk, notwith- 
 standing their flattering inducements to the ignorant 
 and garrulous, usually dwindle away, and die out ; be- 
 cause even men with the most violently crotchety views, 
 who conceive it to be the mind of the Spirit that every 
 member of the body should be a mouth, soon grow impa- 
 tient of hearing other people's nonsense, though delighted 
 to dispense their own ; while the mass of the good peo- 
 ple grow weary of prosy ignorance, and return to tlie 
 churches from which they were led aside, or would retarn 
 if their pulpits were well supplied with solid teachmg. 
 Even Quakerism, with all its excellences, has scaicely 
 been able to survive the poverty of thought and doctrine 
 displayed in many of its assemblies by impromptu ora- 
 tors. The method of unprepared ministrations is prac- 
 tically a failure, and theoretically unsound. The Holy 
 Spirit has made no promise to supply spiritual food to 
 the saints by an impromptu ministry. He will never do 
 for US what we can do for ourselves. If we can study, 
 and do not, if we can have a studious ministry and will not, 
 we have no right to call in a divine agent to make up the 
 deli cits of our idleness or eccentricity. The God of 
 jirovidencehas promised to feed his people with temporal 
 food ; but if we came together to a banquet, and no one 
 had prepared a single dish, because all had faith in the 
 Lord that food would be given in the self-same hour, the 
 festival would not be eminently satisfactory, but folly 
 would be rebuked by hunger ; as, indeed, it is in the case 
 of spiritual banquets of the impromptu kind, only meivs 
 spiritual receptacles are hardly such powerful orators as 
 their stomachs. Gentlemen, do not attempt, as a rule, 
 to follow a system of things which is so generally unprof- 
 itable that the few exceptions only prove the rule. All 
 
THIi FACULTY OF IMPROMPTU SPEECH. 2:29 
 
 Bermons ought to be well considered and prejiaredl)}' the 
 preacher ; and, as much as possible, every minister 
 should, Avith much prayer for heavenly guidance, enter 
 fully into his subject, exert all his mental faculties in 
 03'iginal thinking, and gather together all the informa- 
 tion within his reach. Viewing the whole matter fr(>ni 
 all quarters, the preacher should think it out, get it well 
 masticated and digested ; and having first fed upon the 
 word himself should then prepare the like nutriment 
 for others. Our sermon should be our mental life-blood 
 — the out-flow of our intellectual and spiritual vigor ; 
 or, to change the figure, they should be diamonds well 
 cut and well set — precious, intrinsically, and bearing the 
 marks of labor. God forbid that we should offer to the 
 Lord that which costs us nothing. 
 
 Very strongly do I warn all of you against reading 
 your sermons, but I recommend, as a most healthful ex- 
 ercise, and as a great aid towards attaining extemporizing 
 power, the frequent writing of them. Those of us who 
 Avrite a great deal in other forms, for the press, et cetera, 
 may not so much require that exercise ; but if you do not 
 use the pen in other ways, you will be wise to write at least 
 some of your sermons, and revise them with great care. 
 Leave them at home afterwards, but still write them 
 out, that ycu may be preserved from a slipshod style. 
 fM. Bantainin his admirable work on extempore speaking, 
 remarks, "You will never be capable of speaking prop- 
 erly i^ public unless you acquire such mastery of your 
 own thought as to be al)le to decompose it into its parts, 
 to analyze it into its elements, and then, at need, to 
 re-compose, re-gather, and consecrate it again by a syn- 
 thetical process. Now this analysis of the idea, which 
 displays it, as it were, before the eyes of the mind, is well 
 executed only by writing. The pen is the scalpel which 
 
230 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 dissects the thoughts, and never, except when yon write 
 down what yon behold internally, can you succeed in 
 clearly discerning all that is contained in a conception, 
 or in obtaining its well-marked scope. You then under- 
 stand yourself, and make others understand you." 
 
 Vie do not recommend the plan of learning sermons 
 by heart, and repeating them from memory, that is both 
 a wearisome exercise of an inferior power of the mind 
 and an indolent neglect of other and superior faculties. 
 The most arduous and commendable plan is to store your 
 mind with matter upon the subject of discourse, and 
 then to deliver yourself with appropriate words which 
 suggest themselves at the time. This is not extem- 
 poraneous preaching ; the words are extemporal, as I 
 think they always should be, but the thoughts are the 
 result of research and study. Only thoughtless persons 
 think this to be easy ; it is at once the most laborious and 
 the most efficient mode of preaching, and it has virtues 
 of its own of which I cannot now speak particularly, 
 since it would lead us away from the point in hand. 
 
 Our subject is the faculty of pure, unmixed, genu- 
 inely extemporaneous speaking, and to this let us return. 
 This power is extremely useful, and in most cases is, 
 with a little diligence, to be acquired. It ig possessed 
 by many, yet not by so many that I shall be incorrect 
 if I say that the gift is rare. The imjjrovisatori of Italy 
 possessed the power of impromptu speech to such an 
 extent, that their extemporaneous verses upon subjects 
 suggested on the spot by the spectators, frequently 
 amounted to hundreds and even thousands of lines. 
 They would produce whole tragedies as spontaneously 
 as springs bubble up with Avater, and rhyme away by the 
 half-hour and the hour together, on the spur of the 
 moment, and perhaps also on the spur of a little Italian 
 
THE FACULTY OF IMPROMPTU SPEECU. 231 
 
 wine. Their printed works seldom rise above mediocrity, 
 and yet one of them, Pcrfetti, gained the laurel crown 
 which had been awarded only to Petrarch and Tasso. 
 Many of them at this hour produce off-hand verses which 
 are equal to the capacities of their hearers, and secure 
 their breathless attention. AVhy cannot we acquire just 
 such a power in prose ? "We shall not be able, I suppose, 
 to produce verses, nor need we desire the faculty. Many 
 of yon have no doubt versified a little, (as which of us in 
 some weak moment has not?) but Ave have put away 
 childish things now that the sober prose of life and death, 
 and heaven and hell, and perishing sinners, demands all 
 our thought.* 
 
 Many lawyers possess the gift of extemporaneous 
 speech in a high degree. They should have some vir- 
 tues ! Some weeks ago a wretched being was indicted 
 for the horrible crime of libelling a lawyer ; it is well for 
 him that I was not his judge, for had such a difficult and 
 atrocious crime been fairly brought home to him, I would 
 have delivered him over to be cross-examined during the 
 term of his natural life, hoping for mercy's sake that it 
 might be a brief one. But the gentlemen of the bar are 
 many of them most ready speakers, and as you will 
 clearly fee, they must to a considerable degree be extem- 
 poraneous speakers too, because it would be impossible 
 for them always to foresee the line of argument which 
 the evidence, or the temper of the judge, or the plead- 
 ings on the other side would require. However well a 
 case may be prepared, jioints must and will arise requir- 
 ing an active mind and a fluent tongue to deal with them. 
 
 * Mr. Wesley tbouglit it needful to say," Sing no hymns of 
 your own composing." The habit of giving out rhymes of their 
 own concoction was rife among the divines of his day ; it is to be 
 hoped it is now utterly extinct. 
 
232 LECTURES TO MY STUDEKT3. 
 
 Indeed, I have been astonished to observe the v.'ifcty, 
 sharp, and in every way appropriate replies which counsel 
 will throw off without forethought in our courts of law. 
 What a barrister can do in advocating the cause of liis 
 client, you and I should surely be able to do in the 
 cause of God. The bar must not be allowed to excel the 
 l^ulpit. We wiirbe as expert in intellectual arms as any 
 men, be they who they may, God helping us. 
 
 Certain members of the House of Commons have ex- 
 ercised the faculty of extemporaneous speaking witli 
 great results. Usually of all tasks of hearing, the most 
 miserable is that of listening to one of the common ruck 
 of speakers from the House of Lords and Commons. 
 Let it be proposed that when capital punishment is 
 abolished, those who are found guilty of murder shall be 
 comiDclled to listen to a selection of the dreariest parlia- 
 meiitary orators. The members of the Royal Humane 
 Society forbid. Yet in the House some of the members 
 are able to speak extemporaneously, and to speak well. 
 I should imagine that some of the finest things which 
 have been said by John Bright, and Gladstone, and Dis- 
 raeli, Avere altogether what Southey would call jets from 
 the great Geyser when the spring is in full play. Of 
 course, their long orations upon the Budget, the Reform 
 Bill, and so on, were elaborated to the highest degree 
 by previous manipulation ; but many of their briefer 
 speeches have, no doubt, been the offspring of the hour, 
 and yet have had an amazing a mount of power about them. 
 Shall the representatives of the nation attain an expert- 
 ness of speech beyond the representatives of the court of 
 heaven ? Brethren, covet earnestly this good gift, and go 
 about to win it. 
 
 You are all convinced that the ability which we are 
 considering must be a priceless possession for a minister. 
 
THE FACULTY OF IMPEOMPTU SPEECH. 233 
 
 Did we hear a sinirle heart "whisper, "I wisli I had it, 
 for then I shoukl have no need to study so arduously''? 
 All ! then you must not have it, you are unwortliy of the 
 boon, and unfit to he trusted with it. If you seek this 
 gift as a pillow for an idle head, you will bo much mis- 
 taken ; for the possession of this noble power will involve 
 yon in a vast amount of liihor in order to increase and 
 even to retain it. It is like the magic lamp in the fable, 
 which would not shine except it was well rubbed, and 
 became a mere dim globe as soon as the rubbing ceased. 
 What the sluggard desires for the sake of ease, Ave may 
 however covet for the best of reasons. 
 
 Occasionally one has heard or read of men agreeing, 
 by way of bravado, to preach upon texts given them at 
 the time in the pulpit, or in the vestry: such vainglo- 
 rious displays are disgusting, and border on profanity. 
 As well might w^e have exhibitions of juggling on the 
 Sabbath as such mountebankism of oratory. Our tal- 
 ents are given us for far other ends. Such a prostitu- 
 tion of gift I trust you will never be allowed to perpetrate. 
 Feats of speech are well enough in a debating club, but 
 in the ministry they are abominable even when a Bossuet 
 lends himself to them. 
 
 The power of impromptu speech is invaluable, because 
 it enables a man on the spur of the moment, in an emer- 
 gency, to deliver himself Avith propriety. These emer- 
 gencies will arise. Accidents will occur in the best 
 regulated assemblies. Singular events may turn the 
 premeditated current of your thoughts quite aside. You 
 will see clearly that the subject selected would be inop- 
 portune, and you will as a Avise man drift into something 
 else without demur. When the old road is closed, and 
 there is no help for it but to make a new way for the 
 chariot, uiilessyou are qualified to drive the horses OAer 
 
334 LECTL'RES TO MY STUDEN"TS. 
 
 a plonglied field as well as along tlie macadamized road 
 on which you hoped to travel, you will find yourself off 
 the coacli-box, and mischief will befall the company. It 
 is a great acquisition to be able at a public meeting, when 
 you have heard the speeches of your brethren, and be- 
 lieve that they liave been too frivolous, or it may be, on 
 the other hand, too dull, without any alliis'ons to them, 
 quietly to counteract the mischief, and lead the assembly 
 into a more profitable line of thought. This gift may 
 be of the utmost importance in the church-meeting, 
 where business may arise which it would be diflicult to 
 foresee. All the troublers of Israel are not yet dead. 
 Achan was stoned, and his wife, and his children, but 
 others of his family must have escaped, for the race has 
 certainly been perpetuated, and needs to be dealt with 
 discreetly and vigorously. In some churches certain 
 noisy men will rise and speak, and when they have done 
 so, it is of great importance that the pastor should read- 
 ily and convincingly reply, lest bad impressions should 
 remain. A pastor who goes to the church-meeting in the 
 spirit of his Master, feeling sure that in reliance upon 
 the Holy Spirit he is quite able to answer any untoward 
 spirit, sits at ease, keeps his temper, rises in esteem on 
 eacli occasion, and secures a quiet cliurch ; but the un- 
 ready brother is flurried, probably gets into a passion, 
 commits himself, and inherits, a world of sorrow. Be- 
 sides tliis, a man may be called upon to preach at a 
 moment's notice, through the non-arrival of the expected 
 minister, or his sudden sickness ; at a public meeting 
 one may feel stirred to speak where silence had been 
 resolved upon ; and at any form of religious exercise 
 emergencies may arise which will render impromptu, 
 speech as precious as the gold of Ophir. 
 
 The gift is valuable — ^liow is it to be obtained ? The 
 
THE FACULTY OF IMl'ROMPTU SPEECH. 235 
 
 question leads us to remark that some men will never oh- 
 tain it. There must be a ntitural adaptedness for extem- 
 poraneous speech ; even as for the poetic art : a poet is 
 born, not made. "Art may develop and. perfect the 
 talent of a speaker, but cannot produce it." All the rules 
 of rhetoric, and all the artifices of oratory cannot make 
 a man eloquent, it is a gift from heaven, and where it is 
 withheld it cannot be obtained. This " gift of utterance," 
 as Ave call it, is born with some people, inherited prob- 
 ably from the mother's side.* To others the gift is 
 denied ; their conformation of jaw, and yet more their 
 conformation of brain, never will allow of their becoming 
 fluent and ready speakers. They may, perhaps, make 
 moderate stutterers and slow deliverers of sober truth, 
 but they can never be impromptu orators ; unless they 
 should rival Methuselah in age, and then perhaps on the 
 Darwinian theory, which educes an Archbishop of Can- 
 terbury from an oyster, they might develojj into speakers. 
 If there be not a natural gift of oratory a brother may 
 attain to a respectable jiost in other departments, but he 
 is not likely to shine as a bright particular star in extem- 
 porary speech. 
 
 //■ a man would speak loitliout any present studif, he 
 must usually study much. This is a paradox, joerliaps, 
 but its explanation lies upon the surface. If I am a 
 miller, and I have a sack brought to my door, and am 
 asked to fill that sack with good fine ilour within tlie 
 next five minutes, the only way in which I can do it, 
 is by keeping the flour-bin of my mill always full, so 
 that I can at once open the mouth of the sack, fill it, 
 and deliver it. I do not happen to be grinding at that 
 
 * " There are men organized to speak well, as there are birds 
 organized to slug well, bees to make honey, and beavers to build."— ^ 
 M. Bautain. 
 
236 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 lime, and so far the delivery is extemporary ; but I have 
 been grinding before, and so have the flour to scr^e out 
 to the customer. So, bretliren, you must have been 
 'grinding, or 3^ou will not have the flour. You will not 
 be able to extemporize good thinking unless you have 
 been in the habit of thinking and feeding your laind 
 ■with abundant and nourishing food. Work hard at 
 every available moment. Store your minds very richly, 
 and then, like merchants with crowded warehouses, joii 
 will have goods ready for your customers, and having 
 arranged your good things upon the shelves of your 
 mind, you Avill be able to hand them down at any time 
 without the laborious process of going to market, sorting, 
 folding, and preparing. I do not believe that any man 
 can be successful in continuously maintaining the gift 
 of extemporaneous speech, except by ordinarily using 
 far more labor than is usual with those who write and 
 commit their discourses to memory. Take it as a rule 
 without exception, that to be able to overflow spontane- 
 ously you must be full. 
 
 The collection of a fund of ideas and expressions is 
 exceedingly heljjful. There is a Avealth and poverty in 
 each of these respects. He who has much information, 
 well arranged, and thoroughly understood, with which 
 he is intimately familiar, will be able like some prince 
 of fabulous Avealth to scatter gold right and left among 
 the crowd. To you, gentlemen, and intimate acquaint- 
 ance with the Word of God, with the iuAvard spiritual 
 life, with the great problems of time and eternity, will 
 be indispensable. Out of the abundance of the heart 
 the mouth speaketh. Accustom yourselves to heavenly 
 meditations, search the Scriptures, delight yourselves in 
 the law of the Lord, and you need not fear to speak of 
 things which you have tasted and handled of tl e good 
 
THE FACULTY OF IMPROMPTU SPEECn. 237 
 
 word of God. Men may well be slow of speech in dis- 
 cussing themes beyond the range of their experience ; 
 but you, warmed with love towards the King, and enjoy- 
 ing fellowship with him, Avill find your hearts inditing a 
 good matter, and your tongues will be as the pens of 
 ready writers. Get at the roots of spiritual truths by 
 an experimental acquaintance with them, so shall you 
 with readiness expound tliem to others. Ignorance of 
 theology is no rare thing in our pulpits, and the wonder 
 is not that so few men are extempore speakers, but that 
 so many are, when theologians arc so scarce. We shall 
 never have great preachers till we have great divines. 
 Yoii cannot build a man-of-war out of a currant bush, 
 nor can great soul-moving preachers be formed out of 
 superficial students. If you would l)e fluent, that is to 
 say floAvi ng, be filled with all knowledge, and especially 
 with the knowledge of Christ Jesus your Lord. But we 
 remarked that a fund of expressions would be also of 
 mucli help to the extempore speaker ; and, truly, second 
 only to a store of ideas is a rich vocabulary. Beauties 
 of language, elegancies of speech, and above all forcible 
 sentences are to be selected, remembered, and imitated. 
 You are not to carry that gold pencil-case with you, and 
 jot down down every polysyllabic word Avdiicli you meet 
 Avith in your reading, so as to put it in your next sermon, 
 but you are to know what words mean, to be able to 
 estimate the power of a synonym, to judge the rhythm 
 of a sentence, and to Aveigli the force of an expletive. 
 You must be masters of Avords, they must be your genii, 
 your angels, your thunderbolts, or your drops of honey. 
 Mere word-gatherers are hoarders of oyster shells, bean 
 husks, and apple-parings ; but to a man Avho has wide 
 information and deep thought, words are baskets of sil- 
 vei- in which to serve up his apples of gold. See to it 
 
238 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 that yon have a good team of words to draw the wagon 
 of your thoughts. 
 
 I tJiink, too, that a man who would speak well, ex- 
 temporaneously, must he careful to select a topic wliich 
 lic understands. This is the main j)oint. Ever since I 
 have l)een in London, in order to get into the habit of 
 speaking extemporaneously, I have never studied or pre- 
 pared anything for the Monday evening prayer-meetiug. 
 I have all along selected that occasion as the opportunity 
 for off-hand exhortation ; but you will observe that I do 
 not on such occasions select difficult expository topics, 
 or abstruse themes, but restrict myself to simple, homely 
 talk, about the elements of our faith. When standing 
 up on such occasions, one's mind makes a review, and 
 inquires, ''What subject has already taken up my 
 thought during the day ? What have I met with in my 
 reading during the past week ? What is most laid upon 
 my heart at this hour ? What is suggested by the hymns 
 or the prayers ? " It is of no use to rise before an as- 
 sembly, and hope to be inspired upon subjects of which 
 you know nothing ; if yon are so unwise, the result will 
 be that as you know nothing you will probably say it, 
 and the people will not be edified. But I do not see why 
 a man cannot speak extemporaneously upon a sul^ject 
 which he fully understands. Any tradesman, well 
 versed in his line of business, could explain it to you 
 without needing to retire for meditation ; and surely we 
 ought to be equally familiar with the first principles of 
 our holy faith ; we ought not to feel at a loss when 
 called upon to speak upon topics which constitute the 
 daily bread of our souls. I do not see what benefit is 
 gained in such a case, by the mere manual labor of 
 writing before speaking ; because in so doing, a man 
 would write extemporaneously, and extemporaneous 
 
THE FACULTY OF IMPROMPTU SPEECH. 2^9 
 
 writing is likely to be even feebler than extemporaneous 
 t?peech. The gain of the writing lies in the o])porr,nnity 
 of careful revision ; but as able writers are able to cx- 
 ]n-ess their thoughts correctly at the first, so also may 
 able speakers. The thought of a man who finds himself 
 upon his legs, dilating upon a theme with which he is 
 familiar, may be very far from being his first thought ; 
 it may be the cream of his meditations warmed by the 
 glow of his heart. He, having studied the subject well 
 before, though not at that moment, may deliver himself 
 most powerfully ; whereas another man, sitting down to 
 write, may only be penning his first ideas, which may be 
 vague and vapid. Do not attempt to be impromptu 
 then, unless you have well studied the theme — this para- 
 dox is a counsel of prudence. I remember to have beei) 
 tried rather sharply upon one occasion, and had I not 
 been versed in impromptu address, I know not how it 
 would have sped with me. I was expected to jjreach in 
 a certain chapel, and there was a crowded congregation, 
 but I Avas not in time, being delayed by some blockade 
 upon the railroad ; so another minister went on with the 
 service, and when I reached the place, all breathless with 
 running, he was already preaching a sermon. Seeing me 
 appear at the front door and pass up the aisle, he stopped 
 and said, "There he is," and looking at me, he added, 
 " I'll make way for you ; come up and finish the sermon," 
 I asked him Avliat was the text and how far he had gone 
 with it. He told me what the text was, and said he 
 had just passed through the first head ; without Jiesi- 
 tation I took up the discourse at that point and finished 
 the sermon, and I should be ashamed of any man here 
 who could not have done the same, the circumstancoa 
 being such as to make the task a remarkably easy one. 
 In the first place the minister was my grandfather, and, 
 
240 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 in the second place, the text was — " By gi-acc are ye 
 saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the 
 gift of God." He must have been a more foolish animal 
 than that which Balaam rode, if, at such a juncture, he 
 had 7iot found a tongue. " By grace are ye saved," had 
 ])een spoken of as indicating the source of salvation ; who 
 could not follow by describing the next clause — " through 
 fciith," as the channel? One did not need to study much 
 to show that salvation is received by us through faith. 
 Yet, on that occasion, I had a further trial ; for when I 
 had proceeded a little, and was warming to my work, a 
 hand patted my back approvingly, and a voice said, 
 '' That's right — that's right; tell them that again, for 
 fear they should forget it." Thereupon I repeated the 
 truth, and a little further on, when I was becoming 
 rather deeply experimental I was gently pulled by my 
 coat-tail, and the old gentleman stood up in front and 
 said, " Now, my grandson can tell you this as a theory, 
 but I am here to bear witness to it as a matter of practi- 
 cal experience ; I am older than he is, and I must give 
 you my testimony as an old man." Then after having 
 given us his personal experience, he said, "There, now, 
 my grandson can preach the gospel a great deal better 
 than I can, but he cannot preach a better gospel, can 
 he?" Well, gentlemen, I can easily imagine tliat if I 
 had not possessed some little power of extemporaneous 
 S]ieecli upon that occasion, I might have been somewhat 
 rullled ; but as it was, it came as naturally- as if it had 
 been prearranged. 
 
 The acquisition of another language affords a fine 
 drilling for the practice of extempore speech. Brought 
 iuto connection with the roots of words, and the rules 
 of speech, and being compelled to note the differentia of 
 the two languages, a man grows by degrees to be much at 
 
THE FACULTY OF IMPROMPTU SPEUCF. 241 
 
 home witli parts of speech, moods, tenses, and inflfTtioi^s; 
 like a workman he becomes famihar with his tools, and 
 handles them as evei^ day companions. I know of no 
 better exercise than to translate with as much rapidity 
 as possible a portion of Virgil or Tacitus, and then wi*^^lx 
 deliberation to amend one's mistakes. Persons who 
 know uo better, think all time thrown away which is 
 spent upon the classics, but if it were only for the use- 
 fulness of such students to the sacred orator, they ought 
 to be retained in all our collegiate institutions. AVho 
 does not see that the perpetual comparison of the term? 
 and idioms of two languages must aid facility of expres- 
 sion ? "Who does not see moreover that by this exercise 
 the mind becomes able to appreciate refinements and sub- 
 tleties of meaning, and so acquires the power of distin- 
 guishing between things that differ — a power essential 
 to an expositor of the Word of God, and an extemporf 
 declarer of his truth. Learn, gentlemen, to put together, 
 and unscrew all the machinery of language ; mark everv 
 cog, and wheel, and bolt, and rod, and you will feel the 
 more free to drive the engine, even at an express speed 
 should emergencies demand it. 
 
 Every man who wishes to acquire this art must 
 practise it. It was by slow degrees, as Burke says, 
 that Charles Fox became the most brilliant and power- 
 ful debater that ever lived. He attributed his success 
 to the resolution which he formed when very young, of 
 speaking well or ill, at least once every night. " Dur- 
 ing five whole seasons," he used to say, " I spoke every 
 night but one, and I regret only that I did not speak on 
 that night too." At first he may do so Avith no other 
 auditory than the chairs and books of his study, imitat- 
 ing the example of a gentleman who, upon applying for 
 admission to this college, assured me that he had for 
 
242 LECTUKES TO MY STUDEJiTTS. 
 
 two years practised himself in extempore preacliing in 
 bis own room. Students living together might be of 
 great mutual assistance by alternately acting the part 
 of audience and speaker, with a little friendly criticism 
 at the close of each attempt. Conversation, too, may 
 be of essential service, if it be a matter of principle to 
 make it solid and edifying. Thought is to be linked 
 with speech, that is the problem ; and it may assist a 
 man in its solution, if he endeavors in his private musings 
 to think aloud. So has this become habitual to me that 
 I find it very helpful to be able, in private devotion, to 
 loray with my voice ; reading aloud is more beneficial 
 to me than the silent process ; and when I am mentally 
 working out a sermon, it is a relief to me to speak to 
 myself as the thoughts flow forth. Of course this only 
 masters half the difiiculty, and you must practise in 
 public, in order to overcome the trepidation occasioned 
 by the sight of an audience ; but half way is a great 
 part of a Journey. Good impromptiT speech is just 
 tbe utterance of a practised thinker — a man of informa- 
 tion, meditating on his legs, and allowing his thoughts 
 to march through his mouth into the open air. Think 
 aloud as much as you can when you are alone, and you 
 will soon be on the high road to success in this matter. 
 The discussion and debates in the school-room are of 
 vital importance as a further step, and I would urge the 
 more retiring brethren to take a part in them. The 
 practice of calling upon you to speak upon a topic 
 drawn at random from a bowl out of a wide selection 
 has been introduced among you, and we must more 
 frequently resort to it. What I condemned as a part 
 of religious worsliip, we may freely use as a scholastic 
 exercise among ourselves. It is calculated to try a 
 man's readiness and self-command, and those who fail 
 
THE FACULTY OF IMPROMPTU SPEECH. 343 
 
 m it are probably as much benefited as those who suc- 
 ceed, for self-knowledge may be as useful to one as 
 practice to another. If the discovery that you are as 
 yet a bungler in oratory should drive you to severer 
 study and more resolute endeavors, it may be the true 
 path to ultimate success. 
 
 In addition to the practice commended, I must urge 
 upon you tbe necessity of being cool and confident. As 
 Sydney Smith says, " A great deal of talent is lost to the 
 world for want of a little courage." This is not to 
 be easily acquired by tbe young speaker. Cannot you 
 young sj)eakers sympathize with Blondin, the rope 
 walker ? Do you not sometimes feel when you are 
 preaching as though you are walking on a I'ope high in 
 the air, and do you not tremble and wonder whether you 
 will reach the other end in safety ? Sometimes when 
 you have been flourishing that beautiful balancing pole, 
 and watching the metapborical spangles which flash 
 poetry upon your audience, have you not been half 
 regretful that you ever exposed yourself to such risks of 
 sudden descent, or, to drop the figure, have you not 
 wondered whether you would be able to conclude the 
 sentence, or find a verb for the nominative, or an accu- 
 sative for tlie verb ? Everything depends upon your 
 being cool and unflurried. Forebodings of failure, and 
 fear of man, will ruin you. Go on, trusting in God, 
 and all will be well. If you have made a blunder in 
 grammar, and you are half inclined to go back to cor- 
 rect it, you will soon make another, and your hesitation 
 will involve you as in a net. Let me whisper — for it is 
 meant for your ear alone — it is always a bad thing to 
 go back. If you make a verbal blunder, go on, and io 
 not notice it. My father gave me a very good rule when 
 I was learning to write, which I think of equal utility in 
 
2i4 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 learning to speak. He used to say, " "When yoiT aro 
 writing, if you make a mistake by misspelling a Avoid, 
 or by writing a wrong word, do not cross it out and 
 make a mess of it, but see how you can in the readiest 
 way alter what you were going to say so as to bring in 
 what yon have written, and leave no trace of mistake." 
 So in speaking, if the sentence will not finish in the 
 best way, conclude it in another. It is of very little use 
 to go back to amend, for you thus call attention to the 
 flaw which perhaps few had noticed, and you draw off 
 the mind from your subject to your language, which is 
 the last thing which the joreacher should do. If, how- 
 ever, your lapsus linguce should be noticed, all persons 
 of sense will forgive a young beginner, and they will 
 rather admire you than otherwise for attaching small 
 importance to such slii)s, and pressing on with your 
 whole heart towards your main design. A novice at 
 public speaking is like a rider unused to horseback ; if his 
 horse stumbles he fears he will be down and throw him 
 over his head, or if it be a little fresh, he feels assured 
 that it will run away ; and the eye of a friend, or the 
 remark of a little boy, will make him as wretched as if 
 he were lashed to the back of the great red dragon. 
 But when a man is well used to mount he knows no 
 dangers, and he meets with none, because his courage 
 prevents them. When a speaker feels, " I am master of 
 the situation," he usually is so. His confidence averts 
 the disasters which trembling would be sure to create. 
 My brethren, if the Lord has indeed ordained you to 
 the ministry, you have the best reasons for being bold 
 and calm, for whom have you to fear ? You have to 
 deliver your Lord's errand as he enables you, and if this 
 be done, you are responsible to no oixe but your heav- 
 enly Master, who is no liai'sh judge. You do not enter 
 
THE FACULTY OF [MPROMPTU SPEECH. 245 
 
 the pulpit to shine as .an orator, or to gratify the pre- 
 dictions of your audience : you are the messenger of 
 heaven and not the servants of men.* Kemember the 
 words of tlie Lord to Jeremiah, and be afraid 1o be 
 afraid. '' Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, 
 and speak unto them all that I command thee : be not 
 dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before 
 them." Jer. i. 17. Trust in the Holy Spirit's present 
 help, and the fear of man which bringeth a snare will 
 depart from you. "When you are able to feel at home in 
 the pulpit, and can look round and speak to the people 
 as a brother talking to brethren, then you will be able to 
 extemporize, but not till then. Bashfulness and timidity, 
 which are so beautiful in our younger brethren, will be 
 succeeded by that true modesty which forgets self, and 
 is not careful as to its own reputation so long as Christ 
 is preached in the most forcible manner at command. 
 
 In order to the holy and useful exercise of extemporal 
 speech, the Christian minister must cultivate a childlike 
 reliance uj^on the immediate assistance of the Holy Spirit. 
 "I believe in the Holy Ghost," says the Creed. It is 
 to be feared that many do not make this a real article of 
 belief. To go up and down all the week wasting time, 
 and then to cast ourselves upon the Spirit's aid, is 
 wicked presumption, an attempt to make the Lord 
 minister to our sloth and self-indulgence ; but in an 
 emergency the case is widely different. When a man 
 
 * " At first my chief solicitude used to be what 1 should find 
 to say ; I hope it is now rather that I may not speak in vaiu. 
 For the Lord hath not sent me here to acquire the character of a 
 ready speaker, but to win souls to Christ and to edify his people. 
 Often when I begin I am at a loss how I shall proceed, but one 
 thing insensibly offers after another, and in general the best and 
 most useful parts of ray sermon occur de novo, while I am preach> 
 ing." — Jtf.'ift Newton. " Letters to a Student in Divinity." 
 
246 LECTUEES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 finds himself unayoidably called upon to speak witlioui 
 any preparation, then he may with fullest confidence 
 east himself upon the Spirit of God. The divine mind 
 beyond a doubt comes into contact with the human 
 intellect, lifts it out of its weakness and distraction, 
 makes it soaring and strong, and enables it both to 
 understand and to express divine truth in a manner far 
 beyond its unaided powers. Such interpositions, like 
 miracles, are not meant to supersede our efforts or 
 slacken our diligence, but are the Lord's assistance 
 which we may count upon at an emergency. His Spirit 
 will be ever with us, but esi^ecially under severe stress 
 of service. Earnestly as I advise you not to try jiurely 
 impromptu speakmg more than you are obliged to do, 
 till you have become somewhat matured in your minis- 
 try, I yet exhort you to speak in that manner whenever 
 compelled to do so, believing that in the self-same hour 
 it shall be given you what you shall sj)eak. 
 
 If you are happy enough to acquire the power of ex- 
 temporary speech, pray recollect that you may very 
 readily lose it. I have been struck with this in my own 
 experience, and I refer to that because it is the best evi- 
 dence that I can give you. If for two successive Sundays 
 I make my notes a little longer and fuller than usual, I 
 find on the third occasion that I require them longer 
 still ; and I also observe that if on occasions I lean a 
 little more to my recollection of my thoughts, and am 
 not so extemporaneous as I have been accustomed to be, 
 there is a direct craving and even an increased necessity 
 for pre-composition. If a man begins to walk with a 
 stick merely for a whim, he will soon come to require a 
 a stick ; if you indulge your eyes with spectacles they 
 will speedily demand them as a permanent appendage ; 
 and if you were to walk with crutches for a month, at 
 
TUE FACLLTY OF IMFKOMl'TU SPEECH. ^47 
 
 the end of tlic time they would be almost necessary to 
 your movements, although naturally your limbs might 
 be as sound and healthy as any man's. 111 uses create 
 an ill nature. You must continually practise extempo- 
 rizing, and if to gam suitable opportunities you should 
 fiequently speak the word in cottages, in the school- 
 rooms of our hamlets, or to two or three by the wayside, 
 your profiting shall be known unto all men. 
 
 It may save you mucli surprise and grief if you are 
 forewarned, that there will be great variations in your 
 power of utterance. To-day your tongue may be the pen 
 of a ready writer, to-morrow your thoughts and words 
 may be alike frost-bound. Living things are sensitive, 
 and are affected by a variety of forces ; only the merely 
 mechanical can be reckoned upon with absolute certainty. 
 Think it not strange if you should frequently feel your- 
 self to have failed, nor wonder if it should turn out 
 that at such times you have best succeeded. You must 
 not expect to become sufficient as of yourself, no habit or 
 exercise can render you independent of divine assistance; 
 and if you have preached well forty-nine times when 
 called upon without notice, this is no excuse for self-con- 
 fidence on the fiftieth occasion, for if the Lord should 
 leave you, you will be at a dead stand. Your variable 
 moods of fluency and difficulty, will by God's grace tend 
 to keep you humbly looking up to the strong for strength. 
 
 Above all things beware of letting your tongue outrun 
 your brains. Guard against a feeble fluency, a garrulous 
 prosiness, a facility of saying nothing. What a pleasure 
 it is 10 hear of a brother breaking down who presumed 
 u]ion his powers to keep on when he really had nothing 
 to say ! May such a consummation come to all who err 
 in that direction. My brethren, it is a hideous gift to 
 possess, to be able to say nothing at extreme length. 
 
248 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 Elongated nonsense, paraphrastic platitude, wire-drawn 
 commonplace, or sacred rliodomontade, are common 
 enough, and are tlie scandal and shame of extemporiz- 
 ing. Even when sentiments of no value are beautifully 
 expressed, and neatly worded, what is the use of them ? 
 Out of nothing comes nothing. Extemporary speech 
 Avithout study is a cloud without rain, a well without 
 water, a fatal gift, injurious equally to its possessor and 
 his flock. Men have applied to me whom I have denied 
 admission to this College, because being utterly destitute 
 both of education and of a sense of their own ignorance, 
 their boundless conceit and enormous volubility made 
 them dangerous subjects for training. Some have even 
 reminded me of the serpent in the Apocalypse, which cast 
 out of his mouth Avater as a flood so plenteously that the 
 woman was likely to have been carried away with it. 
 "Wound up like clocks, they keep on, and on, and on, till 
 they run down, aud blessed is he who has least acquaint- 
 ance with them. The sermons of such jireachers are 
 like Snug the joiner's part when he acted the lion. ' ' You 
 may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring." Bet- 
 ter to lose, or rather never to possess, the gift of ready 
 utterance, than to degrade ourselves into mere noise 
 makers, the living representations of Paul's sounding 
 brass and tinkling cymbal. 
 
 I might have said much more if I had extended the 
 subject to what is usualUj called extempore preaching, 
 that is to say, the preparation of the sermon so far as 
 thoughts go, and leaving the words to be found during 
 delivery; but this is quite another matter, and although 
 looked upon as a groat attainment by some, it is, as I 
 believe, an indispensable requisite for the pulpit, and by 
 no means a mere luxury of talent ; but of this we will 
 speak on another occasion. 
 
LECTURE XL 
 
 THE MINISTER'S FAINTING FITS. 
 
 As it is recorded that David, in the heat of battle, 
 waxed faint, so may it be written of all the servants of 
 the Lord. Fits of depression come over the most of ns. 
 Usually cheerful as we may be, we must at intervals be 
 cast down. The strong are not always vigorous, the 
 wise not ahvays ready, the brave not always courageous, 
 and the joyous not always liappy. There may be here 
 and there men of iron, to whom wear and tear work no 
 l^erceptible detriment, but surely the rust frets even 
 these ; and as for ordinary men, the Lord knows, and 
 makes them to know, that they are but dust. Knowing 
 by most painful experience what deep depression of spirit 
 means, being visited therewith at seasons by no means 
 few or far between, I thought it might be consolatory to 
 some of my brethren if I gave my thoughts thereon, 
 that younger men might not fancy that some strange 
 thing had happened to them when they became for a 
 season possessed by melancholy ; and that sadder men 
 might know that one upon whom the sun has shone 
 right joyously did not always walk in the light. 
 
 It is not necessary by quotations from the biographies 
 of eminent ministers to prove that seasons of fearful 
 prostration have fallen to the lot of most, if not all of 
 them. The life of Luther might suffice to give a thou- 
 sand instances, and he was by no means of the weaker 
 sort. His great spirit was often in the seventh heaven 
 
250 LECTUllES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 of exultation, and as frequently on the borders of de- 
 spair. His very death-bed was not free from tempests, 
 and he sobbed himself into his last sleep like a great 
 ■wearied child. Instead of multiplying cases, let us 
 dwell upon the reasons Avhy these things are permitted ; 
 why it is that the children of light sometimes walk in 
 the thick darkness ; why the heralds of the daybreak 
 find themselves at times in tenfold night. 
 
 Is it not first that ilLey are men ? Being men, they 
 are com'passed with infirmity, and heirs of sorrow. 
 Well said the wise man in tlie Apocrypha,* " Great 
 travail is created for all men, and heavy yoke on the 
 sons of Adam, from the day that they go out of their 
 mother's womb unto that day that they return to the 
 mother of all things — namely, their thoughts and fear 
 of their hearts, and their imagination of things that 
 tliey Avail for, and the day of death. From him that 
 sitteth in the glorious throne, to him that sitteth be- 
 neatli in the earth and ashes : from him that is clothed 
 in blue silk, and weareth a crown, to him that is clothed 
 in simple linen — wrath, envy, trouble, and unquietness, 
 and fear of death and rigor, and such things come to 
 both man and beast, but sevenfold to the ungodly."' 
 Gi'ace guards us from much of this, but because we have 
 not more of grace we still suffer even from ills preventi- 
 ble. Even under the economy of redemption it is most 
 clear that we are to endure infirmities, otherwise there 
 Avore no need of the promised Spirit to help us in them. 
 It is of need be that we are sometimes in heaviness. 
 Good men are promised tribulation in this Avorld, and 
 ministers may expect a larger share than others, tfiat 
 they may learn sympathy with the Lord's suffering peo- 
 ple, aud so may be fitting shepherds of an ailing flock. 
 
 * Ecclus xl. 1, 3, 3. 4, 5-8. 
 
TUE minister's FAINTIJsG FITS. 251 
 
 Disembodied spirits might have been sent to proclaim 
 the Avord, but tliey could not have entered into the feel- 
 ings of those who, being in this body, do groan, being 
 burdened ; angels might have been ordained evangelists, 
 but their celestial attributes would have disqualified 
 them from having compassion on the ignorant ; men of 
 marble might have been fashioned, but their impassive 
 natures would have been a sarcasm upon our feebleness, 
 and a mockery of our wants. Men, and men subject to 
 human passions, the all-wise God has chosen to be his 
 vessels of gi-ace ; hence these tears, hence these perplex- 
 ities and castings down. 
 
 Moreover, most of us arc in some ivay or other U7i- 
 soiDid phi/sicalli/. Here and there we meet with an old 
 man who could not remember that ever he was laid 
 aside for a day ; but the great mass of us labor under 
 some form or other of infirmity, either in body or mind. 
 Certain bodily maladies, especially those connected with 
 the digestive organs, the liver, and the spleen, are the 
 fruitful fountains of despondency ; and, let a man strive 
 as he may against their influence, there will be hours 
 and circumstances in which they will for awhile over- 
 come him. As to mental maladies, is any man alto- 
 gether sane ? Are we not all a little off the balance ? 
 Some minds appear to have a gloomy tinge essential to 
 their very individuality ; of them it may be said, " Mel- 
 ancholy marked them for her own ; " fine minds withal, 
 and ruled by noblest principles, but yet most prone to 
 forget the silver lining, and to remember only the cloud. 
 Such men may sing with the old poet — * 
 
 " Our hearts are broke, our harps unstringed be. 
 Our only music's sighs and groans, 
 Our songs are to the tune of lachrymm. 
 We're fretted all to skin and bones " 
 
 * Thomas Washbourne. 
 
352 LECTURES TO ilT STUDE2^TS. 
 
 These infirmities may be no detriment to a man's career 
 of special usefulness ; they may even have been imposed 
 npon him by divine wisdom as necessary qualifications for 
 his peculiar course of service. Some plants owe their 
 medicinal qualities to the marsh in which they grow ; 
 others to the shades in Avhich alone they flourish. There 
 are precious fruits put forth by the moon as well as by 
 the sun. Boats needs ballast as well as sail ; a drag on 
 the carriage-wheel is no hindrance when the road runs 
 downhill. Pain has, probably, in some cases developed 
 genius ; hunting out the soul which otherwise might 
 have slept like a lion in its den. Had it not been for 
 tlie broken wing, some might have lost themselves in 
 the clouds, some even of those choice doves who now 
 bear the olive-branch in their mouths and show the way 
 to the ark. But where in body and mind they are pre- 
 disposing causes to lowness of spirit, it is no marvel if 
 in dark moments the heart succumbs to them ; the won- 
 der in many cases is — and if inner lives could be written, 
 men would see it so — how some ministers keep at their 
 work at all, and still wear a smile upon their counte- 
 nances. Grace has its triumph still, and patience has its 
 martyrs ; martyrs none the less to be honored because 
 the flames kindle about their spirits rather than their 
 bodies, and their burning is unseen of human eyes. The 
 ministries of Jeremiahs are as acceptable as those of 
 Isaiahs, and even the sullen Jonah is a true prophet of 
 the Lord, as Nineveh felt full well. Despise not the 
 lame, for it is written that they take the prey ; but honor 
 those who, being faint, are yet pursuing. The tender- 
 eyed Leah was more fruitful than the beautiful Eachel, 
 and Ihe griefs of Hannah were more divine than tlie 
 boastings of Peninnah. " Blessed are they that mourn,'' 
 Baid the Man of Sorrows, and let none account tluin 
 
THE Mlis'ISTER's FAINTING FITS. 253 
 
 other-wise when tlieir tears are salted with grace. We 
 have the treasure of the gospel in earthen vessels, and 
 if there be a flaw in the vessel here and there, let none 
 wonder. 
 
 Our ivorlc, tolien earnestly undertaken, lays ns open 
 to attacks in the direction of depression. Who can bear 
 the weight of souls Avithout sinking to the dust ? Pas- 
 sionate longings after men's conversion, if not fully satis- 
 fied (and when are they ?), consume the soul with 
 anxiety and disappointment. To see the hopeful turn 
 aside, the godly grow cold, professors abusing their priv- 
 ileges, and sinners Avaxing more bold in sin — are not 
 these sights enough to crush us to the earth ? The king- 
 dom comes not as we would, the reverend name is not 
 hallowed as we desire, and for this we must weep. 
 How can we be otherwise than sorrowful, while men be- 
 lieve not our report, and the divine arm is not revealed ? 
 All mental work tends to weary and to depress, for much 
 study is a Aveariness of the flesh ; but ours is more than 
 mental work — it is heart work, the labor of our inmost 
 soul. How often, on Lord's-day evenings, do we feel as 
 if life Avere completely Avashed out of us ! After pouring 
 out our souls over our congregations, we feel like empty 
 earthen pitchers wliich a child might break. Probably, 
 if Ave were more like Paul, and watched for souls at a 
 nobler rate, we should knoAV more of what it is to be 
 eaten up by the zeal of the Lord's house. It is our duty 
 and our privilege to exhaust our lives for Jesus. We 
 are not to be living specimens of men in fine preserva- 
 tion, but living sacrifices, Avhose lot is to be consumed ; 
 we are to spend and to be spent, not to lay ourselves up 
 in lavender, and nurse our flesh. Such soul-travail as 
 that of a faithful minister will bring on occasional seasons 
 of exhaustion, when heart and flesh Avill fail. Moses' 
 
254 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 hands grew heavy in intercession, and Paul cried ont, 
 ''Who is sufficient for these things?" Even John the 
 Baptist is thought to have had his fainting fits, and the 
 apostles were once amazed, and were sore afraid. 
 
 Our position in the church mil also conduce to this. 
 A minister fully equipped for his work will usually be 
 a spirit by himself, above, beyond, and apart from 
 others. The most loving of his people cannot enter into 
 his peculiar thoughts, cares, and temptations. In the 
 ranks, men walk shoulder to shoulder, with many com- 
 rades, but as the officer rises in rank, men of his stand- 
 ing are fewer in number. There arc many soldiers, few 
 captains, fewer colonels, but only one commander-in- 
 chief. So, in our churches, the man whom the Lord 
 raises as a leader becomes, in the same degree in which 
 he is a superior man, a solitary man. The mountain- 
 tops stand solemnly ajoart, and talk only with God as he 
 visits their terrible solitudes. Men of God who rise 
 above their fellows into nearer communion with heavenly 
 things, in their weaker moments feel the lack of human 
 sympathy. Like their Lord in Gethsemane, they look 
 in vain for comfort to the disciples sleeping around them ; 
 they are shocked at the apathy of their little band of 
 brethren, and return to their secret agony with all the 
 heavier harden pressing upon them, because they have 
 found their dearest companions slumbering. No one 
 knows, but he who has endured it, tlie solitude of a soul 
 which has outstripped its fellows in zeal for the Lord of 
 hosts : it dares not reveal itself, lest men count it mad ; 
 it cannot conceal itself, for a fire burns within its bones • 
 only before the Lord does it find rest. Our Lord's 
 sending out his disciples by tAvo and tAvo manifested that 
 lie knew what Avas in men ; but for such a man as Paul, 
 it seems to me that no helpmeet was found ; Barnabas, 
 
THE minister's FAINTING FITS. 255 
 
 or Silas, or Luke, were hills too low to liold high con- 
 verse "with such a Himalayan summit as the apostle of 
 the Gentiles. This loneliness, Avhicli if I mistake not is 
 felt by many of my brethren, is a fertile source of de 
 pression ; and our ministers' fraternal meetings, and the 
 cultivation of holy intercourse with kindred minds, will, 
 with God's blessing, help us gi'eatly to escape the snare. 
 There can be little doubt ihatscdcntari/ habits have a 
 tendency to create despondency in some constitutions. 
 Burton, in his " Anatomy of Melancholy," has a chapter 
 upon this cause of sadness ; and, quoting from one of 
 the myriad authors whom he lays under contribution, 
 he says — " Students are negligent of their bodies. 
 Other men look to their tools ; a painter will wash his 
 pencils ; a smith Avill look to his hammer, anvil, forge ; 
 a husbandman will mend his plough-irons, and grind his 
 hatchet if it be dull ; a falconer or huntsman will have 
 an especial care of his hawks, hounds, horses, dogs, etc. ; 
 a musician will string and unstring his lute ; only schol- 
 ars neglect that instrument (their brain and spirits I 
 mean) which they daily use. Well saith Lucan, ' See 
 thou twist not the rope so hard that it break.'" To sit 
 long in one posture, poring over a book, or driving a 
 quill, is in itself a taxing of nature ; but add to this 
 a badly-ventilated chamber, a body which has loug been 
 without muscular exercise, and a heart burdened witli 
 many cares, and we have all the elements for preparing 
 a seething cauldron of desjjair, especially in the dim 
 months of fog — 
 
 " When a blanket wraps the day. 
 When the rotteu woodland dripa, 
 And the leaf is stamped in clay." 
 
 Let a man be naturally as blithe as a bird, he will 
 hardly be able to bear up year after year against such u 
 
256 LECTURES TO MY STUDElS*TS. 
 
 suicidal process ; he will make his study a prison a ad hia 
 hooks the warders of a gaol, Avhile nature lies outside his 
 window calling him to health and beckoning him to 
 joy. He who forgets the humming of the bees amoug 
 the heather, the cooing of the wood-pigeons in the 
 forest, the song of birds in the woods, the rippling 
 of rills among the rushes, and the sigliing of the wind 
 among the pines, needs not wonder if his heart forgets 
 to sing and his soul grows heavy. A day's breathing of 
 fresh air upon the hills, or a few hours' ramble in the 
 beech woods' umbrageous calm, would sweep the cob- 
 webs out of the brain of scores of our toiling ministers 
 who are now but half alive. A mouthful of sea air, or 
 a stiff walk in tlie wind's face, would not give grace to 
 the soul, but it would yield oxygen to the body, which is 
 next best. 
 
 "Heaviest the heart is in a heavy air, 
 Ev'ry wind that rises blows away despair." 
 
 The ferns and the rabbits, the streams and the trout, 
 the fir trees and the squirrels, the primroses and the 
 Tiolets, the farm-yard, the new-mown hay, and the 
 fragrant hops — these are the best medicines for hypo- 
 cliondriacs, the surest tonics for the declining, the best 
 refreshments for the weary. For lack of opportunity, 
 or inclination, these great remedies are neglected, and 
 the student becomes a self-immolated victim. 
 
 Tlie times most favorable to fits of depression, so far 
 as I have experienced, may be summed up in a brief 
 catalogue. First among them I muii mention the hour 
 of great success. When at last a long-cherished desire ia 
 fulfilled, when God has been glorified greatly by our 
 means, and a great triumph achieved, then we are apt 
 to faint. It might be imagined that amid special favors 
 onr soul would soar to heights of ecstasy, and rejoice 
 
THE minister's FAINTING FITS. 257 
 
 witli joy unspeiikable, but it is generally the reverse. 
 The Lord seldom exposes his Avarriors to the perils of 
 exultation over victory ; he knows that few of them can 
 endure such a test, and therefore dashes their cup with 
 bitterness. See Elias after the fire has fallen from 
 lieaven, after Baal's priests have been slaughtered and 
 the rain has deluged the barren land ! For him no 
 notes of self-complacent music, no strutting like a con- 
 queror in robes of triumph ; he flees from Jezebel, and 
 feeling the revulsion of his intense excitement, he prays 
 that he may die. lie who must never see death, yearns 
 after the rest of the grave, even as Caesar, the world's 
 monarch, in his moments of pain cried like a sick girl. 
 Poor human nature cannot bear such strains as heavenly 
 triumphs bring to it ; there must come a reaction. 
 Excess of joy or excitement must be paid for by subse- 
 quent depressions. While th.e trial lasts, the strength is 
 equal to the emergency ; but when it is over, naturtU 
 weakness claims the right to show itself. Secretly 
 sustained, Jacob can wrestle all night, but he must 
 limp in the morning when the contest is over, lest he 
 boast himself beyond measure. Paul may be caught up 
 to the third heaven, and hear unspeakable things, but a 
 thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet him, 
 must be the inevitable sequel. Men cannot bear unal- 
 loyed happiness ; even good men are not yet fit to have 
 " their brows with laurel and myrtle bound," without 
 enduring secret humiliation to keep them in their proper 
 place. Whirled from off our feet by a revival, carried 
 aloft by popularity, exalted by success in soul-winning, 
 we should be as the chaff which the wind driveth away, 
 ■were it not that the gracious discipline of mercy breaks 
 the ships of our vainglory with a strong east wind, and 
 
258 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 casts ns sliipAvreeked, naked and forlorn, upon the 
 Ilock of As^es. 
 
 Before any great aclUevement, some measure of tlie 
 same depression is very usual. Surveying the difficulties 
 before us, our hearts sink within vis. The sons of Anak 
 stalk before us, and we are as grasshoppers in our own 
 sight in their presence. The cities of Canaan are walled 
 up to heaven, and who are Ave that we should hope to 
 capture them ? We are ready to cast down our weapons 
 and take to our heels. Nineveh is a great city, and we 
 would flee unto Tarshish sooner than encounter its noisy 
 crowds. Already we look for a ship which may bear us 
 quietly away from the terrible scene, and only a dread of 
 tempest restrains our recreant footstei^s. Such was my 
 experience Avhen I first became a pastor in London. My 
 success appalled me ; and the thought of the career whicli 
 it seemed to open up, so far from elating me, cast me 
 into the lowest depth, out of whicli I uttered my miserere 
 and found no room for a gloria in excelsis. Who was I 
 that I should continue to lead so great a multitude ? I 
 would betake me to my village obscurity, or emigrate to 
 America, and find a solitary nest in the backwoods, where 
 I might be sufficient for the things which would bo de- 
 manded of me. It was just then that the curtain was 
 rising upon my life-work, and I dreaded what it might 
 reveal. I hope I was not faithless, but I was timorous 
 and filled with a sense of my OAvn unfitness. I dreaded 
 the work which a gracious providence had prepared for 
 me. I felt myself a mere cliild, and trembled as I heard 
 the voice which said, "Arise, and thresh the mountains, 
 and make them as chaff." This depression comes ovei 
 me whenever the Lord is preparing a larger blessing for 
 my ministry ; the cloud is black before it breaks, and 
 o^ ershadows before it yields its deluge of mercy. Dcpres- 
 
THE minister's FAIXTINQ FITS. 259 
 
 sioa has now become to me as a prophet in rougli cloth- 
 ing, a Jolin the Baptist, lierakling the nearer coming of 
 my Lord's richer benison. So haA'e far better men found 
 it. The scouring of the vessel has fitted it for the Master's 
 use. Immersion in suffering has preceded the baptism 
 of the Holy Ghost. Fasting gives an appetite for the 
 banquet. The Lord is revealed in the backside of the 
 desert, while his servant keepeth the sheep and waits in 
 solitary awe. The wilderness is the way to Canaan. 
 The low valley leads to the towering mountain. Defeat 
 prepares for victory. The raven is sent forth before the 
 dove. The darkest hour of the night precedes the day- 
 dawn. The mariners go down to the depths, but the 
 next wave makes them mount to the heaven ; their soul 
 is melted because of trouble before he bringeth them to 
 their desired haven. 
 
 In the 7)iidsi of a long stretch of unhroTcen labor, the 
 same affliction may be looked for. The bow cannot be 
 always bent without fear of breaking. Rei^ose is as need- 
 ful to the mind as sleep to the body. Our Sabbaths are 
 our days of toil, and if we do not rest uj)on some other 
 day we shall break down. Even the earth must lie fal- 
 low and have her Sabbaths, and so must we. Hence the 
 wisdom and compassion of our Lord, when he said to his 
 disciples, "Let us go into the desert and rest awhile." 
 What ! when the people are fainting ? When the multi- 
 tudes are like sheep upon the mountains without a sliep- 
 herd ? Does Jesus talk of rest ? When Scribes and 
 Pharisees, like grievous Avolves, are rending the flock, 
 does he take his followers on an excursion into a quiet 
 resting place ? Does some red-hot zealot denounce such 
 atrocious forgetfulness of present and pressing demands? 
 Let him rave in his folly. The Master knows better 
 than to exhaust his servants and quench the light of 
 
S60 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 Israel. Rest time is not waste time. It is economy to 
 gather fresh strength. Look at the moAver in tlie sum- 
 mer's clay, with so much to cut down ere the sun sets. 
 ^lle pauses in his hibor — is he a sluggard? lie looks 
 for Iiis stone, and begins to draw it up and down his 
 scythe, witli " rink-a-tink — rink-a-tink — rink-a-tink." 
 Is that idle music — is he wasting precious moments ? 
 How much he might have mowed while he has been ring- 
 ing out those notes on his scythe ! But he is sharpen- 
 ing his tool, and he will do far more when once again he 
 gives his strength to those long sweeps whicli lay the 
 grass prostrate in rows before him. Even thus a little 
 jmuse prepares the mind for greater service in the good 
 cause. Fishermen must mend their nets, and we must 
 every now and then repair our mental waste and set our 
 machinery in order for future service. To tug the oar 
 from day to day, like a galley-slave who knows no holi- 
 days, suits not mortal men. Mill-streams go on and on 
 for ever, but we must have our pauses and our intervals. 
 Who can help being out of breath when the race is con- 
 tinued Avithout intermission ? Even beasts of burden 
 must be turned out to grass occasionally ; the very sea 
 pauses at ebb and flood ; earth keeps the Sabbath of the 
 wintry months; and man, even when exalted to be God's 
 ambassador, must rest or faint; must trim his lamp or 
 let it burn low ; must recruit his vigour or grow prem- 
 aturely old. It is Avisdoni to take occasional furlough. 
 In the long run, we shall do more by sometimes doing 
 less. On, on, on, for ever, without recreation, may suit 
 spirits emancipated from this '' lieaA^y clay," but while, 
 we are in this tabernacle, we must every now and then 
 cry halt, and serve the Lord by holy inaction and con- 
 secrated leisure. Let no tender conscience doubt the 
 lawfulness of going out of harness for awhile, but learn 
 
THE minister's FAINTING FITS. 261 
 
 from the experience of others the necessity and duty of 
 taking timely rest. 
 
 One crushing strol'c has sometimes laid the minister 
 very low. The brother most relied upon becomes a 
 traitor. Judas lifts up his heel against the man who 
 trusted him, and the preacher's heart for the moment 
 fails him. We are all too apt to look to an arm of flesh, 
 and from that propensity many of our sorrows arise. 
 Equally overwhelming is the blow when an honored and 
 beloved member yields to temptation, and disgraces the 
 holy name with which he was named. Anything is 
 better than this. This makes the preacher long for a 
 lodge in some vast wilderness, where he may hide his 
 head for ever, and hear no more the Idasphomous Jeers 
 of the ungodly. Ten years of toil do not take so much 
 life out of us as we lose in a few hours by Ahithophel 
 the traitor, or Demas the apostate. Strife,' also, and 
 division, and slander, and foolish censures, have often 
 laid holy men prostrate, and made them go ''as with a 
 sword in their bones." Hard words wound some deli- 
 cate minds very keenly. Many of the best of ministers, 
 from the very spirituality of their character, are exceed- 
 ingly sensitive — too sensitive for such a world as this. 
 " A kick that scarce would move a horse would kill a 
 sound divine." By experience the soul is hardened to the 
 rough blows which are inevitable in our warfare : but at 
 first these things utterly stagger us, and send us to our 
 homes wrapped in a horror of great darkness. The 
 trials of a true minister are not few, and such as are 
 caused by ungrateful professors are harder to bear than 
 the coarsest attacks of avowed enemies. Let no man 
 who looks for ease of mind and seeks the quietude of 
 life enter the ministry ; if he does so he will flee from it 
 in disgust. 
 
2G2 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 To the lot of few does it full to pass through snch a 
 horror of great darkness as that which fell upon me 
 after the deplorable accident at the Surrey Music Hall. 
 I was pressed beyond measure and out of bounds wi-th 
 an enormous weight of misery. The tumult, the panic, 
 tlie deaths, were day and night before me, and made life 
 a burden. Then I sang in my sorrow — - 
 
 " The tumult of my tliouglita 
 Dotli but increase my woe. 
 My spirit langaishetli, my heart 
 Is desolate and low." 
 
 From that dream of horror I was awakened in a moment 
 by the gracious application to my soul of the text, 
 ''Him hath God the Father exalted." The fact that 
 Jesus is still great, let his serA'ants suffer as they may, 
 piloted me back to calm reason and peace. Should so 
 terrible a calamity overtake any of my brethren, let 
 them both patiently hope and quietly wait for the salva- 
 tion of God. 
 
 Whe7i troubles muUipiT/, and discouragements follow 
 each other in long succession, like Job's messengers, 
 then, too, amid the perturbation of soul occasioned by 
 eA'il tidings, despondency despoils the heart of all its 
 peace. Constant dropping wears away stones, and the 
 bravest minds feel the fret of repeated afflictions. If a 
 scanty cupboard is rendered a severer trial by the sick- 
 ness of a wife or the loss of a child, and if ungenerous 
 remarks of hearers are followed by the opi^osition of 
 deacons and the coolness of members, then, like Jacob, 
 we are apt to cry, "All these things are against me." 
 When David returned to Ziklag and found the city 
 burned, goods stolen, wives carried off, and his troops 
 ready to stone him, we read, " he encouraged himself in 
 his God ;" and M-ell was it for him that he could do sn, 
 
THE minister's FAINTING FITS. 263 
 
 for lie would then have fainted if lie lind not oelieved 
 to see the goodness of the Lord in tlie Lmd of the living. 
 Accumnlated distresses increase each other's weight ; 
 they play into each other's hands, and, like bands of 
 robbers, ruthlessly destroy our comfort. Wave u]ioii 
 wave is severe work for the strongest swimmer. The 
 place where two seas meet strains the most seaworthy 
 keel. If there were a well-regulated pause between the 
 buffetings of adversity, the spirit would stand prepared ; 
 but Avhcn they come suddenly and heavily, like the bat- 
 tering of great hailstones, the pilgrim may Avell be 
 amazed. The last ounce breaks the camel's back, and 
 when that last ounce is laid upon us, Avhat wonder if we 
 for awhile are ready to give up the ghost ! 
 
 Tills evil will also come upon iis, ice Tcnow not why, and 
 then it is all the more diflBcult to drive it away. Cause- 
 less depression is not to be reasoned with, nor can David's 
 harp charm it away by sweet discoursings. As well fight 
 Avitli the mist as with this shapeless, undefinable, yet all- 
 beclouding hopelessness. One affords himself no pity 
 when in this case, because it seems so unreasonable, and 
 even sinful to be troubled without manifest cause ; and 
 yet troubled the man is, even in the very depths of his 
 spirit. If tliose who laugh at such melancholy did but 
 feel the grief of it for one hour, their laughter would be 
 sobered into compassion. Eesolution might, perhaps, 
 shake it off, but where are we to find the resolution when 
 the whole man is unstrung ? The physician and the 
 divine may unite their skill in such cases, and both find 
 their hands full, and more than full. The iron bolt 
 which so mysteriously fastens the door of hope and holds 
 our spirits in gloomy prison, needs a heavenly hand to 
 push it back ; and when that hand is seen we cry with 
 the apostle, " Blessed be God, even the Father of our 
 
264 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 Lord Jesns Clirist, tlie Father of mercies, and the God 
 of all comfort ; who comfortcth us in all our tribulation, 
 that we may be able to comfort them which are in a^.y 
 trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are com- 
 forted of God." 2 Cor. i. 3, 4. It is the God of alJ 
 consolation who can — 
 
 " With sweet oblivious antidote 
 Cleanse our poor bosoms of that perilous stuff 
 Which weighs upon the heart." 
 
 Simon sinks till Jesus takes him by the hand. The 
 devil within rends and tears the poor child till the word 
 of authority commands him to come out of him. When 
 we are ridden with horrible fears, and weighed down 
 with an intolerable incubus, we need but the Sun of 
 Eighteousness to rise, and the evils generated of our 
 dai'kness are driven away ; but nothing short of this will 
 chase away the nightmare of the soul. Timothy Eogers, 
 the author of a treatise on Melancholy, and Simon 
 Browne, the writer of some remarkably sweet hymns, 
 proved in their own cases how unavailing is the help of 
 man if the Lord withdraw the light from the soul. 
 
 If it be inquired why the Valley of tlie Shadow of 
 Death must so often be traversed by the servants of 
 King Jesus, the answer is not far to find. All this is 
 promotive of the Lord's mode of working, which is 
 summed up in these words — "Not by might nor by 
 power, but my Spirit, saith the Lord." Instruments 
 shall be used, but their intrinsic weakness shall be clearly 
 manifested ; there shall be no division of the glory, no 
 diminishing the honor due to the Great AYorker. The 
 man shall be emptied of self, and then filled with the 
 Holy Ghost. In his own apprehension he shall be like 
 a sere leaf driven of the tempest, and then shall be 
 
THE minister's FAINTING FITS. 2G5 
 
 Btrcngtlietied into a brazen wall against the enemies of 
 truth. To hide pride from the worker is the great diffi- 
 culty. Uninterrupted success and unfading joy in it 
 would be more than our weak heads could bear. Our 
 wine must needs be mixed Avith water, lest it tijrn our 
 brains. My witness is, that tliose who are honored of 
 their Lord in public, have usually to endure a secret 
 cliastening, or to carry a peculiar cross, lest by any 
 means they exalt themselves, and fall into the snare of 
 the devil. How constantly the Lord calls Ezekicl "Son 
 of man " ! Amid his soarings into the superlative splen- 
 dors, just when with eye undimmed he is strengthened 
 to gaze into the excellent glory, the word " Son of man" 
 falls on his ears, sobering the heart which else might 
 have been intoxicated with the honor conferred upon it. 
 Such humbling but salutary messages our depressions 
 whisper in our ears ; they tell us in a manner not to be 
 mistaken that we arc but men, frail, feeble, apt to faint. 
 
 By all the castings down of his servants God is glori- 
 fied, for they are led to magnify him when again he sets 
 them on their feet, and even while prostrate in the dust 
 their faith yields him praise. They speak all the more 
 sweetly of his faithfulness, and are the more firmly 
 established in his love. Such -mature men as some 
 elderly preachers are, could scarcely have been jDroduced 
 if they had not been emptied from vessel to vessel, and 
 made to see their own emptiness and the vanity of all 
 things round about them. Glory be to God for the fur- 
 nace, the hammer, and the file. Heaven shall be all the 
 fuller of bliss because we have been filled with anguish 
 here below, and earth shall be better tilled because of 
 our training in the school of adversity. 
 
 The lesson of wisdom is, he not dismayed ly sotil- 
 trouhh. Count it no strange thing, but a part of ordi- 
 12 
 
266 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 nary ministerial experience. Should the power of de- 
 pression be more than ordinary, think not that all is 
 over Avith yonr usefulness. Cast not away your confi- 
 dence, for it hath great recompense of reward. Even if 
 the enemy's foot be on your neck, expect to rise and 
 overthrow him. Cast the burden of the present, along 
 with the sin of the past and the fear of the future, upon 
 the Lord, who forsake th not his saints. Live by the 
 day — ay, by the hour. Put no trust in frames and feel- 
 ings. Care more for a grain of faith than a ton of ex- 
 citement. Trust in God alone, and lean not on the reeds 
 of human help. Be not surprised when friends fail you : 
 it is a failing world. Never count upon immutability in 
 man : inconstancy you may reckon ujjon without fear of 
 disappointment. The disciples of Jesus forsook liim ; be 
 not amazed if your adherents wander away to other 
 teachers : as they were not your all when with you, all 
 is not gone from you with their departure. Serve God 
 with all your might while the candle is burning, and 
 then when it goes out for a season, you will have the less 
 to regret. Be content to be nothing, for that is what 
 you are. "When your own emptiness is painfully forced 
 upon your consciousness, chide yourself that yoii ever 
 dreamed of being full, except in the Lord. Set small 
 store by present rewards ; be grateful for earnests by the 
 way, but look for the recompensing joy hereafter. Con- 
 tinue with double earnestness to serve your Lord when 
 no visible result is before you. Any simpleton can folloAV 
 the narrow path in the light : faith's rare wisdom enables 
 us to march on in the dark with infallible accuracy, since 
 she places her hand in that of her Great Guide. Between 
 this and heaven there may be rougher weatlier yet, but 
 it is all provided for by our covenant Head. In nothing 
 
THE minister's FAINTING FITS. 267 
 
 let US be turned aside from the path which the divine 
 call has urged us to pursue. Come fair or come foul, 
 the pulpit is our watch-toAver, and the ministry our war- 
 fare ; be it ours, Avhen we cannot see the face of our God, 
 to trust under the shadow of his ayings. 
 
LECTURE XII. 
 THE MINISTER'S ORDINARY CONVERSATION. 
 
 Our subject is to be the minister's common conversa- 
 tion when he mingles with men in general, and is supposed 
 to be quite at his ease. How shall he order his speech 
 among his fellow-men ? First and foremost, let me saj, 
 let Mm give himself no ministerial aii's, but avoid every- 
 thing which is stilted, official, fussy, and pretentious. 
 " The Son of Man " is a noble title ; it was given to 
 Ezekiel, and to a greater than he : let not the ambassador 
 of heaven be other than a son of man. In fact, let him 
 remember that the more simple and unaffected he is, the 
 more closely will lid resemble that child-man, the holy 
 child Jesus. There is such a thing as trying to be too 
 much a minister, rnd becoming too little a man ; though 
 the more of a true man you are, the more truly will you 
 be what a servant of the Lord should be. Schoolmasters 
 and ministers have generally an aj)pearance peculiarly 
 their own ; in the wrong sense, they " are not as other 
 men are." They are too often speckled birds, looking as 
 if they were not at home among the other inhabitants of 
 the country ; but awkward and peculiar. When I have 
 seen a flamingo gravely stalking along, an owl blinking 
 in the shade, or a stork demurely lost in thought, I have 
 been irresistibly led to remember some of my dignified 
 brethren of the teaching and preaching fraternity, who 
 are so marvellously proper at all times that they are just 
 
THE minister's ORDIIfART CONVEUSATIOX. 269 
 
 a shade amusing. Their very respectable, stilted, digni- 
 tied, important, self-restrained manner is easily acquired; 
 but is it worth acfpiiring ? 
 
 Theodore Hook once stepped up to a gentleman who 
 was parading the street with great pomposity, and said 
 to him, " Sir, are you not a person of great importance ?" 
 and one has felt half inclined to do the same with certain 
 brethren of the cloth. I know brethren who, from head 
 to foot, in garb, tone, manner, necktie, and boots, are so 
 utterly jjarsonic that no particle of manhood is visible. 
 One young sprig of divinity must needs go through the 
 streets in a gown, and another of the High Church order 
 has recorded it in the newsj)apers Avith much complacen- 
 cy that he traversed Switzerland and Italy, wearing in all 
 places his biretta ; few boys would have been so proud of 
 a fool's cap. None of us are likely to go as far as that in 
 our apparel ; but we may do the like by our mannerism. 
 Some men appear to have a white cravat twisted round 
 their souls, their manhood is throttled with that starched 
 rag. Certain brethren maintain an air of superiority 
 which they think impressive, but which is simply offen- 
 sive, and eminently opposed to their pretensions as follow- 
 ers of the lowly Jesus. The proud Duke of Somerset 
 intimated his commands to his servants by signs, not 
 condescending to speak to such base beings ; his children 
 never sat down in his presence, and when he slept in the 
 afternoon one of his daug]iters stood on each side of him 
 during his august slumbers. When proud Somersets get 
 into the ministry, tliey affect dignity in other ways almost 
 equally absurd. ''Stand by, I am holier than thou," is 
 written across their foreheads. 
 
 A well-known minister was once rebuked by a sublime 
 brother for his indulgence in a certain luxury, and the 
 expense was made a great argument. " Well, well," ho 
 
270 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 replied, *' there m.iy be something in that ; but remem- 
 ber, I do not spend half so much upon my weakness aa 
 you do in starch." That is the article I am deprecating, 
 that dreadful ministerial starch. If you have indulged 
 in it, I would earnestly advise you to ''go and wash in 
 Jordan seven times," and get it out of you, every particle 
 of it. I am persuaded that one reason why our working- 
 men so universally keep clear of ministers is because they 
 abhor their artificial and unmanly ways. If they saw us, 
 in the pulpit and out of it, acting like real men, and 
 speaking naturally, like honest men, they would come 
 around us. Baxter's remark still holds good : " The 
 want of a familiar tone and expression is a great fault in 
 most of our deliveries, and that which we should be very 
 careful to amend." The vice of the ministry is that 
 ministers ^\\\\ 2)cirsonijicate the gospel, ^ye must have 
 humanity along with our divinity if we would win the 
 masses. Everybody can see through affectations, and 
 people are not likely to be taken in by them. Fling aAvay 
 your stilts, brethren, and walk on your feet ; doff your 
 ecclesiasticism, and array yourselves in truth. 
 
 Still a minister, wherever he is, is a minister, and 
 sho2ild recollect that he is on duty, A policeman or a soldier 
 may be off duty, but a minister never is. Even in our 
 recreations we should still pursue the great object of our 
 lives; for we are called to be diligent "in season and 
 out of season." There is no position in which we may 
 be placed but the Lord may come with the question, 
 *' What doest thou here, Elijah ?" and we ought to be 
 able at once to answer, " I have something to do for thee 
 even here, and I am trying to do it." The bow, of course, 
 must be at times unstrung, or else it will lose its elas- 
 ticity ; but there is no need to cut the string. I am speak- 
 ing at this time of the minister in times of relaxation ; and 
 
TUE MINISTERS ORDUvTARY CONVERSATION. 271 
 
 [ say that even then he should conduct himself as tlie am- 
 bassador of God, and seize opportunities of doing good • 
 this Avill not mar his rest, but sanctify it. A minister 
 should be like a certain chamber which I saw at Beaulieu, 
 in the New Forest, in which a cobweb is never seen. It 
 is a large lumber-room, and is never swept ; yet no spider 
 ever defiles it with tlie emblems of neglect. It is roofed 
 with chestnut, and for some reason, I know not what, 
 spiders will not come near that wood by the year together. 
 The same thing was mentioned to me in the corridors of 
 "Winchester School: I was told, "No spiders ever come 
 here." Our minds should be equally clear of idle habits. 
 
 On our public rests for porters in the City of London 
 you may i-ead the words, *' Rest, but do not loiter ; " and 
 they contain advice Avorthy of our attention. I do not 
 call the dolce far niente laziness ; there is a sweet doing 
 of nothing which is just the finest medicine in the world 
 for a jaded mind, AVhen the mind gets fatigued and out 
 of order, to rest it is no more idleness than sleep is idleness; 
 and no man is called lazy for sleeping the proper time. 
 It is far better to be industriously asleep than lazily awake. 
 Be ready to do good even in your resting times and in 
 your leisure hours ; and so be really a minister, and thery 
 will be no need for you to proclaim that you are so. 
 
 The Cliristian minister out of the inilpit should he a 
 sociable man. He is not sent into the world to be a her- 
 mit, or a monk of La Trappe. It is not his vocation to 
 stand on a pillar all day, above his fellow-men, like that 
 luu'e-brained Simon Stylites of olden time. You are not 
 to warble from the top of a tree, like an invisible night- 
 ingale ; but to be a man among men, saying to them, 
 *' I also am as you are in all that relates to man." Salt 
 is 01 no use in the box ; it must be rubbed into the meat; 
 ami our personal influence must penetrate and season 
 
272 LECTUKES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 society. Keep aloof from others, and how can you ben- 
 efit them ? Our Master went to a wedding, and ate bread 
 with publicans and sinners, and yet was far more pure 
 than those sanctimonious Pharisees, whose glory was that 
 they were separate from their fellow-men. Some minis- 
 ters need to be told that they are of the same species as 
 their hearers. It is a remarkable fact, but we may as 
 well state it, that bishops, canons, archdeacons, prebend- 
 aries, rural deans, rectors, vicars, and even archbishops, 
 are only men after all ; and God has not railed off a holy 
 corner of the earth to serve as a chancel for them, to 
 abide therein by themselves. 
 
 It would not be amiss if there could be a revival of 
 holy talk in the churchyard and the meeting-yard. I 
 like to see the big yew-trees outside our ancient churches 
 with seats all round them. They seem to say : "Sit 
 down here, neighbor, and talk upon the sermon ; here 
 comes the pastor, he will join us, and we shall have a 
 pleasant, holy chat." It is not every preacher we would 
 care to talk with ; but there are some whom one would 
 give a fortune to converse with for an hour. I love a 
 minister whose face invites me to make him my friend — 
 a man upon whose doorstep you read, "Salve," " IVel- 
 •conie ; " and feel that there is no need of that Pompeian 
 warning, "Cave Canem," " Betmre of the clog." Give 
 me the man around whom the children come, like flies 
 around a honey-pot : they are first-class Judges of a good 
 man. When Solomon was tried by the Queen of Sheba, 
 as to his wisdom, the rabbis tell us that she brought 
 some artificial flowers witli her, beautifully made and 
 delicately scented, so as to be fac-similes of real 
 flowers. She asked Solomon to discover which were 
 artificial and which were real. Tlie wise man bade his 
 Bsrvants open the window, and when the bees came in 
 
TUE minister's ORDINARY CONVERSATION. 273 
 
 tliey flew at once to the natural flowers, and cared 
 nothing for the artificiah 80 you Avill find that children 
 have their instincts, and discover very speedily who is 
 their friend, and depend upon it the children's friend is 
 one who will be wortli knowing. Have a good word to 
 say to each and every member of the family — the big 
 boys, and the young ladies, and the little girls, and every- 
 body. No one knows what a smile and a hearty sen- 
 tence may do. A man who is to do much with men 
 must love them, and feel at nome with them. An in- 
 dividual who has no geniality about him had better be 
 an undertaker, and bury the dead, for he will never suc- 
 ceed in influencing the living. I have met somewhere 
 with the observation that to be a popular preacher one 
 must have bowels. I fear that the observation was 
 meant as a mild criticism upon the bulk to which certain 
 brethren have attained : but there is truth in it. A 
 man must have a great heart if he would have a great 
 congregation. His heart should be as capacious as those 
 noble harbors along our coast, which contain sea-room 
 for a fleet. When a man has a large, loving heart, men 
 go to him as ships to a haven, and feel at peace when 
 they have anchored under the lee of his friendship. 
 Such a man is hearty in private as well as in public ; his 
 blood is not cold and fishy, but he is warm as your own 
 fireside. No pride and selfishness chill you Avhen you 
 approach him ; he has his doors all open to receive you, 
 and you are at home with him at once. Such men I 
 would persuade you to be, every one of you. 
 
 Tlie Christian minister should also he very cheerful. 
 I don't believe in going about like certain monks whom 
 I saw in Eome, who salute each other in sepulchral 
 tones, and convey the pleasant information, " Brother, 
 we must die ; " to which lively salutation each lively 
 12* 
 
274 LECTUKES TO ilY STUDENTS. 
 
 brother of the order replies, " Yes, brother, we must die." 
 I was glad to be assured upon such good authority that 
 all these lazy fellow sare about to die ; upon the whole, 
 it is about the best thing they can do ; but till that 
 event occurs, they might use some more comfortable 
 form of salutation. 
 
 No doubt there are some people who will be im- 
 pressed by the very solemn appearance of ministers. I 
 have heard of one who felt convinced that there must 
 be something in the Roman Catholic religion, from the 
 extremely starved and pinched appearance of a certain 
 ecclesiastic. *'Look," said he, '* how the man is worn 
 to a skeleton by his daily fastings and nightly vigils ! 
 How he must mortify his flesh ! " Now, the probabil- 
 ities are that the emaciated priest was laboring under 
 some internal disease, which he would have been heartily 
 glad to be rid of, and it was not conquest of appetite, 
 but failure in digestion, which had so reduced him ; or, 
 possibly a troubled conscience, Avhicli made him fret 
 himself down to the light weights. Certainly, I have 
 never met with a text Avhicli mentions prominence of 
 bone as an evidence of grace. If so, "The Living Skel- 
 eton" should have been exhibited, not merely as a 
 natural curiosity, but as the standard of virtue. Some 
 of the biggest rogues in the world have been as mortified 
 in appearance as if they had lived on locusts and wild 
 honey. It is a very vulgar error to suppose that a melan- 
 choly countenance is the index of a gracious heart. I 
 I commend cheerfulness to all who would win souls ; not 
 levity and frothiness, but a genial, happy spirit. There 
 are more flies caught Avitli honey than with vinegar, and 
 there will be more souls led to heaven by a man who 
 wears heaven in his face than by one who bears Tartarus 
 in his looks. 
 
THE minister's ORDINARY CONVERSATION". 275 
 
 Young ministers, and, indeed, all others, when they 
 arc in company, should take care not to engross all the 
 conversation. They are quite qualified to do so, no 
 doubt ; I mean from their capacity to instruct, and 
 readiness of utterance ; but tliey must remember that 
 people do not care to be perpetually instructed ; they 
 like to take a turn in the conversation themselves. 
 Nothing pleases some people so much as to let them talk, 
 and it may be for their good to let them be pleased. 1 
 spent an hour one evening with a person who did me the 
 honor to say that he found me a very charming com- 
 panion, and most instructive in conversation, yet, I do 
 not hesitate to confess that I said scarcely anything at 
 all, but allowed him to have the talk to himself. By 
 exercising patience I gained his good opinion, and an 
 opportunity to address him on other occasions. A man 
 has no more right at table to talk all than to eat all. 
 AVe are not to think ourselves Sir Oracle, before Avhom 
 no dog must open his mouth. No ; let all the com- 
 pany contribute of their stores, and they will think all 
 the better of the godly words with which you try to 
 season the discourse. 
 
 There are some companies into which you will go, 
 especially when you are first settled, where everybody 
 will be awed by the majesty of your presence, and people 
 will be invited because the new minister is to be there. 
 Such a position reminds me of the choicest statuary 
 in the Vatican. A little room is screened off, a curtain 
 is drawn, and lo ! before you stands the great Apollo ! 
 If it be your trying lot to be the Apollo of the little 
 party, put an end to the nonsense. If I were the 
 Apollo, I should like to step right off the pedestal and 
 shake hands all round, and you had better do the same ; 
 for sooner or later the fuss they make about you will 
 
3.(6 LECTURES TO MY STUDEKTS. 
 
 come to an end, and tlie wisest course is to end it your- 
 self. Hero-worship is a kind of idolatry, and must not be 
 en'jouraged. Heroes do well when they, like the Apostles 
 at Lystra, are horrified at the honors done to them, and 
 run in among the peojale crying, " Sirs, why do ye these 
 things ? We also are men of like passions Avith you." 
 Ministers will not have to do it long ; for their foolish 
 admirers are very apt to turn round upon them, and 
 if they do not stone them nearly to death, they will 
 go as far as they dare in unkindness and contempt. 
 
 While I say, "Do not talk all, and assume an impor- 
 tance which is mere imposture; " still, do not he a dummy. 
 People will form their estimate of you and your ministry 
 by what they see of you in private as well as by your 
 public deliverances. Many young men have ruined 
 themselves in the pulpit by being indiscreet in the 
 parlor, and have lost all hope of doing good by their 
 stupidity or frivolity in company. Don't be an inani- 
 mate log. At Antwerp Fair, among many curiosities 
 advertised by huge paintings and big drums, I observed 
 a booth containing "a great wonder," to be seen for 
 a penny a head ; it was a petrified man. I did not 
 expend the amount requii'ed for admission, for I had 
 seen so many petrified men for nothing, both in and out 
 of the pulpit — lifeless, careless, destitute of common 
 sense, and altogether inert, though occupied with the 
 weightiest business which man could undertake. 
 
 Try to turn the conversation to frofitahle use. Be 
 sociable and cheerful and all that, but labor to accomplisli 
 something. Why should you sow the wind, or plough 
 a rock ? Consider yourself, after all, as being very much 
 responsible for the conversation wliich goes on where you 
 are ; for such is the esteem in which you will usually be 
 held, that you will be the helmsman of the conversation. 
 
THE minister's ORDINARY CONVERSATION. 27? 
 
 Therefore, steer it into a good cliannel. Do this with- 
 out roughness or force. Keep tlie points of tlie line 
 in good order, and the train will run on to your rails 
 "Nvitliout a jerk. Be ready to seize opportunities adroitly, 
 and lead on imperceptibly in the desired track. If your 
 keart is in it and your wits are awake, this will be easy 
 enough, especially if you breathe a prayer for guidance, i 
 
 1 shall never forget the manner in which a thirsty 
 individual once begged of me upon Clapham Common. 
 I saw him with a very large truck, in Avhicli he was 
 carrying an extremely small parcel, and I wondered why 
 he had not put the parcel into his pocket, and left the 
 machine at home. I said, '' It looks odd to see so large 
 a truck for such a small load." He stopped, and looking 
 me seriously in the face, he said, "Yes, sir, it is a very 
 odd tiling ; but, do you know, I have met with an odder 
 thing than that this very day. I've been about, work- 
 ing and sweating all this 'ere blessed day, and till now I 
 liavn't met a single gentleman that looked as if he'd 
 give me a pint of beer, till I saw you." I considered 
 that turn of the conversation very neatly managed, and 
 we, with a far better subject upon our minds, ought 
 to be equally able to introduce the topic upon which our 
 heart is set. There was an ease in the man's manner 
 which I envied, for I did not find it quite so simple 
 a matter to introduce my own topic to his notice ; yet if 
 I had been thinking as much about how I could do him 
 good as he had upon how to obtain a drink, I feel sure I 
 should have succeeded in reaching my point. If by any 
 means we may save some, we must, like our Lord, talk at 
 table to good purpose — yes, and on the margin of the well, 
 and by the road, and on the sea-shore, and in the house, 
 and in the field. To be a holy talker for Jesus might 
 be almost as fruitful an office as to be a faithful. preacher. 
 
278 LECTL'RES TO J»i f STUDEIfTS. 
 
 Aim at excellence in Loth exercises, and if tlie Holy 
 fSj)irit's aid be called in, yon will attain yonr desire. 
 
 Here, perhaps, I may insert a canon, which never- 
 theless I believe to be qnite needless, in reference to each 
 one of the honorable brethren whom I am now address- 
 ing. Do not frequent rich men^s tables to gam thcb 
 ctmntenance, and never malce yourself a sort of genercd 
 hanger-on at tea-parties and entertamments. Who are 
 you that you should be dancing attendance upon this 
 wealthy man and the other, when the Lord's poor, his 
 sick people, and his wandering sheep require you ? To 
 sacrifice the study to tlie parlor is criminal. To be a 
 tout for your church, and waylay people at their homes 
 to draw them to fill your pews, is a degradation to which, 
 no man should submit. To see ministers of different 
 sects fluttering round a wealthy man, like vultures 
 round a dead camel, is sickening. Deliciously sarcastic 
 was that famous letter " from an old and beloved min- 
 ister to his dear son " upon his entrance into the ministry, 
 the following extract from which hits our present point. 
 It is said to have been copied from tlie SmelJfungus 
 Gazette, but I suspect our friend Paxtou Hood knows 
 all about its authorship : " Keep also a watchful eye 
 on all likely persons, especially wealthy or influential, 
 who may come to your town ; call upon them, and 
 attempt to win them over by tlie devotions of the draw- 
 ing-room to your cause. Thus you may most efficiently 
 serve the Master's interests. People need looking after, 
 and the result of a long experience goes to confirm my 
 conviction, long cherislied, that the power of the pulpit 
 is trifling compared with tlie power of the parlor. AVe 
 must imitate and sanctify, by the word of God and 
 prayer, tlie exercises of the Jesuits. They succeeded 
 not by the pulpit so much as by the parlor. In the 
 
THE minister's 0RDIN"A.RT CONVERSATION'. 279 
 
 parlor you can -whisper — you can meet people on all 
 their little personal private ideas. The pulpit is a very 
 unpleasant place ; of course it is the great power of God, 
 and so on, hut it is the parlor that tells, and a ministe 
 has not the same chance of success if he be a good 
 preacher as if he is a perfect gentleman ; nor in culti- 
 vated society has any man a legitimate prospect of suc- 
 cess if he is not, whatever he may be, a gentleman. I 
 have always admired Lord Shaftesbury's character of St. 
 Paul in his ' Characteristics ' — that he was a fine gentle- 
 man. And I would say to you, be a gentleman. Not 
 that I need to say so, but am persuaded that only in this 
 way can we hope for the conversion of our growing, 
 wealthy middle classes. We must show that our reli- 
 gion is the religion of good sense and good taste ; that 
 we disapj)rove of strong excitements and strong stimu- 
 lants ; and oh, my dear boy, if you would be useful, 
 often in your closet make it a matter of earnest prayer 
 that you may be proper. If I were asked what is your 
 first duty, be proper ; and your second, be proinr ; and 
 your third, he proper.'''' Those who remember a class of 
 preachers who flourished fifty years ago will see the 
 keenness of the satire in this extract. The evil is 
 greatly mitigated now ; in fact, I fear we may be drift- 
 ing into another extreme. 
 
 In all probability, sensible conversation will some- 
 times drift into controversy, and here many a good man 
 runs upon a snag. Tlie sensible minister will be parfic- 
 iilarly gentle in argument. He, above all men, should 
 ]iot make the mistake of fancying that there is force in 
 temper, and power in speaking angrily. A heathen 
 who stood in a crowd in Calcutta, listening to a mission- 
 ary disputing with a Brahmin, said he knew Avhich was 
 right though he did not understand the language — he 
 
280 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 knew that he was in the wrong who lost his temper first. 
 For the most part, tliat is a very accurate way of judg- 
 ing. Try to avoid debating with people. State your 
 opinion and let them state theirs. If you see that a 
 stick is crooked, and you want jieople to see liow crooked 
 it is, lay a straight rod down beside it ; that will be quite 
 enough. But if you are drawn into eoiitrovcrsy, use 
 very hard arguments and very soft words. Frequently 
 you cannot convince a man by tugging at his reason, but 
 you can persuade him by winning his affections. The 
 other day I had the misery to need a pair of new boots, 
 and though I bade the fellow make them as large as 
 canoes, I had to labor fearfully to get them on. With a 
 pair of boot-hooks I toiled like the men on board the 
 vessel with Jonah, but all in vain. Just then my friend 
 put in my way a little French chalk, and tlie work was 
 done in a moment. AVonderfully coaxing was that 
 French chalk. Gentlemen, always carry a little French 
 chalk with you into society, a neat packet of Christian per- 
 suasiveness, and you will soon discover the virtues of it. 
 And lastly, with all his amiability, tlte minister 
 should he firm for his 2)ri7iciples, and bold to avow and 
 defend them in all companies. When a fair ojjportunity 
 occurs, or he has managed to create one, let him not be 
 slow to make use of it. Strong in his principles, earnest 
 in his tone, and affectionate in heart, let him speak out 
 like a man and thank God for the privilege. There 
 need be no reticence— there should be none. The mad- 
 dest romances of Spiritualists, the wildest dreams of 
 Utopian reformers, the silliest chit-chat of the town, 
 and the vainest nonsense of the frivolous world, demand 
 a hearing and get it. And shall not Christ be heard ? 
 Shall his message of love remain untold, for fear we 
 Bhould be charged with intrusion or accused of cant r 
 
THE MIXISTER'S ORDINARY COXVERSATIOX. 281 
 
 Is religion to be tabooed — the best and noblest of all 
 themes forbidden ? If tliis be the rule of any society, 
 we will not comply with it. If we cannot break it 
 down, we will leave the society to itself, as men desert a 
 house smitten with leprosy. We cannot consent to be 
 gagged. There is no reason why Ave should be. We 
 will go to no place where Ave cannot take our Master 
 with us. While others take liberty to sin, Ave shall not 
 renounce our liberty to rebuke and warn them. 
 
 Wisely used, our common conversation may be a 
 potent means for good. Trains of thought may be start- 
 ed by a single sentence which may lead to the conA'ersion 
 of persons Avhom our sermons have never reached. The 
 method of button-holing peojjle, or bringing the truth 
 before them individually, has been greatly successful : 
 this is another subject,- and can hardly come under the 
 head of Common ConA'crsation : but Ave Avill close by say- 
 ing that it is to be hoped that Ave shall never, in our 
 ordinary talk, any more than in the jiulpit, be looked 
 upon as nice sort of persons, Avhose business it is to make 
 things agreeable all round, and who never by any possi- 
 bility cause uneasiness to any one, hoAvever ungodly tlieir 
 lives may be. Such persons go in and o«t among the 
 f milies of their hearers, and make merry Avith them, 
 Avhen they ought to be mourning OA'cr them. They sit 
 down at their tables and feast at their ease, Avhen they 
 ought to be Avarningthem to llee from the wrath to come. 
 They are like that American alarum I have heard of, war- 
 ranted not to wake you if you did not wish it to do so. 
 
 Be it ours to sow, not only on the honest and good 
 soil, but on the rock and on the highway, and at the 
 last great day to reap a glad harvest. May the bread 
 wliich we cast upon the Avaters in odd times and strange 
 occasions be found again after many days. 
 
LECTURE XIII. 
 
 TO WOEKEES WITH SLENDEE APPAEATUS. 
 
 What are those ministers to do who have a slender 
 apparatus ? By a slender apparatus I mean that they 
 have few books, and little or no means wherewith to 
 purchase more. This is a state of things which ought 
 not to exist in any case ; the churches ought to take 
 care that it should be rendered impossible. Uid to the 
 highest measure of tlieir ability they should furnish their 
 minister, not only with tlie food which is needful to sus- 
 tain the life of his body, but with mental nutriment, so 
 that his soul may not be starved. A good library should 
 be looked upon as an indisjoensable part of churcli furni- 
 ture ; and the deacons, Avhose business it is " to serve 
 tables," will be wise if, without neglecting the table of 
 the Lord, or of the poor, and without diminisliing the 
 supplies of the minister's dinner-table, they give an eye 
 to his study-table, and keep it supplied with new works 
 and standard books in fair abundance. It would be 
 money well laid out, and would be productive far be- 
 yond expectation. Instead of waxing eloquent upon 
 the declining power of the pulpit, leading men in the 
 churcli should use the legitimate means for imi^roving 
 its power, by supplying the j)reacher with food foi 
 thought. Put the whij") into the manger, is my advice 
 to all grumblers. 
 
 Some years ago I tried to induce our churches to 
 
TO WORKERS WITH SLENDER APPARATUS. 283 
 
 have ministers' libraries as a matter of course, and some 
 few thoughtful people saw the value of the suggestion, 
 and commenced carrying it out. With much pleasure I 
 have seen here and there the shelves provided, and a few 
 volumes placed upon them. I earnestly wish that such 
 a beginning had been made everywhere ; but, alas ! I 
 fnar that a long succession of starveling ministers will 
 alone arouse the miserly to the conviction that parsimony 
 with a minister is false economy. Those churches which 
 cannot afford a liberal stipend should make some amends 
 by founding a library as a permanent part of their es- 
 tablishment ; and, by making additions to it from year 
 to year, it would soon become very valuable. My ven- 
 erable grandfather's manse had in it a collection of very 
 valuable ancient Puritanic volumes, which had descended 
 from minister to minister : well do I remember certain 
 ponderous tomes, whose chief interest to me lay in their 
 curious initial letters, adorned with pelicans, griffins, 
 little boys at play, or patriarchs at work. It may be 
 objected that the books would be lost through change of 
 users, but I would run the risk of that ; and trustees, 
 with a little care over the catalogue, could keep the libra- 
 ries as securely as they keep the pews and pulpit. 
 
 If this scheme be not adopted, let another and simpler 
 one be tried ; let all the subscribers towards the preacher's 
 support add ten per cent, or more to their subscriptions, 
 expressly to provide food for the minister's brain. They 
 would get back what they gave in the improved sermons 
 they Avould hear. If some little annual income could be 
 secured to poor ministers, to be sacredly spent in books, 
 it would be a God-send to them, and an incalciTlable 
 blessing to the community. Sensible loersons do not 
 expect a garden to yield them herbs from year to year 
 unless they enrich the soil ; they do not expect a locomo- 
 
284 LECTUEES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 tire to work without fuel, or even an ox or an ass to 
 laljor without food ; let them, therefore, give over ex- 
 })ccting to receive instructive sermons from men who are 
 shut out of the storehouse of knowledge by their inability 
 to purchase books. 
 
 But the subject is, what are men to do who have no 
 stoi-es, who have no church library, and no allowance 
 made them to provide books ? Let us remark at once 
 that, if these men succeed, greater honor is due to them 
 than to those who have large appliances. 
 
 Quintin Matsys is said to have had allhis tools except 
 his hammer and file taken from him by his fellow-work- 
 men, and to have produced his famous well-cover with- 
 out them ; so much the more honor to him ! Great 
 credit is due to those workers for God who have dono 
 great thiugs without helpful tools. Their labor would 
 have been greatly lightened if they had possessed them ; 
 but what they have done is the more wonderful. At the 
 present International Exhibition at Kensington, Mr. 
 Buckmaster's School of Cookery is mainly admired be- 
 cause he produces such savory dishes from unpromising 
 material ; from a handful of bones and a little maccaroni 
 he serves up royal dainties. If he had all the materials 
 employed in French cookery, and used them all, every 
 person would say, "Well, anybody could do that ;" but 
 when he shows you scraps of meat aiid bones, and tells 
 you that he bought them at the butcher's for a few 
 pence, and that he can make out of them a dinner for a 
 family of five or six, all the good wives open their eyes, 
 and wonder how on earth it can be done ; and wheu ho 
 passes round his dish, and they taste how delicious it is, 
 they are full of admiration. Work away, then, poor 
 brother, for you may yet succeed in doing great thhigs 
 in your ministry, and your welcome of " Well done, good 
 
TO WORKERS WITH SLENDER APPARATUS. 285 
 
 and faithful servant," will be all the more emphatic 
 because you labored under serious difficulties. 
 
 If a man can purchase but very few books, my first 
 advice to liim would be, let him purchase the very best. 
 If he cannot spend much, let him spend well. The 
 best will always be the cheapest. Leave mere dilutions 
 and attenuations to those who can afford such luxuries. 
 Do not buy milk and water, but get condensed milk, and 
 put what water you like to it yourself. This age is full 
 of word-spinners — professional book-makers, who ham- 
 mer a grain of matter so thin that it will cover a five- 
 acre sheet of paper ; these men have their uses, as gold- 
 beaters have, but they are of no use to you. Farmers on 
 our coast used to cart wagon-loads of sea-weed and put 
 them upon their land ; the heaviest part was the Avater : 
 now they dry the weeds, and save a world of labor and 
 expense. Don't buy thin soup ; purchase the essence of 
 meat. Get much in little. Prefer books which abound 
 in what James Hamilton used to call "Bibline," or the 
 essence of books. You require accurate, condensed, reli- 
 able, standard books, and should make sure that you get 
 them. In preparing his ''Horse Biblicge Quotidianae," 
 which is an admirable comment upon the Bible, Dr. 
 Chalmers used only the "Concordance," the "Pictorial 
 Bible," "Poole's Synopsis," "Matthew Henry's Com- 
 mentary," and "Eobinson's Eesearches in Palestine." 
 " These are the books I use," said he to a friend ; " all 
 that is Biblical is there ; I have to do with nothing be- 
 sides in my Biblical study." This sliows that those who 
 Jiavc unlimited stores at their command, yet find a few 
 stujidard books sufficient. If Dr. Chalmers were now 
 alive, he would probably take Thomson's " Land and tho 
 Book," instead of " Robinson's Researches," and give up 
 tlie "Pictorial Bible" for Kitto's "Daily Bible Illustra- 
 
286 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 tions ;" at least I should recommend the alteration to 
 most men. This is clear evidence that some most eminent 
 preachers have found that they could do better with fe^v 
 books than with laany when studyinoj the Scriptures, and 
 this, I take it, is our main business. 
 
 Forego, then, it without regret, the many books 
 which, like poor Hodge's razors, of famous memory, " arc 
 made to sell," and do sell those Avho buy them, as well 
 as themselves. Matthew Henry's Commentary having 
 been mentioned, I venture to say that no better invest- 
 ment can be made, by any minister, than that peerless 
 exposition. Get it, if you sell your coat to buy it. 
 
 The next rule I shall lay down is, master those hooks 
 you have. Eead them thoroughly. Bathe in them 
 until they saturate you. Read and re-read them, masti- 
 cate them, and digest them. Let tliem go into your 
 very self. Peruse a good book several times, and make 
 notes and analyses of it. A student will find that his 
 mental constitution is more affected by one book thor- 
 oughly mastered than by twenty books which he has 
 merely skimmed, lapping at them, as the classic proverb 
 puts it, "As the dogs drink of Nilas." Little learning 
 and much pride come of hasty reading. Books may be 
 piled on the brain till it cannot work. Some men are 
 disabled from thinking by their putting meditation 
 away for the sake of much reading. They gorge them- 
 selves with book-matter, and become mentally dyspeptic. 
 
 Books on the brain cause disease. Get the hookinto 
 the brain, and you will grow. In D'Israeli's " Curiosi- 
 ties of Literature " there is an invective of Lucian upon 
 those men who boast of possessing large libraries, which 
 they either never read or never profit by. He begins by 
 comparing such a person to a pilot Avho has never learned 
 the art of navigation, or a cripple who wears embroidered 
 
TO WORKERS AVITH SLENDER APPARATUS. 2S7 
 
 slippers but cannot stand npriglit in them. Then ho 
 exchiims, '' Why do you buy so many books ? You 
 liave no hair, and you purchase a comb ; you are blind, 
 and you must need buy a fine mirror ; you are deaf, and 
 you will have the best musical instrument ! " — a very 
 well deserved rebuke to those who think that the pos- 
 session of books will secure them learning. A measure 
 of that temptation happens to us all ; for do we not feel 
 wiser after we have spent an hour or two in a book- 
 seller's shop ? A man might as well think himself 
 richer for having inspected the vaults of the Bank of 
 England. In reading books let your motto be, " Much, 
 not many." Think as well as read, and keep the think- 
 ing always proportionate to the reading, and your small 
 library will not be a great misfortune. 
 
 There is very much sound sense in the remark of a 
 writer in the Quarterly Revieiu many years back. " Give 
 us the one dear book, cheaply picked from the stall by 
 the price of the dinner, thumbed and dog-eared, cracked 
 in the back and broken in the corner, noted on the fly- 
 leaf and scrawled on the margin, sullied and scorched, 
 torn and Avorn, smoothed in the pocket and grimed on 
 the hearth, damped by the grass and dusted among the 
 cinders, over which you have dreamed in the grove and 
 dozed before the embers, but read again, again, and 
 again, from cover to cover. It is by this one book, and 
 its three or four single successors, that more real culti- 
 vation has been imparted than by all the myriads Avhich 
 bear down the mile-long, bulging, bending shelves of 
 the Bodleian." 
 
 But if you feel you must have more books, I recom- 
 mend to yoiL a Utile judicious horrowiug. You will most 
 likely have some friends who have books, and who will 
 be kind enou2rh to let vou use them for a time ; and J 
 
288 LECTURES TO MY STUDEXTS. 
 
 specially advise you, in order to borrow again, to return 
 whatsoever is lent, promptly, and in good condition. I 
 hope there is not so much need that I should say much 
 about returning books, as there would have been a few 
 months ago, for I have lately met with a statement by a 
 clergyman, which has very much raised my opinion of 
 human nature ; for he declares that he has a personal 
 acquaintance with three gentlemen who have actually 
 returned borrowed umbrellas ! I am sorry to say that 
 he moves in a more favored circle than I do, for I have 
 personal acquaintance with several young men who have 
 borrowed books and never returned them. The other 
 day, a certain minister, who had lent me five books, 
 which I have used for two years or more, wrote to me a 
 note to request the return of three of them. To his sur- 
 prise, he had them back by the next " Parcels' Delivery," 
 and two others which he had forgotten. I had carefully 
 kept a list of books borrowed, and, therefore, could 
 make a complete return to the owner. I am sure he did 
 not expect their prompt aiTival, for he wrote me a letter 
 of mingled astonishment and gratitude, and when I visit 
 his study again, I feel sure I shall be welcome to another 
 loan. You knoAv the rhyme which has been written in 
 many a man's book — 
 
 "If thou art borrowed by a friend, 
 Kiglit welcome shall he be 
 To read, to study, not to lend, 
 But to return to me. 
 Not that imparted knowledge doth 
 Diminish learning's store, 
 But books I find when once they're lent. 
 Return to me no more." 
 
 Sir Walter Scott used to say that his friends might be 
 very indifferent accountants, but he was sure they were 
 
TO WORKERS WITH SLEXDER APPARATUS. 289 
 
 good "bookkeepers." Some have even had to go the 
 length of the scholar who. wlien asked to lend a book, 
 sent word by the servant that he would not let the book 
 go Gilt of his chamber, but that the gentleman Avho 
 sought the loan might come and sit there and read as 
 long as he liked. The rejoinder was unexpected but 
 complete, when, his fire being slow to burn, he sent to 
 the same person to borrow a pair of bellows, and re- 
 ceived for answer that the owner would not lend the 
 bellows out of his own chamber, but the gentleman 
 might come and blow there as long as he liked. Judi- 
 cious borrowing may furnish you with much reading, 
 but remember the man's axe-head in the Scriptures, and 
 be careful of what you borrow. " The wicked borrow- 
 eth and payeth not again." 
 
 In case the famine of books should be sore in the 
 land, there is one hook loliich yon all have, and that is 
 your Bible ; and a minister with his Bible is like David 
 with his sling and stone, fully equipped for the fray. 
 No man may say that he has no Avell to draAV from while 
 the Scriptures arc within reach. In the Bible we have 
 a i)erfect library, and he who studies it thoroughly will 
 be a better scholar than if he had devoured the Alexan- 
 drian Library entire. To understand the Bible should 
 be our ambition ; we should be familiar with it, as 
 familiar as the housewife with her needle, the merchant 
 with his ledger, the mariner with his ship. We ought 
 to know its general run, the contents of each book, the 
 details of its histories, its doctrines, its precepts, and 
 everything about it. Erasmus, speaking of Jerome, 
 asks, " Who but he ever learned by heart the whole 
 Scripture ? or imbibed, or meditated on it as he did ? " 
 Ii is said of Witsius, a learned Dutchman, author of the 
 famous work on ''The Covenants," that he was also 
 13 
 
290 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 able, not merely to repeat every word of Scripture in 
 the original tongues, but to give the context, and the 
 criticisms of the best authors ; and I have heard of an 
 old minister in Lancasliire, that he was "a walking 
 Concordance," and could either give you chapter and 
 verse for any passage quoted, or, vice versa, could cor- 
 rectly give the Avords when the place was mentioned. 
 That may have been a feat of memory, but the study 
 needful to it must have been highly profitable. I do 
 not say that you must aspire to that ; but if you could, 
 it would be well worth the gaining. It was one of the 
 fortes of tbat singular genius, William Huntington 
 (whom I will not now either condemn or commend), 
 that in preaching he incessantly quoted Holy Scripture, 
 and was accustomed, Avhenever he did so, to give the 
 chapter and the verse ; and in order to show his inde- 
 pendence of the printed book, it was his uncomely 
 habit to remove the Bible from the front of the pulpit. 
 
 A man who has learned not merely the letter of the 
 Bible, but its inner spirit, will be no mean man, what- 
 ever the deficiencies he may labor under. You know 
 the old proverb, " Cave ab Jiomine unius libri " — Beware 
 of the man of one book. He is a terrible antagonist. A 
 man who has his Bible at his fingers' ends and in his 
 heart's core is a champion in our Israel ; you cannot 
 compete with him : you may have an armory of weapons, 
 but his Scriptural knowledge will overcome you ; for it 
 is a sword like that of Goliatli, of which David said, 
 "There is none like it." Tiie gracious William 
 Eomaine, I believe, in the latter part of his life, put 
 away all his books and read nothing at all but his Bible. 
 He was a scholarly man, yet he was monopolized by the 
 one Book, and was made miglity by it. If we are 
 driven to do the same by necessity, let us recollcet that 
 
TO WORKERS WITH SLENDER APPARATUS. 291 
 
 some luivG done it by clioice, and let us not bemoan our 
 lot, for the Scriptures will be sweeter than honey to our 
 taste, and will make us "wiser than the ancients." 
 AVe shall never be short of lioly matter if wc are con- 
 tinually studying the inspired volume ; nay, it is not 
 only matter that we shall find there, but illustration 
 too ; for the Bible is its own best illustrator. If you 
 want anecdote, simile, allegory, or parable, turn to the 
 sacred page. Scriptural truth never looks more lovely 
 than when slie is adorned with jewels from her own 
 treasury. I have lately been reading the Books of tlie 
 Kings and the Chronicles, and I have become enamored 
 of them ;' they are as full of divine instruction as tlie 
 Psalms or Prophets, if read with opened eyes. I think 
 it was Ambrose who used to say, " I adore the infinity 
 of Scripture." I hear that same voice which sounded in 
 the ear of Augustine, concerning the Book of God, 
 '' Talk, lege'' — " Take, read." It may be you will dwell 
 in retirement in some village, where you will find no one 
 who is above your own level, and where you will meet 
 Avith very few books worth your reading ; then read and 
 meditate in the law of the Lord both day and night, and 
 you shall be "as a tree planted by the rivers of water." 
 Make the Bible the man of your right hand, the compan- 
 ion of every hour, and you will have little reason to 
 lament your slender equipment in inferior things. 
 
 I would earnestly impress upon you the truth, that a 
 man who is short of apparatus can make up for it hy 
 much thoiiglit. Thinking is better than possessing 
 books. Thinking is an exercise of the soul which both 
 develops and educates them. A little girl was once 
 asked whether she knew what her soul was, and, to tho 
 surprise of all, she said, " Sir, my soul is my think." If 
 this be correct, some persons have very little soul, 
 
293 LECTURES TO MY STUDEXTS. 
 
 Without thinking, reading cannot benefit the maid, but 
 it may dehide the man into the idea that he is growing 
 wise. Books are a sort of idol to some men. As the 
 image with the Roman Cathohc is intended to make liim 
 think of Christ, and in effect keeps him from Christ, so 
 books are intended to make men think, but are oftoii a 
 hindrance to thought. When George Fox took a sharp 
 knife and cut out for himself a pair of leather breeches, 
 and, liaviug done with the fashions of society, hid hhnself 
 in a hollow tree, to think by the month together, he was 
 growing into a man of thought before whom men of 
 thought speedily beat a retreat. What a flutter he 
 made, not only among the Poperies, and Prelacies, and 
 Presbyteries of his day, but also among the well-read 
 j)roprieties of Dissent. He swept no end of cobwebs out 
 of the sky, and gave the bookworms a hard time of it. 
 Thought is the backbone of study, and if more ministers 
 would think, what a blessing it would be ! Only, we want 
 men who will think about the revealed will of God, and 
 not dreamers who evolve religious out their own con- 
 sciousness. Now-a-days we are pestered with a set of 
 fellows who must needs stand on their heads and think 
 with their feet. Eomancing is their notion of medi- 
 tation. Instead of considering revealed truth, they 
 excogitate a mess of their own, in which error, and 
 nonsense, and conceit appear in about equal parts ; and 
 they call this broth " modern thought." We want men 
 who will try to think straight, and yet tliink deep, 
 because they think God's thoughts. Far be it from me 
 to urge you to imitate the boastful thinkers of this age, 
 who empty their meeting-houses, and then glory tluit 
 they preach to the cultivated and intellectual. It is 
 miserable cant. Earnest thought upon things which are 
 assuredly believed among us is quite another matter. 
 
TO WORKERS WITU SLEXDEU APPARATUS. 293 
 
 and to til at I urge you. Personally I owe much to many 
 hours, and even days, spent alone, under an old oak- 
 tree, by the river Medway. Happening to be someAvhat 
 indisposed at the time when I Avas leaving school, I was 
 allowed considerable leisure, and, armed Avitli an excel- 
 lent fishing-rod, I caught a fcAV small fishes, and en- 
 joyed many day-dreams, intermingled with searchings of 
 heart, and much ruminating of knoAvledge acquired. 
 If boys would think, it Avould be well to give them less 
 class Avork and more opportunity for thought. All cram 
 and no digestion makes flesh destitute of muscle, and 
 this is more deplorable mentally than physically. If 
 your people are not numerous enough to supply you 
 with a library, they will make fcAver demands on your 
 time, and, in having time for meditation, you will be 
 even better off than your brethren Avith many books and 
 little space for contemplation. 
 
 Without books a man may learn much hy keeping Ids 
 eyes open. Current history, incidents which transpire 
 under his own nose, events recorded in the newspaper, 
 matters of common talk — he may learn from them all. 
 The difference between eyes and no eyes is wonderful. 
 If you have no books to try your eyes, keep them open 
 Avherever you go, and you will find something worth 
 looking at. Can you not learn from nature ? Every 
 floAver is waiting to teach you. " Consider the lilies," 
 and learn from the roses. Not only may you go to the 
 ant, but every liAring thing offers itself for your instruc- 
 tion. There is a voice in every gale, and a lesson in 
 every grain of dust it bears. Sermons glisten in the 
 morning on every blade of grass, and homilies fly by you 
 as the sere leaves fall from the trees. A forest is a 
 library, a corn-field is a volume of philosophy, the rock 
 is a history, and the river at its base a poem. Go, thou 
 
294 LECTURES 'JO MY STUDEXTS. 
 
 wlio hast thine eyes opened, and find lessons of wisdom 
 everywhere, in heaven above, in the earth beneath, and 
 in the waters under the earth. Books are poor things 
 compared with these. 
 
 Moreover, however scant your libraries, you can 
 study yourself. This is a mysterious volume, the major 
 jtart of which you have not read. If any man thinks 
 that he knoAvs himself thoroughly, he deceives himself ; 
 for the most difficult book you will ever read is your 
 oAvii heart. I said to a doubter the other day, Avho 
 seemed to be wandering in a maze, "' Well, really I can- 
 not understand you ; but 1 am not vexed, for .1 never 
 could understand myself;" and 1 certainly meant what 
 I said. Watch the twists and turns and singularities of 
 your own mind, and the strangeness of your own experi- 
 ence ; the depravity of your heart, and the work of 
 divine grace ; your tendency to sin, and your capacity 
 for holiness ; how akin you are to a devil, and yet how 
 allied to God himself ! Note how Avisely you can act 
 when taught of God, and how foolishly you behave when 
 left to yourself. You will find the study of your heart 
 to be of immense importance to you as a watcher over 
 the souls of others. A man's own experience should be 
 to him the laboratory in Avhich he tests the medicines 
 which he prescribes for others. Even your own faults 
 and failures will instruct you if you bring them to the 
 Lord. Absolutely sinless men would be unable to sym- 
 pathize with imperfect men and women. Study the 
 Lord's dealings with your own souls, and you will know 
 more of his ways with others. 
 
 Bead other men ; they are as instructive as books. 
 Suppose there should come up to one of our great hos- 
 pitals a young student so poor that he could not pur- 
 chase surgical books ; it would certainly be a great detri- 
 
TO WUllKERS WITH SLENDER APPARATUS. 295 
 
 nieut to liim ; but if he had the run of the hospital, if 
 lio saw operations performed, and watched cases from 
 day to day, I should not wonder but what he might turn 
 out as skilful a surgeon as his more favored companions. 
 His observation would show him what books alone could 
 not ; and as he stood by to sec the removal of a limb, 
 the binding up of a wound, or the tying up of an artery, 
 he might, at any rate, pick up enough practical surgery 
 to be of immense service to him. Now, much that a 
 minister needs to know he must learn by actual observa- 
 tion. All wise pastors have walked the hospitals spirit- 
 ually, and dealt with inquirers, hypocrites, backsliders, 
 the desj^airing, and the presumptuous. A man who has 
 had a sound practical experience in the things of God 
 himself, and watched the hearts of his fellows, other 
 things being equal, will be a far more useful man than 
 he who knows only what he has read. It is a great pity 
 for a man to be a college Jack-a-dandy, avIio comes out 
 of the class-room as out of a band-box, into a world he 
 has never seen before, to deal Avith men he has never 
 observed, and handle facts with Avhicli he has never 
 come into personal contact. "Not a novice," says the 
 apostle ; and it is possible to be a novice and yet a very 
 accomplished scholar, a classic, a mathematician, and a 
 theoretical theologian. We should have practical famil- 
 iarity with men's souls ; and if we have much of it, the 
 fewness of our books will be a light atfliction. " But," 
 says an inquiring brother, " how can you read a man ? " 
 I have heard of a gentleman of whom it was said that 
 you could never stop five minutes under an archway with 
 him but Avhat he would teach you something. That was 
 a wise man ; but he Avould be a wiser man still who 
 would never stop five minutes under an archway with- 
 out learning somewhat from ot'ier people. Wise men- 
 
296 LECTURES TO MY STUDENTS. 
 
 can learn as much from a fool as from a philosopher. 
 A fool is a splendid book to read from, because every 
 leaf is open before you ; there is a dasli of the comic 
 in the style, which entices you to read on, and if you 
 gather nothing else, you are warned not to publish your 
 own folly. 
 
 Learn from experienced saints. What deep things 
 Bomc of them can teach to us younger men ! What in- 
 stances God's poor people can narrate of the Lord's 
 providential appearances for them ; how they glory in 
 his upholding grace and his faithfulness to his covenant ! 
 What fresh light they often shed upon the promises, 
 revealing meanings hidden from the carnally wise, but 
 made clear to simple hearts ! Know you not that many 
 of the promises are written with invisible ink, and must 
 be held to the fire of affliction before the letters will 
 show themselves ? Tried spirits are grand instructors 
 for ministers. 
 
 As for the inquirer, hoiv much is to he gathered from 
 him ! I have seen very much of my own stupidity Avhile 
 in conversation with seeking souls. I have been baffled 
 by a poor lad while trying to bring him to the Saviour ; 
 I thought I had him fast, but he has eluded me again 
 and again with perverse ingenuity of unbelief. Some- 
 times inquirers who arc really anxious surprise me with 
 their singular skill in battling against hope ; their argu- 
 ments are endless and their difficulties countless. They 
 put us to a non phis again and again. The grace of God 
 at last enables us to bring them to the light, but not 
 until we have seen our own inefficiency. In the strange 
 perversities of unbelief, the singular constructions and 
 misconstructions which the desponding put upon their 
 feelings and upon scriptural statements, you will often 
 find a world of instruction. I would sooner give a young 
 
TO WORKKItS U'lTlI .SLEXDKR APPARATUS. 297 
 
 man an hour with inquirers and the mentally depresscrl 
 tlian a week in the best of our classes, so fai' as practical 
 training for the pastorate is concerned. 
 
 Once more, he much at dcaili-hcds ; they arc illu- 
 minated books. There shall you read the very poetry 
 of our religion, and learn the secrets thereof. What 
 splendid gems are washed up by the Avaves of Jordan ! 
 Wliat fair llowers groAV on its banks ! The everlasting 
 fountains in the glory-land throw their spray aloft, and 
 the dew-drops fall on this side the narroAv stream ! I 
 have heard humble men and women, in their departing 
 hours, talk as though they were inspired, uttering 
 strange Avords, aglow with supernal glory. These they 
 learned from no lips beneath the moon ; tliey must have 
 heard them Avhile sitting in the suburbs of the Ncav 
 Jerusalem. God Avhispers them in their ears amid their 
 pain and weakness ; and then they tell us a little of 
 what the Spirit has revealed. I Avill jiart Avitli all my 
 books, if I may see the Lord's Elijahs mount theit 
 chariots of fire. 
 
 Is not this enough upon our subject ? If you desire 
 more, it is time I remember the sage sapng, that it ia 
 octtcr to send aAvay an audience longing than loathing ; 
 and, therefore, Adieu I 
 
Date Due 
 
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