^HV OF Pf^^^in^ BV 4211 .D3 1870 Dabney, Robert Lewis, 1820 1898. Sacred rhetoric SACRED RHETORIC; OR, A COURSE OF LECTURES ON PREACHING. DELIVEKED IN THE UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHIRCH IN THE U.S., IN PRINCE EDWARD, VA. BY ROBERT L.'^DABNEY, D.D., PROFE.S.SOR OF 8Y.STEMATIC AND PASTORAL DIVINITY. " Ergo fungar vice cotis, acntutn Reddere quae ferrum valet, i-XMont ipaa secamli." — Ep. ad Pin. L. .304. PRINTED FOR THE USE OF HIS STUDENTS. RICHMOND: PRESBYTERIAN COMMITTEE OF PUBLICATION. 1.S70. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by CHARLES GENNET, in trust, as Treasurer of Publication of the General Assembly of the Pre8- BVTERiAN Church in the United States, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the District of Virginia. This book is (Jodieated to my younger brethren, the Alumni and Student*? of Union Theological Seminaiy, as a mark of es- teem and gratitude inr that courtesy, kindness and propriety which, without a sin-lc exception in seventeen years, have gov- erned their deportment toward me as their teacher; and as an affectionate effort to promote their efficiency in their blessed and solemn work. R. L. DABNEY. Fkiuii Aitv 7. isTO. 3 PREFACE. Th[.s little book is the fruit of study, reflection and teachings continued through twenty years. It would be hazardous for any one to claim originality in a department of literature which contains so many great works as sacred rhetoric. The most efl'ectual disavowal of such pretensions will be to recite the titles of the books which I have read with most advantage, and which have contributed to my knowledge or opinions on this subject. If my readers are familiar with these treatises, they will probably find in them either the germs or the full forms of nearly all the ideas which I advance. The following treatises I have found exceedingly instructive : Aristotle's Rhetoric, Cicero, De Oratore. Horace, Epistle to the Pisos. Quinctilian, De Institutione Oratoria, Campbell's Philosophy of Rhetoric, -^ Whateley's Rhetoric. Vinet's Homiletics. i» 5 6 PREFACE. My studies have also included — Plato's Gorgian. Fenelon's Dialogues on Eloquence. Dr. G. CampbelFs Lectures on Pulpit Eloquence. Porter's Homiletics. M. Bungener, Priest and Preacher. Abbe Bautain, On Extempore Speech. Dr. J. \y. Alexander's Thoughts on Preaching. Theremin, Eloquence a Virtue. Shedd's Homiletics. Dr. Samuel Miller, On Public Prayer. To the natural question, why I presume to add another to so long a catalogue (which might be in- definitely lengthened), I reply, that the task of teaching a course of Pulpit Rhetoric in Union Theological Seminary soon convinced me that none of these books are adapted to be sufficient text-books for classes. While several of them contain features of great value, they all lack others which should be essential. I was therefore compelled very early to attempt the con- struction of such a course as would be an adequate guide to the evangelical Protestant preacher. The approbation which my course has received from my pupils and brethren in the ministry, with their general and continued request for its publication, have en- couraged me to attempt it. One object, at least, will be gained thereby, which is first with me — the th^'ow- PREFACE. 7 iiig of my instructions into a form more useful to my pupils. If this work has any peculiarities to which value may be attached, they are these : that the necessity of eminent Christian character is urged throughout as " tlie foundation of the sacred orator's power, and that a Jipory of preaching is asserted, with all the force which 1 could command, that honours God's inspired word and limits, the preacher most strictly to its exclusive "" use as the sword of the Spirit. If my readers rise from the perusal with these two convictions enhanced in their souls — that it is grace which makes the preacher, and that nothing is preaching which is not expository of the ~" Scrij)turcs — my work is not in vain. I have preferred that the work should be issued by the publishing agency of my own denomination. But its doctrines are not denominational. The theorj' of preaching taught is equalty adapted to all evangelical ministers. My hope and prayer are that my labour will be useful to all my brethren of every name, and will assist them to j>roach the glorious gospel of the I^ord Jesus Christ more directly, more scripturally and more effectively, so that this divinely-ordained agency ^" may resume its primitive power in the Church. y CONTENTS. LECTURE I. Introductory 13 LECTURE H. Thk Prhachek's Commission 80 LECTURE 111. Distribution of Subjects 49 LECTURE IV. Thk Same Topics Continued 63 LECTURE V. The Text 74 LECTURE VI. The Text (Cuntimied) 93 LECTURE VII. Cardinal Requisites of the Sermon 105 LECTURE VIII. Cardinal Requisites of the Ser.mon (Continued) 121 10 CONTENTS. LECTURE IX. PAG Constituent Members of the Sermon 13" LECTUEE X. Constituent Members of the Sermon (Continued). — Ex- plication AND Proposition 15- LECTURE XI. Constituent Members of Discourse (Continued). — Argu- ment AND Conclusion 161 LECTURE XIL Sources of Argument 17! LECTURE XIII. Rules of Argument 19: LECTURE XIV. Rules of Argument (Continued) 20; LECTURE XV. Division of the Argument 21' LECTURE XVI. Persuasion 23i LECTURE XVII. Persuasion (Continued) 24' LECTURE XVIII. Preacher's Character with Hearers 26: CONTENTS. 11 LECTUKE XIX. . PAGK Style 271 y LECTURE XX. Style (Continued) 288 LECTURE XXr. Action 303 LECTURE XXn. Action (Continued) 318 LECTURE XXIIL Modes of Phepakation 328 LECTURE XXIV. Public Pkayer 345 PEIUCSTOIT ^\ LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. LECTURE I . introductory. My Young Brethren: OOME well-meaning Christians meet us at the thres- ^ hold of our subject, with objections to the applica- tion of an art of Rhetoric to sacred topics. These may appear plausible enough to need a reply. Not only do they advance the trite assertions, ^^Poeta nascitur, non Jit/^ and, " Nature is a ])etter teacher than art ;" they draw peculiar pleas from the sanctity of the preacher's function and motive, and even from the word of God. They claim that the messenger, who bears the gospel of love to man, should be unaffected and sincere. They say that while those who argue less worthy causes may perhaps excuse their art, the preacher should be above all art. They cite against us the twice-repeated dec- laration of the apostle Paul, that his "speech and his preaching was not with enticing words of man\s wis- dom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of i:)Ower."' To the first observation I answer, that if the orator 1 See 1 Cor. ii. 4, 13. S 13 14 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. is born, his oration is not. That, at least, must be made. Rhetoric does not profess to create a vigorous understanding, feeling, taste and genius, but only to teach their most effective use. The artisan does not make hands for his apprentice, but he shows him how to use the members Nature has given him. And the man of common . mould is enabled, by means of this training, to make a better plough or cart than could be produced without it by the youth whose limbs matched those of the Apollo Behidere. If it is urged that we not seldom hear the untaught son of Nature, by virtue of the original nobility of his faculties, speak with far more true eloquence than the assiduous rheto- rician, the reply is obvious. Those excellent gifts of Nature should have been perfected by true culture, so that this fortunate man might have excelled his fellows of the common, but trained capacity, even farther than he did. For all that excellence he owed to his God, by the rule that we must "love him with all our heart, and soul, and mind, and strength.'' The unskill- fulness of the professed rhetorician may also prove, not that his art is worthless, but that he has imperfectly acquired it. You will easily conceive how a system of real value, if only half mastered, and by reason of de- ficient experience in its application, employed without facility, may embarrass instead of aiding us. The royal armour of King Saul was doubtless of the best temper. We do not doubt that David used such with splendid advantage in his subsequent career of con- quest. But when the raw shepherd-boy was clad with it, he found himself encumbered by it, " because he had not proved it," INTKODUCrORY. 15 The assumption that the preacher's sacred attitude is above rhetoric reveals ignorance of the nature of true art. Let us then, at the outset; seek a correct concep- tion of it. And we may be led to this idea by consid- ering the distinction between art and artifice. Art is but the rational adjustment of means to an end.^ Art is adaptation ; it employs proper means for a worthy end ; it is but wisdom in application. Artifice is false ; - it adopts deceitful means for a treacherous end. When the benevolent pliysician compounds a drug, which his learning shows to be a specific cure for a disease, this is art.. When the cunning seducer prepares a seeming attraction which is not indeed real, to inveigle his prey into the snare, this is artifice. There is a popular ap- plication of the word art which has also assisted to de- lude tlie judgment of these objectors. It is that which we cx])rcss usually by the terra "fine arts," in which the end of the skill employed is only to gratify taste,- and not to evoke practiciil volition. I shall show that the aj't of eloquence is contrasted with these, in that its aim is ever intensely practical. And I shall urge that, whenever the preacher permits his aim to degenerate into that of the painter or musician, the mere pleasure of taste, he flagrantly violates both the principles of his art and of his religious duty. But I assert none the less that, since this duty is to convey gospel truth effectively to other souls, and since there are adapted means by which this end may be the better accom- 1 Art, from Ars (root, art-is) which is from Greek apu, to adjust, whence aprvvo, apToq, joined. Art is, therefore, adjustment. Web- ster's derivation, from W. cerz and Ir. ceard, carrying the rudimental idea of strength, is as far-fetched as absurd. 16 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. plished, there is a true art of preaching, which is not only lawful and honest, but sacredly obligatory. The opponents whom we now consider love to con- trast art with nature. I assert that all true art is nat- ural. If man is by nature a creature of reason and conscience; if duty, forecast, judgment, will, desire of legitimate success, are natural to him, then surely he does not obey, but violates his nature when he discards the use of adapted means for his ends. If there are gifted souls who, without that detailed study of art which is necessary for us common mortals, are able to effectuate their ends more nobly than we with all our labour, then the explanation is that their more powerful genius has only made a quicker and easier intuition of their art. To reach that pinnacle of efficiency, they have ascended the common stairway, for there is no other. The dif- ference is, that while we climb it step by step, their superior vigour enables them to bound up it with almost unconscious effort. Moreover^ it is not true that these advocates of pure nature discard art. They are not naturally so natural as they claim to be. It was the fashion for the infidel school of Rousseau and the En- cyclopaedists to call savages '^ children of nature ;" yet a savage is the least simple of men. He is the slave of his conventionalities, his fashions, his artifices. The only difference is, that they are unlike to, and more in- tense than, those of the civilized man. So, those speak- ers who profess to leave all to nature, are always most unnatural ; they have not only art, but artifice and mannerism, and are more in bondage to them than the true artist. Art, I repeat, is but a well-adapted method, and the real option which we have is not between art INTRODUCTORY. 17 and nature, l)ut only between art wise and art foolish, art skilful, or art clumsy. Indeed, the result of true art is simply to assist Nature to perfect herself, and thus to open the way for her to her w^orthiest ends. Thus I retort the conclusion upon our objector. I assert that unless he holds men's faculties permit no employment of methods, and that their first untaught essays are necessarily their best, he must grant a legitimate art of sacred rhetoric. And it. is not only the preacher's privilege, but sacred duty to seek and use it. We easily escape the seeming disclaimer of the great x\postle, by asking what was that rhetoric which he re- pudiated, and whether he did not employ a method of his own? The Christian antiquary answers the first question. The spurious and unworthy art which is here rejected, was that of the Greek Sophists — a sys-' tern of mere tricks of logic and dicfion, prompted by vanity and falsehood, and misguided by a depraved taste. It was the pretentious rhetoric so scathed by the sarcasm and reasoning of Socrates in the (iory'uis. While the Apostle disclaimed this, surely he did not- preach without any method! He adopted an api>ro- priate one of his own. If you say that it was honest, as opposed to the deceitfulnass of the Greeks; that it was simple, as opposed to the ambitious complexity of the Greeks ; that it was modest, as opposed to their ostentation ; that it was disinterested, as contrasted with their overweening selfishness, I assent, and 1 add that these are the things which made St. Paul's a true rheto- ric. Let us then adopt the ascertaining of his method as the object of our search. Let us make our sacred rhetoric just his, so far as it was primarily taught him 2 « 18 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. by the Holy Spirit, and tauglit him next by his high culture and pure devotion. The objection drawn from the inhibition of previous care and preparation to the apostles, when brought be- • fore persecutors, can scarcely embarrass you for a mo- ment. Our Saviour said to them, "Settle it in your hearts not to meditate before what you shall* answer ; for I will give you a mouth and wisdom whicli all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay or resist.^' This command is based evidently upon the accompanying promise. It should be asked. Was the promise made to them as common ministers, or as inspired apostles ? This is determined by the " signs which should fol- low f speaking with tongues, healing the sick, casting out devils. It is, then, a mere wresting of the Scrip- tures, to claim for the uninspired preacher that extraor- dinary inspiration, superseding the necessity for premed- itation, w^hich is as truly miraculous as the divine works that attested its source. Our Saviour's prohibition seems to forbid immediate preparation for a particular discourse, even more clearly than the general study of the art of speaking. But who would now pretend that the ministe^ ought not even to meditate upon the sub- ject which he is about to expound ? It is, surely, suf- ficient proof that the apostle Paul did not understand preparation to be unlawful, that we find him command- ing Timothy " to give attendance to reading, to exlior- tation, to doctrine, to meditate upon these things, and give himself wholly to them, that his profiting might appear unto all." ^ * -i • 1 Luke. xxi. 14 ; \ Ep. to Tim. iv. 13-15. INTllODUCTORY. ^ 19 Whateley^ cites, as he says, from Aristotle, a very plaia and conclusive illustration of the matter in de- bate. There are two men who have had equal opportu- *nity to observe and compreliend a transaction. Each of them undertakes to relato it to his friends, who did not witness it. One of them so narrates it that his story is perspieu(A^ and graphic, and is listened to, not only without efcrt, but with keen pleasure. The other so confuses his account of it, that his relation is irksome to the listeners, and fails to convoy that apprehension of the matter which was designed. Do not sucli instances often occur in fact? Now, says Aristotle, the differ- ence in the way in which these two men tell their story, is rhetoric. Wherein does that difference consist? This is just what we seek in this course. It is not asserted that a course of sacred rhetoric can be made so extensive, or so fruitfifl of mental and spir- itual culture to the student, as some branches of sacred science, which niy colleagues teach. But in one res])ect it may be said to bear an important relation to all your other studies here, not unlike that which Lord Bacon^ describes as the vindemiaflo of inductions. The observa- tion, comparing, classifying of phenomena are prepara- tory ; the final inference from the comparison, leading us to the true law of causation, extracts that precious juice forlhe sake of which solely the clusters have been collected with so much care. In like manner I may claim, that as you come here to be made preachers of the gospel, and as its proclamation from the pulpit is to 1 Rhetoric: introduc. Cicero de Orat. b. I., c. 14, U 63, 64. ' » Nov. Qrganum, lib. II. ^ 20. 20 LECTURES ON SACRED KHETORIC. be your prominent task, all other studies are ancillary to this which we now undertake. It is sacred rhetoric wiiich teaches you to aj)])ly to the lips of perishing man tlic exi)ressed wine of all other acquisitions. 1 design next, to introduce you into the consideration of our subject by a brief outline of the history of preaching. The gift of speech is the most obvious at- trii)ute which distinguishes man from the brutes.^ To him, language is so important a handmaid of his mind in all its processes, that we remain uncertain how many latent faculties, which we are now prone to deny to the lower animals, may not be lying inactive in them, be- cause of their privation of this medium. It is speech which makes us really social beings ; without it our in- stinctive attraction to our fellows would give us, not true society, but the mere gregariousness of the herds. It is by speech that the gulf is bridged over, which in- sulates each spirit from others. This is the great com- municative fliculty whicli establishes a communion be- tween men in each other's experience, reasoning, wisdom and affections. These familiar observations are recalled to your view, in order to suggest how naturally and even necessarily oral address must be employed in the service of religion. If man's religious and social traits ^ Qninctil., lib. II., c. 16, U 16, 17. "Nam. . . . opera qujftdam nobis inimilibilia (qiialia sunt cerarum et mellis) efficere, non nul- liiis fortasse rationis est ; sed quia (animalia) carenc sermone, quae id faciunt, nuita atqiie irrationalia vocantur. Denique homines quibus neJ^Mta vox e.st, quantulum adjuvat amiraus ille coelesiis? Qiiare si nihil a diis oratione melius accepimus, quid tarn dignum cultu ac labore diicamus, aut in quo malimus prfestare hominibus, quam quo ipsi homines caeteris animalibus priestant? eo quidem magis, quod nulla in parte plenius labor gratiam refert." INTRODUCTORY. 21 are regarded, we cannot but expect to find a ^s ise God, from the beginning, consecrate His gift of speech to the end of propagating sacred knowledge and sentiments. Accordingly, we learn that continuous, oral address has been so used from the earliest ages. In the little that is told us of the antediluvians, we read that God's will was preached among them. " Enoch, tlie seventh from Adam, prophesied of the ungodly." ^ Noah was " a preacher of righteousness." ^ When we descend to the Hebrew commonwealth we find three orders of official preachers, besides the })atriarchal heads of households. On these a constant oral instruction of children was en- joined,'^ which probably assumed rather the familiar plainness of honiiletical instruction,^ than the formality of the sermon. But the prophets were beyond question, if occasional officers of tlie theocracy, yet public preach- ers of revealed truth. We read of such discourses from Moses, Aaron (who was both prophet and priest), Isaiah, Elijah, Elisha, Jonah, Jeremiah and the prophets of the restoration. Ezckiel aptly illustrates the responsibili- ties of his office by that of the watchman set to pro- claim the coming of an enemy. "^ We read also of schools of the prophets, in which youth devoted to God's si)e- cial service were assembled under the tuition of inspired men, not indeed to learn by rote that divine gift which can only be received by God's sovereign bestowal, but to prepare themselves for it by habits of devotion, and by familiarity with the Scriptui*es and worship of Israel. The second order of preachers was the priest's. It 1 Jude 14. 2 2 Pet. ii. 5. * ^ Dent. vi. 7. * See proper sense of 6fii?.£tv. * Ezek. xxxiii. 22 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. is clear that his stated duties were not only sacrificial — these occupied but a few weeks of his year — but also pastoral. The priests and Levites, when not employed at the sanctuary, were scattered throughout Israel, and were required to occupy themselves in teaching and preaching. This is intimated in the complaint of Aza- riah the son of Obcd, in the reign of Asa, against their delinquency : " Now for a long season Israel hath been without the true God, and without a teaching priest," etc.* It is more expressly declared by Malachi : " For the priests' li]#should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts." ^ There is some evidence that the theocratic kings also included preaching among their legitimate functions. It may be remarked, in passing, that the early type of Mohammedanism shows how naturally this duty fell in with those of the divinely-appointed ruler. Mo- hammed, who embodied in his pretensions very accu- rately certain of the formal ideas of Oriental religion, announced himself as both prophet and theocratic head of his new commonwealth. The latter office was trans- mitted to his successors, and we find the early khalifs, before the military career of Islam had changed them into mere soldiers, and especially the first of them, Abubeker, constantly preaching in virtue of his posi- tion. But this is by the way. One of Solomon's titles was " preacher," ^ and we have abundant proof in the places cited and others that he was accustomed to exer- 1 2 Chron. xv. 3. 2 ^^1, ii. 7. 3 Eccles i. 1 ; xii. 9, nSnp. INTRODUCTORY. 23 cise this function frequently. We cannot doubt that the same thing was done, at least during the seasons of greatest fidelity to the Hebrew institutions, by Asa, by Hezekiah and by the good Josiah. But it w^as under Ezra that preaching assumed, by divine appointment, more nearly its modern place as a constant part of worship, and also its modern character as an exposition of tlie written Scriptures. This new impulse of the usage was given by the necessities of a great religious revival, and the disuse of the classic Hebrew language by the people as a vernacular tongue. Their seventy years' residence in Chahlea ha^ taught them a modified dialect. Hence the necessity for ac- companying the reading of the sacred text with expla- nations in the p()})uTar language. " And Ezra, the priest, brought fortli the Law before the congregation. ... So they read in the book of the law of God dis- tinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to under- stand the reading.''^ We shall seek in vain for a more apt and scriptural definition of the preacher's work than is contained in these words. Henceforth, as the Jewish antiquaries tell us, expository preaching prevailed as a regular exercise, following the reading of the Scriptures in the services of the synagogues. You are too famil- iar with that usage to need detailed accounts of it. The hints contained in the Gospels themselves''^ show that it was not the exclusive function of the " ruler of the synagogue,^' but at his invitation was performed by any learned and competent worshtpper; that it was founded usually upon the lessons of the day, and that ^ Neh. viii. 1-8. ^ l^j^^ [y^ jg . ^j^tt. xiii. 54 : John xviii. 20. 24 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. while the reader stood in reading these passages of the Law and Prophets, he resumed his seat to pronounce his own discourse. The importance of these notices to us is tliat they show us our Saviour's sanction of preaching, as a jKirt of the divine service, and that they connect the preaching of the old dispensation with that of the new. The Redeemer, and after Him, the apostles, were constant preachers of the gospel. ^Yhenever they were permitted, they availed themselves of the Sabbath worship and synagogues for this purpose. But they preached everywhere ; in the temple-courts, in private houses, in the streets and highways, beside the sea, on the mountains. Preaching was the chief instrument of the Christian missionary and teacTier, of whatever rank. " It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." ^ And it is very plain from the Acts and Epistles, in both their preceptive and narra- tive parts, that this continued to be a regular part of the public service of ajl the Christian assemblies. The literature of the Church which has reached us is extremely scanty until the middle of the second cen- tury. But the well-known testimony of Justin Mar- tyr, the letter of Pliny to Trajan, and all the statements of the Fathers disclose to us the uniform continuance of preaching in the Church under its uninspired teachers. The sci'mons of the primitive pastors were rather expos- itory than textual, usually founded on the portions of the Scripture read — inartificial, warm, and practical, sel- dom delivered from a manuscript, and often extempore, 1 1 Cor. i. 21. INTRODUCTORY. 25 As in the synagogue, so in the Christian assemblies, the duty was not confined to the bishops or pastors, but was performed, on their invitation, by the lower clergy, the catechists, and even by learned laymen. AVhen Orlgen was filling Csesarca with the fame of his ser- mons, he was only a lector and catechist. ' As the Church gained members and worldly import- ance, and was able to migrate from the private cham- bers, where her early worship was held, to lordly tem- ples and basiliccc, the style of j) reaching became more ambitious. The sacred orator, if a bishop, sat in the episcopal chair or throne while he spoke ; or else upon the steps of the altar. The pcoj)le meantime stood dur- ing the sermon ; for the ancient churches were not fur- nished with seats. Pulpit eloquence was now culti- vated with zeal ; and many of the clergy acquired a dis- tinguished fame as orators ; among whom, as you know, Ambrose, Chrysostom, and Augustine stand foremost. If we may judge by the printed .remains of the sermons of the last named, these Fathers held themselves free from a rule by which the moderns are sometimes mis- chievously constrained ; they did not feel themselves bound to consume a fixed time in their discourses, but stop])ed when they had finished. Some of Augnstine's discourses appear to have occuj)icd six minutes, some sixty. There wTre still very few discourses read to the assemblies ; but they were often written down as de- livered, by stenographers ; a custom which probably accounts for the existence of most .patristic sermons now extant. The privilege of open applause was often claimed by the peojile, and not seldom granted by the preachers ; and as religion became more osten- 26 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. tatious and corrupt, churches became scenes of gross disorder. The approach of the Dark Ages was marked by a de- cline in preaching. By degrees the incapacity of the clergy led them to substitute homilies provided ready to their hand, for their own sermons ; and then, to usurp the space before assigned to preaching, for the liturgies. Except when an epidemic excitement stirred some pop- ular clerical demagogue to proclaim a crusade or a fast, the public worship included no sermon. Or if a more ambitious priest attempted to display his superiority by this exercise, his subject was superstitious, trivial, or even ludicrous ; the vaunting of the virtues of a relic, the legend of his tutelar saint, the value of the indul- gences sold by him, tlie terrors of purgatory, or the sin and danger of resisting Holy Church and her clergy. One famous preacher, of the age of Philip Augustus of France, exhausted his eloquence against the long points upon the fashionable shoes of the day. Another, of a previous age, debated the grave question w^hether the gold given by the Magi to the infant Saviour was coined or ingots. Another informed his audience of the edify- ing inquiry, with what weapon Cain slew his brother. The great Reformation was emphatically a revival of gospel preaching. All the leading Reformers, whether in Germany, Switzerland, England, or Scotland, were constant preachers, and their sermons were prevalently expository. It is well known to you that Luther's commentary on Galatians, and many of the learned ex- positions of Calvin, w^ere the fruits of their courses of exegetical sermons. We may assume with safety, that the instrumentality to which the spiritual power of that INTRODUCTORY. 27 great revolution was mainly due, was the restoration of scriptural preaching. In the seventeenth century the Protestant churches of the continent witnessed another change in their pulpits. The preaching, instead of being evangelical, was prevalently polemical and technical, dealing rather in the exposition and defence of church symbols than of God's word. This innovation was soon followed by a decay in the piety of the age, from which the Lutheran churches were partially aroused by the Pietists. The P^nglish clergy and the Scotch, under the influence of Moderatism, lapsed into that method of preaching which justified the well-known sarcasm, tliat their texts were borrowed indeed from Paul, but their sermons from Seneca. Their ambition was to discuss ethics rather than Christianity, and with literary ele- gance rather than evangelical unction. The result was that benumbing flood of Socinianism, Deism, formality and vice which swept over the Church, until the Meth- odism of the eighteenth century arose to stay it. You will not 8Ui)pose, young gentlemen, that I intend this perfunctory sketch as an intrusion into the field of history. My purpose is only to recall to your minds such an outline of flicts as will prepare you to under- stand the preacher's warrant and function. Tin's review even will convince you that the state of the pulpit may always be taken as an index of that of the Church. Whenever the pulpit is evangelical, the piety of the people is in some degree healthy ; a perversion of the pulpit is surely followed by spiritual apostasy in the Church. And it is exceedingly instructive to note, that there are three stages through which preaching has re- peatedly passed with the same results. The first is that 28 LECTURES ON SArRED RHETOR TC!. in which scriptural trutli is faithfully presented in scrip- tural i^arl) — that is to say, not only are all the doctrines asserted which truly belong to the revealed system of redemption, but they are presented in that dress and connection in which the Holy Spirit has presented them, without seeking any other from human science. This state of the pulpit marks the golden age of the Church. The second is the transition stage. In this the doctrines taught are still those of the Scriptures, but their rela- tions are moulded into conformity with the prevalent human dialectics. God's truth is now shorn of a part of its power over the soul. The third stage is then near, in which not only are the methods and explana- tions conformed to the philosophy of the day, but the doctrines themselves contradict the truth of the AVord. Again and again have the clergy traveled this descend- ing scale, and always with the same disastrous resi-lt. The first grade is found in the primitive and in the Reformation churches of the first and the sixteenth centuries. The second grade may be seen in the scho- lasticism of Clement of Alexandria and his pupils, and in the symbolical discourses with wdiich the continental pulpit echoed during the seventeenth century. The last is found in the Dark Ages and in Rationalism. This cycle is strikingly illustrated also by the history of the New Theology as it is completing itself in our day in America. When the Protestant churches of this coun- try were founded, the ministry had not lost the Reform- ation im])ulse, and belonged to the first stage. The generati(»i.^ unwittingly introduced by the great and good Jonathan Edwards, marks the second; during which the doctrines of grace were not openly impugned, INTRODUCTORY. 29 but they were successively stretched into the schemes of metaphysics — the " exercise scheme," the " light scheme," the "greatest benevolence scheme" — which fascinated a people of narrow and partial culture and self-confident temper. The next generation was called to witness the apostasy which turned the truth of God into a lie, and took both the methods and the dogmas of the Socinian and the Pelagian. Let us, my brethren, eschew the ill-starred ambition which seeks to make the body of God's truth a " lay figure" on which to parade the drapery of human philosophy. May we ever be content to exhibit Bible doctrine in its own Bible dress ! 3» LECTURE II. THE PREACHER'S COMMISSION. SACRED RHETORIC is one branch of eloquence. It is of prime importance that the student should apprehend, first, what eloquence truly is, and, second, what is the difference between the secular department of it and ours. Eloquence is often named as one of the fine arts, but, as I have already forewarned you, there is an essential distinction made by the ends of the two. Music and the imitative arts are designed, pri- marily, to gratify the taste. Their immediate aim is at the sentimental affections of the soul. But the im- mediate end of eloquence is to produce in the hearer some practical volition. Its design is to evoke an act. When this is said, you will not understand me as indicat- ing by the word action only the movement of the body and its members. I speak of the actions of the soul, of those matured determinations of the will in which man's rational and responsible activity consummates itself. And, I repeat, that wherever there is no direct purpose in the speaker to educe action of. will in his hearers there is no proper oration.^ True, the oration ^ For instance, Aristotle (b. I., ch. 3) incorrectly classes orations under three genera: of the Statesman, of the Advocate, and of the Eulogist. The object of the first is always to cause the election or rejection of a given course of action. That of the second is to pro- 30 31 may, while it determines the soul to action, produce as a collateral effect much excitement of taste. But if it elevates this subordinate result into the place of its chief design, it has degenerated into a spurious, poem without metre. So, a poem, and especially a lyric like the Mar- seillaise Hymn, may be addressed to the will, but in this it ceases to be mere poetry, and becomes a true metrical oration. The essay is directed to still another object, the elucidation and establishment of truth to the reason. It aims to propagate only opinion and not action. Let me now recall your doctrines of ethics and psy- chology, so far as to gain the answer to this question, How is the soul determined to volition? You know that it is not by the sensibility alone, nor by the logi- cal discernment alone. Volition is not a conclusion of any separate faculty of the soul, but of the soul itself, involving all its powers, whether active or passive, whether of cognition, sensibility or desire. The pre- vious states of soul which have to volition the relation of cause to immediate effect are always complex, being both processes of intellection and appetency. Whence, it is manifest, eloquence deals with the hearer's soul through all its powers. But it is far more important to say that eloquence operates through all the powers of the speaker's soul likewise. Not only must the ora- cure a verdict of acquittal or condemnation. That of the third, not 80 obviously active, is really so, for it aims to gain a moral verdict by which the hearer adopts the subject as his approved model of vir- tue. Aristotle knew nothing of our nobler department, that of evan- gelical eloquence. We may more clearly decide of this, that its end is always action of soul in the hearer, repentance, faith, or some other duty. 32 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. tor's reason perform the processes of perception and logic, his heart must be powerfully actuated by those processes of emotion which he seeks to propagate, his taste must thrill with those affections of sentiment which he would make ancillary to his main effect, and his will must go forth vehemently to that act to which he would decide the hearer. The last assertion is perhaps the most important of the four just made. For the powder of the orator over his hearer is far more than intellec- tual, it is more than sentimental, it projects the force of his volition through these other powers upon the will of his hearer. And there is a sympathy of soul be- tween man and his fellows, by which each power of the one operates upon the corresponding powers of the others ; not, of course, without the medium of cognition, yet with its own proper force. Especially is this true of the will. How often do we see men swayed by the mere strength of a vigorous will in another beyond the legitimate influence of his logic? I would, then, define eloquence as the emission of the sours eno-gy through speech. This view of its nature, as you perceive, justifies the judgment, that it is one of the finest exercises of the human faculties. But that it may be worthy of the name of eloquence, it must have one more trait : the purpose of propagat- ing in the soul a volition morally excellent. If you have understood my definitions and explanations, you are convinced that the powers of soul employed by the orator are even more the moral than the intellectual. If, tlierefore, he wrests these, which are the peculiar do- main of conscience, to resist conscience, he is guilty of the most glaring perversion of the art. His spurious THE preacher's COMMISSION. 33 is related to the true eloquence, as vice is related to vir- tie. For when man perpetrates a wicked act, he exer- cises the active powers of the soul, desire and choice, which put themselves forth in the right act. The ^\hole difference is in their opposite direction to a vicious in- stead of a virtuous end. Artifices of persuasion, skill- fully used to cause one to will amiss, have no more claim to be true eloquence, because they are similar to the means of the proper art, than evil volitions have to be considered virtuous energy, because they are also ex- ercises of man's spontaneity. I urge, moreover, that all vice is a weakness of his nature. The perverted activ- ities of the soul are depraved in energy as well as in mo- ral quality. Ilenco, tlie man of wicked ends will never exiiibit the same piwer of <-tnl, with the rigliteous man of the same native fore-. . l^ut the crowning reason is, that conscience herself is the mightiest power in man, and the moral affections are not only the purest but the most profound of all. The speaker, whose end is to persuade men to violate their conscience, is therefore not only enfeebled in the main forces of his own nature; but he must act without, yea against, those forces in the souls he won!! 'uove. Thus I trace the true rhetori.-.il power to its source in a noble purpose. There must l-^ clear intellection, vivid sensil)ility, ardent emotion, ve- hement will ; but chiefest of all, must be the virtuous end. Well did Theremin speak in propounding as his theorem, " Eloquence is a virtue.^' Having found true eloquence to be the soul's virtuous energy exerted through speech, I would remind you that the sermon is a peculiar species of eloquence. Like all other eloquence, it aims always to produce a 34 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. definite, practical volition in the hearer. This aim is, in the best sense, a worthy one ; for the acts it evokes are the spiritual. But its peculiarity is chiefly this, that it applies to the will, the authority of God, the only Lord of the conscience. This alone, I repeat, makes the gospel discourse. Other orators bring to bear upon the understandings of their hearers the force of human testimony and natural reason ; they apply to their hearts legitimate secular and moral inducements. The preacher relies alone upon evangelical inducements, and refers every conviction of the reason ultimately to God's testimony. I elaborate this all-important distinc- tion carefully ; perhaps my reasons for it are difficult to grasp, because of their simplicity. The end, I repeat, of every oration is to make men do. But the things which the sermon would make men do, are only the things of God. Therefore it must apply to them the authority of God. If your discourse urges the hearer merely with excellent reasons and inducements, natural, ethical, social, legal, political, self-interested, philan- thropic, if it does not end by bringing their wills under the direct grasp of a " thus saith the Lord," it is not a sermon ; it has degenerated into a speech.^ Were it necessary, young gentlemen, I would even beseech you to master these definitions of what elo- quence is, and of what the sermon is. Fix them firmly in your minds, as the foundations of successful study in this course. As we proceed, you will meet many con- firmations of their justice, and I trust that when we are done, you will think with me of them. One great dif- 1 1 Thess. ii. 13. 35 ficulty of the young preacher is caused by confusion of thought, upon the precise nature and aim of. the sermon. Such was the testimony of Dr. Baxter's experience. If the true conception of preaching is that high and sacred one which I have presented, how inexpressibly does he enervate its proper force, who confounds it with the ' moral oration ! The last subject of remark has introduced us to the fundamental question, What is the preacher's scrip- tural position and warrant ? You will perceive a neces- sary connection between my theory here, and the theo- logical system of the Protestant churches. It is our doctrine that "the Bible alone is the religion of Protest- ants." We eschew all " will-worship " as forbidden and mischievous. We admit no title to do anything as a part of the public, religious service of God, except those things which He hath appointed in his word. Hence, unless we can find such warrant for preaching, as an instituted part of divine service, we dare not in- troduce it. We hold likewise that " unto this catholic visible Church, Christ hath given the ministry, oracles, and ordinances of God, for the gathering and perfecting of the saints, in this life, to the end of the world." ^ It is also the creed of Protestants, as of the Bible, that this book is " all given by inspiration of God," and is our divine and supreme rule of faith and life. " The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary .... for man's salvation, faith and life, is either ex- pressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture; unto » Conf. of Faith, ch. xxv. B 3. 36 LECTURES OX SACRED RHETORIC. wliic'h nothing at any time is to be added." ^ But tliis word is only made effectual to the calling and sanctifi- cation of any rational adults, by the almighty inwork- ing of God's Holy Spirit.^ For the warrant, then, of our office as preachers, we point first to the example and precedent of the scrip- tural Chui'ch — teachers of both Testaments, and espe- cially to the apostolic. This precedent, being set, and uniformly imitated, by divine authority, is to us of the force of a command. Next, we point to the express precepts of our Saviour ; " As ye go, preach f ^ and of the Apostle : " Preach the word ; be instant, in season, out of season ; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long- suflPering and doctrine."'* The nature of the preacher's work is determined by the word employed to describe it by the Holy Ghost. The preacher is a herald;^ his work is heralding the King's message. Once, the apostles call themselves Christ's ambassadors ; but of old, ambassadors were no other than heralds. Now the herald does not invent his message ; he merely transmits and explains it. It is not his to criticise its wisdom or fitness ; this belongs to his sovereign alone. On the one hand, he does not carry it as a mere implement of sound, a trumpet or a drum ; he is an intelligent medium of communication witli the king's enemies; he has brains as well as a tongue ; and he is expected so to deliver and explain his master's mind, that the other party shall receive not only the mechanical sounds, but the true meaning of the 1 Conf. of Faith, ch. i. ^ 2, 6. 2 jbid., ch. x. 3 MaU. X. 7 ; Luke x. 1 ; Acts x. 42. * 2 Tim. ii. 2 ; iv. 2. * K^/juf, KTjpvaaev, pas-sim. Tn-ep XpiCTov TrpeajSevo/nev. 2 Cor. v. 20. THE preacher's COMMISSION. 37 message. On the other hand, it wholly transcends his office to i^resume to correct the tenour of the proposi- tions he conveys, by either additions or change. These are the words of God's commission to an ancient preacher: "Arise; go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee." The preacher^s task may be correctly exj)lained as that of (instrumentally) forming the image of Christ upon the souls of men. The plastic substance is the human heart. The die which is provided for the work- man is the revealed Word ; and the impression to be formed is the divine image of knowledge and true holi- ness. God, who made the soul, and therefore knows it, made the die. He obviously knew best how to shape it, in order to produce the imprint he desired. Now the workman's business is not to criticise, rccarve, or erase anything in the die which was committed to him ; but simply to press it down faithfully upon the sub- stance to be impressed, observing the conditions of the work assigned him in his instructions. In this view, how plain is it, that preaching should be- simply repre- sentative of Bible truths, and in Bible proportions! The preacher's business is to take what is given him in the Scriptures, as it is given to him, and to endeavour to imprint it on the souls of men. All else is God's work. The die is just such, so large, so sharp, so hard^ and has just such an "image and superscription " on it, as God would have. Thus He judged, in giving it ta us. With this, " the man of God is perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." * This is enough for us. » 2 Tim. iii. 17. 38 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. Here we have plain truths which no evangelical be- liever will dare dispute. But if I am not mistaken, thev contain deductions adverse to some things in the practice of professed Protestant ministers. For instance, not onlv must Bible topics form the whole matter of our preaching, but tliey must be presented in scriptural aspects and proportions. The Bible was made to be the food of the people ; it is not a raw^ material which A^' the religious philosopher is to digest into new forms before they can assimilate it. This book is not like that of creation, a mixed mass of the ore of knowledge, which must be reduced by science before it can be applied to the uses of life. It is the great principle of Protestants that the Bible is for the people. And this implies that God, who knew best, has not only set forth such truths, but in such proportions and relations as really suit man's soul under the dealings of the Holy Spirit. There can be no other connections and forms of the truth so suitable as these, for these are they which God has seen fit to give. We may be guilty then of infidel- ity to our task, though we be not heterodox. We may preach only truths, and yet from an overweening tem- per make some truths relatively more prominent and others more retired than the Bible does. Our preach- ing must in this regard be conformed to the " propor- tion of faith."^ But there are many who shrink wdth fear from what they regard as so confined a walk of ministerial instruc- tion. They think it necessary to take a more ample range in preaching than simply showing the people ' Kom. xii. 6. THE preacher's COMMISSION. 39 what the Bible means, and imprinting that meaning on their souls. The secret feeling is : " This would not allow variety and interest enough. There would not be verge enough for the preacher to display his own powers. This is a business too simple and plodding for your profound theological philosopher. There is not mental pabulum enough for the intellects of enlightened hearers." So, in some pulpits, we have grandilo(iuent expositions of tlie "moral system of the universe." In others the Sabbaths of the people are wholly occupied with those polemics by which the outworks of Chris- tianity should be defended against the foreign assaults of infidel philosophy ; as though one would feed the flock within the fold with the bristling missiles which should have been hurled against the wolves without. Others deal in scholastic dis(,'ussions of the propositions of church-symbols, cleaving the "bare bones of their orthodoxy" into splinters as angular and dry as the gravel of the desert. Others again otfer metaphysical discussions of the psychology of religion, as though they would feed the babes of Christ with a sort of chemical resolution of the sincere milk of the Word into its ultimate elements, instead of the living, concrete nourishment provided for them by their Saviour. Now what is this but the very spirit of unbelief and self- seeking? The selection of such forms of truth is evi- dently not guided by the lowly, self-devoted spirit of the "servant" of the Church, but by a single eye to self-display. God puts the "sword of the Spirit" into this man's hand, and tells him that with this he shall conquer. He distrusts it, he will add something more trenchant. God tells him that the " Word is quick and ' 40 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, pier- cing even to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow^, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." ^ " No,'' says the unbelieving servant,,"! can devise truths more pier- cing." These, my brethren, are* not the men to do the work of that God who " iiatli chosen the foolish things *^ of the world to confound the wise." Theirs is the spirit of infidelity, and their preaching breeds infi- delity. I have explained to you what the true end of the sermon is, what eloquence is, and by what means the orator reaches that end. I w^ish you to infer hence this most momentous of all conclusions, that the prime qualification of the sacred orator is sincere, eminent piety. Consider: nothing is an oration which does not directly move the hearer to act. The main action urged in every sermon is to believe and be saved. Elo- quence we saw is the emission through speech of all the soul's virtuous energies, of thought, of sensibility, and especially of will. Now, unless the preacher's will is ardently directed toward this end, the salvation of the hearer, the main element of his power is lacking. But what is this direction of the will, save love for souls ? And this is pre-eminently the spirit of Christ. The scriptural doctrine of the preacher's mission and warrant also decides at once against an abuse of the pulpit, to which the clergy have always been prone. It may be named with sufficient accuracy by the popular phrase, " political preaching." Romanists hold a theory » Heb. iv. 12. THE preacher's COMMISSION. 41 of church power which if correct, would legitimate the practice. Although it is inconsistent with the princi- ples of Protestants, they have since the Reformation been frequently seduced into it by a sophism. The prevalence of this error requires, tl^erefore, that we con- sider it in this connection. Its tendency has always been, whether among Romanists or Protestants, to de- grade the position and character of the clergy, to em- bitter party spirit, to provoke bloodshed, and to corrupt the hearts of the hearers. The reasons of these results are not difficult to find. It was remarked (in substance) by Burke, that when parsons meddle publicly with state affiiirs they usually ■ show nothing of the politician but his rancour. This charge is true. It is explained in part by the fact that clergymen are accustomed to deference and unused to contradiction, and in part, by their habit of urging 'the opinions they espouse from a conscientious point of view. They become accustomed to sanctifying their creeds in their own eyes, and regarding their quarrel as God's. Thus their very animosities become holy in their view. The appropriate mission of the minister is to preach the gospel for the salvation of souls. The servant who by diverging into some other project not especially en- joined on him, nor essential for him to perform, pre- cludes himself from his allotted task, is clearly guilty of disobedience to his master, if not of treason to his charge. Now, questions of politics must ever divide ■ the minds of men ; for they are not decided by any rec- ognized standards of truth, but by the competitions of interest and passion. Hence, it is inevitable that he 4* 42 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. who embarks publicly in the discussion of these ques- tions, must become the object of party animosities and obnoxious to those whom he opposes. How then can he successfully approach them as the messenger of re- demption ? By thus transcending his proper functions, he criminally prejudices his appointed w^ork with half the community, for the whole of which he should affec- tionately labour. God has reserved for our spiritual concerns one day from seven, and has appointed one place into Avhich nothing shall enter, except the things of eternity, and has ordained an order of officers, whose sole charge is to remind their fellow-men of their duty to God. Surely, it is a tribute small enough to pay the tran- scendent weight of eternal things, to reserve the season and the place sacredly to them, which God has set apart for them. This surely is not too much for resisting the tendencies of man toward the sensuous and toward for- getfulness of the spiritual life. But when the world sees a portion or the whole of this sacred season ab- stracted from spiritual concerns, and given to secular agitations, and that by the appointed guardians of sacred things, it is the mast emphatic possible disclosure of unbelief. It says to men, "Eternity is not of more moment than time ; heaven is not better than earth ; a man is profited if he gains the world and loses his soul, for do you not see that we postpone eternity to time, and heaven to earth, and redemption to political tri- umph — we who are the professed guardians of the former?" One great source, therefore, of political preaching may always be found in the practical unbe- lief of the preacher himself; as one of its sure fruits is THE preacher's COMMISSION. 43 infidelity among the people. He is not feeling the worth of souls, nor the " powers of the world to come," nor "the constraining love of Christ" as he should; if he were, no sense of the temporal importance of his favorite political measures, however urgent, would cause the wish to abstract an hour from the few allowed him for saving souls. We solemnly protest to every minis- ter who feels the impulse to introduce the secular into his pulpit, that he thereby betrays a decadent faith and spiritual life in his own breast. Let him take care ! He is taking the first steps toward backsliding, apos- tasy, damnation. Another motive which prompts ministers of the Gos- pel to preach politics is usually to be thus explained : The topics of redemption are dry and repulsive to the great world ; and especially, when the public mind is absorbed by agitating questions of social interest. Hence, the minister's self-love and vanity feel the itch- ing to enjoy some of the eclat of the exciting discus- sion ; to see his ideas reflected from tlie faces of sym- pathizing crowds, and to hear the applause of approve ing supporters. This, to the carnal mind, is much more attractive and easy, than the holy, but difficult task, of recalling the hearts jaded and debauched by the engross- ing passions of the world, to peaceful and heavenly themes. If the political preacher will candidly exam- ine his own breast, he will surely detect this unworthy and pitiful motive, under his zeal for social reform. This abuse of the pulpit tends directly to produce in the hearers, uncharitableness, spiritual pride, censorious- ness, animosity, contempt of opponents, and violence, instead of humility, penitence, holy love, and holy liv- 44 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. ing. Your political parson is only such, when he has an approving party to address ; and usually it is the majority in his own charge. This is accounted for by the remarks just made. Moreover, when he sets out on his crusade of social reform, it is always against the sins or errors of some people to whom his a})proving clique are opposed, that he bears his Pythonic testi- mony. To be eloquent against the social heresies or crimes of his own party would not exactly answer the purposes of his self-love. Thus, the amount of his Sunday-ministrations is to invite the hearts of his hear- ers to the consideration of their neighbours' sins and not their own. On the contrary, everything tends to sug- gest their own superior virtue and orthodoxy. Their vain glory is pleasantly stimulated by the comparison ; and their hearts gratified with the luxury of self-right- eous hatred and carping, instead of being summoned to those irksome, impertinent, old-fashioned exercises, self- examination and repentance. Whereas the Gospel in- sulates each sinner, directs his eyes within, to his own sins, reminds him of his own solemn responsibility, calls him to contrition and self-reformation, and ever says to him, " Thou art the man," this religion of party strife diverts men's eyes from their own faults, (by sorrowing for which their hearts might be made better,) to the faults of others, by gloating over which they become full of all uncharitableness, pride, and hatred. Thus, the result of such a perversion of the pulpit is, uni- formly, an outburst of corruption in the bosom of the nominal Christianity which is cursed by it. The ten- dency of the human heart is ever to the worse ; there is no wonder that when the appointed restraints of Gos- THE preacher's COMMISSION. 45 pel truth are withdrawn, and this ministration of pride and spite is applied at the same time, the progress in de- pravity should be frightfully rapid. Witness the effect on public morals of the preaching of the crusades against the Albigenses, of the Romish clergy in France during the Ligue, of the Puritans in England against the Roy- alists, of the radical clergy of this country against the Union and the Constitution. Weak defences of this abuse have been attempted. It is asked, " Is not the minister also a citizen ?" The answer is : ^^ He is a citizen only at the hustings, and on a secular day. In the pulpit he is only the ambas- sador of Christ." It is urged again, that Peter, Paul, and the Lord Jesus Christ, taught political duties. We reply : Would that these pests of modern Christianity had truly imitated them ; had taken not only their texts, but their discourses from them, instead of deriv-. ing the latter from the newspapers. Let them do as the sacred writers do : teach the duties of allegiance from the Christian side and motive only, '' that the word of God and his Gospel be not blasphemed." Another plea is, that Christianity is designed to produce important collateral results on the social order of nations; as that social order reacts on Christianity. The answer is two- fold : that these secular results are the minor, the eter- nal redciuption of souls is the chief end of God in his Gospel. He is a criminal servant who wilfully sacri- fices the less to the greater. Second, the only innocent way (as the most efficient) in which the minister of re- ligion can further these secular results, is so to preach each man's own sins and redemption to him as to make him personally a holy man. When society is thus pur- 46 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. ifiod, by cleansing the integral individuals who compose it, then, and then only, will the social corruptions of coniinonwealths be effectually purged away. If the example of Christ and his apostles were cor- rectly weighed, it would be a sufficient guide to all other ministers. They lived in a time of intense party agitation. The Jewish commonwealth was then divided by a question, the most momentous that could fire the heart of a nation — whetlier their divinely-ordained con- stitution was compatible with their subjugation by a Pagan empire? This question was everyw^here hotly debated ; it was rapidly growing into that war which a ji-enenition later brouo-ht the end of the Hebrew com- monwealth. We know that neither Jesus nor Paul was* insensible to patriotism. The former wept over the approaching ruin of his country ; the latter de- clared himself ready to die for his compatriots ; yet, such is their reserve on the question in their religious teachings, that the unlearned reader of the New Testa- ment is left in actual ignorance of its existence, except that once it is forced upon our Saviour's attention by a direct inquiry. And then so small does this great secu- lar interest appear beside the. eternal errand which he came to subserve, he devotes only a part of one sen- tence to the former, reverting even before he ends it to the more absorbing concerns of the soul.^ Let his min- isters imitate him. The experience of the Church sustains this plea for the exclusive preaching of redemption. The pomps of a liturgical drama may attract occasional crowds to » Mittt. xxii. 16-21. THE PREACHERS COMMISSION. 4< the cathedral of the ritualist. Party rage may for a time cause the multitude to throng the steps of the clerical demagogue ; yet the permanent hold upon the popular mind and heart is possessed by the evangelical preacher. Sooner or later, the mere moralist, the So- cinian, the political preacher, the philosophizer, the choir of ghostly pantomimists, are all seen performing to empty benches, while from age to age the multitude of Christians surrounds those who preach " Christ and him crucified." May not even we perceive a reason for this? The conceit and self-love of the natural mind persuade the would-be pulpit philosopher that his newly-coined ideas are wondrously attractive, because they are the bantlings of his own invention. Perhaps lie is not fully aware of his own motive, but it is his intellectual vanity which selects them as his clerical hobbies. Now he forgets a very simple fact, that his hearers have toward these favourite topics not a particle of his pride of paternity. They are thoroughly con- scious that they did not beget them ; that they are the preacher's only. Hence he is perpetually disappointed by finding that he cannot sustain the enthusiasm of the people for his favourite topics. He never wearies of them ; his hearers do. But God's topics, the fall, the curse, sin, death, immortality, duty, redemption, faith, hope, judgment, hell, heaven, these transcendent sub- jects have an abiding, an overmastering common inter- est. All men share it, because they are men. These assert their power over the human soul under every condition, and in spite of man's natural carnality, with a force akin to their vastness. Honour God then, my young brethren, by urging no other truths than those 48 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. he has given you, urging them with disinterested fidel- ity, and he will honour your ministry. In conclusion, few words are needed to show that this peculiar mission of the preacher will dictate a method of its own which will differ from that of the secular orator. It will communicate a peculiar earnestness, tenderness and authority. Its influence will extend to the structure, the style^ the utterance and the gesture, making all more serious, more paternal, more elevated than they are in him who pleads the affairs of earth. LECTURE III. DISTRIBUTION OF SUBJECTS. T3 HETORIC or the science of the orator has been J-^ tritely called the art of persuamon. Its usual dis- tribution has been into the three parts of Invention^ Disposition, and Elocution.^ The last word, you must know, is taken here in a sense much wider than our popular usage gives to it, including the whole subjects of diction and style. The first two parts, then, treat of the matter of the discourse. The last discusses every- thing pertaining to the verbal medium., by which this matter i& conveyed to the hearer's mind. Invention discovers and selects this matter. Disposition arranges it in its proper place. Upon this classification there are two obvious remarks. One is, that to the sacred orator, the work of invention cannot be what it is to the secu- * Cicero de Orat. Lib. II. c. 19, § 79 : Denique quinque faciunt quasi membra eloqiientine, invenire quid dicas, inveiita disponere, delude oriuire verbis, post memoria? mandare, turn ad extremiim agere ac promintiare. See also Lib. I. c. 31, I 142. Qniuctilian, I.. III. c. 3, § 1 : Omnis autem orandi ratio, ut plurimi maximiqiie auctores tradiderunt, quinque p.irtibus constat, inventione, dispositione, elocutione, meraoria, pronunciatione sive actione. The moderns, against the protest of Quinctilian, reduce the divis- ion to the first three, including the pronunciation, under elocution, and treat the memorizing as rather an instrument than a constituent part of rhetoric. 6 49 50 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. lar, because, as has been shown above, the whole matter which we are to handle is given to us by the Scriptures. If we restrict invention to selection, still the principles of systematic and pastoral theology rather than rhetoric, will be, in this, the student's guide. The other remark is that made by Vinet, that invention is a work not con- fined to the matter. The method, the style, the diction, the gesticulation, all must be invented. His meaning is not that they may be artificial ; but that they must, in order to be appropriate, be discovered and selected by the same exertions of the mind which give the speaker his thoughts. You will not find me, then, attempting to impose this distribution, throughout, upon the body of this course. Several of the subjects, which we shall next consider together, may be regarded as falling par- tially under the head of invention. The other two di- visions, disposition and elocution, we can more accu- rately apply. It is now necessary to undertake a question of class- ification of a different sort. It is this : Are there more species of sermons than one? And if so, what are they ? One answer divides them, according to the ex- tent of the passage of Scripture upon which they are founded, into topical and expository; another, according to their matter, into doctrinal, practical, and narrative. Let us consider the latter classification first. By a doctrinal sermon is not intended one of those peculiar discussions so named in the popular phrase of the last generation, where the j^oints which distinguish Calvinism from the lower systems of theology, and especially the points of predestination, were discussed. But we intend the treatment of all the doctrines which DISTRIBUTION OF SUBJECTS. 51 make up the system of revealed theology, not exclusive of tiiose just named. Doctrinal preaching is that which aims to instruct the people methodically in the truths of the Gospel. It should also be distinguished from "theological preaching." In the latter, the strict methods of science rather than the claims of rhetoric prevail. Analysis and abstraction are freely employed, in disregard of the difficulty and even of the repulsive- ness of the discussion. The object is neither the pleas- ure of taste nor the immedijite movement of the will, but the exact ascertainment of truth Ijy the understand- ing. Theoloiric^d teaching, therefore, properly requires of its j)upils laborious attention, and demands the effort to grasp what may be abstruse. It seeks to be logical and exhaustive of its subject. Manifestly this .method can rarely be appropriate to the ])ulpit, because the multitude to be instructed there do not think ab- stractly, but delight in 1 lie concrete ; because thev are unaccustomed to scientific rigour ; because truth dressed in this Ibrm will be unintelligible and repulsive to them. President Dwight is said to have d(>liv(M'ed his work in sermons (expositions of the j^lainer doctrines and reasonings of theology) to his students. Dr. Ash- bell Green prepared his lectures on the Shorter Cate- chism for the advanced catechumens of his charge, edu- cated young persons. Unless you have a j)eculiar and select audience like these, you will not often attem])t theological sermons. Your doctrinal teachings should be science made po{)ular. They will set forth some theses of your theology ; they will, of course, not be defi- cient in sound logic; they will address themselves with masculine strength to the understandings of your hear- A- 52 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. ers : systematic divinity will inform and enrich them tVoin its stores. But its form will be popular, and in the concrete, rather than abstractly scientific. And you will consult that plainness of argument and paucity of sejxirate points suitable to those who only listen to the \ fleeting words, instead of poring over the permanent page. It may be suj)i)().sed, at the first glance, that if it is of the essence of the oration to aim at a practical move- ment of the will, this instructiveness of the doctrinal sermon is inconsistent with the rhetorical treatment. The reply is, first, that we have not asserted the pastor must always be expressly the orator, or that every dis- course must needs be a true oration. His teaching may sometimes properly be homiletic rather than rhetorical. But second, the good doctrinal sermon will usually have a rhetoric^al character, because it will be applied in the close to a practical result. It is the duty of the preacher so to establish the dogmas of the faith in the understandings of the })eoplc, that they shall not re- main abstract dogmas, but shall reveal their close bear- ing upon the life. It was a golden maxim of the Prot- estant fathers, that " doctrines must be preached prac- tically and duties doctrinally.'^ The reasons for doctrinal preaching thus defined, may be all traced to the ])rinciple that truth is in order to godliness. Sanctification is by the truth. Man is a reasonino; creature, and the word and Spirit of God deal with liim in conformity with this rational nature. All those emotions and volitions, which have right moral character, are prompted in man by intelligent motives. To say that one has no reason for his volitions, is to de- scribe them as either criminal or merely animal. In DISTRIBUTION OF SUBJECTS. 53 the things of God man only feels as he sees, and be- cause he sees with his mind. A moment's consideration of these obvious facts will convince you that there can- not be, in the nature of the case, any other instrumen- tality to be used by creatures for inculcating religion and procuring right feeling and action, than that which begins by informing the understanding. The truth, as seen in the light of evidence, is the only possible object of rational emotions. From this point of view, we easily understand how unreasonable are the notions and demands of those good people who decry didactic i)reach- ing. " Such discourses," they say, " are dry and repul- sive. They give us merely theology in its bare bones. They inflate the head with conceit without warming the heart. The aim of Christianity is but to make men feel and act aright. I^et the preacher then aim directly at the heart, producing right feeling, and all will be accomplished." Now, I might assent to the latter state- ments, and yet raise the question, How shall the heart be reached, except through the head ? How can a rational creature be made to feel intelligently, unless we cause his reason to aj)i)rehend that which may be the object of rational feeling ? If any aifection is pro- duced othenvise, it must be merely animal or else evil. Heat without light is blind, as light without heat is cold. The Sun of Righteousness, like the natural lumi- nary, becomes the fountain of life in his appropriate realm by giving heat through light. To the objection that didactic preaching is dry, I answer, that if it ever seems to be so, this is the fault of the preacher and not of the truth. If his attempted development of doc- trine be confused, illogical, iterative, tedious; if tlie 54 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. ^^, didactic unfolding of truth be perversely severed from the practical results, he may not be surprised to find that he (not his sul)ject) is dull. But so far is didactic instruction from being dry, I assert nothing else is inter- esting to a reasonable nature. My meaning is, that the skilful inculcation of truth enlists the attention with- out fail, for this is insured by the mind's instinctive appetite for knowledge. And, moreover, no rational emotion can excite the heart, except as its power i§ grounded in some express or implied truth seen by the mind. The truth which generates the feeling may be very plain or obvious ; it may be implied, and not ex- pressly obtruded. Yet, had there been no successful didactic agency, there would have been no influence upon the feelings. It may also be retorted that if many unskilful didactic attempts are dull, nothing is ever witnessed more drearily wearisome than many a hortatory appeal grounded in no intelligent display of truth, which professes to carry out the theory I have exposed. Referring to the other part of that theory which pro- fesses to find the sole practical end of preaching in right action, I find another forcible argument for doctrinal preaching. Is it said, " Now are we Christ's friends, if we do whatsoever he commandeth" ? I reply by the question. How can a rational creature so do, as to please a spiritual God, without comprehending a reason for his obedience? Man is a moral creature only as he is a rational one. The moral motive must be intelli- gent, or it is naught. Unless a ground of obligation is apprehended by the reason, conscience is untouched, and the action which man takes is either that of moral DISTRIBUTION OF SUBJECTS. 56 indifferency, or of animal iDstinct, or it is criminal. Hence it follows that doctrinal instruction is as rudi- mental to all right action as to right feeling. The result of all this is, that no people can be formed into stable, consistent and righteous Christians without much doctrinal instruction. My argument is reinforced by the example of Christ and his apostles. These in- spired preachers are eminently doctrinal ; in other words, they are full of explanations of, and evidences for, the great truths and facts which make up the Christian system. They give us an illustrious example of the method of dealing with the human soul, by always grounding their appeals to the heart upon appeals to the mind. The preacher may amuse the curiosity of his hearers with human speculations ; he may excite by the scintillations of his rhetoric, but if he has not in- structed them in divine truth, he has done nothino;. A permanent religious effect is impossible. In concluding this subject, let me add a word touch- ing the extent of this doctrinal instruction. Shall it embrace all the doctrines of the Scriptures, popular and unpopular? And what discretion shall the pastor allow himself in avoiding collisions with the prejudices of his hearers ? He must not keep back any revealed truth. The Scriptures leave no room for question here. The preacher must be able to take his charge to witness with the apostle^ that " he is pure from the blood of all men, for he has not shunned to declare unto them all the counsel of God." "All Scripture is given by inspi- ration of God, and is profitable for doctrine."^ Indeed, 1 Acts XX. 26, 27. * 2 Tim. iii. 16. 56 • LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. this conchisiou follows directly from the nature of the preacher's commission. But, on the other hand, the pastor should be "a scribe instructed unto the king- dom of heaven, who is like unto a man that is a house- holder which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old."^ Tiie apostle, although the most faith- ful of men, " fed some with milk, and not with strong meat, for hitherto they were not able to bear it.'^^ Can- dour will never permit the true minister to disclaim any doctrine taught by the Bible, when he is directly re- quired either to avow it or to deny. Candour will en- sure his inculcation of the whole circle of revealed truths in scriptural relations and proportions. Yet he will study so to connect the disputed with the admitted, and to proceed from the known to the unknown, as to obviate all unnecessary prejudice and secure the hap- piest ingress for the truth. For doing this, he can find no rule so safe as to follow the Scripture models in the space and prominence allotted to different truths, and the connections in which they are introduced. You w411 not expect here a more particular enumeration of the heads of divinity which require frequent and ample dis- play. This you will be taught rather by your sys- tematic and pastoral theology ; the former shows you which are the cardinal doctrines of our faith, and the latter informs you of the peculiar need for their repe- tition arising from man's native perversity of mind. The second class of sermons is the practical, or ethi- cal. By this term are intended tliose discourses which discuss the duties of the Christian life toward God and * Matt. xiii. 52. 2 i Qqj.^ [[{ 2. DISTRIBUTION OF SUBJECTS. 57 toward man ; with their nature, limits, obligations, and motives. These topics should abound in the preaching of every pastor. You will not understand me as recommend- ing, here, the inculcation of a religion of self-righteous works. I would have you preach the duties of the law, not that men may learn to exjiect their salvation from them, but that they may know they cannot be saved by them. It is because "the law is our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ ;" ^ because " I had not known sin but by the law." ^ " For without the law, sin is dead." Men are "alive without the law; but when the com- mandment comes, sin revives, and they die." The whole policy of the pastor's instructions is contained, in germ, in that saying of Christ : " They that be whole need not a physician ; but they that be sick." That men may heartily embrace the gospel, the essential j)oint is to make them know and feel their radical disease. This you will not teach them effectually by mere gen- eral announcements of depravity and the fall. When the claims of the law are brought to their souls, when they are made to see perspicuously what is their extent, and that they are reasonable, when they become con- scious of their own innate and fundamental enmity to those just demands, and bondage to evil desires; and when they hear the wrath denounced by God against every transgression ; then there is hope that they will find themselves truly lost, and will cry to the Deliverer for rescue. But, second : the practical definition of Christianity has been fully accepted by us. Its end and aim is holy ^ Gal. iii. 24. » Eom. vii. 7. 58 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. llvino;.^ Of this holy life, the law of God Is the rule. The believer justified in Christ does not, indeed, look to tlie law for his redeeming merit ; but he receives it as his guide to the obedience of faith and love, as fully as thouixh he were still under a covenant of works. He therefore needs practical instruction, as really as the un- believer. It must stimulate and direct him in the Christian race, and make him a " peculiar person, zealous of good works." The exclusive preaching of doctrine to professed Christians tends to cultivate an Antinomian Spirit. The exclusive inculcation of duties fosters self- riirhteousness. The edification of the Church, then, de- mands the diligent intermixture of both kinds. This precept may be confirmed by the remark, that, as the motives and obligations of all duties are rooted in the doctrines, so the best illustrations of the doctrines are by their application to the duties. The two are insep- arably connected as grounds and conclusions, as means and end ; and their systematic separation in your in- structions would leave your hearers incapable of a cor- rect understanding of either. But the crowning argument is again the precedent set us by Christ and his apostles. While they were, as has been remarked, doctrinal, they were eminently practical preachers. Nothing can be more instructive than the manner in which the Epistles to the Romans, the Gala- tians, the Ephesians, the Colossians, and the Hebrews proceed. In their introductory chapters, they lay a solid foundation of argument and testimony for some cardinal doctrines of redemption ; and from these, they ^ Eph, i. 4 ; Titns ii. 14, et passim. DISTRIBUTION OF SUBJECTS. 59 glide into the enforcement of duties by a beautiful tran- sition. The pastor has here models given by inspira- tion, and obviously conformed to the nature of man as a reasonable and moral creature. Some important observations remain, touching the modern which the law should be preached. " We know that the law is spiritual, but we are carnal, sold under sin.^' ^ The apostle tells us that he had not been made aware of his own concupiscence, except the law had said, " Thou shalt not covet." It is imperative, there- I ^ fore, that you so unfold the law of God, as to exhibit \ its searching requirements of right thoughts and feelings, ' as well as right actions of the bodily members " As a man thinkcth in his heart, so is he." "From within, out of the heart of man, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders." The disease of sin is never so probed as to lead the sufferer in earnest to the Great Physician, until the seat of the evil is revealed in t lie heart itself. And it is chiefly by disclosing the spirituality of the law, that we affect the convicted soul with a suitable ap})rehension of the breadth of the law, of his own enmity and inability, and of the infinite holiness of its Author, at once. Next, let the claims of the law be always enforced, /^ not as moral observances only, but as evangelical duties. If you suppose that, by calling this class of sermons the ethical, I designed to recommend your founding your appeals to men^s consciences on the fitness of things, on the natural claims and advantages of virtue, I have been much misunderstood. It is only the morality of » Rom. vii. 7. 14. 60 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. the cross which the Christian pastor should teach. It will not be amiss, indeed, for him to show, transiently, how completely the best teachings of natural morality are at one with those of the gospel. But his chief motives should always be drawn from the latter. Let him inculcate virtue, not like a Seneca, but like a Paul. He should trace every precept of the law to its con- \X nection with the redeeming love of Christ, and draw tlience his incitements to obey. Would he urge, for instance. Christian fidelity on parents? He will not content himself with appealing to the law of nature expressed in the instinctive parental love, with arguing from the feebleness, dependence or loveliness of our offspring, or with promising the comforts which dutiful children confer upon our old age. These will be the least of his grounds, and most briefly despatched. He will proceed to crown his argument, by directing the hearts of parents chiefly to that Redeemer who claims our eliildren as of his kingdom, to the divine blood with which lie has purchased their immortal souls, and to the future of glory and bliss which he offers, chiefly through the means of parental fidelity, to confer on them. Thus, every labour of the father for his child is connected with the Christian's constraining prin- ciple — the love of Christ. It is a precept of prime weight, that your enforce- ments of evangelical duty and charges of shortcoming be definite, and even specific. There is, I apprehend, in the pulpits of our Church, no lack of general declara- tions concerning man's depravity, transgression and guilt. Nor do we find, among the ungodly, any back- wardness in making the general confession that they DISTRIBUTION OF SUBJECTS. 61 are sinners. But this vague sense of sin and guilt is manifestly without effect. They confess, and stil! trans- gress. They avow, in words, their need of cleansing and justification, and yet refuse the salvation offered, with all the supineness of conscious security. It is to be feared that a quickening of these dead hearts will never be effected by launching at them the commoii- places of theology. The mere statement of their re- sponsibility and guilt, in general, will be inadequate. But if their own duties and delincpiencias were brought home to them in their details, they would, witli the blessing of the Holy Ghost, be made to feel wherein they were sinners indeed, and why under the curse. My meaning may be explained by the instance I em- ployed above. Tell your unrenewed hearer that he is a parent, that he owes duty to his child, and he will readily admit it. Charge shortcoming on him in this ^ duty: he will admit this also, and after the admission he w^ill be as callous as before. But now let us suppose the parental duties defined, and enforced from their high, evangelical obligations, and the cruelty of that parental neglect, which usually destroys the soul of the child, justly painted in the lights of the eternal world. May we not hope that the delinquent parent will ac- quire some definite conviction of his sin, and especially that his eyes will begin to open to the enormity and malignity of that state of heart charged upon him by the Scriptures, and hitherto so firmly disbelieved by him? In this view of practical preaching, we have a powerful argument for its employment to lead sinners to the Saviour. It is only when we become specific, and apply the general principles of evangelical duty, 6 62 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. with close discrimination, to the circumstances of our hearers, tliat we make the law their "schoolmaster to lead them unto Christ." While we are instructing God's people in the details of their daty, we may be teaching his enemies the number of their sins. LECTURE IV. THE SAME TOPICS CONTINUED. I RESUME, young gentlemen, the remarks which the expiration o'f my hour arrested, upon the pro- per nature of the practical sermon. I was remonstrat- ing against vagueness in the application of obligations to duty ui)on tlie conscience. But there is an error to he avoided on the other side. There are species of de- tails which are unsuital)le for the pul])it. I do not conceive that much of casuistry should he introduced into practical sermons. This belongs rather to tlie pas- tor's study than to the desk. Tlic minute distinctions by wliich nice cases are to be adjusted, if they be ad- dressed to a promiscuous company of persons not vitally interested in the particular problem, will be surely mis- understood by many. Tims they will minister to the morbid scruples of some consciences and to the license of others. And even in our private instructions love is the best casuist. Let tlie great principles of gospel love be presented with a breadth and warmth which, instead of dissecting, will dissipate the doubt. Nor should the preacher, under pretence of definite- ness, encumber his sermons with secular details of the means for executing a duty which has been established. He may be assured that the attempt to do this will lead 63 64 I.ECTUUES ON SACRED RHETORIC. hi 111 at once out of liis province. He will enjoin on mcclianics Christian honesty and fidelity to engage- ments; he will urge the agriculturist to diligence for the glory of God. But let him not then proceed to in- struct the former of the materials and species of work- manship to be employed for executing faithful work, nor presume to dictate to the latter a rotation of crops. He would thus cease to be a minister of religion, and would be only a master an.iong his apprentices. In like manner I conclude that good habits or virtues •of very narrow extent, or of secular concernment, should not be selected as prominent subjects of practical ser- mons. The preacher, for instance, who should fill his hour with recommendations to the habit of neatness, or of method in little things, would be but trifling. The Sabbath time of candidates for immortality in this fleet- ing world should have a more momentous concern. Let the grave truths and duties of the gospel be urged to save these souls in Christ ; the vital grace which will then actuate them will, with very few words, set them aright touching all these minor morals. Is it argued that Christ has told us, '^ he that is faithful in the least things is faithful also in the greater;'^ that the apostle Paul requires us even when ^' we eat and drink to do all to the glory of God," and that the Holy Ghost, s[)eaking by Solomon, did not disdain to teach that " he that hateth suretyships is sure,'' and that " much in- crease is by the strength of the ox" ? I reply : let the preacher, like the sacred writers, inculcate these propo- sitions as definite principles indeed, but not in beggarly details, and let him give them that small relative space in his sermons which the all-wise Spirit has given them THE SAME TOPICS CONTINUED. 66 in the Bible. This will secure him against the error which I oppose. The third class, of narrative or historical sermons, is not different in one aspect from the other two. Its peculiarity is that by employing the parables, biogra- phies, and histories of the Scriptures, it teaches in the concrete. The truths taught may be either doctrinal or practical. It may be conceded that the practical is more frequent in these narratives, but doctrines are not exchided. That this method of presenting truth should be often employed, might be inferred from the fact that more than half of the revealed Scriptures is narrative or biogra- phy. God, who knows what is in man, has evidently judged tliis a suitable way to instruct him. Expe- rience shows that it is the way most intelligible and pleasing to the po])ular mind. Nor are the reaisons of this obscure. A perspicuous narrative, with its lifelike personages and successive incidents leading to their catastrophe, presents the simplest food of curiosity, which is the appetite of the mind. The truths em- bodied thus are more vividly apprehended. Presented in the concrete, they relieve us in the labours of ab- straction and generalization, which are so irksome to the common mind. This method has all the advantajre of illustration over naked argument. As the picture of a human face is more intelligible than a verbal de- scription, or as one derives a clearer view of a region from a map of its parts than from the reading of the field-notes of its survey, so is the narrative embodying a truth more perspicuous and pleasing than a didactic statement. Would the preacher define and recommend 6* 6Q LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. the virtue of constancy in the right ? The history of Daniel does it better tlian all his definitions and argu- ments. Would he illustrate faith? He has Abraham. In Peter at the cock-ctowing he finds true penitence painted. Christ weeping over reprobate Jerusalem shows us compassion more distinctly than any descrip- tion can. The fact that the preacher is merely the herald to de- liver God's message is sufficient to answer the question whence the materials for narrative sermons are to be drawn. The reply is : primarily from the Bible. The main storehouse is the parables and histories deposited there. Nowhere else have we sufficient guarantee for the certainty of the events and the impartiality of the portraiture. But I am persuaded that authentic and instructive incidents in the history of the Church, and in the lives of the martyrs, and even of the saints of our age, might be used with excellent effi^ct, as subordi- nate illustrations of truth. The preacher, in employ- ing these, should see to it, first, that the events recited be of unquestioned authenticity, and next, that they be of congruous seriousness and dignity. While the narrative method is so valuable to the preacher, its peculiar difficulties should not be concealed. One of these w^ill be found in the recital itself, by Avhich he places the events before his hearers. It must be specific, that it may be graphic ; for unless there is de- fined outline, there is no picture. Yet it must be brief, lest it should weary. If he employs the very words of the sacred narrative, he seems to his audience not to be an orator, but the mere repeater of a familiar lesson. If he paraphrases it in his own language, then he is set THE SAME TOPICS CONTINUED. 67 in dangerous contrast witli the inspired story, which the hearer has before him. For such is the life, compact- ness, expressiveness, eloquence of the scriptural histo- ries, he must be no mean artist whose recital of the same events does not suffer by comparison with theirs. But, for the tyro, the chief difficulty of historical ser- mons is to catch correctly the precise didactic scope of the sacred narrative, and to limit himself to it. Cer- tain schools, of even Protestant preachers, have given us deplorable examples of error here. They have used the plain histories of the Bible as though they were riddles for the exercise of an ingenious fancy. They have formed allegories where the Holy Ghost has war- ranted them in seeing none. They have interpreted these histories as though any analogy which a vagrant imagination could invent, between a Bible fact and a supposed moral, were a perfect demonstration that this was the truth which the Spirit intended to teach in that place. Your own good sense should show you tluit a mode of interpretation cannot be correct, which enables different men to extract the most variant meanings from the same words. It is utterly condemned by what has been established concerning the preacher's mission. He has naught to do save to deliver God's message out of the Scriptures ; his only concern is with the intended meaning of the Holy Ghost in the place expounded. Hence, in a narrative sermon, the preacher's first task must be to ascertain faithfully, from the whole context, the precise scope of the Spirit in placing these events in the infallible record. AVhat principles of truth or duty did He here illustrate to the Church ? This must be his topic ; and nothing else. When Moses tells us 68 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. how Jacob made for his darling son a coat of many col- ours, we are not authorized to teach our hearers that the righteousness of the saints was there presented in type. We have only an infallible portraiture of the mischiefs which parental partiality may work. When another prophet tells us how the priests of Dagon in Ekron, professing to desire the restoration of the ark of God to its sanctuary, shut up the calves at home from the unbroken kine which drew the cart, he does not give us an allegory to teach us the exclusion of infants from membership in Zion. He only intends to teach us the dishonesty of unbelief The perverse taste for thus abusing the historical Scriptures may be accounted for, in part, by the influence of such books as Bunyan's " Temple of Solomon Spiritualized ;" but more, by a guilty vanity in preachers, who desire to make the multitude gape with some mighty conceit of their wisdom. To overcome these difficulties, no little good sense, taste and diligence in the preacher are required. A fine narrative sermon is perhaps the highest work of sacred oratory, and demands the greatest skill. But it is also the most attractive species of sermon. Under this class comes what has been called, in the modern religious cant, the " occasional sermon.'^ This is a discourse headed by some words of Scripture, which professes to employ some grave or startling event of the day to enforce the principle of religion suggested by the text. Thus, the death of a popular public man, the fatal wreck of a ship, a conflagration, or a flood, pro- duces in some quarters a shower of these occasional sermons. The plea for their defence is drawn from the THE SAME TOPICS CONTINUED. 69 doctrine of divine providence directing these instructive occurrences, and from the utility of improving the im- pressions which they make on the sensibilities of men. But a sound taste will usually condemn the custom. Facts show that the apparent awe produced by these catastrophes is not directed by such sermons to a sacred end. The more usual result is the gratifying of curiosity and the unwholesome love for new sensations. The ex- planation of this is not difficult: it is found in the fact that these discoiyses are almost unavoidably social, instead of spiritual, in tone. The practical effect of the very selection of this event, as of sufficient gravity to f)n them as men's sermons never do. Your con- ceit and ambition may persuade you that your human arrangement is more regular, more logical, more com- plete than his. He knows better, for he is omniscient. Have faith and humility to trust his truth in his own biblical forms, and you will find your sermons clothed with a true power and unction. If you thus honour his word, he will honour your ministry with success. The second, and, I surmise, the decisive, obstacle to 8* 90 LECTURES ON SACRED RIIP^TORIC. expository preacliing in onr day is the indolence and incapacity of preacliers. In truth, to get up a human oration upon some point of Christian doctrine or ethics, embodying a few commonplaces made ready to our hands by books, and concealing our platitudes under the forms of a regular discussion, is comparatively easy. To ex])ound aright requires the highest taste, judgment, experience and learning. I avow, young gentlemen, that it is not easy to apprehend exactly the mental wants of those whom you would instruct, so as to give just the explanations wliich are german, to conceive correctly the precise scope of the Holy Ghost in the passage ; to state this perspicuously to the common rea- son ; to evince the correspondence of your statements with the very mind of the Sj^irit by a plain, homely, exegetical logic without pedantry, which shall be clear and convincing to common sense; to apply the truth to heart and conscience ; to select the most appropriate and useful inferences ; to preserve throughout the " an- alogy of the faith," and to superfuse the whole with evangelical warmth, — this is not easy. But if it be well done, it will prove " the power of God and the wisdom of God unto salvation.'' By some an objection is raised against expository preaching, that it is less consistent with the purposes of oratory, because of its lack of unity. This virtue, we shall see, is a cardinal trait of the oration. But, it is urged, if the speaker passes over a large portion of Scripture, explaining the whole with its variety of sub- jects, unity is lost. Now this objection is founded on the assumption, which is untrue, that the Scriptures themselves lack rhetorical unity. They readily divide THE TEXT. 91 themselves into sections, each of which contains some one dominant scope. We find such a natural section sometimes in a narrative designed by the Holy Spirit to exemplify some virtue or cluster of virtues ; some- times in a parable or series of parables illustrating one main truth ; sometimes in a doctrinal discussion. Why may not the "workman rightly dividing the word of truth" select one of these parts, bounded by its natural limits, as the text of his discourse? Then, inasmuch as the passage has its own unity, his exposition will be the more truly rhetorical as it is the more faithful. There are a few parts of the Scripture, as the one hundred and nineteenth Psalm and the Proverbs, which seem not to admit this division, because each verse introduces a sei)arate maxim or sentiment. But even in these a more thorough consideration will detect a connecting clue. Of the one hundred and nineteenth Psalm, Dr. Thomas Scott has said, that it is not a golden chain, but a box of separate golden rings.* Yet examine, for ex- ample, the first part, Alepii; you will find that amidst the rapid transitions there is a prevalent subject, con- formity to God's will. Verses first and second declare the blessedness and characteristics of this grace. Verse fourth refers to that divine authority from which the obligation to it flows." Verse fifth expresses that aspira- tion after it which is the response of the Christian heart to the announcement of this divine command. The sixth and seventh verses give a fuller expression to this sacred longing. And verse eighth concludes the thought of the section, with strict rhetorical propriety, by a practical vow of conf<)rmity to the divine will, and a prayer for the aid and forbearance of God in the imperfect endeavour. 92 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. But, in fine, is it proved that all the pastor's instruc- tions must needs be rhetorical ? True, the regular ser- mon is a sacred oration, and I define the oration as a discourse always converging to a practical end. But may not the pastor have public teaching functions, which are homiletical rather than rhetorical? In this hum- bler department of his work, then, there may be appro- priate places for expositions which even resist reduction to a complete unity. ^ ' See, on this whole subject, " Thoughts on Preaching," by Dr. J. W. Alexander. It is gratifying to find nearly all the positions and arguments of this lecture, which I had regularly delivered to my classes several years before the death of this eminent and useful pas- tor, affirmed in his posthumous work. LECTURE VI. THE TEXT. rpHE student will bear in mind that l)y "the Text'^ J- I intend that passage of Serii)tnrc whieh intro- duces and contains the sermon, whether it is a sinofle j)roposition, or even clause of 8cri])ture, or a portion of many verses to be exj)ounded. When we proceed, therefore, to the rules for selecting texts, our matter divides itself naturally into two parts. The selection of the text for an exj)ository sermon has virtually been discussed in previous remarks. The reasons urged for this mode of preaching will usually dictate, that the j^astor shall treat some important book of tiie Scripture '' in course." \\'Irat books he shall select must be determined by his pastoral experience and good judgment. They should obviously be such as arc rich in evangelical facts and doctrines, and so (;hosen that, taken as a whole, they will form a com- plete outline of the system of revealed religion. But the book to be expounded being chosen, no farther ques- tion as to the choice of the text may be supposed to remain ; the preacher's work is laid out ready to his hand. This is usually true, save that an important point remains — the fixing of the tcriiiini of the passage to be treated in the next sei'mon. The extent of Scrip- 93 94 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. ture to be embraced must be cletermiued partly by its richness in matter. If the passage be very fruitful, a smaller compass can be taken. If it consist largely of pers])iouous narrative, or such-like detail, not requir- ing explanation, the preacher may despatch a much longer portion. But the chief consideration to guide him here will be the unity of the topic. He will ter- minate his exposition for the occasion, where he finds such a natural change of subject as introduces independ- ent matter. And in choosing this terminus he will pay little regard to those artificial divisions into chapters and verses which, as you know, have no insjjired origin, and are often far from judicious or discriminating. A few more detailed remarks may be necessary for the selection of single texts. I hardly need repeat the rule, that they should belong either to the class of capi- tal texts or of epitome texts. And the theory of the preacher's function which I have asserted will sliow you, without many words of mine, that it is never proper to employ a text as a mere motto to introduce the sermon. This vicious usage degrades the Bible into a mere collection of literary apophthegms. Nor will the true minister select and mature his subject in his own mind, and then seek a text for it. The sermcrn should not dictate the choice of a text, but the text should determine the whole character of the sermon. But, aifirmativcly, I would impose the following rules: 1. The text should be God's word. This rule has not been to all preachers as self-evident as you may su})pose. Nor will one be sure of its observance by seeking his texts always within the Bible. He will, of course, not take them from the Apocrypha. Nor THE TEXT. 95 will he found a sermon on a faulty rendering of the English version, nor on a false or questionable reading of the original. For even though, in the case last men- tioned, the preacher may honestly believe that he can clear away the question as to the genuineness of the reading, it will be better for him to leave the text un- used, than to inflict upon an audience so little accus- tomed to critical discussion the arguments which will make them thiidv witli him. But the chief danger of violence to this rule is in the adoption of sentiments uttered by mere men and recorded in the Scriptures, as texts for sermons. Tlie thoughtlessness of preachers in this particular is illustrated by the divine mentioned by L)r. George Campbell,' who took the words of Satan to Eve (Gen. iii. 5), " Ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil," as a text to discuss the future glory of the Christian. So another was betrayed into adopting the words of Gamaliel (Acts v. 38), " If this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to naught," as a scriptural and infallible maxim. You will observe that the only thing for which inspiration makes itself responsible in such a passage is the truth that this man actually did utter these words, and that they, with their attendant circumstancics, are recorded with perfect historical cor- rectness. When the book of Acts tells us that Festus exclaimed, '' Paul, thou art beside thyself : much learn- ing doth make thee mad," are we to understand the inspired historian as vouching for the aj)ostle's lunacy, and for the still more false assertion that learning causes madness ? It is preposterous : all that the ins})iration ' Sacred Eloquence, Lee. VII. 96 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. of Luke guarantees is the simple fact, that this scene (lid occur, and that this wretched pagan, Festus, was a sufficiently great fool to utter this slander and nonsense. I need not point out to you how much more pre- posterous it would be for the Christian minister to wrest the sacred narrative so as to make the Holy Giiost teach either that learning produces lunacy, or that St. Paul was a madman. I have selected an ex- treme instance in order to give you a plain caution against this mistake. Yet there are two cases in which the things done or spoken by uninspired men, but re- corded by inspiration, may be made the foundations of sermons, if they meet the 'other requirements. There may be a sanction of the act or sentiment by the Holy Ghost which is sufficiently intimated in the context or in the other Scriptures. If this sanction is sufficiently ascertained, then the words of man are covered by the infallibility of God, and are therefore of authority to us. The other case is that in which the sentiment or act of the uninspired creature, although not sanctioned as either right or true, may give an instructive example of some scriptural truth. Thus, the preacher may not take the falsehood of Satan (Gen. iii. 5) as* authority for teaching the future deification of the minds of be- lievers : he might perhaps use it as an illustration of the important fact, that those who tempt to sin, like their father, usually employ some flattering lie. Or the story may teach us, as Eve learned by her sore ex- perience, that an overw^eening ambition leads in the end to disaster instead of gain. 2. The text must be accepted and discussed only in the very sense whi(;h it had in the mind of the Spirit THE TEXT. 97 as he uttered it. The preacher has no concern with, and no right to, any other. It is nervously remarked bv the Rev. Richard Cecil, that " the meanino^ of the Scripture is the Scripture." The propriety of niv law is plain from the fact that the preacher is a herald, and that it is God's word which is committed to him as his instrument for the redemption of men. If his task is to deliver and commend (rod's message, what right has he to change it or to represent it as other than it is ? Be- sides the risk of giving a fatal and specific wrong guid- ance to some soul in tiie very perversion of that particu- lar proposition of Scripture, such a custom confuses tlie minds of hearers in their efforts to understand the word, and cultivates irreverent feelings toward its authority. The falsehood of that man is full of impiety, who, avow- edly standing up in a sacred place to declare God's message to ])erishing souls, says that the Holy Spirit has said what he has not said. I would impress you with a solemn awe of taking any liberties in expound- ing the word. I would have you feel that every nu'an- ing of the text, other than that which God expressly intended it to bear, is forbidden fruit to you, however plausible and attractive — fruit which you dare not touch on peril of a fearful sin. One may ask, "Am I not justified, provided the meaning I give, although not actually placed in that text by the Holy Ghost, is still a scriptural truth taught elsewhere in the Word?" I answer. No; this is only a palliation. This secures you from positively destroying the souls of your hearers by giving them, then and there, filse directions as to the way of life. But the license still does mischief; because it confuses and misleads them in reading the 98 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. Scriptures and undermines their reverence and confi- dence toward you and them. The exact mind of tlie Spirit in the text must then be ascertained, before you presume to j)reach on it. The methods for doing this, by the grammatical study of the original with all accessible learned helps, and by medi- tation on the context and the connection of thought in which God has placed the passage, belong rather to the science of interpretation than to sacred rhetoric. I need only add that a proper apprehension of the preacher's mission will make him intensely honest and prayerful in his study. My second rule is violated when the text is discussed in a sense which it bears while disjoined from the context. Thus the words of Rom. xiv. 23, " Whatsoever is not of faith is sin,^' when read without any attention to the apostle's scope, have been wrested to teach the doctrine that the obedience of a sinner can- not be accepted by God until he is a justified believer. This is a scriptural truth ; it might be correctly preached, for instance, from Heb. xi. 6 : " But without faith it is impossible to please Ilim." But when we advert to the subject of Rom. xiv. 23, we find that the inspired author is speaking of the sin of disregarding positive precepts of the old ceremonial law, while the con- science and judgment w^ere still in suspense concern- ing their obligation on Christians. So that the mean- ing of his concluding proposition is, every act is wrong which is not prompted by a full conviction of its lawfulness. A similar error was committed when a venerable prelate chose the words of Ezek. xxxvii. 3, " Son of man, can these bones live V to preach at the funeral of a Christian the doctrine of the resurrection THE TEXT. 99 of the body. The death and the resurreetion of that text are both symbolical, and God's question is, whether a people so obdurate and ruined as the Jews then were could be restored. The rule is sometimes violated by taking the mere illustration for the truth illustrated; as when Blair founds a sermon touching "the Sentiments Apjn'opriate to Middle Age" on tlie words of 1 Cor. xiii. 11, "But when I became a man, I put away childish things." The apostle merely borrows this fact from the history of his youth, to explain the difference between the spiritual knowlcdo^e of the Christian in his militant, and that of his gloriiied state. The rule is also outraged by all those liberties in accommodating texts which are so common even in our own jnilpits. I have lieard more than one Presbyterian minister derive from the words of God to ^Nloses (Ex. xiv. 15), "Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward," the ju'oposition, that it is the duty of the Church to make ecclesiastical and spiritual advance- ments. What is this more than a species of sober pun- ning on the words, "Go forward"? All that the ex- positor is entitled to draw from this incident, for instruction of modern Christians, is the plain principle which finds example in this command to Israel, and its issue. And that principle is, tliat the people of God must " walk by faith and not by sight ;" that they must regard the express command, and not the seeming ob- stacle. A very different thought, truly ! These familiar instances have been detailed to guard you against vio- lations of this imperative rule. 3. No passage of Scripture is suitable for a text too LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. wliich docs not contain a distinct and important point. Because a sentence is a part of that Scripture which is declared to be all inspired and all profitable, it does not follow that it is a suitable proposition to furnish in- struction for a sermon. Every continuous composition must contain many passages which are not cardinal, but yet are necessary to connect those that are. Let the student compare Rom. i. 10, "Making request (if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God) to come unto you," with Rom. iii. 28, "Therefore we conclude tliat a man is justified by faith, without the deeds of the law." The former is only incidental to the introduction of the Epistle. The latter is a great truth falling at once under the classes of the capital and the epitome texts, containing the designed summation of a most important inspired argument, and a doctrine of prime rank in the theology of redemption. He who should attempt to make a whole sermon of the former must needs trifle or go out of his text. The latter furnishes grave matter for a volume. Tliat conceit of some of the Puritan divines, which caused them to compose a separate ser- mon on each verse of a book of Scripture or of a Psalm was therefore but a serious triflin^g. Under an appear- , ance of great reverence and value for the Scri23ture, it really misrepresented and perverted its fair meaning. 'The Holy Spirit did not mean a sermon in every sen- tence he uttered : it is incorrect for us to represent him so. Under this rule I would also embrace the maxim of Claude, in his celebrated treatise of the " Composition of the Sermon," notwithstanding the opposition to it of some respectable writers. He requires that the text THE TEXT. 10 J shall be so taken as to contain not only a distinct, but a complete, compass of inspired truth. We must not take for discussion, he teaches, less of the passage than will give us the whole thought of the author expressed in that place upon the one point. For example, let the passage under consideration be 2 Cor. i. 3, 4. The text is not complete if we stop with the words, ^' Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercy and the God of all comfort." Nor does it be- come complete if we add only the words, " who cora- forteth us in all our afflictions." We must proceed farther, and inchule also the design: "That we may be able to comfort them who are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God." For the apostle's topic here being his own gospel con- solation, we have not fairly represented his thought until we cite all that he states on that point in that sentence. The reason which requires this comj)leteness in the text is, that otherwise our presentation of the truth is fragmentary, and therefore inconcc^t. The objection to this requirement is not valid. It is argued that the rule compels the preacher to include perhaps more particulars a)ncerning the topic than his time permits him thoroughly to discuss. The objectors claim that, if his discussion is faithful to the meaning of inspiration as far as it goes, this is enough, though it is fragmentary. I reply that our expository theory of the sermon leads ^is to a different conclusion: the prea(;her has no other task than to unfold the mind of the Spirit. And the whole force of the objection is re- moved by the remark that it is always legitimate for us, after having fairly slated, in paraphrase or sum- 102 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. mary, the wliole meaning of the word, to inform our hearers that we limit ourselves, for the time, to the particular discussion of a part of the matter given us by the text. 4. The text should be perspicuous. The amount of our fourth rule is that the pastor will always prefer a passage of Scripture from which the meaning can be made plain to the pcoi)le by a simple exposition, rather than one which would require an exegesis difficult and prolix. If the two passages compared contain substan- tially the same truth, let the simple one by all means be the preferred text. This rule will, of course, receive some modification from the facts that the preacher's business is to explain the Bible to his charge, and that there are a few truths of revelation not unworthy of occasional inculcation which are taught only in obscure passages. Must you wholly rob your people of this in- struction because you can only introduce them to it by a somewhat laborious exposition? Surely not. And it may be wise sometimes to tax the powers of your spiritual pupils to their highest bent, in order to strengthen them. Should you push the principle so far as to forego every text which required your expla- nation, this would be a confession that the calling of the religious teacher is unnecessary — that the people understand alj they need know without his help. You will, therefore, accept this rule as general only and not universal. But I would urge, much more absolutely, that you should never indulge the afPcctation of choosing odd or curious texts. Some ministers are fond of selecting pas- sages from which they may ingeniously deduce far- THE TEXT. 103 fetched and unexpected propositions. Others perversely prefer to found the discussion of some well-known doc- trine which is expressly taught in many plain declara- tions of the Bible, on some unusual text from which it can only be drawn, if at all, as a remote corollary, or obscure implication. These tricks are always attributed by sensible hearers to the preacher's vanity and conceit. They suspect that his prime motive is to cause people to gaze and gape at his ingenuity and wondrous learn- ing. When the strange text is announced, it is in- tended that each hearer shall say to himself, " Now how on earth will he get anything from that ?" But when the preacher has solved the riddle they will applaud him as a wondrous man ! Only idle and shallow peo- ple can be pleased thus ; to the well-instructed all such artifices are odious. The plea may be made that it is lawful and desirable the preacher should evince the riches and harmony of the Scrii)ture, by thus disclosing the same cardinal truths as taught by implication in the obscure, which are ex- pressly set forth in the plain passages. True. It is claimed also that the pastor should not be ever teaching his people ^^ which be the first 2)rinciples of the oracles of God," but should so exercise their discernment by reason of use, as to solve for them the more difficult parts. True again ; but the reasonable and natural order for each sermgn is the same which governs the whole course of instruction. We proceed from the sim- ple to the complex. The perspicuous passage should be the text, and the preacher should then apply this to solve the more remote and obscure. The latter he may skilfully introduce in the course of his discussion, after 104 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. the clearer text has prepared the way, that its light may be thrown upon them and thus facilitate their compre- hension. There are particular texts which are almost classical in the Protestant pulpit, and which in each generation have been made the foundations for great sermons upon capital topics of Christianity. Shall the young pastor attempt these ? I reply, that his good taste will lead him to avoid such a treatment of them as will suggest to cultivated hearers the idea of either imitation or rivalry of the known master-pieces. But, on the other hand, it is both his duty and his wisdom to dwell most frequently on these grand subjects. As they occupy tlie major place in revelation, so must they in his preach- ing. And he who never grapples with great subjects will never have great powers. In conclusion, the pastor should study appropriate- ness in his selections of subjects and texts. A ser- mon to be followed by the sacrament of the Lord's Supper should present some central doctrine of the cross. When God's providences call the people to humiliation, some topic of divine truth should be urged which dis- plays the holiness of the Law and the evil of sin. When the people are bowed in true repentance they need the consolations of the gospel. The minister preaching by invitation to another pastor's charge will be chary in employing topics of reprehension. The people will receive such correction, if it be timely, more suitably from their own spiritual guide. LECTURE VII. CARDINAL REQUISITES OF THE SERMON. "TTTE have now reached a. subject which may be re- * * garded as intermediate between the department of Invention and that of Disposition. This is tlie con- sideration of the general qualities wliich must charac- terize the structure of every sermon. These may be called the cardinal virtues of this species of discourse. Some of them are common to all orations; some are peculiar to the sermon. They are Textual FideUty, Uiiitij, Lidructivencss, Evangelical Tonej Movement^ Point and Order. I shall now proceed to explain and enforce each of them. The quality of textual fid el it ij will be easily compre- hended, if you recall the preacher's position as the de- liverer of a message. The people roughly but accu- rately express it by the phrase " sticking to one's text." It is simj)ly a strict fidelity throughout the discussion to the subject and teachings of thetext. The best argu- ment to enforce upon you this virtue is suggested by the same fact — that the preacher is a herald. The first quality of iha good herald is the faithful delivery of the very mind of his king. Our conception of our oflfice, and of the revealed word as an infinitely wise rule for man's salvation, permits us to discuss the text in no other spirit. Our business with it is to commend 105 106 LECTURES ON PACKED RHETORIC. God's own meaning in it— nothing more, nothing less, to every man's conscience in his sight. Our task is to impress God's own die, as he has engraved it, upon the plastic soul, that Ave may produce his image. But textual fidelity also secures us important ends besides the high and sacred one of obedience to our charge. It is a means for securing unity, which, as w^e shall see anon, is also essential to good discourse ; for if the text is discreetly chosen so as to contain one main subject, and if the discourse is faithful to the text, this is itself a sufficient guarantee that unity will not be fatally wounded. Textual fidelity will give you that of which the young pastor often feels so great need — fruitfulness and variety of matter. Those who are in- experienced in discourse imagine that they secure co- piousness by allowing themselves to ramble. But they are mistaken. It is the steady contemplation of defi- nite truth in its definite relations which enriches the mind with instructive thoughts. If your powers are relieved of this labour by the permission to rove, they will remain barren and unawakened, and will run the narrow round of your familiar commonplaces. This remark leads to another, that the habit of w^andering from your text is in the end wasteful of your stores. You may have relieved the vacuity of your minds by introducing foreign matter, but you will find to your cost that you have thus anticipated and used important topics which should have furnished you otlier independ- ent discussions. Thus, the tyro has a text which sets forth the great evangelical grace of repentance. In- stead of studying it thoroughly, and pouring out some of the rich stores of instruction and appeal wdiich this CARDINAL REQUISITES OF THE SERMON. 107 Christian sentiment furnishes, he indolently attempts to supply his barrenness by some commonplaces upon the subject of faith, justifying his expedient upon the ground that the text-books tell him faith and repentance are twin graces. The consequence is that a few weeks after, when he would preach upon faith, he finds that he has forestalled himself; the fundamental propositions on that subject (because familiar) have been recently uttered by him, and his present discussion must either be repe- titious or fragmentary. It is usually wise to extend this fidelity to the text, not only to its abstract doctrine, but to its imagery. Let the sermon wear, in the main, the same figurative drai)ery with the passage on which it is founded. The reason for this is, that as we trust the infallibility of the divine doctrine, so we may always trust the appropri- ateness of the inspired rhetoric, except where a change of usage and habits of thought have revei*sed the an- cient associations attaciicd to the images. Besides, it will be the j)astor's duty to present oftentimes the same capital truths. He will often find occasion to remind his charge, with the apostle, that " to teach the same things to him indeed is not burdensome, and for them it is safe.'' It will then be a great gain to the freshness of his preaching to throw over his sul)ject, in imitation of his text, the new colouring of a new trope. And this is more than a mere advantage of style; for as every just metaphor suggests some true parallelisms of rela-- tions belonging to the thing representcnl, the new figura- tive dress will teach us some additional element of the truth. The great doctrine of the new birth, for in- stance, is represented as an oijening of blind eyes also, 108 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. and as a quickening of dead souls. Each of these trt»i)('s presents the truth in new aspects. Let the preacher avail himself of their variety and instructive- ness. But in doing this he must carefully guard against excess, and see to it that he does not expand a metaphor into a vicious allegory. Let not the preacher, enforcing the admonition of Prov. xxix. 1, ^' He that, being often reproved, hardeneth his neck shall be sud- denly destroyed, and that without remedy," make the impenitent sinner an ox throughout his discourse. Here a severe judgment and taste must be his guard. Unity is necessary to every work of art — to the ora- tion, the drama, the poem, the painting, the architect- ural structure, the statue. There is no canon of rhet- oric more universally admitted than this, which demands unity in discourse. But what is this quality ? It is not sameness or singleness of idea. It does not forbid variety, diversity, nor even contrast, in the subordinate parts. Nature's unity is full of variety. It is not that singleness which the dialectician expresses by unicity, but it is the combination of parts into one whole. It is a component individuality which gives unity to art. Hence, so far is it from being true that the aggrega- tion of several parts destroys it, we may see that un- less there be more than one part there will be no unity, but unicity only. Unity is what results from union. The requisition of this quality, then, in its severest form, does not exclude the widest range of variety in thought and illustration. Indeed, it is sometimes most strikingly displayed by combining things diverse, or even contrasted, to enhance one effect. Thus, in Ho- garth's picture of a market scene, designed to produce CARDINAL REQUISITES OF THE SERMON. 109 the sentiment of the grotesque, amidst every angular and ungainly figure which his fancy could group to- gether, he has introduced a greyhound. The graceful and flowing outlines of this animal enhance by contrast the main effect. The fable of Laocoon has been im- mortalized by two arts, the pen of the classic poet and the chisel of the sculptor. The resultant impression designed in the reader or spectator is that of sympa- thetic horror. The athletic frame of the father, with his herculean muscles strained with agony, is in the strongest contrast with the almost feminine softness of the limbs of his sons. But all are enfolded in the resistless coils of the dragons, against which manly vigour is as impotent as infantile grace. In like man- ner, should the preacher's aim be to dismiss his hearers with the most distinct and impressive feeling of the worth of the soul, he may enforce it by ideas as remote from each other as heaven from hell, by the precious- ness of the joys of the saved and by the miseries of the lost. Affirmatively, rhetorical unity requires these two things. The speaker must, first, have one main sub- ject of discourse, to which he adheres with supreme reference throughout. But this is not enough. He must, second, propose to himself one definite impression on the hearer's soul, to the making of which everything in the sermon is bent.^ You will remember that the ' Qunra igitnr . . . rem traotare coepi, nihil prius corvstituo qnam quid sit illud, quo railu referenda sit omnis ilia oratio, qua? sit pro- pria qujestionis etjudicii ; deinde quorum altenim . , .estaccommo- datum ad eorum animos, apud quos diciniu", ad id quod volumns, commovendos.— Cic. de Orat., b. ii., ch, 27. ^ 114. 10 110 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. distinguishing trait of the oration is that it is always practical, that it conchides by saying to the hearer, " Do this," tliat its terminus is in a volition, and that its aim is to pass through the understanding into the motives of the soul. Unity of discourse requires, then, not only singleness of a dominant subject, but also sin- gleness of practical impression. To secure the former, see to it that the whole discussion may admit of reduc- tion to a single proposition. To .secure the latter, let the preacher hold before him, through the whole prepara- tion of the sermon, the one practical effect intended to be produced upon the hearer's will. You will now, I think, have little difficulty in deter- mining with what this unity may or may not consist. All digressions, episodes and corollaries are not sins against it. If they lead the hearer's soul away from the one chief end of the discourse, if their result is to divide or abstract any power of attention or feeling from that end, they are excrescences. But if, while they seem to open side channels of thought or emotion, their current returns and debouches into the main one, so as to add volume and momentum to it, then they are legiti- mate. The discourse may have only the greater beauty and force because of an apparent diversion of the prog- ress. On the other hand, unity is often violated by in- troducing too many explanatory topics. It is marred by a range of exposition wider or more protracted than is necessary for distinctly apprehending the main prop- osition. You have correctly inferred, from my assertion that all true preaching must be expository of the Word, that I give great weight to the context. But its dis- cussion should be extended no farther than is needed to CARDINAL REQUISITES OF THE SERMON. Ill place the meaning of the Holy Spirit, in the text, in its proper connection of thought. This rule must be strictly observ^ed ; for otherwise, since all sacred truths are connected among themselves, there might be no limit to the trespasses committed upon the unity of the text. So it is vicious to intrude an illustration or an episode only for the sake of the piquancy of the thing introduced. What is this but to sacrifice the fruit to the foliage, the end to the means? Perhaps it is a more important caution to remind you, tliat unity is by no means secured by a series of remarks which are all u])on the subject of the same proposition. Let it be, ^' Faith justifies us." A number of pious remarks about faith may be made, each one of which shall be scrip- tural. (A definition, for instance, of its nature; a refer- ence to its source in the grace of the Holy Ghost; a discussion of its perpetuity; an examination of its war- nint ; a description of its effects on tlie heart and life.) The preacher imagines that he is very faithfully dis- coursing of faith all tlie time; and yet it is manifest that there" is no convergency whatever in these several remarks. They may be all referred to the same subject, and yet point as diversely as the i-adll which issue in opposite directions from the same centre. The proper image of rhetorical unity is not found in the star, which scatters its rays on every side from one point of light, to be absorbed and lost in the darkness of space, but in the lens, which collects many parallel or even dissen- tient rays into one burning focus. But to return to tlie proposition cited in our instance : if all tlie remarks of the discourse had a true bearing upon the copula or affirmation, "Justification 2,s by faith," then there 112 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. would 1)0 a necessary unity. I need not detain you to show jit length that the connection of truth with truth and doctrine with doctrine constitutes no plea for heap- ing one upon another in the same discourse. Regenera- tion implies original sin. He who should therefore claim that a full discussion of the new birth must in- clude a discussion of our fall in Adam, has not the first conception of rhetorical unity. By the same argument it w^ould follow that, since all truth is connected, each sermon must be a complete syllabus in theology. These two results would then be inevitable : that there could be but one sermon in substance, and that this one ser- mon must remain for ev^er a bare syllabus. The hearers would therefore never gain a full and impressive view of any one point of Christian theology ; they could never receive more than a barren smattering of sacred knowledge. There was a very pious and venerable class of minis- ters who insisted, more plausibly, upon a canon which violated unity in another way. Their rule was that uo sermon was correct unless, whatever the text, it in- cluded a statement of the whole plan of salvation, suffi- ciently detailed to be understood and embraced, wdth 'the aid of the Spirit, by a soul which heard it then for the first and last time. Their reason for this require- ment was, that the preacher could never know but that there was some ignorant soul present who was destined not to hear the gospel again. You will not understand me, in dissenting from this pious rule, as retracting anything I have urged upon the duty of continually holding up the cross. I will admit that a missionary, who preaches transiently to ignorant and destitute per- CARDINAL REQUISITES OF THE SERMON. 113 sons to whom ho will not soon return, should honour the spirit of the precept by preferring uniformly texts which contain the very marrow of the gospel. But then, he will be able to expound the way of salvation without violating unity, or taking liberties with the meaning of God's word. Textual fidelity will then not only permit, but require, the presentation of those cardi- nal truths which are suited to the soul enjoying its last opportunity of salvation. But the ordinary pastor who meets his people frequently should limit himself in coraj^liance with the demands of unity, lest, by attempt- ing to make all his sermons comprehensive of the whole system of redemi)tion, he should make them all meagre. Having thus defined unity of discourse, I add that it is demanded by the very nature of the mind. If image follows image before our attention, without any tie between them, the impression of the second obliter- ates that made by the first. There can l)e no cumula- tive effect. But if the several topics are convergent toward the same conviction of mind and purpose of will, the second promotes the impression begun by the first. The hearer's soul is consequently borne toward the designed terminus by the accelerating force of the whole, and a powerful effect is produced. Unity is as essential to strength as to beauty. The sermon which lacks this quality can only do good by accident. ^' The words of the Avise," saith Solomon, " are as nails fast- ened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd." The nail is only driven home by suc- cessive blows uj)on the same spot. The engineer who would batter a breach in the enemy's wall does not 10* 114 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. scatter his cannon-shot. He makes all his guns con- verge upon a single spot. Thus an irresistible force is applied, before which no masonry can stand, while by the opposite method he would only have scratched the whole surface of the fortress, without breaking dow^n any part. The next property of the good sermon I have named evangelical tone. This is a gracious character, appro- priate to the proclamation of that gospel where " mercy and truth meet together, and righteousness and peace kiss each other.'' It qualifies both the matter and man- ner of the sermon. To superinduce upon matter not evangelical the preacher's unction of style and delivery would be unnatural and almost impossible ; for it is a fact worthy of notice that a purely secular oratory, like that of the Pagan classics, presents of this quality no trace. To deliver evangelical matter in any other tone is inappropriate to the preacher's attitude, as a ran- somed sinner honoured to become the herald of the law and of mercy to the lost. First, then, this attitude dic- tates that the matter of the sermon shall be prevalently evangelical. AYe cannot better describe it than in the words of the apostles, when they so frequently speak of their work as "preaching Christ," or "preaching Christ crucified." We do not conceive that they mean to de- clare, the only facts they ever recited were those enacted on Calvary, or that they limited themselves exclusively to the one doctrine of vicarious satisfaction for sin. The abstracts of their sermons, recorded in the New Testament, show that this was not true. But w^e find that these facts and this doctrine were central to their teachings. They recurred perpetually with a prominence CARDINAL RECiULSITES OF THE SERMON. 115 suitable to their importance. More than this, they were ever near at hand, as the focus to which every beam of divine truth must converge. The whole revealed sys- tem, with its doctrines and duties, was ever presented in gospel aspects. The law, when preached as a rule of conviction, led to the cross. The law, as a rule of obe- dience, drew its noblest sanctions from the cross. Such being the method of the inspired men, I would wil- lingly define evangelical preaching by the term scrip- tural. Let the preacher present all doctrines and duties, not in the lights of philosophy or of human ethics, but of the New Testament. And for enforcement of this qual- ity I cannot do better than refer you to the apostle's declaration, that when he came to preach among the Corinthians (1 Eph. ii. 2) he '^ determined not to know anything among them, save Jesus Christ and him crucified." The testimony of Church history and of man's spirit- ual instincts, to the superior and abiding power of evan- gelical matter over the soul, has been already briefly cited. All the great preachers, from the apostles to our day, whom God has honoured to revive and bless his Church, have been evangelical : Ambrose, Augustine, Chrysostom, the Reformers, the orthodox Puritans, Whitefield, the Wesleys, the Tennents, Davies, Chal- mers, Sumnierfield, Nettleton. The pure gospel usually attracts the multitude of those who hunger after God, while the Ritualist and the moralizing pulpit philoso- phers, after the tinsel of novelty is lost, parade their wares before empty benches. Evangelical tone includes also that quality which is happily denoted by the French divines, unction. This 116 LECTUEES ON SACRED RHETORIC. term is suggested by that scriptural trope which so fre- quently represents the effusion of the Holy Ghost as an anointing from God.^ It expresses, therefore, as you will easily apprehend, that temperature of thought and elocution, which the Spirit of all grace sheds upon the heart possessed by the blessed truths of the gospel. It is not identical with animation. Every passion in the preacher does not constitute unction. While it does not expel intellectual activity, authority and will, it super- fuses these elements of force with the love, the pity, the tenderness, the pure zeal, the seriousness, which the topics of redemption should shed upon the soul of a ransomed and sanctified sinner. It is defined by Vinet as " the general savour of Christianity, a gravity accom- panied by tenderness, a severity tempered with sweet- ness, a majesty associated with intimacy.^' Blair calls it " gravity and warmth united.'^ Its necessity to the happiest effect of preaching will be apprehended, with- out other argument, if you simply represent to your- selves the sentiments with which the soul eminently pervaded by the grace of the Holy Ghost would under- take the sacred and merciful work of the gospel proc- lamation to guilty fellow-men. The most complete conception of the quality is that ideal which you derive, from the Evangelists, of the temper of the preaching of Jesus Christ. To deliver such a message as his, with- out any tincture of his temper, must ever be felt as a harsh solecism. To affect unction is manifestly im- possible. It is, in short, a quality not merely intel- lectual or sentimental, but spiritual. Although not ' See, for instance, 1 John ii. 27. CARDINAL REQUISITES OF THE SERMON. 117 identical with ardent piety, it is the effluence of ardent piety alone. A correct taste alone cannot communicate it. It cannot be taught by rhetoric alone. It cannot be acquired from imitation of others. But it is the Holy Spirit who communicates it to the cultivated mind and pure taste, by enduing the soul which is thus prepared with an ardent zeal for God's glory and a tender compassion for those wdio are perishing. Thus we are led from another quarter to the same conclu- sion — that only the eminent Christian can be an emi- nent preacher of the gospel. Continuing this subject, I remark that every good sermon is instructive. This quality is not the same with that which distinguishes the doctrinal discourse; for it should pervade all practical and narrative ser- mons as well. It is to enforce this obligation, especially as to these kinds of discourses, that I give place to instructiveness as one of the general virtues of the preacher. It is not that quality described by the phrase "intellectual preaching," in the affected dialect of the day. The odious thing intended by the latter is a sort of religioso-philosophic and human speculation, which is ambitious of profundity, and which a covert pedantry inflates. But the instructive sermon is that which abounds in food for the understanding. It is full of thought, and richly informs the mind of the hearer. It is opposed, of course, to vapid and common- place compositions ; but it is opposed also to those which seek to reach the will through rhetorical ornament and passionate sentiment, without establishing rational con- viction. The instructive sermon will have an important subject ; it will be rich in matter and will communicate 118 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. solid knowledge. It will exhibit truth in its rational connections, so that the hearer shall feel himself ad- vanced and established in a firm system. But this food for tlie mind must be none other than scriptural food. He would greatly abuse my meaning, who should make this requisition for instructiveness a pretext for in- truding foreign and secular information into the pulpit. Thus the question recurs, whether he who limits him- self strictly to the circle of revealed truths will find enough to make all his sermons rich in matter. Again I answer, with confidence, that he will. But I do not conceal the truth that, in order for this, he must be a man of diligent study and of ripe acquirements. He need not expect to possess this virtue who is not mighty in the Scriptures and thoroughly informed in their theology. He must have obeyed the injunction of the apostle to Timothy (1 Epis. iv. 13, etc.), "Give attend- ance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine." . . . " Meditate on these things ; give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear unto all." But such a pastor will always find, in the exposition of the Scriptures to his people, in the defence of the doctrines and order of his Church, in the application of these principles to the diversified exigencies of their con- sciences, abundant stores of thought to enrich all his sermons. If, after selecting his subject, he does not find this affluence of matter, let him accuse his own ignorance and set about informing it. The necessity of instructiveness in all sermons ap- pears from the same considerations by which I urged frequent doctrinal preaching. Religion is an intelligent concern, and deals with man as a reasoning creature. CARDINAL REQUISITES OF THE SERMON. 119 Sauctification is by the truth. To move men we must instruct. No Chri^stian can be stable and consistent save as he is intelligent. Instruction alone can prevent revivals from becoming mischievous excitements, and Christian zeal from degenerating into fanatical heat. Let it be considered, in addition, that the desire to know, or rational curiosity, is the natural appetite of the mind, and that knowledge is its proper food. Know- ledge is the light of tlie sou], and as sweet as the light is to the eye so 2)leasant is truth to the mind. It is true that the understanding is conscious of a species of vis inertke^ and that an effort is often necessary to rouse it to the labour of apprehension. But that effort is wholesome and cheerful. The desire to know is one of the most vivid sentiments of the soul, and its grati- fication is one of the purest and most uncloying pleas- ures of our nature. The ai)Ostle' enumerates it among the elements which compose the immortal bliss of heaven. Hence, you may securely rely ui)on instruct- iveness as an unfailing power to attract the people per- manently to your ministry. If you would not wear out after you have ceased to be a novelty, give the minds of your people food. Young pastors not seldom yield to a timidity, lest the multitude should be repelled by the homeliness of the truth ; and they imagine that they are catering better for the popular tastes, by relieving them of the labour of attention and amusing them with rhetorical pyrotechnics. I do not liere remark upon the wickedness of such an expedient. Pastoral expe- rience proves that it is not adapted to its end, low as 1 1 Cor. xiii. 12. 120 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. tliat eiul is. The men wlio draw the multitude are (if we except those who have more successfully satisfied the depravity of our race by positive error) the instruc- tive pastors. The crowd flocks a few times to behold the empty show. But when it feels the necessity of being fed, it resorts to the place where solid food is pro- vided for the mind, even if it be with plainer equipage. Make your people feel that they are gaining permanent acquisitions of knowledge from you, and they will not desert you.^ 1 1 once asked a sensible, plain man, who was familiar with the popular oratory of Randolph, what was its charm with the common people. Pie did not mention, as I expected he would, his magic voice, his classic grace, the purity of his English, his intense pas- sion, the energy of his will, his pungent wit, his sarcasm, or the inimitable aptitude of his illustration. But he answered : " It was because Mr. Bandolph was so instructive ; he taught the people so much which thev had not known before." LECTURE VIII. CARDINAL REQUISITES OF THE SERMON. OVEMENT, saith Vinet, is the royal virtue of ^^ style. But it is a quality belonging both to structure and style, characterizing the oration as a whole. Indeed, it may be said, without exaggeration, that it is this which makes discourse eloquence. Cicero asks in one place. Quid aliud est eloquential nisi motus ani- mce oonti7iuus f This discriminating question suggests the true nature of the quality. The oration has move- ment, because the soul, wliose progeny it is, has move- ment. The impression of eloquence is not merely a communication of conceptions, opinions, mental convic- tions, facts; but it is tlie comnumion of the speaker's soul, in all its powers, with the souls of his hearers. It is an impulse communicated from the one to the others. Have we not defined eloquence as the emis- sion of the soul's energy through speech ? There is no work of the mind which so nearly possesses the attri- l)utes of life as the oration, for the living soul pours its own energies directly into its discourse. Motion is the sign, the test of life. The form which moves not is dead ; it may be beautiful, but it has only the beauty of the corpse. And when we remember that the prac- tical object of the oration is to impel the hearers to some action of soul through the incitement of their 11 121 122 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. own ratioiuil emotions, we sec the necessity of move- ment in such discourse. If it does not succeed in trans- ferrinii^ the hearer's soul to a new position or a new practical conclusion, or, at least, in causing it to travel afresh to a position once occupied before, it has failed of its work. Now, bodies pass from place to place by motion. The impelling body must move through this interval in order that the body impelled may do so. I have stated these thoughts in order to 'disclose both the nature and necessity of movement. Reflection will show you that it is a broad and fundamental trait of discourse, extending to the thougfet, the logic, the emo- tion and the language. Continuity must manifestly belong to it. Movement is not a blow or shock, com- municating only a single or instantaneous impulse, but a sustained progress. It is, in short, that force thrown from tlie soul of the orator into his discourse, by which the soul of the hearer is urged, with a constant and accelerated progress, toward that practical impression which is designed for the result. If in any part the discourse is narrative or descriptive, incident must fol- low incident as fast as they can be clearly exhibited to the hearer's apprehension. If it is explanatory or didactic, the expansion of the idea, or the addition of thought to thought, must be constant. If it is demon- strative, a stronger proof must urge the mind, imme- diately after each preceding one, toward the goal of conviction. In its emotional character, the discourse must sustain and perpetually raise the emotion inspired to its proper culmination at the change or the end. But every true oration, whether narrative or didactic or argumentative, is also virtually emotional. The CARDINAL REQUISITES OF THE SERMON. 123 speaker must remember that man feels as he sees, and because he sees : mental conviction or apprehension is in order to emotion and volition. Hence movement will require that the two elements — the didactic or logical and the emotive — however interfused through the progress of the oration, shall always be related to each other in tlie order of their nature. The definition of a duty will precede the incentives to it. The appeal to the mental convictions will ground the application of the motives. The contrary order would be un- natural and would interrupt movement. Again, that the movement may be continuous, it is necessary not only that a thought, image or argument shall succeed a previous one without dallying, but that the successor shall be coherent with its predecessor; for otherwise, in.stead of furthering the impression begun, it would in- stitute a" nKivement in a new direction and give a shock to the mind. We are thus led back to the maxim which demands thorougli unity. And in one sense the vigour or force of the incoherent thought which in- truded itself would only render the sin a'gainst move- ment greater, because it would impel the hearer farther aside from the proper line of the progress. In style, movement requires a certain economy of words. Amj)li- fication will not be excluded from its proper place; but it will never be carried beyond the real ex])ansion of the thought and addition of new ideas. Indeed, the best mark of legitimate amplification is, that it shall be a real })rogress of the ideas, and, in a certain sense, cli- mactic. Nothing is more wearying to the hearer than that amplification which merely revolves the same thought, or which proceeds from the concrete back to 124 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. the abstract, and from the definite to the general, in an anti-climactic order. The language of the orator must possess, in all its flow, a nervous brevity and a certain well-ordered haste, like that of the racer pressing to his goal. Prolixity, therefore, is a sin against movement. Every epithet should be retrenched which adds nothing to the true rendering of the thought. This virtue is violated, of course, by all needless repetitions, by all digressions and episodes which lead away from the true path of the discussion, by tedious or superfluous ex- planation and definition. It is marred also by useless subdivisions, and by every formal appendage to the method of the discourse which is not necessary to make its order clear. This remark will explain to you the excessive dryness which you have doubtless felt in read- ing the multiplied subdivisions of some of the Puritan divines. It is as though the progress of the mind toward its goal were arrested at every third step for some useless formality. What can be more wearisome to the eager mind than such a journey ? Once more, although the structure and the style may be free from these faults, a slow and hesitating enunciation may weaken the impression of movement in discourse. The speaker should utter his woi'fls, not indeed in a hurried -or huddling manner, yet with such deliberate readiness as shows that his own soul is not halting for them in its career. But let me here caution you, that the attempt to escape the charge of prolixity or tediousness by means of undue haste of utterance always disappoints itself. Our estimate of duration is relative to our con- sciousness of the mental processes which have occupied CARDINAL REQUISITES OF THE SERMON. 125 US in the interval. Hence a marked rapidity suggests the feeling of protracted time. Moreover, the speaker, by this expedient, makes a public confession of the con- viction tliat he is wearying his hearers by unreasonable length ; and nothing is more natural than that they should regard him as guilty of that of which he so ob- viously feels guilty. But if the movement is real and not merely mechanical, and the appropriate and pleasing utterance of the thoughts beguiles the consciousness away from its own labours, the discourse appears shorter than it is, and the hearer regrets that it is ended so soon. The importance of movement in public speaking can scarcely be exaggerated. Among those who really have matter to present, and who possess the fundamental quality of perspicuity, I am persuaded that the differ- ence of iin))ressiveness is chiefly due to their movement. Without it there is neither animation, force nor beauty. Horace mentions it first among the virtues of his great epic model. Homer: ^^ Semper ad -eventum festinatj^^ Discourses should be like the river; sometimes it flows more rapidly than at others, but it is never stagnant. Now it glides quietly between grassy banks. Anon, it ri])ples with cheerful music over its pebbly bed. Again it rushes like an arrow, flashing sunlight down its straiglit channel. Sometimes it llothes its mighty waves in foam as it dashes against ojiposing rocks. At last, it swee])s with deep and silent force through its delta. But it flows onward always, never pausing, toward its destined ocean. Should the voyager be anchored at the loveliest spot in all its course, it would soon become ' Y.\>. lid Pisones, line 149. 11 * 126 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. irksome. But he descends the current with an interest and pleasure ever new. Of the virtue of point the remark must also be made that it is a quality both of structure and style. Unless the former be pointed, no art of language can make the latter so. Perhaps the single \\ ord, ^'point/^ conveys as distinct an idea of this excellence in discourse as any definition can. The thought must be incisive. There must be, in order to this, first, a chief truth, practical and important, distinctly apprehended by the speaker in its relation to the action of soul which he would ex- cite. And the wdiole matter of the discourse must be so arranged as to make this proposition salient. Next, the speaker must have a clear comprehension of the relations between j:>roposition and proof, and between knowledge and emotion, so that the means of convic- tion and incitement shall be properly subordinated to these ends. The result will be, that with the help of perspicuous language, this relation will be clearly ap- prehended and felt by the hearer. The cardinal thoughts and conclusions of the sermon will then impinge upon him with the aggregate force of the whole proofs and motives. Let me here resort to an illustration very diverse from the one used of the lasi^opic, but only in appear- ance inconsistent with it. The pointed or incisive dis- course may be likened as to its framework to the ancient war-ship. Its weapon of oifence was its beak. Let us sui)pose that the architect had left the ponderous mass of pointed metal which formed this beak lying in some accidental position amidst the timbers of the ship, and all those timbers a disorderly heap of rubbish merely CARDINAL PtEQUISITES OF THE SERMON. 127 thrown together and set adrift upon the sea as a raft. The impact of this shapeless pile, instead of piercing the opposing trireme, would only have dissolved itself into fragments ; and the intended prow w'ould probably have sunk out of sight without even coming into the feeblest contact with the enemy's hull. The architect, therefore, commits no such folly. He places the beak at the forefront of his structure. He causes the chief beams of his framework to converge to its base, and frames them into it. He adjusts the ribs and braces to support these in turn, so that there is not one piece of timber in the whole ship w^hich does not lend its strength, either directly or remotely, to sustain the prow immovably in its place. And now, when the triple banks of rowers raise their chant and strain at their oars all in concert, they launch the pointed beak into the adversary's side with the momentum of the whole ship's wcighf. In like manner, the imj)ression made by an oration depends upon its point, and this, in turn, de- pends upon the prominence of the cardinal thoughts and the perspicuous subordination of the rest to their support. The style which best seconds this structure is that whicli is lucid, compact and nervous, which in- dividualizes the hearer and addresses him in the sec- ond person, which prefers the special statement to the general and the concrete to the abstract. Many sermons are deficient in point. They either have no valuable and practical truths of cardinal weight, or these are not made to stand out to the apprehension of the hearers. No decided impression can be expected from such addresses. No lodgment is made in the con- science of the people; they go away with the vague 128 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. feeling that they have been only listening to a strain of goodish but aimless talk. This failure of pointed eifect is due sometimes to a sickly nicety of style, which shrinks from the directness of oral address and affects the delicacy of the essay. But more often it is the re- sult of weakness and confusion of thought. And this, in turn, proceeds from indifference of heart. Earnest pur})ose and desire are always pointed. The distressed beggar needs no rhetoric to teach him how to make the point of his petition prominent. The children of this world never fail to press their points plainly when the objects of their natural desires are involved. Let the preacher, then, cultivate that faith which makes the ruin and the rescue of sinners dread realities to him ; let him share the constraining love of Christ in its power ; let him feel a consuming zeal to save souls. Then he will not go into the pulpit aimless, except with the grovelling object of satisfying decenfjy and filling^ the allotted hour with the expected pious talk. He will have a definite and absorbing purpose, a mes- sage to deliver, and a result to effect, which he cannot leave unaccomplished without grief. This holy passion, and this alone, will give his sermon true point. The true cause of the vapid and aimless discourses, which are heard from so many pulpits, is that the preachers are not under the active influence of faith and love for souls. Thus we learn again that true and fervent piety is the prime qualification for sacred eloquence. The last of the general attributes of good discourse is Order. This is the result of Dispositio7i, and we are thus led to this department, which the text-books .on rhetoric make the second division of their science. The CARDINAL REQUISITES OF THE SERMON. 129 order which disposition aims to produce is so important, and the subjects which claim our attention here are so numerous, that I must proceed more deliberately and fully than I have upon the previous kindred points. Disposition includes both order and division. These are inseparably connected. Order is the proper arrange- ment of the parts among themselves ; division discrim- inates the parts.' Division, therefore, bears to order the relation of means to ends. We divide in order that we may arrange. AVhat right order is can scarcely be better definc^l than in the words of Horace.^ "Ordinis hjec virtus erit et venus, aut ego fallor, Ut jam nunc dicat jam nunc debentia dici, Pl^raque differat et praesens in tempus omittat." It requires that each thing be said in its right place. This quality Vinet very i)roperly declares to be "the character of true discourse." He declares that there is no discourse without it. Every one has heard the line of the English poet: "Order is heaven's first law." There is a truth contained in these words, and it has an important relation, to this subject. The plan and work of our Creator are methodical in all their partg. Law rules everywhere; all the powers of nature are so constituted that they cannot customarily act at all, save in accordance with their law. This is true of the pow- ers of the human spirit. And this fiict points us at ^ Quinctil., L. vii., ^ 1, prefoce: "Sit igitur (ut supra significavi) divi^io rerum plurium in singulas; partitio singularuin in partes dis- cretus ordo . . . disposiiio utilis rerum ac partium in locos distri- butio." * Ep, ad risones, line 42, etc. 130 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. once to the general consequence, that if we wish a fel- low-creature's soul to apprehend and feel a group of thouo-hts and motives, these must have their method, and that, a method conformed to the law by which his spirit acts. Accordingly, we find that it is a sponta- neous demand of the human mind that there shall be order in what it views. Disarray is displeasing to it. A heap of stone and timber is not an architectural structure, but an unsightly mass of rubbish. A mix- ture of brilliant gems is not a mosaic picture, but a quantity of pebbles, and the richer their colours the more dark and confused is the mass. A mob of men is not an army. The atoms of this mighty universe, without an orderly connection, would be only a vast nebula of dust. Have not the poets, ancient and mod- ern, found in chaos the strongest conception of that which is repulsiv^e and abhorrent in matter?^ But, to be more specific, I would show that order promotes the recollection^ of a discourse both by the preacher and hearer. That the preacher should be able to recall the parts of his sermon with ease w^hile pronouncing it is of great importance; and to the ex- tempore j^reacher it is absolutely necessary. To the hearer, recollection of the discourse is almost equally essential for edification. If he cannot recall what he has heard, he can receive no other benefit from it, than the sliglit accession made to his right habitudes of feel- ing by the evanescent impression of the momeut. Now, 1 Paradise Lost, book ii. 2 Cicero de Orat,, B. II. c. 86, ^ 353: " Hac turn se adnionitus in- venisse fertur (Situonides) ordinem esse maxime qui memoriae lumen afferret." CARDINAL REQUISITES OF THE SERMON. 131 what is called memory is one of the processes of sug- gestion. AVe only recollect what has passed out of our conscious knowledge, for the time, in virtue of some tie of association connecting it with some other idea in the mind. But these ties connect things according to a regular law. The bonds of association are such as these: previous juxtaposition or proximity, or else some relation of resemblance, contrast, causation, or the connection of premise and })roof. The tie established by mere previous juxtaposition before the mind is far the feeblest. Let one attempt, for instance, to commit perfectly to memory a lumdred names, having no other previous relation than that they composed the same muster-roll : he will find the task greatly harder than that of learning a hundred words formed into sentences exj)ressive of a certain sequence of facts or thoughts. He will even find'that the drudgery of learning the list of names is diminished by placing together those begin- ning with the same letters of the alphabet. Why is this? It is because the slight clue of a similarity in one letter (with the well-known order of the alphabet to aid) gives a stronger tie of association than mere juxtapositions before the mind at a previous time. In s[)eaking, you address to your hearer a series of thoughts which he is to remember. Now, do you not see that every trait of natural order in the ranking of these thouglits diminishes his labour? The memory takes them up with ease, because their connection with each other i)resents them to her ready grasp. The more ex- actly they are arranged under their several proi)er heads, and the more correctly their sequence is conformed to the logical order of nature, which proceeds from premise 132 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. to proof and from conviction to* action, tlie easier it is for your hearer to reirain tliem.^ That discourse shoukl be perspicuous is too plain to need words ; for if it cannot be apprehended, why utter it? Horace has fixed the connection between order and perspicuity in a single phrase {lucidus ordo) so felicitous that it can never be forgotten. The reason why method aids perspicuity has been already given in part: it is because it aids memory. And it cannot but be, tliat the miml will grasp the materials of thought presented to it in those relations whicli are conform- able to its own laws, better than if their order is deranged. Correct method is essential to strength. " Tantum series juncturaque pollet.^^^ It is the orderly framing of the beams of the ship together which gives strength to its hull and impact to its beak. Without methodical juncture, all the timber and metal might be present, and yet have no more coherence than a mass of drift- wood. The arch is firm only when the stones are placed in their order. The confused multitude of men ^ See Cecil's homely but expressive instance, in his Memains. He says, " Send your maid into the streets to make a dozen separate pur- chases, and she will forget a third of them ; but give her a clue of arrangement, and she will easily remember all. Thus, you say to her, 'Betty, remember that to-morrow is washing-day, and that this evening your mistress will entertain a few friends at tea ; so we wish you to buy, for the first, soap, indigo and starch, and for the latter, tea, sugar, cofiee, crackers, bread, cakes, this and the other fruits, and butter.' This principle of natural classification so relieves the difii- culty of recollection that slie easily performs all the commissions exactly." 2 Horace, £p. ad Pisones, line 242. CABDINAL REQUISITES OF THE SERMON. 133 is helpless before a disciplined detachment of soldiers in battle-array, because the latter have the force of union. So, confused discourse can never make a forcible impression. When trains of thought are relinquished before they are pursued to their full results, and are then resumed and intruded into the midst of other thoughts; where those things are anticipated Avhich should have been postponed until the hearer was pre- pared to apprehend them; where the order of time, de- pendence and inference is reversed, each incipient im- pression is neutralized by the succeeding, or else none is made, because the matter could not be apprehended. Order is the means of strength, because it is essential to unity and point. Let me ask you to recall what was said upon these topics. Unity consists in a methodical juncture of parts into one whole. The elements are many, perhaps diverse; the resultant effect is one. What except order can secure this? Again, we sa,w that it is the proper subordination of proofs to cardinal propositions which made these salient and incisive. The mind intuitively apprehends beauty in method, while confusion is always unsightly to it. And let us not disdain this element as unworthy the gravity of sacred discourse. No innocent means are unworthy which assist even in a slight degree in commending saving truth. jMoreover, I avow that when I observe how our Maker has framed our laws of taste, so that the sentiment of intellectual beauty always waits most instinctively on those sequences which are most true and just, I cannot depreciate it. It is a noble thing to make the truth beautiful ! We have anticipated, in one particular, the good in- 12 134 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. fluence of sound method upon the preacher's own facul- ties when we showed how it promotes recollection. I can claim other excellent effects for it. It is greatly conducive to accuracy. In order to arrange we must analyze. Disposition requires careful inspection. Let a mingled mass of flowers be brought to the botanist, for example, to be classified. How does he proceed ? He must examine their organs of reproduction minutely, that he may know to what species each belongs. Then he is prepared to group them according to their resem- blances. And this botanist thus gains, in one morning, a more minute acquaintance with the parts of all these flowers, than the peasant who was accustomed to sweep them down together under his scythe has gained in a lifetime. It is thus of your thoughts : you find that as soon as you attempt to reduce them to a true order you are compelled to accuracy. The same labour also ab- breviates and compacts your discourse by showing you what is superfluous. Vain repetitions are usually the result of confusion. Just method is equally promotive of the fruitfulness of the mind. Men are usually better supplied with ideas than with distinct views of the relations between them. But a relation is often a new idea, and it may prove a very valuable one. When we would discuss any subject, our first glance at our own mental furniture usually gives us but few thoughts concerning our theme. On the one hand, it is impossible that the forgotten and absent conceptions can be called up by a direct act of our volition ; for, in order to be made the objects of this act, they must be already present in conception. On the other hand, the impressions once made on the cardi:n^al requisites of the sermon, 135 memory are not so thoroughly obliterated as they seem to be. This faithful guardian of knowledge preserves in her chambers many a treasure which we supposed to be lost, but she does not reveal them at her threshold without a summons. Your experience may furnish many instances in which ideas once learned, but with- drawn out of view in your memories, have been repro- duced by yourselves without external aid. This proves that your minds still retained them in their memories, but not consciously. The question is. Plow may we re- gain our hold of these reserved stores of our own know- ledge, when we wish to apply them to a given discus- sion? I answer, by proceeding, so far as w^e have any thoughts concerning it, to think systematically. Let the ideas which already present themselves be con- templated in their relations, and arranged in the mind according to them. Other connected ideas will speedily arise and rank themselves beside them, which, when they are subjected to the methodizing law of the mind, will, in turn, suggest others. The explanation is, that by ranking the thoughts you already have according to connections natural to the mind, while you do not, in- deed, enable the will to make a thought absent from your conception the object of your volition, while it is still absent, you do direct the voluntary powers of the attention along those lines of 'association which call up the new matter by the force of suggestion. Thus the mind is placed in that posture in which memory can exert her fullest control over her unconscious stores. Thus the suggestive faculty is brought to its most fruit- ful state. And now the materials which these faculties present are ready for the endless combinations of imagi- 136 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. nation — comparison and judgment. If this explanation is true, it is obvious how much the fecundity of the mind must be increased for future efforts by the gradual formation of the habit of methodical thinking. LECTURE IX. CONSTITUENT MEMBERS OF THE SERMON. ^T7E find, then, that order in discourse is invaluable ^^ to the speaker himself, in giving accuracy and fruitfulness of mind, and in communicating clearness, strength, unity, point and beauty to his oration. It is equally important to the hearer to assist his remembrance of what is spoken. Now that we are agreed upon tlie value of the end, let us consider its means, divhion. Vinet treats of this subject separately, under the two heads of logical dis])()sition and rhetorical disposition. The former divides and arranges the matter of discourse according to the just h)gical connections of thought. It has reference only to the production of mental conviction. The latter divides and arranges with reference to persua- sion of the heart, and aims at progress from the weaker to the stronger, from understanding to feeling, and from motive to action. Such is substantially his account of the distinction. I do not adopt it. No such separa- tion is ever made in the actual structure of any oration, for we never have those which are exclusively logical or those which are exclusively emotional, but every true oration is both in one. Nor, as Vinet himself shows, can there ever be a discrepancy in the dictates of the two principles of division. Whatever is most truly logical is also most truly rhetorical. Nothing is really 12 * 137 138 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. rhetorical that is not based on right logic. The emo- tions to which the preacher appeals are only the rational. They can be incited only through the understanding. The warmth which characterizes them is but the tem- perature of the logical thought. Last, the remarks whic'li need to be made upon the special management of the hearer's emotions can be properly made under the head of persuasion. Approaching, then, the particular topic of division^ we find, first, a question as to the constituent j)arts which should compose the regular discourse. These I account to be the Exordium^ or introduction, the Exposition, the Proposition, the 3Iain Argument , and the Conclusion} 1 Aristotle, b. iii., chap. 14, Rlietoric, says that discourse naturally divides itself into two part?, proposition and demonstration, because one naturally tells us first what he wishes to talk about, and then states what he has to confirm his assertion about it. But a subdivis- ion of the matter will class them as proem, proposition, demonstration and peroration. Cicero states the current teaching of the masters of his time thus (De Orat. L. ii., c. Id, ^ 80): " Jubent enim exordiri ita, ut eum, qui audiat, benevolum nobis faciamus et docilem et attentum ; deinde rem narrare, ita ut verisimilis narratio sit, ut aperta, ut brevis; post autem dividere causam aut proponere ; nostra confirmare aigu- mentis et rationibus ; deinde contraria refutare. Turn autem alii conclusionem orationis et quasi perorationem collocant: alii jubent, aiitequam peroretur, ornandi ant augendi causa digredi ; deinde con- cludere ac p^rorare." His own distribution is given (L. ii., c. 76, ^ 307): ** Nam ut ali- quid ante rem dicamus ; deinde ut rem exponamus ; post ut earn probemus nostris prgesidiis confirmandis, contrariis refutandis; deinde ut concludamus atque ita peroremus, lioc dicendi genus natura ipsa prsescribit." Qninctilian, L. iv. Procemium, §6: "Sequitur enim, ut judicial- ium causarum (quae sunt maxime variae et multiplices) ordo explice- tur; quod pruoiinii sit oflicum ; qu?e ratio narrandi ; quce probation- CONSTITUENT MEMBERS^ OF THE SERMON. 139 I shall define each of these, give my reasons for regard- ing them as essential members of the sermon, and add some instructions for composing them. The argument, which after all is the body of the sermon, will then re- quire us to return to it, that we may consider its divis- ions and rules. Many preachers demur against the uniform requirement of all these parts as necessary members of a sermon. They would claim a discre- tion to omit all of them except the argument, and perhaps the conclusion. They say our requirement is mischievously formal, and dictates a tiresome same- ness. They depreciate such sermons as ^' casts all run in the same mould." Let me then, in advance, explain. Their sarcasm suggests an unjust analogy. Sermons are not dead casts run into any mould, change- able or fixed. Give a new mould for each attempt, to be demolished when once used ; I still reject and resent the illustration. Sermons should be living growths, like plants or trees ; none of them indeed monsters, none maimed, but each one modified within the bounds of the rudimental laws of its nature, by its own circum- stances of growth ; so that they together present an endless and charming variety. Every natural tree must needs have certain constituent parts — its roots, its stem, its branches, its foliage, its fruit. But how end- um sit fides, seu proposita confirmamus, sen, contra dicta dissolviinns ; qnanta vis in perorando," etc. He thns, like Cicero, makes fonr in- stead of five parts, proem, narration, argument (including refutation of objections) and peroration. The current of modern writers on sacred oratory concur in making the five constituent parts which I have given in the text of my lecture. 140 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. lessly diversified is the development of these members ! They cannot any of them be wholly absent, but the in- dividuality of each tree determines their relative size; so that we have every graceful difference of form and stature, from the humble shrub to the tapering and lofty pine. But this illustration I am willing some- what to relax. I will admit that circumstances may justify the preacher in reducing some of these constitu- ent members to the extent of an apparen"^ suppression. AYlien I assign them all to the regular sermon as essen- tial parts, I intend that all will be present in the com- plete type, and that this is the model toward which every sermon, even the most informal, must tend. The Exordium is that prefatory matter wliich pre- cedes the direct lousiness of the discourse. The mind seems naturally to demand such a preparation. Says Cicero,^ "There is, in fine, nothing in all nature which pours itself wholly out and bursts forth on a sudden • but Nature herself has prepared all things which are eifected, even those which are effected with tlie most violence, by gentler beginnings.'^ And again : " If in that gladiatorial struggle of life, in which men contend with the actual steel, many things are done before they come hand to hand, which seem meant not to wound but to make a show, how much more is this to be looked for in the oration, where it is not so much force as delectation which is required?'' Aristotle tells us^ that the proem, like a prelude in 1 Cicero de Orat., L. ii., c. 78, § 317. 2 Aristotle, Khet., b. iii., cli. 15. See also Qiiinctil., L. iv., c. 1., § 5. "Causa principii nulla e.st alia, quam ut auditorem, quo sit nobis in cseteris partibus accommodatior, prseparemus. Id fieri tribus maxime CONSTITUENT MEMBERS OF THE SERMON. 141 music or a prologue to a drama, introduces the main discourse, and that its ends or objects are to unfold the purpose of the main discourse, to produce attention, to secure the favour of the hearers to the speaker, as well disposed, well informed and honest, and last and least, to give elegance to the beginning. If the speaker has done his duty to himself and his subject, he has mas- tered it by previous study, and comes to the pulpit with his soul inspired and warmed with it. He cannot as- sume that his hearers are in this animated state. It may even be true that they are ignorant what his sub- ject is to be. Now, this contrast between their state of feeling and his is unfavourable, at tlie beginning, to the institution of an active sympathy. When he is all fire and they as yet are ice, a sudden contact between his mind and theirs will produce rather a shock and revulsion than sympatlietic harmony. His emotion is, to their quietude, extravagance. He must raise them first a part of the way toward his own level. Another reason for the exordium is, that some initial miscon- ception, indifference or prejudice is usually to be ex- pected in the hearer. While this continues, his hearty attention and favour will not be given. If the preacher then introduce his main proposition, and proceed im- mediately to deal with it, something at the beginning will be lost to the hearer. The loss of this must pre- judice his comprehension of all the rest, and only the more, if the discourse is methodical throughout. The rebus, inter auctores plurimos constat, si benevolum, aUentum, docilem fecerimus: non quia ista non per totain actionem sint custodienda, sed quia initiis prscipue necessaria, per quae in animum judicis, ut procedere ultra possinius, admittitur." 142 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. pupil who fails to attend while the alphabet is taught will be unable to go along Avith his class as they ad- vance to words and sentences. Hence it is well that some preface shall precede the main subject, which will awaken attention and allay prejudice. The hearer should be approximated to the speaker's level of thought and emotion before the main subject is presented. But it is obvious that an exordium protracted beyond the attainment of this object would be an excrescence hostile to unity and to the purpose of the body of the dis- course. Our ordinary conversation does not usually introduce itself absolutely without preface ; but often that intro- duction is virtually made for us before we begin to speak, by the remark of our interlocutor, by a question, by an event occurring in our presence, by a gesture, by an act. So if a similar circumstance has removed the supposed apathy or prejudice of your hearers and put them already in relation with your subject, the need of an exordium is already met. This may sometimes be done by the occasion itself, or by the devotional services preceding the sermon, or by the annunciation of the text. If any of these put you in possession of the atten- tion of your audience, why may you riot direct it at once to your main subject ? A formal exordium is there- fore not to be too much insisted on. The exordium, as to its matter, must be, first, pertinent to the main subject of the sermon. It should be com- posed of an idea lying next thereto. If that idea is tran&ferable to a different discourse and may introduce the second as well as the first, it is unfit to be the exordium of either. That which does not lead us up to CONSTITUENT MEMBERS OF THE SERMON. 143 our subject is, in fact, no introduction to it.^ This member of discourse is the last in wliich the preacher should indulge in vague commonplaces; for it is now that he is seeking to make a good first impression and to stir the sluggish interest of his hearers. But in- dulgence in disconnected introductions will incline hira to these trite generalities; and the final issue will be, that he will be found commencing every discussion, however dilferent the subjects, with the same stale ideas. Some preachers infringe the rule requiring a connected exordium, by affecting to begin with some topic which appears as remote as possiiile from the text, in order that they may exhibit their ingenuity by establishing an unexpected line of connection between them. While the audience are wondering how in the world he is to get around from his introduction to his text, he astonishes them l)y a gyration about the little circle of his knowledge, which leads him to the desired point. Every sensible hearer detects vanity as the motive of this display. Let the exordium never be far-fetohed.^ ' Cicero de Orat., L. ii. c. 79, § 325. "Connexum autem ita sit princlpiiim consecmenti oralioni, ut non tanquam citharoedi prooe- miuin affictum aliquod, sed cohoerens cum omni corpora membruin esse videatur. Nam nonnulli quum niud meditati ediderunt, sic ad reliqiia transeunt, ut audientiam sibi fieri nolle videantur. Atque einsmodi ilia prolusio debet esse, non ut Samnitum, qui vibrant hastas ante pugnani, quibus in pugnando nihil utuntur; sed ut ipsia sententiis, quibus proliiserunt, vel pugnare possint." ' Ep. ad Pisones, Horace, lines 146-150. He says of Homer: " Ncc reditum Diomedis ab interitu Mecleagri, Nee geraino bellum Trojainum Orditur ab ove, Semper ad eventuin festinat, et in medias res, Non secus ac notas, auditorem rapit, et qune Desperat tractata nitescere posse, relinquit." 144 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. The porch which leads into the house is in contact with it. But, second, the introduction must not embody a thouo-ht which is essential to the main discussion. This is an error of structure to which the inexperienced and impulsive writer is prone. Approaching the work of composition with a mind fired by the subject, he finds those ideas which are cardinal to it prominent in his thoughts, and he can scarcely refrain from pouring out some OJie of them the moment he begins. The con- sequence is, that when he proceeds in earnest to deal with his proposition, he will find he has anticipated essential matter. He has now only the choice between a bald repetition of his first idea, or else a leaving of his argument fragmentary. A stone which is ab- solutely necessary to close his arch has been already laid in the threshold. Third. An exordium should contain only one leading thought. If the first one introduced is related to the text, this leads us to it : why interpose another ? If it is not, it should not enter the exordium at all : the second distinct thought which follows it does the real work, and the first was nugatory. There is no need of a porch to enter a porch : we desire to step at once from the porch into the house. Fourth. While the thought of the exordium should by no means be trivial or uninteresting, neither should it be ambitious. It should not vie in splendour with all that are to succeed it, lest it should raise too much prom- ise to the expectation of the hearers. The impression which they carry away from a sermon is usually that produced by its concluding parts. If you fail there to CONSTITUENT MEMBERS OF THE SERMON. 145 fulfil the promise of your outset, the pleasing surprise which you gave them in commencing will not cause them to pardon you the disappointment.^ From these rules you will easily infer that the intro- duction must be short, relatively to the whole sermon. A long and ambitious exordium is ruinous to all subse- quent effect. It wastes time; it consumes the preach- er's strength ; it exhausts the sensibility of the people before the stage of the sermon for which it is needed. Young writers are usually inclined to dilate too much upon their preliminary topics. This is because they are zealous for thoroughness, and being inexperienced in the work of composition, they do not know how largely the whole discourse will grow ujion their hands, when amplified in the same proportion. It is far bet- ter to abridge the introductory parts than to be com- pelled, by an ill-judged waste of time there, to mar the more important thoughts near the close. For this, as well as other reasons, it is well that the young preacher should not attempt to write his introduction until the discussion has been either written, or at least expanded in the mind.^ 1 Horace Ep. ad Pisones, lines 136-145 : "Nee si incipies ut scriptor cyclicus olim ; 'Fortunam Priaiui cantalo et nobile belluin.' Quid (lignum tanto ferct hie promissor hiatu? Parturiunt inonotes, nascetur ridiculus nius, Quanto rectius hie, qui nil molitur inepte : 'Die mihi, Musa, viruiu eapta} post tempora Trojae, Qui mores hominum multorum vidit et urbes.' Non fumum ex fulgore, sed ex fumo dare lueem, Cogitat, ut speciosa dehinc miraeula promat, Antiphatem, Scyllamque, et cum Cyclope Charybdin." • Cicero de Or. L. ii., c. 77, § 315. " Hisce omnibus rebus conside- 13 146 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. I would ])()]* nt out tlie following classes of thoughts from which an ap})ropriate exordium may be taken, without claiming that my enumeration it complete : 1. The text is often introduced in the happiest man- ner by unfolding the nexus of the thoughts amidst which it stands. Such an exorclimn is always german, and it makes a substantial approach to the evolution of the main subject. It promotes fidelity to the text, by placing it before the minds of speaker and hearer in the precise sco})e which it had in the mind of the in- spired writer. 2. Akin to this is a form of introduction which may also be made exceedingly fresh and pleasing. It con- sists of a narration of the events, or a description of the place and times amidst which the iQxi was uttered by the sacred writer. Thus, should the preacher dis- cuss the Saviour's compassion for reprobate Jerusalem (as described in Luke xix. 41-44), he may begin by de- scribing the scenery of the city and its environs, as they appeared to oiir Lord from Mount Olivet the morning these memorable words were uttered. This picture should be rapid, truthful and graphic, but without the pedantries of toj^jography. He may then superinduce upon this smiling landscape the vision of the Roman circumvallation and the ravages of the seige, as they doubtless appeared to the prophetic eye of Jesus. Thus he has both exordium and exposition. Or would he present for our imitation the forbearance of David toward ratis, turn denique id quod prinium est dicendum, postremum soleo cogitare, quo utar exordio. Nam si quando invenire id piimum volui, nullum mihi occurrit, nisi aut exile aut nugatoi'ium, aut vul- gare atque commune." CONSTITUENT MEMBERS OF THE SERMON. 147 King Saul, in 1 Sam. xxiv., let him relate briefly the history of the provocation the former had endured. 3. The text may be introduced by the recital of some incident or history from real life, which strikingly ex- emplifies the principles to be established. But such incident must have a dignity and gravity congruous with the sacred subject which it introduces. And this kind must be used under the restraints of a severe taste, lest the narrative should cause an interest too romantic for the didactic or argumentative sequel. A New Year's sermon on the text, " This year thou shalt die," was impressively introduced by the statement, that both Jonathan Edwards and Samuel Davies preached from this passage at the beginning of the years in which tlicy were unexpectedly cut off by death. 4. A legitimate exordium may often be made by pla- cing alongside of the text some related principle famil- iar and admitted among the hearers. If the text con- tains the general truth, some obvious application of it in a specific case oi* class may introduce it. If it con- tains the species, then it may be introduced by refeiTing it to its more general j)rinciple. Thus the doctrine of the text has its locufi criven it in the thinkins: of the audience, which prepares them to consider it. Or else the principle cited for comparison may be related to the text by some agreement or difference, by examination of which it will be defined. 5. A striking introduction may also be made by cit- ing some usage or opinion prevalent among the hearers, which is opposed to the doctrine or precept of the text. The Apostle Paul tells us (Acts xx. 35) that Christ taught : " It is more blessed to give than to receive." 1,48 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. The world regards the recipient as the more fortunate party. This beginning gives something of the vivid- ness of paradox. It is, moreover, advantageous in making up the issue for discussion sliarply. The affirm- ation of the opposite is then plain. 6. Sometimes the exordium is skilfully formed by a liypothesis, putting in a concrete form the unexpected doctrine to be proved. The preacher begins thus: " Let us represent to ourselves a man who in the fol- lowing circumstances acted in the following way," etc. Such an introduction is not only graphic, but it gives the people, as it were, before they are aware, a concrete and distinct definition of that which is to be the subject of the discussion. In style and manner the exordium should surpass all the remainder of the discourse by its correctness.^ The preacher should remember that he is then making his first impression upon the hearers, and if this is untoward, it will be difficult afterward to repair it. But this accu- racy aims rather at negative than at positive results in its first movement ; it seeks to avoid offisnding the taste by errors of expression, rather than to make an imme- diate disclosure of the full powders and graces of the speaker. The latter should be progressive to the end. Hence, second, the beginning should be unambitious, lest it should promise too much. It should embody no laboured argument, and make no dis^^lay of learning or ^ Cicero de Or. L. ii., c. 78, ^ 315. "Principia autem dicendi sem- per quiim accurata et acuta et instructa sententiis, apta verbis, turn vero caussarum propria esse debent. Prima est enim quasi cognitio et commenadtio orationis in principio, quae continue eum qui audit permulcere atque allicere debet." CONSTITUENT MEMBERS OF THE SERMON. 149 subtlety. Its matter slioiikl be clothed with a certaiD modesty of dress, excluding florid figures and chary of every ornament. The sentences should incline toward brevity, especially those which compose the first para- graph. The speaker should take care that he does not yield to the temptation to display his most brilliant stores in the exordium. That would be a most unfor- tunate impression, and fatal to the movement of his dis- course, which should cause his audience to say, none of his subsequent ideas were as fine as the first. Third. In warmth of tone the introdyction should bear a due relation to the state of feeling which, at the beginning, prevails among the hearers. It should not be in strong contrast with theirs, so as to place the speaker out of symjjathetic harmony with them, and yet it should suggest at once a progress toward a higher stage of emotion. The rule given by somt) rhetoricians, tUiit the exordium must always be calm, needs modifica- tion. Sometimes the events which assemble the con- gregation give it, from the first, an elevated and excited tone. Why should the speaker causelessly forfeit this advantage? Why seek to lower that feeling which he must immediately endeavour again to raise? A cold beginning at such a time would be a ^in against the sympathies of his audience. But usually they assem- ble in a quiet if not an indiifcrent temper. He who in such circumstances should begin in that strain of exalted animation which Massilon properly adopted in his funeral oration for the king of France, or Flechier in his euh- gium for Marshal Tureme, would so transcend the grade of emotion in his hearers that he would seem to them extravagant or fantastic. The law of movement 13* 150 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. in discourse has been strongly enforced by me already. According to this law, the animation of both speaker and hearers should tend continually toward its culmi- nation in the terminus or change of the discussion. Now, exalted emotions cannot be long sustained at their height, neither can they be so easily excited a second time, after they have been once raised and allowed to de- cline. Hence the speaker should beware of appealing too prematurely to the powers of emotion in himself and in his audience. The happiest tone with which an exordium can be imbued is that of a latent or suppressed animation. The speaker does not too far outrun the interest of his hearers. But he is evidently curbing himself by an effort, and the partial flashes of heat which escape amidst the calmer progress of his intro- duction stimulate their expectation and awaken their sympathies. Fourth. The exordium should disclose unaifect«d modesty.^ Indeed, I should not be umvilling to re- quire that degree of diffidence which produces at first a positive embarrassment. But it should be not only the exordium^ but the orator himself, who is modest; 1 Cicero de Orat.. L. i., c. 26, |g 119-121. "Mihi etiam, qni optime dicunt, quique id ^cilHnie atque ornatissime facere possunt, tamen, nisi timide ad dicendiira accedunt, et in exordienda oratione per- turbantur, paene impudentes videntur ; tametsi id accidere non potest. Ut enini quisque optime dicit, ita maxime dicendi difficultatem, variosqiie eventus orationis, expectationemque hominum pertimescit. . . . Quera vero non pndet (id quod in plerisque video) hunc ego non reprehensione solum, sed etiam poena dignum puto. Equidem et in vobis animadvertere soleo, -et in me ipso seepissime experior, ut exalbescam in principiis dicendi, et tota mente atque omnibus artubus contremiscam." CONSTITUENT MEMBERS OF THE SERMON. 151 and while he is diffident for liimself, he should be bold for his cause. This quality of diffidence should mani- fest itself to the hearer, but should never be the subject of the speaker's own remark; for whenever he begins to descant on his own modesty and embarrassment, every sensible hearer will conclude at once that they are assumed. Indeed, preachers should never utter any- thing personally apologetic, and rarely should they make any allusion to tlieir own circumstances. If a minister begins by informing his audience that his preparation has been sadly abridged by events beyond his control, or that he is about to preach while suffer- ing from sickness, he will be likely to make two im- pressions, each of which will be lamentable. He will be suspected of a secret design to make the people, at -the end, applaud him for speaking so brilliantly under circumstances so adverse. It will appear also that, however this may be, he is more solicitous about his personal credit than about the glory of his divine blas- ter and the success of his message. An ostentatious avowal of diffidence is always understood as a betrayal of secret pride. Again, the preacher should never attempt to play the sycophant to his audience. He. should not tell them how much he finds himself em- barrassed by having to address so numerous or so respectable an assemblage. Such professions are ever distasteful and deceitful in the eyes of intelligent per- sons : they see clearly that, if there is any real trepida- tion, it proceeds from the speaker's overweening self- esteem, and not from any respect for them or for God. But a genuine diffidence, which is felt and not spoken of, is exceedingly favourable to the effect of the subse- 152 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. queiit discourse. Its influence over the speaker himself is happy, not only by repressing those manifestations of conceit which outrage the hearers' taste and sense of devotion, but by arousing his own powers. The neces- sary effort to overcome his embarrassment gives warmth from the very friction, and momentum from the resist- ance subdued. Perfect self-possession is ever cold. This unaffected diffidence is a tribute to the audience more acceptable to them than any other, because it is spon- taneous and honest. As a true woman feels more secret pleasure at the sight of a man of real merit and bravery abashed by her presence, than at the hearing of the neatest compliments ever turned by a nonchalant fop- ling, so every assembly is more gratified by this unwill- ing tribute of the speaker than by fluent professions of respect. It disarms criticism and opposition ; it sets them at once in sympathy with the speaker ; it assures them, better than any words, of his ingenuousness ; it shows equally his profound sense of the gravity of his topic, and thus establishes, at the outset, appreciation and attention. The remark already twice made, that this modesty must be real and not simulated, is self-evident. But the only source of sudh an emotion is God's grace, pro- ducing true and deep humility, reverence, faith and zeal for souls. Thus we are again led to the practical truth, that the prime qualification for the pulpit orator is emi- nent piety. It has been much debated among teachers, at what stage of the preparation the exordium should be com- posed. I would recommend that it be done after the matter of the sermon has been selected and digested in CONSTITUENT MEMBERS OF THE SERMON. 153 the mind, but before the body of the discourse is actu- ally written. The former part of this rule is necessary to secure in the introduction appropriateness of matter, the latter to secure harmony and movement in the com- position of the whole. LECTURE X. CONSTITUENT MEMBERS OF THE SERMON.— CONTINUED. EXPLICATION AND PROPOSITION. UNLESS explication of the text has composed the exordium (which I have admitted to be sometimes proper), this will be the second constituent member of the regular sermon. The peculiar character of sacred eloquence gives us an explication in place of a narration^ which the classic orators made their second member.^ Indeed, in the sermon, this part will not seldom assume the form of narration, when the passage of Scripture to be explained presents us with an incident or a history. The reason which requires a narration before the main argument of the advocate is very plain and conclusive ; the hearer must be put in possession of the facts of the case before he is ready to comprehend the discussion of' that issue. Teachers of forensic eloquence have often remarked, that the issue may be virtually decided by the skilful advocate through the structure of his narra- tion. He so states the events, with perspicuous brevity 1 See citations on p. 146. Vinet (Skinner's translation, p. 154) says: "A sermon, wliatever may be its kind, resolves itself always into a demonstration, and a demonstration never has place without a formal or indirect explanation. I mean to say, that every demonstra- tion rests upon a foregoing explanation." 154 CONSTITUENT MEMBERS OF THE SERMOX. 155 a»d graj)hic force, as to charm tlie interest of the lis- tener. He connects facts so as to place in a strong light those which are favourable to his claim, and to with- di-aw into the shade those which are adverse. lAke the consummate general, he secures his victory in advance of the actual sliock of arms by the method in which he takes his positions. Thus the narrative often becomes the most important member of his discourse. The same general reason demands an explication in the sermon before the main argument. The hearer should be clearly possessed of the point to be proven before he advances to the proof. But there is a more imperative reason, growing out of the posture and func- tion of the Protestant teacher. It is the boast of our Christianity that it recognizes in the laity the right of private judgment. The minister is not a hierarch to dictate dogmas to the implicit faith of subject souls whose " ignorance is tlie mother of their devotion." We " have not dominion over their faith, but are help- ers of their joy, for by faith they stand."* Unless their faith is intelligent, it is nothing worth. Unless they see evidence to command assent in the liijht of their own understandings, they do not really see at all ; their souls are still in darkness. A second truth equally plain is, that the meaning which they place upon the word is to them the substance of the word. The laity, therefore, are entitled to have something more than the mere assertion of their teacher to connect the meaning which they are required to accept from a given passage ^ See 2 Cor. i. 24; also, Matt, xxiii. 10, 11 ; 1 John iv. 1, 2, 3 John viii. 32. 156 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. of Scripture with its terms. You have seen that it is the peculiarity of the sermon that it impels the hearer's will witli the direct authority of God, and not merely with human reasons and inducements. That your dis- course may be a true sermon, then, its proposition must be deduced from the language of its text by an exegesis, which shall give your hearer's mind convincing evi- dence the meaning you propound is indeed God's in- tended meaning. It thus appears that the sermon can- not usually exist without explication of the text. There may be cases where its words are so plain and unam- biguous that your view of their meaning, without any reasoning, appears conclusive. In these cases the ex- plication contracts itself into a self-evident statement, but it is still present in rudiment, and it is the neces- sary tie between the hearer's conscience and the authority of the divine word in the text. It also results from these considerations that the object of the explication is both to define and to evince : it must not only make plain what you apprehend the meaning of the text to be, but it must also show why you apprehend it to be such. It will often include, therefore, definition^ and discussion. Your knowledge of logic will furnish you with the technical meaning of definition, as a description of an ^ Thus, if the text were Ps. Ixxxiv. 11, "No good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly," the nature of the good here promised must be defined, or else the proposition cannot be sus- tained that God bestows all good upon his true servants. If, for instance, it were natural good which was intended, the proposition would not be true. The other branch of the explication of this text will then be to show exegetical reasons (hat your definition is indeed the one intended bv the sacred writer. COXSTITUF.NT MEMBERS OF THE SERMOX. 157 object by genus and differentia. The more coinpre- hensIvG and popular notion of a definition, as a set of terms which so describe an object as to distinguish it from all others, is more suitable to tlie use of tlie rhetorician. The preacher sliould be chary of teclinical definitions : ^ they suppose in the liearer a power of ab- straction wliich is seldom cultivated, and they are more likely to confuse than to enlighten the common people. But when it is necessary to define, he should give a truly essential definition, and should not delude the hearer's mind by one merely nominal, substituting a phrase for a phrase, while the one is no more discrimina- tive than the other. Thus, it is no adequate definition of '^atonement" to say that it is "satisfaction," or that satisfaction is atonement, unless the hearer is instructed of the nature of the compensation intended by the word, as that of })enal obligation. But when you say that "atonement" is compensation of our penal debt to God, by the actual j^unishmciit of our Substitute, you give us an essential definiti(Ui : the idea of atonement is thence- forward distinctly separated in our minds. A nominal definition (the ex])lanation of a term by a term) is only useful when the second term is better known by usage than the former, and tliat in a defined sense. Thus, ^ Cicero de Oral., L. ii. c. 25, ?§ 108, 109. " Atqne in lioc genere causarnm nonmilli pra'cipiunt, nt verbnm illud, quod cau.sani facit, lucide, absolute, breviter uterque definiat. Quod niilii quidem per- quam puerile videri solet. . . . Etenim definitio primum reprehenso verbo uno, aut addito, aut denipto, ssepe extorquetur e raanibus : deinde genere ipso doctrinam redolet exercitationemqne paene puerilem : turn et in sensum et in nienteni judicis inirare non potest. Ante enim prajterlubitur, quam percepta est." 14 158 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. the ^' Decalogue" may be defined as the *^ Ten Com- mandmenis," because popular usage has given the latter phrase a particular meaning. I add a further precept, that the preacher should never attempt to define things already known or ideas absolutely simple. The natural relation of father and child, for instance, is already better known by experience than it can be by defini- tion ; and the idea of " truth/' being simj:)le and in- capable of further analysis into other elements, cannot be better expressed than by the word " truth.'' To de- fine in these cases is to waste words and to mar the movement of the discourse. Again, definition in dis- course must always be brief; if protracted, it disap- points its own object, by overloading the attention and memory of the hearer. I remark again : sentiments and moral ideas are often better defined by a concrete illustration than by abstract terms. They may be rep- resented in historical events selected from the Scrip- tures, or painted in a parable of our Lord, or suggested by some past or some possible experience of the hearer, in which the idea in question was exactly reproduced. Thus, when the lawyer of Luke x. 29 required of our Saviour to define who was his neighbour, his answer was the parable of the " Good Samaritan." He thus gave his questioner what was far more vivid, more in- teresting, and even more exact, than an abstract con- ception of the relation — a realization of it to himself in his own consciousness. It is the duty of the minister to study the means and cultivate the faculty of concrete definition after this beautiful model ; for it is thus the people are to be successfully taught. Once more : the CONSTITUENT MEMBERS OF THE SERMON. 159 business of definition should always be so* completed .daring the explication of the topic that, when the prop- osition of the sermon is finally announced, every term in it shall be plain. Xo further explanation should be needed or admitted, but the preacher should be ready to advance at once to his argument. The other branch of the explication is that which evinces the correctness of the definition or interpreta- tion assigned to the text. In ascertaining and estab- lishhig this, the preacher must fiiithfully employ all the critical jjud exegetical aids within his reach. It is not proper tliat I should here usurp the place of the teacher of interpretation, but supi)osing you to have profited by his instructions, I would give you some rhetorical guid- ance in their use before^'the people. And, first: a strict integrity of mind should gui:e the willino- obedience of the mind for the Word as to show that the most humble and implicit submission is the highest wisdom. The proof-texts cited should be pertinent, and they should be applied only in the precise sense which the Holy Spirit intended them to bear. What that sense is, the preacher must ascertain by a diligent and faith- ful study of tliem, before he ventures to use them. I would enjoin the same sacred integrity here which I urged Avhen speaking of the use and exposition of the text. He who quotes the Scriptures in a sophistical spirit will gradually produce this impious result : the people will be taught to regard them as a sophistical book. Some will always be observant and acute ojiough to note and remember your inconsistencies of logic. You will find that you have taught them at once, to de- spise your arguments, to use the same weapons against you, and to treat the word of God with diminished rev- erence. But the highest reason against a disingenuous use of Scripture evidence is, that it offends God. How can we dare to pretend that we shall promote his holy ends by unholy means ? — that we shall advance truths by falsehood ? Wlien an important statement is made, other proof- texts may be well added to the first. AVhile one word of God should be enough to silence doubt for ever, yet the concurrence of several satisfies the mind, by evin- cing a wider harmony between the proposition advanced and the sacred Scriptures, and by extinguishing any lingerings of doubt whether the first testimony was fairly applied. But proof-texts should not be multi- RULES OF ARGUMENT. 193 plied to weariness; this would weaken instead of strength- ening the impression, and would arrest the movement 6f the discourse. The relevancy of these testimonies may not be obvious without some exposition, or their bearing, while valid, may be inferential only, or they may suggest some interesting side-view of truth kin- dred to the main subject of the sermon. Shall the preacher pause upon citing such texts to expound, to apply, to deduce? I reply, he may pause, but it nuist be under the restraints of a severe judgment. He must see to it, that he turns aside no more than is absolutely necessary to cause his proof-texts to yield a full support to his text. Otherwise, the unity and movement of discourse will be fatally marred; his sermon will be a crude bundle of little sermons.* 2. My second rule is little more than an application of the princii)le, that all reasoning should recur as closely as possible to the original sources of conviction in self- consciousness and intuitions. When you have occasion to argue, in addition to your appeal to proof-texts, en- deavour so to put your propositions, as to bring their truth directly to the test of these original powers of the mind. Where there is really but one step of de- duction from first truths, this may always be done, and often where the stei)s are more than one. It is effected 1 Dr. Conrad Speece once compared this kind of preachin- to a Chri8tmas-hu.it in Virginia, where the boys took a rabble of un- trained hound-whelps into the old fields to chase hares. A warm trail was soon found, and hotly pursued until another scent happened to cross It. The pups were sure to take this and run upon it until a third was met a little fresher. Thus there was a mightv cry and race all the day, and not a single hare caught at night. 17 - 194 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. by putting the case in a concrete instance, so stated as to present the true point of the argument palpably for the intuitive verdict of the mind. For example, let the proposition to be established be this : " The sinner's inability is no excuse for his irreligion." This might be argued metaphysically by defining inability, analyz- ing its elements, and showing that they are such as do not supersede our responsibility. I do not say that such analysis is never proper in the pulpit, but you will gain your point much more effectively and plainly by appealing at once to the sinner's consciousness, and com- pelling him to testify against himself that in each act of impenitency, omission and transgression (the aggre- gate of which makes up his irreligion) he acts his own preference. In every one he exercises his conscious free-agency. But now he also has a moral intuition, which tells him that there is responsibility wherever there is free-agency. This argument is self-evident to him. And, besides, it really defines to him the nature of his inability more clearly than any analysis. We have all read an excellent illustration of the argument, from our intuition of cause and effect, for the existence of God, in the supposition that one should propose to account for the production of the Paradise Lost by the accidental falling together of a multitude of printers^ types. We feel intuitively that this cannot be, because accident cannot be the adequate cause of all the varied order and beauty of that poem, in orthog- raphy, grammar, metre, euphony, invention, imagina- tion and reasoning. How, then, can anything less than God have been the adequate cause of this wondrous universe ? RULES OF ARGUMENT. 195 Take one more instance. The proposition, " Con- cupiscence is sin/' may be argued theologically. But tlie convincing argument is to appeal to the hearer's self-consciousness, and to the impartial and intuitive verdict of his conscience. Let it be supposed that he is harbouring an inclination or entertaining a temptation to do an unrighteous act against his neighbour, or even that a feeling of unjust resentment against him is allowed to brood in his heart. He can truly say that no matured volition exists in his soul to do the wrong ; no definite purpose has been formed. Why has he an ijistinctiv^e unwillingness to have his neighbour know the adverse feeling? Why does he blush at the thought that others divine it? This proves that the feeling is not innocent ; the immediate judgment of the reason is disclosed, condemning it as sin. Under my second precept I may correctly place the commendation of experimental reasoning. For this, as we have seen, brings the proposition which you assert under the purview of the intuition, that like causes must produce like effects. The popular mind loves the experimental argument. It is to this kind of intelligence, practical and plain : it seems to bring the truths you advance within its own actual and even its sensible knowledge. It should therefore be much used in the pulpit. 3. If deductive processes are used, let the steps be few. The object of this rule is to bring the conclusion as near the first truth as possible. Some one has well said that if a chain of argument consists of more than two or three links, it is worthless for the public speaker. The people have a just suspicion of ratiocina- 196 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. tion in long-drawn trains. However carefully you may conduct it from the beginning to the end, they re- main doubtful of the result. They desire to be able to look back after the journey is completed, and to com- prehend all the steps at one view ; they w^ish to see, not only that they have passed over from first premise to last conclusion, but also how they passed over. Now, where the steps are numerous, the recollection of them all is fatiguing ; none but thoroughly-trained minds are capable of it. When we remember also whence logical fallacies usually arise, we shall appreciate the justice of the popular dislike for long trains. The source of these sophisms is commonly in some misapprehension or transition in the meaning of terms. Now, each syllo- gism presents us with four separate terms, each of which must be distinguished and remembered, as well as their relations. As we multiply syllogisms, we multiply the chances of fallacy in at least a quadruple ratio. If we suppress a member of a syllogism for the sake of brevity and of diminishing the number of terms, we only increase the intricacy of the reasoning, by thus compelling the mind to supply the missing link. You can now understand the popular prejudice against " reasoning preachers." They are regarded as dry and fatiguing. But, in truth, he who does not reason is no preacher: he establishes no conviction. The dry preacher is one who should be called just the opposite of a " reasoning preacher," for he reasons unskilfully, and therefore tediously. The attractive preacher is the true reasoner, for he argues skilfully and tersely. He is interesting, not because he gives J RULES OF ARGUMENT. 197 the understanding no logical grounds, but because he giv^es them aright : he who should do the former would make no impression whatever and would be supremely uninteresting. 4. Use many illustrations of your arguments. A brief caution, I trust, will be enough to remind you that mere illustration is not argument, and that he who substitutes the one for the other is a dishonest logician. When I say this, I except those obvious cases, wliere the illustration is expressed and the argument imj)lied ; because the latter is made, by the help of tlie former, perfectly obvious, and does not now need an express statement to set it forth. The mind of the hearer grasps it validly without further words. Such are some of the illustrated arguments of our Saviour. But in these in- stances illustration is not made a substitute for argu- ment : it is well understood by the hearer, that its only value is to lead to the reasoning which it suggests, and, in suggesting, explains. It must also be conceded that there are illustrations which are at the same time true analogies : they ])resent a real parallelism of relations to those of the argument illustrated, in that respect wherein the force of the deduction resides. In such a case there is more than tlic force of mere illustration : there is analogical argument — a species of experimental evidence which is conclusive in proportion to the per- fectness of the parallelism. I may cite, for example, the Christian grace of " ado})tion," the name of which suggests a beautiful illustration from the usage, as it prevailed in the civic life of the ancients. The adopted child of the Roman patrician was held of patrician rank, however vile his actual birth. This fact not only assists 17* 198 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. US to comprehend the proposition, that the justified be- liever is made co-heir with the Son, but, because we must believe that the employment of the word " adop- tion'^ suggests a true analogy, it gives us also some probable evidence that the proposition is true. But it behooves the preacher to remember that in other cases illustration is not argument, and to be jealous of him- self, lest he should cheat the understandings of his hearers or his own by the exchange. The use of plausible, ingenious,^ pretty but not truly analogical illustrations is one of the most refined arts of the sophist, seductive to the indolence of men's minds, and exceedingly hard to expose ; for while the apparent analogy is obvious and broad enough for the lazy thinker, the discrimination which proves the appear- ance false and the analogy deceptive is nice and labori- ous, requiring perhaps a more careful abstraction than the original abstract logic would have demanded with- out the aid of any illustration. This is therefore a weapon as dangerous as effective, and its right use demands your highest Christian integrity. The legitimate use of illustration, then, is to assist in the right apprehension of terms and relations, in order that the logic may be really brought under the inspection of the reason. If a proposition contains a first truth, as soon as its terms are perfectly appre- hended, the truth which is in the copula becomes read- ily obvious to the mind's intuition. We no longer need any aid to see it ; we cannot help seeing it. So, if a relation between propositions includes a sound deduc- tion, as soon as all the terms and the intended relation are rightly apprehended, the inference is seen by the RULES OF ARGUMENT. 199 miDd^s inspection. We again find that aid is no longer wanted to see it ; we cannot avoid it if we would. The difficulty of receiving the force of such logic as has just force is only in the precise apprehension of terms and relations, as they are meant by the reasoner. This requires fixed attention, correct abstraction, clear con- ceptions and faithful memory, as well as competent knowledge of words and syntax. Now attention and abstraction are most irksome to ill-trained minds, and such are those of the major part of mankind. Illus- tration happily relieves that pain, by assisting abstrac- tion and alluring attention. It leads the hearer's mind easily to the designed conception of terms and relations, by setting them in a concrete form. It gives an indi- rect, but an exact and happy, definition of that relation of propositions in which the inference resides. It thus assists in getting the argument within the purview of the mind's inspection. The use of illustrations is, there- fore, sanctioned by our first principle, which traced the elements of all mental conviction to self-consciousness and intuitions. Another advantage is that derived from the wit of the illustration. When I mention the word wit^ I suppose you too well informed to think that I intend something jocular. Wit is defined to be a sudden view of unfore- seen but apt relations with the pleasure arising there- from. This pleasure, while always vivid, may be ele- vated and altogether serious. Now a second gain of the good illustration is its serious wit,^ the sudden and 1 Many of our Saviour's illustrations, as well as those of the great uninspired masters of rhetoric, are rich in this element. See that of the two debtors, Luke vii. 41. The children playing in the market- 200 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. pleasing suggestion of a novel but truly apt relation between the concrete idea introduced and the reasoning step which is pending. The pleasure which this pro- duces is easily reflected by association upon the reason- ing itself. The hearer mingles it with the intellectual gratification derived from the intuition of the truth he has reached, and he carries away the argument and con- clusion with an impression of delight. There is still a third element of power in some illus- trations — their influence over the emotions. This will be more successfully explained when I speak of the work of persuasion. Illustration is, therefore, a potent aid to the orator. All masters of the rhetorical art have excelled in it. Our Saviour surpassed all others in the copiousness, terseness, aptitude, beauty, ingenuity, simplicity and wit of his illustrations. Hence, in part, it was that men said, "Never man spake like this man.'' You should humbly imitate him. You should study apt illustration and store up the materials for it from your observation and reading. The narratives of the Bible are your appropriate treasury. Another may be found in the store of known and moving contemporaneous events which an active mind collects. But in selecting an illustration you must observe two rules : one is, that it should be more simple and familiar than the thing to place, Luke vii. 32. The good Samaritan, Luke x. 33. The wolf in sheep's clothing, Matt. vii. 15, etc. Some of them indeed are instinct with wit in its more biting aspects. What can be more stinging, and even humorous, than " the blind guides straining at a gnat and swal- lowing a camel ?" Matt, xxiii. 24. Only our lamiliarity with them prevents our feeling the pungent wit. RULES OF ARGUMENT. 201 be illustrated, otherwise it gives the hearer no aid ; the other is, that it must not only be apt and logically fair, but of a dignity and seriousness coherent with the top- ics of the pupit. An illustration which should de- grade a solemn and elevated subject by its ludicrous triviality, or which should divert the emotions from their sacred channel by suggesting the unhallowed pas- sions of the world and its strifes, would be a grievous blemish. In one sense, it would be a greater rhetorical sin, in proportion as it was more striking and ingenious.^ Although mental conviction, the subject we now have in hand, is reached through the reason, yet the speaker cannot overk)ok the fact that his hearers are creatures of affection and prejudice, as well as of understanding. These powerfully affect and obstruct the operations of the reason. We must, therefore, not only deal directly with the emotions in the work of persuasion, but in i I trust that I shall not be charged with this vice, for the follow- ing illustration of it. One moist, sunny afternoon, as I was coming from my house to this phice, to give one of these lectures on Sacred Rhetoric, I saw the pertest possible little dog making most intent and anxious efforts to catch something, which seemed to be flitting before him upon the ground. I found, upon watching him, that the object was the shadow of an ephemeral, yellow butterfly, which was fluttering a yard above his head unseen by him ! He was fatiguing himself to catch the shadow of an insect which was itself too unsubstantial to satiate his hunger if eaten by the hour. What an illustration, said I to myself, of the sinner *' who walketh in a vain show and is disquieted in vain," living for the deceitful hopes of sinful joys which, if won, would be empty 1 But would this incident be fit for the pulpit? No; the scene was too petty and too farcical, although startlingly analogous, to paint an error so momentous and tragical as that of the worldly soul. 202 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. our argument we must endeavour so to use logic as to evade these obstructions and obtain for evidence its best light. One great end of judicious arrangement is here indicated. Arrangement is also determined by a clear perception of the conditions of the question to be de- bated and the attitude of the parties. As the success of the military commander depends on the disposition of the several arms, so tliat each shall be brought into action where it will be most efficient, so the triumph of the reasoner results often from the skilful ranking of his arguments. These thoughts show the propriety of the following remarks : 5. Determine correctly on which side the " burden of proof" justly lies. If the preliminary presumption is in your favour, claim it, and throw the burden of proof upon your antagonist, that you may have to stand only on the defensive. This discreet position may make the difference between overthrow and victory. Sir Wal- ter Scott in the " Crusaders" represents Count Raymond Berenger as refusing to stand on the defensive within his castle, which he might easily have made impregna- ble against the whole Welsh host. By rashly attacking them in the open field lie incurred defeat and destruction, despite his skill and heroism ; he fatally threw away his vantage-ground. The law allows every accused person the presumption of his innocence until he is convicted. It is, therefore, the duty of his advocate to assume the defensive, and throw upon the prosecutor the burden of proving guilt. If the defence should undertake to 'show that the accused did not commit the act charged, it would find itself committed to the arduous and per- haps impossible task of proving a negative. This neg- RULES OF ARGUMENT. 203 ative might be true, and the man really innocent, and yet its demonstration in that form might be impossible. Here the folly of assuming a logical obligation which did not belong to them would convert a triumphant de- fence into an abortive attack. Let an instance be also taken from our own science, theology. In a theodicy, or vindication of the divine attributes as concerned in the evils prevalent among creatures, those who assert that. the perfections of God are consistent with these ad- verse appearances are entitled to the presumjition ; for "the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord." The initial probabilities are in our favour. Let those who assert the opposite assume the burden of proof, as is fair. Our defensive task then becomes comparatively easy ; for the arduous thesis which our assailants have to maintain is this: tliat there can be no good reason, known to an infinite mind, why God should permit these evils, and be still omniscient, benevolent and almighty. Tliis presumptuous assertion rebutted, our victory is won, and the fact that, within the limited cir- cle where we comprehend God's providence, we see him regularly bringing good out of these evils is sufficient for that result. But if we undertook the onus of ex- plaining fully how God is benevolent in the permission of all these evils, which his omniscience foresaw, and which his omnipotence might have excluded, we should find ourselves overwhelmed with difficulties ; the task is beyond human ken. These examples may exhibit the usefulness of our rule. 6. The prejudices of liearers must be consulted in the order of introducing your proposition and proofs. If the truth to be established is not repugnant to your 204 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. hearers, you may consult other considerations exclu- sively; but if it is obnoxious to misunderstandings and prejudices, the form of proposition chosen should be one which, while perspicuous and not uncandid, shall state the truth in its least offensive phase. The aspects of it which especially assail their previous ideas may be better asserted in the conclusion, after those adverse conceptions have been removed by explanation and argument. Further, I would recommend that the dis- cussion begin, in sucli cases, with a priori arguments ; for these, proceeding from cause to effect, both show that your proposition is true, and how it comes to be true, thus removing the incredulity and appearance of paradox ; afterward, the other evidences may be intro- duced with better effect. LECTURE XIV. RULES OF ARGUMENT.— CONTINUED. ■pESUMIXG the same subject, I remark, iu the ^^ seventh place, that the arguments should follow each other in a natural and progressive order. They must be so arranged that the mind of the hearer will pass from the first to the second and thence to the third with ease, and that the effect of the whole shall be cumulative. The maxim which you will find in most books of rhetoric is, that we begin with the weakest argument and proceed thence to the strongest, in order to secure a climax. Whateley objects to this, that it is injudicious to advance the least impressive point first, because by so doing we risk making a bad first im- pression. The hearer, he thinks, will be likely to con- clude that it is a trivial cause which is introduced by a trivial reason. He therefore advises that the discussion be opened witli some obvious and forcible argument, that the weaker pleas be thrown into the middle, and that the remaining strong points be introduced last, to prevent anti-climax. There is, it must be admitted, some force in the objection which Whateley advances.^ 1 Cicero de Orat., L. ii., c. 77, H 313, 314. " Atqne etiam in illo reprehendo eos, qui, quae minime firma sunt, ea prima collocant. In quo illos qiioque errare arhitror, qui, si quando (id quod milii nnn- 18 205 206 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. But if the old rule be modified in the following respects, I think it may be retained. Let no point of argument be elevated into a separate head of the discussion, at any stage of it, which is feeble enough to incur the risk of a trivial first impression. Such proofs, if noticed at all, should be compressed into a subordinate position. The impressiveness of respective heads of argument should be estimated relatively, not to the speaker's, but to the hearer's mind, as it apprehends them after they have been expanded. The professional man's habitudes of thought are likely to differ from those of the com- mon people ; whence a view that seems most weighty to the preacher may be felt by them as less impressive, even after his presentation of it. If nov/ he places this last, he will depreciate instead of enhancing the final impressions, for it is in the people's minds that im- pression is sought to be made : he is not speaking to convince himsel£ Some have urged that the right solution of these questions of order would be to select your strongest argument and stake the issue on that alone. They say that one good evidence is convincing, and the preacher of Christianity should never use a bad one. They ob- quam placuit) plures adhibent patronos, ut in quoque eornm mini- mum putant esse, ita eum pi-imum volunt dicere. Kes enim hoc postulat, ut eorum expectationi qui audiunt, quam celerrime occur- ratur; cui si initio non satisfactum sit, multo plus sit in reliqua caussa laborandum. Male enira se res habet, qnse non statim ut dici coeptum est, melior fieri videtur. Ergo ut in oratore optiraus quis.- que, sic et in oratione firmissimum quodque sit primum ; dura illud tamen in quoque teneatur, ut ea quae excellant serventur etiam ad perorandnm. Si quae erunt mediocra (nam vitiosis nusquam oportet esse locum) in mediam turbam atque in gregem conjiciantur." RULES OF ARGUMENT. 207 ject that the solicitude to add a second and a third betrays a consciousness of the unsoundness of the first. This plan would have more plausibility if your audience consisted of a single man ; but you preach to many at once. You know that the constitutions of different minds are various; so that a point w^hich is effective with one may be powerless with another. The engineer who fires at a crowd loads his artillery with a number of grape-shof, not with a single ball. But I claim also that a second arirument is not felt by anv mind to be useless because a first has been found convincing. It confirms the evidence already seen, and guarantees us that its seeming force is not sophistical : it instructs us in the most pleasing manner in the harmonics and rela- tionships of truths. The testimony of Scripture is our most weighty evi- dence. Where, then, should the proof-texts be ranked? In many cases you will find that the declaration of a particular citation is related to some one head of your argument: tliis text should then be cited at the con- elusion of this head. In other cases it would appear proper to place the cliicf array of texts at the close of the discussion, that they may have the honour of terminating debate. It seems inconsistent to continue human arguments after God's final verdict is announced. 8. Last, the preacher should see to it that his proof is unanswerable. Nothing should be advanced which is not solid, and all should be so perspicuously and forcibly put as to silence every mind which is not per- verse. While every public speaker must be prompted to speak convincingly by whatever motive causes him to.speak at all, this force is demanded of the preacher 208 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. by a more solemn obligation. It is God's truth which he advocates. It is a system which claims infallible certainty. Common hearers are apt to sus23cct that an inconclusive argument betrays an inconclusive prop- osition ; for this, althongh not a just, is a most natural, inference. The result of sophistical preaching is to make Christianity seem sophistical. He is no small criminal who, by his indolence or heedlessness, occa- sions this profane deduction. Hence the preacher should be, as a logician, intensely honest. It. is his sacred duty to practice the most painstaking care in constructing his arguments, and to be sure that he sees all around his points before he ventures them. You find here an additional reason against logical novelties and long-drawn ratiocination in the pulpit. No man can safely risk their multiplied occasions of fallacy. We should restrain ourselves within those solid grounds where we can be certain of our correctness ; we should rely upon those broad and strong views of truth which are grasped firmly by the common mind. To secure this honesty, your study should be accompanied with much prayer, that the infirmities and uncertainties of the human understanding may be guided from on high. Polemic argumentation is somewhat peculiar in its •circumstances. All logical discussion may be regarded as indirectly polemical, for whenever we establish a true proposition we thereby virtually refute the opposite error. This method is called indeed indirect refuta- tion. And this, let me say once for all, is usually the wisest, safest and most effectual mode of pastoral oppo- sition agains^ heresy. The minds of your people should be so filled in advance with the truth, that there will be RULES OF ARGUMENT. 209 no room for an enemy to inject an error. A contro- versial tone in the pulpit is usually to be avoided, and the habit of throwing your arguments into the form of .a logical combat with an imaginary opponent is most unfortunate. The tone of the pastoral instructor should usually be didactic ; liis attitude is that of the father instructing docile children. But there are occasions when he must refute error directly. In his doctrinal sermons he must often meet known and aggressive ob- jections which place themselves across the path of the truths he is asserting. There may be instances (of tlie occurrence of which your pastoral theology will decide rather than your rhetoric) when it will be your duty to make a formal warfare against some heresy. Since all reasoning is but reasoning, the principles of polemical argument are, of course, not different from any other. But there arc some peculiar questions touching it which need to be answered. 1. The first is the question of arrangement. In what part of a discourse affirming truth shall objections be considered ? On the one hand, it is urged that if you advance your own propositions and proofs before the objections are cleared away, you may find that these have totally obstructed the minds of your hearers. The fortress must be breached before the storming-party is sent in. On the other hand, Whateley well replies, that if you begin with the consideration of the whole group of objections, you prejudice your own cause in advance by showing the people how much can be said against it. He therefore recommends that the discussion be opened with some obvious and effect! -e affirmative arguments, that the objections be considered in the mid- 18 * 210 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. die, and the progress then resumed and closed with other direct and climatic proofs. A better rule is the follow- ing : Introduce objections along with those affirmative heads of your own argument where their solution ia most natural and ready. You will nearly always find that there is special relation between a particular objec- tion and some particular support of the true proposition. The latter presents the immediate point of view for ex- posing the former. The advantages of my rule are, that a formidable array of objections in any one place of your discourse is thus avoided by their distribution throughout it; that time is economized by taking up each objection just where your affirmative argument has prepared the way for a speedy and facile dealing with it; and, above all, that this method leaves upon the hearer's mind a strong impression of the satisfying har- mony and beautiful consistency of truth. 2. Time should never be wasted by citing trivial or unknown objections. Give your hearers credit for good sense enough to apply your demonstration to the shal- low ones, without words on your part. Indeed, a mas- terly affirmative argument is always the best refutation. To inform your hearers of an objection about which they were in happy ignorance, that you may have the glory of refuting it, is pedantry. It is as though a phy- sician should give his patient a poison in order to ex- hibit his skill with antidotes. It may be that in con- sequence of some peculiarity or infirmity of constitution your antidote will fail to act, and then you will have killed your man for naught. But when you feel that an objection is so known and influential that it must be formally noticed, make thorough work with it. Let KULES OF ARGUMENT. 211 your refutation be unanswerable. Nothing makes a more damaging impression of feebleness than to grap- ple with the objector without clearly overthrowing him. Your hearer is thus taught by yourself to suspect the justice of your arguments. 3. Opposers should always be treated with fairness and courtesy, except where their own insolence or wicked- ness demands chastisement. One application of this maxim is to teach us absti- nence from the use of controversial phrases, party names and all the old war-cries of polemic discussion. The preacher should rarely assault, by name, a rival denomination of Christians. If, for instance, a Presby- terian pastor begins : "Jlethodi^L^ teacli that a true believer may totally and finally liill away from a state of grace : this I shall now refute," every person of that persuasion in the house will naturally feel as though he were per- sonally assailed. But had this pastor advanced the opposite doctrine, so explained as to free it from odious misconceptions, in a didactic mode and temper, making only a respectful general reference to an honest differ- ence of judgment upon it among the recognized followers of Christ, every fair-minded adherent of Wesley would have listened without offence, and would have come away with the pleasing impression that Christians were not so far asunder upon this vexed question as he had supposed. It is very much due to the observance of this simple rule that wise pastors (without infidelity to truth) preserve pleasant relations with other com- munions, hold their own ground triumphantly against encroachments, and even win accessions, without awaken- ing denominational strife. And it is usually the rash 212 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. contempt of this easy caution which plunges others into unseemly and mischievous rivalries. Another lesson of my third maxim is, that objections, if stated at all, be stated fairly. Give them any weight which they may deserve. It is well that you should set your opponents' arguments in even stronger lights than they were able to throw upon them ; for manifest candour is the best plea on your own side. The people will see that you have no fear of the objection, and this alone will almost reassure them as to your ability to annihilate it ; but if they detect you dodging its real point, they will regard this as a confession of virtual defeat. By placing both the objection and its refuta- tion in a clearer light than your antagonist, you make your hearers feel that you have that superior mastery of the whole subject, which entitles you to correct him and to instruct them. There are also objections which have real difficulty to the human mind, and yet the propositions against which they lie are true. The only solution of such cases is in acknowledging the limita- tion of our faculties. Let the admission be then freely made, and let the mystery, after being defined and ex- plained as far as established truths enable us to do it, be left to the candour of the hearer. Once more : see to it that, whatever may be the superiority or weakness of your logical ability, you surpass your antagonist in Christian charity and self- control. The people are very apt to associate a good man with a good cause. Your reasonings may not be appreciated ; but the argument of a forbearing temper will be understood by the most ignorant. 4. My last precept may be expressed in the words I I RULES OF ARGUMENT. 213 of that injunction wliioh Talleyrand is said to have urged upon his diplomatic agents : '^ Pas trop zeUP By this I do not recommend that you shall defend the truth of God against his assailants with a cold indiifer- ence : he deserves an ardent, loving zeal ; but I mean that you shall be satisfied with a substantial victory for him. It is enough to convince the objector that he was mistaken : it is not well to attempt to convict him also of absurdity, of virtual idiocy and of naalignity, except in those cases where such depravity has been so ob- truded as to outrage the proprieties of triitli and right- eousness. If your auditors know your opponent as a well-meaning man, as a decent Christian, as a sensible person in other things, as entitled in the judgment of charity to the claim of sincerity, then they may be will- ing to go along with you in the conclusion tliat he has been obviously in error, ])rovided the superior mastery of the subject which you display warrants such a claim. But when you demand of them that they shall also vote him a fool, a rascal, a deceitful traitor to truth, they will demur ; for they will say, " Do not we know this person as, in the main, a good man ?" By such an ex- treme use of your victory you will forfeit it, and restore to error a sympathy to which it is not entitled. LECTURE XV. DIVISION OF THE ARGUMENT. TTAVING examined the nature of argument and J— L given some specific rules for constructing it, we are now prepared to adopt a principle of division. The five constituent members of the regular discourse — ex- ordium, explication, proposition, argument and conclu- sion — are, in one sense, divisions of the sermon. But among these the argument is the main body of the discourse, and it is the division of this of which I now speak. You have seen that method, which is an orderly arrangement of parts, implies discrimination. We must divide in order to dispose. The architect must assort and separate his materials before he can rear his building. The naturalist dissects his animals and plants, that he may classify. A few high authorities, Fenelon and Bisliop Burnett, renounce division as a sin against unity. ^ The former objects that " divisions 1 Fenelon, Dialogue ii., Concerning Eloquence. Burnett's " Pasto- ral Care," p. 249. But Fenelon really explains away his sweeping renunciation of divisions, argues the importance of distinct method, and gives a beautiful outline of what it should be. His objection, therefore, is no more than a repudiating of the scholastic formality, and of the habit of pre-announcing the heads. I find Dr. J. W, Alexander, "Thoughts on Preaching," pp. 42, 52, 214 DIVISION OF THE ARGUMENT. 215 really clog and mangle a discourse/' that "there re- mains no true unity after such divisions, seeing they make two or three different discourses, which are joined into one only by an arbitrary connection." This objec- tion may be valid against divisions which are merely formal, but not against those which are natural. There cannot be a discourse without parts. Unity itself im- plies parts, and it does not consist in the amalgama- tion, but the orderly juncture of the various materials into one component whole. If the idea of this objec- tion were pushed to its full extent, it would require not only one head, but one single thought, so that the dis- course must either be shortened to a paragraph, or else expanded by mere repetition into a wearisome platitude. In the landscape, unity of impression is not gained by flattening the whole scene into a uniform, horizontal plane, but by the happy combination of the swelling hills, the smiling and undulating champaign, the field, the wood, the mansion and the water. The historical painting produces one effect, but it is by the grouping of several distinct and perhaps contrasted figures. A uniformity of colour would be no picture whatever, but under the name of "free writing," recommending composition with- out a plan and objecting to it as cramping and impoverisliing dis- course. This language might well prove very mischievous to the learner. The reason that Dr. Alexander could succeed without pre- vious method was that through mental culture and long experience, both in composition and extempore speaking, he had so thoroughly trained his powers that he was able to excogitate a true method easily and without conscious pause. Use had made the labour of arrange- ment so perfectly facile that it went on along with that of expres- sion. Of course he no longer needed the previous skeleton. Let not the tyro conclude thence that he can do the same. 216 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. a dingy, neutral expanse of canvas. The preacher must, then, at least divide his matter in his own mind in order to have method. All divisions of the main argument may be classed as Scholastic, Textual or Topical. The first is a legacy to us from the dialectics of the jNliddle Ages, and it is justly obnoxious to the accusations of the more rational and natural moderns like F^nelon. With an appear- ance of great naturalness and scripturalness, it is often really unnatural and unscriptural. .To the dominion of this method many of the blemishes of the Puritan preaching were due. It consists in first deducing from the text, by a suitable exposition, a strict proposition, and, second, in treating first the subject of this, then the predicate, and then the copula or affirmation. Every sermon must therefore have three heads — neither more nor less ; for, urged the scholastics, do not these three things compose every proposition ? Such a Procrustean bed must, of course, cramp or mangle nearly every subject which was stretched upon it. To explain it, let us take an instance as favourable to the method as can perhaps be found among import- ant texts. Eph. ii. 8 : " For by grace are ye saved." The proposition deduced must be this : " Salvation is gratuitous." The first head must discuss the question, What is salvation? the second, the notion of gratuity as predicated of God's salvation, and the third, the affirmation. Now, if one desired really to preach the proposition of the text (which is the text) the first and second heads should have been dispatched in the expli- cation, and the assertion of the copula should have occu- pied all the arirument, its heads consisting of the sev- DivrsroN OF the arv-^ument. 217 eral evidences which demonstrate the free grace of re- demption. Another example may be found in 1 Tim. i. ] 5. The proposition derived will be : " The gospel saying deserves universal acceptance." On the scholas- tic plan of division, the first head should treat of the gospel saying, viz.: "That Christ Jesus came into tlie world to save sinners." Here must be introduced the doctrine of Christ's incarnation and person, the legal and moral position of man as a sinner, and the nature of salvation. Will this l)e a division of tlie sermon,or a volume of theok)gy ? The second head will explain the 2)redicate, which is also complex, including, the spe- cies of faith which Christ claims, and the nature and universality of that claim on the conscience. Thus, before the i)reacher can j)ossibly arrive at the third head, the actual assertion of this claim, which properly is his only task in the main discussion, he is made to range over the common])laccs of nearly the whole of revealed theology ! Once more : 1 John iv. 8 presents us in its form an exact proposition : " God is love." The first head under the scholastic method would an- swer the question, What is the subject, God? Can there be a juster answer than that of the Catechism? " God is a spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth." The second head treats of love as simple be- nevolence, or the love of kindness, distinguished from the love of moral complacency, and defined by the ^lif- ferent postures and conditions of its objects, as grace, pity or mercy. What a vast range of topics, scriptural indeed and of sacred importance, yet irrelevant to that truth which should have been the delightful burden 19 218 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. of the whole discussion, God's benevolence, to lead us away from it! The Scholastic Division is, we thus see, faulty in its nature. Its usual error is to thrust into the third head what should be the real sermon, the main argu- ment, and to degrade the chief heads of that body into subdivisions of a division. If this old method (of which you will now seldom hear an example) is to be employed at all, it is only when the whole sermon is designed to be explanatory, and the affirmation of its proposition is intentionally compressed into a subordi- nate space. The Textual Division is simple, scriptural and beau- tiful in that class of texts and passages to which it fairly applies. It simply makes the distribution of the mat- ter of discussion as the phrases or commas of the text stand in the Scriptures, changing nothing except per- haps the order of the clauses among themselves. I ex- plain it in the following instance : 1 Cor. i. 30, " Who (Christ) of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteous- ness, and sanctification, and redemption^' The propo- sition is, " Christ is made of God our salvation." The heads are, because he is the source (1) of our sufficient illumination, (2) of our justification, (3) of our 23urifi- cation, and (4) (conclusion by summary) thus, of our complete redemption. Other instances, for which the textual division is suitable, may be seen in John xiv. 6 : *^I am the way, the truth, and the life.'' In Rom. viii. 30; in 2 Cor. vii. 11 and in 2 Pet. i. 5-7. Wherever it is applicable it should be preferred as doing honour to the Word, and as fixing it most prominently in the hearer's mind. DIVISION^ OF THE ARGUMENT. 219 But there are many texts where it cannot be fairly applied, because the several clauses or phrases into which the sacred Avriter has distributed his words were not intended by him to be logical distributions of mat- ter, but rhetorical amplifications or emphatic repetitions, and such like. Let us suppose that we were required to discuss Rom. ii. 8, 9 : God " will render . . . indig- nation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, to every soul of man that doeth evil." If we should adopt a textual division here according to the four words, and represent "indignation" as one species of the recompense of sin, " wrath" as a second and distinct one, " tribulation" as a third, and "anguish" as a fourth, we should out- rageously pervert the apostle's meaning. The passage is intensely animated : he uses, in the glow of his rhetoric, an amplilication of each of the pair of ideas (God's righteous anger, and the misery it visits on the guilty) which he would evolve. Many other verses are incapable of a textual division, because the words, whether few or many, really present but a single, undivided point. Such are these (John iii. 7), where the sole predication is the necessity of regeneration, and the words, by themselves, suggest nothing whatever, as to the heads of tlie evidence, which demonstrate that necessity. Snch is Heb. iv. 13: "Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight ; but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do." The only proposition for the preacher here is the assertion of God's omniscience of our spirits. In the explication you might briefly and appropriately touch the questions. What is meant by " manifest in his sight"? How are creatures' spirits "naked and 220 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. opened to him" ? What are God's eyes ? What is it which we '^ have to do'' with him? But if these should be made the heads of the main discussion, there woukl be a mischievous breach of unity and a real violation of the apostle's scope. That intent is to im- press us with God's perfect knowledge of all the acts and affections of our spirits. This result must be gained either by exemplifying or proving the truths asserted, under heads to be suggested, not by the phrases, but by the grounds of this truth itself. This, then, is the idea of the topical division. As- suming that the author of the text did not design to indicate the true divisions of his thought by his distri- bution of words, the preacher seeks them for himself in the logic of his subject. He does not indeed seek them in unscriptural sources, nor even in unscriptural forms of expression ; for the logic to which he goes for his divisions will be Bible-logic only. Having gathered these members of argument from the whole Scriptures, he will divide it according to its real discriminations of thought. Topical divisions w^ill usually fall under tw^o general classes. First, where the form of discussion is strictly demonstrative, the design being to prove a proposition •asserted, each distint3t branch of the argument will form a head of the discourse. The division in this case is obvious, as soon as the several evidences are collected and arranged. Second, in explanatory ser- mons the subject will be decomposed by descending from gfMUS to species. The truth unfolded will be set forth either in the parts which compose it, or in a series of different relations or aspects. For example, DIVISION OF THE ARGUMENT. 221 let the text be, ^' Honour thy father and thy mother/* and let us suppose that the task undertaken in the ser- mon is the didactic explanation of filial duty. This is composed of — 1. Respect; 2. Maintenance; 3. Obe- dience ; 4. Affection. Or, as an example of the second subdivision, let the text be Rom. xii. 11: Be ''not slothful in business," and the task of the preacher is the commendation of diligence. Its advantages may be set forth — 1. To one's self; 2. To one's family; 3. To so- ciety ; 4. To the Church. Or else the practical ser- mon may seek to enforce a duty : its several grounds or motives will in this case furnish the several heads, as in the class of demonstrative sermons. I would now announce a few rules of the most prac- tical nature, which, as 1 conceive, should always guide you in the forming of divisions, whether tliey be text- ual or topical. 1. Divisions should not be numerous. Although the sermon is a composition very dilferent from the drama, the limit affixed to the number of acts by Horace' is a safe one, at least on the major side. He prohibits more than five. Multiplied divisions are every way objec- tionable. They overburden the memory, whereas a real object of method is to aid memory. While they wear an appearance of great exactness, they are really inaccurate, because the necessities of an artificial sym- metry often constrain those who employ them to make a distinction wdiich is not according to a true difference. ^ Ep. ad Pisones, line 189 : "Neve minor, neu ssit qiiinto productior actu Fabula." 19* 222 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. They confuse and embarrass the hearer's mind. They destroy movement. They cast an air of insufferable dryness over a discourse. It is as though the tree, beautiful in the proportions of its stem, its branches, its twigs and its foliage, the natural constituent parts, were reduced to an unsightly heap of chips. 2. Whenever the topic of a head or division is an- nounced or defined, the same precept should govern which was given for the statement of the proposition, and for the same reasons. The language must be care- fully chosen for brevity, perspicuity and accuracy of meaning. The words must be discriminative, and they must not be numerous. To overload the mind of your hearer, in these critical sentences of your discussion, with obscure and involved expressions, is an unpardon- able fault. As I enjoined it on you to study the choice of words for announcing your subject until your phrase is as terse, brief and true as possible, so I repeat this injunction as to the statement of these divisions. , If you judge it admissible in any case to set out all your heads together at the beginning of the discussion, the terms ought to have that happy .appropriateness and ex- pressive brevity which will make it positively difficult for the hearer to forget them, and which will render them, after your subject is expanded, a correct miniature of the sermon. I recall just here a happy instance of such announcement in the sermon of an English divine on Matt, xxvii. 4. He announces as his subject the "Sorrow of Judas," and promises to treat, 1. Of its Origin; 2. Its Object; 3. Its Extent; and 4. Its Re- sult. Its origin is then shown to be self-love. Its ob- ject is only the shame and penalty of his crime. Its DIVISION OF THE ARGUMENT. 223 extent is only a flagrant secular transgression. And its result is damnation. Here are four simple but mas- terly strokes of the pencil, giving a suggestive outline of the whole picture. They are also discriminative and scriptural, as well as natural and easy, for they delineate the essential difference between spurious and genuine repentance. 3. The heads must, each one, present a branch of the discussion distinct from the othei*s, and co-ordinate with them in relation to the main subject. Never make a " division without a difference." The inevitable re- sult is confusion and error ; for the lines of thousfht in the two divisions being virtually the same, the preacher will be guilty of anticipation and repetition. It is not enough that the heads be truly distinct; they must also be co-ordinate. If the real relation of a thought is sul> ordinate to that which you propose to make your second head, it is a vicious arrangement to exalt it into a first, or /I third head, and to give it a separate treatment. It should be reduced to a subdivision of the head under which it belongs, that it may be promptly and correctly treated under its own class. A moment's reflection will show you that the attempt to expand it independently must introduce repetition or obscurity. 4. The division should be thorough. My meaning is, that it should comprehend the full strength of the proposition which you undertake. In topical sermons that proposition may not be exhaustive of the whole meaning of the text ; for I have expressly allowed the preacher, after fairly indicating in his explication the whole meaning of the text, to tell liis hearers that there • is too much in it for one discussion, and to undertake 224 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. the argument of only a part. In textual divisions the rule of thoroughness also applies in this sense, that no member of the text must be omitted in the division. The preacher must urge all that the sacred writer has urged in that place which is chosen for a text. This precept is grounded on the obvious reason that you are bound to do justice to God's truth : you are not per- mitted, after undertaking its presentation, to make a partial betrayal of its strength by the omission of a con- stituent ground of its force. It is not the part of a faithful herald to emasculate his king's message of any part of its authority. For example, the preacher who undertakes to present the scriptural evidences that Christ's suiferings w^ere punishment, and made a vica- rious satisfaction for guilt, has no right to intimate that he has done, before he has given the important argu- ment for this truth, drawn from the nature of the Levitical sacrifices and the Redeemer's relation to them as an antitype. This would be to maim God's truth. Such a rule implies, obviously, that the preacher is not to be guided by mere originality in selecting his materials. He must " bring forth from his treasury things new and old ;" he must be willing to act, not as an inventor, but an expounder ; he is humbly and faith- fully to teach the people all those known but funda- mental truths which other generations of ministers have taught to their contemporaries. Two objections may pre- sent themselves to your minds. The one is, that my rule may compel you to prolong your sermon inordi- nately, if you must not stop until you have exhibited the whole force of the Scripture argument. I reply, license must always be left to every reasoner, as to the DIVISION OF THE ARGUMENT. 225 extent to which he shall expand his arguments. If time forbids more, remaining heads may at least be named, with' an advertisement to your hearers of the force you claim for them ; or the people may be ex- pressly told that you have not done, and that another sermon must follow to complete the truth. The other objection is, that I seem to require every minister, how- ever humble his natural gifts, to equal the force of the greatest masters. I answer, that I do require of every minister, however humble his natural endowments, com- petency for his sacred work. I do not expect him, in- deed, to rival the animation, felicity, imagination or splendour of the great genius; but I demand of him that he shall be substantially master of his subject, that he shall use the diligence required for declaring the whole counsel of God concerning it, in his own plain and homely way. This he can do, if he is faith- ful, without genius. 5. The parts must be ranked. Inter se, in an order which is convenient and germinant. The requirements of movement and climax have already been enforced in my remarks on the structure of argument. The heads nuist also follow each other in such order that this con- sideration, which prepares the way for the facile compre- hension of that other, shall precede. We thus gain the greatest economy of words, time and effort. It is also most desirable that the divisions be ranked in a germi- nant order, so that the first shall lead to the second, and the second to the third, by an easy and graceful transition. This is necessary to maintain the continuity of discourse, and to avoid the feeling of a- shock or jolt in the movement. Nothing adds more to the grace of 226 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. discourse than pleasing ti'ansitions. When the matter of the divisions does not furnish these obviously, they should be carefully sought out. An apt illustration, an episode, an incident, a contrast, briefly introduced, may furnish the stepping-stone which is needed, for a happy passage from one part of the discussion to another. ^ ^ The young preacher may, at first, find the application of these principles touching method and division intricate and arduous. Let me advise you, then, to concede all that can be allowed to the infirm- ity of our understandings, and by doing one thing at a time, to lighten this labour as much as may be. Explore the field and collect the materials first, without troubling yourselves at that stage with questions of arrangement. After satisfying yourselves that you have substan- tially the whole ground before you, inspect each part, so as to become well acquainted with it. Then proceed to the important question of arrangement after these labours of discovery are completed. Do not hesitate to Use, in your private preparation, every convenience, such as written memoranda of heads, which may assist the labours of recol- lection and comparison. Then, at length, after your method is digested, begin the actual composition (if the sermon is to be written). Let me exemplify my advice. We will suppose, for instance, that the task I have set myself is to prepare for preaching on the next Sabbath on Kora. iii. 20: "Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight," and that I propose to treat it doctrinally, under a topical division, as a " capital text," or important point in divinity. Such a sermon presents us the plainest instance of the questions of arrangement. The proposition is quickly and certainly deduced : " Justification is not because of the merit of the believer's works," I proceed to study authorities, as time allows: first the Holy Scrip- tures, and then the soundest treatises, such as those of Turrettin and Owen. As I read I keep pencil and paper by me, and jot down every- thing which strikes me as possibly a point for the argument. I read on until I find from the recurrence of ideas already gathered, that I have apparently explored the whole field of discussion, at least in all DIVISION OF THE ARGUMENT. 227 There remains one more question touching division on which modern authorities are divided. It is whether all the heads of a sermon must be pre-announced to- ils important outlines. The result, we will suppose, is the following ininiethodical list: The merit of the believer's works does not justify : Because by the law is the knowledge of sin. Because all works are imperfect, while the law is absolute in its claims. Because St. Paul excludes moral and ceremonial works. Because the Bible says justification is gratuitous. Because remission (a cardinal part of justification) implies no payment. Because the Bible says, "justification not of law." Because this would derpgate from Christ's honour and inflate pride. Because future obedience does not pay past debts. Because true good works are only efiects of, and so consequent on, justification. Because justification is "by faith," but faith is receptive in its acting. Because of Scripture testimonies, such as Rom. iv. 5; xi. 6 ; Gal. ii. 16 ; Tit. iii. 5, etc., declaring the same doctrine. You will observe that my list has no marks or numbers as yet to indicate any order. It apparently contains eleven separate points — a number entirely too large for a sermon. Let us carefully inspect them. One thing which we soon perceive is, that the third, sixth and eleventh })oints are substantially similar, being all scriptural tes- timonies directly to the proposition. Let us reduce them to one head by groui)ing them together. The fourth and tenth are also so cog- nate, that they can without error be fused into one argument ; for the purely receptive nature of faith in its actings about justification shows that this is gratuitous — faith being confessedly its instrument. The seventh point also is manifestly so near akin to these, that its force can be saved by making it a sequel or consequence under them. Boasting is excluded, and Christ claims all the glory, only because the work is gratuitous and man's agency in it simply receptive. The first, fifth and eighth points are also cognate. The function of the law, now that we have broken it, is to ascertain our debt of guilt; subsequent 228 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. gether, before the discussion of any is begun. The scholastic and many of the Puritan preachers require this ; and Doddridge even urges their repetition a second obedience, however meritorious, cannot pay this off, and remission, the petition of every believing sinner, is release of the debt without payment from him. After these unions, there remain five independ- ent points, which, written again in their chance order, are the following : All works are imperfect ; but the claims of the law are absolute. St. Paul and other Scripture authorities expressly exclude the law and the merit of woiks. Justification is declared gratuitous, faith's only agency in it is re- ceptive, no boasting is left to man, and Christ claims all. Remission (a leading part of justification) requires no payment ; and this, future obedience, when once the law ascertains our debt, cannot do. True good works are effects, and so cannot be causes, of justification. In this list no heterogeneous arguments are grouped together. The number of heads is no longer too large, yet all the points are intel- ligibly introduced in such connections that they support each other better than when separated. It now only remains that we inspect our five heads again, to determine an order of sequence for them, inter se, which shall be germinant, logical and progressive. I promptly perceive that the head which stands second above, consisting of a group of express proof-texts, should come last, as making an end of debate by the authority of God. I therefore assign it in my mind to the fifth place, thus disembarrassing further questions of order by one element, at least. I also perceive that the point of argument which stands fourth in the list is nearest akin to the first; foi', in un- folding the senses in which God's law is absolute, I must show that it demands perpetual as well as perfect obedience ; in failure of which, it puts in an inexorable penal claim. Here, then, is the logical and natural transition from the one head to the other, in the idea of debt, which works cannot pay. I determine, therefore, that the fourth must immediately follow the first. I also see that these must be (in the order last named) the first two heads of the sermon, because neither of the remaining two is introductory to the others. The head last in the list is most proper to close the reasoning, both because the fact which is its prennse (that good works are fruits of DIVISION OF THE ARGUMENT. 229 time. They claim that this assists the memory of the hearer to retain the sermon ; that it is necessary to his comprehension of its method and plan; that it defines to him more clearly the precise point of the main prop- osition, which otherwise he is apt to misconceive ; that it enables him to relieve his restlessness, by marking oif the stages of the discourse, and thus calculating how much is still coming ; and that if momentary inattention supervenes, the hearer can still, by his^ recollection of the heads, regain the thread of discourse. But it is objected by many others that the precej)ts and examples of the classic orators are against this usage, for they did not proclaim their intended divisions in advance; and Cicero advises that they be studiously justification) is evinced by the previous, and because it lias a sharp, demonstrative force wliich fits it for the climax. I resolve, there- fore, that it shall be my fourth head. It only remains to assign the head not yet numbered to the third place, where it coheres well with what i)recedes. The work of arrangement is now complete as to the main heads of the discussion, and gives us this result: The merit of our works does not justify ; because, 1. All works are imperfod ; but the claims of the divine law are ab$ohitit. 2. Remission excludes paymenl, and this a condemned man's obe- dience cannot make. 3. Hence justification gratuitous, faith's agency in it receptive, and boasting excluded. 4. True good works are effects, and so cannot be causes, of justifi- cation. 5. Paul and others confirm— Cite and apply. Evasions and objec- tions noted at their appropriate places. Does this process appear to you long and careful? 1 do not con- ceal the fact that it is, and should be so. But ther,, it gains for us an inestimable advantage— that of thorough metliod. This necessary quality cannot be bought cheaper. 20 230 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. and intentionally concealed until the proper time for the disclosure of each.^ The example of other depart- ments of popular eloquence is against Doddridge's rule : their masters do not pre-announce any heads of dis- course. This practice casts over the whole discourse an artificial and premeditated air, which must be detri- mental to its movement and emotion. It seems to advertise the hearer in advance that all the preaclier's seeming artlessness and impulses are artificial. It takes off the edge of curiosity, producing some of the same evil effect, which the study of a meagre abridgment works upon the student of science. It confines and cramps the genius of the speaker, which, when ani- mated by effort and sym^jathy, might otherwise strike impromptu upon thoughts nobler than any which were premeditated. Such are the arguments of the two parties. The latter seem to me to have the right, especially since it is easy to obviate the force of all that is urged by the first. It is true that people often show a singular and perverse ingenuity in missing the true point of the most plainly announced proposition ; but I showed you, that the proper place to guard against this is the expli- cation which leads to the proposition. If this is what it should be, it will leave no possibility of mistake for any one who attends. The speaker, again, should so speak as not to produce restlessness in his hearer : if this arises, no mode could be easily conceived more effectual for disappointing the real ends of discourse, than to set the hearer to counting the coming heads, to see how much 1 De Orat., Bk. ii. DIVISION OF THE ARGUMENT. 231 lonofer he was to be wearied. I required that the prop- osition should be so announced as to obtrude it effectually upon the attention of all. It is this which will give the sufficient clue to any part of the discussion, if the method is really perspicuous. This method should so develop itself to the hearer, as the discourse proceeds, that its members shall be obvious ; and it is this very disclosure of the structure which should stimulate and charm the attention. Rhetorical discourse should be a beautiful, living growth, which results in setting its full-formed product before the delighted sj^ectator, ob- vious in the harmony and completeness of the parts. It is not an anatomical synthesis which gives us a ghastly skeleton upon which to build some dead model. And finally, if recollection of the sermon is desirable for the hearer, let him be aided in this by an animated re- capitulation at the close, instead of a dry prc-announce- ment at the beginning. The former, as we have seen, will possess the immeasurable advantage of recalling the parts of the discourse, not as dry bones, but as full- formed, warm and glowing members. For these rea- sons I should dissuade from the formal recital of heads at the beginning of the argument, except in a few cases, where didactic accuracy is the object, rather than rhetorical impression. But you will not consider me here as retracting any- thing that I have urged in favour of right method. The preacher is imperatively bound to have this, primarily for liimself, and ultimately for his hearers. His own perception of his arrangement should be per- fect when he begins to speak ; his hearer's view of it should be correct when he is done. The development 232 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. of Ill's subject must Jbe a development of his method also, and the latter must be so lucid that it will be im- possible for the intelligent listener to misconceive it. He is thus enabled to carry away all the substance of the discourse in a compact arrangement. LECTURE XVI. PERSUASION. RHETORIC is familiarly called the " art of persua- sion," and there is a popular sense in which the whole work of the orator is suasive, in that it aims to produce a practical determination of the hearer's will. But man is a creature of understanding and of affections ; his soul not only sees, but feels. We infer, therefore, that the rhetorical discourse should deal not only with the intellect (to produce mental conviction), but with the affections to direct the motives.^ The former part of our work we call argument, the latter, in its special sense, persuasion. While those moral emotions, to which alone the sacred orator may lawfully appeal, are all ra- tional affections arising only upon a view of truth in the understanding, yet there are facts and laws belong- ing to man^s emotive system which must also be re- garded in dealing successfully with it. Hence the necessity for this department of our science. When we consider how man is prompted to act, we perceive that the true cause of his volition is always from him- ^ Qninctil., L. iii., c. 5, §^1,2: Facultas orandi coneummatnr na- tura, arte, exercitatione; cui quartam partem adjiciunt quidani inii- tationis; quam nos arti subjiciraus. Tria sunt autem, quae prsestare debet orator, ut doeeat, moveat, delectet. Hsec enim clarior divisio, qnain eoruni, qui lotuui opus in res et in afFectus partiuntur. 20 * 233 234 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. self, or from within. The objective inducement to choice is but the occasion; the souFs own view and feeling are the efficient cause of action. The activity of his nature, as guided by his own intelligence, pro- jects itself toward its appropriate object, and this spon- taneous appetency is the true motive of choice. The etymological relation between the words " emotion" and " motive'^ gives correct expression to a truth. It is the emotions which immediately move the will. To pro- duce volition it is not enough that the understanding be convinced ; aifection must also be aroused. The ob- ject held before the soul must be shown to belong to the category of the true, and also to that of the good ; for where the latter aspect is not present to receive the appetency of the soul, the truth of the object is as po\v- erless to produce movement as though it were fiction. No man is induced to arise and go to the modern Ophir by the most convincing assurance that it contains abund- ance of waste earth or stones. This is no more to him, although admitted to be certain, than the idlest dream of Utopia. But when he has credible testimony that there is gold there, and that '^ the gold of that land is good," he may form the purpose of going. This is be- cause gold is to his nature an object of desire. If you would induce your hearer to adopt a given course, you must not only prove to his wisdom that it is the proper means to its end, but you must show to his heart that the end is desirable. Hence all suasive discourse, whatever its particular topic, may be reduced to two elements — that which places the proposition in the category of tlie true, and that which shows it in the category of the good. Both elements are essential to the oration. The PERSUASION. 235 latter may be present only by implication, but unless it is virtually present there is no rhetorical discourse. Although this is so obvious, you will still find a gen- eral prejudice against what is popularly termed an "ap- peal to feeling.'^ Men argue that truth should be the guide of the righteous man's actions, and not mere emotion. They imagine that because the understand- ing is the directive faculty, its decisions are always cor- rect, and the impulses of feeling are blind. Hence they conclude that he who appeals to their understandings deals honourably and beneficially with them, while he who appeals to their feelings is seeking to abuse their natures. And especially do they judge the latter expe- dient unworthy of the preacher of the gospel, whose message is infallible truth, and whose professed motive is absolute disinterestedness. Let us examine this prejudice. I think it may be accounted for by two facts. The soul is often abused by an appeal to irrelevant and im- proper feelings. The hearers are sinners, whose emo- tions are in a state of moral disease. The false orator who, to gain some end, aggravates that disease of heart in some direction, has indeed done their nature a cruel wrong. But there are also relevant and proper feel- ings. The strength and prevalence of these are not a fault, but a virtue of the soul ; so that he who enables us to enhance them is as obviously our benefactor, as he who enlightens our understandings. If the prosecutor of a man accused of crime should urge his judges to convict him because he was their ancient enemy, ap- pealing to hatred and the lust of revenge in their breasts, this would be most criminal ; but if the advo- 236 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. cate, while demonstrating by proof that the accused was a proper object of moral indignation, should appeal to that sentiment, to the love of justice, and to the benevo- lent desire for order and the safety of innocent citizens, to procure his condemnation, this would be legitimate ; for the truth itself teaches us that these are proper motives for a magistrate, and consequently their preva- lence in him is his virtue. When men condemn the in- citement of right emotions because we are liable to be abused by the incitement of the wrong ones, they very strangely forget that, by the same argument, they might condemn a just appeal to the understanding; for is not the reason often abused by logical sophisms? Indeed, the appeal to logic should be regarded with even more suspicion than the appeal to feeling, when we regard the second fact, which is the following : The sophism imposed on the understanding is far less likely to be detected by the victim. By the very reason that it has been successfully imposed, he remains unconscious that it is a fallacy ; he makes no eifort to apply the logical -criteria by which its falsehood would be exposed ; be- cause, having accepted it as sound argument, he does not dream that there is any cause for desiring to test it. But those criteria do not usually apply themselves with- out his volition. The conscience, on the other hand, is an intuitive and imperative faculty : she pronounces her unchangeable verdict, and as soon as the din of passion subsides, it is heard, and it recalls the heart at once to a sense of the right. Thus, the sophistical ap- peal to emotion is in most instances unavoidably and speedily detected; while the sophistical api)eal to the understanding is likely to escape discovery just in the PERSUASION. 237 degree it is mischievous. Does not this fact, while it naturally accounts for men's jealousy of the former, show that there is more reason to be jealous of the lat- ter ? There are two thieves : the first steals frequently, and he is always so maladroit as to be detected and punished ; hence he has an execrable reputation. The second steals far more frequently, but he is so skilful a knave that he is not even suspected ; whence his name is very fair ; but he is the more dangerous rogue of the two. The truth, then, lies in this simple question : Granting that the understanding is the directive faculty of the soul, I ask, to what does it direct? You answer: To man's proper good. True ; and this good is the ob- ject of desire. Whence it a])pears that desire is what the understanding has to guide. Without the move- ment of rio-ht desire, its directive function is as vain as that of the needle on a ship which is becalmed. The attempt to propagate suitable emotions is, then, lawful for the speaker; yea, there is no argument which does not implicitly do it. You will reason with men : ^* This conduct is for your interest." You may profess to have restricted yourself to simple evidence; but just in the degree in which your argument is conclusive, you make a virtual appeal to self-love. You demonstrate : " This course is for the good of our neighbour." You have made an appeal to benevolence. You show : " This act is dangerous." You resort to your hearer's fear. Again, every man practices this rhetoric of per- suasion upon himself. AVe are continually aware that our right affections are too low for their proper objects. We feel that it is not only right, but obliga- tory, to use expedients for their enhancement, and we 238 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. recognize him as our moral benefactor who assists us to effect it. Since the legitimacy of the art of po^rsuasion depends upon our resorting to the appropriate feelings, the first question to be answered is : To what class of emotions may the preacher appeal ? I reply, only to the moral and spiritual. If the emotions of taste and of social life are evoked, it must be only for the purpose of reach- ing the former by their means. Only one w^ord of argu- ment is required to show that the sensual and malig- nant passions must never be aroused ; for this ^yould be io do positive evil under the pretence " that good may come.'^ The damnation of such teachers is just. But, more, the one ulterior end of preaching is the holiness of the hearers. Now, moral motive alone leads to moral volition, whence it is clear that the preacher who satisfies himself with stimulating the natural sensibil- ities of taste and social affection has really done nothing toward 'his proper task; while he runs an imminent risk of deluding men with the vain counterfeit of nat- ural emotions about religion, in place of true religious emotion. In dealing with the moral and spiritual affections, the preacher has one capital advantage and disadvan- tage. His disadvantage is that he finds all these affec- tions perverted in fallen man. The susceptibilities for love of God, legitimate self-love, love of man, love of holiness, repentance, hope, fear, moral complacency, are not destroyed (they are fundamental traits of his con- stitution as a rational and responsible creature), but they are radically corrupted in all their actings. His feeling toward God is either open enmity, or a deceitful, PERSUASION. 239 sentimental admiration for his natural perfections. His desire of well-being is inordinate self-love. His re- pentance is guiky remorse. His fear is the fear of hatred. His moral complacency is degraded into pride. His hope is selfish delusion. Conscience alone, God's witness in the soul, retains her integrity, although the medium of her vision is partially obscured^ and her ver- dicts often unheeded. The preacher's chief hope, then, is to deal with the conscience and to arouse her action. How can he successfully employ the other affections, wdiich, if aSvakened, will act only in a ])erverse direc- tion ? His suasive work, then, would be hopeless with- out his capital advantage. This is the promised power of the Holy Ghost, quickening the dead soul and new- creating its diseased affections. Here is the sacred and glorious distinction between the posture of the true, gos- pel minister, and of the secular orator — that this spirit- ual agency is real and almighty, and that the objective truth and good which the servant of the gospel places before the perverted heart are made the instruments of this promised, divine inworking. Whenever the Spirit breathes, the icy bonds of spiritual death are dissolved, and the hearer's soul is thus enabled to respond legiti- mately to its proper, spiritual inducements. Human skill in the work of persuasion must obviously be in strict subordination to this divine agency, and in strict conformity to its instrument, divine truth. 1. The most essential maxim of the art is thus sug- gested to us in a light which requires no further argu- ment. Study the structure of man's religious emotions as portrayed in the Bible. No human knowledge of the human heart can approach the value of this divine dis- 240 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. closure of its Avorkings under the application of the truth. And we discover here, doubtless, a j)art of God's purpose in giving us in Scripture so many pic- tures of the religious affections of renewed and of un- renewed men. He designed to instruct his ministers how to deal with those affections. Ponder these pic- tures. Discover the springs of motive there disclosed. Apply those incentives to feeling which are there repre- sented as effective. Expect men to be rightly moved, as you see them moved there, and no otherwise. 2. You must remember these two facts, that an in- crease of the moral emotions cannot be made a direct and immediate object of volition, and that their defi- ciency is a moral defect, implying reproach against him who exhibits such lack. These two statements, when explained, will together teach us some important rules. First, then, it is plain that a man cannot by a mere, direct act of volition, cause himself to love what he does not love, or to regret what he does not regret. This is sufficiently evident from the fact that these emotions are themselves related to volition as cause to effect. The effect cannot determine its own cause. The emotion of love, in some degree, must be a priori to a vo'ition to seek its object in love. Only an existing regret for a fault can prompt a wish to feel regret for it.- It is, therefore, unreasonable to make a direct preceptive de- mand upon the emotions, as we do upon the attention. When we wish to establish conviction of a proposition in our hearer's understanding, we directly challenge his attention to our proofs. This is reasonable, for atten- tion may be immediately directed by his volition. But it is with the emotions as with the nerves of involun- PERSUASION. 241 tary motion in the body. If the labourer strikes amiss in wielding his instrument, we properly command him to direct his blows differently ; they are guided by his will. If the physician finds tliat his patient's heart beats too rapidly, and is consequently wearing out his life with a nervous fever, it is simply foolish to bid him qi5iet its beats by his will ; for the nerves by which it acts belong to another system, on which volition does not act. What, then, can the physician do ? He can command his patient to employ the voluntary muscles of his hand, mouth and throat, to receive and swallow a potion of veratrim, or some such drug, which by its medical virtue stills the over-action of the heart. It is thus, only indirectly, that the patient can employ his will to control the organ. So, the pulsations of man's spiritual heart do not obey a direct volition of his will; he can only bend his attention to the consideration of those trutlis and fact§ which, through the healing touch of the divine Physician, occasion a healthy beat of the soul. The other fact is, that deficient or wrong moral emo- tions are proper subjects of reproach, for they are sins. When the preacher proposes to communicate to his hearer the proofs of a given proposition, he thereby implies an imputation of ignorance; the very under- taking assumes that the hearer is less informed of this evidence than himself But this is no just reproach against the hearer, because it is the preacher's business to be better informed than he of sacred truth. If the religious teacher is not, he is unfit for his profession. To assume such deficiency of knowledge and opinion, and to announce expressly the purpose of correcting it 21 • ' 242 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORiC. are therefore no discourtesy to his audience. So, like- wise, it is reasonable to make a direct requisition upon their attention. But to advertise your hearer that you design to make him feel more adequately is to accuse him of delinquency. To announce to him that you aim to enhance his gratitude is to charge him with in- gratitude. It is not unnatural that he should repel the accusation, and steel himself against your appeal. It appears hence, that while the purpose to convince the understanding may be pre-announced, the design of moving the heart may not be. You will not miscon- ceive me as denvinaj here the sinfulness of wrong; affec- tions, and the duty of testifying against these, as against all other sins. When your design is reprehension, that which is wrong must of course be reprehended, what- ever may be the offence. I intend only to show you the indiscretion of beginning an attempt to conciliate and allure right affections with what is necessarily felt as an implied assault. Hence I draw these rules : That the purpose of per- suading should not be pre-announced : Let the work be done, and not advertised. ^ And that it is useless to urge right feeling by mere hortation : Let the preacher present, instead, those truths which are the objects of moral -emotion. The presentation of the objects of right affection is both by argument and by description. Since the soul's 1 Cicero de Orat., L. ii., c. 77, g 310. "Et quoniam (quod saepe dixi) tribus rebus omnes ad nostram sententiam perducimus, aut do- cendo, aut conciliando, aut permovendo, una ex omnibus his rebus res prse nobis est ferenda, ut nihil aliud nisi docere velle videa- mur," etc. PERSUASION. 243 seeing is in order to its feeling, and it only feels as it sees, no foundation can be validly laid for an appeal to the emotions without argument ; and the evidence alone is often enough to set before the soul that which be- comes the object of its emotion, in the most vivid light. Accordingly, there is a species of moral and religious argument which, while severely logical, affects the in- telligent hearer with profound feeling. Such was the preaching of Jonathan Edwards and of Thornwell ; and such spiritual logic is the noblest basis upon which to build all the other parts of sacred eloquence. But in many other cases, descriptive painting must be employed to present to the soul affecting images of the truth. It is in this work especially, that the faculty of imagination must be employed. And now that I have uttered this much-abused word, let me protest at once against your receiving it in the perverted, popular sense. By imagination I do not mean the miserable facility of clothing commonplace thoughts in borrowed tropes. This habit, instead of evincing imagination, is more frequently an indication of its absence, and of a mind weak and beggarly in its creative power. Nor do 1 mean that trait of mind sometimes denominated by the word *^ fancy" — an aptitude for seeing picturesque resemblances between ideas and the visible objects of nature. This also is no index of constructive power. The imagination is rather the recreative faculty : it is the power of combining the elements of conception fur- nished by the memory into organic forms which, as wholes, are new. It is that faculty by which the soul constructs complex images out of the separate parts, with truth and distinctness. The constituent parts are 244 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. indeed old, being ideas derived from perception; but the wholes are, for that mind, proper creations. While the complex images are only conceived, and not seen with the senses, they are, to the vigorous imagination, life-like ; they have, to the consciousness and emotions of the soul which forms them, all the force of realities. It is by the force of this representative faculty that noble and strong souls affect themselves, by anticipa- tion or by retrospect, with powi!rful moral emotions. For instance, the wise and magnanimous patriot, by forecasting the distant but certain dangers of his country, rfects himself in advance with a zeal and grief and de- sire, as ardent as those which duller souls can feel under the actual experience of the present calamity. It is this anticipative passion, kindled through the imagination, which nerves his soul to prepare, to watuh, to strive, to bleed for his country's defence, while others are as yet unconcerned, and are perhaps accusing him of extrava- gance. It was thus that St. Paul's masculine and sanctified imagination painted to him a picture of the future but unseen ruin of souls, so moving as to fire his heart with that love and zeal which, to meaner and colder natures, appeared lunacy.^ It is from this emo- tion, in view of absent and future objects, that all man's virtuous activities as a being of forecast proceed. And the» sentiment of beauty at beholding a smiling land- scape is not more immediately the aesthetic effect of visual perception, than is rational emotion concerning absent objects the effect of imagination. Such is the nature and such are the value and power 1 2 Cor. V. 13 ; Luke xix. 41-43. PERSUASION. 245 of this imperial faculty of the soul. The descriptive power is but au application of it. In this work the poet or orator only translates into words that picture which is bodied forth before his own conception. This remark justifies the following practical precept, that in order to describe well the speaker must first conceive well to himself. If you would cultivate this power, you should first represent to yourself the faithful and exact and lively image of that picture which you wish to convey to your hearers ; and then, holding ii fixed before the conception, merely recite to them in true and vivid terms the essential outlines of what you see. Your task is simply that of Rebecca the Jewess, when she stood look- ing from the loophole to describe to the prostrate knight, Ivanhoe, the assault which was passing before her eyes. Looking into the window of your own conception, you merely read to the listeners without what you see writ- ten there by the pencil of the imagination. Descriptive eloquence must combine perspicuity of images, definiteness of outline and brevity. Tedious- ness or prolixity is more fatal to movement and effect here than anywhere else. Description is a species of substitute for mental vision ; like vision, it must be rapid, almost instantaneous. Yet a certain particular- ity is requisite, for general outlines are ever vague, and vagueness cannot affect the soul. The master-hand, therefore, usually constructs its pictures by selecting a few particular traits which are suggestive of the whole filling up, and drawing them with a rapid anosed that he alone was a real character among the mimics, so complete was the assumption of the natural passions of the part. See also Cicero de Orat., L. ii., c. xlvi., ^ 193. " Quid potest esse tarn fictum quam versus, quam scena, quara fabula? Tamen in hoc genere saepe ipse vidi quum ex persona mi hi ardere oculi hominis histrionia viderentur e sponda ilia dicentis : * Segregare abs te ausus, aut sine illo Salamina ingredi Neque paternum adspectum ©a veritus ?' Nunquam ilium ^adspectum' dicebat, quin mihi Telamon iratus furere luctu filii videretur." M. Bautain (Art of Extempore Speech, ch. iv., ■§ 3) expresses an op- posite view, not unnatural to one who only knew the intensely shal- low and artificial stage of modern Paris. Says he: "The actor, in a word, is obliged to grimace morally as well as physically; and on this account, even when most successful, when most seeming to feel what he impersonates, as he in general feels it not, something of this is perceptible," etc. Tins may be true of French actors ; but if it is, it proves them poor actors. The true power of the drama is only felt when the scenic passions are real for the time. ' See previous note, and De Orat., L. ii., c. xlvi., ^§ 191, 194. Quinctil., L. vi., c. i., §§ 44, 45. 250 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. But the emotions which the preacher aims to propa- gate are the moral and spiritual. It is these, then, by which he must be possessed and animated. In other words, in order to be capable of any power of persua- sion, you must be men of ardent and genuine religious affections. You must be men of faith and prayer; you must live near the cross and feel " the powers of the world to come.'' We thus learn again the great truth that it is divine grace which makes the true minister. For acting through the law of sympathy upon your audience, certain practical cautions are necessary. The disclosure of your own emotion must not too far outrun the temper of the congregation, lest it should appear to them from their cooler position extravagance. The effect of such an impression would be that the chasm between them and yourself would be widened, instead of being closed by their elevation to your level. If, then, the audience is calm at the beginning, the passion of the speaker must be restrained. The disclosure of your emotion may be either a direct display or an in- voluntary betrayal. The happiest effect is produced in the latter case, where the orator is manifestly labouring to keep an ardent tide of passion under restraint, but it bursts somewhat over its barriers in spite of his self- command. This suggests to the auditors at once the sincerity of his feeling and the exceedingly weighty and moving nature of the subject by which he is pos- sessed. They are thus powerfully prepared to be moved by it, even before they come to a comprehension of its moment. As the apostle declares concerning an im- pulse more immediately divine, "the spirits of the prophets are subject unto the prophets.'' The preacher PERSUASION. 251 should never permit his emotion to overmaster his facul- ties ; it should rather elevate and strengthen them. When passion becomes a helpless agitation, destroying the poise and self-command of the memory, understanding and imagination, precipitating the preacher into disor- der and mental anarchy, the impression of power at once gives place to that of impotency ; and his audience, instead of being wielded by him, begin to pity him or to be disgusted by him.* '' Therefore use all gently, for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance tliat may give it smoothness.''^ 4. The highest skill of the orator is displayed in era- ploying the great law of suggestion in his hearers' minds, to extend his power over their emotions and to give warmth to their apprehensions of sacred truth. You must remember that this hiw includes not only perceptions and conceptions, but emotions also. A percei)tion or conception may suggest a separate emo- tion by the tie of association, or one feeling may suggest another, as truly as the sight of a memento may suggest the image of an absent friend. Your own consciousness will furnish you with striking instances of this fact. One has lately received some painful intelligence, by which he has been deeply afflicted. But his equanimity has been again restored by the lapse of time. His eye now falls upon some ' Bautain, ch, ii., ^ 1. " But if sensibility must be strong, it must nevertheless not be excited to excess, for it then renders expression impossible from the agitation of the mind." . . . "Christian feeling is never intemperate, never disorderly." ' Hamlet's instructions to the players. 252 LECTURES OX SACRED- RHETORIC. spot, or some utensil of daily use, and forthwith his mind is tinged with sadness and pain without any con- scious cause. The effect is at first unaccountable to himself, until he remembers that his attention happened to be occupied by that place or object, at the moment when the stroke of the calamity reached him. The feeble tie of association, formed by a mere, momentary juxtaposition before his mind, has so linked the percep- tion with the emotion, that the sight of the one revives the other, even without any thought of the original and real cause of the grief. The power of mementoes and of places over the soul is to be explained by the same law. The sight of the home or playground of our child- hood suffuses our hearts with a tender and pleasing melancholy, even before memory has placed before us the images of those beloved persons who peopled them. Now this well-established fact implies another, upon which indeed the subsequent association depends — that when the soul is possessed by an ardent feeling, a part of its warmth is reflected upon any object which coexists with it, however distinct and indifferent it may otherwise be. The mind when thus heated becomes, as it were, a furnace which communicates a portion of its glow to anything which is then introduced within it. It is this fact of which the masterly orator avails him- self, to quicken the feeling of his hearers toward any truths which otherwise would be uninteresting to them. He finds them callous to the spiritual affections which his message should awaken ; if he leaves it thus, how- ever perspicuous he may have made it to their under- standings, it will lie cold and fruitless in their minds. What can he do? He seeks to awaken some congru- PERSUARIOX. 253 ous natural emotion, legitimate in its moral character, and kindred to the holier feeling which he would im- plant, and while the soul is glowing with the former he thrusts in the sacred truth. Thenceforward it is imbued with some of the warmth which animated the hearer ; it attracts the quickened attention ; it begins to be impressive to the soul. Thus, for example, have I seen a skilful orator arouse the parental love of an ob- durate, ungodly man, by his domestic portraiture; and when the rugged soul was all melted with this, the only soft emotion native to it, the preacher so pressed home the claims of his parental responsibility to his chil- dren's souls and the guilt of parental neglect, as to fix pungent conviction of sin in the hardened heart. So, natural fear, awakened by a graphic picture of the sin- ner's danger, may communicate its colouring to the timely charge of transgression, andjquicken the sense of its justice into wholesome alarm of conscience. Nat- ural grief, evoked by a touching picture of bereavement, may be made to impress the Kedeemer's precept that we shall " lay up our treasures in heaven," or to make us feel the preciousness of gospel consolation and hope. Do you ask how occasion is to be found for arousing these appropriate natural emotions? I answer, this must be done by the preacher's descriptive po\\'er. The passages which present these moving pictures may often be legitimate developments of his subject. Or else they may be introduced as illustrations of logical thought or definition, presented in the course of his argument. And here is the last element of value in well-chosen illustrations, which I promised, when speaking of them, to unfold to you. They not only define to the mind 22 254 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. the point of the argument, and so facilitate its compre- hension — they not only associate the light of its evi- dence with the vivid pleasure of an apt but unforeseen resemblance — they awaken congruous emotion, from which the coexisting truth borrows to itself warmth and colouring. And this is the crowning reason why the power of happy illustration makes its possessor elo- quent. Your own good sense will tell you that if your descriptive pictures are disconnected with the thread of the discourse, if they are thrust violently into the course of your argument, if they arouse irrelevant or discord- ant emotions, you will wholly fail of your intended effect. They will be felt to violate unity, and to dislo- cate instead of welding the discourse. They must come in naturally and easily, and without betraying a set purpose of assault upon the hearers' hearts. But it is noAV my duty to impose strict limits upon the use of this means. I have already taught you to distinguish between the moral and spiritual affections on the one hand, and the natural and aesthetic emotions on the other. Tlie preacher's suasive work terminates exclusively upon the former. It is the propagation of them which constitutes sanctification. The enthusiasm of social passions or gratified taste is not Christianity, and has no tendency in itself to purify the soul. But he who substitutes it for real, spiritual culture is cheat- ing immortal souls with a mischievous illusion. I beg you to note also that an object which is really religious in another of its aspects may be so presented to the nat- ural taste or passions, that the interest excited by it shall be as godless and as merely carnal, as though it were utterly foreign to sacred truths. The rational attributes PERSUASION. • 255 and providence of God, or the glories and terrors of the judgment-day, are so painted by some preachers, that the sentiments awakened are no more Christian in fact, than if they had been excited by the description of a cata- ract or an ocean in tempest. Thoughtless men fancy that, because they are speaking about religious things,^ they are speaking religion. Remember, then, that these emotions are only means to a better end ; we must employ them merely as steps to rise to the emotions of the con- science. The only purpose which can justify an ap- peal to them in. religious discourse is that of forthwith attaching them to sacred truth, which the preacher faithfully presents along with them. If he fails to give them this direction, if he allows his hearers to expend themselves in the mere luxury of natural sentiment and sympathy, he is both deluding and abusing their hearts ; for he assists them to deceive themselves with a substi- tute for true sjiiritual atlection, which is worse than worthless, while he deteriorates and expends their sus- ceptibility by an excitement which is unwholesome, be- cause fruitless. The practical result of this perversion of the art of persuasion is always moral corruption. The mischievous error of addressing the taste and social sentiments, instead of the affections of conscience, is illustrated by the effects of the Romish worship. Its ' Pilgrim's Prog., Part i., ch. xix. Ignorance. " I am always full of good motions that come into my mind to comfort me as I walk." Christian. "What good motions? pray tell us." Ign. "Why, I think of God and heaven." Chr. "So do the devils and damrwd souls." lyn. "But i think of them and desire them." Chr. "So do many that are never like to come there. 'The soul of the sluggard desires and hath nothing.' " 256 . LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. great purpose is to substitute the enthusiasm of the imagination for the culture of moral principles. It must be confessed that this effect is produced with con- summate skill. The experience of ages of paganism and of corrupt Christianity has been applied, by the most accomplished cunning, to devise the means for stimulating the superstitious fancy and intoxicating the senses. All the imposing and alluring charms of archi- tecture, music and pantomime are employed for these •ends. And everything in the gospel story which can awe or delight the natural sensibilities is ingeniously displayed in the most dramatic forms : the corporeal anguish of the Redeemer, the pitying love of woman typified in her sweetest ideal as the " Mother of God,'' the stern heroism of apostles, the awful might of miracles and ghostly principalities and powers, the material flames of purgatory and hell ; but the great, spiritual truths by which the soul lives or dies, of which this history is but the shell, are carefully left out of view. Existing facts teach us what has been the effect of this gorgeous ritual upon piety and morals. AVhile the taste is cultivated, the conscience is plunged into foul delusion. The most splendid rites of worship and the blackest vices have dwelt together under the same consecrated roofs ; and the communities which are most accomplished in the pomps of their ceremonial are the most debauched. Now, there is a species of Protestantism, existing to some extent among all denominations, which is ob- noxious to the same accusation. Its preachers substi- tute for the rites of a superstitious worship the pomp of a sentimental eloquence. They descant, indeed, upon PERSUASION. 257 the facts and doctrines of the Bible, but they omit all that is awakening and purifying to the conscience; they disi)lay only that which is beautiful to the taste, or pathetic, or sublime. The type of sensibility which they evoke is merely human and fanciful, and their preaching is but a rhetorical mimicry of the more candid and more impressive machinery of Rome. It cannot be denied that the images, in which the sacred principles of spiritual religion are clothed, are capable of being developed into a magnificence and beauty transcending all the imaginings of superstition ; and it is not difficult for the ambitious and selfish mind to overlook the radical truth, that it is not the aesthetic grandeur, but the moral and spiritual principles in these pictures, which alone make them doctrines of salvation. We are told, for instance, " that it is appointed unto men once to die, and after death the judgment." What imaginative painting could more fascinate and harrbw the fancy, than that which describes the accessories of a death- bed ? The shuddering listener may be made to thrill at the thought of the pangs by which the silver cord is loosed, unimagined by living man and indescribable by mortal tongue; the irrevocable sundering of ties of love from which the worldly heart has drawn its very life ; the spirit's plunge into the dread mystery of the nether world; the aspect of the living man frozen into a ghastly corpse; the gloom, the chill and the corruption of the grave, with its loathsome worm and dust. But what have you done when you have spell-bouiid your hearer's fancy with these terrors ? You have but stimu- lated the instinctive love of life — a passion at best only social or selfish, in its prevalent element merely animal, 22* 258 LECTUKES ON SACRED RHETORIC. and common to him with the beast that writhes and shrieks under the hunter's steel. All this is naught unless you make it the introduction to the truth that ^* the sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law/' and to that victory over the grave given through our Lord Jesus Christ ; for it is the latter which teaches us the whole significance of death to the rational soul. But "after death is the judgment.'^ To depict the grandeur of this final consummation, the Scriptures array material images whose terror and majesty infi- nitely transcend all the phenomena of nature and the uninspired imaginings of man. The preacher may sup- pose that he finds here a j^recedent, which authorizes him to stimulate the natural fear and fancy to their utmost tension. He therefore exerts all his pictorial power, and brings forth his most pompous stores of lan- guage to represent the vast and astounding events w^hich will usher in that great day. He so paints the opening graves and gathering hosts of quickened dead, the pal- ing sun, the blushing moon and decadent stars, the ocean of fire which floods the continents and exhales the seas, and so makes them hear the echo of the arch- angePs trump, that their blood runs chill v/ith delicious horror. They are the entranced spectators of the catas- trophe of this world's drama. But, I ask, is this the whole intent of God in this apocalypse of the final con- summation ? If these material images are all destined to be literally fulfilled, what are they but symbols of solemn moral facts ? of the quickening of the slumber- ing conscience, of the voice of the accusing Latv, of the unveiling of that divine holiness and glory before which the world with its . vanities will shrivel into an atom, PERSUASION. 259 and sin will stand unmasked in its hideous blackness? Such a material portraiture has not even poetic truth ; for it leaves out the chief elements of the dread trans- action, and misrepresents its true impression on the real actors. When the justice of God, like a spirit of burn- ing, shall have taken hold upon the awakened conscience of the sinner, and when eternity with all its issues shall be set before the eyes of his resurrection body, it will be the great conceptions of sin and of righteousness, of a broken law and a divine satisfaction, and of the just awards of infinite rectitude, which will occupy and over- power his mind. These images of material magnifi- cence and terror will then be cast out of the place which they have usurped. " Iii that day it will be sin, and not a flaming world, which shall appal the soul.'' ^ To awaken the enthusiasm of taste or of instinctive passion is only legitimate, then, where we employ it as means for infusing heat into sacred truth, and thus arousing the moral emotions. The ulterior aim of the sacred orator must be at the conscience alone. Unless these natural affections which liis rhetoric awakens are speedily superseded and eclipsed by the spiritual, to which he makes them subservient, they are only mis- chievous counterfeits. Not only the ambition and van- ity of preachers, but the temper of the hearers seduce them into this error ; for man naturally loves excite- ment for its own sake, and there is nothing which he so much hates as to be challenged to forsake his sin. He is grateful, therefore, to the orator wlio at once provides for hiiji the sentimental luxury, and avIio suggests this 1 Nat. Hist. Enthusiasm, p. 57. 260 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. substitute for the abhorred duty of rerpentanee. You will ever, I trust, resist this temptation, and keep these appeals to the natural but unregenerate affections in their proper place. Of all this art of persuasion he is the greatest master who seems to have none. Let your aim be to persuade men in Christ's name, and not to be praised for skill in persuading. These two distinct ends many preachers confound. You saw that the power over others' hearts depends upon your own disinterested and genuine emo- tion. You must so hunger for the salvation of the souls before you, that you shall desire to make the effect of sacred truth fill them, to the exclusion of yourself. You must be willing to be nothing in their eyes, and to let your effect be everything. He is not the true preacher who sends his hearers home exclaiming, " How eloquent the minister to-day ; how beautiful his im- agery ; how artful his arrangement ; how skilful his argument and his persuasion !" But he is the true sacred orator, who dismisses them so possessed and overpowered by God, that they have forgotten the crea- ture Avho w^as the channel of the truth. The message should hide the messenger. To make you masters of the emotions of others, then, self-seeking must be anni- hilated, and self-renunciation must have its perfect work. It is divine grace which makes the effective minister. LECTURE XVIII. PREACHER'S CHARACTER WITH HEARERS. rriHE hearers' apprehension of their minister's cha- -*- racter is a most important element in his power of persuasion. If I be reminded that this is a truth be- longing rather to pastoral theology than to rhetoric, I shall reply, that the element is one which it is impossi- ble to separate from the effectiveness of sacred oratory. The pastor's character speaks more loudly than his tongue. This consideration is immeasurably more w^eighty in the case of the sacred than of the secular orator. Aristotle^ announces this maxim, that the latter must establish with his auditors a character, first, for discretion, or knowledge and judgment; second, for probity ; and third, for benevolence, or good-will toward them. If the speaker is suspected of ignorance or in- firmity of judgment, his advice cannot carry weight and his arguments will be despised. If he is evidently intelligent and shrewd, but of doubtful integrity, the plausibility of what he advances will be felt; but the more ability he shows, the more will the people fear to commit themselves to his opinions ; for they have no guarantee of moral principle that he is not employing these forces of his genius, manifestly so powerful, to ^ Rhetoric, B. ii., ch. 1. 261 262 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. entrap and injure them instead of to benefit them. His advice, moreover, will probably be corrupt, unworthy of a virtuous people, and, because immoral, foolish in the end, even if it be kindly meant. If to the assurance of his mental ability to judge with discernment, and of his probity, guaranteeing the faithful and righteous use of his knowledge, be added a conviction of his affection and benevolence toward his hearers, prompting him ardently to desire their benefit ; then they feel a strong presumption, in advance of the consideration of his arguments, that they should adopt his opinion. In popular phrase, he who has secured the reputation of these three qualities ^' has the ear of the people:" they are prepared to hear him favourably before they know what he will say. The personal glory of success in his office should be the least of the ends which the pastor has in view ; yet success should be desired for the gospel's sake. Among those wdio reach a respectable mediocrity and are not obstructed by some glaring blemish of manner, the difference between the acceptable and popular, and the unsuccessful minister, is chiefly caused by this character. The former succeeds, because he has made his people love and trust him. His judicious social intercourse, his virtues, his affectionate zeal in their welfare, and especially his sympathy with their sorrows, have won their hearty confidence. The doctrines we preach are naturally distasteful to the heart of man, and foolish- ness to his understanding. We are required to spend a life in the iteration of the same truths, until all the charm of novelty is gone. The most brilliant mind would fail to retain the attention of a charge, during a preacher's character with hearers. 263 whole ministry, by the mere force of mental interest : the attractions of love and confidence must be added. AVithoiit a sacred weight of character, the most splendid rhetoric will win only a short-lived applause ; with it, the plainest scriptural instructions are eloquent to win souls. Eloquence may dazzle and please; holiness of life convinces. Now, the fact that the preacher's work is spiritual enhances a tliousandfold the force of the maxim of the pagan philosopher. Your professed motive, young gentlemen, is not mere patriotism, but something un- speakably higlier and purer. Your ends are not tem- poral and finite, but everlasting and immense. They are, indeed, humane ; for the good to which you seek to persuade men is one so si)lendid and rich, that the soul faints with excess of joy before it fully •comprehends it; the evil from which you seek to rescue them is one so frightful, that the heart shudders at the first apprehen- sion of it. But your work is far more than humani- tarian : you are the messengers of that supreme and infinite God "of whom and through whom and unto whom are all things, to whom belongs glory for ever and ever." You are the appointed instruments "to make known by the church the manifold wisdom of God unto the princii)alities and powers in heavenly places." To you is committed the honour, before men and angels, of that display made in redemption of the most sacred moral perfections of God. The sword of the spirit which you handle is two-edged : it kills where it does not make alive. The cordial which you offer to the lips of dying men is a " savour of death unto death" if it is not made a savour of " life unto 264 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. life.'' The time and opportunity allowed you to rescue the perishing are both precarious and limited ; for the objeots of your zeal are "standing in slippery places," over the flames of perdition. The professed motive of your ministry is at once the most disinterested, tender, urgent and sacred by which a human soul can be swayed ; for as the prospective woes which excite your compassion toward your fellow-men are the most fright- ful, the divine blood and grace which you exhibit are the most hallowed objects which man can conceive. It is exceedingly obvious, hence, that there would be a monstrous solecism and guilt in your marked incom- petency for such a ministry, in your dishonesty, or in your inhumanity in it. What is the inconsistency, the falsehood of that man who fills such an office heart- lessly for hire or applause, or merely because it is his promised task, and his credit does not permit its entire neglect ! How utterly must the enacting of such a lie before your hearers blast every good effect of your pre- tended persuasions ! Your position as gospel-herald, then, exacts of you the qualities of discretion, probity and benevolence, in a far higher sense than they are re- quired of the secular orator, and by far more solemn motives. 1. Your competent knowledge and good judgment must be such a soundness of mind as will command the respect of all men, with a real mastery of the theology of redemption. A frivolous, weak, illogical mind will detract from the weight of all that you could say for religious truth. Even if this indiscretion is shown by the minister in his secular affiiirs, week-day intercourse, and non-professional opinions, it will endamage the effect of his pulpit labours. You owe it to your divine Mas- ter to show such sound discretion always, that no man can have pretext, when you assume toward him the posi- tion of sj^iritual monitor, to remind himself of any child- ishness in your secular affairs, coxcombry or levity in society, or crudity in literary opinions. If you thus weaken your own message to him, you are an unfaithful, ■not to say a treacherous, servant. But especially in your own department, that of evangelical history and doctrine, you are sacredly bound to display such com- petency, such maturity of opinion, such faithful and honest research, as will make every fair-minded hearer respect your theological dicta. Here you must show such good sense and acquirement, as will make your most cultivated hearer feel that you are a respectable and trustworthy guide in your own field. Does any one object to this as a hard saying? Does he complain that I hold him responsible for those gifts of genius and that peculiar ability which nature alone bestows? I so, far admit this statement as to avow that a fool has no business in the sacred office, whatever may be his zeal or his opportunities for training. But plain, manly good sense, inspired and dignified by true piety, will always come up to my standard. You have no call to affect the universal genius, " the admirable Crichton," master of all possible arts. You need not pretend to talk agriculture, physics, politics, belles-lettres, fine arts, with the experts in these various branches of knowledge ; but you may honestly avow, when they are the subjects of conversation, that you have not judged it your business to master them, and may keep your mouth closed. Such an attitude is always respectable. 23 266 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. But when the votaries of these arts and sciences ap- proach the theology of redemption, show them that there you are master of them all. To do this, you only need constant and faithful study of your own department, and this, I repeat, it is your clear duty to bestow. 2. That virtue which in the secular orator is probity, or political integrity and truthfulness, must rise in the sacred teacher to sanctity of character. This will in-« elude, of course, a spotless honesty and fidelity in all earthly relations and transactions. " A bishop must be blameless."^ But this integrity every common Chris- tian is expected to show; many unrenewed men can claim it. The pastor must rise far higher; he must exhibit a symmetry and elevation of Christian charac- ter, an exaltation above all carnal ambitions, which will make him venerable and lovely in the eyes of his flock. Such a character clothes his instructions with a weight and sweetness which no talent or learning can give. The hearers feel that they have the guarantee of a purity which it would be both folly and crime to im- pugn, for at least this conclusion, that the opinions "the good man utters are certainly believed by himself after his most faithful investigation. 3. The third quality, good-will, must rise above the humanity and the benevolence of the good citizen to an ardent love for souls. The pastor should be recognized as one who affectionately hungers for the spiritual good of his charge. His admonitions should be received by them as the outpourings of a compassion which cannot be restrained. He sees the worth and danger of their 1 i Tim. iii. 2, etc. souls in the light of eternity, and his eloquence is in- flamed from the very altar of God. This character is sustained partly by the pastor's de- meanour out of the pulpit, by his daily and sustained anxiety to save souls, and by the constancy of his labours for that end. If a solemn sermon be followed by an idle, worldly week, the people will feel that the appa- rent earnestness of the preacher is professional ; and if he be yet more exceedingly fervent, they will only ap- plaud his skill as an actor the more, disbelieving while they applaud. Here, let me say, is a sufficient argu- ment for " preaching the gospel from house to house." We sometimes excuse our reluctance to this arduous work by pleading that there is nothing we can say in the household, or the private interview, which we have not said with more connection and force in our sermons ; that if we introduce the topic of. personal religion, we shall but awkwardly utter, in a " parlour sermon,'' what has been so much better said already in public. The answer is, that, however constrained, awkward and lame our private appeals might be, they would gain this capi- tal point — they would convince men that we were in earnest in our pulj)it fervours. The gospel admonition we addressed to our young, unbelieving friend might be so embarrassing to him and to us, as to leave no con- scious impression except one of pain. But on the next Sabbath he would listen with new ears, for he w^ould have had the evidence that we meant all we said. The demeanour in the pulpit must also confirm the sincerity of the preacher's affection for souls. Every tone, and look, and gesture, from the moment he enters the pulpit until he leaves it, the structure of every sen- 268 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. tence in his sermon, should reveal a soul in which lev- ity, self-seeking and vanity are anniliilated by the ab- sorbing sense of divine things. No counterfeit will avail here, but the living faith and spirituality which are cultivated at the throne of grace, in the chambers of the afflicted and dying, and by the study of God's word. The effect of the preacher's known character and earn- estness uj^on his hearers is aptly illustrated by a dis- criminating writer, from the case of those early Method- ists — Whitefield, the Wesleys, and Fletcher of Madely. He asserts that the key to -the peculiar effect of their preaching was its obvious actuality. Low as was the state of religion when they burst upon the Christian w^orld, evangelical preaching was not unknown either among the Dissenters or the Anglican clergy. But no such impression was produced by it. A few of these ■devout men presented the same truths with apparent sincerity and with limited effect. But the difference between the emotions of the larger mass of hearers, and those of the vast congregations swayed by these great evangelists, was like that difference which the military recruit experiences between his feelings in the mock- battle of a review, and in an actual engagement with the enemy. In the former, there are marchings and counter-marchings, there are all the pomp and circum- stance of war, there are clouds of sulphurous smoke, and the ear is astounded with the thunders of artillery and the rattle of small arms. The young soldier is not a little excited ; he pants with toil, he thrills Avith ardour, he is eager to see his party repulse their pre- tended adversaries. But still he is conscious that it is only a splendid farce! How different his emotions preacher's character with hearers. 269 when at length he meets an actual enemy in battle, and recognizes in the adverse lines foes who really seek his blood ! Again he marches and retires ; bodies of men again wheel and manoeuvre before him ; aids gallop with orders ; the guns roar ; the war-clouds enwrap him in their sultry folds as before, but he also sees plain proofs that these are no longer blank cartridges which are fired. The earth is ploughed and the forests are cut with bullets, and as he glances along the line, he sees here and there a comrade, who drops his musket and either limps away, or sinks upon the earth with a cry of anguish. This is war in truth ! Now again he is excited, he pants, he is ardent for victory, he thrills with passion, but it is a terrible reality. Such was the conviction, such the awakening, of the men who fell under the spell of a Whitefield's sacred eloquence.^ The obvious sincerity and earnestness of a living faith in the preacher made the Law, the curse, the hell, dread realities to them, which in the hand of other preachers, had only moved them as a serious fiction. The amiable Cowper has drawn, in the second book of his Taskj the picture of what a pastor should be in character and preaching, so venerable and lovely that I cannot forbear commending it to you as your ideal : "Tliere stands the messenger of truth: there stands The legate of the skies ! His theme divine, His office sacred, his credentials clear. By him the violated law speaks out Its thunders ; and by him, in strains as sweet As angels use, the gospel whispers peace. He establishes the strong, restores the weak, 1 Isaac Taylor's " Wesley and Methodism." 23* 270 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. Reclaims the wanderer, binds the broken heart, And, armed himself in panoply complete Of heavenly temper, furnishes with arms Bright as his own, and trains, by every rule Of holy discipline, to glorious war The sacramental host of God's elect." * * * -x- * " Would I describe a preacher such as Paul, Were he on earth, would hear, approve and own, Paul should himself direct me. I would trace His master-strokes and draw from his design. I would express him simple, grave, sincere ; In doctrine uncorrupt, in language plain, And plain in manners ; decent, solemn, chaste. And natural in gesture ; much impressed Himself, as conscious of his awful charge, And anxious mainly that the flock he feeds May feel it too ; afiectionate in look And tender in address, as well becomes A messenger of grace to guilty men. Behold the picture." Is this, my young brethren, your conception of what the pulpit orator should be ? Well will it be for you and for your flocks, if this portrait, drawn by the sancti- fied culture and taste of a great poet, from the living models, a Newton and a Cecil, shall engage your whole approval and stimulate your aspirations I LECTURE XIX. STYLE. T" NOW approach the third department of our course, J- called in the regular classical treatises Elocution. I would remind you again that they employed this word, not in that limited sense of utterance and gesticulation to which the present American usage seems to restrict it, but in a meaning inclusive of style, figures, utter- ance, gesture ; of all, in a word, which pertains to the outward expression of thought and feeling. Let us begin with style. This word (derived from tlie stylus, or pen, with which the writing was performed) denotes the right use of words as vehicles of thouglit. It is not my purpose to repeat to you the discussions of this subject, or the classifications of the different kinds of figures and tropes, or the rules for their use, contained in the ordinary books of rhetoric. I assume that you have acquired this knowledge in your colleges and academies. My object will be to add some directions appropriate to your pecu- liar work, for the formation of style and the right use of language. But before I proceed to this, I must beg you to bear with me, while I recall your attention to the cardinal qualities of all good speaking and writing. These are so fundamental in importance that you can- 271 272 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. not be too well assured of your familiarity with them. They are grammatical purity, perspicuity, energy (or as Dr. George Campbell terms it, vivacity)^ elegance and number. ^ Grammatical purity is that syntactical correctness which is conformed to the standard of the present, national usage of approved English Avriters and speak- ers.^ It carefully avoids barbarisms, solecisms and ob- solete and newly-coined words and construction. The usage which is your rule must be, not an antiquated one, but that of the best contemporary scholars. It must be the usage, not of writers of questionable taste, but of those who are admitted by all to be undisputed models. It must be, not a sectional usage, but that which is equally recognized among educated men in all parts of the land. To secure perspicuity the first requisite is clearness of thought. Next, let home-bred, vernacular M'ords be preferred, and all unnecessary technicalities be avoided. Let words be employed uniformly and exactly in their recognized meanings. This canon of perspicuity is vio- lated often from carelessness of thought and indistinct- ^ Quinctil., L. i., c. v., § 1. Omnis oratio tres habeat virtutes, ut emendata, ut dUucida, ut ornata sit (quia dicere apte, quod est prse- cipvuim, plerique ornatui subjiciunt). Cicero deOrat., L. iii., c. x., ^ 37. " Quinam igitur est modus melior, quam ut Latine, ut plane, ut ornate, ut ad id, quodcumque agetur, apte coiigruenterque agemus?" 2 Quinctil., L. i., c. vi., § 44, 45. Superest igitur consuctiido. . . . Quae si ex eo, quod plares faciunt, nomen accipiat, periculosissimum dabit praeceptum, non orationi modo, sed (quod mains est) vitse. . . . Ergo consuctudinem sermonis vocabo consensum eruditorum; sicut STYLE. 273 ness of conception, as well as from ignorance of the ex- act shades of sense affixed by classic usage. But some writers outrage it from an unwholesome affectation and conceit. They imagine that by using a known word in a sense differing by some shade of meaning from its current one they display their ingenuity and refine- ment. You will find such writers, for example, taking especial pains to talk of the " utterances'' of the Holy Spirit when they mean the things uttered. Whereas, in classic English." utterance" is an abstract noun, sig- nifying a j)owor or quality of speech. These writers speak of " philanthropies" when they intend benefac- tions, while correct speakers of English express by the word "philanthropy" a humane temper or quality. They delight to use the abstract for the concrete, and to talk of "ruined immortalities" when they mean ruined souls. This is a most perverse sin against pcr- sj)icuity ; and much of this species of pretended fine writing as truly needs to be translated into the lan- guage of sensible I^uglishmen, as though it were in a foreign tongue. Let your subtile discrimination be dis})layed, not in perverting by a nice shade the mean- ing of words, but in retaining the very shade given them by good usage. Perspicuity is promoted by a due in- termixture of brevity and amplification. It avoids long and intricate sentences. It eschews ambiguous words and constructions, and is especially careful to evince the designed relation of every pronoun, so that doubt of it shall be impossible to the attentive hearer. Perspicuity forbids the sj^eaker ever to keep the sense of a com- pound sentence suspended to its close. Even the peri- odic sentence, which holds the construction (not the 274 LECTUEES ON SACRED RHETORIC. meaning) suspended to the end, is ill-suited for oral address.^ Energy (or vivacity) is to be gained by preferring concrete to abstract, and specific to general terms. Ap- plaud not abstract magnanimity, but the living, mag- nanimous man. Speak not of the genu^ homo as de- praved or as guilty, but of the men before you. Speak not of them, but to them, and that in the second person and in the singular. Say, " Thou art the man." En- ergy requires the greatest conciseness compatible with persj)icuity. It demands metaphor in preference to simile, and judicious synecdoche and impersonation.^ King David, when he would describe the virulence of the slander of his enemies, says : " Their teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword." How would this be enfeebled were it expanded into a regular simile, which should describe ^' the words of malice issuing from their mouths as lacerating his good name and comfort as spears, arrows and swords lacerate, gall and wound the body of an adversary !" He who would have energy of style must sternly exclude every epithet which is not essential to the expression of his 1 Cicero de Orat., L. iii., c. xiii., | 49. Quibus rebus assequi possu- mus, ut ea quae dicamus intelligantur? Latine scilicet, dicendo, verbis usitatis ac proprie demonstrantibus ea quae significari ac de- clarari volemus, sine ambiguo verbo aut sermone, non nimis longa continuatione verborum, non valde productis iis, quae similitudinia causa ex alfis rebus transferuntur, non discerptis sententiis, non prse- posteris temporibus, non confusis personis, non perturbato ordine. 2 Deinde videndum est, ne longe simile sit ductum. Syrtim patri- monii, scopulum libentius dixerim : Charybdim bonorum, voraginem potius. Facilius enim ad ea, quae visa, quam ad ilia quae audita sunt, mentis oculi feruntur. — Cicero de Oral., L. iii., c. 41, § 163. STYLE. 275 thought. He must employ the untechnical and vernac- ular words which the people easily understand. He must be suggestive rather than exhaustive in the devel- opment of ideas. In compound sentences, energy will be promoted by placing the shorter member last. In every sentence, the word which is entitled to the em- phasis should be placed in the position of greatest prom- inence. This is usually at the beginning, at or near the end, or at the ccesura of the sentence.^ Elegance of style is gained, first, by careful attention to the previous qualities. Next, euphony must be con- sulted, by avoiding the frequent recurrence of the same sounds (a vice always grating to the ear) and by the customary use of those words and sequences of syllables which are musical and liquid, in preference to those which are heterogeneous, guttural or sibilant. All coarseness of allusion and suggestion must be shunned; « 1 Aristotle, Rhetoric, b. iii., c. x., teaches us that polite diction is secured by three means: Metaphor, antithesis and energy. Tlie rhe- torical metaphor (c. xi.) is that which makes the symbol energize — i. e., it imputes to it, by metaphor, attributes of life, as Homer's ** arrow longing to strike." C. xiii. The diction of the writer he regards as less energetic, but more accurate and full. That of the speaker should be in the "ago- nistic style." This is less accurate in detail, disjointed, rapid, repre- senting images as the outline picture does. Aristotle here gives us a happy description of what I have called the bujrgestive style. Hear also Cicero de Orat., L. iii., c, 25, ^^ 97-99, warning the pub- lic speaker against a luscious nicety: "Genus igitur dicendi est eli- genduni, quod non solum delectet, sed etiam sine satietate delectet. . . . Ea quae max i me sensus nostros impellunt voluptate, et specie prima acerrime commovent, ab iis celerrime fastidio quodam et satietate abalieneraur. . . . Sic, omnibus in rebus, voluptatibus maximis fas- tidium fuiitiiuuiu est." 276 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. no trope or illustration must be admitted, however apt, which degrades the sentiment of the discourse; no broken metaphors or other disorders of thought and structure must be allowed. Yet it should be remem- bered that there is a polish which is too uniform, and an elegance which is sickly. It were better, if either fault must be committed, that the public speaker should sacrifice elegance to energy, than this to that. As the musician interposes an occasional discord in his sweetest strains, that the contrast may enhance the harmony, so in those phrases and sentences which require a strong emphasis, some harsh syllables may well have place : this redeems the style from eifeminacy and heightens the euphony. The fifth quality of rhetorical style is number. I use this word here in the sense of the prosodist. Says Aristotle, the oration must have rhythm, but not metre. Cicero, recognizing the propriety of number in the prose-speaker, advises that two or three of the same feet shall follow each other, and that then some other feet shall be introduced, in order that the speaker may not fall into a disagreeable mimicry of metre. ^ This always ^ Aristotle, Rhetoric, b. iii., c. viii., Cicero de Orat., L. iii., c. xlvii., § 182. Let the student inspect the most impressive passages from the standard English orators ; he will find that the rhythm which is so obvious to the ear, and so characteristic of the strain of eloquence, is caused by an actual sequence of metrical feet, with frequent varia- tions. I give, as an instance, a noted passage from E.ev. Samuel Davies' grand sermon on the Judgment. The feet are marked for your assistance : tre I mendous | doom ! | Every | word is | big with | terror, | and shoots | a thun | derbolt | through the | heart. | "Depart: | STYLE. 277 oflPeDds the ear, because it suggests the appearance of inappropriate and abortive effort. The occurrence of the modern rhyme in prose discourse is a positive sin against euphony. But when the oration flows in short but frequently varied chains of equal or equivalent feet, this adds great expressiveness and beauty to the style. Nature recognizes it : all primitive languages, like the Away I from my pres | ence ! I | cannot | bear so | loathsome a eight. I I once | invi | ted thee | to colne | to me," | etc. We have here, first, two trochees and a final long syllable ; then three trochees, three iambics, and a final long syllable. Then follow two iambics and an anapaest; then three trochees and a choriambiis. Next we have five iambics together; and this, the only strain in the passage which fails of the epic rhythm and majesty, confirms Cicero's precept, that not more than three or, at most, four feet of the same kind should follow each other without a change. Take the following admired passage from the sermon of the Rev. R. Hall against Modern Infidelity. Does not every ear perceive a diflferent rhythm, suited to express the different sentiment of repre- hension? We find a different sequence of feet: Eter I nal God I | On what | are thine en \ emies | inteTit? | Wliat are | those en | terprTs | es of guilt | and hor | ror that | for the I safety | of their perfor | mers, require | to be envel | oped in a dark | ness which | the eye | of heav | en must | not pierce ? | etc. The order here is three invibics, one anapcest and two inynbics. Then one spondee, two iambics, one anapcest, two iambics, two tro- chees, one pcean 4th, an anapast, two more pceans 4th, and five iambics. The student will observe how uniformly these masters of speech comply with Aristotle's rule to close the sentence with a long sylla- ble. Hall's biographer has left us a curious fact, that the author had written at the end of the passage "penetrate"^ for "pierce," but in re- viewing it he struck his pen through it and substituted "pierce," say- ing, "That is too long a word." His correct ear demanded the clos- ing long syllable. 24 278 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. Hebrew, tend, by their orthography and accent, toward a regular arsis and thesis. Many critics have supposed that the first continuous recitation of every people was in metre, and that their first composers were always poets or bards. In this sense, if they are correct, poetry is more natural than prose. All music has its rhythm, which is essential to melody. There is something naturally pleasing and impressive to the human ear in the reverberation of a regularly recurring emphasis. It seems to make the strain palpitate with sensibility, like the voice of a living heart. The different feet are, moreover, expressive of their different sentiments. The "fortis iambus^^ breathes vigour, haste, excitement ; the spondee suggests pensive and meditative ideas; the pcea7i and choriambus, by their roll, express some ad- vancing majesty. By clothing your prose with number, you add therefore to its expressiveness as well as to its euphony. Aristotle disallows to the orator the use of the heroic rhythm (composed of spondees, dadyles and anapcests)y as too stately. Iambics and trochees he deems too lyrical and colloquial. He therefore recommends that the several pcean feet and the choriambus be preva- lently used. But the former feet are so domesticated in every part of the English language that it is vain to deny the orator their use ; and the lyrical character of the shorter feet, to my apprehension, evinces their fit- ness for the rhetorical rhythm, which, like the lyric poem, is so often required to express animated emotions. The Greek philosopher enjoins that the sentence (and each important member thereof) must always end with a long syllable. This is necessary to enable that syllable to bear the closing cadence of the voice. We may be STYLE. 279 I allowed to modify this law, as was done by the Latin hexameter, to the extent of making the last syllable uniformly long by position, whether it was so by quan- tity or not ; and indeed English sentences and clauses are harmoniously ended, like that metre, with a dadijle and spondee. These five qualities — grammatical purity, perspicuity, energy, elegance and rhythm or number — will constitute a fine style. Let me remind you that most young speakers, in attempting to form themselves, have more need than they are aware to fix their attention upon the rudimental and simple qualities of style. In your efforts for improvemcMt you are in danger of beginning too far in advance. Grammatical accuracy and perspicuity — the virtues wliich lie at the foundation and wliich also contribute so much to elegance — are not so commonly found in English speakers as is supposed. Until your style is endued with these more homely and solid virtues, an attonqit to deck it with the lighter graces will be tawdry and poor. Such an error excites a dis- gust, like that which we feel at seeing a beggar tricked out with cheap finery, while her person presents the lack of comfortable and necessary raiment. If correct- ness and perspicuity are present, the style cannot be bad. Indeed, so true is this, that a writer who is strongly characterized by these plain excellences will, without any other graces, gain from most readers, as Dr. Franklin has done, the applause of elegance. Let me urge you, then, to look well to these modest virtues of style, before you indulge a higher ambition. Lord Chesterfield, himself no mean orator, testified, in his Letters to his Son, that while every man has not genius, 280 LECTURES ON SACRED RHETORIC. every man of common sense can gain a correct and lucid, and therefore a pleasing style. Is not any minister of the gospel, then, positively guilty who neglects to ac- quire this means for commending his Master's word ? The first requisite for good writing or speaking is good thinking. Clear, discriminating and careful thought must precede the attempt to compose. Let the matter to be expressed exist distinctly in the mind, and it will clothe itself in its most appropriate verbal dress, pro- vided the speaker's taste and memory have been trained by the reading of good models and by exercise. I would recommend, then, that after satisfying yourself of the ideas which you desire to express, you shall suffer them to utter themselves, as nearly as may be. In the act of composition, let not your minds concern themselves chiefly about the verbal dress of the thought, but about the thought itself The clear and just con- ception will not fail to clothe itself in lucid words. Language is only a medium for the transmission of ideas. The glass which is most transparent is the best. It is only when we look through it without perceiving it, as though the aperture were vacant, illuminated space, when the light passes through it without colour or re- fraction, when we are obliged to resort to tactual sensa- tion to verify its presence, that we call the window-pane a perfect medium. So that style is best, which least attracts the hearer's attention from the thought to itself. If there were a perfect orator, men would come away from his discourse without having any conscious recol- lection concerning the qualities of his style ; they would seem to themselves to have been witnessing, by a direct spiritual intuition, the working of a great mind and STYLE. 281 heart. It follows also that, in the act of composition, the pen should be allowed to move as rapidly as the mind craves. I do not assert that only rapid composi- tion can be nervous ; for the speed which is natural to one mind is very different from that of others. What I would uri^e is, that you shall not halt in the career of thought to debate the propriety of a term or a con- struction, to cast about for words or tropes, to scan the etiect of the phrase which suggests itself. Correctness or elegance thus acquired would be won at too heavy a cost. The ardour of the mind would be effectually chilled by so many harassing cares ; the inspiration, the afflatus of enthusiasm generated by the heat of the soul's action expands and exalts all its powers. Give way, then, to the propitious gale when it begins to breathe, and be assured that the language will be as happy, in which your mind will clothe its teeming ideas at such an hour, as its thoughts will be fruitful 'and nervous. If your investigation and meditation have been thoroutunil quotations, and its whole lan- guage sliould be imbued with the tone and characteristics of our time-honoured version. Such a style is to be * " He that negotiates between God and man, As God's ambassa