a I E) RARY 
 
 OF THL 
 UNIVLRSITY 
 or ILLINOIS
 
 )Vvyy^ ^-cT Ci^cju/k^.,/y-y 
 
 SERMONS. 
 
 a paper 
 
 READ AT THE CHURCH CONGRESS, BRIGHTON, 
 
 OCTOBER, 1901. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. H. HENSLEY HENSON, B.D., 
 
 Canon of Westminster^ and Rector of S. MargareVs, 
 Westminster. 
 
 PRINTED BY BEMROSE & SONS, LIMITED, DERBY 
 
 AND LONDON.

 
 S E R M O N S . 
 
 The subject which I am charged to speak about is one which, what- 
 ever may be the case with others, must be to the thoughtful clergyman 
 full of anxious and, perhaps, painful interest. It is, of course, 
 notorious that in certain quarters it is now fashionable to make 
 little of sermons, or, as the cant term is, " preachments." I desire to 
 repudiate with all the energy 1 have this fashion of belittling the 
 highest function of the Christian ministry. If it be the case, and 
 no doubt it is the case but too often, that sermons merit the scorn 
 which they provoke, then 1 submit that the reason lies in that low 
 conception of ministerial duty which makes preaching a trivial and 
 despised thing. Consider what the sermon means in the scheme of 
 the clergyman's duty. So far as the mass of his congregation is con- 
 cerned, his ministry as teacher and as pastor must be fulfilled in 
 those brief moments during which he speaks to them face to face 
 in his Master's Name. 1 am not, of course, suggesting that this is 
 a satisfactory state of affairs. Preaching can never adequately express 
 our obligation as teachers and pastors. Baxter's declaration probably 
 sums up the general experience : — " 1 know that the public preaching 
 of the Gospel is the most excellent means, because we speak to many 
 at once, but otherwise it is usually far more effectual to preach it 
 privately to a particular sinner; for the plainest man that is can 
 scarcely speak plain enough in public for them to understand, but 
 in private we may much more. In public, we may not use such 
 homely expressions, or repetitions, as their dulness doth require, but 
 in private we may " (v, Gildas Salvianus c. vi.. Works ed. Orme, 
 \o\. xiv., p. 276). 
 
 But, as a matter of fact, there will be no other way of teaching 
 than the sermon, so far as the mass of the congregation is concerned, 
 and such opportunities of private instruction as come to the clergy- 
 man will almost invariably grow out of his preaching. Pastoral 
 visitation is, no doubt, a most precious instrument of spiritual 
 influence, but the circumstances of modern society do not always, or 
 generally, permit its use. Visitation of some sort will, no doubt, 
 always be possible, but not pastoral visitation. The social con- 
 ditions assumed by the great masters of pastoral theology — George 
 Herbert, Baxter, Jeremy Taylor, Bishop Burnet — have disappeared 
 over much of the country, and will soon have disappeared altogether. 
 However reluctantly we may admit it, admit it we must in the end, 
 that our hold over the people depends mainly upon our sermons. 
 It must be our interest, as it certainly is our duty, to set a high 
 standard of preaching before us, and to resist as an insult and a 
 peril the modern fashion of belittling the pulpit. 
 
 Now, it cannot be questioned that the influence of the pulpit has 
 fallen to a very low ebb. Publishers with one voice assure us that
 
 there is no market for sermons. This fact is a fair index of unpopu- 
 larity. When men crowded to hear sermons, they were eager to 
 purchase them. Now they are zealous neither to hear nor to possess. 
 Sermons were once events, they are now hardly episodes. After 
 some consideration, I cannot recall the name of a single preacher 
 now living — and I do not forget that we have among us on and 
 off the Episcopal Bench many respectable orators — whose sermons 
 make the slightest ripple on the surface of our public life. Probably 
 at no time ui our history were sermons more numerous; certainly 
 never were they so ineffective. It might be plausibly maintained 
 that the preacher has waned with the rehgion of which he is the 
 accredited exponent, but I think this is not the true explanation. 
 Popular interest in theology has dwindled, but not popular interest 
 in religion. The immense sale of religious romances cannot be 
 explained on the supposition that religion has ceased to be interesting. 
 The same disposition of mind which moved a former generation to 
 buy Tillotson's sermons now makes it worth a publisher's while to 
 print a first edition of 100,000 copies of a semi-religious romance. 
 The sermon, in fact, has ceased to be, the popular instrument for 
 religious discussion; and the spiritual popes of the hour are not 
 fashionable preachers, but sentimental and speculative novelists. 
 
 Let me premise that I do not propose to speak of mission sermons. 
 The conditions under which the mission preacher discourses are 
 altogether extraordinary : he cannot be reasonably supposed to be 
 subject to the rules and considerations which ought to control the 
 normal exercise of the preacher's gift. I desire that you will under- 
 stand that hothing in my paper is intended to have reference to 
 rhission sermons. I confine myself to ordinary preaching, and shall 
 consider the sermon under its two aspects — didactic and pastoral. 
 Incidentally, I shall make some observations on the composition 
 and delivery of sermons. 
 
 I. — Fuller quaintly describes a notable Puritan preacher of Eliza- 
 beth's reign as one who " brought the schools into the pulpit, and, 
 unshelling their controversies out of their hard school terms, made 
 thereof plain and wholesome meat for his people." These words 
 express not inaptly an essential part of the preacher's duty in every 
 age, and most of all ifi ah age of religious transiliion, such as the 
 present. I need not remind this audience that during the last thirty 
 years a change, of which it is scarcely possible to overstate the 
 gravity and magnitude, has passed over the Church. Biblical 
 criticism has come in on us as a flood, and perhaps we were in a 
 special degree unprepared to meet it, because of the excessive 
 dependence on the text of Scripture in which we had been trained. 
 Christianity had been very generally bound up with a certain view 
 and treatment of the Scriptures, and when these were disproved and' 
 disallowed everything seemed to be lost. It is, I think, too pfain 
 to be denied by any that the first result of biblical criticism has 
 been a large unsettlemerit of faith, and in some quarters the appear- 
 ance of what may be called a temper of theological despair. This 
 situation may easily develop in a very disastrous way, either towards 
 a fanatical orthodoxy, which, by resolutely closing its ears to novel 
 and disturbing truth, ensures in the future a rough and ruinous 
 awakening, or towards a prompt and precipitate abandonment of 
 
 IJHIC 
 
 *\
 
 Christianity, which, since for the moment it has become doubtful, 
 is hastily concluded to be probably false. This situation appears 
 to me to constitute the opportunity and the trial of the Christian 
 teacher. If we follow the line of least resistance and echo the 
 formulae of traditional belief, so long as they are generally popular, 
 we shall purchase immediate peace and, perhaps, even applause, by 
 the ultimate forfeiture of our legitimate authority. I submit that it 
 is our high and solemn duty to stand before our congregations at 
 this juncture as mediators and interpreters, fulfilling with respect to 
 the new truth of our time the function which our Master sketched in 
 His description of the " scribe who hath been made a disciple to 
 the kingdom of heaven " as " a householder which bringeth forth out 
 of his treasure things new and old." Sermons, composed in obedience 
 to this conception of the preacher's task, and directed deliberately 
 towards the problems which are actually exercising the minds and 
 troubling the consciences of our people, will have that aspect of 
 relevance and that ring of honesty which are but too generally absent 
 from discourses, not in other respects undeserving of audience. It is 
 not the least service rendered to the Church by my dear friend and 
 honoured colleague. Canon Gore, that he has set an example in the 
 pulpit of Westminster Abbey of such cogent and courageous preach- 
 ing. The immense congregations which in season and out of season 
 gather to his sermons, prove, if proof be needed, that he has not, 
 in this respect, misunderstood the necessities of the time. 
 
 It may, however, be said, and with evident justice, that this 
 didactic task assumes a knowledge and ability of which many clergy- 
 men are destitute ; that the discussion of critical problems by ill- 
 equipped and inefficient preachers could not assist truth and might 
 easily minister to error ; that the arduous parochial work to which 
 many parish priests are necessarily committed, hardly allows them 
 to pursue any regular and systematic study. 
 
 I must say plainly that I think very many of the clergy preach too 
 much, and some ought not to preach at all. The issue of a separate 
 preacher's license to the clergyman seems to suggest that in theory 
 the Church distinguishes between the priest and the preacher. In 
 practice all priests are licensed to preach. Except for the 
 faint suggestion of discipline which it conveys, and which 
 we cannot afford to lose, the preacher's license is a futile form. It 
 is much to be wi.shed that reality were restored to this part of our 
 ecclesiastical system, and th-^t grossly ignorant and incompetent clergv- 
 men were restrained from preaching and required to read suitable 
 sermons set forth by authoritv- 
 
 In this connection, I would say something on the ancient con- 
 troversy as to the mode of preaching. Ought men to read their 
 sermons or to preach extempore ? T think it is a grave blunder to 
 discuss these methods as mere alternatives. To read your sermons 
 compels vou to prepare them, and thus chains yf~>" to a certain 
 measure, it may be a very modest measure, of intellectual effort ; to 
 preach extempore is always in some degree to preach without 
 preparation. As the fatal facility of continuous utterance develops 
 the temptation to intellectual indolence grows apace, and, in the 
 sennel, preachers who at one time deserved the popularity they gained 
 sink into the veriest ranters. Archbishop Whately discouraged,
 
 though he did not condemn, extempore preaching. " At all events," 
 he said, " if a man does preach extempore, he should have a store 
 of written sermons in his possession laid up. against the time when 
 his powers may fail. I once heard an old clergyman preach extempore 
 who, I was told, had been in his day a man of considerable talent 
 and eloquence. The sermon I heard from him was absolute twaddle." 
 In describing some extempore preachers, he said, " You might quote 
 Bottom's answer to Snug the joiner in ' Midsummer Night's Dream,' 
 when Snug asks him if the lion's part in the play is written. ' You 
 may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring ! ' " (" Life and 
 Remains," p. 401). 
 
 Bishop Wilberforce advised his clergy to write at least one sermon 
 every week, and himself preached written sermons for fifteen years 
 after his ordination, and so anxious was he to discourage the practice 
 of extempore preaching that on one occasion when himself preaching 
 without notes, he had a MS. upside down before him " for the benefit 
 of the younger clergy " (" Life," Vol. IIL, p. 96-7). 
 
 I know that it is maintained that written sermons are commonly 
 so ill-read as to be ineffective, whereas extempore preaching better 
 arrests and holds attention. It may be so, though I confess that, 
 for my part, the defects of both modes of preaching seem to be 
 roughly equal. If the read sermon is monotonous — the extempore 
 discourse is as often noisy ; if the one is sometimes inaudible, the 
 other is occasionally offensive. Burnet's counsel is sound, though 
 he inclines too much to extempore preaching : — " The great 
 rule which the masters of rhetoric press much can never 
 be enough remembered, that to make a man speak well 
 and pronounce with a right emphasis, he ought thoroughly to 
 understand all that he says, be fully persuaded of it, and bring 
 himself to have those affections which he desires to infuse into 
 others. . . And, therefore, such as read their sermons ought to 
 practise reading much in private and read aloud, that so their own 
 ear and sense may guide them to know where to raise or quicken, 
 soften or sweeten their voice, and when to give an articulation of 
 authority or of conviction ; where to pause and where to languish. 
 . Those who read ought certainly to be at a little more pains 
 than for the most part they are to read true, to pronounce with an 
 emphasis, and to raise their heads and to direct their eyes to their 
 hearers ; and if they practised more alone the just way of reading, 
 they might deliver their sermons with much more advantage " (" Pas- 
 toral Care," c. ix.). 
 
 Even more important than the delivery is the composition of 
 sermons. Dr. Johnson " observed that the established clergy in 
 general did not preach plain enough, and that polished periods and 
 glittering sentences flew over the heads of the common people without 
 any impression upon their hearts " (" Works, II., 268, ed. Birrell). 
 
 Dean Swift, in his incomparable " Letter to a Young Gentleman 
 lately entered into Holy Orders " dwells on the " frequent use of 
 obscure terms, which by the women are called hard words, and 
 by the better sort of vulgar fine language, than which I do not 
 know a more universal, inexcusable and unnecessary mistake among 
 the clergy of all distinctions, but especially the younger practitioners." 
 His remedy, perhaps, is even yet worth considering : — " I believe the
 
 method observed by the famous Lord Falkland in some of his 
 writings would not be an ill one for young divines. I was assured 
 by an old person of quality who knew him well that when he doubted 
 whether a word were perfectly intelligible or no, he used to consult 
 one of his Lady's chambermaids (not the waiting-woman, because it 
 was possible she might be conversant in romances), and by her 
 judgment was guided whether to receive or reject it. And if that 
 great person thought such a caution necessary in treatises offered to 
 the learned world, it will be sure at least as proper in sermons, where 
 the meanest hearer is supposed to be concerned, and where very 
 often a lady's chambermaid may be allowed to equal half the con- 
 gregation, both as to quality and understanding " (" Works," Vol. I., 
 p. 233, Dublin, 1751). 
 
 Burnet's rule that " a preacher is to fancy himself as in the room 
 of the most unlearned man in his whole parish " is rather an assertion 
 of principle than a counsel of practice. More serviceable is his 
 advice that " there should be but one point in a sermon, so that 
 one head, and only one, is well stated and fully set out." 
 
 I have always thought that simplicity in form and arrangement is 
 much more helpful to the poor than studied simplicity of phrase. 
 In striving to be intelligible the preacher sometimes sinks into 
 colloquialisms and vulgarities which dismay and alienate more persons 
 than they enlighten. A simple, lucid style ought to be within the 
 reach of every educated man who can think clearly. Most commonly 
 the root of confused and stilted composition is muddled thinking. 
 And here again the practice of writing sermons is advantageous. 
 Nothing discovers mental confusion so quickly as the necessity of 
 setting down one's thoughts on paper. 
 
 II. — IJitherto I have spoken mainly of the didactic? aspect of the 
 sermon ; let me now turn to the pastoral. The sermon has in the 
 case of the English clergyman to serve the purpose which in former 
 times and in other Churches is served by the confessional. The 
 parish priest stands in his pulpit as " Ductor dubitantium " ; he has 
 to solve cases of conscience publicly in his sermon. Always for 
 the most part of his people, often for all of them, the pulpit is his 
 sole sphere of moral guidance, of " direction." The preparation 
 for pastoral preaching is not primarily intellectual, but devotional 
 and practical. By the self-knowledge gained in the solitude and 
 conflict of personal religion, the parish priest discovers the key to 
 unlock other hearts and open out the secrets of other lives ; but 
 this self-knowledge must not stand alone. It must be chastened, 
 enlarged, interpreted, corrected by experience gained in the faithful 
 and constant study of his people. I believe the knowledge of life, 
 painfully gathered in the manifold contacts and labours of parochial 
 dutv, is worth much more as a basis of moral guidance than the 
 study of casuistic manuals or the much-vaunted wisdom of the con- 
 fessional. For in the parish human life is seen under normal 
 conditions and in natural proportions, but in the confessional it is 
 studied only in its morbid moods and darker aspects. The sermon, 
 then, viewed as the instrument of pastoral duty, is to reflect the 
 knowledge and insight of the parish priest and to be directed to the 
 actual circumstances of the persons to whom it is addressed. I do 
 not believe that any natural gift of eloquence, or any acquirements
 
 of theological science, or any labours of preparation can compensate 
 for the absence of that personal contact with normal life which is 
 the special, perhaps the only, advantage of the parish preacher. The 
 vital qualities of sympathy and thoroughness can hardly belong in 
 like measure to the lucubrations of the student, the rhapsodies of the 
 recluse, or the artificial eloquence of the rhetorician. But what tact, 
 and wisdom, and self-restraint are demanded in such pastoral preach- 
 ing if it is not to miss its aim altogether and sink into the provocation 
 of personal reference and the insolence of satire ! 
 
 Can so delicate a ministry be entrusted to the risks of extempore 
 speech ? Does not prudence unite with modesty in suggesting that 
 such sermons should be written ? Archbishop Leighton, whose name 
 marks an epoch in the history of English preaching, dwells on the 
 " holy guile " which ought to mark the ambassadors of Christ : — 
 " A kind of guile they may use, but it must carry their King's impress. 
 It must be a holy guile and such the ministers of the Gospel not only 
 may, but ought to, study. Fishers of men they are, and why may 
 they not use certain baits and diversity of them ? But as their 
 catching is not destructive, but saving, so must all their baits be. 
 They must quarter dove-like simplicity and serpentine wisdom 
 together, as He commanded them that sent them on this embassy " 
 ("Works," Vol. v., p. loi, London, 1808). 
 
 In conclusion, I revert to the point at which I started. The sermon 
 is of primary importance as the principal instrument of didactic and 
 pastoral duty. It cannot be despised or neglected without injury 
 to the Church and a lowering of the ideal of the ministry. I will 
 venture to add that in view of all the circumstances of the hour — 
 the intellectual confusion of our people, the tendency to repudiate 
 religious observances, the strange reluctance of our educated youth 
 to enter the ranks of the clergy, the contempt for the pulpit openly 
 expressed in many quarters — it is high time that a worthier spirit 
 of responsibility marked the exercise of the preacher's function in 
 the National Church. 
 
 REPRINTED FROM THE OFFICIAI, REPORT OF THE CHURCH CONGRESS BY 
 BEMROSE AND SONS, LIMITED, DERBY; AND LONDON.
 
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