fyxuW ^mmxMi | BOUGHT WITH THE INCO FROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT THE GIFT OF 1S9X ME \ FUND .A.t.7A.^.^.. Cornell University Library ,. 3 1924 031 380 029 olin,anx Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031380029 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING; CONTRIBUTIONS TO HOMILETICS. JAMES W. ALEXAl^DER, D.D. Late Pastor of the Presbyterian Church, New York. EDINBURGH: OGLE AND MURRAY, AND OLIVER AND BOYD. LONDON : HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO. 1864. Printed by A- & "Vf . E. Wilson, High Street, Edinburgh. PREFACE. It had long been the cherished wish of Dr Alexander to prepare a volume on Homiletics, for the use of young ministers and students ; and with this object in view, he was in the habit of jotting down, in his private journals, in the form of paragraphs, such thoughts as occurred to him on the subject. In one of his later journals I find the following entry : " If the Lord should spare me below, it will be well for me some day to look over all my dailies, and collect what I have written from time to time on Ministerial Work. It is already enough for a volume. It might do good when I am gone." But death defeated his plans. To carry out his purpose as far as it is now possible, I have collected these paragraphs, and print them just as they occur in his journals, without any attempt to arrange them in the order of subjects. I have also added to them several articles on the same subject, contributed by him to the Princeton Review, and a series of letters to young ministers, published in the Presbyterian, thus giving to the public, in a permanent form, all that he has written upon these important topics. In addition to these I have IV PKEFACE. introduced some paragraphs on miscellaneous subjects from the same journals, most of them bearing upon ministerial life and experience. Although deeply sensible of the inadequacy of this work to convey fully the matured experience of the author, I am not prepared to withhold its publication ; believing that incomplete as it is, it may yet be of advantage to all who are looking forward to the sacred office. In such a collection there must necessarily be some repetition of thoughts, and some opinions which were afterwards modified by the author ; but I have concluded to give the whole as it stands, rather than attempt an elimination which might weaken rather than give strength to the subject. S. D. A. CONTENTS. HOMILETICAL PARAGRAPHS. Formalism of Sermons, 1— Avoid Abstractions, 1 — Memoriter Discourse, 1 — How to write Sermons, 2 — Diction, 2— Reading the Scriptures, 2 — On Composing Sermons, 3 — Discuss some important point in every Sermon, 3 — Dwell on Good Thoughts, 3 — Concio ad meipsum, 4— On Sermon-writing, 4 — Off-hand Writing, 5 — Earnest Preaching, 6 — New Sermons, 8 — Great Subjects, 7 — Themes for Preaching, 7 — Two Methods of Sermon- writing, 8— ThePower of the Pulpit, 9 — Self-repetition in Preaching, 11- -Scripture Citation in Preaching, 13 — Uninvited Trains of Thought, 14 — Not to be sought in Public, 14 — Where they come to us, 14 — We must live apart to gain these results, 15— Thoughts on Extempore Preaching, 18 — Overhaul Sermons, 16— On Writing down one's Thoughts, 16— Give Scope to Free- dom of Thought, 17— Mode of Making a Brief, 17 — Trial of the above Pules, 18 — Hampered by a Skeleton, 19— Sermons, 19 — Eloquence, 20 — Dividing Sermons, 20 — Examples, 23 — Application of Sermons, 22— Fresh Writing, 23— Genesis of Thought, 23— Massillon's Method of Citation, 24— Subjects for Sermons, 24 — Choosing Texts, 24 — Theological Preaching, 25 — Dr Channing, 26— Preaching on Great Things, 27 — Theological Sermons, 27 — Be Yourself, 27— CoUect Texts, 28— Free Writing, 28— Writing by a Plan, 29— The Pulpit Sacred, 29— Study of Scripture, 30— Preaching on Politics, 30 — Excess of Manner, 30 — Feeling, Animation, Mock Passion, 30 — Reading Good Authors Aloud, 31 — Oratory does not make the Preacher, 31 — Elo- quence may be Overrated, 31— Individual Type of Thought, Diction, and Delivery, 31 — The "Utterance" which Paul craved, 31 — Attraction of the Modern Pulpit, 31 — Apostolical Preaching, 31 — Doctrine rather than Speak- ing, 32 —Warmth of Feeling necessary, 32 — A Thought for Expansion, 32 — Mingle Doctrine and Practice in due Proportion, 33— Method of Preparing Notes, 33 — The Bible to be Studied, 33— We go Astray when we go from the Bible, 34— My father, 34— Famfliarity with the Scriptures, 35 — Way of Studying the Bible, 36 — Textual Knowledge the best Preparation for extempore Discourse, 37 — AH the Powers to be devoted to the Work, 38 — A Minister not to be known by Works outside of his Profession, 39— Great Topics, 39— Rules for Self, 40— Do Good to Men, 41— Beneficence, 41— Byron, 41 — God in Nature, 42— See God in Nature, 43— On the late Cloudy VI CONTEXTS, AVeatlier, 43— Converse with God, 44— God is the Portion, 44— Writing Books, 44^Be Careful for Nothing, 45— How shall Mankind be made Happy? 45— Against Solitude, 46-Dying Evidences, 47— Pain, 48— Bless- ings of Trial, 48— Look Forward, 48— Influence of our Actions, 49- Evils of Musing, 49— True Poetry, 51— The People, 51— KeUgion as Excitement, 51 —Books and Solitude, 5^— Daily Conflict, 53— Microcosm, 53— Thy "Word is Truth, 54— Modes of Self, 54— How to View Nature, 55— Apothegms for the Time, 55 — Thoughts on Beading Kant, 5&— The Scriptures, 56— Maxims, 57— Goethe, 57— John Howe, 58— On Beading the Epistles, 59 —Characteristics of the New Testament, 59— One Truth, 60— Central Truths, 60— Truth in Trains, 60— Rules often Constrain, 61— An Active Mind never Idle, 61 — Diversities of EeUgious Opinion, 62 — Beflection, 63 — Regulate the Heart, 63— The Power of the WiU, 64 — Aphorisms on Self- denial of Appetite, 64 — God Overrules, 65 — More Maxims, 65 — Think for Yourself, 66— Physical Discipline, 66—^ Simple Rule, 67— A Settled Plan for Life impossible, 67— Use of Knowledge, 67— TThat it is to Aban- don the World, 68— Philosophical Studies, 68— Take no Thought for the Morrow, 68 — ^A Student's Sabbath, 69— Variety in the Bible, 69 — ^Argu- ment the Basis of Devotion, 70 — Thought of the Day, 71 — Influence of Christianity, 71— Take Time to Decide, 72— Thoughts for the Time, 72— Wait for Uncommon Grace, 74 — Great Christians, 75 — Great Results from Little Acts, 76— The Influence of the Spirit, 76— Song in the Night, 77— Real Knowledge and Book Learning, 78 — The Manifestation of God, 78 — Death-Bed Repentance, 80 — Operation of Christianity upon the Church, 80 — Dr Green, 81 — Likes and Dislikes, 81 — Idle Days not always Lost, 83 — Consecration of Learning, 83 — Evils of Unsanctified Learning, 85 — Thoughts as we Grow Old, 86 — Moral Education, 87 — Morality without Religion, 87 — Mental Acts of Devotion, 87 — A Wisdom not in Books, 88 — Love, 88 — ^Anxiety about the Morrow, 88 — True Way of Living, 89 — Avoid Harshness, 90 — A Batch of Maxims, 90 — Christian Love, 90 — Owen on the Sabbath, 91 — Voice Training, 92 — A Class of Authors Recom- mended, 93 — Value of Verbal Propositions, 93 — Deduction, 93 — Each Proposition Suggests the Next, 95 — ^Fixing Attention, 95 — ^All Times not equally good for Production, 96 — Thoughts on making Maxims, 97 — Generalization, 99— An Ephemeris or Journal recommended, 99 — Think long and deeply on a Subject, as if nobody had ever investigated it before, 100. LETTERS TO YOUNG MINISTERS. LETTEE I. Devotion to the Work of the Ministry, 101 — Lack of Devotion among Young Ministers, 101 — Enthusiasm necessary, 102 — Study of Science and Litera- ture subordinate, 102 — Their Dangers to the Young Minister, 103 — Who are the most successful, 103 — Effects of such Pursuits upon the tone of CONTENTS. VU Preacliing, 104 — We are to hold our Studies only as Means to an End, 104 — Recognize the Sublimity of the Work, 105 — Opinion of John Brown, of Haddington, 106 — Of John Livingston, 106 — The True Source of Pulpit Strength, 107— Relaxation, 107. LETTER II. The Cultivation of Personal Piety, 108 — The best Judges of Preaching, 109 — True Piety alone able to sustain the Minister, 109 — Temptations, 109 — Keep under the Body, 110 — Opinion of Owen, 110 — How to Prevent De- clension, 111 — Examples of Eminent Preachers, 111 — Extract from Life of Carus, 112 — Extract from Life of Flavel, 112 — Pascal, 115. LETTER III. The Happiness of Christ's Ministry, 115 — Constituents of this Happiness, 116 — The private life of a Christian Minister should be a happy one, 116 — There is Happiness in Preaching, 117 — The Glow of Public Discourse as a source of Happiness, 118 — Love is what moves the Hearer, 119 — This Happiness not dependent upon Great Assemblies or Fine Churches, 120 — Parochial Work and Social Communion sources of Happiness, 120 — The Joy of Harvest, 121 — Happiness in Contemplation of the Reward, 121. LETTER IV. Clerical Studies, 122 — ^Ministerial Learning recommended, 122 — Luther, 123 — Extract from his Address at Coburg, 124 — His Panegyric on Clerical Learning, 125 — Make sure of the Solids, 125 — Difficulty of obtaining Time for Private Study, 126 — Melville, 120 — A Mistake guarded against, 127 — Close Study essential, 128 — Habitual and actual Preparation, 128 — Evil of not Preparing at all, 129— The End of Preparation to be kept constantly in view, 129. LETTER V. How to find time for Learning, 130— Make the most of your Time, 130— Con- template all your studies as the Study of God's Word, 131 — Lop off all Irrelevant Studies, 132 — Especially such as require great expense of time in order to proficiency, 132 — Some degree of Knowledge of Collateral Sciences necessary, 133— The Minister's Study, 134— Punctuality and Order, 134 Economy of Time, 134— Habits of Living Ministers as to hours of Study, 135— Studies of Itinerants, 136— Advantages of a Small Charge, 137— Much Learned on this subject from men of other professions, 1.37. CONTENTS. LETTER TI. Learned Pastors, 138— Robert Bolton, 139— Owen, Baxter, and Howe, 139- Chamock, Calamy, 140— Pool, Tuckney, Flavel, 141— Caryl, Goodwin, 141 -Peter Vinke, John Quick, 142— George Hughes, Jessy, 142— John Eowe, John M'Birnie, 143— Melville, Bruce, Dickson, 144^"W"illiam Guthrie, 144— Rutherford, 145— George Gillespie, 145— Halyburton, Boston, the Erskines, Maclaurin, Witherspoon, 146— Bochart, 146— American Divines, 147. LETTER VII. Extempore Preaching, 147 — Begin at Once, 148 — Not easily combined with Reading, 149— Premeditation essential, 149 — Choose your Topics wisely, 149— Revivals of Religion train Off-hand Preachers, 150— Method of gain- ing Extempore Power, 151— Don't Prepare your Words, 152 — Things that perplex the Speaker, 152 — The "Wesleyans, 152. LETTER vm. Extempore Preaching continued, 153 — Argumentative Discourse consistent with Extempore Address, 154 — Instances cited, 154 — Reading not common among Continental Divines, 155 — Ebrard's Propositions, 155 — Opinions of other Germans, 156 — Beware of Undue Length, 156 — Favourable Schools of Practice, 157 — Some Practical Rules, 158 — Ebrard's Comic Advice, 158. LETTER IX. Extempore Preaching continued, 160 — God accomplishes his Ends in various "Ways, 160 — Previous Discipline necessary in order to ensure Ordei', Cor- rectness, and Elegance, 160 — Opinions of Cicero, 161 — Example of Fenelon, 161 — Adolph Monod, 162 — Extract from his Lecture on "Self-possession iu the Pulpit," 163 — Some Important Rules, 164, LETTER X. Diligence in Study, 165 — Superficial Preachers, 165 — The Evil Rebounds upon Themselves, 166 — Inevitable Results of Superficial Preaching, 166 — Minis- terial Study a sine qua non of Success, 167 — General Studies, 167 — These Sub-divided, 168 — Non-professional Studies, 168 — The Study of Law as an Example, 169. CONTENTS. STUDIES AND DISCIPLINE OF THE PREACHER. Forming Habits of Study, 170 — Errors in respect to Parochial Studies and Discipline, 170 — Mistaking Erudition for Culture, 171 — Examples, 172 — Eeading to be Properly Directed, 172 — The Mind must have Time for Re- fieotior, 173 — Dangers of coming in Contact with Error, 174 — Instance of Coleridge, 174 — How Truth is to be Discovered amidst conflicting Error, 175 — The Truth of Scripture the Grand Topic of Life, 175 — Application of the Principle, 175 — The Foundation of Valid Belief to be kept in miiid, 176 — The Truths of the Bible such, 176 — Value of the statement of a Great Truth, 176— Exegesis the Great Work of the Student, 177— Danger of Commentaries, 178 — The Duty of Studying the Text for Ourselves, 179 — Danger of our Explaining, 178 — The Modern German Press, 180 — Of Little Value to the American Pastor, 181 — Value of Original Meditation, 181— Early Advance in True Reasoning adds Confirmation to the General System, 182 — A Caveat against Eeading not intended, 182 — How to be Directed, 182 — Danger of much Quoting, 183 — Independent Thinking, 184 — Atten- tion, 184 — How to Think, 185 — Good Books Auxiliary, 186 — Lord Eldon's Opinion, 187 — The Value of the Scriptures in the Process of Thought, 187 — Manner of Inferior Minds, 188 — True Discipline, 189 — A Blinister's Ser- mons show the Character of his Thinking, 189 — Advantages of the Country Pastor, 190 — Cecil's Opinion of the Minister's Studies, 191 — Ministers as Authors, 192 — Authorship among Working Pastors, 192 — Authorship in England and on the Continent, 193. THE MATTER OF PREACHING. Discussions as to the Matter and Manner of Preaching, 194 — There can be no Difference as to the Matter among the Reformed, 195 — "WTiat is to be Preached, 196— God the Great Object, 197— Truths relating to God, 197— This may be considered a Truism, 198 — The Attitude in which Man should be put by the Preacher, 200— The Law to be Preached, 200— For what Purpose, 201— Wrong Way of Preaching it, 201— The Right AVay, 202— Danger of being more Righteous than God's Law, 203 — These Principles applied to the whole sphere of Evangelical Duty, 204 — Prejudices against Didactic Preaching, 204 — Anecdote of Professor Stuart, 205— Wherein the Life and Power of Preaching consists, 206 — God must be set forth pre- eminently in Christ, 207 — Little Danger of Excess in setting Christ forth Objectively, 208 — Way and Grounds of Vital Union especially to be set forth, 209 — The Subject often Obscured by making Love the Spring of Faith, 211 — Tendency of this to Generate Error as to the Sinner's Inability, 213 — Views of Doctrinal Preaching, 214 — Views of Controversial Preach- ing, 215 — Abstract and Metaphysical Preaching, 216 — True Method to Proceed from the Known to the Unknown, 217— How far Pnidential Con- siderations and Expediency are to detennine the Nature of Preaching, 218 CONTENTS. —Application of the Principles, 219— Much left to Christian Prudence, 220— Moral and "Worldly Virtues, 221— Social and Civil Relations, 222- "Worldly Interests not to be made prominent in Preaching, 224 — The Effect of the Opposite Course, 224— How far they should be Inculcated, 225— Politics, 227. EXPOSITORY PREACHING. The Custom of Preaching, 228 — Disuse of Expository Preaching, 229 — It is the most Obvious or Natural Way of conveying Truth, 229 — Has the Sanc- tion of Age, 230 — Deduction of Bingham and Neander, 231 — Method of Augustine and Chrysostom, 231 — Preaching in England in the 13th Century, 232 — Opposition to Expository Preaching, 233 — Method of the Non-con- formists, 233 — Expository Method secures the Greatest Amount of Scriptu- ral Knowledge, 234 — Its Advantages to the Minister, 235 — Its Advantages to the Hearers, 236 — Opinion of Chrysostom, 237 — Expository Method gives Truth in its Connections, 238 — Evils of the Textual Method, 239 — The Scotch Educate by Expository Preaching, 240 — It Affords Inducement and Occasion to Declare the whole Counsel of Grod, 240 — It admits of being made Interesting to Christian Assemblies, 242 — The effect of mere Ethical Preaching in Germany, 243 — Sympathy and Attention of the Hearer se- cured by Exposition, 244 — Expository Preaching tends to Correct and Pre- clude the Evils of the Textual Method, 244 — Sermons sometimes Devoid of Scriptural Contents, 245 — The abuse of wresting Texts, 246 — The Desire for something New sometimes Seduces the Preacher, 246 — ^Examples of this Abuse, 247 — Emptiness Incident to the Modern Method, 247 — Evils of Diffuseness, 248— Novel and Striking Texts, 249 — Exposition demands Method and Assiduity, 2.51 — Undigested Discourses, 250 — Leighton, 251 — Summerfield, 252— Dr Mason, 252. THE PULPIT IN ANCIENT AND MODERN TIMES. Origin of Preaching, 254 — ^Public Beading of the Scriptures, 255 — Manner of Reading, 255 — Early Preaching without Manuscripts, 256 — Preaching of Augustine and Origen, 256 — Gregory the Great, 257 — Sermons were taken down by Reporters, 257 — Examples of the same in Modem Times, 258 — Simplicity of Apostolical Times giving place to Grecian Rhetoric, 259— Preaching not confined to the Lord's Day, 259— Sermons of Early Fathers, 260 — Example of Augustine's Preaching, 260 — Great Decadence in the Middle Ages, 261 — ^WTiippers and Preaching Friars of the Fourteenth Century, 261 — Modem Pulpit dates from Reformation, 262 — Characteris- tics of Scottish Pulpit, 263— Sermons of the Scottish Church, 263— The English Pulpit, 264 — Examples of Preachers, 264 — Barrow, 265 — Jeremy Taylor, 265— Extract from his Sermon (Note), 267— South, 269— Quot- ations from him, 270— TUlotson, 271— Other English Preachers, 273— CONTENTS. XI Foster's Opinion of Blair's Sermons, 273 — Preaching of the Non-conform- ista, 275 — Owen, Bates, Flavel, Charnock, Howe, 276 — Watts, Doddridge, 277— The French Pulpit, 278— Bourdaloue, 278— Bossuet, 283— MassiUon, 281— Fenelon, Flechier, Braidaine, 282— French Protestant Pulpit, 282— A Selection of Sermons recommended for Publication, 283 — Pulpit Larceny, 283— A Snare of the Pulpit, 284— What are the Best Sermons, 284. ELOQUENCE OF THE FRENCH PULPIT. state of France under Louis XIV., 286 — Bossuet, 287 — Character of his Eloquence, 287 — Extract from his Sermon on "The Truth and Perfection of the Christian Religion," 289 — Extract from his Sermon on "The Cruci- fixion," 292 — On "The Name of Jesus," 293 — His Contrast between Christ and Alexander, 295 — Specimen of his Address to the King, 296 — How he »pplied Truth to the Conscience, 296 — Extract from his Sermon on "The Sufferings of the Soul of Jesus," 298 — His Funeral Orations, 299 — On Henrietta, Queen of England, 300 — Henrietta, Princess of England, 301 — Her Deliverance out of the Hands of her Enemies, 302 — His Sermon on the Prince of Conde, 303 — Bourdaloue, 306 — Extract from his Sennon on the " Passion of Christ," 307 — A Circumstance Ulustrating the Power of his Preaching, 311 — MassUlon, 312 — Character of his Preaching, 313 — His Funeral Orations, 313 — Extracts from his Sermons, 315 — The Manner of Delivery of the French Preachers, 316 . THOUGHTS ON PEEACHING. HOMILETICAL PAEAGEAPHS. FROM THE author's PEIVATB JOUKNALS. § 1. Formalism of Sermons. — Without flattering myself with the notion that I was ever eloquent, I am persuaded that the most effective discourses I ever delivered, were those for which I had made the least regular preparation. I wish I could make sermons as if I had never heard or read how they are made by other people. The formalism of regular divisions and applica- tions is deadly. And as to written sermons, what is written with weariness is heard with weariness. § 2. Avoid Abstractions. — If you would keep up attention, avoid abstractions in your sermons, except those of mere argu- ment. Come down from generals to specifications, and especially to individual cases. Whenever possible, give name and place, and intersperse anecdote. By this means the Puritans, even when they were prolix, were vivacious. They subsidized every event of Old Testament history, and talked of David and of Judas, instead of royalty and treason., § 3. Memoriter Discourse. — When Pompey the Great was going from the vessel to be murdered, he spent his time in the little Egyptian boat, in reading a little book in which he had 2 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. written a Greek oration, which he had intended to speak to Ptolemy. Vol. 13, p. 257. § 4. Suggested hy my Last Sermon. — Unless a sermon is amaz- ingly long, one must not \\'Tite an analysis, or brief, of many members. You will find that on each you have hardly more than a couple of pages, in which short space you cannot get a-going on any of the topics. Again: There is a greater force and condensation in the rapid first draughts which I write as a basis, than in the sermons which I make on them : Why 1 Because in writing the second time I try to expand each of the points. How shall the weak- ness consequent on this be avoided ? By writing a rapid, warm, percussive, cordial hosts, at a glow — and then doing little more than to put this into shape ; turning the hints into propositions. § 5. Diction. — The great fastidiousness of the House of Commons is often mentioned, but it is nothing to that of the Greek Demos. The standard which Aristotle assumes, and which was evidently that of the times, was so severe as to exclude from oratory every thing in the diction which betrayed the slightest artifice. Eead particularly on this subject what is written. Chap. 2, Book iii. of the Rhet., especially § 10. The third chapter of the third book, about Frigid diction, is capital. The four sources of the Frigid are flowing perpetually among our Americans. He speaks admirably of the tendency to make prose run into poetry. § 6. Reading the Scriptures. — To-day I took up my Greek Testament, and, as I walked about the floor, read the 2d Epistle to Timothy, pausing in thought on certain striking places. I saw many new excellencies^ — ^had some new rays of light — and was more than ever convinced of the excellency of this way of Scripture study. Especially when, after a number of rapid perusals, one goes over the ground with more and more ease every time. HOMILKTICAL PARAGRAPHS. 3 § 7. On Composing Sermons. — Notes on Conversations with J. A. A. — My father says a man should not begin with making a plan. Should not wait until he is in the vein. Begin, however you feel ; and write until you get into the vein — .however long it be. 'Tis thus men do in mining. You may throw away all the beginnings. Men who write with ease think best pen in hand. This applies to sermons, and also to books. It might be well to write a sermon currente calamo, and then begin again and write afresh (not copying, or even looking at the other, but), using all the lights struck out in the former exercise. § 8. Preaching. — The sermon I have last written, on Gen. 49, 4, is the least evangelical I ever made ; yet this did not once , enter into my head until I had finished, Let me learn to be careful how I censure others. Further, let me learn the impor- tance of making all my written sermons discussions of some important point of doctrine. The times need this, and my n^ind needs it, both in regard of theological knowledge and ratiocinative discipline. Treat doctrines practically, and experience argu- . mentatively. Avoid technicalities, avoid heaping up of texts, like stones without mortar. § 9. Dwell on Good Thoughts. — Very important. This seems something more than what is hackneyed. Think it out. If it occur in reading, pause, raise your eyes from the book, and follow it out. Thoughts which come up first are naturally trite. This is especially so of illustration. If one occurs, pursue it, follow it into the particular parts of the resemblance. If a metaphor or similitude, carry it forth in all its lesser resemblances. If it seem hackneyed, take some analogous one — take several. All these processes of thought wiU be useful at some other time, for our good trains of thought are seldom entirely lost. No man , could ever speak extempore, if every thing he said was literally the fruit of the moment. No ; in many instances by some association, a whole train of thoughts which had been forgotten for years will be brought up. 4 THOUGHTS ON PEEACHIKG. §10. On Sermon-writing. (Condoadmeipsum.) — ^The last Lord's day of the year has arrived, and, on reviewing your labours, you must feel that you have not stirred up the gift that is in you. Your talent, qualiscunque sit, has been too much laid up in the napkin. Especially in the matter of writing you have been de- linquent. Many things you have vsrritten, and even printed ; but few sermons. You have bestowed your time and labour on secondary and inferior things. One thing is needful. You have been favoured by Providence with a degree of ac- ceptance as a writer which you had not dared to expect, and for which you cannot be too thankful; but the same little attractions might have been cast around the great things of the kingdom. Consider these hints. 1. If your life be spared, you will never see a time in which, better than now, you can lay up a store of sermons. Eyesight, manual dexterity, memory, and vivacity must necessarily be on the wane. 2. Consider in what manner you have produced those things which have gained a little popularity. They have all been y,T\Ue,Ti currente calamo ; especially those which have most life in them were so written. Not so most of your sermons. Turn over a new leaf. Do not lay out new plans too carefully. Write while you are warm. Do not be avaricious of your best thoughts, nor reserve warm ideas for the last. This is like flooding the stomach of guests with soups, before dinner. Much of Jay's ex- cellence arises from this. Try your father's recommendation of writing with great rapidity what first occurs to you. This you may methodize afterwards. 3. You study much of the Scriptures, and sometimes warm over the sacred page. Avail yourself of these moments, and let your discoveries and suggestions flow into the channel of a sermon. 4. Be willing to vn-ite even part of a sermon. Perhaps you will do the whole. If not, remember how few of these fragments have ever been lost to you; is there one, the time spent on which you regret ? 5. You have prayed to have your tastes, feelings, and pursuits HOMILETICAL PARAGRAPHS. more concentrated on divine things ; and, for a short time past, you have felt as if this grace had in some degree been granted to you. Cherish this feeling, and make it available towards pulpit exercises. 6. God has granted you better health. Be tenderly thankful for such a benefit, and keep your harness always bright, that you may be ready, as soon as God shall cause the trumpet to sound, to go out into the regular ranks. 7. You have a text-book. Use it. Spend more time on it. Collect your scattered fragments. Mortify that procrastination ■which keeps so many plans in petto. § 11. Offhand Writing. — If I have ever written any thing ac- ceptably, it has been with a free pen, and from the full heart ; not from compiled stores, though I have done much of the latter also. One who has preached in so many fields, and exactly surveyed so few, had well confine himself to this sort of offhand and discursive composition. What is the reason that, having plainly shown a turn for a lively, superficial, easy kind of chat, enlivened by a few out-of-the-way stories, &c., &c., I have never perpetrated any thing like a book of this kind, save the two books for the working-folks, which were mere strung beads? And why have I, contrary to my natural turn, always preached in the commonplace humdrum manner, instead of giving free vent to the things that come into my head? I have been gather- ing long enough ; it is time for me to write more, and to write something vphich may attract attention to the things of God, and dojgood to people who will not read heavy, learned books. I have penned a great deal, but mostly under some constraint, which has pent me up and hampered me. It is high time that I followed nature, and let out the stream without constraint. Sometimes I have written for children, and this was of course a great restraint ; at other times for newspapers, where I had to be very short, or very careful not to offend ; and in the case of the Sunday-School Journal, for which I have done a good deal, I have had to avoid every thing sectarian. When I wrote for the Review, which pieces have been most laboured, I have ne- 6 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. cessarily tied myself up to the formal paces demanded in such affairs. And as I said, my sermons have never got clear of the formality with which I unfortunately began to write. I am conscious of a great desire to use my poor, and almost single talent of writing for the people, in some way which may recom- mend religion more than I have ever done yet. § 12. Earnest Preaching. — I have been reading an article on the Eloquence of the Pulpit in the Montauban " Revue Theologi- que " for the present month, written by Adolphe Monod. It is one of the best things I ever read on the subject. He makes elocution to depend on the inward conception and feeling. The work must begin from within. The great reason why we have so little good preaching is that we have so little piety. To be eloquent one must be in earne'st ; he must not only act as if he were in earnest, or try to be in earnest, but be in earnest, or he cannot be effective. We have loud and vehement, we have smooth and graceful, we have splendid and elaborate preaching, but very little that is earnest. One man who so feels for the souls of his hearers as to be ready to weep over them — will assuredly make himself felt. This is what makes effective ; he really feels what he says. This made Cookman eloquent. This especially was the charm of Summerfield, above all men I ever heard. We must aim therefore at high degrees of warmth in our religious exer- cises, if we would produce an impi-ession upon the public mind. Two or three such preachers in our Old School Church as is, would make themselves felt throughout the country. O ! that we had them ! O ! that those we had were inspired with greater zeal ! Without any increase of our numbers, the very men we now have, if actuated with burning zeal for God, might work a mighty reformation in our country. § 13. New Sermons. — ^Philip Henry used to love to preach ser- mons which were " newly studied." It is a crying sin of mine that I am so ready to go to my old store. Even when I preach HOMILETICAL PARAGRAPHS. 7 to the blacks, I ought, for my own sake, no less than for theirs, to prepare a plan, and study it out. If I daily had on hand some sermon on an important passage, I should be daily learn- ing more Scripture and more theology. § 14. Great Subjects. — Again I am impressed with what I have already mentioned in this book, viz., the importance of ■ choosing great subjects for sermons ; such as Creation, the Deluge, the Atonement, the Last Things. This is the more important considering that I preach only occasionally, and write seldom.* These discourses ought to be highly elaborated. I have no sermons such as I ought to preach, and such as I think I have preached extempore. Humphrey's remarks on easy engraving have given me new thoughts on easy writing. I have often intended to write out a discourse which I have preached with some sense of doing better than common ; but as far as I remember, I have never yet done it. § 15. Themes for Preaching. — They should be great themes — the great themes. These are many. Evil of dwelling on the smaller themes. They are such as move the feelings. The great questions which have agitated the world — which agitate our own bosoms — which we should like to have settled before we die — which we should ask an Apostle about if he were here. These are to general Scripture truth, what great mountains are in Geography. Some, anxious to avoid hackneyed topics, omit the greatest. Just as if we should describe Switzerland and omit the Alps. Some ministers preach twenty years, and yet never preach on Judgment, Hell, the Crucifixion, the essence of saving faith — nor on those great themes which in all ages affect children, and effect the common mind, such as the Deluge, the sacrifice in- tended of Isaac, the death of Absalom, the parable of Lazarus. The Methodists consequently pick out these striking themes, and herein they gain a just advantage over us. A man should begin early to grapple with great subjects. * He was at this time Professor in the College of New Jersey. 8 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. An athleta (2 Tim. 2, 5) gains might only by great exertions. So that a man does not overstrain his powers, the more he wrestles the better, but he must wrestle, and not merely taie a great subject, and dream over it or play with it. Evil of seeking new and recondite subjects. All the great subjects are old and often treated. False refinement and wire- drawing. Analogy of the great sculptors and painters. Many took the same themes. G-reek tragedians. No two men will treat the same subject alike, unless they borrow from one another. § 16. Sermon-writing. — As I consider sermonizing a great art, and one of the chief employments of a minister, I think it good from time to time, to set down the results of my expe- rience ; though I have a painful consciousness of my own want of proficiency. In the early part of my ministry there were two methods of preparation which I highly valued, both of which I now reject. 1. It was my manner to take some doctrinal head, such as Justification, and carefully to read the best authors on it, such as Calvin, Witsius, Markius, Dwight, making notes as I went along, and then endeavouring^ when I wrote, to introduce the best things I could remember from these authors. I had not then learned, that the only way to profit from such authors, is to let their matter digest in the mind, and then to write freely, with a total forgetfulness of them. Only in this way, does it become our own. Only in this way does it take a natural method, and have a natural liveliness. It is difficult to reject the things remembered, and the efibrt at recollection is itself an incumbrance. I would advise a preacher, in preparation, to take no notes. I would advise him to take no schedule of arrange- ment from another. If one thinks at all for himself, his train of thoughts will be his own, and this will suggest its own arrange- ment. There is something unreasonable in setting out vnth a preadjusted method. It is to attempt a classification, before we have that which is to be classified. It produces a stiffness, hardness, and want of continuity, which are great faults. The HOOTLETICAL PARAGRAPHS. 9 true -way is, be full of the subject, and then write ' with perfect freedom, beginning at any corner of the subject. 2. Another method which I pursued, was to choose a text, and then having written out in full all the parallel passages, to classify them, and found my divisions on this classification. Then to correct all these passages, interweaving them with my own remarks. I flattered myself that this was a happy method, because it made my sermon scriptural. It did so indeed, but it had great disadvantages. The neoais between the texts was factitious; often refined and recondite; and always more obvious , to the writer than it could be to the reader. It prevented the flow of thought in a natural channel. It was like a number of lakes connected by artificial canals, as compared with a flowing natural stream. The" discourse was disjointed, and overladen with texts, and uninteresting. I am convinced that those pass- ages of Scripture which suggest themselves unsought, in rapid writing or speaking, are the most effective ; nay, that one such is worth a hundred lugged in collo obtorto. To be Scriptural in preaching, we must be familiar with the Bible at common times. Hence one of the great advantages of preaching without notes, even in regard to method. , Such is the sympathy between soul and soul, that a connection of thoughts which is easy, agreeable, and awakening to the hearer, will always be found to be that which has been natural and unconstrained in the mind of the preacher. The best way is, to study the parallel places exegeti- cally, perhaps as they lie in the Scripture, and then to let them come in or not, as they may suggest themselves during prepar- ation. § 17. The Power of the Pulpit. — I fear none of us apprehend as we ought to do the value of the preacher's ofiice. Our young men do not gird themselves for it with the spirit of those who are on the eve of a great conflict ; nor do they prepare as those who are to lay their hands upon the springs of the mightiest passions, and stir up to their depths the ocean of human feelings. Where this estimate of the work prevails, men even of inferior training accomplish much ; such as Summerfield, and even . 10 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. The pulpit will still remain the grand means of eifecting the mass of men. Tt is God's own method, and he wUl honour it. The work done by Wesley and by Whitfield, and by Christmas Evans in Wales, could not have been accomplished by any other human agency — the press, for instance. In every age, great re- formers have been great preachers ; and even in the corrupt Roman Church, the most wonderful effects have been produced by preaching. Bourdaloue and Massillon were successively brought to Paris from the Provinces; and when the former, late in life, most pathetically entreated that he might go into retire- ment, and at firsi was gratified, his Jesuit superiors used means with the Pope to have him restored to the metropolis. To be a great preacher a man must be nothing else. The daily exercises of Demosthenes and CicercJ may give us a hint of the devotion which is necessary. The analogy of all other arts and sciences may instruct. There are among us preachers who may be considered good, and in a certain sense great ones, who spend their principal strength during the week upon other pur- suits. They write essays, systems, and commentaries. It may be observed of them all, that however useful they may be, these are not the men who move, and warm, and melt, and mould the public masses. Indeed, I think, to be a great preacher, a man must lay his account to forego that reputation which comes from erudition and literature. The channel must be narrowed, that the stream may flow in a rapid current, and fall with mighty impression. Even the learning of the schools must undergo a great process of transmutation and assimilation, before it is suit- able to be produced in the pulpit. Great is the difference, though little apprehended, between a theological dissertation and a sermon, on the same subject. The crude matter falls heavily upon the popular ear. Only the last exquisite results of mental action are proper for public address. Not that the truth of doctrine is to be neglected ; this is the very substance of all good sermons, and of every sentence of them, even in their most im- passioned parts ; but it must have undergone a great change in the mind of the preacher, and present itself in a more popular form, with more of colour of imagination and warmth of HOMILBTICAL PABAGRAPHS. 1 1 passion, before it can reach the deep places of the heart with due effect. The power of the preacher is not to be attained by rhetorical studies. These have their place, but it is an inferior and sub- sidiary one; and the result of undue attention to them is beauti- ful debility and cold polish. Let the imbecile elegancies of Blair > be an everlasting beacon to the student of homiletics. It has been observed, that the age of elegant criticism follows that of poetry and eloquence. It would seem that the creative and critical spirit cannot coexist. The scruple and hesitation of rhe- torical criticism are deadly foes to passion, the true source of effective discourse. To be powerful in pulpit address the preacher must be full to overflowing of his theme, affected in due measure by every truth he handles, and in full view, during all his pre- paration and all his discourse, of the minds which he has to reach. § 18. Self-repetition in Preaching. — It has been often observed, that preachers who rely on their extemporaneous powers, are very apt to fall into a great sameness. They repeat the same thoughts and the same trains of thought, and at length almost the same sermons : and this they do without being conscious of it. The same thing occurs to them which happens to some story-tellers : who remember the anecdote perfectly, but forget that they have told it before. Mere writing is not a certain preventive of this evil, but it has an excellent tendency to pre- vent it ; as insuring an excellent amount of fresh study, and by keeping the mind, for longer periods and with greater delibera- tion, in view of the truth. The evil is so disastrous, that there should be a constant effort to avoid it. Without this struggle, the preacher, on arriving at certain topics, which are familiar, will, by the simple influence of association, hitch into the old rut, and treat them exactly as he has treated them before. We observe this in extempor- aneous prayers, which with some good men become as stereo- typed as if they had been committed to memory : as, indeed, though unconsciously, they have been. We observe the sanie 12 TnOUGHTS ON PREACHING. thing in that part of sermons, on which least of new meditation has been bestowed, namely, the conclusion. This accounts for the familiar fact, that some very fluent extemporaneous preachers are quite popular abroad, while at home, among their own flocks, they have lost all power, and seem to the people to be preaching the same discourse over and over. The only remedy for this evil is the obvious one of devoting the mind to the origination of new trains of thought, which may vary, complete, or supersede the old ones. There may be superficial reflection and even superficial writing ; but the njeditatlon which is intended must go deeply into thorough investigation, and foUow out the thoughts into new relations. It must be the habit of the preacher to be continually opening new veins, and deeply considering subjects allied to those on which he is to preach. This habit is greatly aided by judicious reading on theological topics. A man will be as his books. But of all means, none is so effectual as the perpetual study of the Scriptures. Let a man be interested in them day and night, continually labouring in this mine, and whether he write or not, he wUl be efiectuaUy secured against self-repetition. There is such profundity, comprehensiveness and variety in the Word of God, that it is a library of itself. There is such a freshness in its mode of presenting truth, that he who is perpetually conver- sant with it can scarcely be duU. The liveliest preachers are those who are most familiar with the Bible, without note or comment ; and we frequently find them among men who have had no education better than that of the common school. It was this which gave such animation to the vivid books and discourses of the Puritans. As there is no poetry so rich and bold as that of the Bible, so he who daily makes this his study, will even on human principles be awakened, and acquire a striking manner of conveying his thoughts. The sacred books are full of fact, example, and illustration, which with copiousness and variety will cluster around the truths which the man of God derives from the same source. One preacher gives us naked heads of theology ; they are true, Scriptural, and important, but they are uninteresting. HOMILBTICAL PAEAGEAPHS. 13 especially when reiterated for the thousandth time in the same naked manner. Another gives us the same truths, but each of them brings in its train a retinue of Scriptural example, history, a figure by way of illustration ; and a variety hence arises which is perpetually becoming richer as the preacher goes more deeply into the mine of Scripture. There are some great preachers, who, like Whitfield, do not appear to bestow gi-eat labour on the preparation of particular discourses ; but it may be observed, that these are always persons whose life is a study of the Word. Each sermon is an outflowing from a fountain which is constantly full. The Bible is, after all, the one book of the preacher. He who is most familiar with it, vnll become most like it ; and this in respect to ev*ry one of its wonderful qualities ; and will bring forth from its treasury things new and old. § 19. Scripture Citation in Preaching. — Do not cite many Scripture references in your notes. You often find them less available than those which occur inter loquendum. The best way of preparing for prompt quotation, is to be daily conversant with Scripture, and to commit large portions to memory. I regret more than I can express, my neglect of this in former years. The next best way, and a means of getting the facility just mentioned, is, in preparing for a given preformance, to read attentively and with meditation all the pertinent Scriptures, committing as many as possible to memory, but not referring them to particular places, or determining to use this or that without fail ; it is enough to imbue the mind with them, and leave the use of any or all to be prompted by the impulse of the moment. The best effect of many Scripture texts on a sermon is often that which does not lead to a direct rehearsal of them. They suggest new thoughts and illustrations, and afford the very best preventive of that sameness and routine, into which most ex- tempore preachers fall. The tendency in all, is to be contented with a narrow stock of texts. Take almost any extemporaneous preacher, whom you hear often, and observe how seldom he quotes a new text, one which you have not heard him quote 14 THOUGHTS ON PKEAOHING. before. How many noble incidents in the Old Testament history, touching emblems in the Levitical ritual, and poetic strains of the Prophets, are never introduced into the pulpit ! AU which commends the daily interested study of the Bible. § 20. Uninvited Trains of Thought. — The thoughts which come to us unasked, and the trains which float in the twilight of our careless hours, are often those which are most precious, longest remembered, and most deep in their influence on future life. They are sometimes the result of long studies pursued at irregu- lar intervals during previous years, the distillation from many gathered flowers, and therefore they cannot be looked for as daily visitations. As they will not come for being called, so they will not stay for being courted. And when they ^ve the first intimations of their approach, we should lay aside lesser employments and joys ; as we open our windows when the frag- rance of orchards is wafted on the breeze. Tet there is a pos- ture of soul, better fitted than all others for the reception of these revelations ; and there are pursuits and habits so alien to them as to be almost prohibitions. We must not look for them in the crowd of mammon- mongers, or amidst the clangour of political array, or the min- ing drudgery of technical study. They steal over us rather when we close the eye at nightfall, listening to the drowsy music of the autumnal insect-tribe ; when we walk alone in the sight of mountains, or on the sea-shore ; or when we kneel before the open Bible, and meditate on the oriental usages of inspiration- Enthusiasts of various sects have taken these goodly visions for direct revelations of new truths : and mystics have deemed themselves inspired. But they are, after all, only higher mani- festations of the Reason which is common to us all. We deny not that a Divine agent is sometimes at work, but the operation follows the laws of our rational humanity, and conforms itself to the conditions of all influence from above upon free creatures. The mind though elevated is not overborne. The free-thinking principle is the same as before, though raised to a loftier point of observation. God, who speaks in this silence, speaks by the HOMILETICAL PARAGRAPHS. 15 word which was recorded hundreds of years ago ; and thougli chapter or verse or textual phrase may not always be recog- nized, the truths which ring in the ear are echoes from Sinai or from Zion. That word of the Lord which abideth forever, has an infinite variety in its combinations and suggestions. It is a well whose sources are hidden in infinite wisdom, and whose flow is fresh and abundant and sparkling to everlasting periods. We place ourselves in the way of such favoured contempla- tions, when we linger long and often over the holy pages, and imbue our thoughts with the lessons of Apostles and Prophets, to be inspired like them, we may not pray for, in this world, but we may catch a kindred glow from their heavenly rapture, sym- pathize with their affections, carry out the trains which they have begun, harmonize the scattered propositions which they have announced, and live over again in our experience the divine happiness of their sanctification. Though our circumstances may be unlike theirs, in the proportion in which the new world is unlike the old, our faith and love may be essentially the same, and may at some favoured moments realize to us glories of re- ligious awe or fruition, which, after many years of Scriptural study, shall still be new and unwonted. It is thus that Christian experience is a book, of which the page we are turning over to-day, is unlike all that have filled the volume before. To gain these results, a man must in some degree live apart. He must leave the beaten track, and converse less with earth than heaven. There are meditations which the common talk and worldly reading of our busy day do not prompt and cannot represent. They are beyond the scope of science, and un- whispered in the halls of letters, and the galleries of art. But as little should we seek them in the cell of the ascetic. True love and true humility, which are the nurses of such a progeny, are closely coimected with familiar converse with our kind. Best thoughts are those which spring up under the shower of tears that falls over the ills of distressed fellow-creatures. Jesus Christ is still present by his Spirit where broken hearts are to be bound up. The house of mourning and the house of prayer are the places where the heart is made better. 16 THOUGHTS ON PEEACIIING. § 21. Preaching, Remarhs struck out in Talk with J. A. A- — 1. Almost all extemporaneous preachers have this fault ; they talk about the way in which they are preaching — Thus : " After a few preliminary remarks, I shall proceed to," &c. ; or " What I lay down shall take the form of general principles." " I come with hesitation," &c. " I shall be more brief on this point." " You will observe that in this discussion I do so and so." Avoid all such observations. — More generally still, avoid all that brings ' the speaker's personality before the hearer. A better model than our honoured father in this there could not be. 2. Whenever I write down heads, from which to preach ex- tempore, I always find myself disappointed, by not having as much to say under each as I thought, but whenever I premedi- tate a subject, and take my pen to write on it, I always find myself disappointed in a way exactly opposite. 3. Addis&n says truly, there is this difference between him and me. I am more warm and ornate when I do not write ; he, when he does. 4. As men who strut in walking, sometimes find it difficult to get out of it, and step in the ordinary way, so in writing men get into a measured, rhythmical, ornamental flow of diction, and find it hard, even when the subject demands it, to come down to the pedestrian style. Hence a great argument for simplicity. What a wonderful simplicity in Goethe ! It is his character- istic in regard to style. Even Voltaire, simple as his structure of sentence always lies, has a mannerism : so has Macaulay. The reader comes to look for a certain pungent apodosis. In Goethe, nothing leads you to expect any particular bringing up of the period, or antithesis of the thought. § 22. Overhaul Sermons. — ^It strikes me as a great neglect that I have scarcely ever looked over my pulpit MSS. except when 1 was going to preach. There is much work to be done in this field at other times. § 23. On Writing down One's Thoughts. — I mean such writing as I put in this book. HOMILETICAL PARAGRAPHS. 17 1. Writing does good to one's thinking. 2. It has the same effect in part as animated conversation. 3. Many good thoughts are lost that might have been pre- served in this way. 4. Many good trains are carried to a greater length by this means. 5. Style is improved, especially by promptness and facility. Earnestness and impressiveness in writing grow as one advances. 6. Write till you feel a glow. 7. Write ivhen you feel a glow. You will otherwise loose the very best things that ever occur to you. Remember Pascal (vid. Bib. Rep. Ap. 1845). 8. This is one of the chief exercises of mind ; therefore embrace every occasion. 9. Choose topics which will excite you in the greatest degree. Choose the most important subjects, difficulties but not niceties, fundamentals, cardinal and central points, those which touch the heart of systems. 10. Oftengive full scope to freedom of thought and style. Thought creates style. If you write down to your readers, you lose this particular advantage of writing, as exercising thought. Even in sermons to intelligent audiences there will be much of this, necessarily. It is desirable, therefore, to have some outlet for thoughts more free and unobstructed. The reflex influence of perfectly free composition is very great. What we so write, even in fragments, is remembered by us, goes to establish opinions, lays up arguments, gives matter for extem- poraneous discourse, and moulds the character. 11. Devotional writing and prayer are of the highest moment. 12. It matters comparatively little whether you ever read ' over what you have written or not. § 24. Mode of maldng Brief. — I follow a brief penned at my table during a short interval. I made it thus : mere catch- words — took a general thought to start with, let the next come of itself, then the next, and so on without effort. It served well. The c 18 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. thing to be noted is, that in a few moments, hy letting the mind flow, and not interfering with the flow, one may jot down materials for a long discourse. It was not merely heads : these are barren, they are disconnected ; it was concatenation, it was genesis. I consider this a little new, but Nevins showed me something like it for Sabbath lectures ; I have done too much in the way of naked skeleton. I wish I could embody my thoughts in a formula ; try it thus : 1. Write rapid sketch, the faster the better. 2. In first draught omit all partition, and do not force your mind to method. 3. Let thought generate thought. 4. Do not dwell on particulars; leave all amplification for the pulpit. 5. Keep the mind in a glow. 6. Come to it with a fuU mind. 7. Forget all care of language. 8. Forget all previous cramming, research, quotation, and study. 9. In delivery, learn to know when to dwell on a point ; let the enlargement be, not where you determined in your closet it should be ; but where you feel the spring flowing, as you speak let it gush. Let contemplation have place while you speak. For this, pauses are all important. Thus Rob. Hall preached. Thus my beloved honoured father, above all men I ever heard ; his eye kindled, his face was radiant ; he forgot the people ; and as he was wrapt in contemplation, he thought aloud. All this is connected ^dth the subject of gifts in preaching ; and the operation of the Holy Spirit aiding the speaker. Holy emotions are indispensable. Hence the best sermons can never ' be exactly reproduced — much less written. The best written discourse of my father is no more to his best preaching, than a -i black candle is to a burning flame. § 25. Extempore Preaching. — This afternoon I made another trial of the method mentioned above. I found it good as far as HOMILETICAL PARAGRAPHS. 19 tried. The fault was, that I used an old skeleton, and used my meihod only in the application. Nota bene. It would be aU the better if I made my brief early in the week. § 26. Sermonizing. — I have just finished a sermon on Isa. 59, ult. I am not pleased. I was " hampered" throughout, by a preconcerted skeleton. Thus it worked. Things would arise in my mind, and flow into my pen just at the right place, but I could not use them, because they belonged to another head. The result was, the articulation was broken, the flow was interrupted ; the work became a mosaic. I perceive my father was right, when he advised me to write my first draught currente calamo, without any plan, with absolute abandon ; giving free scope in every direction whenever a vein was struck, and reserving the particulars for the copy. N.B. The best time for noticing emendations in a sermon, is just when you are done. They should be jotted down, even if you have no time to rewrite. § 27. Sermons. — I sometimes think I never acted out my inner man in a sermon. The nearest approach has been ex- tempore. Causes which prevent : — fear of being too learned ; feax of being too sentimental ; fear of being too decorative ; fear of being obscure ; fear of being too vehement : all this is fear of being myself. I consider some of my conclusions about simplicity ; and doubt, more than doubt, whether a man may not aim at over- perspicuity. The thought makes the language. High thoughts wiU make high language. Some men of study and research are called upon to preach in a strain above the common level, even if some do not understand them. There are enough who cannot rise above average minds. A man's best and loftiest meditations should go out of him in the shape of sermons. I love to write, yet I have a repugnance to write sermons. This arises partly from constitutional trammels — skeletons — 20 THOUGHTS ON PKEACHING. plans — traditionary modes. Why do I not break out ? I read , I" Vinet or Howe, and feel " lo anchepon pittore § 28. Eloquence. — In physics there are forces which operate not mechanically, but dynamically ; not by the conveyance of new matter, but by the production of a new state or contact. Such is now believed to be the mode of producing vision in the human organ. Something analogous to this occurs in operation of mind on mind. Over and above the truth conveyed, I believe there may be an operation. When I go to see a poor mdow, and take her by the hand, the words which I speak to her are for the most part such as she has known before ; and yet she is comforted. The same truths uttered from the pulpit by different men, or by the same man in different states of feeling, will produce very different effects. Some of these are far beyond what the bare conviction of the truth so uttered would ordinarily produce. The whole mass of truth, by the sudden passion of the speaker, is made red-hot and burns its way. Passion is eloquence. Hence the great value of extempore discourse. Demosthenes' discourses read coldly sometimes ; but who can restore on paper the whirlwind and earthquake power of the passion with which they were delivered ! No man can be a great preacher, without great feeling. Hence the value of devotional preparation, You should seize, for writing, moments of great feeling. Record the outflow of these, and you will perhaps have some measure of them in delivery. § 29. Dividing Sermons. — My opinion has changed a little within a few months, about formalily of Division. I mean I incline more to Fenelon's judgment after having been very much the other way. I am perhaps in more favourable circumstances for a judg- ment than I was, because I am constantly experimenting. The principle from which I set out, is one which grows in my esteem every day, as a canon of composition : it is this — In writing or speaking throw off all restraint. HOMILETICAL PAKAGEAPHS. 21 Technical divisions are a restraint. I am familiar with their effect in trammelling the thoughts. Writing from a precom- posed skeleton is eminently so. It forces one to parcel out his matter in a forced, Procustean way. There is a feeling like this : " I must have five pages for this branch, and five for that." The current is often Ihus stopped, at the very moment when it begins to gush. The ideal of a discourse is that of a flow from first to last. The writing should begin when the mind is full. If then a division suggests itself, it may be followed ; it may even be written down ; but great care should be taken to prevent the mechanical partition of matter, so much here and so much there. Let the thoughts go on. , a veteran and able sermonizer, has formed the habit of casting every subject into a certain mould ; two or three prin- cipal heads, followed by a series of reflections. The result is stiffness and sameness. I am not opposed to the strictest method, nor to the enunciation of it ; but to the laying down beforehand of arbitrary arrangement. The matter to be ar- ranged must precede legitimate arrangement. In a sermon on Sanctification, I proceeded well till the appli- cation ; when I went astray by making several topics of infer- ence, which divided the stream instead of enlarging and quickening it. It is impossible to close a sermon well, that is warmly, unless the train of thought has been so conducted as to bring the heart into a glow, which increases to the end. Having chosen a subject, it is well to think it over deeply, day and night, and to read on it carefully before putting pen to paper. Take few notes, but as far as may be let the matter digest itself in the mind. The result will be facility, fluency, close contex- ture, natural articulation of parts, vivacity, abundance of mate- rial, and as much originality as belongs to the author's genius. In this way, sermons will each have a separate, individual physi- ognomy, and sameness will be avoided. I do not see why a sermon should not have all the freedom and fulness and progress of an oration. Consult in regard to 22 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. this Demosthenes and Cicero. Though Augustine's sermons are very faulty as models, and abound in the false points of his time, they have their excellency. It belongs, moreover, to Fenelon, Howe, Chalmers, and Foster. Incomparable as Robert Hall is, in regard to argument, greatness and devotion, I am sensible in reading him, that he was clogged by the con- ventional manner of partition. Be not prevented from indulging a flow which opens, even though it makes the sermon or any particular part of it, too long. You need not preach all that you have written ; and the matter may be available for another occasion. This applies particularly to perorations, in which thoughts often overflow. In a pathetic part, never write invitd Minerva. Never spin out coldly, or force the language of emotion. Rather be content with a single sentence : it may find enlargement in the delivery. § 30. Application of Sermons. — I still find myself trammelled, whenever I undertake to go in any of the regular harness of sermonizers. To be worth much, a sermon must begin like a river, and flow, and widen, and roughen, and deepen, until the end ; and when it reaches this end, it is hurt by every syllable that is added. Ordinary ' Applications' mar the unity of a discourse. They are often doctrinal corollaries ; often commonplaces ; often generalities, which equally fit a score of topics. When three or four heads of application are appended, the mind is first drawn one way and then another, and frequently altogether away from the body of the discourse. Every sermon tends in some direction : let it take that direction ; it is the proper ending. The superstitious reverence for an application of several points, cuts up this part of our sermons, short enough at best, and does not allow time to rise upon the wing, or to kindle with a flame. It would be well, if we could grow hotter and hotter without intermission, from beginning to end. The true way is to have an object and be full of it. Grace does more than rules. HOMILETICAL PAEAGEAPHS. 23 § 31. Fresh Writing. — There is a certain kind of writing on religion which greatly affects me, but which I find it hard to describe. It is fresh, unscholastic, and awakening. It has little to do with quotation or erudition. It proceeds from a mind full of thought and of feeling, and strikes as original even while the subject is familiar. Examples : Pascal and Foster. Such an author reads the Bible, as if no one had ever read it before. It has a fresh im- pression. He meditates deeply, even on the smallest particular, and sees what has escaped others. He deduces reflections, which are at once natural and new. Nothing can produce such writing, but a constant and profound study of the original docu- ments. And for this there must be a certain exclusion of other books and reading. § 32. Genesis of Thought. — Reading Mozart's life. What wonderful precocity ! wonderful genius ! Yet such a life seems frivolous, and his death was sad ; no religion. What most strikes me is the spontaniety of his genius. His compositions came to Mm, unsought, whether he would or no. The parts filled his mind, not successively, but all at once. Having be- stowed much time on music, I see the wonder of this. I am totally destitute of the slightest musical conception of this kind. I believe, however, in exactly such a genesis of thought and feelings! We are more passive than is thought in our trains of thinking. Often have I been forced to say, " My best sermons ■ make themselves." I fully believe in this kind of poetry. It is plain that Ovid wrote so : he says so somewhere in a verse, of which I only remember the last words, " Versus erat." What dependent beings we are ! How awful the thought, that we may be sometimes guided by spiritual agency above our own. Waiting upon God is often the most we can do. If the ex- periment were more believingly made, we should doubtless have 24 THOUGHTS ON PREACHLN'G. more results. To fix attention is often all we can do, if, indeed, we can do this. Look in a given direction, and the ti-ain of thought will have a certsiin character. Look towards Grod, and the effect will sometimes be wonderful. § 33. Massillon introduced a new method of not citing so many passages verbatim from the Scriptures and the fathers. In pre- parations I am constantly violating my o-mi rules, and perplex- ing myself lest I should not remember to use all the texts which I have looked out ; and this even when it is not a subject requiring proof. § 34. Preaching. — Sermons should be written on subjects which thoroughly interest the mind of the writer. Those are seldom such, which he takes up by a sort of constraint, in a series, or invitd Minerva ; nor those on which he is unprepared, and for which he has to make collection. Sometimes, though rarely, it happens, that during the process of collation a view is opened, in which the mind goes on con amore. For an approximation to the right kind of study, one must have a permanent theological and religious interest. Something on these topics must always be uppermost. It must be the natural tendency of the mind when left to itself. Here opens to our view a new value in the Scriptures. He who constantly reads them will be constantly awakened to trains of new thought. The best sermons are so suggested. No man can be uniformly a good preacher, who is not habitually perusing the Scriptures as his book of delights. There is no special pre- paration for the pulpit which can take the place of this general preparation. No man can lack subjects who is thus commonly employed. The best subject is commonly that which comes of itself. 1 never could understand what is meant by making a sermon on a prescribed text. The right text is the one which comes of itself during reading and meditation ; which accompanies you in walks, goes to bed with you, and rises with you. On such a text, thoughts swarm HOMILETICAL PARAGEAPHS. 26 and cluster, like bees upon a brancli. The sermon ferments for ' hours and days, mid at length, after patient waiting, and almost spontaneous working, the subject clarifies itself, and the true method of treatment presents itself in a shape which cannot be rejected. Those tests of Scripture which comes up, of themselves, or by the laws of mental suggestion, are the right ones, and are very diiferent from those which are sought out. But observe, in order that this should take place largely and fully, and that the cita- tions should be rich and pertinent, the mind must have a large stock of Scripture reading. Hence again the great value of close, enlarged, perpetual Bible-reading; reading with delight. There are various models of Scripture quotation. Some search out the texts with a concordance or similar helps. These are often the greatest quoters. But their citations are like strangers and ' foreigners. Or they may be likened to stones put together loosely with mortar. Others seldom go beyond a certain routine of stock texts ; a hundred such writers shall give you the same texts on a given topic. They are so many dead branches on a living tree. The excerpted verse deadens the discussion instead of enlivening it. But one whose mind is full of a subject, will have abundance of passages flowing in, without opening the volume ; they will be his own, suggested by peculiarities of his own thinking ; so that nothing in his discourse will have more the air of originality, than the familiar passages of Scripture which he quotes. The jewel will shine witl;i double lustre from its setting. The word fitly spoken will be " as apples of gold in pictures of silver." Striking instances may be found in Eobt. Hall, and especially in Jay. § 35. Theological Preaching. — Better far to take a theological topic, and popularize it, then the reverse, namely, to take a hortatory topic and thicken it by doctrine. Argument made , red-hot, is what interests people. Generally speaking, nothing interests so much as argument. People are accustomed to argument, in such a country as ours. Argument admits of great vehemence and fire. Argument may be made plain. Argument 26 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. may be made ornate. Argument may be beaten out and thinned down to any degree of perspicuity. It is a shame for a minister not to be acquainted with all the heads of theology, all the great schools of opinion, and all the famous distinctions : and he will not learn them well unless he preaches upon them. Theological study brings along with it other important and interesting branches ; as doctrine, history, church history, sym- bolical history, dogmatics, metaphysics, ethics, homiletics. All these are of high value. They are aU best approached from the side of theology. Theology is superior, because it is the grand result. That is greatest, which is nearest the end. Exegesis is only a means to that end. Theology includes all the other things. Theology, as inferring close and logical reasoning, is suited to the strength of middle life. As age advances, imagination and memory decay : not so the reasoning faculty. It may be going on and increasing in vigour to the latest day of life. The stimulus to this pursuit will be best kept up if a man accustom himself to give a doctrinal tinge to aU his preaching. Then he will read on these subjects. It is a great matter for a preacher to have the habit of deriving his entertainment day by day from the perusal of argumentative theology. Let him con- tinually advance into new fields, and attack new adversaries. Let him continually revolve the terms of former controversies. § 36. Dr CJianning. — " Gradual change of tone in Dr Chan- ning's address ... it was constantly becoming less mini- sterial and more manly." (Biography.) I think I know what this means^-coming out of the homiletic tortoise-shell — not leav- ing humanity at the foot of the pulpit stairs — talking like other men — as any profoundly thinking thoroughly, agitated man would talk on a great subject to a casual group of waiting per- sons also deeply interested. Effect of such a e^ieis on style, divisions, quotations, &c. A little before, the biographer tells of Dr Channing's leavino- ofi" much ceremonious dignity in the pulpit. This, also, I know. HOMILETICAL PARAGRAPHS. 27 I am getting to feel the evils of the academic manner-primness, &c. — Also meditate on the tendency of clergy to be much with the rich and the lettered, instead of being lights to the world. I should have understood this less, if I had remained at Prince- ton. The Democracy must be reached — people must be made to feel that the heart of the minister is with them. Common people require this. Age requires it. Young men require it. § 37. Preaching on Great Things. — Differing as I do from Channing, and protesting as I do against him, I can never cease to honour and admire him for this ; that he always wrote and preached on those things which he considered the great things. Let me explain my thought. I have written a good deal and pub- lished some ; it has been too much off at one side. I have not seized hold of the main things. All topics which I treat are re- garded by me more historically than philosophically; more with reference to books and authors than reasons. How different my father — Dr Hodge — Vinet — and (in error) Channing. Yet I am constantly meditating on the great points. Is it that I never come to any results ? Do I prove nothing ? Attain nothing 1 Am I ever to be retailing what this man says, and that man says ? § 38. Theological Sermons. — Dr Thornwell appears to me to show some greatness in devoting his preaching powers to the making of great theological sermons. Those who do this success- fully leave their mark on their generation. It is not the turn of the age however. The young ministers who are coming out seem to me to preach sentimental, rather than argumentative sermons. I have written a whole sermon to-day, the first of two on 1 John iv. 18. I am less and less in favour in quotation in ser- mons. My tendency used to be Very much that way. As my manner becomes warmer, directer, and more practical, I let these brilliant patches alone. § 39. Be yourself. — In the making of sermons I have never so 28 TUOUGHTS ON PREACHING. well succeeded as when I have forgotten all models, and con- sented to be myself. Every man has his own way, in which he is better than in all others. Those sermons have turned out the best in which I have turned the matter over in my mind several times, and then wi-itten without predetermined skeleton. § 40. Collect Texts. — There are particular times in which a man is better disposed and better able than at others, to seek out texts, and arrange plans of sermons. Such moments should be embraced ; and if the result should be an accumulation of texts and plans, it will be well ; for often the great difficulty is to get a text : as soon as one is lighted on, the matter goes easily on. It has occurred to me as useful, to sit down and plan a series of discourses, not in any theological order, but with reference to some given effect on the people ; as for example, to promote a true revival of religion. § 41. Free Writing. — ^It seems to me that some of the best writings are those which men have made for themselves ; * that is, without having other people in view; without any end but to discharge the mind of its thoughts. In this posture the mind works most naturally and simple, and hence more strongly. Voltaire somewhere says the reverse, for he thinks the writer should always have both judge and audience in view; for such writing as Voltaire's, this is doubtless the best way. But there is always some interruption, some diversion, and some cramping of the thoughts in this mode. It is true, when a writer seeks only this natural overflow of his thoughts, that he is apt to be destitute of that method which prevails in the schools. The numerical partitions of discourse are sometimes forced, and when they are read, they partake more of aggregation than of growth. There is as real an order in the evolution of parts in a tree as in the successive additions which build a house : and if a discourse proceeds by an inward law which disregards sym- metrical plans, it may have more coherence and vitality than * See Yiaet in hia account of Vannarguea. HOMILETICAL TARAGRAPHS. 29 could be produced by rule and square. The noble master-pieces of the ancients possess this easy flow, which often defiles the analysis of the commentator ; but they are not therefore less pleasing or so less great. To write by a plan, is in some degree to bind the thoughts to a given track. He is most likely to arrive at what is original and new who like the river " wanders at his own sweet will." It is constraining and so injurious to thought, where one has some end constantly before him other than the prosecution of the trains on which he has entered. These ends may be various and some of them may be very good ; they may even be necessary : but so far as the full and independent unfolding of the mind is con- cerned, they are injurious. The writer may seek the entertain- ment or profit of a particular class of readers. He may seek fame or emolument, or the elevation of sect or party. He may write as an exercise for proof of his powers or to strengthen them. So doing he may produce much that is excellent ; but he does this in a less degree than when he gives full scope to the inward prompting. Hence the ill eifect of writing for the public only ; never encouraging those expatiating processes which take no note of readers and critics. Free writings of the kind just mentioned, are after all those which most interest the reader, and produce least weariness, even where the subject is a trifling one, as is exemplified by Montaigne. On higher sub- jects the same holds true, as in the case of Pascal's Thoughts. A singular elevation is given to writings which are devotional in such a sense as to be addressed to God. Such are the con- fessions of St Augustine. There are also discourses, which in form are addressed to an audience, but which nevertheless have this character of meditational flow ; such as the wi-itings of Leighton and Scougal. The inspired books of the sacred canon, though they cannot properly be brought into comparison, have this quality of unconstrained flow and ample digression, which makes it hard to parcel them into regular divisions. This is true equally of the Psalms, the Prophecies, and the Epistles. § 42. The pulpit is too sacred to be turned into a place for 30 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. exchanging clerical civilities, or into a space for cermonious etiquette. § 43. Study of the Scripture. — Constant perusal and re- perusal of Scripture is the great preparation for preaching. You get good even when you know it not. This is one of the most ob- servable differences between old and young theologians. " Give attendance to reading." § 44. Preaching on Politics. — A minister may well be absolved from preaching, or even forming opinions, on politics. He has the common right of aU citizens so to do ; but his proper work is enough for all his time and powers. The great themes of religious truth are enough to occupy more than he can get. Statemanship is a science by itself. If a preacher excels in it, he must do so by sacrificing some of his sacred hours. § 45. Excess of Manner. — Every excess of manner over mat- ter hinders the effect of delivery, on all wise judges. Where there is more voice, more emphasis, or more gesture, than there is feeling, there is waste, and worse ; powder beyond the shot. § 46. Feeling. — Feeling is the prime mover in eloquence ; but feeling cannot be produced to order ; and the affectation of it, however elegant, is powerless. § 47. Animation. — Every man may be said to have his quan- tum of animation, beyond which he cannot go without force work and affectation. Hence, to exhort a young man to be more ani- mated, is to mislead and perhaps spoil him, unless you mean to inculcate the cultivation of inward emotion. It is better there- fore to let nature work, even though for the time the delivery is tame, than to generate a manner only rhetorically and artifici- ally warm, which is hypocrisy. § 48. Uttering a chain of reasoning with the mock tones of HOMILETICAL PARAGRAPHS. 31 passion, is the crying sin of second-rate Southern orators. The true orators of the South are really eloquent, from natural in- ward heat. § 49. Eeading good authors aloud, after full mastery of the sense by careful study, is a better exercise than declaiming one's own compositions from memory. §. 50. No good preacher was ever made such by exercise in oratory. § 51. Eloquence, as a ministerial accomplishment, may be overrated. Only one man in a million can be eloquent. Now I it is evident, Christ could not have intended that a work so universal should be dependent on a means so rare. § 52. Some of the greatest effects have been produced by men who had no external graces of style and elocution. § 53. There is a certain type of thought, diction, and delivery, which is proper to each individual ; and he accomplishes most who hits on this. But all straining, all artifice, and all imita- tion, tend to prevent the attainment of this manner. § 54. The "utterance" which the Apostle Paul craved, and which is often mentioned in the New Testament, is very different from worldly eloquence, being a spiritual gift. § 55. The attraction of the modern pulpit is something alto- gether different from any spiritual quality. It indicates a sickly mind in the Christian public. Under such preaching a morbid state is produced. § 56. If Apostolical preaching could reappear, while it would be mighty in its effects upon the assembly and on multitudes, it would probably answer no demands of the schools or the stage ; 32 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. but would be unartificial, expository, simple, paternal, brief, natural, varied, gushing, and eminently spiritual. § 57. The day was when churches were much more con- cerned than we, about the truths conveyed, and much less about the garb of the truths. , Doctrine, rather than speaking, was what drew the audience. § 58. Let every preacher despair of delivering that discourse with true, natural, and effective warmth, which he has prepared with leisurely coldness. § 59. No rhetorical appliance can make a cold passage truly warm. If, for any cause, an inanimate sermon must needs be uttered, it ought to be delivered with no more emotion, than its contents engender in the speaker's soul. Everything beyond this is pretence ; and here is the source of all mock-passion, which is the fixed habit of many speakers. § 60. There can be no high eloquence without inward feeling, naturally expressed. Hence he who begins his discourse on an ordinary topic, with the elevated voice and manner of great emotion, convinces every just critic that he is acting a part. § 61. A Thought for Expansion. — Occupy your mind, since life is so short, on the following, viz. : 1. Ti-vx rather than False. — Truth always good — food — safe — consistent — propagative. Falsehood, even when conversed vrith for good ends, is per- turbing, paining, defiling, misleading, and wasteful of time. 2. Positive rather than Negative. — Not negation — not refutation — not mere defence. 3. Great rather than Small. — Great truths — great subjects — the most important — comprehensive of the lesser — elevating — discipline the understanding — not minutiae — not trifles. 4. Divine rather than Human. — Revealed, not found out — inspired — the Bible above all. HOMILETICAL PAKAGEAPHS. 33 He that should observe these rules for the conduct of his understanding, would save much time and escape many troubles. § 62. I find it hard to mingle doctrine and practice in due proportion in my preaching. Latterly I fear there has been i too much exclusion of doctrinal discussion. The following hints will not be out of place : 1. To open some point of doctrine, or some portion of Scrip- ture needing explanation, at least in one discourse of each week. 2. To select for this purpose, very frequently, those doctrines which are most vital ; those which concern the salvation of the soul ; those about which an inquirer or believer would seek information. 3. To treat these doctrinal points warmly, with a perpetual reference to Christian experience. § 63. Preaching. — My morning sermon was written and preached with more flow and animation than usual. I ascribe this to my having meditated somewhat on the history, and then written straight on, without the slightest reference to a logical analysis or programme, though I had actually formed such a one. I am persuaded, that as much as a discourse gains in method and articulation, by such a plan, so much it loses in rapidity, richness, and animation. I also found comfort in my method of preparing notes for an expository lecture, thus : 1. Study the exegesis. 2. Write rapid and pretty fuU notes on the successive parts, numerically, as so many observations. It is not always necessary to take them up in the order of the text. § 64. Tlie Bible. — As the Bible is the best of books, so the next best is that which is most like it, that which teaches the same thing — or explains the Bible. Instead of studying and writing about Austin and Luther, do what Austin and Luther did, namely, tell what the Bible teaches. Go straight to the Law and the Testimony, instead of all subordinates and substitutes. 34 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. § 65. In every age people have gone astray, by going away from the Bible. The statements of Scripture are positive truths, given on divine authority, and faith is as necessary as obedience ; for it is as much our duty to believe what God says, as to do what he commands. If we received in its true meaning every proposition in the Bible, we should have a sufficient body of divine truth. But this is far from being the case. Some receive more and some less, but none receive the whole. One reason of this is, that we preposterously mingle our own reasonings with the conclusions of revelations. Having accepted as true a certain number of the plain declarations of Scripture, we use those as so many premises with which to connect trains of reasoning. We do not wait to see whether the conclusions at which we would thus arrive are not asserted or denied in other plain Scriptural declarations. Sometimes we arrive at conclusions from positive Scriptural declarations. This is an inevitable re- sult of the weakness of human reason ; and as there is nothing to which we have a more overweening attachment than the fruits of our ratiocination, we cling to these erroneous conclu- sions. In order to do this with any show of reverence for inspiration, we find it hereupon necessary to explain away those plain declarations of the Word, which are opposed to our con- clusions. Thus our perverse deduction, even from Bible truths, leads to corrupt interpretation of the Word of G-od. It is analo- gous to overhasty generalization in natural philosophy, from a narrow basis of facts or phenomena. The practical rule to be derived from these remarks is, to go to the Bible as a fund, not so much of premises as of conclusions ; to enlarge as far as possible the field of positive assertions ; to pre- fer the plain sense of the record ; to distrust our own reasonings from Scripture, in the way of logical interference ; and to discuss every conclusion which wars with clear Scripture definitions. Hence also the importance of being much engaged in the simplest study of the Word, in its plainest sense ; heaping up this golden ore just as it comes out of the mine § 66. My Failier. — My dear and honoured father has some HOMILETICAL PAHAGRAPHS. 35 excellencies as a writer, which I did not value at a proper rate when I was younger. He goes always for the thought rather than the word ; and is never led along by the bait of fine lan- guage or the course of figures. I am led to think that a man must early in life make his election between these two kinds of writ- ing, and that I have fallen into the inferior one ; though I am regarded among my friends as a simple writer. Another remarkable quality of my father, is his going fur truth and reason, rather then for authority. This is the more remarkable, as he has been one of the greatest and most miscel- laneous readers I ever knew ; has had the most extensive know- ledge of books, and the most wonderful memory of their contents, so that I have often known him to give a clear account of works which he had not seen for forty years ; and yet how seldom does he make citation ! The train of his thoughts is all his OYra, with , a thorough digestion in his own mind, and reference of all things to their principles. Hence he is original in the best sense ; which superficial readers would not admit, because his style had no salient points, or overbold expressions. I attribute this in some degree to the fact that almost every \ day of his life, known to me, it was his habit to sit alone, in silence, generally in the twilight, or musing over the fire, in deep and seemingly pleasurable thought. At such times he was doubtless maturing those trains of reasoning, which he brought out in his discourses; and this may account for his extraordinary readiness at almost any time, to rise in extemporaneous address. § 67. Some ministers seem to be familiar only with such and such passages and parts of Scripture. The Puritans derived much of their liveliness from their minute acquaintance with the Old Testament, and their apposite citation of it. Another kind of familiarity with the Word is apparent in such a writer as Hengstenberg. It amazes me. What extensive and at the same time profound knowledge of the original. At times it is useful simply to turn over the pages of the Scriptures, touching here and there, as a man walks among the 36 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. rows of his vineyard, receiving general impressions, or learning where to go again. § 68. Cut off superfluous studies. Come back to the Bible. This rings in my ears as years go on. Consider all past studies as so much discipline, to fit you for this great study. Make Scripture the interpreter of Scripture. Seek practical wisdom, rather than learning, and as tending to holiness and eternal happiness. Make the Bible your book of prayer. § 69. My greatest acquisitions in Scripture come from no commentaries or expositors. The perusals of many former years turned over in the meditations, left to brew in the mind, yield their ripe results in new readings, and often make that clear which was formerly dark, and that fruitful which was once dry. § 70. Bible Study. — ^As Bible study is the best study, so I find it the most delightful. It is a good way to read large portions, and with much repetition, but always avoiding weariness. Hav- ing lately read over the Epistle to the Hebrews in Greek, I read it over this evening in the English version. Occasionally I looked out the Old Testament quotations ; I compared the Greek, whenever I had a suspicion about the EngUsh; and here and there looked in a lexicon, or another version ; but my chief view was to the scope and connection ; and on this I found greater lights than common. Some verses held me long, and I walked up and down the floor meditating upon them. I omitted some separable parenthetic passages, reserving them for another per- usal. By this means I got an unusual view of the lucid unity of the book. No method of Scriptural study gives me so much satisfaction. It unites reading with meditation. It is the best preparation for preaching. It scatters a thousand doubts. It familiarises the English text, no inconsiderable part of a preach- er's furniture. Doctrines so derived are more firmly grasped than when received from the ablest systems. Texts so learnt are better understood and more available, than such as are HOS0LETICAL PAEAGKAPHS. 37 gathered from a concordance or marginal bible. They are taken into the system and assimilated. They become constitutional pai'ts of one's mind. Even a human composition, when valuable, is an organized whole, united by a pervading principle, and with every part in its right place. Still more true is this of an inspired composition. Each proposition is not only truth, but truth in the right place, and in sacred connection with what goes before and follows after. In this divine connection, truth is best learned. And he who learns it thus, has a knowledge of it superior to that of one who learns even the same propositions, rent asunder, or forced into the technical connection and arrangement of a system ; as far superior, as the knowledge of the human frame derived from examining a subject, over that which is acquired by a tabular view of all the chemical elements which go to con- stitute the vital fabric, however fully and accurately they may be stated. It is, therefore, aU important to study the Bible in its due connection ; and, for this end, to read over large portions, and even whole books, carefully and repeatedly. § 71. Bible Study. — ^I cannot revert to this subject too often. Reading what I wrote at the beginning of this book, has revived my interest in it. Experience shows me more and more the value of studying the pure text. Reading the account of the -i Scottish mission to Palestine has had the same effect. The mere hearing of a husband and wife, devoting themselves to the Scripture, without comment, has also been awakening. Recur- rence to my morning task, of committing a few verses to memory, has kept up my interest. This evening I read the book of Ruth in Hebrew, which confiiined my resolution. Late preaching experiments corroborate my opinion, that the very best preparation for extempore discourses is textual knowledge. Luther says truly, Bonus texnarius est bonus theologus. What can I set before me more obligatory, useful or pleasant, than to spend my life in making the blessed word plain to others ? If I were able to have a charge, how entirely might I give myself to the Word of God, and prayer, by the aid and impulse of the Holy Spirit. Twenty years ago, I had a great ambition to be 38 THOUGHTS ON PEEACHING. extensively acquainted witli the classics. I have, in rather an irregular way, acquired more of that knowledge than is perhaps common with our clergy, but I can truly say, I account it but stubble and dross in comparison with the Bible. The study of the text is the thing I mean. I have pored over many commen- tators, but life is too short for this circuitous method. If an hour is to be spent, either in reading and collating more of the text, or in reading human comments, surely the former is the way which gives more hght. What is acquired in this way makes a peculiar impression, and is more truly one's own. It also carries with it a savour of divine authority. Sometimes going slowly over verse by verse, and meditating on each — Sk delightful employment — I learn more than by turning over volumes. Especially is this useful as a preparation for preach- ing. I can say with dying Salmasius, I wish I had devoted myself more to the study of the Scriptures ! X.B. Regular times are indispensable to proficiency in these researches. § 72. The Christian, and above all the minister, is bound to devote aU his powers to the glory of God, in the good of man- kind. This is a work which requires great diligence and earnest- ness, and may well occcupy the whole man aU his life. Man may be called to labour in different spheres, but always with the same devotion and singleness of purpose. The studies and authorship of a Christian are to be directed to this end. Science and literature may be used as among the greatest in ■ this work ; but they are not to be used so as to usurp the time and heart of the Christian scholar as to make him distinctly a man of science or letters. The same remarks apply still more clearly to other pursuits, such as art, politics, agriculture, and trade. Instances : Swift, Sterne, Eobertson, Howe, many Eng- lish university scholars. An exception is to be made in favour of those pursuits, or even publications which are for recreation, in intervals of HOMILETICAL PARAGRAPHS. 39 labour. Lord Bacon has said that every man owes a debt to his profession. A clergyman's work should be governed by this rule. It is seemly that a man's pen should utter the abun- dance of his heart, and that his books should bear the impress of that which is most in his thoughts. It is unseemly for a minister of Christ to be known chiefly by works beyond the line of his calling, however valuable in themselves. Especially unfortunate is it, when his strength is dispersed among petty learned elegancies. No works of the pen are more honourable than those which evince a profound interest in the good of one's generation, church, and country. These betoken earnestness, patriotism, and a public spirit, and are far higher in the scale than even great treatises on scientific theology. Even though from their nature they have an interest that does not extend to coming generations, and thus do not be- come part of universal literature, they are of great value ; sometimes in the very proportion in which they are confined to time and place. § 73. Any man is excusable, to say no more, for employing himself about the great questions of the age and country. It is just a reproach to any man to be indifferent to that which concerns the welfare of his people, and, while their inte- rests are at stake, to spend his days in delicate trifles. Such ' was the fault of Goethe. How different the case of Milton, though he was wrong in many points. Be earnest. Be up and doing. Eust is worse than work. There is an excitement which is bad, ruinous ; there is also an excitement which is good, healthful, and corroborative. To be really in earnest is consistent with great care of health and strength. Husband your faculties, your acquisitions, your time. Husband them ! Therefore give yourself more to great topics, especially to Chris- tian topics ; national topics ; topics that promise good to the world. After a man has been a great reader for many years, he ought to repose. He ought to distil his accumulations. He ought to write from his own mind. True, much of what he does so write will be the result of his previous reading, but 40 THOUGHTS ON PKEACHING. it will be without rehearsal or quotation. If he belongs to the better order of minds he will quote little, except in those cases in which the very matter of the argument lies in the very words of another. He will think for himself. He will give the re- sults of his learning rather than the learning itself. He will advise himself thus : " Why should you be so careful to remember what others have said ? Of all you have read much has slipped. Well, most of such thoughts are of no value. It were a pity to retain all. The mind acts not as a coifer, but partly as a sieve, and more as an alembic. Your book-knowledge, even if not increased, would furnish abundance for many works. Do not give way to the error of being afk-aid of saying plain and simple things, so they are true, reasonable, and logically knit. Consider Daniel Web- ster. The greatest and most useful sayings are simple. Tour thoughts seem more commonplace to others than to yourself, for an obvious reason. " Try every day to repeat to yourself some solid truth, if possible some new one. But true rather than novel. Fix the truth in your mind, as something really attained and immovable. Deduce from it other truths, but with caution. Shun haste and paradox. Go to the highest principles. Be not so much con- cerned about the laws of thought as about truths, the matters of knowledge. " Avoid vexing, plaguing cogitations. Those are often the best thoughts which have been wrung out with the knit brow. There is a spontaneity in thinking. We do not so much create the stream as watch it, and to a certain extent direct it. This is the reason why great thinkers do not always draw themselves out ; rather the contrary. Placid, easy philosophising brings the abundant fruit. Let the thread sometimes drop ; you will find it again and at the right moment. In this meditation differs from book-learning, which is necessarily wearing. " The Scriptures furnish the best materials for thought. They stimulate the soil. They secure the right posture of mind for calm judgment and even for discovery. They correct error. They give positive conclusions. They promote holy states which HOMILETICAL PAEAGEAPHS. 41 are favourable to truth. They prevent trifling reasonings, by keeping the mind constantly in the presence of the greatest subjects." § 74. To do good to mm, is the great work of life ; to make them true Christians is the greatest good we can do them. Every investigation brings us round to this point. Begin here, and you are like one who strikes water frofti a rock on the summits of the mountains ; it flows down over all the interven- ing tracts to the very base. If we could make each man love his neighbour, we should make a happy world. The true method is to begin with ourselves, and so to extend the circle to all around us. It should be perpetually in our minds. § 75. Beneficence. — There are two great classes of philanthro- pists, namely, those who devise plans of beneficence, and those •who execute \hQm.. If we cannot be among the latter, perhaps we may be among the former. Invention is more creative than execution. Watt has done more for mechanics than a thousand steam-engine makers. The devisers of good may again be divided into those who devise particular plans, such as this or that association or mode of operation, and those who discover and make known great principles. The latter are the rarer and the most important. Hence a man who never stirs out of his study may be a great philanthropist, if he employs himself in discovering from the study of the Scriptures and the study of human nature, those laws which originate and condition all effectual endeavours for human good. § 76. Byron. — I have been looking into a dreadful book, Moore's life of Byron, — the life of one debauchee written by ' another. It is instructive, amidst all its impiety. It is the most forcible comment I ever read on that divine word, " The way of transgressors is hard." Voluptuary as he was, ever sighing after some new pleasure, and drinking to its depth the cup of worldly and sensual enjoyment, Byron seems to have endured little less than a hell upon earth. Here I read in awful colours the tor- 42 THOUGHTS ON PEEACHING. menting power of uncontroEed selfishness. Here I see abject ignorance of all religion in one of the greatest human minds. Eemorse without repentance, and self-contempt without amend- ment, are dreadful scourges. From country to country he fled, but he carried the scorpion with him. His later works are only the disgorging of tumultuous thoughts and cruel passions, lust, mortified pride, and malignity; as if he would outrage the world, even at the expense of every pang in his own bosom. Happy the poorest, weakest sufferer, that believes in Christ ! § 77. God in Nature. — Sweet showers about sunrise. How refreshing ! Methinks we have not books enow which connect the exercises of religion with the delights of external scenery. Though an infidel said it, I assent to it as true, that I have found no temple so inspiring as the open vault of heaven and the green earth. Everything around me breathes of divine benignity. The sparrow has laid her young in a rose-tree just beside my door-sill, another has built in the vine by the wood- house. The bluebirds seem to be tenanting the house I prepared for them over the arbour, and I am looking for the return of my wrens to their lodge above the swing. The indigo bird, and some unknown pied bird appear among my young elms. I also have seen a dai-k bird with a dash of crimson on the back. The catbird sings almost all day in the large cherry-tree by our ice- house ; and in the orchard just beyond, bobo'lincoln indulges in his caprices, morning, noon, and night. But no song so affects me as the plaintive note of the robin, heard at a distance in the evening. It tells of solitude and care. It is such a strain as, were I a bird, I could not choose but sing myself. All these praise God. To attend to them, and note their proceedings on the Lord's day, need not trouble the strictest Sabbatarian ; it is but to paraphrase and illustrate the 104th psalm. I am no Pantheist, but I love to honour a God in nature, in whom all that is has life, and not only life, but being. " The meanest flower that blows has power to raise thoughts in me that He too deep for tears." Pansies have called forth such thoughts to-day. Blessed be God for summer, and for the thousand, thousand HOMILETICAL PARAGRAPHS. 43 varied manifestations of life in the animal and vegetable world. § 78. See God in Nature. — When the prospects of the heavens or the verdant summer earth look most beautiful to me, I most think of God. But let us be careful how we see God in nature. The Pantheist sees the visible phenomena as a part of God. This is a sort of Atheism. The poet sees beauty, order, the pic- turesque, or the sublime, and this he makes his God. The Chris- tian sees in the glories of nature not merely the effect of God's hand, but its pr'esence ; not only God's work, but God working. He not only created that landscape of field, wood, and orchard which I see from my window, but he upholds it, he gives it its existence, he causes every change, at every moment — at every moment there is a coming forth of his attributes into action. And these innumerable acts are each of them a display of some perfection ; each is divine. I behold God in his works, I do not merely see a mark that the Creator has been there, but a token that he is there. Just as when I hear the footstep of my dearest friend in his chamber, I know that he is there present. § 79. On the late cloudy Weather. Clouds on clouds hare long been here, Overhanging all our sky ; Scarce a sunny hour did peer Through the mantle spread on high. Yet we know the sun is stiU Reigning in his bridegroom power, And the happy instant will Pour his radiance through the shower. Then the tinted promise-bow, Spanning woods and meads, shall smile, Then the cornfields brilliant glow, If meek patience wait a while. Nature is the type of grace — Spirits have their cloudy time ; 'Tis, alas ! our present case, WhUe we wait the dawn sublime. 44 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. Tet in darkness we will hope, He is coming who is Light, Though we may disheartened grope For a season — as in night — He is coming; lo ! his beam GUda already yonder hiU, Streaks of opening clearness seem The horizon's edge to fill. Come, expected brightness, come, "We are panting for thy ray. Let not hopeless grief benumb Souls that do thy word obey. , "Weeping may a night endure, Tet the morning shall be joy ; Trust the promise — it is sure. Hopeful toil be thine employ. He who loves me makes my day, Clouds but minister his will ; Christ is waiting to display Charms that every wish shall fill. § 80. Converse with God. — It is not enough to know of God that he is, or even what he is, unless in the latter "we include that he is conversable with us, that we have access to him, that Ave may commune with him. On this most interesting and laomentous point, see Howe's " Living Temple." The persua- sion that we can really hold converse with God, as a friend with a friend, or even as a slave with a sovereign, is one of the most delightful which can reveal itself to a human soul. How would Socrates, Plato, TuUy, or Seneca have received the annunciation ! A great part of religion consists in seeking and maintaining this converse. § 81. God is the Portion, the one portion. In him is rest. Read on this a Kempis, Leighton, and Fenelon. I have been thinking a good deal lately of the sia and folly of seeking happi- ness in anything but God. Every other object we must seek for the sake of something else, but God for the sake of himself. § 82. Writing Books. — In writing a book, as much as anything HOMILETICAL PARAGRAPHS. 45 in the world, it is important for a man to be himself, to be un- shackled, to act out his own character. Hence not always good to take the advice of one of a different richtung — it chills. A plan or schedule or programme hinders the work, quoad genialitat. A book should be a growth rather than a building. The most ' taking books have been written off-hand. There is too little " abandon " in my writing ; my best have had the most — e. g. the review of Macaulay, and in a less degree the review of Chal- mers.* The best things are those which do not come into your head tiU you begin to write, and which cannot, therefore, be in- cluded in a plan made before-hand. To write in the way T mean, a man must be in earnest, and without a trammel ; hence every degree and kind of fiction is adverse. The novel, the poem, the pretended letter, even the anonymous one, are un- favourable to this perfect freedom. § 83. Be careful for Nothing. — Our pleasures and pains are often trifles, when Providence hangs out greater pleasures and pains just before us. Why am I so much troubled about these little crosses or disappointments ? They will come and be over in much less time than I have spent in carping about them. Time and oblivion have already washed out a thousand such im- pressions on the sandy beach of my heart. To be abased is to be happy. A large proportion of our cares would go, if pride . were to depart. Our distress after failures is often chagrin as to what man will think of us, rather than contrition for having of- fended God. § 84. Hmu shall Mankind be made Happy. — What a poor pitiful thing do the little niceties and elegancies of science and letters appear, when placed by the side of true religious and philan- trophic wisdom. I can scarcely look with patience on myself or others, spending solid days on petty philosophy, criticism, poetry of the minor sort, belles-lettres, or on botany, archaeology, antiquarianism, or any of these things in which the pedantry of learning boasts itself, when the great question is trumpeted in our * In Princeton Eeview. 46 THOUGHTS ON PEEACHING. ears, how shall manldnd he made happy ? When a man has attained middle life, he ought to be doing something towards the solution of this problem. He ought to be in earnest. I, therefore, re- spect Channing for his choice of subjects, though not always for his way of treating them. The grand problem regards the appli- cation of Christianity to the progress of Society. Nations are tumultuating like oceans. Society seems like to be thrown anew into the crucible. The power that is to order the future mould is the power of opinion. Unless it be Truth, all must go wrong. The great thing then is to impregnate the existing mass with truth — moral truth — divine truth. How to do this, should be our question. Many of our old and round-about methods wiU probably have to be given up. They stand in relation to the measures needed, as the tactics of old Wurmser, to those of Na- poleon. We must go to work more directly than heretofore. And methinks it were well if some of us old-fashioned martinets in religion and literature, could cut off our pig-tails and work away in the dishabille of the age. Do so we must, or be left in the rear. Learning we want indeed, but not pedant-learning, names and classifications, but good living truths, such as lie deep, and as yet unquarried in the Book of Books, but which are yet to be brought out for the revolution of the world. § 85. Against Solitude. — A life of study has always appeared to me an unnatural life. Is it not better to converse with the living than the dead ? Some one will yet have to write a book on the excess of literature. The ancient Greek way of studying abroad, in the Porch, or the Academy, on the Ilissus and under the platanus, among the haunts of man, was better for the health both of body and mind. Eecluse habits tend to sadness, morose- ness, selfishness, timidity, and inaction. The mind has better play in aprico. Collision produces scintillation of genius, and proximity of friends opens a gush for the afiections. The early Christians seem to have been out-of-door people, rehearsing to one another the wisdom which had been given to them orally. Lessons which go from mouth to mouth, take a portable shape, because dense, pithy, and apothegmatic : such are the proverbs nOMILETlCAL PARAGRAPHS. 47 of all ages. We are made for action, and life is too short for us to be always preparing. A breath, of pure air seems to oxyge- nate the intellect, and the best thoughts of the scholar are some- times during the half-hour of twilight, when he has laid aside his books, and taken his walking-stick. Then he is more of a man, feels his fellowship not only with nature, but with his kind. I sometimes wish I had been less a reader of books ; that I had exercised my prerogative over the beasts of the field, mastered horses, or traversed countries as a reckless pedestrian. Ever turning the thoughts inward produces corrosion. We should have something, it is true, within, but it should tend out- wards. He has not fulfilled his vocation, who has spent his score of years in solitary delight over ancient authors, and eaten his morsel alone. Gray, with all Greece in his mind, pacing up and down the green alleys of a college walk, was but half the man he should have been. Horace Walpole, revelling in the virtu of Strawberry HiU, degenerated into a mere toyman, and filled the most elegant letters extant with the matching of old chairs and Sevres china. It is to let the mind run to seed in a corner ; transplantation is necessary. To live for others is the dictate of religion. And what to do for others is best done by actual approaches, face to face, eye looking into eye, and hand pressing hand. It is not enough to say, this or that recondite pursuit may turn to somebody's advantage. So it may, if you ' live to be a Methuselah or a Lamech. But your ever -increasing stock should not be all hoarded. The sura is, go forth among mankind. Lay aside the cowl, and make one of the great com- pany. Every day renew the electric touch with the common mind. Fall into the circle, to give and take good influences. It is not too late if your heart is not ossified to the core. I hope it is not so bad as that in TuUy's phrase, locus ubi stomachus fuit, concaluit. It is worth an eifort. The air of a saloon or a market-place will do you good, and you will gain something for brushing the crowd in a thoroughfare. § 86. Dying Evidences. — Between sleep and wake, these thoughts came to me. When I am dying, what wiU certify to 48 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. me these truths of Christianity, which are my support ? Sup- pose I doubt them. What will prove them to me in that brief urgent trial? Can I then go over all the evidences ? No ! the ' truth will be in me seK-evidencing — the same truths which I now have in notion I will then have in - faith. That which is now the matter of opinion and probable judgment wiU be trans- formed into real truth — faith rather than knowledge. § 87. Pain. — When a bodily pain occurs, every man who has any sense of religion feels that it is his duty to acquiesce in it, as sent of God, for some end unknown as yet. But the feeling is not so prompt, when a mental pain arises, such as is produced by a fear, an insult, an injury, or the like. Tet the latter, no less than the former, are under the disposal of God, and form a part of his providential arrangement. We should in such cases feel this. § 88. Blessings of Trial. — ^The trials which befall us, are the very trials which we need. The little dally excoriations of temper speedily heal themselves, but when the pain lasts, they have an errand to accomplish, and they accomplish it. These, as well as greater sufferings are ordered. They must be sub- mitted to with patience, resignation, and meekness, and if they enable us to see ourselves, and gain a victory over our pride, they are of great value. Instead of vain and impotent vnshes to fly from them, or the circumstances which occasion them, it is the part of manly virtue to fear and forbear, and by grace to wax stronger and stronger. § 89. Loo}; forward. — To look forward is better than to look back, and this is as true of literature as of life. How long has the world been looking back on the remains of the classics, and how slowly did modern Europe disentangle itself from the per- plexities of pagan mythology. Dante and Ariosto, Chaucer and Milton are all encumbered with it. Goethe tells us how he came to give up all the pantheon but Amor and Luna. Another school reverts to a later era, and with an antiquarian spirit en- HOMILETICAL PARAGRAPHS. 49 deavoiirs to live over the baronial or the conventual life of the middle ages. But literature, to have a true life, must adapt it- self to the age in which it exists, and breathe forth the very spirit of the time. And as Christianity, now opening on the world with a new power, is the grand element of the age, our literature is Christian. It should take its post above the com- mon level, and look forward into the great tracts which are opened by the advance of science and civilization, and on which the sun of prophecy throws a cheering light. I often think we should gain, if men of letters, when somewhat possessed of what has been achieved in past ages, would close the ponderous volume, and take wing on their proper pinions, into the inviting regions of futurity. § 90. Influence of our Actions. — With a mighty but impercep- tible influence, divine truth is going on, working in the world the change which has been predicted. Every church that is founded, every soul that is converted, every Bible that is printed, every minister that is ordained, and every sermon that is preached, tend towards this result. Nothing is more certain than the result ; but as it is to be accomplished by free beings, under the influence of motives, it is highly important that we watch over all our actions, as tending to this result. Our talent is not for the napkin or the earth, but for trade and in- crease. The very formation of our individual character tends in a certain degree to the great result. Every example and every word of ours has a bearing on the same ; all we do, in our most careless hours, is so much to help to or hinder. No wrong action is neutral. Could a single individual stand forth all his life embodying some great principle, his influence would be felt on future generations. § 91. Musing. — Few habits are more injurious than musing, which differs from thinking, as pacing one's chamber does from walking abroad. The mind learns nothing, and is not strength- ened, but weakened ; returning perpetually over the same barren track. Where the thoughts are sombre, the evil is E 50 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. doubly great, and not only time and vigour are squandered, but melancboly becomes fixed. It is really a disease, and the ques- tion, how should it be treated, is one of the most important in anthropology. The subject of this evil is generally aware of it. He is conscious that the longer he continues in these trains of thought, the less able he is to fly from them ; that the troubles on which he ponders grow greater with his thoughts. But the mistake into which the sufferer commonly falls, is that of sup- posing himself able to throw off the painful burden by a process ' of counter-thinking. Nothing can be vainer. It is but floun- dering in the same slough. The only possible escape is by cutting off the whole train — and the more abruptly the better. What- ever does this is good. Sometimes even a new wave of trouble comes in with happy effect, to obliterate the old one. Active employment is still better, indeed the best of all cures for spleen — " fling but a stone, the monster dies." The thing needed is energy to put forth this effort — power to originate a new series of action — motive to abandon the painful objects, which exercise a mysterious fascination, leaving the patient in the belief, that some great evil will ensue, if even for a season he stops thinking about them. To counteract this last hallucination is one of the main points. The sufferer must settle it in his mind, that r)o possible good can arise from persevering in meditation on the evil : that no possible evil can ensue, if he never thinks of it again. What a blessed thing would it be if the melancholy man could have an infusion of daredevil recklessness for a little while, and if, instead of lashing himself to the helm in the long dark night of storm, he could for once leave the vessel a little to be the sport of the winds. There is no danger of his going too far in this, and, therefore, he may be safely advised to it. Caution and foresight are morbid and unreasonable when they are directed to objects beyond their sphere, and when they are for ever at work, without any results. How true, how wise, how philosophical, how beneficent, is the advice of our compas- sionate Redeemer, " Take no thought for the morrow." How self-evidencing its wisdom ! how certain a cure for the disease ! Yet how difficult of self-application. HOMILETICAI. PARAGRAPHS. 51 § 92. True Poetry. — How can poetry ever reach its acme till its theme is religion. ! Not the outward, but the inward. Milton, great as he is, has not touched the greatest themes of re- ligion. Watts, and Wesley, and Kowe have done so, but not with the height of poetic afflatus. I think the world yet waits to behold a Christian poet of the highest order. There never was a falser notion than that of great earthen Johnson, that re- ' ligion was not a fit theme for the highest poetry. Yet I must acknowledge that, to my mind, it exists only in hypothesis. If we could perfectly understand the Hebrew of the prophets, we should know what it means. A mind loosened from all earthly | regards, and singing unto God, would produce it. Such a mind must be so rapt as to forget all that belongs to human praise. The heathen sometimes sang thus to their false gods ; why do not Christians sing thus to Christ ? What greater inspiration do they wait for ? § 93. Day Thought. — The People. — ^ Every shadow is a shadow of something. The cry which echoes from so many writers, and even sects, in behalf of the people, and the poor, means something. There are prescriptive evils which have come down for ages— yes, for ages ! Think of it ! Vfhat Owen, iSt Simon, and Fourier aim at, is a real desideratum, but their way is wrong. I pity, I love the poor, and it goes to my heart to hear the scoffing way in which they are often treated. Even the little wretches who plague everybody with their white mice, awaken my affection. This is not the world's philosophy. May I never learn philosophy from the world ! § 94. Religion as Excitement. — Religion is just the excitement which many men need to make them happy. There are aper- tures in the human soul which nothing else can fill. The soul was made for this. We look back with a sigh to the animation of childhood, and even to the passion of youth. The craving for excitement leads us, in manhood, to pleasure, to business, to gain, to the chase for power. All these are successively, and 52 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. often too late, discovered to be insuflScient. In such a state of disappointment, what a pearl is found by him who believes in Christ ! Religion surpasses all other excitements in this, that it is an excitement of love, and love is pleasurable, essentially. It exceeds all other love, in this, that its object is infinite. 'Till men learn to love God, they have powers which are altogether latent. As if certain cells of the lungs should never be filled by a perfect inhalation. § 95. Boohs and Solitude. — Much may be learned without books. To read always is not the way to be wise. The know- ledge of those who are not bookworms has a certain air of health and robustness. I never deal vnth books all day without being the worse for it. Living teachers are better than dead. There is magic in the voice of living wisdom. Iron sharpeneth iron. Part of every day should be spent in society. Learning is dis- cipline ; but the heart must be disciplined as well as the head ; and only by intercourse with our fellows can the afl^ections be disciplined. Bookishness implies solitude ; and solitude is apt to produce iU weeds : melancholy, selfishness, moroseness, suspicion, ;ind fear. To go abroad is, therefore, a Christian duty. I never went from my books to spend an hour wdth a friend, however humble, without receiving benefit. I never left the solitary con- templation of a subject in order to compare notes on it with a friend, without finding my ideas clarified. Ennui is not com- mon where men properly mingle the contemplative with the active life. The natural and proper time for going abroad is the evening. Such intercourse should be encouraged in one's own house as well as out of it. Solitary study breeds inhospitality : we do not like to be interrupted. Every one, however weari- some as a guest, should be made welcome, and entertained cordi- ally. "Women surpass men in the performance of these household duties ; chiefly because they are all given to habits of solitary study. The Ufe which Christ lived among men is a pattern of what intercourse should be for the good of society. I have a notion that the multiplication of books in our day, which threatens to overleap all bounds, will, in the first instance, pro- HOMILETICAL PARAGRAPHS. 53 duce great evils, and will afterwards lead men back to look on oral communication as a method of diffusing knowledge which the press has unduly superseded ; and that this will some day- break on the world with the freshness of a new discovery. § 96. Daily Confiict.^Oux resignation and our faith must not be merely general, but particular. It is in special instances we are put upon our trial. We must not say, 1 could endure another sort of vexation, but not this. I could bear a different annoyance, but not this. This is precisely the one which God assigns to us, and perhaps, for the very reason that we are so intolerant of it. The duty of humble submission is as imperative under this as under any other trial. The privilege of faith is as great under this as under any other. The promises of the Gospel are not excluded from this case. Could we look into the reasons of state in the mediatorial kingdom, we should see that we are visited with this annoyance rather than any other for a definite purpose, / and that one of infinite grace. When this purpose is accom- plished, it will assuredly be removed. But to bear it is better than to have it removed. True wisdom counsels us not to shrink from the trial, but to face it, in God's strength. Great fruits are reaped in this field. We account a man cowardly who shrinks from an enemy in natural things. We should apply this to our • daily mortifications and distresses. It would be a noble habit of soul, if we could bring ourselves to regard every occurrence of this sort as a means of exercising our graces, and gaining new strength. § 97. MixfoxoJ/Los. — The ancients talked of the microcosm ; the little world within. We might have done better than disuse the pregnant phrase. We measure things too much by a ma- terial scale. There is a scale, on which Niagara, or a universe of matter, as such, measures no more than a sigh or an aspiration. The world within us is great. Eevolutions take place there. It is mind that moves matter. Who can tell the moment of one thought, of a Napoleon or a Pascal ! So in comparing two men. 54 THOUGHTS ON PEEACHING. \\-e compare only the outside : we cannot sound the cavern within. So of depravity : a man says he performs his duty, and is not a sinner; God will not punish him. But God sees a world within him, ichich is godless. There the mind is everlasting. § 98. " Tliy Word is Truth." Poor twmkling man ! thy ray can little pierce The scanty circle of thy nearest cloud, Far less the spaces of infinity. Let modest Reason fold her wing and learn ! See in the darksome void a guiding beam, A glimmering point at first, a star, a snn — 'Tis light from higher worlds to guide thee on. Ten thousand volumes, laboiired by the wise Of other ages, cumber still our shelves, "Vex all our schools, and fill the roll of fame. In all how mean a portion that is true. Save what is borrowed from the Sacred "Word. There, in few sentences is writ the lore "Which king and prophet, master, priest, and sage. Toiled for in vain, and died obscure and lost. Let me hang breathless on the page divine ! Here ends my quest, for God has spoken here. None can reject, improve, or wrest ; None need discover, for the end is found. Interpret, jwnder, practise, and believe, This thy sole task— be humble and be wise. "While others search all nature to explore Her treasured secrets, finding thus at best Only some laws of this our lower state. And feeble inklings of the world divine, — :jly soul contented shall the record view Of God's own deeds of old, and gifts of love, And ample promise, and foreshadowing sign. And gaze upon the bright and lovely form Of the Messiah, God incarnate, given To image forth the Lord invisible. § 99. Modes of Self. — How hard, even on questions touching the honour of God and the purity of his church, to keep out -elf! How hard to be willing to appear to others what we are to ourselves, no more, no less ! In regard to ignorance, inde- cision, vacillation, &c., we wear a mask. We often through pride affect the very qualities which vre know we want, and HOMILETICAL PARAGRAPHS. 55 over the want of which we secretly mourn. It is hard to say how far a man should go in keeping his own frailties secret. But silence is often safe. A dehate arises ; we grow warm, we take positions, we stick to them. After thoughts make us douht whether we have not gone too far ; hut we act Pilate's part ; Quod soripsi, scripsi. This pride must be brought low. Truth must triumph. Suppose we lose ; very well. Truth gains. Our character is in God's hands. If we do his will, te will take care of our good name. So many things commonly received seem to me to have no ground in the Scriptures that I often tremble. Then again certain things which I have got out of the mine myself, seem so plain and firm that my soul reposes on them. Hence, the more I go to the word itself, the freer from shaking. § 100. How to view Nature. — The work of nature, to be viewed aright, should be viewed under the a-)(i(Sii under which the inspired saints viewed it. But this is opposite to that of the Pantheist, who looks on nature, and as his soul expands with a philosophic or poetic admiration, lets his reverence terminate on the (paivtMivov, as a divine development. Not so David : " Praise ye Him, sun and moon ; praise him, all ye stars of light. Praise him, ye heaven of heavens, and ye waters, that be above the heavens. Let them praise Jehovah ; for he commanded, and they were created." § 101. Apothegms for the time: (1.) Every evil that befalls is deserved:, but every evil is ordered in covenant-love. (2.) "With what is past, beyond amendment, we have nothing to do but to repent and submit. (3.) Pride being one of your greatest ills, must be slain : and what mortifies it is a real, unspeakable good. (4.) Man's judgment of us is a mere nothing; God's judgment of us is of infinite moment. (5.) It is idle and wicked to resist the will of God. (6.) God has never forsaken : He never will. 56 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. § 102. Thoughts on reading Kant: (1.) How little the body and essence of our philosophy of life is affected by such speculations ! (2.) They are ever-varying from age to age, and they deter- mine nothing. (3.) The best light in which they can be received, is as an intellectual luxury. (i.) They foster a dreamy disposition, and disqualify for the business of life. (5.) True wisdom tends to the happiness of the race. It is the science of philanthropy. C6.) Let me honour those forms of truth which tend con- stantly and directly to elevate the mass of men, and lessen human misery. (7.) Consider the teachings of Christ as the incarnate wisdom ; in regard to its beneficence. His action and his precepts are simple, plain, and popular ; but behind them lie the profoundest principles. (8.) The more conversant you are with real distress, the more you will escape that which is imaginary. § 103. The Scriptures. Guideless and darkling ; Oh, how poor Is man ! forsaken and impure, He cannot for a day, an hour, Go safe, without superior power. Away, ye false lights of an age, "When pride enveloped every sage. The garden where Platonic lore Its honeyed current once did pour; The Porch of Zeno, and the walk Where once the Stagyrite did talk ; The haunts of Epicurus — all Are desert, and to ruin fall. Nor could their lordly patrons show The way of life they could not know. In viin, bewildered, o'er their page I hang, my sorrow to assuage. An endless guessing is the hest They give, to put my doubts at rest. HOMILETICAL PARAGRAPHS. 57 A tnith, half seen, may twinkle far, As murky evenings show a star, But in their most meridian light There glimmers but a Greenland night. The hour-glass notes the noon of day. The dial owns the sun away. From these conjectures, lo ! I turn To sources which, while sceptics spurn, I see, I feel, I know, are fraught With wisdom, by a Saviour taught. I hail thee, sacred volume, then. Product of many a burning pen, By sage, and seer, and martyr driven. To picture forth the charms of heaven. § 104. Maxims: (1.) He is too busy, who is too busy to be kind. (2.) Nothing is cheaper than kind looks and kind words; but nothing is dearer. (3.) What we suffer from another's injury, teaches us our own. (4.) Half humility and half meekness will not answer ; be meek and humble, and you conquer. (5.) Our trials are in a multitude of cases such as produce mortification rather than grief. These are trials of our pride, and they are good for us, though painful to the flesh. § 105. Goethe. — I have just finished a reperusal of Goethe's Autobiography. It reaches to 1775, i e. to his 26th year. To many persons the book is duU ; to many it would be injurious ; to me it has been deeply interesting. It is a frank development of his thinking and feeling during the formation period ; and in the bad parts I see myself over again. Goethe is not an ami ■ able character. He seems to have looked on himself as on a great development, wonderfully working from day to day, by a kind of fatality, or rather by an irresistible nisus. He lets every thing go on, careless whether it be good or evil ; himself being the phenomenon, which to inspect, is the business of his life. Therefore there is no compunction about his worst works ; and his apology for Werther, is as if one apologized for a viper — a .J 8 THOUGHTS ON PEEACHISG. natural curiosity which must be as it is. Goethe had two grand defects — want of conscience, and want of benevolence. Hence his great mind, exquisite taste, and amazing erudition, under the fostering patronage of an Augustian Court, and acting through a literary life, longer than Voltaire's, resulted in nothing which ' tends to make the world wiser or better. His whim, whatever it was, became embodied in prose or verse. It was not argument settUng truth, or goodness arriving at beneficence, but genius and taste, revelling in their own development. His faithlessness in love, his wassaU, his darker excesses dimly set forth, his disregard of friends, his errantry and abandon, are detailed with coolness, and without contrition, even in his old age. It is interesting to study the manner in which his youthful melanchol}", of which both Werther and Faust are symptoms, was sloughed oif, and how the almost Chinese sang-froid of his serene manhood supervened. In religion he was a hopeless infidel. If neither Lavater nor the saintly Mademoiselle von Klettenderg could win his youthfiil mind, there could be little hope for him in mature life. All that he says about theology and the Bible, is a melancholy proof that the greatest genius, when intellectual pride leads him away from God's revelation, plunges deeper and deeper into self-contradic- tion. To me Goethe seems as little a believer as Voltaire. Without the persiflage and venom of the Frenchman, he is as godless. Since his death, the extreme Hegelians, and " Young Germany," as represented by Heine, have shown to what his principles lead. Moral e^^l, as such, seems not to exist for them. Sin, in their vocabulary, is a mere specific form. The beautiful, even in morals, they recognize, not, however, morally, but aesthetically. § 106. John Hence. — A little reading in pages of great thought win sometimes set one thinking, as if by a happy contagion, or ( as the sight of ten prophets caused Saul to prophecy. Such pages are those of John Howe. Do not go to them when you are gay, and wish to skim the surface. Do not search in them HOMILETICAL PAEAGUAPHS. 59 for sentences, brilliant quaintnesses, or the sacred mirth that sparkles in Gurnall or Flavel. Howe moves heavily and strikes out lengthily in a medium of resisting density, but then it is an ocean ; and if you accompany him, he will lead you to depths which contain secrets unknown to those who play above. His argumentation is like none other. It throws off the common habiliments of the school-logic, and girds itself for a less regular but more athletic contest. Wait upon him, and he will reward you with abundant spoils. Sometimes Howe rises to flights more sublime than those even of his great brother Puritans. Less terse than Bates, less polemic than Owen, less pathetic than Baxter, he is more phil- osophical, original, profound, and impressive than all these. Especially does he command our admiration and love, when he touches his favourite theme, the unity of Christian experience, as above the party differences of all the sects. How mean the squabbles of Christianity appear under the strokes of his over- whelming sarcasm ! How we grow ashamed of our Shibboleths, when he takes us up from the fords of Jordan, to the top of Pisgah, and shows us the goodly prospect of a united church. It was eminently his province to disparage and depreciate ■ worldly things, vrithout one shade of melancholy. The very dimness of this life is produced by the effulgence which he shows in another § 107. On Reading the Epistles. — Having this day read, with- out note or comment, a great deal in the epistles, I have endea- voured to open my mind to their genuine impressions, and am much impressed with the result. (1.) The absence of every thing that savours of the ritualism of the Oxonian school. No stress is laid on priests, altars, cere- monies, or even sacraments. It is wonderful how largely i sacraments figure in modern liturgies, and how little in the New Testament, which contains not even the word. (2.) The intense supranaturalism of the New Testament writers. Every good thing is from above. Calling, faith, love, 60 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. joy, all are of grace, and all of the Spirit. The communication is perpetually alluded to, as a matter of fact and experience. Early Christians lived in a heavenly atmosphere, and felt that by the grace of God they vrere what they were. (3.) The heavenly ethics of the New Testament. Trust, love, patience, courtesy, meekness, forbearance, gentleness, long- suffering, forgiveness, hospitality, humility ; these are what they felt and recommended. The power of Christianity was in these things. Believers lived in a tender love one to another. The world saw it, and were reproved and attracted. (4.) The attachment of saints to the person of Jesus. He was not an abstraction. He was known of them, as one who had recently been among them, who had left them only for a season, and who was still within reach ; a priest abiding continually, and ever living to make intercession for them. § 108. One Truth. — He who sets one great truth afloat in the world, serves his generation. § 109. Central Truths. — No truth can be unimportant, or be without advantage if uttered. But the nearer a truth lies to the great centres, the more important is its utterance. To utter one such is more than to gain a field at Granicus or Waterloo. To attain such truths, is one of the great objects of living. Prayerful thought, in moments deemed idle, is often fruitful of such. They come in many a moment of repose, and absence from books and papers ; we are less masters of our own trains of thought, than we flatter ourselves. § 110. Truth in Trains. — Those meditations which are in such a sense our own that they are little mingled with names, authorities, citations, and other men's thoughts and words, are most valuable to us, and most useful to others. They are worth waiting for. We cannot expect many of them ; but we should seize them with thankfulness. In no period of my life has this so much struck me as lately ; forming a sort of epoch in my mental experience. I think it a little affects my preaching. HOMILETICAL PARAGRAPHS. 61 The trains of thought I mean are not scholastic ratiocinations. Though unspeakably above all experience or attainment of my own; the reflections of Bacon and Pascal exemplify my notion. § 111. Rules often Constrain. — Many of the common rules for the conduct of the mind, are too much like rules for the manage- ment of the body. Even the body, if alive, must not be dealt vs-ith altogether as brute matter. 1 never could understand those people who divide their day into portions, with a pair of compasses, and allot so much to one study, and so much to another. I used to make such schedules when I was a lad. - Great credit did I take to myself for making them, and great shame for breaking them ; which I did day by day. I am now convinced that any attainments which have fallen to my lot, were really not made in these compulsory hours. When a man is roaming about his library, taking down now this book, and then that, pacing the floor, scribbling on a bit of paper, humming a tune, and seeming to others and to himself to trifle, he is often engaged in his most profitable exercise. Where there is an active inquiring mind, something is always brewing. There is no such thing as idleness. If he is not eating, he is ruminating. If he is not gathering the raw mate- rial, he is elaborating that which has been gathered. Many of these processes go on without our control. Our best trains of thought come and go without our bidding. The man who never knows what it is to throw himself upon these waves, and go whither they carry him, is not likely to have very genial thoughts. Every kind of knowledge comes into play sometime or other; not only that which is systematic and methodized, but that which is fragmentary, even the odds and ends, the merest rag or tag of information. Single facts — anecdotes — expressions — recur to the mind, and by the power of association, just in the right place. Many of these are laid in during what we think our idlest days. All that fund of matter which is used allusivelj' in similitudes 62 THOUGHTS ON PEEACHING. and illustrations, is collected in diversions from the path of hard study. He wiU do best in this line whose range has been the widest and the freest. A man may study so much by rule as to lose all this : just as one may ride so much on the highway as to know nothing that is off the road. The mind is capacious in its workings. It loves to assert its independence, and insists upon being consulted as to whether it will do this or that. Therefore in her highest actings she abhors taskwork, and shakes off the yoke. § 112. Diversities of religious Opinion. — With one and the same Bible before them, how wonderful are the differences of human creeds ! The catalogue of sects, schools, and doctrines, might itseK fill a volume. This is at times a most painful thought to every considerate mind. I have sometimes thought those happy who cling without scruple to what they have been taught, and have no agitations about other people's opinions. But such cannot be the condition of one who is set for the defence of the truth. It is doubtful, also, whether an independent mind can enjoy firm confidence, except as the result of some shaking from the argume!^.ts of opposing reasoners. I have observed that in pemsing any able statement of a heterodox creed, I am for the time being affected with their force ; and it is not tiU afterwards that the mind recovers itself, and comes to rest. It may be likened to the needle of a compass, drawn aside by an accidental attraction. At length it finds its true meridian : but not without some anxiety and disquietude. This state of mind is never produced by reading the simple text of the Scripture. The mind then points towards its proper pole and is at rest. It is not good to be much conversant with error, even though the object be to refute it ; it is disturbing, if not defiling. Private and unlettered Christians, who value their own peace, will not wUlingly hear preachers, or read books, which inculcate error. The same reasons show the importance of dealing as much as possible vidth the sacred oracles themselves. IIOIULETICAL PARAGRAPHS. 63 § 113. Reflection. — The error is great of supposing that the mind is making no progress and acquiring no linowledge, when it is not conversing with books ; and it is one of the errors of bookish men. There are pauses amidst study, and even pauses of seeming idleness, in which a process goes on which may be likened to the digestion of food. In those seasons of repose, the powers are gathering their strength for new efforts ; as land which lies fallow, and recovers itself for tillage. To be worth much the mind must sometimes be left to itself. It must pursue its bent, and sometimes condescend even to trifies. Perpetual readers violate this law of the mental constitution, and never with impunity. Those especially who are so exclu- sively professional in their pursuits as to do everything by rule and compass, to the neglect of all generous literature, and gentle, graceful entertainment, never fail to become rigid, barren of invention, and cold in expression. The grateful interruption of family hours and company are as good /or the mind as for the body. Hence I think a married man is more likely to be a successful scholar than a bachelor. Reflective minds cannot be wholly idle. Even in play, they work on, in spite of themselves. Seasons of intermission often give birth to the best thoughts. § 114. Regulate the Heart. — It is more important to regulate the spirit than the steps. A right heart is better than a right method. A man may have ever so good a plan of duties, but he will do none of them if the feelings be wrong ; whereas, if the affections be right, he will be almost sure to do what is proper. Hence praying is better than planning. This derives force from the consideration that we seldom find the duties of any one day exactly what we laid out on the day before. Our performance, when it is best, is often called forth by emergencies. There may be fruitless care about even the duty of the morrow. The best preparation for the week's work is the communion of the Sabbath. 64 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. The best preparation for the coming day is the devotion of the previous evening. When the Scripture is let alone, the wheels of duty roll heavily. § 115. The power of the THZ/.— The power of the Will to change states of mind and trains of thought, deserves considera- tion. It is not a direct power, and it has certain limits ; yet we aU know that man's activity has a certain scope, even in regard to this class of objects. It is true, a man who hates cannot by volition cause himself to love that which he just now hated. Nor can one who is in deep sorrow cause himself instan- taneously to rejoice, by merely willing it. Yet we are not therefore to lie down in a condition of absolute passivity, and yield ourselves to the cogency of evil tempers by a sort of fataHty. There are moments in which we all feel that we are aroused to a sudden exercise of volition, which scatters the preceding feelings as the sun scatters clouds. The melancholy m^n, brought to a sense of the folly, wi'etchedness, and danger of his brooding, resolves to break the charm, and is successfiit Query : How far this concerns the faculty of Attention ? The mind checks its present current — it directs itself to new objects — it regards motives which have hitherto lain in the shade — it finds a corresponding and often immediate change in its temper and moods. § 116. Aphorisms on Self-denial of Appetite: (1.) Pain is to be incurred, or else there would be no self- denial : it is, therefore, to be expected and submitted to. (2.) The pain of denied gratification may be very great, especially in the beginnings of self-denial : but there is no pain which so surely decreases and disappears. Short pains, for a good end, certainly resulting in pleasure, may be encountered with cheerftdness and borne with resolution. There is even a sort of pleasure in bearing such pains. (3.) Solicitations of appetite address themselves to our lower nature through animal senses, and must therefore be put down HOMILETICAL PARAGEAPHS. 65 harshly and summarily. It is not enough to plead and reason against them. Venter non hahet aures. They must be ejected instantly, without parley, as you would cast out a noxious beast. (4.) For this reason, every animal association should be cut off, which might remain as a fomes of the appetite. Therefore most attempts to break off an evil habit by degrees fail, when the habit is complicated with an appetite. This is frequently observed in the case of ardent spirits. Suppose a reforming drunkard to take a teaspoonful of brandy per diem. This would suffice to keep up the taste, and suggest indulgence. The only safety is therefore in absolute abnegation. § 117. God Overrules. — God overrules even those events in • whicii we have acted erroneously. Wretched should we be, if he did not. None of our choices, purposes, and arrangements, are free from sin. All need to be washed in the blood of Christ. Take an instance : Hastily, and perhaps carelessly, I allow a dear friend to set out on a perilous journey. In this there is certainly a measure of sin, which God might visit. I am in great anxiety for the safety of this friend ; and this anxiety is increased by the fear that I have done .wrong, which prevents filial confidence. But how gracious is our Covenant God ! He prevents our errors from coming back upon us in judgment. The Covenant of Grace, being founded on Christ's perfect merits, works its blessed fruits even when we are sinners. Even in such junctures we should confidently roll our burden on the Lord, -frith penitence for our sin, and trust in his abounding mercy. § 118. More Maxims: (1.) He who begins to love his neighbour as himself, will be more cast dowDi for the sake of others than for his own sake. (2.) Melancholy is so much promoted by musing idleness, that the best preventive of it is to pass rapidly from one employ- ment to another, all day long, without any intervals of solitude or reverie. r 66 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. (3.) As we go on in life, we ought to be more public-spirited, and to make our anxieties, projects, and prayers devote them- selves to some matter of general concern. (4.) Never give over the endeavour to overcome bad habits of mind or body, or those complicated of both. (5.) Seize the happy moment of enthusiasm, when the impulse is in a right directioB. In the same degree, flee from those sudden exaltations which tend to evil. Cry avaunt ! and encourage the feeling of abhorrence. (6.) Our need of preventive grace is nowhere more felt than when a temptation comes upon us suddenly. At such moments, if left to ourselves, we are weakness itself. Under such access of the enemy, great crimes have been committed. § 119. Think for Yourself. — A thinking man's thoughts gradually grow into a system. The less he follows other men's lives, the more will his own fabric of method compact itself. It is not always best to counterwork this tendency. The great points of any one's scheme vsdll come out in his preaching. In treating these favourite topics wiU be his principal strength. Those on which he dwells most frequently, and with most delight, are such as are central to his system of belief. , § 120. Physical Discipline. — My mind turns upon the subject of physical discipline as subject to religious principle. The New Testament is somewhat remarkable for the entire absence of that ascetic element, which reigns so much in many false religions, and which played so large a part in the Christian Church during all its period of decadence. The body is not treated as necessarily evil. Abstinences are not enjoined. There are no fasts assigned to particular days. JMacerations and penances are not so much as alluded to, except in the way of rebuke. But while this is true, it is not less undeniable, that the New Testament makes it a duty to keep the body in a subordinate place, namely, in subjection to the soul, and in perpetual obedi- ence and fitness to be the holy instrument of all spiritual acts. We perceive at once, that there is a pampering of the flesh HOMILETICAI, PARAGRAPHS. ht which is inconsistent with a holy life. There must be some self-denial and subjugation of the lower part, in order to keep it from that horrid inversion in which appetites and passions acquire the dominancy. All habits of self-indulgence are to be prevented and broken up. We form in our better moments the ideal of a life, in which the character is produced by modera- tion, temperance, reserve in things lawful, frugality, simplicity, adherence to natural tastes, the cutting off of pleasures which are seducing, or in any degree tend to enslave. § 121. A Simple Rule. — Do that which you think will please God, and you will keep a good conscience. By so doing you will, in the long run, as much avoid the censure of men as if you made it a special object to please them. Every act of your life will be tending to form the right kind of character. You will be more likely to be useful, and will certainly be happier. If you fail, you will not have the additional pain which arises from blaming yourself. Tliis is the simplest of all rules of life. It admits of perpetual application, nor is there any conceivable case which it does not reach. Please not yourself, nor vain human creatures, but God. § 122. The man who undertakes to go through life upon a settled plan, which he is not to modify according to circum- stances, is much like one who should undertake to traverse a country in a mathematical straight line. § 123. Use of Knowledge. — There are two very common but very opposite ways of employing erudition and science. The one is that of learned commentators and disquisitioners, who accumulate stores of antiquarian and recondite lore, multiply quotations, and produce great volumes, which may have a zest for a few virtuosos, but which in the common mind can awaken only amazement or alarm. This is the method by which men acquire great fame in the republic of letters. The other way is the humble mode of those who write for 68 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. the instruction of the people. Equal "perhaps in real learning to the former, they never acquire the same notoriety. Their ambition is to smooth the way for humbler minds, to make the profundities of science accessible and to furnish the high distilla- tion from varied researches. It is my ambition to belong to the latter class. Even if no higher object should be gained than to simplify science for children or apprentices, or to make religion fully known in a plain way, to the sons of ignorance, I should think it a task worthy to employ a lifetime. § 124. When we summon the worldly to abandon the world, it is not so much like asking the mariner to cast his wares into the sea in order to save his life, as it is like the command to the Israelites to leave their farms and their possessions, and go up to the temple-feast, in the assurance that God would provide for them. § 125. PhilusopMcal Studies. — Lately my mind has been much engaged about the ethical heresies of Paley and the Utilitarians. It has almost seemed my duty to go into the investigation, and I have been reading some of Plato and the Platonists. I am deterred chiefly by the fear of that philosophy, falsely so called, which is denounced in Scripture. My object is truth, and I am sure if it were revealed to me to be right, I would this moment forswear all other reading but the Bible for life. But I am almost sure this would be altogether vrrong. i »- , I like good'F. Scott's notion, that we are bees, that we seek"^ every sort of flower, but bring our gains back to one Hive, namely, the Bible. It is one of the glories of the Bible, that it expresses the grandest principles of the highest philosophy in the language of children. § 126. TaJce no Thought for the Morrow. — "We might accom- plish more if we were not foolishly asking ourselves so often, how long such and such a great work would take us. Professor Rob. B. Patton used to engage in most laborious lexicographical HOMILETICAL PAEAGEAPHS. 69 works. When asked how he had patience to go on, he said, that he never thought of asking how long it would take him, but went on as if it were to be his work for life. Dr John Breckinridge made the same remark, when asked about those immense journeys which he takes to collect money — he never looks upon them as things which must end. Addision tells me he finds the same thing good in his com- mentary on Isaiah. Our Lord's maxim about taking thought for the morrow, seems to have very wide applications. § 127. A Students Sabbath. — Preachers and other students seldom have any day of rest. True, they make, if conscientious, some change in labours, but on the Lord's day they read, read, read, as indes%renter commonly as on other days. This is a great fault and folly. Just as really as the working man needs rest from the hammer and flail, does the thinking man need rest from thought. I think students ought to make the Sabbath a delight, by closing books, except the lighter and devotional parts of Scrip- ture, by gentle nursing, by cheerful religious talk, by singing God's praise, and by works of mercy. § 128. Variety in the Bible. — The Scriptures are not the same to all readers, any more than the flowers of the garden are the same to all insects. One man seek this, another seeks that ; none extract all the sweetness. Under the guidance of the Spirit, each believer gains that which is needful for him, discovering and assimilating this by a gracious affinity. When such men systematize their deductions, they are far from being the same. How unlike the Scriptural treasures of Augustine, of Luther, of Howe, of Edwards, of Bunyan, of Hale, and of Chalmers! Yet each one may get truth and holiness in this garden. These trees yield twelve manner of fruit. The Scriptures are not the same to the readers of all ages. Primitive believers saw not all that we see. Let me here be guarded. Truth is the same for ever ; that which is Scripture truth to-day will be so to eternity. Nothing can be added to the truth of the inspiration. But there may be great additions to 70 THOUGHTS ON PBEACHING. our knowledge of it ; and it is not unreasonable to believe, that the Holy Spirit in- leading believers into all needed truth, adapts his ministrations of light to the exigencies of particular times. This should guard us against relying too much on the deduc- tions of other men, however great and good, as if they had seen all, and left nothing to be gleaned in the field of original inquiry. However wonderful the discoveries of an Austin, p, Calvin, or an Owen — however true, however extensive — they are not the in- spired originals ; I may not confine myself to their teachings. They saw and appropriated all that the Spirit saw to be suitable for their own personal good and the good of the church in their day, and I will thankfully sit at their feet, and be guided by their experience. But my personal good, and the personal good of the church in our peculiar day, may demand other truth in other method, and these I must endeavour to get for 'myself from the Scriptures, under the guidance of the same Spirit. As we ap- proach the latter glory and the return of the Messiah, there is reason to believe that the scroll of prophecy will be yet more unrolled, and that truths hitherto left in the shade will be brought out in brilliant prominency. What an inducement have we here to study the Bible day and night — to look with our own eyes for hidden veins in this mine — to seek for it as for hid treasures ! In expectation of this, and in faithful reliance on that Spirit who gave the revelation, and seeking that anointing which abides with all the elect (1 John), we may well leave for a season the commandments of men, and ponder on the pure original text. Perhaps as we pray and wait over the holy word, we may receive communications better suited to our personal wants and our relations to the world that now is, than if we were to master all the fathers, all the school- men, and all the reformers. § 129. Argument the Basis of Devotion. — The following experi- ence I have often had, but, I believe, never committed to writing. On Sabbath and other occasions, I have wearied myself with attempts to awaken devotional feeling, by reading compositions of a merely hortatory kind — practical and experimental writings. HOMILETIOAL PARAGRAPHS. ( i Our devotion must have a solid basis, and I believe it is in many cases the best thing we can do to go into the very strongest ', parts of theological argument, and feed upon such strong meat as one finds in Calvin, Rivet, Turretin, "Witsius, and Owen. § 130. Thought of the Day. — We must work more outwards. We must bring Christian principles to bear more on the masses of men. We must show them that what they seek by vain phil- anthropy, is realized wherever true Christianity takes effect. If all men were good Christians, the evils of society would be in a good degree abated. Prescriptive wrongs would cease. Pro • perty would be equalized. The rich would communicate of their wealth, and the poor would rise by industry, temperance, fru- gality, and wisdom. The Bible is made for all ages, and with every new discovery in science, it meets us and shows a coincid- ence. The worldly philosopher and philanthropist dreams of a perfect state of society — good-will among men and universal peace. Now, the Bible not only predicts this, but shows how it is to be attained. The principles of Christianity tend to produce that very state. All the high civilization and humanity of the best nations is in fact the product of Christianity. In countries where science, literature, and the arts are in a high state, with- out true religion, we see luxury, excessive pleasure, hardness' of heart, false honour, duelling, and suicide. Of this France is a great instance. The true way then to benefit, and even remodel society, is to make it Christian. This method is as simple as it is powerful. It proceeds upon no false or doubtful hypothesis, either of politics or economy. While men endlessly differ and dispute about these, and change one experiment for another in an endless round, loosing their beginnings by the change, and destroying human peace in the fruitless and soon abandoned trials, the humble Christian endeavours are going forward, with a noiseless but mighty efficacy. Place a thousand men in a Utopian community, such as Owen's, and try to mould them by the visionary principles of the " New Social World," and the result is discord, failure, and misery. But place a thousand men anywhere in the world, and 72 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. make them true Christians, and you attain really all the good ends sought in the former experiment, and render them as happy as men can be in our world. Hence the man who does most to bring over those around him to the principles and practice of true religion, is the truest philanthropist. § 131. Take Time to Decide. — ^When a difficulty, or an objec- tion, or a specious error is presented to the mind, so as greatly to stagger it, we are not forthwith to be disconcerted. All minds are not capacious enough, or quick enough, to resolve such doubts at a moment's warning. Let the matter rest a little. The intellect will collect its strength, and after some rest and meditation, the judgment will come to a sound conclusion. This I have experienced many times. It takes place sometimes without occupying the thoughts in any stated or deliberate man- ner on the subject, during the interval. The process resembles the oscillations of a pendulum, which at length settles in its proper direction. Hence it is not always right to answer an objection immediately. This slow process is perhaps most com- monly that of judicious and experienced persons. Temporary scepticism is distressing ; but when we find by experience that it is relieved by wise delay, it need give no serious distress. With a crafty man, who suspects others, because he knows his own way to be the way of stratagem, the best way of deal- ing is the freest and most open. It wonderfully confounds his toils, while here as elsewhere it is the most easily maintained. § 132. Tlwughtsfor the Time : (1.) Learned labours give little help in hours of alarm. (2.) Sudden fears and troubles startle us, and drive us to thoughts of plain religion. (3.) A certain important habit of soul is produced by the cus- tom of daily silence and meditation. ("4.) The more bookish a man is, the more does he need both for his intellect and his heart, these moments of contemplative retreat. (5.) Pauses of indisposition often force on us that self-com- munion and thought of God. HOMILETICAL PAEAGRArHS. 7 a (6.) All is well when we apprehend God's ordering. His will is supreme law. Holiness is acquiescence in that will. (7.^ Faith is indispensable in times of panic : great know- ledge is not so. Here the humblest mind commonly fares best. (8.) Peace in trouble comes not from reasoning, but from faith, hope, and love. (9.) The graces which sustain us in trial, proceed from the immediate and almighty agency of the Holy Ghost. (10.) In affliction, especially in surprises, the soul falls back on its prevalent habits, whether wavering or fixed. (11.) In the religious habits of our common days, we are all the while preparing for the hour of affliction and the hour of death. (12.) It is all-important to be every day living in the belief of the unseen world, and as in the felt presence of Christ. C13.) A few minutes in the busy day spent in absolute ab- straction from the world, with a complete rupture of worldly threads, are among the best means we enjoy. They are to the day what the Sabbath is to the week. (14.) Well would it be, often in the day, to seek those quiet frames which sometimes come when we compose ourselves for sleep. (15.) In true retirement of soul there is nothing of perturb- ation or of gloom, but rather of cheerfulness. It is a healthy state. (16.^ These states of mind are allied to humility and meek- ness. (17.) The true position of the soul is like that of constant childlike waiting on God for these influences. (1 8.) The medium through which these graces descend, is the Lord Jesus Christ. (19.) We cannot reason ourselves into holy frames ; it is bet- ter to say. Lord, increase our faith. (20.) Keep very low before God, and seek to please him rather than man, and you will find yourself armed against morti- fications. (21.) Cherish those views which agree most with pity for 74 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. every kind of liuman suffering, and active labours for Christ's people. (22.) Nothing is more remarkable in the religious experience of the Bible, than its childlike simplicity. It is the aroma of the patriarchal life, as of a field which the Lord has blessed. See it in the Apostle John. I know an ancient disciple in whom it is very apparent. (23.) Much in our religion is borrowed from the accidents of individual religious experience, and not from the Bible. (24.) We are healthy in our frames when they lead us much to the Bible, and much to the throne of grace. (25.) External beneficence is a happy antidote to the poisons that grow rank in the shade of scholastic study. § 133. Wait for Uncommon Grace. — Life is too short to be spent in renewing vain experiments. What I ought to be, I should seek to be without delay. I have been brought to feel to-day that there is a sflare in many books as much as in abund- ance of company. They occupy the thoughts and keep them away from holy objects. This explains what I have long found true, that my best religious thoughts are in two situations, when I am abroad, and when I am in bed ; in both cases away from the literary objects of my study. There is scarcely any moment, in which a student may not take down some volume, to gratify the craving, or suit the present mood. But this brings in thoughts of other men, which is the same as the diversion of company ; and how seldom do we make conscience of the kind of book. It may be innocent or useful, it may be needed, and yet it may have nothing of spiritual nurture. The case is different, when we make our chief book the Bible ; and hence the great advantage of a preacher and pastor. And hence also a certain disadvan- tage in my professorship, which leads me in no case directly to the Scriptures, in their spiritual meaning. Nothing is more fully made out to me by observation and experience, than that the way of holiness and happiness is that of constant reading of God's word, with prayer. HOMILETICAL PARAGRAPHS. 75 § 134. Oreat Christians.' — How little adventurous independent piety ! Bold thinking, but tame mimic religion. We feel and do as others feel and do ; reproduce their diaries, rehearse their prayers, and catch the fashion of their awakenings. To be a great Christian, would be to become very unlike the men around us ; hence great Christians have been in solitudes, in missions, or among persecutions. Sometimes I think we are more tied down to a conventional piety than the very Bomanists. Tlieir great saints went astray, and are not to be imitated ; but they did not adhere to the old, hereditary ways ; they broke out in a new direction. Are not yearnings after better things among , God's ways of producing them? Are not strange trials, pains, mortifications, and humblings, among God's ways of training the soul? Should not such junctures be faithfully seized upon, for making higher reaches of experience? Have not special seasons of devotion, with long continued prayers and praises, been i-emarkably owned of God ? Can eminent piety be reached without them ? We are presumptuous in figuring to ourselves the type of I piety which we ought to attain. Perhaps God is forming us to a different type. Perhaps God intends a type unknown in any other ; for the inward countenance of man is as peculiar to the individual as the outward. It is only by waiting in compara- tive quietude, that we can discern which way this divine tendency guides, and there is danger of running whither we are not sent, and even of grieving the holy Spirit of grace. It seems to me that in our day we take the pattern and measure of our religion too commonly from what is popular, that is from what is bustling, outward, and full of eclat. But it may appear in another world, that some of the mightiest influ- ences have proceeded from souls of great quiet. No book it is supposed of human composition, has had greater influence than the Imitation of Christ, by Thomas a Kempis. Some of the greatest characters have been formed in secret, as some of the wonders of nature are wrought under the earth. No man knows what God has made him for. Some men, for all we know, may i be sent into the world chiefly to form other men. The grand 76 THOUGHTS ON PEEACHING, act of a servant of Christ, for which God has been preparing him for many years, may be to give an impulse to some other > man, and this may be accomplished in a moment, and when neither of the two suspects it. No man knows when the great act of his life takes place. No man knows when he is doing the greatest good. The old monk who directed young Martin Luther, possibly did nothing so important in his life. Some- times it is a child, and whom would a Christian more joyfully influence than the son of his bosom ? It is for him we labour, pray, suffer, and live. How do we know but the chief purpose 'for which God has spared our lives is, that we may form an instrument for his work in our own family ? Thus the flower- ing plant dies when it has matured a fruit full of seed. How insignificant was Jesse, or Obed, or Boaz, compared with David ; or Zacharias and Zebedee, compared with the two Johns and James. A due sense of what God demands of our sons, and an insight into his method of planning and bestowing for a series of generations, would make us importunate for gifts of the Spirit in our character as educators, and gifts on those who sit as loving learners at our knees. Philip the Evangelist probably preached no sermon like that in the chariot. We may, therefore, err by forcing matters. The guard must be set here against inaction, under pretence of spiritual waiting. But after a certain point of experience is attained, we readily distinguish humble waiting for God's influences, from indolent, carnal sloth. The more we believe in a direct influence of the Holy Spirit in sanctification, the more ready shall we be to expect this influence in ways which are uncommon. We have no pledge that we shall be operated on, after the rubrics of other men ; nor that the ways in which we may be led shall always be pleasing to other men, even of the household of faith. Our tendencies are not to be necessarily of the Spirit because they seem so : they are to be tried by the word ; and they are most apt to be so, in and over the world. Earnest prayer for so vast a blessing is all-important. There is no promise more explicit or more precious, than that of the Spirit. It is sealed by the nOMILETlCAL PAEAGEAPDS. 77 reference to our beloved children, and the gifts which we, though evil, give to them. It is all things in one. Therefore it is not wonderful that so much is made in the New Testament of the Spirit ; the contrast being painful between this and the popular theology. After all, if God did not work in us, beyond our knowledge and our seeking, we should come to nothing. 0, give us thy Holy Spirit. § 135. Song in the Night : Safe in thine arms I lie, Dismissing every fear, For sure my Lord is here, And every ill shall fly ; "SVliile from his throne ahove The dews of heavenly love Shall fall continually. Be thine o'erspreading wing Above us every one, Till the rejoicing sun, A bridegroom from the east Shall pour his ray of joy, And give serene employ To every sacred power. As when the opening flower Turns its fair chalice to the dawn, And o'er the greening lawn A thousand flowery eyes look out and smile. Come, everlasting Light, Thou fount of what is bright. Source of all life and bliss, Let no ill dream of night Dare to despoil of this. § 136. Spiritual Changes. — Few truths have been more sacredly impressed on me than this : We must seek great and needful spiritual changes, not so much from bringing our own minds under rational considerations, however true and useful, as from direct influences of the Holy Spirit. Experience shows that God, in his sovereign pleasure, often leaves us to do wrong, under the very presence of admitted reasons to the contrary. It is a part of the Christian conflict, set forth in the 7th chapter of 78 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. Romans. The understanding is convinced ; the will itself is somewhat moved ; yet there is not such an active volition as secures right action. This motive pov^er inust be supplied by the Divine Spirit. There is then nothing we have such need to ask, as the influences of the Holy Spirit. § 137. Real Knowledge and Booh Learning. — Often and often I have thought of the superfetation of books. Look at libraries, trade-sales, catalogues. Hear the bibliographical talk of some men. Recall the innumerable books you have turned over. Distinguish properly between real knowledge and book learn- ing. Oral wisdom, methinks, will one day resume its ancient honours, for this very cause. Books wiU crowd one another out. What is said by word of mouth is simplest and most lasting. The early progress both of Christianity and philosophy, was by such means. The best part of education is so conveyed now. Extempore speaking derives some of its advantages from this. We ought all to practise it more. § 138. Tlie Manifestation of God : (1.) It is made the duty, as it is the happiness of man, to admire, love, and imitate the character of God. (2.) God is infinitely removed from human apprehension, and cannot be known any farther than he is pleased to reveal himself. (3.) The affections the man is bound to feel towards God, are impossible without some knowledge of God. (4.) K there were no points of likeness between God and man, we do not see how man could arrive at any knowledge of God. If, as is probable, there are attributes of God which have no analogy in man, we can arrive at no more conception of them, than of objects or qualities for which we have no sense. (5.) But man was made in the Hkeness of God, and on this is founded his knowledge of God. (6.) Though this likeness has been impaired, it is not entirely destroyed. Man still has mind, morals, immortality. (7.) Still the character of God is at an infinite distance, and HOMILETICAL PAEAGEAPHS. 79 must be brouglit nearer to the analogy of humanity to be con- templated with satisfaction or profit. (8.) This is accomplished by the Incarnation, whereby God becomes man. (9.) Morality is the same in God as in man, as to kind, but infinitely different in degree. (10.) But the holiness of God, in itself considered, is so far removed from our sphere, that we need to have it brought nearer to us, and as it were projected on the plane of humanity. Holy attributes are not appreciated till we behold them in the guise of ' manhood. Then we sympathize with them, understand them, and feel as if we could imitate them. (11.) The divine excellencies are there embodied before our eyes in the Lord Jesus Christ. (12.) These are really divine excellencies, though appearing in the human nature. For holy affections and volitions, in the man Christ Jesus, are perfectly coincident with the holy affec- tions and volitions of the united Godhead ; and so they reveal God to us. It is God in Christ, whom we see, admire, love, and imitate. (13.) The historical representation of Christ in the New Testament is thus to us a manifestation of God. (14.) This manifestation in the gospel is the great study of man's life. It reveals God. It shows us our law, our model, and our portion. (15.) There is no other manifestation of God that shows so much of his moral glory. (16.) Our contemplation of this is the great means of sancti- fication. " Beholding us in a glass," &c. (17.) The Holy Spirit makes use of this contemplation to make us like God. (18.) "When the Spirit takes the things of Christ, and shows them unto us, he doubtless takes these very things which are recorded in the gospels. (19.) We are therefore in the way of duty and of improvement, when we place ourselves before these things in the way of medi- tation and study. 80 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. § 139. Death-bed Hepentance. — Perhaps we do great wrong to God's infinite grace, by talking as we sometimes do about Death- bed Eepentance. To terrify sinners from their sins is a good object, but it should be sought by no means but truth. Shall we please God by exaggerating in his behalf? Shall we not in the end even frustrate our own end in the awakening of sinners ? True, the ungodly will abuse the doctijne that God sometimes gives repentance on a dying bed ; but which of the doctrines of religion is it which they do not abuse ? The case of the dying thief is the great Scriptural instance. But there are numerous instances of the same, so far as we can judge, on dying beds now. In my own ministry I have seen many. " Train up a child," is often here fulfilled. There is a wonderful tendency on dying beds to take on afresh the experience of childhood. What an encouragement to pious mothers ! Infantine emotions I am sure often I'eturn in the last days of life, and a mother's voice rings in the ears of the prodigal son. This gives me greater hope in talking with those who, however wicked, have been trained for God in their infancy. § 140. Chrysostom and Augustine. — Many a person, on being asked 'which were the sounder and soberer interpreters, the Greeks or the Latins, would answer the Latins. Yet the reverse is true in many cases. Augustine is fuU of childish allegories ; Chrysostom is almost always close to the letter. § 141. Christianity operates on mankind in two ways, viz., in the church, and out of the church. In the church it is constantly operating, and legitimately ; but each church-organization seems after a time to lose its charm. Churches grow effete, but the church lasts, and we see the vigour breaking out in vital action in some new place. But we must not be surprised to find doctrine, feeling, and life going behind-hand in once favoured churches. Out of the church Christianity also operates ; and this too much escapes notice. Beyond question, the principles of Bible humanity and philanthropy are gaining ground in the world. HOMILETICAL PAKAGRAPIIS. 81 Infidelity indeed claims this as its own triumph ; but these prin- ciples were all borrowed from the Bible. As the world advances, we may hope to see this becoming more and more true. § 142. Dr Green. — Two things Dr Janeway said about Dr Green, which are too good to be lost. 1. "Dr Green, from the time of his early ministry to the close of his life, used to spend the first Monday of every month as a day of fasting and prayer. 2. In one of my visits to him in Philadelphia, he said, 'Brother, I pray for you every day, and for both branches of our church, and for that church of which you and I were so long collegiate pastors.' " § 143. Likes and Dislikes. — How far a man should be governed by his penchants and antipathies, his likes and dislikes, in tlie conduct of his life, is a very difficult question. The^MSte milieu is hard to be found. Suppose we go to the rigorous extreme, and say that one ought to work out his course on principles of severe duty, and follow this implicitly, without paying the slightest regard to the promptings of nature, or to any constitu- tional tendencies, shutting his ears to every whisper of disgust, and steeling himself against every repugnance. Men have been found who, under strong moral or religious convictions, have so lived : indeed this is the very soul of the ascetic life. "When the constitution is firm, and the will imperative, no doubt great actions have proceeded from this source. There is something great in getting the victory of natural cravings, and keeping under the flesh by a perpetual struggle. Men who have so lived have often aimed high, and accomplished wonderful results. It may be questioned, however, whether in any case these have been the most genial and creative minds. Nature does not move in right lines, nor grow well in moulds and frames, how- ever wisely adjusted. A certain violence is done to the heav- ings of inward forces tending towards development. Tliese inward forces are often the very indications of Providence, by which man learns whither he ought to go. It is universally G b'J THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. allowed, even by the sternest moralists, that, in the choice of a profession, of connections in life, of one's place of abode, and the like, the inward propension is to be taken as an element in the calculation. Even in so grave and sacred a matter as a caU to the Christian ministry, all men give a certain weight to the powerful, and sometimes almost irresistible, tendency towards it in the mind of the proponent- Great geniuses, in every depart- ment of science, literature, soldiership, the fine arts, and philan- thropy, have broken away from the heartless toil to which seeming duty first tied them down. How remarkably has this been the case with painters. All the strait-lacing of Pensly- vania quakerism could not keep Benjamin West from the easel. The same has been true of poets and theologians. And on looking back upon the lives of such, we cannot but recognize in these interior struggles a providential guidance towards parti- cular ends. How can we deny then, that, in some of the most important concerns in life, it is allowable to have some regard to the strong promptings of inward desire '? Excellency in every human calling has some dependence on the zest and enthusiasm with which it is pursued. Few things which are done in cold blood are well done. Providence does not mean all men to follow the same things ; and, in nine cases out of ten, that which a man follows is pointed out to him by some dominant taste which is not in other men, and for which frequently no adequate cause can be assigned. Hence some are lawyers, some generals, and some laborious students in recondite and new branches of learning. Obedience to such monitions ha.s produced the greatest works known among men. And it is re- markable that the order of Jesuits, which, above all other com- munities, has adopted for its principle of education, the suppression of individual will, and subjection of all private like and dislike to the dictate of superiors, has produced no great and world- renowned work on any subject. It seems clear that we may go to an extreme in governing our whole path of life, in contempt of all natural propensities and preferences. But the question still returns, how far we may be governed by HOMILETICAL PARAGRAPHS. 83 such in the daily steps of our ordinary vocation. Even here it would be an overstrained virtue, which would altogether for- swear a consultation with feelings of like and dislike, which may sometimes be the indications of Providence. Where there is nothing else to decide the question between contending claims, we may very naturally and wisely bring in the consideration of the agreeable and disagreeable. A man's daily work may be to such a degree repugnant to his feelings, that it will be next to impossible for him to persevere in its prosecution. § 144. — The days we call idle, sometimes produce as much ( eventual strength as is derived by vegetable growth from the fields lying fallow, or from the winter repose of the tree. We walk the floor, we open book after book, we read a little, wi-ite a little, muse a little, and in the evening condemn ourselves for want of diligence, perhaps justly, so far as the motive is con- cerned. Yet in nothing am I surer, than that this very process results in subsequent energy. Especially when I consider that those who have these lapses, on certain occasions, are, at others, employed for hours, or even days together, at the very stretch of all their powers. In a studious life, if the scholar did not sometimes leave his formal prescribed tract, and expatiate, as it were at random, to pick up the scattered, variegated, unclassed flowers of common, and even little truths, he would faU to have his mind filled with a thousand things which, ' however hetero- geneous at first, go through the digesting and assimilative process ; become the material of future argument, or furnish embellishment, illustration, or example. Casting ourselves on Providence, in studies as in all things else, we find ourselves led by ways that we knew not. § 145. Consecration of Learning. — To consecrate all that one has to Christ, is the ruling purpose of every Christian. In the esteem of the Master it is this purpose, or this abiding tendency of soul, which is the thing regarded. Is it a draught from the well, an alabaster box of ointment, or a gift of funeral spices ? it is received. Is it a visit to the prisoner or the invalid, or 84 THOUGHTS ON TREAOHING. clothes to tlie naked? it is accepted as done to Christ. The rich disciple bestows his gold, and the scholar may bestow his learn- ing. These are as frankincense and myrrh. The great point is, that he who has aught must make a free-will offering at the beloved shrine. The accumulations of learning and the refinements of taste may be withheld, even after voluntary designation, and thus the sin of Ananias and Sapphira may be repeated, in a matter more precious than goods and lands. But when all the fruits of study are made over with a full and ready mind, science and literature may be truly said to be laid in the temple. These are the votive treasures, which will be more numerous, as better days dawn on a more enlightened and holier church. Then it is that erudition ceases to be idolatrous and selfish, when their choicest fragrance exhales towards heaven. The carved work of the Sanctuary, the chasing of Bezaleel, and the graving of Aholiab, the music of Heman, and the song of David, were as welcome offerings as the beasts which smoked in the courts of the Lord's house. There is such a thing as reaping in the fields of classical entertainment, and then suffer- ing the sheaves to perish on the earth, instead of garnering them up for God. When we feel the inspiring influence of books, wlien we are lifted on the wings of ancient genius, we should jealously avoid the perversion of the gift. The children of this world have their research and accomplishment, and enough is done for pleasure and fame ; but the Christian scholar will re- buke himself, unless he finds it in his heart to be more alive in devotion to heavenly things, at the very moment when he has breathed the aroma of poetry and eloquence. Such a disposition of mind will keep him from being puffed up by his attainments, from resting in the transient satisfaction, from forgetting God amidst his favours, and from sacrificing to gain or ambition what he has gathered from the labours of study. The transition in a Christian disciple from worldly literature to the Scriptures is not violent. He feels the immeasurable dis- parity, and rises to a new level when he follows the guidance of prophets, of apostles, and of the Holy Spirit himself. Attain- ments of learning made in such a temple are sacred, however HOMILBTICAL PARAGEAPHS. 85 remote the subject may seem to be from biblical research. These gains are for eternity. They ai'e not only not lost in this world, amidst the wreck of fortune and health, but as belonging to the spiritual part in which God's image chiefly resides, they abide and survive the dissolution of death, and emerge, in the better state, only to be the germs of new devolopement in that unexplored world of everlasting progress. Powers strengthened by all the most effective discipline of earthly schools, are dedicated to the greatest and holiest work. High as the intellect may soar, it will never cease to have above it the august cope of heaven ; human philosophy will never ex- haust or even reach the greatness of divine ideas. These mysterious objects, like the starry heavens, are liberally offered to every eye, and the poor man, the slave, and the very infant gain and enjoy something from the celestial wonders, which Pascals and Newtons lose themselves in vainly attempting to comprehend. Yet the tribute rendered, by different capacities, though equally sincere, is not equally great. When God be- stows genius and cultivates talent, and enlarges by providential culture the opening reason, he does this in order to draw from such natures a service far vaster than that of common minds, however pious. Education is, therefore, a fearful gift, bringing! tremendous accountability ; it should lead to humility, thanks- giving, activity, and devotion. When these are wanting, a godless prostitution of the powers is the result; offensive to God in the proportion in which the subject of these qualities is raised above the vulgar population of the globe. Witness the extreme cases of a Voltaire and a Byron. When such instances are nume- rous, giving character to a nation or a generation, we have the spectacle of Atheistic France, and apostate Germany. The Christian scholar should pray with every breath, that he be not high-minded, but fear. In proportion as he rises in attainments, he should sink in veneration, and dissolve in love ; striving to increase his simple devotions as he increases his mental dis- coveries. Is there not reason to think, that many learned per- , sons feel somehow absolved from the private daily duties of religion which they would themselves enjoin on humbler minds ? 86 THOUGHTS ON PEEACHING. that they pray less, read God's word less, and sing God's praise less, while they are filling up every hour with eager pursuit oi \ knowledge 1 To live thus is to belie our own professions. We declare our belief that truth concerning God in Christ, is the summit of all truth, and that cold science is insufficient ; that these glorious objects are to be tasted by faith, and kept con- stantly before the mind by devotion. Thus believing, we should not grudge the time bestowed on closet exercises. If these are anim9,ted by the Spirit of grace, they are the most sublime en- gagements of the mind, this side of heaven. And as religion in general is the highest science, so those truths of religion which are cardinal, are the noblest eminences of the mighty range. The plan of Grace, the Incarnation, the Person of Christ, the Atone- ment, the Paraclete, the Second Coming, are the local points on which the spiritual mind will be fixed, exercising itself accord- ing to the degree of its previous culture. § 146. — As a man gets older, his pursuits should change, and it is important to consider how. Till a certain point of feeble- ness, action should have more, and study less. After that point, example, counsel, and prayer, would seem to be the duties of a Christian old age. But plans of suitable change should precede these decays. "When one feels himself to have no longer any ascending ground in the journey, he should pause, and readjust his methods. What is good for 40, is not good for 50. In regard, for instance, to study ; all studies of preparation, are merely auxiliary studies, and most studies of education should be put away. New languages, unless they can be made to fall under the head of necessary amusement, should be dropt. New sciences and arts fall under the same rule. To consolidate and methodize, and complete what has been most successfully begun in former years — to turn theory into practice — to attack with vigour the great task of life — to cast out old evils, and by grace to exhibit a holy character, these are the duties of him who is growing old. The whole prospect is deeply serious, though it need not be alarming. § 147. Powerful exertion of the will, under influences of the HOMILETICAL PARAGKAPHS. 87 Holy Spirit, tends to drive away the tempter, and confirm habits of holiness. §148. Moral Education. — Beading a passage in the Apology of Socrates, I was more forcibly struck than ever before with the grand defect of our education. What should be the aim of all our education of youth ? It should be to make them good mm and good citizens. This should be apparent in every hour of every day. It is not so apparent. The languages and sciences are taught, but what morals and duty ? Leaving out the question of the Bible in schools, closely con- nected with this subject, how remarkable that we have no text- books and no classes, having reference to morals. There are no examinations to discover whether pupils are prepared for the duties of life. When we ask a boy concerning his progress, it is " How far have you got in Algebra?" or " Have you read Homer?" and not "What are the temptations of youth?" " What are the evils of gambling or strong drink?" " What are the dangers arising from corruption in voters ? " — The moral and practical part of education kept out of view. Education includes teaching and training. § 149. — Morality may exist in practice without religion. Here we do not mean universal holiness, or the highest virtue, which is itself religion. Morality is equivalent to the maintenance of certain relations between man and his fellows, or between man and society, or between man and his own interests considered objectively. These relations may subsist without any inward right feeling. § 150. — The mental acts of devotion to God are thought of i unworthily by most. In no acts can the human soul be moi-e nobly employed. Nothing we can do is so safe. In this employment of our souls we might well be willing to be arrested by death. No man can gaze long on the face of God in Jesus Christ, without being elevated. No one will love to do so, unless he has been born from on high. God grant me more of the spirit of true devotion. OO THOUGHTS 0^f PREACHING. § 151. — There is a wisdom whict is not in books. It may be gathered from books, considered as parts of innumerable real sources. Into books it may be transcribed, but only they -will comprehend it, who have been taught it from some other quarter. § 152. — He who comes down from the mount loving God, or from the cross loving Christ, needs no new frame or impulse for loving his brother also. And how beautifully, in all the texture of St John's epistle is Love interwoven with Light ! What a radiant holiness ; what a holy illumination ! The two seem almost one, in the apostle's mind, as they are in the infinite, primeval source ; for God is light, and God is love. And so, in regard to the creature, " he that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now." The acting of this principle in the new creature will be constantly purging out its opposites ; and this by painful struggles. Contrary prin- ciples of native selfishness will manifest themselves, but will be shamed and excluded. Every successful struggle of this kind will make the next easier, and will put it further oflF. Selfishness and love will come to be readily known ; and here will be a portable rule, to be applied in the absence of all lesser regula- tions. The study of Christ's character wiU first educe love to him, and put it into exercise, and then create a disposition to walk in love as he hath loved us. Thus faith will work by love. O, for greater measures of this Christian grace ! 0, for quickness to detect, and strength to cast out, the first poisons of anger, malice, envy, jealousy, and covetousness. § 153. — It is unreasonable to hope for a situation where men will not be found to oppose, envy, and blame. To expect this would be childish. Humble perseverance in plain duty, is the way to maintain an easy mind. Apply the Lord's rule about anxiety for the morrow. Work by the day, you may not live till to-morrow. Why cripple to-day's exertions by forecasting a trouble which may never come. Such vexations are trials sent of God. They have been common to all saints. Learn to bear the reproaches of even good men, for many sincere Chris- HOMILETICAL PAKAGBAPHS. 89 tians are far from perfection in wisdom, and there are degrees in knowledge and experience, and diversities of opinion, and there are strange and extravagant tempers. Some virtue is put to the test by every one of these troubles. Humility, patience, meek- ness, courage, fortitude, love of truth, faith, hope, and charity, are exercised thus. If a man's ways please the Lord, he will cause even his enemies to be at peace with him. § 154. Work at the Interior. — Keep right principles. Guard the heart. Do what is right. Approve yourselves to God. Eye the Judgment. Live as before God, and with Christ. Take good counsel, but confer not with flesh and blood. Let you whole life be a preparation for dying. Give your answers clearly, frankly, simply, and meekly ; and leam when, and where, and how to answer the fool according to his folly, and when to answer not. Be harmless as the dove. Study Christ's methods under the contradiction of sinners which he endured. Feel your own incompetency for any part of labour, and own your obligation to grace for every measure of success. Throw self overboard, and walk with singleness of mind, and you will certainly have success. Modern preachers ought to be ashamed to complain of opposition when they read of what befell the apostles and early teachers. God's words in vision to Paul at Corinth should be our encouragement, " Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace, for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee ; for I have much people in this city." At Ephesus this apostle ministered amidst opposition, "Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears and temptations." Acts xx, 19. He journeyed on, knowing that "bonds and afflictions" abode him. § 155. — The communications of a pastor with a parishioner are not to be made an affair of ceremony. Pastoral visits are not to be regulated by the laws whereby fine ladies govern their morning calls. A spiritual message is what Christ's minister carries to a house, and has in it something too solemn to be treated like a visiting-card. 90 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. § 156. — Great care is needful to avoid harshness and spiritual pride in dealing with weak professors. We must copy the wise physician, who often has to condescend to the nervous and whimsical. The gentleness of Paul and Paul's divine Lord should be always before us. § 157. A Batch of Maxims : (1.) Make not too much of maxims ; they are, after all, but measuring-rules. (2.) Give ten thoughts to the question, What will God think of it, before one to. What will men think of it. (3.) If you could act like an angel, some would blame ; do your best, and in the long run you will please more than by doing anything for the bare purpose of pleasing. (4.) Never give over striving against a bad habit. Begin again and again a thousand times. Victory wUl come. (5.) Return daily and hourly to the study of Scripture. (6.) For comic and childish jocularity, substitute mild, loving, and if you possess it, witty demeanour and discourse. (7.) Truth is food ; falsehood is poison ; error is injurious. Apply this to the reading of erroneous books, even when necessary. (8.) Some minds are more susceptible of harm from contact with falsehood than others. (9.) Infinite wisdom in the Scriptures is always accessible. (10.) The more you are dwelling in truth unalloyed, the more healthful will your thoughts be. (11.) Some minds, from susceptibilty to the unsettled influ- ence of error, are not fitted to be polemics. (12.) Do not discredit those convictions which have grown out of former investigations, even though the explicit arguments for them are forgotten. The mind should make progress in convic- tion as well as in knowledge. § 158. Christian Love. — In this dreary, windy, winter night, when some of my household are iU, and some in bed, I feel in my loneliness the need of communion with other spirits than my HOMILETICAL PARAGRAPHS. 91 own. And how grateful to the soul at such an hour to know, that this inward craving is met by all the teaching of the gospel, and that no man liveth unto himself! The communion of saints and the communion of humanity are best connected with communion with Christ. Here is their origin and this is their bond. The man who has no love of the brethren has no love of his kind : the widest philanthropy is found in union with Christian graces. The Spirit, who unites men with God, through Christ, unites them to one another. This holy love, which we speak of even to triteness, and against which we are daily sinning, is more worthy of pursuit than all the objects of philosophy. I am from different lines of inquiry brought perpetually to the point, that the chief way of helping mankind is to work deeply within. True charity begins at home. But from its very beginning it cultivates a reference to those who are without. Christ, who teaches as none other ever taught, and wraps up whole volumes in a word, has taught us the grand secret of forgetting self We are to lay all at his feet. We are to seek his kingdom. We are to cease from loving our own life, nay, we are to lose it. Loving our neigh- bour as ourselves, we are to lay down life for the brethren, and to do all possible good to those whom we can reach, as if doing it to him. Never forgetting the inimitable and mediatory parts of his life and death, we see in them also an example of self- forgetfulness and sublime benevolence. The constant effort of the soul in this direction, under the Holy Spirit, is the chief activity in religion. It connects itself with all doctrines and with all graces. Humility, penitence, submission, patience, faith, hope, meekness, gentleness, self-denial, sympathy, diligence, truth, desire of truth, purity, generosity, courage, justice, veracity, candour, and cheerfulness, all ally themselves, as so many sisters with love. " § 159.* I am reading John Owen on the Sabbath. The difficulties of this subject increase on me very much. To * This, and the remaining paragraphs, are extracted from letters to his son, ■while a student in the Theological Seminary at Princeton, 92 THOUGHTS ON PKEACHING. understand what they are, read a page of Owen (Exereitations preliminary to his Exposition of Epistle to the Hebrews.) Part 5, Exerc. 1, § 5, p. 268, of Goold's Edinburgh edition. He gives sixteen queries, which afford matter for deep rumina- tion. My chief puzzles have always been about the questions. How much- of Sabbath observance comes from Creation — how much from Moses — how much is abolished — how much remains. Now and then the great old fellow says a mighty sly thingj, e. g., " Most men act as if they were themselves liable to no mistakes, bat that it is an inexpiable crime in others to be mistaken." " Some men write as if they were inspired, or dreamed that they had obtained to themselves a Pythagorean reverence." " Only 1 fear some men write books about them, because they ' read none." A sentence of his about preaching is worth being copied as a maxim ; " Nor must we in any case quit the strengths of truth, because the minds of some cannot easily possess them- selves of them." Dr Mason used to say that all his theology was from Owen on the Hebrews, and my father often remarked, that with all Owen's power, erudition, and originality, he never deviated in his theology into anything eccentric or hazardous. § 160. Don't make your sermon fine. Remember " great Julius's" word, and avoid verhum insolitum^ vfluti scopulum. Don't mistake the language of imagination for the language of passion ; the sin of our young ministry. I wish I had you for half an hour a day, to give you some voice training ; I have paid much attention to this, with one certain result, that I have learned to speak long and loud without fatigue. Nothing can be done on paper, however. All is only an expansion of old Sheridan's speak as you talk. Read aloud and study in your club, Monod's article, Bib. for 1843, pp. 191-211. He " is himself the great sublime he draws." Nothing in aU my history ever did me so much good. See the remarkable notes on pp. 205-6, and 208. This last opened my eyes to the matter. Read it and re-read it. I have the noble original, and have heard the matchless exemplifica- tion. HOMILETICAL PARAGRAPHS. ' 93 § 161. I hope you wiU let no kind of reading keep you from looking daily — ^if only for five minutes — into a class of writers, who are not attractive in regard to letters, but who unite great talents, great Bible knowledge, and great unction. At the head of these stands Owen. My father used to say one should read " Owen's Spiritual Mindedness" once a year. I add his " For- giveness of Sin ; " his " Indwelling Sin," and his '" Mortification of Sin." Here we have philosophical analysis applied to phenomena of experience. Yet more Platonic and seraphic are Howe's " Delight in God," and " Blessedness of the Righteous." Flavel's " Keeping the Heart," is less deep, but more clear, purling, and delicious. As to Baxter, I think his English equal to any ever written. One such book kept near at hand, and opened for a few moments every morning, seasons the thoughts. So of good biographies — so one does not seek to copy details and idiosyncrasies ; Simeon's Life — Martyn's — Brainerd's (with due allowance of his diseased gloom) — ^Edwards' — above all Haxibueton's. I have no doubt of your becoming sufSciently leai'ned ; but I have great fears lest you should look for happi- ness too much in the aesthetic, then the divine part of the To K A AON ; lest literature andart should occupy the place of spiritual communion. It requires great striving to keep an academical life from promoting habits of mind out of sympathy with the great activities of good men in the arena and battle of the church. § 162. In thinking upon any subject, with a view either to writing or speaking, the mind is apt to flit away, or to fall into sterUe reverie. Against this, the common remedy is the pen; and it is valuable. But it is not indispensable, or even the best. Let me suggest a device which I never met with in books, but which I have practised in bed and on horseback. Stake down every at- tainment in ymir thinkivg hy a verbal proposition. The thing of emphasis is the prepositional form. We are not now considering whether it is true, or important, or in due sequence ; put your thought into words, as affirming or denying. After a little turn- ing of it, put the result into words. Seek to deduce another from 94 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. the one you have. N.B. These will often prove heads of dis- course. If you have a dozen of these on any subject your work is blocked out. The aid to memory is surprising. Wretched as that no -faculty is in me, I always remember such propositions from one day or week to the next. In early efforts it may be well to utter them audibly. It shows you that you are going on— and how fast — and when you have come to a logical dead-lock. This has often been my only preparation for speaking. I consider this so important, and am so much afraid of being mis- understood, that I will give you an example, being the last subject which thus engrossed my attention, in Broadway and in bed; preferring it for the very reason, that it has not yet thrown itself into any crystallization : 2 Tim. iii. 4, "lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God." 1. Man loves pleasure. 2. The pro- pensity to such pleasure exists by nature in all men. 3. The merely animal nature is governed by this as a law. 4. Pleasure must not be taken to include absence of pain. 5. He who gives full swing to this propensity, so as to do just what he pleases or wishes, does not thereby reach perfection. 6. He does not thereby attain moral excellence. 7. Nay, he does not attain happiness, the very thing he seeks. 8. Such indulgence is ruinous. 9. Consequently, this cannot be the highest law of man. 10. Many go great lengths this way, though nature itself cuts them short. 11. As absolute self-indulgence is ruinous, the love of pleasure must be checked. 12. The normal life is therefore one of checks and counterpoises. 13. Strength, happi- ness, and every great quality are produced by such struggles and antagonisms. 14. Hence men seek pleasure in toil, labour, pain, navigation, hunting, fighting. 15. Happiness is more in effort than indulgence. 16. Seeing then that propensity must be checked, it must be considered what principles can be brought in, to countervail a tendency so powerful. 17. Selfish interest is not strong enough. 18. Reasoning is not strong enough. 19. Mere conscience is not strong enough. 20. Love is not strong enough. 21. Honour is not strong enough. 22. The text declares what is strong enough: the love of God: &c., &c. This will suggest something as to the genesis of thought. Each IIOMILETICAL PAIiAGRAPHS. 95 proposition brings forth tlie next. Sometimes the series is not so much thus, A as thus, A B BCD X c X D Sometimes the next proposition will be only a neater enume- ration of the preceding ; and this process is eminently useful to the mind. Sometimes No. 2 will be an example of No. 1 . Sometimes you will see that the order is capable of improvement ; so above, I perceive that the order (on rhetorical grounds), should be 20, 21, 19, 22. If a man will only pursue this process far enough, he will acquire plenty of material, in such quality as agrees with his other knowledge and native powers. The principal thing gained by this method is, I own, the^- ing of attention. But this is after all the principal thing in all processes of productive thought. What is it that a man does in thinking out any subject, beyond keeping his mind's eye looking in a certain direction? What shall arise in that quarter is as unknown to him as to any one else. This is one of the greatest mysteries in the origin of thoughts. The turning of certain leading thoughts, as they arise, into propositions, marks the rate of progress, indicates direction, and blazes one's way through the forest. Each stake tethers the thought, which would wan- der. There is an additional advantage in this, that we never have the full use of language, as an instrument of thought, unless when we cause our thoughts to fall into assertory shape. These have been views, regulating by practice for a great many years ; but I have only of late come to think that they are overlooked by many. This is to be considered rather as marking progress than contributing to the generation of thought ; though it in- directly does the latter. — It is to be observed, that many of the thoughts which rise, and even take this propositional form, are to be immediately resisted, as false, irrelative, or superfluous. 9fi THOUGHTS ON PREAOHIKG. Making the" proposition is only putting them into a shape in ■which they can be tested. As the getting of something to say (the ancient Inventio) is the prom etpuppisoi aR preparation, I have dwelt a little on this point. Such endeavours are not to be made invita Minerva. All times are not equally good for production. This belongs to the passivity of the mind in these processes. We must wait upon it ; sometimes leave it, to rest or expatiate, return to the task again, and especially catch at moments of inspiration. Generally speaking, faithful thinking gives pleasure. But the beginnings are generally tentative. Change the scene. A subject will look differently, in the study, in the forest, by the sea-side, and in the crowded thoroughfare. External circumstances often stimulate, while they seem to interrupt the productive faculty ; just as shaking a solution will sometimes fix a crystallization. Rest, es- pecially in sleep, greatly helps. Clearing up of the general ' health is useful. For these reasons trains given up as impracti- cable will be successfully resumed after months. Thus I have spun out a long yarn upon this simple expedient of fixing one's thoughts in propositions, during the process of excogitation. No one method has been so much employed by me in sermonizing, and mostly when walking up and down the floor, or some path among the trees. § 163. I have sometimes thought of writing you a letter on maxims, but time has failed me. It is a subject which has occu- pied much of my thoughts, and, I suppose, has somewhat modi- fied my character such as it is. By a maxim, I mean a general principle of conduct, expressed in a concise, portable, applicable manner. When it hits public taste and runs through society, it becomes a proverb. The best thing Lord John Russell ever said, was his definition of a proverb : " the wisdom of many — ' the wit of one." (Study a little on this.) • I have a great penchant for proverbs, in spite of Lord Chesterfield's denuncia- tion. I have several collections, and I wish I had more. But to return to maxims, which are not all proverbs, fhey are generalizations from the wisdom of experience. Here minds HOMILETICAL PAEAGRAPIIS. 97 differ very much. Some men seem to lay up no general con- clusions, however long they may observe. Your grandfather used to say, that old Samuel Venable was the wisest man he ever knew ; that, like Franklin, he was continually treasuring up the lessons of experience, and framing resultant rules, which often would be highly valuable to others. You may remember some good things in French on this point. But at present my aim is not so much to lead you to enjoy other people's maxims, as to frame your own. No man can begin too soon to philoso- phize upon mind, manners, morals, and religion. Make maxims. Make a maxim every day. Do not force it-— =-but if you watch for it, it will come. When you are not looking for quail, the shrill " Bob White " reaches your ear without impression ; but when quail are your special quarry, you catch the most distant whistle. He that is on the look out for maxims will find them. A young man's maxims must be juvenile and often hasty ; but that particular turn of mind which frames them is all important. Let me take an humble instance. At a certain period of my life, I was much afflicted with a sort of bodily inertia. If I was on the sofa, I did not like to take a chair. If I was in my fauteuil, it irked me to get up. My flute was in the attic, but the trouble of mounting so high overbalanced the desire to play. This grew on me so much, and so killed all alacrity, that I laid down this rule to myself. Never avoid doing anything, becavse of the short bodily trouble it may occasion. It has saved me a world of useless regrets. From little things, we shall by degrees proceed to great. He that has his mind most stored with such tried conclusions, will be best armed for the battle of life. There i is no reason why he should blurt them out to others : they are his own pocket rules. It is not a matter of indifference how these are expressed. A terse, felicitous maxim is like an in- strument brought to its perfect state. The thought may pass - through a thousand minds (the wisdom of many) before it comes ' to a shape of memorable and crystalline expression (the wit of one). It may be compared to one of your happy formulas in mathematical analysis. Many a man had discovered it before one happy punster said. Amicus certus in re incertd cernitur. One H 98 TilOUGHTS ON PEBACHING. such conclusion (even without the happy form) is a gain for life ; and is like a sum laid up in store for coming days. But chiefly do I refer to rules for one's own conduct, derived from one's own experience. This word " experience," means the sum of such knowledge. That man's experience is most service- able, which is most reduced to palpable formulas ; as that philosopher's observations are most valuable when distinctly methodized. Do not think I wish to make you a coiner of , proverbs. He might be proud, who could make a single good one. But the proverb, like the epic and the fable, is an extinct genus. The collection of Solomon's is wonderful; you may imagine how much is lost by a version which is literal, modern, and occidental. I find lists of proverbs very good reading. But to return — it is not to provoke you to make proverbs, but to lead you to maximize ; first, to deduce some law, fact, or general rule ; secondly, to give it a memorable shape. We are constantly doing so, on a small scale. Thus, after some painful experiments, a young man arrives at a maxim like this — " always to break off any dispute when I find myself growing warm." What we call vnsdom, as distinct from knowledge, consists very much in the habit of observing and amassing such conclusions. A very great fondness for the sententious has made me a lover of what are called adages, or apothegms. There are many such in Horace and Terence. They abound in Seneca. You know how Sancho Panza's mouth was filled with them ; there- fore they must have hit the fancy of Cervantes. The Spaniards derived their taste for them from the Arabians. Some of the Spanish proverbs are very racy ; e.g., 1. Touch a sore eye only with your elbow. Take your wife's first advice, not her second. 3. Leave your jest while most pleased with it. 4. Setting down in writing is a lasting memory. Apropos of which last proverb, I have found much pleasure in writing down at night what I call the thought of the day; that is, some reflection derived from the day's observation, especially if it can be couched in a single sentence. § 164.* Prefer a subject with which you have some acquain- * From a letter to his son in college. HOMILBTICAL PABAGRAPHS. 99 tance. The more special the subject, the more you will find to say on it. Boys think just the reverse ; they write of Virtue, Honour, Liberty, &c. It would be easier to write on the pleasures of Virtue, the Honour of knighthood, or the difference ' between true and false Liberty ; which are more special. Take it as a general rule, the more you narrow the subject, the more thoughts you will have. And for this there is a philosophical reason, which I wish you to observe. In acquiring knowledge, the mind proceeds from particulars to generals. Thus Newton proceeded from the falling of an apple to the general principle of gravity. A great many particular observations were to be made on animals before a naturalist could lay down the general law, that all creatures with cleft hoofs and horns are gram^ivorous, or that all birds with two toes before and two behind built in holes. This process is called generalization. It is one of the last to be developed. Hence it requires vast knowledge and mature mind to treat a general subject, such as Virtue, or Honour, and it is much better to begin with particular instances. It may be added, that this mental process, of deducing general laws or principles from numerous instances, is also called Induc- tion. It is by a consideration of minute facts, called an " induc- tion of particulars," that we infer (in-ducimus) a general principle. And this, simple as it seems, is the foundation of the whole Baconian or Inductive philosophy. If you will carefully attend to what I have written, you will have clearer views than are common among young men, on a fundamental point in Meta- physics. § 165. I recommend you to keep an Ephemeris, journal, or every-day book, not for putting down religious frames, but facts, notes of conversations, dates, and hints towards more extended composition. Some most valuable Boswellisms are laid up in these volumes. I regret that I did not begin till 1834, but since then my series is full and unbroken. Thoughts jotted down there have a peculiar freshness. Pascal's " Thoughts " had this origin. In Tangier's edition they are printed just as Pascal left them, with all their errors, blanks, &c. In one place he even 100 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. says that, on taking the pen, he forgets the thought which he intends to record. In my humbler endeavours, these " thoughts of the day " vary from one sentence in length to fifty pages ; and on enumeration I find them more than a thousand. It is wonderful how things will grow, if you do the least hit every day. It is so in learning languages. Many of these paragraphs of mine are schoUa upon Scripture passages. Some of them are prayers, the writing of which, as also the re-perusal long after- wards, I have found of great value. When we spend sometime together, I wiU read to you some of my occasional notes on preaching from these books. § 166. My father used to say to me : Think long and deeply on your subject, and as if nobody had ever investigated it before. I did not then know what he meant. One of the chief uses of writing sermons is, that it keeps one a-thinking. The pen seems to recall the thoughts. Some cannot think without it ; which is bad — very bad. This is all a matter of habit. The greatest other use of writing is that the matter is preserved-. For I will not include correctness, and polish of style, &c., which can be fully obtained by the other method. LETTERS TO YOUNG MINISTERS. LETTER I. ON DEVOTION TO THE WORK OF THE MINISTRY. When I look back on the years which I have spent in the ministry, I cannot but think that much benefit would have arisen from such honest and plain advices as most of my elder brethren could have given me. It is this which induces me to offer you the hints which follow. These must be somewhat like personal confessions ; since the rules which I have to pro- pose are derived in several cases from my own delinquencies. You know the old similitude: '^ Experience is like the stern- i lights of a ship, which cast their rays on the path that has been passed over.^' It will be some little consolation if others shall be benefited, even by our failures. May God of his infinite mercy, give his blessing to these suggestions ! You have lately entered on the work of the ministry : my solemn advice to you is, that you devote yourself to it wholly. You remember the expression, Ei/ niroig 'iSi: 1 Tim. iv. 15. The complaint is becoming common, respecting young men entering the ministry, in every part of the Church, that many of them lack that devotion to their work, which was frequently manifested twenty or thirty years ago. It is vain to attribute the alleged change to any particular mode of education. In this there has been no such alteration as will account for the loss of zeal. The cause must be sought in something more widely 102 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. operative. The effect, if really existing, is visible beyond the circle of candidates and probationers. Nor need v^e go further for an explanation, than to the almost universal declension of vital piety in our Churches, vrhich vcill abide under every form of training, until the Spirit be poured out from on high. The fact, however, remains. Here and there are young ministers, visiting among vacancies, and ready to be employed in any promising place, who are often weU educated persons, of good manners, and irreproachable character : but what a want of fire ! There can be no remedy for this evil, but a spiritual one; yet it is of high importance that the young man should know what it is he needs. He has perhaps come lately from his studies, in the solitude of a country parish, or from some school in the mountains ; or from some sound but frigid preceptor, who, amidst parochial cares, has afforded him few means of stimulation. His thoughts are more about the heads of divinity, the partitions of a discourse, the polish of style, the newest pub- lications, or even the gathering of a library, than about the great, unspeakable, impending work of saving souls. He has no consuming zeal with regard to the conversion of men, as an immediate business. Let us not be too severe in our judgments. It cannot well be otherwise. None but a visionary would ex- pect the enthusiasm of the battle in the soldier who, as yet, has seen nothing but the drill. Yet this enthusiasm there must be, in order to any greatness of ministerial character, and any suc- cess ; and he is most likely to attain it, who is earliest persuaded that he is nothing without it. It is encouraging to observe, that some of the most useful and energetic preachers are the very men whose youthful zeal was chiefly for learning, but who, under providential guidance, were brought at once into positions where they were called upon to grapple with difficulties, and exert all their strength in the main work. Such were Legh Richmond and Dr Duncan. In the sequel, you vrill be Mly relieved of any apprehensions that I mean to deter you from study, or even from elegant liter- ature ; but this must be subordinated to the principal aim ; its place must be secondary. Some who have been most successful LETTERS TO VOUNG MINISTERS. 103 in winning souls have been men of learning ; Augustine, Calvin? Baxter, Doddridge, Martyn ; but tliey laid all tlieir attainments at the foot of the cross. As Leighton said, to a friend who ad- mired his books, " One devout thought outweighs them all !" This is not peculiar to matters of religion. No man can reach the highest degrees in any calling or profession, who does not admire and love it, and give himself to it — have his mind full of it, day by day. No great painter ever became such, who had it only as a collateral pursuit, or who did not reckon it the greatest of arts, or who did not sacrifice everthing else to it. Great commandei-s have not risen from among dilettante soldiers, who only amused themselves with the art of war. The young minister, who is evidently concentrating his chief thoughts on something other than his ministry, will be a -drone, if not a Demas. Look at the books on his table, examine his last ten letters, listen to his conversation, survey his companions : thus you will learn what is uppermost in his heart. And if you find it to be poetry, aesthetics, classics, literary appointments, snug settlement, European travel, proximity to the great ; be not surprised if you find him ten years hence philandering at, soirees, distilling verse among the weaker vessels of small liter- ature, operating in stocks, or growing silent and wealthy upon a plantation. It is a source of deep regret to many in review of life, that they have scattered themselves over too many fields ; let me entreat of you -to spend your strength on one. When we call up in memory the men whose ministerial image is most lovely, and whom we would resemble, they are such as have been true to their profession, and who have lived for nothing else. Some there are, indeed, who have had a clear vocation to the work of teaching, which is really a branch of the min- istry, and one of its most indispensable branches, and who have served Christ as faithfully in the school-room or the university, as in the pulpit ; such were Melancthon, Turrettine, Witsius, Witherspoon, Dwight, Livingston, Eice, and Graham. But our concern is with ordinary ministers, called to no other public station ; and of these it is unquestionable, that the most success- ful are those who have lived in and for their spiritual work. 1 04 THOUGHTS ON PKEACHING. Call to mind the chief Nonconformists ; also of later date, New.- ton, Cecil, Brown, Waugh, Simeon ; the Tennants, Eodgers, M'MUlan, M'Cheyne, and of our own acquaintance the " greatly- beloved" William Nevins. In these men, the prominent pur- pose was ministerial work. If at any time they wrote and pub- lished, it was on matters subservient to the gospel. This accounts for the holy glow which, even amidst human imperfec- tions, was manifest in their daily conversation. They might have been eminent in other pursuits, but they had given them- selves to the work of Christ. In another letter, the subject may be more appropriately dis- cussed, but I cannot forbear calling your attention to the bear- ing of this on the tone of preaching. Suppose . a man has been all the week with Goethe and de Beranger, or with Sue and Heine, or even vsdth the Mathematicians or Zoologists, not to speak of prices-current, stock quotations, or tables of interest ; how can he be expected, by the mere putting on of a black gown or a white neckcloth, and entering the pulpit, to be all on fire with Divine love ! No wonder we preach so coldly on the Sabbath, when we are so little moved on week-days, about what we preach. You have perhaps met two or three clergymen lately ; what did their conversation turn upon ? The coming glory of the Church ? the power of the Word ? the best means of arousing sinners ? even the most desirable method of prepar- ation ? or some high point of doctrine ? Or were they upon the last elefttion, the last land speculation, the last poem, or the price of cotton and tobacco ? According to your answer, will be the conclusion as to the temperature of their preaching. There is indeed a sort of pulpit fire which is rhetorical — proceeds from no warmth within, and dififuses no warmth without ; the less of it the better. But genuine ardour must arise from the habitual thought and temper of the life. He with whom the ministry is a secondary thing, may be a correct, a learned, an elegant, even an oratorical, but will never be a powerful preacher. You must allow me to give prominence to this devotion of heart to your work, here at the threshold, because it is my de- sire hereafter to enlarge more on your theological studies ; and LETTERS TO YOUNG MINISTERS. 105 I earnestly charge you to hold all studies as only means to this end, the glory of God in the salvation of souls. The day is near when your whole ministerial life will seem to you very short in retrospect. Let our prayer be that of the sweet psalmist of early Methodism : " I would the precious time redeem, And longer live for this alone, To spend, and to be spent for them "Who have not yet my Saviour known ; Fully on these my mission prove, And only hreathe to breathe thy love. " My talents, gifts, and graces. Lord, Into thy blessed hands receive ; And let me live to preach thy word, And let me for thy glory live. My every sacred moment spend, In publishing the sinner's Friend." That which we all need is to magnify our office, to recognize the sublimity of our work. There would be more Brainerds, and more Whitefields, if such views were more common ; and there would be more instances of great men struggling on for years in narrow, remote situations, but with mighty effects. The observation of good Mr Adam is striking and true : " A poor country parson, fighting against the devil in his parish, has nobler ideas than Alexander had." My dear young friend, if there is anything you would rather be than a preacher of the gospel ; if you regard it as a ladder to something else ; if you do not consider all your powers as too little for the work ; be assured you have no right to hope for any usefulness or even eminence. To declare God's truth so as to save souls, is a busi- ness which angels might covet : acquire the habit of regarding your work in this light. Such views wUl be a source of legiti- mate excitement ; they will lighten the severest burdens, and dignify the humblest labour, in the narrowest valley among the mountains. They will confer that mysterious strength on your plainest .sermons, which has sometimes made men of small genius and no eloquence to be the instrument of converting hundreds. Think more of the treasure you carry, the message you proclaim, ? ? 106 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. and the heaven to which you invite, than of your locality, your supporters, or your popularity. It is recorded of the excellent John Brown, of Haddington — and I regret that I have forgotten his very words — that to a former pupil who was complaining of the smallness of his congregation, he said : " Young man, when you appear at Christ's bar, it wiU be the least of your anxieties that you have so few souls to give account of" And the same good man said : " Now, after forty years' preaching of Christ, and his great and sweet salvation, I think I would rather beg my bread all the labouring days of the week, for the opportunity of publishing the gospel on the Sabbath, to an assembly of sinful men, than, without such a privilege, enjoy the richest possessions on earth. By the gospel do men live, and in it is the life of my soul." * On this subject the opinion of such a man as John Livingston will have weight with you ; for you know he was honoured of God to awaken five hundred by one sermon at the Kirk of Shotts. His life and remains, as published by the Wodrow So- ciety, show that the secret of his strength lay in his devotion to the work. " Earnest faith and prayer," says he, " a single aim at the glory of God, and good of people, a sanctified heart and carriage, shall avail much for right preaching. There is some- times somewhat in preaching that cannot be ascribed either to t the matter or expression, and cannot be described what it is, or from whence it cometh, but with a sweet violence, it pierceth into the heart and affections, and comes immediately from the Lord. But if there be any way to attain to any such thing, it is by a heavenly disposition of the speaker." | And again : " I never preached ane sermon which I would be earnest to see again in wryte but two ; the one was on ane Munday after the communion at Shotts, and the other on ane Munday after the communion at Holywood ; and both these times I had spent the whole night before in conference and prayer with some Chris- tians, without any more than ordinary preparation ; otherwayes. * See Waugh's Life, p. 53. t Sel. Biogr. AVodr. CoU., p. 287, &o. LETTERS TO YOUNGS MINISTERS. 107 my gift was rather suited to simple common people, than to learned and judicious auditors." * Here you have indicated the true source of pulpit strength. It is closely connected with the subject of this letter ; for the more you are swallowed up in the vastness of your work, the more will you he cultivating spiritual-mindedness. You will agree at once, that it is a sign we are taking the right view of our vocation, when the means which we employ for our personal growth in grace are the same which most conduce to the power of our ministry. Such an estimate of our work, as is here recommended, can be maintained only by a constant contempla- tion of the great end of all our preaching and pastoral labour — namely, the glory of Christ, the building up of his kingdom, and the salvation of souls. This should be always in your mind. When you go to bed, and when you are awake, it should be as a minister of Christ; not, surely, in the way of professional assumption, but with a profound sense of your dedication to a momentous work, for which one lifetime seems too short. There are legitimate occasions, on which a minister may deliberately and thoroughly relax himself, by entertaining books, music, company, travel, or even athletic sports, to an extent far more than is common among sedentary men : and I hope you will despise the canting and sanctimonious proscriptions of those who would debar clergymen from any summer repose, or resorts to the springs or sea-side. Nevertheless, in the ordinary minis- terial day, there should be no hour not devoted to something helpful towards the great work. This should give direction to all your reading, writing, and conversation. The volume which you have in your hand should be there for some good reason, connected with your ministry. It will appear hereafter, that the territory from which ministerial auxiliaries are to be levied, is exceedingly wide, and embraces all that can strengthen, clear, beautify, and relax the mind ; but the animus of all this must be a single eye towards the finishing your course with joy, and the ministry which you have received of the Lord Jesus. Acts xx. * Sel. Biogr. Wodr. Coll. p. 194, &c. 108 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. 24. Holding it to be a disgrace to a young clergyman not to be familiar with the Greek Testament, I add, Tr,v diaxoviav sou irktifopoftigov. Each instant of present labour is to be graciously repaid with a million ages of glory. LETTEE II. THE CULTIVATION OP PERSONAL PIETT. It is scarcely possible to treat of some subjects without run- ning into commonplaces : their very importance has made them trite, just as we observe great highways to be most beaten. The question has been much discussed, whether a minister should ever preach beyond his own experience. In one sense, unquestionably, he should. He is commissioned to preach, not himself, or his experience, but Christ Jesus, the Lord, and his salvation ; he is a messenger, and his message is laid before him in the Scriptures ; it is at his peril, that he suppresses aught, whether he has experienced it or not. He is, for example, not to withhold consolation to God's deeply afflicted ones, till he has experienced deep affliction himself. Tet every preacher of the gospel shoidd earnestly strive to attain the experience of the truths which he communicates, and to have every doctrine which he utters turned into vital exercises of his heart ; so that when he stands up to speak in the name of God, there may be that indescribable freshness and penetrativeness, which arise from individual and present interest in what is declared. In every Church there are some aged and experienced Chris- tians. These are specially regarded by the Master, and require to be fed with the finest of the wheat. The ministry is appointed with much reference to such; and they know when their portion is withheld. They may be poor and unlettered, and incompetent to judge of gesture, diction, or even grammar ; but they know the "language of Canaan," and the " speech of Ashdod:" I hold LETTERS TO YOUNG MINISTERS. 109 them to be the best judges of the ministry. How little does the starched and elegant, but shallow young divine suspect, that in yonder dark, back pew, or in the outskirts of the gallery, there sits an ancient widow, who was in Christ before he was born, and who reads him through and through. Mr Summerfield once related to me, that Dr Doddridge, when other more learned helps failed, used to consult a poor old woman, living near him, upon hard passages in his Commentary, and that he generally ac- quiesced in her conclusions. There is no teacher hke the Paraclete ; and the promise is, '■'■All thy children shall be taught of the Lord." Isaiah liv. 13. To be able to feed such sheep of Christ, if for no other reason, the young minister should seek to attain high degrees of piety. The truth is, such are the discouragements of genuine cross- bearing ministry, and so repugnant to the flesh are many of its duties, that nothing but true piety wiU hold a man up under the burden ; he will sooner or later throw it off, and begin to seek his ease, or preach for " itching ears," or phonographic reporters. It is an easy thing to go through a routine, to " do duty," as the phrase of the Anglican establishment is ; but it is hard to the flesh, to denounce error in high places, to preach unpopular doctrine, to labour week after week in assemblies of a dozen or twenty, to spend weary hours among the diseased and dying, and to watch over the discipline of Christ's house. Nothing but an inward enjoyment of divine truth, and a refer- ence to the final award, will stimulate a man to constancy in such labours. You will be called, as a minister, to spend much time in la- borious study, the tendency of which is to draw the mind off from spiritual concerns; and sometimes in the perusal of erroneous, heretical, and even infidel works, that you may know what it is you have to combat. Tour condition in this is like that of the physician, who ventures into infection, and makes trial of poi- sons. You will need much grace to preserve your spiritual health in such perils. The freedom with which you must mingle in society will expose you to many of the common temp- tations of a wicked world ; and it will require the extreme of 110 THOUGHTS ON PKEACHING. reserve, caution, and mortification, on your part, to prevent your falling into the snare. In the present day, out of opposition to the ascetic life, we all probably act too much as if we were " children of the bride-chamber," and too much neglect the sub- jugation of the body. That a man is a minister is no token that he shall not be cast into hell-fire. The instances of apostasy within our own knowledge stare at us, like the skeletons of lost travellers, among the sands of our desert-way. No temptation hath befallen them but that which is common to man. The apT paritions of clerical drunkards, and the like, should forewarn us. " Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall ! " The apostle Paul expresses his view of this, in terms of which the force cannot be fully brought out by any translation : " But I keep under my body," wmvia^a. I strike under the eye, so as to make it black and blue, a boxing phrase, indicative of strenu- ous efforts at mortification ; as who should say, " I subdue the flesh by violent and reiterated blows, and bring it into subjection," SouXayiiiycit ; "I lead it along as a slave;'' having subjugated it by assault and beating, I treat it as a bondman, as boxers in the Patestra used to drag off their conquered opponents. And the reason for this mortification of the flesh is, " lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." 1 Cor. ix. 27. Dreadful words ! but needed, to deter us from more dreadful destruction. The tophet of apostate ministers must be doubly severe. It is the " deceitfulness of sin " which hardens so many of us into carelessness about so great a danger. Pride goeth before destruction, tUl suddenly, like Saul, the careless minister finds himself inveigled into some great sin. This may never be known to the world, yet it may lead to his ruin. " I am persuaded," says Owen, " there are very few that apostatize from a profession of any continuance, such as our days a;bound with, but there door of entrance into the foUy of back- sliding was either some great and notorious sin, that blooded their consciences, tainted their affections, and intercepted all de- light of having anything more to do with God ; or else it was a , course of neglect in private duties, arising from a weariness of contending against that powerful aversation which they found in LETTERS TO TOONG MINISTERS. Ill themselves unto them. And this also, through the craft of Satan, hath been improved into many foolish and sensual opinions of living unto God without and above any duties of communion. And we find that after men have, for a while, choked and blinded their consciences with this pretence, cursed wickedness or sensuality hath been the end of their folly." Of aU people on earth, ministers most need the constant im- pressions derived from closet piety. If once they listen to the flattering voice of their admirers, and think they are actually holy because others treat them as such ; if they dream of going to heaven ex officio ; if, weary of public exercises, they neglect those which are private ; or if they acquire the destructive habit of preaching and praying about Christ without any faith or emotion ; then their course is likely to be downward. Far short, however, a minister of Christ may be of so dreadful doom, and yet be almost useless. To prevent such declension, the best advice I know of, is to be much in secret devotion ; in- cluding in this term the reflective reading of Scripture, medita- tion, self-examination, prayer and praise. And here you must not expect from me any recipe for the conduct of such exercises, or rules for the times, length, posture, place, and so forth ; for I rejoice in it as the glory of the Church to which we both be- , long, that it is so little rubrical. How often you shall fast or sing or pray, must be left to be settled between God and your conscience ; only fix in mind and heart the necessity of much devotion. It is good sometimes to recall the examples of eminent preachers. John Welsh, the famous son-in-law of BJiox, was, during his exile, minister of a village in France. A friar once lodged under his roof, and on being asked how he had been entertained by the Huguenot preacher, replied, " El . enough ; for I always held there were devils haunting these minister's houses, and I am persuaded there was one with me this night ; for I heard a continual whisper all the night over, which I be- lieve was no other than the minister and the devil conversing together." The truth was, it was the Huguenot preacher at prayer. "Welsh used to say, " he wondered how a Christian 112 THOUGHTS ON PKEACHING. could lie in bed all night, and not rise to pray ; and many times he prayed, and many times he watched." Such cases are not altogether wanting in our own days : Mr Simeon, of Cambridge, in more than one instance is known to have spent the whole night in prayer. Let me seriously commend to your notice a paper contained in his life by Mr Carus, page 303, entitled. Circumstances of my Inward Experience. Almost every word of it is golden, and among other passages you will note the following : " I have never thought that the circumstance of God's having forgiven me, was any reason why I should forgive myself ; on Uhe contrary, I have always judged it better to loathe myself the more, in proportion as I was assured that God was pacified towards me. Ezek. svi. 63 Nor have I been satisiied with viewing my sins, as men view the stars in a cloudy night, one here and another there, with great intervals between ; but have endeavoured to get and to preserve continually before my eyes, such a view of them as we have of the stars in the brightest night ; the greater and the smaller all intermingled, and forming as it were one continual mass ; nor yet, as committed a long time ago, and in many successive years ; but as all forming an aggregate of guUt, and needing the same measure of humiliation daily, as they needed at the very moment they were committed. 1 Nor would I willingly rest vsdth such a view as presents itself to the naked eye ; I have desired and do desire daily, that God would put (so to speak) a telescope to my eye, and enable me to see, not a thousand only, but millions of my sins, which are more numerous than all the stars which God himself beholds, and more than the sands upon the sea-shore. There are but two objects that I have ever desired for these forty years to be- hold ; the one is my own vileness, and the other is the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ ; and I have always thought that they should be viewed together ; just as Aaron confessed all the sins of all Israel whilst he put them upon the head of the scapegoat." Such exercises as these, you will admit, may well give occasion for more than usual persistency in prayer. But lest you think only of sorrowing exercises, let me recall a passage, which Flavel gives concerning one whom he modestly LETTERS TO TOUNG MINISTERS. 113 calls " a minister,'' but who is well understood to have been ( himself; offering it not so much for imitation, as to show how deep were the experiences of one who was busied in various learning, and in all the scholastic argumentation of his day. He was alone on a journey, and determined to spend the day in self-esamination. After some less material circumstances, he proceeds thus : " In all that day's journey, he neither met, over- took, or was overtaken by any. Thus going on his way, his thoughts began to swell and rise higher and higher, like the waters in Ezekiel's vision, till at last they became an overflow- ing flood. Such was the intention of his mind, such the ravish- ing tastes of heavenly joys, and such the full assurance of his interest therein, that he utterly lost the sight and sense of this world and all the concerns thereof ; and for some hours knew no more where he was, than if he had been in a deep sleep upon his bed." Arriving, in great exhaustion, at a certain spring, " he sat down and washed, earnestly desiring, if it were the pleasure of G-od, that it might be his parting-place from this world. Death had the most amiable face, in his eye, that ever he beheld, except the face of Jesus Christ, which made it so ; and he does not remember (though he believed himself dying) that he had once thought of his dear wife or children, or any other earthly concernment " On reaching his inn, the same frame of spirit continued all night, so that sleep departed from him. " Still, still, the joy of the Lord overflowed him, and he seemed to be an inhabitant of the other world. But within a few hours, he was sensible of the ebbing of the tide, and before night, though there was a heavenly serenity and sweet peace upon his spirit, which continued long with him, yet the transports of joy were over, and the fine edge of his delight blunted. He many years after called that day one of the days of heaven, and professed he understood more of the life of heaven by it, than by all the books he ever read, or discourses he ever entertained about it."* Even if you should be disposed to treat this as one of the anomalies of religious experience, you will nevertheless do well * Flavel's Works, fol. ed., vol. i., p. 501. I , 114 THOUGHTS ON PKEACHING. to remark that the subject of these exercises is John Flavel, a man remote from enthusiasm, and whose extensive writings are characterised by regular argument and sound theology; and also that this very narrative was thought worthy of republication by the cool-headed Jonathan Edwards. The mention of which name reminds me of an instance given by him, of high religious joy, which has since his death been ascertained to be that of his own wife.* The narrative is long, but is worthy of your perusal. Among other traits were these : the greatest, fullest, longest continued, and most constant assurance of the favour of God, and of a title to future glory ; to use her own expression, " the riches of fuU assurance ; " the sweetness of the liberty of having wholly left the world and renounced all for God, and having nothing but God, in whom is infinite fulness. This was attended with a constant sweet peace, and calm and serenity of soul, without any cloud to interrupt it ; a continual rejoicing in all the works of God's hands, the works of nature, and God's daily works of providence, all appearing with a sweet smile upon [ them ; a wonderful access to God by prayer, as it were seeing him, and sensibly, immediately conversing with him, as much oftentimes (she said) as if Christ were here on earth sitting on a visible throne, to be approached to and conversed with. All I former troubles were forgotten, and all sorrow and sighing fled \ away, excepting grief for past sins and for remaining corruption, and that Christ is loved no more, and that God is no more honoured in the world ; and a compassionate grief towards feUow crea- tures ; a daily sensible doing and suffering everything for God, and bearing trouble for God, and doing all as the service of love, and so doing it with a continual uninterrupted cheerful- ness, peace, and joy. This was exempt from any assuming of sinless perfection, the claim to which was abhorrent to her feel- ings. Now, though these are the experiences of a woman, will any one say there is anything in them which would be unrea- sonable or undesirable in a minister of Christ ? True, we are by no means to make piety consist in transports, aa is irrefrag- ably proved by the great man who recorded these things : yet * Edward's "Works, voL iil, pp. 304, 399. LETTERS TO YOUNG MINISTERS. 115 there are hours or days in every life of long continued piety, which are remembered for years, and shed their light over all the remaining pilgrimage. And who should covet these Pisgah f views, if not ministers of the word ? There is among the pos- thumous papers of the incomparable Pascal, one, which he long ; carried about his person, and which contains the record of a particular visitation of divine love. It is one of the most seraphic productions of human language : in some places the joy and rapture and dissolving love seem to defy all ordinary expressions, and he can only write down such broken phrases as, joy — joy — tears — tears ; "joie—joie — pleurs ! pleurs!" The greatest scoffers will hardly reckon Pascal and Edwards among unreasoning devotees. Our age is disposed to sneer at high religious passions : it is perhaps the reason why the pathos of the pulpit has to such a degree departed. It is not, however, as a homiletic instrumen- tality that I would urge you to grow in grace, but far more momentous reasons, which, as a preacher, you have long since learned. LETTER III. THE HAPPINESS 01" CHEISt's MINISTRY. There is a romantic view of the clerical office, which may induce a man to assume it, without any religion ; which regards only its social and literary appendages, and the status in society which it secures, even where there is no establishment. Younger sons in England are frequently educated for the Church, as it is called, and spend their lives in a service for which they have no heart. Even though they may not follow the hounds, or be- long to the " dancing clergy," they may look no higher than the literary accomplishments of their place. Coleridge has some- where given an exquisite picture of a secluded, peaceful rectory. 116 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. seen in tliis light. Look at the Memoir of Gary, the translator of Dante, by his son, and you will see what I mean. Both were ' clergymen : yet there is as little religion in the work, as if it had been the life of an ancient Greek. The contributions of this man to letters were vast, but to religion insignificant. Now let us beware lest some thoughts kindred to these creep into our minds, and make us look rather at the repose,' than the work, of the ministry. He grossly errs who considers the life of an evangelist as other than a conflict. Yet it is happy ; in- deed I hesitate not to express my conviction, that the life of a faithful minister is the liappiest on earth. Some there are, it is true, who are dragged- into it, like a reluctant witness into court, collo ohtorto, and who never possess any of its rewards : but there are many who have found it a heavenly service. In seeking the constituents of this happiness, you should not look at the accidents of the ministry, but at its substance ; not at tlie quietude, respectability, emolument, or refining culture, but at the lifelong embassy from the Eedeemer to lost men. The truest, safest, most abiding ministerial pleasures are those which come from delight in the genuine object of the ministry, the salvation of men. But there is a collateral blessedness, \Yhich we may not despise, since God has deigned to bestow it on his servants. Even this you will be most sure of attaining, if you have much love of Christ, love of the gospel, and love of souls. The private life of a Christian minister ought to be a happy one. The apostle informs us in what it should be spent, to wit, the word of God and prayer. Acts vi. 4. I should ac- count it lost time to go about persuading you, that there is a happiness in the study of great moral and religious subjects, especially of the word of God. To have this made the business of your days ; to find your chosen solace enjoined as your duty to be shut up for life with prophets and apostles, nay, with Jesus Christ himself, speaking in the " living oracles," to be perpetually drawing water from the wells of salvation ; this is but a part of the minister's joy. While others must snatch time trom exacting toils, for communion with God, he may devote LETTERS TO TOUNG MINISTERS. 117 ■whole days uninterruptedly to such contemplations and delights as we find recorded in the lives of Augustine, Edwards, and Brainerd ; and may live among those gardens of spices, the odours of which liang about the pages of Binning and Ruther- foi"d. Catch but one strain from the experience of the latter, and tell me whether he were happy or not ; it is from one of his letters : " glorious tenants and triumphant householders with the Lamb, put in new psalms and love sonnets of the ex- cellency of our Bridegroom, and help us to set him on high ! O indwellers of eartk and heaven, sea and air, and all ye created beings, within the bosom of the utmost circle of this great world, O come, help to set on high the praises of our Lord ! O fairness of creatures, blush before his uncreated beauty ! created strength, be amazed to stand before your strong Lord of hosts ! O created love, think shame of thyself before this unparalleled love of heaven ! O angel of wisdom, hide thyself before our Lord, whose understanding passeth find- ing out ! sun, in thy shining beauty, for shame put on a web of darkness, and cover thyself before thy brightest Master and Maker !" Though these are not professional flights of soul, yet who should enjoy them, if not those who are called to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of their life, to " behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire into his temple ? " Psalm xsvii. 4. None of the private studies of the minister are absolutely peculiar ; yet the opportunity for them is more remarkably his. There is happiness in preaching. It may be so performed as to be as dull to the speaker, as it is to the hearers ; but in favoured instances it furnishes the purest and noblest excite- ments, and in these is happiness. Nowhere are experienced, more than in the pulpit, the clear, heavenward soaring of the intellect, the daring flight of imagination, or the sweet agitations of holy passion. The declaration of what one believes, and the praise of what one loves, always give delight : and what but this is the minister's work 1 He is called to converse with the highest truths of which humanity can be cognizant, and, if God so favour him, to experience the noblest emotions ; and this most, while he is standing " in Christ's stead." 118 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. I am persuaded, that previously to trial, ho young man can duly estimate the glow of puhlic discourse as a source of plea- sure. When the soul is carried by the greatness of the subject, and the solemnity of the occasion, above its ordinary tracts, so as to be at once heated and enlarged by passion, while the kindled countenances of the hearers, and the reflected ardour of their glance, carry a repercussive influence to the speaker ; or when the tear twinkles in the eye of penitence, and weeping throngs attest the power of truth and affection ; then it is that preaching becomes its own reward. This is more than rhetori- cal excitement and stage-heat ,■ it is caused by Christian emotion. Call it sympathy, if you please ; I am yet to learn what harm there is in this : it is legitimate sympathy. If a Christian minister ever has deep impressions of truth, we may expect it to be in the pulpit ; there, if anywhere, we may hope for special gifts from above ; and these gifts are dispensed for the sake of the hearer, and are reckoned on, as graces, or tokens of individual piety. Yet they constitute a great part of the preacher's happiness. They are not dependent on eloquence, in its common meaning ; for they fall equally to the share of the humblest, rudest preacher, provided he be all on fire with his subject, and bursting with love to his people. No scholarship, filing, or varnish, can compass this ; it comes from the heart : and many a minister has chipped at the edges of his sermon, and veneered it with nice bits of extract, only to find that its strength had been whittled away. There may be more awaken- ing or melting, in a backwoodman's improvisation, than in all the climacteric periods of MelviUe, or all the balanced splendour of Macaulay. Certainly the delight of soul is on the side of him who is most in earnest. It is especially love that moves the souls of hearers, and love, in its very nature, gives. happi- ness. It cannot be, that a man can be frequently the subject of those feelings which belong to evangelical preaching, without being for that very reason a happier man. The better moments of Andrew Gray, Hall, and Chalmers, must have been snatches of heaven. But be not discouraged when I mention these great names : the more you refer the joy LETTERS TO YOUNG MINISTERS. 119 of preaching to its legitimate and gracious causes, tlie more you will see that it may exist independently of what the world caUs eloquence. It is not only in the vast assemblies of a Chrysos- tom, a Bridaine, or a Whitefield, that the service of Christ brings its sacred pleasures, but in Philip Henry's little parish of i Worthenbury, which never numbered eighty communicants ; or in the early morning-lectures of Romaine, when two candles lighted all the house. Nor is this happiness restricted to great and decorated edifices ; it belongs to the itinerant missionary, who dismounts from his tired horse, and gains refreshment by dispensing the word to the gathering under the ancient oaks ; or who meets his circuit of appointments in regions where the truth has scarcely ever been heard. I exhort you to seek your highest professional delight in preaching the gospel, so as to be looking forward to the blessed hour during all the week. Little space is left for me to say that the minister of the gospel has a source of happiness in his parochial work and social communion. It is this, 'indeed, which distinguishes his calling, and is its grand prerogative. This brings him near to the hearts of his people, and, unless he betrays his trust, embraces him in their affections. The ministry may indeed be so dis- charged, as that the pastor shall have none of this ; he sits with his hat and stick in his hand, makes a morning call, or leaves a card : he is only a ceremonious visitor, from whom the children do not run and hide, only because they see him every day in the high-place. But the genuine bond is as strong and tender as any on earth, and as productive of happiness. Think of this, when you are tempted to discontent. What is it that reaUy constitutes the happiness of a residence ? Is it a fine house, furniture, equipage, farm, large salary, wealthy pew-holders? Nay, it is love. It is the affectionate and mutual attachment. It is the daily flow of emotion, and commingling of interest in common sorrows and common joys ; in the sick-room, and the house of bereavement, at the death-bed and the grave, at bap- tisms and communions. These things may be in the poorest, humblest charge : then the " dinner of herbs" is better than " the stalled ox." Growing old among such associations, the 120 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING, pastor becomes like "Paul the aged." Let us strive after a happier, that we may have a more fruitful, ministry. There is one occasion of joy, which is by no means rare in pastoral experience, and which ought in another of its aspects to be laid before you more at large ; it is the season when souls are awakened and converted in great numbers. The revival brings with it the joy of harvest. Too commonly we are con- tent to be like those who " glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves." How diiFerent is the case, when the wide fields are covered with golden ears ! Then it is, that " he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fr.uit unto life eternal." John iv. 36. Where there have been several such ingatherings, the pastor looks around upon the larger part of his church, as seals of his ministry, and in their turn they regard him with an -inexpressible tenderness of filial attachment. Growing old, in such circumstances, he is the patriarch of all the younger genera- tions ; and, even when the fire of his prime has departed, can fix, the attention and reach the heart, by means of this, very re- lation. See what strength this tie may acquire, even where the pastor is young, in the account of M'Cheyne's return to Dundee, after his mission to Palestine. It was a time of revival, and though he had not been himself the proximate instrument, he rejoiced in the fulfilment of the saying, " that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together." This was only the repetition of scenes which occurred among our Presby- terian ancestors in the seventeenth century. Ministers and people must have rejoiced together in uncommon degrees, to have endured the fatigue and protracted services of such occa- sions as are recorded. Under the preaching, for example, of Mr William Guthrie, author of the " Great Interest," hundreds of his hearers had walked miles to be present. It was their usual practice to come to Fenwick upon Saturday, spend the greatest part of that night in prayer, and in conversation on the state of their souls, attend on the Sabbath-worship, and on Monday return cheerfully to their distant homes. Those long sacramental services of our forefathers, comprising several days, and attended by thousands, sometimes excite a smile ; but they LETTERS TO YOUNG MINISTEKS. 121 remain on record as monuments of the elevated affections of those who joined in them, and enjoyed them. Not only the people, but the ministers — may I not say especially the minis- ters — were happy in tlie fellowship thus enjoyed. We know from experience the blessed fraternity and mutual- affection, cemented by holy joy, which prevail in those parts of our church, where the meetings of ecclesiastical courts are still made seasons of religious service. Such community of interest in the highest good tends, beyond everything else, to heal dissensions, and to exhibit ministers of Christ to his people in that union which, unfortunately, is not seldom interrupted. The expectation of such gratifications may be lawfully indulged. After all, what is the scriptural statement of ministerial happi- ness? "What is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing?" asks Paul ; and answers, " Ye are our glory and joy ! " 1 Thess. ii. 19, 20. Seek happiness, my dear young friend, in contem- plation of this reward. That moment will indemnify the minister for the losses of a whole life. " And is this the end," he will exclaim, " of all my labours, my toils, and watchings ; my expostulations with sinners, and my efforts to console the faith- ful ! And is this the issue of that ministry under which I was often ready to sink ! And this the glory of which I heard so much, understood so little, and announced to my hearers with lisping accents and a stammering tongue ! Well might it be styled the glory to he revealed. Auspicious day ! on which I embarked in this undertaking, on which the love of Christ, with a sweet and sacred violence, impelled me to feed his sheep and to feed his lambs. With what emotion shall we, who, being intrusted with so holy a ministry, shall find mercy to be faithful, hear that voice from heaven, ' Rejoice and be glad, and give honour to him ; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready ! ' With what rapture shall we recognize, amid an innumerable multitude, the seals of our ministry, the persons whom we have been the means of con- ducting to that glory !"* When you asked me for some advice respecting a course of * Hall's Works, p. 151. 122 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. ministerial study, you probably did not expect a series of letters so mucli like sermons as these liave been. In due time, if your patience should hold out, I hope to fulfil my original intention ; but I desire that we may both feel more and more deeply that none of our studies wiU be directed aright, unless we begin with just views of the great object of our calling. For this reason, I have ventured to spend sometime in setting forth considerations, which may serve to awaken the true ministerial zeal, and to turn your wishes and hopes towards the right quarter. LETTER IV. CLERICAl STUDIES. When learning in the ministry is mentioned, some are ready to think of a purely secular erudition, such as vdthdraws a man from his duty, or unfits him for it. Of this there have been too many instances, especially in countries where rich benefices have been afforded by an established religion. Even in a very different state of things, the clergyman may become a mere savant or litterateur, and rob his spiritual charge of the time which he spends in his researches. Such scholars may be very useful to society, yet most unfaithful to their vows, and it is under their auspices that evangelical warmth ha.s commonly died out in Protestant Churches. Without going to the extreme of Sterne, who was a licentious trifler ; of Swift, who was a Cynic, in both the senses of misanthropy and filth ; and of Eobertson who was scarcely a believer, one may sacrifice Christ to the muses. The Church of England continues to furnish some brilliant examples of this fi-om the prizes held out to men of learning, and the rich livings and fellowships which support clergymen without the necessity of parochial labour. Where the vocation of such a man is to the instruction of youth, we surely will not complain, if Providence allot to him a high dis- LETTERS TO YOUNG MINISTEES. 1 23 tinction in science or letters, along with faithful discharge of ministerial duty, even though the latter should not absorb all his care : you will remember such men as Isaac Milner, Jowett, and Farish. Yet I beg you to observe, that the ministerial learning which I am recommending is none of these, but is solely the discipline and accomplishment whereby you shall be better fitted for your appropriate work, and is therefore subordinated to your professional activity. This circle indeed is much vaster than some people think, and may in its sweep, comprise, in certain circumstances, and by turns, every part of the field of knowledge ; yet the particular aspect under which it is viewed is that of an auxiliary to the preacher and the pastor. The study is not a place for lettered luxury, nor for ambitious lucubration, with views fixed on secular authorship or academical promotion ; but the sacred palaestra in which Christ's soldier is supposed to be forging his armour, and hardening his muscle, and training his agility, for the actual combat of the ministry. And you must allow me to tell you plainly, that the danger is not that you will have too much of this preparation, that you will be overeducated, or extravagantly learned, but all the reverse. You may get great learning, vnth a bad motive ; you may get little, with the same : but all you will ever get, multiplied ten times, will not be too much for your work, or more than the Church and the times demand. Neither devotion, nor active labour, will furnish you an excuse for the neglect of knowledge. This is a question where examples are worth more than reasons. Look at Luther. Who was more devout? who was more active? Yet who was more devoted to learning, or more profoundly anxious, to the very close of life, that literature and religion should never be divorced, in the ministry of the Protestant Churches ? This it was which occasioned his famous sermon on the education of children : he perceived, as early as 1530, that in the fervours of reformation-piety there was a disposition to neglect refined cultivation ; he therefore penned this address, during a sojourn at Coburg. There is in it a passage so truly Lutheran, that I must give it you, even at risk of not sticking to my text. You will see in it the very presence of the Brother Martin of Goethe's 1 24 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. Goetz von Berlicliingen, as knitting his brow against the hard- fisted barons of his day. It shows, moreover, that he thought of labour, and not amusement. " There be some who think that the writer's office is a light, trifling office, but that to ride in armour, and bear heat, cold, dust, drought, and the like, is labour indeed. Ay^, this is the old, trite, fevery-day proverb. No man knows where his neighhour's shoe pinches. ' Every one feels his own disquiet, and gapes after the quiet of his fellow. True it is, it were toil to me, to ride in armour ; but then, on the other hand, I would fain see the knight who could join me in sitting still all day, looking on a book. Ask of any chancery scribe, preacher, or orator, what sort of labour there is in writing and speaking ; ask the schoolmaster, what toil there is in teaching and training boys. A pen is a light thing, that is true ; and' there is no tool more easily obtained, among all handicraft, for it asks only the wings of geese, of which there is abundance ; but there must be added to this the best part of man, the head, and the noblest member, the tongue, and his highest work, dis- course. All these must work together, in the writer ; whereas in the other it is only the fist, foot, and loins, for he can sing and joke all the while, which the writer must write alone. ' It is three fingers' work' (so they say of writing) ; but it takes I the whole body and soul to boot. I have heard say of the noble dear Emperor Maximilian, when the great Jacks {Hansen) about him used to grumble, because he employed writers so much in embassies and otherwise, that he spoke thus : — ' Well, what must I do f You would not let yourselves be useful, so I had to take writers.' And again : ' Knights I can make, but not doctors.' So I have heard of a clever nobleman that he said : ' My boy shall go to studies ; it is no great art to hang two legs over a horse, and be a rider ; that he has already learnt with me.' It was well and cleverly spoken. I say not this out of con- tempt for the knignly order, or any other order, but against the losel troopers {losen Scharrhansen) who condemn all letters and art, and boast of nought but wearing harness, and bestriding horse ; though this they do but seldom, and have for it lodging, ease, mirth, honour, and weU-being aU the year round. It is LETTERS TO YOUNG MINISTERS. 125 true, as the saying goes, ' Harness is heavy, and learning is light;' yet, on the other hand, to learn to bear harness is easy, but to learn, practise, and exercise art and science is hard." Perhaps no one, not even Melancthon, ever uttered a higher panegyric on clerical learning than Luther in one of his letters to Eobanus Hess. " Ego persuasus sum," S9,ys he, "sine literarum peritia prorsus stare none posse sinceram Iheologiam, sicut hactenus ruentibus et jacentibus literis miserrime et cecidit et jacuit. Quin video, nunquam fuisse insignem factam verbi Dei revela- tionem, nisi primo, velut prsecursoribus baptistis, viam pararit surgentibus et florentibus Unguis et literis."* But do not imagine from these remarks, that what I recom- mend to you at present is only, or chiefly, literature, in the popular acceptation of the word, and as distinguished from pro- fessional study. It is this last which should awaken your chief interest, and the rest may be more safely left to take care of it- self. There is no need of solicitation or stimulation, to bring a man in our day to acquaint himself with the lighter material; it floats on the surface, and is carried by the tide to his very doors. Make sure of the solids, and I have small fear of your suiFering for lack of novels, fugitive poems, magazines, and young-lady literature. Familiarize yourself witla master-pieces ; you will find in them relaxation enough, and may aflFord to look on the perishing nothings of the hour, as you do on the drift that plays along the edges of your river. I do not, of course, exclude the master-pieces of our own day; but truly great works are so numerous, that you need no more debauch your taste by read- ing them, than you need drinli Oberlin bread-coffee instead of Mocha. These things are true, even of simple literature ; but how the subject rises, when you look on yourself as called of God to live for his glory, to labour for souls, to expound his word ! One lifetime is very little for the attainment of the objects which seem indispensable, and some of which I hope shortly to table before you. Who, for example, even of the Chalmerses, Dwights, and Masons, could say that he had travelled round the entire * Vol. i. ed. Berl. 1841, p. 159. Ep. cccclxxviii. 126 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. curriculum of theology ? Who is the perfect historian ? I am sure it will be claimed by any rather than the Schroeckhs, Gieselers, and Neanders. Who is omnibus numeris complete in Hebrew, or even in Greek ? Thus might I go through the ency- clopaedia, and each would say, " It is not in me." So that the difficulty will not be to find out what a minister shall fill his time with in the study, but how, amidst his sacred and importu- nate engagements, he can obtain any time for private labours. Looking at the greatness of the harvest, and the shortness of life, one is tempted at the first blush to say, " Let the study alone ; go forth and save souls.'' And this has been so much the tendency in every era of church revival, that it would have been the settled policy to multiply unlettered preachers, if God, in his wonderful providence, had not, at the forming periods, raised up men to hold fast by the immovable maxims of sound learning. Such was Melancthon in Germany ; such was Melville in Scot- land. To the second of these, who can tell how much Presbytery is beholden ? When, in 1574, he returned to his native land, from a five years' attendance on the prelections of such men as Turnebus, Ramus, and Beza, deeply read in Hebrew and Syriac, able to declaim fluently in Greek, and a fit comrade for Buch- anan, thp great Latinist of his day, Melville set up a standard at Glasgow, which may well surprise us. " He taught usuallie twise in the day. Beside his ordinar professioun of divinitie and the oriental tongues, he taught the Greek Grammar, Ramus's Dialectick, Talseus's Rhetorick, Ramus's Arithmetick and Ge- ometric, the Elements of Euclide, Aristotle's Ethicks, Politicks, and Physicks, some of Plato's Dialogues, Dionysius's Geogra- phic, Hunterus's Tables, and a part of FerneU. The schoUers frequented, to the Colledge in suche numbers that the rowmes were skarse able to receave them." * Thorough learning in the ministry was builded into the very foundation, and has con- tinued to characterize the structure. In the earliest struggles of our Church in this new country, Presbyterian ministers were constantly seen uniting the self-denying ardours of the mission with the toils of the school and college. And when, under * Calderwood, pp. Ill, 339. LETTERS TO YOUNG MINISTERS. 127 temptations almost irresistible, it was sought to change the de- mand of qualification, the General Assembly chose rather to suffer the loss of a valuable limb, than to swerve from principles which were necessary to the healthful integrity of the body. If our brethren are unanimous in anything, it is, in Luther's judg- ment, that sound and varied learning must be sustained, if we would preserve the Church. Tou will mistake my meaning, if you fancy that the learning which I am holding up as suitable for the minister of the gospel, is such as might be demanded in a professor of the sciences, or a writer on classical and philological literature. It may be as great as these, but it differs in kind, and excludes a multitude of details, on which the other must expend labour. It is ministerial, or in its widest sense theological learning, which is pleaded for : but this is enough for all the powers. No' man need ever expatiate beyond the metes of divine science, from any want of room in the latter, or any excess of faculty above what may be consumed on the Scriptures. Lightfoot and Marckius, and other voluminous original commentators, doubt- less were ready to acknowledge that they had touched these waters only pimoi'ibus labiis. It js therefore with no extenua- tion of the work, that I say the clerical student is to pursue clerical studies : yet it may prevent misapprehension, and re- move objection, by showing the perfect harmony of the disci- pline proposed, with the daily incumbent duties of the sacred calling. There is such a thing as maintaining a transient popularity, and having a little usefulness, without any deep study ; but this fire of straw soon burns out, this cistern soon fails. The preacher who is constantly pouring out, and seldom pouring in, can pour but a little while. I need hardly caution you against the , sententious maxim, prevalent among freshmen, concerning those great geniuses, who read little, but think much. They even cite, as of their party, one of the greatest readers who ever wrote, as every work of his goes to prove; to wit, Shakspeare ! The ^ greatest thinkers have been the greatest readers, though the converse is by no means true. In reading the writings of those 128 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. most remarkable for originality and invention — and mark, it is in reference to these qualities only the reference is now made — we know not whether most to admire the adventurous flights of their own daring, or their extensive acquaintance with all that has been written before, on their chosen topics. You will see this remark strikingly verified in the productions of Descartes, Leibnitz, and Hegel. While, however, I say thus much for reading, I own that reading is but a part of study ; and that he cannot be admitted to the title of learned, who has not the habit of concocting, methodizing, and expressing his own thoughts. The great point is this : there must be perpetual acquisition. This is the secret of preaching. What theologians say of pre- paration for death, may be said of preparation for preaching ; there is habitual, and their is actual preparation : the current of daily study, and the gathering of material for a given task. It may be compared with what is familiar, in another faculty, that of Law : the lawyer has his course of perpetual research, in the great principles of general jurisprudence, or the history of statutory enactment, or the systematic arrangement of practical methods, and he has his laborious and sometimes sudden read- ing-up for an emergent case. Should he confine himself entirely to the latter, he must become a narrow, though perhaps an acute, practitioner. So likewise the clerical scholar, however diligent, punctual, and persistent, who throws his whole strength into the preparation of sermons, and who never rises to higher views, or takes a larger career through the wide expanse of scientific and methodized truth, must infallibly grow up stifi^, cramped, lopsided, and defective. His scheme of preaching may never take him through the entire curve of theology and Scrip- ture ; or the providential leadings of his ministry may bring him again and again over the same portions. These ai-e evils which can be prevented only by the resolute pursuit of general studies, irrespectively of special pulpit performance. Such habits will tend to keep a man always prepared ; and instead of getting to the bottom of his barrel as he grows older, he will be more and more prepared, as long as bis faculties last. But the grand evil to be warred against by the younger preacher, is not that of LETTERS TO YOUNG MINISTERS. 129 confining himself to pulpit preparation, but that of not preparing at all : and by preparation I mean study. To seize a pen, and dash off a discourse, on a subject heretofore not familiar, and with such thoughts as occur while one is writing, may insure ease and fluency of manner, but is little better than the delivery of the same thoughts without writing ; indeed, the latter possesses some great advantages, from the elevation of the powers by sympathy, passion, and attendant devotion. Engrave it upon your souls, that the whole business of your life is to pre- pare yourself for the work, and that no concentration of powers can be too great. The crying evil of our sermons is want of matter ; -we try to remedy this evil, and that evil, when the thing we should do is to get something to say : and the labor- ious devotion of some young clergymen to rhetoric and style, instead of theology, is as if one should study a cookery-book when he should be going to market. I yesterday listened to a sermon (and I am glad I do not know the preacher's name), which was twenty-five minutes long, but of which all the matter might have been uttered in five. It was like what the ladies call trifle, all sweetness and froth, except a modicum of cake at the bottom. It was doubtless written extempore. When a young clergyman once inquired of Dr Bellamy, what he should do to have matterlifor his discourses, the shrewd old gentleman replied, " Fill up the cask, fill up the cash, fill up THE CASK ! Then, if you tap it anywhere, you will get a good stream ; but if you put in but little, it will dribble, dribble, dribble, and you must tap, tap, tap ; and then get but little after aU." If, in this daily pursuit of knowledge, you keep constantly be- fore your mind the end for which you seek it, there need be no fear of excess : it is studies which divert us from the evangelic work, that are to be deprecated. To the last day of life, regard your mental powers as given you to be kept in continual work- ing order, and continual improvement, and this with reference to the work of preaching and teaching. You will fihd all great preachers to have lived thus ; and though neither you nor I should ever become great, we shall sink the less by reason of K 130 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. such Struggles. The whole of what we have to learn is, sub- stantially, in one volume ; for by this, it is declared, the man of God may become cfpr/os fp'S **'' ffyo" aya^iv l^ijpns/isws. LETTER V. HOW TO FIND TIME FOK LEARNING. All ministers are not called to be equally learned : it would be idle to expect such a result, amidst the marked differences of talent and circumstances. There is a gradation in this repect from the young pastor, who has almost all his time at his com- mand, to the itinerant who thinks he can do no more than read his pocket Bible. The objection to regular studies which meet us most frequently is, that there is no time for labour in the closet, from the pressure of parochial cares. You need no prompter as to this : indeed, I fancy I hear you exclaiming. How is it possible for one situated as I am, to find hours for learning ? I desire, in the present letter, to answer this very question, and to suggest a few considerations which will, per- haps, clear the path, and open some light through the seeming forest. After having had the same perplexities, I think I per- ceive certain principles by which a life of faithful pastoral and pulpit labour may be made compatible with sedulous applica- tion. First of all, if you would make the most of your scanty hours, keep the one sacred object in view in every study you under- take. This is the way to secure unity of plan. You bear in mind the twentieth proposition of Euclid's first book : the straighter your line, the shorter. I trust it is no wresting of the apostle's words to say. One thing I do ; or more laconically still < in the four letters of the original, 'en ii. Let your intentions branch out in every direction, undetermined whether you mean to be a great linguist, or an elegant classic, or a mathematician, LETTERS TO YOUNG MINISTERS. 131 or peradventure, a botanist, or a master of English literature, and it is plain enough that you will find all your time too little. There is such a thing as being very idly and unprofitably engaged in one's study. Far from loving restriction, or from wishing to coerce the mind in pursuing its bent, I would, never- theless, beseech you, when you go among your books, to know what you are after. Your end in life is sufficiently obvious ; and the studies by which it is to be attained are enough to occupy your time, if you are but faithful. It is of deliberate and stated application that I now speak : you certainly will not expect me to plan ways and means of gaining time for the an- nuals, monthlies, or weeklies. In your regular professional studies, you will find the whole field brought more clearly under survey, and the whole process simplified, by looking on every part of it with reference to your main work of expounding the Scriptures and preaching the gospel. This leads to a second suggestion of a particular under this general head. Form the habit of contemplating all your study , as the study of the word of God. In a large, but just sense, it is undoubtedly so. All your discipline and all your acquisition, all your reasoning power and all your taste, all your library and all your eloquence, are only so many means for learning God's word, and for teaching it. Exegesis, theology, contro- versy, church history, are only portions of the apparatus for learning and teaching. With this in your mind, you may go much further than many think, and yet return safe. As Scott, the commentator, used to say, " The bee may range widely, so that it brings all to the hive." Say to yourself daily, En codicem sacrum I " Here is my hive ; hither all my gatherings must be brought." The range of some men has been wonderful, and their powers of assimilation have been so great, that they have laid every department under contribution, and filled their dis- courses with the digested results of multifarious and almost in- congruous reading : take, as instances, Baxter, Sauiin, and Chalmers. But common minds need a strong centripetal force, and this is to be found in reverential love for Holy Scripture. No method known to me is so likely to keep you in the right 132 THOUGHTS ON PEEACHING, State of mind, in ttis respect, as the practice of devoting the first and best part of every day to the perusal of the Bible in the original tongues. Few will the days be, in which you wiU not discern the directive influence of this on the researches of the subsequent hours ; and the influence wiU be there, even when not discerned. From what has just been said, you will deduce the all-impor- tant rule, to lop off all irrelevant studies. Observe, we are not talking now of amusements, but of dogged labour. And if you mean to succeed, and to save precious time, see to it, that you rid yourself of all impertinent matters. In this age of books, tempt- ing studies will grow rank around you, and creep into your windows, as a great vine has been doing into the chamber where 1 write ; but you must be unrelenting, and make short work with their pretensions. The blue and yellow flowers among the corn must be plucked out, and you must be doing it every day. It is not a bad remark of Helvetius, though a bad man, that in J our day the secret of being learned, is heroically to determine to be ignorant of many things in which men take pride. Keep, as Fenelon says, the pruning-knife in hand, to cut away all that is needless : " On a besoin d'etre sans, cesse la faucille en main, pour retrancher le superflu des paroles et des occupations."* Especially must this resolution be exercised towards such branches of study as require a great expense of time, in order to any proficiency. There are some arts which are so jealous as to usurp the whole life, ^lian teEs of a young Greek who took up a famous philosopher into his chariot, and, driving round the stadium at fuU speed, showed him that his wheel had never de- viated from a given line : the philosopher replied, " Now you have demonstrated to me that you are fit for nothing else.'' There are, indeed, cases in which a strong tendency of taste and genius, toward some foreign branch of knowledge, as, for ex- ample, mathematics or geology or language, may break through all rule, and force the clergyman to eminence in his chosen or destined pursuit. But these are exempt cases, and we are treat- ing of those persons who avow their determination to live and * Ep, 338. LETTEES TO TOUNG MINISTERS. 133 die in the work of the ministry. If you, my dear friend, have other intentions, express them frankly, and save me the pains of any further disquisitions. But he who chooses the service of God in his sanctuary is called to great subjects, which are sufficient to fill up all his thoughts. Whatever a man may do as subsidiary to these, or as a healthful diversion from them, it is stiU true that scriptural or theological learning is the peculiar domain of the clergyman. Lest this should be thought too exclusive, I must add, that some degree of acquaintance with collateral sciences is absolutely necessary to a full understanding of our own ; for, as Lord Bacon says, large prospects are to be made not from our own ground, but from contiguous towers and high places.* But an- other sagacious observer says : " It is in my opinion, not any honour to a minister, to be very famous in any branch that is wholly unconnected with theology ; not that knowledge of any thing, properly speaking, is either a disadvantage or ground of reproach ; but for a man to show a deep knowledge of some par- ticular subject plainly discovers that he hath bestowed more time and pains upon it than he had to spare from necessary duty." I There is more self-denial in acting on this maxim than is commonly thought, and you wiU often be called upon to lay aside darling entertainments that you may more fuUy make proof of your ministry. Whatever will enable you to preach better, though it were a fable or a ballad, you may legitimately include in your plan ; but when you lay out your chief strength on matters purely secular, you so far abuse the golden vessel of the sanctuary. Observe this rule, and your will find it more easy to accomplish study, even in your limited time. It is not unworthy of statement, that there is such a thing as making the line of your studies coincide with the tenor of your preaching, even without the wearisome formality of a declared series. The subject of the sermon ought somehow to be in- * " Prospectationea fiunt a turribus aut locis prasaltis ; et impossibile est nt quis exploret remotiores interioris scieatiae alicujus partes, si stet super piano ejusdem soientiaj, neque altioris soientise veluti speculum consoendat." — Nov. Org. t "Witherspoon'a "Works, vol. iv. p. 20. 134 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. eluded in some recent course of study, though much of the latter may never be brought into the sermon. If, for example, you should be going into those heads of divinity which relate to the Person of Christ, you might easily draw material for all your morning discourses from subjects allied to this : in this you will find great economy of time. You cannot well overrate the benefit to be derived, in these respects, from carrying always with you a high estimate of your study-labours, in comparison with other men's labours, and other labours of your own. The clergyman's study, which some people regard as they would a pantry, or a genteel appendage to housekeeping, is the main room in the house, and (if consistent with Heb. xiii. 2) ought to be the best. It is the place where you speak to God, and where God speaks to you ; where the oil is beaten for the sanctuary ; where you sit between the two olive-trees, Zech. iv. 3 ; where you wear the linen ephod, and consult Urim and Thumraim. As you are there, so will you be in the house of the Lord. A prevalent sense of this will do more than anything to procure and redeem time for research, and will cause you to learn more in an hour, than otherwise in a day. That upper-chamber is also the spot where you will en- joy one of the most valuable means of learning and preparation, which we too much neglect — I mean conference with brethren about your work, and especially your preaching. And it will be your duty to impress on your people the truth, that you are as really serving them, when you are in your study, as when you are in their houses. But to render these views efficacious, you must, from the beginning, look on all your meditation, read- ing and writing, as a tribute to God, and a free-will offering in his lioly temple. This will lead you to pray over your researches, and to handle every topic as in the presence of Christ. It will tend to prevent your lucubrations from lapsing into a selfish, solitary, anchoretic abstraction from your charge. The more you are occupied upon the simple text of Scripture, the more re- markably will this temper prevail in you. In this, as in everything else, there is economy of time in punctuality and order : as Hannah More says, " It is just as in LETTERS TO YOUNG MINISTERS. 135 packing a trunk ; a good packer will get twice as much in as a bungler." The example of Dr Doddridge on this point, as re- corded in his life, is worth looking at. Lay before yourself some scheme, and have a distinct notion of what you are going to attempt. This is like the builder's working-model ; how sadly would he waste his timber and his time, if lie should fall to hewing, squaring, and sawing, without any conception of what he was going to erect ! Allow me to bring this matter a little more closely to you, by proposing the following questions, to be frankly answered by you on the spot, in foro comcientice. 1. What part of the week do I devote to study ; and, of this, how much to the original Scriptures ? 2. What part of Scrip- ture am I engaged in studying critically ? 3. What head of theology has lately been under investigation ? 4. What work of research have I lately mastered ? 5. What is my plan of study for the coming day ? I think it likely that there are some young pastors (and in none of these letters do I address myself to any others) who may find in these queries a key to their meagre attainments. One of the highest objects proposed in this correspondence, is to afford you some assistance in chalk- ing out your work, and rendering manageable the great business of clerical study. But after all, it cannot be concealed that there will be need of vigorous and unceasing efforts, to secure time for application, and to cut off all occasions of sloth and waste. You will be under a perpetual attraction to leave your study. The obviously pressing claims of your parish will pull you by the sleeve. You will find it indispensable to have some certain times consecrated to the word of God and prayer. The best proof that time can thus be rescued, is tlie fact that so many clergymen engaged in laborious charges, do actually spend much of their life in study. If propriety would sanction the disclosure, I would easily go into particulars, and give the names of eminent living pastors, with the laudable devices by which they compass the end proposed. One would be found to trench largely on the hours of sleep; a method scarcely to be recommended. Another would be seen rising, year after year, a long time before day. Some are known 136 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. to me, who accomplish all their heavy study before noon. A distinguished preacher in one of the largest churches, allows no interruptions during the last three days of the week. Two others have chambers attached to their churches, where they do not encourage visits, until certain hours. It is not for me to choose among these methods, nor to hold up my own as equal or superior. In nothing it is more important for a man to open his own path, than in habits of study. As a general thing, it would seem to be weU (using Scott's words) ".to break the neck of the day's work," as early as possible. There have been clergymen of great eminence, who observed no certain hours. J Dr Payson never denied himself to visitors ; his motto was, " The man who wants to see me, is the man I want to see." Such was also, the practice of the late Dr John H. Rice. There are situations where the young minister is constrained to act in this way. Where we cannot get the whole we must make vigi- lant use of a part. Even itinerants may gain knowledge ; and I have heard eminent scholars say, that nothing they ever read ' made so deep impression on them, as volumes which they found in their chamber window, and which they devoured vrith the greatest avidity, because they doubted whether they should ever see them again. Great concentration of mind is produced by such traits. John Wesley, as his journals show, perused hun- dreds of volumes on horseback ; you will find his notices of books in French, Latin, and Greek. Reading on horseback, though from no such necessity, was a favourite practice of the late Dr Speece, who was a helluo librorum; and also of Dr Campbell, of Rockbridge, whom I may name, though not a clergyman. More than twenty years ago, when I was much in the saddle, I was on a tour of preaching with the Rev. Abner W. Clopton, of the Baptist church. He was a man of much learning, and of such ministerial earnestness, that it was com- monly said that he preached at least three hundred and sixty- five sermons in the year. It was summer time, and I observed, that after an early breakfast, he would take his saddle-bags and retire into the shade of the woods for about three hours. For this purpose he always carried a volume or two of solid reading; LETTERS TO YOUNG MINISTEKS. 137 and at that time was making a second forest- perusal of Dwight's Theology. By such decision and self-denial, some men counter- act aU the dissipating tendencies of itinerancy, while they are enjoying its unspeakable advantages. But it is to be observed that such self-control is seldom found, except in those who have been previously subjected to most vigorous scholastic training. Where there is a will, there will be a way ; and the resolved purpose to be well furnished for the work is scarcely ever frus- trated. But to carry out such a purpose, you must avoid a thousand things, to which, at your age, you will be tempted, and which consume time and preclude habits of application. Providence so orders it, that generally speaking, the young pastor has a small charge. This is something mortifying ; but it affords invaluable opportunities for study, and so fits him for subsequent labours, where he can scarcely call an hour his own. There are many other respects, in which it is of vast moment to let the character grow up and take its settled form, in the shade of retirement. The danger is (and it ought to be fully before your mind) that you wiU use no more study than is necessary to meet the moderate demands of your little rural congregation ; if you yield to this, it may be safely predicted, that you will never rise above the stature you have already attained. On these subjects, much is to be learned from men of other professions ; and I have trequently been struck with the analogy between the busy lawyer's life and ours. In this respect, the maxims of the late Charles Butler, Esq., of Lincoln's Inn, are worthy of being transcribed ; especially as, in addition to large practice, and copious legal authorship, he published a number of works on general literature and religion. You will make the necessary modifications to adapt it to clerical life. Butler ascribes his saving of time to these rules : " Very early rising — ' a systematic division of his time — absence from aU company and irom all diversions not likely to amuse him highly — from read- ing, writing, or even thinking, on modern party-politics — and, above all, never permitting a bit or scrap of time to be unem- ployed — have supplied him with an abundance of literary hours. His literary acquisitions are principally owing to the rigid ob- 138 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. servance of four rules : 1. To direct his attention to one literary topic only at a time ; 2. To read the best book upon it, consulting others as little as possible ; 3. Where the subject was contentious, to read the best book on each side ; 4. To find out men of information, and, when in their society, to listen, not to talk." " It is pleasant to him to reflect, that though few have exceeded him in the love of literature, or pursued it with greater delight, it never seduced, or was suspected by his pro- fessional friends of seducing him, for one moment, from profes- sional duty."* Here let me leave you for the present, convinced that nothing impracticable is required of you, which I hope vrill be still more fully sustained by my next letter, which will be one of facts. LETTER VI. LEARNED PASTORS. The early Reformers and later Nonconformists were fond of dwelling on the distinction between the Pastor and the Doctor ; and the early New England churches had both : as early indeed as the Second Book of Discipline, the proper place was assigned to the schoolmaster and the professor. j- It ought to be a matter of devout thankfulness that God has in every age dispensed to his Church both kinds of gifts ; and that while some have been eminent for the cure of souls, others have been as signally fitted for the didactic part. Yet the error would be egregious, if you should think that the ordinary duties of the la- borious pastor are incompatible with the pursuit of learning. It is my present purpose to name some men who have remarkably * Butler's Reminiscences, p. 8. i" *' Under the name and office of a doctor, "we comprehend also the order in schooles, coUedges, and universities, quhHk hes bene from tyme to tyme carefullie maintainit, als Weill amang the Jewes and Christians, as amangs the prophane nations." — See Book of D. eh. v. § 4. LETTERS TO YOUNG MINISTEES. 139 united the two : out of a great number, I am forced by economy of space to select a few. Passing by Augustine and the early Reformers, as instances familiar to you, let me come to later times. I have before me the works of Robekt Bolton, in five quartos. They are purely theological, practical, and experimental, and full of masculine eloquence. The margin is studded with citations from classics, fathers, and scholastics, in the ancient tongues. Bolton is often quoted by Baxter and Flavel. He was probably the most powerful and awakening preacher of his day, and greatly blessed to the conversion of sinners. He wore himself out with almost daily preaching, and the same patience which led him to transcribe i the whole of Homer and comment on the whole of Aquinas was manifest in the perpetual labours of his parish. Bates needs no commendation of his piety, his eloquence, or his learning : the point to be observed is, that he spent his life in ministerial duty ; in his later years at Hackney, where he was a predecessor of Matthew Henry. His works evince as well his erudition as his pastoral zeal. John Owen and Richard Baxter, whose works by themselves make a library, were working pastors, through as much of their life as was allowed to them from persecution. Owen was about five years Vice- Chancellor of the University of Oxford, but was even then by no means without charge. But his great ministerial attainments were made while he was con" stantly exercising his ministry. The name of Baxter is Insepar- ably associated with his parish of Kidderminster. To look at his controversial works, overladen with enormous quotations from Chrysostom, Jerome, Hales, Scotus, the Reformers, and the very Jesuits, you would say he was never out of his study : to look at his preachings, catechizings, visits, and imprisonments, you would say he was never in it. " His Reformed Pastor" shows his standard in regard to pastoral fidelity ; he probably came as near to it as men ever do to their standards. John Howe, the least scholastic and most philosophic, if not angelic, of the Puritans, carried on his amazing researches pari passu with his pulpit and parish routine. He was very early settled at Great ToiTington, in Devonshire, where he remained until his eject- 140 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. ment. You perhaps remember his Latin correspondence, his manner of keeping fast-days with his people, the favour which he had with Cromwell, and his trials. Late in. life he preached in the metropolis. He was extraordinary as an extemporaneous speaker, even in the day when that mode was prevalent. Not- withstanding his persecutions and frequent removals, he man- aged to accumulate vast learning, without being anything but a preacher of the gospel. Charnock deserves to be named here. Less popular as a preacher, he was equal as a scholar to those just mentioned ; being versed in every part of learning, especi- ally in the originals of the Scripture. He was indefatigable with his pen, and was one of those who confined himself almost entirely to his study. But he stiU preaches by his works. Edmund Calamy is famous, as one of the authors of Smecttjm,- nuus, wi'itten in answer to Bishop Hall's Divine Eight of Episcopacy : the title indicates the writers' names, by their initials, viz., S. Marshal, E. Calamy, T. Young, M. Newcomen, W. Spurstow. No London preacher was favoured by great crowds, and that for twenty years : as many as sixty coaches were sometimes drawn up at his church. But he had not at- tained his fulness of preparation without some pains. While chaplain to Bishop Felton, he studied sixteen hours a day ; read over all BeUarmine and his answers ; read the school-men, par- ticular Thomas Aquinas ; and perused the works of Augustine five times. Need I assert the diligence or erudition of Matthew Pool ? Look at his tall folios, especially his Synop- ' sis Criticoi-um, the fruit of ten years' toil, during which he used to rise at three and four o'clock. Yet in the evenings he could be " exceedingly, but innocently merry, very much diverting both himself and the company." He was pastor of St Michael's, London, fourteen years, till the Bartholomew's Day, and was a laborious preacher. Tucknet is memorable as the principal writer of the Shorter Catechism. He was for a time in Boston, as Mr Cotton's assistant, and afterwards in St Michael's, just named. When ejected, he had become master of St John's, Cambridge. Calamy relates, in regards to the college elections, that Tuckuey used to say, " No one shall have greater regard to LETTERS TO YOUNG MINISTERS. 141 the truly godly than I ; but I am determined to choose none but scholars : they may deceive me in their godliness, but in their scholarship they cannot." How could I have postponed to this place dear John Flavel ? No one needs to be told how pious, how faithful, how tender, how rich, how full of unction, are his works. In no writer have the highest truths of religion been more remarkably brought doiwn to the lowest capacity ; yet with no sinking of the doc- trine, and with a perpetual sparkle and zest, belonging to the most generous liquor. It has always been a wonder to me, how Flavel could maintain such simplicity and naivete, and such childlike and almost frolicksome grace, amidst the multiform studies which he pursued. I can account for it only by his having been constantly among the people, in actual duty as a pastor. Opening one of his volumes, at random, I find quota- tions, often in Greek and Latin, and in the order here annexed, from Cicero, Pope Adrian, Plato, Chrysostom, Horace, Ovid, Luther, Bernard, Claudian, Menander, and Petroni^s. His residence at Dartmouth would afford a multitude of pastoral instances, if this were our present object. Joseph Cabxl, the voluminous commentator on Job, was a preacher in London, as far as the intolerance of the times per- mitted. The same church was served by Dr John Owen, David Clarkson, Dr Chauncy, Dr Watts, and Dr Savage. Thomas Goodwin was one of the greater Puritan divines re- corded in the University-register at Oxford, as "in scriptis in re theologica quamplurimis orbi notus.'' Living in days of tri- bulation, he was more migratory than he could have wished ; but the preaching of the gospel was his great work. At first he sought the praise of learned elegance, but " in the end," says he, " this project of wit and vain-glory was wholly sunk in my heart, and I left all, and have continued in that purpose and practice these threescore years ; and I never was so much as tempted to put into a sermon my own withered flowers that I had gathered, and valued more than diamonds, but have preached what I thought was truly edifying, either for conver- sion of souls, or bringing them up to eternal life." 142 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. Other less noted ministers there were among the Nonconfor- mists, known on earth for their learning, and in heaven for their converting of sinners from the error of their ways. Such a man was Peter Vinke, of London, memoralized in a funeral sermon by John Howe. He was a universal scholar. His Latinity was celebrated, and he kept constant journals in the Latin tongue. But yet more remarkable was he for humble, painful affec- tionate, gospel labour. " From his memorials, it appears that he was much in admiring God for what he had done for him and his, especially for assisting him in his ministerial work, and particularly at the Lord's Supper." Some place ought to be given to John Quicke, author of the Synodkon, which is even now one of the best repositories of facts, respecting the Reformed Church in France. He was a good scholar and an animated and successful preacher. In his days of health, he used to be in his study at 2 o'clock in the morning. He was greatly con- cerned for the persecuted Huguenots, and zealous for the uphold- ing of a learned ministry. He loved preaching so well that he was seized in the pulpit, in 1663, and made long trial of prison fare. Yet when a cavalier-justice threatened them with a dis- tant gaol, Quicke replied, " I know not where you are sending me, but this I am sure of, my heart is as full of comfort as it can hold." George Hughes, of Plymouth, was one who united successful study with constant evangelical activity. He was indefatigable in his ministerial work, and much devoted to the private exercises of piety. He preached twice the Sabbath be- fore he died, being sixty -four years of age. In a period, when learned men were not scarce, Mr Hughes had the reputation of being an admirable critic and expositor, and well acquainted with every part of theology. Baxter considered his Aaron's Rod Blossoming, as one of the best books on affliction. Here might be mentioned Gouge, Truman, Williams, the Henrys, and the Mathers ; but I will close my list of Puritans, properly so called, with the name of good Mr Jessey, the Baptist, whose quaint visage, with beard, bands, and Geneva-cap, adorns the Noncon- formist's Memorial. Besides constant labours in the ministry, he was much concerned about bringing out a new translation of LETTEKS TO YOUNG MINISTERS. '143 the Bible ; for he was a proficient in Hebrew, Syriac, and the Rabbins. For the age in which he lived, it is a singular fact that Mr Jessey had such regard for the poor Jews at Jerusalem, j that he collected for them, and transmitted to Palestine £300, and with this sent letters to win them over to Christianity. The inscription which he put over, his study door has often been copied: /" /V.'v "Z, ^^i/vvttd . I AMICE, QUISQUE HUG ADES ; AUT AGITO FAUCIS ; AUT ABI : AUT ME LABOEANTEM ADJUVA. The grace of God did not leave our Scottish forefathers without some striking examples of parochial studies and suc- cesses. The value which they set upon ministerial learning is inscribed on the constitution of our Church. It could not be otherwise, where the foundations were laid by such hands as those of Knox, Buchanan, and the Melvills. There is no modern satiric verse in Latin, more resembling the most biting of Catullus, than the Franciscanm of Buchanan, and sundry memorable epigrams of Andrew Melvill. John Row, of Perth, lived in times of disquietude, and is chieily remembered for his uncommon experiences ; yet we must not forget, that the youth who boarded with him, spoke nothing but Latin, and that the lesson of Scripture read before and after meals, was always either Hebrew or Greek. John M'Birnie " used always to have, when he rode, two Bibles hanging at a leathern girdle about his middle, the one original, the other English." When James Meltill was dying, he repeated a number of the Psalms in Hebrew. Robert Bruce, that saintly preacher, favoured beyond most with near approaches to God in prayer, and mar- vellous power in awakening sinners ; and whose life you ought to examine in detail, thus speaks of himself in old age : — " I have been a continued student, and I hope I may say it without offence, that he is not within the isle of Britain, of my age, that takes greater pains upon his Bible." But he understood Luther's bene ordsse. John Livingstone was one morning at Mr Bruee's house, when he came out of his closet with his face swollen with weeping ; he had been praying for Dr Alexander Leighton, who 144 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. ■was pilloried in London, and for himself that he had not been counted worthy to suffer. In his public prayers, " every sen- tence was a strong bolt shot up to heaven." Of his success, Didoclavius says, " Plura animarum miUia Christo lucrifecit." Davtd Dickson's name is a precious ointment in Scotland. He was exceedingly blessed in an age of wonderful revivals. Multi- tudes were convinced and converted by his means while he was at Irvine, to which place they flocked from a great distance around. He was an active and fearless member of the Greneral Assemblies of that stormy time. The Sum of Saving Knowledge was dictated by him and his friend Mr Durham. He was the author of the hymn, " O Mother dear, Jerusalem," which has since suffered so many garblings and transformations. When dying, he was asked by Mr Livingstone, how he found himself. He replied, " I have taken out all my good deeds, and all my bad deeds, and cast them through each other in a heap before the Lord, and fled from both, and betaken myself to the Lord Jesus Christ, and in him I have sweet peace." Dickson was the author of several learned works ; one of these, Therapeutica Sacra, is a quarto volume in the Latin language. In his latter years, he was professor of theology in Glasgow.* William Gdtheie, author of the Christian^ Great Interest, was one of the most graceful, elegant, accomplished, and commanding preachers that Scotland ever possessed. He belonged to a small class of men who have blended eminent devotion with charms of manner. Far from being a recluse, he excelled in manly exercises, indulged in angling, fowling and hurling on the ice, by which he maintained vigorous health. To say that he was admired and loved by Rutherford, is almost enough. His prayers were such that whole assemblies were melted into tears. Of his authorship, Dr Owen once said, pulling out a little gilded copy of the Great Interest, " That author I take to be one of the greatest divines that ever wrote ; it is my vade-mecum, and I carry it aud the Sedan New Testament, still about with me. I have written se^■eral folios, but there is more divinity in it than in them all." Guthrie laboured most of his life in one * Select Biog. Wodrow Soc. vol. ii. p. 114. LETTERS TO YOUNG MINISTERS. 145 place, and with such success, that there were hardly any in his charge who were not brought to a profession of faith and the worship of God in their families. His favourite employment was the study of the Scriptures, which he read much in the original. Next to Guthrie I must mention Samuel Ruther- ford ; but how shall I mention him ? Christians of the present day, knowing him chiefly by his letters, which glow with hea- venly love, scarcely remember that he was one of the most learned men of his age. Indeed, it is hard to say whether he was greater as a pastor or an author. He was professor as well as preacher. He commonly rose about three in the morning. He spent all his time either in prayer, or reading and writing, or visiting families. His works are numerous, learned and argumentative, both in Latin and English. Read his Letters ; they will prove to you that great study need not quench the flame of devotion. "Rutherford's Letters," says Mr Cecil, "is one of my classics. Were truth the beam, I have no doubt, that if Homer, and Virgil, and Horace, and all that the world has agreed to idolize, were weighed against that book, they would be lighter than vanity. He is a real original."* The whole space allotted to this letter would be little enough for speaking of George Gillespie. It is the common opinion of Presbyterians, that, taking his learning and eloquence in connection with his youth, Gillespie must be regarded as a pro- digy. He accompanied Plenderson and Baillie to the "West- minster Assembly, in which body, notwithstanding his youth, he shone as a distinguished light. His learning was extraor- dinary, for exactness as well as compass, and in debate he joined the highest inspiration to the most complete scholastic training. Still he was the humble, pious preacher, relying on his God, as well in the disputation as the sermon. The members of the Assembly usually kept little books, in which to note the arguments to be answered, and the heads of their speeches ; but when Gillespie's book was looked into it was found to contain only such entries as these : "Lord, send light! * Eutheriord was called to a, professorship in Utrecht, as Ames had long before been to one in Franeker. 146 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. Lord, give assistance ! Lord defend thine own cause !" If yon would be convinced of his learning, read his masterly and famous work against the Erastians, entitled Aaron's Rod Blossoming. It is no vain boast, when he says of this book in his preface : " As I have not dealt with their nauci, but with their nucleus, I have not scratched at their shell, but taken out their kernel fsuch as it is), I have not declined them, but encountered, yea, sought them out where their strength was greatest, where their arguments were hardest, and their excep- tions most probable ; so no man may decline or dissemble the strength of my arguments, inferences, authorities, answers, and replies, nor think it enough to lift up an axe against the outer- most branches, when he ought to strike at the root." He speaks of the time bestowed on this most weighty and seasonable work, as gained with difficulty from his parochial cares. This list might be easily increased. There was Haiyburton, noted as a deeply experienced believer and a devoted preacher, as well as a student, theologian, and author. There was Thomas Boston, thought of generally, in connexion with his sermons and his Fourfold State, but who also wrote the Tractatus Stigmo- hgicits, a quarto on the Hebrew accents, and was a consummate biblical scholar. In later days we have had the Eeskines, Maclauein, and Witheespoon, whose reputation as a man of learning was formed before he left his pastoral charge. If my knowledge extended a little more into the Reformed Churches of France and Holland, I might doubtless add to these examples. One thing is certain, the great scholars and great authors of these countries, whether professors or pastors, were men laden with the burden of preaching. If my memory fails me not, the celebrated Bochart, a polyglot of erudition, was the minister of a small church. At and after the time of the Synod of Dort (the most brilliant era of reformed theology), learning was diligently cultivated by private pastors. The late Dr Livingston, a pupil of De Moor, may be taken as a speci- men, in this respect, of what was considered ministerial training in Holland, a century ago. Our own country abounds in examples of ministerial learning. LETTERS TO YOUNG MINISTERS, 147 We speak of President Edwards ; but how short a time was he president ! His Stores of knowledge were treasured while he was at Northampton and Stockbridge ; where, as a descendant related to me, he did not know his own cows, and was so stingy of his time, as to wait in his study till the very instant when dinner was served in the adjoining room, and always retired to his books the moment he had finished his sparing meal ; a practice to be condemned without hesitation. I need not recall to you the men whose names are familiar, as having lived nearer to our times, such as Dickinson, Waddell, Mason, Wilson, Green, Eice, Speece, Hodge, and Matthews. If it were proper, I could still more easily record the names of clergy- men still living, who add to the constant labours of the ministry, regular and persistent efforts to discipline the understanding and enrich the heart by private study. It is with the humble hope of stimulating you to attempt the like that I have collected the materials of this somewhat fragmentary letter. LETTER VII. on extemporaneous pkeaching. Ton desire some information from me about extemporaneous preaching. Before I throw on paper my desultory thoughts, I beg leave to premise that you must expect nothing from me in the spirit of those censors who, in the language of King James's translators, " give liking unto nothing but what is framed by themselves, and hammered on their own anvil." After about thirty years of talking for my Master, often in a method ex tem- pore enough to satisfy the most rigorous, I cannot forget that there have been other anvils before mine, and that their work has been turned off by such workmen as Edwards, Davies, and Chalmers. I am not ready to say that their " reading" was no " preaching." This prefatory disclaimer wiU embolden me to 148 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. use some freedom in recommending the method of free utter- ance. You have expressed fears as to your ever becoming an ex- temporaneous preacher, and I shall confine myself to practical advices. Many who have excelled in this may have had fears like yours. My counsel is that you boldly face these obstacles, and begin ex dbrupto. The longer you allovs^ yourself to become fixed in another and exclusive habit, the greater will be your diffi- culty in throwing it aside. Some of the authors whom I respect and shall quote below, recommend a beginning by gradual ap- proaches ; such as committing to memory a part, and then going on from that impulse. This is what Cicero illustrates by the fine comparison of a boat which is propelled by its original impulse, and comes up to the shore even when the oars are taken in. Others teU you to throw in passages extemporan- eously amidst your written materials ; as one who swims with corks, but occasionally leaves them. Doubtless many have pro- fited by such devices ; yet if called on to prescribe the very best method, I should not prescribe these. Again, therefore, I say, hegin at once. When a friend of mine, who was a pupil of Ben- jamin '\Vest, once inquired of the celebrated Gilbert Steuart, then at work in London, how young persons should be taught to paint, he replied : " Just as puppies are taught to swim — CHTJOK THEM IN !" No one learns to swim in the sea of preach- ing without going into the water. Such observation as I have been able to employ suggests the following reason for the advice which I am giving you. The whole train of operations is different in reading or reciting a discourse and in pronouncing it extempore. If I may borrow a figure from engines, the mind is geared differently. No man goes from one track to the other without a painful jog at the " switch.'' And this is, I suppose, the reason why Dr Chal- mers, in a passage which I reserve for you, cautions his students against every attempt to mingle reading with free speaking. It is not unlike trying to speak in two languages, which reminds me of what a learned friend once observed to me in Paris, con- cerning the Cardinal Mezzofanti ; that this wonderful linguist. LETTERS TO YOUNG MINISTEKS. 149 when he left one of his innumerable tongues to speak in another, always made a little pause and wet his lips, as if to make ready for going over all at once. It requires the practice of years to dovetail an extemporaneous paragraph gracefully into a written sermon. As I am perfectly convinced that any man can learn to preach extempore who can talk extempore, always provided he has somewhat to say, my earnest advice to you is that you never make the attempt without being sure of your matter. Of all the defects of utterance I have ever known the most serious is having nothing to utter. You will say that is not extemporaneous which is prepared, and, etymologically, you are doubtless right. But the purely impromptu method, or the taking of a text ad aperturam libri, is that towards which I shall give you no help, as believing it to be the worst method possible ; for however suddenly you may ever be called upon to preach, you will choose to fall back to a certain extent upon some train of thought which you have previously matured. In all your experiments, therefore, secure by premeditation a good amount of material, and let it be digested and arranged in your head, according to an exact partition and a logical concatenation. The more com- pletely this latter provision is attended to, the less will be the danger of losing your self-possession or your chain of ideas. I lay the more stress on this because it must commend itself to you as having a just and rational basis. Common sense must admit that the great thing is to have the matter. All speaking which does not presuppose this is a sham. And of method, the same may be observed with regard to the speaker which is enjoined by all judicious teachers with regard to the hearer, namely, that even if divisions and subdivisions are not formally announced, they should be clearly before the mind, as aiFording a most important clue in the remembrance of what has been prepared. Early extemporaneous efforts are frequently made futile or in- jurious by the unwise selection of a topic. The opprobrium of this mode of preaching is the empty rant of some who use it. Preachers there are who have mighty vociferation, extreme volu- 150 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. bility, highly coloured diction, and glorious pageantry of metaphor, but who prove nothing, teach nothing, and etFect nothing. In- experienced speakers fancy that they shall have most to say upon a sentimental, an imaginative, or a hortatory topic. There is a snare in this. The more special the subject, the richer will be the flow of thought : let me recommend to you two classes of subjects above all others, for your early attempts — first, exposi- tion of the Scripture text, and secondly, the proof of some theological point. Argumentative discourse is best fitted to open the fountains of speech in one whose words flow scantily. There is no one fit to speak at all who does not gi'ow warm in debate. And still more specially confutation of error is adapted to pro- mote self-possession, which, as we shall see, is a prime quality in extempore speaking. It is hardly possible for any man to produce valuable matter in a purely academical exercise. Hence it is all-important to ' practise hona fide preaching before a real audience. All pre- tences there vanish ; there is an object to be gained ; and the true springs of preaching are unsealed. This is the discipline by which all great extemporaneous speakers have reached facility and eminence. Tou cannot do better, therefore, than to seek some humble by-place where souls are desiring salvation, there to pour into their uncritical ears the truths which, I trust, burn in your heart. I can warrant you that a few weeks of exhort- ation to awakened sinners will show you the use of your weapons in this kind. Eevivals of religion always train up off-hand . speakers. It was my privilege to be early acquainted with the I late Dr Nettleton. I heard him in most favourable circumstances in Pittsfield, four-and-thirty years ago, and again at two later periods. Though one of the most solid, textual,. and methodical speakers, he usually laid no paper before him. His speaking in the pulpit was exactly like his speaking by the fireside. I in- troduce his name for the purpose of reciting his observation that, in the great awakenings of Connecticut, in which he laboured with much amazing results, he scarcely ever remained in any I parish of which the minister did not acquire the same extempor- aneous gift. LETTERS TO TOONG MINISTERS. 151 If you press me to say which is absolutely the best practice in regard to '' notes," properly so called, that is in distinction from a complete manuscript, I unhesitatingly say, use none. Carry no scrap of writing into the pulpit. Let your scheme, with all its branches, be written on your mental tablet. The practice will be invaluable. I know a public speaker about my age, who has never employed a note of any kind. But while this is a counsel for which, if you follow it you will thank me as long as you live, I am pretty sure you have not courage and self-denial to make the venture. And I admit that some great preachers have been less vigorous. The late Mr Wirt, himself one of the most classical and brilliant extempore orators of America, used to speak in admiration of his pastor, the beloved Nevins of Balti- more. Now, having often counselled with this eloquent clergy- man, I happen to know that while his morning discourses were committed to ' memory, his afternoon discourses were from a " brief" A greater orator than either, who was at the same time a friend of both, thus advised a young preacher : " In your case," said Summerfield, " I would recommend the choice of a companion or two, with whom you could accustom yourself to open and amplify your thoughts on a portion of the word of God in the way of lecture. Choose a copious subject, and be not anxious to say all that might be said. Let your efforts be aimed at giving a strong outline ; the filling up will be much more easily attained. Prepare a skeleton of your leading ideas, branching them off into their secondary relations. Tliis you may have before you. Digest well the subject, but be not careful to choose your words previous to your delivery. Follow out the idea with such language as may offer at the moment. Don't be discouraged if you fall down a hundred times ; for though you fall you shall rise again ; and cheer yourself with the prophet's challenge, ' Who hath despised the day of small things ? ' " If any words' of mine could be needed to reinforce the opinion of the most enchanting speaker I ever heard, I should employ them in fixing in your mind the counsel not to prepare your words. Certain preachers, by a powerful and constraining discipline, have acquired the faculty of mentally rehearsing the entire dis- 152 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. course which they were to deliver, with almost the precise language. This is manifestly no more extemporaneous preach- ing than if they had written down every word in a book. It is almost identical with what is called memoriter preaching. But if you would avail yourself of the plastic power of excitement in a great assembly to create for the gushing thought a mould of fitting diction, you will not spend a moment on the words, fol- lowing Horace : '^ Yeih&que provisam rem non invita sequentur." Nothing more effectually ruffles that composure of mind which the preacher needs, than to have a disjointed train of half-re- membered words floating in the mind. For which reason few persons have ever been successful in a certain method which I have seen proposed, to wit : that the young speaker should pre- pare his manuscript, give it a thorough reading beforehand, and then preach with a general recollection of its contents. The re- sult is that the mind is ia a libration and pother, betwixt the word in the paper and the probably better word which comes to the tip of the tongue. Generally speaking, the best possible word is the one which is born of the thought in the presence of the assembly. And the less you think about words as a separate affair, the better they will be. My sedulous endeavour is then to carry your attention back to the great earnest business of con- veying God's message to the soul ; being convinced that here as elsewhere the seeking of God's kingdom and righteousness will best secure subordinate matters. No candid observer can deny to the Wesleyans extraordinary success in extemporaneous preaching. "While the lowest class of their itinerants are all rant and bellow, their mode of gradual training, in class-meetings, in societies, and finally in immense out-door gatherings, is one of the best for bringing out whatso- ever natural gifts there may be among their young men ; and hence they have from the very days of the Wesleys, had an un- broken succession of eloquent men in their first rank. You will call to mind Newton, Summerfield, and other familiar names. A traditionary manner of elevated discourse, at once colloquial LETTERS TO YOUNG MINISTERS. 153 and passionate, has no doubt been handed down from the origin of the society. Tliere is an account of Charles Wesley's debut, which cannot fail to interest you. It was in the year 1738, and in the little church of St Antholin, Wattling street, originally founded in the fourteenth century, that he first attempted to fly from the nest. " Seeing so few present," says he, " I thought of preaching extempore ; afraid, yet I ventured on the promise, ' Lo, I am with you alway,' and spoke on justification, from Romans iii. for three-quarters of an hour without hesitation. Glory be to God, who keepeth his promise forever ! " * Which reminds me to quote Mr Monod in another place, and to assure you that the true way of being raised above the fear of man in your early services is to be much filled with the fear of God ; and that the only just confidence of the preacher is confidence in the promised assistance of God. Until you cease to regard the preaching of the word as in any sense a rhetorical exercise, it matters little whether you read or speak, or what method of preparation is adopted ; you will be " as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal." Contrary to my supposition when I began, the sequel will de- mand at least one letter more. LETTER Vin. ON EXTEMPORANEOUS PREACHING. Tou will have observed that in my remarks on this topic, I have not directly approached the question touching the compar- ative excellence of this method. One must have lived in a vexy narrow glen and drawn few lessons from observation, not to have discovered long ago that there are different ways of accom- plishing the same great ends in Providence, and that a beautiful variety of methods is used in the dispensation of the Spirit. * Life of Charles Wesley, p. 147. 154 THOUGHTS ON PKEACHING. Much that is written on these matters is a covert self-laudation or, as was harshly said of Eeynolds's Lectures on Painting and Sculpture, " a good apology for bad practice." But while you allow your brethren to write and even to read their discourses, you nevertheless desire some hints as to your own discipline in the freer method. If long experiment, innumerable blunders, and unfeigned regrets, can qualify any one to counsel you, T am the man ; for all my life I have felt the struggle between a high ideal and a most faulty practice. But what I offer with an af- fectionate desire for your profiting is derived rather from the successes of others than from my own failures. Argumentative discourse, the most methodical, connected, orderly, close, and finished, may be conveyed without previous writing. The forum and the deliberative assembly afford the demonstration. It is not true that writing insures ratiocinative treatment ; it is not true that what is loosely called extempor- aneous speech necessitates incoherent declamation. A few of us remember with pleasure that great but singular man, James P. Wilson, of the First Church, Philadelphia. His spare figure, his sitting posture, his serene, bloodless countenance, his gentle cough, his fan, all rise to make up the picture. There was no elevation of voice, there was no appeal to sensibility. All was analytic exposition, erudite citation, linked argument. Yet, from the beginning to the end of his long ministry, he never brought any manuscript into the pulpit. As this has been ques- tioned, his own words may be cited as testimony valid up to the year 1810 ; they are otherwise valuable in regard to their exem- plary candour. Speaking of himself as a preacher, he says : — " He never committed to memory, nor read a sermon or lecture in public since he began the ministry. This statement is de- signed as an apology both for the shortness and other defects of these preparations, which were composed chiefly for private use."* The late President Dwight — certainly not from any incapacity to handle the pen — during the latter years of his life, when his eyes were failing, preached ex tempore, those great sermons which afterwards, at his dictation, were written down, ♦ Lectures on some of the ParaWes. Phil. 1810. Preface. LETTERS TO YOUNG MINISTERS. 155 and so constitute his System of Theology. The excellent com- mentary of M'Ghee on the Ephesians was taken down in short- hand from his extemporaneous lectures. Tlie same is true of Gaussen's Lectures on the Apocalypse. But why cite recent instances, when we know that all the sermons of Augustine, and a great part of Calvin's expositions were thus prepared? Let this fully rid your mind of the conceit of Freshmen, that to preach ex tempore, is to preach what is empty, loose, or turge- scent. Let it further conduct you to what is the puppis et prora of the whole matter, namely, that everything in a sermon is secondary to its contents. Among continental divines the reading of sermons may in i general terms be said to be unknown. The normal method is that of pronouncing from memory what has been carefully written. This is so admitted a point, that special rules are laid down, in all homiletical instructions, concerning the time and manner of getting the concept (a most convenient term) by heart. Yet many Italian, French, and German preachers, and among them some of the greatest, easily slide into the way of premed- itative discourse. Where a particular method has had some prevalence for centuries, it is natural to expect useful maxims. Let me, therefore, quote the recommendations of a few judicious writers. Consider then what is proposed by Ebrard, Consis- torial Councillor in Spire ; but take it on his great authority, not on mine : — " Committing to memory should be a renewed meditation of the expression. When the sermon has been con- cocted, let the preacher, on a quarto sheet (no more is needed) draw off a mnemonical sketch ; that is, indicate the thoughts or those clusters of thought, according as his memory is strong or weak, by a single phrase, or mnemonic catchword. Let him set down these in a tabular way, strikingly, so that the lines may fall into shapes to seize the eye. Now let him throw aside his manuscript and try, by the aid of this paper, to reproduce the sermon ; that is, to invent afresh equivalent expressions.'' I have already advanced reasons against all such cumbering of the mind ; but my zeal for unbounded liberty and development of subjective peculiarities, leaves me to offer it to you for what it 156 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. is worth. The remarks of an equally celebrated man, Professor Hagenback, of Bale, are less exceptionable : " Whether a ser- mon shall be written and committed to memory, or shall be elaborated only in the mind, must be determined by individual peculiarity, and is a question on which theory has not much to say. Li every case, this process of memory must be regarded as a transient one, from which nothing goes over to the actual delivery. Even where the sermon has been written, it must be conceived by the mind as something spoken, and not as some- thing composed." Schleirmacher, who always extemporized, is reported to have said that this was the proper method for tran- quil natures, while those less equable should fix the thought and expression by careful writing. On the other hand, Eosen- kranz observes : — " Our early familiarity with books and writing, and our small acquaintance with thinking, especially among the learned class, may account for our making so little of extemporaneous discourse.'' And the enthusiastic and eloquent Gossner characteristically says : — " The Holy Ghost at Pente- cost distributed fiery tongues, and not pens." The motto of the great and pious Bengel was, " Much thinking, little writing ;" yet he wrote down his divisions. These gleanings will sufiice to disclose to you the German mind on this subject. What you may gather from all these eminent preachers is, that whatever be your particular method, nothing can be accomplished without laborious thought. There is a caution, derived from personal misadventure, which I would seek to impress upon you, vrith reference to your early trials. Beware of undue length. Do not undertake to say every- thing, which is the secret of tiresomeness. Oh, the grievousness even of calling to memory the exhaustive and exhausting teachers of patience! Avoid the notion of those who think they must occupy up a certain time, as by hour-glass. Fifteen minutes, well and wisely filled, can insure a better sermon than two hours of platitude and repetition. Touch and go in these early attempts. Only be on the watch for moments when the thought unexpectedly thaws out and flows, and give the current free course. Beginners, who apprehend a paucity of matter, LETTERS TO TOUNG MINISTERS. 157 and have small poTver of amplification, ■will be much relieved by carrying out the scheme or plan of their sermon into more numerous subdivision. On each of these, something can cer- tainly be said, especially if, after the Scotch method, each particular is fortified with a Scripture passage. Neither in these exercises, nor in any other, act upon the mean policy of reserving your good things fill afterwards. Believe, with Sir "Walter Scott, that the mind is not like poor milk, which can bear but one creaming. Therefore, always do you best. It is unfair in some who lament the decay of extemporaneous preach- ing to assume that it has gone altogether into desuetude in the Northern States. This is so far from being the case that there is scarcely a settled pastor of my acquaintance who does not frequently, if not every week, address his smaller audiences without what, in Scotland, are called " the papers." Some of the happiest efforts I have heard, were made by preachers who elaborate their more important discourses by thorough writing. It is in such meetings, then, as these that the young preacher will find his most favourable school of practice. Here he will be sustained by the sympathy of pious and loving fellow- Christians, who, with minds remote from everything like critical inquisition, will seek from the pastor's lips the word of life. I strongly advise you to seek out and delight in such assemblages. If they interest you, they will interest those who hear you ; and the more you forget the scholar and the orator, the more will you attain the qualities of the successful preacher. It was in such free gathei'ings, where formalism was excluded, and dis- course was colloquial, that Yenn, Houseman, Cecil, Simeon, Scott, Martyn, Richmond, Scholefleld, Carus, and other blessed servants of God in the English Church, learned to break through the trammels of the age. It was my great privilege to hear Professor Scholefleld preach a warm extempore discourse to a crowded assembly in St Andrew's Church, Cambridge. The theme was the repentance of Ahab ; and as I listened to the plain, evangelical, ardent utterance of this simple-hearted Christian, I could hardly persuade myself that I had before me the celebrated Greek editor and accomplished successor of 158 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. Porson. Who can calculate the blessings conferred on Great Britain and the world through the labours of Charles Simeon and his school ? In order to give a turn still more practical to my advices, I will throw them into hortatory form. Single out some service among the most serious of your neighbours, and where you can be undisturbed in your sincere endeavour to do them good. Aim honestly at having the devotional sentiment uppermost. Block out your matter with much care and exactness, and assure yourself of perfect acquaintance with the entire order. Set about the work with an expectation of being very short. Do not allow yourself to dally long with any single point. Be simple, be natural, be moderate, and use no means to pump up fictitious emotion ; above all, use no tricks of voice or gesture to express emotion which you do not experience. On this point I will copy for you Ebrard's comic advice, which may suggest something even by its exaggeration and caricature : — " The preacher should not seek to make the thing finer than it really is. He should not prank common-place thoughts with rhetorical ornaments. He should not attempt by verbal artifice a pathos which is foreign to his heart. Let him say what lie has to say clearly and naturally. This is what is meant by the rule — Not a ^ord more than the thing itself carries along with it. If the preacher's heart is warm and excited, this movement and ani- mation will find natural expression in words. Pectus facit disert^m. In like manner, individual colouring will take care of itseK; so that if two preachers treat the same text, and in the same view of it, the proverb shall still hold true of them, ' If two do the same, it is not the same they do ;' Duo si faciunt idem, won est idem. One will unintentionally speak more wai-mly and nobly than the other. These two constituents, to wit, wai'mth and individual colouring, enter of their own accord ; the latter we need not seek, the former we ought not. The desire to preach a fine sermon is a sin." And in regard to the vicious amplifica- tion of slender minds he thus writes : — " Instead of sayino- in plain terms, ' Everything on earth is transitory,' and clenching it out by a verse from the Psalms [such a preacher], says : — LETTERS TO TOXJNG MINISTERS. 159 • ' Let us cast our eyes upon the flowers of the field, the slender lilies in their silver lustre, the glow of the rose, the blossoming decoration of the trees, which gladden us with their fruits — Oh, how refreshing to our eyes are these sights in the vernal season ! But, alasl that which was blooming yesterday', droops withering to the earth to-day ! A mortal breath sweeps over the scene, and the frail flower sinks weak and sickly to the ground ! ' How beautiful ! — Nay, more, it is wonderful, among these flowrets of amplification, that not only a simple thought, but sometimes the veriest negation of thought, a mere logical cate- gory without contents, may be dressed up in pompous words. ' Every man has proof already of God's goodness and provi- dence.' Here proceed to inflate the 'every man' thus: — 'Go and ask the aged ; ask the young ; go to the man of hoary hairs, whose silver locks tend towards the earth ; go to the children gambolling amid the grass ; the sprightly boy ; the aspiring youth ; abide in the circle of friends, in the faithful home, or speed away in the distance ; traverse the foaming flood of the perturbed ocean ; fly to the north, the south, the east, or the west ; go, I say and ask where thou wilt and whom thou wilt ; the sage and the fool ; inquire of his experience, and thou shalt find in the history of each and every one traces of divine provi- dence and proofs of divine benevolence, &c." * The American variety may differ from the German ; but you recognise in this a familiar mode of beating the matter out thin, which disgraces such extempore haranguers as attempt " to split the ears of the groundlings ; who, for the most part, are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb shows and noise." The consideration of this will, I am very sure, guard you against striving after protraction of talk and grandiloquent blowing up of common thoughts. Therefore content yourself for some time with being true, intel- ligible and earnest, without any remarkable flights of eloquence ; for I wish to see you fairly established on your skates before you essay pirouettes and double -eights upon the ice. But manum de tabula. * Ebrard Prakt. Theologie, p. 341. 160 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. LETTER IX. ON EXTEJIPOEANEOUS PREACHING. If tlie least thought had crossed my mind that familiar advices on a point which interests you would have grown from one letter to three, I should certainly have attempted a more formal dis- position of these desultory remarks. Take them, however, as they rise and flow. I have written in earnest, because I know your solicitude and augur success. Do me the justice to believe that I am not exalting my own little method as the only one in which excellence may be attained. I should painfully doubt my enlargement of view and maturity of judgment, if I felt myself sliding into such a pedantry. From our own poor pedestrian level let us look up at the mighty preachers of the past — the Bossuets, Whitefields, TVesleys, Chalmerses, and Masons, and own that Grod accomplishes his gracious ends not only by a variety of instruments, but in a variety of ways. If there is any maxim which you might inscribe on your seal-ring and your pen, it is this, Be yourself. As Kant says, every man has his own way of preserving health, so we may assert that every true servant of the gospel has his own way of being a preacher; and I pray that you may never fall among a people so untutored or so straitened as to be willing to receive the truth only by one sort of conduit. Every genuine preacher becomes such, under God, in a way of his own, and by a secret discipline. But after having reached a certain measure of success, it will require much humility, much knowledge of the world, and much liberality of judgment, to preserve him from erecting his own methods into a standard for even all the world. When you resolve to attempt preaching ex tempore, in the qualified sense of that phrase, you by no means renounce order, correctness, or elegance. Of all these we have repeatedly known as great examples in those who did not vmte as in those who did. All these qualities wiU be found to depend less on writing LETTERS TO TODNG MINISTERS. 161 or not writing, than on the entire previous discipline. As well might you say that no one can speak good grammar unless he has previously written. Whether he speaks good grammar or not depends on his breeding in tlie nursery, in school, and in so- ciety. He who has been trained cannot but speak good English ; and so of the' rest. You have read what Cicero says concerning the latinity of the old model orators — they could not help it : " Ne cupientes quidem, potuerunt loqui, nisi Latine." * Madison, Ames, Wirt, Webster, or Everett, could not be cornered into bad English. Cicero goes aside even in his great ethical treatise to relate with gusto how delicious was the Latin speech of the whole family of Catulli.| And in regard as well to this as to tiow of words, he lays down the grand principle when he says : " Abun- dance of matter begets abundance of words ; and if the things spoken of possess nobleness, there will be derived from that nobleness, a certain splendour of diction. Only let the man who is to speak or write be liberally trained by the education and in- struction of his boyish days ; let him burn with desire of pro- ficiency ; let him have natural advantages, and be exercised in innumerable discussions of every kind, and let him be familiar with the finest writers and speakers, so as to comprehend and imitate them ; and (Nm ille hand sane) you need give yourself no trouble about such a one's needing masters to tell him Jiow he shall arrange or beautify his words ! " \ Your own observation will predispose you to accept the testi- mony of all competent persons, that method, closeness of thought, and the utmost polish may exist where there has been no use of the pen in immediate preparation. Fenelon, Burke, Fox, Robert /Hall, and Randolph, are cases in point. Let me dwell a few moments on the first-named, for these two reasons : first, that he is unsurpassed in correctness and elegance ; and, secondly, that he is the most celebrated advocate of ex tempore preaching. His remai'ks are too long to be fully cited, but they furnish a quali- fication which is needed just in this place, to show you what degree of rhetorical elegance should be craved. The extempor- aneous preacher (says Fenelon) on the supposition that, " as * De Oratore III. 10. t De Officiis I. 37. J De Oratore II. 31. 162 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. Cicero enjoins, he had read all good models, that he has much facility, natural and acquired, that his fund of principles and erudition is abundant, and that he has thoroughly premeditated his subject, so as to have it well arranged in his head, will, we must conclude, speak with force, with order, and with fulness. His periods will not amuse the ear so much : all the better ; he will be all the better orator. His transitions will not be so subtile : no matter ; for — not to say that these may be prepared even when they are not learned by heart — such negligences will be common to him and the most eloquent orators of antiquity, who believed that here we must often imitate nature, and not show too much preparation. What then wiU be wanting ? He may repeat a little ; but even this has its use : not only will the hearer, who has good taste, take pleasure in thus recognizing nature, who loves to return upon what strikes her most ; but this re- petition will impress truth more deeply. It is the true mode of giving instruction." * But read and ponder the whole of these matchless " Dialogues on Eloquence." You will have observed my disposition to cite authorities on this difficult subject, rather than to vent opinions peculiarly my own ; authorities, let me add, who have themselves exemplified what they taught. Among all contemporary preachers whom I have had the good fortune to hear, I cannot hesitate to give the palm of oratory to Adolphe Monod. And with what solemnity and tenderness do I write this beloved name, as fearing lest, even before these lines reach you, he should have departed to that world of which he has spoken so much, and for which he is so graciously prepared. The point to which I ask your attention is, that the most elegant pulpit writer in France is equally ele- gant in extemporaneous discourse. But then it is the elegance of a Grecian marble ; it is beautiful simplicity. It is nature — nay, it is grace ! What a lesson is contained for you in his re- ' marks on self-possession in the pulpit ! I wiU quote them from a lecture which Mr Monod delivered to his theological class at Montauban, sixteen years ago. Observe that he has been speak- ing on the incompatibility of perfect eloquence with "self-observ- * D'oeuvres de Fenelon. Paris, 1838. Ed. Didat. Tom. II. p. 674. LETTERS TO YOUNG MINISTERS. 163 ation," or thinking how one is doing it ; and he has been showing that such constraint is not confined to those who get their sermons by heart, but may exist in extempore preaching. " Suppose," says he, " you have the finest parts; of what use will they be to you unless you have presence of mind ? On , the other hand, he who is at his ease says only what he means j to say ; says it as he means to say it ; reflects : stops a moment, if need be, to cast about for a word or a thought ; borrows even from this pause some expressive tone or gesture ; takes advan- tage of what he sees and hears ; and, in a word, brings all his resources into play ; which is saying a great deal ; for ' the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts.' " " You will perhaps tell me," adds this delightful writer, " that this self-possession which I recommend is rather a boon to be wished for than a disposition to be enjoined ; that it is the happy result of temperament, of previous successes, of talent itself, and that it is not in a man's power to be at ease whenever he choses. I admit that it depends partly on temperament, and tiiis is a reason for strengthening it when timid ; partly on previous successes, and this is a reason why a young man should apply all his powers to take a fair start in his course ; and partly, also, on talent itself, and this is a reason for diligently cultivating that measure which has been received. But there is yet another element , which enters into the confidence which I at the same time de- i sire for you and recommend to you ; it is faith. Take your stand as the ambassador of Jesus Christ, sent of God to sinful men. Believe that he who sends you will not have you to speak in vain. Seek the salvation of those who hear you, as you do your own. Forget yourselves so as to behold nothing but the glory of G-od, and the salvation of your hearers. You will then tremble more before God, but you will tremble less before men. You will then speak with liberty, according to the measure of facility and correctness which you possess in other circumstances of life. If our faith were perfect, we should scarcely be in any more danger of falling into false or declamatory tones in preach- 164 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING ing, than we should in crying out to a drowning man to lay hold on the rope thrown to him to save his life."* It is in perusing such passages as this that I begin to compre- hend the source of power in this writer and other great masters of pulpit eloquence, and discover at the same time why such treatises on extempore preaching as those of Ware are cold and inoperative. The study of unapproachable exemplars must not stimulate us to experiments like that of JSsop's frog. Accord- ing to our measure, we may succeed here as elsewhere. I would most earnestly counsel you to throw aside, by every possible effort, aU that resembles self-critical observation, while you are speaking in the name of the Lord. If your tendency should be towards scantiness of vocabulary, broken sentences, or involuntary gaps, halts and pauses, by all means encourage a flow. The advice which might be fatal to a voluble loquacity is aU important for you. Keep up the continuity. Let trifles go. What Dr Johnson says to a young writer, to wit, " It is so much easier to acquire correctness than flow, that I would say to every young preacher. Write as fast as you can," is even more necessary for a young speaker : — Speak as uninterruptedly as you can. Let little things go. Return for no corrections. The ' wise will understand your slips and forgive them. Whitefield's rule was, " Never to take back anything unless it were wicked." This is very different from rapid utterance or precipitancy. Deliberate speech is, on the whole, most favourable. Good pastor Harm's three L's are worthy of being applied to delivery, but are poorly represented in English by the aliteration, Length- ened — Loud — Lovely.f Luther's maxim for a young preacher is still more untranslatable ; but the sense is — " Stand up cheerily — speak up manfully— leave off speedily." Tritt frisch auf, thu's mcml auf, hoar bald auf. It is high time I obeyed the last direction by leaving off. As I do so, let me again remind you that great eloquence is not necessary to great success ; that there may be great power of * Discoura prononce &, rouverture d'un conrs de debit oratoire, & la faculty de Montauban, le 26 Novembre, 1840. + " Langsam, Laut, Lieblich." LETTERS TO TOUNG MINISTERS. 165 discourse where there is little elegance : that the mighty works of Divine grace have not been always or chiefly wrought by the popular preachers who draw vast assemblies ; that no man can be always great, and no wise man will seek to be always so ; and that, after all, a man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven. LETTER X. ON DILIGENCE IN STUDY. In what was said to you about Extemporaneous Preaching, I sought to draw away your attention from the manner to the matter. He can never preach well who has nothing to say. The all important thing for a messenger is the message. Of all the ways of preaching God's word, the worst, as has been ad- mitted, is the purely extemporaneous— where a man arises to speak in God's name without any solid material, and without any studious preparation. A thousand-fold better were it to read every word of an instructive discourse, in the most slavish and uncouth manner, than to vapour in airy nothings, with suavity of mien, fluency of utterance, and outward grace of elocution. It is this which has become the opprobrium of extempore preachers ; and it must be admitted that the danger is imminent. As all men dislike labour in itself considered, the majority will perform any task in the easiest way which is acceptable. And as most hearers unfortunately judge more by external than in- ternal qualities, they will be, for a certain time, satisfied with this ready but superficial preaching. The resulting fact is, that in numberless instances, the extemporaneous preacher neglects his preparation. If he has begun in this slovenly way while still young, and before he has laid up stores of knowledge, he will, in nine cases out of ten, be a shallow, rambling sermonizer as long as he lives. Immense gymnastic action and fearful voci- 166 THOUGHTS ON PEEACHINe. feration will probably be brought in to eke out the want of theology ; as a garrison destitute of ball, will be likely to make an unusual pother with blank cartridge. Omitting, for the moment, the unfaithfulness of such a ministry, the man who thus errs will find the evil consequences rebound upon himself. It is only for a time that the most injudicious or partial congregation can be held by indigested and unsubstantial matter, however gracefully delivered. They may not trace it to the right cause, but they know that they are wearied, if not disgusted. The minister, having rung all the changes on his very small peal of bells, has nothing for it but to repeat the old chimes. " Somehow or other, Dr Windy seems to hitch into the old rut. He gives us the same sermon. Especially he wears us out with the same heads of application.'' While this is going on among the hearers, it is wonderful how long the offender may remain ignorant of the reason ; just as we old men do not know how often we repeat the same story. Another inevitable result of unstudied preaching, is the habit of wandering or scattering. Nothing but laborious discipline, unintermitted through life, can enable a man to stick logically to his line of argument. Discerning hearers know better than the cai'eless preacher, Avhy, after stating his point, he constantly plays about it and about, like a boat in an eddy, which moves but makes no progress. " Skeletons," as they are ludicrously called, however, good, do not prevent this evil, unless they be afterwards thought out to their remotest articulations. The idle but voluble speaker will flutter about his first head, and flutter about his second, but will mark no close ratiocinative connexion, and effect no fruitful deduction. Evidently he who is continu- ally pouring out, and but scantily pouring in, must soon be at the empty bottom. Indolent preachers fall upon different devices for concealing the smallness of their staple, and for preaching against time. I have alluded to the bringing in of irrelative matter ; kindred to this, and generally accompanying it, is undue amplification. The minute bit of gold must be beaten out very thin ; hence wordi- ness, swoln periodicity, and Cicero's complementa numerorum. LETTERS TO TOUNG MmiSTERS. 167 Sueli ministers seldom remain long in a place. The Presbytery is not, indeed, informed that Mr Slender has preached himself out ; some reading elder, or surly Scotch pewholder is made the scapegoat ; but the fact is, that the preacher goes away to fascinate some new people with his soft voice and animated manner. Ministerial study is a sine qua non of success. It is absurdly useless to talk of methods of preaching, where there is no method of preparation. Ministerial study is twofold — special and general. By special study, I mean that preparation for a given sermon, which is analogous to the lawyer's preparation of his case. If faithful and thorough, this may lead to high accom- plishment; but, as in the instance of case-lawyers, it may be carried too far, and if exclusively followed must become nar- rowing. The man who grows old with no studies but those which terminate upon the several demands of the pulpit, becomes a mannerist, falls into monotony of thought, and ends stiffly, drily, and wearisomely. At the same time, he wants tliat enlargement and enriching of mind derived from wide excursion, into collateral studies, of which all the world recognises the fruits in such preachers as Owen, Mason, Chalmers, and Hall. Yet even this inferior way of study into which busy and over- tasked men are prone to slide, is infinitely better than the way of idleness, osoitancy, and indecent haste. For thus the student who begins betimes, manages to pick up a great deal more than is necessary for his special task. In premeditating one sermon, he often finds hints for three more. By tunnelling into the rock of a single prophetic passage, he comes upon gems of illustration, nuggets of doctrine, and cool spring of experience, all which go into the general stock. Yet no wise student will restrict himself to the lucubration asked by next Sunday's sermon. By general study I mean that preparation which a liberal mind is perpetually making, by reading, writing, and thinking over and above the sermonizing, and without any direct reference to preaching. Such studies do indeed pour in their contributions to every future discourse with a continually increasing tide ; but this is not seen at once, nor is this the proximate aim. No 168 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. man can make full use of his talent, who does not all his life pursue a high track of generous reading and inquiry. Your general studies will again subdivide themselves into those which are professional and those which are non-professional. Both are important and mutually advantageous. But the first elaim is that of biblical and theological literature and science, upon which, at present, my remarks shall be brief, and respecting on the point in hand. Let Theology afford us an instance ; though every word I write may be just as well applied to History and Interpretation. Besides all your sermon making, Theology, as a system, must be your regular study. Neglect this, and your pulpit theology will be one-sided ; many topics wiU never have due consideration. I shall augur badly for your career, if you are found uninterested in great theological questions. Some established works should be daily in your hands ; and of such works a few should be often re-perused. Find a clergyman who knows nothing of such pursuits, and you will observe his preaching to be unmethodical, and little fitted to awaken inquiry among deep thinkers in his flock. He will soon attain his acme, and will continue to dispense milk where he should give strong meat. The analogy of other professions wiU occur to you ; the lawyer or physician who reads law or physics only for this or that case, can never take high rank. Non-professional studies open a wide field, and every minister must be governed by the indications of Providence. Extremes are perilous, and I know too well how, under the pretext of cul- tivating general literature, and even art, a servant of Christ may almost alienate himself from what should be the darling studies of his life. Witherspoon has observed, that it is not to the credit of any gospel minister to be famous iu any pursuit entirely un- connected with theology. Yet he who is a mere theologian, is a poor one. Bacon said, long ago, that no man can comprehend the canton of his own science, unless he surveys it from the heights of some contiguous science. Take Law, for instance, though this is only one example out of a hundred. An acquaint- ance with jurisprudence is of the greatest value to the minister. No man can understand the practice of our Church Courts who LETTERS TO rOUNG MINISTERS. 169 does not discern their connection with the Civil, rather than the Common Law. Our very terms, especially in the older forms of process, savour of Justinian and the Code ; and ignorance of this has frequently led to the substitution of English for Eoman modes, altogether subversive of the unity of our system. This will be more clear if you compare the progress of a Scottish ec- clesiastical action with that of one in America, and observe how utterly we have lost all reference to the libellus, and other civil forms of trial. Matthew Henry was sent by his father to Hol- born Court, Gray's Inn, that he might study law, as a prepar- ation for theology ; and every part of his commentary shows familiar acquaintance with the terms of this science. This was not a rare opinion among the old Presbyterians. " I must be so grateful as to confess," says Baxter, "that my understanding hath made a better improvement of Grotius' De Satisfactione Christi, and of Mr Lawson's manuscripts, than of anything else that I ever read. They convinced me how unfit we are to write about God's government, law, and judgment, while we under- stand not the true nature of government and law in general; and he that is ignorant of politics, and of the law of nature, wiU be ignorant and erroneous in divinity and the Sacred Scriptures." Half the disputes about Imputation could have been precluded, if the combatants, instead of acquiescing in deiinitions of Web- ster, had familiarized themselves with the usage of genuine English writers in regard to the word guilt* But this is only a single specimen. The times demand that a well-furnished preacher should draw both argument and illustration from every science. Tell me how you spend your forenoon in your early ministry, and I shall be better able to predict how you will preach. If you idle, stroll, or even habitually visit, before noon, your mental progress may be divined. * Take one example out of many. " But concerning the nature or proper effects of this spot or stain, they have not been agreed : some call it an obligation, or a guilt of punishment ; so Scotds." — Jeremy Taylor, Apples of Sodom, Part II, REMARKS ON THE STUDIES AND DISCIPLINE OF THE PREACHER. The habits of a young minister, in respect to mental culture, are very early formed, and hence no one can begin too soon to regulate his closet-practice by maxims derived from the true philosophy of mind, and the experience of successful scholars. Early introduction to active labour, in an extended field, par- taking of a missionary and itinerant character, may, amidst much usefulness, spoil a man for life, in all that regards progress of erudition, and productiveness of the reasoning powers. Such a person may accomplish much in the way of direct and proxi- mate good ; but his fruit often dies with him, and he does little in stimulating, forming, and enriching the minds of others. On the other hand, a zealous young scholar, captivated with the in- tellectual or literary side of ministerial work, may addict himself to books in such a manner as to sink the preacher in the man of learning, and spend his days without any real sympathy with the affectionate duties of the working clergy. Tlie due admix- ture of the contemplative with the active, of learning with labour, of private cultivation with public spirit, is a juste milieu which few attain, but which cannot be too earnestly recommended. We assume it, without the trouble of proof, that every young minister, whose manner of life is in any degree submitted to his own choice, will strive after the highest Christian learning. But here there are diversities in the conduct of studies and the regu- lation of thought, which demand the most serious discrimination. We are persuaded that grave errors prevail in respect to what should be the aim of the pastor, in his parochial studies and dis- cipline. For this cause, we would venture a few suggestions, THE PREACHEk's STUDIES. 171 not altogether without previous experiment and careful obser- vation. Let us suppose a settled minister, after the usual career of academic and theological training, to be seated in his quiet par- sonage, with a sufficient and increasing apparatus of books around him. His tastes and predilections dispose him to account the hours blessed which he can devote to reading ; and many a man under this early impulse, makes his greatest attainments during the first ten years. Yet hundreds go astray from the outset. It is not enough to turn an inquisitive mind loose among an array of great authors. The error against which we would guard such a one, is that of mistaking a large and various erudition for wise and thorough culture of the faculties. The knowledge of authors, however great and good, is an in- strument, not an end ; and an instrument which may be mis- directed and abused. There is much to be attained from other sources than books ; and all that is gained from these, must, in order to the highest advantage, be made to pass througli a pro- cess of inward digestion, which may be disturbed or even precluded by indiscriminate reading. The attainment of truth demands more than what is termed erudition. One may have vast knowledge of the repositories of human opinion, of what other men, many men, have thought upon all subjects, what in modern phrase is known as the literature of science ; one may have a bibliographical accuracy about the authors who have treated this or that topic in every age, about systems, and schools, and controversies ; and yet be vacillating and undecided as to the positive truth in question. We meet with men — and tliey are not the least agreeable of literary companions — who never fail, whatever topic may be started, to display familiarity with all the great minds who have treated it, to cite author after author, and to pour out reminiscences the most curious concern- ing the history of opinion in the Church, but who seldom strike us by the utterance of a single original conclusion, and never evince a rooted firmness of private judgment. Such are they who amass libraries of their own, and flutter among great public collections ; who dazzle by quotation after quotation in sermons 172 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. and treatises ; who deck the margin of their publications with a catena of references to volume, page, and edition of works often inaccessible to ordinary scholars ; but who discover or settle no great principle. They are felicitous conversers, walking indices to treasured lore, and sprightly essayists, but not investigators, in the true sense, not producers, not solid thinkers. Indeed it would seem as if in the very proportion of such encyclopaBdie knowledge, there was an incapacity for the mental forces to work up the enormous mass of superincumbent information. All this we believe to be true, while we scorn the paltry self- conceit of those who would denounce learning as injurious to originality, or would contrast readers and thinkers as incom- patible classes. Our position is only that care must be taken that the great reader be also a great thinker. The clerical student will of course add to his knowledge of books every day ; but these accumulations of knowledge must be governed by some law ; must be directed, nay, must be limited. There is surely some point beyond which the acquisi- tion of other men's thoughts must not be carried. This we say for the sake of those helluones librorum, who read forever and without stint ; browsing as diligently as oxen in the green herbage of rich meads, but, unlike these, never lying down to ruminate. Life is too short, Art is too long, for a human mind to make perpetual accretion of book-learning, without halt. Sufflaminandum est. There must be more circumscription of the range ; for if a hundred volumes, in a given science, may be read, why not a thousand; and why not, supposing so many extant, ten thousand ? At this rate, no scholar could ever find his goal. And as uninterrupted research shuts out continuous reflection, it is observed that those who go astray in this road become the prey of never-ending doubts, even if they do not fall into latitudinarian comprehension and indifference to truth. The faults of some truly great men appear to have had this origin ; we might adduce as instances, Grrotius, Priestley, and Parr. The mind must be allowed some periods of calm, uninter- rupted reflection, in order to librate freely, and find the resting- point between conflicting views. That time is sometimes expended THE preacher's STUDIES. 173 in learning, examining, and collating arguments of all kinds, on different sides of a, given question, which might, by a much more compendious method, have served to discern and embrace positive truth, or to make deduction from acknowledged truth. No wise counsellor would proscribe the perusal of controversies. Yet he who reads on different sides, must necessarily read much that is er- roneous ; and all tampering with falsehood, however necessary, is, like dealing wdth poisons, full of danger. If we might have our choice, it is better to converse with truth than with error; with the rudest, homeliest truth, than with the most ingenious, decorated error; with the humblest truth, than with the most soaring, original, and striking error. The sedulous perusal of great controversies is often a duty, and it may tend to acuminate the dialectical faculty ; but none can deny that it keeps the thoughts long in contact with divers falsities, and their specious reasons. Now these same hours would be employed far more healthfully in contemplating truths which in their own nature are noui'ishing and fruitful. To confirm this, let it be remem- bered, that truth is one, while error is manifold, if not infinite ; hence the true economy of the faculties is, wherever it is possible, to commune with truth. Again, while error leads to error, truth leads to truth. Each truth is germinal and pregnant, containing other truths. Only upon this pi-inciple can we vindicate the productiveness of solitary meditation. Link follows link in the chain, which we draw from unknown mysterious recesses. A few elementary truths are the bases of the universal system. If it should be urged, that defenders of sound doctrine must be acquainted with all diversities of opposition, we admit it, with certain limitations. But we must be allowed to add, that he who thoroughly knows a truth, knows also, and knows thereby, the opposite errors. Let any one be deeply imbued with the Newtonian system of the material universe, and he will be little staggered by denials of particular points, however novel and however shrewdly maintained. But the converse is not true. There may be the widest acquaintance with forms of false opinion, while after all the true doctrine may elude the most laborious search. And therefore we believe that the reading of 174 THOU&HTS ON PREACHING. error, known to be such, for whatever cause, just or unjust, never fails, at least for a time, to have bad effects ; producing pain and dubiety, collecting rubbish in order that it may be re- moved, and inflicting wounds which it is necessary to heal. "Without rushing, then, to any extremes, we may employ these incontestable principles in the regulation of our studies. There is a sort of independence and adventure which leads inquiring and sanguine minds to contemn the thought of using any special precautions in the handling of error. They feel strong in their own convictions, and fully exempt from all danger of being seduced. But they neglect the important principle that the very contact of what is false tends to impair the mental health. Hence we are not ashamed to avow it, as a canon of our intellectual hygeine, that we will not, except from necessity, read books which contain known error. We would advise youthful students especially not to be inquisitive about such. As in regard to morals, prurient curiosity leads to concupiscence and corruption, so in regard to the pursuit of truth, eager desire of knowing bad systems undermines the faith. This is the weak place in some truly excellent minds. They spend a whole literary life in acquiring the knowledge of strange, conflicting, heterogenous systems. There is no infidelity or heresy, from Epicurus and Pelagius, down to Spinoza and Comte, into which they have not groped. The perpetual oscillations of Coleridge's great understanding are due, in some degree, to this morbid pen- chant ; hence his delight in Plotinus, Bohm, and Schelling ; and hence his long gestation, resulting in no definite faith, and no completed work. Continual wandering in the mazes of theories which after all are not adopted, ends only in dissatisfaction and pain. It is a trial to converse with mistaken minds, even for the purpose of refutation ; but to make such commerce the habit of life, is to court disappointment and weakness, if not to be betrayed and supplanted. With no common earnestness of entreaty we would therefore exhort the enterprising student to devote his days and nights to the search of verity, rather than the discovery, or as a first object, even the confutation of error. Offences must needs come, and must needs be removed ; the THE PEEACHEU'S STUDIES. 175 Church must still have its controvertists ; but in regard to the actor in these scenes, unnecessary polemics do harm. We have thus prepared the way for a view which we have kept before us from the beginning, and which we trust will elucidate both the object and method of ministerial study. Granting that positive and unadulterated truth is the sole result to be sought, the question is natural and just, how such truth shall be discovered, amidst the multitude of varying opinions. To the Christian enquirer the problem need cause little hesitancy. If there is a revelation from God, this is to be the capital object of meditation. The truth of the Scripture stands forth at once as the grand topic for life ; and this one book is at once the pro- fessional guide and the chosen delight of the' sacred student. He need no longer ask what shall be the principal aim of his in- quiries, or what his line of direction in the research of knowledge. Reason and truth are correlative ; and only what is true can af- ford nutriment and growth. In our mingled state, we receive truth with additions of error ; but all the benefit is from the truth, and all falsehood is poison, which overclouds, pains, and weakens the mind. It is not too- much to affirm, that even the momentary inhalation of such miasma works some lesion of the • inward powers. Who can say how many of our prejudices, distresses, and sins, arise from this single cause ? In the conduct of mental discipline, it will not be difficult to see the applications of this principle, though it may call for con- straint and self-denial. There is occasion for circumspect walk- ing in the study of opinion. We desire the knowledge of good and evil ; but let us be cautious ; let us employ a wise reserve ; let us distrust our own strength of judgment ; let us be sparing in our familiarity with seducers. It were well, in all cases, to take our stand on the firm ground of divine verity, and thence to make our survey of all that is opposed. Instances may be given of men long trained in the best schools, who, from a sickly taste for strange opinions, have fallen from soundness of faith, and landed in the bigotry and superstition of popery, or the delirious ravings of Swedenborg. Amidst conflicting judgments respecting the doctrinal contents of revelation, there is a just 176 THOUGHTS ON FEB ACHING. presumption in favour of those which are catholic, those which are prevalent among good men, those which are obvious in the record, those which tend to sobriety and holy living, those which are least allied to enthusiastic or fanatic innovation, those which grow out of first truths, and those which are consistent with themselves. In the investigation of truth, it is important to bear steadily in mind the great foundation of valid belief. All argumentation runs back into certain propositions which sustain the entire structure of argument, and which commend themselves to the unsophisticated mind, as light to the healthy organ of vision. This is especially important in our study of the Bible. It is less observed than it deserves to be, that while the sacred writers sometimes argue, they oftener assert the truth. This is, above all, true of Him who spake as never man spake ; and it became Him, as the authoritative Teacher, the Source of truth, yea, the Truth itself. The same declarations, even now repeated by mortal lips, have, we believe, a penetrative force, greater than is commonly acknowledged. We may accredit reason, without going over to rationalism. The first truth and the first reason are coincident in God. Here subject and object are identical. Even in fallen man, as a reasonable being, truth is fitted to reason. Like Light, it makes its own way, is its own revealer, and, to a certain extent, carries its own evidence. However fully we may consent to receive whatever is divinely revealed, there is a previous point to be settled before opening the vol- ume, which is, that God is to be believed ; and this is a dis- covery of natural light. There are truths, the bare statement of which is mighty. The repeated statement of truths propa- gates them among mankind : most of our knowledge is thus derived. These propositions may be made the conclusion of ratiocinative processes, of processes differing among themsehes, and indefinitely multiplied; for men have various ways of prov- ing the same thing. But many a man believes that which he cannot prove to another. It is shallow to deny or doubt a proposition, simply because' he who holds it is unable to brincr ] it within logical mood and figure. Thought is very rapid. THE PREACHBE'S STaDIES. 177 Middle terms are often faint in the mind's vision, so as to vanish, while yet the conclusions remain. Nay we are sometimes sure of that, on the mere statement of it, which, so far as conscious- ness reports, has not come to us as the result of linked reasoning. This seeming intuition may extend to a greater sphere of objects than those which are usually denominated First Truths. From these considerations we may be encouraged, both in private inquiry, and in the teaching of others. We are not to be deterred from stating the truth, because we have not time to argue, nor even because it is denied. Assertion propagates falsehood ; how much the rather should we use it to propagate truth ? The statement of a great truth conveys to the hearer a form of thought, which, although he deny, he may come to believe. Therefore let it be stated. The medium of proof may come afterwards. Truths confirm one another, and become mutual proofs. In this way our study of Scripture perpetually build up our knowledge and faith. There is a God : here is the sublimest asservation which human lips can utter. It is declared to the babe, and he receives it. Shall no man enjoy the great conception, but one who has mastered the arguments ? The arguments are multiform, unlike, perhaps sometimes insuf- ficient ; yet the truth abides. There are a thousand arguments, and a thousand are yet to be discovered, just as there are a thousand radii, all tending to one point in which to centre. There is no truth which the mind so readily receives ; and we adopt it as a palmary instance of the use of declaring a truth, as the Scriptures often do, independently of ratiocination. But that which settles the mind as to the real warrant for believing Scripture, is that all inspired teaching is authoritative and triumphant. In the baffling search of truth, the weary mind needs such a resting-place and acquiesces in it. The Word of God, considered as a body of religious truth and morals, is the chief fund of those who receive it, and the treasure-house of the instructed scribe. It has made the wisest philosophers and the happiest men ; and the true business of the Christian philosopher is to subject the sacred text to a just interpretation. This suddenly defines and lightens the territory of the clerical student. His work in a certain sense is wholly exegetical. His N 178 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. function, in regard to the divers declarations of the Bible, is like that of the natural philosopher in regard to the complete pheno- mena of the universe. And here is task enough ; for life is too short for even the united powers of Christian interpreters to exhaust aU the meaning of the Scriptures. The prophetic word alone seems to lie before us as a great continent, concerning which as great mistakes have been made as by the early Spanish discoverers about the new world they had touched, and of which only one here and there has taken any safe bearings. The same may be said concerning the border-land between revelation and physical science ; many lucubrations must ensue, before the obscure equivocal voices of science, antiquities, and seeming discovery shall be duly corrected by the everlasting sentences of God's word. So truly are perverse methods founded in an evil nature, and so prone are we to abuse the best principles, that, with the Bible in our hands, as a chosen study, we may slide into the old blunder of undigested and impertinent erudition. The text may be swallowed up of commentary. Indeed, we know not a field in which pedantic erudition careers with more flaunting display, than this of interpretation. Young clergymen there are, whose proudest toils consist in the constant consultation of a shelf of interpreters, chiefly German. We protest against this pretended auxiliary when it becomes a rival. The commentary, like fire, is a good servant, but a bad master. The state of mind produced by sitting in judgment to hear twenty or fifty diiFerent expounders give their opinions on a verse, is morbid in a high degree ; and cases are occurring every year, of laboriously educated weak- lings, rich in books, who are utterly destroyed for all usefulness by what may be called their polymathic repletion. No — more knowledge of Scripture is generally derived from direct study of the text, in the original, with grammar and lexicon, than from examining and comparing all the opposite opinions in Pool's Synopsis, De Wette, or Bloomfield. Again we say, commen- taries must be used, and thankfully, but just as we use ladders, t crutches, and spectacles ; the exception, not the rule ; the aid in emergency, not the habit of every moment. There are times when what we most of all need, is to open the eye to the direct THE pkeacher's stddies. 179 rays of self-evidencing truth ; and at such times every interven- ing human medium keeps out just so many rays from falling on the retina. Holy Scripture cannot make its true impression unless it be read in continuity ; a v^hole epistle, a whole gospel, a vsrhole prophecy at once ; and with repetition of the process again and again ; but this is altogether incompatible with the piecemeal mode of leaving the text every moment to converse with the annotator. The best posture for receiving light is not that of an umpire among contending interpreters. So far as the text is understood by us, our study of it is converse with positive truth. Suppose some errors are picked up, as they will be, in individual cases : these wiU be gradually corrected by the confluent light of many passages. The sum of truths will be incalculably greater than the sum of errors. The healthful body of truth will gradually extrude the portion of error, and cause it to slough off. The analogy of faith will more and more throw its light into dark places. All these effects will be just in proportion to the daily, diligent, continuous study of the pure text. Generally it will be found, that the more perusal of the text, the more acquisition of truth. And in application to the case of preachers, if we have learnt anything by the painful and mortifying experience of many years, it is, that of all prepara- tives for preaching, the best is the study of the original Scripture text. None is so suggestive of matter ; none is so fruitful of illustration ; and none is so certain to furnish natural and attrac- tive methods of partition. If we did not know how many live in a practice diametrically opposed to it, we should almost blush to reiterate, what indeed comprehends all we are urging, that God's truth is infinitely more important than good methods of finding it. We have sometimes thought that over-explaining is one of the world's plagues. There are those things which, even if left a little in enigma or in twilight, are better without being too much hammered out. Who ever failed to be sick of the prating of the cicerone in a foreign gallery ? Why should we deluge an author's inkhorn with water? Wherefore should j3Esop and John Bunyan be diluted with endless commentary ? And all 180 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. this applies itself to the young minister's private study of Scrip- ture. Experience shows that for pulpit and pastoral purposes, . one is more benefited by scholia, or sententious seedlike obser- vations, such as those of Bengel's Gnomon, than by the Critici Sacri, Doctor Gill, or Kuinoel. Baxter says of himself: " TUl at last, being by my sickness cast far from home, where I had no book but my Bible, I set to study the truth from thence, and so, by the blessing of God, discovered more in one week than I had done before in seventeen years' reading, hearing, and ■vvrangling." To which add Bengel's maxims : Te totum applica ad textum ; rem totam applica ad te. And again : " More extra- ordinary proof there is not, of the truth and validity of Holy Scripture, and all its contents of narratives, doctrines, promises, and threatenings, than Holy Scripture itself Truth constrains our acquiescence ; I recognise the handwriting of a friend, even though the carrier does not tell me from whom he brings a letter. The sun is made visible, not by any other heavenly bodies, still less by a torch, but by itself; albeit the bUnd man apprehends it not. The hive of books on interpretation and religious philosophy, in our day, is the German press. Great readers among the younger clergy seem ashamed not to have an acquaintance with these. The question is frequently asked, whether a knowledge of the German language is a necessary or highly important part of ministerial accomplishment. If the ministry at large be ' regarded, we hesitate not a moment to reply that it is not. There are other attainments far more valuable. Some men indeed, called to lead in theological instruction, to publish expository works, and to wage controversies, may well apply themselves to this medium of knowledge ; and as no one can predict what shall be his future vocation in these respects, violence is not to ' .be done to the impulses of Providence, which draw and urge the young student to this field ; as Carey was attracted to Eastern philology, while yet a shoemaker. Such exempt cases, however, cannot be made the basis of a general rule. So far as exegesis is concerned, with its preparations and cognate branches, all that is indispensable in German literature is THE preacher's studies. 181 regularly transferred into English. Much even of this is impure, seductive, and utterly false ; and he may regard his lot as happy, who finds no duty summoning him to meddle with such a farrago. In respect to theology, properly so called, and the philosophy of i religion, we know of no single German work which the youii;^ ' minister may not do without. Even those which are orthodox are only approximations to a system of truth from which the theologians of that country have been sliding away ; gleams of convalescence in a sick-room, which was almost the chamber of death ; laboured vindications of what none among us doubt ; or refutations of heresies which happily have not invaded our part of Christendom. Why should the parish minister in New Jersey or Wisconsin toil through the thirty volumes which have been educed by Strauss's portentous theory? Why should he mystify himself by labouring among the profound treatises which show that God is personal, or that there is such a thing as sin ;■ And why should he wear himself out in mastering a theosophic metaphysic hypothesis, which has exploded by the expansion of its own gases, before the volume has been brought to his hands. AU that we have written about the infelicity of living in a tainted atmosphere has its application here. Upon many u, brilliant book from abroad, we may write, as did the great Arnauld upon the fly-leaf of his Malebranche, Pulchra, nova^ i falsa. After some observation, we cannot recall a single instance of one who has become a more effective preacher, by addicting himself to the modern authors of Germany. Keeping in view the great importance of being something more than a warehouse for other men's thoughts, the earnest minister will early seek the art of original meditation. To him- self he will sometimes appear to be making little progress ; perhaps even to be walking over his own circular track. But thinking over the same trains is not useless, if one so thinks them over as to secure truth. Novelty is the last object which a wise inquirer will seek. We may be sneered at for the sug- gestion, but we hold it a wise purpose quiefa non movere, and till cause be shown, to rest on settled 'positions. As we did not discover the tenets which we profess, but were taught them, so 182 THOUGHTS ON PEEACHING. we may hold them, till maintenance be denial of Scripture reasons. In meditation on these truths, we may so conduct the process as to revise and correct definitions and notions ; to secure just connection of arguments ; to change the order of the same ; to reject useless steps; to supply chasms; to reassure the memory, and thus to have materials for daily thinking, even by the way, in the crowded street, or in the saddle. We may thus be carrying on the entire column of truths into the regions of further discovery. When in pursuing theological lucubrations, the student finds himself advancing by cautious deduction from known truths, he has this special safeguard, that such deductions correct previous errors and confirm previous truths ; the former by startling us with manifest falsehood — the reductio ad absurdum — the latter by arriving anew at familiar truths, or truths consistent with former truths, or inconsistent with the denial of former truths. Or the same may be thus expressed : Every advance in true reasoning adds confirmation to the general system. These are good reasons for studying sometimes without books ; a great attainment which some eminent scholars never make in a whole lifetime. It is, we trust, impossible for any so far to mistake our drift, as to suppose that we utter a caveat against reading or even against extensive reading. Books are and must continue to be the great channels of knowledge, and fertilizing stimulants of the mind. But we would have the young preacher not to look on them as the sheaves of harvest. Great importance attaches itself to sound views of the place which human compositions occupy in mental training. Crude, immature learners regard their courses of reading, especially when rare and diversified, as so much ultimate gain ; as furnishing propositions to be remem- bered, and as the material of future systems ; and according to their quickness and tenacity of memory, they exercise them- selves to reproduce the contents of favourite authors, in their very sequence, if not in their very words. But the same persons, if destined for anything greater than slavish repeaters, soon arrive at a discovery, that a day of multifarious reading needs to be followed by an evening of reflection, in order to THE preacher's STUDIES. 183 conduce to any progress. And let it be observed, as a curious phenomenon of thought, that these subsequent reflections are not the reproduction or re-arrangement of notions gathered during previous study. This is useful and encouraging in the premeditation of sermons. It is even possible that none of the foregoing propositions reappear in their modified shape ; the mind may work on a track entirely new. This part of the process ought to be well marked. What has been gained is not so much information as discipline ; the training of the athlete before contention. Yet the previous reading, indeed all previous reading, is felt to have tended somehow towards the favourable result. This is to be accounted for by several reasons. The powers have been stimulated ; thus we manure the ground, in order to crops. In addition to this, the generalizing faculty arises to wider statements, and laws, for which the particulars of the discursive reading have furnished the instances. And further, the analogy of things read suggests new resemblances and opens new trains. But for all this there is no room, where the read- ing is perpetual, so as to become the only mode of study. Even where the mind, after converse with books, is put upon original activity, care must be taken that these later trains of thought are in the direction of what is useful, and above all what is divine. The best flights of the preacher's meditation are those with which he is indulged after copious perusal of the simple word of God. While many will assent to the general correctness of these statements, few, we apprehend, will consent to put them into practice, in the earlier years of mental training; and with some, the faulty methods of these years become the habit of life. But where a man belongs to the class of productive minds, he will spontaneously seek retirement and self-recollection, after the laborious reading of some years. Whether he write or speak, he will do so from his own stores. It is true that much of what he so writes and speaks will be the result of long intimacy with other minds, but not in the way of rehearsal or quotation. Wise and happy quotation adds beauty and strength ; but the general truth holds, that the highest order of minds is not given 184 THOUGHTS ON REACHING. to abundant citation, except where the very question is one which craves authorities. Masculine thinkers utter the results, of erudition, rather than erudition itself. For why should a man be so careful to remember what other men have said ? Of all that he has read for years, much if not most, aS to its original form, has irrevocably slipped away ; and it is well that it is so, as the mind would else become a garret of unmanageable lumber. The mind is not a store or magazine, but partly a a sieve, which let-s go the refuse, and partly an alembic, which distils the "fifth essence." The book-learning of any moderate reader, even if not increased, would afford material for this process. The lust of novelty betrays some young preachers into a feverish thirst for new reading, in the course of which they scour the fields for every antithetic pungency, and every brilliant expression. For fear of commonplaces, they forbear to give utterance to those great, plain, simple, everlasting propo- sitions, which after all are the main stones in the wall of truth. The preacher errs grievously, who shuns to announce obvious and familiar things, if only they be true and seasonable, and logically knit into the contexture. The most momentous sayings are simple ; or rather, as Daniel T^^ebster once said, " All great things are simple.'' In hours of discipline, it would not be unprofitable for the student to make it his rule, every day, to bring freshly before his mind some solid truth, and if possible some new one ; but rather the solid than the new. Let him fix the truth in his mind as something founded and immovable. Let him proceed to deduce other truths, but with caution. Let him abjure haste and dread paradox. Let him humbly strive to ascend to the highest principles. And let him be more concerned about the laws of thought, than the matter of knowledge. In a word, let him think for himself. This last advice sometimes works noxious results on a certain class of minds. As given from the desks, without explanation, it is just indeed, but often nugatory. Original and independent thinking is one of the last attainments of discipline. The novice does not know how to go about it. He cannot say, " I will now THE preacher's studies. 185 proceed to generate a thought, which neither I nor others e\er had before." The ludicrous attempt is most likely to he made by the Icarus or the Phtgfthon, of least strength and skill. Whole classes of youth, under famous teachers, have sometimes been stimulated into rash speculation and innovating boldness by the abuse of this very counsel. It is necessary, therefore, to qualify and guard it. All the beginnings of knowledge proceed upon a principle of imitation. Not more truly do we learn to speak and to write, by following a copy, than we learn to investigate and to reason by imitating the processes of others. Something of this must pertain to the whole preliminary stage of development. But by degrees, the native powers fledge themselves for a more adventurous flight. And when such beginnings are made, and the young thinker is animated with the desire of expatiating for himself, it is prudent that he should consider the nature of the procedure, or how the mind orders itself in original thinking. Briefly, then, most of our effort concerns the faculty of attention. We must look steadily in the direction of the dawning thought, as we look eastward for the sun rising. We can often do no more than hold the mind fixed. When Sir Isaac Newton was asked how he effected his vast discoveries, he replied, " By think- ing continually unto them." Hence the preacher, who earnestly searches for truths to be uttered in God's house, will often feel himself reduced to a posture of soul which seems passive. Thought is not engendered by violent paroxysms of conscious invention ; any more than a lost coin or a lost sheep is found by running hither and thither in a fury of pragmatical anxiety. Let the wise thinker seat himself, and eschew vexing, plaguing cogitations. Those are not the best thoughts which are wrung out with knitted brows. Something must be conceded to the spontaneity of thinking. We do not so much create the stream, as watch it, and to a certain degree direct it. This is perhaps the reason why great thinkers do not wear themselves out ; but often attain longevity. It is not meditation which weakens and distempers clerical students, so much as long sitting at the desk, and unrestrained indulgence at the table. Placid, easy philoso- phizing is one of the delights of life, and is fruitful. It may be 186 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. carried on in gardens, on horseback, at the seaside, amidst pedestrian excursions. It is the testimony of Malthus, who says : " I think that the better half, and much the most agreeable one, of the pleasures of the mind, is best enjoyed while one is upon one's legs." In thinking, we may discreetly let the thread drop at times ; it will beyond doubt be found again at the right mo- ment. Interruptions thus do good, and secure repose which might not otherwise be taken. Especially converse with other minds, on subjects of present interests, is among the most useful means of suggestion and correction, as it regards our own re- searches. And what is true of living friends is no less true of good books ; in their proper place, they afford invaluable helps to our original inquiries. As a single example, but that the most important, of what we mean by the use of good books, as auxiliary to private thinking, we select works on systematic theology, either such as give a conspectus of the whole, or such as more largely discuss parti- cular topics. These profess to give the classified results of biblical investigation. To the production of these systems, either in the head, in the sermon, or in the printed book, all exegetical research is subsidiary. Fondness for these will be very much in proportion to the strength, clearness, and harmonious action of the intellect. No man can be said to know anything truly, which he does not know .systematically. Every mind, even the loosest, tends naturally to methodize its acquisitions ; much of every man's study consists in referring new truths to the proper class in his mental arrangement ; every man has his system, good or bad, and every sermon is, so far as it goes, a body of divinity. But the great minds of theology have made this their favourite department; and none can commune with them con- stantly without catching a portion of their energy, and learning somewhat of their art. Melancthon, Calvin, Chamier, Tun-et- tine, Owen, and Edwards, are companions who will teach a man to think, and strengthen him to preach. When studies are mis- cellaneous and desultory, there is the more reason for employing frequent perusal of scientific arrangements, in order to give unity to the varied acquisitions. As a good parrallel, we may THE PEEACHEK S STUDIES. 187 mention that tlie late Judge Washington was accustomed to read over Blackstone's Commentaries once a year. This, however, was not enough for a genuine blackletter lawyer. " Find time," said Lord Chancellor Eldon, " to read Coke on Littleton, again and again. If it be toil and labour to you, and it will be so, think as I do, when I am climbing up to Swyer or Westhill, that the world will be before you when the toil is over ; for so the Law will be if you make yourself complete master of that book. At present lawyers are made good cheap, by learning law from Blackstone and less elegant compilers ; depend upon it, men so bred will never be lawyers (though they may be barristers), whatever they may call themselves. I read Coke on Littleton through, the other day, when I was out of office ; and when I was a student, I abridged it." Our candid judgment is, that writers such as we intend belong chietly to a former period of Reformed theology. And we have had a pleasurable surprise, in finding the same judgment expressed by the late Dr Pye Smith, who has been so often quoted as favourable to German divines, with whose works he had a thorough acquaintance. " Perhaps," says he, " the very best theological writings that ever the world beheld,— next to the sacred fountains themselves — are the Latin works of foreign divines who have flourished since the period of the Reformation. It is no extravagance to affirm, that all the toil and labour of acquiring a masterly acquaintance with the Latin tongue, would be richly recom- pensed by the attainment of this single object, an ability to read and profit by those admirable authors."* But the great incitement, as well as the true pabulum of thought is to be derived from the Scriptures. It is happy for a student when he finds that his most animated inquiries are over the word of God. This is a study which secures the right posture of mind, not only for calm judgment, but even for dis- covery. Here is the touchstone which detects the alloy of error. Here only we find positive conclusions which are undubitable. The sacred writings are a moral discipline, and promote holy states which are favourable to the apprehension and belief of » "First Series of Christian Theology," p. 7. London, 1854. 188 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. truth. No one can fully estimate how much they prevent frivolous and aimless reasonings, by keeping the mind constantly in the presence of the greatest objects. The attainments here made belong to real knovrledge ; and thus -we have returned to the principal tdpic, v^hich we discussed in the opening of these remarks. What has been urged in the foregoing paragraphs, will, as we are fuUy aware, be little inviting to many an ambitious scholar. Genuine love of truth is not universal. Great numbers even of good men labour for knowledge of the vehicle ; books, cita- tions, masters, authority, learning as distinct from science. This has its subsidiary value, like the study of words ; but as an end, it belongs to inferior minds. The tendency may be detected by its shibboleths ; the talk of such scholars is alto- gether of verbal de&aitions,sedes quwstionum, debates controversial results, treatises, formularies, the bibliography of subjects. We would not undervalue these things, when kept among instru- ments. But this sort of research affords only knowledge to tell and to be talked of, to get benefit by ; ambitious knowledge, anything but knowledge for itself. The quality of such attain- ment is inferior ; it is shell, husk, integument. It is not fixed and permanent, but resting too much in words, being lost if the words be changed. Men of this school are presently gravelled, if pushed back a step or two, out of their authors and formulas, into the nature of things. Such a one will be found rehearsing formulas, or slightly varying them. The evil is fostered by setting inordinate value on mere reading, and by giving the rein to literary curiosity. Take a weak mind and inflate it with books, and you produce a pitiable theologian. Every one can recall some bookish man who is at the same time shallow. His glory is in citation. Where there is no determinate judgment, great knowledge tends only to vacillation, debility, concession when pressed, and frequent change of opinion. The entire mental furniture of such a scholar is a kind of nominalism. He is a treasury of arbitrary distinctions, classifications, common- places. His questions are, Who has said it ? Who has opposed it? Wliere is it found?' How expressed? This is the history THE preacher's studies. 189 of truth, rather than truth itself. Except in the sense of remem- bering, this person can scarcely be said to think without a book in his hand. We see to what extremes this sort of cortical or formal knowledge may run, in the case of Jewish scholars, Majsorites, and second-rate papists. All is textual. The dis- position is encouraged by what university-men call cramming, and by all undigested learning. It is possible that in our zeal to brand a prevalent evil, we have dwelt too much on the negative side. For there is another kind of knowledge, and another ministerial discipline. We sometimes find it in unlearned men ; and always in those men in whom ponderous erudition has not smothered the native powers ; such were Augustine, Calvin, Bacon, Owen, Horsley, and Foster. The learned man who comes to this, comes to it through and beyond his learning. He attains to the " clear ideas" of Locke. By patient thinking he disentangles the body of truth from its lettered and pictured integuments, of authority, treatise, and phrase. Perhaps a long period has been necessary, in order to learn terms, and read the tenets of other men ; and here many rest, though genius sometimes shortens this period. But true science is not tied to certain phrases. The theologian, above all men, should possess insight. It should not be said of him, Hceret in corticef The matter is not helped when weak but adventurous minds fly away from received formulas : the received formula may contain truth ; the new formula may be as blindly and slavishly repeated as the old. The difference lies deeper than this. There is a discipline of mind which leads to genuine knowledge ; which does not exclude erudition, but works through it to something higher. It is utterly remote from the idle musings of sundry, who absurdly boast that they are always thinking, but never read. It trains the mental eye to look through diction to essential truth ; by which habit the student's notions become his own, and when afterwards ex- pressed, however simply, bear the stamp of originality It conduces to sincere thirst for truth, as truth, in disregard of fame, of authority, of men and of consequences ; and is, there- fore, opposed to sectarian fire, bigotry, worship of masters, and 190 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. pedantry. It ceases to swim with corks, and breaks away from the shallows of mere memory and rhetoric. Strength of judg- ment and firmness of conviction are its results. The mind thus taught does not allow doubts concerning unsettled things to agitate the foundation of things already proved, but maintains its conquests, and leaves no unprotected fortress in the rear. Such is the rare but attainable discipline, which we would covet for every minister of the word. There is strong inducement to order one's studies in the way here recommended, in the further consideration that it leads directly to every good quality in the great work of preaching. The average of any man's sermons will be as the character of his general thinking. A good discourse is not so much the product of the week's preparation, as of the whole antecedent studies and discipline ; it flows not from the pitcher, but the deep well. Hence that celebrated preacher spake a weighty thing, who, on being asked how long it took him to make a certain sermon, replied, " About twenty years." The subject commends itself to a class, who constitute the strength of our American Church ; we mean the rural clergy, dispersed through the length and breadth of the land, often in small parishes. The history both of England and of New England will evince, that some of the profoundest thinkers have become such in precisely these circumstances. It is a vulgar . error to suppose that city pastors are in the most favourable situation for mental culture. Their labours are great, their public and executive duties are many, their interruptions are vexatious, and hence their time, especially for prolonged reflec- tion, is little at their own disposal. No man can be so happily placed for mental culture as the pastor of a retired country parish. He may pursue the uninterrupted studies, which formed a Bochart, a Philip Henry, an Edwards, and a Dwight. Even worldly observers have looked with envy on such a seclusion. The entire current of our remark has presupposed that the studies of the young pastor are sacred and biblical. Instances occur of clergymen who have devoted their strength to secular THE preacher's STUDIES. 191 literature and science. Cardinal Wiseman, in his later series of Essays, delivers some severe blows at those Anglican digni- taries whose chief laurels have been won in mathematics, natural history, and the minute criticism of Greek plays. A well-known clergyman of our own country is remembered only as a consum- mate botanist. Such men are contributors to the stock of general knowledge, but they are scarcely to be accounted faithful to the imperative demands of an age and country like our own- " Our office," says Cecil, " is the most laborious in the world. The mind must be always on the stretch, to acquire wisdom and grace, and to communicate them to all who come near. It is well, indeed, when a clergyman of genius and learning devotes himself to the publication of classics and works of literature, if he cannot be prevailed to turn his genius and learning to a more important end. Enter into this kind of society — what do you hear ? ' Have you seen the new edition of Sophocles ? ' — ' No ! is a new edition of Sophocles undertaken ? ' — and this makes up the conversation, and these are the ends of men who by profes- sion should win souls. I received a most useful hint from Dr Bacon, then Father of the University, when I was at college. I used frequently to visit him at his living near Oxford. He would say to me, ' What are you doing ? what are your studies V — ' I am reading so and so.' — ' You are quite wrong. When I was young, I could turn any piece of Hebrew into Greek verse with ease. But when I came into this parish, and had to teach ignorant people, I was wholly at a loss; I had no furniture. Study chiefly what you can turn to good account in your future life.' " To which may be added the remark of a profound observer, Dr Witherspoon : " It is, in my opinion, not any honour to a minister to be very famous in any branch that is wholly unconnected with theology."* We cite these eminent authorities, in the full persuasion that they are not opposed to the most thorough acquaintance with worldly learning and philo- sophy as subsidiary to the defence and exposition of the gospel. But these are not so to usurp the time and heart as to make the Christian minister distinctively a man of science or letters. And * "Works, Tol, iv, p. 19. 192 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. we admit, also, a valid exception in favour of sucb collateral pursuits as are for recreation, in the intervals of labour. Valuable authorship has in every period of the Church been found among the parochial ministry. This should be borne in mind by the young pastor, in expectation of the day vi^hen he shall act upon Lord Bacon's oft quoted adage, that every man owes a debt to his own profession. New generations of men demand new books, even upon old subjects. No works of the pen are more honourable than those which disclose a sincere interest in the good of one's countrymen, and a desire to apply scriptural principles to national emergencies. Questions of true philanthropy continue to be safest in the hands of Christ's ministers. At the same time, the ordinary topics of theology and morals invite the attention of all whose hearts God hath touched, even though they dwell remote from city or college. If we had not already trespassed on the reader's patience, we should take pleasure in examining the question how far the authorship of the Christian Church has resided among the working pastors. Let us say without fear of contradiction, the great and useful works of religious literature have not proceeded exclusively from professional savans, scholars, or university-men. The inquiry is a curious one, what causes have operated to give the preponderance in literary production sometimes to one and sometimes to the other class. It may be for the encouragement of diffident scholars, in distant and straitened fields, that some of the greatest productions of human genius have issued from retirement and poverty. Wealth has seldom stimulated to aught above the caprices of literature. The conditions of authorships, as shared between professors and private scholars, engaged the acute mind of the father of Political Economy ; whose remarks are worthy of all attention. Speaking of Europe, he observes, that where church-benefices are generally moderate, a university- chair will have the preference. In the opposite case, the Church will draw from the universities the most eminent men of letters. It is declared by Voltaire, that Father Porree, a Jesuit of no great eminence in the republic of letters, was the only professor they had ever had in France whose works were worth the read- THE preacher's STUDIES. 19') ing. The same remark is applicable to other Roman Catholic countries. After the Church of Rome, the Church of England is by far the best endowed in Christendom. In England, accordingly, says Smith, the Church is continually draining the universities of all their best and ablest members ; and an old college tutor, who is known and distinguished in Europe as an eminent man of letters, is as rarely to be found there, as in any Roman Catholic country. '' In Geneva, on the contrary, in the Protestant cantons of Switzerland, in the Protestant countries of Germany, in Holland, in Scotland, in Sweden, and Denmark, the most eminent men of letters whom those countries have ' produced, have, not all indeed, but the far greater part of them, been professors in universities. In those countries, the univer- sities are continually draining the Church of all its most eminent men of letters." * These remarks have an application to the authorship of America, which we are compelled to leave to the reader's own mind. But this whole subject of authorship is only incidental, and these remarks have trickled from the pen almost beyond our purpose. Even though the Christian pastor should never send a line to the press, he is continually engaged in literary produc- tion, and in a most important species of publication. There is no agency in the world which is more operative upon society than the faithful preaching of the gospel; there is none which demands more study, discipline, and wisdom. Hence every man who comprehends the greatness of his vocation will recognize the motives to unwearied exertion in the task of self-control, mental activity, and devoted inquiry after truth. * 'Wealth of Nations, book t. chap. i. \^1 THE MATTER OF PREACHING. Within a recent period, there has been much earnest discus- sion relative to the manner of preaching, in distinction from the matter of it. To a certain extent, the matter and manner of preaching interpenetrate and determine each other. All mattei- sensuous and intellectual must exist in some form, and, while it remains unchanged, is inseparable from that form; which is only- saying, that any substance remaining what it is, is inseparable from the qualities which make it what it is. So far, to determine the matter is to determine the form. To determine that the matter of the human body is an animal organism, is so far forth to determine its form. To determine that the matter of a book shall be moral philosophy, geometry, or chemistry, is, so far, to determine its form. To settle the point that preaching shall be scriptural, philosophical, doctrinal, practical. Pelagian, Calvin- istic, topical, or expository in its matter, is, so far, to determine its form. The discussions in regard to the manner of preaching to which we allude, have had respect to it, not in points wherein it is implicated in the matter, but to points which are independ- ent of it. They admit of indefinite variation in proclaiming essentially the same matter, the same truths, thoughts, reason- ings, in the same order of arrangement. They relate to elocution, gesticulation, the use of manuscripts in the pulpit, and whatever in style or delivery affects the vivacity and impressiveness of a sermon, which in substance and matter is essentially what it should be. Manner, in this sense, and as separable from the matter of preaching (while we by no means underrate its im- portance), it is no part of .our present purpose to investigate. We inquire rather wJiat it is the minister's duty to preach, and THE MATTER OF PREACHING. 195 how he shall do it, only so far as matter and form mutually in- terpenetrate and determine each other. This is the highest question for the preacher to decide. It is of great consequence how we preach. It is of still greater, what we preach, except so far as the former involves the latter. But is it, after all, a question, or at any rate, an open question, among Christians, or if among Christians, among orthodox and evangelical Christians, who acknowledge that the preacher's commission is to preach the gospel, and that he fulfils his duty only so far as he preaches the word, the whole word, and nothing but the word,? Can it be an open question among those who accept the Reformed confessions as faithful summaries of the teachings of revelation ? In one sense, this is not an open ques- tion among any who can of right be called Christians. Still less room for debate remains among those who agree in that inter- pretation of Scripture which makes salvation wholly of grace. But even among these, there is a vast diversity, not merely in the style of their preaching, but in the matter or substance of it. This does not imply that they necessarily contradict one another. It does not necessarily imply that any impugn, or even that they do not confess and abide by every article of the Confession in their discourses. But it implies something more than that diversity of gifts, by which different men are endowed with special qualifications for commending the same gospel to different classes of minds. The difference lies in the different propor- tions, surroundings, applications in which they set forth the different elements of the same body of truth ; in what they signalize by frequent and emphatic iteration, and what they omit or touch lightly and charily, and in the foreign matter with which they illustrate, obscure, or encumber it. How else shall we account for the fact that one preacher has power chiefly in the aptness and force of his appeals to the impenitent ; another, in awakening devout feeling in the hearts of Christians ; a third, in his lucid statement and unanswerable vindication of Christian doctrines ; a fourth, in the enforcement of the moralities of the gospel ; a fifth, in his extraordinary tact at working up occasional, miscellaneous, and semi- secular sermons? Even among those 196 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. then, who acknowledge fealty to the great principle of preaching the word, it is stiU an open question, in what proportions, surroundings, applications, and other circumstances, this word and the various parts thereof shall be preached. And this question wiU bear long pondering by all who have assumed the aM'ful, yet glorious office of watching for souls, and are bound to distribute to each a portion in due season. For who is suffi- cient for tliese things ? At the outset, we may safely postulate, — 1. That the Scrip- tures themselves exhibit the various elements of divine truth in the relative proportions in which it is the preacher's duty to teach and enforce them. 2. That they are also an infallible guide as to the mutual relations and practical applications of these truths ; and that, while the manner of exhibiting and illustrating them requires adaptation to the present circumstances and habits of thought among the people, they may not be intrinsically modified by alteration, suppression, or addition. 3. That the preacher fulfils his mission just and only as his preaching causes these truths to be known, and, through grace, operative among his hearers. 4. That all other acquirements, attractions, graces, or means of power and influence in a preacher, are legitimate and valuable in proportion as they subserve this end ; and any sources of power in the pulpit, aside of this, no way contribute to the discharge of iis mission. Their tendency is to supersede, and thus, in various degrees, to hinder or defeat it. Finally : The great end of preaching is to glorify God and bless man, by bringing sinners to the " obedience of faith " in Christ, and promoting their sanctification, their knowledge, love, and adoration of God ; their assimilation, conformity, and devo- tion to him, in thought, desire, word, and deed ; their cordial and delighted communion with Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ; their love, gentleness, meekness, patience, uprightness, and faithfulness towards their fellowmen. In a word, the great end of preaching, with respect to men, is to advance them " in all holy conversation and godliness." THE MATTER OP PEEACHING. _ V.)7 Starting with these premises, which must be their own evi- dence to all who concede that our sole commission from Christ is to preach the word, it results : 1. That God should be the great, overshadowing object set forth in the preacher's message. All preaching that violates this precept must be vicious. This appears from every side and aspect in which the subject can be viewed. To say, as we shall say, that Christ should be the burden of the preacher's message, ' does not contradict, it re-atSrms this principle. For Christ is God. In preaching Christ, we simply preach God in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses. Whether we set forth the Father, the Son, or the Holy Ghost, either one of the Three, or the Three in One, we directly and immediately hold forth God, and none else. Now, if we look at the Bible or its inspired preachers as models, we find God always and everywhere in the foreground. Indeed the highest evidence of its divinity is the radiance of God upon it. He is the first and the last, shining in it, through it, and from it. Its words are not those which man's wisdom teacheth, and it speaks as never man spake. Another consideration is, that the word to be preached is the word of God. It emanates from him exclusively. It is to be enjoined in his name, and by his authority. It cannot be truly received, or produce its due saving effect, unless it be received " not as the word of man, but as it is in truth, -the word of God, which" worketh effectually in them that believe." 1 Thess. ii. 13. So the preacher is the ambas- sador of God. Can he then truly deliver his message, unless He in whose behalf he pleads be the prominent object in his inculcations ? Still further : The truths which the Bible unfolds are truths relating to God, in his nature and attributes, his works and ways; or they concern us in our relations to him as our Creator, Pre- server, Sovereign, Kedeemer, and Judge ; or they respect the relations and obligations of men to each other, which in turn depend upon their common relation to the one God and Lord of all. Herein are contained all the doctrines, and hence arise all the duties of our religion. How then can they be adequately 198 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. set forth in any form of sermonizing whicli does not make God all in all ? If we consider the duties or attainments required in the Bible, they all have God for their object and end. The love, the desires, the worship, the penitence, the sorrow, the self-renunci- ation, the devotion required, are no otherwise genuine than as they have supreme respect to God. Our duties to men have their strongest bond in his requirements, and are only acceptable when done as unto the Lord : " Not with eye-service, as men- pleasers ; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart." What better then than a mere counterfeit of Christian teaching can we have, when God is not made its Alpha and Omega? Besides, all disposition, ability, efficiency, for attaining the favour or doing the will of God, are the gifts of his sovereign grace. Whatever we are, or have, or do, that is acceptable to God, or in the least meets his requirements, by the grace of God we are what we are. All is of God. All must come from God. To God belongs all the glory. To God we must look for every good gift and every perfect gift. When he withdraws, our com- forts droop, and all our graces die. It is conceivable, then, that the religion of God can be inculcated, except as he himself is magnified ? And is not this view thrice confirmed, when we consider that the declared end of the whole method of our sal- vation is that God may be glorified, the issue of the whole is to be, that God shall be visibly, as he is really, all in all ? Many, doubtless, will be ready to say that we have been vin- dicating a truism. We shall not dispute them. If it be so, it only proves our position the more impregnable. Is it one of those truisms that very many need to single out of their neglected and forgotten common-places, and to brighten it into its due lustre, and swell to its due proportions, by surveying it afresh, in its deep grounds and infinite reach of application. Coleridge says, in the first, if not best aphorism of his Aids to Reflection, that we can seldom be more usefully employed, than in " rescu- ' ing admitted truths from the neglect caused by the' very circum- stance of their universal admission. Extremes meet. Truths, THE MATTER OF PREACHING. 199 of all others the most awful and interesting, are too often considered as so true, that they lose all the power of truth, and lie bed-ridden in the dormitory of the soul, side by side with the most despised and exploded errors." That there is a difference as to the extent to which God is magnified, and the whole tex- ture of discourse saturated with the divine element, by different preachers, is undeniable. With some, a sense of his excellency and our own littleness and vileness ; of the blessedness of his favour and the terrors of his wratli ; of the importance of beino; prepared to meet him ; of living for his service and glory : of dependence upon him for grace, salvation, and blessedness : of the impossibility of finding true felicity, except in the enjoyment of him forever, is the grand impression sought and effected. With others, the human, the worldly, the philosophic, social, and political, usurp the predominance. These are the great ob- jective elements that loom up and secure an obtrusive, if not overshadowing prominence, in the preacher's unfoldings and inculcations. Man and the world appear so great, that God and heaven are scarcely greater. And in some cases the preacher himself is foremost in the group, and could hardly say with the Apostle, " we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord." * If, then, the foremost object to be set forth in preaching is the Most High, in his being, infinitude, and perfection; in his works of creation, providence, and grace ; in his relations towards us as our Maker, Preserver, Benefactor, our Sovereign, Saviour, and Judge ; then that preaching is neither biblical. Christian, nor even religious, which is not so impregnated with this divine * We have been credibly informed that two distinguished living preaobers, ■when formerly stationed in the same Western city, had, for an oocasional auditor, an irreligious officer of the army. This gentleman said to our in- formant, that he listened to the one with the greater pleasure ; to the other with less satisfaction, but with greater respect and reverence, if not profit. Being asked to explain himself, he said, " The former exalts the dignity of man, and I always come away pleased with myself. The latter so magnifies God, that I seem nothing, and I always seem oppressed with a sense of my own insignificance and unworthiness." If preaching is to be estimated by the crowds it draws, we believe this man-exalting divine is now facile princeps among American preachers. 200 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. element, that God is not only its central, but pervading object ; over all, in all, through all, of whom, and through whom, and to whom are all things, to whom be glory forever. 2. We are thus prepared to understand the attitude in which man should be put by the preacher. As the Bible is addressed to man, and aims to bring him to the salvation it proifers, i. e. to , spiritual life, holiness, and bless, this is a point of capital import- ance. But it is needless here to investigate anthropology. The great object of the preacher should be to make him know and feel that he is a dependent, rational, and accountable creature, owing fealty to his Maker — that he was made to love, serve, commune with, and enjoy him; that herein is life and bless, and that alienation from God by sin is death and woe. These truths, the more earnestly they ai'e pressed, find a responsive attestation in every conscience not sacred as with a hot iron. And they are all the more felt, in proportion as God is apprehended in his goodness and holiness, his sovereignty and omniscience. But while this is fundamental and conditional to any religion what- ever, it underlies another truth which is cardinal in Christianity. We of course refer to man's fallen state, including sin, guilt, misery, helplessness. In general it may be affirmed, that men will realize all this, just in proportion as they see and feel what God is. But in order to set forth God eflFectuaUy for this pur- pose, his law, which mirrors his perfections in his requirements of man, must be proclaimed in its spirituality and searching im- port, in its precept and penalty, line upon line, and precept upon precept. The express law of God is but a formal republi- cation of the law written by nature on the heart, although often forgotten, disowned, and obscured under the mists of sin. But still it is written there, although sin has blurred the record. And when it is proclaimed in its full import and awful sanctions, it finds an echo and witness in the conscience, that having been drowsed into oblivion of it, is awakened to behold it. The lightnings of Sinai bring out in visible distinctness the writing before invisibly traced. on the conscience. For "the conscience meanwhile bears witness." They know the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death. With THE JIATIEK OP PKEACHING. 201 all the world they become consciously guilty (yitiihiMi) before God. We have reason to fear that too much of our current preaching is more or less emasculated by a deficiency here. We are no legalists. Neither are wo antinomian. The law must be proclaimed, not for the purpose of showing us how we can, but that we cannot, obtain life, according to its requirements. It is the grand instrument for producing conviction of sin. " By the law is the knowledge of sin." It is only as the law, in its breadth of precept and awfuluess of penalty, is apprehended and witnessed by the conscience, that conviction of sin is felt, that self-righteous hopes are extinguished, or that men are driven from all other refuges to Christ. None will thirst for or flee to the Saviour till they see their case to be hopeless without him. The whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But this conviction can be effected only by manifestation of the law, which makes it evident that by violating its precept they are subject to its curse, so it becomes a schoolmaster which leads to Christ. Thus Paul was alive, i. e. confident of gaining eternal life, without the law once. But when the commandment came, sin revived, and he died. It slew him. Its manifestations under the light of the law were the death of all his hopes. And he further shows that this was accomplished only by a view of the spiritual and heart-searching elements of the law. For he says, " I had not known sin but by the law ; I had not known lust except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet." It is when the law gleams and thunders, that sinners in Zion are afraid, and fearfulness surprises the hypocrites. And it is only when thus " pricked in the heart " by the sword of the Spirit, that they will ask, What shall we do to be saved ? The law is no less indispensable, of course, as a rule of life to Christians. It is the standard of excellence to which they must aspire. They can neither have nor give evidence that they are Christians, unless they are striving after conformity to this perfect standard. The very end of their election, redemp- tion, calling, is that they may be holy as God is holy — a peculiar people, zealous of good works. In proportion as their communion with God becomes perfect, they will be perfect in 202 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. holiness. But holiness is nothing else than conformity to the law of God. It is true that we do not thus seek a title to eternal life. But thus alone can that life, gratuitously bestowed, exist or manifest itself. Thus alone can we become attempered to, or capable of, the joys of heaven. Although released from the law as a condition of life, yet the Christian joyfully embraces it as a rule of living. He does so, because by the instinct of his gracious nature, he loves the law of God after the inward man, and because the adoption to sonship, which is freely given him in Christ, enables him and disposes him to obey it with filial freedom, love, and confidence. He is not without law to God, but under law to Christ. Having these promises, he cleanses himself from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. These commonplaces only need stating, so far as the principle involved in them is concerned. The chief questions which arise, respect the manner of carrying it out. It is here we judge that the most serious deficiency will be often found in preaching — a deficiency which too often dulls its edge and destroys its pene- trative power. Many insist strenuously on the law, as the standard of goodness, which is evermore binding on all rational beings. They thunder its curses upon unbelievers. They in- sist upon all Christians making it the rule of life. Yet, after all, it fails of its due effect in alarming the unconverted, and purify- ing the hearts and lives of Christians. In short, it does not reach, enlighten, or awaken the conscience. Why ? because it is not unfolded and defined in its import and applications to the manifold relations of our inner and outer life, and the modes of thinking, feeling, and acting therein required. No clear lines of discrimination are drawn, showing precisely where duty begins and ends, and where sin commences either in the form of omis- sion or commission. It is one thing to denounce the curse of the law against the transgressor. It is another to denounce profaneness, or taking God's name in vain, as a heinous sin. But it is yet another, and a very different thing, to point out in clear and graphic delineation the various ways in which this command is violated in thought, word, and deed, and to show THE MATTER OF PREACHING. 203 the criteria which distinguish the lawful from the profane treat- ment of things divine. This cannot be done, without giving the knowledge of sins before unknown qt unheeded, while it relieves the conscience of the sincere believer, not only by defining his duty, but by showing what is not sin, and thus loosing him from the fetters pf morbid scruples and groundless despondency. The latter object is often scarcely less important than the former. Many Christians go limping and halting all their days, in the fetters of a Judaical, Pharisaic, or ceremonial spirit ; or of a superscriptural strictness and severity on some one or more points of Christian morality. This may make them harsh, sour, censorious, dejected, uncomfortable to themselves and their brethren. But such weights and consequent besetting sins must be laid aside, before they can run with patience and joy the Christian race. Instead of mounting up on wings as eagles, they grow weary, and their soul cleaveth to the dust. Those who undertake to be more righteous than God's law, in any re- spect, will be sure to compensate their work of supererogation by greater license in some other form of sin. We once knew a candidate for the ministry who denounced as a sin, eating meat, and drinking tea and coffee, and, if we remember right, any violation of Professor Hitchcock's prescriptions for avoiding dyspepsia. He ended with becoming the hierophant of a con- venticle of free-love Perfectionists, and doing what he might, to turn temples into brothels. Take the law of the Sabbath, in regard to superiors and inferiors, indeed, the whole decalogue, and let it be so expounded, defined, and applied, that men must see not only what is, but what is not a violation of it — let the preaching of duty be clear, thorough, didactic, casuistic — and would it not oftener leave the arrows of the Lord sharp and rankling in the hearts of his enemies, and promote beyond measure the sanctitication, the blamelessness, the usefulness of Christians'? Is it not thus, and not otherwise, that the word becomes sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the di- viding asunder of the joints and marrow, and a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart ? So is it, and not otherwise, that it becomes profitable not merely for doctrine, but " for re- 204 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. proof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." These principles, with regard to the inculcation of the law, apply of course, mutatis mutandis, to the whole sphere of evan- gelical duty ; i. e. of duty as amplified in its scope, as modified in its source, rule and end, by the gospel. This is only saying that in summoning men to do their duty, we ought to explain and define so clearly, as to preclude all mistake, what duty is.* It is simply asserting the didactic element in preaching, which in the light of reason and scripture must, needs be an integral and fundamental part of it. The commission given to preach the gospel to every creature, is given by another evangelist as a commission to teach all nations to do and observe Christ's com- mands. The instructions given to Timothy and Titus terminate very much in showing them whom, what, and how they shall teach. We have dwelt the longer on this point, because we are per- suaded that not a few are labouring under certain misconceptions regardingit, which impair their vigour and usefulness as preachers. It is a vulgar notion that all didactic preaching is dry and un- interesting. Hence many have deep prejudice against what * It can hardly be necessary to enter a caveat against straining this maxim beyond the bounds of reason and even possibility. Even the api^lications of principles can be given by the preacher only in derivative principles of greater or less generality. He cannot go into the particular questions of fact, on which, in each case, the question of duty depends. To do so, would be to teach all knowledge, which is impossible, while the attempt to do it would be worse than ridiculous. Thus, that it is a duty to keep our promises, and to make none which are unlawful, or beyond our power to fulfil ; and conse- quently that none ought to undertake the practice of law, medicine, states- manship, or any calling, without competent qualifications to do aright, what they thus promise to do, is evidently within the province of the pulpit. But who will say, that it is within its province to teach law, medicine, politics, engineering, or bricklaying? Such knowledge, without which none can do their duty in these caUings, must be learnt elsewhere. To lecture on Hydro- pathy and Allopathy, the merits of our various political parties, old line and new line, straight and crooked, on the right method of tailoring, or plaster- ing, is not to teach or preach tbe gospel, and if done under colour thereof,- it is simply a desecration. ' ' THE MATTER OF PREACUING. 205 they style doctrinal preaching. They crave warmth and life. They want earnest, hortatory discourse. They deem this prac- tical and profitable. But let practice be urged in an instructive way, which displays its grounds, reach, and limits ; which pro- duces not merely some vague excitement, but shows them what they ought to be and do, and they stigmatize it as dull, didactic, and doctrinal. We do not dispute that there may be instruc- tive preachers, who by their jejune style and frigid manner, are obnoxious to this complaint. This might happen, whatever the matter of the sermon. But in many cases the objection is aimed at the things said, not the manner of saying them. It is related of the late Professor Stuart, that, during his short but efficient pastorate, he dwelt much on certain doctrines of grace, which had been neglected or disparaged by his predecessor. The people were roused. Some said one thing and some another. The result, however, was, that his preaching was in the demon- stration of the Spirit and of power ; his church was filled with eager listeners ; and experimental piety was greatly and per- manently promoted. Some of his hearers, restive under a tone of preaching to which they were unused, begged him to give less doctrine, and more practical sermons. He complied with their request, and commenced delivering clear and thorough exposi- tions of the divine law. In a short time, however, the same auditors waited upon liim with a request that he would return to the doctrines. They had enough of practice. The truth is, aversion to legitimate preaching, whether of doctrine or practice, originates in one source. It is simply aversion to truth in its antagonism to corrupt nature, which, if doctrinal, requires a correspondent practice ; if practical, has its roots in a corre- spondent doctrine. For truth is in order to goodness. Hence they prefer some transient and blind excitement of feeling, to that discovery of truth which alone can awaken sound evangeli- cal feeling ; which purifies while it quickens the heart, because it gives light to the understanding, and thus makes permanently wiser and better. We have said that preachers are in danger of being influenced by this vulgar, prejudice, and to flatter them- selves that they can benefit a large class most by imparting to 206 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. them heat without light. We apprehend that such heat can be but a momentary glow of sympathetic or animal excitement, as flashy as its cause. The rational soul can feel only in view of what it first perceives. Emotions must be founded on and de- termined by cognitions. Christianity is not a religion of blind feeling or capricious impulse. It is a religion of truth. It sanctifies by the truth. And the great duty of the preacher is, " by manifestation of the truth to commend himself to every man's conscience in the sight of God." Our religion is not, as some one has said, like the moon, giving light without heat, nor like the stove, gi\ing heat without light, but like the sun, giving perennial light, and warmth, and life. If there is any force in these views, they lead to the conclusion, that the true interest, life, and power of preaching, lie in the exhibition and enforcement of Christian truth and duty; in the justness and force of the answers it gives to the great questions. What shall I believe, what shall I love, what shall I do, in order to lead a righteous, sober, and godly life ; and that when Christ appeal's, I also may appear with him in glory? — in a word, in the Christian light it shed on the intellect and conscience, to the end that it may mould the heart. The feeling awakened by such preaching will be salutary. Christian feeling. The greater the clearness, fervour, and vividness with which such truths are set forth, and sent home, the better. And we may add, that all other sources of interest in a preacher and his sermons, are aside of, if not athwart, the true aim of preach- ing. That the preacher be admired ; • that he fascinate by poetry or oratory, by philosophy, or any excellency of speech or wisdom, may answer a great many purposes. But it may aU be, without preaching the gospel, or disturbing the thoughtless, or guiding the anxious soul, or edifying the people of God. We by no means underrate a good report of them that are without. We appreciate the importance of being in favour with all the people, and giving no offence in anything, that the ministry be not blamed. But we know, too, that a woe is upon those who preach not the gospel, and of whom all men at all times apeak well. We should esteem the solemn awe, the deep thoughtful- THE MATTliK OF PREACHING. 207 ness of the worldling, the alarm of the pi'esuraptuous, the ray of spiritual comfort stealing in upon the contrite soul, the devout feeling and holy purpose springing up in the breast of one and another, on leaving the sanctuary, a more precious testimony to the power and excellence of the discourse, than all the plaudits of graceless worldlings, and genteel professors, who are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. The self-searching, the humility, the tears of penitence, the sweet and confiding faith, the comfort of hope, the movement of the soul from self and the world, toward God in Christ, with which so many heard the preaching of a Nettleton or Alexander, are a thousand-fold higher attestations of pulpit power, than all the encomiums ever lavished upon merely magnificent oratory. It was a common question among the hearers of the famous Shephard of Cam- bridge (who was wont to say that all his sermons cost him tears), as they left church on the Sabbath, " Who was wrought upon to-day ?" These are the best seals of the genuineness and apostolocity of a ministry : " By their fruits shall ye know them." In the foregoing remai'ks, we have necessarily anticipated much that applies equally well to what follows. The effect of preaching the law faithfully, will not be to encourage men to attempt to gain life by keeping it, but to show them their utter inability to keep it, and their hopeless condemnation by it. Convincing them of their ruin, it fills them with a sense of their need of a Eedeemer. This is the great central truth, of revelation, and the foundation of true religion. For " other foundation can no man lay." Therefore, while, as we have shown, God must be set forth, first of all, and above all, in preaching, he must. 3. Be pre-eminently set forth as " God in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses." It were a poor and unworthy work to smite, and not to heal ; to tear, and not bind up ; to kill, and not make alive. Hence, since He, who by death overcame him that hath the power of death, alone can deliver us from sin, our paramount office is to declare Him, who is the w^y, the truth, and the life. As for us, our 208 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. mission is to " pi-each Christ and him crucified ; to the Jews as a stumbling-block, to the Greeks foolishness, but to them who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God." We need -not labour to prove to the Christian, that '■ Christ and his cross are all our theme." All else converges towards him, or radiates from him. It tends to lead us to him, or flows from our union to him. A.11 unfold- ings of God in his perfections and glories ; all exhibitions of the character, condition, and duties of man ; all inculcations of doctrine and practice, if true and scriptural, lead the soul directly to the Lord Jesus Christ, for wisdom, righteousness, sanctifica- tion, and redemption. "Ye believe in God," says Christ, " believe also in me." True faith in God involves faith in Christ, as soon as he is set before the soul ; for in him all the fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily. The first archangel never saw " So much of God before." We behold his glory in the face of Jesus Christ. Faith in God then is implicitly faith in Christ ; it is a germ which will unfold itself as such, as soon as Christ is presented to it. The law slays, thus showing us that Christ is our only life. So every doctrine, every duty, all legitimate matter of preaching, of what- ever sort, culminates in Christ, in whom all things shall be gathered into one, and who filleth all in all. All duty leads to hi™, to discharge the debt incurred by its non-performance, to obtain strength for its future fulfilment ; while the wisdom, power, and love displayed in Christ, evoke the highest love and adoration, and incite, while they enable us to render grateful and devoted obedience. But upon this general view there is no cause to dwell. Few Christians will deny that Christ should be the centre and sub- stance of all preaching. It is only upon some of the conse- quences and bearings of this tputh, that there is occasion for remark. 1. We apprehend that preachers are in little danger of excess THE MA.TTEE OF PREACHING. 209 in setting forth Christ objectively to their hearers. He, God in him, is the great object towards which their faith, love, hope, obedience, and devotion, are to be directed. They are Christians only as they thus bow to that name which is above every name. They are complete in Him who is the Head of all principality and power. Without him they can do nothing. Life, faith, love, hope, come of looking to him, not to themselves, or to anything which they or other men can spin out of themselves. It should never be forgotten that Christianity, although working an inward renovation by the immediate operation of the Holy Ghost, developes this change in accordance with the laws of our rational and moral nature. No Christian affections can arise except in view of their proper objects. These objects are found in Christ, the God-man, our Saviour, in his person, oflSces, and works. Of course, we do not mean to advocate any monotonous repetition of any single or isolated truth in regard to him. There is no need of this. One of the most remarkable treatises in our language is that of Bell, showing how much of God is evinced in the human hand. A friend of ours has in contemplation a similar treatise in regard to the honey-bee. If these diminutive objects require volumes to show the extent of divine imprint upon them, can there be any lack of variety, and need of mono- tony, in exploring the infinite compass and relations of the Redeemer and his work ? All life contains inexhaustible variety in unity which never tires by monotony. How much more He who is the Life, and combines in his own person a divine life, a human life, and the source of all Hfe, out of whose fulness we all receive, and grace for grace ! The endless sides and aspects in which he stands related to his people, enable us to view him in relations ever fresh and diversified, while yet he remains the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. 2. It hence follows, that the way and grounds of vital union to Christ should be thoroughly and abundantly set forth and cleared up in preaching. The nature of saving faith, as dis- tinguished from all counterfeits of it ; its simplicity, as distin- guished from all the entanglements with which unbelief would p 210 THOUGHTS ON PEEACHING. embarrass it ; its naked essence, as simple trust in Christ and his righteousness, should be, in one form and another, a frequent theme of preaching, and habitually inwoven with the whole texture of our discourses. This must be done, even if it incur the danger of seeming repetitions. It is the grand requisite to the birth of the soul into the kingdom of God. Simple and rudimentary as it is in Christian teaching, free justification is an article in which men born under the covenant of works are dull learners. There always are those in every congregation who are thinking and inquiring on the subject of religion, but who have never known what it is to believe on Christ to the saving of the soul. There are always babes in Christ, and weak believers, who tremble and stumble in their Christian walk, be- cause they have no adequate view 6f the free, gratuitous, and fuU justification which faith embraces and insures merely for the taking. At this point, too, not a few older Christians, " when, for the time, they ought to be teachers, have need that one teach them which be the first principles of the doctrine of Christ." Many ministers have been surprised, in conversations with the sick and dying, to find persons who have been their hearers all their days, in a mist on this simple and vital question. How can a sinner be justified before God t They know, indeed, in gene- ral, that it is not by their own, but by Christ's righteousness ; yet, until the Spirit takes the scales from their eyes, they will be found, in some form, to be working up a righteousness of their own. They will think they must in some way make themselves better, before they can be fit to go to Christ, or he can receive them. Many believers often waver at this point. They doubt whether persons so unworthy have any warrant to appropriate to themselves the Saviour's righteousness. It is of great impor- tance, that all inquiring, doubting, trembling souls be brought to see clearly the true nature of justification, which inures to those who believe on Him that justifieth the, ungodly, that so they may stagger not at the promise, but be strong in the faith, giving glory to God. Xor can the preacher well expend too much of his strength here. AU the liberty wherewith Christ maketh free ; all filial confidence, love, and devotion ; all holy THE MATTER OF PKEACHING. 211 Strength and courage to serve God without fear, in holiness and righteousness, all the days of our lives ; all that is sweet, genial, and buoyant, in our spiritual state, depend upon it. Thus there is peace and joy in believing. Thus we obtain righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. Thus alone can we be delivered from the spirit of bondage and slavish fear, or feel ourselves in such a relation towards God as enables us to serve him with a true heart and right spirit. To the carnal eye, it indeed seems impossible that free justification should not en- courage licentiousness. To the spiritual eye, it is the purifying spring from which good works must flow, and cannot but flow. We are not to get hfe in order to come to Christ, but to come to Christ that we may have life. There is a class of theologians and preachers who involve this whole subject in perplexity, by the theory that love precedes and is the spring of evangehcal faith, and that none but peni- tents are warranted to trust in Christ. The efiect of this is to make men feel that until they can find within themselves evi- dences of penitence and love, they must consider the mercies of the gospel, as Boston says, " forbidden fruit," which it is unlaw- ful for them to touch. On this subject, confusion of mind is the easiest of all things, and the clear truth among the most important. It is true, that no faith is genuine without repentance and love. So faith without works is dead. It is also true, that faith, although in the order of time simultaneous with commencing love, repentance, and good works, is, in the order of nature, before,- conditional to, and causative of them. Love can only arise from faith's perception and belief of the excellence and glory of Christ and his cross, and of God as shining through them. It arises, as they see "What wisdom, power, and love, Shine in their dying Lord." But we must discern and believe in this loveliness before it can excite our love. And when we believe and see it, it cannot but draw the heart. Another consideration is, that until we are in that friendly relation to God in which justifying faith places us, we cannot confide ourselves to him. We feel that 212 THOUGHTS ON PEEACHING. our sins subject us to his righteous displeasure, and that we merit and must receive vengeance at his hands. Now love is impossible towards those whom we dare not trust because we are subjects of their righteous wrath. So faith is indispensable to love. And since all works not inspired bj faith and love, are slavish, dead works, it follows, that although there be no faith without repentance, love, and holiness, yet faith is their antecedent and cause, as truly as the sun of its beams, and life of breath. We apprehend that a clear view of this point is of great moment in guiding inquiring souls. He is paralyzed in making the gospel offer, 'who cannot, without conditions, bid every thirsty soul come and welcome ; who is constrained to tell sinners that they must get rid of their inward distempers and maladies before coming to Christ, instead of going to him at once for the removal of sin and guilt. This is preaching a fettered gospel, and it produces a fettered piety. It gendereth to bondage. It is alien from the sweet and simple faith, the filial confidence and freedom, the buoyant yet humble hope, the cordial love and genial devotion of the gospel ; and which result from going at once to Christ for all, receiving all as a free gift from him, and thence giving all, in love and gratitude, to him. We think this view is sustained by the whole drift of scriptural representations. According to these, faith purifieth the heart : it works (exerts its energies) by love ; it is the victory that overcometh the world. This view fully accords with the absolute necessity of love, repentance, humility, and good works, to salvation. Faith, which does not exert and evince itself in these, is not saving faith. Though we have all faith and have not charity, it profiteth nothing. Nor do the calls to repent, with the promise of pardon annexed, conflict with ; they rather corroborate this view. On wliat is this pardon based 'i On Christ. How apprehended and applied ? By faith. Wlien the wicked are exhorted to forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts, and turn to G-od, who hath mercy, and to our God who wiU abundantly pardon, it is only a form of teaching, that faith in God's pardoning mercy is prerequisite to true repentance. The definition of the Catechism is a true summa- tion of scriptural teachings on this subject. " Repentance unto THE MATTER OF PREACHING. 213 life is a saving grace, wliereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin, and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, doth, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God with full pur- pose of, and endeavour after new obedience." ' The mistaken theory to which we have adverted, of deriving faith from love, and not love from faith, has, we are persuaded, a strong tendency to generate error on the subject of the sinner's inability. The preacher does not see his way clear to direct the sinner immediately to Christ for deliverance from this and all other evils and miseries of sin. If he cannot bid the sinner go out of himself at once to a strength which is made perfect in his weakness, nor till he has procured penitence, or love, or some other robe of clean linen with which to go, the question arises, How shall he get all this ? How can he be incited to work and strive for it? The answer is, the preacher must be prepared to tell him he is able to accomplish it, or else he is hopelessly para- lyzed, and can do nothing, but leave the inquirer passively awaiting the sovereign afflatus of the Spirit. Hence various fictions of natural, and we know not what other, ability, have been devised to bridge over this chasm. But the inability of the sinner, though moral, is real, and inconsistent with anything that can properly or safely be called ability. All modes of teaching which have any other effect than to lead men, under a sense of their own helplessness, to cast themselves on Christ for strength to lead a Christian life, are delusive and mischievous. We are not sufficient for anything, as of ourselves ; our sufficiency is of God. When we are weak, then are we strong in the Lord and the power of his might. This is the whole theory of the Chris- tian life. The just shall live by faith ; not faith in their own ability, but of the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us. The whole may be summed up by adding to the article of the Catechism on repentance, those on faith and effectual calling. " Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace whereby we receive and rest upon him alone for salvation, as he is offered to us in the gospel." " Effectual calling is the work of God's Spirit, whereby, convincing us of our sin and misery, enlighten- ing our minds in the knowledge of Christ and renewing our 214 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. wills, he doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ, freely offered to us in the gospel." 3. A few words will suffice, after what we have already ad- vanced, to show our views of doctrinal preaching. We can hardly conceive of a Christian discourse which does not implicitly contain, and, with greater or less explicitness, articulate a Chris- tian truth or doctrine. Christian doctrines are but the truths of Christianity. The only real question then is, what Christian truths shall be preached, and in what relative proportions ? Here the word of God is our true model and guide. But shall not certain doctrines be suppressed, although taught in the sacred oracles ? Hear again our answer is, preach the word. " AU scripture is profitable for doctrine,"- as well as other things, who- ever may wish the ninth chapter of Romans, or any other part, expunged therefrom. Generally, the objection to preaching doctrines has reference to those doctrines which the objector dislikes. If he can prove them untrue or unscriptural, his objection is valid, not otherwise. All Christian affections and purposes are inspired by a view of Christian truth. They are otherwise impossible. And there is no Christian truth which, presented in its due proportions and surroundings, does not tend to nourish some holy affection. There can be no doubt, there- fore, that it is a fundamental part of the preacher's vocation, to make these truths clearly understood, a^ the very condition of true faith, holy living, whatever is involved in right practice. The inculcation of doctrine is sometimes stigmatized as duU and unprofitable ; as offering the mere dry bones to souls craving the nutritive milk and meat of the word. We do not deny that there may be doctrinal preaching obnoxious to this charge. We do not think sermons should be theological lectures, didactic or polemic. We think doctrine being clearly defined and estab- lished, should alway be developed in its practical and experi- mental bearings. So all Christian practice should be based on its correlate doctrines, and rooted in Christian principle, in order to be of that kind which accompanies salvation. As to fervid discourses which would stir the feelings without illuminating the understanding, we have already said enough. The attempt to THE MATTER OF PREACHING. 215 edify the Church without doctrinal instruction, is like the attempt to build a house without foundation or frame-work. Let any in derision call the doctrines " bones," if they will. What sort of a body would that be which was flesh and blood, without bones 1 If any present them in skeleton nakedness, divested of their vital relations to life and experience, this is the fault of those who do it, not of true and proper doctrinal preaching, which on one of its sides is practical and experimental. In fact, the two should never be torn asunder, any more than the flesh and bones. They should ever blend with and vitally interpenetrate each other, and be pervaded by the unction of the Holy One. No sane man will contend for mere dogmatic abstractions in the pulpit. Much less should it be a theatre for philosophic or metaphysical disquisitions. But it should be a theatre for un- folding, illustrating, enforcing divine truth proved by the testi- mony of Him for whom it is impossible to lie, to be apprehended by the intellect, and vouched for by the conscience of man. We do not believe this truth so devoid of interest as seems to be supposed by many, who on this account studiously shun it. We believe it to be the only material on which most ministers, who have no coruscations of genius, with which to charm their hearers, can rely for awakening a permanent interest in their ministra- tions. While there is any religion in the world, he will hardly fail to interest his flock, who feeds them with knowledge and understanding. Dr Emmons, whose sermons were in a remark- ably degree clear and icy metaphysical reasonings, far less at- tractive than the plain truths of Sciipture, read off in the most passionless manner, always had an audience of eager listeners. He said in his laconic way, " I have generally found that people will attend, if you give them anything to attend to." Polemical and controversial preaching is doubtless to be avoided, except so far as the preacher is called to combat the lusts and errors of hearers. In this sense, faithful ministers will always be obliged, like the apostle, to " teach the gospel with much contention." All preaching is immediately or remotely an assault upon the deceits of sin, and the refuges of lies in which it enti'enches itself. And it may happen, when errorists 216 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. are stealing the hearts of the people, that, with heavenly wisdom and prudence, ministers must dispute daily, as did Paul, the things of the kingdom. This is one thing. To bring the odium theologicum into the pulpit ; to be fond of holding up other bodies of Christians to reproacli and derision ; to appear more anxious to gain the victory over our adversary, who has no chance to defend himself, than to save the souls of them that hear ; to dis- play wrath, and bitterness, and clamour, and evil speaking, in a place that should be radiant with Christian benignity ; or, even without this, to be always thrusting out the horns dissevered from the body of Christian doctrine and practice, may accom- plish a great many things. But we have never seen it produc- tive of any signal fruits of faith, humility, penitence, love, and devotion. In general, it will be found, especially so far as the pulpit is concerned, that the positive and able inculcation of the truth is the best defence against error ; and that the more com- pletely impersonal and uncontroversial it is, the less likely is it to arouse those carnal and malevolent feelings which always grieve the Spirit of God. This is the general principle. Cases may arise in which duty requires another course ; but they should be exceptional and emergent. 4. In combating the errors and lusts of men, we do not be- lieve that any great good is effected by abstract metaphysical and philosophical arguments. They are usually unintelligible to the common mind. They are the " wisdom of this world, which is foolishness with God," and which no preacher is commissioned to employ ; and if he condescends to found his claims on his philosophy, one man's philosophy is as good as another's. He has a higher sanction for all that he proclaims, even the testi- mony of God, which shines in its own self-evidencing light throughout the Scriptures. Besides this, he has the witness of the consciousness of his hearers to attest what he aiRrms in re- gard to their moral state, their ill desert, their need of a Saviour, and their chief duties as Christians. Thus, for the principal parts of his message, he has proofs more effective, and exercising a far higher convictive power, than any ingenuity of speculation. And here he has an advantage which largely compensates for THE MATTEE OF PREACHING. 217 the natural apathy and aversion of men to the gospel. He speaks by divine authority, and not as the scribes, if he is true to his trust. Their consciences meanwhile bear him witness. Any other basis of his teachings is of little efficacy in producing scriptural faith. For this is faith, not in any philosopheme or hypothesis of man, but in God and his word ; and it must stand, not in the wisdom of men, but the power of God. It is beyond all doubt, then, that the preacher's discourse will be instinct with penetrating, convictive, spiritual, purifying energy, just and only in proportion as he appeals to the authority of God and the consciences of his hearers. This is wielding the sword of the Spirit ; and when we use his sword, in devout dependence on him, we may look for his presence to give it an ethereal temper and penetrant edge. Such preaching, though it come not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring the testimony of God, will doubtless be in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. As the Spirit works the new creation not by any violation of, but in unison with, the nature and laws of the rational soul, as he persuades while he enables ns to embrace Christ, and does this by giving efficacy to the external persuasions of the word read and preached, so the true method of bringing men to the knowledge and belief of the truth, is, as in all cases, to proceed from the known to the unknown. All moral and Christian truths are concatenated and interdependent, like the members of a living organism. Each one either supposes or is confirmed by all the rest. Had we adequate faculties, we should doubtless see, in regard to these truths, what we now see of some, that they in- volve all the rest ; just as the zoologist will tell from a tooth or a bone all the other parts of the animal to which it belonged. To a very great extent, this mutual connection of the various portions of moral and Christian truth is, or ought to be, known to the preacher, and is a chief element in his reasonings and pleas with all classes of hearers. Few are so totally imbruted, as to be blind to the simplest moral truths. In the light of these, the evidence of higher truths to which they have been blind and in- disposed, may be made to appear — as surely as from the letters of the alphabet we may syllable out words, sentences, discourses, 218 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. all literature. The recognition of the distinction between moral good and evil, cannot be developed without revealing sin, guilt, the need of repentance and redemption, and from these first principles of the doctrine of Christ we must go on unto perfec- tion. As sin is deceitful and blinding, so we must strive to dispel its bewilderments. As it is madness, we must use the fragments of truth and sanity still left, for the restoration of so much of reason as is shattered or lost. In this view, a sound and prayerful discretion is to be used, as to the time and circum- stances for declai-ing the various portions of the counsel of God, the whole of which we may not shun to declare at a proper time. Otherwise, though we give each one his portion, we may fail to do it in due season, and may oppress with meat, by them indi- gestible, those babes in Christ, who are not as yet able to bear it. It may indeed be the preacher's fault that they are such as have not their senses exercised to discern between good and evil, and are still such as have need of milk and not of meat ; yet in forwarding their growth in knowledge, he must, like all other skilful teachers, adapt himself to their stage of spiritual attain- ment. 5. Here arises the question, as to the extent of which pru- dential considerations, and the principle of expediency are legitimate in determining the matter of preaching. We are met by two classes of scriptural instructions, which in sound are contradictory, but in sense are perfectly coincident. The first are those which demand the fullest regard to the dictates of prudence and expediency. They teach us to refrain from lawful things which are inexpedient, to please our neighbour in order to his edification, to become all things to all men, if by any means we may save some. Here the strongest sanction is given to the principle of expediency. We are taught with stiU greater emphasis, " though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel, let him be accursed ;" that we may not shim to declare the whole counsel of God ; that we may not do evil that good may come ; that we must be faithful to the testimony of Jesus, and the truth of his word even unto death, if we would receive the crown of life. There is no question that our duty is to preach the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the THE MATTER OF PREACHING. 219 truth. All seeming discrepancy here disappears, if we have recourse to the familiar ethical classification of actions as good, bad, and indifferent. In regard to acts in themselves morally right or wrong, no license is given to neglect the one or do the other, out of regard to any considerations of expediency. We are not to lie or blaspheme, or refuse to confess Christ and his gospel, though we might thus save our own lives, or prevent the crush of worlds. No instance can be found in which Paul did or sanctioned such things, strenuous as he was for expediency. On the other hand, in regard to things indifferent, i. e., in themselves neither morally good nor evil, expediency is the governing principle. And, by expediency, we mean tendency to promote what is morally good, or prevent what is morally evil. To give a familiar example. As to whether we shall worship God and abjure idols, there is no option. But as to the style of dress and equipage I shall adopt, this is a matter to be determined wholly by its relation to my ability to discharge my just obligations, and my influence for good or evil upon my fellow-men. For intrinsically, linsey-woolsey and satin spark- ling with diamonds are on the same moral footing. We think that the application of these principles to preaching is not diffi- cult or obscure. 1. The minister has no discretion as to setting forth the whole body of divine truth in the course of his inculcations. He may not add to, or take from the word of God. 2. He may not, with a good conscience, when in any way questioned or put to the test, disown, or give it to be understood that he does not believe, what he does believe to be the truth in Christ, on any consideration or pretext whatsoever. 3. But since he cannot, in any one discourse, or in any limited period, traverse the whole circle of divine truth, he must exercise his own conscientious discretion as to the times and occasions, when each respective part is to be brought forth as to divide to each his portion in due season. 4. As to all matters indifferent, whether of act or word, private and public, they are to be regulated by the single aim of giving the truth more facile and effective access to the souls of men ; 220 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. whether we eat or drink, or whatsoever we do, all must be done to the glory of God and the edification of souls. 5. With regard to rightly dividing the word of truth, in the foregoing cases, as well as all others, much must doubtless be left to Christian prudence ; a want of which, more fi-equently than any other fault, impairs the usefulness of clergymen, and ejects them from their positions. Dr Dwight says, that by far the larger part of the forced dismissions of pastors within his know- ledge were attributable to this cause. There is, however, a general pi'inciple in regard to the distribution of the different poi'tions of divine truth, which results from all that we have advanced, is plainly enunciated in the Bible, is enforced by the example of prophets, apostles, and Christ himself, and which no man can safely disregard. In a religion which mercy and truth, righteousness and peace, are met together, men must be made to behold both the goodness and severity of God. Great evil results from the disproportionate or exclusive exhibition of either the stern and awful, or the benignant and alluring aspects of the divine character. One class should not be suffered to overshadow the other. The soul's welfare requires that neither should be forgotten or ignored : " For the better understanding of this matter, we may observe, that God, in the revelation that he has made of himself to the world by Jesus Christ, has taken care to give a proportionable manifestation of two kinds of excellencies or perfections of his nature, viz. those which speci- ally tend to possess us with awe and reverence, and to search and humble us ; and those that tend to win, draw, and encourage us. By the one, he appears as an infinitely great, pure, holy, and heart-searching judge ; by the other, as a gentle and gracious father, and loving friend. By the one, he is a pure, searching, and burning flame; by the other, a sweet refreshing light. These two kinds of attributes are, as it were, admirably tempered together in the revelation of the gospel. There is a proportion- able manifestation of justice and mercy, holiness and grace, gentleness, authority, and condescension. God hath thus ordered that his diverse excellencies, as he reveals himself in the face of Jesus Christ, should have a proportionable manifesta- THE MATTER OF PEEACIIING. 221 tion, herein providing for our necessities. He knew it to be of great consequence, tliat our appreliensions of tliese diverse per- fections of his nature should be duly proportioned one to another. A defect on the one hand, viz. having a discovery of his love and grace, vvfithout a proportionable discovery of his awful majesty, his holy and searching purity, would tend to spiritual pride, carnal confidence, and presumption ; and a defect on the other hand, viz. having a discovery of his holy majesty, without a proportionable discovery of his grace, tends to unbelief, a sin- ful fearfulness, and a spirit of bondage."* We shall bring these observations to a close, by a few sug- gestions relative to the extent of the preacher's obligations to give instructions to men in respect to worldly relations and interests, economic, social, and political. 1. With regard to all that is commonly understood by the moral and worldly virtues ; i.e. virtues which often exist without piety, and are commanded by the natural conscience, and the code of worldly respectability, as well as by the gospel, such as temperance, chastity, honesty, veracity, fidelity, kindness, &c., it is needless to say that they are of self-evident obligation ; that if they may exist without piety, piety cannot exist without them ; and that they should be enjoined as they are in the Bible. They should be enforced, not merely by natural and worldly, but by spiritual and evangelical motives. Yet they ought not to fill any large or overshadowing place in preaching. This should be mainly occupied with the glorious gospel of the blessed God, and its heavenly truths and requirements ; and with these subordinately, as its subordinate, though indispensable fruits. Such is the uniform course of the New Testament preachers ; such is the most effective way of promoting morality. It makes the tree good ; so the fruit must be good. Unless it be a very distempered and unevangelical type of religion, the most , religious men are the most moral individuals and communities, in all countries and all ages. Those who have laid out their chief strength in preaching worldly morality, have had but slender success. Without the fascination of genius, they can * Edwards' "Works. New York edition, vol. iv. pp. 224, 225. 222 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. seldom keep a congregation together. The mightiest preachers of the everlasting gospel, who have done most to bring men to the obedience of faith, have produced the greatest moral refor- mations. Dr Chalmers's experience is a remarkable instance of " philosophy teaching by example." He relates, that in his earlier ministry, he plied his congregation with enthusiastic discourses on the moral virtues, and made it his chief labour thus to effect a reformation of their morals. They loved the preacher, and were charmed with the magic of his eloquence. But they did not reform their morals. He at length felt the hollowness of mere morality, and was brought to the cross for pardon and peace. He at once altered the whole matter of his preaching. In place of splendid moral essays, he gave them clear and fervid discourses on sin, guilt, and retribution ; on salvation by the Redeemer's blood and righteousness ; on spiritual regeneration, faith, repentance, holy living, heaven, and hell. Multitudes were awakened and converted to the Lord. And not only so, but there was a thorough, wide-spread, and permanent reforma- tion of morals. Ex uno disce omnes. The pools of worldly morality will stagnate, unless vitalized by streams from the fountain of life. As we have said that morality should be taught not so as to crowd out the supremacy of the gospel, but as its necessary subordinate fruit, so, the less immediate and direct, the more distant and inferential the duty, the more distant and chary should the pulpit be in treating it. " At the last extremity of a . branch, it is diflBcult to retain a view of the stem. Represent to yourself, for example, sermons on neatness, politeness, &c. Some topics of this sort, doubtless, may be approached, but it , must be done incidentally ; they should never furnish the subject for a sermon." * 2. "With respect to the social and civil relations, and all interests merely worldly, Christianity insists on the exercise of rehgious principles, and aU the virtues of our holy religion in every sphere of life and action. There can be no doubt that God vrill honour those that honour him in all the spheres and * Tiuet's Homiletics, translated by Dr Skinner, pp. 82, 83. THE MATTER OP PEEACHING. 223 offices of life. They will be blessed in their basket and store, their going out and coming in. Society is elevated and purified, individuals and families are prospered, every worldly interest of man thrives in proportion as religion, pure and undefiled before God and the Father, prevails. This is its inherent tendency, as it exalts the whole man, and restrains those corrupt passions that blight the body as well as the soul, and destroy both in hell. It is a blessing, also, often conveyed in honour of his religion by the undercurrents, and secret prospering gales of his gracious providence. But it is often withheld in his wisdom, or prevented by counteracting causes. How often has persecution hunted the people of God to the dens and caves of the earth, while faith has enabled them to take joyfully the spoiling of their goods, and to count not even their own lives dear, knowing that in heaven they have a better and more enduring substance ? In all cases, they that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution, and endure chastening. The promise will be fulfilled, that through much tribulation they shall enter the kingdom of God. Their worldly prosperity, so far as it is vouchsafed, follows their religion as the shadow follows the substance. But it is not the substance — it is not that with which religion concerns itself, otherwise than in ways incidental and subordinate. On the contrary, its effort is to raise the soul to a sublime superiority above the transient and worldly. It puts no value upon these further than as they may be linked with and subserve our eternal welfare — than as the scaffolding to the edifice. We are surely not mistaken here. We are charged to take no thought what we shall eat, what we shall drink, or wherewithal we shall be clothed ; to look not at things seen and temporal, but at things not seen and eternal ; if we are called, being servants, to care not for it; but, if we may be free, to choose it rather ; but always to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, with the promise that all other things shall be added unto us, which our true well-being de- mands. Of the whole doctrine of Scripture on this subject, the Apostle gives the following beautiful summation : — " But this I eay, brethren, that the time is short. It remaiueth, that both 224 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. they that have wives be as though they had none ; and they that weep, as though they wept not : and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not ; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; and they that use this world, as not abusing it ; for the fashion of this world passeth away." In correspondence with all this, it is evidently no part of the preacher's commission to make the promotion of men's worldly interests any prominent object of his inculcations. On the con- trary, such a course is clearly discountenanced in the Bible as not only repugnant to religion, but suicidal ; for, by displacing the divine and eternal element, it fails of its benignant fruits for this world. For these bear not the root, but the root beareth them. So far as we have observed, those who most signalize worldly interests in preaching, so far from eternizing the tem- poral, merely secularize the spiritual. " No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this w«rld." With respect to those who would encourage jervants to be restive under the yoke, or contemptuous of their masters, Paul denounces them as " men of corrupt minds, supposing that gain is godliness ; from such withdraw thyself. But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out." We think that the same principle holds in this matter, which Christ propounds in regard to individuals. " He that flndeth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." Preachers who spend their strength in efforts at worldly amelioration, usually spend their strength for nought. Those who spend it in pro- moting godliness, usually build up every interest of man, temporal, spiritual, eternal, individual, and social. " Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and that which is to come." All forms of mistaking gain for godliness, betray a radical misconception of the whole nature and scope of the gospel. Says John, " they are of the world, therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are of God. He that heareth God, heareth us ; he that is not of God, heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error." THE MATTER OF PEEACHING. 225 It being thus clear that worldly amelioration, however it may be a consequence, is not the direct object of the preacher's in- culcations, it follows, that the pulpit, in proportion as it is engrossed with interests less than those of the soul, God, and eternity, usually suffers loss itself, and thus indirectly damages what it undertakes to promote. Let a preacher devote his pulpit to any questions social or civil, which respect simply their better or worse condition in regard to the good things of this life, and he will generally accomplish less for their temporal, to say nothing of their eternal welfare, than if he had devoted himself to the promotion of that godliness which, with contentment, is great gain. As, however, religion has its development and sphere of action in the world, and includes all social and relative duties, simply because it includes all duty, and requires us to do all things to the glory of God ; it, of course, requires us to act in all good conscience in reference to our country and government ; to do what we may consistently with paramount obligations, to make our officers peace, and our exactors righteousness ; to procure just and salutary laws; to sustain their authority and execution; so there can be no question as to the propriety of inculcating these great, and (among Christians) undisputed principles, from the pulpit. Indeed, as Christ taught us to render unto Caesar the things that are Cfesar's, and unto God the things that are God's ; as Paul enjoined obedience to the powers that be, not only for wrath, but for conscience' sake, so he expressly charges ministers to " put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work." Of course this means a real, an authorized magisti-ate, not a pretender or usurper ; and demands obedience to laws en- acted by a competent authority, not by a mob, or any unautho- rized assemblage. And it further means obedience to real rulers, as to all other superiors, so far, and so far only, as they do not require us to disobey God. In this case, we are clearly taught we ought to obey God rather than man. To obey a magistrate who requires us to blaspheme, is simply to abet him in his re- bellion against God. In such a case, our only course is to Q 226 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. sustain the law, not by obeying its precept, but, if need be, by enduring the .penalty. It is no strange thing, to be required to witness a good confession at the cost of martyrdom. We have no reference here to those great and abnormal emergencies which speak for themselves, when the people, in the exercise of their own vis medicatrix naturae, by the sudden vio- lent throes of revolution, cast off a government intolerable or outgrown, for one suited to their wants. "We only mean to say that the foregoing principles are proper, and at times necessary to be inculcated in the pulpit. But when we pass from these principles, which must commend themselves to every enlightened conscience, to the details of their concrete application, in actual politics, other considerations have place. There is no question that men ought to regard it, and to be taught to regard it, as a duty to promote the elevation to otfice of the most faithful and competent men, as well as the enactment of just and equal laws. But few sane men would deem it safe or edifying for the pulpit to discuss the respective merits of different candidates; or whether the tariff, or sub-treasury, or statutes enfranchising and making voters of foreigners were just and salutary. Similar embarrass- ments may exist, however firm the preacher's personal convic- tions, as to whether a given man, or set of men are the legal officers they claim to be. It is not so much on first principles, which few men possessing a moral sense will dispute, as the application of these principles to the vast and complex affairs of nations and communities, that the angry questions of part^ politics arise.'' And here, imperfect knowledge, interest, preju- dice, party predilections so distort and bewilder, that however strong our O'wa personal con%-ictions, we see vast numbers earnestly enlisted on opposite sides, whose piety cannot be ques- tioned. We do not undertake to say that these questions may not sometimes have an ethical or religious side too obvious and urgent for the pnlpit to neglect. But we do say, as the result of considerable observation, that we never knew the pulpit throw itself into the issues that divide political parties, without con- tracting a stain and a wound upon its sanctity and spiritual power. It inevitably soils itself by such association with the THE MATTER OF PREACHING. 227 unworthy passions which embitter and disgrace political conflicts. We have not known any instance in which political harangues from the pulpit aided the party espoused, or gained a voter, or did anything more than give intolerable offence to partisans of the opposite side. Others may have witnessed better results. " As to patriotic and political sermons, they are rather to be avoided, and yet in certain grave circumstances, we may be obliged to touch upon such subjects in the pulpit. . . . "We must beware, least we inflame on this hearth, the passions of the natural man. How shall we now speak of politics without tak- ing a side ? We must remark, also, the utilitarianism which for the most part is concealed in these subjects. It is better for the preacher, as it is for the navigator, to keep himself in the high sea ; it is in the neighbourhood of coasts that shipwrecks are most frequent." — Vinet's Homiletics, pp. 86-7. And it may be added, that with the ample sources of political information afforded by a free press, exigencies can rarely occur which call for its dissemination from the pulpit. Its office should rather be to moderate the fierceness of these violent conflicts, by holding up the contrasted greatness of the Infinite and Eternal. Note.— The above article, by Professor Atwater, of Princeton, was inad- vertently inserted ; but aa it so admirably compliments the matter of this work, with the consent of the author it is retained. EXPOSITOEY PREACHING. The pulpit discourses of Roman Catholics as well as Protest- ants, during several centuries, have been, for the most part, founded on short passages of Scripture; commonly single verses, and oftener less than more. This has become so prevalent, that, in most treatises upon the composition of sermons, all the canons of homiletics presuppose the treatment of an isolated text. We are not prepared to denounce this practice, especially when we consider the treasury of sound doctrine, cogent reasoning, and mighty eloquence, which is embodied in productions formed on this model, and call to mind the instances in which such dis- courses have been signally owned of God in the edification of his church. But there is still another method, whichj though less familiar to ourselves, was once widely prevalent, and is re- cognized and approved in our Directory for Worship, in the following words : " It is proper also that large portions of Scrip- ture be sometimes expounded, and particularly improved for the instruction of the people in the meaning and use of the sacred oracles." * And it may not be out of place to mention here, that in the debates of the Westminster Assembly, there were more than a few members, and among these the celebrated Calamy, who maintained with earnestness, that it was no part of the minister's duty to read the Scriptures in public with- out exposition.^ It is not a little remarkable, that in an age in which so much is heard against creeds and systems as contradistinguished from the pure text of Scripture, and in which sacred hermeneutics * Directory for "Worship, chap. vi. § 2. t Lightfoot's "Works, vol. xiii. p. 36. EXPOSITORY PREACHING. 229 hold so high a place in Theological education, we should have allowed the methodical and continued exposition of the Bible to go almost into disuse.* What our predecessors practised under the name of lectures is almost banished from the pulpit. It is against this exclusion that we now propose to direct our argu- ment. And in what may be offered in the sequel, we ask attention to this statement of the question as limiting our purpose. Far be it from us to decry the mode of discoursing which prevails in our churches. We freely acknowledge its many excellencies, and rejoice in its gracious fruits ; but we plead in behalf of another and an older method, which we lament to see neglected and forsaken. With this preface, we shall proceed to give some reasons why a judicious return to the expository method of preaching seems to us to be desirable. 1. The expository method of preaching is the most obvious and natural way of conveying to the hearers the import of the sacred volume. It is the very work for which a ministry was instituted, to interpret the Scriptures. In the case of any other book, we should be at no loss in what manner to proceed. Sup- pose a volume of human science to be placed in our hands as the sole manual, text-book, and standard, which we were expected to elucidate to a public assembly: in what way would it be most natural to go to work? Certainly not, we think, to take a sen- tence here, and a sentence there, and upon these separate portions to frame one or two discourses every week. No inter- preter of Aristotle, of Littleton, Paffendorf, or of Paley, ever dreamed of such a method. Nor was it adopted in the Christian church, until the sermon ceased to be regarded in its true notion, as an explanation of the Scripture, and began to be viewed as a rhetorical entertainment, which might afford occasion for the display of subtilty, research, and eloquence. 2. The expository method has the sanction of primitive and ancient usage. In the Israelitish, as well as the Christian * Although the subject of this essay may, in certain particulars, run very naturally into that of critical interpretation, the writer begs leave to disclaim any special right to dwell upon this topic, as his pursuits have not led him into the field of hermeneutics, any further than the performance of ordinary ministerial duty required. 230 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. church, preaching was an ordinary mode of religious instruction. In both it was justly regarded as a means of conducting the hearers to the knowledge of revealed truth. As early as the time of Ezra, we find that the reading of the law was accom- panied with some kind of interpretation. In the synagogues, after the reading of the law and the prophets, it was usual for the presiding officer to invite such as were learned to address the people. Our Lord Jesus Christ availed himself of this op- portunity to deliver one of his most remarkable discourses; and this was an exposition of a prophetic passage. The apostle Paul seems also to have made portions of Scripture the basis of his addresses in the synagogues. But it is not to be expected that the preaching of the apostolic age, when the speakers were divinely inspired, should be in all respects a model for our own times. It was their province to communicate truth under in- spiration ; it is ours to interpret what has thus been communi- cated. The early Christian assemblies naturally adopted the simple and rational methods of the Jewish synagogues ; in con- formity with which it was an essential part of the service to read the Scriptures. Manuscripts were rare, and the majority of believers were poor ; and hence the church assemblies must have long continued to be the chief, if not the only, sources of biblical knowledge. Justin Mart3rr, who is one of the earliest authorities on this subject, informs us that the public reading of the text was followed by addresses adapted to impress the sub- ject on the minds of the hearers.* According to Neander, who may be considered as an impartial judge on this topic, it was at first left to the option of the bishop what portions of Scripture should be read ; though it was subsequently made necessary to adhere to certain lessons, which were judged appropriate to times and seasons. Bingham also concedes that the lessons were sometimes arbitrarily appointed by the bishops at discretion. Augustine declares that he sometimes ordered a lesson to be read which harmonized with the psalm which he had been ex- pounding."!" * Apolog. 2. t Aug. in Psalm xc. Serm. ii.— Bingham, Antiq. B, xiv. u. iii, § 3. EXPOSITORY PREACHING. 231 As this is a point of history concerning which there is little room for question, we shall content ourselves with the diligent, and, as we believe, impartial deductions of Bingham and Ne- ander. It is not to be denied, that there were, even in the early ages, several different modes of preaching, and that some of these approached very nearly to that which now prevails ; yet there was no period during which the expository method was not highly prized and extensively practised. These discourses were very frequent, and often flowed from the intense feeling of the moment. Pamphilus, in his Apology for Origen, represents this great teacher as discoursing extempore almost every day. The same frequency of public address is recorded of Chrysostom, Augustine, and other fathers. Their sermons were taken down by stenographers, and in such of them as are extant we have repeated evidences of their familiar and unpremeditated char- acter. Chrysostom, for instance, thus breaks forth, in one of his homilies on Genesis : " I am expounding the Scriptures; yet you are all turning your eyes from me to the person who is lighting the lamps. What negligence ! to forsake me, and fix your minds on him ! For I am lighting a fire from the holy Scriptures, and in my tongue is a burning lamp for instruction." Augustine also tells us, in one of his homilies, that he had not thought of the subject on which he actually preached, until the reader chanced to read it of his own accord in the church.* The two greatest preachers of the Greek and Latin churches, respectively, afford sti'iking examples of the value set upon ex- position. Augustine has left homilies upon the Psalms, the Gospel of John, and other whole books of Scripture. Chrysos- tom, in like manner, expounded at length the book of Genesis, the Psalms, the Gospels of Matthew and John, and all the Epistles of Paul. His homilies consist usually of a close inter- pretation, or running commentary, followed by an Ethicon, or practical application. That biblical exposition was recognized as the end of preaching seems clear from some declarations, as the following : " If any one assiduously attend public worship, even without reading the Bible at home, but carefully hearken- * Bingham, Book xiv. chap. iv. § 4. 232 THOTJGHTS ON PREACHING. ing here, he will find a single year quite sufficient to give him an intimate acquaintance with the Scriptures." * And indeed this is so natural a result of the catholic belief that the Scrip- tures are the great storehouse of saving truth, as to leave us in some surprise at the neglect into which this direct exposition of the authentic records has fallen. When we look into the history of England during the thirteenth century, we find that two modes of preaching were in use, neither of these being that which we now employ. In the first place, that of Postulating, which was identical with the exposi- tory method ; secondly, that of Declaring, in which the discourse was preceded by a declaration of the subject, without the cita- tion of any passage of Scripture. When about the beginning of the thirteenth century, the method of preaching from insulated texts, with subtile divisions of the sermons, was introduced, it was zealously adopted by the younger clergy, and became ex- tensively popular ; while it was as warmly opposed by some of the best theologians of the age, as " a childish play upon words — destructive of true eloquence — tedious and unaffecting to the hearers — and cramping the imagination of the preacher." Among others, it found an able opponent in the great Roger Bacon ; a man whom we can never mention without amazement at his philosophical attainments, and veneration for his character. '' The greatest part of our prelates," says he, " having but little knowledge in divinity, and having been little used to preaching in their youth, when they become bishops, and are sometimes obliged to preach, are under the necessity of begging and borrow- ing the sermons of certain novices, who have invented a new way of preaching, by endless divisions and quibblings, in which there is neither sublimity of style nor depth of wisdom, but much childish trifling and folly, unsuitable to the dignity of the pulpit. May God banish this conceited and artificial way of preaching out of his church ; for it will never do any good, nor elevate the hearts of his hearers to anything that is great or excellent." I * Horn. 28, in Job. — Neander, Der heilige Chryaostomus. + E. Bacon, apud Henry's Hist. iv. 366. EXPOSITOR!' PEEACHING. 233 " The opposition to this new method of preaching," says Dr Henry in his History of England, " continued through the whole of the fourteenth, and part of the fifteenth century. Dr Thomas Gascoigne, Chancellor of the University of Oxford, tells us that he preached a sermon in St Martin's Church, A.D. 1450, with- out a text, and without divisions, declaring such things as he thought would be useful to the people. Amongst other things he told them, in vindication of this ancient mode of preaching. — ' that Dr Augustine had preached four hundred sermons to the clergy, and people, without reading a text at the beginning of his discourse ; and that the way of preaching by a text, and by divisions, was invented only about A.D. 1200, as appeared from the authors of the first sermons of that kind.' " It is no part of our business to enter further into this investi- gation, or to determine critically at what point of time the method of preaching from insulated verses became exclusively prevalent in the church. Whatever excellencies it possesses, and there are many, can derive no additional dignity from the origin of the method, which is referable to a period by no means the most glorious of Christian history. When the light of divine truth began to emerge from its long eclipse, at the Reformation, there were few things more remarkable than the universal return of evangelical preachers to the expository method. Book after book of the Scriptures was publicly expounded by Luther, and the almost daily sermons of Calvin were, with scarcely any ex- ceptions, founded on passages taken in regular course as he proceeded through the sacred canon. The same is true of the other reformers, particularly in England and Scotland. To come down to the times of the Nonconformists ; while it is undoubtedly true that they sometimes pursued the textual method even to an extreme, preaching many discourses on a single verse, it is no less true, that exposition in regular course was considered a necessary part of ministerial labour. Hence the voluminous commentaries on single books with which the press groaned during that period. Let us take a single instance, as late as the latter half of the sixteenth century, in the person of JVIatthew Henry, whom it is difficult to refer exclusively to 234 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. the era of the elder or the later Nonconformists. We may sup- pose his practice in this particular to be no extreme case. Mr Henry was an able and laborious preacher from single texts, but it was by no means to the exclusion of the expository plan. On every Lord's day morning, he read and expounded a part of the Old Testament ; on every Lord's day afternoon a part of the New ; in both instances proceeding in regular order. During his residence in Chester he went over the whole Bible in this exercise, more than once.* Such was the custom of our fore- fathers ; and in the prosecution of such a plan we need not wonder that they found the body of their hearers constantly advancing in scriptural attainments. The sense of change, and change without improvement, is unavoidable when we come down to our own times ; in which, within our immediate know- ledge, there are not a dozen ministers who make the expound- ing of Scripture any part of their stated pulpit exercises. Nay, although our Directory for Worship declares expressly that "the reading of the Holy Scriptures in the congregation, is a part of the public worship of God, and ought to be performed by the ministers and teachers ; " — that tho preacher, " in each service, ought to read at least one chapter, and more, when the chap- ters are short or the connection requires it ; " yet it is undeniably the common practice to confine this service, which is treated as something almost supererogatory, to the Lord's day morning. Now while we are zealous in maintaining, that the Christian minister should not be bound down by any imperative rubric or calendar as to the portion -which he shall read, we cannot but blush when we compare our actual performances in this kind with those of many sister churches who have chosen to be guided by more strict liturgical arrangements. 3. The expository method is adapted to secure the greatest amount of scriptural knowledge to both preacher and hearers. It needs no argument, we trust, to sustain the position that every minister of the gospel should be mighty in the Scriptures ; familiar with the whole text ; versed in the best commentaries ; at home in every portion of both Testaments ; and accustomed * Williams, Life of Henry, c. x. EXPOSITORY PREACHING. 235 to grapple with the most perplexing difficulties. This is the appropriate and peculiar field of clerical study. It is obvious that the pulpit exercises of every diligent minister will give direction and colour to his private lucubrations. In order to success and usefulness in any species of discourse, the preacher must love his work, and must have it constantly before his mind. Hemust be possessed of enthusiasm which shall never suffer him to forget the impending task. His reading, his meditation, and even his casual trains of thought, must perpetually revert to the perfor- mances of the Sabbath. And we take pleasure in believing that such is actually the case with a large proportion of clergymen. Now it must not be concealed that the popular and prevalent mode of sermonizing, however favourable it may be to profes- sional zeal of this kind, and to the cultivation of mental habits, does by no means lead in any equal measure to the laborious study of the Scriptures. The text, it is true, must be a fragment of the word of God ; and it may be confirmed and illustrated by parallel or analogous passages. But where no extended exposi- tion is attempted, the preacher is naturally induced to draw upon systematic treatises, philosophical theories, works of inere litera- ture, or his own ingenuity of invention, and fertility of imagin- ation, for such a train of thought as, under the given topic, may claim the praise of novelty. We are aware that with many it is far otherwise, and that there are preachers who are wont to select such texts as necessarily draw after them a full interpretation of all the foregoing and following context ; and such sermons are, to all intents and purposes, expositions. But we also know, that to compose a sermon upon a text of Scripture, with very little reference to its position in the word of God, and a very little inquiry as to the intent of the Spirit in the words, is a thing not only possible, but common. The evil grows apace, wherever the rhetorical aspect of preaching attracts undue attention ; and the desire to be original, striking, ingenious, and elegant, super- sedes the earnest endeavour to be scriptural. This abuse is in a good degree precluded by the method of exposition. The minister who from week to week is labouring to elucidate some important book of Scripture, has this kept 236 THOUGHTS ON PREACHING. forcibly before his mind. It will necessarily be the chief subject of his studies. Whatever else he may neglect, he will, if a conscientious man, sedulously peruse and ponder those portions which he is to explain ; using every auxiliary, and especially comparing Scripture with Scripture. Suppose him to pursue this regular investigation of any one book, for several successive months, and we perceive that he must be acquiring a knowledge of the very word of truth, vastly more extensive, distinct, and profound, that can fall to the lot of one who, perhaps for no two discourses together, finds himself in the same part of the canon. Two men practising upon the two methods, each in an exclusive manner, may severally gain an equal measure of intellectual discipline and real knowledge, but their attainments will differ in kind. The one is driven from the variety of his topics to a fitful and fragmentary study of the Bible ; the other is bound down to a systematic and unbroken investigation of consecutive truths. Consider, also, how much more of the pure teachings of the Spirit, accompanied with suitable explanation, necessarily occupies the mind of the preacher in one method than in the other. If such is the influence, with respect to the preacher himself, who, under any system, is still free to devote his mind to scrip- tural study, how much greater is it not likely to be with respect to the hearers, whose habits of investigation almost always re- ceive their character from the sermons to which they listen 1 Perhaps none will deny that every hearer should be made as fully acquainted with the whole word of God, as is practicable. But where, by the mass of Christian people, is this knowledge to be obtained, except at church ? The truth is, the scriptural knowledge possessed by our ordinary congregations, amidst all our boasted light and improvement, bears no comparison with that of the Scottish peasantry of the last generation, who, from very infancy, were taught to follow the preacher, in their little Bibles, as he expounded in regular course. K long habit had not prepossessed us, we should doubtless agree at once to the proposition, that all the more cardinal books of Scripture should be fully expounded in every church, if not once during the life EXPOSITOKT PREACHING. 237 of a single preacher, certainly once during each generation ; in order that no man should grow up without the opportunity of hearing the great body of scriptural truth laid open. And con- sidering the Bible as our only authentic document, this method seems so natural, that the burden of proof may fairly be thrown on such as have well nigh succeeded in excluding it. There is something beautiful in the very idea of training up a whole con- gregation in the regular study of the holy Scriptures. And if we were called upon to devise a plan for inducing people to read the Bible more diligently, we could think of none as likely to attain the end. When hearers know that a certain portion of Scripture is to be explained on the ensuing Lord's day, they will naturally be led to examine it during the week, and will thus be prepared to listen with greatly increased advantage to what may be offered. This is precisely the exercise which Chrysostom recommends to his hearers in his first homily on Matthew.* The same father seems also to have sometimes thrown out to his hearers difficult questions, in order that they might be stimulated to inquiry. " Wherefore," he says, " have I presented the dif- ficulty and not appended its solution ? Because it is my purpose to accustom you, not always to receive food already prepared ; but often to search for the explanation yourselves. Just as it is with the doves, which as long as their young remain in the nest, feed them from their own bills ; but as soon as they are large enough to be fledged and leave the nest, cease to do thus. For, while they bring them corn in their bills, they only show it to them ; and when the young ones expect nourishment, and draw nigh, the mother lets it fall upon the earth, and the little ones pick it up." I If Scripture difficulties are in our day often started in the pulpit, and often left unresolved, we are not prepared to say whether it is exactly vdth the motive avowed by this great preacher. Certain it is that the able elucidation of dark places, and the reconciling of seeming contradictions occupy far less xat W) Tuv cLxXitjv fy^afaiv •7Fi7rotr1xa.fjr.lv, •r^offXa.ft(ia.viiv tav •TTl^ixo'jrhv