T.IBR^R Y 
 
 i 
 
 1 
 
 Theological Seminar 
 
 y. 
 
 
 PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 
 1 Ocsc 
 ! SheJf 
 
 J^^^ Divl&ion 
 
 — j 
 
 
 
 259*^ Sectio. 
 
 i Book 
 
 
 
 
 
 
h 
 
 L 
 
THOUGHTS ON PREAOHINa 
 
 SPECIALLY 
 
 IN RELATION TO THE REQUIREMENTS 
 OF THE AaE. 
 
 / 
 DANIEL MOORE, M.A., 
 
 INCUMBENT OP CAMDEN CHURCH, CAMBERWELL, 
 
 AND TUESDAY MORNING LECTURER AT ST. MARGAREt's LOTHBURY, 
 
 AUTHOR OP "daily DEVOTION," ETC. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 HATCHARD AND CO., 187, PICCADILLY. 
 
 1861. 
 
TO 
 
 THE EIGHT HOXOUEABLE AND EIGHT EEYEEEND 
 AECHIBALD CAMPEELL, 
 
 LOED BISHOP OF LOI^DON, 
 
 DEAN OF THE CHAPEL EOTAL, ETC., 
 
 ON A 
 
 DEPAETMENT OP THE CHEISTIAN MINISTEY, 
 
 WHICH IT HAS BEEN 
 
 A LEADING OBJECT OF HIS EPISCOPATE TO EXTEND, 
 
 AND 
 
 THE TENDENCY OF HIS PEESONAL EXAMPLE TO ENCOTJEAGE, 
 
 AEE, WITH HIS LOEDSHIp's PEEMISSION, 
 
 GEATEFULLY INSCEIBED BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
" It was preacMng that restored the splendour of the Church, -when barbarism, 
 
 aud wars, and ignorance, either sate in or broke the doctor's chair in pieces 
 
 And by the same instrument God restored the beauty of the Church, when it was 
 necessary she should be reformed ; it was the assiduous and learned preaching of 
 those whom God chose for his ministers in that work, that wrought the advantages, 
 and persuaded those truths which are the enamel aud beauty of our churches. And 
 because by the same means all things are preserved, by which they are produced, it 
 cannot but be certain that the present state of the Church requires a greater care and 
 prudence in this ministry than ever. — Jeremy Taylor. — Pre/ace to Course of 
 Sermons, Part 11. 
 
 " Nam quum per artem rhetoricam et vera suadeanter et falsa, quis audeat dicere, 
 adversus mendacium in defensoribus suis inermem debere consistere veritatem, ut 
 videlicet illi, qui res falsas persuadere conantur noverint auditorem vel benevolum, vel 
 
 intentum, vel docilem prooemio facere, isti autem non noverint ? Illi falla- 
 
 cibus argumentis veritatem oppugnent, adserant falsitatem ; isti nee vera defendere, 
 nee falsa valeant refutare ? Uli animos audientium in errorem moventes, impellentesque 
 dicendo terreant, contristent, exhilarent, exhortentur ardentur ; isti pro veritate lenti 
 frigidique dormitent ? Quis ita desipiat, ut hoc sapiat ?"— Aug. de Docx. Christ. 
 L. iv. c. 2. 
 
PEEFACE. 
 
 Many and grievous have been the faults charged 
 upon our modern preaching. On all sides is the com- 
 plaint heard, of its want of adaptation to the conditions 
 of an advanced and advancing age. Even by those 
 who would gladly have thrown their shield over us, if 
 they could, — who, as bearing rule among us, would be 
 likely to look with tolerant and forbearing eye on the 
 failures of those who serve, — charges of pulpit ineffi- 
 ciency have been put forth with the most undisguised 
 and unsparing plainness. 
 
 These last, however, were but the faithful wounds 
 of a friend, and we could have borne them. 
 More painful to read, were the racy and caustic 
 strictures on English preaching, put forth some 
 time ago, by the most influential organ of public 
 opinion, of which the age can boast; supported, as 
 these have been, by similar statements in other depart- 
 ments of our periodical literature. The assumption 
 seems to be made constantly, that the pulpit is losing 
 its hold on the popular mind ; that it has come down 
 from its high vantage ground, as a first-rate power in 
 
.VI PREFACE. 
 
 the state ; in fact, that, as an agency for influencing 
 the will or guiding the thoughts of men, the day of 
 preaching is gone by.^ 
 
 By laymen, it is possible, these remarks have been 
 made with too little consideration for the various and 
 incessant demands which are made upon a clergyman's 
 time ; as well as with too little sympathy towards those 
 mental and physical conditions, which, as the author of 
 the Rambler so feelingly tells us, must greatly affect the 
 intellectual productions of any " writer, who condemns 
 himself to compose on a stated day." Still this has not 
 the less disposed the clergy to meet the charges of 
 pulpit failure with unshrinking fairness ; or made them 
 unwilling, whenever they have had opportunity of 
 meeting together for mutual conference, to give to the 
 consideration of the subject a distinguished prominence. 
 
 To the latter proof of a desire among them to enter- 
 tain the question honestly, the present work owes its 
 origin. On two occasions of large meetings of clergy, 
 the author was applied to, by his brethren, to prepare 
 a paper on '' Preaching ;" — the general subject being 
 given to him at one meeting, and that of "Preaching 
 for the Age," at another. On each of these occasions, 
 a further request was made to him for publication; and 
 
 1 The letters of" Hahitans in sicco" m the Times, cannot fail to 
 be remembered. Equivalent expressions to those here used will 
 be found in the North British Review, Feb., 1856, the AthencBum, 
 Nov., 1859, and other publications. 
 
PREFACE. VU 
 
 compliance with the wish was so far granted, as that 
 portions of the matter contained in the follovring pages, 
 were published in the Christian Observer ^ in the Spring 
 of 1859. But, in the course of these successive efforts, 
 more materials of thought had been gathered, than 
 could be expected to find place in a monthly periodical ; 
 and therefore, encouraged by the kind suffrages of his 
 brethren, the author has thought it might not be an un- 
 acceptable service, to present his views upon the sub- 
 ject of preaching, in an enlarged and more permanent 
 form. 
 
 The writer refers to these circumstances, only that 
 he may stand acquitted of presumption, in undertaking 
 such a w^ork. Many things, otherwise, he feels might 
 have laid him open to this charge. For on such a 
 subject, a man must speak with perfect freedom. Plain 
 truths must be told. Prevailing faults must be pointed 
 out. The responsibility of giving advice must be in- 
 curred ; and an entire strain of thought and language 
 adopted, which, no doubt, would come better from 
 those in authority ; — from those who bear rule in the 
 Church, or from others who can speak from a pro- 
 fessor's chair. 
 
 The Author was not deterred from his purpose by 
 the great number of works which he could find already 
 written upon the subject. On the contrary, in the way 
 of set and formal dissertation on the principles and 
 practice of preaching, the literature of our own age and 
 
Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 country seems to have produced comparatively little. 
 The subject has been presented, in its more didactic 
 aspects, by Claude and Vinet on the continent ; valuable 
 suggestions, for the Christian preacher, are contained in 
 the Ecclesiastes Anglicanus of Mr. Gresley, and in the 
 work on the Christian Ministry, by Mr. Bridges ; 
 whilst hints, from the layman's point of view, charac- 
 terized by all that eloquence and power which distin- 
 guish our periodical literature, are supplied in the pages 
 of the Edinburgh and other Eeviews. And to each of 
 these sources, it will be seen, the Author has not been 
 sparing in his acknowledgements. But he has met 
 with nothing so comprehensive and complete, upon the 
 subject of preaching, as to make him think that further 
 efforts in that direction were superfluous ; or that, in 
 suggesting means for increasing the efficiency of the 
 modern pulpit, he should be found labouring in an ex- 
 hausted field. 
 
 The adequate and full discussion of such a subject, it 
 will be seen, is not a task to be undertaken by one of the 
 working clergy. It requires an amount of varied reading 
 and continuous thought, which only men of learned 
 leisure can be expected to supply. Still, there are some 
 practical aspects of the subject, which, after all, can be 
 best dealt with by practical men. And it is as being him- 
 self of that number, chiefly, that the Author expects the 
 following Thoughts to have any value. Among the 
 mercantile and professional classes of the metropolis 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 it has been his privilege to exercise a ministry of 
 twenty years. He has gone in and out among them, — 
 tried to ascertain their opinions ; generalized, as far 
 as he could, on the law of their mental tastes and apti- 
 tudes ; and, in relation to this subject of preaching, in 
 particular, has laid himself out to discover w^herein the 
 educated and intelligent laity consider that their 
 teachers are most at fault. From this last point of 
 view, especially, the Author wishes the following pages 
 to be read. If he seem to require from some of his 
 brethren, more of diligent and thoughtful preparation 
 for their sermons, than they have hitherto considered 
 necessary, he wishes it to be remembered that he does 
 not ask this in his own name merely. He is the organ 
 of others, asking for what they demand, and nothing 
 more \ — 
 
 " Tu quid ego, et populus mecum desideret, audi." 
 
 The book may possibly appear to want unity in one 
 respect. The papers, on which it is founded, were 
 written, originally, for men of his own age and stand- 
 ing. In the process of enlargement, and in the appa- 
 rent paucity of works upon the subject of a practical 
 kind, he saw^ reasons for incorporating into his remarks 
 some suggestions, which, he feels, would be more suit- 
 able in a work specially intended for the younger 
 clergy. The chapter on the " structure of a sermon," 
 as well as some portions of that on its " subject-matter," 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 will perhaps be thought to require the shelter of some 
 such explanation as this. 
 
 But, in the way of introductory remark, the writer will 
 add no more. The anxieties attendant upon the pub- 
 lication of a work like this, are not a mere aidhofs 
 anxieties, — solicitudes as to how a book shall be re- 
 ceived, or who will become its friends; who will be 
 most tolerant towards its deficiencies, or who will be 
 loudest to condemn. They are the anxieties of a 
 public teacher of the Gospel ; — awed by the responsi- 
 bility of his self- chosen task, and fearing lest, in any- 
 thing, he should not have spoken aright for Christ and 
 for His Gospel. If satisfied on this point, he may wait 
 all other issues calmly. If only, through grace and 
 wisdom from above, he has been able to put the ordi- 
 nance of preaching on its right foundation, — ^to define 
 its place, to uphold its authority, to shew its mighty 
 power for good, and to set forth when, and how, and 
 by whom it may be so employed, as to be a greater 
 blessing both to him that speaks and to them that hear, 
 the writer will have had his reward. The rest he leaves 
 to labourers in the same field hereafter; — content to 
 have occupied the humblest post, in the advanced guard 
 of religious progress, and, by his own too crude reflec- 
 tions to have stimulated the better thoughts of some 
 better mind. 
 
 D. M. 
 
 Camberwell, Jan. 1 5^, 1861. • 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PREACHING, AS AN ORDINANCE Of GOD. 
 
 The alleged complaints against the modem Pulpit— Divine au- 
 thority of preaching— Its history under the Old Testament— 
 The prominence given to it in the New Testament— Its 
 relation to the other rites of the Christian Chiu^ch— Power of 
 the Pulpit in marked periods of English historry— The ahuse of 
 the power— The complaints of the writers of the "Tracts for 
 the Times" on the prominence given to preaching— The recent 
 impulse given to preaching— Adaptation to the popular mind the 
 mainspring of Pulpit eJB&ciency .... Page 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 the office of preaching, as designed for the INSTRUCTION 
 OF MANKIND IN RELIGIOUS TRUTH. 
 
 The common definitions of the ohject of Preaching— Definition of 
 Bishop Wilkin s— Precedence assigned to the Teaching office— 
 This supported by Scripture— Two leading principles deducible 
 
Xll CONTENTS. 
 
 from this : I. That all Sermons should contain some positive 
 instruction, and this in the most varied form. II. That all 
 Sermons respect the claims of the reasoning faculty — Systematic 
 Theology — The Philosophy of Christianity— Speaking with 
 authority — The relative provinces of reason and faith . 17 
 
 CHAPTER TIL 
 
 THE INTELLECTUAL DEMANDS OF THE PRESENT AGE. 
 
 The general advancement of national intelligence — Literature of 
 the poor — National schools— Popular lectures — Young Men's 
 literary associations — Reading hahits of the mercantile commu- 
 nity — Sceptical and rationalizing tendencies of the age — How 
 they are to be met — Objections against a higher intellectual 
 standard of preaching— Objection i. Want of time — Relative 
 importance of different ministerial duties — Objection ii. Man's 
 wisdom not necessary so only the Gospel be preached— Answer 
 to this — Objection iii. Want of natural ability — The practice of 
 preaching the sermons of others — The limited and lawful use of 
 borrowed materials , . , 37 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 TERSUASION, AS THE FINAL OBJECT OF PREACHING. 
 
 Lawfulness of appeals to the passions— Our message to the whole 
 man — Coarseness of a fonner age — The effect of regarding per- 
 suasion as the end of preaching — i. In causing a prominence to 
 be given to the more encouraging aspects of the Gospel — Rela- 
 tive efficacy of appeals to hope and fear— ii. In moderating the 
 tone of our rebukes for sin — Use of irony— iii. In inducing 
 greater caution and charitableness on points of controversy — iv. 
 
CONTENTS. XIU 
 
 In the restraint imposed upon different forms of pulpit eccen- 
 tricity— v. In the endeavour to give unction to our discourses, 
 and generally to minister to a higher tone of personal devout- 
 ness 66 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE PARTS AND ARRANGEMENT OF A SERMON. 
 
 Definitions of a sermon — The different kinds — The text— I. Eules 
 in relation to it — i. Should be chosen with a view to being used 
 — II. Should be used in their own proper sense — iii. Caution in 
 the use of startling texts, and the limits of accommodation — II. 
 The Exordium — Should be short — Calculated to awaken attention 
 — Lead naturally to the subject to be discussed — III. General 
 discussion of the subject — Necessity of unity — Arrangement of 
 parts — Examples of modes of discussion — The question of an- 
 nounced divisions — How far essential — The necessity of a clearly 
 indicated Hue of thought — IV. The peroration— The two opposite 
 faults : I. Of tediousness, ii. Of abruptness — Importance of 
 appeals to the conscience in a conclusion ... 92 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ON STYLE, IN RELATION TO PREACHING. 
 
 Importance of style — Words not an accident of thoughts — Minds 
 affected differently by different ways of saying the same thing — 
 Style of Bishop Butler — I. The rule commonly given for preach- 
 ing to he plain — How far this plainness is dependent on particular 
 words— 'Preference for words of Saxon root — Whether plainness 
 
XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 excludes argument - Danger of familiarity— Condescending to 
 the poor— II. The theory of simplicity as applied to style — i. In 
 relation to diffuseness — 2. In its compatibility with the ornate 
 and the figurative — 3, In regard to careful revision and study 
 of the rules of art — Pains-takiug indispensable to all good com- 
 position , 143 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE SUBJECT-MATTER OF PREACHING. 
 
 Paramount authority of Scripture — We must preach the Word — 
 I, In its unitij— As one truth — One morality — Ethical element 
 of Old Testament Scriptures — II. In its integritij—FaYtiaMtj of 
 preachers for particular departments of theological teaching — 
 III. In the rightful order and precedence of its fundamental 
 truths— The Atonement— The work of the Spirit— What is 
 " preaching Christ ?" — IV. In the impartial exhibition of its 
 complementary and correlative doctrines — Predestination and 
 Free Agency — Free Grace — Faith and Works — V. In its universal 
 adaptations — Preaching on the events of the day — ^Evils of poli- 
 tical preaching— Experimental preaching — The relation of Chris- 
 tianity to the affections — Concluding cautions . . .175 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE DELIVERY OF A SERMON. 
 
 Prejudice against elocution as an art — Opinion of Professor Blunt 
 — The ordinance of preaching a testimony to the importance of 
 good oral address — EflPect of it on the Stage — Danger of manner- 
 ism — Cultivation of delivery among the ancients — Modem prac- 
 
CONTENTS. XV 
 
 tice on the Continent and among Dissenters — The voice- 
 Physical danger of overstraining it — The only quaHfication to 
 speak audibly and pleasantly — Right pronunciation — Use of 
 gesture — Practice of the ancients — Of Whitefield — Of Chalmers 
 — Chief use of art to correct ungracefulness in action — Ex- 
 pression of the countenance — Necessity of earnestness — Baxter's 
 lamentations — Trials of good men in relation to earnestness of 
 delivery . . .223 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 EXTEMPORE PREACHING, AND ITS EFFICACY AS COMPARED WITH 
 THE WRITTEN SERMON. 
 
 The bearing of the foregoing chapters — Popular view of the relative 
 advantages of the extemporaneous and the written styles — Primi- 
 tive practice — Written style, when introduced — The practice of 
 continental and other preachers — Arguments for the partial re- 
 tention of the written style — Advantage to the same preacher of 
 cultivating both styles—Different methods of extempore preach- 
 ing — The memoriter method — The method from short notes — The 
 self-reliant method— General qualifications necessary — Facile 
 and correct expression — How to be acquired — Cultivation of the 
 memory — Necessity of writing — Temptations of the extempore 
 preacher 260 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 SUPPLEMENTAL TOPICS — CONCLUSION. 
 
 Expository preaching — Its relative advantages — Difficulties of the 
 style — Courses of sermons — Usually attractive — Helpful to en- 
 larged views of theology — Public catechizing — Ancient authority 
 of— The benefits to the adult members of a congregation— Its 
 
XVI CONTENTS. 
 
 supposed diflElculties — Sermons to chikken — The choice of sub 
 jects most suitable for — Illustration the gi'eat instrument for 
 teaching the young — Necessity of preparation — Open-air preach- 
 ing—The lawfulness of it — Supposed danger of biinging religion 
 into ridicide — Liability to open challenges fi'om the unbeliever 
 — ^Needed cautions — Special services for the working classes — 
 The Sunday evening services in cathedrals, &c. — Week-day 
 services in parish churches — How to keep up the interest of 
 special services — Conclusion 308 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 A— Complaints of the modem pulpit . . . 351 
 
 B — On some of the more dangerous phases of modem 
 
 religious thought ..... 353 
 
 C — On mistakes in the selection of texts for sermons , 357 
 
 D — South on the sermons of the Puiitans . . . 358 
 
 E — Use of words of Saxon Root . . . .359 
 
 F — Extemporaneous volubility .... 361 
 
 G — Lord Brougham's letter to the father of Macaulay . 362 
 
 H— Mr. Pitt's mode of acquiring facility of expression . 365 
 
 I — Eobert HaU's method of preparing his sermons . .366 
 
 K— Public catechizing in the Church . . . " 367 
 
THOUGHTS ON PEEACHING. 
 
 )h CHAPTER I. 
 
 PREACHING, AS AN ORDINANCE OF GOD. 
 
 The alleged complaints against the modern Pulpit — Divine au- 
 thority of preaching — Its history under the Old Testament — 
 The prominence given to it in the New Testament — Its 
 relation to the other rites of the Christian Church — Power of 
 the Pulpit in marked periods of English history — The ahuse 
 of the power — The complaints of the writers of the " Tracts for 
 the Times" on the prominence given to preaching — The recent 
 impulse given to preaching — Adaptation to the popular mind 
 the mainspring of Pulpit efficiency. 
 
 On reading the statements, which, according to 
 our Preface, are constantly made, in reference to 
 the present condition of the English Pulpit, — as de- 
 clining in influence, and falling short of its ancient 
 energy, and life, and power, — the first question which 
 will occur to any candid mind, is, " Are these things 
 so ?" And, if they are, even though only in a limited 
 degree, the further inquiry will follow, to what cause is 
 
 B 
 
2 PREACHING, AS AN 
 
 this lowered influence of a great agency to be ascribed ? 
 Is there anything in the authority upon which the in- 
 stitution rests ? or in the other insti'umentalities with 
 which it has to compete ? or in its own deficient 
 adaptations to the wants and sympathies of mankind, 
 which would account for the fact, that, while all the 
 other beneficent influences which bear on the social 
 and moral life of our country, are advancing, this 
 mighty agency of Preaching is doing its work with 
 feeble and slackened hand ? 
 
 As some guide to us, in finding an answer to these 
 questions, it may not be amiss to offer a few intro- 
 ductory remarks on Preaching, as an ordinance of 
 God ; shewing the dignity and importance of the 
 office, whether viewed in relation to other insti- 
 tutions of Divine appointment, or in its ascertained 
 suitableness, as an agency to advance the happiness of 
 mankind. 
 
 I. Now it is certain we should never have expected 
 any failure of results from preaching, if we looked 
 simply to its place and rank among Divine instru- 
 mentalities. It was among the first agencies, devised 
 of God, for the instruction of the world. For, without 
 claiming, under the economies antecedent to the Gospel, 
 an oflSce of men, precisely parallel to that of the Chris- 
 tian preacher, especially since the period of the Re- 
 formation, we have many intimations, that God often 
 employed the hortatory and and exegetical addresses 
 
ORDINANCE OF GOD. 3 
 
 of Wise and good men, with a view to the revelation 
 and enforcement of His will, in patriarchal, Mosaic, 
 and prophetical times. Thus Enoch, the seventh from 
 Adam, prophesied of the coming of the Lord. ^ Noah, 
 the eighth person, was a preacher of righteousness." 
 To Abraham was the covenant shewn, that he might 
 be a ATitness for the truth of God in a dark w^orld.^ 
 Whilst, not on Moses only, but on the seventy elders 
 associated with him also, was the Spirit of God made 
 to rest, both that they might bear, with their chief, 
 the 'secular burdens of the commonwealth, and also, 
 might" prophesy," unto the people, the things which had 
 been commanded them of God.^ The duties of public 
 teacher were continued afterwards by Joshua ; and 
 both of his preaching, and of that of his predecessor 
 right noble are the specimens which have come down 
 to us.^ From the time of Samuel to the captivity, the 
 work of public religious instruction seems to have been 
 less systematically kept up. True, schools of the pro- 
 phets were formally established,® and young men, called 
 " sons of the prophets," were regularly trained up for 
 the office of public instructors,^ but " the word of the 
 
 1 Jude V. 14. ^ 2 Pet. ii. 5. 3 Gen. xviii. 19. 
 
 * Numb. xi. 24, 25. 
 
 6 The Book of Deuteronomy passim, and Josh, xxii — xxiv. 
 « As at Naioth, and Bethel, and Jericho. See Bishop Patrick 
 on 1 Sam. x. 5, 6. 
 
 ' See 1 Kings xx. 35 ; 2 Kings ii. 5. 
 
 B 2 
 
4 PREACHING, AS AN 
 
 Lord was precious in those days. There was no open 
 vision;"^ no one to whom the people could look for 
 a stated course of public teaching; insomuch, that the 
 people were obliged either to resort to the prophets in 
 private, or else to depend upon such itinerant preachers, 
 as we find were sent out, under Jehoshaphat, to carry 
 the book of the law through all the country, and to 
 teach in the cities.® While the people were in Babylon, 
 however, the power of preaching was revived. And, to 
 the faithfulness and diligence of those who w^ere put in 
 trust with it, are we to attribute, not only the main- 
 tenance among the Jews of the true worship, but also 
 the fostering of that deep-rooted hatred of idolatry, 
 which, even in the lowest depths of their national 
 degeneracy, never suflfered ihem to bow the knee to 
 false gods again. 
 
 But the time of the greatest revival of oral reli- 
 gious teaching, among the Jews, was after their return 
 fi'om the seventy years' captivity. And the event was 
 to the grateful people, as the clear shining of the sun 
 after rain. The chief instrument in this national reform, 
 as we know, was Ezra, a scribe of the law, who, after 
 collecting and collating, as is supposed, the manuscripts 
 of the sacred writings, and arranging them according 
 to the order of our present canon, addressed himself 
 to the establishment of that method of instruction, by 
 means of paraphrase or comment upon the sacred word, 
 which, with comparatively slight modifications, has con- 
 
 • 1 Sam. iii. 2. See Patrick in loc. * 2 Chron. xvii. 8, 9. 
 
ORDINANCE OF GOD. 5 
 
 tinued in the Church until this day. Leaving, to be 
 still performed in the temple, the sacrifices and other 
 forms of ceremonial worship, Ezra caused synagogues 
 to be opened, for daily prayer, and for the reading and 
 expounding of the law. For the effect produced on 
 the people, by this more formal institution of a plan 
 of public instruction, we have only to consult the 
 touching narrative of Nehemiah. The scene was 
 most heart-stirring. Neither Arnold in the market- 
 place at Brescia, nor Latimer under the " shrouds ' 
 at Paul's Cross, nor Whitefield on Salisbury Plain, 
 ever looked on such a sight, as that which Ezra com- 
 manded from his " raised pulpit," in^ the open street 
 or square, that was "before the water-gate." From an 
 early hour on the Sabbath morn had the assembled 
 thousands been engaged in the service, — in prayer, and 
 responses, and hearing of the law. But, as Ezra and 
 his associates, after " reading the law of God distinctly," 
 proceeded "to give the sense, and to cause them to 
 understand the reading," such a panic of godly sorrow 
 seemed to have come over the minds of the assembly^ 
 accompanied, as it was, by the most passionate out- 
 bursts of strong emotion, that it was deemed expedient 
 by the masters of the assembly to bring the service 
 to a close. " So the Levites stilled all the people, say- 
 ing. Hold your peace, for the day is holy ; neither be 
 
 grieved." ^° 
 
 1° Nehem. viii. 11. 
 
" PREACHING, AS AN 
 
 Of the important place assigned to Preaching 
 under the Gospel, it seems superfluous to speak. 
 Christianity owes everything to preaching. Its fore- 
 runner was a preacher. Its Great Author was a 
 Preacher. Its first ministers w^ere preachers ; and, 
 by the agency of preaching, did it make its pro- 
 gress in the world. Disciples knew they could not 
 overrate the importance of this ordinance in their 
 Divine Lord's estimation. It was the subject of His 
 first injunction to them, even as it entered into His last. 
 Does a wavering follower interpose the urgency of 
 domestic claims in the way of his serving Christ ? He 
 is told that there are far higher claims demanding 
 his attention ; " Go thou and preach the kingdom of 
 God."^^ Would the gathered group at Mount Olivet 
 know what part of their work lay nearest to the Master's 
 heart, as He was going away ? They hear His parting 
 command, " Go ye into all the world and preach the 
 Gospel to every creature." ^^ 
 
 Before adverting, however, to the various testimonies 
 to the importance of preaching, found in other parts of 
 the New Testament, — testimonies direct, clear, and "in 
 number numberless," — it may be well to view the ordi- 
 nance, in relation to those other institutions and rites of 
 Christianity with which it has to co-operate, and which 
 it would be to our souls' hurt to disparage. It has ever 
 been an artifice of the great enemy to turn the Church of 
 11 Luke ix. GO. 12 Matt. xvi. 15. 
 
ORDINANCE OF GOD. 7 
 
 Christ into a house divided against itself ; to destroy the 
 fair symmetry of her proportions, — either by setting one 
 agency against another, or else by exalting one part of 
 her work, only to throw greater slight upon the rest. In 
 the times of the Puritans, Hooker tells us, the rivalry set 
 up was between " preaching " and " reading: " and, by 
 some, man's word was invested with a power above that 
 of the word of God.^'^ In later times, the opposition is 
 made to be between the relative importance of preach- 
 ing and the prayers ; and we have a chaplain of 
 Charles II. telling us, " One pretends to magnifie the 
 public prayers, but vilifie preaching; with another 
 preaching and hearing are all the religion;"" the 
 worthy chaplain following up his observations with a 
 remark, which, perhaps, would apply with equal pro- 
 priety to those, who are prone to make like invidious 
 contrasts in our own day ; namely, that the people, who 
 are given to set prayers and preaching against each 
 other, are usually those who do not care much about 
 either. 
 
 With the form which this controversy has assumed, in 
 modern times, we are all familiar. Preaching has had to 
 stand on the defensive against the charge of an usurped 
 pre-eminence, which, it is alleged, has cast all the other 
 
 13 Ecc. pol. v., cxxii. 11—14. 
 
 1* Glanvil's Essay concerning preaching, p. 14, ed. 1703. See 
 also Bishop Burnet's Pastoral Care, c. ix., commencement. 
 
o PREACHING, AS AN 
 
 agencies of the Church into the shade. We syjeak not 
 of allegations, made in relation to the recent move- 
 ments for " Special Services." More than fifteen 
 years ago,— long before the huge concert-hall had re- 
 sounded with the responses of our solemn litany, or the 
 dome and nave of our metropolitan cathedrals had 
 sparkled with their circling or foliated jets of gas, — the 
 authors of the " Tracts for the Times " had begun to 
 decry, in no measured terms, the modern rage for 
 preaching. They described this growing tendency of 
 the age, as based upon a "worldly system ;" as not con- 
 ducing to " a healthful and reverential tone of feeling 
 in respect to the blessed sacraments;" and as "the 
 undue exaltation of an instrument, which Scripture, to 
 say the least, has never much recommended."^^ 
 
 These statements could not fail to excite surprise, if 
 it were only for their boldness. The inferior place 
 assigned to preaching, in relation to sacraments, seemed 
 to be little in harmony with that language of the 
 Apostle, "For Christ sent us not to baptize, but to 
 preach the Gospel.'' ^^ Whilst it seemed a yet more 
 strange thing to speak of an ordinance, as " not much 
 recommended in Scripture," which, to say nothing of 
 other testimonies, filling up whole columns of a con- 
 cordance, is enjoined upon Timothy, by one of the most 
 solemn adjurations in the whole word of God. " I 
 charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who 
 
 1^ Tracts for the Times, No 87, p. 75. i*^ 1 Cor. i. 17. 
 
ORDIiNANCE OF GOD. 9 
 
 shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing 
 and His kingdom, Preach the word.''^'' 
 
 It would be easy to contrast, with these modern no- 
 tions, the views of the early Fathers upon the subject of 
 preaching ; ^^ or those put forth by men of a former age, 
 in our own country, — by Grindal, and Cranmer, and 
 Jewel, and Thorndike, or even by the great Hooker 
 himself. The last mentioned writer, at all events, will 
 not be regarded by any, as one likely to favour the 
 undervaluing of sacraments. And yet he would have us 
 esteem preaching as "the blessed ordinance of God, 
 sermons as keys to the kingdom of heaven, as wings to 
 the soul, as spurs to the good affections of man, unto 
 the sound and healthy as food, as physic unto diseased 
 minds."i9 
 
 But in determining the precedence to be given to 
 this or that ordinance of the Church, the appeal, after 
 Scripture, must be to the observed facts of history. 
 And then, we should ask fearlessly, whether the worst 
 preaclving times have not always been the worst praying 
 times f and whether the revived power of the Pulpit 
 
 17 2 Tim. iv. 1, 2. 
 
 ^^ Thus Gregory Nazianzen says, " Preaching is the principal 
 thing that belongs to us ministers," Orat. i. See also extract from 
 Augustine and Chrysostom, in the introductory chapter of Moule's 
 Christian Oratory of the First Five Centuries. 
 
 19 Eccl. Pol. V. c. 22. 
 
 20 See Bridge's Christian Ministry, Part IV., c. i., 4, ed. 1835. 
 
10 PREACHING, AS AN 
 
 has not usually been accompanied with increased re- 
 verence for God's holy word and sacraments ? Never, 
 surely, was preaching at a lower ebb, than in the time 
 immediately preceding the Reformation, in the days of 
 " unpreaching prelates," when the pulpits of the land 
 were described by Latimer as " bells without clap- 
 pers."-^ Will any tell us that, in lieu of sermons, at 
 that time, there was more of reverence among the people 
 for the higher rites of the Church ? Again, the " golden 
 age" of preaching we should probably refer to the revival 
 of the fourth century, when East and West were alike 
 sending forth their masters of mighty oratory, and 
 Chrysostom and Augustine arose to change the face of 
 Christianity and to shake the world. Will any charge 
 it, as a consequence of this resuscitated Pulpit power, 
 that "the other ministrations of the Church were 
 neglected," and a general " superficiality " induced " in 
 the pursuit of holiness ?" 
 
 We conclude, therefore, that these competitions, 
 between one Scriptural ordinance and another, are both 
 uncalled for and unwise. Let each have its own. 
 Neither can do the work of the other. If people are 
 asleep, it is not by frequent sacraments alone, that we 
 can hope to rouse them ; and if they are sunk deep in 
 vice and ruin, a more stimulating appeal must be made 
 
 21 He says, " A priest might have left off a sermon twenty Sun- 
 days, and never have been blamed." Latimer's Sermons, vol. i,, p. 
 J 82. ' 
 
ORDINANCE OF GOD. 11 
 
 to their consciences than the call to daily prayer. Thus 
 preaching, though not a substitute for any rite of Chris- 
 tianity, is both auxiliary to all, and indispensable to all. 
 Other ordinances may be the channels of grace and 
 life, but, without preaching, people would not see their 
 need of grace and life : and " the golden pipes " of the 
 sanctuary would become closed up, from an unappreci- 
 ating sense of the blessings they were designed to convey. 
 But perhaps the most conclusive argument, in favour 
 of the importance of preaching is that supplied by the 
 history of our own country, in the power which, whether 
 for good or for evil, the pulpit has ever exercised over 
 the national mind. Professor Blunt has cited some 
 examples, and his list might easily have been ex- 
 tended.^ The pulpit, more than any other means, 
 stirred up the people to cast off the fetters of the 
 Papacy, in favour of the Reformation. The pulpit was 
 the great instrument for keeping up to their pitch of 
 fierce and misguided zeal the abettors of the Common- 
 wealth. In the last days of the Stuarts, its aid was 
 called in to uphold the ark of our endangered Pro- 
 testantism, whilst every great revival of religion our 
 country has witnessed since — by Owen and Howe, by 
 Whitefield and Wesley, by Romaine and Newton, by 
 Scott and Simeon, — has been a fresh testimony to the 
 truth of that word, " it pleased God by the foolishness of 
 preaching to save them that believe."^ 
 22 Duties of a Parish Priest, Lect v. p. 142. ^ 1 Cor. i. 21. 
 
12 PREACHING, AS AN 
 
 Other countries of Christendon and other churches 
 would supply like testimonies.^ Of course it has to be 
 conceded, in relation to these instances of the power of 
 the pulpit, which are taken from the more troubled 
 times of our nation's history, that means were had re- 
 course to which we should not think of employing now, 
 and which, we trust, may never be employed again. 
 Never did this power make itself so much felt, as in the 
 times of the civil wars, but it was too often the power of 
 an abused trust, of a desecrated ordinance, of a weapon 
 of spiritual warfare, turned against the precepts of Him, 
 in whose Name it professed to be employed. Preachers, 
 on both sides,2^ addressed themselves indiscriminately 
 to the worst passions of our nature ; degraded their 
 office into an apostleship of discontent and faction; 
 often making use of holy words and topics, as a mere 
 vehicle for party, or, perhaps, personal invective ; and, 
 to the purposes of " hatred, malice, and all uncharitable- 
 
 24 See in almost any Biographical Dictionary or Encyclopaedia, 
 under the names of Arnold of Brescia, Savonarola, Capestran, &c. 
 See also the remarks of Southey on the Portuguese and some 
 Spanish preachers, in his Book of the Church. 
 
 25 In no preacher did the fau>t show itself more than in South. 
 With him Milton is the "blind adder who spit venom on the 
 King's person ;" Cromwell is " Baal, a bankrupt, beggary fellow 
 who entered the Parliament House, with a threadbare torn cloak 
 and greasy hat, and, perhaps, neither of them paid for," and Sir 
 Henry Vane, " that worthy Knight who was executed on Tower 
 Hill." See Preface to Sermons, vol. i. p. 19. 
 
ORDINANCE OF GOD. 13 
 
 ness," perverting the sweet ministries of the gospel of 
 peace. 
 
 But, all this allowed for, we have proof enough left, 
 that, as an agency for influencing the social and moral 
 life of our country, the Pulpit is entitled to a foremost 
 place. Our own times supply evidence of this, in a 
 remarkable degree. We have not been backward in 
 the application of other instrumentalities — cheap educa- 
 tion, striking tracts, increasing intercourse with the 
 clergy by pastoral visitation, and " the Book and its 
 Mission," finding its way from house to house. And 
 yet we have had men drawn to our ^^ sermons for the 
 working classes," who, in regard of means for bringing 
 them under the power of the Gospel, could be attracted 
 by nothing else. They find, in preaching, something 
 that responds to a felt void, and an instinctive need. 
 Instruction, by means of books, supposes knowledge, 
 cultivation, a previously awakened interest and taste. 
 As a pre-requisite to success, the preacher can dispense 
 with these. His hopes of a gained attention, on the 
 part even of the poorest of his flock, rest on the sym- 
 pathies to be awakened by the living voice ; on his 
 being able to throw himself into the same grooves of 
 thinking and feeling with his hearers ; seeing eye to eye 
 with them, and feeling heart to heart with them, on all 
 the interesting topics of human thought. The preached 
 Gospel goes down to the lowest depths of their moral 
 being, and conviction can be withheld no longer. 
 
14 
 
 " Come see a man which told me all things that ever I 
 did ; is not this the Christ ? " ^'^ 
 
 And it is on this po^Yer of adaptation to the different 
 phenomena of social life — an adaptation, embracing in 
 its range, all orders of mind, all varieties of character, 
 all class-sympathies, and all diversities of external lot — 
 that, for any effective hold on the spirits of men, the 
 Pulpit must ever take its stand. The preacher has re- 
 sources at his command, both Divine and human, which, 
 in the case of any grievous inefficiency or failure, must 
 leave him without excuse. To stand up, as he is privi- 
 leged to do, as in Christ's stead ; to see an assembly of 
 persons gathered around hiai, in many of whom the 
 "preparations of the heart from the Lord," may, at 
 that moment, be going on ; to have the choice before 
 him, of all-elevating and inspiring themes — the pro- 
 mises of the Gospel, the aids of the Spirit, the ministry 
 of angels, whatever could tend to lift the mind above 
 the sordidnessof this poor life, and give it nearer fellow- 
 ship with the powers of eternity ; and withal to feel 
 that he is not forbidden to mingle with these loftier 
 topics, the subjects which lie nearest to men's hearts, — 
 their home duties, their fire-side anxieties, the difficul- 
 ties and trials which meet them in their daily work — all 
 this should make the Gosj)el preacher feel that he is in 
 possession of a weapon, " mighty through God to the 
 pulling down of strong-holds," and fitted, by its varied 
 appliances, to convert and save the world. 
 •^ John iv. 29. 
 
ORDINANCE OF GOD. 15 
 
 And, therefore, especially, if we may so adopt an in- 
 spired form of phrase, we would have the preacher 
 always remember, that the Gospel was " made for man,'' 
 and not man for the Gospel. He must not restrict to a 
 few, a boon which God intended for mankind. It is 
 not enough that we speak comfortably to penitents, and 
 devoutly to sinners, and experimentally to the advanced 
 and ripened saint. We must strike further out. We 
 must aim to reach the hearts, and intellects, and con- 
 sciences of those who lie beyond this eclectic circle. 
 No greater mischief, we conceive, can be done to the 
 Gospel than to exhibit it as a narrow and exclusive 
 system; as something sealed or shut up to all who 
 have not part in certain limited and conventional sym- 
 pathies ; making Christianity to be a thing which re- 
 quires its followers to live in a world of their own, 
 and implying, that to take up the cross the Chris- 
 tian is to lay down all that is distinctive in the man. 
 So far otherwise,^'^ it should be our aim to vindi- 
 cate the essential liumanness of the Gospel, — its suitable- 
 ness to man as we find him now ; as a system, which 
 will furnish room for all his faculties, scope for all his 
 gifts, objects for all his desires, strength for his every 
 duty, and a reason for his every hope. In a word, it 
 should be the preacher's constant study to make mani- 
 fest, that the religion of Jesus Christ, while it quickens 
 
 ^^ See some remarks on this subject in Prof. Viuet's Installation 
 Lecture, in "Homiletics," p. 467. 
 
16 PREACHING, ETC. 
 
 to a new and higher life all the emotions of our spiritual 
 nature, is yet the only religion which meets a busy 
 world on its own terms; shedding its sanctities over 
 the common task, and sympathising with the toiling 
 family of man. 
 
%,,TH30L0aiGiL 
 
 'ylfW^^v^'^i^' 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 THE OFFICE OF PREACHING, AS DESIGNED FOR ^THE 
 INSTRUCTION OF MANKIND IN RELIGIOUS TRUTH. 
 
 The common definitions of the object of Preaching — Definition of 
 Bishop Wilkins— Precedence assigned to tlie Teaching office — 
 This supported by Scripture — Two leading principles deducible 
 from this : I. That all Sermons should contain some positive in- 
 struction, and this in the most varied form. 11, That all Sermons 
 respect the claims of the reasoning faculty — Systematic Theology 
 — The Philosophy of Christianity — Speaking with authority — 
 The relative provinces of reason and faith. 
 
 Having endeavoured to vindicate the high authority 
 of preaching, as an agency, ordained of God, adapted 
 to human circumstances, and, whether for good or for 
 evil, found to be among the primary forces which act 
 upon our social and moral life, w^e must, in order to see 
 how such an instrumentality may be best employed, go 
 back to the consideration of its original design, — in 
 other words, must try to arrive at some definite under- 
 standing upon the question — What is the proper office 
 OF PREACHING ? What was it instituted and ordained 
 to do ? 
 
 And the answer to this inquiry, by one authority, is, 
 
 c 
 
18 PREACHING DESIGNED FOR 
 
 ** the sum and substance of preaching is to bring men to 
 repentance, and to a firm belief in the Gospel." ^ By 
 another we are told, that " the end of all preaching is to. 
 make men good;" - whilst, from a third, we have a yet 
 more vague answer to our question, that " the primary 
 intention of preaching is the reformation of mankind."^ 
 It seems obvious to remark that all these definitions are 
 very inadequate ; and present but a very limited and 
 imperfect view either of what preaching aims at, or 
 what preaching does. We should rather say that the 
 ends we propose to ourselves, by this service, are to 
 inform ignorance, to alarm carelessness, to arouse in- 
 difference, to excite to holhiess, to build up believers 
 on their most holy faith, — in a word, to magnify the 
 grace of the Gospel, by bringing the power of a living 
 Christianity close home, — to the heart, to the conscience, 
 to the life. We believe preaching to be the channel by 
 which God comes to the soul of man, for every gracious 
 purpose, whether of conviction, or conversion, or esta- 
 blishment, or instruction in righteousness. The mes- 
 sage of God to the human spirit is by " the still small 
 voice." 
 
 Such, we say, are among the ends of preaching. But 
 in order to these ends being accomplished, the means 
 
 1 Arclih. Tillotson. See Gresley's Ecclesiastes Anglicaniis, 
 2nd ed. p. 13. 
 
 ^ Blair's Lectures, vol. 2, p. 29. 
 
 » Campbell's Pliilos. of Pihetoric^ book i. c. x. § 5. 
 
THE INSTRUCTION OF MANKIND. 19 
 
 to be employed must be such as are adapted to man's 
 moral and intellectual nature. By this rule God deals 
 with us Himself. A tacit reference to it pervades all 
 the exhortations and requirements of the Bible. We 
 live under an economy of mutually dependent agencies. 
 The Gospel, we know, is "the power of God unto salva- 
 tion unto them that believe." But to help them to 
 believe, to teach them to believe, to furnish them with 
 the evidence on which they are expected to believe, 
 and, against all the opposition and enmity of the carnal 
 mind, to prevail with them to believe,— this is the 
 preacher's work ; and if he is to succeed in it, and if he 
 is to be blessed in it, he must proceed by rule, — work- 
 ing in harmony with the laws of nature and of God. 
 
 Hence, we think, a better line of thought will be 
 marked out for the further prosecution of our subject, 
 if we proceed upon a view of the design of preaching, 
 suggested by Bishop Wilkins — " The great end of 
 preaching," he says, "being either to inform or per- 
 suade, this may be most elFectually done by such 
 rational ways of explanation and confirmation as are 
 most fit and proper to satisfy men's judgments and 
 consciences;"^ and, again, a few pages afterwards he 
 tells us, " The principal scope of a Divine orator should 
 be to teach clearly, convince strongly, and persuade 
 powerfully."^ 
 
 * Preface to his Discourse on the Gift of Preaching. 
 
 * Gift of Preaching, § 5. 
 
 c 2 
 
20 PREACHING DESIGNED FOR 
 
 In the principles here laid down, it will be seen that 
 a special prominence is given to the teaching part of 
 the preacher's office ; that an act of homage is paid to 
 the intellectual endowments of humanity ; as if all our 
 work would be very inefficiently done, and, in all pro- 
 bability, would very soon be widone, if, while prevailing 
 with men to embrace the faith of the Gospel, we had 
 not first won for it the consent of an intelligent con- 
 viction, and persuaded them that it was a reasonable 
 service. 
 
 Does Holy Scripture bear out this view ? Does it 
 afford any sanction for saying to a preacher, as this 
 counsel, in effect, says, ' Alarm the conscience if you 
 can, move to emotion if you can, persuade the will if 
 you can, but whatever you do, you must teach ; must 
 remember you are dealing with beings endued with the 
 powers of reflection and thought ; must honour, even as 
 God Himself honours, the first demands of a rational 
 nature.' 
 
 We think Scripture does endorse this counsel. 
 Thus, do we inquire who were they, under the Old 
 Testament, who came nearest to the Divine standard of 
 ministerial perfectness ? the answer is, " And I will give 
 you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed 
 you with knowledge and understanding."" Or would 
 we know what was the custom of him who was empha- 
 tically the " preacher," to them of old time, we are 
 reminded " because the preacher was wise, he still 
 " Jer iii. 15. 
 
THE INSTRUCTION OF MANKIND. 21 
 
 taught the people knowledge ; 3/ea, he gave good heed, 
 and sought out, and set in order many proverbs. The 
 preacher sought to find out acceptable words."' Still 
 more should we be inclined to draw such a conclusion 
 from notices found in the New Testament. Nicodemus 
 felt he could pay no higher act of homage to the pro- 
 phet of Nazareth, than to speak of Him " as a Teacher 
 come from God." ^ The last command given by the 
 ascending Saviour to His disciples was, " Go ye and 
 TEACH all nations."® Twice do we find the apostle 
 glorying in his designation as an ordained '' teacher 
 of the Gentiles ;"^° and, as often, do we find him admo- 
 nishing the youthful bishop of the church of Ephesus, 
 that, in choosing fit men to serve in the sacred ministry 
 of Christ's church, he be careful to select those who are 
 " apt to teach."" 
 
 Neither does this deference of Scripture to the human 
 intelligence, proceed upon the supposition that our 
 powers of reflection and thought act mechanically ; that 
 the mind of man is a mere passive recipient, obliged to 
 accept what is put before it without inquiry, and with- 
 out choice. On the contrary, the assumption is made 
 constantly, that the understanding in man is both active 
 and free, — that, within certain limits, and on its own 
 proper subjects, it both can reason and ought to reason 
 
 7 Eccl. xii. 8, 9. ^ Johniii. 2. ^ Matt, xxviii. 19. 
 
 10 1 Tim. ii. 7 ; 2 Tim. i. II. "1 Tim. iii. 2 ; 2 Tim. ii. 24. 
 
22 PREACHING DESIGNED FOR 
 
 on Nvhatever propositions are offered for its acceptance. 
 Thus, of Paul we are told, that " as his manner was, he 
 went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reasoned with 
 them out of the Scripture." ^^ Of the Berseans it is tes- 
 tified that they were " more noble than those in Thessa- 
 lonica, in that they searched the Scriptures daily, 
 whether these things were so."^^ To the strangers 
 scattered abroad, Peter gives the counsel, '' be ready 
 always to give an answer to every man that asketh you 
 a reason of the hope that is in you ;"^^ and Paul lays it 
 as a solemn charge upon his Thessalonian converts, 
 ''Prove all things; hold fast that which is good."'^ 
 Indeed, on this point, we have what seems to be a yet 
 higher warrant. For, as if afraid to force the mind of 
 man to believe even His own words, we have the 
 Almighty saying by His prophet, " Come now and let 
 us reason together, saith the Lord." Whilst the first 
 and fundamental work of the Spirit in the human soul 
 is an awakened rational consent to the justice of the 
 Divine reproof : " And when He is come He will convince 
 the world of sin."^*^ 
 
 Two important principles, in relation to the oflice of 
 preaching, seem to arise out of this view. 
 
 ^^ Acts xvii. 2 ; reasoned " dialectieally " as South notes, from 
 
 13 Ibid. ver. 11. i4 i Pet. iii. 15. i^ 1 Thess. v. 2l. 
 
 i<5 Marginal reading of John xvi. 8. Certis et indubitatis argu- 
 mentis ahcui aliquid persuadeo, et demonstro ac disseutientes 
 refuto. Schleusner on verb tXfy^^w. 
 
THE INSTRUCTION OF MANKIND. *23 
 
 I. The first is, that we must lay ourselves out to give 
 instruction in our sermons ; that we are bound to supply 
 those who come to us with matter for profitable and 
 improving thought; that we are not to be for ever 
 " dropping buckets into empty wells ;" and, at the end 
 of a weary hour, leave our people to find that we "have 
 brought nothing up." We should remember that, for 
 so much of the time as follows upon the devotional part 
 of the service, we have the congregation at our mercy. 
 They cannot well leave us if they would ; and, there- 
 fore, if we expect them to give us their thoughtful 
 attention, the least we are bound to do is to give them 
 something to think about. They are assembled before 
 us, as Cornelius and his kinsmen were assembled, to 
 have explained to them the everlasting principles of 
 truth and duty ; to hear something of their condition 
 and responsibilities as moral agents ; to learn more of 
 their relation to God and to Christ, and to an eternal 
 world; in a word, to be taught both how to live, 
 and how to die. "Now, therefore, we are all here 
 present before God, to hear all things that are com- 
 manded thee of God."^'' 
 
 Let us never forget, then, that our one great work is 
 to INSTRUCT. The foundation of our authority is a 
 book, a document, something which is to be taught. 
 " Whatsoever things were written aforetime were 
 
 1'' Acts xi. 33. 
 
24 PREACHING DESIGNED FOR 
 
 >vritten for our learning ;"^^ and if " all Scrip- 
 ture be given by inspiration of God," it is that it 
 may be " profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for corr 
 rection, for instruction in righteousness." We make 
 not our true use of this book, unless, as preachers, 
 we are diligent to open its meaning, to confirm 
 its facts, to apply its principles, to deduce its les- 
 sons, to illustrate its harmony with other parts of our 
 revealed system, and, generally, to exhibit it in its entire 
 adaptation to the moral and intellectual nature of man. 
 P>ery discourse is imperfect, which has not its pervad 
 ing or underlying element of direct teaching ; whether 
 in the way of doctrine distinctly stated, or inference 
 logically argued, or evidence strikingly corroborated, — 
 of precepts, which are had in reverence of all men, 
 shewn to have a reach of jurisdiction which had not 
 been perceived before, or of truths, known and believed 
 of all men, made to arrest attention, because presented 
 in some new and striking light. 
 
 Especially, would we lay stress upon this last point, 
 the need of a perpetual variety and freshness in our 
 
 1^ lu the version immediately preceding our authorised transla- 
 tion (1582), the passage runs, " is profitable to teach, to argue, to 
 coiTect, to instruct in justice." The point, however, will not escape 
 observation, that of four avowed ends for which Scripture is here 
 said to be profitable, three have an immediate relation to the intel- 
 lectual faculties. See Schleusner and others on ^iSacTKaXia, (XeyxoQ, 
 TraiSiia. 
 
THE INSTRUCTION OF MANKIND. 25 
 
 sermons. The complaint, among hearers, is far from 
 an uncommon one, with regard to their teacher, that he 
 is always preaching the same sermon. iVfter listening 
 to him for a few months, they are able to take the most 
 accurate gauge of his intellectual dimensions — how 
 far he will branch out, how deep he will fathom, how 
 high he will soar. They have accompanied him in his 
 mental processes again and again ; have traced his 
 principle and practice, — his illustration and confirma- 
 tion, — his consolations to the godly, and his warnings 
 to the sinner, — through all their monotonous combina- 
 tions. Everything is done by line and square. They 
 know exactly when the same illustration will recur; 
 how the old practical caution will come in ; can see 
 when his mind is coming back to a certain well-known 
 point in its orbit, and the coming peroration is casting 
 its welcome shadow before. 
 
 Now it is certain we cannot afford to dispense with 
 an agent so powerfully operative, both in kindling and 
 keeping alive attention, as is this of novelty. Our felt 
 difficulty, as preachers, is, that we have to gain a vital 
 entrance for accepted truth ; to interest people, week 
 after week, in statements, with a theoretical knowledge 
 of which they have been familiar from childhood. And, 
 inasmuch as we cannot preach to them " another 
 gospel," our only option is to preach a gospel which, 
 though "not another," shall minister to our nature's 
 love of " some new thing," by being presented under 
 
•26 PREACHING DESIGNED FOR 
 
 new combinations — preaching always the same doc- 
 trine, but not always in the same way.^^ 
 
 And we can plead the highest authority for this 
 mode of preaching. The royal preacher, who had only 
 one truth to declare, was not satisfied without " setting 
 in order many proverbs ;"~° whilst, of a well-furnished 
 teacher under the Gospel, the description given is, 
 " Therefore every scribe, which is instructed unto the 
 kingdom of heaven, is like unto a man that is a house- 
 holder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things 
 new and old/'"^ Yet more is a sanction given to 
 diversified forms of teaching, by the varied style and 
 structure of the sacred volume itself. Why, if all 
 minds were alike, or if the same minds were alike in 
 all states, should we have the one, unchanging, everlast- 
 ing truth of God revealed to us in such broken and 
 multiform shapes ? Why must we be taught, now by 
 the calm dignity of history, now by the rapt strains of 
 prophecy, now by the sweet melody and flow of song ? 
 Wh)^ has such a variety for our intellectual taste been 
 provided, in the march of the stately argument, in the 
 eloquent and sublime discourse, in the easy and unaf- 
 fected narrative, in the sparkling glitter and word- 
 painting of the parable, and in the letters of loving 
 confidence, as they passed from friend to friend ? 
 Surely, in all this, we see a beneficent provision that 
 
 19 Non nova, sed uove, Vincent of Lorins. "^ Eccles. xii. 9. 
 21 Matt. X ill. 52. 
 
THE INSTRUCTION OF MANKIND. 27 
 
 none may escape ; a designed adaptation to the com- 
 plicated structure of the human spirit ; a purpose that, 
 as the mirror of Divine requirement was held up, in this 
 way or that, each man should behold "his natural face in 
 a glass," and, in the application of the word to his exist- 
 ing state and character, find that old things have become 
 new. In this, as in all things, Scripture deals with 
 man as it finds him. Satiety with that which is good 
 is an infirmity of our organization, an accident of our 
 lapsed humanity.-^ Good spirits never tire of goodness. 
 But, in the strict sense, men are not good; and until 
 they are, we must, in dealing with the slow and sluggish 
 minds of our race, have recourse to every form of 
 rational appeal we can think of. We must " be 
 made all things to all men," that we may " by all means 
 save some."-^ 
 
 II. But the passages we have cited from Scripture, 
 
 as seeming to require from a preacher, that he respect 
 
 the claims of the rational intelligence, suppose him to 
 
 be something more than a mere purveyor of food to the 
 
 mental appetite, however skilled he may be in adapt- 
 i 
 
 22 See Dr. Kidd's Introductory Lecture to his Course of Com- 
 pai-ative Anatomy at Oxford 1824, p. 55, where it is argued that 
 the decay of pleasing hnpressions once experienced, and the con- 
 
 ^ sequent desire of novelty, are referable to unavoidable physical 
 causes. 
 
 23 1 Cor. ix. 22. 
 
28 PREACHING DESIGNED FOR 
 
 ing that food to the often cloyed and capricious palate. 
 He is to be a " reasoner " as well as a " teacher ;" a 
 *' disputer " as well as a '' scribe ;" challenging, for all 
 he advances, the assent of an enlightened judgment, 
 and " able by sound doctrine both to exhort and con- 
 vince the gainsayers."^ 
 
 We deem this an important aspect of the teacher's 
 office. We know there are people who make a positive 
 merit of abjuring argument, of abnegating, more or less, 
 the province of the intellect in matters of religion, — 
 almost making it to appear that faith and reason are two 
 antagonist forces, and that the ascendancy of the one 
 involves the inevitable, if not the designed, subjection 
 of the other. And infidel writers, as might be expected, 
 have always been but too ready to take hold of such 
 admissions. Hume, in particular, constantly speaks as 
 though there were no medium between rejecting Chris- 
 tianity, and abandoning the claims of human reason. 
 Whilst Tindal tells us that " Revelation requires the 
 taking of all things upon trust, and that if men are 
 governed by revelation, they must take the words in the 
 literal, plain, and obvious meaning, how absurd soever 
 it appears to their carnal reason."^ 
 
 But no wise preacher of the Gospel will allow 
 
 2^ Titus i. 9. 
 
 ^ See for this and similar references, the Author's Hulsean prize 
 essay, The Christian System Vindicated, 2nd Edit., § vi., p. 140. 
 
THE INSTRUCTION OF MANKIND. 29 
 
 this, nor any view, in fact, by which reason becomes 
 deposed from its just supremacy in the mind of man.'^ 
 Of course we shall never forget that there are revealed 
 facts, which, from their own nature, must be beyond the 
 reach of the human faculties; that there is a shrine of 
 inmost truth, which seems to be fenced off from the in- 
 tended range of man's thought, and which he cannot 
 even attempt to look into, without the effort recoiling 
 hurtfully upon himself. But where reason can ^udge it 
 should ^ndge. It is as much a gift of God, as revelation 
 is ; and, between the clearly expressed decisions of 
 both there can be no conflict and no jar. '*' Whatever 
 principles," says Melancthon, " have been transcribed 
 from the common reason and feelings of human nature, 
 are to be accounted not less Divine than those contained 
 in the tables given to Moses. And it could not have 
 been the intention of our Maker to supersede by a law 
 graven on stone that which was written by His own 
 finger on the fleshly tables of the heart." One of our 
 
 ^ " Powerful reasoning," says Saurin, " should be the soul of 
 all our sermons. You may speak with authority, open all the trea- 
 sures of erudition, give full scope to a lively and sublime imagina- 
 tion and harmony of your periods, yet what will all your discom^ses 
 without reason be ? a noise, a sounding brass, a tinkling cymbal. 
 You may confound, but you cannot convince. You may dazzle, but 
 you cannot instruct. You may delight, but cannot hope to change, 
 to sanctify, and to transform your hearers." See Claude on Com- 
 position of a Sermon, note on § 8. 
 
30 PREACHING DESIGNED FOR 
 
 Christian poets has well shewn us how we may do all 
 honour to faith, while still according its high preroga- 
 tive to reason, as God's noblest gift to man : — 
 
 " Fond as we are, and justly fond of faith, 
 Eeason, we grant, demands our first regard ; 
 The mother honour'd as the daughter dear. 
 Reason the root ; fan- faith is but the flower : 
 The fading flower shall die ; but reason lives 
 Immortal as her Father in the skies. 
 When faith is virtue, reason makes it so. 
 Wrong not the Christian ; think not reason yours: 
 'Tis reason our Great Master holds so dear ; 
 'Tis reason's injured rights His wrath resents ; 
 'Tis reason's voice obeyed His glories crown ; 
 To give lost reason life He pour'd His own."^ 
 
 Several good efllects, we think, will follow on the view 
 here put forth. 
 
 Thus it will suggest to us the expediency of ordering 
 our public teaching on some orderly, and connected, and 
 scientific plan. We shall aim, as occasion serves, to 
 bring out the entire scheme of the Gospel with more of 
 breadth, and symmetry, and comprehensiveness, shew- 
 ing the coherence and mutual dependence of its parts, 
 — the relation of that which is outward and economic, 
 in a revealed system, to that which is spiritual and un- 
 changing — and the gradual development, by means of 
 successive dispensations, of the one truth, the one faith, 
 
 27 Young's Night Thoughts, Night IV. 
 
THE INSTRUCTION OF MANKIND. 31 
 
 the one hope, the one immortality. Our aim, in these 
 more didactic aspects of revealed truth is, not to submit 
 the Christian dogma to the arbitration of any human 
 philosophy, but to shew that Christianity has a philo- 
 sophy of its own, — in other words, that it teaches 
 nothing but what is accordant with itself, accordant 
 with the Divine nature, accordant with the intellectual 
 and moral powers of man.^^ 
 
 And hence, a further effect of the view here taken, 
 will be to make us very careful in our exposition of the 
 relation in which Gospel truth stands to all other truth. 
 We shall be studious to shew that Christianity is the 
 friend of all that is liberal and large in human thought; 
 that it does not require us to abnegate any truth of 
 which we have certain knowledge ; that it does not war 
 either with the discoveries of science, or the facts of 
 history, or the first principles of morals. On the con- 
 trary, we shall be glad to make it appear, that there is a 
 progress in theology, as well as in other sciences ; a 
 progress, that is, not in the sense of any new truth to be 
 discovered, but in the sense of a fuller and more perfect 
 understanding of the truth which we already have. The 
 revelation which is complete, as it comes from God, 
 may be progressive, as it is apprehended by us. Who 
 will say there has been no advance in the principles of 
 sacred hermeneutics, since the times of the Greek and 
 
 28 See, on this subject, Professor Yiiiet's Installation Address 
 at Lausanne, p. 464 of Homiletics. 
 
32 PREACHING DESIGNED FOR 
 
 Latin Fathers ? or that, with all the light which modern 
 traTellers have thrown upon the topography and na- 
 tural history of the East, the language of the Bible is 
 no better understood now, than it was three centuries 
 ago ? Has no gain, in consistency and clearness, ac- 
 crued to our religious philosophy from a more assiduous 
 cultivation, in our day, of mental and moral science ? 
 and are there not many forms of difficulty and cavil, in 
 relation to Christianity, which, though occasioning much 
 perplexity to the thoughtful mind in past ages, have 
 been so cleared up by our more ripened criticism and 
 scholarship, that the boldest adversary of the faith 
 would not dare to urge them now.^ Willingly, there- 
 fore, and with strong confidence let the religious 
 teacher go hand in hand with all literary and scientific 
 progress. Let him not fear to mould his theological 
 teaching upon the advanced knowledge of the times, 
 and in harmony with it. It was well observed, in rela- 
 
 30 Take, as a single example, the apparent discrepancy between 
 Matt, xxvii. 44 and Luke xxiii. 39, the former making it appear that 
 both the thieves railed at the Saviour, the latter that the railing 
 was confined to one. There is nothing impossible, in some ancient 
 modes of explaining this, that hotli the thieves did rail at first, and 
 that the heart of one of them was suddenly changed (see Hammond, 
 Annot. in loc), but remembering the Hebrew Greek in which Mat- 
 thew wrote, there is surely something more satisfactory in the ex- 
 planation of Bythner, that when it is not intended to express the 
 individual distinctly, the j^^ural is used for the singular in the He- 
 
THE INSTRUCTION OF MANKIND. 33 
 
 tion to a late champion of infidelity, Holyoake, that 
 most of his objections were referable to bad statements, 
 by evangelical teachers, of evangelical doctrine. The 
 remark may, at all events, suggest caution. There is an 
 uncareful way of quoting the authority of Scripture, in 
 relation to subjects, on which it does not profess to in- 
 struct us, and in support of facts which it was never in- 
 tended to prove. And thereupon issue is joined, in rela- 
 tion to some well-attested conclusion of human science, 
 conflict is as unseemly, as it is false. In the appre- 
 hension of the teacher only, can it have any existence. 
 " To suppose the possibility of two opposite truths," 
 Locke tells us, "is to overturn the foundation of human 
 certainty and to render all our faculties useless." ^^ 
 
 Lastly, it is only when we have ceded to the claims 
 of the rational intelligence all that can properly be 
 demanded for it, that we can specik with authority. 
 
 There is no virtue in addressing our congregations in 
 the bondsman's key of " bated breath and whispering 
 humbleness." The Scribes of our Lord's time spoke in 
 this tone ; — could speak in no other, as knowing that 
 they were " teaching for doctrines, what were but the 
 commandments of men." Still the natural consequence 
 followed, that they lost their influence. Hence the 
 
 brew. Bytlmer'sHeb. Gram., p. 7. Blunt's Parish Priest, p. 4o, 
 where some other instances are given. 
 31 Essay on Human Understanding, Book iv., c. 18. 
 
 D 
 
34 PREACHING DESIGNED FOR 
 
 surprise of the multitude at the fearless and undoubt- 
 ing confidence with which the Saviour spoke. There was 
 a decision in His manner, which made the truth appear, 
 truth. " And they were astonished at His doctrine : 
 for He taught them as one having authority and not 
 as the Scribes."*^ 
 
 In degree, this unshrinking and authoritative tone is 
 required of those, who are put in trust with the Gospel 
 in our own day. They are to use it wisely, no doubt ; 
 and care must be taken to shew that such a tone is 
 adopted, not for themselves as teachers, but for the 
 message which they are commissioned to unfold. This 
 done, however, and the persuasion in our own minds 
 clear, that the words we are uttering are " the true say- 
 ings of God," it is required, even of the feeblest among 
 us, that we be "valiant for the truth." ^^ "And thou 
 shalt speak my words unto them, whether they will hear, 
 or whether they will forbear."*^ " These things speak, 
 and exhort, and rebuke with all authority." ^^ "For 
 God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, 
 and of love, and of a sound mind."^ The distinction 
 which it seems necessary to have before us, in our 
 preaching, is that we are not so much apostles for a 
 system, as ambassadors for a Sovereign.^ For the 
 message, therefore, so far as we have mastered it, — so 
 far as we can shew a Divine warrant for what we ad- 
 
 32 St. Matt. vii. 28, 29. 33 jgr. ix. 3. s4 E^p^ ii. 7. 
 
 85 Titus ii. 15. ^2 Tim. i. 7. ^7 o Cor. v. 20. 
 
THE INSTRUCTION OF MANKIND. 33 
 
 vance, — all reverence must be claimed, and all submis- 
 sion. Our Gospel is "the Gospel of the kingdom."^ 
 It demands that it be obeyed. It sits, as it were, tlie 
 throned mind of God Himself, binding all intellects to 
 a meek reception of its statements, and bowing all 
 hearts in reverent subjection to its law. " Unto them 
 that are contentious and do not obey the truth j"^^ " But 
 God be thanked that ye have oheyecl that form of doc- 
 trine ;"^^ — " What shall the end be of them that obey 
 not the Gospel of God?"^° — are all expressions inti- 
 mating, that, both on the part of teacher and hearer, 
 allegiance must be rendered to the revealed mind of 
 God. We are not hearers, or believers of the Gospel 
 only, we are its subjects. It is to give the law^ to our 
 conscience, and the rule to our judgments, and the 
 choice to our wills, — to direct the current of our affec- 
 tions, and to fashion the course of our lives. We live, 
 not under a system of tutelage, where we may object 
 and question, but under the ordinances of a kingdom, 
 where we are required to obey and serve. 
 
 All this demands, in the ambassadors of such a mes- 
 sage, great " boldness of speech." We must vindicate 
 the prerogative of God over the whole man. We have 
 not overlooked, and not disparaged the reasoning 
 faculty. Within its proper limits, we have done it all 
 honour. We put a system of revealed truth before it. 
 We allow it to sit in judgment on the sufficiency of the 
 
 38 Eom. ii. 8. ^o Hji^j^ vi. 17. 40 ] Thess. i. 8. 
 
 D 2 
 
36 PREACHING DESIGNED FOR, ETC. 
 
 external evidences. We bid it compare the general 
 tenour of the disclosures with all the truth it can learn 
 from other sources. And we demand its unquestioning 
 submission, only on points, which, as lying beyond the 
 boundaries of human thought, must be accepted on the 
 evidence and the veracity of God. Our teaching thus 
 restricted, and thus guarded, we may " open our mouth 
 boldly.'"' We have done honour to the w^hole man, — to 
 the reason that inquires, and to the faith that believes. 
 For, in requiring the one to yield to sufficient evidence, 
 and the other to bow to the decision of an Infinite 
 mind, we feel that we have rendered to man the things 
 that are man's, and " to God the things that are God's." 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE INTELLECTUAL DEMANDS OF THE PRESENT AGE. 
 
 The general advancement of national intelligence — Literature of 
 the poor — National Schools — Popular lectures — Young Men's 
 literary associations — Reading habits of the mercantile commu- 
 nity — Sceptical and rationalizing tendencies of the age — How 
 they are to be met — Objections against a higher intellectual 
 standard of preaching — Objection i. Want of time — Relative 
 importance of different ministerial duties — Objection ii. Man's 
 wisdom not necessary so only the Gospel be preached — Answer 
 to this — Objection iii. Want of natural ability — The practice of 
 preaching the sermons of others — The limited and lawful use of 
 borrowed materials. 
 
 The line of thought pursued in the last chapter led 
 us to view the work of the Christian teacher, in relation 
 to man as a reasonable being, irrespective of anything, 
 requiring special consideration, which there might be, 
 in the circumstances of his country, or his times. The 
 latter, however, is a point too important to be over- 
 looked. We are preachers not for a bygone age, but 
 
38 THE INTELLECTUAL DEMANDS 
 
 for the present. And we must put ourselves in har- 
 mony with the national mind ; must keep abreast with 
 the march of public intelligence ; must not allow it to 
 be said, that, while the popular lecturer is obliged to 
 suppose an advanced condition of knowledge, and 
 when the daily or weekly newspaper is throwing off 
 articles, equal, both in power and finish, to some of 
 the best papers of Junius or the Spectator, — the Gos- 
 pel teacher ignores all the indications of advancing in- 
 telligence, and is content to preach to us in the way, in 
 which his father would have preached fifty years 
 ago. 
 
 For proof that something more than this is required 
 of us, and is even essential to the moral power of the 
 pulpit, in the age in which we live, let us glance at 
 some of the signs and tokens we see around us, shew- 
 ing plainly what the direction of the popular mind is. 
 And this we shall see is onward^ — steadily, resolutely, 
 in every department, — onward. Every grade of society 
 bears its distinctive and emphatic marks of progress. 
 Look at our poorer classes. Time was, when the libraries 
 of thousands of families, in our land, rarely extended 
 beyond the Bible, the Prayer Book, one or two volumes 
 of domestic economy, and perhaps the Pilgrims' Pro- 
 gress. It is not so now. The skilled artizan will have 
 the best reading from our parish libraries. The better 
 class of our cheap popular and religious serials are 
 eagerly taken in and bound up. Whilst, it has been 
 
OF THE PRESENT AGE. 39 
 
 remarked, that the strong intellects, in our large manu- 
 facturing towns, in the north, have, of late, evinced a 
 marked partiality for the more profound subtleties of 
 Paley and Butler. And all these tendencies, be it re- 
 membered, are being fostered by other influences, — by 
 the raised standard of our national schools ; by the 
 competitions induced through our pupil-teacher system ; 
 by our lectures, on popular subjects, to the working 
 classes ; and by the tempting premiums we are holding 
 out for the study of " common things." 
 
 Or, take a class of our people above these, and see 
 what a raised tone of thought has been brought about, 
 among our young men, by the establishment of Athe- 
 naeums, and literary Institutes, and Evening Classes. 
 One of the most marked features of these gatherings is 
 the written essay upon some literary subject, followed 
 by conversational discussion. And the writer of these 
 pages must be understood as giving the result of his 
 personal experience, both in his own parish, and else- 
 where, when he avers, that papers are often read by 
 these young men, which, for good English writing, 
 and philosophical accuracy of thought, would put some 
 of our loose and ill-arranged homiletics to shame. 
 
 Still more is this progressive intelligence of the times 
 observable, as we come to a class yet higher in the 
 social scale, — our prosperous tradesmen and merchants. 
 Ask any one, at all acquainted with their mental and 
 social habitudes, what are their chief objects of in- 
 
40 THE INTELLECTUAL DEMANDS 
 
 terest? what are their common topics of discourse ? 
 what are the books they read ? Take a glance at their 
 book-shelves. Do they contain nothing but the trans- 
 mitted heirloom of their grandfathers' literature, useful 
 to fill up space ? or are they like the shelves of Shaks- 
 peare's apothecary, where '*' a beggarly account'of empty 
 boxes are thinly scattered to make up a show ?" Or do 
 you not rather see a selection of works which discover, 
 in the chooser, a certain unity of mental taste ; an in- 
 telligent appreciation of some of our best authors ; 
 sympathies wide, large, and generous, with all the 
 topics most interesting to human thought? 
 
 And, in harmony with this supposition, will be found 
 a good deal of the fire-side discourse of these our mer- 
 chant-princes. They no longer confine their conversa- 
 tion to the last exciting police report ; or even to the 
 last animated debate in Parliament. A lively interest 
 is felt in the last production of the Laureate, or in the 
 questions at issue between conflicting schools of art; 
 whilst some, of yet higher mental sympathies, are found to 
 be taking a large and observant outlook upon the great 
 moral and social questions of the day — the progress of 
 discovery, the harmony of truth with truth, theory with 
 fact, science with Scripture, the consistency of the views 
 put forth, by us, of religious obligation, with the dictates 
 of their own consciousness, or with the intellectual and 
 moral powers of man. 
 
 Such arc a few indications of the advancing intelli- 
 
OF THE PRESENT AGE. 41 
 
 gence of all classes of our people. And we owe it to 
 them, owe it to the great cause of intellectual progress, 
 owe it to the vindicated honour of the Gospel as " a 
 reasonable service," that we keep pace with these out- 
 ward signs ; that we be not in arrear of the minds w^e 
 are addressing ; that we do not allow the reproach to 
 be cast upon us, that religious teachers are less gene- 
 rally informed than other teachers, of that the pulpit 
 lags behind the age. We are not saying that we 
 are to follow our congregations into their thousand 
 topics, or to think of catering for their omnivorous mental 
 appetite ; but only that we ought to acquaint ourselves 
 with the temper, and spirit, and prevailing tastes of 
 our people ; with their current habitudes of reading, and 
 speech, and thought; causing them to look upon 
 us, not as the adversaries, but as the friends and 
 pioneers of progress : — one, with them, in all their 
 social sympathies, whilst, in all their higher aspira- 
 tions, we are going with them, and going before them 
 for their good. 
 
 But in viewing the work of the Christian teacher, in 
 relation to the intellectual phenomena which surround 
 him, there is another and more difficult point to be 
 touched upon, — namely, the necessity of his being 
 thoroughly alive to the sceptical and rationalizing tendencies 
 of the age. These tendencies show themselves among 
 high and low, among learned and ignorant, in the play- 
 ful sallies of the drawing-room and in the bold cavils 
 
42 THE INTELLECTUAL DEMANDS 
 
 of the workshop. Among the poor, this spirit is 
 fostered by tracts, — some, being reproductions of the 
 coarsenesses of Richard Carlile,or Paine, but often mixed 
 witli attacks upon our Christianity of a higher and more 
 dangerous kind, — with translated extracts from the 
 subtle scepticism of Germany, and the dissolute and 
 licentious philosophy of France. Some years ago the 
 aunual eirculatfon of infidel and vicious publications 
 was estimated at twenty-eight millions ; and we are 
 afraid our danger is on the side of under-rating rather 
 than over-rating the resulting evil. Among large asso- 
 ciations of operatives, especially, it has been noted that 
 some of the rising men, the first hands, the leading 
 minds in the shop or factory, are tinctured strongly with 
 a sceptical spirit ; ready to break up the old founda- 
 tions and grooves of thought, and, upon a theology of 
 negations, to construct a religion for themselves. 
 
 In the higher classes, similar tendencies are found, 
 though, in their case, they take a more covert and subtle 
 form. The Bible is disallowed only as the Bible ; that 
 is, as an authoritative guide to the religious conscience ; 
 as the accredited exponent of Heaven's law and pur- 
 poses ; as the inspired and exclusive medium through 
 which God's spirit communicates to man's spirit, a 
 knowledge of the things which belong to his peace. 
 The disciples of this school have confidence in revela- 
 tion, not as it is a fact of history, but as it agrees, and 
 only so far as it agrees with what they assume to be the 
 
OF THE PRESENT AGE. 43 
 
 light of their own consciousness. And this principle is 
 applied to all subjects whatsoever, — not excepting those 
 upon which revelation, and revelation only, can have 
 any information to give. Moral good and evil^ the 
 modes of the Divine subsistence, the inspired veracity 
 of the sacred writers, miracles, angels, devils, heaven or 
 hell, — one and all of these are to be believed, just so far 
 as man has other grounds, beside the authority of Scrip- 
 ture, for believing them to be true. The works of New- 
 man and Froude, and the late Theodore Parker, and, in 
 some degree, of Stirling and the Chevalier Bnnsen, not 
 to speak of works of more recent date, are indications, 
 mighty, and portentous, of this diminished reverence for 
 ancient truth ; of this impatience of any revealed rule of 
 faith ; of this determination to dislodge the Scriptures 
 from their prescriptive supremacy over the human con- 
 science, and, indeed, to leave every man to be a Bible 
 to himself, — his own law, his own inspiration, his own 
 God! 
 
 Now w^e are not contending for the expediency of 
 any formal or frequent reference to these sceptical 
 theories, whether open or disguised. As regards open 
 infidelity, we shall never effect very much by naked 
 appeals to the reasoning faculty. It is an evil of the 
 heart more than of the head ; and, if cured at all, it 
 must be by means, which are more directly addressed to 
 the heart. The whole philosophy of an abjured Gospel 
 is contained in that expression of the Apostle to the 
 
44 THE INTELLECTUAL DEMANDS 
 
 Romans, "they did Dot like to retain God in their 
 knowledge." ^ And the natural conscience responds to 
 this sentiment. Men know very w^ell that they do not 
 approach the investigation of religious truth with the 
 same freedom from bias, which they might feel in the 
 investigation of any other truth. Their w'ishes hurry 
 them on to a foregone conclusion, and self-will is the 
 mother of their creed. And that which they feel in 
 their consciences, we, in our teaching, must not be 
 afraid to assume. We know there are moral reasons 
 which keep men from coming to the light ; and, with 
 the certainty that the Gospel which we preach " is not 
 after man," we are not to quit our high vantage ground 
 for naked hypothesis. Let us look at the example of 
 the Great Teacher. In His conversation with Nico- 
 demus, without any apology for what might have ap- 
 peared, to some, a new dogma in ethical science. He 
 asserts boldly the doctrine of man's resj)onsibility for 
 his belief; makes a man an offender for what, perhaps, 
 the unbeliever would call the honest conclusions of his 
 own mind ; and, without saying one word as to the 
 sufficiency of the Gospel evidence, or as to any possible 
 defect of power in us to appreciate that evidence, lays 
 down the universal proposition, that no man can re- 
 ject the claims of Divine revelation without being, on 
 that ground alone, obnoxious to the wrath of God : — 
 "he that belie veth not is condemned already."" 
 1 Romans i. 29. * Jolm ill. 18. 
 
OF THE PRESENT AGE. 45 
 
 Neither, in the way of direct reference, does it seem 
 expedient, except on rare occasions, to draw attention 
 to the more subtle and disguised infidelity of the 
 rationalizing or German school. It is the same offence 
 to God as its bolder ally is, and comes of the same 
 enmity to Hi swill ; and, therefore, it is not well that we 
 should be entirely ignorant of these later heresies. We 
 may not perhaps have the means or the leisure to consult 
 the works, in which the errors themselves are contained. 
 But, from a very slight acquaintance with our periodical 
 literature, the most occupied among us may learn some- 
 thing of their salient forms ; — may find how and where 
 they impinge upon our accepted theology. And, by 
 means of the knowledge so acquired, we may, without 
 challenging, to open contest, the invader of our sancti- 
 ties, interpose a covert defence against his assaults, and 
 buttress and strengthen the parts, where the house of 
 God's truth is in danger of being broken through. 
 Thus, that the Mosaic records are not an allegory ; that 
 the facts of Redemption are not a poetic myth ; that 
 miracles may be the proper object of an intelligent 
 faith ; that the writings of David and the prophets are 
 something more than the inspirations of religious genius ; 
 that the controlling influence, by which the words of 
 Christ have been preserved to us, was sufficient for all 
 the purposes of infallible authenticity ; that there is 
 a spiritual world ; and that, equipped with j^owers, 
 ^ some for good and some for evil, there are spiritual 
 
46 THE INTELLECTUAL DEMA^JDS 
 
 agents in it ; and that there is an eternal world, where 
 retribution, the law of all moral agency, leaves to 
 beings, naturally immortal, to eat the fruits of their 
 own adopted and final choice ; — all these are positions, 
 which, from time to time, may profitably be taken up ; 
 — at once depriving those of the contrary part, of the 
 advantage of startling novelty, and pre-occupying the 
 minds of our people by a right understanding of the 
 truth of God. 
 
 But to the views, thus opened, of the intellectual signs 
 of our times, and of what the Christian teacher must 
 do to meet them, we anticipate several forms of ob- 
 jection. 
 
 I. Thus, we must expect to be met by the objection 
 of ivant of time. With the demands which are con- 
 stantly made upon us, it will be said, — with our sick to 
 visit, our rich to call upon, our schools to superintend, 
 our daily prayer to read, our committees to attend, our 
 occasional offices to celebrate, our correspondence to 
 keep up, all our local institutions to organize and 
 arrange, besides that which comes upon us daily, the 
 care of the ignorant, and the poor, and them that are 
 out of the way, — how is it possible that we should 
 equip ourselves for this intellectual strife, or keep pace 
 with the ever-widening information of a reading age ? 
 
 With an objection of this form, it is manifest there 
 is but one way of dealing. However multitudinous a 
 
OF THE PRESENT AGE. 47 
 
 man's duties may be, they must admit of being esti- 
 mated according to some graduated scale of import- 
 ance. So that if, with six duties to perform, he fmds 
 he cannot adequately discharge them all, he will lay 
 out his strength upon the one which is most important, 
 and divide his residuary energies and time among the 
 remaining^ve. Now, on this shewing, will any of the 
 miscellaneous works we have spoken of, dispute the 
 palm of precedence w^ith preaching ? Will any ques- 
 tion be raised, w^hether a Christian teacher should not 
 first " wait on his teaching ?" ^ or whether a pastor's 
 first care should not be to see that his flock are sup- 
 plied with food?'^ No doubt, the part of our minis- 
 terial work which w^e should all agree to put next to 
 preaching, would be that of domiciliary visitation. And 
 to magnify this part of our office, the honoured adage 
 would be on the lips of many, that " a house-going 
 
 3 Eom xii. 8. 
 
 * On this point the opinion of an able writer in the Edinhurgh 
 Review may be worth quoting. " We are wilKng to admit," he 
 says, " that tlie duties of the pulpit are not the only duties which 
 claim the attention of the Christian minister; and that his other 
 engagements, in an age like this, are neither few nor small. But 
 we must also contend that as his principal office is that of public 
 instructor, the duties of that office must ever be his chief business ; 
 and that to whatever extent he may undertake other engagements, 
 he should sacredly reserve sufficient time for the due discharge of 
 his pro])er function." Rogers's Essays, see Edinlurgh Eeview, 
 Oct., 1860, p. 90. 
 
48 THE INTELLECTUAL DEMANDS 
 
 parson makes a church- going people." Yet, in this 
 very saying, it will be seen, that the avowed end of 
 visiting people at their houses, is in order to bring them, 
 to church; and therefore, it is supposed, that we shall 
 provide teaching which shall be worth their coming to 
 church for. For if we do not, they will leave us. We 
 have excited the appetite ; and, if it be not satisfied 
 at church, they will go elsewhere. Many a laborious 
 Louse-to-house dispenser of " milk for babes," has 
 only prepared the way for their going to teachers of 
 another communion afterwards, to find their " strong 
 meat." " Sic vos non vobis !" 
 
 No plea of laborious occupation, therefore, " in the 
 streets and lanes of the city," can be allowed, as an 
 excuse, for stinting our congregations of their Sunday 
 nourishment. Those who are present before God to 
 hear us, are not to be sacrificed for the sake of those 
 who stay away : neither, because there are many who 
 will not come to the great supper of the Gospel, must 
 there be no " feast of fat things " prepared for those 
 who do.^ And, in accordance with this demand for 
 diligent preparation for the pulpit, are the counsels 
 given us in Scripture. *^ Let your profiting appear 
 unto all men."*^ " Till I come give attendance 
 
 * " The dogs no doubt must be fed," says Professor Blunt, " but 
 the children must not be starved in order to feed them." Duties 
 of Parish Priest, Lect. v. p. 141. 
 
 « 1 Tim. iv. 13. 
 
OF THE PRESENT AGE. 49 
 
 to reading," says the Apostle.' Give attend- 
 ance, — 7rpo(Texe — lay out all the powers of your 
 mind upon the acquisition of new stores, and new 
 strength. "Reading makes the full man." We are 
 not to allow the well to get too near the bottom ; nor 
 the pasture to be cropped too closely ; nor spies, 
 whether friendly or unfriendly, to see, in our impo- 
 verished commonplaces, the sad nakedness of the land. 
 And this reading, if acquired with a view to being 
 pressed into the service of the sanctuary, cannot be 
 too diversified. All true knowledge may be made 
 helpful to the highest knowledge, and nothing is to be 
 despised. To confirm, to illustrate, to fix attention, to 
 set off a truth with richer adornments, or to place it 
 under more striking lights, we may make use of in- 
 formation of every kind.^ The best men have used 
 such aids; and have even kept up the habit of varid 
 secular reading for the purpose. "Many of those, who 
 plead want of time for reading, will wonder to hear it 
 said of John Wesley, that during the seasons snatched, 
 by economical management of time, out of the busiest of 
 lives, he not only kept up the high acquirements in 
 academical lore, which he had made his own at Oxford, 
 but mastered most of the modern languages, was well- 
 
 « " It is an ill mason," says George Herbert, " that refusetb any 
 stone ; and there is no knowledge but, in a skilful hand, serveth 
 positively as it is, or else to illustrate some other knowledge." 
 Country Parson, Chap iv. 
 
 £ 
 
50 THE INTELLECTUAL DEMANDS 
 
 read in almost every science, and every study to which 
 he could get access, and kept thoroughly up with the 
 lighter literature of the day, — poetry, pamphlets, and- 
 w^orks of fiction."^ 
 
 So wide a range of knowledge as this, perhaps, may 
 be competent to few of us, even if, with Wesley, " for 
 fifty years" we should "rise at four o'clock in the morn- 
 ing." But the fact shews us how much an eminently de- 
 voted teacher felt to be due to his office, even in those 
 days. It is far more demanded in ours. Every teacher, of 
 whatever kind, must be a reader. We may be pious, and 
 painstaking, and even well-read in the Scriptures, but 
 if on points of general intelligence, we cannot, to a 
 Certain extent, take rank with other public instructors, 
 whether the religious or the secular teachers of the age, 
 let us be assured that though we may continue to sit 
 in Moses' seat, few only will sit at our feet to learn. 
 
 II. But as against this deference to the growing in- 
 telligence of the times, we must anticipate an objection 
 of another form. 
 
 We are not careful, it will be said by some, to 
 answer you in this matter. We have no faith in the 
 use of the w^eapons you are recommending, for further- 
 ing the great ends of the Christian ministry. We are 
 satisfied with preaching the pure Qosjjel ; and desire 
 
 • Kevievv of Southey's Life of Wesley. Guardian, Dec. ;2t)tb 
 1859. 
 
OF THE PRESENT AGE. 51 
 
 to have constantly in remembrance that saying of the 
 Apostle Paul;— "And my speech and my preaching 
 was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in 
 demonstration of the Spirit and of power." ^'^ 
 
 We beg to submit that, in the objection thus stated, 
 there is much both of bad theology and bad reasoning. 
 The theology is faulty. It proceeds upon the suppo- 
 sition, that if we are only careful to bring out certain 
 fundamental truths, such as will satisfy the religious 
 aspirations of a few good people, we need care for no- 
 thing else. But we should remember that, like the 
 Apostle, we are ^' debtors both to the wise and to the 
 unwise." ^^ Our preaching, as we have already argued, 
 is to be not for the church only but for the world ; for 
 them that are without : in a word, for those hitherto 
 uineclaimed and unattached masses, who will be con- 
 vinced of Gospel truth as they are convinced of any 
 other truth, that is, by means of reasonable arguments, 
 addressed to them as reasonable men. 
 
 Moreover we demur, theologically, to the citation of 
 this oft- quoted passage in the Corinthians, as if it 
 favoured, in the slightest degree, any disparagement, 
 in preaching, of the intellectual faculties. For in re- 
 gard to "persuasible words," — words drawn from human 
 wisdom, or appealing to it, — no man ever used them 
 more than the Apostle Paul. The "enticing" words he 
 did not use, were those of the Corinthian and other 
 10 1 Cor ii. 4. " Eom i. 14. 
 
 E 2 
 
52 THE INTELLECTUAL DEMANDS 
 
 Grecian sophists, — ''the disputers of this world," ^ as 
 he had just before called them, — men who boasted that, 
 by dint of argument and rhetoric, they could overthrow, 
 the plainest truth, and support the most apparent errors, 
 — a class of persons of whom Chrysostom tells us the 
 city was full.^^ Indeed, as against the too common 
 perversion of the passage, it seems sufficient to ask, 
 who can read either the argumentative epistles of St. 
 Paul, or the discourses attributed to him, in the Acts 
 of the Apostles, and say they are deficient either 
 in their power of logical appeal, or in affluence of 
 eloquent illustration ? ^^ 
 
 And the reasoning of this objection is as unsound as 
 its theology. When a certain preacher in Charles the 
 Second's time, made the remark to Dr. South, by way 
 of justification of an illiterate discourse, " God does 
 not stand in need of man's learning," the witty chap- 
 lain is said to have replied, "Neither does God stand in 
 
 12 Marg. ] Cor. ii. 4. i^ i Cor. i. 20. 
 
 1* ^H de Kal ptjTopujv ttoXXojv i^TrXtoQ rj ttoXiq ical <pikoa6<p(i)v. Pref. in 
 hanc E pistol. See Patrick and Lowth in preface to 1 Cor. 
 
 In the other part of this quotation from the Corinthians, " For 
 I determined not to know anything among you," &c., most scholars 
 are agreed that our English version does not hring out the Apo- 
 stle's meaning exactly. Dean Alford renders it, " The only thing 
 that I made it definitely my business to know is Jesus Christ," not 
 " I determined to know nothing save Jesus Christ." Locke's para- 
 phrase of the passage is, " I determined to use or shew uO other 
 knowledge among you." See Essays on the Christian Ministry. 
 Ward, 1853. 
 
OF THE PRESENT AGE. 53 
 
 need of man's ignorance. "^^ The observation may be 
 worth the notice of those in our own day, who interpret 
 the Apostle's repudiation of the sophists, as an absolute 
 interdict upon the employment of human wisdom. 
 Such persons seem to take delight in making a schism 
 in our mental organization ; in divorcing the intellect 
 from the affections ; — ready to make a scapegoat of 
 the understanding, so only that, in the language of 
 their crude philosophy, they can gain the heart. But 
 the heart never will be thus gained; neither will the 
 understanding submit to such an abject surrender of 
 its claims. Both are parts of God's creation, and the 
 preacher, like the Gospel he is entrusted with, must, 
 on all occasions, honour both. 
 
 With those preachers, therefore, who say they are 
 content if they can only bring out evangelical doctrine, 
 no matter in what form presented, nor by what reason- 
 ing sustained, we must disclaim all sympathy. Nay 
 more, we say boldly that, if, in view of the onward in- 
 tellectual movement we have adverted to, we, the 
 preachers of the Gospel, are satisfied to hang back, 
 
 ^5 The anecdote is often cited, but we think it probable that the 
 foundation of it is a passage in South's sermon on Jeroboam, 1 
 Kings xiii. 33, 34, where, speaking of admitting illiterate persons 
 to the sacred function, it is said, '' This is to give the royal stamp 
 to a piece of lead. I confess that God has no need of man's parts 
 of learning, but certainly then he has much less need of his igno- 
 rance and ill behaviour." Serm. Vol i. Ser. 4 p. 32, 1847. 
 
54 THE INTELLECTUAL DEMANDS 
 
 and expect our orthodoxy or our goodness to do eyery- 
 thing ; if we imagine that the thoughtful intellects, in 
 our congregations, will be satisfied bj the preparation 
 of a few sheets of iniobjectionable and pious dullness ; 
 in a word, if we determine to leave to the world, and 
 to the disputers of the world, on the week-day, all the 
 varied illustration, all the careful reasoning, all the 
 exactness of philosophic statement ; — whilst we, on the 
 Sunday, are content to eke out our spare and sparse 
 material, by the profuse interlacing of Scripture texts ; 
 or else to clothe, with the thinnest and most unsubstantial 
 integuments, some borrowed skeleton, — we shall be- 
 come guilty of a criminal surrender of the highest 
 function of the ministry, — of disloyalty to the trust, by 
 which God has ordained that He will *' save them that 
 believe."^^ The objection, sometimes urged, that by a 
 laboured argument, or a scientific reference, or an ima- 
 ginative illustration, we are " shooting over the heads " 
 of our people, does not much commend itself. It is not 
 to be supposed that the entire discourse will consist of 
 such things ; and if, of those who are before us, there 
 be any whose minds are peculiarly accessible to such 
 
 ^^ " What," asks St. Augustine, " shall the adversaries of the 
 faith be ahle to state what is untrue, with brevity, clearness, 
 and plausibihty ; while we give so poor an account of the truth, 
 that it makes people weary to listen to it, prevents them from get- 
 ting any insight into its real meaning, and leaves them disinclined 
 to believe it ?" De Doct. Christ, iv. 2. 
 
OF THE PRESENT AGE. 55 
 
 forms of appeal, it is manifest that we are bound to 
 provide for their spiritual sustenance, as much as for 
 that of any of the rest. 
 
 Moreover, we believe it is often by ministering to the 
 intellectual requirements of our more thoughtful men, 
 in one part of a sermon, that we win their favourable 
 ear to our spiritual things in another. They give us 
 credit for being as exact and well-informed on our oivn 
 professed topics, as, when needful, we shew that we are 
 careful to be on theirs. Whilst, on the other hand, a 
 discovered ignorance on points of secular knowledge, 
 loose reasoning about them, a faulty reference to the 
 facts of history, or a detected inaccuracy of scientihc 
 expression, will greatly damage their confidence in us, 
 as teachers, and that, in relation to any truth we may 
 advance. To think of avoiding this danger by keeping- 
 altogether off their ground, is impossible. In the de- 
 partment of morals especially, our domain and theirs 
 is, to a great extent, common. And when it is remem- 
 bered, that there is hardly a well-read merchant's clerk, 
 either in London or in our large towns, who is not, 
 more or less, conversant with the writings of such men 
 as Dugald Stewart, Abercrombie, and Dr. Thomas 
 Brown, it is easy to conceive how grating upon their 
 ears must fall the *' confusion worse confounded" of the 
 most familiar metaphysical terms ; and how little it will 
 mitigate their contempt for our unscientific clumsiness, 
 
56 THE INTELLECTUAL DEMANDS 
 
 or our ignorance of the laws of moral evidence, to be 
 told that we ''preach the Gospel."^' 
 
 III. But a more formidable objection remains to be 
 considered than either want of time for our recommenda- 
 tions, or want of sympathy with the necessity for them, 
 namely, a want of the requisite ability, on the part of many, 
 to carry our suggestions into effect. 
 
 We are not going to provide for the case of inherent 
 intellectual dullness ; of such glaring and hopeless in- 
 competency in a man, for the duties of a public 
 instructor, that, only on the supposition of the most 
 egregious parental blindness, or by means of some of 
 the grievous anomalies in our system of church prefer- 
 ment, can we account for such a man having ever been 
 designated to the ministry at all. This is one of those 
 evil things under the sun, for which, if the man is to con- 
 tinue his holy functions, there is no remedy. The 
 mistake is for life. Would that the influence of it 
 could reach to no life beyond the present, and to the 
 lives of none besides his own 1 But others, younger 
 men, admitted into the sacred profession, there may be, 
 
 1'^ There is a curious passage in the De Catechizandis of Augus- 
 tine (quoted in Moule's Christian Oratory of the first five cen- 
 turies), shewing a very parallel condition of society, in that day, 
 with regard to those who had " come fresh from the schools of the 
 grammarians and orators," and who were in danger of despising 
 those pious teachers, " whom they may find avoiding faults of con- 
 duct more carefully than faults of oratory." De Catechiz. Rud. 13. 
 
OF THE PRESENT AGE. 57 
 
 in whom the inability to write well is not inherent ; 
 and by whom, if they will give themselves unto reading, 
 and the study of the best models, there is no reason why 
 the difficulty may not be overcome. They are fresh, 
 we will suppose, from the University. From competi- 
 tions there, so keen and absorbing as to leave little 
 time for the study of anything else, they pass, if not at 
 a bound, with, at least, only leisure enough for the 
 smallest modicum of theological smattering, into the 
 instant occupation of a teacher's chair. Matter of deep 
 regret is it, that it should be so. And we may hope the 
 numbers are increasing yearly, who, between the time 
 of their academical degree, and their ordination, lay 
 themselves out, not only to become instructed in a 
 w^ider range of scientific and practical theology, but 
 also in all those parts and accessories of a good literary 
 style, without which, no teacher in our day, whether 
 secular or religious, will be able to hold his own. 
 
 At present, however, they are the few who do this. 
 And hence, in answer to our requisitions for a higher and 
 more intellectual cast ofpreaching, as needful for the age 
 of the schoolmaster, many young preachers may say, and 
 say truly, " Not only must I take up the language of 
 Moses, and say, *I am not eloquent: I am slow of 
 speech and of a slow tongue ;'^^ but what is yet worse, 
 I am slow of thought; slow of invention; I have no 
 skill in calling up imaginative ' spirits from the vasty 
 18 Exod. iv. 10. 
 
58 THE INTELLECTUAL DEMANDS 
 
 deep;' whilst as to going forth against the strong intel- 
 lects of our day, armed with your dialectic weapons, I 
 can only say, as David said of Saul's armour, ' T can- 
 not go with these, for 1 have not proved them.'"^^ 
 
 Now we are all aware of one way, by which an ill- 
 furnished or inexperienced preacher may get over this 
 difficulty ; — a way, too, recommended by Professors in 
 their lectures, by moralists in their essays, and by 
 hearers in their fireside discourse ; but not by truth, 
 and not by common honesty. We allude, as will be 
 supposed, to the wholesale and unacknowledged appro- 
 priation of the compositions of other men. "As to 
 preaching," says Paley, lecturing at his college, " if 
 your situation requires a sermon, every Sunday, make 
 one, and steal /t;e."20 a j heartily wish," says Addison, 
 after commending the practice of Sir Eoger de Cover- 
 ley's chaplain, who had a list of sermons from the best 
 divines, adapted to every Sunday in the year, " that 
 more of your country clergymen would follow this ex- 
 ample; .... it would be not only more easy for 
 themselves, but would edify their people." ^i Whilst 
 that congregations are often heard to express themselves 
 in favour of such a practice, may be inferred from the 
 language of our present Archbishop ; — " The observa- 
 tion," he says, "has been made with more fastidious- 
 ly 1 Sam. xvii. 39. ^o Quarterly Review, vol. 102, p. 488. 
 21 Spectator, No. 100. See other quotations in Bridge's Chris- 
 tian Ministry, ch. ii., § 1. 
 
OF THE PRESENT AGE. 59 
 
 ness than good sense, that when there are so many 
 excellent sermons in print, a man is inexcusable who 
 delivers a bad one."^~ 
 
 The objections to the practice here recommended are 
 plain and unanswerable. If a man should avow openly, 
 that he has recourse to it, he becomes the advertizer of 
 his own incompetency for his office, and his moral in- 
 fluence is gone. If he should not avow it, but should 
 unblushingly pass off the productions of others, as if 
 they were his own, he stands self-convicted of a moral 
 fraud ; and, neither on himself, nor his ministry, can 
 expect a blessing. Further, this practice of borrowing, or 
 even of adapting, as it is called, has a bad effect upon a 
 man's own mind. Having begun with such crutches, 
 he will never be able to leave them off. The mind will, 
 by degrees, lose its power of self-exerted thought, and 
 a foundation of mediocrity and feebleness will have 
 been laid for all the teaching of his after life. But 
 even, independently of these considerations, it is certain 
 that a sermon, which a man has thought out, and worked 
 out, and prayed out for himself, will be delivered with 
 far more of real fervour and effectiveness, than any, 
 though a much better sermon, which he may have 
 copied from the works of other raen.~^ The fact that it 
 
 22 Apostolical Preaching. 
 
 ^ George Herbert says, "Though the world is full of si?ch compo. 
 sures (i. e., good sermons), yet every man's own is fittest, readiest, 
 and most savoury to him." 
 
60 THE INTELLECTUAL DEMANDS 
 
 has been written with a specific aim, — for people w^hom 
 he knows, and for tendencies which he has seen, will 
 give, to the self-prepared sermon, more of freshness, 
 and individuality, and point. Whereas, the copied dis- 
 course will come like an undirected letter ; — for any- 
 body or for nobody ; an open circular for a hundred 
 congregations, but a direct message to none. 
 
 But is a preacher, and especially a young preacher, 
 obliged to eschew all foreign aids whatever } " Spin- 
 ning his flimsy web," as the spider does, '^ entirely out 
 of his own bowels ?" Are there not many, of very re- 
 spectable abilities too, who, if thrown entirely upon 
 their own intellectual resources, and tethered to the 
 limited pasture of their Bible and Concordance, would 
 certainly fall short, in their preaching, of the demands of 
 educated and thoughtful men } The answer is, no one 
 asks them to be so exclusively original ; no one ex- 
 pects them to be so shortly tethered. On the contrary, 
 there are thrown open, for their use and benefit, all the 
 rich stores of our theological wisdom. Patristic, re- 
 formed, puritanical, modern, — with a good conscience 
 for their guide, they may dig into what mines they will. 
 And whatever they find there, so long as it be not ser- 
 vilely appropriated, but is allowed to become incor- 
 porated and digested into their own mental processes, 
 this they are at liberty to weave into the texture of their 
 self-spun thought ; and, as far as novelty is expected 
 of them, to present the result of the combination as if it 
 
OF THE PRESENT AGE. 61 
 
 ■were something new. Indeed, by combination and re- 
 arrangement, the borrowed matter itself becomes new, 
 — being changed and coloured by the mental alembic 
 it has had to pass through, just as the juices of different 
 flowers become one, when they pass into the cell of the 
 industrious bee. 
 
 And this limited use of other men's sentiments is one, 
 ■which,notonly some of the best men have recommended, 
 but even some of the wisest men have not been ashamed 
 to practise. Tn an able article in the Quarterlij Review, 
 we have an account of the method in which Franklin 
 taught himself to compose. He perused, carefully, a 
 paper in the Spectator, and after having thoroughly 
 mastered its spirit and contents, as well as noted down 
 its salient points, he laid it aside. After an interval of 
 a day or two, he took up his notes ; and upon his re- 
 membered Addisonian type, tried to write an essay 
 upon the same subject himself; the result, of course, 
 serving to shew the excellencies of Addison's style, and 
 the deficiencies of his own.~^ Recommendations of 
 similar plans we find, given to preachers, by some of 
 our ablest divines, — at least until, such time as, in the 
 language of Bishop Burnet, " they are able to go with- 
 out crutches, and to work without patterns." Thus, 
 Bishop Bull, Bishop Wilson, and Archbishop Seeker, 
 severally recommend, to young preachers, some form of 
 ^ See Quarterly Review, Vol. 102, p. 81. 
 
62 THE INTELLECTUAL DEMANDS 
 
 the analysis plan, in preparing for a sermon, — such as 
 the digest of a homily, or of one of Tillotson's dis- 
 courses, or of a section of the Whole Duty of Man,-^ 
 not with a view to their reproduction in any imitated or 
 closely resembling form ; but solely in order that every 
 sermon may contain a certain amount of positive teach- 
 ing, — saving the preacher from the meagreness of his 
 own originality, and ensuring to the hearer, from one 
 source or another, a reasonable allowance of solid 
 mental food. 
 
 And, to this end, chiefly do all our recommendations 
 for diligent reading and preparation point. We are not 
 supposing that any amount of industry, in the collec- 
 tion of materials for his subject, will turn a bad preacher 
 into a good one ; will compensate for any original de- 
 ficiencies of intellectual character ; will make a man a 
 close thinker, in whom the logical faculty is slow, 
 or will impart the fire of an imaginative eloquence to 
 an essentially prosaic mind. All we are contending for 
 is, that, with such educated habits of thinking and 
 writing, as would be required for success in any other 
 profession, any man, however barren of inventive power, 
 may, by giving diligence to reading, always prevent his 
 sermons from being intolerably dull. We may miss 
 the fulness of thought, miss the fertility of illustration, 
 might have been glad to have seen the subject set off 
 in more attractive phrase, or handled with more of dia- 
 
OF THE PRESENT AGE. 68 
 
 lectic power, but we should not leave his teaching; and, 
 for the evidence supplied by his sermons of religious 
 care and painstaking, we could not fail to respect the 
 man. If the nourishment supplied be true nourishment, 
 we are taught not to be too l^stidious about the w^ay 
 in which it is administered : — " We have this treasure 
 in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may 
 be of God and not of us."-^^ 
 
 We trust our remarks, in thus urging the need of a 
 higher standard of intelligence and thought, in our 
 sermons, will not be misunderstood. We are counsel- 
 ling no one to attempt a style which is not natural to 
 him, — an attempt which could be attended only wath 
 much loss of time, and the most mortifying failure after 
 all. Nor is it necessary. It is a mistake to suppose our 
 congregations are chiefly careful about eloquence. They 
 do not despise the gift ; nor should we. But they do 
 care about solid matter; do care to have put before 
 them, the well-digested results of reading and reflec- 
 tion ; do care that, as reasoning and thoughtful people, 
 they should have the appetite for increased knowledge 
 ministered to ; and, in every sermon, hear something 
 worth carrying away. And this want, it must be our own 
 fault, if we do not, in some measure, supply. We may 
 always incorporate into our discourses, a certain amount 
 of information, which, either in the new aspects under 
 which we present it, or in the new relations with which 
 25 2 Cor. iv. 7. 
 
64 THE INTELLECTUAL DEMANDS 
 
 we combine it, we may fairly presume, those who 
 hear us did not possess before. Of course, the more we 
 can do this from our own self- supplied and unborrowed 
 stores, the better. But, with help from foreign sources, 
 or without it, the matter must be there. '' Rem facias''' 
 must be our rule ; we may not add, " quocunque moclo 
 rem ;" because, in the method of appropriation, there are 
 limits, — sacred limits, which, as no candid mind can be 
 at any loss to define, so no religious mind will ever 
 dare to transgress. But within these limits, all the 
 books we can command are open to us, and the public 
 expect us to use them. We are guilty of no dishonesty, 
 literary or moral, when, having determined to write 
 upon a subject, and having, previously and carefully, 
 formed in our own mind a plan of treating it, we pro- 
 ceed to avail ourselves of such extraneous aids as a 
 varied reading may furnish, taking, in substance, a 
 sound argument from this writer, and a remembered 
 illustration from that, — quoting here a corroborative 
 fact of history, and there a confirming extract from a 
 traveller's notes. And we care not to let it be known 
 why we do this. It is not that the truth of the Gospel 
 stands in need of these extrinsic supports ; but because 
 we. as its teachers, feel bound to do homage to the 
 eternal principles of man's nature ; because we, who 
 are sent forth to turn the hearts and wills of men, 
 will suffer no form of rightful influence to pass out of 
 our hands ; in a word, because, as put in trust with the 
 
OF THE PRESENT AGE. 65 
 
 Gospel, we are careful not to leave room for the re- 
 proach, — either to Christianity, that it is the nursed 
 child of ignorance, or, to its teachers, that they follow 
 slowly in the rear of an intellectual age. 
 
66 PERSUASION, AS 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PERSUASION, AS THE FINAL OBJECT OF PREACHING. 
 
 Lawfulness of appeals to the passions — Our message to the whole 
 man — Coarseness of a former age — The effect of regarding per- 
 suasion as the end of preaching — i. In causing a prominence to 
 be given to the more encouraging aspects of the Gospel — Rela- 
 tive efficacy of appeals to hope and fear — ii. In moderating the 
 tone of our rebukes for sin — Use of irony — iii. In inducing 
 gi'eater caution and charitableness on points of controversy — [V. 
 In the restraint imposed upon different forms of pulpit eccen- 
 tricity — V. In the endeavour to give unction to our discourses, 
 and generally to minister to a higher tone of personal devoutness. 
 
 In a former chapter we alluded to the rule laid down 
 by Blair, that " the end of all preaching is to persuade 
 men to become good." ^ So far as relates to the ulti- 
 mate object of the preacher, no exception, perhaps, will be 
 taken to this definition. We objected only to its incom- 
 pleteness, — to the apparent setting up of the voluntary 
 and emotional powers, in man, over those of reason and 
 thought. And to this we deem it right to demiu'. There 
 » See page L8. 
 
THE FINAL OBJECT OF PREACHING. 67 
 
 can be no schism in our mental organization ; the affec- 
 tions won over, and the judgment holding back; — the will 
 submitting to a law, and the mind not consenting to it 
 that it is good. Both must be satisfied ; and, therefore, 
 the preacher's work lies with both. No man wall be a 
 successful pleader who is not " apt to teach ;" and, as a 
 rule, we must convince, by the intelligence of our state- 
 ments, before, by any devoutness or fervour in our 
 appeals, w^e shall ever be able to persuade. " The great 
 fault of rhetoricians," says Plato, *' is, that they en- 
 deavour to acquire the art of persuading men, before 
 they have learned what they have to persuade them of." ^ 
 The expression, thus guarded, we may admit that 
 our real business is with men's hearts and consciences. 
 All our former recommendations to read, and to search, 
 and to be ready to meet our thoughtful and able men 
 on their own ground, were but as means to an end. 
 We are not Teachers only. Our desire is to per- 
 suade men; to win them over to the side of God and 
 of His truth ; to enlist all the appliances of an earnest 
 and loving oratory, in proving to them, that Christ is 
 the only remedy for our nature's evil, and our nature's 
 
 * Fenelou's Dialogues. See also the relative prominence given 
 to the different functions of the orator by Cicero, " Optimus enim 
 orator, qui dicendo animos audientium et docet, et delectat, et per- 
 nio vet. Docere debitum est, delectare honorarium, permovere 
 necessariam." De Orator. Quoted in Claude's Essay. 
 
 F 2 
 
 / 
 
68 PERSUASION, AS 
 
 need. *' Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as 
 though God did beseech you by us ; we pray you in 
 Christ's stead be ye reconciled to God."^ 
 
 The remark may suggest the inquiry, first, how far it 
 is lawful, in preaching, to address ourselves directly to 
 the passions of an auditory ; to try to work upon their 
 affections, by appeals to their yet remaining sympathies 
 with the noble, and the generous, and the pure, and the 
 beautiful ; how far we may seek to deepen the impres- 
 sion of moral truth, — either by graphic poi'traitures of 
 scene and character ; or by trying to work upon men's 
 hopes and fears ; or even by translating, into the 
 dialect of a reverent and chastened imagination, such 
 revelations as have been given to us of the eternal and 
 the unseen, — the pains of the lost, the glory of the 
 righteous, the fruition and sight of God. 
 
 Now great as may be the danger, in this style of com- 
 position, to young and unpractised writers especially, 
 of running into vicious excesses, — of bad taste, maudlin 
 sentiment, exaggerated detail, of mistaking prettiness 
 for pathos, and the fanciful for the sublime, — we cannot 
 but think it would be a great loss to the power of the 
 pulpit, if appeals to the feelings or the imagination 
 were ignored. It was found to be a loss, Blair says in 
 his time, when, owing to a " distaste to fanactics and 
 Puritans," sermons had passed too much into '' mere 
 reasoning and instruction" — too many preachers, per- 
 3 2. Cor. v. 20. 
 
THE FINAL OBJECT OF PREACHING. 69 
 
 haps, like himself, doing false and foolish homage to 
 their literary hearers, and so, not only afraid of unction, 
 but afraid of truth. But there is something more re- 
 quired, in our sermons, than mere instruction. Indeed, 
 the very ground, on which we have contended for 
 the necessity of showing deference to the reasoning 
 faculty in man, would apply, equally, to the duty of 
 addressing ourselves to his santient and emotional 
 nature ; — namely, that our message is to the whole 
 man, — to all the attributes and powers of his being, — 
 in order that we may engage them all on the side of 
 '' pure and undefiled religion." We are to present to 
 the soul whatever is capable of attracting it; and so 
 long as we do nothing but reason, and explain, and teach, 
 we have not done this. The understanding may be 
 convinced, but the springs of feeling are not touched at 
 all. And though we may not wish to persuade any 
 man, without giving him a reason for his hope, yet one 
 man, brought under alarms of conscience, is a better 
 fruit of our labours than " seven men who could render 
 a reason."* 
 
 Neither, if Scripture is to be our model, do w^e seem 
 to have any warrant for this hard, soulless, unim^as- 
 sioned form of address. The Holy pages are full of 
 
 * Another dictum of Cicero will be remembered : " Probare neces- 
 sitatis est, delectare suavitatis, flectere victoriae," Orat. 21. See 
 also the same sentiment, in almost the same words, in Aug. de Doct. 
 Christ, iv. 13. 
 
70 PERSUASION, AS 
 
 "breathing" thoughts, and ''burning" words. Where find 
 we more of soul-stirring and animated appeal, than in the 
 language of the prophets ? or more of stern and earnest 
 enthusiasm, than in the sermons of the Baptist? or more 
 of gentle, loving, tenderness, than in the epistles of St. 
 John ? or more of deep-swelling, uncontrolled emotion 
 than in the discourses of St. Paul ? What word- 
 painting can compare with the parables } What fiction 
 has ever rivalled, in touching truthfulness, the home- 
 scenes of Bethany .? What imagination will not fold its 
 wing, in the presence of the revealed glories of the 
 Apocalypse .? And when is the spirit bound in more of 
 silent awe, than when hearing, from the lips of the Holy 
 One, of the solemnities of the great day } As already 
 intimated, a man should be very sure of his own judg- 
 ment, and reasonably reliant on his own powers of dis- 
 crimination, before he frames any appeal to the pas- 
 sions on these sacred types. Such wild and extrava- 
 gant outbursts of feeling as are related of some of the 
 followers of Whitefield and Wesley,^ would disgust by 
 their impropriety, if they did not shock by their pro- 
 faneness. People are willing to have their feelings 
 
 6 The remark, by some, will he extended to Whitefield him- 
 self; but it is probable, we are not proper judges of what the 
 effect of his, so called, extravagancies, may have been, in actual 
 delivery. To us, all license of sobriety must have been trans- 
 gressed by this great preacher, when, in the midst of a sermon, he 
 apostrophised Gabriel, and exclaimed, " Stop, Gabriel, and take 
 
THE FINAL OBJECT OF PREACHING. 71 
 
 appealed to. They come to church to be made to feel. 
 But it must be by means which are in harmony with the 
 laws of taste, with the modesty of nature, and with the 
 reverence which is due to holy things. 
 
 The expediency of endeavouring to move the feel- 
 ings of our audience, however, being granted, let us 
 proceed to consider what ought to be the tone and 
 spirit of our preaching, in relation to that which we 
 have assumed to be its ultimate object,— namely, to 
 
 PERSUADE men TO EMBRACE THE TRUTH OF GOD. 
 
 I. Thus, such a view, we think, while making us 
 afraid to keep back anything which might act upon the 
 reasonable fears of our nature, will make us delight in 
 affording room for the play of hope, by giving large 
 scope in our ministration to the more encouraging aspects 
 of the Gospel. 
 
 Of course, we must address ourselves to the fears 
 of those that come to us. John the Baptist did. The 
 Apostles did. Our Lord Himself did. "Who hath 
 warned you to flee from the wrath to come ?" ^ " In 
 flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know 
 not God."' "Depart from me ye cursed into ever- 
 lasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels."^ 
 
 with you the news of one sinner converted to God !" Yet David 
 Hume heard that sermon, and declared that the apostrophe to 
 Gabriel was the finest thing he ever heard. 
 6 Matt. iii. 7. "^ 1 Thess. i. 8. « Matt. xxv. 41. 
 
72 PERSUASION, AS 
 
 Our Lord knew what was in man ; knew that there was in 
 him a deep-seated persuasion of a coming retribution. 
 And the history of all nations, and all ages, testifies to the 
 existence of this feeling. Paganism had its Tartarus; 
 endless torment could find a place in the Platonic philo- 
 sophy : Hinduism has its ages of endless penance ; and 
 Mohammedanism its hell, its seas of fire, its irrevocable 
 destiny ; — all witnessing, either to some original tracing 
 upon the human conscience, which no infidelity has 
 been able to obliterate, or else to the echoes of some 
 primeval revelation, making their voice to be heard in 
 all the theologies of mankind. 
 
 Still, in addressing ourselves to this original fear of 
 our nature, " we have a more sure word of prophecy." 
 And, in Scripture, these anticipated retributions appear 
 in harmony with a revealed plan, — stamping, upon the 
 warnings of the Gospel, an impress of unutterable 
 solemnity, and heightening our gratitude to Christ, by 
 shewing us the condemnation from which He has set 
 us free. Nor can it fail to give, to our appeals upon 
 this subject, a yet deeper reality and intenseness, when 
 we urge, that, if there be any Scriptural presentments of 
 the doctrine, more awfully graphic than the rest, they are 
 those which proceeded from the lips of Christ Himself, 
 — from Him, w^hose sensitiveness and compassion were 
 more than human, — from Him, who came not to destroy 
 men's lives, nor yet to make them sad ; but to redeem 
 
THE FINAL OBJECT OF PREACHING. 73 
 
 US from the power of the destroyer, and to save us with 
 an everlasting love. 
 
 " Knowing the terror of the Lord, then we persuade 
 men.''^ We may not, with some preachers, deem it 
 w^ell to make the solemnities of the future judgment a 
 frequent subject for rhetorical scene-painting, — but yet 
 no muffled or uncertain sound must our trumpet give 
 forth, with regard to the awful fact itself. It must be, 
 that such representations, as are given us in Scripture, 
 were intended to act upon the will, and are fitted to do 
 so. Indeed, in the case of our Lord, the most solemn 
 denunciations appear but as love in another form. So 
 that, if He dwell sometimes on the future portion of the 
 ungodly, — the worm, and the fire, and the darkness, 
 and the gnashing teeth, — ^yet is this only to prevail 
 w^ith us to look at the eternal world on its other side, 
 and see the spiritual glory of the righteous, — fellowship 
 with angels, a seat on the throne, a sight of God. 
 
 And hence the other part of our recommendation, 
 that, together with the frequency of harsher present- 
 ments, we should aim especially to bring out the 
 more attractive features of the Gospel. Fear is a very 
 lU'gent stimulant to action no doubt ; and, in its opera- 
 tion, more immediate ; but it is not so noble a passion 
 as hope, not so expansive, not so enduring. Arguments 
 addressed to hope, also, find a readier response in the 
 universal heart. They flatter our capabilities for good, 
 9 2 Cor. V. 1 1. . 
 
74 PERSUASION, AS 
 
 and that always pleases. But if you appeal to the 
 fears of a man, — especially if anything of asperity 
 mingle with the warning, — he thinks you mean to 
 threaten him. And he gets angry, and will none of 
 your reproof. Cowper, speaking of the over-hard style, 
 adopted by some preachers, says, in one of his letters, 
 / " No man was ever yet scolded out of his sins." And 
 Cecil, speaking on the same subject, says, — " I feel 
 myself repelled, if anything chills, goads, or urges me ; 
 this is my nature, and I see it to be very much the 
 nature of others. But let me hear ' Son of man, thou 
 hast played the harlot with many lovers ; yet return 
 again, saith the Lord,' and T am melted and subdued.'' 
 And higher testimonies favour a like conclusion. 
 Taking the Acts of the Apostles, and tracing the effects 
 of the outpouring of the Spirit, in connection with the 
 preached word, we cannot fail to notice that the agency 
 which wrought so powerfully upon the conscience of 
 the first converts, was the allurement of "love," — the 
 hidden power of the "bands,"^° — a working upon the 
 grateful affections of the sinner, by an exhibition of 
 the mysterious compassion of the Crucified, — even from 
 His throne in heaven, charging His faithful servants to 
 say, "And now, brethren, I know that through ignorance 
 ye did it, as did also your rulers."^^ Even in the great 
 sermon on the day of Pentecost, pungent and searching 
 as are its appeals to the conscience, there is a great 
 10 Hos. xi. 4. " Acts ill. 17. 
 
THE FINAL OBJECT OF PREACHING. 75 
 
 intermixture of moral kindness. There is a wide 
 opening of mercy for the returning penitent ; and, 
 interwoven with an address to the nation, of stern and 
 severe fidelity, is a touching recital of the grand 
 and simple facts of redemption, — of a Saviour dying 
 to procure them pardon, and a Spirit proQiised to give 
 them life. " Therefore let all the house of Israel 
 know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, 
 whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. And 
 when they heard this, they were pricked to the heart, 
 and said, Men and brethren what shall we do ?"^^ 
 
 And so in other Scriptures. There is no keeping 
 back of strong and startling appeals to the fears of men. 
 On the contrary, it is assumed that, in their degree and 
 place, the terrors of the future world must be insisted 
 upon as much as any other part of the counsel of God. 
 The marked feature of New Testament teaching, in this 
 respect, is, that while Paul and the other Apostles were, 
 what would be called, " alarming " preachers, yet that, 
 except in the case of the hardened and the hypocrite, 
 it was their wont to alarm tenderly. " Spealnng 
 the truth in love,"^^ was their aim. Their severest de- 
 nunciations were often mingled with tears. " For many 
 walk of whom I have told you often, and a7id now tell 
 you even weeping^ that they are the enemies of the cross 
 
 12 Acts 11. 37. 38. 13 Eph. Iv. 15. 
 
76 PERSUASION, AS 
 
 of Christ : \Yhose end is destruction, whose god is tlieir 
 belly, and ^Yhose glory is in their shame." ^* 
 
 Moreover, to the efficacy of appeals made to the' 
 grateful affections of those we are dealing with, it is 
 probable we can most of us testify, from the results of 
 our pastoral experience. Even w^ith regard to persons 
 of the most hardened character, our happiest memories 
 of success, wnll, we think, be found associated w'ith 
 seasons, when there was a peculiar tenderness upon our 
 own spirit — when our lips seemed spell-bound to one 
 theme, the love and loveliness of Christ ; as if, w^hile we 
 were speaking, we had touched a chord of dormant and 
 forgotten sympathies, and, by appealing to the better 
 feelings of the man's heart, had heaped coals of fire 
 on his head. As Dryden well expresses it : — 
 
 ; 
 
 To threats, the stuhborn sinner oft is hard, 
 Wrapt in his crimes, against the storm prepared ; 
 But when the milder beams of mercy play, 
 He melts, and throws his cumbrous cloak away." is 
 
 And in the same mould, to a considerable extent, must 
 be cast our teaching from the pulpit. With all the 
 sterner and more terrific aspects of Gospel truth, w^e 
 
 " Phil. iii. 18, 19. " Circumlineatur poculum caelestis sapientia? 
 melle, ut possint ab imprudentibus amara remedia sine offensione 
 parari." Lactant 
 
 ^ Dryden, Religio Laici. 
 
THE FINAL OBJECT OF PREACHING. 77 
 
 shall be anxious to mingle a touch of the conciliatory 
 and the tender. After the example of our Divine 
 Master, having spoken of the judgment to come, and 
 declared that " they that have done evil shall rise to the 
 resurrection of damnation," we shall not be long before 
 we follow up our statement with that language of remon- 
 strant, but plaintive tenderness, "Ye will not come*unto 
 me, that ye might have life."^^ And this is the true art of 
 moral suasion. Our object is not to drive, but to draw; 
 not to irritate, but to soften ; to obtain such an absolute 
 concurrence of the moral affections, as that, when 
 bringing the sinner effectually under the power of 
 Gospel captivity, it shall be his own act to bind on the 
 yoke. Both our work, and the manner of it, are 
 described by the wise man in one happy expression, 
 "He that winneth souls is wise."" 
 
 II. Again, with persuasion in view, as the ultimate 
 end of our ministry, we shall have a godly jealousy of 
 the tone in which we administer rebukes; shall stand in 
 awe of anything like angry and irritating declamation 
 against the sins of the times ; and shal lalways see that 
 we know " what spirit we are of^" before, even against 
 the most reprehensible practices, we throw out the 
 caustic and derisive sneer. 
 
 The admission may be a very humbling one, but we 
 cannot disguise from ourselves, that it is very grateful 
 
 1^ John vii., comp. ver. 28 aud 40. ^" Prov. xi. 00. 
 
78 PERSUASION, AS 
 
 to our fallen nature, to administer censure ; that there 
 is a pleasure, in holding up social mischiefs to reproba- 
 tion, which, for the time, will almost quench our sorrow 
 for the sin. And when our profession is one, which 
 makes a duty of this pleasure, the temptation to us is 
 very strong to transgress the limits of a holy and dis- 
 cerning charity ; and to adopt a tone of speaking, more 
 likely to elicit extenuating pleas for the offender, 
 than sympathy with our exaggerated rebuke. Least of 
 all, will one of the offenders himself, if present, be won 
 by this extravagance of censure. He sees that, while 
 professing a desire to reclaim him from some sinful 
 habit, you are putting his sin in the worst light you 
 can ; — misrepresenting its character ; overstating its 
 mischiefs ; intent only on making the jet blacker than 
 it is ; and seeming to rejoice, if you can fix, on all who 
 yield to the habit, the brand of eternal outlawry from 
 the presence of God. And what is the consequence ? 
 Why, that you have exasperated the man, hardened 
 him, made him retreat under cover of a conscious and 
 acknowledged injustice ; and have alienated him, more 
 than ever, from a system, which, only on the overthrow 
 of all gradations of misdoing, he will allege, can chal- 
 lenge the acceptance of mankind. 
 
 No : " the wrath of man worketh not the righteous- 
 ness of God." There is a fatal facility w^hich some 
 have of dealing in hard words. Their tongue is like a 
 sharp razor. " Adder's poison is under their lips." 
 
THE FINAL OBJECT OF PREACHING. 79 
 
 And, after they have said some stinging or crushing 
 thing, you see the rancour and the bitterness, propa- 
 gated from one to another, among the hearers, with a 
 dreadful sympathy, — betokening far more of joy at the 
 condemnation of the fallen, than of thankfulness for 
 the grace which enables themselves to stand. The 
 prevalence of such a tone, in our ministrations, also, is 
 likely to be damaging in another way. By many, and 
 even devout minds, it will be interpreted as too faithful 
 an echo of the tone of our inner life ; telling of some- 
 thing perturbed, and restless, and sorely disquieted 
 there ; the absence in us, of " that fruit of righteousness 
 which is sown in peace of them that make peace."^^ But 
 let this view of persuasion, as the final object of our 
 
 ^^ That acute observer, Currer Bell, in one of her graphic por- 
 traitures, evidently drawn from life, thus speaks of a sermon by a 
 very effective pulpit orator. " The heart was thrilled, the mind 
 astonished, by the power of the preacher : neither were softened. 
 Throughout there was a strange bitterness ; an absence of consola- 
 tory gentleness. . . . When he had done, instead of feeling better, 
 calmer, more enlightened by his discourse, I experienced an inex- 
 pressible sadness ; for it seemed to me — I know not whether equally 
 so to others — that the eloquence to which I had been listening, bad 
 sprung from a de])th where lay turbid depths of disappointment, 
 where moved troubling impulses of insatiate yearnings, and dis- 
 quieting aspirations. I was sure St. John Rivers — pure-minded, 
 conscientious, zealous as he was — had not yet found that peace of 
 God which passeth all understanding — he had no more found it, I 
 thought, than had T, with my concealed and burning regrets for 
 my broken idol, and lost elysium." Jane Eyre, chap. xxx. 
 
80 PERSUASION, AS 
 
 preaching, be kept before us, and all our denunciations 
 of evil will be tempered with a chastened sobriety, — 
 with that wisdom from above, w^hich is " first pure, then 
 peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated." If to 
 the word and Spirit of Christ we look to give point to 
 our reproof, to "the meekness and gentleness of 
 Christ," we trust to take off the offensive keenness of 
 its edge. " We w^ere gentle among you," says the 
 Apostle to the Thessalonians, " as a nurse cherisheth 
 her children ;"^^ whilst, after one of the severest epistles 
 he had ever penned, we have him saying, " I speak not 
 this to condemn you : for I have said before that ye 
 are in our hearts, to die and live with you."^ 
 
 Especially, in dealing with our fellow sinners, shall 
 we be sparing in the use of ridicule, — never, but in very 
 extreme cases, presuming to have recourse to irony, or 
 the barbed shafts of worldly scorn. Ridicule is no test 
 of truth ; and, from the feelings unavoidably called forth 
 by it, the pulpit is the last place where it can be safely 
 employed. That occasions may arise for saying a 
 severe thing, — as when some mischievous or taking 
 fallacy has to be exposed, or, perhaps, in order to the 
 silencing of a sneer on the other side, — there can be 
 no doubt. But, as a rule, for Elijah's irony, we ought 
 to be sure we have either Elijah's wisdom, or Elijah's 
 warrant. Our safer model is to be found in the New 
 
 19 1 Thess. ii. 7. . so o Cor. vii. 3. 
 
THE FINAL OBJECT OF PREACHING. 81 
 
 Testament ; ordering our reproofs after the example of 
 Him, who loved while He chided ; who pitied, while 
 He blamed ; and who, when remonstrance could do no 
 more, continued to plead and pray, " Father, forgive 
 them, for they know not what they do." 
 
 III. Further, if persuasion, — the single desire to lead 
 men to repentance, be the great aim of the preacher, 
 he will be very watchful of his own spirit, in dealing 
 with subjects of religious controversy. 
 
 In the first place, he will satisfy himself that a clear 
 case of expediency has arisen, before he takes up such 
 subjects at all. For they are only the few of his hearers 
 who care about them ; whilst, of those who do care, the 
 most keenly interested in the discussion, are often those 
 who understand it least ; and who are chiefly on the look 
 out for their favourite catch-words,tosee that their teacher 
 is true to his Shibboleth, and displays the proper badge 
 of his school. Besides, as a rule, people wish to have 
 something better, something that will minister consola- 
 tion to them under life's temptations, and life's trials. 
 " The sheep are looking up to be fed." Regarded as a 
 schoolman's quarrel, what are they to the " five points," 
 or the "five points" to them? Better they should 
 have to say of us, as the Pythoness did of Paul and 
 Silas, " These men are the servants of the Most High 
 God, which shew unto us the way of salvation." 
 
 But occasions may arise, sometimes, for taking up 
 
 G 
 
8*2 PERSUASION, AS 
 
 the arms of the polemic, such as false teaching in the 
 neighbourhood; or the prevalence around us of grievous 
 schism ; or the compassing of sea and land, by active 
 agents, to make proselytes to an erring and fallen 
 church. And then the errors must be met honestly, fairly, 
 and with an outspoken boldness. Strangely enough, 
 however, these grosser errors are not the things which 
 call forth our theological bitternesses most. Our feuds 
 are often sorest, where the real differences at issue are 
 the least. And it is, in view of this infirmity, that the 
 remembrance of our object being to persuade men, will 
 be so beneficial to us. It will moderate or keep down 
 all asperity of statement; will make us afraid of any 
 needless offence-giving in our refutations ; will suggest 
 the need of a large, tolerant, and discerning charity, in 
 relation to all diversities, whether of faith or practice, 
 among Christians, not plainly and demonstrably vital 
 to the truth of God.^ We cannot always know who 
 may be among our congregations ; but this we know, 
 that there are none whom we do not wish to save. And 
 
 21 Lord Bacon, quoting from an ancient Father, observes : 
 " Christ's coat, indeed, had no seam : but the Church's vesture was 
 of divers colours ; whereupon he saith ' In veste varietas sit, 
 scissura nou sit ;' they be two things, unity and uniformity." Es- 
 says. Of unity in rehgion. See also some excellent remarks on 
 the same subject in a visitation sennon, entitled, *' Shibboleth," by 
 the Eev. Sanderson Eobins, Vicar of St. Peter's, Isle of Thanet, 
 and Rural Dean. Longman, 1858. 
 
THE FINAL OBJECT OF PREACHING. 83 
 
 we little think the mischief we may be doing, when, to 
 please a small section, it may be, of our own people, 
 we fling broad-cast the seeds of theological party ; 
 or make rude and rough onslaught on men's pre- 
 judices, and weaknesses, and educational mistakes ; 
 or try to make the differences, among the members of 
 the Christian body, appear greater than they are ; — 
 tying up our Christianity to formulae, and symbols, and 
 the very narrowest grooves of religious thought and 
 feeling ; and leaving nothing but a lost immortality for 
 those who are but one hair's breadth without the lines. 
 Now, surely, there is neither policy nor philosophy 
 in this course. Not policy ; for if the mistakes he mis- 
 takes, and nothing more, what is so likely to induce 
 obstinacy in retaining them, as the angry magnifying 
 of them into deadly heresies ? Not philosophy ; for it 
 is setting ourselves against a result, which it is the very 
 tendency of an age of religious activity to produce. 
 Divisions and sect-makings are the invariable concomi- 
 tants of revivals. We have an increase in the number 
 of our religious thinkers ; and, as a natural consequence, 
 there arise more shades and more diversities of religious 
 thought. Nor are such results, undesirable as they are 
 in themselves, altogether without their incidental use. 
 They tend to stir up the stagnant elements of society ; 
 and, like the counter-currents which minister to the 
 salutary properties of the ocean, may help to keep our 
 
 G 2 
 
84 
 
 theology from subsiding into the dead sea of Romish unity. 
 At all events, as we cannot prevent these divisions, our 
 great care should be not to exaggerate them; not to over- 
 state them ; not to be ever throwing " adder's fork and 
 blind- worm's sting " into the cauldron of religious bitter- 
 ness, by setting up tests of truth which are no tests, or by 
 charging consequences upon a doctrine, which, its advo- 
 cates neither hold nor see. The world is wide enough ; 
 and varied enough is the preacher's choice of themes. 
 If, therefore, our aim be to preach a full Gospel, and 
 " by manifestation of the truth to commend ourselves 
 to every man's conscience," we shall have little time 
 for the strife of tongues, — and as little heart. The 
 sharp arrows of controversy may silence the lips, 
 but they are the courtesies of controversy that touch 
 the heart. '' Give none offence, neither to the Jews, 
 nor to the Gentiles, nor to the Church of God ; even as I 
 please men in all things ; not seeking mine own profit, 
 but the profit of many, that they may be saved." ^^ 
 
 IV. Once more, we see a benefit in this steady regard 
 to persuasion, as the scope of our ministrations, on 
 account of the many unprofitable things, impertinent 
 things, self -glorifying things, which, while our eye is 
 upon that mark, we shall sedulously endeavour to ex- 
 clude. 
 
 Thus it will keep us from the affectation of great 
 
 22 1 Cor. X. 32, 33. 
 
THE FINAL OBJECT OF PREACHING. 85 
 
 learning; as seen in the offensive parade of our 
 critical industry and scholarship ; in needless cavils at 
 the want of accuracy in our received translation ; in a 
 frequent reference to the treasures of patristic divinity ; 
 im a pedantic introduction, into our sermons, of the 
 technicalities of abstract science ; in a constant refer- 
 ence to the first difficulties of morals, — "fixed fate, 
 free-will, foreknov^ledge absolute." ^^ It will keep us 
 from those foolish displays of dialectic skill, which make 
 us delight in heaping proof upon proof in support of 
 propositions, about which nobody entertains any doubt ; 
 calling up the ghosts of slain and forgotten heresies, till 
 we have almost reasoned people out of their Chris- 
 tianity ; and, perhaps, causing them to say, as Pitt, with 
 less reason, said, after reading Butler, " I never thought 
 there were so many objections against a Divine revelation 
 before." It will keep us from many offences against 
 pulpit dignity, — from the homely coarsenesses of the 
 Reformation period,^ — from the ill-timed jest, the 
 
 23 "Nothing is more preposterous," South says, " than for those 
 who are professedly aiming at men's hearts, to miss the mark by 
 shooting over their heads." Sermons, vol iv., p. 3 52, 
 
 24 Latimer's sermons, almost the only complete sermons we have 
 of the pulpit oratory of that time, are full of familiar, not to say 
 mean images : tales of Eobin Hood, or of the Goodwin Sands, or 
 of an execution at Oxford, or of the woman going to church at St- 
 Thomas of Acres, because she could not get a wink of sleep at any 
 other place, mixed up with puns the most idle, and similes the most 
 unsavoury." Blunt's Sketch of the Reformation, p. 175, 
 
86 PERSUASION, AS 
 
 Avitty anecdote, the affected quaintness, the mean and 
 low illustration which violates, by its uncouthness, all 
 the laws of taste, and compromises, by its profaneness, 
 all the sanctities of the house of prayer. " Of all 
 preaching in the world," says Baxter, "that speaks not 
 stark lies, I hate that preaching which tendeth to make 
 the hearers laugh, or to move their minds with tickling 
 levity, and affect them, as stage-players use to do, 
 instead of affecting them with a holy reverence for the 
 name of God."^' 
 
 And the same consideration will exercise a restraint 
 upon faults of a lesser kind, — faults, often shewing 
 themselves in 3^oung and inventive minds. We wish 
 to persuade men; we shall see it is not the way to per- 
 suade them, to be always having recourse to some 
 eccentric straining after originality; — such as presenting 
 a familiar passage of Scripture in some new and 
 startling light ; or choosing some difficult text, and 
 discovering a meaning which no one had ever seen 
 before ; or stretching, beyond all permitted bounds, 
 the limits of sober accommodation, so that people 
 hardly know where the revelation begins, and the riddle 
 ends, — when Q^dipus speaks, and when the oracle of 
 God. It is not the way to persuade them, to be anxious 
 to press the accidents of a Scriptural illustration too 
 
 25 " 'Tis pitiful 
 
 To court a grin, when you should woo a soul." 
 
 Cowper's Task. 
 
THE FINAL OBJECT OF PEEACHING. 87 
 
 far ; to be always turning metaphor into allegory, and 
 Eastern poetry into subtle myth, — hunting to the death 
 the most minute accessories of a parable ; and, as it 
 were, making awful parody on words Divine. It is not 
 the way to persuade them, to keep their minds in tor- 
 turing suspense on the horns of a self-constructed 
 dilemma, just that more credit may accrue to ourselves, 
 for the ease and ingenuity with which, at last, we set 
 them free. No ; attract attention to ourselves by such 
 things we may ; lay an arrest on the hearer's drowsiness 
 we may ; but as to drawing them to Christ ; or touching 
 to finer issues the springs of devout emotion ; or pro- 
 ducing any permanent effect upon the heart and con- 
 science, — we have done nothing. Our clevernesses 
 have been, not lost labour only, not a warfare of spent 
 arrows only, — they become a sinful misuse of a great 
 opportunity, — a solemn and sad impertinence. 
 
 V. As subsidiary to the great end of moral suasion, 
 however, there is one positive quality in preaching, which 
 we cannot afford to pass unnoticed. We allude to that 
 element in a sermon which Cardinal Maury calls the 
 "Christian pathos," or, which the French preachers gene- 
 rally, and we, after them, are accustomed to describe 
 as " unction.'''' There is a want of appositeness in this 
 latter phrase, seeing that it gives to something, in the 
 spirit or language of the preacher, a name, which is more 
 properly descriptive of an effect that should follow upon 
 
88 PERSUASION, AS 
 
 his sermon ; namely, the word made effectual through 
 the " anointing " of the Holy One. Still, for all prac- 
 tical purposes, we sufficiently understand w^hat is meant 
 by " unction," in a sermon. Tt is the savour of a de- 
 vout earnestness; the echo of soul- deep thoughts ; the 
 glow of that holy fervour, which will warm though it 
 does not shine ; in a word, the casting of ourselves 
 upon the sympathies of the religious heart, assured that 
 the hearers, if they do not agree with the preacher^ can- 
 not fail to feel with the man. And, beyond this, we 
 attempt not to define " unction." Philosophers may 
 try to explain it, but it is too subtle for the applications 
 of their rude analysis. The pulpit artist may try to 
 imitate it, but in his tearful and maudlin softness, all 
 men will see the counterfeit. No; it is anointing; 
 Heaven's anointing, — secret, silent, penetrating, power- 
 ful. " My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech 
 shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the 
 tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass."^'' 
 
 The mention of this subject may not unsuitably in- 
 vite a plan for one general reflection, — applicable to all 
 that has gone before, as well as to all that shall come 
 after, — namely, how futile will be all watchful atten- 
 tion to the signs of the times, how profitless the highest 
 attainments of human rhetoric, how unblessed the power 
 to " speak with the tongues of men and of angels," 
 without the higher qualifications of personal devoutness, 
 
 ^ Deut. xxxii 2. 
 
THE FINAL OBJECT OF PREACHING. 89 
 
 and the bringing to our work much of special and fer- 
 vent prayer. Surely, if Quinctilian could say that none 
 but a good man could ever be a true orator ; if Aristotle 
 made a high standard of moral principle to be the foremost 
 requisite to rhetorical success ; if, of Pericles, it is de- 
 clared, that he never ascended the rostrum without 
 imploring a blessing from the gods, — much more should 
 we, under the Gospel, expect to see the greatest success 
 allied with the highest tone of personal religion, and 
 to find that a praying heart is the great secret of a per- 
 suasive tongue. 
 
 And, as a rule, it is so found. Of Whitefield, the most 
 effective preacher of his day, it is said, that his prepa- 
 ration for the pulpit seemed to be " the bathing of his 
 spirit in heavenly influences." It w^as the agony of 
 prayer, and not the agony of mental labour, which 
 made him the wonder of his times ; causing him to 
 communicate such a hallowed impulse to all who heard 
 him, that, even those who were offended at his want of 
 taste, could not resist the fascinating powder of his de- 
 voutness. And the same thing is seen to this day. It 
 is not the most intellectual ministry which is chiefly 
 honoured of God, — recommended, though it be, by all 
 that is faithful in statement, and all that is attractive in 
 style. It is the message of the man of prayer ; of one 
 who has been wrestling with God for a blessing before- 
 hand ; of one who looks upon the pulpit as such an 
 " awful place," that, while there, he can forget self, for- 
 
90 PERSUASION, AS 
 
 get reputation, forget everything, but the one solemn 
 fact, that his words have immortality, — made by no 
 choice or power of his own, '^ a savour of life unto life, 
 or, of deatli unto death." 27 
 
 And thus, it is not too much to say, that the chief 
 source and strength of our pulpit successes will be 
 found to consist in our " continuing instant in prayer." 
 If we cannot preach our people into faith in Christ, we 
 
 ^/ may, God helping n^pray them out of their unbelief, — 
 prmj them out of their worldly spirit, — pray them out of 
 those moral enmities and reluctances, which w^ill not 
 suffer the preached word to speed. At all events, from 
 the cultivation of such a habit, we are quite sure of 
 benefit to ourselves. The great danger of our ministry, 
 in these days, is that of over-much activity ; of falling 
 into a sort of idolatry of duties ; of giving so much time 
 to the keeping of other vineyards, as to have little or no 
 
 / time left for the culture of our own.^ And this, sooner 
 or later, must have a most disastrous effect upon the 
 religious character. Indeed, we fear it has had its effect 
 already. Our best men fall short of the spiritual stature 
 of former days ; — aye, as short of Newton, and Romaine, 
 and Scott, as of Andrewes, and Ken, and George Herbert. 
 And thus we are in danger of lapsing imperceptibly 
 into a mere professional piety ; of being content to live 
 on the credit of a bygone devoutness ; — of substituting 
 a bustling excitement for the tenderness of spirit, which 
 27 2 Cor. ii. 16. 28 1 Tim. iv. 13. 
 
THE FINAL OBJECT OF PREACHING. 91 
 
 accompanied our Ordination solemnities, and of filling up 
 with preachings, the seasons which, in our more spiritual 
 days, we were wont to spend alone with God. That 
 the devotions of the closet should ever encroach upon 
 the needful preparation for the pulpit, is a danger we 
 hold to be, of very remote contingency. Enthusiasts 
 there may be who will pervert the oft-quoted axiom, 
 " Bene orasse est bene studuisse." But there is One that 
 will judge them for such perversions, — even that word 
 w^hich saith, " This ought ye to have done, and not to 
 have left the other undone." The ruling of Scripture 
 is plain enough, with regard to both duties. To the 
 man who should set lightly by the human accessories 
 of his ministry, it issues the peremptory command, 
 " Give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doc- 
 trine."-^ To him who should make them, or a7iy 
 human accessories, a substitute for those which are Di- 
 vine, it holds up the example of those first founders of 
 the faith, who said, " We Avill give ourselves continually 
 to prayer." ^ 
 
 29 Canticles i. 6, 30 Acts vi. 4 
 
92 THE PARTS AND 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE PARTS AND ARRANGEMENT OF A SERMON. 
 
 Definitions of a sermon — The different kinds — I. The text— 
 Eules in relation to it — i. Should be chosen with a view to being 
 used — 11. Should be used in their own proper sense — iii. Caution 
 in the use of startling texts, and the limits of accommodation — II. 
 The Exordium — Should be short — Calculated to awaken attention 
 — Lead naturally to the subject to be discussed — III. General 
 discussion of the subject — Necessity of unity — Arrangement of 
 parts — Examples of modes of discussion — The question of an- 
 nounced divisions — How far essential — Tlie necessity of a clearly 
 indicated line of thought — IV. The peroration — The two opposite 
 faults : I. Of tediousness, ii. Of abruptness — Importance of ap- 
 peals to the conscience, in a conclusion. 
 
 The foregoing chapters have touched chiefly upon the 
 OBJECT of preaching, — what it aims at, and what it is 
 ordained of God to do. And, in relation to the 
 hearers, this object we have seen is to convince of sin, 
 to move to repentance, to gather in the dispersed ones 
 to the fold of Christ, to build up in faith, and hope, and 
 love, and holiness, the whole church of God. We pass, 
 naturally, from this to another inquiry, — the nature of 
 the instrument with which this great work is to be 
 
ARRANGEMENT OF A SERMON. 93 
 
 done ? in other words, to a consideration of the ques- 
 tion, What is a Sermon ? 
 
 And the following answers are returned by respected 
 authorities : " A sermon," says Dr. Johnson, " is a dis- 
 course of instruction, pronounced by a divine, for the 
 edification of the people." ^ " A sermon," writes another, 
 " is a discourse, delivered in public, for the purpose of 
 religious instruction and improvement; or a persuasive 
 oration." ^ A third tells us, " Sermons are orations or 
 discourses delivered by the clergy of the Christian 
 church, in their religious assemblies." ^ 
 
 The answers do not give us much information beyond 
 this, — that the sermon is a discourse " sui generis.''* 
 Moulded on the plan of a direct address to an audience, 
 it differs from the essay. Demanding, on every occa- 
 sion, a certain amount of positive and well-considered 
 teaching, it is distinguished from the popular harangue. 
 And yet it partakes of the nature of both these kinds of 
 composition, — must make room for the didactic quali- 
 ties, required by one of them, as well as for the rheto- 
 rical element, which is indispensable to the other. Is 
 it any wonder that men, who, at the Universities, have 
 never been taught the philosophy of good writing at 
 all, should so often fail in a style of composition, 
 
 ^ Diet, in verb. 4to. 
 
 ^ Rees's Encyclop. in verb. 
 
 3 Dean Hook's Church Diet. Verb. Sermon 
 
94 ' THE PARTS AND 
 
 which, both for its difficulties and its peculiarities, is 
 uulike to anything else ? 
 
 But recurring to our question, " What is a sermon, as 
 it is found among us in actual practice ?" And, gene- 
 rally, we may answer, it is a hortatory address to the 
 religious conscience, founded upon some passage in 
 the word of God. The passage, chosen for this pur- 
 pose, may be longer or shorter ; — that is, may be either 
 a ground-plan, on which to construct a scheme of ex- 
 pository or deductive truth ; or it may be a mere motto, 
 on which to hang the discussion of some abstract point of 
 theology, — and to which therefore, it stands only in the 
 same kind of titular relation, as might be claimed for 
 some hundred texts besides. If the passage, selected for 
 illustration, extend to the length of several consecutive 
 verses, such for instance, as one of our Lord's parables, or 
 the narrative of some remarkable fact, — we get a third 
 form of pulpit exercise, and the discourse is neither a 
 text sermon, nor a subject sermon, but an exjpositio?i. 
 
 Reserving, for a future chapter, some remarks on the 
 exposition or homily^ it may not be amiss to moot one or 
 two points, connected with the structure and arrange- 
 ment of the ordinary sermon, — whether it take the form 
 of a scheme of inferential teaching, such as would 
 arise fairly and naturally out of the discussion of the 
 text; or that of a discourse, upon some isolated topic 
 of Christian faith or practice, of which the text, it may 
 be, is but a mere general announcement. 
 
ARRANGEMENT OF A SERMON. 95i 
 
 1. And first with regard to the choice of a text. The 
 practice of commencing a discourse with a sentence 
 from the sacred volume, may be said to be derived from 
 the time of Ezra ; who, as we learn from Nehemiah, 
 introduced the practice of ascending a pulpit, and, after 
 addressing a prayer to God, to which the people said, 
 Amen, opened the book of the law ; and having read a 
 passage therefrom, " gave the sense and caused them to 
 understand the reading."^ In the Christian Church, 
 the use of a passage of Scripture, as the ground of a 
 discourse ; — an " auctoritee," as Chaucer tell us it was 
 called in his time,^ — is, probably, coeval with the set 
 discourse itself; though, in the sermons of the great 
 preachers, both of the Eastern and Western Churches, 
 we find sometimes two texts prefixed, and sometimes 
 none at all. In the modern sermon, the use of a text 
 is all but universal ; and the reasons are many which 
 make us desire that the practice should continue. It 
 is an act of homage to the Divine condescension, in 
 speaking to us through a written revelation. It is an 
 emphatic recognition of that Revelation, as the only 
 authoritative interpreter of moral truth. It is a pro- 
 test against the introduction, into our discourses, of 
 anything impertinent or unseemly. It is a joint con- 
 fession of the whole congregation, — on the part of 
 
 * Neh. viii. 8. 
 
 ^ Hence a sermon is called " exposito aiictoritatis. See Hook's 
 Dictionary in verb. Text. 
 
96 THE PARTS AND 
 
 hearers, that they have come to hear what the Lord 
 Godwin say unto them; on the part of the teacher, that 
 he " cannot go beyond the word of the Lord to say less 
 or more." 
 
 And, in the choice of texts also, there are reasons for 
 exercising a wise discrimination. By the poor, espe- 
 cially, the text is that which is remembered better than 
 anything else. They often mark it in their Bibles ; and 
 if any savour of holy impression have been left upon 
 their minds, by the sermon, they will recur to the pas- 
 sage again and again, — reviving, by means thereof, cer- 
 tain accompanying trains of religious thought and feel- 
 ing, even when, of the sermon itself, perhaps, they can 
 recall no more than couldNebuchadnezzar of his lapsed 
 midnight dream. And the same beautiful law of sug-. 
 gestion is found to operate in many others, besides the 
 poor. Men, of the most devout and thoughtful order of 
 mind, have been known to retain lively and enduring 
 associations with particular passages of the Word of 
 God. With discourses from such passages, perhaps, they 
 are able to connect some clearer views of a great reli- 
 gious mystery ; or a better understanding of some prac- 
 tical duty of the Christian life ; or the initiating of some 
 personal rule or habit, which they could never after- 
 w^ards be persuaded to abandon. Sometimes, indeed, 
 these passages are hallowed by yet more precious 
 memories. And a man cannot hear a particular text 
 quoted, without being carried back, involuntarily, to 
 
ARRANGEMENT OF A SERMON. 97 
 
 some crisis in his spiritual history, when " a certain 
 man drew a bow at a venture ; " and a sermon from that 
 text entered, like a winged arrow, into his soul. 
 
 What then are the cautionary hints we have to offer 
 on the choice of texts ? We answer, — 
 
 1. First, that they be chosen with a view to hemg used. 
 The text ought not to be a mere sacred preface ; some- 
 thing announced, as it was said of Bourdaloue, only to 
 show the preacher's ability in getting rid of it as soon 
 as possible. As a rule, every text we choose, should 
 contain a Divine thought of which we seek to penetrate 
 the meaning, in order that we may apply it to the 
 elucidation of some point of doctrine, or to the enforce- 
 ment of some rule of life. And the practice of some 
 preachers, of naming the text, and then standing as far 
 out from it, as a ship would do from a dangerous coast, — 
 only deigning to use a text at all, — ^just as writers in a 
 review, often condescend to notice a new book, by 
 placing the title of it at the head of some laboured 
 treatise, — if not a "handling of the Word of God deceit- 
 fully," is, at least, a dealing not candidly, with those who 
 come to have that word explained. The 'keeping close 
 to one's text,' is an expression, which has passed into a 
 proverb among us ; and, as we believe, expresses the 
 disappointment which the intelligent hearer feels, when, 
 instead of a logical development of ideas, indigenous 
 to the subject which has been announced, he is treated 
 
 H 
 
98 THE PARTS AND 
 
 with something wholly foreign to it, — with a mere med- 
 ley of exotic thoughts and beautiful impertinencies. 
 
 We are aware that a certain license, in this respect, 
 must be allowed in the case of what are called " sub- 
 ject sermons," — where the design is to establish some 
 fundamental truth of theology, for which the range of 
 illustration, presented by any single text of Scripture, 
 might hardly seem to suffice. But there is abundant 
 scope for discrimination, even in this case. There is 
 no great topic, in the domain of moral truth, for which, 
 there are not to be found apposite texts in the AVord of 
 God, — texts, too, which so far from embarrassing a 
 preacher, in his larger discussions of the subject, would, 
 in the hands of a skilled workman, impart an affluence 
 to his illustrations, and clothe his arguments with power. 
 For example, what striking phases, of the misery and 
 evils of idolatry would be evolved, by following out, in 
 all its significant and suggestive bearings, such a text 
 as " Without God in the world 1"^ Or who, with the 
 widest basis of argument he could desire, for proving 
 the certainty of a future retribution, could feel that he 
 was at all hampered in the use of his weapons, because 
 tlie text he had proposed to discuss, was ^' Let both 
 grow together unto the harvest." ^ 
 
 We owe it, then, to Scripture, as well as to our hearers, 
 both to choose a suitable text and to discuss it fairly. 
 The ' fugitive preachers,' as they have been sometimes 
 6 Eph. ii. 12. ' Matt. xiii. 30. 
 
ARRANGEMENT OF A SERMON. 99 
 
 called, are but too likely to make fugitive hearers, — the 
 thoughts of the hearers flying as far away from the ser- 
 mon, as the sermon of the preacher flies away from his 
 text. At all events, as Bishop Burnet says, " a sermon, 
 before which a text seems only to be read as a decent 
 introduction, but to which no regard is had in the pro- 
 gress of it, will have but little efficacy." People will 
 see that " the sermon was not made for the text," but 
 that a text had " to be found out for the sermon."^ 
 
 2. We offer another caution. Not only must w^e make 
 use of the text, but care must be taken that we make the 
 right use. If hearers are displeased at the almost utter 
 ignoring of a text, much more will they take offence, 
 if they find, that, through ignorance, or carelessness, or 
 zeal for a dogma, the text has been wrested to a sense, 
 which it was never intended to bear. Many a man has 
 come to have doubts, even of a true doctrine of the 
 faith, because a sermon he has heard, in support of it, 
 was founded on a misinterpreted or inapposite text. 
 A preacher may, or may not be right, for instance, in 
 his views of the predestinarian hypothesis; but it speaks 
 
 ^ Pastoral Care, ch. ix. Barrow, among English, and Saurin, among 
 French Divines, are much given to the use of " subject sermons;" 
 but they usually select a full text, and discuss it fully," in its rela- 
 tions to their announced topic. See Barrow on the Duty of 
 Prayer, from 1 Thes. v. 17, or on the profitableness of Godliness, 
 from 1 Tim. iv. 8, and the several sermons of Saurin on the Divine 
 Attributes. 
 
 h2 
 
100 THE PARTS AND 
 
 ill for his honest>^, or ill for his scholarship, if, as his 
 warrant for the most bald and unrestricted presentment 
 of that dogma, he chooses for his text the words, " And 
 the Lord added to the church daily, such as should he 
 saved."'' And right as it would be to tell our people 
 that many of the revealed parts of Scripture cannot be 
 brought down to the level of human thought, it would 
 betray an unpardonable carelessness, to say the least of 
 It, to take the well known passage in Peter, and use it, 
 as if it were oi PaiiVs epistles, the words were used, "in 
 which are many things hard to be understood." ^'^ Ser- 
 mons on the sinfulness of rash extremes, should not 
 be preached from the text, " Let your moderatmi be 
 known unto all men." Neither is it honest to quote, as 
 warrant for the most elastic breadth of dogmatic charity, 
 the words ^' Grace be with all them that love the Lord 
 Jesus Christ in sincerity. ''^^ 
 
 Other examples will occur. The practical cautions 
 suggested by them are obvious. They show the neces- 
 sity of submitting every text we are going to preach 
 from, to a process of rigorous analysis,— of endeavour- 
 ing by means of all the consultative aids in our power, 
 
 3 Acts ii. 47. *' The phrase of the original is tovq (no^ofisvovg 
 where the tense employed, shews that the expression applies 
 only to those who are in a state of salvation, as Tolg cnroWvfihoig 
 (1 Cor. i. 18) applies to the opposite." See Blunt's Duties of the 
 Parish Priest, Lect. 11., p. 52. 
 
 ^° 2 Pet. Hi. 16. See the construction, tv olg not ev alg. 
 
 " See Phil. iv. 5. to tTTLSiKig and Eph. vi. 24. cKpOapaia. 
 
ARRANGEMENT OF A SERMON. 101 
 
 whether of text, context, or exegesis, to get at " the 
 mind of the Spirit," — the whole Divine idea, such as, 
 without reference to any scholastic system, it would 
 most naturally present itself to the human intelligence. 
 Many are the mistakes, which, attention to this rule, 
 will help us to avoid. Thus it will make us careful to 
 choose a text, which, as far as our subject requires us 
 to make use of it, contains a complete sense in itself, — 
 not picking out some fragmentary portion of a verse, 
 without caring to see how far it may be qualified by the 
 words which follow ; still less detaching one member 
 of a sentence from another, in order that the isolated 
 limb may be presented in a more exaggerated and strik- 
 ing light. It will teach us to discriminate between 
 those passages of Scripture, which contain a Divine 
 sentiment, in an approved and sanctioned form ; and 
 those which, though found in the sacred narrative, are 
 human statements only, and are introduced, as in the 
 case of many arguments in the book of Job, only to be 
 answered, afterwards, by the voice from the whirlwind, 
 and the reproof of God. It will lead us to exercise a 
 scrupulous and studied fairness in the use of our English 
 version, — not taking advantage of any accident in the 
 translation, affording more countenance, perhaps, to the 
 particular view we are taking, than, we know, could be 
 furnished by a more exact rendering of the original. In 
 texts, of which the meaning has been much contro- 
 verted, we shall not assume, with all confidence, the 
 
102 THE PARTS AND 
 
 construction which best suits us, arguing upon it, as if no 
 other interpretation of the words had ever been thought 
 of; neither, in the consideration of passages, where a 
 double sense is manifestly intended, — as in many 
 of the parables, — shall we press into the service 
 of our illustration, parts of the inspired statement, 
 which, though applicable enough to the age in which 
 they were written, can only, in very limited degree, be 
 transferred to the circumstances of our own times. 
 True, there may not be many in our congregations, who 
 will take note of these things ; but, to us, it should be 
 motive enough to avoid them, that, with the few who do 
 find us out in such lapses, much of our moral influence, 
 as teachers, is gone. 
 
 3. Our last cautionary remark, upon this subject, has 
 respect to the choice of strange texts, startling texts, 
 texts, which must be subjected to the fires of a strong 
 spiritual alembic, before any moral application of them 
 can be made at all. We would not be understood as dis- 
 countenancing altogether, the selection of striking and 
 unusual texts, nor even the placing of them, in some 
 new and original light. AVith an assembly before us, 
 ])rone to errantry of thought, and " in their hearts," 
 perhaps, "going after their covetousness," the limits 
 should not be too straitened, within which, we may 
 quicken attention, or gain, for our subject, a sympa- 
 thetic ear. Substantially, we have but the same message 
 to deliver from Sunday to Sunday ; and, therefore, the 
 
ARRANGEMENT OF A SERMON. 103 
 
 guile is a very harmless one, which, by the aid of novel 
 lights and combinations, can give to these old things 
 the appearance of that which is new. The modesty 
 we are in danger of overstepping, in such attempts, lies 
 in the direction of good taste, chastened reverence, sober 
 and judicious spiritualizing. And, for transgressions 
 of this kind, there is a certain nemesis, for which no 
 stimulated or sustained attention, on the part of a few 
 of our hearers, will ever compensate us. The wiser 
 and better of those who listen to us are angry, soured, 
 put out of humour, to find that the end of all our 
 straining to interest, and theirs to follow ns, in some 
 novel illustration, has been a mere catch; an unworthy 
 play upon words ; a far-fetched conceit, of which the 
 prettiness is more striking than the point, and the Scrip- 
 tural propriety more questionable than either. 
 
 In the writings of Origen, and other Fathers, as well 
 as in sermons of the reformed and puritanical age, 
 instances of these puerile affectations occur constantly. 
 And such things as the "two-pence" which the good 
 Samaritan left with the host, until his return, being 
 intended to set forth the two sacraments of the Christian 
 Church until the coming of the Lord ;^^ or the distance at 
 which Christ stood from the shore, when addressing the 
 people from a boat, being an intended type of the dis- 
 tance between the Divine and human nature ;^^ or " the 
 nine-and-twenty knives," which Ezra tells us, were re- 
 
 12 Luke X. 35. " Luke v. 3. 
 
104 THE PARTS AND 
 
 restored by Cyrus to the Jews, being taken to represent 
 nine-and twenty kinds of providential judgments j^^ or the 
 old cast clout and rotten rags " ^^ which Jeremiah put 
 under his arm-holes, being made to stand for the stained 
 righteousness of the sinner, while, by the words of 
 Ebed-melech, it was foreshewn that Christ's righteous- 
 ness was the only effectual instrument of deliverance, — 
 may fairly be cited as examples of what the somnolent 
 tendencies of people, in those times, required, as well 
 as of what their undisciiDlined taste could bear. 
 
 On the other hand, there are some accommodations 
 of inspired words, w^hich we feel to be quite allowable. 
 Of these, we have examples, in such sermons as that of 
 Dr. Arnold, who, from the text, " The Egyptians whom 
 ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more 
 for ever,''^^ founds a discourse on the separation of 
 friends, parting never to meet again ; or, in that of 
 D wight, who, from the words *' in the garden w^as a 
 new sepulchre," takes occasion to shew what an inter- 
 mingling there is, of the sad and the joyous, in human 
 history ; or, in the discourse of Blair to the aged, 
 founded on the words, " And Pharaoh said unto Jacob, 
 How old art thou ;"^' or in Robert Hall's view of the 
 
 '4 Ezra i. 9. is Jer. xxxviii. ] 1. 
 
 1^ Kxod. xiv. 16. This aud some other examples under this head 
 are taken from Mr. Gresley's Eeclesiastes Anglicanus. Lett. xx. 
 and XXV. , 
 
 17 Exod. xlvii. 8. 
 
ARRANGEMENT OF A SERMON. 105 
 
 Spiritual conflicts of believers, as based upon the 
 wars of Joshua with the Canaauitish nations.^^ All 
 these instances may shew the possibility of spiritualizing 
 upon Scripture incidents, with pure and unoffending 
 taste, — at once awakening a lively interest in our 
 hearers, and shewing them how, in their own private 
 reading, to exercise the powers of a moral thoughtful- 
 ness, in regard to every part of the word of God. 
 
 We have alluded to the danger of transgressing the 
 laws of taste, in the adaptations of a striking text. 
 The rules of exegetical honesty must be respected also. 
 In a controversial point of view, w^e know these marked 
 passages would never be cited in the way oi iiroof. We 
 have selected them only as a basis for interesting illus- 
 tration. And the acknowledgment should be made that 
 we have done so ; that the discourses which we found 
 on such texts, are merely the adaptations thereto of our 
 own thoughts, and not the development of some hidden 
 meaning, which we profess to have discovered in the 
 text itself. To argue, as if, when the wise man said, 
 *' There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother," ^^ 
 it was in the mind of the Spirit to foreshow the tender- 
 ness of our Lord's human sympathies ; or as if, when 
 it is said, *' Speak unto the children of Israel, that they 
 go forward," ~° there were a recondite allusion to the ne- 
 cessity of a growth in grace and sanctification, — is not 
 
 1^ Josh. V. 13 — 15. See works vol. v, p. 196. 
 i9jProv. xviii. 24. ^^ Exod. xiv. 
 
106 THE PARTS AND 
 
 overstepping the line of a permitted accommodation 
 merely, it is simply not honest. Beautiful analogies 
 may strike us, and coincidences so subtle, that we can 
 hardly help regarding them as the effect of concealed 
 design. But a text is a thing to be expounded. And, 
 whatever we may choose to infer— m the way of direct 
 explication, it must be made responsible for what its 
 words will bear, and for nothing more. 
 
 II. The next thing in the structure of a sermon, on 
 which a few remarks may be permitted, is the exordium. 
 The importance of this, in an ordinary rhetorical exer- 
 cise, we readily acknowledge. It is that, by which the 
 orator bespeaks for himself attention, confidence, sym- 
 pathy, raised hope : and it will require a good many 
 after excellencies, in a discourse, to efface the impres- 
 sion of a halting and ill-considered beginning. By 
 ancient rhetoricians, the rules laid down for managing 
 the opening of an address, were, as we know, of the 
 most precise and elaborate kind ; and a better practical 
 exponent of their principles could hardly b^ wished for 
 than the Apostle Paul, whether in his answer to the 
 orator Tertullus, or in his address to the people on the 
 castle stairs. 
 
 In the choice of methods for exordium, the sermon 
 may present fewer varieties, perhaps, than the forensic 
 address, but the end to be attained is the same. Quinc- 
 tilian's definition will hold good in either case. " An 
 
ARRANGEMENT OF A SERMON. 107 
 
 exordium," he says, " has no other end than to dispose 
 the mind of the hearer to listen favourably to the sequel 
 of the discourse ; — to render him benevolent, attentive, 
 docile." Still, our means for doing this, in the case of 
 the sermon, are limited. First, by the brevity to which 
 we are compelled, — the stint measure we can afford 
 for any exordium at all. In a discourse, which is not 
 to be more than thirty or forty minutes long, people 
 like not to see any considerable part of the time taken 
 up in mere approaches to the subject.^^ They prefer 
 to get into the heart of the discussion as soon as they 
 can, — to see the work which lies before them, and 
 something of the line of thought which is suggested for 
 their following. 
 
 A further limit is imposed by the necessity, very rarely 
 to be dispensed with, of explaining the terms and con- 
 nection of the passage, from which we are proposing to 
 discourse. Criticism of this kind is sometimes capable of 
 being interwoven with the general texture of the sermon. 
 But, as a rule, it requires to be disposed of first. And, 
 in this case, the addition of exegesis, to any general 
 or reflective exordium, may give to the discourse a 
 sluggish and encumbered movement at starting. The 
 
 2' Howe is very faulty in this particular ; and his biographer tells 
 us of a good woman who shewed her displeasure at his preliminary 
 skirmishing, by saying, that " he was so long in laying the cloth, 
 that she always despaired of the dinner." Life and Character of 
 Howe, by Henry Rogers, p. 474. 
 
108 THE PARTS AND 
 
 subject once opened, people become impatient of any- 
 thing which stops the way. 
 
 Hence, on looking at the compositions of our best 
 sermon writers, it will be found that, in the great ma- 
 jority of instances, the exordium is something born 
 directly of the text itself, as distinguished from any 
 train of moral reflections, bearing, more or less directly, 
 on the intended subject of discourse. And the plan 
 possesses greater scope for variety than, at first sight, 
 appears. It is not necessary, in order to it, that 
 every sermon should open with the same stereotyped 
 formula, commencing with " The w^ords of our text." 
 On the contrary, the mere accessories of the passage 
 to be considered, will always afford scope for varied 
 openings. And, in the author of the book, or the occa- 
 sion of the words, or the scene of the transaction, in 
 the circumstances of those for whom the composition 
 was written, or the moral features of the times in which 
 the writer lived,— forms of illustration will suggest them- 
 selves, which, by dealing with the personal, and the 
 local, and the concrete, will be sure to arrest the atten- 
 tion of the hearers ; and, after a few natural and easy 
 sentences, will launch us fairly on the discussion of 
 the subject. How easily does Blair introduce his ser- 
 mon " On the causes of men's being weary of life," by 
 a few graphic touches, borrowed from the personal his- 
 tory of his author. '' Job, in the first part of his days, 
 was the greatest of all the men of the East. His pos- 
 
ARRANGEMENT OF A SERMON. 109 
 
 sessions were large ; his family were numerous and 
 flourishing, his ow^n character was fair and blameless."^ 
 Still, in preaching constantly to the same congrega 
 tion, the more varied our forms of address are the 
 better. And hearers, of a thoughtful habit of mind, espe- 
 cially, find the indirect or suggestive exordium very 
 helpful in awakening interest. They like to be making 
 their conjectures how we shall get at our subject, through 
 that door, — to see, or to think they see, the fore- 
 shadowing of our coming line of thought, — watching 
 the gradual widening of the vista which discloses the 
 goal they are to arrive at, as well as observing, with 
 pleased surprise, its unsuspected connection with the 
 text. An exordium of this kind requires care, and, to 
 slow and uninventive minds, is not easy. The danger 
 to be guarded against is twofold, — that of the thoughts 
 introduced being too distantly related to the subject 
 which is to follow, and that of their being too nearly 
 akin to it. If the thoughts are too remotely related, 
 the endeavour to get back to the text becomes embar- 
 rassed, and constrained, and unnatural. If they are 
 too closely allied, it is hardly possible to avoid infring- 
 ing upon the general subject,— forestalling, by an inci- 
 dental notice, some points, which are to be considered 
 afterwards ; and thus causing it to appear that we are 
 going twice over the same ground. Hence an aphorism, 
 or secular quotation, is often very useful as the basis of 
 ^^ Sermons, vol. iv. 1. 
 
110 THE PARTS AND 
 
 this kind of exordium. If \Ye can light upon one suffi- 
 ciently germane to the subject in hand to admit of our 
 gliding into the discussion easily, it is not likely to be 
 so identical with it as to oblige us to anticipate our- 
 selves. An example from Barrow, will iHustrate our 
 meaning. His text is, " He that walketh uprightly, 
 walketh surely."^ And he begins: — 
 
 " The world is much addicted to the politics ; the heads of men 
 are very husy in contrivance, and their mouths are full of talk 
 about the ways of consulting our safety and securirjg our interests. 
 IVJay we not, therefore, presume that an infallible maxim of policy, 
 proposing the most expedite and certain method of security in all 
 our transactions, will be entertained with acceptance. Such an 
 one the greatest politician and wisest man for business (if we may 
 take God's word for it) that ever was or will be, doth here suggest 
 to us, ' He that walketh uprightly, walketh surely.' "^* 
 
 Other forms of exordium may be noticed, very 
 effective in skilled hands, but demanding for their use 
 a sound and discriminating judgment. Of such is the 
 relation of an anecdote, or allegory, or the startling ex- 
 clamation, or the introduction of some imaginary objec- 
 tion to the language of the text itself Of the anecdote, 
 it seems only necessary to remark, that it should be 
 apposite, brief, pointed. People will generally follow 
 us, through a well-told incident, and even become 
 interested in it; but the reaction is quick, and the 
 posture of mind, toNvards the rest of our sermon, uu- 
 
 23 Prov. X. 9. 24 BaiTow's Works, vol. i., serm 5. 
 
ARRANGEMENT OF A SERMON. Ill 
 
 kindly, if they find it was for its oivn sake that we told 
 the story, and not for its relevancy to the point in hand. 
 As an example of the effective use of such a weapon, 
 we may quote the commencement of a sermon by Dr. 
 Arnold. His text is, " The children of this w^orld are, 
 in their generation, wiser than the children of light." 
 And he begins : — " It is a remarkable story, told by the 
 poet Cowper, of himself, that when he was a young 
 man, and living in London, where his companions were 
 not only persons of profligate life, but of low^ and un- 
 godly principles, they always had a great advantage 
 over him, when arguing upon the truth of Christianity, 
 by reproaching him with the badness of his own life. 
 In fact, it appears that his life, at that time, was quite 
 as bad as theirs ; and they used to upbraid him for it, 
 telling him that it would be well for him if they were 
 right, and he wi'ong, in their opinions respecting the 
 truth of the Gospel: for, if it were true, he certainly 
 would be condemned upon his own showing." ^^ Of the 
 allegory the following example may be taken from 
 Ogden. His subject is the " certain benefit of prayer," 
 from the text, " Ask, and it shall be given you " (Matt. 
 vii. 7). And he begins : — 
 
 " You may remember a little ancient fable to the following pur- 
 pose. An old man, upon bis deatb-bed, said to bis sons, as tbey 
 stood around bim, ' I am possessed, my dear children, of a treasure 
 of great value, wbich, as it is fit, must now be yours.' Tbey drew 
 
 2^ School Sermons, Serm, xxviii., p 276. 
 
112 THE PARTS AND 
 
 nearer. ' Nay,' added the sick man, ' I have it not here in my hands ; 
 it is deposited somewhere in my fields : dig, and you will be sure to 
 find! They followed his directions, though they mistook his mean- 
 ing. Treasures of gold and silver there were none : hut by means 
 of this extraordinary culture, the land yielded, in the time of harvest, 
 such an abundant crop, as both rewarded them for their obedience 
 to their parent, and, at the same time, explained the nature of his 
 command." 26 
 
 Still more is great caution required, if we are medi- 
 tating the exclamatory, or startling form of exordium. 
 When a preacher, after announcing as his text, " Take 
 no thought what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, 
 nor yet for your bodies what ye shall put on" — ex- 
 claims, with Bishop Home, " What ! take no thought ! 
 no thought at all for the morrow ! Attend only to the 
 day which is passing over us, and make no provision 
 for the future !" — or, when after giving out those words 
 of St. John, — " and His commandments are not 
 grievous !" he breaks out, with Sterne, into the impas- 
 sioned exclamation, '' No, they are not grievous, my 
 dear auditors!"-' there is a natural and outspoken 
 frankness, in the mode of address, which makes us 
 warm towards the speaker at once. But when we find 
 a man takes for his text, " It is better to go to the 
 house of mourning than to the house of feasting," and 
 then follows up the inspired words by saying, " That 
 I deny— but let us hear the wise man's reasoning upon 
 
 26 Sermons, p. 9. ^ Vol. v. Serm. xxii. 
 
ARRANGEMENT OF A SERMON. 1 ] ,S 
 
 it;"28 — or when, after the example of South, if we 
 remember rightly, a preacher begins a sernlon, " There 
 is no God : — from all eternity things have been as they 
 are:" — and after keeping his hearers in a state of 
 breathless astonishment, by a string of atheistical plati- 
 tudes, — abruptly changing the tone of his voice, to say, 
 — '*Thus saith the fool in his heart," — we cannot help 
 feeling that we are being trifled with. Arts to the 
 artist, and tricks to the buffoon. But 
 
 " We seek Divine simplicity in him 
 Who handles things Divine." 
 
 III. We advance another step, by offering some 
 remarks on the general discussion of the subject. 
 
 Here, the first caution which suggests itself, is that, of 
 seeing to it that we have some definite subject to dis- 
 cuss, — that we have a clear view of what we are aiming 
 at, and intend that others should have a clear view of 
 it too. The caution, it is to be feared, is far from 
 needless. There are many, who, in writing a sermon, 
 can hardly say that they set out with the intention to 
 prove one thing more than another. And their dis- 
 course is just what might be expected ; a succession of 
 truisms, but unrelated to any general thesis, — a con- 
 geries of links, but no chain. 
 
 Hence, foremost among the structural qualities of a 
 good sermon, we should put a careful regard to unity of 
 ^ Vol. i., Serm. 2. 
 
 I 
 
114 THE PARTS AND 
 
 subject, — the hearer's attention fixed steadily on some 
 central truth, to which every illustration and every 
 argument should bring its own contingent of strength 
 and light. Many, in order to this, have recommended 
 that we give to our sermons, at the outset, a descriptive 
 title, — not, of necessity, to be announced in any verbal 
 form, but as a mark for ourselves, that we may know 
 what we are going to preach about. The rule will be 
 helpful to us in many ways. It w^ill assist us in the 
 collection and arrangement of our materials : teaching 
 us what to retain, and what to reject, — what points may 
 be disposed of by a subsidiary or incidental mention, 
 and where it may be better to amplify and expand. 
 Moreover, it is only by the perceived convergence of all 
 we are saying towards one focus, that we can save our- 
 selves from being misunderstood. For intelligent 
 hearers will have unity in a discourse ; and if a 
 preacher, in other respects worth listening to, be 
 obscure as to what his own main point is, they will 
 mate a unity for him, — will single out the first promi- 
 nent thought that strikes them, and make a subject out 
 of that, — fancying they have an exact compreliension 
 of his whereabout, and then reducing his aimless and 
 unarranged materials, into harmony with their own 
 conjecture. 
 
 In sermons, therefore, as in every other work of 
 human skill, we demand unity. The injunction, " sit 
 simplex duntaxat et unum," is a good rule, not for one 
 
ARRANGEMENT OF A SERMON. 115 
 
 art only, but for all. An epic without its hero, a piece 
 of music without its key, a picture made up entirely of 
 chief figures, would, in spite of any excellences of detail, 
 be condemned as a hopeless failure. Paley, in one of 
 his charges, says, " Propose one point in one discourse, 
 and stick to it ; a hearer never carries away more than 
 one impression." One uppermost impression, perhaps, 
 and the Archdeacon's dictum may stand : because, 
 though others are carried away, they are only as 
 ancillary to that, confirmatory of that, illustrative of 
 that. And this centripetal check upon all we introduce 
 into a sermon, is what we should always aim at. We are 
 to bring the dispersed parts together, so that they may 
 make one whole ; — may make their impression upon the 
 mind as a whole. The logical steps, we have gone 
 through, may not have been followed ; and, only as a 
 succession of undistinguishable, prismatic forms, may 
 have been remembered our most striking thoughts. But 
 still, if, as " a nail in a sure place," there have been 
 fastened, upon the mind, one thoroughly mastered truth, 
 one deeply-ingrafted lesson, one central and outstanding 
 fact of the Divine government and goodness, our end 
 is answered. We " have not run in vain, neither 
 laboured in vain." 
 
 From unity in a discourse we pass, on to the cognate 
 subject of arrangement. A preacher may guard against 
 any misconception of the immediate purpose of his 
 sermon, by a formal announcement at the beginning ; 
 
 1 2 
 
116 THE PARTS AND 
 
 but he \yill never succeed in fixing the attention of his 
 hearers, without regard to an orderly distribution of his 
 materials, — the right thoughts coming in at the right 
 place. Where no attention is paid to this point, the 
 mind of the hearer has nothing to rest upon. He 
 recalls, perhaps, a tolerable argument in one part of 
 the sermon, and a fair illustration in another, — here a 
 carefully constructed statement of doctrine, and there a 
 good practical appeal, — but how they came in, where 
 they came in, why they came in, — how they were 
 severally related to each other, or what was their bear- 
 ing on some larger and more general plan, — this he 
 cannot tell, and the wonder would be if he could ; for 
 the preacher hardly knew himself.^ 
 
 It seems almost needless to say that such discourses 
 can tend very little to edification. They offend taste. 
 They weary the powers of attention. They violate all 
 
 ^^ " We too often meet with sermons," says Archdeacon Sinclair, 
 in a late Charge, " of which the most attentive hearer can give 
 no inteUigible account. Considered as compositions, they have 
 neither beginning, middle, nor end." And he illustrates his re- 
 mark by the following anecdote : " 1 well remember an estimable 
 prelate, long deceased, whose boast it was that nothing conld inter- 
 rupt him in the composition of a sermon. ' He could,' he said, 
 ' resume, at any time, his task, as if it never had been broken off.' 
 The truth was, that, in composing his discourses, he made almost 
 every paragraph complete in itself, and often independent of those 
 that followed or preceded it " Charge to the Clergy of Middlesex, 
 1855. 
 
ARRANGEMENT OF A SERMON. 117 
 
 the canons of good writing. They neither instruct, nor 
 persuade, nor please. Quinctilian compares orations of 
 this kind, to an army of soldiers in disorder. They 
 advance ; they fall back ; they cross each other's 
 lines; they redouble strength where no defence is re- 
 quired, and leave their weakest flank unsheltered from 
 the assaults of the foe. And the comparison is not 
 inapposite to some sermons. There is, in them, a vast 
 array of proofs and illustrations, but all crowding, and 
 jostling, and getting into each other's way. Real ob- 
 jections are suffered to pass without notice, whilst un- 
 assailable positions are covered with defences. An 
 argument, which the hearer supposed he had done with, 
 is taken up again, — reappearing in a connection, in 
 which it is not wanted, and taking up the room of some- 
 thing else that is. Thus the discourse ends with 
 nothing proved, and nothing taught. There may have 
 been cleverness in it, and, what is better, there may 
 have been goodness ; but, through this utter disregard 
 of any principles of grouping or arrangement, it remains 
 upon the hearer's mind as a mere chaos of ideas, — a 
 thing of feebleness, and anarchy, and " most admired 
 disorder." 
 
 Rules, for guarding against this disorderly sermon- 
 izing, we should find it difficult to lay down. We 
 shall, perhaps, be more helpful to our younger brethren, 
 if we give some examples of the different methods of 
 discussing a subject, as found in the sermons of ihe 
 
118 THE PARTS AND 
 
 best preachers, whether of our own Church, or of other 
 communions ; — shewing how they kept their eye fixed 
 upon the ffi^oTrog of their subject, with all the unde- 
 viating intentness of the ancient racer,^ whilst every 
 part of their well laid-out plan w^as seen to be assisting 
 and hastening unto the end.^^ 
 
 1. Thus, take as an example of the method hy direct 
 illustration, or expansion of the leading thought of the 
 text, the following from Barrow. His text is, " Pray 
 without ceasing" (1 Thess. \. 17). And he says: — 
 
 "For understanding these words, let us first consider what is 
 meant by the act enjoined, praying : then what the qualification or 
 circumstance adjoined, without ceasing, doth import. After a slight 
 notice of the act enjoined, he passes to what he designs to be the 
 real subject, the import of praijing incessantly. I. First, then, it 
 may import the maintaining in our souls a ready disposition or 
 habitual inclination to devotion. II. It may denote a vigilant 
 attendance (with earnest regard and firm purpose), employed upon 
 devotion. Til. It may signify that we do actually embrace all fit 
 seasons and emergent occasions of devotion. IV. It may signify 
 that we should, with assiduous urgency, drive on the intent of our 
 prayers, never quitting it, or deserting, till our requests are 
 granted. V. It may import that we do, with all our occupations, 
 and all occurrences, interlace devout ejaculations of prayer and 
 praise." ^^ 
 
 2. Take an example, from Sherlock, of the method by 
 
 ^ Phil. iv. 14. 
 
 31 Semper ad eventum festinat. Hor. Art. Poet. 
 
 ^32 Works, i , Scrm. 6. 
 
ARRANGEMENT OF A SERMON. 119 
 
 J, or the consideration of truths assumed to be 
 implicitly contained in a text. His text is, " Take 
 heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart 
 of unbelief, in departing from the living God" (Heb. 
 iii. 12). And he announces three principles as found 
 in the words, all bearing upon his one subject, " the 
 character of an unbelieving heart." They are : — 
 
 First, that it is for want of faith, considered as a principle of 
 religion, that men depart from the living God. Secondly, that 
 faith cannot be a principle of religion, until it has its effects and 
 operations in tlie heart. Thirdly, that the motions and operations 
 -of the heart, are, in great measure, under our own power and 
 government." ^ 
 
 3. Of the method by observation, or suggested thoughts, 
 growing directly out of the subject in hand, we may 
 take an example from Blair, in his sermon "On 
 the power of conscience," founded on the history of 
 Joseph's brethren. After opening his text, " They said 
 one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our 
 brother," &c. (Gen. xlii. 21, 22), he proceeds : — 
 
 " From this instructive passage of history the following observa- 
 tions naturally arise. I. That a sense of right and wrong in con- 
 duct, or of moral good and evil, belongs to human nature. II. 
 That it produces an apprehension of merited punishment when we 
 have committed evil. III. That, although this inward sentiment 
 be stifled, during the season of prosperity, yet in adversity it will 
 revive. And, IV. That, when it revives, it determines us to con- 
 
 33 Sherlock's Works, vol. i. Disc, xiv., p. 382. 
 
120 THE PARTS AND 
 
 sider every distress which we sufier, from what cause soever it has 
 arisen, as an actual infliction of punishment by heaven. The con- 
 sideration of these ^particulars will lead us to a very serious view of 
 the nature of man, and of the government of God."^ 
 
 4, Of the method by confirmation, or the justifying of 
 the statement, contained in the text, by apposite rea- 
 sons, we have an example in South. 
 
 His text is, " The prosperity of fools shall destroy them " (Prov. 
 i. 32). And he proceeds to enlarge upon the three following rea- 
 sons for the statement. I. Because every foolish or vicious person 
 is either ignorant or regardless of the proper ends and use for which 
 Grod designs the prosperity of those to whom He sends it. II. 
 Because prosperity, (as the nature of man now stands) has a pecu- 
 liar force and fitness to abate men's virtues, and to heighten their 
 corruptions. And III. Because it directly indisposes them to the 
 proper means of amendment and recovery.^ 
 
 5. An example of the ai^gumsntative method^ as in cases 
 where, on a superficial reading, there may be something 
 in the sacred text open to objection, we have in Paley's 
 sermon on "Visiting the sins of the fathers upon the 
 children," from the text, Exod. xx. 5, and by way of 
 meeting current objections, he says : — 
 
 My exposition of the passage is contained in these four articles : 
 — First, that the denunciation and sentence relate to the sin of 
 idolatry in particular, if not to that alone. Secondly, that it re- 
 lates to temporal, or more properly speaking, to family prosperity 
 and adversity. Thirdly, that it relates to the Jewish economy, in 
 
 3*2 Sermons i. p. 329. 3^ Sermons, vol. i., Sermon 38. 
 
ARRANGEMENT OF A SERMON. 121 
 
 that particular administration of a visible Providence under which 
 they lived. Fourthly, tliat at no rate does it affect, or was ever 
 meant to affect, the acceptance or salvation of individuals in a 
 future life.^^ 
 
 6. Of the bolder dialectic method, where the difficulty 
 is wrested from the objector's hands, and, as it were, 
 turned against himself,— we have an example in Bishop 
 Horsley. His text is, " For the poor shall never cease 
 out of the land," &c., Deut. xv. 11 — and after noticing 
 some " shocking conclusions " which had been drawn 
 from the inequalities of social life, he opens his sub- 
 ject thus : — 
 
 I therefore undertake to prove, these two ^"things. First, that 
 poverty is a real evil, which, without any impeachment of the 
 goodness or wisdom of Providence, the constitution of the world 
 actually admits. Secondly, that the providential appointment of 
 this evil, in subservience to the general good, brings a particular 
 obhgation upon men in civilized society to concur for the imme- 
 diate extinction of the evil wherever it appears. " The poor shall 
 never cease out of the land, and, ' therefore,' for this especial rea- 
 son, it is commanded that thou open thine hand wide unto thy 
 brother." ^'^ 
 
 ' 7. Of the method hy investigation, or proposed inquiry 
 into the meaning of a Scripture passage, by considering 
 it under certain hypothetical conditions, we have an 
 example in Jeremy Taylor. His subject is " The return 
 
 36 Works vol vi., Sermon 13, page 208. 
 
 37 Sermon at Festival of Sons of the Clergy, 1786. Sermons, p. 
 432, ed. 1896 
 
V2'2 THE PARTS AND 
 
 of prayer; or, the conditions of a prevailing prayer," and 
 his text, John ix. 31, " Now we know that God heareth 
 not sinners," &c. And after some preliminary observa- 
 tions, he says : — 
 
 And, therefore, 1, we shall consider what are those conditions, 
 wliii'h are required in every person that prays, the want of which 
 makes the prayer to be a sin ? 2. What are the conditions of a 
 good man's prayers, the absence of which makes that even his 
 prayers return empty? 3. What degrees and circumstances of piety 
 are required to make a man fit to be an intercessor for others, both 
 with holiness in himself, and effect to them he prays for. And, 
 4, as an appendix to these considerations, I shall add the proper 
 indices and significations, by which we make a judgment whether 
 God hatli heard our prayers or no.^ 
 
 8. The mode hj perpetual application to the conscience is 
 very effective, and the following is the outline of a ser- 
 mon by Robert Hall, noticed in an article in the Quar- 
 ttrlij Review as a sermon of singular excellence. The 
 subject is "Marks of love to God," from the text, 
 " But I know you that ye have not the love of God in 
 you" (John v. 4*2). And in presenting his subject he 
 begins: — 
 
 I. I shall entreat your attention while I suggest a variety of 
 marks which indicate love to God; and II. Supposing the convic- 
 tion i)roduced by the statement to be, tliat you have not the love 
 of God, I shall point out the proper improvement of such a con- 
 viction. Then, undor the first head, follow the marks. They are, 
 1. The general bont and tenor of your thoughts, when not under 
 
 ^ Practical Works, part. ii. Sermon 4. 
 
ARRANGEMENT OF A SERMON. 128 
 
 the immediate control of circumstances. 2. How you stand dis- 
 posed towards the exercises of religion. 3. How you stand 
 affected towards the word of God. 4, With what sentiments you 
 regard the people of God. 5. What disposition you entertain to- 
 ward the person and office of the Son of God. 6. How you are 
 affected by Divine benefits. 7. How you are impressed by the 
 sense of your sins. 8. How you are affected to the present world. 
 II. The feelings with which a discovery of our failure in these 
 marks should be accompanied are (1) deep humiliation, (2) alarm 
 of conscience, and (3) thankfulness that our case is not hopeless.sa 
 
 9. The method of discussing a text by means of 
 antithesis, or contrast, or other striking form of presenting 
 a subject, — \Yhen the construction is not too artificial, — 
 is often very helpful in fixing attention. The fol- 
 lowing is from Archbishop Flechier, on Saul's con- 
 version : — 
 
 Consider, first, what Jesus Christ did for St. Paul. Secondly, 
 what St. Paul did for Jesus Christ. In the first part, he opens Di- 
 vine compassion as a spring, whence flowed Paul's creation, preserv- 
 ation, conversion, gifts, graces, usefulness, &c. The second part 
 relates to the use that St. Paul made of all these, out of gratitude, 
 and to God's glory. *° 
 
 Or take an example from the late Mr. Jay, of Bath, 
 from the text, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God," 
 (Matt. vi. 33). 
 
 The words lead us to ask and enable us to answer three ques- 
 tions. T. What are we to seek ? " The kingdom of God and His 
 righteousness." II. How are we to seek ? We are to seek them 
 
 39 Works by Gregory, vi., p. 341. *° Serm. 8, torn 1. 
 
124 THE PARTS AND 
 
 "First,"— first in time, and first in attention. ID. Why are we to 
 seek ? Because in seeking these we are sure to succeed ; and in 
 addition to these " all other things shall be given us."^ 
 
 Richard Watson, a preacher justly esteemed among 
 the Wesleyans, and a man of highly cultivated mind, 
 has also a very striking sermon on the '' Expulsion from 
 Paradise," Gen. iii. 24, '' So he drove out the man/' &o. 
 
 Our attention is directed by the text to two pfQ-ticulars, and 
 tliere is another, which it is our blessedness to connect with them 
 not immediately suggested by the text, but by other parts of Scrip- 
 ture. I will call your attention to I. Paradise Shut ; II. Paradise 
 Guarded ; III, Paradise Re-opened. The loss to man by his ex- 
 pulsion from Paradise ; his continued exclusion by the guarding 
 barrier of the Divine perfections ; and the final removal of this 
 barrier by the person and work of Christ, — are all topics made to 
 arise out of the subject, and are treated with considerable skill.^^ 
 
 10. The method partly discussional, Sind partly hortatory ^ 
 is one adopted, by some, with much success. The fol- 
 lowing is an example of one of the Salter's Hall Lec- 
 tures; — an old Presbyterian foundation in the city, and 
 one usually held by some eminent preacher. The sketch 
 here given, though far too overladen with topic, for the 
 limits of a Church of England discourse, discovers a 
 thorough grasp of the subject in hand. The text is, 
 " Unto whom much is given, of him will much be re- 
 quired " (J.uke xii. 48). 
 
 " Short Sermons, vol. iii. p. 05. « Sermons, vol. ii. p. 351. 
 
ARRANGEMENT OF A SERMON. 125 
 
 I shall, in the first place, take a general view of the talents 
 bestowed on man. Secondly, attempt a vindication of Providence 
 with respect to the diversity of gifts. Thirdly, endeavour to shew 
 the responsibility attached to all such privileges and talents. 
 I. His general view of the talents bestowed on man, he subdivides 
 into five classes. 1. Natural, such as genius, memory, imagina- 
 tion. 2. Acquired, from education, intercourse, opportunity. 3. 
 External, such as patrimony, fortune, influence. 4. Political or 
 civil. 5. Religious. II. His vindication of Providence with re- 
 spect to the diversity of gifts, is made to rest. 1. On the right 
 which God has over the faculties of His creatures. 2. On the draw- 
 backs and temptations incidental to the possession of great talents. 
 3. On the opportunity afforded by these diverse bestowments for 
 the exercise of the various Christian virtues. III. The responsi- 
 bility, attaching to the possession of great privileges or talents, is 
 argued. 1. From the general expectation of mankind. 2. From 
 the claims of equity, justice, and gratitude. 3. From the testimony 
 of Scripture. Then follows a close practical apphcation. ^ 
 
 Such are a few, out of an almost endless variety of 
 methods by v^hich a text of Scripture may be presented 
 for discussion, so as to secure both unity in the sub- 
 ject, and order in the arrangement of the thoughts. 
 We have purposely abstained from limiting our selec- 
 tions to preachers of our own communion, because of 
 the ever-pressing need, felt by most of us, of something 
 diverse, and fresh, and new, in our modes of bringing 
 truth before the mind. Moreover, both by preachers on 
 the continent, and by those who differ from us at home, 
 preaching is more distinctly recognised as an art, than it 
 
 <3 Sermons delivered at Salter's Hall, by Hugh VVorthington, 
 Holdsworth, 1823. 
 
10() THE PARTS AND 
 
 is among us ; and on no feature of the art do they insist 
 more strenuously, than on the necessity of great care 
 and clearness in the construction of the discourse. We 
 think it was Bourdaloue, who said, "I can forgive a bad 
 sermon, sooner than I can forgive a bad outline." 
 
 And this brings us to another question. Admitting, 
 as all will, the necessity of a well-considered plan, is it 
 indispensable to the hearer's comprehension of such 
 ]ilan, that the divisions^ according to which it is pro- 
 posed to treat the subject, should all be laid out and 
 announced beforehand ? On no point, connected with 
 our subject, perhaps, are opinions more at issue than 
 u])on this. Fenelon argues strongly against these an- 
 nounced divisions. They cramp the discourse. They 
 break the continuity of the subject. They present us 
 with three or four little sermons. They suspend the 
 free march of the subject, and, at every moment, com- 
 mand unseasonable halts. " A sermon hampered by 
 these restrictions," he says, " is not a beautiful well- 
 veined marble, but a stiffly formed mosaic."^ Pro- 
 
 *» Viuet's Homiletics, p. 263. Fenelou adds further, that the prac- 
 tice is wliolly without countenance from the great orators of anti- 
 <iuity. But iutliis.he is clearly wrong. Both authority and example to 
 the contrary are given in Simeon's edition of Claude. The example 
 is from Cicero " pro lege Manilia." " Causa qua? sit videtis; nunc 
 quid agendum sit, considerate. Primum mihi videtur de genere 
 belli ; diiiiJe do maguitudine ; turn, de imperatore deligendo esse 
 dicendum." And the subdivisions are announced with equal dis- 
 tinctness, under each head. Essay, ch. iv. 
 
ARRANGEMENT OF A SERMON. 127 
 
 fessor Blunt, also, we suppose, will be quoted on the 
 same side, though his objection rests on a very different 
 ground. Allowing the use of heads, he says, it may be 
 sometimes questionable, whether it is expedient to an- 
 nounce in full, your plan at the outset, as it may occa- 
 sionally have, on the hearer, the effect which the pro- 
 spect of a long road has upon the traveller.^ On the 
 other hand Bishops Wilkins and Tillotson, and most 
 of the modern continental writers on preaching, argue 
 strongly for a clear and distinct announcement. Both 
 the end and the way thereto, are to be seen from the 
 first. "The practice is eligible," says Bishop Wil- 
 kins, " for the benefit of the hearers ; who may under- 
 stand and retain a sermon, with greater ease and profit, 
 when they are beforehand acquainted with the general 
 heads of discourse." ^^ Of continental authorities, one 
 writes ; " Divisions are important, because they deter- 
 mine the point of view from which the orator proposes 
 to consider the proposition ; whilst the hearer, being in 
 possession of a view of the whole subject, more easily 
 follows the development of the ideas, and more easily 
 finds again the thread of the discourse, when a moment 
 of distraction has made him lose it."*^ 
 
 Before offering any opinion of our own, on this con- 
 
 *5 See duties of a Parish Priest, p. 169. 
 *6 Gift of Preaching, § iv. p. 2. 
 
 *7 Ammon, quoted by Vinet. Homiletics, p. 184. See other tes- 
 tiniouies in the same chapter. 
 
log THE PARTS AND 
 
 troverted topic, it may be well, as in the question relating 
 to the different modes of discussing a text, that we offer 
 a few examples of the methods, by which different 
 preachers are found to announce a subject for consi- 
 deration. Passing over that fanciful form of dividing 
 a sermon which found favour in Puritan times, and 
 which consisted in a sort of homiletical punning, — par- 
 celling out the discourse into the on, the ^loti, and the 
 KoSoTi ; or the egress, the regress, and the progress; or the Beus 
 dixit, and the Dens bene dixit, — passing over, also, that 
 other peculiarity of the same, and even a later period, — 
 requiring that every discourse should be broken up into 
 the most cumbrous and complicated scheme of divisions, 
 consisting of chief heads, and lesser heads, and uses 
 and inferences without number,^^ — we may probably 
 bring most of the varieties of introducing a subject, 
 imder one of the three following classifications, namely, 
 1. The elaborate, and partially developed announce- 
 ment. 2. The less artificial, but still divisional an- 
 nouncement. And 3. The flowing, or slightly indicated 
 announcement. 
 
 *^ Mr. Lye, a minister of the 17th century, in a sermon on 1 Cor. 
 vi. 17, first explains the text in thirteen divisions for fixing it 
 on tiio ripfht basis ; and then subjoins fifty-six additional topics. 
 Another writer of the same period, Mr. Drake, published a ser- 
 mon of one hundred and seventy-six divisions, to which are appended 
 sundry queries and solutions ;—t]ie preacher teUiug us, at the end, 
 tlint many important particulars are passed over, because he wished 
 to limit himself to the marrow and substance. 
 
ARRANGEMENT OF A SERMON. 121) 
 
 1. By the elaborate and highly artificial announce- 
 ment, we mean one in which not only every division and 
 sub- division must be advertised beforehand, but in 
 which a largely-expanded syllabus of the intended 
 course of thought is made to precede the actual dis- 
 cussion. We may give an example from Bishop 
 Andrewes. His text is, " Without controversy, great 
 is the mystery of godliness," &c. 1 Tim. iii. 16. 
 
 Speaking of it then, as a mystery, the Apostle doth here pro- 
 pound two things. 1. First, that it is one without controversy, 
 &c. 2. Then what it is, " God manifested in the flesh." 3. And out 
 of these will grow a third necessarily, how to order the matter that 
 we may have our fellowship in this mystery. In the first part/ow/ 
 things be affirmed. 1. That it is a " mysitery." 2. A mystery" of 
 Godliness." 3. A "great" one. 4. A great one "without con- 
 troversy." Then doth he as it were rend the veil in sunder, and 
 shew as what it is. 1. God " manifested." 2. God manifested 
 " in the flesh." Which mystery, how it may concern us, will be 
 our third and last consideration, and that two ways. 1. By the 
 operation of it in us. 2. By the initiation of us into it.*^ 
 
 The further expansions of the subject, in Andrewes, 
 before discussion, sometimes extend over half a folio 
 page. Examples of a similar kind will be found in Baxter. 
 
 2. Of the less artificial, but still divisional form of an- 
 nouncement we have given examples already, when 
 speaking of varieties in the method of discussion. Un- 
 der one or other of its modifications, it is adopted 
 almost universally, by the continental preachers, by the 
 
 *^ Sermons fol. ed. p. 17, 
 
130 THE TARTS AND 
 
 Nonconformists, and by a large proportion of preachers 
 in our own communion, especially in the delivery of 
 unwritten sermons. By Vinet, and Claude, and Simeon, 
 it is assumed to be the normal type of homiletical 
 composition, — all departures from it being tolerated 
 only as an exceptional variety. By some of the French 
 Divines there is added to the first announcement, and 
 antecedently to the general discussion of the subject, a 
 more extended outline. Examples will be found in 
 Saurin and Bourdaloue f and, by them, the plan is 
 effectively carried out. The danger, in this method, is 
 that the second stage of development should encroach 
 on the province of the third, and give the appearance 
 of repetition. 
 
 3. The last kind of announcement we have called ^^^ 
 flowing/, or slightly indicated announcement. It is rarely 
 adopted by extemporaneous preachers, but is to be 
 found in the sermons of those who always read from a 
 manuscript ; and, among them, it is used by men of the 
 highest mark. The following is from l^ishop Horsley. 
 Ilistextis, "And the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly 
 come to His temple," &c. And he presents the subject 
 thus : — 
 
 With this solemn promise of the Saviour, Malachi, the last in- 
 ft]>ired tracher of the Jewish Church, closes the word of prophecy, 
 till a proatcr projihot should arise again to open it. It will be a use- 
 ful iiifditation, and well adapted to the present season, to consider 
 the characters under which the person is here described, and the 
 
 * See Saurin's Sermon, Ecc. viii. 11 12, and Bourdaloue's Ser- 
 mon on the Pentecost. 
 
ARRANGEMENT OF A SERMON. 131 
 
 particulars of the business, upon which he is said to come ; that we 
 may see how exactly the one and the other correspond to the per- 
 son and performances of Jesus of Nazareth.si 
 
 Our next example is from Chalmers, in his sermon 
 on ''The expulsive power of a new affection," from the 
 text, 1 John ii. 15, "Love not the world," &c., he 
 begins : — 
 
 There are two ways in which a practical moralist may attempt 
 to displace, from the human heart, its love of the world,— either by 
 a demonstration of the world's vanity, so as that the heart shall be 
 prevailed upon simply to withdraw its regards from an object that 
 is not worthy of it; or by setting forth another object, even God, 
 as more worthy of its attachment, so as that the heart shall be 
 prevailed upon not to resign an old affection, which shall have 
 nothing to succeed it ; but to exchange an old afiection for a new 
 one. My purpose is to shew, that from the constitution of our nature, 
 the former method is altogether incompetent and ineffectual, and 
 that the latter method will alone suffice for the rescue and reco- 
 very of the heart from the wrong affection that domineers over it. 
 After having accomplished this purpose, T shall attempt a few prac- 
 tical observations.52 
 
 We may take another example from the late 
 Archer Butler, who rarely has any marked divisions. 
 His subject is, "The eternal life of Christ in Heaven," 
 from the text, "Behold, I am alive for evermore" 
 (Rev. i. 18); and, after an introduction, his subject is 
 thus opened: — 
 
 51 Sermons xxx. p. 384. ^ Works, vii., p. 58. 
 
 K 2 
 
18-2 THE PARTS AND 
 
 At tliiii holy season, we ])rofess more especially to discipline our 
 lieartsnnd minds for the Saviour's coming. Is it not well then that 
 we consider the purposes of His present glorious life in Heaven, 
 no less than of His former lowly life on earth ; is it not well that 
 "in the spirit on the Lord's Day," we should endeavour to rise 
 to the grandeur of His actual authority in Heaven, in order that 
 we may, however feebly, learn to estimate what is indeed that state 
 of which He is, by that last triumphant advent, to make us ever- 
 lasting partakers?^ 
 
 From these, and the other examples before cited, it 
 will be seen that the divisional plan is susceptible of 
 f,n-eat variety in the methods of its announcement, to 
 some of v^hich, at all events, the objections of Fenelon 
 and other writers would not apply. The best practical 
 rule for a preacher would seem to be not to tie himself 
 up to any uniform 7nethod at all. Many men have many 
 minds, and many subjects require diflferent modes of 
 discussion. As a rule, we strongly incline to some 
 form of announced division. It may be set forth, either 
 in a continuous sentence, or by the more strongly 
 marked numerical breaks, according as the nature of 
 the subject may require, but it should always be with 
 sufficient distinctness for the hearer to understand the 
 general drift of the argument,— what is the lesson to be 
 enforced, or what is the truth which is to be proved. 
 In the case of the extemporaneous preacher, especially, 
 a well staked out course of thought, with definite halting 
 places, seems almost indispensable. Unpremeditated 
 
 *3 Sennonb, 1st seiies, serm. x p. 126, 
 
ARRANGEMENT OF A SERMON. ] 3:3 
 
 forms of illustration are sure to suggest themselves, in 
 the course of preaching, which it were a very bondage 
 not to yield to. Yet he must not suflfer them to carry 
 him too far away. And the taking up of one of his 
 announced heads both facilitates and indicates his 
 coming back. 
 
 We shall only pursue this question about announced 
 divisions farther, by hinting at two extremes, which, in 
 practice, we may find it well to avoid. 
 
 The first is, the danger of falling into a pedantic 
 mannerism ;— of thinking ourselves obliged to accommo- 
 date every subject we take in hand to the same rigid 
 external framework ; — so many chief heads first, and 
 these duly waited upon by a symmetrical train of satel- 
 lites. Such uniformity is neither desirable nor neces- 
 sary. The practice of some preachers, of casting every 
 text they preach from into a tripliform mould, like the 
 three hypothetical courses of a celebrated statesman, 
 — with only such permutations as they can operate 
 upon the statement, the doctrine, the inference ; the 
 instruction, the encouragement, the warning; the fact 
 to be illustrated, the lesson to be taught, the principle 
 to be applied, — is found, after a time, to become very 
 wearisome. It is a mistake to suppose that this plan 
 has an advantage over all others, in effecting a lodge- 
 ment in the hearer's memory. Sermons, so far as they 
 are remembered at all, are remembered chiefly for their 
 clear presentment of some one salient truth, — explained, 
 
134 THE PARTS AND 
 
 developed, traced out, and followed into all the rela- 
 tions and duties of every-day life. The rest has disap- 
 peared. And, therefore, if, at the opening of a dis- 
 course, we do but take care that there be no doubt as 
 to the proposition we are wishing to establish ; and, 
 if we are sure that our few easy and flowing sen- 
 tences have indicated plainly our intended course of 
 thought, the line and rule formalit}^ of previously an- 
 nounced divisions may occasionally be dispensed with. 
 Paley has a favourite method of reducing his subject to 
 one categorical proposition, or practical lesson; and 
 then, without further announcement of divisions at the 
 outset, and without any subdivisions at all, he goes 
 through a series of illustrations of his main position, 
 only indicating each, as he comes to it, by the word 
 " Again." Blair has many sermons divided in a similar 
 way. And, for the full and clear comprehension of the 
 subject, in the instances to which the method is applied, 
 we feel, these writers could not have adopted abetter plan. 
 At all events, our aim is to produce permanent impres- 
 sion ; and the method of laying out our discourse, most 
 likely to effect that object, is the best for our purpose. 
 In disi)cnsing to our people the " sincere milk of the 
 word," we should have no preference for this mode or 
 that, — we only desire "that they may grow thereby ."«* 
 
 But, in relation to modern practice, and as far as the 
 written sermon is concerned, we incline to think our 
 « 1 Pet. ii. ^. 
 
ARRANGEMENT OF A SERMON. 135 
 
 danger is from the other side ; — the danger, we mean, 
 lest, in our anxiety to keep clear of all formality and 
 stiffness in our announcements of a subject, we 
 should leave people in the dark as to what our sub- 
 ject is. This fault, we think, is fairly chargeable upon 
 some of the great writers, wdio supplied us with exam- 
 ples of what we called the "flowing, or faintly indicated 
 announcement.'' Their indications are, often, too faint 
 to be observed. And, in reading, we sometimes find 
 ourselves half through the sermon, before the qiwrsum 
 tendit of the discourse strikes us, — whither the preacher 
 is going to take us, or to what propositions we are ex- 
 pected to assent. In the masterly sermon of Bishop 
 Horsley, from the words, " From that time forth, began 
 Jesus to shew unto His disciples, how that He must go 
 unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things," &c. (Matt, 
 xvi. 21,) we are led through, page after page of attacks 
 on certain exaggerated phases of the Calvinistic dogma ; 
 and are even brought face to face with the chief diffi- 
 culties of the Priestley hypothesis of " necessity," before 
 we discover that it is not a sermon on the whole text we 
 are going to have, as the day on which it was preached 
 (Good Friday) would have led us to expect, but a 
 sermon on the picked out phrase "Ae MUST^(y," in rela- 
 tion to the philosophical difference between certainty 
 and necessity, together with the freedom and responsi- 
 bility of the moral agent. 
 
 On the general subject, both of discussion and an- 
 
136 THK PARTS AND 
 
 nouncemenfj we cainiot conclude better than in the 
 words of Paley. " Disdain not, he says, " the old fashion 
 of dividing your sermons into heads ; .... a sermon 
 which rejects these helps to perspicuity, will turn out a 
 bewildered rhapsody, without aim or effect, order or 
 conclusion." Whatever mode we decide upon, as best 
 for presenting our subject to the hearer, or with what- 
 ever announcement of plan we may choose to ac- 
 company it, — patent, it should be, from the first^ 
 that we both have a subject, and have a plan. We 
 may, or may not, in all cases, advertise, by distinct an- 
 nouncement, our coming processes of thought, but no 
 one can fail to see that we are working upon a frame ; 
 have bound ourselves to keep upon certain tram lines; 
 are not more anxious about the rigour of our proofs, 
 and the propriety of our illustrations, than we are about 
 the exhibition of each argument in its proper logical 
 dependence, and the subservience of everything we 
 advance to make some one position sure. For unar- 
 ranged, inconsecutive, loosely put-together discourses, 
 it is certain we can find no warrant in Scripture. 
 " Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman 
 that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the 
 word of truth." ^^5 
 
 !V. Tlic last tiling to be noticed, in the structure of 
 a sermon, is the conclusion, or "peroration," as it is 
 " 2 Tim. ii. l|j. 
 
ARRANGEMENT OF SERMON. 137 
 
 called. An important element is this, in a discourse. 
 For if, to enlist the sympathies of an audience, it be 
 necessary that we should begin well, so, in order to 
 leave a permanent impression upon the conscience, it 
 is indispensable that we should end well." ^ Yet rules, 
 for this purpose, are very difficult to lay down. It must 
 suffice, to offer cautions against the two obvious and 
 most frequent faults in the methods of conclusion, — the 
 being too short, or too long; the startling and sharp 
 abruptness, which makes people say, *'We did not 
 know he was going to leave ofF;"^ or the wire-drawn, 
 and rambling tediousness, which only makes them 
 wish that he were. 
 
 Of these two faults, that which is most commonly 
 complained of, is the tediousness. This, no doubt, is seen 
 most frequently in the ill-prepared, extemporaneous 
 preacher ; — as we shall have occasion to point out in a 
 subsequent chapter. But the written discourse may 
 have its wearisome conclusion also, — especially with a 
 preacher of desultory or unsystematic mind. The dis- 
 cussion of the subject, we will suppose, is closed. The 
 goal is fairly reached. But fresh views have opened 
 upon his mind, in the progress of his writing ; and, as 
 they are too good to be lost, he thinks he must press 
 them into his concluding applications. These added 
 thoughts, however, serve only to encumber. In their 
 
 ^ " Mortales semper postrema meminere." Sallust. 
 
 ^ See Whateley. Elements of Rhetoric, Part I., ch. iv., § 13. 
 
138 THE PARTS AND 
 
 proper place, we could have welcomed them. But we have 
 passed the frontier of discussion now ; and, being chal- 
 lenged to a])ply what we have learned, we expect hints 
 for application, and nothing more. Still more tiresome 
 is this protracted winding up of a discourse, when it is 
 seen to be a mere match against time ; against so 
 many sheets of paper, which have to be covered ; when, 
 it is clear, that the preacher has nothing more to say, 
 and therefore is obliged to have recourse to those feeble 
 and discursive platitudes, which would not much help 
 any sermon, but which, it is certain, would do for one 
 sermon, quite as w^ell as for another. Now^, of course, we 
 do not desiderate these platitudes any where ; but still, if 
 we must have them, we would rather have their diluting 
 influence in the main body of the discourse. A com- 
 menced application of the subject, is, to the hearers, a 
 promise of speedily-approaching release. And, we are 
 afraid, it must be admitted, that it is a promise, which 
 the majority of hearers are not sorry to have kept. At 
 all events, they get impatient of a slow and spiritless 
 fire, at the end of a sermon. If the preacher has any 
 power of vigorous and pungent appeal, they expect he 
 will put it forth then. And, therefore, they sicken at 
 those somnolent and slow-creeping perorations, only to 
 be compared to the ending of a bad poem ; where 
 
 *• A iiocillt'ss Alexandrine ends the song, 
 'J'liiit, like some wounded snake, drags its slow length along." 
 
 'J'hc otlier fault of conclusions, to be noticed, — that of 
 
ARRANGEMENT OF A SERMON. 139 
 
 ahruptness^ or taking the hearer by surprise, — is one for 
 which our people will forgive us, sooner than we ought 
 to forgive ourselves. With us, it should be the part of 
 a sermon, from which we have the most hope. We are 
 no longer iQdiQhm^^hui persuading . We are addressing 
 ourselves more immediately to the affections and the 
 wall ; pressing upon the awakened conscience, the 
 solemn issues which hang upon our words ; as words 
 w^hich God will make His own, — His own to condemn : 
 His own to save ; His own to acknowledge in that day, 
 when those who received our message, shall be our 
 crowns of rejoicing, and we shall stand rejoicing at 
 their side. 
 
 It is verily a fault with us, therefore, if we suffer 
 the opportunity of these closing applications to be 
 lost. People are not only prepared for them, but, for 
 the most part, are prepared to welcome them. U]) 
 to this time, their attention may have been but partially 
 fixed. Owing to some " secret thing" with them, per- 
 haps, their thoughts have got loose from their control. 
 And the fretting domestic care, and the long-awaiting 
 hope, and the overcharged, and all but bursting cloud, 
 may have caused, even the good among them, to listen 
 with a divided and distracted mind. The announced 
 conclusion recalls them to a sense of where they are, 
 and what they have been doing. And, if they are men 
 of a tender heart, they will lift up a prayer that, though 
 they had suffered the word of doctrine to fall to the 
 
110 THE PARTS AND 
 
 ground, tlioy might gather something from the word of 
 exhortation. Neither ought we to be without hope, that 
 our last words may be blessed to the careless and the 
 sinner. Knowing little of our doctrinal statements, 
 and, ]ierha])s, caring less, — they will often listen to a 
 close, practical appeal, when they will attend to nothing 
 else. Felix, the governor, betrayed neither interest 
 nor emotion, all the time Paul was discoursing on the 
 great hope of his nation, " the resurrection of the dead ;" 
 but when he came to the practical application of this 
 doctrine, the benumbed conscience experienced a ter- 
 rible awakening : " And as he reasoned of righteousness, 
 temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled." 
 
 Upon the whole, therefore, we strongly incline to a set 
 conclusion, and even to some intelligible intimation to 
 our hearers, that we are about to enter upon it. In the 
 mode of doing this, there need be nothing formal. A 
 short pause, a slight change of voice, any one of our 
 familiar verbal representatives for the *' Qua3 cum ita 
 sint," of the Roman orator, will suffice as a signal for 
 increased attention, — serving as an intimation, to the 
 devout, that the time for profit is short ; and, to the 
 careless, that, if they will listen now, they shall soon be 
 set free. Whether there should be, in these conclusions, 
 any formal recapitulation of the general argument, — the 
 steps we had taken, and whither they had brought us; 
 or whether we should content oursdves with a mere 
 bird's-eye and concentrated view of our occupied field 
 
ARRANGEMENT OF A SERMON. 141 
 
 of thought, — is a point, which the nature of the subject, 
 and our previous mode of treating it, will best enable 
 us to determine. Our chief anxiety, in closing a dis- 
 course, will be, to see, that we "lose not those things 
 which we have wrought."^ We should feel that we 
 must gather up strength for one final effort. It is a 
 time, not for declamation, not for prettinesses, not even 
 for the subtle and well-reasoned argument ; but rather 
 for a style of short, sententious, axiomatic dogmatism. 
 We have done with proof. We appeal to the convinced 
 and enlightened conscience of our hearers. We throw 
 out a fearless challenge to their faculties of reasoning, 
 and their moral honesty. We bid them '* lay judgment 
 to the line and righteousness to the plummet ;" and then 
 to abide by their own verdict, — " Yea, and why, even of 
 yourselves, judge ye not what is right ?"^^ 
 
 And thus, our aim, in the close of a discourse, is to 
 be rigorously, closely, intensely practical. We may 
 rebuke, or we may encourage ; our tone may be severe, 
 or it may be tender ; but, in either case, our one care 
 is, that our last words should be home words. There 
 should be, in them, applications of truth, from which 
 the hearer feels that there is no escaping ; which will 
 meet him again on the morrow, — in his family, in his 
 business, in the world, — a paramount law to his con- 
 science, and the foundation of all his hopes of heaven. 
 On this model, is cast the peroration of the great 
 ^Johnii. 8. '^ I.uke xii. 57. 
 
142 THE TARTS AND ARRANGEMENT OF A SERMON. 
 
 Hebrew preacher. He was "wise;" he "taught the 
 ])eople knowledge ;" yea, he gave good heed, and 
 " sought out many proverbs." But the end of his 
 proverbs, and the consummation of his preaching, 
 was the formation of an obedient character, and the 
 desire to fill all hearts with the fear of God. " Let us 
 hear the conclusion of the whole matter : fear God, and 
 keep His commandments : for this is the whole duty 
 of man."^ 
 
 ^'Eccles. xii. 13. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ON STYLE, IN RELATION TO PREACHING. 
 
 Importance of style — Words not an accident of thoughts — Minds 
 affected differently by different ways of saying the same thing — 
 Style of Bishop Butler — T. The rule commonly given for preach- 
 ing to be plain — How far tliis plainness is dependent on particular 
 words — Preference for words of Saxon root — Whether plainness 
 excludes argument — Danger of familiarity — Condescending to 
 the poor — II. The theory of simplicity as applied to style — i. In 
 relation to diffuseness — 2. In its compatibility with the ornate 
 and the figurative — 3. In regard to careful revision and study 
 of the rules of art — Pains- taking indispensable to aU good com- 
 position. 
 
 In specifying the requirements for effective oratory, 
 Cicero sets down three things, in an ascending order of 
 importance ; — the first, that we know what we have to 
 say ; the second, that we have arranged the order in 
 which we intend to say it ; the third, that we have con- 
 sidered how, that which we have to say, may be most 
 suitably expressed.^ 
 
 » De Orat. ch, xvi. 
 
144 ON STYLE IN 
 
 On the the propriety of assigning the most important 
 place to this last requirement, it is likely that our prac- 
 tical English mind will be at issue with the Roman 
 orator. We shall not readily assent to a principle, 
 which seems to make the mere vehicle of thought of 
 more importance than the thought itself; which would 
 make substance wait on external show ; — resolving the 
 chief strength of an argument into the manner of saying 
 it, and seeming to care less for the nourishing qualities 
 of our intellectual food, than for the pleasure of having 
 it brought forth on a " lordly dish." 
 
 But does not the issue, thus raised, proceed upon the 
 oversight of a fact, — assumed, no doubt, in the argument 
 of Cicero, and growing out of the laws of our intellectual 
 j^a^m-e^ — namely, that the rnatier of an idea, and the man- 
 ner o( expressing it, cannot be separated ? that, together, 
 thev make up one mental creation, just as body and spirit 
 make up one man ? " It is in the highest degree un- 
 philosophical," said the poet Wordsworth, to some one 
 who had spoken to him on this subject," to call language, 
 or diction, the dress of thought ; it is the incarnation of 
 thoughts."* From the lips of none, perhaps, could 
 such a sentiment have fallen with more propriety. His 
 ])oetry throughout, is the poetry of -suggestion. Often 
 we have a full thought, a new field of thought, a key to 
 many thoughts, and yet all is hidden under the subtle 
 folds of a well-chosen word. A feeble epithet this word 
 « De Quincpy's '* Selections, Grave and Gay," p. 273. 
 
RELATION TO PREACHING. 145 
 
 had been,m unskilled hands, — laid on, lame, and languid. 
 In the master's, it is not laid on, and cannot be taken 
 out. It is an essence ; a life -, a delicate filament spun 
 out of the vitals of his mental being ; an interlacing 
 tissue giving to the imagination, colour, and to the un- 
 shaped conception, form. 
 
 With the common off-hand objections, therefore, 
 against a well-considered style, we have no sympathy. 
 It is easy, and very plausible withal, to argue that if a 
 man has any thing to say, he will have no difficulty in 
 saying it; that a mind, full of its subject, will always 
 have power of expression enough, and power of lucid 
 arrangement enough to express plainly what it means ;^ 
 in a word, as Milton has it, that " when such a man 
 would speak, his words, like so many nimble and airy 
 servitors, trip about him at command, and, in well- 
 ordered files, as he would wish, fall aptly into their own 
 places." But experience does not bear out this view. 
 As a rule, it will be found, that to be a good thinker, 
 a man must be a good writer. If he is to benefit others 
 by his ideas, the faculties of expression and thought 
 must be cultivated and used together ; insomuch, that 
 just as the thinker cannot separate the word from the 
 conception, while carrying on his mental processes, so 
 3 " Cui lecta potenter erit res 
 
 Nee facundia deseret huiic, nee lucidus ordo. 
 Aud again, 
 
 Verbaque provisam rem non invita sequuntiir." 
 
 Hor, de Arte Poetica. 
 
 L 
 
146 ON STYLE IN 
 
 neither can the hearer, in estimating the effect of what 
 is delivered upon his own mind, determine how much 
 is due to the thought, and how much to the language in 
 which it is clothed. 
 
 Proofs of the latter part of our assertion occur 
 constantly ;— at the bar, on the hustings, in the 
 senate, wherever the appeal lies to the effects of a per- 
 suasive rhetoric. The whole power, for good or evil, 
 seems to rest with the style. Take the case of two 
 orators. Substantially, they adopt the same line of 
 argument — appeal to the same facts, cite the same 
 authorities, address themselves to the same feelings, in 
 pointing out the consequences of this course of con- 
 duct or that. But their style is different. The one has 
 an ear for the modulation of his periods ; the other lets 
 his words tumble out as they will. The one knows the 
 magic influence which often goes with a felicitous and 
 forceful phrase ; the other never rises above the common- 
 place of the club-room, — things which had been heard 
 a hundred times before. The one, in reciting his facts, 
 like the pleader in a court of law, summons to his 
 aid all the accessories of skilled and life-like de- 
 lineation ; the other is like the attorney in the 
 lisuit, who limits himself to the sharp hard details 
 of his brief, — the undraped bareness of legal proof. 
 And what is the difference of produced effect in the two 
 cases ? AVhy, the one has carried all convictions, and 
 all hearts along witli him ; and, for " enterprizes of 
 
RELATION TO PREACHING. 147 
 
 great pith and moment," tliey are ready and ripe at 
 once. The address of the other has fallen on the ears 
 of his auditory with an insipid flatness. An impres- 
 sion of feeble assent is the only fruit of his arguments, 
 — faint while the words were being spokeu, and which, 
 with the sound of the words, ^dll die away. 
 
 Thus much, by way of apology for introducing, in so 
 slight a work as the present, the subject of written style. 
 The drift of what has been advanced is to shew that 
 diction, or language, is not the separable accident of a 
 discourse, — something which may be well-managed, 
 without heightening its effect, or ill-managed, without 
 weakening it, — but that it is both an element incorporate 
 in the very formation of our ideas, and the connecting 
 or transfusing medium, through which those ideas are 
 to be received, or to be reproduced in other minds. If 
 study can clarify that medium, we must use study. If 
 there be rules and laws for making that medium more 
 effective for its object, we may not despise rules and 
 laws. An astronomer does not content jhimself with 
 putting a telescope into the hands of a novice, and 
 telling him that, by looking through it, he may discern 
 a certain fixed star. He makes for him the requisite 
 adjustments, raises the instrument or depresses it, till 
 he has brought the object in direct line wath the 
 eye of the observer. Worthy and great truths can often 
 be made apparent to another mind in a similar way. 
 The language which is plain enough to represent them 
 
 L 2 
 
1J8 ON STYLE IN 
 
 to the coijceiving mind, may not be plain enough for 
 the imfamiliar hearer. Another illustrator will bring 
 the mental image before his eye more clearly ; not 
 because he understands it better, or can reason about it 
 better, but because he has been at more pains to adapt 
 or vary the position of the observing instrument — to 
 help a learner by putting his language into sluipe. The 
 written style of the greatest thinker of the last century, 
 Bishop Butler, may be cited as apposite to our argument 
 " No thinker so great," says Sir James Macintosh (in 
 language somewhat overstated, as we venture to submit) 
 " was ever so bad a writer." " His opinions were not so 
 much rejected, as overlooked," he adds. And he then 
 passes on to note, what might have been the effect upon 
 the ethical philosophy of all succeeding time, if the Bishop 
 had "possessed the strength and distinctness with which 
 Hobbes enforces odious falsehood, or the unspeakable 
 charm of that transparent diction, which clothed the 
 unfruitful paradoxes of Berkeley !" ^ 
 
 Admitting, however, that the cultivation of a good 
 style is an important thing, — so important that, even in 
 relation to the same truths, for one mind that would be 
 inllueiiccd by the rich-laden but untrimmed sentences 
 of Bmler, more than ten would be led captive by the 
 smooth flowing harmonies of Blair, — the question will 
 next present itself what is the best style for the piir- 
 ])osc's of preaching? And here, with whatever differ- 
 * Dissertutiou on Ethical riiiloso])hy, 4to., p. 247. Ediii. 1835. 
 
RELATION TO PREACHING. 149 
 
 ence of meaning the word be understood, all sufFiages 
 will be united in recommending a plain style. 'Aim 
 at what else you may,' it will be said to us, ' take care 
 to be simple. Eschew all attempts at fine writing. Blot 
 out, with ruthless hand, every allusion, reference, illus- 
 tration, argument, which could not be apprehended by 
 any mind of ordinary intelligence. And instead of 
 your hard sesquipedalian Latinisms, or your long- 
 tailed words in ^ osity' and ' ation' see to it that all your 
 thoughts are clothed in strong, terse, Saxon English.' 
 
 And the authority of great names, and great examples, 
 will be urged in support of such counsel. "Better that 
 the learned shoul/i find fault, than that the people 
 should not understand," says Augustine. ^ "A preacher 
 is to fancy himself in the room of the most unlearned 
 man in the parish," writes Bishop Burnet.^ Of Arch- 
 bishop Tillotson, it is related, that he was in the habit 
 of reading his sermons to " an illiterate old woman, of 
 plain sense, who lived with him," and of altering his 
 words and expressions till he had brought down the 
 style ''to her level." ^ Whilst an authority quoted, with 
 more frequency than fairness, and with more confidence 
 than learning, in such a connection, is that of the 
 Apostle Paul himself, in the words " Seeing then 
 
 ^ Melius est ut nos reprehendant grammatici, quam \\t nou intel- 
 ligant populi. (In Ps. cxxxix. 15.) 
 s Pastoral Care ch. ix. 
 7 Campbell on Pulpit Eloquence. Lect. iii. 
 
150 ON STYLE IN 
 
 that we have such hope we use great plainness of 
 speech."^ 
 
 Let us look at the principles involved in this state- 
 ment, whether as they bear upon the acknowledged rules 
 of rhetoric, or in their aspect towards the present condi- 
 tion and requirements of society, or even as they find 
 countenance in the discourses of our Lord, and other 
 parts of the Word of God. 
 
 L And first, with regard to so much of these counsels 
 for a perfect style, as would seem to refer to the choice of 
 particular ivords, — to the preference of those which are 
 derived from one root, before those which are derived 
 from another, — and, generally, to the selection of 
 those words which are most easily " understanded of 
 the people." 
 
 Now, taking the last condition first, we presume it 
 will be agreed that the words most easily understood 
 by all classes, are those which are of the most familiar 
 and frequent occurrence. And, if so, it would seem to be 
 (piite right to assign to this rule of verbal selection, a 
 place before all others. To Cicero, the perfection of 
 written language was the employment of words in 
 daily use. " Use, to Horace, we know, was the canon 
 
 2 Cor iii. 12. The Apostle's word is Trapprjma ; in the margin 
 and elsewhere in the New Testament rendered boldness. 
 • Utinam et verha in usu quotidiauo posita minus timeremus. Cic. 
 
RELATION TO PREACHING. 151 
 
 law of all correct eloquence.^*' Of course, we should 
 eschew the debased, and the corrupt, and the vulgar in 
 expression, however frequent the use of it, by the illite- 
 rate and the ignorant; just as we ought to reject the un- 
 authorized conventions and coinings of persons in 
 higher life, which multitudes, nevertheless, will be 
 found ready to endorse. We shall feel that no pre- 
 tended plainness in the use of language will compensate 
 for an inflicted wound upon its purity. Language, to a 
 public teacher, is a sacred trust. There is not only a his- 
 tory in it; but, what is more, there is often a subtle and 
 profound morality .^^ And the man who tampers with 
 its purity, by the admixture of a base alloy, is as 
 a Vandal who destroys a precious monument ; or as a 
 faithless ruler, who, by a change in the currency, intro- 
 duces confusion into all the compacts of civil life. 
 With all our respect for the author of the well-known 
 essay, " on the aversion of men of taste to evangelical 
 religion," and, with a confidence that he has done 
 true service to a good cause, we are a little afraid 
 of some of those " holiday and lady terms," which he 
 would substitute for tHe peculiarities of our theological 
 dialect; — as when for "walk and conversation" he 
 would have us put " conduct and deportment," or for 
 
 10 Si volet usus 
 
 Quern penes arbitrium est, et jus, et norma loquendi. 
 
 11 See the beautiful treatise of Bean Trench on " The Study of 
 Words," passim. 
 
152 ON STYLE IN 
 
 " the desires of the flesh," would substitute " natural 
 inclination/'^- There is a truthfulness, a racy strength 
 in the old Bible phrase, which we feel to lose in the, 
 transfer to a more classical diction, — as much as when 
 Tillotson puts virtue for godliness, or as when Blair 
 describes the faith of God's elect by the sleek euphemism 
 of " humble trust in the favour of heaven." 
 
 But what, as helpful to great plainness of speech, do 
 we say to the recommended selection of words of a 
 })articular derivation, — this strong vernacular Saxon 
 English that people talk about ? " To those who wish 
 to be understood by the lower orders of the English," 
 says Archbishop Whateley, " one of the best principles 
 of selection is to prefer terms of Saxon origin, which 
 will generally be more familiar to them than those de- 
 rived from the Latin, either directly or through the 
 medium of the French." ^^ Now, as opposed to the 
 Ciceronian canon of selecting words, adverted to in the 
 last paragraph, and which was based upon the current 
 usage of the many, we must say we prefer the rule of 
 the pagan orator, to that of the Christian bishop, — the 
 " usus quotidianus," to the study of etymons. A man 
 could hardly keep to this study, as a rule of writing, 
 widiout acquiring a trick of ridiculous and transparent 
 j)cclantry, — exhibiting all the fastidiousness of a 
 polished style without its grace ; and shackling himself 
 
 '* Foster's P^ssays. Essay iv. Let. iii. 
 ^ Rhetoric, i'urt III. c. i. $ 2. 
 
RELATION TO PREACHING. ] 53 
 
 with the niceties of great verbal exactitude, without 
 ensuring either clearness or precision to his thought. 
 For our vernacular is not exclusively Saxon, any more 
 than it is exclusively Latin or French. We have a 
 strong, idiomatic, household English among us, made 
 up of words from all roots ; and any sentence, ex- 
 pressed in this language, would not be improved, 
 though every word, of Latin origin, should be weeded 
 out, and replaced by the most perfect Saxon equivalent 
 we could find. Take, almost at random, any sentence 
 from the received version of St. Paul's Epistles, as for 
 instance, '*To them who, by patient continuance in 
 well-doing, seek for glory, honour, and immortality, 
 eternal life."" Here is a verse almost full of Latinisms ; 
 and yet, even to the most uneducated mind, could any 
 number of Saxon substitutions make the passage 
 pl&iner ? And so of words from other roots. Would 
 it have simplified, to the apprehension of the unlearned 
 hearer, Nathan's parable of the ewe-lamb, if our trans- 
 lators had written " And there came * one who was 
 walking ' to the rich man ?" Or would the immortal 
 work of Bunyan have been more popular, if he had 
 called it " The Wayfarer's path ?" No ; the authors 
 of our received translation had as little care for this 
 philo-Saxon affectation, as the Bedford tinman. They 
 would no more reject the word " traveller," because it 
 was French, than he w^ould reject the word " progress," 
 1* Rom ii. 7. 
 
154 ON STYLE IN 
 
 because it was Latin. The words were retained by 
 both for the same reason, — namely, that they w^ere 
 true, household, naturalized English ;— good as the 
 purest dialect of the times of Hengist and Horsa, and 
 even to the poorest of our people, quite as intelligible. 
 We protest, then, against this much-lauded cultiva- 
 tion of a style, consisting mainly of words of Saxon 
 root, as a condition not necessary to the easy compre- 
 hension of hearers, and, on the writer or speaker a 
 most irksome and embarrassing restraint. It is not 
 fair to an advocate to tie up his sword-arm in this way ; 
 to gag his mouth, until he will promise, not only to 
 utter the Saxon Shibboleth, but also that he will utter 
 nothing else. The language he has to speak in, 
 is a broad, rich, ample composite, made up of 
 every nation's best, and a fit vehicle for the great 
 thoughts of all time. Why is he to be tethered to the 
 bare and close- cropped pastures of his Teutonic fore- 
 fathers, instead of being allowed to roam, at will, amid 
 the rich glossaries which have helped to form his ver- 
 nacular, — selecting any word that will give a stronger 
 momentum to his sentence, or a more expressive full- 
 ness to his thought. We repeat, it is not the derivation 
 of a word which makes it intelligible, but its familiar 
 use. Only let an expression have been stamped in the 
 mint of our fireside discourse, and the unlearned 
 hearer will understand it, come from what root it 
 will. 
 
RELATION TO PREACHING. 155 
 
 II. Bat the plainness, commonly insisted upon as so 
 great a virtue in preaching, is not limited to an inter- 
 dict upon hard words. It fixes its inexorable ban upon 
 every illustration, reference, train of reasoning, or mode 
 of thought, with which a given section of the hearers 
 have not the power to sympathize, however much such 
 things might interest or attract the rest. The preacher 
 is to place before him a typical or representative mind, — 
 that of Tillotson's venerable female parishioner, for in- 
 stance. For power of argument, range of subject, style 
 of expression, extent of assumed reading, there is his 
 gauge. There may be things, properly belonging to 
 the matter in hand, which many would like to hear, and 
 which it would be profitable for them to hear. But they 
 are things which would present only a dead blank to 
 the model mind. A sharp fixed boundary defines his 
 teaching. And these things are above the line. 
 
 Now the first observation it seems natural to make, 
 on hearing of this arbitrary standard of intelligence, 
 which is to serve for a whole congregation, has respect 
 to the unfairness, in the principle of selection. Revert- 
 ing to the practice of Tillotson, — why was the squire of 
 the parish, or the lawyer, or the thoughtful burgher's 
 son, who delighted to lay out his savings at a book- stall, 
 to be deprived each one of his proper Sunday food, 
 lest it should be too strong for the intellectual digestion 
 of a certain member of the Archbishop's household } 
 Let her have her portion of milk, by all means. The 
 
156 ON STYLE IN 
 
 sermon is a very bad sermon, which does not contain 
 some of that. But ^^ suum cinque^ Educated people 
 have souls as well as others, — souls, too, which are to 
 be reached by the ministry of the Word. And the 
 reason, certainly, is not apparent, why, if we are to 
 descend to the homely illustration, in order to interest 
 the wayfarer and the weak, we should not sometimes 
 rise to the higher walks of reasoning and exact thought, 
 to win the reflecting and the wise. The Scripture cha- 
 racter of a good steward is that he is one who considers 
 himself as having rule over ^^the ivJiole household," and 
 therefore bound to give to all "their portion of meat 
 in due season."^' 
 
 Nor less obvious is it to remark that, upon such a 
 theory of plain preaching, a teacher of religion in faith 
 and verity, would well nigh find his occupation gone. 
 There would be shut against him the entire field of 
 controversial theology. He must run through the cycle 
 of the Christian year, and yet scarcely touch upon 
 its characteristic mysteries. He must keep an " index 
 expurgatorius " of texts, which would include whole 
 chapters in the writings of St. Paul ;— whilst the infidel 
 objection, and the philosophical difficulty, and even the 
 hard things, patent on the surface of the text he may 
 be discussing, must all be passed over in silence, be- 
 cause there is demanded for the discussion of them a 
 larger exercise of the logical faculty, than the chosen 
 1^ I>ukt> xii. 4"2. 
 
RELATION TO PREACHING. 157 
 
 type of congregational capacity could be expected to 
 put forth. 
 
 But, in these accommodations of our preaching style 
 to the lowest intellectual strata of our congregations, 
 there is a yet further danger, namely, lest the plain 
 should become too plain ; — lest the simple should bor- 
 der too closely upon the childish ; and the familiar 
 should degenerate into the common ; and the poor of 
 our flock should be offended at the insult offered to 
 their mental inferiority, — as if the discourse was one 
 specially prepared for " the poor man wdth a vile 
 raiment," and which we should not think of offering 
 to '^ a man with a gold ring and goodly apparel." Even 
 in the generally striking and admired sermons of Mr. 
 Hare, we find passages, constantly, which seem open to 
 this censure. Surely many modes might be thought of 
 for setting forth the sanctity, attaching to holy places, 
 without giving as an illustration, that " a man would 
 never bring a horse into a garden or Avalk over the 
 strawberry beds, though in riding over Salisbury Plain 
 he would feel himself at liberty to gallop over the 
 turf.'^ Whilst it was, to say the least of it, an undigni- 
 fied comparison, when the neglect of the Prayer Book, 
 by those who could get Bibles cheaply, was compared 
 to a man ^^ who should omit to sow turnips and potatoes 
 in his garden because he had some of both in his fields." 
 
 Now it is most certain that the poor do not like these 
 condescensions on the part of educated men ; do not 
 feel at all flattered by the mean estimate thus formed 
 
158 ON STYLE IN 
 
 of their capacity. Nor is there any reason why they 
 shuukl. In point of original intellectual endowments, 
 there is no difference between the scholar in the pulpit, 
 and the artizan in the pew. The strong intellect, 
 without the technical advantages of education, will be 
 more than a match for the weak intellect, with 
 all the advantages of artificial training on its side. 
 The ])oor may be our inferiors in mental culture, 
 but not in rational power, not in shrewdness of percep- 
 tion, not in common sense. Unknown to them as may 
 be the very terms of the dialectic art, they can follow 
 you through the steps of a well-constructed argument ; 
 and though they may never have heard of Aristotle or 
 Longinus, they can appreciate noble thoughts, and love 
 a flowing style. 
 
 Moreover, even if the poor of our congregation 
 should be as low, in the intellectual scale, as our 
 condescensions seem to assume, is it our duty, as 
 teachers, to keep them in that state ? Are w^e to be 
 always feeding them upon the .most homely and meagre 
 diet, — with milk too diluted and weak for children, as 
 if childish things were never to be put away, and the 
 ba])es were never to become men ? Surely the duty of 
 a public instructor is to advance his people in know- 
 ledge ; to get them out of the narrow circle of their own 
 crude thoughts ; to try their young strength, by little 
 and little, as the mother-bird teaches her young to fly, 
 till they can leave their nest fparlessly, and soar with 
 
RELATION TO PREACHING. 159 
 
 her to higher things. " As an eagle stirreth up her nest, 
 fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, 
 taketh them, beareth them on her wings : so the Lord 
 alone did lead them, and there was no strange god with 
 them."^^ True, w^e may often fail of our object, but 
 better this, than that the attempt should not be made. 
 Nothing is gained by keeping down the mind of the 
 humbler classes to its own dwarfish standard ; by for- 
 bidding it to rise, if it would. * To many, I may speak 
 in vain,' should be the language of the Christian 
 teacher, * and with many may have to spend my 
 strength for nought. But I would rather a few should 
 say I was hard to understand, than that all should think 
 me weak ; and w^ould sooner lose a few arrows, by 
 shooting over the heads of my people, than, by a des- 
 pised and insipid homeliness, see them all fall under 
 their feet.' 
 
 1. Tending to the same point of ensuring perfect 
 plainness in a discourse, is the advice, so constantly 
 urged upon preachers, to be very simple in their style. 
 Right counsel enough, if we understand it rightly. 
 Thus, if the exhortation be intended to caution us 
 against the tendency to use an involved and abstruse 
 form of expression, where a more familiar phrase would 
 do ; or the habit of overloading a sentence with super- 
 fluous and meretricious ornament ; or the affectation of 
 saying a common thing in some very novel and uncom- 
 ^6 Deut. xxxii. 11. 
 
1()0 ON STYLE IN 
 
 inon way ; — in a word, if it be a protest against all 
 tinsel, and tawdriness, and circumlocution, and mys- 
 ticalness, and learned impertinences, — we cannot take 
 heed to the warning too diligently. But, if when we 
 are told to " be simple," it is meant, that we are always 
 to put down the first thoughts that occur to us; to pre- 
 sent them in their native, bald, common-place form ; 
 to pay no regard to the graces of style, either to neat- 
 ness in the structure of a sentence, or to the musical 
 rhythm of its flow ; — if it mean that, in our statements 
 of truth, we are to eschew all imaginative aids, neither 
 conftrming our positions by analogy, nor heightening 
 them by metaphor, nor bringing in any striking illus- 
 tration, — from history, from nature, from fictions that 
 all read about, or from facts that all know, — but that we 
 are to make a virtue of saying the most obvious and 
 insipid things, in the most trite and insipid way, — 
 then do we utterly repudiate this recommendation to he 
 simple; and denounce it, either as the imbecile sugges- 
 tion of a very impoverished mind, or as the device 
 of Satan to drive our people from the Church. 
 
 But let us look at this theory of "simplicity " a little 
 more closely. It may be considered as opposed to a 
 style which is either too diffuse, or too ornate, or too 
 artificial and elaborate. Thus, taking " simplicity," in 
 its strict etymological sense, as the opposite of " multi- 
 plicity," wo may understand the caution, as intimating 
 that wu are not to use two words, w'hen our meaning 
 
RELA.TTON TO PREACHING. 161 
 
 can be expressed by one ; that, instead of round-about 
 elegancies, we should use words which lead the mind 
 up to our meaning at once ; that we should carefully 
 avoid all long-drawn, fatiguing, labyrinthine sentences ; 
 and that we should not beat out our thoughts into gold- 
 leaf thinness, — distributing, over several pages, an illus- 
 tration, which one strong, vigorous paragraph would 
 have expressed quite as well. Offences these are, 
 against simplicity, no doubt ; and instances of them 
 are to be found in writers of great name and power ; 
 — in the sonorous redundancies of Johnson, or in 
 the languid prettinesses of Blair; — in the heavy- 
 charged, page-long, concatenations of Kant, or in the 
 endless varieties of pose, and hue, and form, with 
 which Chalmers brings the same thought before us 
 again and again. 
 
 And yet there may be opposites to these vices, which, 
 for preaching purposes, at all events, are not virtues. 
 The *' ne quid nimis " is a caution which applies to 
 extremes in the sharp and compressed style, also, — 
 to the short sentence, with its rich freight of thought ; 
 to the indicated argument, which we leave the hearer 
 to work out ; to the rapidly thrown-off illustration, 
 which, having announced, we take no further trouble to 
 expand. Few hearers, it may be believed, can follow a 
 discourse, composed on the plan of this severe con- 
 ciseness. And that, for this simple reason, that they 
 ARE hearers, — are listening to a speaker whom they 
 
 M 
 
}C)'2 ON STYLE IN 
 
 must keep up with ; and not reading from a book, 
 which they can lay down, and think over, till the scope 
 of the argument is mastered, or the drift of the allusion 
 is taken in. 
 
 As against simplicity, in the strictest sense, there- 
 fore, we must claim a dispensation for the preacher, — 
 a tolerated looseness and repetition, which, in a book, 
 would be called a vice. He cannot afford to be always 
 terse, and cramped, and elliptical. If the thought he 
 wishes to express, be one, essential to the proper de- 
 velopment of his subject, he must bring it out fully. 
 He must linger upon it ; turn it round ; place it under 
 the most varied lights he can think of. Here and there, 
 a quick and practised intellect, in the congregation, will 
 get weary at the re-appearance of the old thought in a 
 new dress, and be tempted to say, as, perhaps, some of us 
 do, in reading Chalmers, "Ecce ! iterum Crispinus." 
 But this change of mask is the preacher's necessity. 
 His hearers have no book in their hand. He must see 
 that they have mastered one thought, before he goes on 
 to the next. 
 
 We cannot, then, accept this rule to be " simple," if 
 it mean, either that we must say w^hat we have to say in 
 the fewest possible words, or if it forbid us to say the 
 same thing twice over, though it be said in a different 
 way. " Let these sayings sink down into your ears," 
 said the Gi*eat Teacher, in the midst of one of His dis- 
 courses. But, if we content ourselves with the enun- 
 
RELATION TO PREACHING. 163 
 
 ciation of a great doctrine, and that in the most con- 
 densed form, the saying will not have time to sink 
 down. While the mind is busy about it, "here ahd 
 there, it is gone." Where is the w^rong of detaining 
 the thought before the mind of a hearer, whether by a 
 new image, or even by an altered form of words ? I 
 cannot tell in what way illustrations of the folly of 
 carefulness, may affect this mind or that. But I have 
 the best warrant for using a second illustration, lest 
 some hearers should not apprehend the first. " Behold 
 the fowls of the air," I would say to this man : — to 
 that, " Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow." 
 2. Look at this recommended simplicity, next, as it 
 is opposed to all excess of ornament^ in style. Many 
 persons seem to have such an intense dread of anything 
 which might be considered " fine writing," that they 
 form their style upon the most severely prosaic model, — 
 looking with scorn upon all poetic embellishment, and 
 eschewing elegance of expression, as if it were a sin. 
 But there may be a pedantry in simplicity, even as 
 there may be pride in mean attire. And it is pedantry 
 — a violence and an offence to nature, — for a man 
 having emotions of profoundest awe to appeal to, and 
 subjects of sublimest interest for his theme, to keep 
 down his language to the same level of meagre, uniform, 
 unalleviated flatness, — neither to the ear, with all its 
 pleasure in harmony, nor to the mind with its love for 
 an ideal world, presenting the semblance of rise or fall. 
 
 M a^ 
 
an OS STYLE IN 
 
 And what is the warrant of a preacher for ostracising 
 all imaginative aids from a popular address ? Not in 
 iHiy original want of susceptibility, in the human mind, 
 to receive instruction through such a medium, it is cer- 
 tain. For, as has been often observed, nothing can be 
 more metaphorical than the original language of 
 savages; whilst, in all languages, the most striking 
 words, among those that are in familiar use, may be 
 traced u]) to some figurative root, — men seeming to have 
 made their words out of pictures, and only to have 
 ascended to abstractions by the steps of the concrete.^'' 
 Neither can an excuse, for a dry and frigid baldness of 
 style, be found in the special incapacity of our own 
 poor to appreciate an imaginative or ornate style. 
 What was before advanced, in relation to the power of 
 our artizan class to grapple with a straightforward, 
 manly argument, applies still more to their sympathy 
 with a well-draw^n rhetorical picture. Their illiterate- 
 ness implies no deficiency of the poetic temperament, 
 — far otherwise. They will commonly enter into a 
 skilful and well-sustained illustration as keenly as we 
 can do,— relish the beauties of it as heartily, and detect 
 its failing points as soon. Look at the hold which the 
 " Pilgrims' Progress " has upon their religious imagina- 
 tion to this day. Watch the effect, with which a supposi- 
 titious illustration is always listened to from the pulpit. 
 In ilic way of fixing attention, there is nothing, to them, 
 ^' Hw souie examples in Whately's Rhetoric, Tai't III., c. i., § 3. 
 
RELATION TO PREACHING. 165 
 
 like the allegory. ^^ They love it, because it exercises 
 their powers of imagination. They like the feeling of 
 pleased surprise, which accompanies the perception of 
 resemblances they had never thought of. They delight 
 to see moral truth standing out before their eyes in 
 bodily form, and things which they talk about, and feel, 
 and handle, made vehicles of Jofty instruction, as well 
 as types of their own spiritual and inner life. Indeed, 
 as an ingredient in the intellectual constitution, poetry 
 has probably a larger place with our humbler classes, 
 than with the higher. No one, who has mixed much 
 with them, can fail to have noticed how largely, even 
 in their most familiar conversation, they draw upon the 
 inventive faculty. They can neither reason, nor de- 
 scribe, nor exhort, without it. Analogy has the first 
 place in their dialectics, and the metaphor is the first 
 thing they fly to, when they wdsh to be energetic, and 
 impressive, and plain. 
 
 Least of all, we suppose, will countenance, for a 
 cold, hard, poverty-stricken style, be sought for in the 
 examples furnished by Holy Scripture. For these 
 would condemn it at every page. Where shall we find 
 eloquence, availing itself more largely of the resources 
 of the rhetorician's art, yet without the slightest appear- 
 ance of any such effort, than it does in the addresses of 
 
 18 Old Fuller says, " Reasons are the pillars of the fabric of a 
 sermon, but similitudes are the windows which give the best 
 lights." 
 
IG6 ON STYLE IN 
 
 8t. Paul ? Where shall we find dramas, constructed 
 with more consummate and artistic skill, than those 
 >Yhich are presented to us in the history of Joseph-, 
 or in the book of Job ? Where does imagination revel 
 in richer pastures, or language give forth its sounds in 
 more melodious cadence, than in the rapt ecstacies of 
 the pro])hets, or in thef sweet music of the Psalms ? 
 And who, so much as our Divine Lord Himself, has laid 
 all r.ature under tribute, to supply Him witli exuberant 
 and majestic images, — making of the visible universe 
 a system of spiritual types, and from things in heaven, 
 and things in earth, and things under the earth, bring- 
 ing in His illustrations of the truth of God ? And, in 
 the case of this last and most sublime Example, we 
 know what acceptance this richly-imaged style of speak- 
 ing met with, — and from whom. There were some, in 
 whose hearts every word touched a ready and re- 
 sponsive chord. " The common people heard him 
 gladly." 19 
 
 One word of caution, however, may be allowed here. 
 There can be no doubt, that, both with the poor, and 
 with a very large class, who, in point of education, are 
 above the poor, there is a decided partiality for the 
 ornamental in style ; — for the ornamental, and some- 
 thing more ;— namely, for the tawdry, and the affected, 
 and the fine ; for the ambitious simile, and the high- 
 sounding phrase. And, to some preachers, it is a 
 1^ Mark vi. 20. 
 
RELATION TO PREACHING. 167 
 
 temptation, — not in baseness of soul, either, or in mere 
 hankering after popularity, but with an honest desire to 
 keep the attention awake, — to humour this false taste. 
 Can it be necessary to tell them, that, to the extent to 
 which they do this, — knowingly, and against what, 
 according to the canons of good writing, they feel to 
 be lawful and right, — they are doing lasting damage to 
 the religious literature of their country ; and, to the 
 cause of God and His truth, are shewing themselves 
 anything but real friends. It is to no purpose to say that 
 so little are these canons understood by the great ma- 
 jority of those who hear us, that, for one hearer whom 
 we may disgust by this hollow finery, we shall capti- 
 vate, or, at least, please ten. Moral results cannot be 
 measured by these coarse numerical tests ; seeing that 
 we can never tell the relative influence of the one per- 
 son, who has been so far alienated from the truth, com- 
 pared with that of the ten, who, on such worthless 
 grounds, have given it a favourable hearing. But there 
 is no necessity, in order to our influence with others, 
 to give oflence to the intelligent hearer at all. There 
 is a true in style, as well as an honest in morals. And 
 to adhere to the right, is the best policy in both cases. 
 Of the minds that care much about the beauties of 
 composition, there are very few which would not be at- 
 tracted by the genuine, at least, quite as easily, as by the 
 counterfeit ; — by the fine gold of a chastened eloquence, 
 as by the base lacker of a decorated rant. At all 
 
1(38 ON STYLE IN 
 
 events, as public teachers, we are bound to vindicate, 
 for the pulpit, a pure style. This is expected of us 
 from our education ; from the sacredness of our office : 
 from that sentiment of conscientious reverence, which 
 should make us shrink, at all times, from having re- 
 course to the exaggerated or the unreal, in the service 
 of God. 
 
 3. One other aspect of this required simplicity has 
 to be noted ; namely, as it is assumed to stand out in 
 contrast to all elaboration in style; to all mechanical and 
 artificial stiffness ; to all that paring, and pruning, and 
 finical smoothing down of sentences, which, besides being 
 very unnatural, is ruinous to all that is masculine or 
 strong in thought. 
 
 Now, surely, there is a good deal of false assump- 
 tion, in these commonly urged objections against 
 carefully considered, or well-finished writing. Thus, 
 with regard to the assumed opposition between the 
 elaborate and the natural, in wu'iting, — why, the very 
 design of all elaboration of style, is to make it more 
 natural. Then, mechanical polish is excepted to, as 
 savouring too much of the artist. But there may be 
 art, without the display of art ; and the more careful 
 the finish of the literary workman, the less will appear 
 any residual traces of his tools. Whilst, lastly, it is 
 assumed that all our most worthy intellectual concep- 
 tions are strongest at the time of birth ; that they come 
 full -formed, like Minerva, from the mint pf thought, — 
 
RELATION TO PREACHING. 169 
 
 as ready to take their place, at once, in the printed 
 page, as the goddess was to sit down forthwith in the 
 conclave of her peers. 
 
 Hence, the recommendation to he simple, as we are 
 here considering it, seems to amount to this ; — first, 
 that we are not required to take pains to present our 
 thoughts in the most perfect form we can ; and next 
 that, in any pains we may take, we should reject all aids 
 from the rhetoric art. Now the " art" part of the ques- 
 tion we shall not stay to consider. It seems obvious 
 to remark, that if, without a cultivated knowledge of 
 fundamental rules, we should never expect to find good 
 architecture, or good music, or good painting, an early 
 acquaintance with such rules might be found helpful to 
 good writing also, whilst ignorance of them could hardly 
 fail to betray a man into grievous mistakes.^ But let 
 us look at the avowed end of these rules. This, as 
 applied to preaching or writing, we might describe to 
 be, — to bring out a thought, present to our own mind, 
 with a clearness to be understood at once, with a strength 
 to impress at once, and, if possible, with a beauty to 
 delight at once. Do any of us throw off sentences of 
 
 *° Speaking of inattention to the laws of correct writing, De 
 Quincey observes, " Hence an anomaly, not found perhaps in any 
 literatui^ but ours, that the most eminent English writers do not 
 write their mother tongue without continual violations of propriety 
 .... scarcely two consecutive pages being without some flagrant 
 impropriety in the grammar, or some violation, more or less, of the 
 vernacular idiom." Selections, Grave and Gay, pp. 7 I, 72. 
 
170 ON STYLE IN 
 
 this kind at a stroke ? Do we never find, after we have 
 written a sentence down for the first time, that it admits 
 of improvement ? Do we not often shift the position 
 of the predicate, transpose a qualifying clause, here in- 
 sert, there strike out — not for art's sake — for of this, at 
 the time, we are not thinking, but because we feel 
 that nature did not express herself in the best way, at 
 first ; and that, if we would do justice to our own con- 
 ceptions, we must have bold recourse to the pruning- 
 knife, as well as try to smooth down with the file. 
 
 Let it be observed, that, so far as the injunction to be 
 simple is directed against all trick, or artifice in style ; 
 all frigid and heartless sentence-making; against that 
 false symmetry, which Pascal well likens to a sham 
 window in domestic architecture, or that mock antithesis 
 which, even if its one member have any meaning, the 
 other is no more than " a tinkling cymbal," — we accept 
 it in all sincerity. Our demurrer is against simplicity, 
 as it is supposed to be inconsistent with pains, and 
 patience, and thoughtful care. And a dispensation 
 from these no great speakers or writers have ever 
 asked for. Demosthenes, in order to perfect his style, 
 is said to have transcribed Thucydides many times 
 over. Virgil wished his " .'Eneid" to be burned, because 
 it was wanting in care and finish. Gibbon made three 
 copies of the first chapter of his history before 
 he could be satisfied it would do. And Addison is 
 said to have allowed the time for sending off 
 
RELATION TO PliEACHING. 171 
 
 an important state-paper to pass by, because he 
 wanted leisure for a more fastidious revise.^ 
 
 What, then, is the simplicity we ought to aim at, and 
 what i^ plain preaching? Why, it is preaching so that 
 we may be understood, — if possible, so that we cannot 
 be misunderstood — presenting thoughts, worth hearing, 
 in their clearest, strongest, most effective and winning 
 form. Sentences, moulded after this fashion, will often 
 appear very easy, and very artless. But they are easy 
 only to the hearer, and are artless because the art has 
 been concealed. Few men think in perfect sentences ; 
 any more than an artist, in a first sketch, could throw 
 off a finished picture. There is nothing, in which the 
 limm labor will be required more, than in writing a 
 simple sermon. To be plain, but not familiar; con- 
 cise, yet not obscure ; forcible, yet not inelegant ; to 
 be intelligible to the humblest, and yet not distasteful 
 to the most fastidious mind, — is no inborn intellectual 
 gift. To read Goldsmith's '' Deserted Village," and see 
 the exquisite naturalness with which each word falls 
 into its place, as if there could have been no choice 
 between that and any other, we might have supposed it 
 
 2^ See Di\ Newman's Lectures on University Suhjects, pp. 52, 53. 
 Many other instances will occur. Burke revised liis " Tliougiits on 
 the French Eevolution," again and again. Lord Brougham wrote 
 his finest speechejs many times over. Eoiisseau wrote his " Einile," 
 nine times, finding it so difficult to invent words that would reach 
 others, says Vinet, See Homiletics, p. 327. 
 
17*2 ON STYLE IN 
 
 was one of those poems, which Horace tells us a man 
 may write " siaus 2^^de in uno^ But the poet's own 
 account of the matter is, that this short and very simple 
 poem cost him tliree years to produce. And similar 
 tilings are related of other writers, remarkable for the 
 easy flow of their language. Sterne's smoothnesses were 
 achieved only at the expenceof the greatest elaboration. 
 Passages in Sheridan's speeches were written several times 
 with the utmost care. Burns, whose homely pictures of 
 Scottish life astonish all by their simplicity, spent hours 
 over them, while engaged at his work, before he penned 
 a line ; whilst Moore was sometimes a whole month in 
 writing and polishing to perfection, a single song.^ 
 
 Such waste of precious time is not asked of the 
 preacher. The instances are adduced only to show 
 that pains-taking is not the antagonist of simplicity, 
 but the handmaid to it, — not the hindrance to a natural 
 and unfettered style, but the means by which it may be 
 most surely reached. Experience has proved abund- 
 antly, that so far from the off-hand composition being 
 the most perspicuous and simple, it is the hurried ser- 
 mon that is usually verbose and complicated, and the 
 
 « Tlie smooth-flowing ease of Rogers's poetry will be allowed by 
 all. Yet the particulars of the time he took in composing them, 
 extracted from his Common-jjlace Book are, that his " Italy" cost 
 hira fifteen years, his "Columbus" fourteen^ years, and his 
 " Pleasures of Memory," seven years. Recollections by Samuel 
 Rogers. Preface, p. Ixvii. 
 
PwELATION TO PREACHING. 173 
 
 unrevised matter that is hard to understand. " You 
 
 were very long to-day," said a friend to a preacher on 
 
 one occasion,— " long" being a polite euphemism for 
 
 tedious. " Yes," was the reply, " I was long, because 
 
 I had so short a time to prepare." And the rule obtains 
 
 always. The perspicuity and ease which we admire in 
 
 such writers as Addison, or Southey, or Ogden, — that 
 
 happy attainment of rhetorical excellence, described by 
 
 the Roman orator in the words "op^e dlcere^^ — comes not, 
 
 as a rule, of an impromptu flash of thought, but is the 
 
 result, in each separate paragraph, of a severe regard to 
 
 expression ; a careful poising of momentum ; the lopping 
 
 off of all verbal surplusage ; and a diligent turning round 
 
 of all the parts and members of a sentence, until it shall 
 
 be transparent as the light for its clearness, and forcible 
 
 as right words for its strength. No doubt there may be 
 
 horn orators, even as there are horn poets ; men who, in 
 
 the fearless vigour and fertility of their verbal resources, 
 
 seem to play with language as with a toy ; pawing, as 
 
 the war-horse in the valley, and rejoicing in strength ; 
 
 able to call up, as from the deep, mighty words for their 
 
 mighty thoughts, and always sure of their coming, v/hen 
 
 they call them. But, on the other hand, it should be 
 
 remembered that there is no attainment, more than this 
 
 of good expression, in which diligent study may make 
 
 up for the deficiencies of genius ; or, in which, a reward 
 
 is more sure to follow on faithful and persisting toil. 
 
 At all events, one thing is certain. Nothing but 
 
174 ON STYLE, ETC. 
 
 failure can be hoped for from negligence, from loose- 
 ness, from a careless or conceited indifference in the 
 preacher, to those habits of pruning and revising, by 
 which even genius adds richness to its conceptions, and 
 great thinkers simplify the abstrusest theme. Of hasty 
 homiletics the Nemesis is both sure and righteous. The 
 preacher composes easily. The hearers will forget as 
 soon. Industry and laziness bring forth their appointed 
 fruits, in all that man puts his hand unto ; and both 
 husbandman and preacher shall find that saying of the 
 wise man true — " In all labour there is profit ; but the 
 talk of the lips tendeth only to penury." ^^ 
 
 23 Prov. xiv. 23. 
 
175 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE SUBJECT-MATTER OF PREACHING. 
 
 Paramount authority of Scripture — We must preach the Word — 
 I. In its loiitT/ — As one truth — One morality — Ethical element 
 of Old Testament Scriptures — II. In its integrity — Partiality of 
 preachers for particular departments of theological teaching — 
 III. In the rightful order and precedence of its fundamental 
 truths — The Atonement — the work of the Spirit — What is 
 "preaching Christ?" — lY. In the impai'tial exhihition of its 
 complementary and correlative doctrines — Predestination and 
 Free Agency — Free Grace — Faith and Works — V. In its universal 
 adaptations — Preaching on the events of the day — Evils of poK- 
 tical preaching — Experimental preaching — The relation of Chris- 
 tianity to the affections — Concluding cautions. 
 
 In a former chapter, in which we designed to bring 
 out, more prominently, the teacJiing function of the 
 preacher, we laid stress upon the fact, that the founda- 
 tion of his authority is "a book, a document, something 
 which is to be taught." ^ The thought meets us again 
 in entering upon the subject of our present chapter. 
 That which is at the foundation of our authority for un- 
 1 Chap. ii. p. 22. 
 
17() THE SUBJECT-MATTER 
 
 (lertaking the office of preacher, is also the paramount 
 directory for our practice, both as to how we shall 
 j)reach, and what we shall preach about. Every thing 
 needful to salvation is contained in the Book. We may 
 enforce nothing but what may be found therein, or can 
 be proved thereby. And the restriction is as condes- 
 cending in design, as it is convenient in practice; — 
 condescending, in that it prescribes so narrow a range, 
 within wliich we are to search for truth ; and conve- 
 nient, in that it supplies us with a rule, at hand always, 
 for determining when the truth is found. Specially 
 should we be thankful for the limit, in this last respect. 
 Nothing strikes us more, in the history of religious 
 controversy, than the necessity and advantage of our 
 being, for all vital truth, shut up to the conclusions of 
 one supreme and over-riding authority ; — relegating to 
 an infinite remove from that one, all supplementary tra- 
 ditions, all the writings of councils, all the interpreta- 
 tions of Christian antiquity. Not that we are called 
 upon to despise any of these, or to refuse aid from 
 them ; but that, in determining the question what we 
 mtist, and what vve must not teach, we are glad to have a 
 gulf which nothing can bridge over, — separating opinion 
 from authority, the erring from the infallible, the human 
 from the Divine. In regard of the matter, then, to 
 come into our sermons^ here are our limits. Enlarge 
 as we may, illustrate as we may, deduce applications 
 as we may, our subject is the Gosjocl. We must preach 
 
 TIIF. W(JRD. 
 
OF PREACHING. 177 
 
 Admitting, however, that the Bible is sufficient to 
 decide for us, generally, the topics which should come 
 into a sermon, or those which should be kept out, what 
 are the considerations which must govern us in the 
 selection of the admissible things ? By what rule are 
 we to be guided, in setting them forth in their related 
 order and connection ? How far is it permitted us to 
 assign, to some truths, a second place, in the order of 
 Divine communications ? and to what extent are we 
 required to give, to some aspects of revelation, a more 
 marked and frequent prominence ? Some answers to 
 these questions will, probably, be brought out, in the 
 discussion of a few general principles which we pro- 
 pose to consider, — all based upon the hypothesis, that 
 the subject-matter of preaching, is the Word. 
 
 I. Thus, we think care should be taken to preach 
 that Word, in its essential and unchanging unity, — that 
 is, as a body of revealed truth, '' fitly joined together, 
 and compacted by that which every joint supplieth," — 
 the product of an Infinite intelligence, which knows 
 *' neither variableness nor shadow of turning." 
 
 We introduce the mention of this, in order to guard 
 against any undue exaltation of the New Testament 
 over the Old, — against any uncareful methods of speak- 
 ing of the two books, \vhich might leave an impression 
 of their being, not the same, but a different truth, — 
 having a theology of different hopes and promises, and 
 
 N 
 
17S THE SUBJECT-MATTER 
 
 oven a morality referred to a different rii^e. The error 
 may be found only in very young preachers, perhaps ; 
 but, we err, if dispensations are not sometimes spoken 
 of too much, as if they were clianges in the mind of 
 God, instead of being, as they manifestly are, mere 
 developments of that mind,— adapted to the progressive 
 condition of religious civilization and religious thought. 
 The eflfect of this misapprehension is to lead to an 
 under-valuing estimate of the Old Testament; to cause 
 a ]ireacher to ignore or keep back a good deal of the 
 Christian teaching contained in it; and even to make 
 him adopt an under-toned humbleness in speaking of 
 some of its facts and statements, as if they were things 
 to be apologised for, — to be explained, on the plea of 
 suitableness to the genius of an economy, which has 
 passed away. Such a mode of speaking of the older 
 Scriptures, we must all feel to be at once dishonouring, 
 and dangerous. The entire fabric of our Christianity 
 is too intimately bound up with faith in the Jewish 
 record, to allow the slightest shadow of mistrust to be 
 cast, either upon the identity of its theology with our 
 own, or upon the moral purity and perfectness of its 
 rules of life. The glory of the later dispensation is " a 
 glory that excelleth ;" but it is not a glory that " con- 
 tradicieih." " It exceeds in glory," by reason of the 
 brighter effulgence it sheds upon the objects of revela- 
 tion, —not because it makes any change in the objects 
 them^elves. 
 
OF PREACHING. 179 
 
 By preaching the Word, in its unity, therefore, we 
 mean that both in the doctrines revealed, and in the 
 morality inculcated, the Old Testament and the New- 
 are to be carefully represented as one book, — one 
 truth, coming from the one same and Eternal Mind. 
 We shall aim to show that the theology of the two 
 books is one. What has been called the " Christology " 
 of the Old Testament, will be brought out with pro- 
 minence and distinctness. The agency of the Holy 
 Spirit will be shew-n to be, not so exclusively the pro- 
 mise of the new dispensation, as the inspiring source 
 of all that is great, or good, in every age of the Church 
 of God. No place will be left for sympathy with the 
 flippant taunts of Byron or Gibbon, by our preaching 
 that life and immortality were first brought to light by 
 the Gospel;^ whilst, instead of speaking of the moral 
 law in terms, which neither ^' magnify it, nor make it 
 honourable," we shall uphold it, as the unchanging 
 directory for the moral agent, to the end of time, — as 
 the beneficent source, from which we derive our " know- 
 ledge of sin ;" as well as " the schoolmaster," which 
 leads to Him who is to take our sins away. 
 
 Nor less jealous, in this view, shall w-e be for the 
 
 ^ The word (pojTiZeiv, observes Professor Blunt, implies rather the 
 making a thing more clear than it was before. Yet overlooking 
 this, Bishop Warburton, in his Divine Legation, quotes this text. 
 as supporting his view of the ignorance of the Jews of a future 
 state. 
 
 N 2 
 
180 THE SUBJECT-MATTER 
 
 ethical element of die Old Testament; for the vindicated 
 honour of the Divine Majesty, in relation to the sins or in- 
 firmities of good men ; never conveying the idea that, in 
 deference to the lowered moral tone of an age or people, 
 the Almighty had given a dispensation which sanctioned 
 any thing exceptionable, or false, or wrong. When Lord 
 Bacon brings it as a complaint against Puritan theology 
 or Puritan logic, that the divines of that school " have 
 pronounced generally and without difference, all un- 
 truths unlawful ; notwithstanding that the midwives are 
 directly reported to have been blessed for their excuse ; 
 and Rahab is said, by faith, to have concealed the 
 spies ; and Solomon's selected judgment proceeded 
 upon a simulation," ^ we all feel that the preachers were 
 better read, in Divine ethics, than w as the philosopher ; 
 seeing that a time never was, and never could be, when 
 God did not look with infinite abhorrence, upon what- 
 soever loveth and maketh a lie. Exceptionable things 
 do occur, in the Old Testament narratives, no doubt, 
 and diat because they are narratives. The Bible is a 
 record of history ; and holy men were inspired to relate, 
 what they were not inspired to justify, and which they 
 have said nothing to approve. The more than half- 
 hinted explanation of difficulties in the Old Testament 
 narratives, which we someUmes hear, — namely, that the 
 former dispensation was inferior to the Gospel, in 
 
 ' Advertisement touching the controversies of the Church of 
 Fn^'land. 
 
OF PREACHING. 181 
 
 ethical purity and perfectness, — that it could excuse 
 cruelty more ; allow of revenges more ; look with more 
 tolerant eye on departures from truth and uprightness, — 
 involves conclusions fraught with much danger. We be- 
 lieve that a man's faith in the theology of the Bible will 
 soon go, if he once come to lose faith in its ethics. It is 
 not our purpose, here, to say, what are the best explana- 
 tions to be offered of the falsehoods of Abraham, or the 
 duplicity of Jacob, or the violation of the rights of hos- 
 pitality by Jael. We are only saying, that of all expla- 
 nations, that is the worsfjwhich refers these things to an 
 allowed inferiority in the morality of the Old Testa- 
 ment, — which leaves the hearer to suppose that it could 
 be, either within the purpose or power of a dispensation, 
 to make that morally right in one age, which, under the 
 same circumstances, would be morally ivrong in another. 
 Such a handling of sacred things is to '' turn the truth 
 of God into a lie." 
 
 II. Again, it should be our aim to preach the Word 
 in all its integrity and entireness, as against anything 
 of keeping back, whether to please others or ourselves. 
 
 Observe that word of the angel to Peter and John, 
 on their being liberated from prison : — ^' Go stand and 
 speak in the temple to the people all the words of this 
 life." "^ Or that language of the apostle to the elders of 
 Ephesus : — " HoYflhept hack nothing that was profitable 
 * Acts V. 20. 
 
18-2 THE SUBJECT-MATTER 
 
 unto you ;" and again, " For I have not shunned to 
 declare unto you all the counsel of God:'" 
 
 These words seem intended to put us on our guard 
 against that mutiUited or partial teaching, in which, through 
 an over-fondness for particular aspects of theological truth, 
 a man is betrayed into negligence, if not into culpable 
 silence, about all the rest. Something in his education, 
 something in the constitution of his own mental and 
 moral habits, something, it may be, of mark and emphasis 
 in the circumstances of his own religious history, has 
 caused certain views of doctrine, or phases of revela- 
 tion, to take firmer hold of his mind than any other. 
 He draws all his studies that way ; — makes every sub- 
 ject to have some bearing upon it; — dislocating and 
 wrenching texts out of their most obvious connection, 
 to make them say something in support of his favourite 
 theme. Perhaps he belongs to a school, which seeks 
 to exalt, inordinately, the grace of sacraments. And 
 then so constantly are these referred to, in his dis- 
 courses, and with such awful charm and mystery are 
 they made to be invested, that it is no marvel if the 
 vulgo.r mind, — and some minds that are not vulgar, too, 
 — come to regard these institutions, not, as what Hooker 
 calls them, the " moral instruments of our salvation,'* 
 but as some material talisman for making that salvation 
 sure. Or, perha])s, the teacher is one, who loves to 
 soar into the high regions of the Divine predestina- 
 ^ Acts XX. 27. 
 
OF PREACHING. 183 
 
 tions. And then, the Alpha and Omega of all Gospel 
 teaching is the believer's personal election in Christ ; — 
 not put forth, as a great fact of our religious philoso- 
 phy, which it is, — nor yet proposed as a " comfort to 
 those who feel, in themselves, the working of the Spirit 
 of Christ," which, as our Article declares, it ought to be, 
 — but a bare, bald, and unqualified announcement of 
 God's secret purposes to individuals ; thus tempting men 
 to argue from the fact of an eternal choice to their sure 
 participation of its promised blessings; instead of leading 
 them, from the discovery of the inward witn3ss to 
 their Christianity, to deduce the fact of an eternal choice. 
 Or again, the temper of a preacher's mind may lead 
 him to the fascinating study of unfulfilled prophecy; and 
 that, not only wiihout observing strictly the limits of the 
 Scriptural permissions upon such enquiries ; but also 
 without any of those fixed principles, as to the laws and 
 rules of prophetic interpretation, which could satisfy any 
 reasoning or reflecting mind. And then he is for ever 
 discerning signs, and decomposing mystic numbers, 
 and fixing infallible dates, for this future event or that, — 
 till he seems to be always taking his hearers up into 
 the clouds, — into the third heaven of a nebulous and 
 frenzied rhapsody, — not seeing how much safer their 
 footing would be, in the plain way of faith and holi- 
 ness, — a way purposely made so plain, of God, that 
 " wayfaring men, though fools, should not err therein." 
 Now, preferences of this kind, it is obvious, unless 
 
184 THE SUBJECT-MATTER 
 
 kept under very chastened and severe restraint, cannoi 
 fail to liave most injurious effects, — upon the preacher, 
 upon liis hearers, and upon the truth of God. They 
 are likely to be very hurtful to the preacher himself. 
 They have a narrowing effect upon his own mind ; im- 
 ])air his faculties of judgment and discrimination ; tend 
 to limit his reading, his intercourse, and, very often, his 
 charities also, to men of his ow^n school of thought ; 
 and, worst effect of all, they may lose to him the benefit 
 of that personal comfort and enjoyment of the Scrip- 
 tures, which seem promised to those only -who esteem 
 all its sacred contents alike. " For whatsoever things 
 were written aforetime were written for our learning 
 that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures 
 might have hope." ^ 
 
 Nor less hurtful are these topical partialities to the 
 people. No doubt there are some persons, in every con- 
 gregation, who like one-sided preaching ; — particularly 
 if the one side be their own side. For it humours their 
 prejudices ; gives no trouble to their conscience ; 
 ministers to their vanity and self-conceit, as able to 
 understand so well, wherein the essence of all true 
 preaching consists. Yet are these the very people, to 
 whom such preaching does the most harm. For we 
 ought not to desire their complacent agreements with 
 us. Such things only send them to sleep. It were 
 butter tliat they should hear something with which they 
 ® Horn. XV. 4. 
 
OF PREACHING. 185 
 
 disagree ; — something which should make them feel ill 
 at ease ; — presentments of truth, which, instead of 
 sending them on their way rejoicing, to think how 
 much they know, should send them to their homes sor- 
 rowful, to feel how little they practise. But though 
 there may be some hearers who favour this narrow range 
 of topic, — whose faculties are sharpened the instant a 
 text is announced from the Apocalypse ; or wdio " prick 
 up their predestinating ears" when they think they are 
 going to have a sermon to the elect, yet not of all, in our 
 congregations, can it be said, " the people love to have 
 it so." Others there are who know their teacher's idio- 
 syncracy, and have become weary of it. Every Sunday 
 they watch for the time, when he shall get into his 
 accustomed groove; and forthwith they resign themselves 
 — to sleep, to unprofitable thoughts, to any expedient 
 they can think of, to fill up lost time, and to compen- 
 sate them for a lost opportunity of good. 
 
 Most of all, however, is this partial preaching inju- 
 rious and dishonouring to the truth of God. It destroys 
 its perfectness. It causes it to be shorn of its finely- 
 balanced symmetry and proportions. It robs it of its 
 beautiful adaptation to all the varieties of human 
 thought, and all the exigences of the human con- 
 dition. It turns the preacher of truth into the advocate 
 for a dogma, and employs in the service of speculations, 
 and fancies, and party-narrownesses, the agency ordained 
 of God as a means to enlighten and bless mankind. 
 
186 THE SUBJECT-MATTER 
 
 111. But to preach the Word in its integrity is not all 
 that is required of us. We must enforce the several 
 parts of wliich it is composed in their rightful order of 
 precedence^ — neglecting nothing, and keeping back 
 nothing, but, at the same time, giving to first truths, a 
 first place. 
 
 It would be a manifest misreading of the injunction 
 to " declare the whole counsel of God," to suppose it 
 to mean, that no one truth of our revealed system was 
 to have greater prominence, given to it, than another ; 
 and, therefore, that it was our duty to press, with a 
 routine and uniform frequency, each separate doctrine 
 of our Christianity. In giving his counsels to Timothy, 
 how to show himself " approved unto (jod, a workman 
 that needeth not to be ashamed," the Apostle, it will be 
 remembered, uses the remarkable expression, " rightly 
 dividing the word of truth;" an expression which, on any 
 interpretation, but, especially on the commonly assumed 
 reference to the action of the priest under the law, in 
 cutting up and appropriating the several parts of the 
 sacrifice,' would plainly imply that the different parts of 
 our revealed system were to be disposed, and pre- 
 sented in a certain related order of importance, — in 
 other words, that there are " great things" in God's law, 
 which would require to be enforced upon the awakened 
 conseience with peculiar urgency, lest they should be 
 
 ' 2 Tim. ii. 15. See Whitby and Hammond in loc. 
 
OF PREACHING. 187 
 
 "counted a strange tbing."^ And, in this view, we 
 cannot fail to see that there are some gospel verities, 
 which must be kept before the minds of our congrega- 
 tions always , — held up, not merely in the light of 
 capital and distinguishing doctrines, but as great 
 axioms of faith, lying at the very foundation of our 
 Christianity, and giving to all its parts their coherency, 
 and strength, and life. 
 
 Thus, of such fundamental truths, all would probably 
 agree to regard as one, that central fact and mystery of 
 our redemption, the offering of Christ upon the Cross, 
 as the ''full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and 
 satisfaction for the sins of the whole world.'' We must 
 resist all attempts to get eliminated from our theology, 
 either the \^ ox di propitiation, or the infinite fact, which it 
 so unambiguously expresses. As noticed already, 
 among things vital to salvation, the Apostle determined 
 to know nothing " save Jesus Christ and Him cruci- 
 fied." And, apart from this, or irreconcileable with 
 this, or of which this does not form an implicit and in- 
 tegral part, we must determine to know nothing. The 
 doctrine of the Atonement is the sinner's refuge; 
 the Church's hope ; the believer's rock ; the glorified 
 spirit's new and never-ending song. See how God has 
 guarded it, through all ages, through all dispensations, 
 through all the successions and fluctuations of human 
 history. It stands out as an ultimate fact of revealed 
 8 Hos. viii. 12. 
 
188 THE SUBJECT-MATTER 
 
 science, which has been at the basis of all economies, 
 and has given form to the religious worship of all 
 times. The blindness of Israel may have obscured it ; 
 the traditions of Christendom may have overlaid it ; 
 the very heathen, to this day, may distort and darken it, 
 by the admixture of elements, borrowed from their 
 own wild and fanciful theologies. But its normal type, 
 of "the just suffering for the unjust," has continued 
 ever, — a truth of God, which it was beyond the power 
 of falsehood to obliterate, and which the vicissitudes of 
 ages have never been able to destroy. 
 
 And, as to the work of Christ for us, so to the work 
 of the Holy Spirit in us, must we give a standing pre- 
 eminence in our teaching. The work of the Third 
 Person of the ever-blessed Trinity, on the human soul, 
 whereby it is recovered from the dominion of sin, and 
 renewed unto holiness, must be maintained, and con- 
 stantly urged upon our people, as a reality; as a 
 necessity ; as a great fact of our religious philosophy ; 
 as the fixed, ordained, universal qualification of the 
 redeemed spirit before it can enter heaven. The doctrine 
 is not to be explained away by the admitted tendency, in 
 the sacred writers, to express themselves in strong 
 figurative language. It is not to be robbed of all its 
 precision and definiteness,by the hazy and incongruous 
 speculations of an evangelical platonism. Rut, as 
 against all tlie things which men make to stand for this 
 inward L'X])(aicncc, or which, for the practical purposes 
 
OF PREACHfNG. 189 
 
 of their salvation, they are too ready to suppose will do 
 as well, — such as the proprieties of a blameless life, the 
 strict decorum of an outward godliness, the saving and 
 self-sustaining grace of sacraments, or the charmed life 
 assumed to belong to continuance in an apostolic church, 
 — the truth is to be announced again and again, " If any 
 man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His."^ 
 But here a question will arise. When we speak of 
 the pre-eminence due to these great foundation-doc- 
 trines of our Christianit)', is it meant to say, that, in 
 some definite and distinctly enunciated form, they 
 must be set forth in every sermon ? Or is it not com- 
 petent to us, in preaching constantly to the same people, 
 to single out, now and then, for illustration, some 
 abstract duty of the Christian life ; — without stopping, 
 every time we do so, to enlarge upon the relation in 
 which this duty stands to an infinite moral scheme ; and 
 without a special caution to our hearers, that, in view 
 of their personal salvation, this duty must never be 
 considered, apart from the merits of Christ, to justify, 
 and the influences of His Holy Spirit to restore ? This 
 raises a point, which, as we all know, has been much 
 mooted ; and on which w^e should not deem it well to pro- 
 nounce a judgment too absolutely. But the position has 
 been advanced, and largely taken up, that " every sermon 
 should, in some part of it, contain such a plain state- 
 ment of the Gospel plan of salvation, that a casual 
 ^ Rom. viii. d. 
 
190 THE SUBJECT-MATTER 
 
 hearer, may, in that sermon, if he should never hear 
 another, find an answer to the question, " What must I 
 do to be saved ?"^° Now we quite honour the intea- 
 tion of this recommendation, and, with the principle 
 involved in it, coincide to a great extent. But not 
 altogether. For we cannot vary, very much, our ex- 
 ])ressions for fundamental doctrines. And if we are to 
 have a kind of theological digest, tacked on to every 
 subject we are discussing, — parable, history, prophecy, 
 no matter what — insomuch that, 
 
 " Whate'er the text, the sermon still must be 
 A httle body of divinity," 
 
 the repetition, to the stated hearers, must soon become 
 very wearying. And it does seem, as Archdeacon Sinclair 
 observes, to be " a very prodigal compassion for the 
 benefit of this one imaginary stranger, who is present 
 for the first time, and also, upon this hypothesis, for 
 the last, to sacrifice, for his sake, the instruction of the 
 regular and actual congregation."^^ 
 
 While, therefore, a sermon ought never to be preached 
 by us, in which, expressed or implied, reference is not 
 made to the redeeming and sanctifying agencies of the 
 
 ^^ Soo Oxeuden's Pastoral Office, p. 106. A like expression is 
 aUributcd to I.c^b Riclnnond, " Keep in mind that excellent rule, 
 never to preach a single sermon, from which an unenlightened 
 hearer might not learn the plan of salvation, even though he never 
 afterwards heard another discourse." See Essays on the Christian 
 Ministry, p. 58., 1853. ^ 
 
 " Charge to the Clergy of Middlesex, 1855. 
 
OF PREACHING. 191 
 
 Gospel, yet surely, it cannot be necessary to bind our- 
 selves to lay down, in set form, Sunday after Sunday, 
 which be '^ the first principles of the oracles of God." 
 The formal and definite announcement of the method 
 of a sinner's justification and acceptance, twice or thrice 
 a week, by the same preacher, to the same people, 
 must become, either a very irksome repetition of the 
 same thing; or, in the endeavour to vary it, must 
 demand a strain upon the inventive faculties, which 
 very few minds could bear. And although, on a point 
 so vital, as to be the Divinely appointed theme of the 
 Christian ministry, every preacher would desire to err 
 rather on the side of frequency, yet, with his customary 
 hearers, it is certain, that the stereotyped formula would 
 soon come to lose its effect ; whilst, to the casual and 
 unenlightened stranger, it may be doubted, if it would 
 do any good. Hence, for the preaching of a full Gos- 
 pel, as something it appears to us, must be left to the 
 power of a continuous ministry to expound the way of 
 God more perfectly ; and something also to that under- 
 lying recognition of great principles, which every intel- 
 ligent and candid mind will perceive, is as necessarily 
 assumed in the particular phase of Christian life we are 
 exhibiting, as the existence of root in a tree, is 
 assumed, when we are speaking of the fruit it bears. 
 
 And it is in this implicit and pervasive reference 
 to the spiritual doctrines of our Christianity, quite as 
 much as in their formal and dogmatic announcement, 
 
19-2 THE SUBJECT-MATTER 
 
 that, as we humbly conceive, consists the true carrying 
 out of the apostolic rule of knowing nothing among our 
 people "save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." We 
 know it is customary to say that a faithful evangelical 
 message may be expressed in one word, — it is preach- 
 ing Christ. But, surely, it is not preaching Christ, 
 merely to repeat the word every two or three minutes 
 in a sermon. Tt is not preaching Christ, to be always 
 labouring after some prismatic variety of the expression 
 " Neither is there salvation in any other." It is 
 not preaching Christ, to be looking out for allusions to 
 Him, in the baldest facts ; and subtle references to 
 Him, in the most common expressions ; straining after 
 unnatural interpretations of Scripture language, almost 
 as an excuse for bringing in the sacred Name. But it 
 is preaching Christ, when, in the awful mystery of His 
 twofold nature. He is set forth, as a living Saviour to 
 living men. It is preaching Christ, when " the way" is 
 exhibited with '^ the truth," and the truth is made to re- 
 ilect light on " the life." It is preaching Christ, when we 
 preach the duties which He commanded ; the cross of 
 self-denial which He bore ; the holiness which He 
 practised ; the elevating power of sympathy, such as 
 His was, with a brother's needs, the peace and blessed- 
 ness of resignation, such as His was, to a heavenly 
 Father's will. It is preaching Christ, when we preach 
 the mildness of His yoke, the sweetness of His pro- 
 mises, the comfort of His near presence, the sufficiency 
 
OF PREACHING. 193 
 
 of His grace to cheer, and support, and guide. It is 
 preaching Christ, when we preach an interest in Him 
 as our hope ; union to Him as our life ; the prevalency 
 of His intercessions, as the strong confidence of our 
 prayers ; and the mention of His righteousness only, 
 as the ground of our acquittal before the throne of God. 
 It is preaching Christ, when we preach Him as the 
 peace of the heart, as the repose of the spirit, as the 
 refuge of the fearful conscience, as the one all- filling, 
 all- satisfying Object, upon which the thoughts of man 
 could be exercised, or towards which the affections of 
 man could be turned. In a word, it is preaching Christ, 
 when, in His person, His work, or His ofiSces, He is 
 permitted to be " the diamond to shine in the bosom of 
 all our sermons ;"^^ when, named or unnamed, seen or 
 unseen. He is made to shed a glorious sun-light over 
 our entire field of subject; when views of what He is 
 to us, and what He does for us, are so in-wrought with 
 the web and woof of every discourse, that like the name 
 of Phidias in the shield, to get out every trace of refer- 
 ence to Him, the entire work must be destroyed. 
 
 IV. We advance to another requirement. The Word, 
 which is to furnish the subject-matter of our preaching, 
 must be set forth with due regard to the complementary 
 or correlative character of its several parts ; that is, in all 
 its careful and well-considered adjustments of faith and 
 12 Bp. VVilkins. 
 
194 THE SUBJECT-MATTER 
 
 duty, promise and precept, privilege and responsibility. 
 In the exhibition of these nicely balanced parts of our 
 revealed system, we are to go as close to the extreme 
 on either side, as Scripture goes ; and that, in utter fear- 
 lessness of any clash, — either Avith popular prejudice, or 
 theological systems, or even with what some may think 
 to be due to the demands of a rational philosophy. 
 
 Take, as an example of possible failure in this 
 respect, the mode in which we may exhibit the doctrine 
 of the Divine predestinations. Here is a doctrine, 
 which is plainly declared in Scripture ; which pervades 
 the language of our Liturgy; which is sustained, and 
 even demanded by any view which we could take of 
 the nature or necessities of moral government. E,eason 
 is as loud as Revelation, in challenging assent to that 
 truth, " Known unto God are all His works from the 
 beginning of the world." ^^ The denial of it would go 
 to depose God from the sovereignty of the spiritual 
 world altogether; would bisect eternal duration into 
 two parts, of which He should have the rule only of the 
 former half; would leave the sceptre of universal em- 
 pire to be tossed, as a prey, to a thousand wild con- 
 tingencies, and make room for the possibility, that 
 to-morrow's sun might bring with it an entire reversal and 
 discomliturc of the plans of an Eternal Mind. Nor is it 
 mere foreknowledge only, which Revelation teaches. It 
 is distinctly laid down that oiu' salvation, in all the 
 steps and parts of it, — in the call we receive, in the obe- 
 ^ Acts XV. 18. 
 
OF PREACHING. 195 
 
 dience we yield, in the justification we partake of, in the 
 sense of adoption we enjoy, in the new moral image 
 that is impressed, in the power to walk religiously in 
 this life, and in the grace of perseverance, till we attain 
 to the happiness of the life to come," — is referable to 
 an everlasting purpose ; to the self-originated counsel? 
 of heaven ; to the secret and eternal love of God. 
 
 And yet, while we should all agree that a doctrine, 
 so completely interwoven with the whole scheme of 
 revelation, must be one, which it would be a dangerous 
 and culpable reticence to keep back, may it not be so 
 presented as to wear a hard, austere, and even repulsive 
 form, — perilous, not only to those sentiments of reve- 
 rence, with which we should ever think of the Divine 
 Being, but also to that sense of responsibility, which, 
 as a law to the conscience of all moral agents, it could 
 never be a wise thing to disturb. Often, no doubt, we 
 do this unwittingly. Particular words have crept into 
 our terminology, upon such subjects, which are not 
 Scriptural, and which, from their human associations, 
 at aHl events, are not desirable, and not safe. We mean 
 nothing wrong when w^e speak of the Divine decrees, but 
 the place of the word " decree," in the vocabulary of 
 an earthly legislator, gives to the term a peculiar harsh- 
 ness ; and suggests an idea, which, as applied to the 
 actions of a responsible being, is not true.^^ 
 
 " See Articles of Church of England, Ai't. xvii. 
 15 ij^j^g u vindictive justice" of God also is an expression found in 
 
 o 2 
 
196* THE SUBJECT-MATTER 
 
 But particular aspects of this truth also may be ex- 
 hibited in unwise excess. Thus in speaking of the Sove- 
 reignty of the Divine elections, — is it well, with a view to 
 exalt the will of God to the highest point of absoluteness 
 and supremacy, to speak of Him, as if He were wholly 
 uninfluenced by moral considerations in wdiat He does ? 
 to make it appear, as if He acted arbitrarily, without 
 a reason, without a law, without regard to those eternal 
 principles of wisdom and goodness^ perfect conformity 
 to which is a very necessity of His being ? We are not 
 supposing, that in these accounts of the method of 
 the Divine procedure, there is anything illogical, or 
 anything untrue, but only that the truth is viewed too 
 exclusively from its owe side. We are left to see, in 
 the representations, too much of the Monarch, not 
 enough of the Father ; too much of God's right to order 
 all things, not enough of the rule by which He orders 
 them, or the gracious ends which they are ordered for; 
 too much of the " consuming fire," of God, not enough 
 of the soft shining of the " rainbow," which was seen 
 round about His throne. Difliculties will remain, on 
 any supposition. That we should see how things 
 pertaining to God are aiTanged, or perceive, at 
 once, the reconciling element of the Divine admini- 
 stration, in matters so occult and secret, cannot 
 
 some writer8,-a phrase utterly unwarranted by Scripture, and, to 
 H devoutly sensitive rtiind, most painful. 
 
OF PREACHING. 197 
 
 be necessary to our religious happiness ; and in all 
 probability is not possible to us, under our present 
 limitations of religious thought. It should be enough 
 to know, that the connection between the absolute 
 V freeness of Divine grace, and the known responsi- 
 bility of man, in the acceptance or rejection of the 
 truth as it is in Jesus, is a great fact of our religious 
 philosophy, which, explained or unexplained, no reason- 
 ing will ever be able to disturb. For the rest, may we 
 not ask, is any prerogative of the human intelligence 
 compromised by our being obliged to say, while look- 
 ing through a glass, darkly, " Shall not the Judge of 
 all the earth do right ?"^*5 
 
 And so, when considering the aspect of this doctrine 
 towards man's moral liberty and accountableness, can 
 it be right to charge ourselves with such a jealousy for 
 the predestinating purposes of heaven, as to say that 
 we have no ministry but to the elect ? Why are we 
 to feel less free, and open, and unembarrassed, in 
 urging the overtures of the Gospel upon all before 
 us, because, among them, may be some, with whom, it 
 is not in God's hidden purposes, that these overtures 
 should take effect ? Admitting that, relatively to us, 
 there may be something incongruous in addressing 
 appeals to " fixed fate ;" in trying to alter, by any 
 earnestness of ours, the decisions of '^ foreknowledge 
 absolute," — yet is there no license of incongruity given 
 1^ Gen. xix. 25. 
 
JOS THE SUBJECT-MATTER 
 
 to US, to keep one of these elements out of sight, while 
 we apply and enforce the other ? Does not Scripture 
 itself give countenance to, and even set us the example 
 of such license ? Thus, how little could Paul be 
 thinking of Divine preordinations, when he described a 
 servant of the Lord, as one, "In meekness instructing 
 those that oppose themselves ; if God peradventure will 
 give them repentance to the acknowledgment of the 
 truth."" Nay, as if in condescension to any speculative 
 difficulties we might have on such subjects, we have 
 the Almighty Himself, in one place, suspending, upon 
 a contingency, the issue of His preached word. For, 
 commanding Jeremiah to write all these words in a 
 book, that they may be read to the people, He is 
 pleased to give as a reason, " It may he that the house 
 of Judah will hear all the evil, which I purpose to do 
 unto them ; that they may return every man from his 
 evil way, that I may forgive their iniquity, and their 
 sin."^ 
 
 And a like cautiousness seems to be demanded of us 
 in relation to the doctrine contained in our tenth Ar- 
 ticle, and the difficulty of determining, with philoso- 
 phical precision, the methods of Divine grace, in 
 concurrence with the free agency of man. We must 
 claim a latitude of seeming incongruity, — not more 
 than the inspired writers take, but, at the same time, not 
 less,— enabling us to say, with all confidence, that of 
 17 2 Tim. ii. 25. 18 Jer. xxxvi. 3. 
 
OF PREACHING. 199 
 
 ourselves we can do nothing, and yet disallowing, as a 
 lawful corollary from this, the proposition, that we 
 have nothing to do. Our danger here, as in the last 
 example, comes of a too exclusive dwelling on one side 
 of a truth, — isolating it from that which, though ano- 
 ther truth to us, is not another ; but only the comple- 
 ment of the first, — both together making one truth in 
 the sight of God. 
 
 Still, to the finite mind, there is an acknowledged 
 difficulty in looking at these two sides of a truth to- 
 gether. Unless we have recourse to that bad way of 
 reconciling two doctrines, or two parts of a doctrine, 
 which consists in ignoring or annulling one of them, it 
 seems hardly possible, but that, in our double applica- 
 tions, we must lay ourselves open to the charge of 
 making apparently incompatible assumptions. Some 
 may complain of this ; but it is a necessity of our 
 limited powers of thought. "An intellect to which 
 nothing should be paradoxical," says Bishop Horsley, 
 " would be infinite." And, therefore, while we magnify, 
 as we must magnify, the fullness and freeness of Divine 
 grace ; and while we accord, as we must accord, the 
 honour, the glory, the infinite good of conversion to 
 God and His Spirit only, we must be careful to let the 
 other side of the truth be seen also ; — setting forth 
 man's proper responsibility in the use of means, and 
 shewing that there is some relation between man's un- 
 restricted agency, and the free grace of God, which 
 
200 THE SUBJECT-MATTER 
 
 though not always clear as a fact to the understanding, 
 ought to operate as a motive upon the heart. 
 
 So also in speaking of the original inability of man 
 to do anything towards his own conversion, — we ought 
 to go as far as Scripture goes in stating this, but there 
 is no reason why w^e should go further ; why, in order 
 to heighten the degree of our nature's impotence in rela- 
 tion to any good thing, we should speak of this impo- 
 tence as something physical or mechanical, — like that 
 of the lame to walk, or the blind to see. Man's in- 
 ability in regard to his salvation, according to Scripture, 
 is moral, and moral only. It is not the want of poiuer 
 which keeps him back from Christ, so much as the 
 want of will. " Ye will not come unto me that ye 
 might have life."^^ 
 
 At all events, on these subjects, we can only argue from 
 certain ultimate facts of revelation. And, of such facts, 
 none can be plainer than these two — that there must be 
 an influence, from above, upon man's mind, to induce 
 him to choose the service of God; and yet that, in 
 yielding to and obeying this influence, man acts with 
 the full accordance of his intellectual and moral powers. 
 The influence is of God. The act is his own. The 
 Holy Spirit works, but it is by giving us the willingness 
 and the moral energy to work. Tt may be difficult to 
 harmonise these propositions, at every point, but not 
 more difhcult than it is to prove that they actually con- 
 '^ John V. 40, 
 
OF PREACHING. 201 
 
 flict. They are two independent moral truths, not 
 clashing, because, like two parallel lines, they never 
 meet. It is the unchanging dictate of human conscious- 
 ness that man is free to ^' refuse the evil." But it is 
 the voice of inspiration ever, that, by grace alone, is he 
 induced to " choose the good." And with this, though 
 a confessedly imperfect comprehension of the Divine 
 philosophy, we must open our mouth boldly. So far 
 from hiding either one phase of the truth or the other, 
 it were better that, after the example of the Apostle, we 
 should sometimes let them meet face to face, chal- 
 lenging the pride of man to gainsay either of them, if 
 he can : — " Work out your own salvation with fear and 
 trembling : for it is God which worketh in you both to 
 will and to do of His good pleasure." ^^ 
 
 There is one other subject, upon which, it is certain 
 that the sacred writers assume a license to use appa- 
 rently incongruous language, and in relation to which, 
 if we would preserve the symmetry of our revealed 
 system, we must not be afraid to follow their steps. We 
 allude to the place which good worhs ought to occupy, in 
 the scheme of a sinner's justification ; and the extent to 
 which W'C ought to enforce moral obedience upon the 
 conscience, as indispensable to salvation. Very strong 
 is the temptation to timidity and reserve, in this depart- 
 ment of our teaching. For, not only have we to en- 
 counter the original and inherent difficulties, belonging 
 
 20 Phil. ii. 12. 
 
202 THE SUBJECT-MATTER 
 
 to the subject itself; not only, in our dogmatic enuncia- 
 tions, are we in clanger of coming in contact with the 
 sharp edges and angles of our Reformed Theology ; 
 but, it is next to certain, that, in insisting upon works 
 of any kind, we shall oifend the prejudices of many, 
 who have a great disrelish for practical preaching; and 
 who would rather hear ten sermons on points of 
 doctrine, than one on the duties of the Christian life. We 
 cannot doubt that there is too little love, in our day, for 
 the theology of action, of self-denial, of stern, hard 
 conflict with the rebellious and self- pleasing will. We 
 love to think of the faith that justifies the person, but not 
 enough of the faith that jj>2<r{/?e5 the heart. We love to 
 dwell on Christ, as a " sacrifice for sin ;" we think less 
 of Him in His mission as '' an ensample of godly life." 
 We love to take up His own beautiful sermon, and 
 dwell on the words, Blessed, Blessed, Blessed, but do 
 not pause enough to consider how all these promises 
 belong to moral character,-^ to the penitent, to the 
 meek, to the merciful, to the peace-makers, to the pure 
 in heart. 
 
 Now, at all hazards, we must address ourselves to the 
 combating of this tendency of the popular mind; — must 
 be prepared to shew that, without any derogation from 
 the perfectness of the Redeemer's sacrifice ; without 
 leaving room for the very thought, on our part, of any 
 meritorious service ; nay, with a holding by the received 
 tenet of justification, tenacious as that of any martyr, 
 
OF PREACHING. 203 
 
 who ever sealed it with his blood, — we yet maintain 
 the practice of good works, and the virtues of a holy- 
 life, to be vital to a man's hopes of heaven. " We 
 must drive on with the Ten Commandments," said 
 Luther, foreseeing how easily the great doctrine he had 
 contended for, might become wrested to the purposes 
 of Antinomian laxness. The tendency had begun to 
 shew itself, in his day, to regard the moral law as part 
 of a lapsed system, — to overlook its uses, to disparage 
 its authority, to forget its ends. And the tendency has 
 continued until now. And, for the correction of it, we 
 must omit no opportunity of vindicating for the law, its 
 high Divinity ; of urging its imperishable obligation upon 
 the human conscience ; enforcing compliance with its 
 precepts as the necessary evidence of a justified state ; 
 and shewing that, by .how much we are freed from its 
 yoke, as a condition of our forgiveness ; by so much, 
 must we stand in awe of its authority, as our rule of life. 
 All this will be likely to procure for us the reputa- 
 tion of being ''legal'' preachers, or "■ moraV preachers, 
 or of being untrustworthy and obscure upon the great 
 "article of a standing or falling church." But the 
 danger must be incurred. Nay more, we may almost 
 suspect the soundness of our own teaching, if it be 
 not. No one was more strenuous in upholding the 
 doctrines of grace than the late Mr. Simeon. But, at 
 one of his evening gatherings at the University, he thus 
 addressed the students : — " Now, you are going out as 
 
204 THE SUBJECT-MATTER 
 
 ministers of the Gospel. Let me give you one very 
 significant and emphatic caution. If you do not earn, 
 every one of you, in his own sphere, the charge of legal. 
 preaching^ depend upon it you are not doing the work 
 of Christ, nor preaching His Gospel. The fact is, that 
 people's heads are now so running after what they call 
 2Jrivi!eges, that nine out of every ten will hardly hear of 
 anything else." ^ 
 
 Justification by faith, then, is to be preached; but 
 not out of its place, not out of its proportion, not in 
 separation and divorce from the great whole of Divine 
 truth. We are not to lay out all our strength in en- 
 forcing one aspect of a doctrine, on the ground that 
 the other is assumed ; or that the other is understood ; 
 or that, in practice, the other is sure to follow. If we 
 would keep close to the highest examples, we must 
 state and enforce both. " This is a faithful saying," 
 says that Apostle whom we regard as pre-eminently the 
 preacher of justifying faith, " and these things I will 
 that thou affirm constantly, that they which believe in 
 God might be careful to maintain good w^orks."^^ And 
 why was Titus commanded to exhort the people thus ? 
 But because unless they were " careful to maintain good 
 works," they could have no evidence that they truly 
 "believed in God." And our teaching ofjustifi cation must 
 
 " Communicated by a IVieud who was present, and who carefully 
 noted the words. 
 » 'J'it. iii. ». 
 
OF PREACHING. 205 
 
 be framed upon this model. Plainly, fearlessly, with- 
 out the sheltering reserve of any limiting or ambiguous 
 words, we must enforce the observance of moral duties, 
 as being, in the case of all who are able to perform them, 
 necessary to salvation.^^ True, we cannot perform such 
 works without the aids of Divine grace,— without the 
 agency of that Holy Spirit, which is the source, in us, 
 of all that is acceptable, or good, or pure. But herein 
 consists the special beauty of the Gospel system ; that 
 those very conformities to the Divine will, which it is 
 the object of all evangelical religion to enforce, it is 
 also the peculiar office of the Holy Spirit to work in 
 us, and produce. The things are commensurate, each 
 to each ; — are often set down, in Scripture, as corre- 
 latives one of the other. Regarded merely as a pre- 
 cept, that must have seemed a hard saying of Ezekiel, 
 to the house of Israel, "Make you a new heart and a 
 new spirit."-^ But how easy did it appear, when read 
 
 ^ An authority, not likely to sit loosely to the great principles 
 of the Eeformation, thus delivered himself before the members of a 
 Scottish University. " There is a sound sense in which the whole 
 strain of Scripture, and the amount of the principles of Calvinism 
 warrant us to say, that good works are essential to salvation ; for 
 none can be saved who have not that character, which is produced 
 by the Spirit of God, in all that are justified, and none have that 
 character, in whom these unequivocal fruits of it do not appear." 
 Professor Hill's Lectures in Divinity. Vol. iii., p. 230. 
 
 3* Ezek. xviii. 3i. 
 
OOG THE SUBJECT-MATTER 
 
 in the light of the corresponding promise, ''A new 
 heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put 
 within you."2s On those who cannot watch with Christ, 
 for " one hour," it might seem useless to enforce the duty 
 of "continuing instant in prayer,"26 but the same 
 Anostle who inculcates the duty, assures us of a Spirit 
 that shall "help our infirmities."^ Thus, precept and 
 promise, duty and succour, requirements impossible to 
 our nature's helplessness, and provided means for 
 taking that helplessness away, — always go together. 
 In urging to the performance of commanded duties, we 
 can pursue the speculative objector to the farthest 
 shelter he could fly to, and confound him with that one 
 text, "My grace is sufficient for thee." 
 
 At all events, the moral requisitions of Scripture, in 
 regard to outward conduct, must be enforced, — en- 
 forced, too, not as comely and congruous to our Chris- 
 tian profession only, but as necessary, as vital, as a 
 constituent element of all saving faith. We may 
 offend ; may appear inconsistent ; may be told that we 
 contradict Apostles, and contradict ourselves. But we 
 must not put asunder things which God hath joined 
 together; must not weaken that indissoluble bond 
 which unites the faith of justification, with the sanctities 
 of life ; must not hold up in solitary grandeur that 
 motto on the seal of the believer, " Without faith it is 
 
 ^ Ezek. xi. 19. so j^q^ ^^ ^2. 27 i^q^. vii. 26. 
 
OF PREACHING. 207 
 
 impossible to please God,"^ but omit to exhibit that 
 solemn warning, inscribed on its other side, " Without 
 holiness no man shall see the Lord." 29 
 
 Of course, in what we have said of the duty of a 
 manly disregard of the imputation of inconsistency, in 
 exhibiting this, or any other of our great doctrines, in 
 their diversely-related aspects, no justification is offered 
 for our being more paradoxical in our statements than 
 we can help ; or for putting ourselves more at apparent 
 issue, than we can help, either with our received theo- 
 logical systems, or with the conclusions of a sound 
 intellectual philosophy. We may not disparage eithei 
 of these. To schemes, and systems of divinity, we are 
 indebted for some of the wisest and most effective safe- 
 guards of our Christianity ; whilst the flippant taunt, 
 sometimes thrown out against religious metaphysics, 
 as the dreamy employment of men, who are always 
 confounding themselves by their own subtleties, or 
 losing themselves in the mist of their own doubts, is, 
 to say the least of it, neither logical, nor safe, nor wise. 
 Our claim is merely for a licensed breadth and free- 
 dom, in the applications of Christian docrine, which 
 shall only be not contradidonj, and not invpossible. From 
 things hard to be understood, we ask no dispensation, 
 — none from paradox. But we do ask, in these appli- 
 cations, to go further into the domain of Divine philo- 
 sophy, than it would be possible, with full comprehen- 
 ds Heb.xi. 6. ^o Heb. xii. 14. 
 
0()8 THE SUBJECT-MATTER 
 
 sion of the objects presented, either for human systems, 
 or abstract speculation to adventure ; do ask, while pre- 
 senting the facts of revelation to the practical acceptance 
 of mankind, to be allowed to shade over their aspects to 
 the purposes and plans of God ; do demand the right 
 to enforce, in practice, obligations, which, in theory, 
 we might find it hard to explain ; and to exhibit sepa- 
 rate segments of the circle of revealed truth, without 
 holding ourselves bound to explain, at all times, how 
 they combine and form into a perfect whole. All this 
 we claim, as being a necessity, forced upon us by the 
 limitations of our intellectual nature. " A God that 
 could be comprehended, would not be God," says an 
 ancient Father. If a revelation could be comprehended, 
 would it be thought Divine ? 
 
 V. Our last rule, in order to the securing for our 
 sermons the most comprehensive range of subject, is, 
 that the word which we have to preach must be pre- 
 sented in all its wide and universal adaptation to popu- 
 lar sympathies; — to the carnal, as well as ito the 
 spiritual ; — to the great human heart, — affected most 
 readily by the external, and the exciting, and the 
 things of the passing hour; and to the calm Christian 
 heart, — satisfied from the deep springs of its own 
 spiritual being, and beating with the warm pulse of the 
 life of God. 
 
 Thus we think it worth consideration, whether the 
 
OF PREiCHING. 209 
 
 basis of our preaching sympathies is laid quite broadly 
 enough ; whether we interweave, into our discourses, 
 enough of the secular, mundane, common-life element; 
 pressing, into our service, the stirring incidents of the 
 day ; and, by a discreet glancing at topics, foremost in 
 all companies, and loudest on every tongue, trying to 
 get the ear of the times. 
 
 The real difficulty of our work, as before noted, is to gain 
 a kindly hearing for old and familiar truth ; to press upon 
 sluggish minds the applications of principles, in which 
 they have been instructed from childhood. Illustrations 
 of these principles, in our own proper line, our people 
 have heard again and again ; have assented to them as 
 often ; and have gone to sleep upon them, as often. But 
 let us connect these admitted conclusions of Gospel prac- 
 tice, with some newly appearing phase or fact of social 
 life ; let us shew their bearing upon events, which all the 
 world is talking about : and the startled ear will be 
 roused, as if it were listening to some new truth, 
 and even a wakeful attention may be gained, for the 
 rest of the discourse. The late gifted Mr. Irving, in 
 the height of his popularity, and before his theology 
 had run off into any of its eccentric and erroneous forms, 
 was a great master in these adaptations. Without lay- 
 ing himself open to the charge of a narrow partizan- 
 ship, he yet found means, for bringing into his dis- 
 courses, on the Sunday, the uppermost and freshest 
 topics of public thought; struck in with trains of senti- 
 
 p 
 
210 THE SUBJECT-MATTER 
 
 ment and emotion, on which he knew the minds of his 
 hearers had been exercised all the week ;— all this, of 
 course, that he might lead them up to some higher 
 elevation, whence they might take a wider survey of the 
 operations of a moral providence, and see the subser- 
 viency of all things to the spiritual designs of God. 
 
 Let us not be misunderstood here. We are no 
 advocates for what is called "political preaching :"— for 
 the introduction, into the pulpit, of those vexed ques- 
 tions of social or secular philosophy, on which it is 
 scarcely possible to speak without taking a side ; and 
 yet, in which, if we do take a side, we are almost sure 
 to offend. Against such a practice, w^e cannot protest 
 too strongly. It is doubly unfair : — unfair to the 
 ministry of the Church, which we have no right to 
 commit to any pronounced decision upon such subjects ; 
 and unfair to the congregation, who may hear their 
 own opinions condemned in a place, where they have no 
 opportunity to reply. We never listen to such sermons, 
 without feeling disposed, with the town- clerk at 
 Ephesus, to claim the right of "impleading," and 
 requiring that the matters at issue, " be determined in 
 a lawful assembly.''*' 
 
 But surely, beyond this frontier line of debated 
 politics, there is a large domain of worldly territory, 
 which we may occupy and improve for God; — such as 
 subjects of economic science, or the achievements of 
 inventive art, or shifting phases of the national 
 30 Acts xix. 38. 
 
OF PREACHING. 211 
 
 mind, or events of mark and emphasis in our com- 
 mercial history, or openings for intercourse with foreign 
 nations, or changes in thrones, dynasties, constitu- 
 tions, governments, — all these having a bearing on 
 the great interests of human progress and being part 
 of that great providential lesson-book, out of which, 
 as well as out of the Bible itself, it is a part of 
 the preacher's office to instruct mankind. God teaches 
 by events; and it should be ours to point the moral of 
 the tale. Why should we hesitate to speak of the 
 perils of rash venture, when the panic makes our mer- 
 chant-princes tremble ? or to explain to the leaders of 
 the combination and the strike, how bootless it is to 
 set themselves against the laws of heaven ? or to en- 
 force the lessons of righteousness, when the nation's heart 
 is aching with the last tidings from the seat of war ? or 
 to place, in a more kindly and trustful aspect, the 
 philosophy of the Divine purposes, whenever the wast- 
 ing rains, and almost sunless summer, may give us fear 
 for " the appointed weeks of harvest ?" Surely, in treating 
 of such subjects, we may find sea-room enough, without 
 any hazard of making shipwreck of our Gospel chari- 
 ties, and without fear of being drawn into the quick- 
 sands of political or party strife. 
 
 It will be observed, however, that, in relation to these al- 
 lusions to passing events, we are merely claiming a licen se ; 
 and that license only for those, who may be conscious 
 of possessing judgment enough to use it well. If not 
 
 p 2 
 
•212 THE SUBJECT-MATTER 
 
 carried out wisely, the attempt is better not made at all. 
 The weapon is not one for an unskilled workman ; and, 
 in injudicious hands, would be almost sure to betray a 
 man into the worst faults, — faults of taste, if not of 
 something worse. But let there be wise and discrimi- 
 nating moderation. Let us never divest ourselves of 
 the mantle of religious teachers. Let us never touch 
 upon worldly subjects but to exalt, and sanctify, and 
 set upon them the seal of eternity, and our references 
 to men's fireside topics will neither be unprofitable, 
 nor seem out of place. The world will sometimes ply 
 us with its own questions so directly, that we feel we must 
 speak. And then we must demand to look at its tribute- 
 money, — to read the inscription, and see whose is the 
 image it bears. But, into no pitiful display of narrow 
 or sectarian bias, shall we be betrayed thereby. The 
 occasion shall only serve for enforcing a lesson of 
 eternal truth, — a law of practical discrimination for the 
 guidance of all time : — " Render, therefore, unto Caesar 
 the things which are Ca3sar's and to God the things 
 that are God's."^^ 
 
 But we are to be made " all things to all men." A 
 steward of the mysteries of faith, must provide for the 
 whole household. If he dispense milk for " the babes," 
 he must prepare " strong meat for them that are of full 
 
 »'^ On the introfluction of these occasional topics into our dis- 
 courses, some excellent remnrks will be found in the preface to " The 
 Lost Chief and the Mourning People; a sermon hy J. H. Guruey." 
 
OF PREACHING. 21:3 
 
 age," If, in order to hold up the Gospel, in all the large- 
 ness, and breadth, and perfect humanness of its sympa- 
 thies, he discourses of things of the outer world; he must, 
 not the less, but the more, exhibit that Gospel, in its re- 
 lations to its own proper world, — the world of faith, the 
 actings of godliness, *Hhe life of God in the soul of 
 man." 
 
 Our remarks here, it will be seen, point to the neces- 
 sity of what is called experimental preaching ; or the 
 Gospel of Christ laid open, in its more spiritual and 
 subjective aspects ; — shewing the relation of dogma to 
 feeling, and the direct action of a doctrinal system on 
 the sympathies and experiences of the heart. By some 
 persons, it is well known, strong exceptions are taken 
 to this kind of preaching. They would have the 
 Gospel presented under its ohjedive aspects almost 
 entirely; as a scheme of facts to be understood, or 
 doctrines to be learned, or ritual service to comply 
 with, or precepts to keep and perform. Revelation, it 
 is argued, is God's remedy for a sick and suffering 
 world. And, applied faithfully, it is a sufficient and cer- 
 tain remedy. What purpose is served by these morbid 
 introspections of the soul's anatomy ? Or why should 
 we make ourselves anxious about the diagnosis, if we 
 are in the hands of a Physician, who is quite able to 
 remove the disease ? 
 
 On this alleged opposition between two modes of 
 teaching, we have only to repeat a remark, already 
 
214 THE SUBJECT-MATTER 
 
 made in another case of apparent contraries, that there 
 is, or ought to be, between them, no opposition at all ; 
 that the one is but the complement or correlative of the 
 other ; and that there is danger only, and discrepancy of 
 teaching only, and distortion of truth only, when either, 
 into the one scale or the other, there is thrown an unfair 
 and preponderating weight. As to this question of "ob- 
 jective " or "subjective" teaching, why, the very terms 
 used, suppose the existence of each other, as well as a reci- 
 procal adaptation to each other. What would be the use 
 of "objective" revealed truth, without a subject-mind to 
 reveal it to ? Or what were an " objective " revealed 
 remedy, without a receptive subject, at once conscious 
 of a disease, and capable of making use of the provided 
 cure? Moreover, it is in the several stages of this 
 awakened consciousness of our need of a remedy, and 
 in the degrees of practical urgency with which we are 
 led to lay hold on the Gospel, as the only remedy for 
 our need, that Scripture bids us look for proof, that its 
 reliefs have been savingly applied. We do not preach 
 effects, without preaching a cause. But if the cause be 
 adequate, we expect the effects to follow. Now, " the 
 word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than 
 any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing 
 asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, 
 and is a disccrncr of the thoughts and intents of the 
 heart." "^ And, therefore, we are to look for these 
 8^ Ileb. iv. 12, 
 
OF PREACHING. 215 
 
 effects. The eighth chapter of the epistle to the 
 Romans is fall of these subjective tests, — plain 
 marks of the Holy Spirit's work in the heart, by which 
 each one should try for himself, whether he be in the 
 faith or not. No mere objective preaching will enable 
 a man to do this. It scatters the seed only, without 
 taking any note where it falls. It may be on the 
 beaten track; it may be on the thinly-coated rock; it 
 may be among choking thorns, — the subjective aspect 
 of the parable, being entirely overlooked, though teach- 
 ing, as this does, that fruit will only come up, when the 
 seed has been " received into an honest and good heart." 
 Admitting, however, the importance of bringing, 
 much and prominently, into our sermons, the emo- 
 tions and processes of the Christian's inner life, the 
 question will present itself, whence is a knowledge of 
 such experiences to be obtained ? From Holy Scrip- 
 ture, in some degree, no doubt. The large admixture 
 of the narrative and biographical element, in the in- 
 spired writings, might seem almost to have been de- 
 signed for this end. And in epistles, and histories, and 
 holy psalms, the Christian beholds the reflected workings 
 of the renewed mind, as plainly " as face answereth to 
 face in a glass." From pastoral intercourse, also, we 
 may learn much ; from the different phases of spiritual 
 feeling and emotion, which are brought before us, 
 whether in the chamber of sickness, or in the house of 
 mourning, or in the trials of those who are passing 
 
■216 THE SUBJECT-MATTER 
 
 through a long niglit of mental sadness. Each of 
 these phases may be taken as a type. They represent 
 a stage or condition of the religious sensibilities, 
 through which many will be passing, while we speak ; 
 and who, in the life-like and truthful touches of 
 our picture, will recognise the phenomena of their own 
 mental condition. 
 
 But there is one source of truth and power, in draw- 
 ing these portraitures of the inner life, for the want of 
 which no extent of pastoral observation, nor even any 
 theoretical acquaintance with Holy Scripture, can com- 
 pensate. We mean that which is self- supplied ; v/hich 
 wells up from the deep springs of the man's own spirit ; 
 which makes it sure that the portrait shall be natural, be- 
 cause we have gone, for the original, to the diversities of 
 our own inner life, and to the teachings of our own heart. 
 Experimental preaching is the preaching of soul to 
 soul ; and one might almost as soon expect an electric 
 spark to be elicited from an uncharged battery, as for 
 the preaching of experimental truth to profit, where the 
 experience is all on one side. No ; such preaching is 
 not for the unconverted man. Simulate it he may ; and 
 to a certain extent, successfidly. He may borrow 
 largely from the quaintnesses of puritan theology ; or 
 incorporate, into his discourses, the ''high nonsense" of 
 Oerman spiritualism ; or turn, into bad prose, the most 
 spiritua] ])arts of the poetry of the " Christian Year"— 
 careful to intermingle, with this pseudo-heart-painting. 
 
OF PREACHING. 217 
 
 certain hackneyed religious phrases ; or else, taking 
 shelter from his own obscurities, in some equally 
 hackneyed Scripture text. All this, we say, he may do. 
 Nor is it for us to say that no blessing shall follow. It 
 is not in ministerial deficiences, happily, to "take away 
 the effect of Christ's ordinance." And, with God, there 
 is no restraint " to save by many or by few," — by an 
 Ezekiel, w^ho receives all the words of the Lord into 
 his heart, ^^ or by a Balaam, who only takes them upon 
 his lips. 
 
 On the other hand, let the filling up of the spiritual 
 outline we have been drawing, be found in our own 
 breast, — in our own contrition for sin, in our own be- 
 wailings of infirmity, in our own conflicts with the 
 remainders of an evil nature, in our own too feeble 
 aspirings after the sanctities of a higher life ; let us speak 
 that we do know, and testify that we have felt, when we 
 discourse of the misery of the veiled face of God ; of 
 the discomfort of a blank morning's prayer; of the 
 strength of conscious weakness ; of the peace and joy 
 of the Saviour's cross, — of looking to it, of glorying 
 in it, of living very near to it, — and, we may be 
 well assured, that a genial and grateful re^^ponse will be 
 awakened in a thousand Christ-touched hearts. "Never 
 do I find my people so much edified and strengthened," 
 said the late Legh Richmond, " as when I speak from 
 the inward feelings of my own heart." And the expe- 
 33 Ezek. ii. 10. 
 
'218 THE SUBJECT-MATTER 
 
 riciice of most of us will confirm this. Under a fresh 
 sorroNY in our own families, how tenderly can we com- 
 fort ? When a feared evil has just been averted from 
 ourselves, how fervently can we exhort to trust ? When 
 we have had a time of near fellowship with God, in our 
 own spirit, how, unconsciously to ourselves, does the 
 face of the soul shine ? Not that our own religious 
 feelings, of any kind, are to be obtruded much 
 upon our people's notice ; for that would betray a 
 tliinking of self; a base pride, sheltering itself under 
 the mask of humiliation; a subtle form of preaching 
 our own attainments, our own conflicts, the extent to 
 which we " bear in our body the marks of the Lord 
 Jesus" — when w^e ought rather to be telling of the 
 riches of His grace, and shewing that we glory only in 
 His cross. We are to make use of our own experi- 
 ences, and the more marked features of spiritual ex- 
 pression in our own character, only as they help to 
 bring out new varieties of a many-sided life, — a life 
 unseen, a life from heaven, a life " hid with Christ in 
 God." 
 
 It may be thought, perhaps, that considering the 
 relative ])aucity, in every congregation, of spiritually- 
 minded persons, we ought, upon any principle of fair- 
 ness in our distributions, to introduce the mention of 
 these experimental topics, very sparingly. It may be 
 said iliat, to a large majority of hearers, these discourses 
 of spiritual ])athology would be like preaching in an 
 
OF PREACHING. 219 
 
 unknown tongue ; and, in fact, that the thoughts of 
 many hearts, after a sermon of this kind, would find 
 their best expression in the remark, said to have been 
 made by Pitt to Mr. Wilberforce, as they w^ere return- 
 ing from hearing a highly-spiritual discourse from 
 Richard Cecil : — " I cannot understand what the man 
 says." But in answer to this, it is to be remembered, 
 that, in regard of different modes of presenting a faith- 
 ful message, we none of us know " whether shall 
 prosper, this or that." The instances of success, in 
 individual cases, we are permitted to hear of, are found 
 for the most part, to leave all our antecedent reckonings 
 at fault ; — the advanced Christian being often brought 
 on his way by an exhortation, which was never 
 meant for him; and the w^orldly man, being stirred up 
 to serious thought, by discourses, for which we expected 
 to find a response, chiefly, in the sympathies of an 
 eclectic few. Even, in the case of the gifted states- 
 man above mentioned, we are not sure whether a 
 sermon on Christian experience, was not the very 
 best, he could have listened to. Discourses of 
 doctrine, or of practice, he could hear every Sun- 
 day. They were familiar to him as household 
 words; and would pass away as soon. 'But what,' 
 he might naturally ask, as he witnessed the deep 
 interest which this kind of spiritual preaching 
 awakened, ' is the secret of converting the barren 
 
220 THE SUBJECT-MATTER 
 
 dogmas of a creed into living things, — living facts of 
 experience, living bonds of sympathy, living springs, 
 to those who spiritually received them, of a common, 
 jov, and liope, and peace ? What is this strange free- 
 masonry of religions thought, by which one heart signs 
 to so many other hearts ? and this, by the aid of no 
 mystic medium, but owing solely to their common un- 
 derstanding of a book, which is open to all mankind 
 alike. In a word, what makes the Bible so different 
 a book to others, to what it has ever been to me ? " Thou 
 bringest strange things to our ears: we would know, 
 therefore what these things mean ?" '^ 
 
 And it is, in this way, as we believe, that this higher 
 tone of spiritual preaching is so often made beneficial 
 to unconverted men. The same Scripture which is profit- 
 able to the godly man for his " instruction in righteous- 
 ness," isfound profitable to the careless man for his " cor- 
 rection," and " reproof." A worldly person hears it de- 
 clared, " the natural man understandeth not the things of 
 the spirit of God r" * But why do I not understand them ?' 
 it will be natural for him to enquire. *The faculties of 
 intelligence belong as much to me, as to others. Where 
 shall 1 find a solution of this continuing mental dark- 
 ness, if it be not in the rebellion of a stubborn and 
 perverted will? "O God, search me and know my 
 heart : try me and know my thoughts, and see if there 
 ^ Acts xvii. 20. 
 
OF PREACHING. 221 
 
 be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way 
 everlasting.""' 
 
 At all events, the spiritual or aesthetic element of 
 our religion is a real element; and, in its place and 
 degree, must enter into every faithful ministry. True, 
 great care must be used that, in our statements about 
 it, there be no exaggeration, and no contradiction. It 
 must be kept in subordination to all the practical aspects 
 of the Christian life, that the door be not opened to a 
 religion of mere emotion and excitement. It must be 
 exhibited in harmony with our proper didactic teaching, 
 that we seem not to favour the delusions of the mystic, 
 and the recluse. And it must be enforced, in a way of 
 concurrence with all man's thinking, and feeling, and 
 active powers, in order that the requirement supposed 
 in it may not appear an impossible thing, — namely 
 that the affections be set on things above, while 
 the mind that plans, and the hands that toil, are 
 necessarily employed on things that are on the 
 earth. These conditions observed, it seems hardly 
 possible to err in excess, when enforcing a religion of 
 the heart. For " with the heart man believeth unto 
 righteousness. '' "Out of the heart proceed the issues 
 of life." An exaggerated regard to the demands of an 
 external system has been the distinguishing vice of all 
 false or corrupted worship, and the homage of the 
 affections is the first proof required from us of God, that 
 35 Psalm cxxxix. 23, 24. 
 
'2'2'2 THE SUBJFXT-MATTE-R OF PREACHING. 
 
 our worship is spiritual and true. "For he is not a 
 Jew >Yhich is one outwardly : neither is that circum- 
 cision which is outward in the flesh : But he is a Jew 
 uhich is one inwardly ; and circumcision is that of the 
 heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise 
 is not of men but of God."^° 
 
 36 Rom. ii. 28, 29. 
 
223 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE DELIVERY OF A SERMON. 
 
 Prejudice against elocution as an art— Opinion of Professor Blunt 
 — The ordinance of preaching a testimony to the importance of 
 good oral address — EfiPect of it on the Stage— Danger of manner- 
 ism — Cultivation of delivery among the ancients — Modern prac- 
 tice on the Continent and among Dissenters — The voice — 
 Physical danger of overstraining it — The only qualification to 
 speak audibly and pleasantly — Eight pronunciation — Use of 
 gesture — Practice of the ancients — Of Whitefield — Of Chalmers 
 — Chief use of art to correct ungracefulness in action — ^Ex- 
 pression of the countenance — Necessity of earnestness — Baxter's 
 lamentations — Trials of good men in relation to earnestness of 
 delivery. 
 
 Among queries for the consideration of those who 
 would turn their mind to subjects of social amelioration, 
 the acute Bishop Berkeley once proposed the follow- 
 ing: — "Whether half the learning and study of these 
 kingdoms is not useless for want of a proper delivery 
 and pronunciation being taught in our schools and 
 colleges?"^ It is to be feared the bishop would find 
 1 Bp. Berkeley's Querist, No. 203. 
 
2-24 THE DELIVERY OF A SERMON. 
 
 no improvement among us, if he were living now. 
 Indeed, in one respect, he would find us worse. His 
 remark points chiefly to the neglect of an important 
 branch of education. In the sense of an art, reducible 
 to technical or scientific laws, and, in which, therefore, 
 we should not be ashamed to have properly qualified 
 persons to guide us, elocution, in our day, is commonly 
 looked upon with contempt. Hear a recently-expressed 
 dictum from one, whom the Lady Margaret would have 
 been proud of as the occupant of her learned chair. 
 " To repair to some professor of elocution, he often a 
 stage player, for rules by which to govern the voice 
 and attitude in the house of God, seems so likely to 
 begin in foppery or to end in it, that I confess it 
 would take a great deal of substantial merit in the man 
 and the minister to divert my mind, at least, were T 
 one of his flock, from the offensive associations such a 
 proceeding would connect with him." ^ 
 
 A hard sentence this. Yet the true reflection of the 
 University mind, — probably in some degree, of the whole 
 clerical mind throughout the country. With very rare 
 exceptions, our clergy take no lessons in elocution, and 
 the reason why they do not, we believe, proceeds as much 
 from shame as from anything else. Some excuse, no 
 doubt, may be found in the fact that, in this country, at 
 least, the ])rot'L'ssion has been left to be taken up by 
 ill-qualified men,— by the stage-player, Blunt speaks 
 "^ Dutii'a of a r'aiish Prie?t, Sect v. p. 175. 
 
THE DELIVERY OF A SERMON. 225 
 
 of, or by the literary charlatan. But for all this, if 
 there be any truth in the principles, about to be advo- 
 cated in this chapter, it will be hard to escape from the 
 conclusion, that to despise all scientific aids, in ac- 
 quiring a correct delivery, is to throw scorn upon a 
 great auxiliary to the truth, and virtually to make a 
 boast of our self-sufficiency and conceit. 
 
 We have headed our chapter, " The Delivery of a 
 Sermon," desiring to include, under that phrase, all 
 those varieties in the look, tone, and outward manner 
 of a preacher, by which he hopes to give more effective 
 expression to his thoughts, and to move his auditory to 
 more hearty sympathy with his theme. There is a 
 right way of setting about this ; and there are a thous- 
 and wrong ways. The question is, whether any rules 
 can be laid down to direct him in his choice, — in other 
 words, whether the power to affect his hearers, by his 
 discourse, is at all dependent upon the right exercise 
 of the bodily organs ; and then, whether there is any- 
 thing, in those organs, to except them from the general 
 law of the human faculties, which supposes that they 
 may be improved by cultivation. 
 
 First, then, does the power to enforce truth upon a 
 hearer, depend upon the good or bad use, by the 
 speaker, of his bodily organs ? Is there an independent 
 momentum, in a well expressed, and logically con- 
 structed discourse, which will have its proper effect 
 upon the mind, though the speaker should take no heed 
 
 Q 
 
2-26 THE DELIVERY OF A SERMON. 
 
 to his elocution at all ? That is, though he should be 
 declamatory, ^Yhe^e he ought to be grave ; or be inter- 
 rogatory, when there is no question to be asked ; 
 though he should make " confusion worse confounded " 
 of his emphases, and mate a pause at every place but 
 the right? This, of course, no one will contend for; 
 and, therefore, we may safely begin at this point, — that 
 there may be a bad elocution, — bad for interesting a 
 hearer ; bad for producing any moral impression ; bad 
 even for common intelligibleness. Many of us, it is 
 likely, have heard sermons delivered in this way; and 
 as we sat, have felt almost impelled to imitate the 
 example of the man, invited to a private reading, by 
 Thomson, of his poem of the " Seasons/' — and who 
 snatched the manuscript out of the surprised poet's 
 hands, because he could bear the murdering of such 
 beautiful thoughts no longer. 
 
 But, the possibility of a bad elocution granted, and 
 even of ruining, thereby, the best discourse in the 
 world, can we go a step further, and claim, for elocu- 
 tion, a j)osit{ve quality of goodness of its own } That is, 
 can we challenge attention to it, not only as capable 
 of doing the amplest justice to prepared or written 
 language, but also, as fitted to clothe the correspond- 
 ing thought with a reality, and life, and power, which 
 tlie written language of itself would never have been 
 able to express ? We think we may go thus far ; and, 
 in proof of it, feel that we have only to appeal to this 
 
THE DELIVERY OF A SERMON. 227 
 
 Divine ordinance of preaching itself. For why should 
 the enforcement of truth and duty, upon the human 
 conscience, be committed of God, to such a mode of 
 conveyance at all ? Why should the agency of oral 
 teaching have been preferred, by Him, to visions of the 
 night, or the ministry of angels, or the untouched and 
 unexpauded letter of the written word, — heaven itself 
 speaking to the ear in closets, in order that nothing of 
 man,— nothing of the wind, or the earthquake, or the 
 fire, might compete with the still small voice of God ? 
 Why, but that the Author of our being knew that there 
 were latent sensibilities in the human soul, which would 
 be kindled into life, by nothing so soon as by the 
 power of the living voice ; by the fascinations of eye, 
 and tone, and countenance lighted up; attitude, look, 
 feature, manner, each having a language of its own, and 
 all speaking, in their own tongue, the wonderful works 
 of God. 
 
 For the practical proof of this superiority of the oral, 
 over the written language, we have only to go to the 
 stage. " There," observes Bishop Burnet, ^' such is the 
 power of a good pronunciation, that though we know 
 that all is a fable and fiction, the tender parts do so 
 melt the company, that tears cannot be stopped even 
 by those who laugh at themselves for it."^ The reason 
 of all this is that the actor knows the power of his in- 
 strument, and adapts himself to its scientific laws. He 
 3 Pastoral Care,ch. ix. p. 155, ed. 1840. 
 
 Q 2 
 
•2-28 THE DELIVERY OF A SERMON. 
 
 Studies, not only the language of the author, but the 
 language of the hody. He knows that there are shades 
 of sentiment and thought, too ethereal and delicate for 
 the written symbol to pourtray. It is to the eye, " that 
 most pure spirit of sense ;" and to the marking accent, 
 as it lingers upon his tongue ; to the frame, eloquent 
 of emotion, and to the poetry of the discoursing hand, 
 that he looks to enable him to bring out the poet's 
 finer frenzies. Roscius, with deformities of feature, 
 which had to be concealed by means of a mask, could 
 yet enchain a Roman audience with delight, by the ex- 
 pressive intonations, and overpowering sweetness of 
 his voice ; whilst, of Garrick, it is affirmed that, by a 
 mere posture of the elbow, he could delineate a state of 
 mind, which artificial language was too inflexible to 
 express. 
 
 ' But we have the utmost horror,' it will be said, 
 ' either of being or appearing actors. We join, with 
 all our hearts, in that sentiment of Cowper, 
 
 " In man or woman, but far most in man. 
 And, most of all, in man that ministers 
 At the altar, from my very soul, I loathe 
 All affectation." 
 
 And we would rather retain our elocutionary awkward- 
 nesses all our days, than dabble in the mysteries of a 
 craft, which would tend to make, of an ambassador for 
 Christ, a Garrick, or a Roscius.' Now, leaving Cowper 
 
THE DELIVERY OF A SERMON. 229 
 
 to himself, the rest of this argument, as it seems to us, 
 would be rightly paralleled, by supposing a man to 
 say, he would rather retain a bad or injurious habit of 
 walking all his life, than be indebted, for its cure, to an 
 art, which might tend to give to his gait the mincing 
 step of a dancing-master. For, to whatever excess car- 
 ried, the principles, whether of the actor or the dancing- 
 master, are based upon the ascertained laws of our 
 nature ; — laws, which neither of these artists could 
 transgress, without defeating his own object; nor, in 
 the case of speaking, especially, without risk of lasting 
 injury to the organ employed. 
 
 But must not a set and prepared regard to the man- 
 ner of our delivery, — a resolution prepense that we will 
 deliver this passage in one way, and that passage in 
 another, — of necessity lead to a transparent artificial- 
 ness, an offensive mannerism, a painful conviction, in 
 the mind of the hearers, that there has been a closet 
 rehearsal, — leaving them at no loss to discover, when 
 the solemn pause is coming in, or when they are to 
 expect 
 
 " The start theatric practised at the glass ?" 
 
 No doubt there is a danger of this, if there have really 
 been any such rehearsal ; that is, if in applying the 
 principles of the elocutionary art, we try them directly 
 upon a sermon of our own, and especially upon one 
 which we are just about to deliver. For then, it is 
 
•230 THE DELIVERY OF A SERMON. 
 
 hardly possible, but that the miserable thought of self 
 should be present, while we are preaching ; and parti- 
 cular passages may recall the determination formed, in 
 the private exerciso, as to how this or that should be 
 spoken. But there is no danger of this, if, as has been 
 well recommended, in our private elocutionary studies, 
 we recite with appropriate energy the work of some 
 standard author.^ Indeed, our recommendations, 
 throughout, must be taken to proceed upon the sugges- 
 tion already quoted from Bishop Berkeley, — namely, 
 that the cultivation of a good oral address should enter 
 into tJie 2^reacher' s education; that the principles of the 
 art should have been mastered by him, before he has 
 authority to enter a pulpit at all. In such a case, any 
 ])articular rehearsal of his own sermons, in the strict 
 elocutionary sense, will not be necessary. In the case 
 of the written sermon, he will read it carefully; and, 
 with a view to correct and impressive emphasis, he 
 may find it an advantage to read it aloud. But, for any 
 accessories of delivery beyond this, he may trust him- 
 self to the impulse of the moment. The halit of a good 
 elocution once acquired, the application of its rules to 
 one discourse or another, will come naturally. A good 
 reader will deliver a passage of Milton effectively, 
 thou^d] he had never read a line of it before. How 
 
 ^ Gresley's Eccl. Angl. Part IV., Let. xxxii., who quotes the 
 practice of Demosthenes :—" Demosthenes, grande quoddam 
 intuens speculum, componere actionem solebat." Quinctil. xi. 3. 
 
THE DELIVERY OF A SERMON. 231 
 
 much easier should it be for a preacher, who has accus- 
 tomed himself in private to read aloud the compositions 
 of others, — to deliver with animation, and propriety, 
 and, without any studied recital beforehand, a discourse 
 of his own preparing. 
 
 At all events, w^hat the age demands of the preacher 
 is this ; that he have such a practical acquaintance with 
 all that constitutes good delivery, whether acquired by- 
 oral recitation in private, or by the aid of a competent 
 instructor, as shall ensure for his hearers a fulfilment of 
 tliese two conditions ; — first, that there be none of those 
 distortions, croakings, jerkings, and screamings, by 
 which the effect of a discourse is so much injured ; and, 
 secondly, that there shall be so much of skilled adapta- 
 tion of the bodily organs, as, harmonizing with the 
 modesty of nature, and based upon her eternal laws, 
 shall express right thoughts in a forcible and right way. 
 It is needless to say how many preachers fall short of 
 the first, and merely negative, requirement here spoken 
 of. To many, who would boast that they never have 
 recourse to " the start theatric before the glass," we fear 
 it might be said, ' The greater the pity that you never 
 should.' For if some of your gestures and grimaces 
 had been practised there, we feel sure they never would 
 have been repeated anywhere else ; instead of being 
 visited, as they now are, every week, upon your con- 
 gregation, — patient under the infliction, and helpless in 
 their disgust. 
 
232 THE DELIVERY OF A SERMON. 
 
 Other considerations might be urged vindicating the 
 necessity of attention to a good delivery. Our neglect 
 of it stands out in strange contrast, with our veneration 
 for the models of classic antiquity, — with our endea- 
 vours to coerce our own intractable and uncouth lan- 
 guage, into conformity with those graceful and flowing 
 periods, which so much delight us, in the oratory of 
 Greece and Rome. And yet what nations ever trusted 
 to the unaided power of written language so little, or, 
 on the requisitions for a good practical oratory, insisted 
 so much ? A bad speaker, — a man of croaking voice, 
 or of spasmodic twitch and jerk, would not have been 
 tolerated in the forum, however convincing his argu- 
 ments, or however imposing the rhetorical finish of his 
 style. Among the Romans, especially, the education 
 of the orator was a life. It began at seven years of 
 age. In wealthy families, a professor of rhetoric was 
 kept in the house. At an early age, the youthful 
 orator was expected to commit to memory the famous 
 laws of the twelve tables ; whilst, as Plutarch relates, 
 in the life of the younger Cato, the very boys, intended 
 for the forum, would get up mock trials, and go through 
 all the forms of a judicial inquiry, by way of trying 
 their young powers of oratory. And thebest speakers con- 
 tinued practising declamation, as a mere artistic exer- 
 cise, and solely with a view to self-improvement, long 
 after ihey had entered upon public life. " Cicero, after 
 his first great effort, put himself under foreign in- 
 
THE DELIVERY OF A SERMON. 233 
 
 stmctors, for the better management of his vocal organs. 
 And, on his return, though he was engaged in many 
 and different faculties," says his biographer, " he let 
 no day slip without some performance in oratory, de- 
 claiming constantly with the best antagonists he could 
 light on, among the students."^ And like things are 
 related of other great orators. The painstaking of 
 Demosthenes has passed with us into a familiar school- 
 word : — how he sought to correct a stammering utter- 
 ance, by putting stones into his mouth ; and to cure 
 himself of shortness of breathing, by running rapidly 
 up a hill ; how he braced himself for the tumult of an 
 Athenian assembly, by speaking against the wild roar 
 of the sea, and studied carefully, before a mirror, how 
 the arm should be waved, and in what folds the flowing 
 robe would fall. We, perhaps, should incline to think 
 that' all this labour was thrown away, ^schines did 
 not think so. In his banishment, we are told, he re- 
 cited, on some public occasion, one of his rival's 
 speeches. The auditory expressed themselves, in 
 terms of highest rapture, at the performance. Upon 
 which he said, " How much more would you have been 
 affected if you had heard Demosthenes deliver it ?"^ 
 Neither is there any want of sanction to a cultivated 
 
 5 See Kennett's Essay on the Roman Education, prefixed to his 
 Antiquities, Essay IT., p. xxv. 
 
 ^ Potter's Short History of Grecian Literature, Supplement to 
 Grecian Antiquities. 
 
234 THE DELIVERY OF A SERMON. 
 
 elocution in modern practice, and that even in the 
 department of theology. The importance attached to 
 it b}' continental divines, — our greatest authorities upon 
 preaching as an art, at all events, — is sufficiently evident 
 from the prominent place it occupies in the writings 
 of Cardinal Maury, and of Fenelon. In the Andover 
 Theological Seminary, there is a chair founded for a 
 Professor of Sacred Rhetoric, a part of whose office it is 
 to deliver lectures on the culture of the voice, and all 
 other accessories of an effective oratory. The same 
 studious regard to the cultivation of the elocutionary 
 art, is observed in the principal theological institutions 
 for preparing men for the ministry, among the noncon- 
 formists in our own country.'' So that, in a practical 
 ignoring of all the adjuncts of effective oral address, 
 and in the almost contemptuous denial, to elocution, of 
 any right to be considered an art at all, we think it may 
 be affirmed, that we, of the Church of England, stand 
 almost alone. 
 
 Assuming, however, that we have made out our case 
 thus far, and have proved that, lil^e Sir Roger de Cover- 
 ley's model chaplain, we ought to " endeavour after a 
 handsome elocution," our next inquiry will turn upon 
 the question, " what a handsome elocution is ?" in 
 other words, '' what constitutes good delivery ?" And 
 
 ' See an account of tlie inetbod pursued at the Baptist College, 
 in Mr. Gurney's Cousecratiou Sermon, p. 53. 
 
THE DELIVERY OF A SERMON. 235 
 
 here, as in the case of style, there will probably be the 
 most perfect agreement among us, as to the 'imme of 
 what we desiderate, with the utmost possible diversity 
 about the thing. Thus, the name, by which a good 
 delivery should be described, we shall be all agreed 
 upon. Eschewing all art, study, affectation, mannerism, 
 the only thing we ask for, it wdll be said, is a natural 
 delivery. But this brings us no nearer to the solution 
 of our difficulty. For nyc ask whose natural, and which 
 of all the naturals is it to be ? It is natural, to one 
 man, to be rapid in his utterance, to another to be 
 very slow ; — to one, to carry himself with a familiar, 
 fire- side ease, to another, to be fettered and oppressed 
 with dignity ;■ — to one man, to keep to the same whining 
 and funereal note, from the text to the doxology ; to 
 another, not to be able to get through a paragraph, 
 without bringing in all the changes of the vocal gamut, 
 from the deepest barytone, up to a scream ; to one 
 man, to maintain, throughout, the same statuesque and 
 unmoved rigidity of features ; to another, to keep all 
 the facial muscles in a constant state of wTithing and 
 distortion, as if he expected his countenance to tell us 
 his meaning, even if we could understand nothing else. 
 It will probably be answered, that these are in- 
 stances of acquired unnaturalisms ; or, at all events, ex- 
 amples of a natural tendency exaggerated and overdone. 
 But then, it is in determining when nature is overdone, 
 — in finding the proper medium, — in the case of utter- 
 
236 THE DELIVERY OF A SERMON. 
 
 ance, for instance, between the "bounding steed" and 
 the " wounded snake ;" or in the case of tone, between 
 the pompous mouthing and the doleful w^hine, — that 
 all the rules of a correct and chastened elocution are 
 brouglit to bear. Thus naturalness, as applied to the 
 delivery of a preacher, consists chiefly in the avoiding 
 of that which is awkward, and unnatural ; in a studied 
 consideration of the way in which nature should, and 
 would deliver herself, if she had none of the acquired 
 peculiarities of home or school to contend with, or no 
 original inaptitudes of her own to correct. If this is to 
 make naturalness an art, the blame of the solecism 
 must be with those who make it anything else ; who 
 seem to take it for granted that we have an intuitive 
 faculty for perceiving all rhetorical proprieties at once ; 
 indeed, who argue, as if it were just as natural for a 
 man to preach, as it is for a beaver to build, or a bird 
 to fly. Individualities there may be, no doubt, pecu- 
 liar to every public speaker. And these, if not too 
 closely bordering on the awkward or the ludicrous, it 
 will be helpful to a natural delivery to retain. We do 
 not want either preachers or orators made to a pattern, 
 — each man sacrificing, to some uniform artificial 
 standard, all that is peculiar, or personal to himself. 
 We could no more fix a standard of the graceful in 
 oratorical manner, than we could fix a standard of the 
 beautiful in the human countenance. In both cases, 
 there may be the greatest possible diversity, between 
 
THE DELIVERY OF A SERMON. 237 
 
 one person and another, whilst each has a characteris- 
 tic excellence of his own. That which we are especially 
 contending for is, that, concurrently with these retained 
 personalities, there should be a study of the best 
 models, and a regard to scientific rules. Nature may 
 alw^ays be herself, without despising art ; and she will 
 only be the more herself, for studying art aright. 
 
 What, then, are those bodily organs, which, as per- 
 taining to a good and natural delivery, it is important 
 to a preacher that he should know how to manage ; and 
 which a careful regard to rules will enable him more 
 fully to develope ? Of these, the first and the principal, 
 is the VOICE. Will any doubt the value of judicious 
 guidance in the use of this ? Why, even in relation 
 to its physical management, and the danger, both to 
 usefulness and life, from the undue and unscientific 
 tension of its powers, the study of elocution, as mi art, 
 is almost indispensable. We alluded to Cicero, just 
 now. At the age of seven-and-twenty, he had, owing 
 to the vehemence of his oratory, and great constitu- 
 tional weakness, so injured his voice, that he was 
 strongly advised, by his physicians and nearest friends, 
 to abandon his profession. He refused. He deter- 
 mined to see whether, by bringing his voice down to a 
 lower and more moderate key, he might not retain his 
 health, and lose none of his effectiveness as a speaker. 
 For this purpose he went to Greece, placed himself 
 
238 THE DELIVERY OF A SERMON. 
 
 under the care, first of Atticus, then of Demetrius, the 
 Syrian ; aVid, after making a circuit round all Asia, in 
 company with the most celebrated orators and rheto-. 
 ricians, he returned at the end of two years, quite 
 another man. " His way of speaking seemed to have 
 grown cool, and his voice was rendered much easier to 
 himself, and much sweeter to the audience."^ 
 
 And this danger to health belongs to the preacher 
 also ; — belongs to him, even more than to other speakers, 
 on account of the unwieldy dimensions of the edifice, 
 which his voice is often required to fill. Who has not 
 heard of " the clergyman's throat ?" — a disease of the 
 larynx, which, according to the testimony of medi- 
 cal men, is seldom or never found in other public 
 speakers, whether in parliament or among pleaders at 
 the bar.^ But, .among clergymen, it abounds ; and 
 often produces effects of life-long mischief. By way of 
 practical illustration of the evils resulting from this 
 cause, we may quote the following extract from a charge 
 of Dr. Hort, formerly Archbishop of Tuam : — " Let me 
 here add," says that prelate, " by way of caution, the 
 danger of forcing and straining the internal organs. I 
 wish I were not an unhappy example of this kind ; and 
 tiiat I did not, to this day, feel the sad effects of making 
 too violent efibrts, in the pulpit, many years ago. From 
 
 8 Kennett's Essays on Rom. Educat. Ess. 11. p. xxv. 
 
 • See Whately's llhetoric. Part IV., c. iv., § 4. Note. 
 
THE DELIVERY OF A SERMON. 239 
 
 my own experience, therefore, let me advise young 
 preachers who have not the most robust hings, to have 
 recourse to art and management, rather than to force, for 
 supplying that defect." ^° 
 
 But leaving the question of physical danger to the 
 preacher, from this unnatural straining, — the risk he runs 
 of destroying the natural quality of the voice, injuring 
 the delicate organization of the throat, and laying the 
 foundation, in the lungs and chest, of a lasting, and, per- 
 haps, incurable weakness, let us approach the subject of 
 a rightly-managed voice, from the hearer^ s side. And all 
 his requisitions of us may be summed up in these two, — 
 that we speak audibly, and that we speak pleasantly. 
 
 He requires us to speak audibly ; that is, that 
 he may hear everything we say, and have no doubt 
 that what he hears, was said ; neither obliged to put 
 in any slipped words, nor to go back over the sen- 
 tence, to be sure that his ear has not told him false. 
 Is a loud voice necessary for this ? or even an ordinary 
 voice, pitched very high ? Quite the contrary. For the 
 one is likely to be followed by an echo, and the other 
 is almost sure to run up to a speedily-expended scream. 
 Many preachers have found a loud or powerful voice 
 anything but an advantage. Obliged to confine them- 
 selves to a subdued, low-pitched monotone, they lose 
 the benefit of those delicate inflexions, which are so 
 
 1° The " Clergyman's Instructor, or, Tracts on Ministerial 
 Duties." Oxon. 
 
240 THE DELIVERY OF A SERMON. 
 
 lielpful to distinctness ; whilst if, as is commonly the 
 case in large churches, there be anything of reverbera- 
 tion, they cannot, without an unpleasing slowness of 
 utterance, get a single word clearly out. The voice is 
 continually coming back, — waves of sound meeting and 
 breaking upon each other, — a very chaos of words to 
 listen to, and confounding as the strife of tongues. 
 
 It seems, therefore, to be a merciful appointment of 
 the Author of our being, that, for effective speaking pur- 
 poses, no voice is more favourable than one of ordinary 
 or middle compass, and that, too, pitched no higher 
 than what elocutionists call its " natural bell-tone." ^^ 
 This, besides having the largest capabilities of inflexion, 
 and therefore helpful to distinct articulation by allowing 
 an occasional rise or fall, is found to be the voice, which 
 will both reach the furthest, and, by the speaker, can be 
 kept up the best. Whilst, if a man strains himself to 
 get out of this natural tone, he does not know where 
 his throat may carry him. A screech, a howl, a bark, 
 a choking for utterance, or a dead stop for want of 
 breath, — any of these he may come to. He cannot 
 answer for himself, — for anything, save for this, that 
 he is sure not to be heard. But let him speak in his 
 natural voice ; let him keep it up to the end of the 
 sentence ; let him give to every word its proper share of 
 mouth, and breath, and tongue, and teeth, instead of 
 
 11 Seo the "Art of Extempore Speaking," by the Abbe Bautain, 
 1859, p. b8. Engl. edit. 
 
THE DELIVERY OF A SERMON. 241 
 
 pounding together two or three words into one, — and 
 even with a weak voice, he will be able to make himself 
 heard. Especially should the habit be cultivated of 
 distinct enunciation. Of course there may be pedantry 
 in this, as in everything else ; and men may get into a 
 way of mincing, and measuring, and making much ado 
 about little words. But better this, than the continuous 
 rattle of some huge pollysyllabic sentence, where the 
 little words get trodden out, and the great ones, strung 
 together like a file of Alpine climbers, are obliged each 
 one to hold on by the next. 
 
 But besides speaking audibly, our hearers require of 
 us that we should speak ^pleasantly. Whitefield's voice, 
 while of compass enough to be heard easily by an open- 
 air congregation of thirty-thousand people, was so capti- 
 vating, that Franklin declared it produced in him the same 
 kind of pleasure he experienced in listening to beautiful 
 music.^ Of course, no rules of art could give a man such 
 perfection as this. But they may enable him to speak 
 agreeably, that is, without anything in the use of the 
 vocal organs, which should be repulsive or oflfending ; 
 without that wearisome drawl, for instance, which makes 
 one have to watch for the words coming forth, as for 
 a snail coming out of its shell ; or that nasal accompa- 
 niment which assimilates, too nearly, to the notes of an 
 instrument out of tune ; or that harsh, coarse, unmiti- 
 gated gruffncss, which reminds us far less of a "pleasant 
 13 See Quarterly Review. Yol. cii., p. 479. 
 
 R 
 
'242 THE DELIVERY OF A SERMON. 
 
 voice" from the pulpit of an Ezekiel, than of a cynic 
 growl from the tub of a Diogenes. 
 
 How various are these drawbacks upon an agreeable 
 elocution, andofhow^ long growth, we may learn from a 
 picture drawn for us, in an old black letter book, on Rhe- 
 toric, published in 1553. " Some there be that either 
 naturally or through folly, have such evil voices and such 
 lack of utterance .... that it much defaceth all their 
 doings. Onepipesout his words so small, through default 
 of his windpipe, that ye would think he whistled. Ano- 
 ther is so hoarse in his throat, that a man would think he 
 came lately from the scouring of harness. Another 
 speaks as though he had plums in his mouth. Another 
 speaks in his throat, as though a good ale crumb stuck 
 fast. Another rattles his words. Another chops his 
 words. Another speaks as though his words had need 
 to be heaved out with levers. Another speaks as though 
 his words should be weighed out in a balance. Another 
 gapes to catch wind at every third word. .... Some 
 sighs out their words. Some sings their sentences. 
 Some cackles like a hen or a jackdaw. Some cries 
 out so loud that they would make a man's ears ake to 
 hear them." ^ 
 
 Rules, against the contraction of these unfortunate 
 and eccentric habits, it would be difficult to suggest, 
 oven if it came within the purpose of a work like this to 
 offer them. We are dealing, chiefly, with the question 
 of secondary aids to effective preaching ; and, among 
 " Pott's Liber Cantabrigiensis, 175th of Aphorisms and Maxims. 
 
THE DELIVERY OF A SERMON. 243 
 
 them, we put down a culture of the organs of speech. 
 And abundantly will these repay culture. No function 
 of the human organization is capable of greater im- 
 provement, by artificial means, than the voice. Defects 
 may be overcome. Increased power may be gained. 
 The musical quality of it may be improved; and a 
 power of sympathy, with all that is pure in feeling and 
 refined in thought, may be imparted to it, — fairly en- 
 titling it to be considered among the highest endow- 
 ments of our humanity ; and, by its union with an intel- 
 lectual soul, justifying the expression that " the tongue 
 is the glory of man." 
 
 Before passing from the subject of vocal expression, 
 as applied to preaching, we may, perhaps, be excused 
 for touching upon another point ; — of little account to 
 notice in a book, some may think, but, as George 
 Herbert says, the country parson "holds the rule that 
 nothing is little in God's service." We allude to the 
 importance of a cultivated accuracy of pronunciation. 
 Very remarkable was the prominence assigned to this 
 in the educational systems of antiquity. From the 
 earliest age among the Romans, children, designed for 
 public life, were kept as much as possible from any 
 associations which might corrupt their purity of 
 diction ; and were placed under the care of highly-edu- 
 cated women, with a view, especially, to their acquiring 
 the nicest grammatical accuracy, in speaking their 
 native tongue. The mothers of the Gracchi, of Julius 
 
 r2 
 
244 THE DELIVERY OF A SERMON. 
 
 Caesar, and of Augustus, are said to have filled these 
 offices." And the importance which, according to 
 Cicero and Quinctilian, was attached to correct expres- 
 sion by the Roman people, would seem to justify this 
 care. They loved nothing, in an orator, so much as a 
 " clean, shining phrase." And such nicely-attuned ears 
 did they bring to a recitation, that one slip in quantity 
 would have filled the theatre with hisses. 
 
 Now would all public speakers among ourselves, like to 
 subject their orthoepy to the ordeal of such a critical au- 
 dience ? Would all preachers like to do so ? To say no- 
 thing of the ill usage sometimes offered to that unfortu- 
 nate letter in our alphabet, which makes the name of Je- 
 zebel so much safer, for some persons, to pronounce than 
 that of her husband, has not its antecedent neighbour ^ g' 
 a right to complain of the use made of it by some 
 public speakers, when its lot falls at the end of a 
 word } Is it not sometimes turned into a base caco- 
 phony of half ' g' and half ^ k' ? and sometimes 
 made to disappear as absolutely as when a ' dele'' is put 
 against it in a printer's proof.? Against the inveterate- 
 ness of this last provincialism, no scholarship is proof. 
 Often are we asked to pray for our clergy, that " they 
 may have a true knowledge and understandiN of God's 
 word," as well as " set it forth by their preachiN' and 
 liviN'"; and yet the only recompense we get, from 
 him who ministers for us, is to be sent home with only 
 a mutilated blessiN'. 
 
 1* Kcnuett's Essay ou tlie Roman Educat., p. liv. 
 
THE DELIVERY OF A SERMON. 245 
 
 And other faults of pronunciation are there which many 
 persons seem to be at no pains to conquer {conker). What 
 are the great merits of the letter ' z/ for instance, that, 
 with some readers, we cannot be exhorted to the duty 
 of general confession, without being told that the 
 " Scripture moveth us in sundry plazesT'' or that we 
 cannot have a sentence in which the pronoun " us " 
 occurs, without being reminded of the land that Job 
 came from ? Or what, again, are the offences of the 
 letter ' r,' that, by men from some counties, it should 
 first {fust) be cast out of the church {chutcli), and after 
 that, perhaps, be joined on, bodily to the ranks of her 
 enemies (renemies) ? For many of these peculiarities, 
 no doubt, the authority of the he&t j)rovincial usage may 
 be cited ; and if ' use ' makes the ' right,' it may be said, 
 why should the ' country' be obliged to take its laws 
 from the ' town ?' But, whether the country do so or 
 not, it is quite clear that the preacher should. And 
 that for this reason ; that, while the standard or normal 
 dialect of a language is neither unintelligible, nor un- 
 pleasing to those who may be familiar with certain 
 provincial peculiarities, the Doric of the provinces does 
 become unpleasant, and often something more, to 
 those who are familiar only with the Attic of the ca- 
 pital. In these days of rapid locomotion, all parts of 
 the country are brought closer together. We shall 
 soon, it may be believed, neither speak in local dia- 
 lects, nor regulate time by local clocks. But shall all 
 
246 THE DELIVERY OF A SERMON. 
 
 approach nearer to the same standard of vernacular 
 pronunciation, just as chronometers along the lines of 
 railway all keep one solar time. 
 
 From the right use of the voice, as subservient to the 
 ends of a persuasive elocution, we pass on to consider 
 the other bodily organs ; and must try to meet, fairly 
 and without prejudice, the propriety, in our pulpit ex- 
 ercises, of using anything like gesture or action. On 
 action, as applied to oratory, in general, we have a 
 great authority thus delivering himself. '' If," says 
 Dr. Johnson, as though by one crushing and demonstra- 
 tive illustration, he would pin down our arms, and keep 
 us motionless for all time, " if I could once find a 
 speaker, in Change-alley, raising the price of stocks, by 
 the power of persuasive gestures, I should very zeal- 
 ously recommend the study of this art ; but having never 
 seen any action by which language was much assisted, 
 1 have been hitherto inclined to doubt whether my 
 countrymen are not blamed too hastily for their 
 calm and motionless utterance." Now, as far as the il- 
 lustration contained in this passage goes, probably, the 
 first retort most of us would be disposed to make on the 
 learned doctor, would be, * Did he ever go to Change- 
 alley ? Did he ever see a broker, expatiating, to his 
 client, on the stirring events of the times ; and urging 
 him not to lose a moment, in availing himself of some 
 recommended investment of his capital ?' A more un- 
 
THE DELIVERY OF A SERMON. 247 
 
 fortunate illustration, it may be believed, could hardly 
 have been chosen, or one less calculated to recommend 
 that " calm and motionless utterance," which, in the 
 judgment of Johnson, constitutes the charm of our na- 
 tional oratory.^^ 
 
 But what, on this question, do we learn from other 
 authorities ? or from a source, which is better than au- 
 thorities, namely, the custom of men who have left an 
 influence and a name behind them, which must entitle 
 their personal practice to consideration and respect ? 
 The bias of our classical authorities, in the matter, we 
 all know. The thrice repeated summing up of Demos- 
 thenes, — action, action, action, — as alone sufficient to 
 make a good orator, we have heard of again and again. 
 Whilst to the use of gesture among the Romans, it 
 would be difficult to say what limits were assigned. 
 Cicero tells us that, on one occasion, he snatched an 
 infant from the arms of a bystander, and held it until 
 
 ^5 Another instance of tlie Doctor's illogical spite against action, 
 occurs in his life of Dr. Watts. " He did not endeavour to assist 
 his eloquence by any gesticulations ; for as no corporeal actions 
 have any correspondence with theological truth, he did not see 
 how they could enforce it." Non mens hie sermo, we suspect Dr. 
 Watts would have said to this. The want of homogeneity in 
 the things spoken of, upon which the point of the reductio ad ab- 
 surdiim turns, is a pure fiction of Johnson's own. Suppose he had 
 said, " As no corporeal actions have any correspondence with the 
 oral enunciation of theological truth," what would have been the 
 force of the ai'gument then ? 
 
248 THE DELIVERY OF A SERMON. 
 
 his audience wept aloud. And Antonius considers he 
 made a master-stroke of effective pleading, when, in 
 the midst of his speech for Aquilius, he tore open the- 
 vest of his client, to shew the wounds he had received 
 in his country's service. 
 
 Tending to the same conclusion, and in favour of 
 what most of us should agi'ee in describing as exagge- 
 rated action, are the preserved records of the manner 
 of some of our greatest English preachers. A writer 
 in the Quarterly Review, speaking of Whitefield, says, 
 " His vehemence was excessive. A poor man said 
 that he preached like a lion. Sometimes he stamped, 
 sometimes he w^ept, sometimes he stopped, exhausted 
 by emotion, and appeared as if he was about to expire. 
 He usually vomited after the exertions of the day, and 
 often brought up blood." ^"^ Yet this was the man 
 whom the cold and sceptical Franklin would travel 
 twenty miles to hear ; and who, as he himself relates, 
 wrought so powerfully upon his feelings on one occa- 
 sion, when a collection was to be made, that he could 
 not refrain from emptying into the alms-dish, the whole 
 contents of his pocket, — gold and all. More surprised 
 are we to find instances of this exaggerated and violent 
 declamation, in a much later age ; and especially, 
 among such a reasoning and reflective people, as the 
 Scotch. Yet take the following from the pages of ano- 
 ther able Review. " Dr. Chalmers, on great occasions, 
 1° Oct 1857. Vol. cii. p. 478. 
 
THE DELIVERY OF A SERMON. 249 
 
 was absolutely terrible. His heavy frame was con- 
 vulsed ; his face flushed and grew pythic ; the veins on 
 his forehead and neck stood out like cordage ; his 
 voice cracked or reached to a shriek : foam flew from 
 his mouth in flakes ; he hung over his audience menac- 
 ing them with his shaking fist, or he stood erect ma- 
 niacal and stamping." " 
 
 Now dislike, as we may and must, all these elocu- 
 tionary extravagances, especially in the pulpit, we 
 cannot help allowing that, underlying them, there must 
 be some substratum of truth and nature. They shew 
 that, in giving utterance to its thoughts, the mind in- 
 sists upon having with it, the entire sympathy of the 
 bodily organs. Very unsuited often, and, in the 
 case of beautiful thoughts, with a strange unlikeness, 
 may the expression of this sympathy be. But still a 
 man would not be sawing the air, or swinging with his 
 body, or jerking a clenched fist, or grasping the ledge 
 of his pulpit as tightly, as he would hold by the 
 arms of a chair, when under the hands of the dentist, — 
 if it were natural to him to keep still. But this is not 
 natural to him ; and hence all his bad and inappro- 
 priate gesture. The protests of his instincts, under 
 strong emotion, are against quiescence, but not against 
 awkward movement. Nature tells him his arms should 
 be moved, but she does not necessarily tell him lioiu. 
 
 Neither, except within very narrow limits, can any 
 " British Quarterly Review, k^riX 1857, p. 470. 
 
250 THE DELIVERY OF A SERMON. 
 
 rules of art tell him how. We should be afraid, in 
 such a matter, to trust a professor for very much more 
 than a negative service. His positive rules, if acted 
 upon, could scarcely fail to generate a mannerism,— an 
 artificial movement, fashioned, perhaps, upon some 
 living type ; or executed according to mechanical rules ; 
 or, at all events, interfering with that perfect natural- 
 ness of manner, which, provided there be nothing awk- 
 ward in it, always sits best upon a man ; and which, 
 even if less graceful than some which he might have 
 borrovred, will be sure to please, because it is his 
 own.^^ As savouring of the artist, people will not bear 
 anything of imitated manner ; and we ought not to 
 desire that they should. It is a tacit homage to our 
 moral sincerity, — to the view we are supposed to take 
 of our own solemn responsibilities, — that our congrega- 
 tions will not endure an actor. Art, if it appear art, is 
 the object of their "implacable disgust." They will 
 even prefer awkwardness to affectation, and the most 
 ungraceful peculiarity to mere histrionic trick. Hence, 
 if lie who should undertake to guide us in our practical 
 delivery, will only save us from the inelegant, and the 
 ungraceful, and the ludicrous, and the grotesque, — it is 
 almost as much as we should expect him to do. For 
 anything beyond this, the body must be left to itself; 
 
 >8 Boileau well observes {Elogedu Vrai), 
 " Chacun, pris dans sou air, est agreable en soi ; 
 Ce n'est quo I'air d'autrui qui peut deplaire en moi." 
 
THE DELIVERY OF A SERMON. 251 
 
 to the idiosyncracies of its own natural movements ; — 
 evincing sympathy with the mind's workings in the 
 pulpit, just as it would out of it, — without consciousness, 
 and without a law. 
 
 Upon the whole, it will be gathered, that, while dis- 
 agreeing with the theory of Johnson upon the propriety 
 of oratorical gesture, in general, we could not, in the 
 presenttemper of our English congregations, recommend 
 a very prodigal use of action in the pulpit. Whether it 
 be from something peculiar in our Anglo-Saxon tem- 
 perament ; or from our long-continued use of the 
 manuscript sermon, making the sight of action in the 
 pulpit unfamiliar to us ; or, more likely still, from the 
 fact, that such specimens of action, as we do witness, 
 are very ungraceful or very bad, it is certain, that, as a 
 rule, our congregations have come to look, with much 
 disfavour, on a very energetic elocution .^^ With the 
 revival, or more extended adoption among us, of ex- 
 temporaneous preaching, it is possible the prejudice 
 may wear off; because, in that style, we are prompted 
 
 19 Sydney Smith humourously refers it all to a national prejudice. 
 " Their dislikes," he says, " have proceeded a good deal from their ha- 
 tred to the French : and because that country is the native soil of ele- 
 t^ance, animation, and grace, a certain patriotic solidity, and loyal 
 awkwardness, have become the characteristic of this : so that an 
 adventurous preacher is afraid of violating the ancient tranquillity 
 of the pulpit ; and the audience are commonly apt to consider the 
 man who tires them less than usual, as a trifler or a charlatan." 
 
252 THE DELIVERY OF A SERMON. 
 
 by an almost irrepressible instinct to use some kind of 
 action, and that which we m?ist do somehow, it may be 
 hoped, we shall soon learn to do naturally and well . 
 But, until the principles of a good elocution are both 
 better taught, and better understood, we venture to 
 suggest that, to be over-sparing in the use of gesture, 
 is to err on the safer side. 
 
 We note another of our corporeal aids for giving 
 effect to oral delivery, namely the expression of the 
 countenance. 
 
 The entire sympathy which a speaker's face may be 
 made to exhibit with his mental processes, the running 
 commentary it may furnish upon the chief aim and 
 scope of his discourse, is, in nothing more apparent 
 than in the almost universal desire, among hearers, to 
 occupy a position whence they can see the preacher. 
 They regard the advantage of such a situation as almost 
 another sense to them ; knowing that, where there is 
 great power of expression in the speaker, the eye takes 
 in almost as much as the ear. " In ore sunt omnia," 
 says Cicero. Man's face is the mirror of his soul, says 
 another authority. " Nothing speaks like the counte- 
 nance," says Fenelon ; and again, " one well-timed 
 look will pierce to the bottom of the heart." 
 
 Important, however, as this instrument is, among the 
 aids to a good delivery, we may say of it, far more ab- 
 solutely than we could do in the case of oratorical 
 
THE DELIVERY OF A SERMON. 253 
 
 action, that no positive excellence is to be attained in 
 it by means of culture, or by rules of art. In this case, 
 not only is it true that ^^ prima virtus est carere vitio," 
 but it is the only virtue which any teaching will avail 
 to give. That the face should not put on falways the 
 same solemn-looking and staid demureness, nor be 
 lighted up always with the same simpering and effemi- 
 nate smile ; that we should not compress the counte- 
 nance into an expression of the most cold and stolid 
 apathy, lest we should betray an excess of feeling ; nor 
 distend the facial muscles in every direction, lest we 
 should seem not to feel enough, — are all counsels 
 which, if unfortunately needed by us, it might be well 
 that we should have some judicious teacher to enforce. 
 But, for anything beyond this — for skill to make the 
 face a book wherein men may read great thoughts ; for 
 the power, while addressing an audience, to make 
 passion move, and indignation arouse, and tenderness 
 encourage, and love dissuade, all through the varied 
 play of an eloquent physiognomy, — it is certain that 
 art, and the rules of art, will avail us nothing. It is 
 nature's sole prerogative. It must come spontaneously, 
 or it will never come at all. 
 
 And thus are we brought, in the last place, to speak 
 of that element of a good delivery which no art can 
 give, and which it must be at the peril of our own souls, 
 if, by means of art, we are ever tempted to assume. 
 We mean deep earnestness ; the untaught rhetoric of 
 
254 THE DELIVERY OF A SERMON. 
 
 an impressed and loving heart ; the fervour of the dying 
 man, speaking to dying men. We have often heard of 
 the answer returned by Garrick to a clergyman, ex-, 
 pressing wonder that he, with a message of sublimest 
 truth to deliver, should not awaken so much emotion, 
 in his hearers, as the actor could do, while dealing in 
 avowed fiction : " The reason is," said the tragedian, 
 " that we deliver fiction as if it were truth, and you 
 deliver truth as if it were fiction." ^° The witticism may 
 be too sharply pointed. Most witticisms are. But 
 there can be no doubt that there are preachers, who, 
 whatever their topic be, never get out of their hard, 
 feelingless monotony ; whose highest ambition seems 
 to be that they should be 
 
 ** Coldly correct, and critically dull ;" — 
 
 who seem to be falling asleep of their dignity, while 
 their lips are uttering the living truths of the living 
 God. And, with worldly men, and, indeed, with 
 hearers generally, this kind of languid apathy must 
 convey the impression of insincerity and hollowness. 
 The man could not be so listless, they think, if he 
 believed in the truth of his own message. They know 
 that, if he have realised the urgent responsibilities of 
 his position, he must often feel himself in the condition 
 of Paul, when calling aloud to the Philippian jailer to 
 stay his hand from its suicidal purpose j or when remon- 
 ^ Whately's Rhetoric, Part IV., c. ii. 
 
THE DELIVERY OF A SERMON. 255 
 
 strating in impassioned language, with the men of 
 Lystra, on their idolatrous follies. And yet, whether 
 he said to the one, " Do thyself no harm," or to the 
 other, " Why do ye such things ?" his tone of voice 
 would never alter from that, in which he would give 
 the date of some fact of history, or quote a sentence 
 from the creed. 
 
 Greatly is it to be feared, that the fault of all this is 
 within. The man is the father of the preacher. The 
 heart would speak out of its abundance, if the love of 
 good things were there. Of earnestness, especially, 
 that rule holds " pectus disertum facit." If the heart 
 be not warmed, whatever the ability of the preacher, all 
 wdll be cold besides. We shall have cold words, cold 
 looks, cold and, it may be, faultless proprieties ; but it 
 wdll be the chill of the moonbeam, without its bright- 
 ness ; the polished marble of the statue, but not its life. 
 Such preachers may well bring home to us that heart- 
 stirring reproof of Baxter : — '* Alas, alas !" he exclaims, 
 *'how few ministers preach with all their might, or 
 speak about everlasting joys and torments, in such a 
 manner as may make men believe that they are in 
 earnest. It would make a man's heart ache, to see a 
 number of dead and drowsy sinners sit under a 
 minister, without having a word that is likely to quicken 
 or awaken them ; .... to hear what excellent subjects 
 some ministers treat upon, who yet let them die in their 
 hands for want of a close and lively application ; what 
 
256 THE DELIVERY OF A SERMON. 
 
 fit matter they have for convincing sinners, and yet how 
 
 little they make of it In the name of God, 
 
 brethren, awaken yom* hearts before you come into the 
 pulpit ; that when you are there, you may be fit to 
 awaken the hearts of sinners."^ 
 
 But can we awaken our hearts ? and is a man, in 
 order to avail himself of those deep sympathies of our 
 religious nature, which warmth of manner is calculated 
 to call forth, to work himself up into a trich of fervid- 
 ness, and affect an earnestness which he does not feel ? 
 None will suppose us to recommend this; but the ques- 
 tion touches closely upon one of the trials of good men, 
 and we should meet it fairly. Now, it is to be admitted, 
 that preachers, holy and humble men of heart though 
 they be, may be carried away by a kind of sensible ex- 
 citement. " As iron sharpeneth iron," so the turning, 
 towards a speaker, of a thousand lighted-up counte- 
 nances, will often beget a fervour, and glow of emotion, 
 not coming from the depth of the heart, and which, as 
 an index of the intensity of his spiritual solicitudes, is 
 not true. And the after-thought of such a deceptive 
 show is very humbling to a good man. He almost feels 
 to have been acting a part ; and goes home to bewail, 
 before God, that he has seemed to be what he is not. 
 Still he is not, on that account, to put his feelings 
 under an interdict, or, for fear of excess, to check the 
 free How of a manly earnestness. For infirmities, such 
 " Heformed Pastor. 
 
THE DELIVERY OF A SERMON. '257 
 
 as these, especially, we may cast ourselves upon the 
 sympathy of Him, who has undertaken to bear the ini- 
 quity of our holy things." 
 
 And many earnest-minded men, we are persuaded, 
 have come down from the pulpit, distressed with the 
 thought of their own unrealness, on other grounds. 
 They have had to minister before the Lord, when their 
 own hearts were out of tune. Their spirit was fretted 
 by some secret sorrow. The fear of coming evil lay 
 upon them, — a great stone of difficulty, which, to all 
 seeming, only an angel's hand could roll away. And 
 yet, to outward observation, there must be no differ- 
 ence, in the fervour with which they speak of the 
 things of God. They must seem to be absorbed in 
 their message, when their thoughts are taken up with 
 themselves. Or this deplored unrealness may have a 
 deeper and more abiding root ; in a constitutional 
 sluggishness of temperament, which has to be coerced 
 and stimulated into sympathy with an ever-deepening 
 sense of the momentousness of Gospel truth, and the 
 growing demands of the spiritual mind. And we are 
 in a strait betwixt two; between the danger, on the 
 one hand, of falling into a habit of simulated and arti- 
 ficial warmth ; or, on the other, of losing the benefit of 
 an earnestness, which, though it be the desire of our 
 hearts to feel, yet is it no part of our natural manner to 
 express. In these, and the like cases, it is manifest, 
 
 s 
 
•258 THE DELIVERY OF A SERMON. 
 
 we can but give ourselves unto prayer. With the 
 humble consciousness of our two-fold danger, we 
 shall not be perraitted to fall into either. We shall 
 feel that we are not called upon to make our manner 
 express less, but to ask of God that our hearts may feel 
 more. 
 
 At all events, for the preacher it will be enough, 
 and for his hearers too, to know that he is honest ; that 
 his " heart's desire and prayer," for them that hear him 
 is, " that they may be saved." That his heart beats 
 not so warmly, as an Apostle's heart, and, at times, 
 seems even cold, is his infirmity. But he mourns 
 over it ; if needful, may mourn over it even to them. 
 They will see earnestness in his bewailed want of 
 earnestness ; more then, perhaps, than if it had shewn 
 itself in outward signs. Fain would he *' offer himself 
 upon the sacrifice and service of their faith ;" and see 
 all those for whom he ministers partakers of his grace : 
 — ' partakers of my grace,' he might say to them, ' but 
 not of my weakness ; of my faith in Christ, but not of 
 my too languid love ; of my firm persuasion of those 
 solemn realities which relate to death, to the resurrec- 
 tion, to the judgment, to the world unseen, but not 
 of that drag upon my powers of thought and utter- 
 ance, which chills the preacher's heart, and tends 
 to make his message vain.' In this confessed weak- 
 ness there is strength ;— -the weakness being of man, 
 
THE DELIVERY OF A SERMON. 2o9 
 
 while the strength is the strength of God. And the lan- 
 guage of the Apostle may then be our language : — " Most 
 gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, 
 that the power of Christ may rest upon me."^ 
 
 23 2 Cor. xii. 9. 
 
 s 2 
 
•260 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 EXTEMPORE PREACHING, AND ITS EFFICACY AS COM- 
 PARED WITH THE WRITTEN SERMON. 
 
 The bearing of the foregoing chapters — Popular view of the relative 
 advantages of the extemporaneous and the written styles — Primi- 
 tive practice — Written style, when introduced — The practice of 
 continental and other preachers — Arguments for the partial re- 
 tention of the written style — Advantage to the same preacher of 
 cultivating both styles-— Different methods of extempore preach- 
 ing— The memoriter method — The method from short notes — The 
 self-reliant method— General qualifications necessaiy — Facile 
 and correct expression— -How to be acquired— Cultivation of the 
 memory— Necessity of writing— Temptations of the extempore 
 preacher. 
 
 We now come to a branch of our subject, upon 
 which, if any absolute decision is to be pronounced, it 
 may seem that much of what has been said, in some of 
 the preceding chapters, might have been spared. To 
 what purpose, it may be said, is a preacher exhorted to 
 study the graces and proprieties of style,— the structure 
 of sentences, or the choice of words,— if, after having 
 
EXTEMPOUE PREACHING. ^61 
 
 duly considered the argument of his intended sermon, 
 he is to trust to the inspirations of the moment, to 
 present it in proper verbal form ? On the other hand, 
 how little scope can there be for those bodily acces- 
 sories to an animated delivery — the " vividus vultus, 
 vividi ocidi, vividce mamis, denique omnia vivida,''^ of the 
 great German Reformer, — if the eyes are scarcely lifted 
 from the manuscript, and the hands have enough to do 
 to turn over the leaves ? A little consideration, how- 
 ever, will shew that the two modes of address referred 
 to, are not so entirely different from each other, as this 
 objection would seem to imply. On the contrary, it 
 will be found that their leading characteristics, at least 
 in the hands of a master, are shared, by one style and 
 the other, in common ; and that a good extempora- 
 neous preacher would no more trust entirely to his 
 oratorical inspirations, than a good reader of his ser- 
 mons would allow himself to be bound, eyes and hands, 
 to his book. No doubt we expect, in the composition 
 of the wTitten sermon, a little more of care and correct- 
 ness ; and, in the delivery of the extempore sermon, 
 are prepared for somewhat more of animation and 
 warmth. But it does not, therefore, follow, that the 
 extemporaneous preacher is to be slovenly in his dic- 
 tion, or, that the reader from the manuscript should be 
 without force or fire. 
 
 Two practical illustrations, each taken from a master 
 in his way, will serve to explain our meaning. The 
 
262 EXTEMPORE PREACHING. 
 
 first is from Robert Hall. When a copy, for the press, 
 was being submitted to him, of his celebrated sermon 
 on "Modern Infidelity," and he had come to the 
 striking apostrophe, " Eternal God ! on what are thine 
 enemies intent ? What are those enterprises of guilt 
 and horror, that, for the safety of their performers, re- 
 quire to be enveloped in a darkness which the eye of 
 heaven must not penetrate !"— he asked, *' Did I say 
 penetrate, sir, when I preached it ? Be so good, as 
 to take your pencil, and, for 'penetrate,' put 'pierce :' — 
 no man who considered the force of the English lan- 
 guage, would use a word of three syllables there, but from 
 absolute necessity. Pierce is the word, sir, and the only 
 word to be used there." ^ Here, at least, we have extempore 
 preaching coupled with delicate appreciation of correct 
 style. Of * fire,' in connection with the written delivery, 
 our example is taken from an anecdote in the life of 
 Dr. Chalmers. A Fifeshire old woman had been 
 taunted for being, in the teeth of the national prejudice, 
 a follower of a preacher, who read from a hook. '* Ay, 
 ay," replied the admirer of Chalmers, '' the doctor reads, 
 but O, it's fell reading though 1" 
 
 Let us look, first, then at what is popularly urged in 
 favour of the two styles of address, — the written and 
 the extemporaneous style respectively, — taking the 
 latter, in its clerically understood sense, at all events, 
 as implying, with whatever amount of previous prepa- 
 1 R. Hall's Works, Note by Dr. Gregory, vol. i., p. 11. 
 
EXTEMPORE PREACHING. '26S 
 
 ration, the absence of a fully written sermon. Now 
 the advocates for the written discourse will contend for 
 it, that, as against all failures, it enables us to secure, to 
 the hearer, the advantages of correct expression, lucid 
 order, well-considered argument; that, in enunciating 
 the more important doctrines of the faith, the preacher 
 is preserved from the liability to an unguarded loose- 
 ness and ambiguity of statement; and, generally, that 
 a higher degree of exactness and finish can be given to 
 his sentences, than he could hope to achieve by the 
 utmost proficiency in extemporaneous utterance. To 
 this, it is replied, by those on the other side, that, if only 
 there be the requisite amount of previous consideration 
 and thought,— both well-sustained structural arrangement, 
 and even accuracy of verbal expression, are almost as at- 
 tainable under one system, as under the other ; — whilst, 
 as to the greater refinement and polish of diction, 
 secured by the written style, this, so far from being an 
 advantage, is calculated to take off from that manly and 
 unstudied naturalness of expression, which we regard 
 as the normal type of all effective oratory. But then, 
 rejoins the champion of the manuscript, consider how 
 few persons there are, who attain even to mediocrity in 
 extempore preaching ; and how much less painful it is 
 to listen to the most dry, somnolent, and sluggish of 
 our written homilies, than to the vapid tautologies, and 
 declamatory verboseness of a mere spin-text ; and 
 further, how many educated people are disgusted and 
 
2(J4 EXTEMPORE PREACHING. 
 
 driven away, as they witness, in a man who has put 
 Ills "prentice hand' to this craft, the embarrassment, the 
 little artifice, the dragging in of a long Scripture text, 
 the falling back upon some stock passage, — all telling 
 but too plainly that either through the failure of memory, 
 or the bankruptcy of invention, he is on the point of 
 breaking down. ' But your manuscript has driven 
 many away too,' answers the advocate of a spoken 
 delivery. ' Have not the poor passed in a great measure 
 from under your influence ? Have they not sought and 
 found, in the rough and unchastened rhetoric of men, 
 not having a tithe of your educational appliances, some- 
 thing that touched the springs of their religious nature 
 with a power, to which, under your more mannerly and 
 polished lucubrations, they had been utter strangers ? 
 Whilst, as to the mortifying failures you speak of, we 
 believe them to arise, for the most part, from an under- 
 rated estimate of the pains needful to success ; and, 
 therefore, not an argument for throwing away the instru- 
 ment altogether, but only a reason why men should try 
 after greater expertness in its use.' 
 
 Now waiving for the present, the necessity of pro- 
 nouncing upon the relative strength of these opposing 
 considerations, let us examine the issue raised, on 
 somewhat higher and more general grounds. Thus 
 ihe question is one, in which the authority of primitive 
 usage ought to have a voice,— the practice of the Apo- 
 stles, as far as the parallel could be drawn ; or that of 
 
EXTEMPORE PREACHING. 265 
 
 the first Christian preachers afterwards. The voice, as 
 far as its utterances are to be taken, would, we think, 
 be on the side of the extempore preacher, and against 
 the written discourse. The example of the Apostles, 
 in the case, would, by some, perhaps, be disallowed. 
 Their sermons were inspirations in the highest sense. 
 It was given to them of the Holy Spirit " what they 
 should speak." But so it was given to them of the 
 Holy Spirit, what they should " write." And, if it 
 had been the design of Scripture to impress its sanc- 
 tion on the ivritten, in preference to the oral address, it 
 is not quite apparent why Peter should not have been 
 instructed to write his sermon for the day of Pentecost, 
 or Paul to have declaimed, from a manuscript, when he 
 was at Mars' hill. 
 
 That neither of these Apostles did so, we are all 
 agreed. Neither, as far as we know, did the first 
 preachers after them. Our records of the mode of 
 preaching, in the first Christian centuries, are but 
 scanty ; but, as far as they go, they favour the supposi- 
 tion of the adoption, by their preachers, of the unwritten 
 though not, as a rule, the unpremeditated address. 
 Now and then, a preacher was called upon, without 
 previous notice, to give an exposition of some passage 
 of Scripture, which had been read in the assembly ; 
 and on certain occasions, it was allowed, to a man, to 
 read his own prepared discourse. But the general 
 rule, among the early preachers, undoubtedly, was to 
 
•266 EXTEMPORE PREACHING. 
 
 digest and prepare their materials at home ; and then, 
 either with or without short notes, to deliver their dis- 
 course, much as any good extemporaneous preacher 
 would do at this day.^ With regard to the mode in 
 which so many tomes of this spoken matter have been 
 preserved to us. it may be observed, in passing, that, 
 as early as the time of Origen, we have notices of 
 shorthand writers {6^vypa6oi) employed in the taking 
 down of sermons, — men licensed by public authority, 
 and who, before publication, were expected to submit 
 their manuscripts to the preacher.^ 
 
 2 See Moule's Christian Oratory of the First Five Centuries, p. 
 58, and Riddle's Christian Antiquities, Book IV. chap. i. p. 418. 
 
 3 In giving an account of these shorthand writers, or notaries, as 
 he calls them, Bingham refers to complaints made in the Primitive 
 Church, with which, some preachers, in our own day, can but too 
 keenly sympathize. He says, " The public notaries were generally 
 allowed, by the author's consent, to publish what they wrote; 
 in which case it was usual for the preacher to review his 
 own sermon, and to correct such mistakes, and supply such 
 deficiencies, as might be occasioned by the haste of the scribe, or 
 Bome things not so accurately spoken by themselves in sudden and 
 extempore discourse. (Gregor. M, Praef. in Jobum ad Leonard, 
 Pra}f. in Ezek.) But sometimes the notaries published what they 
 had written without the author's knowledge and consent. We 
 find Gaudentius (about a.d. 38(5) remonstrating against this as a 
 clandestine practice. Antiq. Book XIV. chap. iv. § 29. May it 
 be permitted to the Author to take this opportunity of repudiating 
 the autlu-nticity of a certain weekly publication, called the " Golden 
 Jiectures." 
 
EXTEMPORE PREACHING. 267 
 
 But when was this innovation of the written sermon 
 introduced ? and in what sections of the Catholic 
 Church does it obtain ? The first of these questions 
 has been answered differently ; some referring it to 
 the period of the civil wars ; and others claiming for 
 its introduction an earlier date, making it coincident 
 with the beginning of the Reformation. This is Bishop 
 Burnet's view, which w^e may thus shortly condense. 
 For some time previous, there had been no preaching 
 but in Lent ; — the preachings, at the other seasons of 
 the year, being restricted to festival days, when the 
 sermons were mere panegyrics upon the particular 
 saint, or in commendation of his relics. Seeing dan- 
 gers ahead, the friars began to feel that they must turn 
 preaching to a more profitable account; and accord- 
 ingly, by " passionate and affecting discourses," they 
 kindled the blind devotion of the people into admira- 
 tion of pilgi'images, relics, shrines, and whatever else 
 might fill the coffers of the church. The Reformers 
 saw the value of this long-neglected instrument; and 
 resolved to take it up in a holier cause, and for better 
 ends. But their zeal was not according to knowledge. 
 " Foul and indiscreet reflections on the other party " 
 entered into their discourses ; until at length, 
 adds the historian, " the preachers being often ac- 
 cused for their sermons, and complaints being made 
 to the king, by hot men on both sides, they came gener- 
 
26S EXTEMPORE PREACHING. 
 
 ally to write and read their sermons. From thence 
 the reading of sermons grew into a practice in this 
 church."^ 
 
 The practice, however, as we know, was not adopted 
 hy the later of our English Reformers ; and, indeed, 
 seems to have fallen so far into desuetude, as to have 
 made its re-introduction, in the troublous times of the 
 Puritans, appear like a practice, theretofore unknown 
 in the Church. Hence, in the well known proclama- 
 tion of Charles the Second, to the University of Cam- 
 bridge, forbidding " on pain of his majesty's displeas- 
 ure," the practice of reading sermons, he speaks of 
 this practice as one, " which took its heginning from the 
 disorders of the late times ;" but which, as being " a 
 supine and slothful way of preaching, he commands to 
 be laid aside." Whether contempt for the monarch's 
 judgment, on such a subject, prevailed over clerical 
 loyalty, we cannot tell ; but from that time to this, the 
 proclamation seems never to have influenced the prac- 
 tice of the English Church. 
 
 The other question, — that is, in what sections of 
 the professing Church does the practice of reading 
 sermons prevail, — may be answered more easily. Bi- 
 shop Burnet gave the answer to it, up to his own time ; 
 and his dictum will not be far wrong, if allowed to be 
 extended to our own. " Reading," he says, " is pecu- 
 
 * Hist, of Reform. Vol. I. Part 1, Book iii. p. 510. Ed. 1837. 
 
EXTEMPORE PREACHING. 269 
 
 liar to this nation, and is endured in no other."^ And we 
 see the proof of this, in all countries and in all churches. 
 In France, we never hear of such a practice. Even among 
 Irish Protestants it is almost entirely laid aside. In 
 Scotland, it is abjured with an almost superstitious dread. 
 The Wesleyans would relegate to the shop-board or the 
 plough, a candidate for the ministry, who could not do 
 without his notes ; whilst, by other Dissenters, the 
 reading of a sermon is only tolerated as an infirmity, 
 which they hope the preacher will be able to overcome ; 
 and which, until he does, he must use all lawful artifice 
 to conceal. 
 
 Still less of countenance to this habit of reading from 
 a manuscript, can be found in other forms of popular 
 address, of which the aim, like that of the preacher, 
 is, to gain the practical assent of the hearer. What 
 pleader, at the bar, would think of addressing a jury, 
 fi-om a written speech ? How impatient is the 
 House of Commons of eloquence, of which even a few 
 notes only are fastened in the lining of the member's 
 hat } And how soon w^ould our great religious meetings 
 dwindle down to a scattered remnant, if every speaker, 
 as he was called upon, began to spread out a paper, 
 written within and without, like the prophet's roll ? in- 
 stances these, all tending to bear out that observation of 
 Sir Walter Scott, " It is conclusive against the frigid 
 custom of reading sermons, that in any other mode of 
 2 Pastoral Care, chap. ix. p. 155. Ed. 1640. 
 
270 EXTEMPORE PREACHING. 
 
 public speaking it would be held childish and ab- 
 surd.'"' 
 
 Thus, Gospel authority, primitive usage, the custom 
 of the Catholic Church everywhere, and the conclusion 
 from what is found to be effective in public speaking of 
 every other kind, are all against the written sermon. 
 What considerations can be urged, in arrest of the sen- 
 tence, that it be proscribed from our pulpits forthwith, 
 and a patent of exclusive preference be made out for 
 the extemporaneous discourse ? 
 
 We think there are several reasons against such ab- 
 solute limitation to one kind of homiletical address. 
 
 First, we have a large class of sermons, in our 
 Church, addressed to auditories, who are accustomed to 
 habits of close thought ; who are conversant already, it 
 may be presumed, with the first elements of moral and 
 religious truth ; and for whom, therefore, the logical 
 exactness and higher range of the written sermon 
 would seem to be more suitable, than anything which 
 the average standard of extemporaneous ability would 
 be likely to furnish. Such auditories may be supposed 
 to be assembled at ecclesiastical visitations ; at the 
 chapels of the Inns of Court ; at sermons before the 
 Universities ; as well as on innumerable public occas- 
 
 6 It is not a little curious that the one marked exception to this 
 statement should be found among the French, who, with an abso- 
 lute proscription of the manuscript from the pulpit, yet allow of 
 speeches being read in their legislative chambers. 
 
EXTEMPORE PREACHING. 07[ 
 
 ions, when custom requires the publication of the ser- 
 mon afterwards. 
 
 Again, we should protest against this banishment, 
 from the pulpit, of all written sermons, in the name of 
 our theological, or rather our religious literature. 
 Bishop Burnet, as we have seen, was a great advocate 
 for extempore preaching;— might be expected to be, 
 from the marvellous power he himself possessed in 
 that way, — a power so great, that, when, on one occa- 
 sion, at the Rolls Chapel, after having preached till his 
 hour glass had run out, he turned it upside down to inti- 
 mate that he would go on for another hour, the con- 
 gregation set up almost a shout for joy. But hear what 
 his testimony is about our obligations to the written 
 sermon. " It has produced," he says, in his Pastoral 
 Care, "many volumes of the best that are extant."' 
 Again, in his account of the written sermons, in Henry 
 the Eighth's time, already referred to, he says, " In 
 which, if there was not that heat and fire, which the 
 friars had shewed in their declamations. . . . Yet 
 it has produced the greatest treasure of weighty, good, 
 and sound sermons, which ever the Church of God 
 had."^ Now we are not saying that we should have no 
 good sermons published, if the written discourse were 
 to disappear wholly from our pulpit. But we do say 
 that some of the most profitable productions of human 
 thought, in that case, would, in all probability, never 
 '' Ch, ix. p. 150. 8 Hist, of Kef. Vol. T., Part 1., Book iii. 
 
272 EXTEMPORE PREACHING. 
 
 see the light. We should not, perhaps, be willing to 
 bring many of the sermons of Whitefield, under that 
 designation. But whatever these were, it is certain that, 
 of sermons which he would have considered his hest^ we 
 have nothing left. Robert HalFs sermons, we know, 
 were of this high class ; and the scant memorials of his 
 amateur stenographers may sufficiently indicate how 
 much the world has lost. 
 
 But it is not on account of the loss of great sermons 
 alone, or even chiefly, that we should deplore the 
 banishment of the manuscript from our pulpits. The 
 published sermons, delivered to our ordinary congrega- 
 tions, form more than half the religious literature of 
 our middle and upper classes. They may be said to 
 form the staple of our household divinity ; and many, 
 in this way, are led to give attention to diffi- 
 cult and important subjects of dogmatical theolog}', 
 who would never give themselves any trouble about 
 them, if presented in more direct and didactic form. 
 Of course, it is quite possible that we might publish as 
 many sermons as we do now, if we were all extem- 
 porizcrs. But the paucity of sermons published by 
 Dissenters and those who do extemporize, does not 
 favour the probability that we should. Nor would the 
 demand for publication, on the part of hearers, be the 
 same. They would feel that the printed sermon was 
 not the same as the one they had listened to. It might 
 be very much better, — in development more full, and in 
 
EXTEMPORE PREACHING. *273 
 
 form more perfect. But they do not care for these 
 after- growths : their love was for the chrysalis, not for 
 the creature of bright hues and expanded wing. 
 
 Neither are we prepared to surrender, even the stated 
 use of the manuscript, as, in some cases, a suitable 
 vehicle of instruction for our more educated and intel- 
 lectual congregations. Whether all preachers, who 
 are really fit for their office, might not, by dint of pains 
 and practice, attain to so much of extemporaneous 
 facility, as should enable them to speak with ease and 
 credit, on the more ordinary and familiar topics of their 
 ministry, is a point, upon which we shall have some- 
 thing to say presently. But that such a perfection in 
 extemporaneity, as shall enable a man to carry through 
 a long, succinct, well-vertebrated train of thought, can 
 be acquired easily ; — that the power to grapple closely 
 with the philosophical difficulty, to discourse with 
 logical clearness on any point of agitated polemics, to 
 define with faultless precision the limits of our know- 
 ledge, or of our ignorance, on great gospel mysteries, 
 — is attainable by all but the incompetent and the 
 unfit, is, we think, more than any will undertake to 
 affirm. And yet, on the supposition that the use of the 
 manuscript is forbidden, what is to be done } Are 
 none to enter the sacred vocation, who cannot come up 
 to this high mark? Or, by the preacher who falls 
 short of it, must a tacit compact be made with his 
 
 T 
 
274 EXTEMPORE PREACHING. 
 
 people, that, on certain high and difficult subjects, he 
 is never to speak at all ? 
 
 In the review of what has been said on the subject of 
 these two styles of address, the question will probably 
 be asked, to what decision do you bring us ? and what 
 counsels are to be offered for our practical following ? 
 Now it is, perhaps, a necessity of suggestions offered 
 upon points where there obtains a great diversity of 
 practice, that they are sure to be, more or less, 
 the embodiments of the wTiter's own personalities, — 
 the mere reflection of practical conclusions, which 
 observation may have led him to adopt, and which sub- 
 sequent experience has never made him see reason to 
 abandon. Be this as it may, the first thing we our- 
 selves ever learned from observation, was, that hoth 
 styles have their w arm patrons ; that while there are 
 many, who have an almost Presbyterian horror of a 
 manuscript, in the pulpit, there are others, who think 
 their intelligence insulted, by the preacher who should 
 cast it aside. We are aware that Dean Swift thought 
 differently : — declaring his persuasion, that, in dis- 
 gust at the habit of reading sermons, " the laity would 
 be almost, to a man, on his side."^ But we must 
 remember that, in those days, the preacher did read 
 liis sermon, and nothing more. In our day, it is dif- 
 ferent ; and the question is, why, if both methods have 
 » Letters to a Young Clergymau, vol. 2, p. 203, Loud. 1841. 
 
EXTEMPORE PREACHING. 275 
 
 their partizans, every preacher should not cultivate 
 both ? No inherent and insuperable unfitness for pul- 
 pit purposes, can be shewn to belong, either to one 
 style or to the other. Practical instances could be 
 cited, in abundance, shewing that it is not necessary 
 for a man to be tautologous and vapid, because he 
 speaks from short notes; nor, on the other hand, 
 because he has a manuscript before him, that he should 
 be mechanical, and lifeless, and dull; whilst, if apparent 
 results for good were to influence the decision to be 
 formed, it is certain, that either style could number, 
 among its supporters, some of the most honoured names 
 in the Church of God. 
 
 Only, therefore, for w^hat the experience of an in- 
 dividual mind, and an individual ministry, is worth, is 
 the suggestion offered to any, who may have their pul- 
 pit habits yet to form, that, in town congregations, more 
 particularly, it might be found profitable, if one of the 
 two styles of address were adopted at the earlier service, 
 whilst, at the later service, recourse were had to the 
 other. Many considerations seem to favour this plan. 
 Thus the two styles would be found to benefit and 
 assist each other ; — the habit of constant writing, giving 
 precision and clearness to the spoken sermon ; and the 
 unconsciously acquired animation of extemporaneous 
 utterance, extending itself, naturally, to the written 
 discourse. Again, the practice recommended would 
 enable us to provide better for the varying tastes and 
 
 T 2 
 
276 EXTEMPORE PREACHING. 
 
 capacities of our people. The strong partiality for the 
 written, or the unwritten style, may, in most persons, 
 be a mere prejudice. But where no principle is in- 
 volved, we should be but too glad to avoid offending 
 prejudices,— willing to be made " all things to all men 
 that we may by all means save some." Besides, with- 
 out descending to familiarity, it is plain that there is, 
 in the extemporaneous address, a licensed simplicity of 
 illustration, and a tolerated breaking up of the tmth of 
 God into small crumbs, which, though very needful for the 
 uneducated and the young, we should feel to be some- 
 what out of place, if introduced into a written discourse. 
 Neither does it appear altogether unworthy of notice, 
 among the advantages to a preacher, to cultivate both 
 the manuscript and the spoken styles, that such a 
 practice will tend to diversify the character of his 
 preaching; will help to takeoff something from that 
 inevitable sameness and repeating of himself, which a 
 man, preaching twice or thrice a week, in the same 
 style, to the same people, and that for many years 
 together, is sure himself to feel conscious of, and to 
 fear his people will be conscious of too. Now, we are 
 persuaded that a man may greatly break this feared 
 monotony, in his preaching, by adopting, as a rule, the 
 written method at one part of the day, and the extempo- 
 raneous method at the other. No man speaks exactly as 
 he would write, or writes exactly as he would speak. 
 The words used may be almost the same, in both 
 
EXTEMPORE PREACHING. 277 
 
 cases ; but, on the ear of a listener, they will not fall 
 the same, when read from a manuscript, as they do 
 w^hen, with all the unconscious animation of the extem- 
 poraneous address, the preacher is speaking to us face to 
 face. To men of very fertile invention, we can imagine, 
 the advantage here held out, will be little accounted of. 
 But to others, who, being less gifted, often find the 
 mind running into old ruts of thought, and are puzzled 
 how to vary an illustration, with which they are afraid 
 the memories of their congregation may be too familiar, 
 — the consideration may be worth a thought, that they 
 may diminish the force of this familiarity, almost to the 
 extent of one- half, by the kept-up habit of preaching in 
 two different styles. 
 
 And here will be the proper place to introduce the 
 consideration of a question, already glanced at, namely, 
 is the extemporaneous style within the compass of all 
 preachers ? Are there not instances, in abundance, of 
 its baffling the endeavours of men, in other respects of 
 the highest intellectual power.? Does not one of 
 Shakspeare's heroes tell us how he has seen "great 
 clerks" 
 
 " Shiver and look pale ; 
 Make periods in the midst of sentences ; 
 Throttle their practised accents in their fear ; 
 And, in conclusion, durably have broke off?" 
 
 Did not Bishop Sanderson make the attempt, before a 
 village audience, and, on the admission of all present, 
 
078 EXTEMPORE PREACHING. 
 
 exhibit a most mortifying and humbling failure ? Did 
 not Tillotson try his powers in the same way, and after 
 beating and buffeting about for nearly ten minutes, to the 
 great distress, both of himself and of his audience, bring 
 his discourse to a close, declaring that nothing should 
 induce him to make the attempt again ? Nay, did not 
 South, who was in the habit of committing his sermons 
 to memory, on one occasion of trusting himself without 
 his manuscript, break down in the very opening of his 
 sermon, and, with the exclamation, *' Lord, be merciful 
 to our infirmities," descend abruptly from the pulpit ?^° 
 
 Yes, all these failed ; and if any of us should content 
 ourselves with the result of d^ first experiment, and that, 
 perhaps, made when we had arrived at the years of 
 middle life, it is more than probable that we should 
 fail too.^^ But if these instances are cited to show that 
 men are born with a special faculty of extemporaneous 
 utterance, and that none can successfully attempt it, to 
 whom this original gift has been denied, it seems 
 obvious to ask, how do continental preachers attain to 
 
 ^^ See Quarterly Review, Vol. cii., p. 491, 
 
 ^^ Sheridau's first effort in the House of Commons was a com- 
 plete failure, — so complete, that he was advised by his friends to 
 abandon the idea of becoming a speaker. His answer to them has 
 bt^ori often quoted. "Never ! I know it is in me, and I am determined 
 it shall come out." And it did come out. For, as will be remem 
 hi'rt'd, after his speech upon Warren Hastings, Pitt moved an ad- 
 journment of the House, on the grouud " that they could not come 
 to a sober judgiuent, being so under the wand of the enchanter." 
 
EXTEMPORE PREACHING. 27 !J 
 
 this practice ? or the clergy of the Church of Scotland ? 
 or the gTcat body of Nonconformist ministers, in our 
 own country ? That all these have derived, from nature, 
 a peculiar talent for this purpose, will not be supposed 
 for an instant. No; they know, from the first, that 
 they shall be expected to preach extemporaneously, 
 and therefore they spare neither pains nor diligence to 
 perfect themselves in the art; — cultivating the voice, 
 exercising the memory, practising themselves in the 
 habit of free and unhesitating expression ; — not look- 
 ing upon fluency as a gift of nature, so much as a 
 slow growth of experience and the reward of patient 
 toil. ^^Fit fahricando faber^^ is their motto. If any 
 spark of eloquence is to flash out from them, they 
 look for it to come, not from the fire of inborn genius, 
 but through habits of persevering application, and hard 
 beating at the forge.^^ 
 
 On the supposition, then, that every man, of abilities 
 sufficient to justify his entering the ministry at all, may 
 attain to the power of extempore preaching, if he will, 
 — what suggestions can be offered with a view to his 
 attaining, in this practice, a tolerable degree of suc- 
 cess ? In the way of universally adapted directions, 
 it niay be confessed, the suggestions to be given are 
 not many. The diversities and peculiarities of the 
 
 12 Observe the words of a great authority upon this subject:— 
 " Maximus vero studiorum fructus est, etvelut ])r8Bmium quoddam 
 amplissimum lougi laboris, ex tempore dicendi facultas."— Quinct. 
 
280 EXTEMPORE PREACHING. 
 
 human mind are almost infinite ; so that, assign the 
 meed of preference to whatever practical method we 
 may, we shall still feel the matter to be one, in regard 
 to which we may take up the words of the Apostle, on 
 another occasion, " Every man hath his proper gift of 
 God, one after this manner, another after that." 
 
 Premising thus much, it may be permitted us to say, 
 that all diversities of extemporaneous practice may be 
 made to fall under one of the three following classifi- 
 cations ; namely, the inemoriter method, the method of 
 short notes, and the self-reliant method. 
 
 1. By the memoriter method, we shall be understood 
 to speak of that kind of extemporaneous preaching, 
 where the entire discourse is written, and committed to 
 memory. The preacher may keep before him a 
 tabular conspectus of the plan of the discourse, or he 
 may not If he use such an aid, it is probable that 
 halting places will be noted down ; and the first words 
 of sentences be as distinguishably marked, as an illu- 
 minator would mark the first letter, in a chapter of his 
 missal, or as a lawyer would emphasise, by a larger 
 character, the catch-word in a deed of trust. With or 
 without these mnemonic aids, however, the whole dis- 
 course is an affair of rote. As a rule, nothing is at- 
 tempted by memoriter preachers, which has not been 
 thoroughly rehearsed beforehand ; and Shylock himself 
 could not be more rigid in disallow^ing any matter, 
 which was " not so written in the bond." 
 
EXTEMPORE PREACHING. 281 
 
 Now, laborious and intolerable as most of ns are 
 inclined to consider this practice, and calculated, as 
 we should think also, to give an air of artificialness 
 and constraint to the whole delivery, it is certain that 
 some of our finest pieces of so-called extemporaneous 
 oratory have been recited in this way,— that is, have 
 been mere written discourses learned by heart. Thus, 
 without going back to the times of the Fathers, when, 
 as appears from Augustine, the practice was sometimes 
 adopted,^ we have, in later times, Bishop Hall de- 
 claring, " Never durst I climb into the pulpit to preach 
 any sermon, whereof I had not before penned every 
 word, in the same order wherein I hoped to deliver it.""^* 
 The same thing is related of Bishop Jewel. Whilst, 
 in the proclamation of Charles the Second, to the Uni- 
 versity of Cambridge, before adverted to, it seems to 
 be taken for granted, that, if a sermon were to be 
 spoken without book at all, the memoriter method was 
 the only one ever thought of: — "His majesty com- 
 mands that the practice of reading sermons be laid 
 aside ; and that preachers deliver their sermons, both 
 
 ^» Speaking of the advantage to hearers of asking questions of 
 the preacher, Augnstine says, " Wherefore, they who get their ser- 
 mon by heart, word for word, and so cannot repeat and explain a 
 truth, until they see their hearers understand it, must lose one 
 great end and benefit of preaching." Fenelon's Dialogues. 
 
 " Account of Himself, see Bridge's Christian Mmistry, ch. v., 
 §2. 
 
282 EXTEMPORE PREACHING. 
 
 in Latin and English, hy memory, without books." In 
 like manner, the stirring orations which have been pre- 
 served to us of the French pulpit, can hardly be looked 
 upon as anything else than examples of clever recita- 
 tion. The men had learned every word. "Which 
 was the best sermon you ever preached ?" some one 
 once asked of Massillon. " That which I knew the 
 best," was the significant reply. Indeed, of this cele- 
 brated preacher it is stated, that some of his best ser- 
 mons were announced for repetition, — his admirers 
 flocking to any new place, that they might hear some of 
 his finer passages over again. Bourdaloue, with less 
 perfect memory, felt himself obliged to fall in with the 
 practice ; although, through fear lest the sight of a 
 congregation should make him forget his lesson, he was 
 compelled to preach with closed eyes.^^ 
 
 So again, with regard to the clergy of the Scotch 
 Church. Their extemporisings, it is well known, are 
 nearly all rote-work. And the necessity for such a 
 
 ^' Yet Massillon himself forgot his lesson once, and was so dis- 
 couraged hy his failure, that he took to reading his sermons , — a 
 resolution against which his eulogist thus remonstrates : " Nous 
 osons n'etre pas de son avis ; la lecture forceroit I'orateur, ou a se 
 priver de ces grands mouvements qui sont lame de la chair, ou a 
 rendre ses movements ridicules en y donnant, un air d'appret et 
 d'cxaggeration qui detruiroit le naturel et la verite." Eloge de 
 Massillon, par M. D'Alembert. 
 
EXTEMPORE PREACHING. 283 
 
 practice is evidently deplored, by their best men, as a 
 yoke even unto bondage. ^^ For where the powers of 
 memory are feeble, the defect will either shew itself in 
 a hesitating and embarrassed manner, or else be 
 covered over by artifices, which a Christian minister 
 should be ashamed to employ.^^ Of course there are 
 those, whose powers of memory are not feeble ; — on 
 the contrary, in the case of anything written by them- 
 selves, their memory is retentive to an extraordinary 
 degree. The late Lord Macaulay could recite long 
 pieces of his own, at a moment's notice, though written 
 many years before ;^^ whilst of Bishop Jewel, it is 
 related, that, so easily could he remember what he had 
 once written, that he only began to commit his sermon 
 to memory, at the ringing of the bell for service. And, 
 in the case of any, in whom the mnenomic faculty is 
 thus strongly retentive, — and early cultivation with all 
 of us would make it much more retentive than it is, — 
 
 16 Campbell on Pulpit Eloquence, Lect. iv. 
 
 ^"^ " It is a very unseemly consequence of this over-strictness, in 
 the Scotch Church," says an eloquent modern writer, " that men 
 not unfrequently make a desk of the Bible, and read the sermon 
 stealthily, by slipping the sheets of it between the sacred leaves: 
 so that the preacher consults his own notes, on pretence of consult- 
 ing the Scriptures." Ruskin's Stones of Venice, vol. iii., App., 
 p. 381. 
 
 18 Moore's Diary, quoted in the Times' review of Macaulay's 
 Miscellaneous Writings. 
 
284 EXTEMPORE PREACHING. 
 
 >ve see not why, to begin with, at all events, they 
 should not deliver their sermons memonVer. The habit of 
 fluent speaking, which would be generated by first 
 preaching from memory, would not altogether forsake 
 us, when we come to have recourse to what, so far as 
 relates to the language, is an unpremeditated address. 
 
 2. The next of the distinctive styles of extempore 
 preaching we have to notice, and the one, under which 
 is comprehended the greatest number of subordinate 
 varieties, is that which we have called the method of 
 short notes. 
 
 The practice itself is traced back, by Erasmus, to 
 the time of Augustine, who, as he contends, adopted 
 this plan, in his sermons upon the Psalms, and pro- 
 bably in his other sermons also. It was commended 
 by Archbishop Seeker, to his clergy, as a middle 
 way between the written and the spoken styles ; and 
 combining, in some degree, the advantages of both. 
 Bishop Bull, also, is much praised by Robert Nelson 
 for his skill in this kind of preaching; as having the 
 advantage of the popular style, though wanting the 
 exactnc ss of more studied compositions. As already 
 hinted, however, there are numerous modes of using 
 the method of short notes ; and at a few of these it 
 may be worth while to take a passing glance. 
 
 Thus one mode, given in a treatise before referred to, 
 may be thus described. The sermon is fully written 
 
EXTEMPORE PREACHING. 285 
 
 out first, only with every alternate page left blank. On 
 these blank pages, are jotted down the chief heads of 
 thought, as contained in the written page, which is 
 opposite. Then, having doubled down all the written 
 pages, the preacher speaks from his abstract, — only 
 falling back upon his full manuscript, when driven by 
 stress of failure. This, of course, describes the earlier 
 and learning processes of the plan. After a time, it is 
 supposed that the fully written sermon may be dis- 
 pensed with; and that, a habit of fluency and ease 
 being acquired, the abstracts will become successively 
 shorter and shorter, until they are at length brought 
 down to a few capital heads.^^ 
 
 Another mode of preaching from short notes said to 
 have been adopted by a late distinguished preacher, has 
 been thus described to us. It consisted in the making 
 of successively reduced abstracts of the discourse to be 
 delivered, — the first sketch being almost a complete ser- 
 mon ; the second a reduction, but still indicating the 
 chief lines of thought ; until, by the time a fourth or 
 fifth abstract had been arrived at, the compass of the 
 sermon was brought down to the limits of a sheet of 
 note-paper to be inserted in the leaves of the Bible. 
 
 There is one other modification of the * short notes' 
 
 method which we have known to be adopted by some 
 
 preachers, and that with considerable success. We 
 
 may call it the symbolic plan. In this case, the entire 
 
 ^^ See Gresley's Eccles. Angl., Tart IV., Let. 33. 
 
286 EXTEMPORE PREACHING. 
 
 sermon, so far as structure, order of thought, and chief 
 forms of illustration are concerned, \s written; but so 
 reduced in compass, either by self-invented abbrevia- 
 tions, or by the omission of unimportant parts of sen- 
 tences, as to admit of being preached from, like 
 the abstract form, by means of a single inserted sheet 
 in the Sacred Book. One advantage of this plan is, 
 perhaps, that it seems to be more within the reach 
 of the man?j, — of all, indeed, who are willing to 
 give to it the requisite time and pains. For there is, 
 in it, very little taxing either of memory, or of inven- 
 tion. The written notes are supposed to embrace 
 all announcements of subject, all beginnings of para- 
 graphs, all important verbalisms; so that nearly the 
 whole catena of thought is represented upon paper, and 
 the extemporaneous faculty is put into requisition, only 
 to fill up the few omitted links. The plan will, pro- 
 bably, be embarrassing, for a time, and compel a more 
 frequent glancing of the eyes towards the notes, than is 
 consistent with the freedom of a spoken address. But 
 this will wear off by practice. The great thing to 
 acquire is confidence. The fear of falling once over- 
 come, the wing, of itself, will soon take to bolder 
 flights. 
 
 3. The last kind of extempore preaching we have to 
 notice is that which we have called the self-reliant 
 method; — or that, in which, without notes, or helps, or 
 undergirdings of any kind, the man plunges into deep 
 
EXTEMPORE PREACHING. 287 
 
 water at once ; and that, too, if the bodily and mental 
 functions be in healthy play, without much fear of mis- 
 chance or failure. 
 
 It is a peculiarity of this style of extempore address, 
 that it is adopted by the very hest preachers, and by the 
 very worst. Mediocrity, and very respectable mediocrity 
 too, will take refuge in the other styles, — in the trusted 
 strength of its memory, or in timid and cautious reliance 
 upon its notes. The self-reliant method is for the ex- 
 treme men, on either side. It is the strong arm of the 
 mighty ; or the puny weapon of the feeble. It is the 
 chosen resource of pains- taking, earnest, soul-loving zeal ; 
 or the cheap expedient of laziness, and procrastination, 
 and a fluent tongue. But with the abusers of one of 
 God's noblest instruments for good, — the race of com- 
 placent mouthers, who, without an idea, without an 
 argument, without an illustration or a fact, that seems 
 pertinent to anything, can go on wearying their hearers 
 with their inexhaustible talk, — we have not now to do. 
 We are speaking of the weapon in its legitimate use, as 
 being the normal type of all true extempore speaking, but 
 which, while affording scope for the highest powers of 
 intellect, demands premeditation, demands arrangement, 
 demands unsparing pains of every kind in order to 
 success. 
 
 What form this premeditation should take, would be 
 a subject for a book, rather than for a paragraph. In- 
 deed a book has recently appeared, on the continent, 
 
288 EXTEMPORE PIIEACHING. 
 
 offering suggestions for this kind of preparation in 
 particular. The work is, perhaps, a little too French 
 in its spirit and modes of thought for some of us; but it 
 is one, which, we think, any intending extemporaneous 
 preacher would consult with advantage.^ The author's 
 directions have respect to the following leading par- 
 ticulars. First, " The subject and its point," or the defi- 
 nite settlement, in our own minds of what the main 
 scope of the discourse is to be. Next " the formation 
 and arrangement of the ideas," — a process answering to 
 the painter's first sketch of his picture. Next " the 
 adjustment and reduction" of these constituent ele- 
 ments, with a view to their right proportion and har- 
 mony, one with another. And, lastly, the preparation 
 of a careful " exordium" and " peroration" — together 
 with the fixing upon one or two stro7ig thoughts, upon 
 which, though still in subordination to a general plan, 
 we should leave ourselves a license to enlarge. 
 
 Attention to these points, it will be seen, would tend 
 to deliver us from some of the more conspicuous 
 failures, observable in modern extempore preaching. 
 Thus, to say nothing of the nile given to a preacher, 
 that he have a distinct conception of his subject, — in- 
 attention to which may be a radical vice in his intellec- 
 tual organization, and which would shew itself whether 
 he spoke his sermons or wrote them, — how important 
 
 20 The Art of Extempore Speaking, by M. Bautain. London, 
 1859. 
 
EXTEMPORE PREACHING. 289 
 
 is the recommendation to see that there be " harmony 
 and proportion " in the several parts of a discourse ? 
 Is it at all an uncommon thing, to find that which con- 
 stitutes the entire stress and marrow of a sermon, — 
 which was intended so to be by the preacher, before 
 he entered his pulpit, — crushed and squeezed into the 
 end of the discourse, when all our best powers of atten- 
 tion are gone, and we are expectant of an early close ? 
 The reasons for a postponement of such important 
 matter to the last may be various. The man has been 
 afraid his materials would not hold out ; and he has, 
 purposely, lingered upon his secondary and collateral 
 topics. Or he has overthought his subject, and finds 
 himself with more matter than he is able to produce. 
 Or a new idea has come up, in the course of deli- 
 very, and, following its impulse, he finds himself carried 
 far off the line ;— till, coming back again, he finds that 
 his time is gone, though some of his best thoughts are 
 yet to come. Any way, however, all that the hearer 
 gets is a mis-shapen discourse. The parts are not 
 proportioned to each other. Statement of subject, cor- 
 roborative illustration, main argument, closing appeal, 
 -ake the places of each other in violation of all sym- 
 netry. All the things, it is possible, may be in the dis- 
 course, but there is no harmomj. 
 
 Nor less important, in extempore preaching, is the 
 .ecommended attention to the " exordium" and ''pero- 
 ration " of a sermon ; — to the latter especially. Who has 
 
290 EXTEMPORE PREACHING. 
 
 not witnessed the discomfiture and distress of a preacher, 
 evidently most anxious to bring his sermon to a close, 
 if he could but make up his mind as to the best way? 
 Naturally wishful to make a graceful exit, and to 
 round off his concluding period well, — ^as he draws to- 
 wards the end, he is casting about, by all the aids of 
 memory and invention, for some place of safe landing. 
 But the ground favours him not. He cannot find a 
 place for the sole of his foot. And so he has to go 
 floundering on a little longer. At last, you think he is 
 nearing terra firma. But again he has fears for his 
 safety. And, while you are looking to see him touch 
 the ground, — like a disengaged balloon, he shoots up 
 into the air again, — only to make an awkward descent 
 after all ; and glad, if he can call in the aid of a text of 
 Scripture, to cover a lame and impotent conclusion. 
 Hence the advice commonly given by writers on this 
 subject, that the peroration should be more carefully 
 prepared than any other part of the discourse ; that the 
 matter, style, and even verbal form of it, should all 
 be determined beforehand. And it should be deli- 
 vered as it was determined, — without addition, with- 
 out expansion, without change, — but in all its clean, 
 poised, well-considered sentences, — as it left the 
 mint of thought, or was taken down by the faithful 
 
 21 See the advice of Whately on this subject. Rhetoric, part I., 
 c. iv., § 3. 
 
EXTEMPORE PREACHING. 291 
 
 We must close this chapter by adverting to a few 
 qualifications, which would seem to be generally neces- 
 sary to success, in the practice of extemporaneous 
 preaching. 
 
 Of these, the first is the cultivated habit of facile and 
 correct expression. 
 
 It must be facile. There must be an easy and un- 
 embarrassed flow of words. The qualification has its 
 counterfeit, as hinted already. And in the redundant 
 outpourings, the drenching verbiage, the oppressive 
 volubility of some speakers, we see what is commonly 
 meant by a man having a great command of language, 
 a phrase which, as has been wittily observed, means 
 that his language has a great command of him.^ The 
 abuse of the power apart, however, the habit must be 
 acquired of unhesitating expression, — of saying what 
 we have to say easily. Writing to the father of 
 Macaulay, on the oratorical training of the future 
 historian. Lord Brougham said, — " Let him, first of all, 
 learn to speak easily and fluently, — as well, and as 
 sensibly, as he can no doubt, — but, at any rate, let him 
 learn to speak. This is the first requisite, to acquire 
 which everything else must be sacrificed."^ 
 
 23 Whately. In reference to tins kind of fluency also, we have 
 Lord Brougham saying, " It is a very common error to call this 
 natural eloquence; it is the reverse; it is neither naku-aJ nor 
 elo(juent." — Edinhurgh Review. 
 
 23 Published in Times newspaper, dated March, 1823. 
 
 u 2 
 
292 EXTEMPORE PREACHI^G. 
 
 But mere facility of expression is not all. There 
 should be correctness, a ready appropriateness, that habit 
 of felicitous diction, which enables a man, as it were, 
 by an instinct, to put the right word in the right place. 
 Of course, no rules can be given for the acquisition of 
 such a habit. But, in regard to so much of skill in it, 
 as comes of having at hand, always, a rich thesaurus of 
 approximate synonyms, there is one coincidence of 
 practice, between ancient and modern masters, which 
 may not be deemed unworthy of notice. We al- 
 lude to an acquired habit of ready and even ofF-hand 
 translation of fine passages, out of one language into 
 another. Cicero, Quinctilian, and the younger Pliny, 
 enjoin this practice, as indispensable to any proficiency 
 in eloquence. Whilst of Cicero, it is related, in connec- 
 tion with those exercitations for declaiming practice, 
 alluded to in a former chapter, that he more frequently 
 declaimed in Greek than in his native tongue.^ Now 
 it is note-worthy, th^t Pitt was accustomed to attribute 
 his remarkable felicitousness of expression to a similar 
 practice. The account of the manner in which he 
 set about it, is given by Lord Stanhope in his installa- 
 lation address at Aberdeen.*^ And through life he 
 attached much importance to the practice, as appears 
 from a remark he made to Lord Grenville, preserved 
 among the recollections of the late Mr. Rogers. " ' I 
 
 ^ Kennett's Essay on Roman Education, p. xxi. 
 ^ See Note in the Appendix. 
 
EXTEMPORE PREACHING. 293 
 
 have always thought,' he said/ that what little command 
 of language I have, came from a practice I had of 
 reading off, in the family, after tea, some passage of 
 Livy or Cicero.' He was constantly in the habit," adds 
 Mr. Rogers, " of translating off-hand any passage from 
 the classics."^ 
 
 These instances, at all events, may not be without their 
 use to those, who are apt to have an undervaluing esti- 
 mate of classical studies, on the plea, that all that is 
 worthy, in the great intellectual productions of anti- 
 quity, may be obtained through the medium of existing 
 translations, without the ti'ouble of making translations 
 of our own. For it is by making translations of our 
 own, — by the cultivated habit of comparing idiom with 
 idiom, and by tracing out the subtle and refined distinc- 
 tions between the modes of thought in one age, and the 
 modes of thought in another, — that, not only are the 
 great conceptions of great minds more surely mastered, 
 and not only are these conceptions made by combina- 
 tion, the seed-plot of future thoughts of our own, — but 
 a still further advantage of the process is, that, in this 
 way, the mind learns to habituate itself to those deli- 
 cate shades of verbal expression, which, whether in 
 speaking or writing, form one of the greatest chaims of 
 eloquence, and are even one main element of per- 
 spicuity and power. 
 
 "^ " Recollections," by Samuel Eogers. London, 1859. 
 
294 EXTEMPORE PREACHING. 
 
 Another requisite to success, in extempore preach- 
 ing, we have to notice, is the assiduous cultivation of 
 the memory. 
 
 Against the drudgery of learning the entire sermon 
 by heart, we have recorded a dissentient opinion al- 
 ready. But we did not thereby mean to commit our- 
 selves to the admission, that, adopt whichever of the 
 modifications of extemporaneous address we may, it 
 was even possible for any great success to be achieved, 
 without the mnemonic faculty being constantly employed, 
 — and this, not only for the general scope and struc- 
 ture of the discourse, but for sentences, phrases, and, 
 in many cases, for the retention and reproduction of 
 the actual words. We are aware, it is customary to 
 assume, that the blending together of prepared and 
 extempore matter, is rarely attended with success ; 
 and that a transparent awkwardness will accompany 
 the transition, from the chastened and classically 
 moulded sentences of the study, to the chance-born 
 and random utterances which the mind is obliged to 
 furnish at the instant. But all experience is against 
 this supposed incompatibility. The two things were 
 always mixed up together, by- the ancient orators f and 
 
 ^ " Mandare memoriae" is one of Cicero's, " qiiinque quasi 
 membra eloquentisB ;" yet it is certain he mixed much extempore 
 matter with his orations. Of Demosthenes we are told that he 
 neither wrote the whole of his orations, nor spoke without com- 
 mitting part to writing. Plutarch. . In vit. 
 
EXTEMPORE PREACHING. 295 
 
 the same thing is known to be practised now, by our 
 best parliamentary and forensic speakers. In the 
 letter of Lord Brougham, before adverted to, he says, 
 " I composed the peroration of my speech for the 
 Queen, twenty times over, at least ;" whilst, in order to 
 shew that he did not limit his remark to perorations 
 merely, nor even to tyros merely, he adds, " I go fur- 
 ther and say, even to the end of a man's life, he must 
 ^reparej word for icord, most of Ins finer passages^ ^ To 
 the same purport is what we are told of the practice of 
 Hobert Hall, who was never ashamed to confess that 
 even to the very words he should use, his most power- 
 ful passages were prepared beforehand.^ Cultivate 
 therefore, the habit of unpremeditated expression as 
 we may, we hold that, for the exordium, for a con- 
 nected argument, for a well considered illustration, for 
 a powerful close, we shall never be able to dispense 
 with the aids of memory. 
 
 Our next suggestion, with regard to extempore 
 preaching, has respect to the manner of speaking ; to 
 the necessity, especially under stress of difficulty, of 
 
 23 Dr. Chalmers's journal contains such extracts as the following: 
 '' October 4, Employed in writing speech on Mr. Ferrier's case. 
 October 6. Almost finished my speech on Terrier's business. 
 Oct. 8. Committed great ^mrt of my speech to heart." Life by Dr. 
 Hanna. 
 
 29 Foster's Essay, Works, vol. vi. p. 15G, See Appendix. 
 
296 EXTEMPORE PREACHING. 
 
 an equable and deliberate utterance. One of the first 
 troubles experienced by a public speaker is to catch 
 himself tripping. He has stumbled upon a wrong or 
 inappropriate word ; or he has expressed himself in a 
 way which, almost before the words have fallen from 
 his lips, he sees will lay his statement open to objec- 
 tion ; or lastly, owing to some ill-managed qualifica- 
 tions in the middle of a sentence, he has let go the 
 thread of his argument; and he sees nothing but an 
 ugly anacoluthm before him — half the sentence unfi- 
 nished, and the other half hanging upon nothing. These 
 things greatly disconcert him. In the case of the 
 unsuitable word or statement, he can hardly avoid, for 
 the next few seconds, yielding to an undercurrent of 
 speculation in his own mind, as to the extent of mis- 
 chief his mistake may involve ; and for a sentence or 
 two he is considering whether he ought to go back and 
 set it right. More commonly, however, the conscious- 
 ness of dilemma betrays itself in increased rapidity of 
 utterance ; in an agitated impatience to get on to 
 something else ; as if he would hurry away from his 
 misfortune, or bury it out of sight of his hearers, by an 
 overlaid heap of words. It is almost needless to say, 
 that, by such means, the evil is aggravated, and that 
 the confusion will increase the longer he goes on. 
 
 Hence, whether in the way of prevention or cure, 
 the best security for an orator, prone to get into 
 trouble, is deliberation. And he should be the more 
 
EXTEMPORE PREACHING. 297 
 
 deliberate, the more troubled he is. It is by far the 
 easiest way to recover himself; and what is of more 
 importance, it is the honest way ; whilst, if anything 
 have dropped from his lips, which is really open to 
 exception, a few qualifying^words to set it right at the 
 time, must be better than any raised mist of words 
 under cover of which he is hoping the mistake may 
 be overlooked.^ 
 
 As to a discovered anacohctJion, involving no danger 
 of misconception, but only a lost consecutiveness in 
 the order of the speaker's thoughts, it seems better 
 that a preacher should let it pass by, and suffer judg- 
 ment to go by default. Under certain rhetorical con- 
 ditions, we know this form of structural incoherence is al- 
 lowable, and may even heighten the moral impression 
 of an address. But, where it does not, — where it is an 
 accident into which we have fallen unwittingly, or 
 through suffering ourselves to be carried away by the 
 vehemence of oratorical impulse, there should be no 
 wasting of time to recover the lost clue ; but rather an 
 endeavour to get into a new sentence as soon as we 
 can. Deliberate utterance will do much towards keep- 
 ing us from these extemporaneous lapses, but like other 
 lapses, — such as the mention of a wrong name, or mis- 
 quoting the words of a text of Scripture, or even aviolated 
 
 80 Addison says of some speakers, " They put me in mind of the 
 scuttle fish, that wlien he is unable to extricate himself, blackens 
 all the water about him, till he becomes invisible." Spectator. 
 
298 EXTEMPORE PREACHING. 
 
 concord in grammar, — they will happen now and then. 
 And when they do, we should neither betray confusion 
 at discovering the error, nor waste time in trying to set 
 it right. There must be, in extemporizing, a certain 
 amount of boldness, and even rash venture. A man will 
 never make a good speaker, who loses all his self-pos- 
 session on finding that he has made a mistake.^^ 
 
 The last qualification for extempore preaching, we 
 shall advert to, is the necessity, in order to anything of 
 proficiency, of habitual and careful writing. 
 
 Among the ancients, this was strongly insisted upon. 
 " The pen is the orator's best instructor,"^^ says Cicero. 
 " Without this," says Quinctilian, " public speaking 
 
 ^ How little is the practised parliamentary orator disconcerted 
 by such things ? Of Fox, we think, it is related, that in the course 
 of a Latin quotation, on one occasion, he pronounced the ' i ' in 
 vectigal short. A low murmur of vectigal came from a member 
 sitting near. Upon which the unabashed speaker exclaimed, " An 
 hon. member reminds me of a false quantity made by me, in the 
 quotation from Cicero. I thank him for it. It will aflFord the 
 House an opportunity of hearing again that noble sentiment." 
 And forthwith came out the quotation again, " vectigal" being enun- 
 ciated with all its elongated honours. We do not desiderate for 
 the preacher quite so much self-possession as this; because we 
 suppose most of us would agree in describing it, as self-possession 
 and something more. 
 
 8* De Orator. And again, " Caput est quod (ut vere dicam) 
 minime facimus (est euim magni laboris quem plerique fugimus) 
 quam plurimura scribere." 
 
EXTEMPORE PREACHING. 299 
 
 becomes mere empty garrulousness."*' And they 
 acted upon what they taught. Some of the preserved 
 orations of Cicero were never delivered at all ; and, of 
 Servius Galba, it is related that, in preparing a speech, 
 he would employ two or three amanuenses at once. 
 Now the practical necessity of much writing, for an 
 extemporaneous preacher, is, by some of our clergy, 
 altogether denied. Their power of intellectual ab- 
 straction, they say, enables them to compose altogether 
 mentally. They can revolve all the bearings of a text, 
 as they recline back in their arm-chair; and turn out a 
 finished homily in the course of a morning's walk. 
 Arrangement of materials is not so much to be regarded, 
 they consider, as the necessity of having the mind full 
 of its subject, — of having ample stores of mentally 
 registered thoughts, upon the matter in hand, which 
 we are to trust to the inspirations of the moment, to 
 bring in at the right place. That argument, which 
 occurred to us at the fireside, — or, that apt illustration, 
 which flashed upon us, as we walked by the way, — we 
 shall be able to bid it to our presence, when we are in 
 the pulpit, and give it forth, with as much clearness, as 
 if it had been written down. 
 
 Now it is of this last assertion, more particularly, 
 
 8* " Sine hac quidem conscientia (multum in rescribendo laborem 
 insumpsisse) ilia ipsa ex tempore dicendi facultas inanem modo 
 loquacitatem dabit, et verba in labns nascentia." Quinct , Lord 
 Stanhope's Discourse. 
 
300 EXTEMPORE PREACHING. 
 
 that we stand so much in doubt. We believe they are 
 very few, who know what all the bearings of an argu- 
 ment will be, or how a mentally conceived illustration 
 will work out, till they have put down their thoughts 
 upon paper. There is a haziness, about those out-of- 
 door conceptions, which the clearer medium of written 
 thought would help to disperse ; — a want of exactness, 
 in that arm-chair logic, which, patent enough as the 
 pen would have made it to us, will, perhaps, only strike 
 us, for the first time, when we come to deliver it aloud. 
 Whatever else, therefore, may be necessary for the 
 extempore speaker, we hold that, in order to correct- 
 ness, he must write. It it is not only because, without 
 such aid, he will not be able to make others understand 
 his meaning; it is that, without it, he cannot be sure 
 that he understands it himself. 
 
 From all that has been advanced, it will be inferred, 
 that what we regard, as the besetting danger of the ex- 
 temporaneous preacher, is the neglect of needful pre- 
 paration ; the getting into a habit of mere word- 
 stringing ; the not being furnished with a store of well- 
 defined and solid thoughts, and, therefore, being 
 obliged to have recourse to the most feeble and wire- 
 drawn generalities to fill up the time. In saying this, 
 we are far from meaning that all the meagreness and 
 supcrficialncss are on Ms side. On the contrary, we 
 know that there may be twaddle written, as well as 
 twaddle spoken : and that a sermon, demanding many 
 
EXTEMPORE PREACHING. 301 
 
 hours for the mere manual writing, may, after all 
 contain nothing but stones of emptiness, sounding 
 brass, and bones that are very dry. But still, the 
 temptation to provide only barren pastures, lies more 
 with the extempore preacher. He is liable to fall in, 
 more easily than the writer of sermons, with the sug- 
 gestions of an indolent spirit. If he have but the 
 trick of fluent declamation ; the power of concealing 
 any poverty of thought, by means of a thick mist 
 of words ; and, worst of all, that dreadful habit, which 
 some are said to have, of appearing most animated and 
 earnest, when most conscious that they have nothing to 
 say, — we have no security, but in his own conscience, 
 that we may not, at any time, be called upon to sit 
 down to an empty board. And we cannot contemplate 
 this danger without solemn sadness, — without warning 
 those who may have fatal facilities this way, whither 
 Satan and their fluent gifts may lead them. They may 
 tell us that, in their most indolent or indisposed moods, 
 they are always careful to redeem time for prayer. 
 And we may not doubt this. But the marvel to us is 
 that, having found time for prayer, they did not learn, 
 hy prayer, the mockery of not finding time for some- 
 thing else. " This ought ye to have done, and not to 
 leave the other undone." 
 
 Wherefore, let our last protest, on this subject, be 
 against hasty preparation. The cheaply-produced 
 sermon, whether spoken or written, is always the same, 
 
302 EXTEMPORE PEEACHING. 
 
 a calamity, a wrong, an offence both to earth and 
 heaven. It is not only that there is the absence of the 
 true x\raunah spirit, in the offering. There is an evil 
 beyond that. That which costs us nothing, — in the 
 ■way of disappointment, and distress, and famine of the 
 word, may cost our hearers a great deal. They come 
 to us not as to " instructors in Christ " only, but as to 
 " fathers ;" — fathers, charged wuth the distribution of 
 heaven's bounty, and, having at our disposal, bread 
 enough and to spare. Is it nothing that we spread for 
 them a table of empty husks } " If a son shall ask 
 bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a 
 stone ?" 
 
303 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 SUPPLEMENTAL TOPICS. — CONCLUSION. 
 
 Expository preacbmg — Its relative advantages — Difficulties of the 
 style — Courses of sermons — Usually attractive — Helpful to en- 
 larged views of theology — Public catechizing — ^Ancient authority 
 of — The benefits to the adult members of a congregation — Its 
 supposed difficulties — Sermons to children — The choice of sub- 
 jects most suitable for — Illustration the great instrument for 
 teaching the young — Necessity of preparation— Open-air preach- 
 ing—The lawfulness of it — Supposed danger of bringing religion 
 into ridicule — Liability to open challenges from the unbeliever 
 — Needed cautions — Special services for the working classes — 
 The Sunday evening services in -cathedrals, &c. — Week-day 
 services in parish churches — How to keep up the interest of 
 special services — Conclusion. 
 
 The practical aim of the present work, and the 
 desire to incorporate into it as much of the fruits 
 of gathered experience, as a large and important 
 sphere of ministry might be expected to supply, will 
 be accepted as a reason for the mention of a few sup- 
 plemental topics, which; though belonging to the 
 
304 SUPPLEMENTAL TOPICS. 
 
 general subject, did not seem to fall under any of those 
 capital divisions of it, which have formed the ground- 
 work of the preceding chapters. 
 
 Of such topics, the first we may advert to, is that of 
 
 EXPOSITORY PREACHING. 
 
 By ail expository discourse, we mean generally, a 
 discourse, of which the basis of illustration is laid in 
 larger portions of Scripture, than is commonly used to 
 introduce the ordinary sermon, — whether by taking a 
 parable, or miracle, or a striking passage of sacred 
 biography, or, it may be, the consecutive portions of an 
 entire book of Scripture. It is the more ancient mode 
 of preaching, no doubt. We should look, in vain, for 
 the original of oiu: modern topical sermon, in the 
 preaching of Ezra, or in the discourses of Jeremiah, 
 or in the sermon of St. Paul at Antioch, or even 
 in the best homiletical examples, bequeathed to 
 us by the primitive Church. In the first Christian 
 centuries, the homily was the rule, — the discourse on a 
 set topic the exception ; the general preference being 
 for a mode, in which, as St. Chrysostom observes, 
 " God speaks much, and man little." 
 
 With us, however, the sermon has been too long 
 established, and has taken too deep a root in our 
 church-going partialities, to be superseded by the ex- 
 
SUPPLEMENTAL TOPICS. 305 
 
 position ; or even to allow of the latter taking, with it, 
 more than an occasional turn. To say nothing of its 
 advantages over the exegetical method, in the larger 
 scope it affords for the connected argument, the elo- 
 quent illustration, the impassioned appeal, — it is felt 
 that some of our most able and skilfully condensed 
 tractates, upon theological subjects,, have come to us in 
 this form. If our divines had always been limited to 
 the expository method, such sermons as those of 
 Barrow, on the Apostles' Creed ; or those of Bishop 
 Butler on Human Nature ; or those of Charnock on the 
 Attributes, might never have been written : — certainly 
 would never have been preached. And though we 
 look not for the like of such men, in every generation, 
 yet disquisitions on set religious topics are a needful 
 part of the religious training of the age ; and, by no 
 way better than by the sermon, can this admitted need 
 be supplied. 
 
 And yet many and great are the advantages of the 
 exposition, when permitted to take its share, with the 
 sermon, in the building up of a congregation. To the 
 preacher, it may be very beneficial. It furnishes him 
 with a new variety of pulpit address. It compels him 
 to a more accurate and synthetical study of large por- 
 tions of the word of God. It spares him all the hesita- 
 tion, and indecision, and loss of time, often attendant 
 upon the choice of a text. And, above all, it keeps 
 him from being too much wedded to the narrownesses 
 
 X 
 
306 SUPPLEMENTAL TOPICS. 
 
 of human systems, by the fuller conspectus he is 
 obliged to take of the whole counsel of God. 
 
 To the people, also, the style has many advantages-. 
 It brings before them a larger field of Divine truth at 
 one view. It affords them a better opportunity for 
 seeing the doctrines of the Christian system, in their 
 related order and dependence. It admits of the bring- 
 ing in oS many collateral, but still far from unimportant 
 topics, which, if left for a set subject of discourse, 
 might never have been enforced at all. It helps to fix 
 mai'ked passages of Scripture more permanently upon 
 the memory. And it assists them in the formation of 
 devout and intelligent habits, in their own private read- 
 ing of the word. 
 
 But is expository preaching easy ? In some hands, 
 and following some methods, it is easy enough. If a 
 preacher is content merely to decompose each verse 
 into its constituent parts ; to single out the particular 
 expressions upon which he knows he can expatiate 
 most easily ; to expound the first clause, and the 
 second, and the third, as if there were no connection 
 or bond of subject between them ; in a word, if he has 
 only taken a long passage of Scripture, because, with 
 such a mass of materials, he thinks his cup of inven- 
 tion is not likely to run dry ; or because, if he finds he 
 has not enough to say upon one verse, he has nothing 
 to do but to seek refuge in another, — if, in this way, a 
 man sets about expository preaching, his task, no 
 
SUPPLEMENTAL TOPICS. ;307 
 
 doubt, will be attended with little difficulty, but, it is to 
 be feared, with as little profit too. 
 
 Let it be observed, then, that there is nothing of the 
 save -trouble principle, in this style, if it is to be well 
 done. It requires a pains- taking process of generali- 
 zation ; a skilled habit of separating all mere accessories 
 from what we consider to be the parent thought ; a 
 discriminative grouping of scattered elements, to make 
 them bear on some one conclusion ; and a facile power 
 of transition, from one part of the subject to another, 
 without the jarring sense of abruptness, and without 
 injury to the general unity of the subject. It is cus- 
 tomary to speak of Chrysostom, as the most perfect 
 model of this style of preaching. But our own puritan 
 writers excelled much in this kind of composition also. 
 Fanciful, far-fetched, tiresome beyond all endurance, 
 may be their ' inferences ' five, and their ' observations ' 
 seven, with sundry 'questions' and 'answers^ stopping 
 the way between, but 'what is the chaff to the wheat r' 
 And much wheat may be found in these uninviting 
 pages. For power to seize on the salient moral of a 
 passage, or to pick up the interlacing threads of several 
 verses, and combine them into one strand of thought, 
 the preachers of the period referred to are surpassed 
 by few. Writers, like Man ton on St. James, or Adams 
 on St. Peter, or Greenhill on Ezekiel, or Caryl on Job, 
 will rarely be consulted by the expository preacher 
 without profit. As greatly helpful to his purpose, also, 
 
 X -2 
 
308 SUPPLEMENTAL TOPICS. 
 
 especially in affording examples of devout application, 
 as well as dexterous and able grouping, he will not 
 overlook the commentaries of Matthew Henry, and the 
 pious Burkitt. 
 
 With regard to the application of the expository 
 method, to entire books of Scripture, by taking conse- 
 cutive portions, as the subject of each lecture, we may 
 observe that, except in the case of some of the shorter 
 books or epistles, the plan is not one, which our expe- 
 rience would incline us to favour. There is danger of 
 it becoming a yoke, even unto bondage, to the preacher, 
 — coming, as he must sometimes, to passages, upon 
 which, in the way of exposition, there is, in fact, 
 nothing to be said. Whilst, as to hearers, with all 
 their partiality for lectures, succeeding in regular 
 course, they have their stem limits for the length of the 
 series ; and, these exceeded, their impatience soon 
 discovers itself for something new. 
 
 The last remark may not unfitly introduce the 
 mention of another supplemental topic; namely, 
 that of 
 
 COURSES OF SERMONS. 
 
 As already hinted, if the series extend not to too 
 great a length, there can be no doubt of these having 
 
SUPPLEMEMTAL TOPICS. 305) 
 
 considerable attractions for the great majority of our 
 congregations. Presuming upon something of unity 
 and continuity in the series, they are unwilling, even 
 by a single absence, to lose the connecting thread. And, 
 in the case of courses of lectures, which are intended 
 to follow men into the familiar walks of life, and to ex- 
 hibit their relative obligations, one to another, in their 
 tangible, concrete, household form, — such, for ex- 
 ample, as a series of discourses on the domestic 
 relations, founded upon the latter chapters of the 
 epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians ; or a 
 course on Gospel ethics, founded on the passage, 
 commencing, " Whatsoever things are true," in the 
 Epistle to the Philippians, — we have known a degree 
 of interest to be awakened, which would have been 
 looked for, in vain, from any promiscuous or un- 
 connected teaching. 
 
 Nor does this seem to be the only advantage of the 
 method. The fact that we are going through a course 
 upon specific topics, — the entire discourse, perhaps, 
 hinging upon a single word, — will prepare people for 
 our entering into minute shades of detail ; for an assumed 
 license to adopt an exceptional homeliness of illustra- 
 tion ; and altogether for our standing less in awe of any 
 trespass against pulpit dignity, than we may deem it 
 expedient to do in the ordinary discourse. Many 
 years ago, we remember to have heard a very able divine, 
 a preacher at one of our chief Inns of Court, offer an 
 
310 SUPPLEMENTAL TOPICS. 
 
 apologetic explanation to his learned auditory, for 
 having, as they complained, been somewhat too out- 
 spoken upon the subject of sins against the seventh 
 commandment. We will not say whether it was wise 
 to offer the explanation ; but we have the fullest con- 
 fidence, that, if the sermon complained of had formed 
 one of a series of discourses on the Decalogue, the 
 remarks, which provoked the explanation, would never 
 have been made.-^ 
 
 Not less obvious is it to remark, how helpful the 
 occasional use of the plan under consideration, may be 
 made towards the better instruction of our people in 
 systematic theology, or, at least, in a more systematic 
 understanding of some one or other of its departments. 
 What a connected and comprehensive view of the 
 duty of prayer, for instance, — its nature, its object, its 
 subject-matter, its order of asking, — may be furnished, 
 in a series of discourses on the form, prescribed by our 
 Divine Lord on the Mount. How clearly would the 
 
 ^ Professor "Blimt hints that we may have a like security against 
 ofFence-taking, in treating upon unwelcome subjects, by taking 
 our text for them, from some part of the service for the day. An 
 anecdote of tlie late Duke of Wellington would tend to confirm 
 this remark. Some one had commented, on coming out of church, 
 on the bad taste of the clergyman, who, with a knowledge that the 
 Duko would be present, had taken his text from the descriptive 
 account of Naaman (2 Kings v. 1). Upon which the Duke made 
 answer, " Nonsense ; it was the Lesson for the day." 
 
SUPPLEMENTAL TOPICS. ^\l 
 
 essential oneness of Old and New Testament theology, 
 — the one Lord, the one faith, the one baptism, — be 
 brought out in a course of sermons, on St. Paul's great 
 cloud of witnesses. What a finished portraiture of 
 Christian character may be supplied by successive 
 meditations on the Beatitudes ; and how complete a 
 view of our work and warfare in the world, might be 
 presented, as, piece by piece, we laid open the equip- 
 ments of the Christian soldier, wrestling against the 
 powers of evil, by " putting on the whole armour of 
 God." 
 
 But systematic theology may be taught in another 
 way ; in a way which, it were much to be wished, we 
 could see more extensively adopted. We allude to 
 preaching, by means of 
 
 CATECHIZING IN THE CHURCH. 
 
 The authority of the Christian catechesis dates as far 
 back, as the second chapter of St. Luke r whilst, of 
 the importance in which it was held in the first Chris- 
 tian centuries, we require no other proof than the fact, 
 that the duty of conducting it,— or of seeing that the 
 converts, to be baptized, were duly instructed in the 
 
 3 Comp. tTrepujriiJvTa avrovg in Luke ii. 46, with (rvvHCn<yiu)Q ayaOnc 
 l7rtpo^TT}f-ia in 1 Pet. iii. 21. 
 
312 SUPPLEMENTAL TOPICS. 
 
 elementary principles of Christian truth, — should be 
 made to devolve on an officer of the Church, named 
 and set apart for that special purpose.' The basis of 
 catechetical instruction, also, as consisting of exposi- 
 tions of the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten 
 Commandments, — the credenda, the postulanda, the 
 agenda, — has never materially varied. The practice 
 was much neglected in the dark ages of popery, our 
 homily tells us, but, with better days, it revived. And 
 one of the first steps taken towards the Reformation," 
 says Archbishop Seeker, in this country, was a " gene- 
 ral injunction that parents and masters should first 
 learn themselves, and then instruct their children, and 
 servants, in these three great branches of Christian 
 duty, as set forth in the Catechism."^ With the 
 peremptory language of our 59th Canon, we are ail 
 familiar. And the neglect of such a plain injunction 
 
 " According to St. Ambrose, St. Mark himself was the first 
 catechist at Alexandria, having been ordained to that office by St. 
 Peter. See Dean Comber's Companion to the Temple. The Cate- 
 chism, Part III., vol. iii., p. 439. Ox., 1841. 
 
 * "Even Luther," says old Fuller, "did not scorn to profess 
 himself a scholar of the Catechism. By this catechizing the 
 Gospel got ground of popery ; and let not our religion, now grown 
 rich, be ashamed of that which first gave it credit, and set it up, 
 lest the Jesuits beat us at our own weapons. Through the want of 
 this catechizing, many, who are well skilled in some dark out-corners 
 of divinity, have lost themselves in the beaten road thereof." 
 
SUPPLEMENTAL TOPICS. 813 
 
 can only be accounted for, on the supposition, that the 
 instruction which the canon required to be given in the 
 church, is now given in the parochial school. This 
 supposition, however, seems to overlook the important 
 fact, that public catechizing is not for the benefit of the 
 children of the poor only, nor even for the exclusive 
 benefit of children at all. A benefit it is, to our paro- 
 chial children, no doubt, and a very great one ; for 
 there is nothing they remember so well, as knowledge 
 obtained through answers given by themselves. And 
 many a simple explanation of their own will be remem- 
 bered, when a wise explanation of ours will be for- 
 gotten. But it is a great benefit to others also ; — to 
 the children of the wealthier members of our congrega- 
 tions, who should always be encouraged to take part 
 in these catechetical exercises ; and still more to the 
 illiterate and simple-minded adult, who is often glad to 
 receive instruction in this form, although, if broken up 
 into such very small particles for himself, he would 
 only be oifended by the condescension. 
 
 Still the great use of this kind of teaching is, that it 
 should proceed upon a plan ; that there should be an 
 orderly sequence in the method of instruction ; begin- 
 ning with the obligations of the baptismal vow, and 
 ending with the privileges of full communion with the 
 Church. In the way of a clear and connected view of 
 the whole Gospel scheme, it is to be feared we take it 
 for granted, that our people know a great deal more 
 
314 SUPPLEMENTAL TOPICS. 
 
 than they do. They may have a correct understandiDg 
 of isolated doctrines of the faith, — our guilt and ruin 
 by the fall, our recovery and salvation through the 
 Christian covenant, our admission by baptism into the 
 family of God, our justification by faith in the merits 
 of Christ Jesus, our renewal unto holiness by the influ- 
 ences of the Holy Spirit, and, as the fruit and evidence 
 of all, a conversation which is according to godliness, 
 — but, of the relation of these truths, one to the other, 
 and of their coherence, as one compact whole of Divine 
 philosophy, — it may be believed, that their views are 
 anything but clear, and anything but perfect. " Baxter 
 was amazed," we are told, " at the lamentable ignor- 
 ance of numbers of persons who had been regular at- 
 tendants at his church, for ten or twelve years, and who 
 yet, in one hour's familiar instruction, seemed to learn 
 more than in all their previous lives." ^ Insomuch that, 
 when he was advanced in years, we find him writing, 
 "Now it is the fundamental doctrines of the Catechism, 
 which I highliest value, and daily think of, and find 
 most useful to myself and others. The Creed, the 
 Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments find me 
 now the most acceptable and plentiful matter for all my 
 meditations." « 
 
 Among the causes which have led to the neglect of 
 catechizing, we nothing doubt may be mentioned a 
 current belief, that a peculiar faculty is required for 
 
 ^ Quarterly licriew, vol. cii. p. 485. " Id. p. 483. 
 
SUPPLEMENTAL TOPICS. 315 
 
 drawing out the powers of the youthful intelligence ; 
 that it is not every man, w^ho can throw himself back 
 into the mental processes of childhood, and look into 
 the busy hives of thought before him, as if himself were 
 young again ; in a word, a lurking idea that chatechiz- 
 ing is a gift. We believe it to be just as much a gift 
 as siuimming is a gift. And that in the one, as in the 
 other, it is competent to most of us to succeed, if we 
 will but try. As parochial ministers, we are accustomed, 
 it is presumed, sometimes to take a class in our schools. 
 We know w^hat methods we are in the habit of adopt- 
 ing, with children there ; — how we lay ourselves out to 
 stimulate and exercise their powers of reflection and 
 thought ; how w^e lead up by faintly indicated lines, to 
 the answer we are seeking ; how we avoid those am- 
 biguously-worded questions, which may be rightly an- 
 swered in more ways than one ; how we never have 
 recourse to a remote analogy, when we can find one to 
 our purpose under their own eyes ; how we try to 
 bring out what they hnow, rather than mortify them by 
 a discovered ignorance; how we proceed onwards from 
 their last answer, as if they had supplied us with a new 
 form of illustration ; and how we keep working, round 
 and round, to bring them to a conclusion, — taking care, 
 meanwhile, so to make use of their words and replies, 
 as that the conclusion shall seem to be their own. 
 Most of us, we say, can do this. And yet, what is the 
 overlaid or incorporated element of the Public Gate- 
 
316 SUPPLEMENTAL TOPICS. 
 
 chizing, which is to make the same thing difficult in 
 the church, that we find perfectly easy in the school ? 
 Why manifestly only that which is to bring the cate- 
 chetical exercise so much nearer to the sermon; — 
 namely, the interweaving of those larger moral appli- 
 cations which are often the more impressive to the 
 general auditory, because purposely made to arise out 
 of answers given by the children. For it thus seems 
 as if God were ordaining strength " out of the mouth 
 of babes and sucklings," and the child is made the 
 preacher to the man. 
 
 And this feature of the exercise it is, that gives to 
 catechizing its chief usefulness and worth. It should 
 be considered by us as preaching ; made use of as 
 preaching ; prepared for as preaching. The illustra- 
 tive simile, the close appeal to the conscience, the well 
 pointed lesson of practice, — ought all to be thought out 
 beforehand, as much as if they were intended for a 
 sermon. There should be no attempt to hide the fact, 
 that, besides doing good to the children, we have 
 an ulterior object, — that we have a deliberate de- 
 sign of siege upon the citadel of the adult heart, and 
 are employing the children to work in the trenches. 
 If the benefit to the children were the only thing consi- 
 dered, we might obtain it in the school. We carry on 
 the exercise in the presence of a congregation, because 
 the method supplies us with another variety of teaching 
 for a class, who, though not more than " children 
 
SUPPLEMENTAL TOPICS. 317 
 
 in understanding," yet, in any other exercise than this, 
 would expect to be addressed as men. " Be it so," we 
 say, in the words of the Apostle in another case, " I 
 did not burden you : nevertheless, being crafty, I caught 
 you with guile." ^ 
 
 Nearly allied to catechizing, and, with a like double 
 aspect as to the persons to be benefited, is another 
 form of preaching, to which experience has led us to 
 attach some importance. We allude to 
 
 SERMONS TO CHILDREN. 
 
 Apart from considerations arising out of the over- 
 length of our morning service, — at least, for those of 
 tender age, — it will probably be conceded that, from 
 sermons, in the style usually addressed to educated 
 congregations, children, between the ages of six and 
 twelve years, carry very little away. The music, and 
 other adjuncts may keep the service from being a 
 weariness ; and it is a clear gain, to have cultivated, in 
 them, a sentiment of reverence for holy things. But 
 the actual amount of pulpit instruction they take in, 
 must be very unsatisfactory, and very slight. Ts it 
 not well, then, that they should sometimes have a 
 service for themselves ? consisting, say, of the Litany, 
 '' 2 Cor. xii. 16. 
 
318 SUPPLEMENTAL TOPICS. 
 
 a hymn, and a sermon, — all being brought within the 
 limits of an hour. As far as the results of a single mi- 
 nistry are admissible evidence, on the utility of such 
 services, and, as far as the beneficial character of such 
 results can be inferred, — either from the numbers who are 
 present, or the sustained attention which is manifested, 
 or the pleased interest with which the recurrence of the 
 quarterly service is looked forward to, — the testimony 
 of the writer of these pages would be unqualified and 
 unhesitating. Including parents, and others above the 
 age of those, for whom the service was specially in- 
 tended, he thinks he may say he has sometimes had 
 an auditory of a thousand persons, attracted by the an- 
 nouncement of a ' sermon to children.'^ 
 
 The comparative rareness of the practice, here re- 
 commended, may be allowed, in excuse of a few further 
 remarks upon the best methods of its application. The 
 most important part, as it seems to us, lies in the choice 
 
 ^ The author is most unvvilUng to occupy auy part of his pages, 
 even under the sheltering obscurity of a note, with references to 
 his own ministrations. But as one instance, at all events, of the 
 benefit resulting from sermons to children, he may be permitted 
 to refer to the little biographical memoir, entitled "The Bud of 
 Promise," by the Rev. D. Pitcairn. The successive oiitlines of the 
 sermons as given (pp. 22 to 28) in that IMemoir, were written, or 
 rather dictated by the child, at the successive ages of six, seven and 
 a half, and eiyht years of age. The sermons were delivered eight- 
 een years ago, and the author has continued the practice ever 
 
SUPPLEMENTAL TOPICS. 319 
 
 of subject. This we consider ought, as a rule, either to 
 be severely and strictly ' topical,' — that is bearing upon 
 the expansion of some single idea, — or else verging 
 towards the other extreme of ' exposition :' the ex- 
 cluded class of subjects being those which form the staple 
 of our ordinary discourses, — namely those, in which, 
 whether by the analytic or synthetic method, we make 
 a unity out of the several clauses of a verse. 
 
 Of course, no absolute rule is intended. But it will be 
 obvious, that our chief instrument, in operating upon the 
 young mind, \?> illustration, whether by means of allegory, 
 or anecdote, or picture drawing, or photographic 
 sketches of things, which if the eye does not see every 
 day, the imagination will be at no loss to clothe with 
 life and form. And for this, the two descriptions of 
 subject, we have referred to, afford peculiar facilities. 
 In the topical discourse, for instance, where we have 
 only our one thought to develope, — such as repentance, 
 faith, providence, gospel, redemption, death, or judg- 
 ment to come, — we take the shortest text we can iind. 
 The immediate connection of this explained, our 
 sword-arm is set free. The whole field of analogy is 
 before us; and we select whatever is best for our pur- 
 pose. Suppose the intercession of Christ to be our sub- 
 ject. How easy to think of circumstances, in which we 
 all want a /ne?Z6?, whether to obtain a favour, or avert an 
 evil, or to conciliate one who is justly displeased with 
 us. How easy to go further, and speak of friends, who, 
 
320 SUPPLEMENTAL TOPICS. 
 
 with all their willingness to help us, are not sure they 
 shall be able to prevail. And then might come popular 
 illustrations from well-known pictures, or passages in 
 history, — such as the family of Cromwell interceding 
 for the life of Charles, or Jeannie Deans pleading for 
 her sister with Queen Caroline, — all helping to keep 
 the powers of the youthful intelligence from flagging ; 
 and, at the same time, preparing the mind to under- 
 stand, to appreciate, to welcome with sacred gladness, 
 the announcement, " He ever liveth to make interces- 
 sion for us." 
 
 Still more easy, for the purposes of a juvenile ad- 
 dress, are those subjects which embrace a wider range 
 of Scripture topic ; — such as the life of an eminent 
 saint; or an incident of Old Testament history; or a 
 passage in the missionaiy life of St. Paul; or one of the 
 miracles and parables of our Lord and Saviour. Here 
 the originating faculty is scarcely tasked at all. Books 
 of sacred biography have so multiplied, in our litera- 
 ture, that we may draw a Scripture character to the life. 
 The lands of the Bible have been travelled over so 
 often, that we may describe, accurately, the chief tracks, 
 hallowed by the footprints of the Divine Redeemer; 
 whilst the light thrown upon the sacred record, by 
 ancient monuments, and the still surviving Eastern 
 usage, and the traditions of the Asiatic mind derived 
 from an unknown past, — will all help to enlarge the 
 pictorial resources of the preacher, to an almost un- 
 
SUPPLEMENTAL TOPICS. 321 
 
 limited extent, and enable him to keep up the moving 
 panorama to the last. 
 
 Admitting the desirableness, however, of having ser- 
 mons to children, we can believe the plea, for not having 
 them will be urged, by many, of a conscious and 
 proved inaptitude for such a kind of preaching. In 
 this excuse, we should propose, instead of inaptitude, 
 to read uncultivated faculty, insufficient preparation, or 
 any other form of equivalent, for that strange unreason- 
 ableness, which expects profit without proportionate 
 labour, or looks to reap, where there has been nothing 
 sown. No doubt the failures in addresses to children, 
 are more frequent than the successes. But most com- 
 monly, as we believe, from one cause. The men 
 have never laid themselves out to succeed. They have 
 thought that the process of descending to the lower 
 ledges of childish thought, must follow the facile law of 
 other descents; have allowed themselves to imagine 
 that the entire difficulty was a mere affair of the spell- 
 ing-book ; and that, if they only kept from the use of 
 any long or hard words, they might be quite sure of 
 being understood. But no supposition can be more 
 fallacious than this. Tf the line of thought be simple, 
 and the method of illustration lively, and the images, 
 and appeals, and arguments, be all in unison with the 
 mental habitudes of childhood, — the preacher of a ser- 
 mon to children may be betrayed into the use of a hard 
 word, here and there, with very little prejudice to the 
 
 Y 
 
322 SUPPLEMENTAL TOPICS. 
 
 understanding of his subject, and with none whatever 
 to the general interest of his address. But let this 
 special adaptation to the mental organization of the 
 young be overlooked, and what will be the conse- 
 quence ? why the speaker will not have gone on far, 
 before, on the countenances of all present, will be seen 
 nothing but blank, vacant, uneasy, listlessness. He per- 
 ceives that, with all his picking of " small words," he is too 
 high for them. He has been putting matured thoughts 
 into children's language. And the things agree not to- 
 gether, any more than would a piece of new cloth when 
 sewed on to an old garment. And so, in despair, he 
 betakes himself to the other extreme ; — tasks his inspi- 
 ration to supply him with some extemporaneous juve- 
 nilities ; when, in all probability, he will stumble upon 
 illustrations, intellectually on a par with those of ' the 
 indestructible primer,' — to the wonderment, it may 
 be, of the very infantile section of his auditory, but to 
 the offended and sublime disgust of every child above 
 six years of age. 
 
 To come down to the intellectual processes of chil- 
 dren, therefore, we repeat is no ^facilis descensus.'' A 
 man must read books for it ; study minds for it ; write 
 carefully for it. He may dispense with his manu- 
 script in delivery ; but he will not, in preparation, do 
 wisely to dispense with his pen. Especially should he 
 guard against being too juvenile. Children are more 
 sensitive, even than the poor, to condescensions of this 
 
SUPPLEMENTAL TOPICS. 323 
 
 sort. And, therefore, in preparing his subject, the 
 preacher should have before him some model-mind. A 
 sermon addressed to the average intelligence of chil- 
 dren, say at the age of eight years, would take in as 
 wide a range of mental sympathies, on either side the 
 line, as sermons of this kind are expected to influence. 
 Such sermons, judiciously managed, will interest others 
 besides children; — especially the j^oor, who always like 
 illustrative preaching better than any other ; anidparenis, 
 who are not sorry, by means of these addresses, to learn 
 how to become teachers themselves. 
 
 Having reserved, for consideration in this chapter, 
 a variety of miscellaneous topics, it may be permitted 
 us here to make one or two remarks upon another class 
 of special sermons, namely — 
 
 SERMONS PREACHED FOR CHARITABLE OCCASIONS. 
 
 Whether our congregations will ever return to the 
 primitive practice, enjoined by the Apostle upon the 
 churches of Corinth and Galatia, namely, that of laying 
 by for an offertory, on " the first day of the week," 
 a stated portion of their substance " according as God 
 had prospered them ;" ^ or whether, if such practice 
 should be universally revived, we should be able to dis- 
 pense entirely with our present practice of having 
 9 1 Cor. xvi. 1. 
 
 Y 2 
 
324 SUPPLEMENTAL TOPICS. 
 
 collection sermons, — maybe a matter not easy to deter- 
 mine. At present, such sermons appear to be a neces- 
 sity. And, whether their object be to promote the work 
 of foreign missions, or to strengthen and enlarge the 
 operations of our church at home, or to provide for 
 the religious instruction for the children of the poor, or 
 to advance any one of those multitudinous agencies 
 which have sprung up so rapidly under the fertile inven- 
 tion of a philanthropic age, — whatever the object be, 
 — we find it frequently charged upon us, by the laity, 
 that we are guilty of one grave fault, — namely, that to a 
 detailed enforcement of the claims of some charitable 
 institution, we all but sacrifice the entire Sunday's 
 teaching. And, we fear, the complaint is not without 
 foundation. Who has not been in despair of having 
 a sermon, which is likely to " minister grace unto the 
 hearers," on seeing the advocate for some Missionary 
 society, for instance, place, by the side of his 
 cushion, that bundle of papers, — of irregularly pro- 
 truding edge, and careful elastic ligament, — from which, 
 we know, he will continue his heavy readings till the 
 clock strikes, even if we could be quite sure of his 
 stopping then ? Or who, when the object to be pleaded 
 for is some institution at home, — a hospital, an asylum, 
 a new church in some destitute locality, or a reform- 
 atory for the gathering in of the outcasts, — has not 
 known what it is to grow weary under the recital of 
 statistics, and financial summaries, and tables of com- 
 
SUPPLEMENTAL TOPICS. 325 
 
 pared results, — aggregates of figures which no memory 
 could carry to the end of the sermon, and which would 
 have no influence whatever upon the collection, if it 
 could ? 
 
 'No influence upon the collection,' we observed; for 
 as conducive to such ends, chiefly, we may presume, it 
 is, that any good man deprives himself of a great 
 opportunity, by taking up the larger part, even of a 
 single sermon, with so much of detailed particulars, 
 touching the cause for which he has undertaken to 
 plead. Yet we speak with unhesitating confidence, in 
 averring, that if, at the close of an edifying sermon, 
 upon any point of Christian faith or practice, he had 
 given five minutes to a general view of the object to be 
 recommended — leaving all details to be brought out on 
 the platform, or in the printed report, — he would have 
 wrought quite as powerfully upon the liberal sym- 
 pathies of his audience, and have done far more good 
 to their souls. Even the selection of some cognate or 
 distantly-related text, — a text, which, in its obvious 
 applications, will conduct us, by easy stages, to the 
 subject we are to introduce at the close, — is very far 
 from being a necessity. As falling in with a proposed 
 and expectant condition of mind, on the part of the 
 hearers, there may be something desirable in such a 
 choosing. But in pleading for a familiar charity, — a 
 school, a dispensary, a district visiting society, — any 
 ordinary subject of discourse, however foreign from the 
 
326 SUPPLEMENTAL TOPICS. 
 
 announced object of the collection, will, for the most 
 part, serve every purpose. At all events, by selecting a 
 topic of spiritual profit, our own consciences will be 
 most at ease. The command laid upon us, when we 
 enter the pulpit is not to ' preach the charity,^ but to 
 ' preach the Wordr '' 
 
 But a work, professing to rest its claims for accept- 
 ance, chiefly on the ground of its practical purpose, can 
 hardly be concluded, without notice of some of those 
 abnormal efforts, which modern zeal has bad recourse 
 to, in order to work upon the conscience of the unedu- 
 cated masses. We have been writing a book upon 
 what should be said to people when they are assembled 
 in our churches, but, as a living prelate well asks, ' What 
 if the people will not come ?' ^^ The inquiry may allow 
 room for a few remarks, first, on what is called 
 
 *° The fault, referred to in the text, is one especially cotoplained 
 of by those who are accustomed to spend a few weeks, in the sum- 
 mer, at the sea side, or some jjlace of popular resort. They do not 
 com])lain that the clergyman, at a watering-place, should be anxious 
 to turn his season Sundays to a good account, by filling them up 
 with a goodly number of charitable appeals. Visitors are the riglit 
 people to ask for such form of assistance. And to ask it, when 
 through the mercy of Providence their own bodily health is being 
 itivigorated, is to ask it at the right time. But missions, churches, 
 schools, provident societies,— they have run the gauntlet of all 
 these, probably, just before they left home. And they are not 
 prepared for a twice-told tale so soon. 
 
 " Bishop of London's Charge, 1858, p. 78. 
 
SUPPLEMENTAL TOPICS. 327 
 
 OPEN-AIR PREACHING. 
 
 Under certain limitations, we avow ourselves as 
 not unfriendly to this expedient. We had begun it 
 ten years ago, when, as yet, it was unfamiliar; 
 and a reputed offence against dignity ; and a 
 thing for all sedate people to shake their beads at — 
 heads full of all kinds of dark surmises, as to "where- 
 unto this would grow." And one doubted whether it 
 came within the permissions of the law. And another, 
 in fear of our being met with mocking contempt, 
 quoted high authority for the inexpediency of "giving 
 that which is holy unto dogs." And another could see 
 nothing but visions of an unseemly hustings brawl, — 
 the messenger of God's truth made to stand up before 
 a multitude, and engage in fierce and loud contention 
 with the Mormonite in his filthy theology, or the atheist 
 in his blaspheming creed. Experience has dissipated 
 nearly the whole of these misgivings. The entire 
 question, in its relations to the civil as well as the 
 ecclesiastical laws of the country, was discussed, with 
 his accustomed research and acuteness, by one of our 
 chief pastors ; and the lawfulness of open-air ser- 
 vices established beyond controversy.^^ 
 
 " The only canons which bear upon the subject, it is argued, 
 are the 14th, 86th, and 72nd, and by these, services out of 
 tlie church, at which the whole liturgy would not be used, are 
 canonical, by the permission of the Bishop. It is further shown 
 that there is no contravention of the Acts of Uniformity. Charge 
 of Bishop of Winchester, 1854. Hatchard, pp. 24—29. 
 
328 SUPPLEMENTAL TOPICS. 
 
 Neither was it found, at least within certain parochial 
 limits, and where the clergyman's influence had made 
 itself felt, that there was any disposition, in these street 
 throngs, to cast ridicule on holy things. On the contrary, 
 the author has witnessed, for the most part, on behalf of 
 the crowd, (and he has had around him, as many as 
 from four to five hundred in number), the utmost reve- 
 rence and decorum. A respectful passage was always 
 made for his approach. A body-guard of known 
 parishioners formed a circle around his pulpit. And 
 any attempt at ridicule or irreverence, — rarely proceed- 
 ing from anybody but noisy boys, — was instantly put 
 down by the people themselves. The last only of the 
 three forms of danger, above referred to, — that of chal- 
 lenged discussion, — has been proved to have any sub- 
 stantial existence. And, in open and promiscuous 
 thoroughfares, — where there is no bond of parochial 
 unity in the persons assembled, and where, of course, 
 the parish clergyman has no more influence than any 
 other man, — it is, we fear, an inevitable result, that the 
 preacher should be challenged to open discussion with 
 the infidel ;^^ and that, too, in a way, which, without 
 supposing any disqualification on the part of the 
 preacher, might be attended with hurt to the cause of 
 true religion. On our own proper ground, however, 
 
 13 Seo Ile])ort of the London Diocesan Home Mission, p. 10, 
 whero, however, the Coryphaeus of infidelity seems to have taken 
 little by his ])rovoked passage-at-ar.ms. 
 
SUPPLEME^JTAL TOPICS. 329 
 
 experience has taught us, that there is little fear of such 
 results. Men who, from never being at home on the 
 week-day, and never at church on the Sunday, may not 
 know u^ personally, yet, on the report of their wives and 
 children, know about us ; and, as we have ourselves 
 experienced, are prepared to resist, even unto force, 
 any interruptions of us in a work, which, whatever their 
 sympathy with it, is felt to be undertaken for their 
 good. 
 
 On the best mode of making use of this |instru- 
 mentality, in neighbourhoods which may seem to 
 require it, we have not much to offer. We attach great 
 importance to the observance of as much of outward 
 order as possible; — the canonical habit, the neatly 
 constructed pulpit, the secured presence of some one 
 to lead the singing, — in order that nothing but walls 
 and roof should be wanting, to give a reality to the 
 service ; and that nothing should be found, in its acces- 
 sories, which could either justify or provoke a smile. 
 That a dispensation, large, and almost unlimited, must 
 be granted, from many of the rules for preaching, laid 
 down in the former part of this work, will be seen at 
 once. Not, however, from a premeditated plan, ought 
 we to be absolved, even here. As compared with what 
 might be demanded for the ordinary exercises of the 
 Church, there may be more of fervour in the appeals, 
 and more of boldness in the images, and more of dis- 
 jointedness in the thoughts, — in the outward acces- 
 
330 SUPPLEMENTAL TOPICS. 
 
 sories of delivery may be more of imchastened action, 
 and, in the tone and spirit, more of emotion and depth 
 and fire ; — but the solid matter must be there ; and the 
 just reasoning must be there ; and the man who, from 
 sheer indolence, leaves out these, has no right to 
 expect a blessing. People will not * dance ' to such 
 ' piping/ It was not this they " went out into the 
 wilderness to see." They may go home, applauding 
 the goodness of his intentions, but they cannot feel 
 that they are much the better for his pains. 
 
 Supplementary to open-air preaching, and, as a 
 further effort towards bringing the masses under the 
 regular and direct teaching of the Church, has been the 
 more recent introduction of 
 
 SPECIAL SERVICES FOR THE WORKING CLASSES. 
 
 We do not wish to speak of the benefit resulting from 
 this novel effort, as being wholly without its drawbacks. 
 That many, on the Lord's day, should forsake the 
 calm sobriety of their accustomed places of worship, 
 for the novelty of the concert-hall, or the gorgeous 
 attractions of the cathedral ; that the best places, for 
 hearing, should be occupied by persons, for whom the 
 services were never intended ; that the lines of ap- 
 proach to the great centres of w^orship, should have 
 been more than usually crowded with vehicles ; and, 
 
SUPPLEMENTAL TOPICS. 331 
 
 what is even more to be regretted, that the public- 
 houses, in the neighbourhood, should have been 
 crowded too, — are results, which we can only be recon- 
 ciled to, by the thought of an overbalancing and certain 
 good. And this we may claim for the movement. The 
 turning, to such noble uses, the dome and nave of our 
 great metropolitan temples ; the giving a new impetus 
 and direction to the entire preaching power of the 
 country ; the conviction, carried home to the hearts of 
 millions of the sons of toil, that they are not uncared 
 for; — that the wealthy, and intelligent, and pious of 
 our land, do not shut themselves up in the narrow en- 
 closure of their class-sympathies, saying, " Am I my 
 brother's keeper?'' — in these, and similar results for 
 good, we see cause for regarding the recent efforts for 
 the religious improvement of the working classes, with 
 unfeigned thankfulness. 
 
 Still more satisfactory, because, as far as we have 
 heard, with resulting benefit altogether unmingled, 
 have been the special services on the week-day, — con- 
 tinued, for limited periods, at some of our larger parish 
 churches. At these, for the most part, no doubt 
 could exist that the persons induced to attend were the 
 right persons. The uncouth vestments, the begrimed 
 countenance, the almost superstitious dread of sitting 
 down in a cushioned pew, all bore testimony to the 
 fact, that, in respect of the persons drawn together, 
 "the fishers of men" had cast their net on " the right 
 
332 SUPPLEMENTAL TOPICS. 
 
 side of the ship." Nor was the deportment of these 
 motley assemblages less striking. At St. Giles's, at 
 Dcptford, at White chap el, men were observed to stand 
 up, with their eyes fixed on those of the preacher, with 
 a rivetted and almost wild intentness. And, on the 
 morrow, daring their brief intervals of rest, in the fac- 
 tory or the dockyard, they were heard discussing, in 
 groups, the subject of the last night's sermon. Whilst, 
 best result of all, not a few were led, by this newly- 
 awakened interest, to commence a stated attendance at 
 the ordinary service of the Church. 
 
 Doubtless, the great problem to be worked out, in 
 regard to these services, is how to eliminate from them 
 the spasmodic element, — how to nurse up, and cherish 
 an interest in ordinances, which is in great degree, the 
 oflPspring of mere novelty and excitement, until it shall 
 settle down into a calm love of worship for its own sake. 
 We cannot expect the tender sapling to develope into 
 a tree, all at once. The stimulant of the posting-bill, 
 and the strange preacher, and the limited course, will 
 have to be kept up for some time. But, by degrees, 
 these may be used more sparingly. And, for the irre- 
 gular and arbitrarily determined course, may be sub- 
 stituted one, coincident with our leading Church 
 seasons ; and, for the attraction of a preacher, come 
 from far, the ministrations of the local clergy ; and, for 
 announced sermons on some awakening topic, a con- 
 tinuous course of expositions upon a subject, chosen 
 
SUPPLEMENTAL TOPICS. 333 
 
 with especial reference to its capability of lively and 
 graphic illustration. Week-day lectures, at the school 
 room, also, with illustrative diagrams — such as those 
 published by the Working Men's Educational Union, 
 — may be found very helpful, to the end in view : and 
 may be managed without any compromise of the 
 office of the religious teacher. 
 
 The evening services at our great metropolitan cathe- 
 drals, we suppose, can never be made to develope into 
 anything of a normal or settled form. Gathered from 
 all parts, made up of all classes, drawn together by all 
 varieties of influencing considerations, the congrega- 
 tions there, it may be believed, will always look 
 for some exciting element. Whether any improve- 
 ment could be made in the nature of the attracting 
 influence, is a point which, we are sure, the wise and 
 earnest-minded dignitaries, who originated this effort, 
 will use all means in their power to determine. One 
 engrafted element upon the present plan, there is, 
 which, it has always appeared to us, would be worth a 
 trial. We mean the taking up of the portion of the 
 year, devoted to these services, with a well-considered 
 and consecutive scheme of didactic teaching ; — begin- 
 ning with the fundamental evidences of our religion, 
 and proceeding to " set forth in order a declaration of 
 those things which are most surely believed among us." 
 Avowed attacks on existing forms of error, there need 
 be none ; but only a care to see that the people " be 
 
,S34 SUPPLEMENTAL TOPICS. 
 
 established in this present truth." The great work of 
 Bishop Pearson, on the Creed, as we know, was, 
 originally, prepared for a series of this kind. And, in 
 an age, when a sceptical philosophy is doing its work 
 in the most plausible and subtle forms ; — when it is 
 poisoning the springs of our literature; when it claims, 
 as its ally, each fresh discovery in science ; when it is 
 trying to degrade to the rank of a peradventure the 
 dear truth of ages, in order that it may smile upon the 
 doubter with a tolerant and philosophic charity ; — in 
 a day, when the young in their debates, and the poor 
 at their clubs, and the rich in their drawing-rooms, 
 will fling broadcast the seeds of unbelieving thought, 
 'no man forbidding them,' — we cannot but think that 
 the function would be a glorious one, for our great 
 metropolitan sanctuaries to aspire to, that, in the way 
 we have recommended, they should be made bulwarks 
 of the faith of the nation ; pillars of the Church of God ; 
 great centres of light and learning, whose brightness 
 should be seen from far, and whose warmth should be 
 felt to the uttermost parts of the earth. " And many 
 people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to 
 the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of 
 Jacob : and He will teach us of His ways, and we will 
 walk in His paths : for out of Zion shall go forth the 
 law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem."^* 
 
 " Isai. ii. 3, 
 
CONCLUSION. 335 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Many other topics are there, in relation to this great 
 subject, which we might have been glad to have con- 
 sidered ; even as, to many of those we have professed 
 to consider, we could have wished, sometimes, to have 
 given a fuller and more extended discussion. Bnt we 
 have been carried far beyond our prescribed limits, 
 and feel compelled to bring these Thoughts on 
 Preaching to a close. 
 
 For one class of remarks only, can we make 
 further room. We began by referring to complaints 
 of the inefficiency of the modern pulpit. We have 
 said nothing to refute these complaints ; but much, 
 every way, to show their force and reasonableness. 
 Our subject ought not, therefore, to be shut up, with- 
 out touching, — very slightly, but in no presumptuous 
 
336 CONCLUSION. 
 
 spirit, upon the question, What can be done to make 
 
 THINGS better, — AND BY WHOM ? 
 
 First, what can be done towards keeping out from the 
 ministry unsuitable or inefficient men f 
 
 Here it is not unusual to speak as if the whole re- 
 sponsibility rested with the ordaining Bishop. But 
 this is hardly a fair, certainly not a full view of the 
 case. To say nothing of the considerations which 
 must always make a bishop slow to reject a duly pre- 
 sented candidate for orders, — the humiliation to the 
 man, the pecuniary loss to his family, the inconveni- 
 ence to the nominating incumbent, and the loss of 
 several months of pastoral service to the parish in 
 which the candidate was about to serve, — considera- 
 ations, we grant, that ought to be thrown to the wind, 
 in some cases, — yet, practically, a bishop can do little 
 more than fix his minimum standard of intellectual at- 
 tainment; and, it is manifest, that to this standard 
 many would come up, who would afterwards turn out 
 very inefficient preachers. Hence, it will have been 
 observed, that in one or two recent Charges, the onus 
 of introducing unsuitable men into the ministry, is 
 thrown, by our Chief Pastors, upon the presenting in- 
 cumbent. They say to us, and they say truly, * We 
 can ordain only such men as you send to us. We may 
 refuse ordination, in cases of glaring incompetency. 
 But slill we must admit to orders, under broad condi- 
 
CONCLUSION. 337 
 
 tions ; so that if you are content to have as your fellow 
 worker, a man of feeble powers, shallow mind, meagre 
 scholarship, with no more of head or heart for the work 
 of the ministry, than is necessary for the lowest limit 
 of episcopal requirement, — short as the candidate may 
 fall of the standard of our wishes, — it is not apparent on 
 what grounds we could reject him. And, therefore, at 
 your door, at least quite as much as at ours, should lie 
 the reproach, of a lowered standard of ministerial qua- 
 lification.'^^ 
 
 We confess that, to us, there seems some shew of 
 reason in this. And we trust that, upon some of us, 
 the lesson will not be lost of how great damage we may 
 be doing to the Church, when, driven perhaps by stress 
 of necessity to get some one to do our ' routine work ' 
 
 15 See this line taken by the Bishop of Winchester, in his Charge 
 for 1858, p. 19, The Bishop of London also, in his primary 
 Charge, says, " The bishop will not long be able to maintain a 
 higher standard than you think necessary. If, therefore, you form 
 a low estimate of what is required in a curate ; if you are content 
 with a young man who can read audibly (though I am free to 
 confess there are many who can scarcely do this) ; and if you do 
 not care whether his preaching be heart-stirring aud real, and are 
 not anxious as to whether or no he has a true sympathy with the 
 poor, and understanding of their wants ; or if you treat learning as 
 a thing not necessary, provided the young man be wilhng to go 
 through a certain amount of routine work, you will do even more 
 than a bishop, careless in his examinations, could do, to lower the 
 standard of ministerial qualification." Charge 1358, p. 25. 
 
 Z 
 
338 CONCLUSION. 
 
 we, hurriedly, and with little inquiry, press upon the 
 bishop, for ordination, an unproved or ill-furnished man. 
 At all events, the blame of having our pulpits ineffici- 
 ently served, ought not to rest with our rulers only. 
 AVe believe the bishops have done, and are doing very 
 much to promote good preacliing ; — shewing sympathy 
 with it ; giving encouragement to it ; bestowing rewards 
 upon it, — but for any effectual check upon the intro- 
 duction of had preachi?ig into the Church, we cannot 
 help thinking that the presbytery must mainly look to 
 themselves. 
 
 But, secondly, what can be done in the way of pro- 
 viding better training for those, who, in regard of their 
 personal qualities and endowments, are suitable men ? 
 
 This opens a much wider field of inquiry. At the 
 outset, we have the question presenting itself, whether 
 the Universities should undertake the entire theological 
 training of the future pastor, or whether they should 
 leave their work to be supplemented by a Theological 
 College, — such college being either connected with 
 particular dioceses, or, as some think would be better, 
 intended for the whole Church at large. We do not 
 enter upon this question, however, because, so long as 
 the necessary divinity certificates can be obtained, 
 during the period of undergraduateship, very few 
 students will be willing, even if they should be able, 
 
CONCLUSION. 339 
 
 to bear the charges of a second academical course. 
 Hence, for the benefit of those, who will have no after- 
 training, the Universities are bound to make their ma- 
 chinery as perfect as they can. No indisposition to 
 modify and improve their system, has been manifested 
 by the amhorities, in late years, the question may well 
 be asked, can they do anything more ? 
 
 Now, first, let it be observed, that, at both our older 
 Universities, the array of agencies, for equipping the 
 future clergyman for his work, is, at first sight, most 
 imposing. At Oxford, in addition to the ancient 
 foundations of the Lady Margaret, and the Regius 
 Professorships of Divinity and Hebrew, there have 
 recently been added, as if with a special view to the 
 better training of the theological student, several most 
 important professorships, — such as a chair for Pastoral 
 Theology, another for Ecclesiastical History, and a third 
 for the Exegetical study of Holy Scripture. And a 
 like onward movement has taken place at Cambridge. 
 As a pendant to her more ancient foundations, which 
 nearly resemble those at Oxford, she has, of late years, 
 instituted her Theological Examination, scarcely to be 
 called ' the Voluntary ' now, and in which the students 
 have recently been classed according to merit. To 
 this have been added some new prizes, for the encou- 
 ragement of theological learning, a Moral Science 
 Tripos, and, within the last year, an additional Divinity 
 Professorship. 
 
 z 2 
 
340 CONCLUSION. 
 
 All this looks hopeful. But the result has confess- 
 edly not been at all commensurate. And we naturally 
 ask why ? And the first answer to be given, we think, 
 is, that while we have opened these fountains of wisdom 
 for the theological student, we have done nothing to 
 make him drink from them, and very little to induce him 
 to drink. Nothing to make him drink, — because, on 
 very few of the opportunities here specified, is attend- 
 ance compulsory, as a pre-requisite to ordination. 
 Nothing to induce him to drink, because, if he were to 
 avail himself of them all, — were to attend the lectures, 
 to read up for them, to profit by them to the utmost of 
 his power, the result would not help him, in any ma- 
 terial degree, to attain either to that high standing in 
 the class-lists of the University, or to those posts of 
 preferment in his own particular college, — one or both 
 of which every man of intellect and spirit makes it an 
 object of his University career to secure. The remedy 
 for this, perhaps, is not easy. Whether it would not be 
 possible to widen the basis of examinations for honours 
 sufficiently, to take in the higher departments of theo- 
 logical learning, — so that a student could feel he was 
 laying up stores for the work of the ministry, without 
 prejudice to his final position in the University Calen- 
 dar ; — or whether, again, it might not conduce to a 
 more diligent cultivation of theological studies, if, in 
 the examination for some of the fellowships, at all 
 events, a special prominence were given to theological 
 
CONCLUSION. 341 
 
 proficiency, — all these are questions, which, perhaps, 
 those only who are in residence are fully competent 
 to discuss. We merely give the impression of hundreds 
 in our own time at college, and we believe of many, since, 
 that the reason w^hy men do not avail themselves of the 
 theological advantages of the University, is, that for all 
 the practical purposes of academical advancement, the 
 pursuit of such studies would be, not an unremunerative 
 employment only, but a positive hindrance in the way 
 of their success. At all events, the complaint is heard, 
 at both Universities, that the professors' lectures, as a 
 rule, are very inadequately attended. And the ques- 
 tion surely is one well worth the attention of the au- 
 thorities, whether, without derogation from a high 
 standard of classical and mathematical requirement, 
 they might not attract divinity students to the lectures, 
 hy letting them see that, in the way of academical dis- 
 tinction, they should rather gain than lose by their 
 attendance. 
 
 In relation to preaching, however, there is one other 
 point deserving of notice, at least, if the Universities 
 are to charge themselves with the entire training of the 
 future candidate for the ministry. With all their array 
 of educational appliances, no one will say that suffi- 
 cient attention is given to a sj^stematic exposition of 
 the art and principles of preaching; — to direct prac- 
 tical instruction in the mode of preparing and deliver- 
 ing a sermon. The matter, we presume, has its place, 
 
84-2 CONCLUSION. 
 
 among a variety of other subjects, in the lectures on 
 Pastoral Theology, at Oxford. And most valuable is 
 the chapter on the ' composition of sermons,' in the 
 recently published volume of Professor Blunt, at Cam- 
 bridge. But surely preaching is much too important 
 an element, in the Christian ministry, to be merely 
 edged in as a subsidiary or collateral topic. Why 
 should it not have a chair to itself? This would not 
 interfere with any of the existing professorships. It 
 would only supplement their work. Tlieir design is to 
 see whether, in the great subjects of history, evidence, 
 criticism, doctrine, the future minister is apt to learn. 
 Is the work of a ^ professor of homiletics ' less im- 
 portant to see that he is apt to teach f 
 
 Among remedial means, however, for raising the tone 
 of preaching, in our Church, we must glance at one 
 other point ; namely, the desirableness, if possible, of 
 a better distribution of such preaching power as we 
 possess ; so that the most efficient men should be sent to 
 the places where *they are most required. It is the 
 barest justice to our Church to say that she does not 
 make the most of her own. The system of administering 
 ])rcferment, whatever its other advantages, must be 
 admitted to come behind in this respect, — in power of 
 ada])tation; in care to ascertain the suitableness of the 
 man for the sphere in which he is to be employed. 
 The Wesleyans, it is known, are very particular about 
 
CONCLUSION. 843 
 
 this ; and so are other communions. Among dis- 
 senters of any class, no man like Robert Hall would 
 be left, at least, for want of opportunity, to spend all 
 his days in a country village ; neither would it be per- 
 mitted, that churches, situated in the great centres of 
 intelligence and wealth, should be served by their 
 feeblest and most incompetent men. Under our 
 system, anomalies, approximating to these, do take 
 place constantly. Few of us, reverting to our college 
 days, can fail to think of some marked man of our ac- 
 quaintance, of whom the highest expectations of minis- 
 terial usefulness were entertained, and in whom, if the 
 opportunity had been afforded, these expectations 
 would have been realised. But the accidents of our 
 ecclesiastical system cast his lot in one of the smallest 
 and most sequestered nooks of the country ; and, as 
 none seek him out, after a time he grows to the soil. 
 
 " Remote from towns, he runs his godly race, 
 Nor e'er has changed, nor wished to change his place." 
 
 It were well if some sad instances in the opposite 
 direction were not to be found, even among those who 
 occupy posts of importance in our great cities. But 
 we forbear. 
 
 The point for remark is, that there does not seem to 
 be any help for this state of things, unless the patrons 
 of Church benefices will rise to a more adequate sense 
 of their solemn responsibilities. For, to say nothing 
 
344 CONCLUSION. 
 
 of those patrons of livings, whose moral perceptions 
 seem utterly blind to the distinction between a trust 
 and a property, — between duties sacredly confided to 
 them for the benefit of the Church, and natural rights, 
 which they may exercise as shall best please them- 
 selves, — it is to be feared, that, even with many of the 
 conscientious among them, there is very little thought 
 of adaptation in their appointments. The man is not 
 unworthy of preferment in himself, but the inquiry is too 
 rarely pursued further, is he exactly fitted for the place, 
 or the place for him } Surely these things ought not 
 so to be. Dispensers of Church preferment, even in a 
 more solemn sense than those who are directly " put in 
 trust with the Gospel," may be said to be " stewards of 
 the mysteries of God." How should they not stand in 
 awe of that Scripture, " Moreover, it is required in 
 stewards that a man be found faithful." ^^ 
 
 l^astly, among remedial means we notice the import- 
 ance of increased attention to a duty, common to all in 
 its obligations, common to most of us, it is to be feared, 
 in its frequent and sad neglect. We allude to the duty, 
 binding upon all estates of men, to give to the subject 
 of a " supply of fit persons to serve in the sacred 
 ministry of Christ's Church," a special and permanent 
 place in their private praijers. In relation to the private 
 life of our Divine Lord, nothing strikes us more than 
 the fact that He, — sinless, perfect, and having need of 
 i« 1 Cor. iv. 2. 
 
CONCLUSION. 845 
 
 nothing, — should have dedicated such large portions of 
 His time to secret devotion. Let us remember that the 
 occasion of one of the longest of these mysterious ex- 
 ercises was just before designating the twelve to the 
 work of the ministry. " And it came to pass in those 
 days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and 
 continued all night in prayer to God. And when it 
 was day, he called unto Him His disciples : and of them 
 He chose twelve whom also He named apostles. "^"^ Of 
 our public duty, in this matter, we are reminded peri- 
 odically in the Ember-weeks. But both the example 
 and the precept of our I^ord would point to something 
 more special, and retired, and private : — to the duty of 
 each one of us, both to pray unto the Lord for more 
 labourers, and also to pray that they may be men of 
 His sending : — " Pray ye therefore the Lord of the 
 harvest that He will send forth labourers unto His 
 harvest." ^^ The Lord gave the word : great was the 
 company of those that published it."^^ 
 
 We trust that, in nothing advanced either in this 
 chapter, or elsewhere, we shall appear to have spoken 
 in any desponding spirit. On the contrary, if there be 
 one sentiment more than another, with which we would 
 have a reader rise from the perusal of these pages, it is 
 that of a lively and grateful hope, in relation to the 
 present condition and prospects of our Church. At no 
 
 17 Luke vi. 12, 13. ^^ Matt. ix. 37. ^^ Ps. Ixviii. 11. 
 
346 CONCLUSION. 
 
 former period of her history, could she boast of rulers 
 more diligent, or pastors more faithful, or professors of 
 theology more learned, of a literature more fruitful in 
 products of noble thought, or of mechanical appliances 
 more varied, organized, and effective, for the fulfil- 
 ment of her mission work in the world. It is because 
 she exhibits everywhere such marks of vitality and 
 strength, that, in view of any partial failures or defi- 
 ciencies, she can bear a good deal of plain speaking. 
 She is doing so well, that friends are naturally stimu- 
 lated to inquire in which of her departments she may 
 do better. 
 
 And if, in the department of her work, chosen as the 
 subject of this book, her ministers had been charge- 
 able even with fewer faults than they are, could it 
 ever have been ill-timed for us to take counsel with 
 each other, and with the age, how we might most 
 effectually magnify our office, and, as ordained ambas- 
 sadors for the truth of God, best make our mission 
 prosper? Very difficult may it be, in doing this, to 
 escape the charge of exalting the preacher's office un- 
 duly ; of giving it a prominence, which seems to cast 
 the other parts of our work into the shade ; of causing 
 the time, rightly due to the teaching of the young, and 
 the consoling of the sick, and the searching out of the 
 outcast, and all those ministries of love and tender- 
 ness which find their centre in the poor man's home, — 
 
CONCLUSION. 347 
 
 to be abstracted from our cures, — leaving the pulpit 
 and the study between them to appropriate andMivide 
 the spoil. And only to the one mums aheneus can 
 we look, as a covert from such charges, if they should 
 be made. The fact will remain the same, that, as far 
 as relates to the progress of a Christian civilization, 
 there is work to be done by preaching, which can be 
 done in no other way. Nothing can displace it; no- 
 thing can equal it ; nothing can supersede its neces- 
 sity. Its perpetuity rests, not more on its prescriptive 
 claims, as an ordinance of Divine appointment, than 
 upon its congruity with the great aptitudes of human 
 nature, and with the ever shifting conditions of social 
 life. If anything, in the history of modern society, 
 could have led to a diminished dependence upon oral 
 teaching, we should have said it would have been the 
 augmented influence of the press, — penetrating by its 
 multitudinous products into every cottage in the land ; 
 and seeming not to leave an inch of soil unbroken, in 
 the whole territory of human thought. But, in every 
 department of inquiry, the effect has been just the oppo- 
 site. In art, in science, in literature, in philosophy, 
 the printed book has only stimulated a desire for the 
 fuller and more familiar expositions of the living voice, 
 — the result being, not that the lecture supersedes the 
 book, but that the book and the lecture go on together ; 
 each acting upon the other, and each making it neces- 
 
348 CONCLUSION. 
 
 sary for the other to start from a more advanced point 
 of knowledge, and to aim constantly at a higher mark. 
 
 It is the same, or nearly so, in matters of religion. 
 People are as eager after oral teaching now, as they 
 were in the days w^hen, for their written knowledge, 
 they were obliged to be indebted to the embellished 
 missal in the hands of the learned, or the costly vellum 
 on the tables of the great. True, the eagerness does 
 not proceed from the same cause, in the two cases. 
 They were desirous of oral instruction tlien, because 
 books ivere scarce, and " the lips of the priest" kept 
 almost all the knowledge they could get. They are 
 desirous of it note, because books are plentiful, and 
 knowledge is increased, and so many are running to 
 and fro, that each one looks up to his religious teacher, 
 to keep him abreast with the men of his time. Hence, 
 the kind of teaching required, must be teaching, not for 
 an age of manuscripts, but for an age of books ; not for an 
 age in which the first rudiments of sacred science have 
 to be taught by little and little, but for an age of large 
 reading, and widely-diffused popular intelligence, w^hen 
 even the poorest will be comparing the statements he 
 hears in the pulpit, with the books which he can read 
 at home. 
 
 And this kind of teaching we must supply ; or, if we 
 do not, others will. If, in supplying it, or if, on the plea 
 of better supplying it, we be found wanting in the 
 
CONCLUSION. 349 
 
 higher qualities of ambassadors for Christ ; if there 
 should be nothing in our message, either to build up 
 the believer on his faith, or to cast down the formalist 
 from his false hope ; if there be no pungency in our 
 appeals to the conscience, nothing heart- stirring in our 
 word of exhortation; no fitness in our exhibitions of 
 the great mystery of godliness, to draw all men to 
 Christ, — to His footstool, to His cross, to His heart, to 
 His throne ; — -in a word, if our whole preaching be 
 permitted to degenerate into a hard, soulless, dialectic 
 exercise, — of body without spirit, of intellect without 
 heart, of Christianity without Christ, — then, may we be 
 well assured that God will reckon with us for this also. 
 He has told us we are to covet earnestly the best gifts, 
 and intellect is one of the best. But the limits of its 
 employment, in the pulpit, are defined plainly. It is 
 to clothe truth with power. It is to adorn holiness 
 with beauty. It is to help to seat conscience on its 
 throne. It is to wait humbly on the teaching of the 
 Eternal Spirit, that it may speak for God : and it is to 
 concur with that Spirit, in witnessing for a slighted 
 Saviour, in the hearts of men. It is well used of the 
 Christian minister to reclaim the erring, to instruct the 
 ignorant, to convince the gainsayer, to establish the 
 wavering and the weak. The rest is vanity. The rest 
 is presumption. The rest is sin. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 A — Page 1. 
 
 COMPLAINTS OF THE MODERN PULPIT. 
 
 As far as relates to the older reviews these complaints 
 have been reiterated for upwards of twenty years ; and from 
 the pen of Mr. Rogers in the EdinhurghRevieiv, as well as from 
 those of Lord Brougham and Sydney Smith, we have had 
 the most unsparing strictures both upon our pulpit defi- 
 ciencies, and upon the excuses commonly made for them. 
 See article on Robert HalVs Modern Infidelity ; and the article 
 in the number for October, 1840, by Mr. Rogers. The latter 
 touches admirably on the plea of " much occupation" as the 
 hindrance to better preparation ; whilst Sydney Smith deals in 
 his own peculiar way, with some other answers. He says, 
 " It is commonly answered that a clergyman is to recommend 
 himself, not by his eloquence, but by the purity of his life 
 and the soundness of his doctrine ; an objection good 
 enough if any connection could be pointed out between 
 eloquence, heresy, and dissipation ; but if it is possible for 
 a man to live well, preach well, and teach well, at the same 
 time, such objections, resting U23on a supposed incompati- 
 bility of these good qualities are duller than the dullness 
 they defend." For complaints among literary reviewers, of 
 more recent date, it may be sufficient to refer to the North 
 British Review, for February, 1856 ; the Athenccwn, for 
 November, 1859 ; and to an article in the Saturday Review ^ 
 a few months ago, with the astounding title of " Fools /" 
 
 Complaints also have come very thickly upon us from our 
 
3 5 '2 APPENDIX. 
 
 ecclesiastical superiors. Archdeacon Sinclair, as is well 
 known, devoted almost an entire Charge to the subject in 
 1855. The Archdeacon of Winchester did the same in the 
 last charge he delivered before his promotion to the see of 
 Rochester. But the words likely to weigh most, con- 
 sidering the eminent qualifications of the writer to speak 
 upon such a subject, are those of the present Bishop of 
 Oxford. And his language is outspoken indeed. In 
 his recent charge we find him speaking in the follow- 
 ing words : " One dark spot there is, amid much that is 
 bright, in regard to this subject. The number of men 
 endowed with the highest gifts of intellect who give them- 
 selves to the Christian ministry appears to me to be smaller 
 than it was fifteen years ago." And in another part he com- 
 plains that men are found " entering the pulpit with little 
 preparation, and uttering from it, with a perilous facility of 
 language, empty, vapid, and pointless generalities." Whilst 
 in a recent volume of addresses to liis candidates for orders, 
 we have the following remarks ; — '' I press this the more 
 because no one can listen carefully to the majority of ser- 
 mons preached in our churches ; few, alas, can closely 
 scrutinize their own, without deep sorrow, shame, and 
 
 dejection of heart How many sermons seem to be 
 
 composed with no better idea than that they must occupy 
 a certain time prescribed by custom, and that they must be 
 filled with the religious phrases current in this or that 
 school of theological opinion. Hence we find in them pre- 
 faces of inordinate length, porches larger than the buildings 
 to which they lead ; truisms repeated with a calm perse- 
 verance of dull repetition which is almost marvellous ; vague 
 generalities about the fall and about redemption, as if 
 these awful mysteries were empty words, and not living 
 burning verities. We hear, perhaps, one sermon wandering 
 languidly over the whole scheme of theology, containing in 
 itself a prophecy of its perpetual repetition, with an altered 
 text, and sentences interchanged in collocation through all 
 
 succeeding Sundays And, my brethren, can we 
 
 wonder if, under such preaching, men slumber on un- 
 awakened : if conversions are iew, if edification is scanty, 
 if sinners abound, if saints are rare, if, though the prophet 
 prophecy, all be still as it was of old ; if there be no noise 
 nor shaking, no coming together of the bones, bone to his 
 
APPENDIX. 353 
 
 bone ? To such a dead condemning ministry I earnestly 
 pray God, even our Father, for His dear Son's sake, that 
 none of you may at this time be sent forth. May He open 
 your mouths, may He give you utterance, may He make 
 you to * speak boldly as ye ought to speak,' the mysteries 
 of Christ's eternal Gospel." — Addresses to Candidates for Ordi- 
 nation, p. 53. 
 
 B—Page 46. 
 
 ON SOME OF THE MORE DANGEROUS PHASES OF MODERN 
 RELIGIOUS THOUGHT. 
 
 To a subject of this kind it would be obviously impossible 
 to do anything like justice in a note. We can only indi- 
 cate tendencies. Our dangers are from two sides — the 
 doing too little honour to human reason, and the doing too 
 much. Small by comparison, it may be, with the opposite 
 error, we yet cannot but see a danger in underrating the 
 powers of the human intelligence. We would do all honour 
 to the vigorous and unanswerable eloquence, with which a re- 
 cent BamptOQ Lecturer has mapped out for the rationalist 
 his proper and legitimate domain ; and shewn the hopeless 
 obscurity which awaits him, if hepresume to cross its border- 
 line. But we must be very careful lest the sword which we 
 use to drive an inquirer back from forbidden ground, do not 
 equally deter him from standing, with any confidence, on 
 ground that is lawful and true ; in other words, lest that 
 " speculative knowledge" of God which we affirm to be im- 
 possible to him by the use of his unassisted faculties, be 
 not, on these assumed conditions of human thought, impos- 
 sible to him under a revealed system also. Without pre- 
 tending, or even presuming to discuss the large questions 
 opened by the author of " The Limits of Keligious Thought," 
 we cannot, especially in view of the use which may be made 
 of the admissions by the philosophical infidel, withhold the 
 expression of our belief, that the theory contained in that 
 work, very much overstates the extent of our ignorance of 
 the Divine Being ; that it tends to reduce to an abject and 
 impossible submission, the most important functions of the 
 
 A A 
 
354 APPENDIX. 
 
 rational nature ; that it virtually ignores the possibility of 
 any true science of dogmatic theology ; that it makes the 
 necessarily inadequate conceptions which the finite mind 
 forms of Godhead, all one with blank and blind uncertainty; 
 and that, with regard to the little which, even from Eeve- 
 lation, we can know about God, it must, on this shewing, 
 be doubtful whether that little be positively true — or true in 
 any sense, indeed, other than that it would be for our good 
 to believe it true. " All that Kevelation does give or can 
 give ' upon this theory' are those regulative ideas of the Deity 
 which are sufficient to guide our practice but not to satisfy 
 our intellect ; which tell us not what God is in Himself, but 
 how He wills that we should think of Him.'' 
 
 Far greater, however, are the dangers which we appre- 
 hend from the side of an undue exaltation of human reason; 
 from the impatience manifested by a modern school to be 
 set free of all dogmatic restraint ; and to be allowed to 
 minister in our Church, while of creeds, or articles, they 
 should believe as little or as much as they please. We are 
 the more distrustful of this movement, from observing by 
 whom some of the authors of the work entitled " Essays and 
 Eeviews" are being claimed as allies and friends — such as 
 the leaders of the Unitarian theology in America, and some 
 writers of the same school in our own country. These men, 
 together with a w^riter in Frasers Magazine (a periodical 
 from which we should have expected better things) being 
 bent on setting up an antagonism between that section of 
 the Church which holds fast by its established verities and 
 the great body of the more highly educated laity, — are but 
 too glad to hail the writers of these "Essays" as the chosen 
 apostles of their school. It is very significant that the 
 Westminster Review seems to repudiate the authors of this 
 Neo-Christianity as going too far! The "Essays" are 
 * able' but ' suicidal.' 
 
 On the extravagancies of this modern teaching, however, 
 we are relieved from saying anything further, by being able 
 to quote the following admirable protest in the recent 
 Chai-ge of the Lord Bishop of Oxford : — 
 
 " Are there not, my reverend brethren, signs enough 
 abroad now of special danger to make us drop our lesser 
 differences, and combine together as one man, striving 
 Ocirnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints ? When 
 
APPENDIX. 355 
 
 from witliiii our own encampment we hear voices declaring 
 that our whole belief in the Atonement wrought out for us 
 by the Sacrifice on the Cross is an ignorant misconception 
 — that the miracles and the prophecies of Scripture are 
 part of an irrational supernaturalism which it is the duty of 
 a remorseless criticism to expose and to account for, by 
 such discoveries as that the imagination has allied itself 
 with the affections to produce them, and that they may 
 safely be brought down to a natural rationalism ; — by such 
 suggestions as that the description of the passage of the 
 Eed Sea is the latitude of poetry — tliat the avenger, who 
 slew the firstborn, is the Bedouin host, akin nearly to 
 Jethro, and more remotely to Israel; — when the his- 
 tory of the Bible is explained away, by being treated 
 as a legend, and its prophecy deprived of all supernatural 
 character by being turned into a history of past or present 
 events — when we are told that, had our Lord come to us 
 now, instead of in the youth of the world, the truth of His 
 Divine nature would not have been recognised ; that is to 
 say, that it was the peculiar stage in which flesh and blood 
 then were, and not the revelation of His Father who was 
 in heaven which enabled the Apostles to believe in Him — 
 when in words, as far as opinion is privately entertained is 
 concerned, the liberty of the English clergyman appears to be 
 complete — when we are told that men may sign any Article of 
 the National Church, if it is only their own opinions which are 
 at variance with them — when we are told that they may 
 sign, solemnly before God, that they allow certain articles 
 of belief, meaning thereby only that they allow their exist- 
 ence as the lesser of two great evils, and that, under the 
 Sixth Article, one may literally or allegorically, or as 
 a parable, or as poetry or a legend, receive the story of the 
 serpent tempting Eve and speaking in a man's voice ; 
 and, in like mannerj the arresting of the earth's motion, 
 the water standing still, the universality of the Deluge, the 
 confusion of tongues, the taking up of Elijah corporeally into 
 heaven, the nature of angels, and the miraculous particu- 
 lars of many other events ; — when Abraham's great act of 
 obedient faith in not withholding his son, even his only 
 son, but offering him up at the express command of God, 
 is commuted by the gross ritual of Syrian notes into a tra- 
 ditional revelation, while the awe of the Divine voice bid- 
 
 A A ;^ 
 
356 APPENDIX. 
 
 ding him slay his son, and his heing stayed by the angel 
 from doing so, is watered down into an allegory meaning 
 that the Father in whom he trusted was better pleased with 
 mercy than with sacrifice ; — when it is maintained that St. 
 Stephen, full of the Holy Ghost, in the utterances of his 
 martyrdom, and St. Paul proving from the history of his 
 people that Jesus was the Christ, would naturally speak not 
 only words of truth, but after the received accounts — when, 
 I say, such words as these are deliberately uttered by our 
 ordained clergy, while the slowness even of English theolo- 
 gians to accept such a treatment of God's revelation, is 
 scoffed at in such words as the following, even by those in 
 our Universities who no longer repeat fully the Shibboleth 
 of the Reformers, the explicitness of truth and error — ' He 
 who assents most, committing himself least to baseness, 
 being reckoned the wisest ;' whilst those who maintain the 
 old truth, I trust with most of us, my brethren, are branded 
 as Baal's prophets, and the four hundred prophets of the 
 grove, who cry out for falsehood — whilst, I say, such words 
 as these are heard from ordained men amongst us, and who 
 still keep their places in the National Church, is it not a 
 time for us, if we do hold openly by the Holy Scriptures, 
 as the one inspired voice of God's written revelation — if we 
 do hold to the ancient creeds as the summary of the good 
 deposit — if we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as very 
 God and very man — if we believe in His offering Himself 
 on the cross as the one only true and sufficient sacrifice, 
 satisfaction, and atonement for the sins of the whole world, 
 — is it not time for us, laying aside our suspicions and our 
 divisions about small matters, to combine together in 
 prayer, and trust, and labour, and love, and watching, lest, 
 whilst we dispute needlessly about the lesser matters of the 
 law, we be robbed unawares of the very foundations of the 
 faith."— C/iar^e, 1860. 
 
APPENDIX. 357 
 
 C—Page 100. 
 
 ON MISTAKES IN THE SELECTION OF TEXTS FOE SERMONS. 
 
 A temptation to hang a sermon upon an inapposite 
 text, sometimes arises from the pithy and sententious form 
 of the English rendering, causing particular passages to 
 pass into the current coinage of our more popular quota- 
 tions. Of this kind is the temptation to take, for a sermon 
 on ' the reality of the Christian's inner life,' the text. The 
 kingdom of God is within you (Luke xvii. 31). Or to select, 
 as the basis of a discourse on ' the danger of trifling with 
 sin,' — imitating it, jesting about it, going too near to it, — 
 those words of our version, Abstain from all appearance of evil 
 (1 Thess. V. 23).^ See some valuable remarks on both 
 these passages, in Dean Trench's work, On the Authorized 
 Version of the New Testament, pp. 117 and 127, 2nd Edition. 
 In regard to the text in Luke, as the Dean intimates, if the 
 higher or spiritual sense had been intended, the Pharisees 
 were not the persons to whom such words would have been 
 addressed. Whilst, as to the text from Thessalonians, it is 
 well argued, that the injunction, as it stands in our autho- 
 rized version, announces a principle of doubtful ethics ; — 
 many things being necessary to be done, which, to those 
 who do not understand, or do not sympathise with the 
 motives of the agent, must have the appearance of evil. 
 
 Our younger brethren will not suppose, from the remarks 
 made upon this subject, either that we desire to generate in 
 them a distrust of our English version, or that we expect 
 to find, in them, such a precision of philological know- 
 ledge, as shall enable them, on their own judgment, to 
 pronounce where that version is at fault. On the first 
 point, the general and even wonderful accuracy of our 
 translation, there is happily, among scholars of any repute, 
 not the slightest disagreement. Some, even of its com- 
 monly quoted faults, are shewn by Dean Trench to be no 
 faults of the translators at all, — who gave the true sense of 
 
 1 In reference to the remark in the text on 2 Pet. iii. 16 (see page 100), 
 we ought to have observed, from Hammond, that the King's MS. does read, 
 kv alg, making the reference to be to the Epistles, 
 
358 APPENDIX. 
 
 the original in the English of their time, however much the 
 meaning of particular words may have changed since. See 
 his remarks on Take no thoug/it (Matt. vi. 25), and Wliy 
 cumhereth it the ground ? (Luke xiii. 7,) pp. 39, 40. On the 
 other point, — the scholarship necessary to sit in judgment 
 upon the renderings of our English version, — it is to be 
 observed, that, so far as relates to guarding against posi- 
 tively unsuitable texts, nothing more seems to be required 
 of the young preacher, than the tabulating, or registering, 
 in his interleaved Greek Testament, of such renderings as 
 most scholars, of any mark, have concurred in pronouncing 
 to be either misleading or defective. How few these inac- 
 curacies are, and how relatively unimportant, may be inferred 
 from the sj^ecimens presented to us in such works as Pro- 
 fessor ScholeJielcVs Hints for an Improved Translation ; or 
 JJishop Middletons Doctrine of the Greek Article ; or the ad- 
 mirable work of Dean Trench referred to in this note. In 
 a recent commentary on the minor prophets, the English 
 reader of the Old Testament could not but have been grati- 
 fied by the testimony to the extreme accuracy of our version, 
 borne by a man of such profound scholarship as Dr. Pusey. 
 The words of another scholar, on our New Testament ver- 
 sion, are equally assuring. " The flaws pointed out are 
 frequently so small and so slight, that it might almost seem 
 as if the objector had armed his eye with a microscope for 
 the purpose of detecting that which otherwise Avould have 
 escaped notice, and which, even if it were faulty, might well 
 have been suffered to pass by, unchallenged and lost sight 
 of, in the general beauty of the whole." — Dean Trench'a In- 
 trod. Eemarks, p. 7. 
 
 J)—Pa(ie 128. 
 
 SOUTH ON THE SERMONS OF THE PURITANS. 
 
 The folio wing is a description, by South, of one of these wrtJii/- 
 headed sermons, which, as being itself given in a sermon. 
 
APPENDIX. 850 
 
 may serve as a specimen of the pulpit license of that age. 
 The sermon was preached before the University : — 
 
 " I hope it will not prove offensive to the auditory, if, to 
 release it (could I he so happy) from suffering by such stuff 
 for the future, I venture upon some short description of it ; 
 and it is briefly thus, — First of all, they seize upon some 
 text, from whence they draw something, which they call a 
 doctrine, and well may it be said to be drawn from the 
 words, forasmuch as it seldom naturally flows or results 
 from them. In the next place, being thus provided, they 
 branch it into several heads, perhaps twenty or thirty, or 
 upwards. Whereupon, for the prosecution of these, they 
 repair to some trusty concordance, which never ftxils them ; 
 and, by the help of that, they range six or seven Scriptures 
 under each head ; which Scriptures they prosecute one by 
 one, first amplifying and enlarging upon one, for some con- 
 siderable time, till they have spoiled it; and then, that 
 being done, they pass to another, which, in its turrt, suffers 
 accordingly. And these impertinent and unpremeditated 
 enlargements, they look upon as the m^otions and breath- 
 ings of the Spirit, and, therefore, much beyond those carnal 
 ordinances of sense and reason, supported by industry and 
 study ; and this they call a saving way of preaching ; as it 
 must be confessed to be a way to save much labour, and 
 nothing else that I know of." — Sermons, vol. i., p. 318. 
 
 ■E^—Page 153. 
 
 USE OF WORDS OF SAXON EOOT. 
 
 A curious attempt to introduce a translation of the New 
 Testament, which should be composed, as far as possible, 
 of Saxon words, was made by Sir John Cheke, Kegius Pro- 
 
360 APPENDIX. 
 
 fessor of Greek, in the University of Cambridge, and after- 
 wards secretary of state to King Edward the Sixth. It was 
 that Cheke of whom Milton speaks in his sonnets, 
 
 Thy age, like ours, soul of Sir John Cheek ! 
 
 Hated not learning worse than toad or asp, 
 
 When thou taught'st Cambridge, and King Edward Greek." 
 
 His specimens of a translation upon this principle, including 
 the Gospel of St. Matthew, and a part of the Gospel of St. 
 Mark, have been edited by Mr. Goodwin,^ who has given 
 an interesting introduction, setting forth the circumstances 
 under which Sir John Cheke Avas induced to make the 
 attempt. After alluding to the many words, from foreign 
 sources, which, by long settlement and usage, have become 
 naturalized among us, Mr. Goodwin observes : — " But 
 Cheke considered the English language to be sufficiently 
 copious without these words. In fact, he thought them 
 intruders, and that the English language was degraded by 
 being mixed up with other words, and phrases, for which 
 we were indebted to other countries. He consequently 
 disliked the English translations of the Bible, which had at 
 that time been made, and were in common use, as being, in 
 some degree, open to the charge of containing many words 
 of foreign root ; and thus speaking a language but partially 
 understood by the lower orders of the people."^ And, 
 therefore, to quote the learned professor's own language, 
 he was desirous " to let in the light more fully upon the 
 men of his own generation, by opening the window : to 
 break the shell, that they might eat the kernel : to put 
 aside the curtain, that they might look into the holy place : 
 to remove the cover of the well, that they might come by 
 the water, even as Jacob rolled away the stone from the 
 mouth of the well, by which means the flocks of Laban 
 were watered."^ 
 
 Let us see Quid dignum tanto feret ? We need not take 
 whole passages, but may consider whether in that age or 
 
 2 The Gospel according to St. Matthew, &c. Edited by James Goodwin, 
 B.D. Pickering, 1843. 
 ' Introd., p. 11. * Preface, p. 3. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 361 
 
 this, the ends of intelligibility would have been answered 
 by such substitutions as the following ; — 
 
 Cheke. 
 
 Matt. 
 
 Authorised Version. 
 
 moond. 
 
 iv. 24. 
 
 lunatic. 
 
 tollers. 
 
 V. 46. 
 
 publicans. 
 
 aches. 
 
 viii. 15. 
 
 fever. 
 
 bywordes. 
 
 xiii. 3. 
 
 parables. 
 
 lerned man. 
 
 xiii. 52. 
 
 scribe. 
 
 orders. 
 
 XV. 2. 
 
 traditions. 
 
 gainbirth. 
 
 xix. 28. 
 
 regeneration. 
 
 balie. 
 
 XX. 8. 
 
 steward. 
 
 on writing. 
 
 xxii. 20. 
 
 superscription, 
 
 uprising. 
 
 xxii. 23. 
 
 resurrection. 
 
 robri (robbery). 
 
 xxiii. 25. 
 
 extortion. 
 
 ground works. 
 
 XXV. 84. 
 
 foundation. 
 
 crossed. 
 
 xxvii. 22. 
 
 crucified. 
 
 
 F—Page 289. 
 
 
 EXTEMPOKANEOUS VOLUBILITY. 
 
 LoKD Brougham, who throughout his admirable essays 
 on Athenian eloquence, insists so much upon the necessity 
 of much labour and written preparation in order to effective 
 oratory, observes, in relation to the voluble facilities of 
 some speakers : — 
 
 " Among the sources of this corruption may clearly be 
 distinguished, as the most fruitful, the habit of extempore 
 speaking acquired rapidly by persons who frequent popular 
 assemblies, and, beginning at the wrong end, attempt to 
 speak before they have studied the art of oratory, or even 
 duly stored their minds with the treasures of thought and 
 of language, which can only be drawn from assiduous in- 
 tercourse with the ancient and modern classics. The truth 
 is, that a certain proficiency in public speaking may be 
 attained, with nearly infallible certainty, by any person who 
 
36*2 APPENDIX. 
 
 chooses to give himself the trouble of frequently trying it, 
 and can harden himself against the pain of frequent failure. 
 Complete self-possession and perfect fluency are thus ac- 
 quired almost mechanically, and with no reference to the 
 talents of him who becomes possessed of them. If he is a 
 man of no capacity, his speeches will of course be very bad; 
 but, though he be a man of genius, they will not be eloquent. 
 A sensible remark, or a fine image, may frequently occur, 
 but the loose, and slovenly, and poor diction, the want of 
 art in conbining and disposing his ideas, the inability to 
 bring out many of his thoughts, and the utter incompetency 
 to present any of them in the best and most efficient foim, 
 will deprive such a speaker of all claims to the character 
 of an orator, and reduce him to the level of an ordinary 
 talker. Perhaps the habit of speaking may have taught 
 him something of arrangement, and a few of the simplest 
 methods of producing an impression, but beyond these first 
 steps he cannot possibly proceed by this empirical process, 
 and his diction is sure to be much worse than if he had 
 never made the attempt — clumsy, redundant, incorrect, 
 unlimited in quantity, but of no value. Such a sj)eaker is 
 never in want of a word, and hardly ever has one that is 
 worth having. 
 
 G—Page 289. 
 
 LORD brougham's LETTER TO THE FATHER OF MACAULAY. 
 
 As we have once or twice made reference to this letter, 
 w^e here present, at length, the parts of it bearing upon our 
 subject. The letter is addressed to Zachary Macmday, 
 Esq. ; and is dated Newcastle, March 10, 1823. After some 
 remarks upon the high promise exhibited by the future 
 historian at Cambridge, and the necessity of cultivating 
 general information for his particular profession of the law, 
 
APPENDIX. 363 
 
 he comes to the following more specific directions for the 
 cultivation of oratory : — 
 
 *' 1. The first point is this, — the beginning of the art is 
 to acquire a habit of easy speaking ; and, in whatever way 
 this can be had (which individual inclination or accident 
 will generally direct, and may safely be allowed to do so), it 
 must be had. Now, I differ from all other doctors of 
 rhetoric in this, — I say, let him first of all learn to speak 
 easily and fluently, as well and as sensibly as he can, no 
 doubt, but at any rate let him learn to speak. This is to 
 eloquence, or good public speaking, what the being able to 
 talk in a child is to correct grammatical speech. It is the 
 requisite foundation, and on it you must build. Moreover, 
 it can only be acquired young, therefore let it by all means, 
 and at any sacrifice, be gotten hold of forthwith. But in 
 acquiring it, every sort of slovenly error will also be 
 acquired. Tt must be got by a habit of easy writing (which, 
 as Wyndham said, proved hard reading) ; by a custom of 
 talking much in company ; by speaking in debating societies, 
 with little attention to rule, and mere love of saying some- 
 thing at any rate, than of saying anything well. I can 
 even suppose that more attention is paid to the matter in 
 such discussions than in the manner of saying it ; yet still 
 to say it easily, ad libitum, to be able to say what you choose, 
 and what you have to say, — this is the first requisite, 
 to acquire which everything else must for the present be 
 sacrificed. 
 
 " a. The next step is the grand one, — to convert this 
 style of easy speaking into chaste eloquence. And here 
 there is but one rule. I do earnestly entreat your son to 
 set daily and nightly before him the Greek models. First 
 of all he may look to the best modern speeches (as he pro- 
 bably has already) ; Burke's best compositions, as the 
 Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents ; speech ' On 
 the American Conciliation,' and ' On the Nabob of Arcot's 
 Debt ;' Fox's ' Speech on the Westminster Scrutiny ' (the 
 first part of w^hich he should pore over till he has it by 
 heart) ; ' On the Russian Armament ;' and ' On the War,' 
 1803, with one or two of Wyndham's best, and very few, 
 or rather none, of Sheridan's ; but he must by no means 
 
364 APPENDIX. 
 
 stop here. If he would be a great orator, he must go at 
 once to the fountain head, and be familiar with every one 
 of the great orations of Demosthenes. I take for granted 
 that he knows those of Cicero by heart ; they are very 
 beautiful, but not very useful, except perhaps the Milo, pro 
 Ligario, and one or two more ; but the Greek must posi- 
 tively be the model ; and merely reading it, as boys do, to 
 know the language, won't do at all ; he must enter into the 
 spirit of each speech, thoroughly know the positions of the 
 parties, follow each turn of the argument, and make the 
 absolutely perfect and most chaste and severe composition 
 familiar to his mind. His taste will improve every time 
 he reads and repeats to himself (for he should have the fine 
 passages by heart), and he will learn how much may be 
 done by a skilful use of a few words and a rigorous rejection 
 of all superfluities. In this view I hold a familiar know- 
 ledge of Dante to be next to Demosthenes. It is in vain 
 to s^y that imitations of these models won't do for our 
 times. First, I do not counsel any imitation, but only an 
 imbibing of the same spirit. Secondly, I know from ex- 
 perience that nothing is half so successful in these times 
 (bad though they be) as what has been formed on the 
 Greek models. I use a very poor instance in giving my 
 own experience, but I do assure you that both in courts of 
 law and Parliament, and even to mobs, I have never made 
 so much play {to use a very modern phrase) as when I was 
 almost translating from the Greek. I composed the perora- 
 tion of my speech for the Queen, in the Lords, after read- 
 ing and repeating Demosthenes for three or four weeks, and 
 I composed it twenty times over at least, and it certainly 
 succeeded in a very extraordinary degree, and f\u' above any 
 merits of its own. This leads me to remark, that though 
 speaking, with writing beforehand, is very well until the 
 habit of easy speech is acquired, yet after that he can never 
 write too much: this is quite clear. It is laborious, no 
 doubt, and it is more difficult beyond comparison than 
 speaking off-hand; but it is necessary to perfect oratory, and 
 at any rate it is necessary to acquire the habit of correct 
 diction. But I go further, and say, even to the end of a 
 man's life he must prepare word for word most of his finer 
 passages. Now, would he be a great orator or no ? In 
 
APPENDIX. 365 
 
 other words, would he have almost absolute power of doing 
 good to mankind, in a free country, or no ? So he wills this, 
 he must follow these rules. 
 
 " Believe me truly yours, 
 
 "H. BROUGHAM.'^ 
 
 Extracted from the Times newspaper. 
 
 R—Page 290. 
 
 MR. PITT's mode of ACQUIRING FACILITY OF EXPRESSION. 
 
 The following confirmation of the account given in the 
 text, in reference to Pitt's method of acquiring a copia 
 verborum, is furnished by Lord Stanhope : — 
 
 " No man had that gift of using in public speaking the 
 right word in the right place — no man carried that gift to a 
 higher degree of perfection, as all parties have owned, 
 than Mr. Pitt. Now, my father had the honour to be con- 
 nected in relationship with that great man, and, as such he had 
 the privilege of being in the house with him sometimes for 
 many weeks together. Presuming on that familiar intercourse 
 he told me he ventured on one occasion to ask Mr. Pitt by 
 what means — by what course of study — he had acquired 
 that admirable readiness of speech — that aptness of find- 
 ing the right word. Mr. Pitt replied that whatever 
 readiness he might be thought to possess in that 
 respect, he believed he derived very much from a practice 
 his father, the great Lord Chatham, had enjoined on him. 
 Lord Chatham had bid him take up any book in some 
 foreign language with which he was well acquainted — in 
 Latin, Greek, or French, for example. Lord Chatham 
 then enjoined him to read out of this work a passage in 
 English, stopping, where he was not sure of the word, until 
 the right one came, and then proceed. Mr. Pitt states that 
 he had assiduously followed this practice. At first he had 
 often to stop for a while before he could find the proper 
 
366 APPENDIX. 
 
 word, but he found the difficulties gradually disappear, 
 until what was a toil to him at first became at last an 
 easy and familiar task. — Address on Installation, as Lord 
 Rector of Aberdeen.'* 
 
 I— Page 293. 
 
 EORERT hall's METHOD OF PREPAEING HIS SERMONS. 
 
 The following is the account of the usual course of this 
 eminent preacher, as distinguished from his method on 
 preaching his sermon entitled " Eeflections on War," 
 which he delivered memoriter, from a previously composed 
 manuscript : — 
 
 *' That course was, very briefly to sketch, commonly upon 
 a sheet of letter paper, (in some cases rather more fully) 
 the plan of the proposed discourse, marking the divisions, 
 specifying a few texts, and sometimes writing the first sen- 
 tence ; or, occasionally, a few other sentences, especially in 
 those parts where an argument could not be adequately stated 
 without great technical correctness of language. This he 
 regarded as " digghig a channel for his thoughts to flow 
 in." Then calling into exercise the power of abstraction, 
 which he possessed in a degree I never saw equalled, he 
 would, whether alone or not, pursue his trains of thought, 
 retrace and extend them, until the whole were engraven 
 on his mind ; and, when once so fixed in their entire con- 
 nexion, they were never after obliterated. The result was 
 on all occasions the same ; so that without recurring to the 
 ordinary expedients, or loading his memory with words and 
 phrases, he uniformly brought his mind, with an unbur- 
 dened vigour and elasticity, to bear upon its immediate 
 purpose, recalling his selected train of thought, and com- 
 municating it to others, in diction the most felicitous, 
 appropriate, and impressive. This was uniformly the case 
 with regard to the tenour and substance of his discourses ; 
 but the most striking and impressive passages were often, 
 strictly speaking, extemporaneous." — Note by Dr. Gregory, 
 Works, Vol i. p. 0. 
 
APPENDIX. 367 
 
 On most occasions, however, Mr. Hall made use of his 
 memory for the delivery of the finer parts of his sermon. 
 The following is related by the Essayist " On his character 
 as a preacher :" — 
 
 " Once, in a conversation with a few friends who had 
 led him to talk of his preaching, and to answer, among 
 other questions, one respecting this supposed and reported 
 extemporaneous production of the most striking parts of 
 his sermons, in the early period of his ministry, he sur- 
 prised us by saying, that most of them, so far from being 
 extemporaneous, had been so deliberately prepared that the 
 words were selected, and tbe construction and order of the 
 sentences adjusted." — Fosters Essay, HaWs Works, Vol vi. 
 p. 156. 
 
 K—Page 311. 
 
 PUBLTG CATECHIZING IN THE CHURCH. 
 
 In giving directions to the " Country Parson " on this 
 subject, George Herbert says : — 
 
 " The whole skill consists but in these three points ; first, 
 an aim and mark of the v>diole discourse whither to drive 
 the answerer, which the questionist must have in his mind 
 before any question be propounded, upon which and to 
 which the questions are to be chained. Secondly, a most 
 plain and easy framing of the question, even containing in 
 virtue the answer also, especially to the more ignorant. 
 Thirdly, when the answerer sticks, an illustrating of the 
 thing by something else which he knows, making what he 
 knows serve him in what he knows not." — Ch. xxi. 
 
 On the benefit to the adult members of the congregation 
 Archdeacon Bather remarks : — 
 
 " By open catechizing in the church, very much may 
 also be done for remedy of the difficulties which are continu- 
 ally besetting you, in consequence of the defective and perhaps 
 utterly neglected education of the grown members of your 
 
368 APPENDIX. 
 
 congregations. .... You -will have an opportunity you 
 much want of instilling instruction, drop by drop into 
 ignorant adults as well as into ignorant children ; and you 
 will be enabled, with almost equal ease and advantage to 
 arrest and fix their attention. For next to being asked a 
 question ourselves, nothing awakens and interests us more 
 than hearing others questioned. There will be curiosity to 
 catch the child's reply. A thought can scarcely fail to cross 
 the listener how he should reply himself, or whether he 
 could reply. Many are glad to get information without the 
 risk of exposing present ignorance ; and when the in- 
 formation is watched and waited for, it is retained. Most 
 people take pleasure in contemplating the efforts of chil- 
 dren ; and here the auditoiy is composed of persons who 
 regard the very children before them with a peculiar solici- 
 tude." — Charge to the Archdeaconry of Salop, 1885. 
 
 To the same excellent writer we are indebted for a small 
 volume of practical directions upon this subject, which will 
 be found very useful. It is a posthumous work, entitled 
 Hints on the Art of Catechishig ; Rimngtons, 1852. Arch- 
 deacon Sinclair's Questions on the Catechism, it may be pre- 
 sumed, is in most schools. See also the section on this 
 subject in Kev. E. Monro's Parochial Work, 2nd Edition, 
 p. 148. Some of the Author's thoughts upon the subject 
 are given in a little work, published by the Christian 
 Knowledge Society, entitled' Practical Hintson Sunday School 
 Teaching. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Action, vise of in preaching . . 246 
 
 Dr. Jolinson's opinion of . 246 
 
 Whitefield's „ . 248 
 
 Sidney Smith upon . . 251 
 
 Addison, quoted . . . .295 
 
 Andrewes, Bishop, referred to . . 129 
 
 Arnold, Dr. „ . . 104 
 
 Artisans, intelligence of . . .38 
 
 Authority, speaking with . . .33 
 
 Barrow, referred to . . . .110 
 Eautain, on extempore preaching . 288 
 Baxter, quoted, . . .86, 285 
 
 Berkeley, Bishop, on elocution . . 223 
 Bingham, on first Christian Preachers 266 
 Bishops, rejection of candidates by . 336 
 Blair, referred to . . . . 119 
 Blunt, Prof, quoted . . 33, 48, 100 
 Bridge's Christian Ministry, quoted 
 
 58, 190, 281 
 Brougham's Lord letter to Mr. 
 
 Macaulay 289 
 
 on volubility . . .361 
 Burnet, Bishop, quoted 61, 99, 149, 
 
 227,267 
 Butler, Archer referred to . . 131 
 
 Catechizing, public . . . 311 
 
 Chalmers, Dr. referred to . . lol 
 
 his vehement oratory . 248 
 Charity sermons .... 323 
 Charles the Second's proclamation to 
 
 the University of Cambridge . 268 
 Cheke, Sir J. on Saxon Translations 
 
 of New Testament .. . .359 
 
 Children, sermons to . . . 317 
 
 Christ preaching, what it is . .191 
 Claude, on composition of a sermon . 29 
 Commonwealth, the, preaching in 
 
 the times of 12 
 
 Complementary and coiTclative 
 
 truths 193 
 
 Conclusion, tedlousness in . .138 
 Controversial topics, introduction . 81 
 Countenance in preaching. . . 252 
 Cowper referred to . . . . 228 
 
 Delivery of a sermon . . . 225 
 natural, what . . . 235 
 Devoutness personal, necessity of . 89 
 De Qitiucy, referred to . . 169, 144 
 Discussion of a sermon by illustra- 
 tion 118 
 
 by observation . .119 
 
 by confirmation . . I'ZO 
 by investigation . .121 
 by continual application . 122 
 by antithesis . . .123 
 Divisions of sermons . . . 126 
 
 Earnestness, necessity of . . . 255 
 Edinburgh Review referred to. . 47 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Elocution, Prof. Blunt on . . 223 
 
 study of . . . .228 
 importance of among the 
 
 232 
 
 . 354 
 . ISO 
 . 10(5 
 . 108 
 . 23 
 . 302 
 
 ancients 
 
 Essays and Reviews . 
 
 Ethics of the Old Testament 
 
 Exordium of a sermon 
 examples of 
 
 Experimental preaching . 
 
 Expository pleaching 
 
 Expression facile, Lord Brougham on 239 
 Pitt's plan for acquiring . 2',)1 
 
 Extempore preaching in ScotcliCliurch 283 
 Failures in, of clever men 278 
 Dean Swift on . . . 274 
 Practice of in other com- 
 munions . . . 279 
 Memoriter method of . 280 
 Method of by short notes. 284 
 Self-reliant method . . 286 
 writing necessary for, 292, 296 
 
 293 
 
 265 
 273 
 
 201 
 71 
 70 
 67 
 122 
 152 
 296 
 61 
 
 deliberate utterance m . 
 compatible with careful 
 style . . . 
 
 practice of early preach- 
 ers . . . . 
 practice of attainable . 
 
 Faith and works, relation of . 
 Fears of men to be appealed to 
 Feelings appealed to in Scripture . 
 Fenelon, Abp., qu(jted, . 
 Flechier referred to . . • 
 Foster's Essaj^s . . . • 
 Fox, C. J., anecdote of . . 
 Franklin, Dr. referred to 
 
 Goldsmith, referred to . . • 171 
 Gospel, the considered as a system . 30 
 in its relations to other truth 31 
 not an eclectic system . . 15 
 Gresley's Ecclesiastes Anglicanus, re- 
 ferred to, . . 18, 104, 230, 285 
 Gurney, Eev. J. H., quoted . 212 
 
 Hall, Eobert, referred to . . . 262 
 his mode of pulpit preparation 262 
 Harmony in a discourse . . . 289 
 Hare, Mr. , referred to . . . 157 
 Herbert George, quoted . 49, 5^ 
 
 Holy Scripture, figurative style of 165 
 Horsley, referred to . 121, 135 
 
 Home, Bishop, quoted . . lH 
 
 Infidel tendencies of the age . .42 
 Insti-uction, a leading feature of 
 
 preaching 23 
 
 Intellectual demands of the age . 37 
 Irving, Edward, referred to . . 209 
 
 Jay, Mr., referred to . . . 123 
 
 Jesting in the pulpit . . .85 
 
 B iJ 
 
370 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 PAGE 
 . 24G 
 
 . 85 
 
 . 203 
 
 . 204 
 
 . 337 
 
 148 
 
 Johnson, Dr. on gesture . 
 
 Latimer, Bisliop, quoted . 
 Legal preaching 
 
 Mr. Simeon, on 
 London, Bishop of, quoted 
 Lutlier, referred to . 
 
 Macintosh, Sir James, referred to 
 Materials borrowed, use of . .60 
 Massillon, referred to . . . 282 
 Memoiy, use of, by Dr. Chalmers 293 
 by Lord Brougham 293 
 by Robert Hall 
 ."Mercantile classes, intelligence of 39 
 
 Moule's Christian Oratory quoted 56 266 
 
 Xovelty, power of, in preaching 25 
 
 Object of preaching, to persuade 66 
 
 Objective teaching .... 214 
 Occupations of Clergymen varied . 46 
 Ogden referred to ... Ill 
 
 Open air preaching . . . 3v7 
 
 Orator, ancient, education of . . 252 
 0.xford, Bishop of, quoted . .352 
 
 PaJey on divisions 
 
 unity .... 
 
 Partial preaching .... 
 Passions, appeals to in preaching 
 
 Peroration 
 
 Persuasion the object of preaching 
 Phases of modern religious thought 
 Pitt, Mr., on Cecil's preaching 
 Political preaching 
 Poorer classes, condescending to 
 Preaching, history of, under Old 
 Testament 
 
 under New Testament . 
 
 universal adaptation of . 
 
 office of, to instruct 
 Plain preaching . . . . 
 Predestination, doctrine of, referred 
 
 to 
 
 Prophetical subjects 
 
 Pronunciation, bad examples of '. 
 
 Puritan sermous 
 
 14 
 
 18 
 
 171 
 
 194 
 128 
 242 
 183 
 
 Quarterly Review, referred to 58, 61, 314 
 
 Rationalizing tendencies of the age 41 
 Reading, impoi-tance of, to a preacher 49 
 Reason, claims of, . . . .28 
 Rebukes, how to be administered .' 77 
 Reformation, preaching in the time of 11 
 Kichmond L. quoted . . 217 
 
 Ridicule, use of, in preaching " '. 80 
 Rogers, Samuel, referred to . . 172 
 
 Sacraments and preaching . . 9 
 Saxon root, wurds of . . . 149 
 Science and the Gospel . '. .31 
 South, Dr., on illiterate preachers 52 
 account of a puritan sermon 120 
 Ssarmons, borrowing of . . .68 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Sermons, definitions of . . .93 
 
 structure of . . .92 
 
 disorderly . • . 116 
 
 subject of ... 98 
 
 courses of . . . 308 
 
 subject-matter of . . 175 
 
 Sheridan's early efforts in oratoi-y . 278 
 
 Sherlock referred to ... 119 
 
 Simeon on legal preaching . . 204 
 
 Sinclair, Archdeacon, quoted 116, 190 
 
 Special services .... 330 
 
 Spiritual preaching . . . 216 
 
 Spiritualizing of Scripture . .103 
 
 Sterne referred to . . . .112 
 
 Style, in relation to preaching . 143 
 
 compression of . . , 162 
 
 elaboration in ... 168 
 
 plainness of ... 155 
 
 simplicity of ... 160 
 
 Tillotson's rule for . . 155 
 
 Sydney Smith on energetic delivery 251 
 
 Taylor, Jeremy referred to . . 121 
 Teaching, an essential part of preach- 
 ing 25 
 
 Texts, choice of .... 95 
 
 to be fairly discussed . . 97 
 
 inappropriate, choice of . 100 
 
 strange and startling . .103 
 
 Throat, the clergyman's . . 238 
 
 Topics of the day, preaching on . 209 
 
 Tracts for the times, referred to . 8 
 
 Trench, Dean, i-eferred to . . 151 
 
 on authorised version . . 357 
 
 Truths, fimdamental, precedence of 186 
 
 Unction in preaching . . .87 
 Unity in a discourse . . . 113 
 
 Unity of revelation . . .177 
 
 University preparation for preaching 338 
 
 Voice, the importance of cultivating 237 
 
 unpleasantness of . . . 241 
 
 Vinet, Professor, quoted 31, 126, 127, 
 
 327 
 Volubility, Lord Brougham on . 361 
 
 "Watson, Richard, referred to . 124 
 
 "Whately, Archl)ishop, referred to 
 
 151, 152, 164 
 "Whitefield's devoutness in prepara- 
 tion * . 89 
 
 his manner in preaching 
 
 70, 248 
 his musical voice . . 241 
 "Wilkins, Bishop, quoted . . 127 
 Winchester, Bishop of, quoted 337 
 "Wordsworth on the choice of words 144 
 Works, good, relation of faith to . 201 
 Writing fine, dread of . . .164 
 Written, sermon the, when intro- 
 duced 967 
 
 reasons for retaining . 270 
 
 Young Men's Societies , . .39 
 
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