Srom t^ Eifirarg of Q^equeat^e^ fig ^tm fo f^e feifirarp of (ptincdon tMo^mf ^tminax^ Jt^J PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. A MANUAL THEOLOGICAL STUDENTS. BY PROFESSOR J. J. VAN OOSTERZEE, D.D., \UTHOR OF "christian DOGMATICS," "THEOLOGY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT," ETC TRANSLATED AND ADAPTED TO THE USE OF ENGLISH READERS EV MAURICE,;. EVANS, B.A., JOINT TRANSLATOR OF VAN OOSTERZEE's "CHRISTIAN DOGMATICS." S 0 « 5 D It : HODDER AND STOUGHTON, 27, PATERNOSTER ROW. MDCCCLXXVIII. Tlpd^a iirijdacri'i 6e(opia<;. Gregory Nazianzen. THEOLOGICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL LIBRARY: FOR COLLEGES AND UNLVERSLTIES. EDITED BY HENRY B. SMITH, D.D., AND PHILIP SCHAFF, D.D. VROFESSORS IN THE UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, NEW YORK. VAN OOSTERZEE'S PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. HODDER AND STOUGHTON^ 27, PATERNOSTER ROW. MDCCCLXXVIII. X H.iiiell) Watson, and Viney, Printers, London and Aylesbury. PREFACE TO THE ORIGINAL WORK. The first part of this Manual appeared without any other prefa- tory words than a dedication by the writer, "with thankful remembrance and heartfelt salutation, to those who in earlier and later years attended his Lectures on Practical Theology." The second and last part, however, must not be suffered to leave my hand without a word of gladness on the friendly reception which the first part has thus far met with, and specially of deeply humble acknowledgment to Him who has enabled me to com- plete without interruption this work also, already long promised, and undertaken with ardour and affection. When I reflect how much was demanded to this end, and how many difficulties had to be surmounted, I may reckon myself in this respect among the highly privileged ones, and make my grateful boast in the goodness of God, who has granted my unspoken desire, and once more has made perfect His strength in my weakness. With regard to the Manual itself, which is now placed in the hands of young Theologians, I have but comparatively little to say on this occasion. It will not be difficult to recognise therein the fruit of the instruction in Practical Theology, given by me during a period of fifteen years at the University of Utrecht. It was only to be supposed, however, that not a little has been either abbreviated or expanded, modified or supplemented, which was originally designed exclusively for the Lecture Room. I had at one time the intention of retaining the form of " Lectures," in which I gave this instruction during the first years; perhaps the work would not have suffered in that form, but the dread of too great diffuseness exerted a timely restraint. If, in consequence, via PREFACE. old friends and students miss some things which they would not unwillingly have met with, that which they now receive in place thereof will perhaps not be unacceptable or unimportant for them. All things considered, I have judged it advisable to assimilate this Manual, so far as regards form and arrangement, as much as possible to that on the Theology of the Nciv Testament and on Christian Dogmatics, both earlier reprinted, with which the present work on Practical Theology may be regarded as forming one whole ; a representative at the same time, in writing, of a period of my life now for ever closed, upon which, with all gratitude, I look back not without silent regret. Yet the explanation is due to myself in the first place, that however my task and surroundings may be modified in the future, my theological and ecclesiastical standpoint has remained and still remains the same, and that I have no more ardent desire than to see many labourers entering the sacred service of the Church, who shall work in that spirit which has found its im- perfect expression in the following pages also. With this wish I now give forth this Manual into the hands of older and younger friends, whose form is involuntarily present to my mind as I write these lines. Those of them who have put forth every effort to advance upon the pathway here indicated will, I am convinced, on reading and meditating, call to mind once more hours of blessing, and will now better than then appreciate the full force and significance of many a word earlier listened to. Others — and their number is not small — who seek their weal and that of the Church in other paths, whether to the right hand or to the left, will, if they should take these pages into their hands, be perhaps enticed thereby to a self-criticism, never superfluous, of their own labours and aims. All, even of those outside of the Academic and Ecclesiastical circle, who still feel some interest in Church and Theology, will be able to ascertain from the contents of this Manual in what spirit PREFACE. ix the future Pastors and Teachers of the Church have here been formed and trained during the last few years, and those who care to do so may decide whether this spirit has been beneficial or hurtful. Whether, now called to entirely different studies, I shall later have something to give, either in this or in some other ecclesi- astical or theological domain, regarded by me with interest and affection, is a question which only the future can answer. There is no lack of readiness, thanks be to God, and just as little of material, but the time is short, life is uncertain, and — to bring autumnal fruits to maturity — fostering sunshine is necessary. In the midst of the clouds and storms of our days, stronger ones than I gradually draw in the sails, and easily might the heart, on a glance at so much finished and unfinished work, repeat the words of Da Vinci's gravestone : " Peregi quae potui ; veniam da mihi, Posteritas." In every domain there are witnessed indica- tions, such as render perfectly explicable the Pessimism of those who have no faith, and even the best and most faithful feels, after a life of unceasing endeavour, now and then overwhelmed by the sense of his absolute powerlessness to stem the destruc- tive tide which he sees coming in on every side. Nevertheless, in hoping against hope the watchword remains, that religion cannot die, Christianity can never perish ; the Kingdom of God will come, and the everlasting Gospel, anew restored to its rights by the Reformation, must eventually triumph, even over the fiercest opposition of its obdurate foes and the saddest folly of its well-meaning but unteachable friends. He who in God's strength has lived and laboured for this — it matters not whether his name was here celebrated or ignored — has wrought for eternity, and whatever of his work may perish in the fiery ordeal of time, that which is best in it will remain ; remain, even when the tired workman has long ago been forgotten, and has found above that rest which he has not sought here. J. J. V. O. Utrecht, March, 1878. PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION. In preparing an English edition of the Practical Theology, the Translator has, in accordance with the Author's wish, supple- mented the historic portion of the work with such brief notices of our leading Anglo-Saxon preachers, Christian poets, and cate- chists as seemed necessary to furnish the connecting link in English Church history between the movements of the Reforma- tion age and those of our own day, and to make evident the unbroken continuity of the Church's life amidst the constant variation of outward forms. Among the meritorious Practical Theologians of the most recent times, many honoured names are of necessity omitted, owing to the exigencies of space, and others have been inadvertently passed over in arranging my notes for the press. Those Professors, however, who may employ this Manual as a text-book for their lectures on Practical Theology, will find no difficulty in greatly enlarging the list now given ; while sufficient reference has been made, in the literature at the end of the different sections, to original sources, for enabling the student to become acquainted for himself with the lives and writings of some of our greatest and best pastors and teachers. If the roll of Christian worthies here presented should serve to stimulate the young theologian to a more extended research in this field of labour, and above all to a more enthusiastic admira- tion and imitation of the great and good of all ages and commu- nities, the end of its preparation will be answered, though the PREFACE. XI list itself should form but the nucleus of a much larger one, to be formed by the student for himself. The history of Homiletics and Pastoral Theology presents, in many respects, one of the brightest pages in the history of the world. This history reveals the names, amidst the various branches of the Christian Church, of saints and martyrs, of heroic confessors and obscure sufferers, of faithful ones half forgotten in the records of the world, of whom, nevertheless, " the world was not worthy." In the time of the deepest spiritual gloom, especially after the Reformation, the light of evangelical truth has never been entirely quenched. The after-glow of the setting sun of Howe and Bunyan has been prolonged, in a sort of dim twilight, to the first radiance of the morning of Whitefield and Wesley, of Daniel Rowlands and Howell Harris. The smouldering fire of Puri- tanism burst forth into a flame in New England, under the preaching of John Tennent (1730 — 1732) and Jonathan Edwards (1734); in Wales, the life awakened by Cradock, Vavasor Powell, and others, was sustained by the Christian poetry of Rees Prichard (d. 1644), and culminated in the great revival at the beginning of 1739, under the preaching of Griffith Jones, Howell Harris, White- field, and a host of others. In Scotland the new life began to exert its power in the revival which burst forth in May, 1742. For this the way had been specially prepared by the life and writings of Thomas Boston and the two Erskines, and, to some extent, of Isaac Ambrose. Walter Kerr, a Scottish preacher and confessor, who, under James II., " was banished to the planta- tions, Sept. 3, 1685," lived to rejoice in the great work in New England, where he was still enjoying a hale old age in 1744. The wave of new life even extended to the British army in Flan- ders, Cope's dragoons (the regiment so much missed by Gardiner in 1745) being mentioned among others as affected by it.^ ' A very interesting account of this great revival was published about the year 1847, by Dr. Macfarlan, then of Renfrew (died during the first half of the century), from which xii PREFACE. The hymns, original and translated, by the Wesleys, Augustus Toplady,^ John Newton, and others, did much to fan to a flame the new life then awakened. When will the verses of Toplady, " Rock of Ages" (composed in 1776, about two years before the author's death), cease to express the deepest feelings of the trusting heart ? Or when will some of those composed by Joseph Hart (i 759), or by William Batty (1757), or that of William Cowper, " There is a fountain" (1779), cease to exert their influence upon the Church's life ? or, in New England, those of President Davies, equally famed as a preacher and poet ? These hymns have been the first drops of a baptism of blessing to the Church of God, wherever the English language is spoken. And that baptism has been richly continued ever since, in the new life of the Church's song. The neglect of the work of Catechising, on which the Churches of the Reformation set so great store, made itself painfully felt in the gross ignorance of the second half of the eighteenth century. The need of Christian instruction for the young pressed so greatly upon the mind of Mr. Raikes and others, as to lead the former to establish the first Sunday-school, in Gloucester, about the year 1 78 1. Nearly a century has passed since then, and the good fruits of Sunday-schools during that time have been incalculably great. And yet it is felt by some of the most thoughtful friends of Christianity that the place of the catechetical lesson has not been filled up by the teaching of the Sunday-schools. The mind may receive the impression of a Divine ideal in childhood, which it would with difficulty receive after it is preoccupied with the anti-Christian philosophy of unbelief and utilitarianism. No part, therefore, of a minister's work in the present day calls for more it appears that the number of communicants at Cambuslang, on a certain occasion in 1742, was not four thousand, but three thousand, although fully a thousand more were desirous of communicating. ' For an account of the German poets whose hymns have been translated into English, see the " Christian Singers of Germany," by Catherine Winkworth (1869). PREFACE. xiii serious attention than that which is here treated under the head of Catechetics. Towards the close of last century, Mission work naturally received " the impulse to an everlasting movement " from the new life which had been awakened. In place of the little Danish mission to the East Indies, in 1705, powerful societies now sprang up on every side, and mighty hosts went forth to proclaim in distant lands the glories of the Cross ; and even scientific research has been deeply indebted to the labours of men like William Carey in India, the Legges in China, and David Livingstone in Africa ; while out of the same movement arose the Bible and Tract Societies at home. That Sacred Oratory, too, should celebrate its highest triumphs in the half-century which opened with the formation of the Bible and Missionary Societies, was only to be expected. The new life of necessity imparted fresh vigour to the proclamation of the Gospel ; and the eloquence of the pulpit, in its highest repre- sentatives, kept at least equal pace with that of the Senate and the Forum. If the same progress is not to be observed during the past quarter of a century, the radical cause can hardly be sought elsewhere than in the diminished life of the Church. That such declension now exists to a very large extent must be frankly acknowledged, and that, if possible, the present indifference must be overcome, is self-evident. " That it be aggressive," in the words of an excellent theologian, " is the one condition of the life of Chris- tianity." The task of the minister of the Gospel in the latter part of the nineteenth century is therefore more comprehensive than ever, as his ideal must also be higher than ever before. He has not only to sustain, but to extend and carry forward towards completion the great work begun at the close of the eight- eenth century. To awaken in the young theologian the con- sciousness of a lofty Christian ideal, to afford him useful hints and aid for the efficient performance of his arduous labour, and xiv PREFACE. to direct him to the true source of encouragement amidst the many discouraging signs of the times, is the design of the present and kindred works on Practical Theology. The sheets of the English edition have been compared, in passing through the press, with those of the German one — so far as the latter has yet been published. That this work also may, through the blessing of God, contribute in its measure to advance the good cause dear to the hearts of all Christians, wherever the German or English language is spoken, as well as in Holland, is the ardent wish with which it is now sent forth in its English form. M. J. E. ADDENDA ET CORRIGENDA. Page 31, line 9 from helow, /or La Martina, read Lamartine. Page 105, et passim, /?r Homilarium, read Homiliarium. Page no, line 14 from below, read Les Menot, les Maillard. Page 113, line 4, for Radbert, read Radbout. Page 138, note, line 3 from below, read character of this period. Page 141, line 27, (after the name of Rev. W. Brock) read d. 1875. Page 146, line 9, far Manducatio, read Manuductio. Page 220, literature, add J. H. Pettingell, " Homiletical Index. With an Intro- duction by Prof. Day" (1878). C ONT E NTS. INTRODUCTION. SFXT. PAGE • I. Definition of the Science . . . . j — II. Its History - - " ^ - - 5 III. Its Treatment - - - - - - 13 CHAPTER I. THE MINISTRY OF THE GOSPEL REGARDED IN GENERAL. _ IV. Ground and Origin - - - - - 18 - V. Extent and Aim - - - - . 24 VI. Light and Shade - •• - - - 29 VII. History and Present Condition - - - . 34 VIII. Requirements and Preparation - - - - 39 IX. Call and Ordination ----- 48 X. Elevation and Perfecting - - - - 54 CHAPTER II. HOMILETICS. XI. Transition and Survey - - - - - 58 FIRST DIVISION. THE PREPARATORY PART. XII. Idea and Importance of Homiletics - - - 62 XIII. History and Literature ----- 67 XIV. A. Early History and Literature - - - - 79 CONTENTS. SECT. XV. B. Mediaeval History and Literature XVI. c. Modern History and Literature xvii. Present Condition and Requirement PAGE I02 114 156 SECO N D DIVISION. THE DEVELOPING PART. I. HOMILETICS IN RELATION TO PRINCIPLES. xviii. Nature and Character of the Sermon XIX. Preaching and Eloquence XX. Preaching and the Worship of the Congregation _ XXI. Preaching and the Personality of the Preacher - II. HOMILETICS IN RELATION TO THE MATERIAL. XXII. The Material of the Sermon in general - XXIII. Continuation ----- XXIV. Continuation ----- XXV. Conclusion - . . . . XXVI. The Material of the different kinds of Sermons XXVII. Continuation - - - - - xxvin. Conclusion - - - - - XXIX. The Material of each Sermon - 166 170 183 190 201 210 216 221 226 230 254 280 III. HOMILETICS REGARD TO THE FORM. XXX. The Form of the Discourse in general XXXI. The Division XXXII. The Style XXXIII. The Delivery - XXXIV. The Highest Test of the Sermon CHAPTER HL LITURGICS. INTRODUCTION. - XXXV. Nature and Aim of Liturgies XXXVI. Its Sources and Aids XXXVII. History of its Theory and Practice XXXVIII. Its Condition and Requirement - 305 316 322 342 345 348 350 358 CONTENTS. FIRST DIVISION. LITURGICAL PRINCIPLES. SECT. PAGE XXXIX. General Survey ------ 360 XL. The Religious Principle - - - - - 361 XLI. The Christian Principle - ^- - - - 364 XLiL The Evangelical-Reformational Principle - - 368 SECOND DIVISION. LITURGICAL RULES. XLiii. General Survey ------ 374 XLiv. Liturgical Matters - - - - - 375 XLv. Liturgical Actions - - - - - 383 XLVi. Continuation - - - - - - 418 XLVii. Conclusion --.-.. 429 XLViii. The Liturgical Personality - - - - 443 CHAPTER IV. CATECHETICS. INTRODUCTION. XLix. Idea and importance of Catechetics - - - 448 L. Its History and Literature - - - - 453 LI. Condition and Requirement - - . . 464 FIRST DIVISION. THE CATECHETIC THEORY. Lii. The Foundation of the Catechesis - - - 467 Liii. The Subject-matter of the Catechesis - - - 475 Liv. The Form of the Catechesis - - . . 484 SECOND DIVISION. CATECHETIC PRACTICE. Lv. The Conducting of the Catechesis - - - 493 Lvi. Aids to the Catechisation - - - - 501 LviL The Catechete and his Ideal - - - - 5^5 • 2 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. impression. Is not, one may ask, the whole of Theology a pre-eminently practical science, born of the life of the Church, and destined to the fostering of that life ? Undoubtedly, and yet we must immediately make a distinction between the tendency of the whole and the character of each part. The whole of Theology is a science of practical tendency (scientia ad praxin), but here we have to do with the science of practice itself (scientia /r^jc^^i-), and thus much is at once apparent, that in doing so we enter upon a province entirely distinct from that in which, e.g., we devote the attention to a purely exegetic or historic investigation. One may be an accomplished exegete or critic, a polyhistor in the domain of Church History or the History of Doctrines, a speculative genius, a subtle canonist, >without being in the least degree qualified to stand at the head of a Christian congregation. The direct training and preparation of its leaders /as such is the goal at which Practical Theology aims. It is occupied not • lexclusively or mainly with the theologian of the time to come, but with the future minister of the Gospel, and moves, more than other branches lin the domain of life and concrete reality in the Church of the Lord. As Christian Dogmatics is the science of the mystery of the Kingdom of God, so is Practical Theology the science of labour for the Kingdom of God, as this is accomplished by the pastor and teacher in particular. 3. The scientific character, properly so called, of Practical Theology has been, specially in earlier times, not without a show of reason called in question. Is it really a science ? it has been asked on different sides. Is it not rather an art, an instruction, a training of the future minister of the Church to take, so far as possible, the right course on every occasion that may present itself? That which specially gave rise to this question was the less scientific manner in which the " Practica " was frequently treated of in earlier times. Not seldom was it confounded with the so-called Pastoral Theology ; in other words, a comparatively small and subordinate portion of the science was interchanged with the much more comprehensive whole. What wonder that this Pastorals, as it was by preference termed by the Romish theologians— after the analogy of the word Morals — was sometimes regarded by scientific men as a crutch for the feeble, as a sort of special doctrine of Morals for preachers of the Gospel, side by side with the more general one for Christians ; a supposition which very soon led a speculative » theologian of our age (Rosenkranz) to the conclusion that no such thing as Pastoral Theology could exist upon Protestant ground. That it never- theless does exist, and in our time especially has been developed to a remarkable extent, is evident, i.a., from the admirable Handbook of Palmer;^ but it cannot be denied that what is now termed Pastoral Theo- logy was during last century treated as a sort of instruction in the wisdom iand prudence of the preacher (" Pastoral-klugheit "), which now and then even degenerated into a frivolous casuistry ; a pastoral medicine chest for all conceivable and inconceivable ailments. Nothing is easier than to express one's contempt for such recipes, but also nothing is more unreason- able than on such grounds to deny the scientific character of the whole of C. Palmer, Pasforal-lkcoU^ie, 2teAusg., 1863. DEFINITIOx^J OF THE SCIENCE. 3 Practical Theology. Certainly this last not only embraces more than the first mentioned, but also treats that wider subject in an entirely different manner. While Pastoral Theology — in its more developed form termed also "Pastoralics," " Hodogetics," or " Hierotechnics " — exclusively concerns itself with the pastor of the Church, Practical Theology seeks at the same >time to form qualified Homiletes, Liturgists, and Catechetes, and to this end not only offers them lessons of practical wisdom, but proceeds by a fixed method from fixed principles, in order, by the results of scientific investiga- tion, to serve the Church of the Lord and its future ministers. No wonder : it is the theory of the churchly praxis; "a knowledge aiming at the self- edification of the Church " {L. Pelt) ; without doubt a knowing which is destined to pass over into action, but then surely still a science of and for that action, designed to lead the minister of the Gospel to become a " man of God, throughly furnished unto every good work.''^ In a certain sense, " I'art apres la science" (Vinet), but then also "la science, se resolvant en art." In any case no art-theory alone, but an applied science, born of the life, as cherished for the life. 4. By what has been said, the place which must be assigned to Practical Theology in the encyclopaedia of our science is already determined. This place is one which has not only, by the influence of Schleiermacher and his school in Germany, been permanently secured to it, but one which in some respects is duly and deservedly regarded as the place of honour. 2 Our >science forms not the root, but the crown of the whole sacred stem, and, if we follow the most ordinary and convenient division of Theology into Exegetical, Historic, Systematic, and Practical, can come under considera- tion immediately after the three before named. From the first it derives specially its basis, from the second its materials, from the third in particular its whole right of existence. It teaches the minister of the Gospel to apply,l and render fruitful in the service of the Church of Christ, the knowledge! which he has already acquired in the theoretic domain. That it borders, more closely perhaps than on any other, upon the domain of Ethics, need not be denied ; it may even have its utility to bring out into greater prominence than is frequently done the inner connection between the Christian moral and the practical churchly life. But nevertheless the wide compass, and still more the peculiar tendency of Practical Xheology, in itself gives it a claim to an independent place in 'the circle ; and here if anywhere the words apply, that the last shall straightway again become the first. It is even so ; for all the other parts of theological science exist, properly speaking, for the service of the practical, or are commonly studied — at least by the theologians before mentioned — whether directly or indirectly, with a view to later churchly practice. 5. Already have we begun to point to the value of Practical Theology, even regarded as an academic institute, and in reality this value cannot easily be too highly estimated. It is true it has sometimes been overrated in the place assigned to it by those who at heart desire nothing more of the theologian than that he should become a good practicist. As though he ' 2 Tim. iii. 17. '^ F. Schleiermacher, Kurze Darsldlung dcs Acad. SluJiums, 2^ Aufl. (181 1), s. 5. 4 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. could become this if he was in the domain of theory only a stranger, a bungler ! Such slighting of thorough study avenges itself later in a painful manner ; and where, as not seldom takes place, this comes into contact with a high-church current, there eventually not only the whole of the pining theology, but also the despised Church, will reap the bitter fruits thereof. Yet, as opposed to this one-sidedness, there is an under-estimating of the value of the " Practica," upon which equally little blessing can rest. ; It encounters this not seldom on the part of young students of the theolo- ' gical science, in other respects men of ability, who suppose they may much better devote time and toil to any other branch of their study, than precisely to this one. And certainly Hfe itself is the best school of practice, and neglect of other indispensable study in favour of this will be thought desir- able by no one. There have even never been wanting distinguished prac- ticists who have later in life, in a surprising manner, made up for the want of that which at the University they hardly thought worthy of their attention. Thus the renowned F. V. Reinhard ^ confesses that in his youth he attended no single college of practical homiletics ; but in addition to the fact that he cannot be very severely reproached for this neglect, which/' was, moreover, in another way counterbalanced, we must bear in mind that in this case the proverb is applicable—" Quod licet Jovi, non licet bovi." \ If Reinhard afterwards became an excellent preacher, it certainly was not i because of, but in spite of, this neglect of duty. Certainly in running one learns at last the art of running, even though it be at the expense of many a tumble ; but the guide who preserves the future walker from painful stumbling, nevertheless renders him no bad service. Theory can never supply the lack of the lessons of practice, but yet it may prepare the way '^ for them ; and how many have later suffered shipwreck, because they looked upon it as beneath them to devote attention expressly to the first principles of the art of steering the ship of the Church ! Just because the transition from the University to the Church is so astonishingly great, and even in some cases so difficult, must the study of Practical Theology, as it were, erect a bridge, which it is elsewhere sought to construct between school and church by means of theological seminaries, or in other ways. While we avoid a one-sided overrating on the one hand, and an unrea- sonable depreciation on the other, the real value and high importance of Practical Theology is, after what has been said, clearly apparent. It has this importance, even regarded in itself, as an independent part of that organic whole of science, of which no single side can leave the true theo- logian wholly indifferent. But not less is it of importance for the Church of the Lord, for which it seeks to prepare an increasing number of well- furnished and qualified pastors and teachers. Yet higher rises its value for the future minister of the Church himself, who only by the light it has kindled can with firm step pursue his way, and straightway in turn will I experience — " Grau, Freund, ist jede Theorie, und griin des Lebens goldner ! Baum." 2 And specially does the importance of the investigation which * F. V. Reinhard, in his well-known Gcstdndnisse seine Bildung zum Prediger betreffend. - " Worn out, friend, is every theory ; but fresh the golden tree of life." — GOETIIE. ITS HISTORY. ^'" awaits us become evident, upon a glance at the peculiar condition of the age, which makes higher demands than ever upon the future minister of the deeply shaken Church. If anything can heal the disorders of the pre- sent time, it must be the blessing-fraught influence of ministers of the Gospel, labouring in the spirit which — once expressed by the God-fearing Joh. Val. Andreae in Germany (f 1654), in a poem more than a century later emphatically commended, as "a Pastoral Theology in verse," by the great J. G. Herder (t 1803) at the close of his " Letters on Theology " — must even in the present day form the ornament of all who truly desire to feed, not themselves, but the flock of the Lord. Compare, on this remarkable poem, J. G. Herder, in the forty-ninth of his Letters above referred to. (Sdmmtl. IVerlr zur Rel. ti. TheoL, xiv., s. 273 ff.) See further the Art. * Pastoral-theologie, in Herzog's R. E., xi., ss. 175 — 190, and the literature there given; and especially* C. Palmer, zur Pi-act. TheoL, in the Jahrb. fiir Deutsche TheoL, 1856, i. 2. Moreover, the Encylopcedias of Clarisse, Pelt, Hagenbach, Doedes, and others, on this point. Also some few Academic Dissertationes, as that of L. Suringar, De muneris doctrincB Christiana interpretum pmstantid (1815) ; J. van Gilse, De TheoL disciplind, ad munus S. bene gerendum necessarid (1849) ; A. Niermeyer, De TheoL Pract. studio, fut. Ev. ministi'o prorsiis necessario (1854). Points for Inquiry. Sense and truth of i Tim. iii. i. — Review and criticism of other definitions. — Connec- tion and difference between Pastoral Theology and Moral Theology. — To what extent is a purely theoretic treatment of Practical Theology possible ? — How can pleasure in the study of it be best awakened ? § II. ITS HISTORY. As every other part of Christian Theology, so has this too its own history, of which a thorough knowledge is demanded, in order that we may duly understand the comprehensive nature of the requirement made upon us by its scientific study. Here, too, a long period of preparation preceded the independent rise and vigorous development of the theologic literary life. I. It is more than caprice or vain display of learning, when, in connec- tion with the introduction to any scientific investigation, its history too is brought under review. It is this alone which satisfactorily explains to us not only the genesis and continued development, but also the present con- dition of the science, while at the same time it gives us most important hints for the further prosecution of its study. We speak for the present only of the history of Practical Theology in general, while intending later to direct attention to that of its particular parts separately. If in doing so we pre- mise that the systematic treatment of Practical Theology in its whole extent, as an independent science, dates from a period not much earlier than the 6 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. beginning of the present century, then all that preceded this epoch may be best sketched as one long-continued period oi preparation. 2. Even in the four Gospels of the first age we meet with not a little that may be termed the starting-point for later development. With regard to the ministry of the Gospel, too, the Lord has expressed great principles, and given lessons of all-surpassing value. Think of His discourses at the sending forth of the twelve,^ of the seventy,^ and at the hour of His fare- well.^ It is the less necessary here to mention everything, because His whole teaching, intercourse, and example displayed in this respect a pedagogic, practical character. Among the Apostles, it is Paul in par- ticular who, in connection with our subject, has laid foundations upon which we may safely build. Not to speak of the Epistles to the Corinthians and Ephesians, let any one think of the Pastoral Epistles, together with that to Philemon, itself a model of Apostolic pastoral wisdom. Well did the Saxon liturgy, shortly after the Reformation, prescribe to the ministers of the Word the diligent reading of the Epistles to Titus and Timothy, " in order that every one may learn therefrom how he has to comport himself in .doctrine and life."* In the writings, too, of the Apostolic Fathers there are not wanting important directions ; especially, however, do the first six books of the Constitutiones, as also the Canones ApostoHcce, here shed a clear light upon the manner in which, during the first ages of the Church, the work of her ministry was conceived of and regulated ; while also single writings of Tertullian (t 220), De Jejuniis, De Cultu Faminarum, De Pudicitia, and of Cyprian (f 258) — specially some of his Letters — must not here be overlooked. It can hardly be regarded as an advance, at least from the Protestant point of view, that, specially during and after the fourth century, the pastor and teacher of the Church was constantly more placed upon the same level with the priests of the Old Testament. And yet, save for this difficulty, the renowned work of Joh. Chrysostom (t 406) on the clerical estate, Ilcpi kpcocrwijs {De Sacerdotw), must be mentioned with eulogy, as a fervent and eloquent plea for the ministry of the Gospel, accompanied with an enthusiastic commendation of its sacred duties.^ In a not less elevated tone is the priesthood exalted in the three books of Ambrose, De officiis clericoriim (f 397), and in the treatise of Ephraem Syrus (t 379), De Sacerdotw, in which even the conjecture is expressed that the Apostle had reference to this office when he gave utterance to the ' language of praise, " O depth of the riches," etc. A like spirit, too, per- vades the book De Pastorali Cura, ascribed to Leo the Great (t 461), and the Liber Pastoralis of Gregory the Great (t 604), in which the pastor's care is looked upon as " regimen animarum," exercised by the priest as "ruler" (prsesul) over his " subjects " (subditi). This writing, the most important ' Matt. X. * Luke X. * John xiii. — xvii. * Comp, the Comm. on the Pastoral Epistles, in Lange's series, sec. 3 of the Intro- duction. * See the general analysis of this work in the first volume of Neander's Der heilige Johannes Ch7ysostomus. Berlin, 1849. ITS HISTORY. 7 on the subject belonging to the ancient Church, treats on the requirements for the clerical state ; then on the life of the minister of the Church ; then on the instruction of persons of different conditions ; while the whole is closed with an earnest warning against all kinds of vices, specially against spiritual pride. Translated during its author's lifetime into the Greek, and later into the Anglo-Saxon, it was during the Middle Ages enjoined upon the clergy for constant use,^ even as to the present day it is held in high honour in the Romish Church. Very soon it was followed, but not sur- passed, by the work of Isidore of Seville (t 636), De saceniotum in Ecdesia officio. 3. Inasmuch as the Church of the Middle Ages, as a rule, displayed itself more vigorously in works than in words, we cannot be surprised that the literary harvest in this domain, too, has been comparatively scanty. While, for this reason, we mention only in passing the names of Walafridus Strabo,^ Ivo of Chartres,^ John Beleth of Paris,"* Rupert of Deutz,^ and William Durand,^ two products of this period deserve, nevertheless, to be treated as exceptions. We mean the work of Rhabanus Maurus (t 856), De dericonim institutione et ccerifiioniis Ecdesic7., which, though in part a compilation, nevertheless may be regarded as a tolerably complete com- pendium, in its time employed by many with good fruit ; and specially the Tradatiis de moribiis et offidis dericonim of the great Bernard of Clairvaux (t 1 153), written on behalf of the Archbishop Henry of Sens, in which he sketches with ardent affection the picture of the true clericus, but at the same time emphatically rebukes the degeneracy of so many Churchmen in his day.'' Not less severely is this done, moreover, in the writing of a precursor of the Reformation, first published in our own day, which can nowhere be better mentioned than here — namely, a Tractatus of Wiclif,^ of which the first part treats " de sanctimonia vitae," the second " de salubritate doctrinae," and which in its measure heralds the dawn of a better day for Practical Theology. 4. This better day dawned at the rising of the light of the Reformation. ' " Nullo Episcopo liceat Canones aut lihriim pastorale??!, a beato Gregorio Papa, si fieri potest, ignorare, in quibus se debet unusquisque quasi in speculo assidue considerare " {Cone. Tto'on., iii., can. 3). A very serviceable hand edition of this work was published at Leipzig in 1873. ^ t 849. Writer of De Divinis offidis, interesting for the history of the origin of the Mass. ^ f 1 1 15. Author of a Mic?-ologus de Ecdesia observationibus. * f 1 182. Wrote a Divinont??? offido?-ui?i b?-evis explicatio. * f 1 135. Composed a treatise in twelve books, De Divinis offidis (circ. 11 11), for the explanation of the symbolics of the worship. ^ f 1296. Drew up a Raiio?iale s. E?idii?-idion Divini offidi, in eight books. ' Compare the first part of A. Neander, Der hdlige Bernard itnd sein Zeitalter, Gotha, 1865. ' JOH. WiCLiF, Tractatus de Officio pastoJ-ali, e Cod. Vindobonettsi iiiitic p?imti??i edidit G. V. Lechler, Lips., 1863. On the merits of Wiclif in the domain of Pract. Theol., the excellent monograph of Lechler, Joh. von Wiclif tmd die Vorgeschichte d. Refor?n. (Pt. i., p. 553 ff.), deserves especially to be consulted. [Engl. tr. by Dr. P. Lorimer, 2 vols. 1878.] The treatise, too, of Nic. de Clemenges (f 1430), De studio thcologico, deserves not to be forgotten in this connection. 8 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. The words of Luther in the preface to his smaller Catechism : " Therefore observe, parsons and preachers, our office has become another thing from what it was under the Pope ; it is now become serious and healthful, therefore it has now much more toil and labour " — these words become in the domain of Practical Theology, too, a voice awakening to a higher life. Luther himself, it is true, offered no learned contributions to the science in the stricter sense of that word, but, on many an occasion which presented itself, he gave utterance to important counsels, collected before the close of the century by Conrad Porta, in his " Pastorale Lutheri, d. i. niitzlicher und nothiger Unterricht," u. s. w. Eisleben, 1586 ; latest edition, Nordl., 1842. Comp. also F. Gessert, " Das Evang. Pfarramt nach Luthers Ansichten, mit dessen eigenen Worten dargestellt," Schwelm, 1826. On the part of the Swiss Reformers must here be mentioned the dissertation of Zwingli, Vom Predigtavite, and more than one place of the fourth book of Calvin's Institutio. As a first attempt at a more systematic handling of the copious material does the Pastorale of Erasmus Sarcerius (1558) call for mention, immediately succeeded as it was by the Pastor of Nic. Hemming (t 1600), a practical manual, in many respects of exceptional value. One of his sayings deserves here to be repeated : " Nocentissimus pestis Eccle- site malus pastor ; is demum bonus est, qui utraque manu, doctrina atque exemplo, coelestem Jerusalem cedificat." Among the ornaments of the Lutheran Church in Germany in this domain must be specially ranked Joh. Val. Andreae (t 1654), an illustrious exception to the lifeless orthodoxy of his day [and surroundings], and pre- cursor in a certain sense of Pietism, who in his Parcenesis ad Ecdesice ininistros, as in his poem already referred to, " Das gute Leben eines recht- schaffnen Diener Gottes," lashed with severe satire an unspiritual Clerical- ism, and on the other hand set forth with much ingenuity what a faithful minister of the Gospel has to believe and know, do and avoid, suffer, fear, and hope. No wonder that the pious Spener (f 1705) could wish to be able to recall from the dead this faithful witness to the truth ! If this was beyond his power, he has himself only the more vigorously laboured for Practical Theology by means of his Pia Desideria (1678) and other writings, to which was later added the excellent Monita Pasto?-alta of A. H. Francke. No other part of Theology is under so great obligation to Pietism as that of the pastoral and practical. It was an inestimable blessing for England that at this same period the powerful voice of Richard ^axter (f 1691) in his Reformed Pastor was raised to proclaim as earnestly as possible the indispensable necessity of individual pastoral care. In Germany there appeared in the seventeenth century the first properly regarded systematic treatment of Practical Theology, by J. L. Hartmann, in his Pastorale Evangeliaim (1678), to which the Colleguim Pastoi-ale of A. H. Francke (1745) formed a sort of commentary. The same line was , pursued by J. Quenstedt in his Ethica Pnstoralis and lustriictio Cathedralis ^1678), Chr. Kortholt in his Pastor Fidelis (1696), and J. F. Mayer in his Museum ministri Evang. (1690). 5. The stream widens so rapidly before us as we approach the eighteenth century, that the greatest succintness of view here becomes necessary. With a view to brevity we pass over a number of magazines, journals, etc. ITS HISTORY. 9 without further notice,^ and direct attention only to the most important works of counsel and aid, due to the earnest endeavour to advance the science of Practical Theology yet a step farther. It was only natural that the influences which made themselves felt in the domain of Exegesis and Dogmatics should also dominate in increasing measure the study of Practical Theology. Much used and generally followed were the treatises of P. Roques, Le Pasteur Evangelique (1725) ; J. F. Ostervald, Del exercise du ministere sacr'e (i^Sj) ; S. Deyling, Iiistitutio priidentia. pasforalis (1734) ; L. C. Mieg, Meletemata sacrx de officio past. publ. et priv. (1747); C. T. Seidel, Pastoral-theologie (1749); S. J. Baumgarten, Kurzgefasste casiiistiche Pastoral-theol. (1752); J. F. von yiosYvoim, Pastoral-theologie (1754); V. D. Sporl, Vollstiindige Pastoral-theologie (1764); J. J. PHtt, Pastoral-theologie (1766); J. F. Jacobi, Beit rage zur Past. Theol. (1766); J. G. Tollner, Grundriss der eriuiesenen Past. Theol. (1767) ; J. G. Rosenmiiller, ^/z/t?////;?^ filr angehenden Geistlichen, u. s. w. (1778); J. F. Pfeiffer, Anweisimg filr Prediger (1789); and specially A. H. Niemeyer, Handbuch filr chi-istl. Religionslehrer (1790), frequently reprinted. Along ^vith J. P. Miller's Ausfiihrl. Anleitung zur weisen und geivissenhaften Venvaltung des Evang. Lehramtes (1774). This last belongs to the best which that period yielded for the Protestant Church of Germany and Switzerland ; while, in the Romish, the Vorlesungen aus der Pastoral-theologie of J. M. Sailer (1778) enjoyed a well-deserved renown. Pity only that Rationalism very soon exerted a highly unfavourable influence, not only upon the practice, but also upon the theory of our science. It was the age of Utilitarianism, in which J. M. Campe exalted the inventor of the spinning-wheel far above Homer, and J. J. Spalding — after having, before an audience of seventeen persons, contested the supposition that religion consists in going to church — wrote Ueber die Nutzbarkeit des Predigtamts {\']']2).'^ And yet he belonged to the nobler natures. Practical guides of the people, like C. F. Nicolai, the well-known publisher in Berlin (f 181 1) and writer of the pastoral romance "Sebaldus Nothanker" (1773), A. Nitsch, " Anweisung zur Pastoral-klugheit " (1791), and J. F. C. Graffe, "Pastoral-theol. in ihrem ganzen Umfang" (1803), went a step further downwards upon this sloping path. The sub-title of the last-mentioned work may serve at the same time as a type of the whole school of thought (tendency), " Instruction what and how the preacher has to teach and act in all relations of his office, that men may be, by the ' To this class belongs the "Theol. Pastoralis, oder Sammlung nutzbarer Anweisungen zur gesegneten Fiihrang des Evang. Lehramts, mitgetheilt von einigen Dienern des Evang.," 80 parts in ten vols., Magdeb., 1737-1759. So the " Pastoral-sammlung " of Fresenius, 24 parts, Francf., 1748, sqq. ; Ph. D. Burk, "Sammlungen zur Pastoral-Theol. ," 8 BB. Tiib., 1771, sqq. ; C. C. Sturm, "Journal fiir Prediger," 1770 ff. ; J. R. G. Beyer, "Allgera. Magas. fiir Pred.," 12 BB. 1789^1796; "Museum fiir Prediger," by the same, 4 BB. 1797 fT. ; K. F. Bahrt, ''Magas. fiir Prediger," 1782-91 ; later continued by Teller, Loiifler, von Ammon, Tzschirner, and Rohr. Further, C. W. Oemler, " Repertorium fiir Past. Theol. and Casuistik in alphabet. Ordnung," 4 parts, Jena, 1786 if.; C. ZiMMERMANN, " Monatschr. fiir Prediger-wissenschaften," 6 BB., 1821 ff. ; Heidenreich and Huffell, " Zeitschr. fur Pred.-wissensch.," 1825 ; and several others. '•* "On the Utility of the Ministerial Office." lO PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. aid of religion, adtm-ed iox time and eternity." No wonder that a kindred spirit of later time should think it necessary expressly to mention, among the first requirements in the minister of the Gospel, " a lively inclination to intercourse with the supra-sensuous world in general."^ But no wonder, also, that a mind and heart like that of J. G. Herder should experience a profound aversion for such grocer's theology, and should seek to exalt the labours of the minister of the Gospel above this dead level by setting before him a higher ideal. He did this, i.a., by his Redner Gottes (1765), by his brilliant Zivolf Provincial-Matter an Frediger, and specially by his Brief e iiber das Studium der Theologie (1780) — a work which will still well repay perusal. It is true his voice, in opposition to the prevailing spirit of the age, was for many as that of one crying in the wilderness. This is evident, for example, from the writings of men like Pfeiffer, Kiess- ling, Sextro, and others, of whom L. Pelt, Encyclopddie (1843), not without good reason, wrote, " Most of the works of this age are deservedly for- gotten ; " but yet there were not wanting some few who continued to accord to the minister of the Gospel a higher vocation than the advancement of culture, raising of silkworms, etc., and — as, among others, F. H. C. Schwarz, Der cJiristliche Religionslelirer in seinem moralischen Daseifi und Wirken (1798) — had the courage to uphold more evangelical principles. Even earlier, indeed, had many a fruitful seed-corn been scattered by the hand of the learned and devout Joh. Alb. Bengel (f 1751), as is evident, among other proofs, from the Pensces de Bengel sur V exercise dii Afinisih'e, gleaned \ out of Burk's biography, by Vinet, in his " Pastoral Theology," presently -'^ to be spoken of (p. 416 ff). S> 6. Not a little, too, is our science indebted to Fried. Schleiermacher (t 1834), who devoted a part of his energies alike to its systematic rounding- off, as to its appropriate and effective treatment. If at the close of the previous century G. J. Planck had represented the " Practica " in his well- known Einleitting as " a mere substitute in place of theoretic theology for blockheads, who were not able to devote themselves to the latter," the page was now turned over. Schleiermacher, in his Darstellung des Acad. Stud. (181 1), described Practical Theology as the theory of the service and guidance of the Church — the point, as it were, in which the whole of theological activity culminates ; whilst his own Practische Theologie nach den Grundsdtzen der Evangel. Kirche im Zusammenhange dargestellt, first published after his death (1850), serves to show how greatly he had culti- vated con amore the field of this investigation too. It was thus due in no small degree to his influence that in the bulk of the theological encyclopaedias published during the second quarter of this century, Practical Theology was treated with considerably more affection and care than before ; while, moreover, his example called forth in not a few others a more systematic and independent treatment of this still comparatively youthful science. A new path was struck out by G. F. C. Kaiser, Entwurf eines Systems der Past. Theologie (1816) ; J. Boroth, Synopsis Theol. pastor. (1823); L. S. Jaspis, Hodogetik (1821); J. Th. L. Danz, Die Wissefischaften des geistlichen So F. B. KosTER, Lehrbitch der Fasioralwissenschaft {\%21), s. 10. ITS HISTORY. I I Berufs im Gnindriss (1824) ; R. Haas, WissetiscJiaftliche Darstellnng des geistl. Berufs tiach den ?ieuesteti Zeitbediirfnissen entwickelt (1834) ; and L. Hiiffell, whose Wesen 7ind Beruf des Evang. Geistlichen (1822) has exerted a favourable influence in wide circles. Much more scientific in form, but less practical in tone, was the work of Ph. Marheinecke, Entwurf der Pract. Theol. (1837), remarkable at the same time as an instance of the influence of Speculative Philosophy upon a province apparently so far removed from it. The opposite may be said of the fresh, free, stimulating Fastoral- theologie of CI. Harms (1830), equally successful from a pedagogic point of view, as imperfect and weak from a theologico-critical one. Definitely with a view to academic instruction was Practical Theology treated by K. F. Grupp, Eract. TJieol. i. (1848), Liturgik ii. i (1852), Homiletik ; C. B. Moll, Das System der Pract. Theol. im Grundriss dargestellt (1853) ; J. H. A. Ebrard, Vorlesimgeti fiber Pract. Theol. (1852) ; K. Kuzmany, Pract. Theol. der Evang. Kirche Aiigsb. und Helvet. Confession, i. (1856) ; F. Ehrenfeuchter, Die Pract. Theol. (1859) ; W. Otto, as well in his Grundzilge der Ev. Pract. Theol. (1866), as in his Pract. Theol. (in two parts, 1869); and A. F. C. Villmar, Lehrbuch der Past oral- Theol. (1872), the last from a rigidly Lutheran standpoint. On the excellent Handbook of C. Palmer we have already spoken {§ I. 3). On the whole of Practical Theology in all its extent, C. I. Nitzsch (t 1868) published an elaborate and in many respects excellent monograph, in two parts (1859 — 1867), the fruit not only of years of toil, but also of a whole genuinely theological and churchly life, and the application at the same time of principles he had already earlier enunciated in his Observationes ad theologiam practicam felicius excolendajn (1831). It redounds in no less degree to the honour of the departed author than the posthumous work of Alex. Vinet (t i2,^']),Theologie Pastorale, on Theorie du Mi?iistere Evangeliqtie (1850), does to preserve the last-mentioned name in grateful remembrance. The principal theolo- gical and Church magazines and reviews have also, within the last few years, on several occasions presented important contributions. 7. Upon the domain of the Romish Church, in Germany especially, there have likewise been manifested signs of a powerfully awakened life. J. S. von Dray published in 181 9 a Kurze Einleitung in das Studium der Theol., in which, as regards the Practical Theology, the influence of Schleiermacher cannot fail to be observed. F. A. Staudenmaier treated it separately in his Encyclopddie der Theol. Wissenschaft (1834), and offered in an unfinished form precious building stones in his fascinating work Der Geist des Christenthums, u. s. w. (ist ed. 1838). A. Graf, too, wrote a Kritische Darstellung des gegenwdrt. Zustandes der Pract. Theol. (1841). While as early as the sixteenth century P. de Soto, in his Tractatus de institiitione sacerdotiim (1579), and in the seventeenth M. Sandaeus, in his Theologia medica (1635), had been a guide followed by many; and if the eighteenth had witnessed the commencement of a revival of this study (particularly in Austria, where at Vienna a special chair was appointed for this subject), in our own century more especially have a number of works appeared which testified of an awakened taste for its cultivation. Among the most important are to be mentioned the works of Schenkl, Reichenberger, Hinterberger, Powandra, Vogl, Amberger, Benger, Gassner, and others, spoken of more 12 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. at large in the Handbuch der Pastor al-theologie of Ign. Schiich, 3^ Aufl. (1875), ss. 10, II. The Patei-familias of A. Kirschbaumer (1867), a sort of Practical Theology in narratives and examples, is a theological vade mecion which contains hints worthy of the serious attention not of the Romish clergy alone. 8. Of other lands we can relate but comparatively little. In England, Oliver Bowles published a Tractatus de Pastoi'e Evangelico (1649), ^^ter translated into Dutch. Of other English and Scottish practical theologians, V too, such as George Herbert (t 1633),! John Owen (f i683),2 Gilbert ^ Burnet (t 1715),^ J- Newton (t 1807), and J. A. James (t 1859),* the names are held in honour far beyond their native land ; and the works, together with those of others, will hereafter be mentioned in their proper \. place. In a freer form, a treasure of practical wisdom is furnished by C. H. Spurgeon, in his racy and original LectiLres to my Students (1875). The work also of P. Fairbairn (t 1874), published after his death. Pastoral Theology, a Treatise on the Office and Duties of the Christian Pastor (1875), is to be welcomed as a successful attempt to meet for the time being a pressing want, in accordance with the demands of the age and nation ; whilst the kindred works of William G. Shedd (ist ed., N.Y. 1867, Edinb. 1868), John Hall (1875), Wm. M. Taylor (1876), R. W. Dale (1877), and John C. Miller (1878), indicate the dawn of a better era for Homiletics and Pastoral Theology. 9. As far, finally, as Holland more particularly is concerned, the practical character of our people is in itself a guarantee that this part of theological science would here, specially in the Reformed Church, be studied with affection and delight. Not a little which is the product of other lands has been made available for us by means of translations, but in addition to this there have not been wanting contributions entirely original. The Exercitia pietatis of G. Voetius (1664), have unquestionably exerted a widespread influence; and the Tabul(z succinctce de cur a animanmi (1730) of his disciple, H. S. van Alphen, may be noticed as a genuinely Netherlandish contribution to the study of one part at least of Practical Theology. The elaborate treatise, too, of H. Ravestyn, De Nazare'er Gods tot den heiligen dienst tocgerust (1743), has been used by many not without blessing ; while ' " A Priest to the Temple : or, The Country Parson ; his Character and Rule of Holy Life." First printed in 1652, with a Preface by Barnabas Oley. ^ See the Second Part of this vohime, under the head oi Pastoral Theology. ^ " A Discourse of the Pastoral Care," 3rd edit., 1821. •• "An Earnest Ministiy the want of the Times" (5th edit., 1855); besides which Dr. John Brown, of Edinburgh, pubHshed a "Christian Pastor's Manual" (1826), Rev. Charles Bridges, "The Christian Ministry" (1829; 7th edit., 1850), and the Rev. Edward Bickersteth, "The Christian Student," of which the fifth edition appeared in 1852, after the author's death. To these must be added the well-known works of Dr. John Edwards, "The Preacher," 3 parts, 1705, 1706, 1709; Dr. Edward Williams, " The Christian Preacher" (1800, 5th edit. 1843); Dr. Ebenezer Porter, "Lectures on Homiletics, Preaching, and Public Prayer" (1834, latest edit. 1861) ; as also the once popular handbook of S. T. Sturtevant, "The Preacher's Manual" (Lond. 1828, 3rd edit, N.Y. 1838); and that of T. IL Skinner, "Aids to Preaching and Hearing" (Phila. 1839, Lond. 1840). Earlier than any of those mentioned in this note was the "Student and Pastor" of the Rev. Cotton Mather. ITS TREATMENT. I 3 De Zedemeester der Kerkelijken (1766), of N. Statius Muller, raised not its voice in vain for the correction of many a defect. With a view to com- pleteness, we may further mention the name and writings of F. Liefstink, Gedachten over het Predikambt in de Gercf. kerk (1792, 1804) ; J. Konij- nenburg, Lessen over het Leeraarsambt in de Chr. kerk (1802) ; J. Benthem Reddingius, Mijne gedachten over het Leeraarsambt (1809); and specially C. Boers, Handboek voor jonge Predikanten (1807, 2nd ed. 1820), which for a series of years served the Utrecht professors, J. Heringa (t 1840), and H. E. Vinke (t 1862), as a text-book for their excellent practical lectures. The Kerkelijke Raadvrager en Raadgever, by the first-mentioned of these professors (4 parts, Utrecht, 1819 — 1843), contains a store of practical pastoral wisdom, which can be neglected by no young preacher without serious loss. In Leyden the scientific treatment of Practical Theology was powerfully advanced by J. Clarisse (t 1840), in his EncydopcBdia Theologica (2nd ed. 1835), and W. A. van Hengel (t 187 1), who in 1840 published a " Brief Sketch of the Academic Lessons on the Ministry of the Gospel, specially in the Netherlands Reformed Church." The Groningen School treated the subject from its standpoint with great affection in its EncyclopcBdia Theologi Christiani (3rd ed. 1851, § 64, sqq.), and specially in the in many respects excellent Handboek of W. Muurfing (2^ uitg. i860), in which "the Ministry of the Gospel, specially in the Netherlands Ref. Church," is " regarded " on all sides in a manner which has established for the writer a high claim to the gratitude of many. From a kindred source appeared (1843) the Ller inner ingen en wenken betrekkelijk de Evangeliebediening of M. A. Amshof ; while C. E. van Koetsveld, in his Pastorie van Mastland (1843, frequently reprinted), sought in a reahstic, humorous vein to com- mend a popular Practical Theology, suited to our national character. In an idyllic, idealistic manner, the same had already been attempted in Germany by Friedr. Strauss (t 1863), whose melodious Glockentdne have awakened an echo in numerous hearts. Comp. J. Clarisse, Pelt, Hagenbach, and others, in their Encyclopedias. W. Otto, /. c, i., § 9 ff. ; C. I. NiTZSCH, /.<:., i. § II ff. *G. VON Zezschwitz, Der Entwicklungs- gang der Theologie als Wissensckaft, insbesondere der Practischen. An Academical Ad- dress (1867). Points for Inquiry. The significance of the Pastoral Epistles in the history of Practical Theology. — Light and shadow side of the influence exerted, upon its mode of contemplation and treatment, by Chrysostom, Ambrose, and Gregory the Great. — Which of its parts were most studied during the Middle Ages? which least, and why? Connection between Church reform and the restoration of our science. — What circumstances of more recent times have most beneficially affected the development of Practical Theology ? which prejudicially ? — Total impression from the historic survey. § in. ITS TREATMENT. The further treatment of Practical Theology, as this is demanded by its present condition, will be the more successfully accomplished 14 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. in proportion as it continues more in harmony with the peculiar character and special design of the science. An appropriate treatment of the abundant material imperatively demands that everything should be lopped off which does not actually fall within its limits, but also that nothing should be overlooked which is essential to the completeness of the investigation. In pursuing this course, a judicious use of suitable aids can be only advantageous. I. Now that we have reached the end of our historic survey, the present condition of the science of which we are treating naturally, above anything else, attracts the eye. It may, regarded generally, as compared with an earlier one, be spoken of as in many respects favourable. As well in a technical as in a practical respect, the treatment of our science has gained in unity and firmness. The notion, method, extent, and requirements of the same have during the past half-century been placed in clearer light, and the days are for ever past in which it was looked upon as a moderately ,) insignificant appendix to more serious study. The noblest powers in our own and other lands are devoted to the advancement of it ; and with growing conscientiousness is it sought to obtain a clear conception alike of the goal at which we are to aim, and of the way by which this goal is to be attained. While so many, and amongst these such exceptionally good text-books have been published with this end in view, it can less than . formerly be brought as a complaint against academic discipline that it / forms only scholars, but not preachers ; scientific theologians indeed, but no practically serviceable pastors and teachers. Not merely for the degree of Doctor in Theology, but also for admission to the ministry of the Gospel in the Netherlands Reformed Church, a special examination has been demanded in our time as to the acquaintance with Practical Theology in its whole extent, and particularly with the art of preaching. In addition to all this, distinguished homiletes and liturgists, pastors and teachers, in every way point out, with courage and honour, a path from the following of which one may look for no other than the most favourable results. Yet it was only to be expected that, in opposition to these light sides, more than one shadow side should present itself Not always is the zeal and earnestness with which Practical Theology is cultivated at the University proportionate to the importance of the subject. The temper of the age, in so many other > respects adverse to the prosperity of spiritual, specially of theological studies, has not seldom exerted upon this province, too, a paralysing influence. All that stands in the way of the thorough study of Criticism and Exegesis, Dogmatics and Ethics, hinders still more — directly or indirectly — that of Practical Theology. Naturalistic Modernism reduces the pastor and teacher to a " Monsieur habille en noir, qui dit des choses honnetes " (Le Maistre). Sectarian orthodoxy, on the other hand, favours here and there a sickly *' Amtsthum," in connection with which the pure conception of the matter in the spirit of the Gospel and the Reformation is in danger of being wholly lost sight of Where, in addition to all this, also material considerations ITS TREATMENT. I 5 cause the love of only too many to wax cold towards the work of the ministry, interest in the theory of this praxis cannot possibly increase. Enough already for the confirming of the position that only an appropriate treatment of the science can enable it permanently to maintain its ground in opposition to all these adverse influences, and in increasing measure correspond to the requirements of the age. 2. It is needless to enter into a detailed criticism of the different ways in which Practical Theology has been treated in our day. The truth of the *'variis modis fit et bene fit" is by no one seriously doubted. Enough that we here briefly describe our own method, and in doing so characterise the standpoint which we take as not only positive-Christian, but also Evangeli- cal-Protestant. Considering the difference of principle which divides alike the Roman Catholic and the Greek Church from the Churches of the Reformation, and consequently on either side dominates the conception of the work of the minister of the Gospel and the life of the Church, we regard it as not possible so to treat of Practical Theology that perfect justice should be done to the reasonable demands on both sides. Gladly would we learn of all, even of the Rom.ish clerg)' ; but, for the present at least, it is better on both sides that the modes of examination should be different. On the other hand, it does not seem really necessary, at least on our side, to insist emphatically upon the opposition between the Lutheran and the Reformed Church in this domain. 3. The division of the abundant material is at once determined and legitimated by the nature of the case. With the different activities of the pastor and teacher we cannot possibly become duly acquainted without the sacred office itself, from which they necessarily flow, being treated of more in general. A more general portion, devoted to the contemplation of the ministry of the Gospel itself on various sides, must thus naturally precede, by way of laying the foundation for that which follows, in which the said activities are each separately presented. These last easily divide them- selves into such as are carried on directly on behalf of the Church of the Lord, and others put forth on behalf of those who — whether by descent and lairth, or by mode of thinking and standpoint — must be regarded as standing outside of the Church. Thus there opens before our eye a field of activity, as well in the narrower as the wider circle, of which naturally the first awakens the greatest interest, and thus here too calls for by far the greatest amount of space. The pastor and teacher has a distinct task to fulfil in consequence of the relation in which he stands alike to his congregation in its totality as to the particular members of the same, either future or present. From the former flows of itself Homiletics and Liturgies ; from the other, Catechetics and Foimenics. As concerns the so-called Ecclesiastics, treated by many as a part of Practical Theology properly so called, however ready we are to acknowledge that the pastor must also direct his flock, or, if you will, must in a spiritual sense rule the Lord's heritage — to which end therefore Poimenics also on its part has to extend to him a helping hand — ^just as little can we admit that the special treat- . -ment of Ecclesiastical Law in its whole extent should also belong to the! field which the practical theologian as such has to cultivate. In so far as 1 ecclesiastical law forms a part, not only of the juridical, but also of the I 6 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. theological science, it belongs, in our opinion, not to the sphere of practical, but historic theology, as tending to render the theologian acquainted with the present condition of Christianity and the Church, in relation to the State, particularly with the ecclesiastical organisation of his immediate surroundings. With a full appreciation of all that may be adduced, and actually is adduced, in favour of another view, we wish on the above grounds to be excused from giving in this place a special treatment of Ecclesiastics. That, too, which is ordinarily termed Apostolus, belongs, we think, partly to the domain of Poimenics, partly to that of labour in the wider circle above indicated, which, in order that we may not too greatly enlarge, we propose to treat separately by way of appendix in a final chapter. The treatment at least of the science of missions, in the I strict sense of this term, in its full extent, cannot receive justice merely as ; a subordinate part of practical theology, as this is taught at the University, ' but belongs to another place. If we thus reserve to the greater part of our investigation not more than four chapters, preceded by the more general, and closed with the appendix in question, then our Practical Theology must of itself fall into six divisions of unequal extent. 4. As far as concerns, further, the mode of conducting our examination, nothing is easier than here to enter upon very wide discussions, either as regards religion in general or the Church of the Lord more particularly ; but at the same time nothing is more superfluous. The whole of ecclesiology may here be presupposed as sufficiently knowTi from Christian Dogmatics, and equally so all that relates to the religious side of Anthro- pology.—On the reguirements for a worthy treatment of this part also of our Encyclopaedia, there is need only to speak in few words. Who does not feel that an ardent love for Church and science alike may here be regarded as indispensable ? that above all things a spirit of faith and prayer must penetrate and hallow the whole investigation ? That which Luther once said, "The lawyers do not stand so immediately in need of it, 'but we poor theologians must first kneel down with the Church, if we would preach a good sermon," holds good also of the scientific preaching which is expected of the interpreter of Practical Theology. " A Jove principium !" Personal faith in the main contents of the saving Revelation, >and in the absolute indispensableness of the ministry of the Gospel, is tacitly presupposed and expected of him who will apply himself with zeal and blessing to the study of Practical Theology. As for the man who in the present day has lost that faith, we shall not haughtily condemn him, but yet must most earnestly warn him at least not to betray with the kiss of Judas the Church which he cannot defend with the sword of Paul, and rather to depart than to lay waste the flock and render himself unhappy. A special talent for this branch of study above all others is not to be { expected of every one ; but of the familiar saying, " A devout heart is the / genius of a clergyman," ' no single jot or tittle can be eifaced; and sound piety in the Christian sense is inconceivable, where upon almost every essential point one openly contradicts the Lord and His Apostles. Jacobi. ITS TREATMENT. 17 5. There are not wanting important aids, the intelligent use of which, combined with the regular following of the academic lessons, may lighten and advance the study of Practical Theology. Some, at least, of the hand- books already referred to deserve to be early in the hands of the student in Divinity and the youthful leader of the congregation, especially the works on this subject by CI. Harms, Nitzsch, and Vinet {§ II. 6). Not less may a few biographies of excellent ministers of the Gospel now departed, some in their youth, exert a stimulating and purifying effect. The literature, too, of the belles-lettres of earlier and later times affords contributions by no means to be despised ; while various serial works in like manner contain not a little of importance for the young homilete or liturgist, catechete or pastor. If all this be accompanied so far as possible with well-ordered practical efforts, and if finally there is wanting just as little to the guide as to the traveller upon this path courage and perseve- rance, we may hope that as a result the conviction expressed by Luther will become by degrees more and more general among old and young : " There is no more precious treasure nor nobler thing upon earth and in this life >than a true and faithful parson and preacher. The spiritual preacher increaseth the kingdom of God, filleth heaven with saints, plundereth hell, guardeth men against death, putteth a stop to sin, instructeth the world, consoleth every man according to his condition, preserveth peace and unity, traineth young people excellently, planteth all kinds of virtue in the nation ; in short, he createth a new world, and buildeth a house that shall not pass away." Compare, as regards the methodological questions belonging to this subject, the * Dissertations of Al. Schweitzer, F. F. Zyro, and Th. A. Liebner, in the Theol. Stud. u. Krit. of 1837, iii. ; 1838, i. ; 1843, iii. ; 1844, i. W. Otto, Ziun Ban dcr Pract. Theol., in the Memorial of the Theol. Seminary at Herborn. Of the aids above referred to we may mention M. A. F. Unger, Reden an kiinftigen Gcisilichen (1834); J. C. F. BURK, Evangel. Pastoralt/ieologie in Beispielcn (1838); * Brieven en Gedachten van K. H. F. Stockhardt (1844); * Autobiography of Claus Harms (1851) ; *W. Beyschlag, Aus dcvi Lchcn ernes Fruhvollendeten, des Ev. Pf. E. Beysc/ilag {i^ei) ; w". Lohe, E>e/- Evangel. Geistliche, i. (1861), ii. (1866) ; A. C. FroHLICH, De ougeloovi^'e J 'red ikant {1^62,) ; *]. P. Hasebroek, De laatste Kerkklohstoon (1864); Bladen nit M Eagboek van Gosevinus (2nd edn.. 1864) ; W. Raabe, Der Btingei-pastor {i^G']) ; *C. A. WiLKENS, Eriedr. Mallet, de7- Zeiige der Wahrkeit (1872) ; W. HoFACKER, Em Pi'i- djgerlel>e7i aus de?- ersten Hdlfte dieses Jahrh. (1872). Points for Inquiry. Whence in this case too, in connection with the treatment of the same material, so great diversity of method? — Why is it that an Evangelical Protestant standpoint is required for the treatment of Practical Theology? and why not a denominational one ? — What becomes of this part too of science in the hands of the adherents of the Modern tendency ? — Further hints upon some requirements and aids. CHAPTER L THE MINISTRY OF THE GOSPEL REGARDED IN GENERAL. § IV. GROUND AND ORIGIN The rise and continued existence of a certain order of men, which is devoted to the service of sacred things, has in general an anthropological, social, and individual ground, from which it is sufficiently explicable. The ministry of the Gospel, in particular,^ in the Christian Church, must be regarded as the fruit of an insti- tution of the Lord of the Church Himself, who made careful preparation for this form of labour, emphatically enjoined it, and has powerfully blessed it. I. Where, in accordance with the plan we have sketched out, we proceed first to regard the ministry of the Gospel in general, various important questions arise, the examination of which definitely confirms our judgment alike as to the nature and value of this ministry. Among these, certainly that as to its ground and origin comes first of all, and is of paramount importance. This it is even in itself, but in the present day becomes specially important. As a result of the growing hatred of the age for religion and Christianity, numbers express themselves with regard to the so-called spiritual order in a manner which testifies not only of the most profound contempt, but also of the greatest ignorance. It seems at times as though this order were not only something superfluous and hurtful, but moreover something entirely the result of chance, which might equally well have been wanting ; nay, concerning which one cannot help wondering that it should ever have arisen, or should have already continued so long in existence. In opposition to this superficial opinion, we must at once point to the connection between the so-called»' spiritual order and the deepest wants and highest aspirations of mankind. GROUND AND ORIGIN. 19 2. Man — and this is the anthropological ground of the existence of a separate order, which in a variety of forms is devoted to the service of sacred things — man is from his constitution a rehgious being, created and destined for Hfe in personal communion with God. This inner impulse of his nature had need to express itself in religious forms, actions, symbols — above all, in prayers and sacrifices. To this extent we may say —so long at least as man is regarded as a separate link in the chain of beings, glorious fruit of a creative act of God Himself — that the first man was the first priest in the sanctuary of creation ; for the need for worship is as old as humanity itself But it is— and this is the social side of the question — hardly possible that all men, so far as their outward life is concerned, should devote them- selves equally undividedly and constantly to this higher vocation. On the contrary, because man is also a social and morever a sensuous being, it was only to be expected that the eye of the majority would be directed to the visible world, and the heart would more desire attachment to, than separation from, the life of society. Yet mankind can never altogether forget its kinship with God, and thus the spiritual, which must be the element of all, became again more particularly the sphere in which some especially lived and moved. Hence, even among the rudest tribes, priests, exorcists, druids, mediators between the seen and the unseen world, in every variety of form. Mankind charged as it were a few of its more privi- leged members to be its interpreters before a higher tribunal. According to the will of God Himself, Israel was called in the midst of all peoples to become the priestly people of the Lord ; ^ but on account of the impurity « of the nation in its totality, the tribe of Levi was destined in this respect to serve as the representative of all. Where now with such an outward calling the inward is in harmony, as this springs from one's own impulse and choice, the7-e is present at the same time the individual ground of that labour, which is inseparably connected with the spiritual relation. That which fills the heart necessarily also causes the mouth to overflow ; the sacred fire within naturally seeks for itself an egress.^ The impulse of love to God and Christ must have given rise to the spiritual ofiice in the Church, even though it had not already existed ages long.^ Now, how- ever, that in consequence of all the above grounds it already exists, its claim to a continued existence is raised above all serious doubt. In one case only could that claim be with good reason disputed — either if religion and Christianity had finally perished, or if all had already become so spiritual that they no longer stood in need of any special guides in the way of spiritual life. If the former is inconceivable, and the latter is as yet far from being attained, then the unbroken continuation of the ministry of the Gospel is guaranteed upon reasonable grounds ; although we by no means overlook the fact that Materialism seriously assails it, and that Naturalism, in aiming at the overthrow of the Christian belief in revelation, would bring about, as an inevitable consequence of its success, the abolishing also of the office of pastor and teacher as such. 3. It is, however, self-evident that the origin, strictly so called, of an ' Exod. xix. 5, 6. '■' Jer. xx. 7 — 10; Acts iv. 20. ^ 2 Cor. v. 14. 20 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. historic phenomenon such as that which now occupies us, can be explained only by the historic method. The activity of the minister of the Gospel is certainly, in any case, not of earlier date than that of Christianity itself, and displays, like this last, a wholly peculiar character. We are something other than the priests and prophets of the Old Testament, than the scribes in the days of Jesus. Is there good reason for speaking of a Divine insti- tuHon, properly so called, of the work of the ministry ? The importance of the question is at once apparent ; while it is an equally well-known fact that this question is in various ways answered and — understood. If its meaning is, whether a strictly speaking spiritual ordei; in distinction from the secular one, was ordained in the Christian Church by her Founder, then we do not hesitate to return to this question a negative answer. But from such separate order the spiritual office must be well distinguished, or rather — since also the notion of office is necessarily an abstract one— the question is to be put in this wise. Was the work of the minister of the*' Gospel, the special ministry of the Word, ordained by the Lord of the Church ? and did He really will that there should be persons, more than others qualified, and in a position to devote themselves with all their powers to this ministry ? And to the question, as thus understood, we can return no other than an affirmative answer. Notably the Lord prepared for the instituting of the office of pastor and teacher by the founding of the Apostolate and the forming of His first witnesses, which, more than aught else. He regarded as the core and centre of His earthly ministry. ^ Pre- sently, after His resurrection. He sends them forth as the heralds of His kingdom,^ and connects with this mission a promise extending far beyond the hmits of the apostolic age.^ Upon Peter by name He confers the shepherd's staff ;^ yet in this act there was conferred upon him nothing else than from the nature of the case belonged to all the other Apostles, to a level with whom the fallen Apostle was now again restored. By all this He gave to His disciples before His departure a commission,^ which soon must by them in turn be committed to others. That the Lord also really willed this, may be asserted on good grounds. The Gospel of the Kingdom founds a ministry of the Word, and a living* word cannot be transmitted without hearers and interpreters specially called thereto. Hence the Aposdes, wherever they plant churches, also appoint teachers and overseers, who are consecrated to their work with the laying on of hands, and quahfied thereto by the gifts of the Holy Ghost.^ To these, their successors, they later commit the same,'^ well assured that in so doing they are acting entirely in the spirit of their Master. According to Paul's own saying,^ it is indeed God who has set some as apostles, but others also as prophets and teachers. It is the exalted Christ Himself,^ ' Luke vi. 12 ff; John xvii. 4—6. ^ John XX. 21. ^ Matt, xxviii. 18—20. " John xxi. 15—17. ^ Mark xvi. 15, 16 ; Luke xxiv. 47. ^ 2 Tim. i. 6, 7. ' 2 Tim. ii. 2. 8 I Cor. xii. 28. " 6 KaTa^as . . . Kai 6 dvapas . . . avTos ^Sukcv. Eph. iv. lo, II GROUND AND ORIGIN. 2 1 who, after other ministries, has given " some as pastors and teachers " in the Church ; yea, none less than the Holy Ghost appointed the overseers of the Church at Ephesus to this high dignity.^ Thus the work of the ministry presents itself before us irradiated with the threefold glory of the- Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. If now we add to all this so many a proof of approbation, support, and blessing, whereby the Lord in the course of the ages has sealed the labour of His messengers, in such wise that the words, " The Lord wrought with them,"^ have frequently been confirmed in the most striking manner, then can we not hesitate for a single moment to speak, with, e.g., the formulary for the ordination of ministers of the Word in the Netherlands Reformed Church, of the sacred office which we fill as "an institution of Christ." 4. Unquestionably all believers are called to labour for each other's edification,^ and together to be one priesthood of the Lord.^ It is indeed the highest ideal of the New Testament, that all its children should be taught of God, and consecrated to Him in truth.^ But, on the other hand, the words, " every man in his own order," do not less retain their force ; and as God is a God of order, so is there a diversity of gifts and operations of the Holy Spirit.*' To some, who would leave all for His sake, the Lord assigns their own home as the field of labour;^ and from the eager pursuit of the task of instructor, on the part of the unqualified, the Apostle with earnestness and wisdom dissuades.'^ Moreover, though all are called in a certain respect to be prophets and priests, not all are as yet at all quaUfied for the fulfilment of this vocation. The design of the office of pastor and teacher is that of bringing them nearer thereto ; and in this sense one may say that the ultimate aim of the ministry of the Gospel is attained only when it has rendered itself superfluous. 5. When we sum up all that has been said, we come to the conclusion that the work of the continued ministry of the Gospel is wholly in accord- ance with the Lord's will ; that for a regularly maintained consecration to this labour an office of the Word is demanded, and that the union of those who occupy that office naturally gives rise to a spiritual ecclesiastical order, in contradistinction from all others. Of course the hierarchical assumption is not hereby at all justified, by which later the boundary line between the priesthood of the Old and that of the New Testament was altogether effaced, and the minister of the Word became such as had dominion over the faith of the brethren. A sharp opposition between clergy and laity is in conflict with the pervading spirit of the Gospel and Reformation. But a distinction between those who are called to lead in the Church, and those whom they lead, is nevertheless enjoined by the nature of the case ; and though the endlessly repeated assertion, that we are " only brothers among brethren," may, even in a very sound sense, be assented to, it is far from expressing the 7vhole truth. There is a Divine vocation of the minister of the Gospel in another sense than that in which this may be predicated of ' Acts XX. 28. ^ Isa. liv. 13; cf. John vi. 45. 2 Mark xvi. 20. « I Cor. xii. 4—7. ^ I Cor. xiv. 26; I Peter iv. 10. ' Mark v. 19. * I Peter ii. 9 ; Rev. i. 6. " James iii. la. 2 2 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. any other ecclesiastical or social activity. We have not here to do with a providential guidance embracing all things, and thus also this, but with a direct Christocratic disposing; and we stand to the congregation, not in the relation of wiser to more stupid sheep, but as shepherds to the flock/«- which to them — in distinction from others— is committed by the Chief Shepherd Himself. As shepherds, and not in the first place specially as teachers ; for from the pastor's office, which on that account is first men- tioned also in Eph. iv. ii, did the office of teacher proceed, and not conversely. According to Acts xx. 17, 28, the overseers (eTrio-KOTrot) and elders (Trpeo-^uVcpot) were originally one and the same ; but very soon there naturally came into prominence those members of this circle who also laboured in word and teaching,^ and on account of the great usefulness of this gift were deemed worthy of augmented honour. Thus there arose genetically, from the pastor, the teacher and catechete, to whom in due course the task of the liturgist must now be entrusted, where the ministry of worship was associated with the ministry of teaching. But at the same time it is impossible that those to whom this task was assigned should not be, even by that fact itself, distinguished from, and in respect of spiritual things also to some extent raised above, the congregation and its lesser conductors. If the Spirit of the Lord had not originally instituted any pastors and teachers by extraordinary appointment, the Church herself would doubtless very soon have done so, since she could not possibly as a permanent condition dispense with them. As every work which is properly to succeed demands particular men specially ad hoc, so it is also Avith the great work of the ministry of the Gospel : the glorified Lord has not only permitted, but willed, that there should be through all ages those who devote themselves to this vocation (life's task), and the effort of the spirit of the age to degrade, and if possible abolish, the office of the Word, must be regarded as in principle definitely anti-Christian. And now, as regards once more the ordet- as such, unquestionably all clericalism is to be opposed as a dangerous evil. On the other hand, however, the fact must not be overlooked, that the complaint of clericalism is not seldom heard most on the part of those who themselves feel a special inclination to rule in the Church and society, without always being equally qualified for so doing. That they who, in distinction from others, devote themselves to one voca- tion, should attach themselves rather to each other than to strangers, is natural, lawful, and may even be beneficial for the kingdom of God, so long as the "vis unita fortior" retains its truth.^ This the disciples of the same philosophic school did amongst the ancients ; this the members of the various guilds of commerce and art associations, soldiers, and students of the same science, do still in their various domains. The Lord Himself chose not only particular Apostles, but also a definite company of the Apostles, and sent forth the members thereof two and two; and those who follow in their footsteps may, in a legitimate sense, regard themselves as " sacerdotes [tniiiistri) a Deo facti, in Ecclesia constituti " (Cyprian). ' I Tim. V. 17, 18. " [irpos TOWS ihlom (Acts iv. 23) remains the watchword of believers, in their several spheres of action, in the last age no less than the first.] GROUND AND ORIGIN. 23 6. If we are warranted in asserting that which has been said above, then it becomes evident, on the one hand, how unevangeHcal is all Hierarchism, even as in the present day it appears anew in the varying forms of Crypto- Catholicism (Puseyism, Ritualism, Irvingism, etc.), with an overrating of the office which must inevitably lead to a lifeless Formalism and Mechan- ism. But not less, how certainly the non-recognition of the office is to be condemned, which obtains with the so-called Plymouth Brethren, as indeed it earlier existed among the Quakers and other sects. The work of the Gospel ministry and the pastoral care was ordained by Christ Himself : He Himself conferred different gifts of the Spirit for different offices in His Church, and history too has confirmed in more than one manner the neces- sity for the maintenance of that of pastors and teachers. Where formerly simple " exhorters " existed — as among the Baptists in Holland — the neces- sity has later been recognised of possessing duly educated and ordained* teachers. There is consequently no single reason for supposing that we have here to do with a merely temporary institution, in a short time to become antiquated. Rather have we to judge that the minister of the Gospel derives his mandate in the last instance, not from the Church which has called him, but from the Lord who has placed him in this office, and who precisely the?-e will make use of him in His service. For this reason may we accordingly demand a reasonable amount of esteem for the ministry of the Gospel, and — since here persons and things cannot be separated — for those who are entrusted with it. But especially have we to see that we ourselves manifest this high esteem, and in turn show ourselves worthy of it ; mindful of the lesson of wisdom, " Pour etre respecte, il faut savoir se respecter soi-meme." Comp. *E. Leopold, Das Pj-ediglamt im Urchristentlnim (1846), s. 262 ff. ; some articles by F. QonKX m. L Esperance of 1847 and 1848; J. Mullek, "On the Divine institution of the office of Pastor and Teacher," in the Deutsche Zeitsc/u: fm- chr. IVissen- scli. iind chr. Leben, 1852, s. 45 ff. That treatise appeared, wholly recast, in Miiller's * Dogma tische Abhandlungen (1870), s. 468 ff., and merits specially to be consulted and pondered in regard to this by no means easy question. — On the Irvingites and Plymouth Brethren, see Herzog, R.E. in voce ; and, with regard to the first, specially *J. N. KoHLER, Hd Ii-vingisme, eene hist. krit. proeve (1875). ■ — On the Baptists of Holland, *S. MuLLER, History of the Instruction in Theology among the Netherlands Baptists, appearing in the Jaarboekje der Doopsgez. Gemeenten, etc. (1850), bl. 67 — 197. Also published separately. Points for Inquiry. Are there absolutely no forms of religion in which the priesthood is altogether wanting ? — Is there sufficient historic ground for speaking of a founding of the Apostolate by Jesus Himself? — Sense and importance of Matt, xxviii. 18 — 20.— Explanation and further examination of i Tim. v. 17, 18. — The Protestant, as opposed to the Roman Catholic, onesidedness in this domain. — Critique of Irvingism and Darbyism in regard to the office of the ministry. — Is there any ground or occasion, even for the contemning of the minis- terial office, to be found in ministers themselves ? 2 4- PRACTICAL THEOLOGY § V. EXTENT AND AIM. The work of the Gospel ministry — as the regular continuation of the task of the Apostles and their legitimate successors, in dis- tinction from more general Christian labour — must be accomplished on behalf of the Kingdom of God by the pastors and teachers as such, in a manner more nearly indicated and explained in the Scriptures of the New Testament. This activity first attains its object when Christ is glorified, the Church built up, and the worlds conquered for its rightful King. 1. If what has been said was able at first to convince us of the sacred- ness of the spiritual office, our appreciation thereof will be raised yet higher as we now proceed to consider its extent and design. What does it properly embrace, what aim at, in accordance with the will of its Institutor? The importance of the question thus put will be at once evident. For it is not the question how far the activity of the pastor and teacher actually extends, but how far as a matter of justice it may extend, and how far as a matter of duty it must. To find the answer to this question, we will have regard to the various direct or indirect appellations employed in the Scrip- tures of the New Testament with respect to this ministry. Just as sometimes the character and nature of our Church, in distinction from that of the Roman Catholic, has been successfully inferred from her various appella- tions of Evangelical, Protestant, Reformed, etc., so may the character of the ministry of the Gospel be readily explained by the way in which it is described or indicated by the Lord and His Apostles. We need hardly say that for this purpose we must direct our attention to the original significance and aim, not to the sense in which by later usage they may have been either misapplied or diminished in force. 2. Among the appellations proper, that which presents itself in special prominence is the name of Witnesses (//.apTupes), given by the Lord Himself^ to His first messengers. Their whole activity, as more particularly their word, must be an animated testimony of Him and His glory. ^ As such is accordingly the peculiarity of their task apprehended by Peter and his fellow- Apostles. 2 No one can truly testify of Christ but he who has him- self seen Him, if not with the bodily, at least with the spiritual eye. Since, however, He, of whom this testimony is given, is no less than Lord and King, His witnesses stand to Him at the same time in the relation of ' John XV, 27 ; Acts i. 8. ^ Acts iv. gt) ; 1 John i. i — 3. EXTENT AND AIM. 25 ^Servant'^ and Apjstle? Both appellations are in the New Testament be- stowed, not only upon the Twelve, but also upon their fellow-labourers •? the least believers, indeed, are regarded as placed in the service of Christ,^ but ministers of the Gospel as servants Ka.r k^oxf]v- The name of • Apostle, once even given to the Saviour,'^ was especially the favourite title of Paul," and thus indicates more particularly the honourable side of the ministry of the Gospel. For the envoy not only fulfils the charge given him by his Sender, but also to a certain extent represents Him, where He is not Himself present. It is his special task, in the name and at the mandate of the Lord, to beseech the world to become reconciled to God.'^ Where this entreaty takes place by means of the Word proclaimed, there also the name of preacher or Herald'^ is equally usual as suitable. In connection with the ministry of that Word, its heralds are in the fullest sense Labourers^ in opposition to the false apostles, who are at the same time deceitful workers.^'' As by the former appellations specially the rank, so by this more especially the task of the minister of the Gospel is indi- cated as by a stroke of the pen. Since, however, this activity is entirely dominated by the spirit of ministering love, he who is entrusted therewith may at the same time bear the name of Deacon (StaKovos), and his ministry that of Diacony.i^ The opposition between pastorate and diaconate in the narrower sense of the term belongs to a period much later than the apos- tolic age. Here the deacon may be at the same time Elder (Trpeo-ySurepos), and, what was originally the same, Overseer {hvla-KOTro^. Under all these forms he remains the servant, envoy, messenger of the Lord, the angel of the congregation ^^ — unless with many expositors we are to suppose that not the leader, but the prevailing spirit, the general character, of the congrega- tion is represented, as it were personified, under this appellation. 3. Minister of Christ and minister of the Church are, however, in scrip- tural usage, by no means words of the same signification. As minister of Christ, the pastor and teacher is subject to, and dependent upon, the Lord ; as minister of the Church, he serves her with the gifts and powers conferred upon him. So far from following her, he must be her Leader}"^ while avoid- ing all that might suggest the thought of exercising dominion over the Lord's heritage. The same relation is also expressed by the more figurative appel- lations bestowed upon the guides of the Church. To these belongs especially the honourable title of Shepherd, under Christ, the Chief Shepherd of the flock, who Himself extended the first pastoral staff" to one ' Bondservant (SoOXos), Matt. x. 24. ^ Envoy {dwoaToXos), John xiii. 16. 3 Acts xiv. 14 ; Rom. xvi. 7 ; James i. i. * Col. iii. 24. * Heb. iii. i ; cf. Johnxx. 21. ^ 2 Cor. xi. 5 ; cf. I Cor. ix. 5. ' 2 Cor. V. 20; vi. I. * K-rjpv^, I Tim. ii. 7. * ipyoLTai., Matt. ix. 37 ; KO-KiQivres, I Tim. v. 17, '" 2 Cor. xi. 13. " Cf. 2 Cor. V. 18 ; ix. 12. '■^ "A77eXos, Rev. ii., iii. '•' rf/ovfjLevos, Heb. xiii. 17. 2 6 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. of His Apostles^ — a name of wide significance, in which not only the activity in itself, but also the tender and reciprocal relation between teacher and Christian community is drawn from the life. A like thought underlies the figure of the Steward (olKovofJiO';) employed by Paul, after the example of Christ Himself^ — a comparison excellently adapted to bring into relief the honourable nature of the work entrusted to him, but also the pecu- liarity of the place occupied by him, as well in the spiritual household as at the head of this circle. Again, the same Apostle calls, himself, and whoever works with him in the same spirit, a Master-builder,^ who carries on the building upon a foundation already laid ; a Husbandman,'^ who has thus to work and to wait, like the tiller of the soil in the kingdom of nature ; a Soldier^ finally, who, as such, has a severe conflict to wage, but also a glorious crown to expect. 4. It is remarkable that among all these appellations there should be wanting precisely that of " Priest," to which such high value was later attached : in the New Testament all believers are priests, although it is natural that the true leader of the congregation should also be, in an exceptional sense, the Christian priest. The above-mentioned titles, when combined, are moreover admirably adapted to place before us the work of the ministry in all its extent, and to show that for its due fulfilment neither the preacher, nor the liturgist, nor the catechete, nor the pastor can be wanting. By a comparison with the titles employed in the New Testament we may at the same time judge of the suitability of the various names by which the minister of the congregation has been known in subsequent times, and is known to our own day. That of pastor is certainly preferable to that of parson {pfarrer, pfarheer) ; in that of preacher, perhaps a too one-sided stress is laid upon the homiletical element ; in that of priest or clerk {clericus), upon the liturgical ; in that of magister, upon the scientific. Pope {papa, Ila-Tras)^ is the indication of a fatherly dignity in the Church, to which one may confidently lay claim only at the end of his career, after faithful service — if, at least, he sees no difficulty offered by the words of the Lord, Matt, xxiii. g. The Dutch title " Domine," taken literally, sounds perhaps sufficiently hierarchical, and by the simple Mr. {Mynheer) all boundary lines are too much effaced. The English "Reverend" is pre- ferable ; the frequently high-sounding titulature, on the other hand, of dignitaries in the Church is rather to be limited than extended. For the rest, one may accept the customary titles, provided these are for our ear, and especially for our conscience, a constant reminder of the maxim, "Noblesse oblige." To what clerical assumption, moreover, the sacred — and still more the non-sacred — titles of the office have afforded a pretext and occasion is universally known. 5. As the titles mentioned place before us the extent of the work of the ' John xxi. 15 — 17 ; i Peter v. i — 4. ^ I Cor. iv. I, 2 ; cf. Luke xii. 41, 42. * apxi-riKTWv, I Cor. iii. 10. * yeupyds, 2 Tim. ii. 6 ; cf. i Cor. iii. 6. ^ ffTpaTiuTTjs, 2 Tim. ii. 3 ; cf. i Cor. ix. 26, 27. ® As in some communities of the Greek Church. EXTENT AND AIM. 2/ ministry, so do they indirectly point out to us its exalted aim. Placed at the height indicated, the minister of the Gospel has, in more than one respect, an important task to fulfil. — In relation to Christ, he is called to t continue His work upon earth, ^ the greatest and most glorious work which can be conceived of; by this to extend and defend His kingdom, so far as human powers are able to do so, and thus to glorify His name in work- ing and suffering, in living and dying. "^ — In relation to the Church, the spiritual body of the Lord — to be duly distinguished from the outward Church organisation — are the pastors and teachers given " for the perfect- ' ing of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. "2 However great the difference between the Then and the Now, the vocation is still ever the same. " Perfecting of the saints " (indi- vidually) is the immediate aim; "the work of the ministry" the means whereby this end is attained ; " edifying [building up] of the body of Christ " as one living but growing whole, the final aim, in which everything must end.^ — In relation to the world, finally, although placed in another position toward the world than to the Church, the minister of the Gospel has to fulfil the task which the Lord figuratively indicated, when He compared the action of His witnesses specially to that of light and of salt.* As the light is the symbol of knowledge, purity, joy, and hope ; as the salt pene- trates, seasons, and preserves from corruption all things with which it comes in contact, so must the minister of the Gospel become for the world, in the widest sense, a blessing, by the fact that he understands the words of the Lord, " Compel them to come in," in His spirit, and obeys them. His whole labour bears, to this extent, the character of Halieictics, by which name also it has been indicated by some (after Matt. iv. 19 par. ; 2 Cor. xii. 16). In this domain he may think of the words of Solomon: " He that taketh souls is wise."^ 6. It can hardly be necessary, after what has been said, to remind how greatly the gaiideas cum tremore befits the man to whom the Lord has vouchsafed the high honour of such a ministry. In truth, " the pastor has a charge, powers, and obligations, such as the simple believer does not share. He has to conduct others into the truth, and to do so he must* know it. No one is obliged to undertake the oversight of a flock, and no one is compelled to retain till death the office he has once obtained. But just as a young man who was unable to distinguish the wolves from the dogs would not think of becoming a shepherd, so he who does not himself know the truth which saves, and the error which destroys, should not present himself to be a shepherd of men ; if he does so wittingly and willingly he is a disloyal man, a vile hireling, a wolf in the shepherd's garb."*^ But what we should Hke to ask all the despisers of the office, if this could do them any good, would be whether the position, *' the priest- ' John iv. 35 — 38. 2 Phil. i. 20. ^ Eph. iv. II, 12. * Matt. V. 13, 14. * Prov. xi. 30b. [The Dutch rendering of this passage, which best corresponds to the original.] * Fred, de Rougemont, Le Christ ei ses Temoins (1856), ii., p. 303. 2cS PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. hood a chronic disorder of the human race,"^ can be seriously defended ; and whether the world would, after all, be so much the better and happier, if the well-known proposal of revolutionary Radicalism, " to strangle the last king with the bowels of the last priest," were actually carried into effect. For our part, we can discover in the imperative demand that " the parsons {pfafen)" should be "banished from the Church, and miracles from religion,"^ nothing but an utterance of that passionate hatred of Christ, of which, in accordance with the word of prophecy, we look for yet a last outbreak, but then also the final destruction. And in opposition to all those who in our day cannot rest until the last nimbus around the head of the minister of the Church has become a piercing crown of thorns, we continue calmly and untroubled to make our own the words of wisdom : " Though one should be during his whole life only the apostle of a single man, this would not be to live upon the earth in vain, nor to be to it a useless burden."^ But certainly one thing is more than ever necessary for those who at the present time would still dare to seek " the excellent office of a bishop : " they must be seen in a spiritual sense to be equal to con- tending against the anti-Christian endeavour of the world. We may here fittingly append a few couplets from a " Mediaeval Looking Glass for Priests," held up in the pithy verse of Walter Mapes {+abt. 1210), sometime chaplain to King Henry II. of England, taken from his " Sermo ad Christi Sacerdotes," and meriting something beyond a passing notice, even on the part of Protestants in the present day. A contemporary speaks of Mapes as "virum curiaUum facetiis praeclarum." Cum pastores ovium sitis constituti, Non estote desides, neque canes muti. Sonum vestrum nuntient latratus arguti, Lupus rapax invidet ovium saluti. Omnibus tenemini, viri, prsedicare, Sed quibus, quid, qualiter, ubi, quando, quare ? Debetis solliciti prceconsiderave, Ne quis in officio dicat vos errare. Vestra conversatio sit religiosa, Munda conscientia, vita virtuosa, ' Regularis habitus, fama speciosa, Nulla vos coinquinet labes criminosa. Estote pacifici, sobrii, prudentes, Justi, casti, simplices, veri. patientes, Hospitales, humiles, subditos docentes, Consolantes miseros, pravos corrigentes. Utinam sic gerere curam pastoralem Possitis in sasculo per vitam actualeni, Ut, cum exueritis chlamydem mortalem, Induat vos Dominus stolam immortalem. * Title of an Italian writing, some years ago placed upon the Index at Rome. 2 Da v. Strauss. 3 La BRUYi;RE. LIGHT AND SHADE. 29 Comp. C. I. NrxzscH, as before, i. (1859), s. 5 ff. ; E. DoYfi, Der Evangel. Geistliche, ah Predi^er, Priester, imd Pastor (1874). W. G. Blaikie, " For the Work of the Ministry," a Manual of Homiletical and Pastoral Theology (2nd edit., 1878). Points for Inquiry. Connection and difference between the place assigned to the Apostles and that of later ministers of the Gospel.— The higher unity of the various figurative names of office. — To what extent may also the Protestant minister be rightly called a priest ? — The diminished influence and estimation of the ministry of the Word in its causes and consequences. § VI. LIGHT AND SHADE. To a ministry like this there can, from the nature of the case, be just as Httle wanting a brighter light-side, as there can a darker shadow-side. Not a little combines to render the work of the minister of the Gospel in the highest degree honourable, above*- many other forms of labour pleasant, comparatively advantageous, and within a wide circle abundantly fruitful in good. On the other hand, there have been in all ages, and there are more par- ticularly in our day, toils and burdens connected with the office of the Word, which permit its faithful servant to rejoice only with trembling. I. That which has been said has already made us sufficiently acquainted with the peculiarity of the ministry of the Gospel to prepare us for the nearer contemplation of its light and shadow sides. As regards the first of these, we confidently place in the forefront the honotirable nature of the position of the minister of the Gospel, and boast of it as affording, to a moderate and well-directed ambition, abundant satisfaction. If, in the chain of worldly stations, that of the tradesman is ordinarily reckoned above that of the agriculturist, and above these again the life of the student of science and arts, the servant of " the queen of the sciences " has certainly least of all reason to shrink from comparison, in point of rank and position, with any one. Regarded from a Christian standpoint, where is a vocation on earth equal to that of " servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ," of-- labourer for the kingdom of God ? Who can boast of predecessors so illustrious and noble as the lowly minister of the Cross ? In truth, the young soldier of Christ, who joins the far-extending and not yet completed ranks of His warriors, enters into distinguished society. Let him only take care that he himself does not compromise, parody, neutralise ^ the standing which he must esteem his highest honour. Oh that the spiritual order — - ' We wish to indicate the ugliness of the thing itself by the choice of foreign and un- attractive words to denote it. 30 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. to use this appellation in the Protestant sense — did only half as much to uphold its true dignity as, e.g., the military ! Then we might vnth. greater boldness return to so much unmerited scorn and reproach, the quiet answer, " Es liebt die Welt das Strahlende zu schwarzen und das Erhabne in den Staub zu ziehn." ^ 2. In addition to the honourable character of this sphere of labour, its pleasantness above many others may here come under consideration. In many places, specially in the country, does the faithful minister of the Gospel enjoy, frequently to a very large extent, esteem, confidence, and^ love. We certainly do not assert that every part of his work is in itself at all times equally attractive and agreeable. Even in the little world of this office, barren steppes often alternate with fruitful oases. Not seldom, too, heavy burdens are laid upon feeble shoulders, and everything is required of a single person, even where perhaps he can excel only in a single respect. But on the other hand, no part is there of the work of the ministry which has not its brighter, sunny side. The preacher who will conscientiously fulfil his task sometimes experiences wearisome hours ; but then, how often has the " wooden doctor," as the pulpit was once jestingly called, made the speaker well again, who had ascended it weary and cast down in body and soul ! Catechising may sometimes be monotonous, but then how lovely is ofttimes the bond which binds the shepherd to the lambs of his flock ! and a receiving and welcoming - of our own foster-children to the communion, how does it sometimes make amends to the true shepherd's heart for indescribably much ! How many an incident occurs for the pastor, which*, gives him occasion to thank God with tears ! how many an hour of prayer and thanksgiving, upon which the liturgist afterwards looks back as a bright spot in his life ! Every condition has its burdens, but not one has nobler< pleasures than this. The privilege, too, of a freedom, comparatively not small, above very many others, must not be overlooked here ; and least of all the pleasing sense that we are working for that which is highest in the moral, religious. Christian domain, not only for time, but also for eternity. But yet so it is : ars artium est regime?i animaritni. He who abandons this post, and voluntarily exchanges it for a lower one, in by far the majority of cases only renders it evident that he was never anything better than a hire- ling— no shepherd. 3. Not without some hesitation do we speak of the advantages of a ministry, of which, with but rare exceptions, the material recompence is so small, not seldom so extremely scanty. Who does not know and deplore that many a minister of the Gospel passes year after year under a weight of temporal cares, which render the cheerful fulfilment of his task often ex- ceedingly difficult ? The Church is still much too little mindful in this respect of that which is alike her duty and her interest : for many the apostolic admonition (Gal. vi. 6) appears to have been written in vain in the Bible. We shall not accordingly here adduce the evidence of any ' The world loves to darken that which is radiant, and to drag down to the dust that which is exalted. — Schiller. " [Inzegeniug, the Germ. Eutsegttung, the act of pronouncing a blessing upon young converts at their first communion. Thus equivalent to confimiation.] LIGHT AND SHADE. 31 melancholy figures, but rather hope that time will bring about the greatly needed improvement in this respect, and rejoice that efforts are now being made in various places with this end in view. But may we not also remind, on the other side, that the " cives, qu^erenda pecunia primum " cannot, at least for the pastor and teacher of the Church, be the highest law, and that for his consolation another saying of Scripture, besides that above mentioned, the glorious word of Matt. vi. ^;^, is to be read in the Gospel ? Specially, and with full confidence, do we direct the mind to a better advantage than is obtained in the service of an unrighteous Mammon. Think of the abundant opportunity so ceaselessly afforded us of advancing our own higher and spiritual culture ; of that which one may gain for his own heart and life in the service of the Gospel ; above all, of the reward promised by the faithful Lord to the faithful servant, and — let one feel himself above complaining ! 4. And in addition to all this we have to consider the fruitfulness of a ministry which contemplates so glorious an end. Certainly we must cherish no immoderate expectations ; there is no witness of the truth who has not more than once had to complain of fruitless toil.^ Yet it is certain that no work can remain wholly unblessed, which is really performed in God's name and strength for His kingdom and glory. How much evil has been, and still is, restrained by the preaching of the Gospel, as by a last dam ! and how much hidden good is instituted, of which the fruit becomes manifest only after years, or^in eternity ! In order to judge impartially on this matter, we must have regard to the labours, not of some, but of many ; not to the course of a few years, but to the lapse of a more lengthened period ; and in particular must not forget how obstinate is the resistance presented by the spirit of the world and of the age to the Word of the kingdom. One >would sometimes feel inclined to wish to the advocates for an atheistical state the opportunity of living, just for a few years, in the midst of a society from which the last trace of Christianity and Church was banished. It would soon then be seen to what an extent the ministry of the Gospel became conspicuous by its absence. It is difficult here not to become severe or bitter, but "wisdom is justified of all her children." For us a language of glorying like that once uttered (i Tim. i, 12), and so often since repeated, still remains comprehensible ; nay, we are not at all surprised that the life and labours of excellent pastors and teachers should not seldom afford, even to secular literature, the material for its choicest creations. Think of Goldsmith's " Vicar of Wakefield ; " Goethe's " Hermann und Dorothea;" Rousseau's "Vicaire Savoyard;" La Martine's " Jocelyn ; " E. Tegner's " Abendmahlskinder," and many others. 5. In opposition to so much light, however, the shadow-side must not be ignored or slighted. Even m itself the office of the Word presents peculiar difficulties, whether regarded more in general, or in its different forms of labour. It is a spiritual office, and we — even when we have become in reality Christians — do not cease to be very sensuous mortals. No work, moreover, so much calls into play the whole man as ours ; one must be totus in illo, or one is useless in the service of the Lord and His Church. ' Isa. xlix. 4 — 6. 32 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. No Other work besides demands such careful and unceasing preparation as that of the man who is called alone to provide for such varied wants. Glorious, no doubt, is the gift and calling of the Word ; but what effort does it cost constantly and regularly to address well the same audience, even after the first excitement has lost its power, and the last illusion has vanished ! I Or though we might succeed in this, many a one, who appeared a hero in ' the toga, makes but a sorry figure so soon as he grasps the shepherd's staff. Into what painful circumstances may one come with his church, even in ordinary times, much more in specially unfavourable ones ! And then, in conclusion, a responsibility the more grave, in proportion as more has been entrusted to us by the Lord of the talents. It is easily to be explained that an Origen, when, in the reading of Psalm 1. before the congregation, he came to verse i6, should — overpowered by the sense of his unworthiness — burst iinto tears, and remain for a moment unable to proceed. 6. Still more difficult does the office become, when we contemy)late him who fills it /// //is reIatio7i partly to the intellectual, partly to the ecclesiastical, partly to the social life around him. In the first of these domains he beholds on every side a conflict and movement, from which he has not the wish, but also not the power, of withdrawing himself. How far from easy in the midst >of all this to preserve a state of fitness for his work ; to know how much or how little of really trustworthy ideas men around him have to communicate ; to preserve his scientific and his churchly life in harmony the one with the other ! In the ecclesiastical domain, although one may wish to be no party man, one must sooner or later choose one's party, and the inevitable con- sequences of this act will not have to be long waited for. One may either please no one, or some, or for a time all ; but in the first case one runs the risk of becoming disheartened, in the second partial, and in the third con- ceited, Considerably easier does the task of the Roman Catholic priest appear to be in this respect — since he fulfils his task in subjection to his ecclesiastical superior in part as an opus operatum — than that of the Protestant, who, more free and independent, almost necessarily moves constantly in the sphere of conflict and discussion. How much difficulty and danger in the use of a freedom so great, and yet in truth not unlimited ! And, moreover, in addition to this, the care for the scanty livelihood ; the experience of slights, tacit indeed, but none the less systematic and vexatious ; the ordi- narily superficial, frequently malevolent criticisms, even on the part of unknown and unqualified persons, to which one is exposed ; the strain, sometimes too great, upon one's relations with colleagues not always hke- minded and friendly ! Enough already to justify to some extent the seemingly paradoxical saying of Erasmus, " Regem agere facilius est quam Episcopum." 7. In addition to this, we have to take into account more than one difficulty of a more persotial nature. This proceeds in part from the body : there are thorns in the flesh in the case of Paul,^ but also in that of Timothy ; ^ physical conditions in which nothing is more difficult for us than, e.g., to think out a discourse, to commit it to writing, or to deliver it. 2 Cor. xii. 7. IJGHT AND SHADE. 33 The greater and more excessive the exertion of the nerve-life sometimes demanded, the deeper the depression which follows. Still more dangerous is to many a rock of a more spiritual nature wliich threatens our bark upon these waters. There are temptations whicli the teacher shares with all Christians, and against which he, more than any one else, must be on his guard ; but there are also others which attach especially to his vocation, and under which sometimes the best give wa)'. Foremost of these is the danger of spiritual pride, specially where one is flattered and honoured by^ men, but not less where one is, in his own estimation, treated with ingrati- tude and slight. The danger of learning to act mechanically, in consequence of a constant handling of the most sacred things with hands not always pure ; how great the temptation not always in reality to he that which one would appear before God and His Church ! The danger of growing weary and discouraged where one's work is in reality never done, and yet one reaps so little joy, harvest, and fruit, but rather sees oneself outstripped by those who in our innermost conviction were much less deserving of their honours than most others. The danger, too, of an inner wavering, dis- harmony, conflict of soul, which even a Luther and a Baxter did not always escape ; the Satan's sieve, in which not a Peter alone has been shaken and has incurred the peril of falling through. ^ The greatest danger of all, finally, of which even a Paul (considerably more, indeed, than many a later teacher) was afraid — the danger lest, after having laboured for the salvation of others, we should ourselves be found to be reprobate.^ Is not, in consideration of all this, his question, "Who is sufficient for these things ? " comprehensible in our lips too ? In our day we see the shadow side we have referred to not a little darkened by conditions and moods which we deplore indeed, but cannot change. It is a time of transition, of fermentation, of collision, in which much that is old is seen to have served its day, while as yet the new which is to take its place has not been discovered ; a time, above all, poor in enthusiasm, in faith, and in love. We are not now speaking at all of the difficult position of teachers, who, having openly abandoned the belief of the Church, have nevertheless pronounced an unjustifiable " we remain," and that at the expense of honour and good faith. But also where one continues with a good conscience to occupy the ground of the Christian, of the Reformed Church, how much is required if in the present day we are to be really faithful to the highest principle of life, and well armed against all that may come — possibly soon ! The sky is overcast with dark clouds, and the flock, of which the shepherd's staff is entrusted to us, assumes more and more a heterogeneous and divergent character. " Qui pastor est ovium, unum modo animantis genus curat, cujus ingenium nosse non adeo est difficile ; qui elephantos curant non magno negotio discunt unius animantis naturam. Sed in hoc grege tot sunt animalium species, tot mixture, ut Africa vix gignat plures. Omnium autem naturam depre- hendere, non mediocris est negotii, pr?esertim cum nullum animal sit homine vafrius et eo versatilius." ^ Why more? He who, all this not- withstanding, girds himself to enter the lists against the perverse spirit of ' Luke xNii. 31. - I Cor. ix. 27b. ^ Erasmus. 3 34 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. his age, will do well to read an important precept of ancient time ^ in silent earnestness and with application to himself. Comp. L. IliJFFELL, I.e. i., §§ lO, ir. To the literature there mentioned must be added : K. H. Sack, Werth mid Reitz dcs gcisilkhcn Standcs (1815). *JoiiN Newton, Letters of 0 micron, fourth and thirteenth letters. W. Muuiujng, /. c, 2nd edn. (i860), §§ 15-17. roiNTS FOR Inquiry, Are the lights and shadows of ministerial life the same from all tlieological and ecclesi- astical standpoints? — Explanation and application of i Cor. ix. 7 — 16. — In what way may the pastor contribute to the improvement of his own condition? and what may he with justice require of the congi-egation in this respect? — The conflict between the spirit of the age and the ministry of the Gospel. § VII. HISTORY AND PRESENT CONDITION. Light and shadow side of the ministry of the Gospel are alike closely connected with its remarkable Past and rooted in its ever- changing Present. In consequence of the one and the other its Condition at this moment is one in which it has lost not a little, but also again in other respects has made important advances. 1. The light and shadow side manifested by the To-day of the ministry of the Gospel would of course have been other than it is if its Past had displayed a different character. Thus we are led naturally to speak of the history of the sacred office as a whole, as yet so far as possible distinct from that of its separate parts. The very fact that this ministry has a history, or rather that it has existed long enough to be able to have one, may in itself be considered remarkable. How much has been done in the course of the ages in order to reduce to silence the voice of the word, where the militant Church in her sufferings has been " made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men."^ But especially do the contents and course of this history place in our hands the key to many an enigma, and render apparent the mode in which that which now exists has by slow gradations been brought about. A period of highly promising Beginning we see quickly followed by one of deep Degeneracy; a hallowed Reformation followed by a vigorous Advance, but not without a renewed Decline. 2. The first three centuries gladden us with the light of a highly promis- ing begin?wig. Filled with the Holy Ghost, the first Apostles arise, and all that we learn concerning their earliest fellow-workers leaves upon the mind an exceedingly favourable impression. " When the churches were as yet of wood, the priests were golden, but after the churches had been ' Deut. XX. 1—8. 2 J Qq^.^ jy g_ HISTORY AND PRESENT CONDITION, 35 filled with gold the priests became wooden." ^ Only an arbitrary special pleading can deny that the episcopate is of apostolic origin ;• but the form of Church government we are wont to associate with that name was as yet far to seek. The universal priesthood of believers was in this period a fact, and as yet the walls had not risen which separate the "clerici" from the "laici." Only too soon, however, the Church, framed after the prototype of the synagogue, began to strive after conformity to the ancient Temple, and to regard its ministers as a firmly established " ordo," as distinguished from the " plebs " who were subordinate to them. The endeavour after unity, as a condition of inner and outward strength, pre- pares the way — as is evident from a perusal of the Ignatian literature — for an exalted estimate of the episcopal office, which in turn becomes the "precursor of the later hierarchical system. Tertullian even in his day could bestow upon the bishop the name of High Priest ; and Cyprian compared the relation of the presbyters to the congregation with that of the Levites to the other tribes of Israel. Very quickly are the derm now termed also canonici — according to some, because they were inscribed in the list of ecclesiastical persons ; according to others, because they were subject to the ecclesiastical rule which distinguished these canonici into higher and lower classes {ordines niajores et niinores). To the former belonged bishops, presbyters, and deacons {sacrati), to the latter subdeacons, lectors, acoluths {insacrati). It is true the original identity of bishops and elders was on some sides still recalled to memory f but in point of fact the latter were constantly more overshadowed by the former, and the episcopal throne, raised in the chancel of the church above all other seats, obtained the significance of an expressive symbol. The country episcopate sees the freedom of its action gradually limited, while the metropolitan bishops vie with the patriarchs in seeking to obtain the highest executive authority. We need only to bring before our mind the image of Ambrose in presence of the Emperor Theodosius [circ. 390], in order to see what bearing the hierarchy would very soon assume towards the State.^ 3. No wonder that, particularly after the fifth century, we have to speak of a deep degeneracy. If the bishops had already in earlier times been dignified with the tides of " Fathers, Ephors, Prsesuls, Fathers of Fathers," henceforward the name of father is given, at first by preference, and later exclusively, to the Bishop of Rome. An hierarchical edifice rises on high, designed on earth to display the image of the city of God in heaven. The influence of the people upon the choice of bishops becomes limited, and the ecclesiastical dignity is ever increasingly transferred from the shoulders of the lower clergy to those of the higher. The writings of Chrysostom and Gregory, already referred to, exert a great, but on the whole less favourable influence, and foster a clericalism which is constantly less incHned to respect any limits. With the augmented lustre of the office its highest dignitaries see at the same time their own personal privileges Geyler v. Kaysersberg. •Comp. such passages as Tit. i. 5 — 7. By Jerome, for example, in his Comment, in Tit. i. That is to say, in less worthy hands. — [Tr.] 36 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. augmented. They are exempted from burdens and duties incumbent upon other citizens, such as having soldiers quartered upon them, and the so-called vnmei-a extraordinaria et sordida, ^\'hile the privilegiuin fori releases from the obligation of appearing before any but a spiritual tribunal. The fountains, too, of ecclesiastical wealth now begin to flow ever more liberally on various sides, and things go as the poet sang : " Die Kirche hat einen guten Magen ; die Kirche, meine lieben Frauen, kann sogar ganze Lander verdauen." ^ Three causes, in particular, are at work to diminish in increasing measure the lustre of the Gospel ministry : the secularisation of Christendom in general; the enforced celibacy of the clergy ; and the more than subject relation occupied by the State towards the Church and her ministers. On the other hand, the power of the keys and of the Inquisition (iiiqitisitio hcercticcz pravitatis, with the beginning of the thirteenth century), became in the hands of the latter a power as widely extended as it was fatal. The priesthood becomes a sort of spiritual kingship, and the consecration of priests one of the seven sacraments, the reception of which confers an indelible character of more than earthly sanctity, "quod nee deleri nee auferri potest." The homilete and catechete almost entirely disappear in the priest and liturgist, and for the pastor here and there the saying " kill and eat " had become law. It is true there were never wanting illustrious exceptions. A Petrus Damiani (t 1072) raised not in vain his powerful voice, and a brilliant light Uke Bernard of Clairvaux (t 1153) in the Church's firmament, might well outweigh a multitude of wandering stars. In the "Barbes" amongst the Waldenses, and elsewhere, we find representatives of a truly apostoHc tendency ; and certainly Thomas a Kempis was not the only one who made his own the maxim, " Tantum excellere debes merito, quantum gradu." But yet the need for reformation in head and members made itself felt in augmented degree in connection with the painful observation of the change which had come over the ministry of the Gospel in the course of the ages. But would it in reality ever begin to dawn ? and did it not seem as though even a Savonarola (t 1498) had lived and striven in vain? 4. Yet very soon the sixteenth century afforded abundant occasion, even in this domain, for speaking of an incipient blessing-fraught reformation. Once more did the ministry of the Gospel obtain the character of a work or office, which it had only too greatly lost : ministeriinn docendi Eua7igeJiiim et porrigetidi sacravienta, as it was termed, not without a polemical aim, but also not without onesidedness. With the loss of the power of indul- gence, the fulmination too of Rome lost its influence for the children of the Reformation, and the simple service of the pastor and teacher — 7iiidum vMiistcriiim, as Trent termed it by way of reproach — became a moral power for the restoration of the degenerate Church. If, according to Luther's saying, "every Christian" was "a pope, every Christian woman a popess, be they old or young, free or bond," yet the inviolability of the office itself was emphatically maintained, in opposition to the fanatics who would entirely abolish the office of the Word. Great importance was attached to he question whether he who occupied it was duly called, rite vocatus, and ' Goethe. HISTORY AND PRESENT CONDITION. 37 moreover trained by the study of grammar and the original languages of Holy Writ for the interpretation of the Bible. Very soon, accordingly, we see appearing among the continuers of the work of the Reformation men whose life and work reflects new honour upon the ministry of the Gospel, such as an Andreae and an Arndt, a Spener and a Francke, a Baxter and others. More particularly in the Reformed Church do we see all Romish leaven inexorably put away; here no bishop or superintendent, but full equality among all ministers of the Gospel in the capital and in the village, and revival of excellent pastoral care and severe discipline accord- ing to the word and in the spirit of Calvin. Even Rome experiences the beneficial influence of the shock given to it by the Reformation. Within this Church, too, we see, after the Council of Trent, catechetical instruction held in higher honour than ever before ; sacred eloquence rises in the seventeenth century — especially in France — to a rare height, and practical clergy, such as a Fenelon, and afterwards a Sailer and many others, power- fully maintain the original nobility of the Christian faith. 5. Pity only that so much manifest progress was all too soon accom- panied with and succeeded by a uc7v decline. As well within as outside of our fatherland do we see the ministry of the Gospel only too much dishonoured and hindered, first by an hierarchical and later by a rationalistic spirit. In the palmy days of the union of Church and State does many a pastor and teacher suffer himself to be led away into exercising dominion over faith and conscience, in place of being a co-worker with God in the brethren's joy. The ecclesiastics support or oppose in turn this or the other political party, and in consequence receive a homage and reverence more flattering to the flesh than desirable for the kingdom of God. It would often seem as though it were no longer the priests but the prophets of Israel, the watchmen upon Zion's walls, who lived over again in the champions of an accepted orthodoxy. Yet not a little of this orthodoxy was abandoned when, at the end of the eighteenth century, the revolutionary spirit pene- trated in all directions, and the Netherlands Church too (1795) had lost the character and prerogatives of a dominant church. On the other hand, as everywhere in Germany, so also here and elsewhere, the chilly breath of Rationalism caused its benumbing influence to be felt. The spirit which denies and doubts raised its voice more loudly than before against the spirit which confesses, although happily not without vigorous protest. A condition of uncertainty, humiliation, and suffering extended wherever the French yoke was felt, a condition which for many a minister of the Gospel began with the beginning of the first Napoleon's reign ; but then also his fall became in more than one respect the raising of the Church. In Holland, too, much has been regulated and improved, even as regards the ministry of the Gospel, in consequence of the new ecclesiastical organisation of 1S16, much which had until then left a good deal to be desired ; and the scientific culture and training of the pastors and teachers of the Church, more especially, has undergone important modifications and extensions, in the benefits of which the smaller denominations too have shared in their measure. 6. If, after this cursory review of the past, we inquire as to the present condition of the ministry of the Gospel, it is quickly apparent that this has ^S PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. in more than one respect lost, but also in other respects again made , important gains. — It has (osf in point of external lustre and distinction. The areola has grown pale, which formerly shone around the head of the y preacher, and the " of like passions " with yourselves has been so long repeated and dwelt on that many a one already rejoices if, notwithstanding his pastoral labours, he still enjoys esteem and confidence. — It has lost also in point of enjoyment and i;e£ose ; the days of sinecures, formerly at least to some extent known, have been succeeded by others in which the niulto labore et siidore is seen to be something more than an empty sound. — Lost, alas ! above all, in respect of po^ver and influence — in part, no doubt, by the preacher's own fault, but in part too by the course of events. The increasing Individualism hampers and hinders the co-operation even of such ministers of the Church as may in other respects be regarded as building upon the same foundation ; and with unity is strength. The wide gulf between the Church and modern society causes to an ever-increasing extent the giving and receiving of offence. " Even though God should send the angel Gabriel from heaven to minister in the teacher's office, Gabriel would not be able in the present day to exercise for ten years together the necessary caution against giving offence, but would quickly doff his priestly robe to return to heaven."^ Are not even the most con- temptible weapons thought good enough for the purpose of combating the Gospel ? And do not men go forth against the Church, as once against the Lord, "with swords and sticks" ? Yet we do not wish the return of the good old time in this domain, inasmuch as, while the ministry of the Gospel has lost something, it has also at least in three respects been a gainer. It has gained, and that is saying not a little, in point of order and rule. That no ecclesiastical regulations can call the dead to life is certain, but the living has need of law and precept,- and never hitherto have the rights and duties of the ministry of the Gospel been better defined and circumscribed in a legal aspect than during the present century, while moreover for the alteration of much which still calls for amendment a favourable path is opened. — The office has gained, and that is saying more, in point of truth and freedom. The prestige of which we spoke was formerly no doubt but too often purchased at the expense of sincerity and simplicity, and more than was once the case is the minister of the Gospel now known, not as he appears, but as he really is. With increasing freedom does he move, in this country (Holland) at least, in relation to the State, which has released the Church from its former bonds. Save, perhaps, in the Dutch Colonies, the preacher now stands before us in another light than that of an officer of the State. — The question is simply what use he makes of this freedom ; for the fact cannot be over- looked, that his office has also specially gained in significance and importariLce for the future. If we are now passing through an essentially critical period in every domain of life, not a little as regards the immediate future will depend upon the question whether the ministers of the Gospel show themselves to understand the signs of the times and to be acquainted with the de- mands of the times. More than ever is it necessary to cultivate no mere • Stockiiardt. ' I Cor. xiv. 40. REQUIREMENTS AND PREPARATION. 39 churchliness, but true devotion, and to travel in the evangelical-apostolic' highway, to the avoiding on the one hand of all narrow by-paths, and on the other of all Modernistic abysmal depths. Happy in our time of fer- mentation and dissolution is the youthful theologian, who is rendered by the study of Divinity not unfit but truly meet for the sacred service of the Church ! Doubly happy the future warrior of Christ who shall at once courageously encounter the enemy, bearing in his heart the watchword of St. Bernard in its evangelical application: Spernere mundum, spernere nciniiieni, spernere seipsian, spernere spend ! ^ Comp. *C. I. NiTZSCH, /. c. i., s. 56 ff. K. R. IIagenbach, A'iirluii-i'schichk dcs Mittchxltcrs i. (1S60), s. 164 ff. PoiiXTs FOR Inquiry. What influence lias been exerted by the religion of the Israelites, and what by that of the heathen, in bringing about the change for the worse with regard to the office of Pastor and Teacher?— Was there at the beginning of the Middle Ages absohitely nothing done for the moral elevation of this office ?— Did the idea of the office, and the application of this idea, remain entirely the same in the Lutheran and Reformed Churches ?— How has the condition and influence of the office of Pastor and Teacher in the Netherlands, from the time of the Reformation, been affected by the political conditions and changes which have presented themselves there ? § VIII. REQUIREMENTS AND PREPARATION. Not all even of those whose desire for the office is well meant are adapted to the worthy fulfilment of the ministry of the Gospel. The sacred office demands of its occupant Qualifications a in respect of body and mind, the possession of which is as regards some of these absolutely necessary, as regards all at least highly desirable. Where these qualifications are present, this task calls moreover for a careful course of Preparation, which may be divided- into a preliminary, a more immediate, and a final stage. I. The "non cuivis contingit adire Corinthum " applies in an infinitely higher measure to the honourable place occupied by the pastor and teacher. It is not given to every one to come forth as leader of the brethren, and the question demands definite consideration, what may be rightly demanded, as well before as in the ministry of the Gospel, of the man who is to occupy this office in a worthy manner. Rightly demanded, we say ; for it is ' Caveamus ne sit nomen inane et crimen immane ; ne sit honor sublimis et vita deformis ; ne sit deifica professio et illicita actio ; ne sit religionis amictus et irreligionis profectus ; ne sit gradus excelsus et deformis excessus ; ne habcatur in Ecclesiii cathedra sublimior et conscientia sacerdotis reperiatur humilior ; ne locutionem simulemus colum- binam et mentem habeamus caninam ; ne professionem monstremus ovinam et feroeitatem habeamus lupinam. — Ambrosius, Dc Dignitat. Saccrd., cap. iii. 40 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. not difficult to pitch the standard of its requirements so high that hardly any one shall be found able to meet them. But in the long run no one thinks himself bound by that which is impossible of attainment, and we shall thus do well duly to distinguish between that which is absolutely necessary and that which is only agreeable, useful, and desirable. The " desired qualifications " are happily here, too, not all in equal measure indispensable. In order to remain free from the caprice of a boundless subjectivism in stating the qualifications here demanded we shall do well to take into account alike the nature of the case and the qualifications manifestly desired by the Lord and His Apostles in the minister of the "Word. Of great importance in this connection are utterances like Matt. X. 5 ff., I Tim. iii. 2—7, 2 Tim. ii. 2 ff., Titus i. 6 — 9, and others. 2. An indispensable pre-requisite as regards the body may we consider a sufficient measure of health and strength for the due and unimpeded fulfil- ment of the work of the office in all its parts. There may be bodily con- ditions which forbid the entering upon this office, or render advisable the laying of it down again. Much may be covered by the toga, much too by persistent effort and practice may be overcome ; but as a rule it is never- theless highly desirable that the outward appearance should present nothing actually prejudicial or repulsive, even though we are no longer living under the economy of the Old Testament, under which some conditions, specified by name, excluded from the service of the sanctuary. Insuperable organic defects, which hinder the right fulfilment of the ministry of the Word, must be looked upon as a providential indication [an indication on the part of Divine Providence] that our vocation lies in another domain. — As regards the social rank from which the ministers of the Gospel are drawn, it is as a rule desirable that they should si)ring neither from the highest nor the lowest classes, but by preference from that middle class, in which* the most sound and vigorous kernel of the Church is generally to be found. While it is to be deplored for the sake of the higher classes themselves that they so often regard their sons as too good to be devoted to the service of the Church, the lowest classes, on the other hand, are not seldom wanting in those indispensable forms of refinement which are not without reason demanded in the spiritual guide. " Ad auctoritatem et commendationem apud homines, ad morum item facilitatem atque amabilitatem multum ssepe facit in honesta divitique familia natum esse atque educatum, quales fuerunt plerique Episcoporum veterum, ut Ambrosius, Augustinus, Chry- sostomus, ahique.'' ^ Even the man of humblest rank, however, may by means of a very diligent appHcation so far succeed as to be able worthily to maintain the honour of his position. — As to the age at which one may fitly enter upon the sacred office, the so-called "astas canonica," opinions have always varied, and it is difficult to lay down a rule equally applicable for all. Since the Lord entered upon His work as teacher when He was about thirty years of age,^ the council of Neo-Caesarea (314) determined that the presbyters too must be equally old. This rule was, however, in after times not felt to be binding. The decisions of the Romish Church concerning the age it is necessary to attain before ordination to the eccle- BucER. ■'■ Luke iii, 23. REQUIREINIENTS AND PREPARATION. 4 1 siastical offices — twenty-two years for the diaconate, twenty-four for the priesthood, thirty for the Episcopate — of course lost their authority with the Churches of the Reformation. The seventeeth century saw some enter upon the preacher's office in their twentieth year, or even earher. Precepts and rules on this subject differ in different lands ; in the Reformed Church of the Netherlands, an age of at least three and twenty years is required for entering upon the ministerial office, and assuredly it were desirable that this cipher should be augmented rather than lowered. In most States of Germany, the age of twenty-five must be attained before ordination ; in England and Scotland, the average age of ordination would probably be from twenty-five to twenty-seven. 3. No less importance is specially to be assigned to the different pre- requisites of mind and /icart, which need only to be mentioned in order at once to find their commendation in themselves. Geniuses are at all times rare, and extraordinary talents cannot be looked for from everybody ; but >a sound understanding and an accurate judgment, a good memory and a pure taste, at least in its incipient stage of culture, an intellectual training and development, in a word, which so far as possible keeps equal pace with that of the aristocracy of mind in other spheres, may here be claimed without making any exaggerated demands. And as concerns the moral properties, we have only to mention the names of meekness and lowliness,* of kindliness and readiness to succour, of moderation and self-control in ( particular, in order to feel that that which adorns every Christian in so | high a measure can least of all be wanting in one who has been not i inaptly termed by Vinet "le chretien-modele." Properly regarded, all is '■ here reduced to the condition that one desires the office out of a pure motive, enters it with the true end in view, and displays the character o{\ a Christian personality, resolved to be not simply something, but some one. ' The pastor and teacher must show the physiognomy of a man in whom Christ lives and in beginning has obtained a form. Though it is true no high degree and measure of independent spiritual life is at once to be expected of the beginner in the service of the Church, yet where that life Use// is in principle wanting, the choice of this profession is matter for most serious dissuasion and if possible prevention. For — " Quid Pastor absque sanctitate est ? Histrio, Bonus histrio, si sanctus esse creditur, Malus histrio, si qualis est cognoscitur, Bono sed histrione nil est rarius." — Werenfels. 4. Besides these absolutely indispensable requirements, others may be regarded as relatively necessary, or at least in a high degree desirable. The more one has of some of the gifts mentioned, the better, provided only in connection with their worthy use it never be forgotten that even the most brilliant talent can never compensate for the lack of a single indispen- sable vital principle, while conversely the possession of this last, even in combination with very moderate gifts, may yet put us in a position to be useful to many. It is a manifest fact, and at the same time a great consolation, that God has not always, not even ordinarily, attached special blessing to special natural gifts. It is often the case that these last make their possessor more renowned or hated, than they do contribute to 42 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. render his ministry fruitful above that of others. — For the rest, those quahfications which are relatively necessary can hardly be enumerated in detail. For the town preacher, for example, much may be indispensable, which is not necessary, or necessary only in a less degree, for the village teacher ; in the colonies, what is of little service at home ; for the young man, which the older man can perhaps dispense with ; in our time, or for the future, what was perhaps formerly hardly thought of. In every period, however, the saying has its application: "Virtus est vitium fugere;" and it is certain that in order really to become a good pastor and teacher there is not less to be avoided, than to be pursued with all one's might. In the Pastoral Epistles, too, we see that very many directions upon this point display rather a negative than a positive character. In general we may lay down the rule, that whatever essentially and permanently disqualifies for the service of the Church must be regarded as prohibited. But for the rest, many a difficulty of greater or less magnitude is overcome by the power of faith and love ; and it is, after all, the great question whether the expressive encomium of Acts xv. 26 can be truly written under our like- ness. Equally, whether we have been entrusted with five or two, or with only one of the Lord's talents, the Lord can and will then make use of us in His service, and possibly we may even distance in this service those who are more abundantly gifted, but less faithful. 5. We have already begun to speak of that which is actually necessary in the ministry itself, after we have entered upon it. All may, rightly regarded, be reduced to this one demand : " It is required in stewards that a man be found /r///{//^/."^ Faithful, nothing more, but also nothing less, in every part of the sacred ministry : who does not feel how much is needed in order to approach ever nearer to this high ideal ? One of the prime requirements here is naturally a mind furnished with the requisite know- ledge ; since a teacher without this can be regarded only as " a lantern without a light."- Knowledge in particular of himself as a man, as a sinner, as a Christian, with his weaker and his stronger sides ; knowledge not less of man and of men ; knowledge most of all of the Gospel as the power of God unto salvation, in the first stage at least in his own experi- ence. As distinguished, however, from that of the ordinary member of the Church, the knowledge of the faith possessed by the pastor and preacher must be an accurate one, well grounded, well arranged — in a word, a scientifically developed one. One can hardly be a good minister of the Gospel without at the same time meriting the name of an efficient theo-* logian, and that one cannot possibly become so without considerable scientific and Christian philosophic training needs hardly to be repeated. Yet in a far wider sense will the saying be here found to apply, that know- ledge is power. In addition to the study of the classics, an acquaintance* with modern languages and literature, with general history and the history of one's country, with natural science and geography, at least in their broad outlines, may be expected of the man who is to take his place with honour in the midst of and at the head of the congregation ; not even to speak of the good service which a little knowledge of medicine and the ' I Cor. iv. 2. '^ CliRYSosToM, REQUIREMENTS AND PREPARATION. 43 surgical art may in some cases render the country pastor.^ As regards modern literature, a citation from Goethe or Shakespeare may sometimes avail to win the attention and sympathy of the hearer, more even in some cases than a saying of Peter or Paul ; '^ and the latter was certainly no less faithful as an apostle because he had read his Aratus.^ If amidst the many-sidedness of our age we remain in this respect too far behind the instructor of youth or his assistants, we shall very quickly be rated lower, than they ; we must take care to be torch-bearers at the head of the > Church, not pall-bearers at its bier. Meanwhile less in every respect will be found to turn upon the extent of our knowledge than upon its thoroughness and clearness. But what is above all wanted is a heart filled with true love to the Lord, to the Church, and to the work of the ministry. Even though we had passed as brilliantly as possible through every examination, what would it avail us if we must shrink from answering the great question of Johnxxi. 15 — 17 ? Everything depends upon the question whether we love Christ as our Lord, His Church as our sphere of labour, the ministry of the Gospel as the sacred task of our life. Once more to speak with Werenfels — " Quisquis oves Christi vult pascere, despice primum Ipse ne sis veras illius inter oves. Qui non ex ovibus, qui non de grege Christi, Quidquid agat, pastor non erit ille bonus." It is impossible resolutely to take up the pastoral staff, with honour to wield it, and one day gratefully to lay it down, if one has not himself become a sheep of the Good Shepherd. Finally, a life in the midst of the congregation, which is itself in word and deed a constant testimony for the faith : who does not feel that it is definitely this which must impress the last crown upon all that has been said ? Not without reason does the parsonage house in Holland usually stand in the midst of the village ; it is designed to be a focus of light and life — in a certain sense a mission house — of which the occupant for the time being can say, " I dwell among mine own people." Vita clerici est Euangelium populi^ Negatively there falls under this head the avoidance ' Comp. the quaint observations of George Herbert in the twenty- third chapter of his Country Parson. ■^ "There is a rising spirit of interest and inquiry into theological questions among the educated laity, of which many seem but little aware. Let such men, as they listen, per- ceive by a thousand indications which are insensible, that the speaker is one abreast of ■Tthe culture of the age, knowing something of what its deepest speculators have said and sweetest poets have sung ; let them feel that he is a good and pious man, sincerely attached to the Church he loves, but also that his piety has not soured or narrowed him, nor his ecclesiasticism made him intolerant ; in one word, let men, as they listen to him, feel that he is one who creates their respect at once for the qualities of head and heart, and it is incalculable the power over them for good which such a teacher will possess." — Dr. Caird. Cited by Dean Ramsay, Pulpit Table Talk, p. 52. * Acts xvii. 28. [Comp. the citation from Menander, I Cor. xv. 33b, and from Epi- menides, Tit. i. 12.] ^ Oh that we could remember our deep engagement to holiness of life ! He said well, ''Either teach none, or letyoicr life teach too " (Nazianzen). Cohelleth, anima concionatrix, the preaching soul must the preacher be (Eccles. i. l), and the word of life springing from inward affection, and then the vita concionatrix, the preaching life, will be added. The Sunday's sermon lasts but an hour or two, but holiness of life is a continued sermon all the week long. — ARCHBISHOP Leighton on i Pet. iii. i. 44 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. of all that can give unnecessary offence or scandal, according to the word of Christ and of Paul ;i positively the manifestation under all circum- stances of the force of the Christian principle of life. To be able in our measure to repeat, if need be, the words of the Aposde (2 Cor. i. 1 2 ; Phil, iii. 17, iv. 8, 9), without our heart condemning us — this it is which imparts a true dignity of character, infinitely far removed from all foolish assump- tion. Thot to this end unceasing watchfulness, even against the appearance of evil, is demanded, cannot be too seriously laid to heart. Meanwhile the point upon which all turns is not the doing, much less the seeming, but the inwardly being, namely, "a glory of Christ." ^ He who counts the self- denial unquestionably associated therewith too great, cannot even be a Christian, how much less can he be called a Christian pastor ! The true <;centre of gravity in relation to the office lies definitely in that spirit of self- Jsajcrifice which raises the pastor at the same time to the dignity, in the evangelical sense, of a priest. To this extent the words of Bernard of Clairvaux are true : Facilius est operis qiiain oris vox. " No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." 6. An office of such great moment demands careful preparation ; the necessity and importance of this has, with few exceptions, been recognised in all time. The Apostles themselves were not only called, but also care- fully trained by the Lord ; and aptness in teaching is expressly demande d by the Apostle of the overseer of the Church. ^ While in the early ages the preparation for this office could of necessity be only imperfect, eff"orts were very quickly made to supply this defect. The most renowned preachers of the fourth and fifth centuries were exercised, not only in the school of life, but also in that of the heathen orators ; and if there were already at an early period those among Christians who regarded such a training as super- fluous, they were emphatically corrected by a Chrysostom and a Gregory. In the schools of the catechetes of Alexandria, Antioch, and Caesarea, important instructions were given, not only to simple members of the Church, but also to their future spiritual guides. The same was also the case in those of Edessa and Nisibis. In these schools, exegetical and dogmatic studies especially were pursued with pleasure and zeal ; and in the Eastern Church we find some of these institutions, even at an early period, provided with libraries. Where such institutions were still wanting in the West up to the close of the sixth century, we find the want in part met by older clergymen undertaking the training of the younger ones, in order to prepare worthy successors for themselves. Later the cloisters became the training institutes of a part of the clergy ; and when, towards the close of the Middle Ages, the Universities — thanks especially to the influence of the Church — had arisen, a great part of the instruction was devoted to theological study. In Holland the earliest of the national Universities (Leyden, 1575) was founded with special reference to Divinity — " de Godkunde ; " and the sister schools owed not a little as regards their growth and flourishing to theological study. It is well known with what earnestness the Reformers — a Luther and a Calvin most of all — had urged ' Matt, xviii. 7 ; Rom. xiv. 13. - 2 Cor. viii. 23. ^ i Tim. iii. 2. REQUIREMENTS AND PREPARATION. 45 the necessity of a thoroughly scientific knowledge for the ministers of the Church. Even before them Erasmus had pointed to the absurdity of the phenomenon that artists and prize-fighters were as carefully as possible prepared for their severe task, while pastors and teachers might often be as \ little prepared as a farmer for the lyre or a sailor for the plough.^ In like manner the Church of Rome and the smaller communities established special seminaries to this end ; those, for instance, who seceded from the Dutch Reformed Church have also their own training school. As regards the nature and extent of the required preparation, opinions might greatly differ ; the principle itself was and is seriously disputed by no one ; and in proportion as the times become darker for the Church of the Lord will the great importance of this matter, too, find ever less contradiction. We shall endeavour to sketch in broad outline the compass of the preparation here required. 7. As an indispensable element of a training as yet only preparatory, we must at once lay stress upon the importance of the Jiomc life. It is foolish, we admit, and in many cases ruinous, to destine a child while yet in the cradle to the office of preacher ; but it is, on the other hand, highly desir- able that the future minister of the Church should be brought up in an atmosphere of domestic piety and living Christianity, in which his own inner life early takes a higher direction. Of inestimable value, in particular, is the influence which has been exerted by true Christian mothers upon the dawning life of many a youthful Nazarite. Take the case of a Nonna, an Arethusa, a Monica,- and others, to whom the Church of Christ was after- wards under incalculable obligations. The pious Joh. Val, Andreje, too (t 1654), on one occasion testified, on glancing back at his youthful days, that he " owed all the grace of God which he had experienced to the devout and ardent prayer of his mother." Where the foundation of a Christian education is altogether wanting, there is, as a rule, but little to be expected from that family for the congregation of the Lord. — Of course there must be added in the education, strictly so caUed, a well-ordered course of lower and Christian instruciion, penetrated by the true spirit of the Gospel ; a prop^deusis in the province of literature, history, and philosophy, as many- sided and thorough as possible, the so little popular, and yet so eminently serviceable mathematics not overlooked. ^ Even years afterwards one may sometimes easily discover, from the imperfect plan of many a discourse, that the preacher has only vix ant ne vix guidem passed this Rubicon. — In connection with and above all this, the youthful life as a whole, even before the beginning of the theological studies themselves, must be made a pre- liminary period of preparation in the wider sense. It is a glorious thino- when something is even early to be observed in the future servant of the Word, which causes us involuntarily to think of Obadiah and Timothy.'' ' Cum in rebus frivolis tam sumus soUiciti, tamen ad Ecclesiastit muiius audet aliquis accedere, nihilo majus instructus quam aralor ad citharam, nauta ad aratrum ; proque tot eximiis virtutibus, quas officii postulat dignitas, nihil affert prn;ter perfrictam egregie frontem et impudentiam. — Erasmus, Ecclcs., p. 81. - [The mothers of Gregory of Nazianzus, Chrysostom, and Augustine. ] ^ Robert Hall was wont to express to Dr. Olinthus Gregory his regret that he had not studied Euclid ^\'hen he was a young man. ^ I Kings xviii. 12 ; 2 Tim. iii. 15. 46 ■ PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. What has the Church to expect of the young man who is ah*eady early in Ufe the slave of the world and sins, perhaps of secret sin ? For the Christian youth will particularly the preparation for and entering into the membership of the Church be a matter of sacred seriousness, perhaps a turning-point in his inner life. Youthful griefs, too, losses, disappointments, may tend to mould the future Barnabas, the son of consolation ; and even false steps involuntarily made may, under a higher guidance, become steps upon the ladder which leads upwards. How little for the rest the Christianity of a young man needs in order to be of the true stamp, to display anything of a narrow or monkish character, has more than once been made manifest by striking proofs. 8. The vwre immediate preparation is in great part that which is received during the academic life. It is not here the place to speak more than in passing on the value of a university training above that of the seminary system : let us hope that the first of these will continue permanently accessible for the minister of the Word, but at the same time that the boundary line which divides liberty from licentiousness may be more sharply preserved. Certainly the transition from home life to the life of the academy is not small, is in many respects perilous ; but at the same time it may become a source of much blessing, if only those who venture on it are in sufficient measure penetrated with the glorious nature of their life's task. It were desirable that no one should be admitted to the study of Divinity, with regard to whom it had not been made manifest, as the result of a formal and thorough examination, that he really possesses in all respects the necessary qualification and call. If these are present, not a little may be obtained from scientific instmction, it being always understood that this is wisely given and faithfully attended. It is not merely that instruction in itself, which might perhaps at worst be found in a dictated lesson or hand- / book, but especially the viva vox, and the reciprocal normal relation between I teachers and taught, which here cannot but act beneficially. — It will the better succeed in this in proportion as personal study regularly follows up the lesson received. What branches, and how long these branches are severally to be studied at the University, must be left to the decision of the ecclesiastical authorities. But there is no one of them the study of which can be expected to bring forth the desired fruit so long as the programme of D. Wyttenbach, " prceparatio, schola, repetitio," has not in principle become ours. How indispensable in this connection a regular distribution of time and strength we need hardly remind. Of no less importance is an intelligent choice of books ; the construction of well-ordered adversaria ; ^ > above all, a systematic study of the Bible ; and so much more which might here be mentioned, if we would expressly enter upon the domain of theolo- gical methodology. The more thus science and conscience here continually extend the hand to each other, the more will tlie whole common academic life assume the character of a moulding for the future ministry of the Church. As well its brighter light sides as its darker shadowy sides eminently adapt it to this end. It presents a school for the exercise of a manly and Christian independence, the like of which is hardly to be met with. The fraternal * [Commonplace book. ] REQUIREMENTS AND PREPARATION. 47 intercourse, not only with those who are like-minded and devoted to the same studies, but also with generous youths of other faculties and other circles, may help to preserve the future minister of the Gospel from all narrow one-sidedness and exclusiveness. Not a little, moreover, has many a one owed to social co-operation among the various grades of students ; to homiletical, oratorical, catechetical exercises under the guidance of qualified professors ; to the religious services and observance of the Lord's Supper in the academic life ; to intercourse with ministers or members of the Church in the university town in which he has passed the fairest time of his life ; to the enjoyment of art or to the bodily recreation with which severer study now and then alternates ; and to so much more, of which the peedagogic , value is best known by one's own experience. 9. Thejinal preparation must be pursued with special zeal shortly before, at the time of, and after the leaving of the University. During the life of a 1 candidate it must be constantly remembered \\\'x\. joviality is by no means iden- ,! tical with ideality in our conception of life, and that much which may still be; tolerated in the young student, little becomes the older one, whose eye and*, heart may be supposed to be directed with more earnestness of desire to the great work of his life. Is it, perhaps, desirable, as a rule, that, as is the case here and there in GernTany, an institute for the practical training of candidates {candidaten-stift) should form the transition from the academic to the Church Hfe? Properly conducted, such school of homiletes and catechetes among evangelical Protestants might unquestionably become a source of very great blessing. So long as such an institution is wanting, the candidate will do well to occupy himself with special preference and affec- tion in the sphere of Practical Theology, now and then (not too frequently) in preaching, in the public reading of the Bible, and the catechising of the young, attending ever more faithfully to the rule, "non schote, sed vitae." — In ihQ p-obational life,'^ if this continue any time, the same activity must be continued with zeal, though not willingly at the cost of more severe study, in so many respects necessary. The office, too, of assistant preacher <^ is one that ought to be held in greater honour ; although it is not to be denied that often peculiar difficulties attach to this office, particularly when it confines very long. But how is it possible here duly to speak of every- thing?— The 7c>hoie life must in some sense continue a preparation and school of exercise for a constantly better fulfilment of the office, and the " via crucis, via lucis," applies to the minister of the Gospel in particular, not less than to any other disciple of the Lord. That, finally, all we have said, and all that yet might be added, only attains the desired object when a spirit of living faith and constant prayer diffuses itself through heart and life, is a truth which cannot be too distinctly repeated ; and we shall surely not have to remind our hearers in many words of the fact, " Dimidium studii rite precatus habet." " Only He who created the world is able also to make a true minister of the Gospel." ^ Comp., on the formation of the student's character and habits, much that is of per- manent value in Todd's Student's Manual. The so-called irregularities from which one must be free in order to enter upon the office of the priesthood in the Romish Church are • In Scotland, the time during which one is a licentiate. - John Newton. 48 PRACTICAL THEOLOCIV. mentioned by Gregory the Great, in his Rcgiila Pastoralis. See further Van Oosterzee's remarks on l Tim. iii. I, and similar passages in Lange's series. On tlie preparation for the office, see A. B. Bruce, The Trahiing of the Twelve (1871). *E. W. Krum- MACHER, Vadeiiieciim—fiirTheol.studirende iiberhaiift {iS^"]). J. P. Lange, " On the part of the female sex in the development and history of the Christian Church," in his Abhandlttugeii ziir Fsychologie in der Theologie (1S74), s. 156 ff. *J. I. Doedes, De theolog. stitdiciigang geschetst (1866). J.J. van Oosterzee, "Of what Theologians is any good to be hoped for the Church of the future?" (Translated in the Prearher's Lantern, 1874, p. 610 ff). As also on " Pectoral Theology," in the /"^Yar/ztv-'j /.r7;//('r«, 1873 ; and " Oratio, Meditatio, Tentatio," in the same, 1874, p. 99 ff. On health in the widest sense of the word, in connection with the work of the minister of the Gospel, many sound hints and counsels will be found in the ^'Lectures on Preaching of H. WARD Beecher (1S73), p. 145. * ^Y. G. Blaikie, /. /., pp. 83—85. Points for Inquiry. Nature and reasonableness of the demands made by the Lord upon His witnesses, by them upon their fellowdabourers. — What limitation and extension do the demands to be made upon the future minister of the Gospel receive from the altered spirit of the age? — Influence of maternal education npon their future training. — The Christian gym- nasium.— Academy or seminary ? — In what way may future ministers of the Gospel contribute to each other's preparation ? § IX. CALL AND ORDINATION, The personal call to the office of the Word, which may not be wanting, has its peculiar marks, but also its natural limits. Where this call has been heard and obeyed, it may, in accordance with the spirit of the Gospel and the Reformation, be followed in due time by the ecclesiastical consecration (ordination), and must least of all be wanting in the highest, the spiritual consecration. I, An ofifice to which such high demands are attached, and which in- volves such careful preparation, should certainly be entered upon by no one without an actual caU. We of course mean by this term, not the definite invitation to this or that field of labour, but the personal vocation to the work of the ministry ; not the outward, but the inner call, in the higher sense of this requirement. How can one enter with confidence and bless- ing upon an office so excellent in itself, who feels "not the least call'' to it? The necessity for a not merely objective but subjective call to the ministry of the Word will be disputed by no one who seriously reflects. It is in- dispensable, partly on our own account, if we are with joy and fruit to labour in the vineyard of the Kingdom ; partly on account of the congregation, which, under the burden of a leader without higher vocation, a hireling without being a shepherd, is in danger of dying by spiritual hunger ; partly in relation to the world, which unceasingly meets us with its die air hu; and only too quickly takes advantage, if we do not bear within us the deep consciousness that even with regard to the world we have a task to discharge, from the fulfilment of which none can release us. CALL AND ORDINATION. 49 2. No wonder that the question as to the charactensHc marks of a true vocation here naturally forces itself upon us, and the more so inasmuch as mistake upon this point is so easy, but also in so painful a manner avenges itself. For not every one who believes himself called above others is so really and in truth ; and here, if anywhere, the old proverb is to the point : "Non omnes sunt kokki, longos qui dragere messos." Some become■^ preachers simply because their fathers were so, refusing to give ear to the suggestion of ancient wisdom : " Non omnes Ecclesi^e pastores esse oportet, 1 qui a pastoribus progenerantur." In the case of others it is the pride of th"?! young man himself, or that of his parents, for whom the pulpit has stiuj something attractive, which comes into play. With a third, again — but enough. So much the more fatally do such perverted principles act, inas- much as ordinarily the eyes are only opened when it has already become too late to retrace one's steps, while he who has deceived himself runs the risk of incalculable loss. Humanly speaking, perhaps, the temporal and spiritual well-being of no one is in such a hopeless position as that of the man who has proceeded year after year to minister in holy things, -without his own heart being purified, his life devoted to God. The otfice cannot be played with and mocked with impunity. 3. Yet it would be an error to suppose that an entirely extraordinary call is necessary in order that one might enter confidently upon this office. That which was a necessity for the first Apostles is certainly not so in the same measure for the future pastor and teacher. Ordinarily the will of God is made manifest to us in the natural constitution, the course of cir-^- cumstances, the counsel of parents, friends, and instructors, so that a careful regard to the indications of His providence cannot be too earnestly recommended. In many cases one can in all modesty declare to some extent of himself that which Paul in Gal. i. 15 testified concerning his apostolic vocation. Constant self-examination before and during the study of theology is necessary in regard to our vocation, and inner certainty upon this point a gift of grace which cannot be too ardently desired. A strong wish for the office is in itself no sign of a vocation, any more than a timid fear with regard to it can in itself afford sufficient proof that one is^ absolutely not called to it. Everything turns specially upon the testimony; of a good conscience before God that we are really animated and impelled'^ by the zeal for His house, by love to Christ, and the desire to win souls for' the kingdom of God. If that principle is really in sincerity ours ; if we are in addition qualified in body and mind for a regular performance of all the parts of the ministry, and if no circumstances come in the way, cf such a nature that we are compelled to see in them a Divine veto, we may then reckon ourselves among those that are called, and the immediate proof thereof must ever be sought for, in the first place, in the harmony between the subjective disposal of our mind and the objective shaping of our life. If later the approbation of wise and believing men stamps its seal upon this our choice, we may recognise in this one sign the more that we have not been mistaken, while finally the blessing upon the labour straightway serves as a new proof for ourselves and others that the Lord acknowledges, supports, and gladdens us as His servants. 4. One needs not to possess absolutely extraordinary talents in order to 50 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. become conscious of a personal vocation to the ministry of the Kingdom. So far as we know the first circle of the Apostles, only the smaller half thereof consisted of what are ordinarily termed distinguished men. But the question arises, to what extent personal conversion must be considered the unalterable condition of all true vocation. If this question means, whether every minister of the Gospel must be able to recal a period in the past at which a sudden transition from darkness to light took place in his inner life, we should not willingly return an affirmative answer to this question. Many a faithful minister of the Gospel, perhaps, recognises his likeness in Timothy or Obadiah ; and what was necessary in the case of Paul was not so in the case of Cornelius. AVithout a sincere daily return to God after every departure, the Christian life, as also the life of the pastor, is certainly inconceivable ; but, for the avoiding of manifold mis- conception, it seems to us preferable in this case to make the demand of >perso7ial love to Christ, rather than that of conversion. [Because in this personal love to the Saviour we have, according to i Cor. xii 3 b, the surest evidence for the reality of that great change required by the Lord in John iii. 5.] It is the demand made by Himself; ^ a demand which, duly understood, includes within itself not only constant intercourse with the Lord, but also an inner turning from and opposition to all unrighteousness. It is in this case not the question how early or how late the sense of our calling has been awakened, but only whether it can be satisfactorily main- tained before God and man, before the intellect and conscience. 5. Closely allied to all that has been said is the not unnatural question, whether there exist also limits to this vocation ; in other words, whether cases may be shown in which one must, on intellectual or moral grounds, consider himself called not to enter upon this office, even where one had at first chosen it ; or, having entered upon it, voluntarily to resign it. For of the relinquishing of the ministerial office on account of bodily sickness, or because one has become too rich further to be satisfied with this lowly office, we do not speak. The first of these is a calamity ; but he who can resolve upon the last has certainly, however short his ministry, been too long a preacher. On the two cases first mentioned, however, we must here express our mind in few words. As regards intcUectiial motives, we were thinking in connection with these words of scruple and doubt, which in the present day especially may deprive one of the confidence for ranging himself among the ministers of the word of reconciliation. No wonder that this confidence droops where one feels a number of unanswered questions rising to the lips, not only upon some points of subordinate importance, but finds himself in irrecon- cilable opposition with the main purport and essence of the confession of the Christian Church in general, and of one's own denomination in par- jticular. Only in connection with a total searing of the conscience is it I possible, year in, year out, to continue to eat the bread of the Church, i while with ruthless hand one smites her confession in the face. Honour to those honest " Moderns " who within the last few years have set the example of a voluntary secession ; not public opinion alone, but also the John xxi. 15 — 17. CALL AND ORDINATION. 5t conscience of impartial unbelievers has expressed itself in an unequivocal manner in their favour. But if we cannot, moreover, remove all those who will now at any price " remain," however disqualified for the maintenance of the Church's confession, from the sacred position which they wrongfully occupy, with so much the greater earnestness ought the prospective minister of the Gospel to be reminded, "Better is it that thou shouldest not vow, than that thou shouldest vow and not pay."^ What has the Church doneS to you, that you should robe yourself in her garb in order to lay waste her ' faith? and who is more deeply to be commiserated than the man who must make use of language in order to conceal the thoughts of his heart, ^ and after coming out of the puljDit daily climbs the watch-tower to look for another means of gaining his bread ? Therefore take heed to yourselves, and if — what God forbid — it should later come to pass that, after having already entered into the sacred service of the Church, you should see the ground of belief in the Christian revelation of salvation sink beneath your feet, wrestle and pray in God's strength to become possessed of this again. Watch against all precipitancy ; withdraw, if it may be, for some weeks or months from the ministry of the Gospel, rather than take any ill-advised , step ; take counsel with friends and instructors, whom you can look upon, as worthy of your confidence, and if after all this you become fully con- vinced that you no longer can and may remain, then at least be noble i enough not to wish to appear that which you no longer are, and not to/ continue to bring to others a Gospel of which the Christian conscience! must testify that only ojic thing is wanting in it, but with this otie thing all] is wanting. 6. Yet more intricate and delicate does the question raised become where we venture upon the vioral domain. With profound wisdom has it been ordained that the Gospel should be proclaimed by man to men, and whoever speaks of a man speaks of a sinner. On this account assuredly no one should dare to reach forth his hand to Word or Sacrament, to minister to the Church in these, who has not in the inward man expe- rienced something similar to that felt by Isaiah in the hour of his prophetic consecration.2 Here, however, we must speak of so-called scandalous actions, which, if they should ever become known, would brand us with shame before the eyes of all, and as it is render it morally impossible for us with confidence and earnestness to reprove sin in others. Unhappy minister of the Gospel, who, by virtue of his office, must condemn so much of which the conscience silently testifies, " Thou art the man." Happily there still exist ecclesiastical laws for the timely removal from the Church of that which deserves to be ranked under the head of public scandals. Let him who has given legitimate ground of offence, of such nature that a courageous and sanctified fulfilment of the office becomes for him impossible, rather retire in time, than with a brazen forehead stand up before God and the Church ! Shall we go so far as to say, with the renowned Massillon, that he who has once deeply fallen may never more hope to occupy the spiritual office, even after the most sincere repentance, but nmst through life be satisfied with the more modest place in the midst of ' Eccles. V. 5. " Isaiah vi. 5 — 8. 52 PRACTICAI, THEOLOGY. tlie Christian asscmlily ? VVc appreciate the moral earnestness of this judgment, and could wish to sec this earnestness more generally prevail at a time when so many — even of those with regard to whose vocation some- thing better was to be expected — so pitiably neglect to place themselves under the corrective discipline of the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, the fact must not be overlooked that the Romish conception of Church and jiriesthood has exerted a decided influence upon this judgment of Massil- lon. In no case must we be more severe than the i^ord, who restored to -4iis ministry also a fallen but repentant Peter, and during the course of the ages has confirmed in a multitude of cases the conviction that He is able to make even of great sinners living witnesses for the truth, and striking monuments of the power of grace before the eye of the Church. Perhaps the unfaithful disciple who has been truly restored shall be straightway found the more jJOwerfuUy to strengthen his brethren, and to display a more ardent love, in i)r()i)ortion as more has IVeen forgiven him. The great question at least, in the fulfilment of the ministry of the CiOsi)el, is not what one has hitherto been, but what one really is now ; and if any one can truly rejoice that he has found mercy, we least of all shall rise u^) as his accusers. Ikit the more earnestly must we beseech all future ministers of the Gospel to be watchful, and to see that no such stain shall sully their youthful life as should afterwards compel them to cast down the eyes before those who have perhaps formerly met with them in the ways of sin, and vnow, not without a scornful smile, next find them in the sacred office, 'i'here are wounds upon the conscience which years after open with the slightest touch ; and who here wastes his youthful strength in dissipation and excess, better were it for him never to have known the Gospel, than as a preacher to take it into his lips. Not all that is esteemed o-tvScvtikws can also be approved deoXoyLKux;, and at best an orthodox hypocrite is nof /ess severely to be condemned than an unbelieving scribe who proclaims his own Gospel. 7. AV^iere the call to the sacred office has been understood and not wilfully sinned away, there takes place at the appointed time the ecclesi- astical ordination, of which we must now speak. Its suitableness and necessity follows from the sacredness of the work, and is by no one sCTiously called in question. In all the more developed forms of religion, in which we meet with jmests, the consecration of priests too is found, and in the Old Testament we meet with at least one prophet who was anointed in a solemn manner to his oflice.' In the Scriptures of the New Covenant we see the first messengers to the Gentiles set apart to their imjiortant work with a solemn laying on of hands,- and very soon this became in Apostolic usage the symbol of the communication of the Holy Ghost at the entering upon the office of overseer.-' In and after the fourth century the entering upon the office did not take place without earnest preparation. Sometimes the newly chosen pastor spent the day and night before his ordination in a cpiiet cell of the convent, while the congregation at the same time besought for him the jM-esence of the ],ord. At Rome in the fifth century the rite I Kings xix. 16. Acts xiii. J, 3. I Tim, iv. 14 ; 2 Tim. i. 6 ; cf. Acts viii. CALL AND ORDINATION. 53 was under the influence of Leo, and, on the authority of an ancient tradition, by preference observed on Easter Sunday, and brought into relation with the missa Jidcliian. Prescribed questions were put and answered on this occasion, solemn prayers poured forth, and not seldom were the books of the Gospel unrolled, by two bishops or deacons, above the head of the|/ kneeling minister, as a sign of his own subjection to the word which he was! to bring to the congregation. Immediately after he pronounced upon the assembly the Apostolic benediction, responded to on the part of the people with the usual "and with thy spirit," and followed by the customary inaugural discourse. Previously to this the bread and chalice were pre- sented to him, that by the use of them he might openly pledge himself to the Lord and to His Church, in the midst of which his fellow-bishops received him. Of an anointing with oil we find mention made only later, as also of crosier, mitre, ring, and tonsure — the last at the same time as a symbol of spiritual illumination, according to the optimistic maxim of the Middle Ages, "denudatio capitis, revelatio mentis." From the twelfths- century downwards we see the ordination of priests regarded as one of the seven sacraments of the Church, and conceived of as a sacred action, by which a so-called indelible character, "■ character inddibilis^^ was imprinted upon the recipient. Against those who refused to acknowledge this ecclesiastical ordination as a sacrament, strictly speaking, appointed by Christ Himself, and regarded it only as a solemn Church rite of later origin, the Council of Trent pronounced an emphatic anathema.^ 8. The Protestant must be content to endure that anathema so long as he has still to look in vain for a scriptural basis to the Roman Catholic idea of ordination. This, however, does not alter the fact that the cliaracter of this action, even in the domain of the Evangelical Protestant Church, is an exceedingly sacred and solemn one ; as consequently in the Lutheran and Reformed Churches of all lands it is ordinarily observed in jjublic in accordance with i-)rescribed rites, and in an impressive manner. As regards the laying on of hands, by which it is accompanied, this is a beautiful and venerable custom, by which the communication of the Holy Spirit is in a striking manner symbolised. That it cannot possibly, from the standpoint of the Reformed Church, be regarded as a means (vehicle) of the communication of this Spirit, in consequence of which a properly sjieaking priestly character is supposed to be transmitted from the ordinans to the ordinandi/s, we need, after what has been said, hardly remind the student. It was the dread of this Romish leaven — still appearing here and there in the rigidly Lutheran and crypto-catholic tendencies — which led many at an earlier period to regard this ecclesiastical action with less favourable eyes, and also has called forth voices more recently in opposi- tion to it. All difficulty will disappear if we look for no more from it than we are warranted by the Word of God and the nature of the case in expect- ing ; but at the same time do not assign to it a lower rank than that to which it is entitled as a beautiful symbolic action. Certainly that which even a Philip was not able to do surpasses our power.^ This action need not, however, on that account remain devoid of meaning, since it may the Ada. CoHciU Tridciil. .xxiii. I, 3, i^Yi- Cat, Kom, ii,, 7, 28. • Acts viii. 14— '7' 54 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. rather, although always in a manner psychologically explicable, become greatly blessed. The laying on of hands does not represent anything which is communicated mechanically by one minister of the Word to another, but that which the Lord is ready to grant, in answer to the united prayer alike of congregation and ministers, to the new pastor also, who is thus publicly set apart and consecrated to the work of his future life. That, however, this action be performed only on the entering upon the ministry, and not afterwards repeated on the change of the place of labour, is advisable for more reasons than one. 9. As regards the mode of conducting this ordination, it remains only to be observed that this is partly free, partly prescribed by ecclesiastical use and precept. As regards the time when, the manner in which, and the persons by whom it should be conducted, the necessary regulations are afforded in the law of the Church. In the observance thereof let the sacred action be conducted in such a manner as to produce alike upon teacher and congregation a deep and salutary impression. There are wanting to this end neither aids nor good models, with which the Homilete and Liturgist ought not to remain unacquainted. It is moreover becoming and desirable that the ordination take place publicly, in the presence of other ministers, simultaneously with or as soon as possible after the enter- ing upon the ministerial charge, and that it be accompanied with an impressive address and a solemn calling upon the name of the Lord. But only then does it accomplish its purpose, when the outward consecration becomes at the same time, in the highest sense of the word, an inner conse- cration, by which there is impressed upon the whole life of the preacher the character of a sanctity which ever more and more fairly discloses itself. Comp., on calling and consecration in general, besides John Owen, Duty of Pastors and People Distinguished (in vol. xiii. of Dr. Goold's edition of Owen's works), particu- larly chaps. V. — vii., the article Ordination in Herzog's P. £., Bd.x. J. B. Massillon, Discours siir la vocation ii fctat Ecclcsiastiqne, discussed somewhat at large in Vinet's Pastoral Tlicology, where moreover the opinions of St. Cyran on this subject are given. C. H. Spurgeon, Lectures to my Students (1875), the chapter on "the Call to the Ministry." On the ordination itself, the beautiful chapter in F. .Strauss' Glockent'one, entitled "Die Weihe zum Amte." On the laying on of hands (written against it), N. J. Engelberts, De Apostol. Ilandoplcgging onderzocht, enzv. (1866). Jacobson, " Ueber den Begriff der Vocation und Ordination" in the Thcol. Stiidicn ti. Kriti/ccn, 1867, ii. Points for Inquiry. How is self-deception as regards our vocation to be avoided ?— How is the ordination to be suitably conducted ? §x. ELEVATION AND PERFECTING. He who is already in his measure inwardly consecrated, and pre- sently also outwardly consecrated, to the work of Pastor and Teacher, must regard himself as bound to do all in his power that can lead to the moral Elevation of the ministry of the Gospel, and' ELEVATION AND PERFECTING. 5 5 may not cease with unflagging zeal to strive after that Perfecting of his work, which is the highest object of his hallowed ambition, but at the same time one in God's strength gradually attainable. I. As called and set apart, the future minister of the Church stands before our eye ; does it suffice that he fulfils his ministry blamelessly enough to secure himself against the unfavourable criticism of men ? Such fulfil- ment of the office will assuredly be too little in the estimation of the truly faithful minister ; to the moral elevation of the office which he fills must his effort specially be directed. Foolish as is all vain self-exaltation on the ground of ecclesiastical dignity, equally desirable and praiseworthy on the other hand is the passion for raising this dignity itself out of its deeply* sunken state. While it was formerly the practice to esteem men simply because they occupied the office of pastor and teacher, it is much in the present day if, in spite of this office, one enjoys esteem and confidence. The " functio theologi, hominum vitio minus honorata " ^ has become in our days much more expressive of the actual state of things than ever before. This cannot and may not remain the case ; change for the better is necessary, not only in the interests of the Church, but certainly not less also in that of society and the state. When the latter is brought to a more just sense of the indispensable necessity for the ministry of the Gospel, even for the social well-being and prosperity of the state, it will perhaps occupy a more becoming position in relation to this ministry itself. The Church, however, cannot look for any vigorous elevation or support for the work of her servants from this quarter, and it is very doubtful whether, even in her own interests, she ought to desire it. Certainly history and expe- rience go to show that benefits from this quarter are frequently perilous gifts, which may some day be paid for too dearly. — More is to be hoped for on the part of the Church, when, in a better time, her sense of obliga- tion towards the ministers of the Word in her midst shall find once more its due expression, and texts like i Cor. ix. ii. Gal. vi. 6, Heb. xiii. 7, shall again be understood and laid to heart. — But by far the principal part to- wards the elevation of the pastoral status must proceed from the pastors and teachers themselves, and everything which may contribute to this end is worthy of being pondered, by them first of all, with the most conscien- tious care ; not in order thus to re-conquer a lost hierarchical authority, but in order to assure an augmented influence of a beneficial nature to* that office of the Word which affords the most powerful antidote to the countless ills of this age. The Church, too, must accomplish greater things— oh that the almost boundless liberality of the Romish Church might provoke to jealousy the churches of the Reformation I^ — but specially must the ministers of the Gospel become and be infinitely more, in order to render their ministry a light and salt of this dark and corrupt world. ' Grotius. - The statement, for instance, was made on unquestionable authority at a public gather^ ing of the Roman Catholics at Amsterdam, in 1871, that on a moderate calculation more than sixty million florins (;£"5 ,000,000) had been expended in Holland alone, in the course of twenty years, on the building of Roman Catholic churches and institutions. 56 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. Even before his entering upon public life, the youthful theologian may contribute his part towards this end, by applying himself with all zeal to those things, "■ whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report," ^ with the avoiding not only of the evil, but also of the appearance of evil. Never can we at all assent to the division which is made on the part of so many, according to which the nobility of mind and heart is to be sought on the side of un- belief; the narrowness, clownishness, obscurantism, — intellectual and moral stagnation and decay, in a word, — are to be sought on the side of the believing theologians and pastors. But it must be considered in increasing degree, and especially after the entering upon our work, how many eyes are directed to our field of labour, some of them with an expression not altogether friendly ; and above all, we must consider what incalculable responsibility we have voluntarily taken upon us in joining ourselves to the ►number of the labourers in the Lord's vineyard. literally nothing, there- fore, must be neglected which can render us men more thoroughly culti- vated, more truly believing, more practically useful. According to a familiar saying of the poet, only the rose which adorns itself can serve as an ornament to the garden.^ Even individual application and fidelity is not here enough. Only then shall we succeed in raising again that which, not without our own fault, is now so deeply sunken, when the ministers of the Word — in place of breaking up their strength by the most melancholy Individualism — shall become more and more, in the best sense of the term. Communists, that is, a spiritual corporation of brethren in the Lord; as a compact phalanx, to make their stand against all the powers of dark- ness, fully resolved, where it is a question of great principles, not to yield a single step. 2. From the moral elevation of the Gospel ministry to its increasing perfecting there is more than one step. Is it needful to speak in many words on the becomingness of the endeavour after such perfecting ? But, if progress is the watchword of every truly human and Christian life, it is certainly not less that of the churchly and pastoral life, and specially in )an age which in every domain presses forward with such restless energy. >, The word of Paul to Timothy, " that thy profiting be manifest in all Ithings," 2 may be taken by every minister of the Gospel as addressed to himself. How sad, on the other hand, when he has to cast down the eyes at words like Gal. v. 7, Rev. ii. 4 ! It is not even enough to maintain oneself at the height taken at the beginning ; we must, after the lapse of a certain time, show ourselves better preachers, catechetes, shepherds, than we we were seen to be at an earlier period of pastoral and spiritual life. That which may contribute to this end we can here only indicate : there are things which need only be mentioned in order instantly to commend themselves. — All jDractical life which is to be the means of any blessing has its roots in the mysterious life of the soul, all public labour which is to be ' Phil. iv. 8. - Wenn die Rose selbst sich schmiickl, Schmlickt sie audi den Garten. — RucKERT. iV;t Gospcl, 70 ho has consecrated all his gifts and powers to the glorifying of the Lord and the edification of His Church. If we analyse the idea a Httle, it soon becomes evident that it is as yet far from being realised when one becomes a religious teacher, a moral teacher, even a well-instructed scribe, who understands and explains the sacred documents. It is a question — and this must be at once brought into the foreground — of being a preacher of Christ in all the force of that word, as He has been made to us of God wisdom and righteousness, sanc- tification and redemption ; this Christ alone as the way, the truth, the life, save by whom no man cometh unto the Father ; this Christ to all, believers and unbelievers, that the former may be established, the latter brought in. It is a question of doing this in accordance with the rule of the Scriptures, conformably to the true wants of the Church, in harmony with the require- ments and capacities of one's own individuality. It is a question, finally, of doing this in that spirit to which alone the overcoming of the world is assured, the spirit of faith, of love, and of power, and in this to continue to persevere, alike whether we seem to be ploughing upon the rock, or whether we are sowing upon fertile fields. How much belongs to all this, and how this ultimate object may best be more nearly approached, we shall have to speak of more at large hereafter. But even here the firm resolution must be expressed, that a lower ideal than this cannot and may not be ours. " The preacher must be nothing else than an honest witness, who changes nothing, withholds nothing, is silent of nothing in the Word of God." ^ To be a minister of the Word, Verbi Dei minister, who has some-^ thing better to give than the fruit of his own wisdom merely, this must be our maxim. In a word, the ideal of the preacher of Christ may not be regarded as formed, much less attained, so long as he does not comprehend the secret of that true eloquence which is to be looked upon not merely as a gift, but also as a virtue, and does not propose as his fundamental rule the direction : " Preach in such a manner that you may in reality please- God."2 3. If now, after this contemplation of the ideal, we direct our passing glance to the actual position, it becomes very speedily evident that a more than ordinary amount of effort is necessary, if one is to think in the present BossuET. - Theremin. 6o PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. day of preparing himself with any hope of success to occupy the sacred office. The fact is one which cannot be denied, and will presently be amply confirmed, that, as so many other things in our enigmatical age, so notably preaching and the art of preaching is now passing through a period of transition and crisis which brings with it its peculiar difficulties, and is anything but one of vigorous bloom and prosperous development. That the preaching of the present day is largely and regularly exercised, and some of it of an excellent nature, must be thankfully acknowledged ; as must the fact that the art of preaching has, as a rule, been so much more favourably developed in the Evangelical Protestant Church than in the Roman Catholic. During the first half of this century, in particular, preaching attained to a height which even now cannot be surveyed without calling forth admiration and reverence. Is the complaint an exaggerated one, that in the second half this higher flight has been succeeded by a condition of standstill, in some cases by a degeneracy and retrogression, of which we do not yet see the limit? Of "the decline of the power of the pulpit," complained of now years ago, many an instance might still be mentioned which would furnish a theme for an elegy. With the augmented literary development of the times the eloquence of the pulpit is far from having kept equal step, and one might draw a gloomy picture of the faults committed in this domain, as well by those on the right hand as by those on the left. Sometimes we must even begin to fear lest, in proportion as the requirements of the time exact more, either the desire or the power of corresponding to them is diminished in the same measure. What is certain is that many a preacher is as yet by far too little penetrated with the truth of the saying, that "a good sermon is the highest which man has to give," and that in the case of only too many the maxim Midto cum labore et sudore is succeeded by the mediaeval dormi secure. Materialism, scepticism, sectarianism, and whatever other diseases of the age we have to deplore, each exerts its fatal influence, not only upon the congregation, but also upon its leaders \ and even he who was wont in preaching to soar on high feels himself more than ever before oppressed, whether by the material or by the atmosphere around him. The saddest thing in all this is, that the pulpit has lost a good deal of its former influence, and will have great ! difficulty in re-conquering this foot by foot. The days are past, it would almost seem for ever, when the sermon of this or that powerful and highly gifted witness of the truth was in the highest sense of the term " an event," a great occasion spoken of with deep interest days before and after. So far as intellectual and moral forces are still taken into account, the pro- fessor's chair and the tribune exert fully as much influence as the pulpit, nor would it be surprising that the men of the pulpit should join in the lament: "The crown is fallen from our head j woe unto us, that we have sinned!" Yet more. The whole Christian Church, and notably also the Evan- gelical Protestant Church, is now passing through a period of fermentation and conflict, in which the " to be or not to be " has become the great question, alike for Church and Christianity and religion in general. We see now at stake nothing less than — All, and we behold a hostile power let loose against temples and altars, with the avowed purpose of overthrow' TRANSITION AND SURVEY. 6 1 Ing the one and the other. In this conflict of principles the Christian theologian, and in particular the minister of the Gospel, is called to take an active part. Whether for himself he desires it or not, he will not be permitted to remain long neutral, and even he who will be no party man in the bad sense of the term may not lay down his weapons, where " For,, Christ, or against Him," has become the great question.^ But in this conflict no other than spiritual weapons are permitted — above all, the weapon of the Word. Christianity is pre-eminently the religion of the Word ; by the Word was it founded, and has it been hitherto maintained ; by the Word must it extend itself, and ultimately conquer the world. And that Word, that new-creating Word of reconciliation, is placed by a more than earthly hand upon our lips ; it is the spiritual sword placed in our! hands as those of the warriors of Christ, and upon the skill and fidelity \ with which it is wielded more depends as regards the kingdom of God ■■ than we can even distantly calculate. Who is there that, reflecting upon/' all this, is not of necessity deeply affected, as from such an actual state he! looks back upon the ideal of his life? And who does not inquire with augmented earnestness after the way which, notwithstanding all, may yet lead him nearer to that ideal ? 4. On this 7tiaj itself only a word here in concluding. For surely the necessity for a fixed method, in conducting this investigation too, will be doubted by no one ; and as regards the manner of treating Homiletics adopted by others, we do not think it necessary here to enter into detailed criticism. That the method varies with different writers is well known, and just as much that it is possible by various methods to attain the same end. As regards oar plan of treatment, it is wholly dominated by the effort after completeness ; we wish to leave nothing untouched which is of preponde- rant importance for the real training of the homilete, and to the prosecution of this end to make a sacrifice, if need be, of symmetrical arrangement. For these reasons we proceed to treat more copiously of the history of Homiletics than is ordinarily the case. Not only is there still wanting in our language and literature a complete and satisfactory outHne thereof, but also its knowledge is, in our estimation, of at least as great a value as that of the most excellent theoretical precepts. " Brevissima via per exempla." Other so-called " preliminary questions " ( Voffragen), as well as this, here present themselves to our mind, and thus the whole of Homiletics naturally divides itself in our hands into two great parts, — a Preparatory and a Developing part, in which again other subordinate parts will arise to be spoken of in their proper place. And now at once to our work, not however without the ancient prayer upon our lips : — Veni, Sancte Spiritus ! Pasce Pastorem, Due ducem, Aperi aperture, Da daturo ! » [See the difference exemplified in Luke .\i. 23, as compared with ix. 50.] 62 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. Comp. *F. Theremin, Die Beredsamkeit eine Ticgcnd {1^2,6) [Engl, trans., "Eloquence a Virtue," by Dr. W. G. Shedd, New York, 1850], and by the same author a *" Dis- course on Pulpit Eloquence." to be found in his Abendstimdcn. W. ARTHUR, Tht Tongue of Fin; 251)1 edition. J. L DoEDES, Wat zultgij prcckeu? (I'id^i.) Points for Inquiry. Whence is it that the ideal, in this domain too, so greatly varies in different persons ? — In what is the diminished influence of the pulpit in our day to be perceived ? and whence does it arise ?-- -Appreciation of the method of others in the treatment of Homiletics. § XII. IDEA AND IMPORTANCE OF HOMILETICS. CiiRLSTiAN Homiletics is that part of Practical Theology which describes the nature of and requirements for the preaching of the Gospel in the congregated assemblies of the Christian Church, with the definite object of training by this method well-qualified heralds of the Word of Life. As such it displays — however closely allied to the domain of art — the unequivocal character of a science, and one for the future minister of the Gospel absolutely indispensable. As such it is opposed only by ignorance and pre- judice, although powerless in itself alone to form living and life- awakening witnesses of the Salvation in Christ. 1. If, according to a well-known and reasonable dictum of antiquity, all thorough treatment of a subject must begin with its accurate definition, the question at once presents itself, in the present instance too, what we are properly to understand by Homiletics. The term is derived from the Greek '0/AtXta, ofjuXelv by which is indicated discourse or converse, and in this general sense it is accordingly employed on several occasions in the New Testament.^ More definitely a Christian-religious conversation is thereby indicated ; ^ and at a very early period the name of Homily was conferred upon the earliest, as yet very artless form of the preaching of the Gospel, as distinguished from the more artistically constructed Discourse (A.oyos), which only later made its appearance. Even in our own day the name of homily is not seldom given to a definite kind of discourse, closely allied . to the so-called Biblical study of a portion of Holy Scripture. Homiletics, however, does not deal exclusively with this particular kind of discourse ; ,.it embraces nothing less than the whole theory of all that which belongs to the preaching of the Gospel to the congregated assembly. 2. As such, Homiletics will and must bear the character, not only of art, but of a science properly so called, which regulates in accordance with fixed principles the mode of proclaiming the saving Word. With these principles it is concerned in the first place, even more than with the lessons and hints derived therefrom. Homiletics is thus something more than an ' Luke xxiv. 14, 15 ; i Cor. xv. 33. - Acts xx. 11, xxiv. 26. IDEA AND LMPORTAXCE OF HOMILETICS. 63 aggregate of all kinds of useful directions ; a substitute for real theological knowledge ; a technical art, of which the secrets may be easily perceived and acquired. It prescribes the law from which the homilete may not with- draw himself without abandoning a solemn duty, and, while it excludes all that is arbitrary from the domain of preaching, it seeks especially to train the preacher himself for his exalted mission. Nothing which belongs to this end, or may contribute thereto, is for this science a matter of entire in- difference ; but yet it has to do with the teacher even more than with the pastor, and, strictly defined, with the word which, in a higher Name, he\ has to address to the Christian congregation ; to the Christian congregation, ' we repeat, in order thus duly to distinguish the province of Homiletics from i that of Apostolics. As regards the manner in which the Word of Life is to be presented to the Jewish, Mohammedan, and Heathen world, which must be regarded as the field of labour for the outward mission, the last-named science is in a position to kindle a satisfactory light. Homiletics, on the other hand, regulates the preaching which obtains in the congregated-^ assemblies of the Christian Church, and occupies so prominent a place in its public worship of God. It has not to do with mission preaching, but with the preaching which forms part of the cultus of the Church, although a knowledge of it is of importance even for the first-named. Though the homilete proclaims Christ also in other ways, as a liturgist, pastor, or catechetist, here it is exclusively the minister of the Word \\'ho is to be guided to the worthy fulfilment of his task. He who devotes himself to the study of Homiletics does so with a definite view to the pulpit. 3. It will be already evident that Homiletics is something more than the theory of sacred eloquence {I'hetorica sacra), with which it has not seldom been confounded. There is certainly no need of any extended proof to show that one may be a distinguished pulpit orator, without on* that account being an excellent preacher of the Gospel, or vice versa. 1 Eloquence, of however inestimable value, is still only a means to the more exalted end sought by Homiletics. The theory of sacred eloquence stands to Homiletics, to some extent, in the same relation as rhetoric to eloquence in general : that of the lower to the higher, of the way to the goal. Better therefore would be the name of Ceryctics (from k^/ju^, a herald), proposed for it by R. Stier, or of Halieutics (from dAtei;etr, to fish, cf Matt. iv. 19, and plls.), proposed by Sickel and others.^ Since, however, the last- mentioned term embraces the whole of the ministry of the Gospel, and thus does not exclusively apply to this part of the science, and the other appellation — less usual and less euphonious — has nothing specially to re- commend it, we continue simply to employ the term Homiletics. 4. As with regard to Practical Theology in general, the value has been on the one side overrated, and on the other ignored (§ I. 5), so is it also particularly the case as regards the importance of Homiletics. With the same propriety, therefore, one might say at the beginning of its treatment, " Do not expect too much," and again, " Do not expect too little." Not too much. Homiletics cannot do everything that this or the other requires ' R. Stier, Gnindriss eincr Bibl. Kcryldik, 2" Aufl., 1844. G. A. F. SiCKEL, Grun- driss finer chrisll. Halicntik, 1829. 64 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. of it. It may prescribe admirable rules in relation to preaching, but this does not absolutely guarantee that it will form only admirable preachers. The gift of warmly, wisely, worthily proclaiming the Gospel cannot be mechanically acquired, as, e.g., the art of drawing or of music. True eloquence is as a Divine spark in the heart ; but though this spark may be kindled to a flame where it slumbers, it cannot, where it is entirely wanting, be introduced by any human hand. Of the sacred orator, too, as of the true poet, it is true that he is not made, but born. The genuine preacher is a living witness of Christ, the incarnation, as it were, of that spiritual life which manifests itself and pours itself forth. " A preacher is in some degree a reproduction of the truth in a personal form. The truth exists as a living experience, a glowing enthusiasm and intense reality." ^ There is no school of earthly wisdom and science which can raise its dis- ciples to such a height. In this sense Goethe's Faust is no false prophet, but a prophet of truth, where he reminds Wagner, " Wenn ihr's nicht fiihlt, ihr werdet's nicht erjagen Wenn es nicht aus der Seele dringt, Und mit urkr'aftigen Behagen Die Herzen aller Horer dringt. Sitzt ihi- nur immer ! Leimt zusammen, Braut ein Ragout von andrer Schmaus, Und blas't die kiimmerlichen Flammen Aus eurem Aschenhaufchen 'raus ! Bewunderung von Kindern and Affen, Wenn euch damach der Gaumen steht ; Doch werdet ihr nie Herz zu Herzen scliaffen, Wenn es euch nicht vom Herzen geht." In this very fact is also to be discovered the reason why imitation of others is ordinarily such a miserable failure, and, even where it is to some extent successful, in no case can make amends for the want of originality and life. The preacher is like a ship bound for a distant coast ; Homiletics may pro- vide it with rigging, rudder, and compass, but the wind which is to swell the sails must come from above, and there is no human power which can supply this lack. Yes, even where the higher capability and devotion {jne?is divinior) is not wanting, it must be repeated, " Do not expect too much." Homiletics can furnish fit precepts, but the application depends in the end upon yourselves, and upon circumstances which cannot possibly be calculated beforehand. It can warn you against many a rock, but cannot on that account prevent your stranding. Precisely because preaching, which is worthy of the name, is an act, yea, the most individual, and at the same time the most real act which is demanded of the Church's ministry, its method cannot be communicated by example, cannot be I caught by observation, cannot in every detail be prescribed. All homiletic rules might, regarded aright, be reduced to this one: Be yourself; in other words, seek to he a real man, a real Christia?i, a real theologiati ; arid then \ speak — after being as many-sidedly and harnwjiiously as possible prepared a7id ; developed for this ivork — /;/ S2ich a 7vay as your sanctified individuality, in I connection with the nature of the subject and the need of the monie7it, enables \ you to speak. To a certain extent one may say that every homilete of any ' H. Ward Beechkr. IDEA AND IMPORTANCE OF IIOMIl.ETICS. 65 consequence must in this respect fill up his own homiletics, out of that which has been successively acquired in the school of Scripture study, self- knowledge, and pastoral experience. At best, science is only a finger-post, which is able to point out to us the right way, not a stream into which one has only to cast oneself to be infallibly carried to the desired coast on the opposite side. 5. That which, without more, is insufficient, is not on that account superfluous or of little consequence. Even though Homiletics cannot accomplish everything, it is yet able to do comparatively much ; and for this reason we may repeat, on the other hand, Do not expect too little from it. In our own day, too, there are not wanting those who look down with contempt upon the precepts of science, and even rate the preacher more highly in proportion as he displays the fewer traces of theoretic culture. Sacred eloquence is contemned by those most of all who run no immediate risk of excelling in this domain, and who forcibly remind us of the truth of the old proverb, "Ars non habet osorem, nisi ignorantem." Specially is the oratorical element in preaching exposed to objection and oppo- sition. It is well known that not only Spener wished to see the " ars oratoria" entirely banished from the Church, but even Kant thought it beneath the dignity of tlie pulpit ; so that Herder felt himself called upon to break a lance with him in its favour.^ And who would not readily admit there is a sort of oratory which very undeservedly bears the name of pulpit eloquence, and to which the well-known saying of Pascal may be applied : " La vraie eloquence se moque de I'eloquence " ? Yet it can be equally little denied that many an objection to Homiletics and its require- ments is due to misunderstanding and exaggeration. — The abuse frequently made of the rules of art to an unhallowed end can prove nothing against the suitability and value of these rules in themselves ; as well might one look with contempt upon the skilful and eloquent advocate, just because a lying and flattering TertuUus had abused the gift of fluency to the prejudice of Paul.^ — Appeal is made to the declaration of the Apostle, that he had on principle proclaimed the Gospel, "not with wisdom of words ;"2 but the fact is overlooked that he is here only condemning the empty rhetoric of the Greek philosophers and sophists of his day, and by no means depre- ciating the value of that power and beauty of language which too is a fruit of the Holy Spirit ; a gift which he himself possessed in such abundant measure, as is evident from his speech upon the Areopagus, as well as from so many a glorious passage in his epistles: i Cor. i. 17b is just as Httle opposed to an effective Homiletics as Col. ii. 8 is opposed to a sound Phi- losophy.— Reference is made to the Lord's promise of instantaneous help in speaking, given and fulfilled to His first witnesses.* But the extra- ordinary assistance there intended is certainly not in the same measure promised to ordinary preachers for ordinary cases, least of all to those who abuse this utterance as a cloak for indolence and carelessness. Only care- * See his Verb. " Ueber die Beredsamkeit als eine menschlicbe Kunst," aj^pearing in tbe Kalligonc. ^ Acts xxiv. 2 iT. ^ o'^K ev ao(pia \6yov, i Cor. i. 17 ; cf. ii. i, * Matt. X. 19, 20; Luke xii. 11, 12. 66 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. lessness, or else pride and fanaticism, can employ these words of Jesus as a weapon against Homiletics and its precepts; rather must the proposition be reversed, and from the necessity of an entirely special help, even for the Lord's own Apostles, we must infer the necessity of a very careful study for those less privileged, to whom such a personal promise has never yet been given. — Mention is made of certain homiletic geniuses, who, according to their own confession, neglected this study in early life, and yet have been remarkably successful as preachers (comp. § L 5). But, not to repeat what has already been said, we only remind the objector that such a genius may, in any case, be regarded rather as forming the exception than the rule, and certainly did not begin by pluming himself on his own gifts. He who has really wings can dispense with the aid of crutches ; but he who, with unpractised foot, must take the first step upon a path as yet unknown, acts not wisely to despise the help of an experienced guide. Let the budding genius after- wards emancipate himself so far as necessary and desirable, but let him at least begin with learning that which may later serve to raise him to a rarer height. — And if, in the last place, we are pointed to the manifest fact that there have frequently arisen in earlier or later times heralds of the Gospel whose ministrations have been abundantly blessed, while they were scarcely able to translate the word homiletics, much less to comprehend the science itself, we are reminded of a consolatory fact ; but those who urge it is an argument against the study of our science, run the risk of proving too much, and thus, in reality, nothing. For no one has a right to expect that precisely he will belong to the number of those extraordinary instru- ments in a higher hand, who, to a certain extent, can do without that which is indispensable for others. Without the help of science, Christianity was founded upon earth ; but from this it does not at all follow that without this help it can continue duly to maintain itself And he who really reveres in that Christianity the revelation of the highest truth, must he not at the same time desire to see that which is holy displayed as much as possible in the garb of true beauty? Must not the apples of gold be placed upon dishes of silver?^ In other words, must not the sublimest truths be couched in the noblest forms ? Do we not learn even of the Incarnate Word, that " gracious words " were heard from His lips, and that as such they made a deep impression ?2 and after Paul had planted at Corinth, was not the field of the Church watered by the eloquent Apollos?^ It is true, art cannot supply the place of nature ; but yet can it not, to some extent, develop, exercise, purify the natural gifts ? Great faith may, in some cases, counter- balance the want of science ; but may not science render its service to faith, and enable it to speak in a worthy manner of that which is highest and holiest ? Enough already. Scarcely can one consider w/iat the minister of the Gospel has to proclaim, and in whose name he has to speak ; 7v/iai he is who stands there, and what they are whom he has to guide in respect of their highest interests ; above all, ^0 what end he is labouring, and how infinitely much will depend upon his labours, without its becoming ever afresh evident that, in this domain, no effort can for a moment be regarded as too severe, no amount of careful preparation ' Piov, XXV. II (Dutch version). - lAike iv. 22a. ^ i Cor. iii. 6a. HISTORY AND LITERATURE. 6/ superfluous. If the life of the faithful preacher is a constant warfare, here too the saying applies in the widest sense, " If a man strive, yet is he not crowned, except he strive Imcfu/ly."'^ Comp. * A. ViNET, as before, p. i sqq. *C. I. NiTZSCH, m before, ii., s. 94. II. Ward Bkecher, Lectures on Preaching (1873), p. 2. C. H. SPURGEON, Lectures to my Stu- dents {187s), p. 151 sqq. Points for Inquiry. The distinction l^etween tlie preaching of ordinary worship and mis^^ion-preaching further elucidated and justified. — Difference and connection between pulpit eloquence and the proclamation of the Gospel. — The relation between charisma and natural gifts in this domain. § XIII. HISTORY AND LITERATURE. The knowledge of the History and Literature of the Art of Preach- C ing is absolutely indispensable for the thorough study of the science. Preceded by the preparatory prophetic activity of the Old Testament, this history has its starting-point in the appearing of Him who spake as never man spake, and in His first wit- nesses presents before us a brilliant succession of eminent prede- cessors and trustworthy guides. I. That which has been said of Practical Theology as a whole (^ II. i), applies also to tliat part to which our attention is now directed. Knowledge of history and literature is not merely desirable, but for a thorough study indispensable. The more is it to be regretted that not a few homiletes are wanting in this particular form of knowledge. We are not saying too much when w^e complain that the History of the Art of Preaching in all its extent is for only too many a terra incogjiita. Herder must already in his day deplore that "it is a shame that so many preachers grow old and grey amidst postils, and have never learnt at least to become acquainted with a Basil and a Chrysostom,"- and it is in this last respect not much better even now. A partial excuse may no doubt be found in the fact that there is still wanting a good history of the art of preaching from the earliest times to the present day. In lamenting this want we refer not merely to a History of Homiletics, i.e., of the theory alone, apart from the practice ; nor again a History of Pulpit Eloquence in the narrower sense of the term ; but a history at once of theory and practice, which can here hardly be separated, and are on this account comprehended under the name of the Art of Preaching. As regards the Netherlands, we possess the meritorious work of J. Hartog,^ and as regards France, something similar has been pre- > 2 Tim. ii. 5. - Briefe iiher das Stud, der Theol Forty- first letter.- ^ Gescliiedenis van de I'redild'unde en de Evangeliepredikingin d: IVotestantsehe herl; van Nederland{\%b\). 58 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. sented to us in the Histoirc de la Predication parmi les Reform'es de Prague au Dix-septieine Sicde, by the renowned Vinet (i860); but as regards other lands, it is to be wished that the harvest were more abundant. In Ger- many some contributions have been made during this and the preceding century, as regards parts of this history, which are worthy of mention ; but the history as a whole, even where it has been courageously attempted, still awaits a hand able to dispose of the abundant material in accordance with the demands of science. Only for the sake of completeness do we mention here F. R. Eschenburg, Versuch eiuer GeschicJite der dffe?itl. Peligions-vortriige in der Griechischen vnd LiitJierischen Kirc/ie, von den Zeiten Christi bis zu der Reformation (1785); Ph. G. Schiiler, Gescliichte der Verandernngen des Gescli macks im Fredigefi (1792) ; C. F. von Ammon, Gescliichte der Homiletik, i. (1804); extending from Huss to the arising of Luther. Amad. Wieszner Geschiclite der christi. kirchlichcn Bcredsamkeit (1829). The Handbuch der gcistl. Beredsamheit, too, of Dr. J. Brand (R. C.), edited after his death by C. Halm (1836), i., ss. 46 — 204, contains a short "History of Spiritual Eloquence," which from tlie standpoint of the writer is deserving of praise. On the Protestant side, K. F. W. Paniel, who notably aimed much higher than any of these predecessors, began to publish a Pragmatischc Gescliichte der christlichen Bcredsamkeit und der Homiletik, i. i, 2 (1839, 1841), but proceeded with it only as far as Augustine ; and, Avith all the learning displayed in this work, the rationalistic standpoint of the author exerted anything but a happy influence upon his view of men and things. The work of C. G. H. Lentz, Geschichtc der christlichen Homiletik, in two parts (1839), deserves the preference in point of completeness above that last mentioned, but it presents little more than an uncritical juxtaposition of the material collected in such abundance. Better corresponding with the demand of historiography is the Bucli der Predigten of R. Nesselmann, open- ing with an Uebersicht iiber die Entwicklinn:;sgeschichte der cJiristlichen Predigt (1858), which may in several respects be looked upon as meritorious; but, constructed upon a plan of too great succinctness, is neither complete in itself, nor drawn from original sources. With high commendation may be mentioned, finally, the instructive survey of the Geschichte der offentlichen Rede, with which C. I. Nitzsch began this part of his Practische Theologie (i860), while later opportunity will not be wanting to speak of meritorious monographs on single periods and persons in particular. But even when all this, and that which might further be mentioned here, has been thankfully prized, the wish cannot be suppressed that a qualified and vigorous hand might yet be impelled satisfactorily to fill up this gap in the historic- theologic literature. It was only to be expected that a review of the history of Homiletics and the Preaching of the Gospel (Art of Preaching), such as is here demanded and attempted, can satisfy but in limited measure the requirement of historic science. Yet it must be as complete, as vivid, and above all as practical as possible, and not afford simply a catalogue of the most famous preachers, but also, even though by a single word, set forth that in their person and work which displays itself as an object either for reprobation or for imitation. A sharp separation into periods is, from the nature of the case, hardly justifiable, and for our purpose not actually necessary. We HISTORY AND LITERATURE. 69 distinguish here simply between the earlier, medmval, and modern history, and bring the first of these to a close with Gregory the Great, while we begin the last with the Reformation of the Church. In the first the primitive Christian Church, in the second the Papal, and in the third the Evangelical (Protestant), will naturally occupy the foreground. Here, by way of Introduction, yet a word on the preparation in the days of the Old Covenant, and its first arising in those of the New. 2. It is by no means the result of accident that, while merely human religions consist wholly or in great part in a number of outward rites, the original revelation of salvation, on the other hand, is communicated, con- tinued, and developed by the spiritual power of the Word. But it is still very significant that the first preaching of which we hear in the old world bears, at the same time, the character of testimony against the sin of man- kind, and therein strikes the keynote, which henceforth resounds, with ever-increasing clearness, throughout the whole history. At the head of all the preachers known to us stands Enoch, with his proclamation of the Lord's approaching advent to judgment. ^ Beside him arises, amidst his abandoned contemporaries, Noah the preacher of righteousness ; ^ and when straightway a new world comes forth out of the grave of the old one, we see the word of salvation, in its simplest form, handed down from father to son. Only from Luther's inaccurate translation of Gen. xii. 8, has it been possible to prove that Abraham "preached " the name of theLord in a consecrated place : the element which predominates in the earliest reli- gious assemblies is notably not that of instruction and testimony, but that of adoration and worship. When, however, Abraham's descendants were delivered from slavish bonds, and privileged with a new revelation, the necessity arose that the law should be constantly inculcated and explained ; and it was, moreover, enjoined upon the head of the family to preserve the great deeds of the Lord in remembrance and honour among a younger generation. 2 In the Pentateuch, Moses in particular, as the teacher and orator of the people, occupies a place wholly unique. Nothing is more impressive than the relation in which, according to Deuteronomy, he stands in the evening of his life towards all Israel, coming forth with the word of the blessing and of the curse upon his lips. In the fullest sense Moses is the man of the word, as Joshua is the man of the sword \ and in the time of the Judges, too, there is not wanting the gift of presenting the truth, even in a parabolical form, as emphatically as possible."^ That, besides the house- hold instruction already referred to, eloquent voices were also heard in public, is evident from the example of Joshua and Samuel,^ not to mention David's contemporary, the stern Nathan.*^ The establishment of schools of the prophets at this period unquestionably also contributed not a little to develop the gift of speech in teachers and pupils. In the time of Solomon at any rate the conception was no longer an unwonted one, that Wisdom herself, speaking out of her abundance, lifted up her voice upon the streets \ ' and ' Jude 14, 15. - Judg. ix. 7—20. ^ 2 Peter ii. 5. * Josh, xxiii., xxiv, ; 1 Sam. xii. '^ Deut. vi. 30—2^. ^ 2 Sam. xii. ' See, ^. '., Piov. ix, 1—6, xxv. il, xxix. i8a, yo PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. more than one utterance is to be found in the Book of Proverbs, which emphatically testifies to the value of genuine eloquence and living prophecy.^ That at least some prophets were wont to hold religious assemblies on the Sabbath, and in connection with these possibly to explain the law, may be safely inferred from 2 Kings iv. 23, although it was only after the Captivity that the public reading and exposition of the Holy Scriptures became an established custom. Doubtless the example of Ezra and his fellow-labourers - was very soon regularly followed by priests and Levites ; specially when the synagogues sprang up in ever-increasing numbers, and were frequented every Sabbath by devout crowds. In proportion as the sensuous glory of the Temple was here wanting, must a wider place be conceded to the didactic element of ritual, and to this element the reading and explication of law and prophets form the solid foundation. It is highly probable that in the fulness of the time there existed already a regular division of the main contents of both into so-called Parashes and Haphtaras, which were weekly read in public from a more elevated place in the building, and, under the guidance of the archisynagogus, no doubt often afforded material for a free address, even on the part of respected and trustworthy strangers.^ We may believe that many a good word has been spoken, and that the influence of Hillel, Shammai, Gamaliel, and others, with their schools, exerted a beneficial influence for many. The more, however, tradition was placed on a level with, nay, exalted above the law, and the method of the most arbitrary interpretation of Scripture was favoured by many, so much the less could such preaching — to make use of that word in this connection — be a life-awakening one. No wonder that a voice wholly different could presently with unequalled effect place its impressive " Verily, /say unto you " in opposition to this rabbinical wisdom, and that later an Apostle could give vent to his honest indignation against the handling of useless ques- tions of controversy, raised by preference by the Judaising teachers of error. -i He who under the Old Covenant would hear in the spoken word, not a dead letter, but a powerful manifestation of spirit and life, must listen to the voice, not of the scribes, but of Israel's prophets. 3. It is not here the place to speak of the nature, origin, and significance of Prophetism. We know that the prophets were something more than public orators ; but the fact that some of them were also orators entitles them to a place of distinction and honour in this historic review. For it is surely impossible to recal for a moment to the imagination these men of God — an Elias upon Carmcl, an Esaias in presence of king and people, a Jeremias face to face mth the false prophets — without feeling that ministers of the Word, even in entirely different times and circumstances, may still learn exceedingly much of such men of God. What men, and what words which we hear from their lips ! The declaration of one of them remains immovably the fundamental law for them all : " What the Lord shall say unto me, that will I speak." '' A power which they cannot withstand impels ' .Sec, e.g., Prov. ix. 1—6, xxv. II, xxix. l8a. - Neh. viii. 4 ff. ■■' Acts xiii. 14, 15 ; cf. Luke iv. 16 ^{, ' I Tim. i. 3—5. '" I Kings xxii. 14. HISTORY AND LITERATURE. 7 1 them to utter that which inwardly lives in their hearts,^ and they utter it each one in accordance with his individuality; but this hallowed individuality is unreservedly devoted to the great cause of the kingdom of God. It has on one occasion been proclaimed, as a piece of homiletic wisdom, that the preacher " shall not make unto himself any image or likeness ; " but then Isaiah, for instance, must have been a very faulty speaker; for what power and splendour of imagery ever surpassed his? Irresistibly does many a prophetic discourse enchain us, such as we may suppose to have been delivered under the open sky, or in the courts of the Temple, or again in the audience of a brilliant court party ; and the higher rises our estimate of that prophetic word, in proportion as we observe how it is supported and borne out by the force of a personality such as was to be found only among the people of Revelation. What a preacher, for example, must Jonah have been, whose voice brought down a sinful Nineveh into the dust of humilia- tion, and whose name is mentioned by Jesus Himself in one breath with His own ! ^ We cannot be surprised that Israel's prophets have been more than once pointed out as models for the preacher of the Gospel. That this can be the case only within wise limitations we need hardly say ; the overlooking of these limitations would be not only hurtful, but ridiculous. Yet certainly many a preaching would be more powerful, many a preacher more impressive, if more of the spirit of the ancient prophets, and of the form in which they delivered their addresses, had become the spiritual possession of a younger generation. For in its highest development the living testimony of the Word, the true K-^pvyfxa, bears not merely a didactic, but a Christian-prophetic character. And thus when we so often hear the models of the Grecian agora recommended, almost without reserve, to the youthful homilete, we make bold to wish that he may seek his guides at least as much in Jerusalem as in Athens or Rome. At the head of this bright succession of prophets stands with honour the last and greatest of all, at once herald and evangelist of the New Dispensa- tion. The preacher of the wilderness, in the raiment of camel's hair ; the unrivalled preacher of penitence ; the court preacher who paid for his out- spoken fidelity with his life, may not here be passed over in silence. Well is it for the minister of the Word who makes the great principle of John the Baptist ^ really his own ! Yet can even the " burning and shining torch " arrest us only for a moment in this domain, since already the light of the sun begins to beam upon us in dazzling brightness. We have to speak of the highest Witness of the truth upon earth, Jesus Christ. 4. To the question whether the name of Jesus Christ ought to be mentioned in an historical sketch like this, a negative reply has been given by voices entitled to be held in reverence. " Christ is not to be individualised (separately regarded) as an orator, because He must be recognised as Himself the basis and goal, the theme and power of the discourse, clothed with new vigour."* But so long as it cannot be denied that He, the Incarnate Word, the Son of God and of man in a sense wholly unique, nevertheless appeared also as a Prophet in Israel, and went about on 1 Jer. XX. 7 — 9 ; Amos iii. 8. ' John iii. 30. » Matt. xii. 41. ■' C. L Nitzsch, 72 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. earth in the garb of a rabbi, we know not what should hinder us, as believers and redeemed men in the first place, but then also surely as preachers and teachers, to sit at His feet and learn of Him. Did He not Himself com- pare the sending of His witnesses by Him with His own sending by the Father ? And ought then His witnesses to choose as models and ideal the most illustrious indeed of their fellow-witnesses, but not the Master Himself? Unless we are mistaken, the hesitation upon this point arises specially from the fact that the idea of sacred eloquence is here confined within too narrow limits, and thus there has been undesignedly associated with it the notion of something unnatural and artificial.^ But is it really necessary to take up the opposite view, and at once maintain that here all must be excluded from the conception which does not belong, in the most absolute manner, to the province of nature ? The word of Him who spoke and was silent as never any other, could not without sacrilege be enclosed within the narrow frame- work of a theory of art, with its distinction of discovery, subordination, execution, etc. His peerless word was neither more nor less than perfect self-manifestation ; in no human school had He been trained, that He might arise as a teacher in Israel ; and His whole preaching is only one continued testimony of the kingdom of the heavens, and of Himself as Founder and King. Thus accordingly does He at once occupy, in our history at least, the position of Himself remaining the inexhaustible main theme of truly Christian preaching. But just as little may we overlook the fact that, if He has not given us any sharply formulated laws and rules. He has at least given forth great principles in relation to preaching, and such as remain for its exponents of the highest significance. Think of that which was spoken at the mission of the twelve and of the seventy disciples, Matt. x. and Luke X. ; let any one ponder on hints such as those given in Matt. xii. 34, xiii. 52, Luke vi. 29, 30, and elsewhere; let any one turn his eye to the commission given by the Lord before His departure ; ^ and let him ask, after all this, whether we may not venture to speak, in a very sound sense, of a Homiletics of Jesus Himself, drawn from His own precepts. But it is not even this which here gives the Lord a title to our reverent estimation ; it is specially the manner in which He has spoken of the things of the kingdom which claims our attention. We must know what it was by which His word produced so peerless an impression, and to this end seek the answer in the four Gospels, which here, too, by no means stand in irreconcilable opposition the one to the other. We cannot better explain this than by pointing to the most perfect harmony which is here to be observed in every direction. It presents itself to our eye like a clear ray of light, as it were broken into seven distinct colours. — First, in Jesus' word a harmony with His exalted Person. He, the incarnate Word, who was with God and was God, speaks accordingly, entirely as such. Between the tone and contents of His word and that of the greatest prophets the distinction at once strikes us. What a difference between the " Thus saith the Lord" of old times, and the " Verily I say unto you " of the sermon on the * Thus there appeared in Germany, in 1774, a Dissertation by one Hegemeyer, to prove " Christum gestus pro concione usurpasse." '^ Luke xxiv. 47 ff. HISTORY AND LITERATURE. 73 mount ! — In the second place, in harmony with the Scriptures, in which He hves, with which He combats, from which He presently derives the light which shines into His night of death. Symbolical, in this respect, may His first arising in the synagogue at Nazareth be termed : ^ not like the scribes does He find in tradition, but only in the law, the prophets, and the psalms, the standard of His daily teaching. Where He unveils the future, His language bears a wholly scriptural complexion ; and even after His resurrection His words are rooted in the sacred soil of Scripture.^ Of the painful disharmony between the preacher and the Word, later so fre- quently witnessed, no trace is to be found in the case of this peerless Speaker. — On the contrary, the ^vritten and the incarnate Word give testi- mony to each other ; and this testimony is, in the third place, in perfect harmony with the deepest wants of the hearers. The Lord directs His preaching, not to that which they wish, but to that of which they stand essentially in need, equally whether He is addressing a narrower or a wider circle, is speaking before friends or foes. Differently, but also to a totally different audience, in Judtea, from what He does in Galilee ; differently where they are seeking to lay snares for Him, from what He does where, with an ardent longing for salvation, a life-question is proposed to Him. — In the midst of all this diversity His word again remains in harmony, in the fourth place, wdth the demands of the moment. Most of His words bear, in the highest measure, the stamp of the occasion and of real life, and thereby correspond definitely to the requirement already instituted by the wisdom of antiquity. ^ Ever suitable, to the point, conclusive, never rashly spoken so that they have afterwards to be recalled. Sometimes He regards repetition as necessary, but retractation never ; no sign of the times is there which He does not understand and interpret. Thus he dominates, by the power of His word, the time in which He speaks ; because He stands not outside of it and in opposition to it, but at once within and above it. He can lay hold of it, because He thoroughly comprehends it. — His word, moreover, is, in tht fifth place, wholly in harmony with itself. Men often speak of great changes, as in the ideas so also in the teaching of the Lord, but in so doing have only shown that they had no power to appreciate the higher unity in the midst of comparative diversity. In the great theme of His ministry Jesus remains, from the beginning to the end, perfectly consistent. Undoubtedly He adapts Himself, as regards the form, to varying capacities ; in the communication of its purport a gradual rise takes place ; ^ but He has no other Gospel for the narrower circle than for the wider, and whether He veils the truth or reveals it, it is always the same truth unto salvation. — Its unequalled proclamation is and remains likewise, in the sixth place, in harmony with His walk. That of which, perfectly in accordance with truth, He must remind His people with regard to the scribes,^ can be repeated by no one in application to Himself. His sublimest precepts are alike illustrated and enforced by His faultless ex- ample ; His life is one continued preaching ; His preaching, no doctrine ' Euke iv. 16—22, " Eccles. xH. Il, ■' ]\IaU. xxiii. •■' Luke xxiv. 44. ' John xvi. 4. 74 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. merely, but life. — Thus it is consequently, in the last place, in perfect harmony with the Father, whose face He often seeks in prayer, also before the preaching, and before whom He could testify at the end that He had revealed and glorified the Father's name upon earth. ^ Who does not feel that in every i)oint, here only touched upon, there is conveyed at the same time a homiletic lesson of inestimable value ? As yet we have spoken only of the contents of the Lord's teaching ; but in regard to \\\^form, too, there is not less to admire. How much might here be said ui)on that treasure of parables alone ; upon the unequalled dialectic with which truth here constantly rends the snares of subtlety ; upon the pregnancy of exi)ression, the paradoxical character, the holy irony, and even the play of humour in so many of His words and table discourses ! But it is imi)ossible here to mention ever)'thing, and unnecessary to rei)eat very many things which have been often and well said already. Never can we too greatly commend the study of the Gospels themselves for an answer to the so highly important question, ^Vhat has the disciple of Christ to learn from the Great Teacher concerning the best manner in which the Gospel of the kingdom must be permanently proclaimed ? It is naturally not a question here of imitating anything in which He stands inapproach- ably above us ; but of following, however imperfectly, this unique Person in all that by which, even in the domain of the Word, He has won for Himself the title of King. The exclamation, " Never man spake as this man," - can and may now no longer be repeated in this wide sense of any minister of _ the Word. But the testimony, " Never did a man speak of yesus as this man," merits now and ever to be the object of striving for a sacred ambition, and certainly this height cannot better be approached than by unceasing and reverential contemplation of the Master Himself. 5. Accordingly, the transition from the Lord to His first witnesses can- not possibly be anything else than a descent. Yet this beginning of the history of the Gospel proclamation is of an importance which cannot be overlooked, because we here meet with the first unfolding and application of the great principles, by the Master Himself placed in word and deed in the foreground. As Jesus connected His preaching with that of His pre- decessors, so do we see the Apostles, as it were, take up again the thread fallen from the hand of the Master, and, with the word of belief and con- version, direct their first steps to the Jewish and heathen world. From the Acts and Epistles of the Apostles we become acquainted with the con- tents and form of their preaching, which, more than any other, bears the stamp of a simple but animated testimony. If we ask, in the first place, by 7ohoni this testimony was borne, we are struck with the thought how all those who believe feel also called as they have opportunity to proclaim the Gospel in their own circle. At the head of all, however, stand those who are called to be witnesses of the resurrection, headed by Peter at the first Pentecost. ^ As well the house of Israel as the firstfruits of the Gentile world ^ hear from his mouth the earliest procla- mation of the risen and glorified Christ, and with his word harmonises, ' Luke vi. 12—16 ; Juhn xvii. 4—6. ° Acts ii. 14 ff. 2 John vii. 46. ' < Acts x. 34 ft". IIISTORV AND LITERATURE. 75 without any discord, that of all the Apostles.^ At their side are very soon grouped the first deacons — Stephen and Philip in particular ;2 and scarcely is Paul converted before he at once arises as a preacher.^ A remarkable phenomenon, and, at the same time, a fit manifestation of the spirit and power of Christianity ! When Islam is founded, Mahomet places in the hands of his followers a sword ; where Christianity enters into the world, the Holy Spirit places on the lips of His messengers the living Word, and they cannot but speak of those things which they have seen and heard ^Vho can call before his mind this brilliant succession without silent admira tion ? Peter, the preacher with the strongly Galilean dialect, where, burning with sacred pentecostal fire, he lays the first foundations of the rising kingdom of God ; Stephen, the first herald of the Christian universalism, a living link between Jesus and Paul, the preacher with the angelic bright- ness upon his face,' and presently the martyr's crown upon the bleeding temples ; Philij), bending upon the chariot of the Ethiopian chamberlain, over the proi)hctic roll of Isaiah, which he interprets to the earnest ques- tioner/'' Apollos, the first to whom, in the history of preaching, the honour- able distinction of " eloquent " is ascribed ; *' the mighty Alexandrine, who, even in the fickle and luxurious Corinth, was able to lead spell-bound a whole host by the power of his word ; and, above all, the greater than he, who had already planted where Apollos only watered, and who, nearly four centuries later, called forth from the heart of a like-minded one among the Fathers, the language of desire, " Three things should I have wished to see in my lifetime — Rome in its prime, Christ in the flesh, and Paul in his elocjuence." It is true we must form no exaggerated conception of this last, at least as regards its technical side. The personality of Paul was, as to the outward man, but mean and weak ; his adversaries, moreover, even when they admitted that his letters were powerful, si)oke of his speech as contemptible,' and such an opinion can hardly have been uttered and diffused without at least some show of reason. It is not unlikely that, as regards the form of discourse, Apollos stood to Paul as once Aaron to Moses.*^ But yet we cannot possibly rate lightly the word of a preacher who, in a few years, filled so many lands and world-famed cities with the odour of the knowledge of Christ ; and we have only for a moment to conceive of Paul upon the Areopagus at Athens, or in the presence of Felix and Drusilla, or perchance of Festus and Agrippa, in order to find perfectly explicable the deep impression made l)y his word wherever he arose. " The love of Christ constraineth us " is the answer \yhich he him- self gives to the ([uestion as to the key to his powerful and truly Christian elociuence." That which confers such high significance upon this first Christian preaching is not merely its newness, its freshness, its originality ; it is specially its essential harmony with itself and with that of others who, furnished with different gifts and powers, bore witness to the selfsame ' Acts iv. i:;,. I Acts vi. 15. '2 Cor. x. 10. - Acts vi. 10, viii. 5. " Acts viii. 30, 32. ** E.xod. iv. 14. ^ Acts ix. 20. " Actb .wiii. 24. " 2 Cor. v. 14. 76 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. fact of redemption. Whoever had been able, about thirty years after the first Pentecost, to visit a Christian assembly at Jerusalem or Samaria, at Antioch or Rome, at Ephesus or Corinth, would everywhere have heard essentially the same Gospel, always differently presented, and yet no other Gospel. While there might be difference in the mode of teaching, there was by no means an irreconcilable conflict in the doctrine itself. The truth did not, as many assert, gradually arise — it existed already ; it was not now a thing to be sought from afar, but had actually been revealed and appeared; all that now remained to do was to acknowledge it, to testify of it, and, if need be, to die for it. It is true, materials of very different value are built up, but yet only upon the foundation which was once laid;^ and even where Christ was proclaimed out of an unworthy motive, proclaimed only for a semblance, it was still one and the same Christ who occupied the first place in the preaching of all the Apostles and their fellow-witnesses.^ Yet it is soon apparent that the unity here was by no means a lifeless uniformity. To the question, " Where, when, and how did they preach in the Apostolic age ? " one would be inclined to return the answer, " Where, when, and how did they not ? " All places were deemed suitable, where only a little group could be gathered, ready and willing to hear the glad tidings. During all the hours of the day the AVord of life is spoken ; early in the morning in the temple,^ but also in the evening late and long in the upper room ; ^ where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. At first, as a rule, the preaching is addressed as much as possible to the Jews, after- wards to the Gentiles, finally to the congregation gathered by the Word ; what was first of all mission preaching becomes presently a constituent part of the religious exercises of the believers, but without the contents and form of the testimony of salvation undergoing any other modification than that called for by the nature of the case. Ordinarily it attaches itself firmly to the Scriptures of the Old Testament, or else to that which was already known from other sources concerning the history of the Lord ; ^ but in other respects everything is here marked by a simplicity which would almost lead us to speak of an absence of form, were it not that indisputable traces are to be observed of agreement with the form of teach- ing in the Jewish synagogue. The sacred account that the Christian assembly at Corinth, even when it was driven from the synagogue, bordered as closely as possible thereon," has, besides its unquestionably historic significance, likewise a typico-symbolic character. Not even yet do we find everywhere a strictly so-called ministry of the Word, in the sense that speaking was permitted only to some, and silence imposed upon all the others. In Corinth, at least, women were wont to speak in the assembly, a course disapproved of by Paul ; ' and besides the ordinary ministry, it was not unusual for different brethren in various ways to bear testimony to the truth. If we may infer from what took place there something as 1 I Cor. iii. Ii— 13. " Ads xx. 7— II. « Phil. i. 18; cf. Gal. ii. 7—9. " Acts x. 37. 8 Acts V. 21. ^ Acts xviii. 7. * I Cor. XIV. 34. TII.'^TORV AND LITERATURE. 77 regards the practice of other churches, then there were specially three forms in which the power of the Word appeared in their mutual gatherings to- gether. The mj'sterious " speaking in tongues " {glosso/aly) first of all, in which the spirit was raised to a high degree of ecstasy, while the intellect remained in a condition of passive repose, and which thus demanded an express interpretation, if it was to bear fruit of real edification. After that the gift of prophecy, placed by Paul much higher than the forenamed,^ an animated testimony as to the truth and worth of the saving revelation in Christ, its present importance and its future triumph. Finally, the calm gift of teaching [didascaly), whether in the form of dialogue or otherwise ; the least brilliant of the charismata relating to the ministry of the VV^ord, and yet destined and adapted permanently to exert its influence, when its two more dazzling sisters should either wholly or in great part become silent. That the public reading of Holy Scripture in papticular, of which we early discover traces,^ was of great moment for it, hardly needs to be a matter for reminder. The more, however, the necessity was felt for order, as conjoined with a becoming freedom, the more must the proper work of an Evangelist, after that of Prophet and Apostle, rise in value and significance ; and how much belonged to that work may be easily learnt from the pastoral epistles, among other sources.^ Of the two sorts of presbyters which Paul recog- nises,* he ascribes the highest place of honour to those who labour in the Word and doctrine. In proportion as the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit become more rare must the indispensable requirements for this particular ministry be pointed out with the greater care, and the office of teacher could be entrusted only to those as regards whom it was actually apparent that they possessed the necessary qualifications thereto.^ The great end, to which everything else must be subordinated, is the edifying of the Church (oiKoSo/AT/), a demand equally far-reaching as it is sacred." With this end in view does Paul more especially utter a number of precepts which may be said to contain the outlines of a system of Evangelical- Apostolic Homiletics.^ In themselves, as we have already said, he despised the artistic rules of an empty rhetoric, but by no means the glorious gift of speaking well and wisely, warmly and worthily. From what we know of the teaching of the Judaising false teachers, it is sufficiently evident how far his rose above that teachmg. A single hasty comparison, moreover, of his first missionary address ^ with his parting words to the elders at Ephesus ^ shows how he is able to modify his words in accordance with the require- ments of the moment and the different wants of his hearers. It cannot accordingly be doubted that the fruit of the preaching in the Apostohc age ' I Cor. xiv. I fif. - I Tim. iv. 13 ; Rev. i. 3. ^ I Tim. iv. 14; 2 Tim. iv. 5. * I Tim. V. 18. ^ I Tim. iii. 2, iv. 14, v. 22, and other places. " I Cor. xiv. 12, 26. ' Cf., e.g.. I Cor. iii. I, 2 ; 2 Cor. iv. 2 ; 2 Tim. ii. 15, 24, 25 : Titus i. 13, ii. il — 15, etc. " Acts xiii. 16 ff. ^^ Acts sx, 17—35. 78 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. was, par excellence, great and blessed. This is evident from the raging opposition itself which it called forth at every step : so much hatred is awakened only by a mighty power. The Apostolic word bears, according to the prophecy of Jesus,^ a fruit which surpasses even that of His own. It is true there is an exaggerated conception of the purity and prosperity of the Apostolic age which can hardly stand the test of an intelligent criticism. But yet the spiritual life of the first believers, looked at as a whole, deserves to be regarded as typical, and that life was the fruit of the word whereby the face of the old world was created anew. Of the blessing it brought with it the Acts and Epistles furnish more proofs than can here be enu- merated. We feel how far this extended when we hear Paul declare that the voice of the witnesses of salvation in his day had sounded forth in its first notes through all the regions, unto the end of the then known world.2 We may assert, in greater or less degree, of all the speakers, that they were all obedient to one principle, " We believe, and therefore speak;" and the effect of such a principle upon the life is incalculably great. But thus also it can be no longer difficult to answer a question which here presents itself, and which has been more than once discussed from a very different point of view. It is the question as to the permanent value which the Apostolic preaching retains for the homiletic science of all sub- sequent times, at least as regards those who will continue to build upon the foundation laid by Apostles and Prophets. It is doubtless to proceed too far when one demands that preaching of the present day shall be only a repetition and continuance of that of the Apostolic age, and in doing so asserts that such a preaching may accordingly be termed, in the same sense as that of the Apostles, God's own word. An unceasing reiteration and explanation of the word of the Apostles, without anything more, would, under the radical diversity of time, taste, and circumstances, hardly be adapted to the end in view ; Paul himself certainly would not now proclaim the everlasting Gospel in London or Paris in entirely the same manner as he did at Corinth or Ephesus. " Even if we wish to preach apostolically," says Beyer, " we can no longer preach apostolically ; our preaching must partly remain behind the Apostolic preaching, partly reach beyond it." The most ardent testimony, moreover, of the preacher of the Gospel in the present day is surely never to be spoken of as the word of God in the same sense in which that of Jesus' first witnesses is to be esteemed so, witnesses who were baptized in an extraordinary manner with the Holy Spirit. The preaching which is to answer to its end must be no mechanical repetition, but an independent reproduction of the word of the Apostles. Their preaching affords, as regards the matter of that preaching of the present day which proceeds from a Christian standpoint, the norm, as it is also in many respects instructive in point of form. " From the sphere of Christian preaching is excluded every tendency which ignores the magnalia Dei ; for where these are not, there is there no longer any Chris- tianity." '^ No preaching is to be considered Christian, or has a right to make itself heard in the Christian Church, which directly contradicts the Apostolic preaching in its great central point ; ^ and only that preaching will ' John xiv. 12. - Rom. x. i8 ; cf. Col. i. 23. ^ Beyer. ' Gal. i. 8. EARLY HISTORY AND LITERATURE. 79 answer to its design, which is equally in accordance with individuals and circumstances, but also equally scrijitural and in the true sense popular, as-*- theirs is testified to be. What is sunuiied up in all these requirements must of course be a subject for later examination, but here we may already observe that the demand of a celebrated preacher of the first half of this century, " mit Zungen reden, Hebe Briider/'i rightly understood and applied, retains its unquestionable justification, in opposition to so many forms of homiletic mechanism of later times. Comp. on the proclamation of the prophets of the Old Testament the work of Count \'ON ZiNZENDORF, Jcrcmias- ein Predigcr der Gcrechtigkcit, alien rcdlichcn Prcdigcrn in der ev. Eel. vor Aiigen gestellt (1771). A third edition, unabridged, published at Gnadau in 1863. The well-known theosoph, Oetinger, too, derived a sort oi Homiletica jfesaiana, or rather divina, out of Isa. xl. — Lx.vi. See his " Ehoas Gauzes voiii EvangeUo,'''' etc. (1850). Herder more particularly, as well in h.\s Eedno- Goties (1765), as in his Provincialbldtter an Prediger (1774), rendered justice to this significance of the prophets. Wholly in Herder's spirit did *F. C. W. Umbreit write for the Introduction to his Commentary on Isaiah (1841) a beautiful dissertation, "Die Propheten des A.B. die jiltesten und wih-digsten Volksredner." (Earlier appeared in Theol. Stud. n. Krit. 1833, iv.). Comp. also Nicolai, "Die Bedeutung der Propheten des A.B. fUr die christl. Predigt der Gegenwart," in the serial, Die Piedigt der Gegemvart, 1865, iv. — ix. — On Jesus Himself, F. J- Grulich, " Ueber die korperliche Beredsamkeit Jesu" (1827), also in Bijdragen v. Bmtenl. Gndgel. (1844), vi. 2. Dr. W. B. J. van Y.\\i, De Jesu Christi eloquentid, Oratori sacro imitandd (1851). The chapter, Jesus-Christ, modele du predi- cateur, in N. RoussEL, Comment il ne faut pas preelier (1S57), p. Si if. ''"E. DE Pres- SENSJf:, Jesus-Christ, sa vie et sa doctrine {\'&bb), pp. 350 — 372 [pp. 344 — 366 of the English edition of his Life of Christ}. F. Delitzsch, Jes?is nnd Hillel (1866). C. H.A.RD\viCK, Christ and other' Masters (1863).— On the Apostolic age, *Ad. Monod, Saiiit Paid, Cinq Discours (also in an English translation). Saint Paul, Etudie en vuc de la predication, par r Abbe 'DovYA.v.T, 3 vols., 2nd edn. (1876), R.C., specially tom. iii. pp. 265 — 277. E. Leopold, Das Predigtamt im UrchHstenthum (1846). *J. H. F. Beyer, Das Wesen der christl. Predigt, nach Norm nnd Urbild der Apost. Predigt (1861). *Cl. Harms, " Mit Zungen reden,'' in the Theol. Stud. u. Krit. 1833, iii. s. 806 ff. Points for Inquiry. Comparative view of the principal Prophets in Israel, as men of the Word. — ^John the Baptist and Jesus, as preachers side by side. — Was Jesus in reality a rabbi ? — Main lines of a Pauline system of Ilomiletics. ^ % XIV. A. EARLY HISTORY AND LITERATURE. The early history and literature of the Art of Preaching extends from the Apostolic age to that of Gregory the Great. At first the word of preaching gradually approaches the form of the Homily, which in the fourth century is replaced by the artistic pulpit discourse, and in this character begins in the fifth and sixth centuries to descend from the brilliant height to which it had attained in the previous one. "To speak with tongues, dear brethren."— Claus Harms. So PRACTICAT, TTIEOLOnV. I. A picture of great variety, but at the same time of charming unity, unfolds itself before our eye as we now enter upon the domain of early Church history, and, in the first place, become acquainted with that which we may well term the preaching itnder the cross, as this manifests itself in the first three centuries. The very place in which w^e meet with it displays a varying character explicable only from the yet undeveloped condition of the Church and the necessity of the times. Where the churches of the house- hold assembled in appropriate localities, there the place for the word of preaching too was pointed out as in these localities. Thus we know that Justin Martyr belonged to the household congregation of a certain Martinus in Rome, and there presented the Word of Life to as many as came to him. " If you suppose we assemble only in one place, you are mistaken," was the answer of the same father to the praefect Rusticus : "the God of the Chris- tians is not enclosed in one place ; invisible, He fills heaven and earth, and is everywhere worshipped by believers." At one time they assembled at the graves of the martyrs ; at another, tlireatened by persecution, they repaired to the subterranean catacombs of the dead. That we must, how- ever, suppose the presence of the address in these meetings together, at least where they were brought to a close undisturbed, is evident from the well-known account of the apologete above mentioned,^ that on the Sunday at the brotherly meetings, the Memorabilia of the Apostles and the Scrip- tures of the Prophets Avere read, and after that " the president delivered a discourse, by which he exhorted and urged to the imitating of noble deeds." The existence of a regular preaching properly so called at the beginning of this period has, it is true, been doubted, because so few traces have survived of the homiletic literature of the first two centuries, and Pliny too, in his celebrated letter to Trajan,- makes no mention w^hatever of it. But this last neither contains, nor is intended to contain, any complete description of the religious exercises of the first believers ; and the other fact may be explained in considerable part by the consideration that the earliest preaching was assuredly less the fruit of careful preparation than of instantaneous animation and inspiration. Still less can preachers have been wanting when, in the course of the second century and the beginning of the third, the necessity for churches properly so called was increasingly felt and provided against. Such houses of prayer are already, as it would seem, to be found in the time of Clemens Alexandrinus, at least in his immediate neighbourhood. Tertullian speaks distinctly of a " going up to the house of God," which he describes as — in opposition to the secret places of assembly of the Valentinians — of simple construction, situated upon an open or elevated spot, and facing the east.^ Cyprian, too, speaks of " houses of the Lord," which the believers might not enter without bringing with them offerings."^ There, too, there was surely not wanting the pulpitum also, the place of teaching and preaching, which is first mentioned by him.-^ Specially during the forty years which elapsed between the close of the reign of Valerian and the great persecutions under Diocletian (260 — 303) ' Justin, Apol. i. cap. 67. '^ Tertull., Adv. Valetit., c. 3. " Epp. X, 97. ■• Cyprianus, De Op. et Eka/ios., c. 15. ' Epp. 38 et 39. EARLV HISTORY AND LITERATURE, 8 1 would many churches appear to have arisen, so that even in place of the old they must build new and larger ones. When, under the last-named Emperor, the fire of persecution burst forth with fresh rage, there was, among others devastated by the Praetorians, a Christian church at Nicomedia, which was renowned for the magnificence of its situation and the beauty of its appear- ance.^ In such places of assembly, we repeat, preaching was unquestionably held at fixed seasons and hours, delivered from an elevated position, and, as it would seem, in conformity with the practice of the synagogue, usually in a sitting posture ; while, during the latter part of this period, the regular public reading of the Prophetic and Apostolic Word was heard by the con- gregation reverently standing. Thus we see the Apostolic missionary preaching gradually become a preaching devoted to a particular congregation, and as such displaying more than anything else the character of instruction and exhortation. Although the liberty of prophesying has not yet ceased, it begins by degrees to be limited, and preaching becomes constantly more a part of the fixed task of the president of the congregation. Where the assembly of the brethren is shaped upon the model of the synagogue, there in the one case the archi- synagogus, in the other the principal elder of the congregation, becomes its president, leader, and si)eaker. Here, as there,^ now and then strangers also are permitted to speak ; and this custom is even expressly commended, " because the exhortation of a stranger is agreeable and useful to the people,- "and no prophet enjoys special honour in his own country."^ That those who thus expressed themselves should frequently be but very imperfectly trained, if indeed they were trained at all, cannot in the least surprise us. Celsus publicly ridiculed the notion that " woolcombers, shoemakers, appren- tice tanners, the most uncultivated and boorish of men, were zealous preachers, specially in addressing women and children." Even in the third century we learn that a merchant and a linen weaver were appointed presbyters at Hippo, yea, that, notwithstanding the ridicule of many on account of his black face, a certain charcoal-burner, Alexander by name, was placed in the office of teacher. Yet, so early as the second century, the Gospel had won the affection, not only of pious hearts, but also of many thoughtful minds; and in proportion as it was proclaimed by and in presence of men like this, a severer training was found to be necessary. Already in the third century the Church legislature — so far as we can speak of it as such — requires of a president that he be " well furnished and qualified to- preach ; " and even with regard to the above-mentioned Alexander, we learn that he was chosen only after he had delivered an intelligible and impressive discourse. The pupils of the Apostles among the earhest preachers had been trained under the influence of the word and example of the Apostles themselves, and while as yet this generation had not entirely passed away, in the middle of the second century we see arise the Alexandrine school of catechetes, which becomes at the same time an exceptionally good school of practice for future preachers. Thus in the Missa Catechunieiioriim the ' Lactantius, Dc vwiie fcrscaiioriim, c. 12. - Acts xiii. 15. 3 Coustt. Afp., ii. 58. S2 PRACTICAL THEOLOCrV. proclamation of the Gospel, in preference by the ''preaching bishops," ^ obtained a distinct and honourable place, and the circle of the teachers, as distinguished from that of the hearers, begins to rise in point of rank and influence in the sight of friend and foe. Contents, spirit, and form of the preaching, in this age more especially, in the midst of a substantial and fundamental agreement, could hardly bear any other character than that of great diversity. From the well-known writings of Hermas and Barnabas we may draw the conclusion that, in oral discourses, too, there was no lack of allegorical allusions. Rhetoric and eloquence in the ordinary sense of the word were hardly to be expected ; the less so since these weapons were those specially wielded by the adversary of the faith. " With persuasive words of man's wisdom " the preaching certainly was not, but so much the more " in demonstration of the Spirit and of power," 2 and, for the rest, as the Spirit of the Lord gave them utterance. From the apologetic and parsenetic literature of the second century it may be inferred that the preaching, too, bore the character of an animated presentment and commendation of the saving truth, in accordance with the immediate necessities and circumstances of the time. That the homilies preserved under the name of Clemens Romanus did not proceed from him is universally acknowledged, but the second epistle to the Corinth- ians [in the writings of the Apostolic Fathers], attributed to the same authorship, although of very doubtful authenticity, nevertheless retains for our history a peculiar value, inasmuch as it contains what is in all proba- bihty a fragment of an early Christian discourse, and in this case is certainly to be looked upon as presenting the earliest extant remains of the homiletic literature of the middle of the second century.^ On the part of the heretics are to be mentioned a couple of short chapters from homilies of the cele- brated Gnostic Valentine (likewise belonging to the middle of the second century), preserved by Clemens Alexandrinus ; ■* neither of them free from that overweening self-conceit which has, in earlier and later times, so frequently animated the representatives of a hidden -wisdom. He addresses his adherents as those initiated into higher mysteries, who have no longer need of the means of grace, and are lords of the creation. We have already more than once employed the term Homily, by which we mean — in distinction from the carefully arranged discourse, Aoyos — " a simple address, in which the speaker turns immediately to the people, holds a conversation with them, puts questions to them, without binding himself to strict order and scholastic form."'' Many old homilies in reality still bear traces of this character of dialogue, as indeed in the earliest so- called Tradatus this seems not to have been wanting. More than any other must Origen (t 254) be looked upon as, if not the actual creator of the Homily, at least a vigorous leader and pioneer in this domain ; a man ' Tractantcs Episcopi are spoken of by Cyprian, Epp. 52 et 66. Cf. Tertull., Dc Anima, cap. 9. - I Cor. ii. 4. ' Paniel, as before, i., s. io6. The fragment itself is thoroughly handled by A. IIarnack, in Th. Brieger's Zeitsclir. fiir Kinheugesch., i. 3 (1876), s. 329 ff. ' Clem. Alex., Strom, iv. 12, vi. 6. ^ Photius. EARLY HISTORY AND LITERATURE. S^ who exerted upon this branch of theological science, as upon so many others, such a powerful influence that in the opinion of many of his con- temporaries he was held to be under an entirely extraordinary impulse of the Holy Spirit. In order to form a just estimate with regard to him, we must not overlook the fact that he preached, not as a bishop, but as a catechete,^ called in the first place to explain the sacred Scriptures to the congregation ; that in the midst of manifold other labours, and frequently without preparation, he continued day by day to do this ; and that his addresses — of which notes were, with his permission, made by rapid writers — are not all of them preserved to us in their original form. A great part has come down to us only in the Latin translation of Rufifinus, and displays, no less than that still preserved to us in the original Greek, an entirely didactic character, without variation or elevation of speech. " Vix unquara assurgit," says Erasmus, not without reason, after Epiphanius had long before termed him a " seminarium loquacitatis." The course and extent of his address is entirely determined by that of the portion of Scripture of which he is treating. Ordinarily he expounds first the literal sense of the passage, then the moral, and finally the mystical, to conclude perhaps with a more personal application of the language, or with a short doxology.t Thus his Homilies naturally assumed the character of popular scientific commentaries on the principal books of the Old and New Testament, the advantages and disadvantages of which cannot here be enumerated, but at the same time afforded an example to other preachers, by many enthusi- astically followed. In common with many other great men, Origen too has been by turns "exalted to heaven and cast down to hell;" the one with not much more reason than the other. His steps are those of the beginner, who can in but very few respects serve as a model for others. The homi- lete is here entirely catechete and exegete ; the exegete by no means to be exonerated from the charge of great arbitrariness. But he cannot, at all events, be blamed for the fact that his defects have been much more aggra- vated by his imitators, than his virtues have been equalled or followed ; and certainly Jerome was right when he remarked with regard to Origen, " Non imitemur ejus vitia, cujus virtutes assequi non possumus." Some other renowned and influential preachers of this period can here receive only mention. Hippolytus, Bishop of Portus, near Rome (f 235), a kindred spirit with Origen, whom he emulated, is classed by Eusebius among the most eloquent men of the third century, one homily of whom, at least, that "in sanctam Theophaniam" (Matt. iii. 16), has come down to us, in which a far more developed form of art than the Homilies of his master is already to be observed. — Gregory of Neoc^esarea, from the sixth century known as Thaumaturgus (t 270), under whose name we possess not only four homilies, in all probability not genuine, but also an encomium upon his teacher, Origen, which is unquestionably genuine, and calls forth ' [He was ordained presbyter at Csesarea in the forty-third year of his age (a.d. 228), by Alexander, Bishop of Jerusalem, and Theoctistus, Bishop of Ctesarea, but was unjustly deposed by his own bishop, Demetrius, shortly after (not later than 231). His death, which was accelerated by his sufferings under the Decian persecution, took place at Tyre, A.D. 254, in his seventieth year.] . 84 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY, a favourable impression of his eloquence. — Further, Dionysius Alexandrinus (t 265), known as the Great, according to Jerome an eloquent opponent of Chiliasm, of whose discourses, however, only very doubtful fragments sur- vive.— Pierius, Presbyter of Alexandria (t 303) styled the Younger Origen, and Methodius, Bishop of Tyre (f 311) likewise an admirer of Origen, but in later years his opponent, of whose homiletic remains, however, as of those of Pierius, no authentic documents of importance have come down to us. In yet higher honour than that of any of the preceding was the name of Cyprian (t 254) already held at an early period. He was formed by nature to be an orator, and excelled as such before the time when he shone as a Christian teacher and martyr. He is spoken of by Jerome as more dazzling than the sun, and even on the part of the unbelievers of his day was not seldom the subject of unconcealed admiration. Although we possess no discourses, strictly so called, of his — as is the case with regard to his renowned instructor, I'ertuUian— yet he has sufficiently shown in his ascetic and para^netic writings what high demands he must have imposed upon himself as a homilete too, since he could prescribe these also for others. " In judiciis," he wrote to one of his friends,^ "in concione pro rostris, opulentia facundia volubili ambitione jactetur. Cum vero de domino Deo vox est, vocis pura, sinceritas non eloquential viribus nititur ad fidei argumenta, sed rebus. Denique accipe non diserta sed fortia, nee .... fucata, sed ad divinam diligentiam pra^dicendam rudi veritate simplicia." Though his style is not faultless, and his exposition of Scrip- ture disfigured by allegorising, yet his tractate, De zelo et Uvore, for instance, shows what severe moral earnestness of purpose characterises his life's teaching ; and the whole of his composition, De viortalitatc — in particular the powerful and splendid conclusion — belongs, regarded from an oratorical point of view, to the number of the most beautiful products of the Chris- tian literature of this period. 3. A much wider and more attractive field opens before our eye, so soon as we enter upon the domain of the fourth century, not without reason termed the golden age of sacred eloquence. Hardly do we compare the age of Constantine with an earlier period, before we perceive a change to have taken place in the sphere of preaching also, which may be looked upon as in more than one respect an improvement. The confined upper room is replaced by the large basilica, the inartistic homily by the more carefully composed sermon ; the preaching, heretofore appearing in servant's garb, now puts on its beautiful array. Much more than before does the influence of rhetoric and philosophy exert an influence upon the form of the proclamation ; and if, alas ! the fire of the first love is already burning low in some hearts, art seeks as far as possible to supply that which on another side is lacking. That preaching was now regularly and largely held, both in the Churches of the East and those of the West, throughout the empire, cannot be seriously denied. An isolated and singular state- ment of the historian Sozomen,^ that in his time preaching was not cus- tomary in the Western Church, is hardly otherwise explicable than upon ' Ep. ad Doiiatum de gratia Dei, Ed. Gersd. ili., p. 2 . - SOZOMEN US, //.£., vii. 19. EARLY HISTORY AND LITERATURE. 8$ the supposition that perhaps not all bishops there acquitted themselves of their task with equal regularity and fidelity ; while, moreover, the brief, unadorned addresses to the congregation usually held in the West would appear, judged of by the more elevated Greek standard, hardly worthy of the name of preaching. It is indeed acknowledged that Rome was not, in this respect at least, in advance of other cities, and that, taken altogether, the Eastern Church of the fourth century displays far more brilliant lumina- ries in this theological firmament than docs that of the cloudy West. The great conciseness and less developed character of many Latin discourses of this period would almost lead us to regard them as tentative studies in the art of preaching, if we did not opportunely call to mind that the preaching in the West retired, yet earlier than in the East, into the background, as compared with the hturgical element of the cultus. It must, besides, not be forgotten that training schools and other aids were already in the East at the disposal of the student, while they were for the present still wanting in the West, and that the state of dissolution and decay which is to be observed in the whole civil and social life of the latter, could not but affect detrimentally alike ecclesiastical and homiletical endeavours. Yet there are not wanting here too, in the midst of all this, indications of a developing life. More than before is the discourse opened and concluded in an appropriate manner ; the homily, now become scnno, also called dis- [^iitatio or tradatus, grows as regards regularity of arrangement and wealth of ideas. New forms of religious addresses are called forth, consecrated to the memory of departed believers and martyrs ; and the cancellum, by which the preacher is separated from his audience, does not fail to make its higher demand upon the first-named as regards the form and delivery of his discourse. In many ecclesiastical edifices the episcopal pulpit is concealed by a curtain from the eyes of the congregation [cathedra velata), until the moment when the president arises, and, sometimes with a peculiar snap of the uplifted fingers, enjoins silence upon the multitude. That which he utters is taken down by practised hands {exccptorcs, /lotarii), and dissemi- nated, in some cases after having been previously revised by himself. Thus does the word of preaching exert its influence in wide circles, and becomes a powerful means, not only in the hands of the orthodox, but also of the heretics, for diffusing their ideas. If, after these more general considerations, we turn our attention to a few illustrious names, the man who certainly possesses the first claim to our notice is the Athanasius of the West, Hilary of Poictiers (t 368). This man, who somewhat late in life owed his appointment as bishop specially to the renown of his eloquence, had chosen Quintilian as his model, and himself for a considerable time served as a model for Latin preachers of a later age. While two homilies on the beginning of the first and of the fourth Gospel are without sufficient ground ascribed to him, his Tradatus in Fsaliiios, on the other hand, originally destined for the pulpit, and com- posed in the spirit of Origen, help us to know and esteem him, even if we cannot with Jerome speak of him as a " Rhone-stream of Latin eloquence." Here and there his diction displays a force which enables us to recognise the man of that great word, " What matters it that we are banished, pro- vided only the truth be preached 1 "-—With good effect was lie followed by S6 PRACTICAL THEOLOGV. the less original Zeno of Verona (t 380), under whose name we possess eighty-seven short Tractatus and sixteen longer ones. The authenticity of at least some of these writings is, however, disputed. Dogmatically, the subject-matter of them is poor enough, but the form bears traces of a praise- worthy acquaintance with classical literature ; and if a word of Scripture is seldom made the basis of the discourse. Scripture itself is very abundantly cited in the course of the address. — Of Pacianus, Bishop of Barcelona (t 391) we possess a homiletic Pancnesis ad pcciiitcntiaiii which belongs to the number of the best products of this period, and a Serino de baptismo, in seven parts ; while we must not omit to mention the beautiful words, so often repeated, which are taken from one of his letters, that to Sempronius : " Christianus mihi nomen, catholicus cognomen." — Besides him there are deserving of mention Chromatius, Bishop of Aquileja (t about 406), of whom we possess eighteen short popular and practical homilies on Matthew ; Liberius of Rome (t366), a discourse ad Manellinam j-f;w^///, pronounced in the Church of St. Peter, at the Christmas festival, is preserv^ed to us by Ambrose. Finally, Gaudentius, Bishop of Brescia (t 410), who, upon a journey to the East, had profited by the example of Basil the Great, and in whom the West thus to some extent joins hands with the East. Of his nineteen Sermones, in great part reduced to writing by himself, for the benefit of one of his friends — for the rest of no great value — that on the Christmas festival is generally counted the best. Among the most renowned Fathers of the West, only a subordinate place in the homiletic domain is to be accorded to Jerome (t 420). Al- though, according to his own assurance, a rhetor who also at least occa- sionally preached and was listened to with applause, his leaning to a solitary life ordinarily restrained him therefrom. He has nevertheless, by his translation of the Homilies of Origen, exerted a considerable influence upon the preaching in the West, afforded the example of a comparative purity and classicality of diction, with which the conscience of the devout ascetic afterwards reproached him, and was later induced by the renown for eloquence of Gregory Nazianzen to place himself for three years at the feet of this master. How much he knew what was needed is to be seen from the homiletical admonition he gave to Nepotianus : " Docente te in Ecclesia non clamor populi, sed gemitus suscitetur; lacrymse auditorum laudes ture sint ! " A more brilliant light shines forth towards us, as we repair from the cloister at Bethlehem to the cathedral of Milan, where the mighty opponent of the Arians, the renowned Ambrose {t 397), is preaching. His voice is comparatively weak, but the power of his words so great that they come even from Africa to hear him, yea, that even the queen of the Marcomanni sat listening at his feet. On a calm examination of his discourses, the im- pression is unquestionably such as to awaken some degree of surprise on hearing of such a reception j for certainly the tone very often flags to a considerable extent ; his passion for turning into allegory almost everything in the Scripture which attracts his attention, only too frequently leads to a misapplied ingenuity, and not seldom do we see him wander from his sub- ject in a way which sets at defiance all order and regularity. On the other hand, we must not forget that we no longer possess his sermons in the EARLY HISTORY AND LITERATURE. 8/ original form, but blended together in the form of Tradatus, and that the preacher, trained in the school of the heathen orator Symmachus, had only late in hfe come to the Christian faith and attained the episcopal office. We have, in truth, only to read his celebrated discourse de Basilicis tmdendis, in order to receive the impression of a rare power of speech, born of an immovable conviction, and supported by the most fearless cha- racter. To great imperfections we have here opposed the great virtues of inexorable earnestness and pastoral solicitude ; while the hints as regards the requirements for preaching which he gives in his epistles to Constantius, Bishop of Ravenna, and to the newly chosen Bishop Vigilius, convincingly prove that he had formed for himself no low ideal with regard to this work in particular. Thus his biographer, Paulinus, was led to speak of his discourses as " suggestions of an angel," and Erasmus, in later times, extols him as the "most sweet teacher." He was certainly anything but this last, to judge at least from the language he employs on more than one occasion. Yet he ranks unquestionably as one of the best preachers of his time, as accordingly he was long and often followed as a model, yea, slavishly imitated. Special mention is called for by a collection of four Funeral and Memorial Discourses by him, which are still extant. Two of these, on the Emperors Valentinian and Theodosius, characterised by the French critic Dupin as "^ deux pieces admirables," betray a manifest en- deavour to follow the models of the East ; while that upon the death of his loved brother Satyrus produces a favourable impression as regards the heart, and no less as regards the talent, of the speaker. The simple but excellent prayer, too, which he was wont to pronounce before his dis- course,^ in like manner commends him to our esteem. If we add to this the beneficial influence the Ambrosian song — of which we shall hereafter speak, under the head of Liturgies — has exerted under his leading, and above all, the moral influence of his vigorous personality, we shall com- prehend the enthusiasm awakened within a wide circle by his name and word, and we shall count any teacher happy who upon his deathbed can testify with equal truth and confidence, " I have not so behaved myself among you that I should be ashamed to live longer, and I do not fear to die, because I have such a good Master." From Ambrose to Augustine (t 430) the transition cannot be difficult, since on the Easter eve of 387 the latter received holy baptism at the hand of Ambrose. If ever any father passed, both as theologian and preacher, through evil and through good report, it was surely the son of the pious Monica ; and how could it be otherwise where every one must be power- fully affected, even unconsciously, in his critical judgment, by dogmatic sympathy or antipathy? On the Rationalistic side it has been asserted, even in our own day, that Augustine, by word and example, has injured rather than benefited the science of Homiletics. As an instance of the opposite extreme, we have only to call to mind the encomium of his con- temporary, the Manichasan Secundus, to the effect that he was " summus orator et Deus pjene totius eloquenti?e." We subscribe to the one opinion as little as the other, and believe we shall not err in asserting that Augustine ' Given in Lentz, uC si'Jira, i,, s. 155. 88 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. was greater as a dogmatist and apologete than as a homilete strictly so called ; but yet we do not hesitate to speak of him as distinguished in this last respect too.^ Specially when we take into account the highly unfavour- able period in which this " last great man in Africa " arose, and consider tliat it was only in the second half of his tempestuous life that he laboured as a preacher, we shall be disposed to arrive at a comparatively favourable verdict, while recognising that the monastic character affected unfavourably, rather than favourably, that of the preacher, and that this last — in conse- quence of incessant preaching, and the improvising arising therefrom— frequently undertakes his task with very light preparatory labour. Other defects, too — a harsh and but little chastened language, boundless allegorising and unnecessary polemicising, that which is occasionally trivial, and a tendency sometimes to become prolix — in great part the bad consequences of frequently speaking with little or no preparation — need not be extenuated by us. On the other hand, a success as great as his, in the estimation of friend and foe, is hardly to be conceived of, unless in opposition to all these defects there existed more than ordinary virtues. A very considerable number of Ser- inones by this author has come down to us, even after setting on one side all that is found not to belong to this homiletic treasury. There exist fully three hundred and sixty discourses under the name of Augustine, divided by the Benedictines into four classes : 183 ^(? Scriptitris V. et N. T., 88 de tempore (the Church year), d"] de sandis, and 23 de diversis. Some consist of hardly a page, others of fully twenty pages ; not all of them even treat of a text from Holy Scripture. But what underlies his whole preaching is the great opposition between sin and grace, so fully exemplified in his own experience, and a note like that of the Confessiones vibrates ever and anon in our ears. While he regards the applause of the multitude as " no bearing of fruit, but only a shaking of the leaves," he is notably concerned, though it be at the cost of adornment, to be rightly apprehended and understood : " mehus est ut reprehendant nos Grammatici, quam non intelligant populi," are his own words on Ps. cxxxviii. It is always the believing Christian who speaks, even where the self-consciousness of the bishop perhaps betrays itself a little too much here and there. To the theoiy of preaching, too, he has contributed his part, where, in the first book de Dodrina Christiana, he first treated " de modo inveniendi, qu?e intelligenda sunt," and afterwards " de modo proferendi, qu?e intellecta sunt," and therein furnishes directions worthy of our most serious attention. Take the following directions, for instance : " Let the preacher aim in his words at this result, that the truth may appear, or may attract, or may move." " Let him be an orator before he begins to be a speaker." ^ "Let him advance not adornments, but proofs." " In the sermon itself let him seek to please by facts rather than words ; nor let him regard anything as well said, unless it is truly said ; nor let the teacher be the slave of words, but words of the teacher." " What is ' In estimating Augustine as a preacher, sufficient regard laas perhaps not been had to his own judgment of himself, in his treatise, De Catcchizandis rudibus — a judgment which at least testifies of more than urdinaiy self-knowledge, and is certainly not applicable to this preacher alone. ■^ Sit orator antequam sit dictor. Let him be a man of prayer before he is a man of words, I.^-t the preacher add to the natural gifts of the orator the acquired gift of prayer. EARLY HISTORY AND LITERATURE. 89 it then to speak not only eloquently but also wisely, save to advance words in the subdued style sufficient for the purpose, in the temperate attractive, in the grand style vehement, but always in the service of truths which it is meet one should hear ? Let him, however, who cannot do both, rather speak wisely that which he cannot speak eloquently, than say elotiuently that which he says unwisely." ^ A better counsel unquestionably than that which he elsewhere gives, to preach in case of necessity the sermon of another ; a thing not to be counted stealing, since the word of God is-; common property. On the history of homiletic plagiarisms in the Patristic period (and later), a piquant book might certainly be written ; and — to change the subject — the two verses which in the episcopal dwelling of Augustine adorned the mid-day meal — " Quisquis amat dictis abscntum rodere vitam Hanc mensam vetitam noverit esse sibi," - might perhaps without injury be remembered and repeated in many a preacher's abode. And if we add to all this the power of a life which was itself in so many respects a constant sermon, and the blessed influence of this twofold preaching long after the death of the preacher, then we need not hesitate, while seeing in Jerome a mild star, in Ambrose a bright and sometimes blood-red moon shining in the firmanent of the Church, to speak of Augustine in his days as a brilliant sun, though it is true not without his perceptible spots, in the homiletic circle of the Church of the West. 4. Yet it cannot be denied that the most brilliant lights of this age are to be sought, not in the West, but in the East ; and very quickly do we observe a distinction between the preaching in the Latin Church and that in the Greek Church of these days, which pleads in favour of the latter. It is here not merely held in honour, but practised with affection and delight, and by many regarded and treated as a worthy object of sacred art. On all Sundays and festivals it is regularly held in the morning, and frequently also in the afternoon. Even of week-day services at Alexandria, e.g., on the Friday morning, do we hear. The Greek discourse, much more ex- tended than the Latin, is also constructed with more care, and attains in the case of some preachers even a greater compass than is desirable. Not seldom is it received with hand-clapping and applause (Kporo's), an evil custom, derived from the theatre or the racecourse, denounced even by a Chrysostom with no other result than that of — a renewed applause. So great importance is attached to the purity of the diction in a discourse, that in the estimation of some of the coryphaei the Greek of the New Testament ' Speaking of the disparity between the ideal before his own mind, and that which he was able to attain in actual presentation, he says : " Et mihi prope semper sermo mens displicet. Melioris enim avidus sum, quo sa;pe fruor interius, antequam eum explicare verbis sonantibus ccepero, quod ubi minus quam mihi notus est evaluero, contristor meam linguam cordi meo non potuisse sufficere. Totum enim, quod intelligo, volo, ut qui me audit intelligat, et sentio me non ita loqui ut hoc efficiam ; maxime quia ille intellectus quasi rapida corruscatione perfundit animam, ilia autem locutio tarda et longa est, lon- geque dissimilis, et dum ista volvitur, jam se ille in secreta sua condidit."— A Christian tommentary upon the heathen " Video meliora, proboque, deteriora sequor."' -' He who delights his neighbours to malign Shall ne'er be welcome at this board to dine. 90 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. is not pure enough ; and no longer satisfied with an extempore discourse, they begin to bestow a greater measure of care upon its preparation in writing. The words of the favourite preachers are at once taken down by their hearers — a practice expressly approved by the Emperor Constantine as a means of impelUng the preachers to the accurate formulating of their thoughts. The preaching, more especially the task of the higher clergy, is not only conducted in accordance with the general requirements, but also modified in order to meet particular wants. Thus we now hear of catechetical discourses properly so called {catccheses, KaT7?x>yo-£6s), for the benefit of those who were newly introduced into the Church — among whom were so many adults, cultured persons, and even men of distinction — upon which great . pains was bestowed ; and of inaugural discourses (Xo'yot kvQpoviuTiKoi), held either to mark the commencement of one's own ministry, or to induct others into the ministerial office. The controversial sermon, too, directed against enemies of the Gospel {oratio invcctivd) now makes its appearance ; those who formerly had to defend themselves by the weapon of the Word becom- ing in their turn the assailants. In all these ways preaching now becomes a power such as it was not before, to which a Julian the Apostate rendered after his fashion an involuntary homage, when he required that his priests too should learn to preach, with a view in this manner to advance the restoration of Polytheism. In opposition to so many bright sides, there are also unquestionably to be seen dark and shadowy sides, which cannot be lightly passed over. The gift of eloquence is abused in order to present the meed of adulation with- out any kind of stint, not only to the departed, but also to the living. Take for instance the extravagant panegyric upon Constantine the Great by Eusebius, delivered in the presence of the Emperor himself, in which the bishop almost begs pardon for speaking in presence of the earthly prince also of the heavenly. In addition to this there is felt in the pulpit too, in consequence of the Church controversy, the overpowering influence of a sophistic dogmatism. At a time when " even in eating-houses, bakers' shops, money-changers' offices," the question of the Hono-ousios was argued with Avarmth, a Gregory Nazianzen could reckon on loud approbation when, at the end of his career, he boasts of never having preached any other doc- trine than that of the Holy Trinity. Parallel with this form of onesidedness there prevails, in the domain of practical teaching, an ascetic rigorism in conflict with the genial spirit of the Gospel. The preaching is directed more against particular sins than against sin itself; is more concerned about the discipline of the Church than about the triumph of the Gospel ; more occu- pied with commending the separation of believers from the world, than with augmenting their influence upon the world around them. An imperfect acqaintance with and interpretation of Scripture contributes not a little to the one and the other of these defects. The Scripture is still abundantly employed and emphatically commended, but the inordinate desire for allegorising opens a wide door to every kind of caprice. The original text of the Old Testament is satisfactorily understood by an ever-decreasing number ; and, though in some instances whole books of Holy Scripture are regularly handled, the sermon only too often displays the character of a motley collection, applied without exegetical or logical fitness, by way of EARLY HISTORY AND LITERATURE. 9 1 illustration in treating of sacred texts. This treatment itself assumes more and more the form of a rhetoric, which, infused rather with the spirit of heathen schools of philosophy than with that of the simple Gospel, rises no doubt above the trivial and commonplace, but on the other hand runs aground upon the rock of verbose turgidness. The Asiaticum dicendi genus maintains its place at the cost of a purer taste and true edification, and a rivalry is witnessed between sacred and profane eloquence, in which the lofty aim of the former is but too much lost sight of The more artistic oration is preceded by an introduction, not seldom but little connected with the subject, and of such extravagant length that a Chrysostom, for example, must on one occasion expressly excuse himself on this point. Among the hearers, finally, one meets with abuses which show that the unlimited freedom of the old Basilica had been transplanted into the Christian Church, not without injury to the latter. Talking and sleeping, early departure and improper glances — not again to speak of applause, which was by some preachers intentionally called forth— all this proves that the world has entered the Church, and for the present at least has no thought of departure. Yet this does not alter the fact that the advantage of a further acquaintance with particular preachers in the East during this period will in every respect merit and repay the trouble. Of some we mention only the name and work, while we design to speak somewhat more at length of the most renowned and influential. On account of the singularity of the phenomenon, not on account of the greatness of his talent, we place at the head of this list the name of Con- stantine the Great, of whom Eusebius ^ relates to us that he caused some sermons, composed by him in Latin and translated into Greek, to be publicly read, of which this father gives to us one in its totality, that entitled by the imperial orator ad sanctorum catum. Eusebius himself, too (t 340), occupies no unimportant place in the history of the art of preach- ing in this period ; a dozen discourses bearing his name, preserved to us only in Latin, as also his discourse at the consecration of a newly erected church in Tyre, testify of more than mediocre talent. Beside him we mention Antonius Abbas the Great, surnamed "the Dove of light" (t 35^)) the sacred hermit, who is really, according to the testimotiy of his panegy- rist, Athanasius, a meritorius practical preacher in the spirit and according to the light of his age \ if at least a score of short addresses to the monks which come down to us in his name are to be regarded as authentic. While no homiletic literature has come down to us from the fatherof Ecclesiastical Orthodoxy, Athanasius himself, and the reputation which Eusebius of Emesa (f 359) obtained in this domain among his contempo- raries is to be but very imperfectly justified, but little more can be said with regard to Eustathius, Bishop of Antioch (f 360), who at the opening of the Council of Nicaea, acquitted himself in a commendable manner of his task of addressing the Emperor. Only for the sake of completeness do we further mention the names of Meletius, Bishop of Antioch (t 381), his ' Vita Constaniini,^ iv. 33.— On him and the following orators here mentioned, see further Paniel, Lc. i., s. 355 ff. 93 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. contemporary Titus of Bostra, and Isaias Abbas (flourished between 380 and 390), of whom fully twenty addresses to his spiritual kinsmen have come down to us, bearing an entirely anachoretic colouring. — Far above these rises the Thomas a Kempis of his age, the elder Macarius, the distinguished Egyptian, "the only mystic preacher of this period,"^ in whose name fifty homilies still remain, characterized by figurative language, but at the same time so rich in the deeper expressions of the heart's life that they still deserve not to be overlooked. Regarded, how- ever, from an oratorical point of view, he is far surpassed by Ephraem the Syrian, deacon at Edessa (f 348), a born poet and orator, a powerful champion of ecclesiastical orthodoxy and of the ascetic life of the monks, from whom a great number of discourses have come down to us, which were originally delivered in Syriac, and later translated into Greek. Sa- luted by his ravished contemporaries as " the prophet of the Syrians, the harp of the Holy Ghost," and celebrated by Basil the Great as the most distinguished ecclesiastical orator of his day, he shines especially by virtue of a glowing imagination and such a wealth and profusion of language that the boundary line between poetry and pulpit eloquence is often almost entirely effaced. In reading him one instinctively thinks of the cloudless Syrian sun, which scorches the sandy plains, but at the same time fatigues and dazzles the eye. The preacher displays a praiseworthy acquaintance with Holy Scripture, but is able sometimes to communicate particulars of which no trace appears there — e.g., of that which happened to the child Jesus in His fifth or sixth year. The comparisons too which are employed by him are not always of the noblest order, yet from time to time he coins pithy sayings worthy of being formed into a collection from his writings. Besides his sermons, some of his j^rayers too are preserved, which show that with all his force of intellect there was not wanting also fervour of heart. Let us add to this, that he sometimes rivals Chrysostom in power and splendour of language, and we cannot wonder that discourses were for long read in the public services of many churches of the East, and are still held in high honour among the Syrian and Maronite Christians. His childish vision of a vine growing out of his mouth, the branches and fruit of which rose high into the clouds — a vision of which he still thought with gratitude upon his deathbed — had in an ideal sense received its glorious fulfilment in his word and work. 5. Now, however, we must direct our glance to a remarkable trio of homiletes, known also with honour in the history of the Church and of doctrines under the name of the three Cappadocians. They might fitly be compared with the three heroes of David, in the sacred history,^ surpassed in power and honour only by the king himself "With much that separately distinguishes each one of them, they have all immediately this in common, that they, with Augustine and others, afford another illustration of the salu- tary influence exerted by a careful maternal teaching upon the formation of excellent preachers. At the head of the chosen three, Basil the Great (t 379) with reason occupies the place of distinction, a man by his contemporaries and by ' Njtzsch. • 2 Sam. xxiii. 17. KARLV HISTORY AND LITEKATURK 93 posterity honoured with exceeding great commendation, and in many re- spects worthy of this. Trained, Hke another Timothy, by his pious mother and grandmother, Emmehna and Macrina, educated with the greatest care- fulness, instructed in rhetoric by his bosom friend the heathen orator Libanius, he attained to such a height in oratory that Libanius declared himself vanquished by him. Appointed first as presbyter, later placed at the head of the Church as bishop and exarch, he was able as a preacher to win the esteem and love of the congregation in such measure that at his deeply lamented death a multitude of more than fifty thousand persons, among whom were many Jews and heathen, thronged behind his bier, so that not a few — victims to the pressure — paid for their interest with their lives. Apart from the consideration of his excellent character and his ceaseless zeal in the defence of the orthodox Christology, he shines as an ecclesiastical orator especially, by the rare purity of hiS style and diction, animation of delivery, vivacity of conception, and abundance of manifold knowledge, as well of the human heart as of the nature around him. Of this last kind of knowledge, instances are to be found in his renowned Nine Homilies on the six days' work of creation {Hexa-emo-on) ; of the other, in his four and twenty discourses on moral subjects, not to speak further of his Homilies on the Psalms, and some discourses on commemo- rative and other special occasions. However much disfigured by the pre- vailing defects of the time, his preaching stands far above that of the bulk of his contemporaries, and merits being looked upon as a manifestation, in many respects successful, of his own spiritual life ; precious fruit of that solitude which he himself once lauded as the " purifying of the soul," and to be still more highly prized when we consider that so much that was ex- cellent was not seldom preached extemJ)ore and in the midst of much bodily weakness. Basil shines even more by the magnificent and nervous character of his preaching than by its softness and tenderness. He might to a certain extent be spoken of as not the Massillon, but the Bossuet of his time. The bosom friend of Basil, however, who delivered the funeral sermon at his burial, and had not without reason won for himself the title of Theologus par excellence, is likewise worthy of no less interest as a homilete. Gregory of Nazianzus, Bishop of Constantinople (f 390), son* of the excellent Nonna, and already most intimately associated with Basil by the common academic life of the two, stands as a preacher somewhat below him, more especially as far as outward gifts are concerned. A student of the rhetor Thespesius, he himself somewhere testifies to his surprise that his numerous hearers, notwithstanding his foreign accent and his disagreeable voice, clung to him with so much affection. On an exami- nation, however, of the writings left behind by him, this appreciation becomes fully explicable, and we can comprehend, for instance, how a series of five discourses on the Church doctrine of the Trinity was attended also by Arians and heathens in large numbers. How highly he indeed himself esteemed the dignity of the teacher's office, from which he had at firstr^ sought to escape by flight, is evident, among other places, in his famous discourse ITtpt ^vy^]% {dc fiiga). Arising as a preacher under the most unfavourable circumstances, in a little chapel — which he significantly called Athanasia — in the city of Constantinople, then almost enfirelv addicted to 94 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. the Arlan party, he succeeded by his powerful word in securing the triumph of orthodoxy, and very soon, through the influence of the emperor, sav/ the leading church opened to him, and the episcopal crozier conferred upon him. When, however, the legitimacy of his claim was disputed on the ecclesiastical side, he withdrew in the name of peace, and held the famous Valedictory Discourse which, not less than his Orationes invectivce contra 'yuliamim, caused his name to be upon every tongue. That such a man could not be wanting in numerous and powerful enemies was only to be expected, specially considering the bitterness of the polemics to which, from his point of view, he believed himself called. Even in his last discourse, before his retirement, the opportunity for speaking un- pleasant truths was not allowed to pass unimproved. That, nevertheless, he knew how to touch softer and sweeter notes, is evident from many a charming passage of the five and forty discourses which have come down to us from him. Specially have his Funeral Orations and Panegyrics upon departed known and loved ones added to his renown, and proved the truth of his testimony concerning himself : " My only affection was ^eloquence, and long did I apply myself to it with all my might ; but I have laid it down at the feet of Christ, and subjected it to the great word of God." A pity only that the lustre of his talent is so often obscured by the artificial and prolix nature of his discourse, while moreover the constant allusion to matters only imperfectly known to us renders him now and then unintelligible, so that even an Erasmus would not venture on the attempt to translate his writings. Probably also many of his discourses were reduced to writing by him only after their delivery, and thus too swelled beyond the ordinary limits. With all that one could wish otherwise, Gregory nevertheless remains a master in the domain of sacred eloquence, to whom we must listen not above others, but certainly along with others ; specially where he commends the elder's office as " the art of arts, the science of sciences;" proclaims "practice" to be "the foundation of true theory," or utters reminders like these : " One must first be pure himself, before he purifies others ; endowed with wisdom, before one teaches others wisdom. One must first be light, in order to be enabled to enlighten others ; first have drawn near to God, before one can lead others to Him ; first be himself sanctified, before he wishes to sanctify, guide, and counsel others." Already enough; the testimony which he once gave to Basil, "His word^ wrought as the thunder, because his life was as the lightning thereto," can without contradiction be applied to himself. Finally, we must make mention of the friend of Gregory, the younger brother of Basil, Gregory of Nyssa (t 394), although he, who outlived both, did not surpass them. Yet the prediction upon which his eloquent brother ventured, at his consecration to the episcopal office, " that he would give a great name to the little town of Nyssa in Cappadocia," received its brilliant fulfilment. Already early in life become an accomplished orator, married, placed at the head of a school of rhetors, he very soon devoted all his strength to the defence of orthodox truth, and was so eagerly listened to, that, when he was to pronounce his commemorative discourse in honour of forty martyrs, the solemnity had to be deferred till a more suitable occasion, on account of the excessive crowding of the people. He acquired EART.V ITTSTORV AND LITERA.TURK. 95 special renown by means of his great catechetical discourse (Aoyo9 KanjxoriKo'; 6 /Aeyas), a composition in forty chapters, for pointing out the best method for bringing heathens, Jews, and heretics to the confession of the Christian and churchly truth. Although no sermon, in the ordinary sense of that term, this writing is far superior to his fifteen HomiUes on the Canticles, in which he gives the full rein to his tendency to allegorise. Much better and more meritorious, from a homiletic point of view, are his addresses on the Beatitudes, five discourses on the most perfect prayer, and single addresses on special occasions, which prove his excellence as an orator even more than as a preacher. Historic pictures — the slaughter of the children at Bethlehem, for instance — he sketches with a luxury of colouring which to the western taste may easily appear excessive. If in beauty of form he ranks lower than his brother and their common friend, yet in wealth and depth of thoughts he not seldom surpasses both, and now and then rivals Origen, whose antipode he must in other respects be considered, from a homiletic'point of view. 6. As the three heroes of David were cast into the shade by David him- self, so is the renown of the three Cappadocians distanced by that of " the thirteenth Apostle," as he was called by his enchanted contemporaries, • John Chrysostom (Golden Mouth), as he has been universally called from the seventh century in the East, and from a period not much later in the West. Born at Antioch in 347, and early in life deprived of his father, he was brought up by his equally pious as highly gifted mother Anthusa with a carefulness which drew from the heathen orator Libanius the cry of admiration for the Christian woman : " Proh, quas feminas habent Chris- tiani ! " Scientifically trained by Libanius and by the philosopher Andra- gathius, the youthful Johannes was instructed in Christianity by the Antiochian bishop Meletius, baptized, and very soon ordained to the eccle- siastical office of lector. Shortly after this he retired for a time into the] . sohtude of ascetic life, to devote himself without distraction to the study ofj\^ the Holy Scriptures, until, returning to his native town in 386, on accounW of enfeebled health, he was made first deacon, afterwards presbyter, anq saw himself charged with the preacher's office in the principal church of Antioch. There the force of his innate talent very soon developed itself, and caused the renown of his name to be published far beyond the limits of his dwelling-place and scene of labour. Ten years later appointed, con- trary to his wish. Patriarch of Constantinople, his restless zeal speedily called down upon him the hostility of the Empress Eudoxia, and that of the prime minister Eutropius. The truth, maintained \vith the severity of a messenger of righteousness, produced a hatred which showed itself irre- concilable, more especially when a crafty ecclesiastical party conspired with the court party to bring about his fall at any price. Banished innocent, but immediately after brought back in honour ; again banished, and rele- gated from his place of banishment, where he still seemed to exert too much influence, to the utmost hmits of the empire, on the shores of the Pontus Euxinus, he died upon the journey, in consequence of exhaustion and ill-treatment, on Saturday, 14th September, 407, uttering as his last words that saying, so often before upon his lips, which may be called the epitome of his whole life and labours, devoted as these were to the g6 I'RACTICAL 'J'HEOLOGV. honour of God, " God be glorified for all things " — So^'a tw 6ew iravroiv evcKa ! ^ In many respects Chrysostom is a figure which dominates his surround- ings ; not only as a prelate, but also as an exegete does he occupy a rare height, where, in opposition to the boundless allegorising of the Alexandrine school, he applies the better hermeneutic principles of the Antiochian. Yet his highest significance is, beyond all doubt, to be sought in the domain of Homiletics, to the theory of which he has made important con- tributions, but to the practice of which especially he has made invaluable ones. The former in his work on " The Priesthood," already mentioned (§ II. 2), of which the fourth and fifth books, in particular, afford a number of lessons to the preacher, worthy of the most serious attention, and in I which, iu^er alia, the justly lauded precept, " So preach that you may please^ God," is to be met with in almost these very words.- Highly does he extol therein the instruction of the ^^'ord, as the way to the healing of the soul. " Word and doctrine are in our hand as the medicine, as the fire, as the iron ; ^^'e must burn or cut, must use it, and where it does not avail, there every other means also is useless." Of such sayings an anthology might be collected with but little toil, and if his panegyric upon the priest- hood sounds now and then too high for Protestant ears, this at least can- not be doubted, that he who pronounced it spared no effort or pains in order to attain to the ideal here sketched. No ecclesiastical orator of antiquity has left more excellent remains : from three to four hundred homilies and other discourses have come down to us under the name of Chrysostom, and among these, perhaps, not a single one which does not show scintillations of a richly endowed mind in combination with a noble heart. He is a Christian-homiletic genius in the full sense of that term ; undoubtedly, as every one else, a child of the age in which he lived, but at the same time in many respects in advance of his time. The two characteristics of real genius, abundance and order, are present in him as they are hitherto found in none of the preachers of this period — although the first of these in much greater degree than the last ; and we cannot be surprised at the words of his enraptured hearers, "It is better that the sun< should withhold its rays, than that Johannes should not preach." A single glance alike at orations and orator will explain to us the secret of such a reception. The discourses of Chrysostom may be divided into homilies, properly so .called, and more synthetic orations, pronounced on various occasions. But lin both classes the subject-matter uniformly displays a purely scriptural > ( character. Frequently, extended passages of Scripture, yea, whole books of the Bible, are treated hy him in regular succession before the congregation ; and notably does he take great pains to explain to his hearers the precise ' The death of this eminent servant of God, near Comanum in Pontus, reminds of the death, under surroundings not dissimilar, of the devoted Henry Martyn, on Friday, i6th October, 1812. Both are buried in the same town of Tokat, or Comanum. - Dc Sacerdotio, lib. v., cap. 7 : ipya^dfievo? toi'/s \6yovs wj dv dpeaeie rep 6e^. The principle of Theremin, but also of the Apostle Paul, i Thess. ii. 4 : ovx ■■^'s dvdpwTroii apiBernard of Clairvaux (f 1153), the Doctor Mellifluus, whom Luther exalts above Augustine, yea, terms " a golden preacher," "provided only he does not indulge in polemics." Erasmus, too, speaks of him as "christiane doctus, sancte facundus, pie festivus ;" while Augusti asserts that " with him a new period dawned for the preaching of the Middle Ages." How great in reality the power of his preaching was is apparent from the response which his summoning to the crusade awakened in so many hearts ; nor can it be doubted that he strove with all earnestness for the realisation of that ideal which he held forth to others : " illius doctoris lubenter audio vocem, qui non sibi plausum, sed mihi planctum moveat."; Besides a great number of discourses of doubtful genuineness, fully two hundred homilies and sermons composed by him have come down to our time, and may be characterised as the animated testimonies of a living faith, though by no means free from misapplied wit and toying word-play. — Beside him, although lower than him, we place Hugo de St. Victor (f 1141), not so much on account of his " Opus centum sermonum," as on account of his exposition of Ecclesiastes, originally designed for the pulpit, in which we become acquainted with him on a favourable side, in his character, too; as a homilete.— Bonaventura, also (t 1274), to whom we have already referred, may not be overlooked here. His discourses on the Sundays and Festivals ; as also his Postil on the Gospel of John, notwithstanding all the kinship they display with Thomas Aquinas, yet bear much more the impress of the heart than does the preach- ing of this latter. By two of his writings, " Biblia Pauperum " and " Dieta Salutis," Bonaventura has sought not in vain to affect the preaching of his day. In the first of these he presented to the clergy an alphabetically arranged collection of precepts for faith and life, adapted for the people ; in the other he afforded them practical hints, and added a number of sub- jects for preaching, together with short introductions for the Gospel of the day. In his own sermons he divides and distinguishes ad infaiitiun, with a subtilty hardly second to that of the Doctor Angeliais. Previously free and unfettered in its movement, preaching now appears, here too, in a close- fitting corslet ; while it is hardly necessary to remind that the preaching of the Mystics in the middle ages, coming from the lips of celibates, and frequently selecting its text from the Song of Solomon, was not always preserved within the limits of propriety and modesty. On the other hand, preaching begins, here as well as on the opposite side, to be adorned, nay, rather defaced, by quotations from profane writers, poets, and philosophers ; MEDIEVAL HISTORY AND LITERATURE. 1 09 fan abuse, in consequence of which, as was later complained by Savonarola, "many took into their mouths at the same time the names of Jupiter, ' Juno, Venus, and Christ." Nicholas of Lyra (t 1340) is favourably distin- guished in this respect ; since his " Postilla Major" displays a more edifying and practical character. In the midst of the mystical preachers we now see a few women arise, such as the Swedish princess Birgitta (t 1373), received in the Romish Church into the number of the saints. She boasted of special revelations, and wrote fifteen " Prsedicationes de passione Domini," as also a sermon "de excellentia beatse Virginis," dictated to her by a heavenly voice. S. Catherine of Siena, too (+ 1380), who is reported to have preached even before she could read and write, delivered a sermon on the annunciation of Christ's birth. It is thus nothing new if in our day, for the present chiefly in America, we see women arise as public teachers. But a thing till then unheard of, since the first days of the Church, was unquestionably the deep impression made by the word of some mystic preachers of this period. We refer, for example, to the voice of John Tauler (f 1362), the far-famed preacher of Strasburg, specially in the second period of his life, when, under the influence of Nicholas of Basle, he had been led further into the depths of the Christian life. Nor is this surprising, seeing he had promised at his first arising "that he would speak but little Latin, and would prove all things from the Scripture." A collec- tion of four and eighty of his extant discourses, still reprinted and read in our own day, overflows with proofs that Luther was right in calling him " the most evangelical preacher " known to him of earlier times. Not unfitly is he represented, on his gravestone, with the Lamb of God and the cross in his left hand, while with his right he points to them. 7. Preachers like this must naturally prepare the way for a more reforiiia- tional tendency, to which finally our attention is devoted. We may divide these preachers into two classes — such as contributed in a general sense to prepare the way for the Reformation by the vigorous awakening of life which proceeded from them, and such as contributed more directly to this end by their testimony. To the former of these classes belongs unquestionably in the first place the renowned Franciscan Berthold of Regensburg (t 1272), for whom no church in Germany or Switzerland was large enough, and who on this account usually preached in the open air. He occasionally addressed an audience of from forty to sixty thousand, according to other accounts sometimes even from a hundred to two hundred thousand, and his arising has accordingly not amiss been termed "an augury of the great movement - of the Reformation." His discourses too, taken down by grateful hearers, and likewise reprinted even to our own day, show how, as the faithful son of his Church, but at the same time a man with an open eye for the wealth of nature, he shrank not from wielding the scourge of correction against every sin which displayed itself among the children of his age, and, long before Luther, opposed the traffic in indulgences, although this was in his time as yet pursued but on a small scale. — Far below him stands his con- temporary, Heinrich Suso (t 1365), from whom four discourses in the Suabian dialect are still preserved to us, hearty in tone and practical in spirit, but by no means free from a narrow ascetic tendency. On the other hand, though not rivalled in popularity, he was equalled in freshness and no PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. surpassed in depth by the man who during more than thirty years was the glory of Strasburg's pulpit, Gailer of Kaisersberg (t 15 lo), whose powerful discourse contributed, without designing such result, to prepare the way for the Reformation in Alsace. Chrysostom was the ideal, to which he did not indeed attain, but to which he constantly strove to approach, although the radical diversity of times and customs soon gave to his labours a totally different bearing. If his discourses in point of form have not yet entirely broken free from the influence of Scholasticism, the contents are frequently of a Biblical character, and always of practical aim. He seems to have sketched them in Latin, but to have delivered them in German ; and in doing so knows how to enchain the attention of the multitude, more par- ticularly by a variety of narratives. He owes great part of his fame to the homiletic treatment of the " Narrenschip " ^ of his gifted contemporary, Sebastian Brandt (t 1520), in which, with a smile upon his Hps, but a scourge in his hand, he comes forth against the follies and sins of his townsmen ; as also to a series of twenty-four discourses against the sins of the tongue, wherein, nevertheless, we would not venture to assert that his own tongue has always remained pure. Under the title of " Margarita Facetiarum," there was published during Gailer's own lifetime (1508) a collection of pretty conceits {Artigheiten) with which his discourse was sometimes flavoured ; but he was at the same time notably an earnest practitioner of the healing art, who shrank not, if need be, from a sharp incision ; a preacher who is by no means wanting in, whose influence was moreover enhanced by, a solidly established and estimable character, so that his body was followed to the grave with tears, not only by an immense concourse of his former hearers, but also by the magistracy and clergy. The theory of preaching was enriched by him with the " Epistolae elegantissimse de modo praedicandi dominicam passionem " (1504). 8. It is here the place to devote a single word to the consideration of a trio of — as they are generally termed humoristic, or if you will burlesque — preachers, who at one time made considerable stir — men in some degree akin to Gailer, though not of the same significance, yet remarkable for their genre of preaching, which must of course be viewed and estimated in the light of their own age. " On sait assez ce qu'etaient les Menots, les Maillards, et ce Barlette," has been said in a tone of contempt easily explicable, though not wholly justified;- but if history is to teach us among other things also how tiot to preach, they have a claim to be spoken of in this place. At their head stands the Italian preacher G. Barletta (t 1480), who by all kinds of buffooneries was able to acquire such an influence over the people, that the proverb soon came into circulation, "qui nescit barlettare, nescit prgedicare." While he was accustomed to speak in the language of the country, his addresses were very soon translated into Latin for the benefit of the younger clergy, and reprinted for the twentieth time. His dogma is entirely that of the day ; if he is zealous against the immaculate conception of the Virgin mother, it is because as a Dominican he cannot endure the Franciscans. Even the * Navis Stultifeia, or Ship of Fools. ^ La Hakpe, Cours de Litteratiire, i., p. 750, MEDL^VAL HISTORY AND LITERATURE. I I I hair-splitting in Scholasticism he is far from having wholly outgrown ; witness the detailed examination of many a silly and utterly inept question. He derives his proof passages not only from Scripture and the Fathers, but also from classic authors ; sometimes even, like other preachers of his day, he has recourse to the Corpus yuris. But his power is to be found in applied morals ; and so mercilessly does he scourge and ridicule the sins of high and low prevailing around him, that he irresistibly reminds one of a herald of repentance, with the raiment of camel's hair about his limbs, but also — the jingling fool's cap upon his head. No wonder that great pains have been taken on the part of the strictly ecclesiastical to represent his published discourses, now become comparatively rare, as the forgeries of a wanton mocker of religion and Church. They are beyond dispute the authentic productions of an odd, but by no means frivolous genius, abounding in evidences for the deep degeneracy of his day. — The same line is pursued by Olivier Maillard (t 1502), court preacher at Paris, who alternately in serious and bantering tone laid bare the sins around him, and even replied to the king, who on account of his bold language would have him cast into the water, with yet severer language of threat. As contrasted with such severity, the consideration is certainly no ordinary one with which he marked with a " hm, hm " the places on the MS. of his sermon at which, with a certain gracefulness probably, he Avas to cough ; a practice to which we owe the publication of one of his discourses as a literary curiosity, under the title of "Sermon tousseux " (Bruges, 1500). — Higher in this genre of preaching stands, however, Michel Menot (15 18), a Fran- ciscan at Paris, who was saluted on the part of his ravished audience with the name of " langue d'or," and even drew a flood of tears from the youth- ful Catherine de Medici, in presence of her whole court, by his sermon " on the sins of the great." Four collections of Lenten sermons set him before us in his peculiarity of style ; while two of his most curious and characteristic productions, the discourse on the Prodigal Son, and that on the Magdalene, have been reprinted within our own century. He drama- ticises and romanticises the sacred narrative, though always with the best of intentions, in a manner that excites almost irresistibly the risible faculty ; and this in a mixture of Latin and French, later designated, with an allusion to a well-known Italian dish, " le style macaroni." Our limits do not admit of our here giving instances of this style ; but it is to be observed that this whole mode of preaching exists in intimate connection with the more or less humoristic vein of ecclesiastical art at this period, and may at least be regarded as pardonable, in consideration of the low state of civilisation, and the high degree of moral corruption, which must inevitably convert the homilete into a flagellant, if at any rate he would hope to accomplish any- thing. Even this phase of development, in many respects objectionable as it was, may in others be termed an advance. Trumpets and bassoons had already been heard in great number ; now the human voice, albeit as yet but rude and shrill, began to accompany the gi-eat organ of the Church. 9. The humanistic studies, too, of the fifteenth century affected the preaching of the time beneficially, at least to the extent of checking the display of bad taste. The famous saying of Laurentius Valla, " optimus concionator, optimus rabulista (wrangler or brawler) " shows indeed with 1 I 2 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. what disdain the commonplace style of many was looked down upon. Pity only that the improvement Humanism sought to effect extended much less to the substance than to the form of the discourse. The language became more polished, but the text might here and there as well have been taken from Plato as from the Gospel, even as in many a private chapel a light actually was kindled before the picture of this philosopher. Much happier was the influence exerted by Wiclif, " the morning star of the Reformation " (t 1384), and soon after in Bohemia by Huss (t 1415). Of the discourses of the former, delivered in Latin as well as in English, long buried amidst the dust of old libraries, and in part only brought to light again in our own day, it must be said that, while the form is perhaps extremely imperfect, the contents bear unequivocal testimony to the reformational endeavours of the courageous preacher. Energetically does he oppose the scholastic mode of preaching, such as is commended in a treatise written at the close of the fourteenth century (1390), entitled " Ars faciendi sermones," and sets him- self against the dedaviatio heroica, as that by which the Word of God is only corrupted. The sermons delivered to the people by John Huss in the Bethlehem Chapel in Prague, which have come down to us only in bad Latin, serve specially to oppose the errors of the Church by means of a sounder exposition of Scripture. Side by side with him is the renowned chancellor John Gerson (+ 1429) worthy of being mentioned, sermons by whom for the Lent season we still possess. These discourses, delivered in French, though published in Latin, are of importance for a knowledge of the moral condition of that age. — Almost simultaneously did the popular orator John de Capistrano (t 1456) raise his powerful voice (a man reverenced by the people of Italy as a kind of saint, although he could only make himself understood through the medium of an interpreter), when he would incite to a new crusade against the Turks' An entirely different influence was exerted by Girolamo Savonarola (t 1498), whose sermons, so far as they have come down to us, present a strange mixture of pathos and commonplace. Weak in voice and naturally timid, he was nevertheless able, by his fearless testimony, not only to hold his hearers spellbound, but even to render them almost beyond themselves with transport. It is the same whether he is dealing with the Psalms or Prophets, whether he is ex- pounding the Gospels or is preaching on a special occasion, he is everywhere distinguished from his contemporaries ; but specially when he arises as a preacher of penitence, to declaim against the rampant sins of the Church, that his preaching, beyond that of any of his predecessors, displays a highly prophetic character. The impression made by it may be the better ex- plained on comparison with that which we learn from one of his contem- poraries as to the extremely imperfect and pointless character of the bulk of the preaching in Southern Europe.^ As regards the preaching in the JVethcflands during this period, it was only to be expected that the first heralds of the Gospel would be also zealous preachers, and that the precepts of Charles the Great with regard to preaching in the vernacular were also carried into effect here, although ' See the excerpts from the Historia Convivalis of B. Poggius (f 1459), given in Lentz, as above, 372 ff. , MEDLEVAL HISTORY AND LITERATURE. I I 3 they certainly were not for very long exactly complied with in every place. Of Eligius (t 659) we possess a collection of sixteen sermons, not character- ised by great originality, but of practical aim. Those, too, of Bonifacius (t755), and three homilies of Bishop Radbert, intended for saints' days, display on the whole the same characteristics ; while among the Utrecht bishops of the ninth and tenth centuries there are to be found a few memorable preachers. Though preaching was here neglected by the great majority from the eleventh century to the fourteenth, we see a better era begin with the second half of the latter century, as witness, inter alia, the "■ Sermones sensati" printed at Gouda in 1482. Even contributions to the theory are not wanting ; homiletic tractates " de modo prtedicandi " are composed and employed, but specially do we find the practice carried out by " the Brethren of the Common Life " and their spiritual kinsmen. Their simple popular discourses or collations powerfully wrought with other in- fluences for good ; and we may safely assert that the preaching of G. Groote (t 1383), and his renowned pupil, John Brinckerinck (f 14 19), as that of AVermbold of Buscop, and particularly also the simple but profoundly touching cloister sermon of Thomas a Kempis, became for countless num- bers a source of everlasting blessing. And for whom can it be necessary with many words to recal to honourable remembrance the renowned and still-unforgotten Pater Joh. Brugman? (t 147 1.) However much was want- ing to them, judged in the light of later ages, in point of form and subject- matter, yet alike the simple " collations," as the more artistically arranged "Sermones," unquestionably succeeded in touching the right chords in many a heart, and helped to prepare the way for a reformation which here, not less than elsewhere, was necessary in the sphere of preaching also. Even before the better period arose in the Netherlands, a preparation was made in the domain of theory in the Germany of the fifteenth century by Leonard of Utino,i in Italy by Nicholas Barinus,^ while in the beginning of the sixteenth the Manuale of the Basle preacher, J. E. Surgandt,^ gave great promise of good results. - Comp., on the history of mediseval preaching in general, Lentz, as before, i. 211 ff. J. M. Neale, MedicEval Preachers and Medieval Preaching (1857). * W. Moll, " Church History of the Netherlands, before the Reformation" [in Dutch], i. (1864), 404 ff. J. Brandt, Handbiich der geistl. Be7-edsamkeit, i. (1836), 150 ff. On John Damascenus, the * dissertation of F. H. J. Grundleuner (1876), 219—235. On the Homilarium of Charlemagne, the article of Palmer in Herzog's R.E., vi. On the preaching in the lan- guage of the people, the important dissertation of *C. Schmidt, Theol. Stud. u. Krit., 1846, s. 223 ff. Kerker, "Die Predigt in der letzten Zeit des Mittelalters," in the Theol. Quartalschrift of Hefele (1861), 373 ff. COSACK, "The state of Preaching which existed prior to the Reformation of the sixteenth century" (German article), in the Homi- letical magazine, Mancherlei Gaben icndEin Geist (1863), iv. *W. Wackernagel, Alt- ' Wrote Ti'actattis ad locos cotnmimes prcedicatorut?i. Ulm, 1478. ^ Prepared Soixante et dixsept questions quodlibetiques sur des matieres predicables. Basle, 1 501. ^ Composer o{ 3. Manuale Ciiratorum, prcedicandi prcebens modu/n, 2nd ed., Balse, 1516 ; the first properly so called treatise on Homiletics within modern times. Further, Lentz, /. t. i. 421. The Liber congestemm de arte prcedicandi of the renowned J. Reuchlin, which appeared in 1504, is little more than a schema of the ancient rhetoric, apulied to the preacher's art, 8 1 I 4 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. Deutsche Predigtcn und Gebeten, aiis Handschriften (1876). Specially the uncompleted work of * J. Marbach, Geschichte der Deutschen Predigt vor Luther (1873). C. F. VON Ammon, Geschichte der Honiiletik (1804), i. ; from Huss to Luther ; with a very detailed account in particular of Gailer of Kaysersberg. On Berchthold of Regensburg, an inter- esting notice by Ahlfeld (1874). Ch. W. Stromberger, " Berthold von Regensburg, der grosste Volksredner d. deutschen Mittelalters" (1877). On the humorous preachers of this period, * A. Meray, Les litres precheurs, devanciers de Luther et de Rabelais (i860). F. W. P. VON Ammon, Gailer von Kaysersberg s Leben, Lehren und Predigten (1826). A. DE LA BORDERIE, GLuvres Franfaises d' Olivier Maillai'd, Sermons et Poesies (1877). On the Brethren of the Common Life, *G. H. M. Delprat, De broederschap van G. Gi-oote, etc. (2nd edn. 1856). On Brugman, *W. MoLL, Joh. Brugman, etc. [in Dutch] (1854). On the history of the preaching towards the close of the Middle Ages, *J. Wiarda, Hiiibert Duifhuis, de prediker van St. yacob{\%^%). For a notice of some English metrical homilies, printed from a MS. of the 14th century (Edinb. 1862), see Dean Ramsay, /./., pp. 95 — g8. For this period in general, Archb. Trench, " Lectures on Mediseval Church History "(1878), Points for Inquiry. How is the gradual expiry of the preaching in the East, as compared with its gradual development in the West, to be explained ? — The influence of Mariolatry upon preaching, regarded on its favourable and its unfavourable sides. — Further elucidation of some obscure points. — The sermons " dormi secure." — To what extent did nationality exert an influence upon the history of preaching during this period ? § xvi. MODERN HISTORY AND LITERA TURE. \ Called by the Reformation into neiv life, alike the theory ^ the practice of the preaching of the Gospel during the sixteenth and following centuries advances upon the career of a fresh develop- ment, of which the traces become apparent, not only in the Evan- gelical Church, but also in the Roman Catholic Church, of various lands. It is true it experiences the varying influence of all kinds of phenomena in the sphere of world and Church, of theology and philosophy, but even temporary deflection opens for it the way to a higher degree of perfection, and specially the first half of the present century witnessed the attainment of a height of sacred oratory, which is in many respects to be regarded as illustrious. I. I. "The summer now is close at hand, the winter is departing." These familiar words of Luther's " Martyrs' Song " are also of definite application to the domain of preaching. With the Reforviatmi of the sixteenth century is turned a new and in many respects fairer page in its history. Infinitely much did the Reformation owe to the preaching of the Gospel ; without this it would never have been begun, or if begun, not have been carried to completion. " I rose against pope, indulgences, and papists, and yet I only preached and wrote God's word, nothing else," could Luther testify of liimself. But, conversely, the Reformation, too, gave such a powerful MODERN HISTORY AND LITERATURE. I I 5 impulse to preaching, that it very soon became something entirely different from what it was before. How necessary, in truth, a radical change was in this domain, is abundantly evident from testimonies which are beyond sus- picion. Hear Luther himself, in 1530, relating what was the state of things in his childhood. " Then the monks used every day to preach of their new visions, revelations, miracles without number, and no one thought he could, with honour, be a doctor, unless he had spun something new out of his brain. What Bible, Bible ! they cried ; with the doctors you must find it. There was no doctor who well knew the Our Father, the Ten Command- ments, the Twelve Articles (Apostles' Creed), much less explained them." " I myself knew a great preacher," relates Melancthon in the Apology, " who was entirely silent about Christ and the Gospel, and preached the Ethics of Aristode. Another spoke of the life of the Lord, but as the travels of Ulysses. For that which was wanting as regards the contents, they sought as much as possible to make amends by a beautiful, or rather piquant form." " Eternal God," cries Erasmus, " how they gesticulate, vary j in tone ; how they strike out right and left, always making fresh faces j they I fill everything with their hallooing, and now teach this art of preaching as a secret the one to the other ! They begin with an invocation, like the old poets ; if they want to speak of love, they drag it up from the fountains of the Nile ; or if they are preaching of the cross, they begin with the dragon Bel at Babylon." In order to amuse the people, one man would sing a song in the pulpit, another would imitate the sound of a goose, a third would mimic the notes of a cuckoo. Of the Easter laughter, of which CEcolampadius wrote in his letter to Capito, we cannot here speak more at f large, even as of many another abuse. Is it surprising that when the true \ voice was once more heard, the effect should be unparalleled ? " The Holy Spirit speaks through him, for he has entirely fired and enkindled us," ex- claimed the people, when they had listened to the simple testimony of a Henry van Zutphen. In more than one respect was preaching a gainer by the Reformation. It thereby not only recovered a half-lost place in the worship, but also the place of honour ; and in lieu of the saying, " to mass," the saying, " to the preaching," began now to assert itself with unwonted vigour. The word of Scripture began afresh to occupy the foreground, to be better expounded than formerly, and to be more powerfully than ever addressed to the living conscience. One of the fundamental rules of Luther was, " From every text of the Gospel one must derive two consequences — faith and good works." Elsewhere he declared that, aUke in the preaching of the law as of the Gospel, " consolations are often to be mingled therein against the cross" {i.e., afflictions). The form of preaching, too, was improved, less , under the influence of Luther than of Melancthon. " Luther taught us i<^ va/uzf to preach, and Melancthon //07i' to preach," says Mosheim. As op- 1 posed to the unlimited analytical method of the former, the latter brought again the synthetical, to some extent, into honour. He wrote his " Ele- menta Rhetorices " in 1519, on which moreover he had delivered academic lectures, and later published a treatise, " De officio concionatoris " (i535)» which clearly shows how deeply he had the matter at heart. Equally as Reuchlin had he a preference for classical eloquence, and sought to foster Il6 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. the influence of this upon sacred eloquence. Side by side with him, Eras- mus, too, wrought beneficially, not only by his trenchant satire upon existing defects, but still more by many a hint for improvement given in a pointed manner in the four books of his " Ecclesiastes, seu Concionator Evangelicus " (1535). So great was his influence, that this was felt even in the Romish Church of his own and later times. In this Church, too, the obligation to preach regularly was emphatically pronounced by the Council of Trent (^Can. et Deer. § 34), and on the other hand the power of Scholas- ticism in the pulpit was, if not entirely broken, at least greatly restricted. The first purely Protestant work on Homiletics, which saw the light in the age of the Reformation, did not long remain unused by the Church of Rome.^ 2, If we now turn our attention more definitely to the Swiss Reformation, we see it beginning at Zurich with the series of discourses by Zwingli on the Gospel of Matthew. " In his discourses he was right diligent, simple, ; intelligible ; so that the people heard him gladly " (Bullinger). Bullinger ■ himself also dealt in like manner with whole books of the Bible in his /^ \ preaching, in which he rendered justice in turn to the polemical and the I pastoral element. A great number of sermons of his which have come idown to us bear testimony to his unwearied assiduity. Even in the pecu- fliar relation the preachers took with regard to Holy Scripture the difference 'between the Reformed Church and the Lutheran is already apparent. Luther preaches, as a rule, on the pericopes, although he does not in any way forbid the preaching from freely chosen texts. As a preacher too, he retains all in the practice of the Church which is not in contradiction with {Scripture. Zwingli and his fellow-combatants, on the other hand, are wont {to refresh the congregation with the copious streams of the Word : a imeasured-off pericope is for him too little, whole books of the Bible must ;be successively expounded by him ; he rejects everything which cannot be Justified from Scripture, even to the system of pericopes. As regards Calyiji, it is well known what a mighty influence he exerted in the pulpit at Geneva by this very practice of connected exposition of large portions of Holy Writ. More than two thousand sermons by him, belonging to the years 1549 — 1560 alone, partly printed, partly preserved in MS., give evidence of the dili- gence, but also of the facility, with which he acquitted himself of this part of his task. Spoken extemporaneously, but taken down by an appointed person in the audience, or put together from the notes of different friends, they are devoid of all pretence of oratorical lustre, but sparkling with spiritual life. It is impossible here to speak of the whole abundant treasure ; but not superfluous to remind how, while a Scaliger declared " multo magis mihi placent Calvini commentarii quam conciones," a Coligny, on the other hand, had a custom of reading the sermons of this Reformer on Job over and over again, for a number of years in succession. One has only, indeed, for an instant to set before the mind this feeble but impressive form in the pulpit of St. Pierre, specially at critical moments, to feel how his word could not but sound forth with power, even though unacceptable to the majority, and how the fact could be entered on the minutes of the Council, " that an ' Lentz, a. a. O., ii. s. 332. MODERN HISTORY AND LITERATURE. I I / incredible multitude flocked to his preaching." Without doubt he could make his own the word of the Apostle : " My preaching was not with enti- cing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of spirit and of power ;"''■ and it was due to his influence that the preaching in France and Switzerland retained for a period so comparatively long its purely biblical character. — In principle such preaching is commended in the theoretical treatise of Andreas Hyperius, " De formandis concionibus sacris, s. de interpretatione S.S. populari" (1552). He takes as his basis the Apostolic utterance, 2 Tim. iii. 16, and treats of the varying use and aim of Holy Scripture; pointing out at the same time how the preacher must apply himself specially to three things,— the profiting of his hearers, the propriety of language and delivery, and the promoting of peace and concord. He illustrates his pre- cepts by a number of examples, and enjoins in particular modesty and circumspection as ornaments of the Christian preacher. His work, which is composed in vigorous Latin, and within a quarter of a century passed into a sixth edition, deserves still to be held in esteem. It has on this account received greater attention from us than we shall, after this, be able to bestow even upon the works of excellent contemporaries and successors. 3. Yet it is from Luther, still more than from Calvin, that a new life has proceeded in this domain ; even as Luther personally stood by far the highest of all the Reformers as a popular preacher. Not without reason has he been more than once commended and extolled even as a teacher of sacred eloquence : he isjas so, by his admirable example, not less than by his excellent precepts. After 15 15 he ceased to preach in Latin, but from that time in growing measure spoke the language of the people and of daily life with a popularity and adaptation to circumstances which explains the deep effect produced by his impressive word. Who would not gladly have heard and seen this preacher with the true German {edit Deutsch) head and the overflowing Christian heart, when he first appeared in a little chapel, which would accommodate hardly twenty persons, presently to become by his powerful word, for thirty years in succession, a source of blessing to milhons ? Formed by the study of Holy Scripture and of a few renowned predecessors, in particular Augustine, Bernard of Clairvaux, and Joh. Tauler, to be a preacher of the Gospel of grace, he applied himself even in ' the pulpit specially to the pure interpretation of Scripture and the vigorous application of the Word to the wants of the moment. Seldoni can he be called faultless, as measured by the rules of art, but he is vigorous, and keeps his hearers awake : the dormi secure is not to be found in his dic- tionary. As a preacher, we learn to appreciate him most of all_ from his Kirchenpostille, of which he began the preparation so early as his sojourn in the Wartburg, and which he later spoke of as his best book ; as also from his Hauspostille, the fruit of less careful labour, taken down from his lips by Veith and Dietrich, his faithful attendants, and handling texts from the Epistles and Gospels for the day. They contain only homilies, "the innocent, childish face of preaching," in which the text is sometimes treated of wholly, sometimes only in part. " When I was I Cor. I I 8 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. young," says Luther, " I was instructed and at home in allegories, tro- jpologies, and analogies of all kinds of empty arts. Now I have let all these .'things go, and my best art is simply to interpret the Scripture, for it is the (literal sense which tells; in that is life and power^-^~tTie rest is fool's iwork, however fine it may glitter. Every preacher must accustom himself to preach simply, and consider that he has to preach in great part to plain people." Osiander's style of preaching, but little popular, could not escape his criticism. "Yes, he is a learned man, but if I should only wish to preach to Dr. PhiUppus^ or Jerome, I should not succeed all my life, since they understand it well themselves. But we have to do with the poor lads and lasses, with the plain man, with Molly and Betty, and to these one must come down." On this account his sermons inclined, as a rule, to be short ; and when his friend Urbanus Rhegius had once been rather long, he met with the reproof: "Hoc neque urbanum, neque regium." If some of Luther's own sermons are pretty much extended, he himself later declared that he would like to take a httle off them. In truth, " I can make or give no sermon according to the rules of art," we hear him frankly confessing in one of the conversations of his Tischreden, and even as regards his preaching he had not entirely freed himself from the influence of Rome. As late as 1520 we hear him simply close with an Ave Maria ; but when it comes to the great question, he knows clearly and without hesitation what he wants. " As a messenger of Christ, I shall teach you nothing about housekeeping, farming, marrying, eating, or drinking ; since for such things God has given you understanding, and for the rest you can consult jurists and other men of the world." One might collect a whole anthology of homiletic wisdom out of the sayings of Luther. For instance : " If God wishes to make use of you. He will call you to the office of a preacher."- — "To preach simplyis a great art." — "Well prayed is half studied." — " He who well understands his subject, and is inwardly a perfect master of it, can easily speak thereon." — "Cursed be all preachers who in the Church seek after high things, and seek their own honour in pleasing a few." — " Tritt frisch auf, thu's Maul auf, hor' bald auf."^ — "Bonus textuarius, bonus theologus." — "A preacher should be a good dialectician and rhe- torician, i.e., he must be able to teach and to exhort." — " It is a mark of a good orator that he ceases just when men would most gladly hear him further, and think to themselves, ' Noiv for it' " What need of more? It is nothing surprising that his sermons should, even during his lifetime, be read in many churches in place of an original composition ; a state of things which he permitted, though unwillingly, in order that not every one, as under the Papacy, should preach " about blue ducks." A blind imita- tion of his style would be an offence against the more advanced culture of modern times ; but a preaching in the spirit and power of Luther will ever be one fraught with abundant blessing. 4. However much and frequently urged thereto by Luther, Melancthon was never able entirely to lay aside his natural diffidence about appearing in the pulpit. Yet his name must not be omitted here ; not only because [^L'lancthon.] - "Begin lively. o]ien your mouth boldly, leave off quickly." MODERN HISTORY AND LITERATURE. II9 he regularly delivered a Latin discourse at Wittenberg every Sunday, for the benefit of those students who were unacquainted with the German language — sermons later collected into a Latin postil — but also because he prepared a few sermons for the benefit of his friend Prince George of Anhalt, which were afterwards (1555) published with a preface by himself. On his merits with regard to the theory of preaching, and the contribution made by his writings to the scientific training of many preachers, we have already spoken. We cannot thus be surprised that in the second half of the sixteenth century and the beginning of the seventeenth a considerable number of preachers should arise in the Evangelical Church of Germany, who showed themselves worthy pupils and spiritual kinsmen of Luther and Melancthon. The homiletic precept of the last-named Reformer, " A preacher must first be a good grammarian, then a dialectician, and finally a witness," was evidently, from the experience of many, not given in vain. Among the most illustrious we may mention John Brentz, of Hall, in Swabia (t 1570), whom Luther himself commended as one of the most distinguished among the brethren, in particular on account also of the mild and gentle spirit of his teaching. His chief work was a postil on the Gospels, in which his treatment of the fourth Gospel is judged specially worthy of praise. Wencislaus Linck at Nurnberg (t 1547), a preacher for the people, commended by Luther, particularly for his manifold and apt employment of all kinds of figures. Caspar Aquila at Saalfeld (t 1560), " austerus homo et stoicus," as he described himself, but in the pulpit one of the fieriest controversialists of the old Lutheran Church, and anon childUke, simple, and consolatory. Justus Jonas in Halle (ti555), of whom Me- lancthon testified, " I am a logician, Bugenhagen a grammarian, Jonas an orator, and Luther all in one;" a worthy friend and fellow-labourer of Luther, whose funeral sermon he preached. Erasmus Sarcerius in Eisleben (t 1559), a main pillar of orthodoxy, upon whom one of his contem- poraries pronounced the encomium, "Sooner should the sun forsake its course, than he turn aside from the path of truth." To the theory of preaching he also conljibuted his part, by the publication of his "Pastorale" (1566), in which there are to be found many valuable homiletic counsels; as likewise in the '* Pastor," pubUshed in the year 1566, the work of Nic. Hemming, preacher at Copenhagen (t 1600). H. Weller, also (t 1573), and A. Pangratius (t 1576), and Jas. Andrea (t 1590), Aeg. Hunnius (t 1603), and L. Osiander (t 1604), offered thereto more or less important contributions;^ the most elaborate contribution was that of the Sylva Pastorum of Zach. Praetorius (1575). Under their influence, accordingly, the practical part of preaching was prosecuted with increasing zeal. Not a i&vi postils presently appeared; e.g., a farmer's postil (postil for plain men), a mountain postil (Matt. v. i), and a children's postil (in the sense of Matt, xviii. 3). In the Lutheran Church, too, they began to preach on whole books of the Bible ; sometimes in a very prolix manner, as, for instance, in the case of the two hundred and twenty sermons by one Striegnitz, a preacher at Meissen, on the history of Jonah, of which four Further particulars in Lentz, as before, ii. 65 — 68. I20 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. are devoted to the consideration of the words, " Unto Jonah, son of Amittai." So later (1688) the gold of the seven penitential psalms was beaten out into no fewer than two hundred and forty-five sermons on repentance. Some hymns of the Church, too, were made the subject of particular discourses, in which often no small amount of pains was be- stowed upon the arrangement. The preaching aimed too at powerfully affecting the life of the community. Thus there appeared at Frankfort in 1587 a TJieatrum Diabolorum, for the opposing of all kinds of sins, particu- larly public and scandalous sins, to which the most renowned preachers contributed of their best. As distinguished from these more popular efforts, the more scientific preaching also sought to maintain itself with honour; e.g., in the very elaborate inaugural discourse delivered by Martin Chemnitz (t 1586) at the opening of the University of HelmsLedt. 5. Manifold causes contributed to render the age succeeding Luther one of standstill and retrogression in the domain of German preaching. Where homiletic teaching was not altogether wanting in the universities, it was very imperfectly prosecuted. The professors, altogether lost in dog- matic hairsplittings and controversial efforts, usually left the instruction in the true mode of preaching to magisters and others only too little fitted for this important task. Here, too, not less than in the doctrinal domain, did the reviving Scholasticism only too much exert its baleful influence. The distinction between pulpit and professional chair was for- gotten ; to a needless display of learning, accompanied with controversy about words, the more urgent question of edification was sacrificed ; and the principal universities began to uphold their own methods of preaching, usually antagonistic to those of other academies. Thus there arose, for example, the Helmstedt, the Wittenberg, the Jena, the Leipzig, the Konigs- berg method, each to be recognised by its own peculiarities. The first was ])erhaps still the best, inasmuch as it displayed the moderate spirit of Calixtus, but the last sought to shine by the art of composing as many sermons as possible on a single text — eight, for instance, on the simple utterance of Matt. viii. 2. One of the most curious was unquestionably that of a certain Chr. Weise (t 1708), called the Real-method, having for its aim the deriving of as many images, narratives, metaphors, etc., as possible, from all kinds of non-sacred sources, and transferring them, as far as could be done, into a means of edification, by which course the attention of the hearers could not fail to be kept riveted ; a method here and there leading to absurdity itself, but one which, even forty years after it was origin- ated, had not entirely died out. On the other side, logical formalism swayed the sceptre so imperiously, that sometimes one would meet with a sermon divided into three parts — announced as the subject, the predicate, and the conclusion ; while the worst of ill-taste would sometimes be seen in the choice of strange names and titles. Thus discourses were published under the title of " Heavenly Treasury," " Spiritual Feast-trumpet," "'Milk of the Catechism," " Bitter Oranges and Sour Lemons " (on the book of Lamen- tations), "Spiritual Cypress Wreath " (funeral sermons), "Spiritual Oil-store," of which last a thirteenth edition appeared in 1683; even the pious and meritorious Valerius Herberger (t 1627) published a collection of funeral sermons, entitled " Spiritual Vigorous Rose-conserve, prepared from some MODERN HISTORY AND LITERATURE. 121 consolatory Roses of Psalm xxxix." Homiletical aids, too, were composed for the benefit of those less gifted with originality, and put forth under the promising titles of •' Aurofodinge," "Promptuaria," "Gold Mines," " Pen- tades " and " Decades " of sermon-plans on a variety of subjects ; but — they failed to raise the sunken standard, most of all under the pressure of times fatal for the Church. In the year 1636 alone, in the midst of the miseries of the Thirty Years' War, more than three hundred congregations were deprived of their preachers by banishment or death. 6. So much the higher appreciation is merited by the few whom we see shining as bright stars in a clouded sky. In addition to the above-mentioned Val. Herberger, whose " Herzenspostille," overflowing with the naive and at the same time heart-felt language of faith, passed within a century through four and twenty editions, and is a work still not forgotten on the part of many spiritually-minded people in Germany, we must mention in particular John Valentine Andrea, of Stuttgart (t 1654), the preacher whom Spener wished, above all others, he could recal from the dead; a pupil with kindred spirit of the renowned dogmatist John Gerhard (t 1637), and, like Gerhard himself, a faithful disciple of that eminent herald of " true Chris- tianity," John Arndt (f 1621). Doctrinal disputations Andrea willingly left to others ; in his work of preaching, as in everything else, he was concerned about life, and he knew that this is called forth and cherished in a manner very different from that adopted by most preachers of his day. With all the prolixity of his treatment, the artless simplicity of this homiletic practical man, a simplicity combined with a most ardent fervour, produces a highly favourable impression, and accounts for his book being held in honour and thanksgiving by countless numbers, even in the present day. — The same may be said of the heartily devout Christian Scriver (f 1693), court preacher at Quedlingburg, writer of a "Seelenschatz," which forms a worthy companion- piece to Arndt's " True Christianity." Originally delivered in the form of Week-day Discourses, the volume has become an Andachtsbuch in the fairest sense of the term, dedicated by the godly writer "To the Three-one God," and — together with Scriver's other writings — in our day once more placed in the hands of the believing public by Rudolf Stier. He himself called these " Soul Discourses " a flower-bed, in which believing souls, like noble bees, might gather the finest honey of refreshment and consolation ; and after an interval of so many years it is evident he did not say too much. H. Muller also, superintendent at Rostock (f 1675), i^'^^st not be passed over by us unmentioned. Such preachers were at the same time pioneers of that which was presently to be experienced in the pietistic movement, for a much-needed elevation and reform in the art of preaching. In fact. Ph. J. Spener (f 1705) did succeed in recalling to life the spirit of Luther and Arndt in many a pulpit, and in making the preaching a powerful embodiment of the theologia regenitorimi. It is true, the influence he exerted was not far removed from great onesidedness; but then this was necessary as a reaction, and prepared the way in turn for somethi/ig better. All rules of art and all oratorical principles were simply set aside by him. He despised every demand which was not in reality legitimated by the character of the work to be done, and clearly showed that his concern was not for the praise of his hearers, but for tb.eir salvation. His own preaching 122 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. was by no means free from a certain stiffness of form, accompanied with a style but little attractive; for the demand of simplicity and earnestness, however, it would be impossible to show more reverence than he did. He was wont to prepare his discourses with the greatest care ; and returned, after having for a time written only in outline, to his former practice of writing the whole, being greatly assisted in recalling it to mind by his excel- lent memory. "Junge Blattler, alte Bettler''^ was the homiletic lesson he impressed upon hmiself, and — presently bequeathed to others. He stuck particularly close in his preaching to the word of Holy Scripture, " in which he was," to use the words of Nitzsch, " as much at home as in his own dwelling," rendered tolerable the yoke of the pericopes, and modified the form as far as possible in accordance with the subject. Thus he introduced into the preaching a subjective element of the heart, which before his time was only too much wanting ; to regeneration alone he devoted no less than thirty-six discourses. — But in this way he laid at the same time the founda- tion whereon the work of building could be further carried on, entirely in his spirit, by A. H. Francke (t 1727), the renowned founder of the Orphan House at Halle. In point of form Francke stood above Spener, as regards spirit and depth not below him ; and though Francke's sermons were a little longer than those ordinarily listened to, they did not fail to hold captive a numerous audience. Like his predecessor, he was specially concerned about the application ; and the defects which, as judged by the standard of later times, might perhaps be discovered in the homilete, were made amends for by the excellences of the pastor. — As regards the theory, he was faithfully and ably supported by his colleague, Joach. Lange (t 1744), as is evident from Lange's writings "de concionum mensura " (1729) and " de concionis forma ad ffidificationis scopum accuratius componenda " (1730), both preceded by his " Oratoria sacra, ab artis homileticae vanitate repurgata." The " Commentariolus," too, " de recta concionandi textumque sacrum cum exponendi tum applicandi ratione," by the Tubingen prelate, A. A. Hochstetter (t 1720), published in 1701, and brought out in a fourth edition by Sartorious in 1866, presented in a concise form a treasure of homiletic wisdom. 7. Of course no long time could pass without a reaction on the part of ecclesiastical orthodoxy. This manifested itself not only in an intolerant heresy-hunting — one single voice is able to accuse Spener, for instance, of no fewer than two hundred and sixty-four points of heresy — but also in a restless activity in preparation for the pulpit, though still for the present in the old manner already familiar to us. At the head of the opponents of Pietism arose the celebrated J. B. Carpzov (t 1699), son of an equally celebrated father, who, in his " Hodogeticum " (1656) offered to the young ministry as many as a hundred methods for the due arrangement of the plan and sermon ; himself a living exponent and teacher of Homiletics, whose discourses — overflowing with dry learning and allegorical interpretation of Scripture — may be looked upon as constituting one of the last endea- vours to bring into general honour the former perverted method. — Higher Young leaf-turners will make old beggars (of sermons). MODERN HISTORY AND LITERATURE. 1 23 stood on the same side V. E. Loscher, of Dresden (t 1749), an important person in the Saxon Church of his day, a representative of a temperate and living orthodoxy, which opposed the onesidedness of Pietism, but sought to adopt with certain modifications that which was good in it ; though as a preacher he may again in other respects be looked upon as a forerunner of the later Rationalism. Lifeless orthodoxy, along with all kinds of useless bustle, was and remained only to too great an extent the characteristic of many postils composed for various conditions of men — farmers, soldiers, travellers, etc. — even on the most familiar proverbs, with which the homi- letic literature of that period was, if not enriched, at least continually aug- \ mented. So passionately did many scold and rate in the pulpit, that the t authorities of Wurtemberg, for instancerm 1687, feTt called upon to pass an ordinance expressly to the effect " that the preachers should abstain in the pulpit from all ranting, scolding, and railing ; should consign no one to the devil, nor call any one churl, owl, or devil's head, and so forth." — On the other hand, in opposition to the thorough-going earnestness of Pietism, a more worldly and frivolous tone was sometimes to be heard in the puipit, such as was not wont to redound to the advantage of a true edification. In South Germany the Romish Church saw the style of Barletta revived in a nobler form, in the imperial court preacher at Vienna, the well-known Father Abrah. de St. Clara (t 1709), author of " Judas the Arch-traitor " and other homiletic art-products ; a flagellant in the pulpit beyond most others ; inexorable in his denunciation of the sins of high and low ; a man with regard to whom it is hard to say which peculiarity in him most drew the attention, the burlesque and trivial, or the satirical, or even the occasional sallies of genius ; while the vigorous and plastic manner of his delivery tended greatly to augment the effect produced by his words. From his style of preaching Schiller derived the form of the " Capuchin sermon " in Wallenstein, as it is thought that traces of it are still to be discovered in some sermons of the Redemptorists down to the present day. But even in the Protestant Church of his day there were not wanting those who thought this vein of humour necessary to attract and enchain the multitude. We need only mention J. Sackmann in Hanover (t 17 18), who used gene- rally to express himself in a facetious way in Platt-Deutsch, and his contem- porary, Sporrer, in Bavaria, who, by way of excusing his more than familiar tone, was wont to call himself " the farmer's parson " ; to whose preaching, however, the townspeople around used to flock in great numbers. 8. The time nevertheless very soon came, when the sermon was more than ever composed in rigid forms, and began to experience the influence, alike of alternating philosophical systems, as of a gradually developing literature. Already the Wolfian philosophy ^ proved far from advantageous as regards subject-matter and form of the Gospel ministrations ; it banished all life and warmth, to give the widest rein on the other hand to the passion for accuracy and clearness. Everything was defined and explained, even that which needed no explanation : e.g., Matt. viii. i, what a "mountain" was, what is meant by " multitude," etc. " Philosophic dolts in the pulpit," Wolf died in 1754. 124 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. as a contemporary well styled these preachers, who would no longer allow their hearers to laugh, but all the more effectually wearied them. In addition to this there arose, under literary influences, the mania for the bombastic and pseudo-sublime, through which it came to be regarded as a homiletical offence if one should speak in a simple manner that which is in its nature simple. Moses was now called " the horned legislator " [from read- ing cheren " a horn " {i.e. " a ray "), instead of charan " to be radiant," in Exod. xxxiv. 29, an error also fallen into by the early painters, in following the Vulgate] ; Paul, " the enlightened teacher of the Gentiles;" ^ conscience, " the doggie barking in the left breast." Presently we even see discourses appear, which have been composed in rhyme, or without this or that letter, and other little artifices of a like kind. And how much worse still, when, under the influence of a Rationalism still in the ascendant, the spirit of denial and scepticism — during and after the time of flourishing of the Kantian philosoj:)hy 2 — made itself heard ever more loudly and boldly in the'pulpit ! TSTowThe principle of utilitarianism asserted itself above every other, and war was declared inexorably against the contents of the Gospel and the demand of aesthetics. The sermon, already degraded to a mere art-product of good or bad taste, must now as much as possible aim at producing the blessings of " refinement and enlightenment," and specially at placing these blessings within reach of the lower classes. There ap- peared during the second half of the eighteenth century " agricultural " discourses, "nature sermons and field sermons," homiletic commenda- tions of vaccination [end of eighteenth century], silk-worm culture, etc. Who has not heard of the Christmas sermon on the stall-feeding of cattle ; of the Epiphany sermon on listening to good counsel ; of the Palm-Sunday sermon on the damaging of trees ; the Easter sermon on the benefit of a walk (the travellers to Emmaus) ; the Pentecost sermon on drunken- ness, etc. ? not to speak of a Maundy-Thursday discourse " on the making of a good will ;" or another on the exciting theme, " how wise ■,and beneficial the arrangement, that death is placed not at the be- ginning, but at the end of life(!)" The "sermons on texts taken from nature," by J. L. Ewald (t 1822) and others, in which, e.g., the storm, the eye, the tongue, etc., supplies the theme to be treated of, were of this kind, still the best. " During this period also fall the bulk of the journals, magazines, archives, sermon-skeletons, etc. No house of business has sent forth into the world such a multitude of travelling agents, to hawk about the article sermon outlines (skeletons), as the firm of ' Denk- glaube and Co.'" (Palmer). It was the time in which Schuderoff (1797), who asserted " that he could write out the whole of Christianity upon an octavo page," described " Homiletics as rhetoric in general, merely applied ■ to the truths of religion." That from this standpoint one cut oneself i entirely adrift from the text, or at best used this only as a peg on which to * With a St. Andrews professor of a somewhat later date, he was "that highly respect- able individual, the Apostle Paul." 2 [The Bliitezeit of Rationalism is from 1770 to 1820. Kant published the first. edition of his "Critique of Pure Reason" in 1781, and the second edition in 1790. He died in 1S04, in his eightieth year.] MODERN HISTORY AND LITERATURE. 125 hang one's own daub, it is hardly necessary to observe. It was the curse ot the system of pericopes, that one was compelled one decade of years after another to preach from, nay, under the auspices of, the same texts. But in another way also has Kantianism injuriously affected the preaching of the Gospel. It clipped the wings of imagination and feeling in the pulpit ; brought into the foreground, in place of the great theme of Christianity, a philosophic morality ; and laced up the discourse in a corselet which would have infallibly stifled all life — if there had been any to stifle. We are silent as regards consequences still worse, for one reason because completeness is here impossible. But even in the nobler representatives of the period of Aufkldrung (such as, e.g., J. W. F. Jerusalem (t 1789), "a preaching philosopher," as this abbot has been termed not without reason, who, specially in point of form, rose far above the bulk of his contemporaries and kindred spirits) this fatal effect of the rationalistic leaven was to be felt in the contents of the preaching. Yea, even in the poetic humanist who raised his voice against Kant, in J. G. von Herder (t 1803), the courtier and the man of literature has had an influence infinitely more injurious than beneficial upon the homilete, specially during the latter years of his life. From his first period we possess homilies on particular events of the Gospel history, which display not only a perfect mastery as regards the form, but also a warm enthusiasm for the truly human and sacredly natural in the person of the Redeemer, and his "Twelve Provincial Letters to Clergymen " ^ show what an appreciation he had for the prophetic element as a quahfication for the ministry of the Gospel ; but for the rest the majority of his sermons were dissertations on moral subjects which — a few admirers excepted — left the bulk of his hearers cold and uninterested, and entirely explain his own sad confession in the evening of his life, that ^ >-/ie wished he had only preached the Gospel more simply. 9. The more does it gladden us to observe that the drooping life was yet by no means entirely quenched, but was also awakened and fostered by such men as we are able to speak of as ornaments of the pulpit in Germany during the eighteenth century. We think of a J. J. Rambach (t 1735), minister of the Gospel at Giessen, in form the antipode of Spener, but in spirit devoutly Christian as he, with regard to whom it has been testified, not amiss, " that he set the knife to the throat of all homiletic vanities." He emancipated himself from the duplex exordium before every sermon, of which the iron law had been for many a preacher during a number of years an oppressive cross, and maintained, as but few before him or in his time, the right of homiletic individuality, i.a., in his " Praecepta homiletica" (1736); to which presently J. G. Reinbeck (t 1741) attached his " Oudines of a method of teaching {Lehrart) to preach in an orderly and edifying manner" (1740). As a pulpit orator, J. A. Cramer of Kiel (t 1778) stands above both the fore-named theologians, a pretty success- ful imitator of Bossuet, and what certainly redounds to his greater honour, as court preacher in Denmark presenting an admirable example of resolute- ness, zeal, and fidelity, i. ' Published in 1774, when he was in his thii'tieth year. 126 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. Yet specially have we here to speak of the man who has been alternately styled the Tillotson and the Bourdaloue of his time, Joh. Laur. von Mosheim (t 1755), ornament of the Academy of Helmstedt and of Gdttingen ; with regard to whom one of his contemporaries could write, " norunt homines, ubi Moshemius est, ibi esse Academiam," highly merito- rious, not only as a moralist and historian, but also as a homilete, whose church must often have a sentinel placed before it to prevent too great crowding. Gifted with distinguished talent rather than creative genius, he represents, in opposition to the rising unbelief, a more or less apologetic tendency, and combines in his peculiar view the advantages of the analytical and the synthetic mode of preaching. His merit consists specially in liveliness of presentation, force of proof, ornateness of style, lofty earnestness of purpose combined with a happy knack of expressing himself; his shadowy side in a useless prolixity, in consequence of which his discourse sometimes passes into the tone of a dissertation. Yet his sermons will still repay reading, as will his " Anweisung, erbaulich zu predigen," which appeared after his death (1763). Almost contemporaneously with him did the Reformed preachers, A. W. F. Sack (t 1786), and specially also G. J, Zollikoffer of Leipzig (t 1788), exert a beneficial influence in part upon the subject-matter of preaching, but more particularly upon the form. Zollikoffer found a successful imitator in J. G. MarezoU of Jena (t 1828), who published, in addition to several volumes of discourses, greatly read and commended, also a treatise " Ueber die Bestimmung des Kanzelredners " (1793). — The name and renown of all is nevertheless eclipsed by that of Dresden's court preacher, F. V. V. Reinhard (t 181 2), who was formerly perhaps rated too highly, but who is now certainly too little appreciated ; a man illustrious too as a moraUst, but one who his life long, in the midst of manifold bodily infirmities, devoted his best efforts to the pulpit. His sermons, fully eight hundred in number, were published in more than thirty volumes ; but of these there is not one which does not furnish proofs of the conscientious care with which he prepared for his public labours, and of the fidelity of heart with which he accounted to himself for his principles and their application. His method is the strictly synthetic and symmetrical one ; and it cannot be denied that the yoke of the system of pericopes, which com- pelled him, e.^., to preach so many New Year's Days in succession on the name of Jesus {Luke ii. 21), made of its slave only too frequently its victim. He has himself initiated us into the secrets of his study ;^ but the extent to which, even during his lifetime, his sermons were admired, imitated, and — purloined, pleads for his distinguished rank; while his celebrated Reformationspyedigt on Justification by Faith, delivered in a time of apostasy, and widely circulated, assures to him a permanent place of honour in the annals of the Evangelical Church of Germany. 10. As independent spiritual kinsmen and followers of Reinhard in his character of homilete may be mentioned men like Loffler (t 181 6), Tzschirner (t 1828), Schott (t 1835), Schuderoff (t 1843), Bretschneider ' See his Ccstandiiissc, above menlioiieJ. p. 4. MODERN HISTORY AND LITERATURE. 12/ (t 1848), Rohr (t 1S48) — the last-named long the zealous redactor-in-chief of a Prediger-hibliothek which was greatly read. However much, regarded from a positive-Christian standpoint, may have been wanting to their labours, partiality alone can overlook their real merits, definitely with regard to the form of presentation. — Among the most interesting, advanced, and influential of the preachers during the first half of this century in Germany, Gottfr. Menken of Bremen (t 1831) occupies a foremost position. He published a great number of homilies, giving testimony to his independent insight into Holy Scripture, and his great preference for the analytical method of preaching. He appears to stand higher as a preacher than the renowned Friedr. Schleiermacher (t 1834), to whom a more brilliant place of honour in the homiletic domain is assigned by his boundless admirers than he is seen to merit upon impartial contemplation and comparison with others. Even in the pulpit he is pre-eminently a dialectician and theologian, who thinks out, in an interesting manner, the given subject-matter of Holy Scripture before his highly cultured audience ; but the form has much more about it that suggests rather an abstract treatment than an animated testi- mony, and in the subject-matter not a little is felt to be wanting which has rightly been regarded as of indispensable necessity for the pure proclama- tion of God's counsel for the salvation of sinners. Of unqualified imitators he has found but few among his disciples ; for the greater part of the con- gregation his mode of preaching was decidedly very little adapted. Listen, for instance, to the theme of one of his Christmas sermons : " How exactly our festal Christmas rejoicing accords with the fact that the belief that Jesus is the Son of God is the victory which overcometh the world ; " to pass without further remark, out of the affection due to his memory, over an unhappy Good Friday discourse, "on the wish to die like Jesus." — Entirely otherwise was it with the Provost of Kiel, whose death-year (1855) falls indeed beyond the limits of the period we are now treating of, but whose influence, rich in blessing, was for many years felt within this period, Claus Harms, who unquestionably owed to Schleiermacher " the impulse to an everlasting movement," but as a preacher soon far outstripped the Berlin professor, and, in opposition to the traditional art-theory, sought to call into life a new kind of glossolaly in the pulpit. Pointed as regards the form, vigorous as regards the contents, a little inclined to mannerisms now and then as regards the tone, but always awegend (rousing), whether preaching before cultured or uncultured hearers, his numerous discourses, among which those on the Lord's Prayer and on the Sermon on the Mount call for special mention, deserve to be rated among the best our century has pro- duced in North Germany. In South Germany the fiery Ludwig Hofacker of Rielingshausen in Wurtemberg (t 1828) was more or less intellectually akin to him, and absolutely his companion in faith, of whose discourses, full of unction, already about thirty different editions have appeared, some of these consisting of several thousand copies, and side by side with whose labours those of his brother Wilhelm Hofacker of Stuttgart (t 1848) deserve honourable mention. — In the domain of properly so-called technical pulpit eloquence at the close of this period, no two names are resplendent with higher lustre than those of Franz Theremin at Berlin (t 1846), and J. H. B. Draseke at Bremen (t 1849). The former, whose sermons, above all 128 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. others in Germany, manifest the influence both of Demosthenes and Massillon, ahke in point of form and of matter, has afforded, both in word and deed, the proof for his favourite proposition, that " eloquence is a virtue." The latter, a meteor in the homiletic sky, attracted to himself, by means of a charming pulpit style, abounding in imagery, more particularly "the thoughtful reverers of Jesus, "who hung upon his lips ; and, i?iter alia, celebrated the national revival of Germany in 1 8 13 in a manner which for many remains ever memorable. As strictly biblical preachers must at the same time also G. C. Storr (t 1805), G. D. Krummacher (f 1837), Rudolf Stier (t 1862),^ writer of an important Keryktik (1844), by no means be overlooked. II. In Switzerland, too, so closely connected with Germany, we see, specially in the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century, a vigorous life awakened in the domain of preaching and Homiletics. In particular after the French refugees — of whom more anon — had set foot on Swiss soil, did sacred eloquence here rise to a far higher standpoint than it had occupied during the previous century. Not without result did men like Ben. Pictet (t 1724), J. F. Ostervald (t 1747), S. Werenfels (t 1740), and P. Roques (t 1748), let their light shine here. The Pasteur Evangelique, published in 1723 by the last-named Basle preacher, contains not a few valuable hints, even as regards the theory of preaching. In Zurich a bene- ficial influence was exerted, towards the close of last centuiy, by J. K, Pfenninger {t 1793), the bosom-friend of Lavater ; by J. C. Lavater himself (t 1 801), the ardent patriot, but also the fiery witness for Christ in a time of apostasy and unbehef, whose brilliant eloquence could sometimes produce an overwhelming impression ; and finally by the less fiery, but certainly not less estimable and influential Antistes J. J. Hess (t 1828), known specially as a biographer of the Saviour, yet equally worthy, on account of his truly Christian and at the same time truly patriotic preaching, to be held in lasting honour by his countrymen. In Switzerland, too, it was only to be expected that Rationalism would make its fatal influence felt upon the past century, as Indifferentism upon the beginning of the present. But when, in the second quarter of the present century, the breath of the Reveil came sweeping over the Alps also, this movement found there especially its distinct exponents in such preachers as Cellerier pere, Gaussen, Rochat, Malan, Merle d'Aubigne, and — with whatever important modification — in the man whose name belongs not to Switzerland alone, but to France — nay, to the whole Evangelical Church of his and our day — Alexandre Vinet of Lausanne (t 1847). 2 His numerous published Discours have, in addition to an gesthetical and ethical value, also a theological worth not easily to be over-estimated. Comp., on the Modern History and Literature of Preaching in Germany and Switzer- land in general, C. G. F. Schenck, Geschichte der detitsch. Prot. Kanzelbci-edsamkeii von Luther bis an f die neiieste Zeit (1841). For the Romish Church, the German work of *J. N. BiSSCHAR, " The Catholic Pulpit Orators of Germany during the last three centu- ' The year given in the Dogmatics is to be corrected in accordance with the above. - [Just three weeks before Chalmers, to whom he was allied by so many spiritual affini- ties— namely, on Monday, May loth, Chalmers was 67, and Vinet only 50 years of age.] MODERN HISTORY AND LITERATURE. 129 ries, a contribution to the liistory of Catholic pulpit eloquence" (1866 and following years, in three parts). Further, * W. Beste, Die bcdentcndsten Kanzelredner der dlteren Luth. Kirche bis zu Spener, i. (1856), ii. (1858). Fr. Luebker, Lebensbilder mis dem letztverfl. Jhdt. 1864. C. G. Schmidt, Liith. Kirche von Luther bis Spener (1872). *K. H. Sack, Gesch. der Predigt in der Evang. Kirche Deutschl. von Mosheim bis atif die letzten Jahre von Schleiermacher und Menken (1866). L. SxiEBRITZ, Ziir Gesch. der Predigt — von Mosheim bis anf die Gegenzuart (1875). On the different methods of preach- ing which prevailed in the seventeenth century, Ph. H. Schuler, Geschichte der Verdn- derungen des Geschmacks im Predigen, u.s.w. (1792 ff). On particular preachers : on Luther, *JONAS, Die Kanzelheredsamkeit Luthers (1852). On Calvin, E. Staehelin, Joh. Calvin, ii. (1863), ss. 421 — 437. On Spener, *A. Bromel, Homiletische Charakter- bilder, i. (1869), s. 128. On Joh. Valentin Andrea, an important dissertation in the review Deutschland, 1872, i., s. 168. On Abr. de St. Clara, a monograph by Th. G. VON Karajau (1867), and an article by C. Palmer, in his Geistliches und VVeltliches (1873), s. 216 ff; On J. L. von Mosheim, a "Narratio" by Fr. Lucre (1837) and a dissertation by K. R. Hageneach, in Gelzer's Monatsbldtter (1865). On the Abbot Jerusalem, an article by Koldewey, in the Zeitschr. fiir histor. Theol. 1869, iv., s. 536 ff. On Herder, Reinhard, Menken, Schleiermacher, and L. Hofacker, A. Bromel, u.s., ii. (1874), s. 3 ff. A good article on Schleierm. as a preacher in the Evang. K.-Ztg. of Nov., 1868. On Claus Harms, his Autobiography (1851). On Lavater, his elaborate biography by Gessner. On the Reveil-preachers in France and Switzerland, *A. Vincent, Histoire de la Predication protest, de langue Fran^aise au dixneuv. siecle, (1800 — 1866 (1S71). On A. Vinet, his *biography by Rambart (Lausanne, Bridel, 1875), p. 249 sqq. Comp. also the articles in Herzog's R.E., and in Dr. Wm. Smith's Dictionary of Christian Biography, bearing on our subject, as also H. D5RING, Die deutschen Kanzelredner des Hen und igen Jahrhdts. (1830). II. " The pulpit eloquence oi France stands related to that of the Germans, as the national character of the one people to the other " (Hiiffell). With this prefatory remark we propose entering upon a brief review of the preaching both in the Reformed and in the Romish Church from the time of the Reformation. In both we see preaching and Homiletics attain to a height which in some respects soars far above that of the Germans, and in others may still be proposed as a model for our own time. I. After, in the course of the sixteenth century, the Reformation had, in the midst of tears and blood, established itself in France, we see already, in the beginning of the seventeenth, men arising whose homiletical talent, accompanied as it was with a venerable character, calls forth recognition and admiration. At the head of these stands Pierre Dumoulin (t 1658), Reformed preacher at Sedan, as also for some years professor at Leyden, one of the most vigorous opponents of Roman Catholicism, whose preaching is characterised by great popularity and simplicity, while the oratorical ele- ment retires almost wholly into the background. — Much higher in the latter respect stands Moses Amyraut (t 1664), professor at Saumur, meritorious alike as a preacher and moralist, whose eloquence was admired even by the adherents of Rome, and produced a deep impression upon Richelieu and Mazarin in favour of his oppressed companions in the faith. — An equally didactic character is displayed by the eloquence of Jean D'Ailly (f 1670), who by his contemporaries and his companions in faith was termed the greatest man of his Church since the days of Calvin. His discourses, in twenty volumes, are distinguished by a telling, and now and then somewhat severe, polemic against his ecclesiastical opponents. Usually the preaching of these men and others displays a strictly objective, biblical, churchly character, while the form is at first simply analytical, and only by slow 9 I30 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. degrees approaches to the manifestation of a more synthetical character. The same may be said to a great extent of the sermons which have come down to us from Jean Claude (t 1687), " ce fameux M. Claude," as the Romanists also were wont to call him, who in a theological dispute caused even Bossuet involuntarily to quail before the force of his reasoning. His sermons are distinguished by purity of style, calmness and force of evidence, here and there accompanied with severity of tone. In all this they may be regarded as presenting a faithful reflection of the individuahty of the preacher. ^By degrees, however, the dialectic element in preaching is pushed aside by other tones. As was to be expected, the revocation of the Edict of Nantes >(i685) enchains the free word of the Reformation, and marks the com- mencement of the age of persecution. Our limits do not admit of our following the preaching in its wandering to the desert, to enter the churches of the Cevennes, or to salute the impressive figure of P. Rabaut (t 1795), otherwise than in passing. Rather do we seek to become acquainted with the most interesting of the preachers of the Refuge, of whom we have already met some single ones in Switzerland. 2. Among these, P. Dubosc, who died preacher at Rotterdam in 1692, claims attention in the first place. After Louis XIV. had on one occasion listened to him pleading the cause of the Protestants, he declared that he had that day heard the most eloquent man of his kingdom. As an orator he rendered to Calvinism no less important services than did Claude as a controversialist ; and when he was banished, England, Denmark, and Hol- land vied with each other in seeking the honour of affording him an asylum The seven volumes of his discourses present equally fine proofs of inven- tion, as of arrangement and action. In him was made manifest anew how much an extensive theological knowledge, when its results are applied with tact, contributes to the effectiveness of preaching. A plastic form is here combined with abundance of material, and if the orator in some passages shows that he has taken Basil as a model, he nevertheless still remains Dubosc— He may at the same time be looked upon as the forerunner of other refugies, who awakened the expectation of a new period of prosperity for the Walloon churches of Holland and elsewhere. Not to speak more at large with regard to David Ancillon (t 1692), Isaac Jacquelot (t 1708), Jacques Abbadie (t 1727),! and Isaac de Beausobre (t 1738), who all preached at Berlin,^ we call attention at once to the Rotterdam preacher, D. de Superville (t 1728), a man even in his youth so full of promise, that he was while a student qualified, and upon the indisposition of his pro- fessor called, to deliver the lectures in philosophy ; while, as preacher, he at once takes his place, in point of style and arrangement, not less high above others. The synthetic method of preaching attained in this gifted forerunner one of its most brilliant triumphs. — His colleague, too, J. Bas- nage (t 1723), deserves to be mentioned with distinction, particularly as a moral preacher. But the renown of all the foregoing is far eclipsed by that ' [Was made Dean of Killaloe during the reign of George L, whom Abbadie survived by little more than three months, dying at the age of sixty-nine.] ^ Frederick the Great, when Crown Prince, was wont to admire the eloquence of Beausobre, who died nearly two years before Frederick's accession to the throne. MODERN HISTORY AND LITERATURE. I3I of the unique Jacques Saurin (t 1730), for twenty-five successive years " Ministre des Nobles " at the Hague ; of whom it has been justly said by Vinet : " Parmi les modeles de la chaire protestante, Saurin est le premier ; il n'est infe'rieur a aucun des grands maitres de la chaire catholique." Specially in the five volumes of his discourses pubUshed by himself — the seven others which appeared after his death will hardly bear comparison — there occur whole pages of rare power and splendour. On the other hand, there are unquestionably to be met with passages of greater insipidity ; sometimes one has to struggle through a prolix explanation of a text, a theological discussion, a philosophical excursion, afterwards justly curtailed or altogether banished from the pulpit ; but, immediately after, all this is again forgotten, when upon outspread wings one is carried by the orator to the glittering mountain heights of living faith and joyful hope. Studied — not slavishly imitated, much less plundered — should he be, by all who aim at being heralds of the truth of God ; and the fact is perfectly expli- cable that the most cultured and developed portion of the congregation crowded for years together around the pulpit of Saurin. 3. On the part of the Romish Church we see important contributions yielded during this period to the theory of sacred eloquence ; among others by the Jesuit Gisbert, in his treatise Sur P Eloquence Chretienne. Under the influence, too, of Jean and Claude de Lingendes (t 1660), and Jean Fran- 9ois Senault (t 1672), the way was prepared for a new development of preaching in the Romish Church of France. Specially, however, do three names shine forth to us as stars of the first magnitude in the sky of Homi- letics, and entitle us to speak of a golden age — we cannot say for the preaching of the Gospel, but certainly for the pulpit eloquence under Louis XIV. J. B. Bossuet (t 1704), the eagle of Meaux, " the last of the Fathers of the Gallican Church," as he has been not unfitly termed ; the most powerful opponent of Calvinism in his day, great by reason of his learning, of his influence, of an eloquence so overpowering that — specially as a panegyrist and funeral orationist — -he sometimes shows himself incom- parable ; a broad mountain stream, which with thundering roar rushes down from the heights, and carries away everything which would offer resistance. " Je suis terrasse d'admiration pour Bossuet," says Laharpe ; and this feeling becomes perfectly comprehensible when one considers the com- parative depth into which preaching had sunk before he arose, and the more so when one takes into account the fact that the preacher was wont only to make a rough draft of his discourses in MS., and to complete the filling up and throwing into shape extemporaneously in the pulpit. — How high he stands is first rightly seen when we for a moment compare with him the contemporary Louis Bourdaloue (t 1704), the Jesuit father who during four and thirty years held spell-bound at his lips a most worldly audience, by the proclamation of a comparatively pure morality, based upon the ecclesiastical doctrine of Rome. In some respects, particularly in point of order and the logical character of his reasoning, he not seldom rises above Bossuet ; he is — sit venia verbo — ^as compared with this royal eagle, as the royal serpent which with velvet coils slowly surrounds the object of its prey, softly indeed, but in such a way that the captured animal can no longer escape. He convinces you, but — without carrying you with 132 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. him ; through the intellect he seeks the way to the heart, but frequently he does this in a manner which reminds you rather of the accomplished barrister than of the preacher pleading with unction from on high. In distinction from Bossuet, the homiletic genius, we should incline to call him a man of talent of the first order. He always interests his hearers, at least where he is not too diffuse, and possesses a remarkable tact for avoiding many a rock ; so that one may leave his church highly satisfied with the preacher, but often also without being dissatisfied with oneself. — An opposite effect was produced upon Louis XIV., according to a well-known report, after he had listened, in his court chapel at Versailles, to the preaching of Jean Bapt. Massillon (tat the age of seventy-nine, 1742), justly styled "the Racine of the pulpit," specially by reason of the purity and elegance of his diction. Nor is this effect surprising ; he addresses himself not to the intellect or imagination alone of his hearers, but above all to their feeUng, and brings especially the moral demands of Christianity into the foreground with con- centrated power. We should compare him by preference, not to a brilliant meteor, but to a moon veiled with fleecy clouds, which sheds a kindly light over a wide prospect. With reason is the exordium of his discourse on Matt. V. 3 ff specially renowned, a discourse delivered on All Saints' Day, in which he contrasts the beatitudes of Christ with those of a flatter- ing world ; and the conclusion of that on " the small number of the elect " (Luke iv. 27), in the delivery of which a sense of sacred awe fell upon himself, not less than upon his audience. Yet we are afraid that even he too often sought to recommend himself to the refined taste of his hearers, rather than to their awakened conscience, and that here too the courtier stood only too often in the way of the orator, and the orator in that of the preacher of the Gospel in the proper acceptation of the term. Unquestion- ably his so-called little Lent sermons, Le Petit Caraiie, testify of great literary gifts and of a highly successful tact in charming the childish ear of the young Dauphin while presenting his princely duties in the most agreeable manner ; but is not the cross of Christ only too much made void by such a course of Lenten sermons ? Very reluctant at least should we be to com- mend him as a model in this respect, however ready in other respects to render legitimate homage to him as, after Bossuet, a preacher for special occasions and a funeral orationist. He merits this, if for nothing else, for the beautiful exordium of his discourse in honour of the great Louis ; although, like Bossuet, he has much need of indulgence for the incense shed upon the persecutor of the Huguenots, on account of his pious zeal. Where it is a question of moral courage in rising against injustice, all the three "declaimers" — " Frunkred?ier" as Palmer somewhat severely, but not unjustly, calls them — are immeasurably surpassed by the itinerant Jacques Bridaine (t 1767), if at least we are to give entire credence to all that is handed down concerning him ; he it was who in the church of St. Sulpice at Paris sent a thrill of involuntary shuddering through the most brilliant auditory in the world, by his impressive representation of the retribution of eternity. A fourth court preacher, E. Flechier, Bishop of Nismes (t 17 10), aUhough as a funeral orationist not without merit, can only follow his illustrious predecessors without rivalling them. Beside him is worthy of mention also Segaud, favourite preacher of Louis XV., MODERN HISTORY AND LITERATURE. 1 33 renowned for his fidelity in his description of the sins of the age, and his courage in rebuking them. — But with special affection do we mention, even in connection with the history of Homiletics, the name of Frangois de Salignac de la Mothe Fenelon (t 1715), whose Dialogues sur V Eloquence en general et particulierement sitr celle de la Chair e cowivixn a treasure of homi- letic wisdom, worthy of the most serious attention. His maxim, " Un bon discours est celui ou Ton ne peut rien retrancher, sans couper dans le vif," is well worth remembrance. Little as we should be disposed to indorse his counsel of concealing as carefully as possible the plan of the discourse with a view to augmenting the effect, we yet fully subscribe to that which he advances in opposition to a vain rhetoric which proposes to itself no higher aim than that of glittering and pleasing. Only two sermons for special occasions of his composition are preserved, serving to make mani- fest the conscientious care with which he adhered to his homiletic rules ; but as from his earlier writings, so does there come forth from these the refreshing breath of living devotion ; the preacher is here manifestly upheld and confirmed by the pastor, and we shall not be alone in preferring, if need be, rather to err with Fenelon than to trium])h with Bossuet. In Fenelon the distinction between spiritual and worldly eloquence, only too much overlooked in the appreciation of the coryphees of the French pulpit of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth century, is restored again to its due place. In the light kindled by him also we see in a Bossuet, Bourdaloue, and Ma^sillon, just as little vain boasters as we do models in every respect for the preacher of the Gospel in the present day, but men whose example shows us to what lofty flight sacred eloquence can attain where great gifts are devoted to noble ends. Happy, the preacher who, in accordance with the anagram of the first-named, may be called a " bos suetus ad aratrium," and of Massillon has learned to esteem that- sermon best which he can most easily commit to memory. 4. For the theory of preaching, too, do we find not a little accomplished of a praiseworthy nature in France and French Switzerland of the seven- teenth and eighteenth centuries. We simply mention the name and work of E. Gaussen, " De Ratione Concionandi" (1727); J. de la Place, "Avis sur la Maniere de Precher" (1733) ; Ostervald, "L'Exercice du Ministere Sacre" (1739); Le Maitre, " Reflexions sur la Maniere de Precher la plus Simple et la plus Naturelle" (1745); Cheneviere, "Observations sur I'Eloquence de la Chaire." As regards the practical part, the course of the eighteenth cen- tury afforded little or nothing which could bear any kind of comparison with that left behind by the great names of the seventeenth. The spirit of unbelief and revolution which finally declared war even against the pulpit and the altar could not but affect disastrously the development, too, of the homiletic life and endeavour. Only towards the second quarter of this century, or during that quarter, are again heard names which will be pro- nounced within wide circles. In Jean Bapt. Henri Lacordaire (t 1861) the Romish Church possessed once more a pulpit orator for whom, not seldom, the Notre Dame at Paris was not large enough, when he was wont to plead in an impressive manner the sacred cause of faith and freedom. On the other hand, the liberal Protestant party boasted for many years of Athanase Coquerel, formerly preacher at Amsterdam, and later at Paris (t 1S6S), as c 134 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. one of its most eloquent exponents. In his pleasantly written " Observa- tions sur la Pratique de la Predication" (i860) he has given us the results of his own ministerial experience. On the orthodox side he was not only > equalled, but far surpassed, by the never-to-be-forgotten Adolphe Monod (t 1856), the ornament of a generation which gave to the Church of his country also other gifted preachers. Of his discourses, published in four volumes after his death (Paris, 1856 — 1860), a connoisseur like Vinet pro- nounces "perfection" to be their most characteristic feature. With no more illustrious and venerable name can we bring to a close our review of the History and Literature of Homiletics in France. 5. If we now, in concluding this point, direct our glance to the South of Europe, we can dispose of this part of our subject in few words. In lands where the preaching almost entirely recedes before the ritual, and the national character displays a more sensuous than moral tendency, sacred eloquence can seldom attain to a high flight, and but little worthy of note has been accomplished for its theory. Yet we must not pass over the Re- former, Bernardino Ochino of Siena (t 1564) in silence, a general of the Capuchin order, whose eloquence drew from well-qualified observers at Venice and elsewhere the encomium, " He preaches with so much talent and piety, that he would make the very stones cry out." — So also must we \^ speak with admiration of Charles Borromeo, the renowned Archbishop of Milan (11584), who not only diligently preached himself, but also gave hints specially with regard thereto in his " Instructiones Pastorales," and caused a " Rhetorica Ecclesiastica " to be composed for the use of the seminaries. In particular have the Theatine monks, as also the Jesuits, laboured for the improvement of the preaching of this period ; among the last-named, Peter Canisius (f 1597), for a while court chaplain to the Austrian emperor, is greatly commended as a preacher. Beside them, some of the missionaries and Lent preachers also are distinguished, as e.g., Fra Paolo Segneri (t 1694), a much-admired preacher under Innocent XII. and earlier, who during more than a quarter of a century used to travel through the principal towns of Italy, in order to awaken men to repentance and conversion. In the first half of our century his renown was equalled by that of the Professor of Homiletics at Padua, G. Barbieri, whose dis- courses— of which a few were printed in 1828 and following years — were often interrupted by the loud expressions of applause, " Bella, bella, e una musica." From Spain no more celebrated name has reached us than that of De la Torre, professor at Barcelona, whose Lent sermons, delivered (in presence of the queen) in 17 13, produced a deep impression. — In the Greek Church, finally, preaching continued even after the Reformation to exist in an extremely drooping condition. Martin Crusius, professor at Tubingen (t ^607), could translate out of German into the Greek a volume of sermons for the whole Church year, and send it to be used at Constan- tinople : but the well-meaning attempt found no great acceptance. In Russia the higher clergy seem hardly to entrust the work of preaching to the lower, and, where this must occasionally be permitted, usually give the preference to the repetition of ancient standard Homilies. The dignitaries of the Church themselves have moreover now and then, on extraordinary occasions, an opportunity for the display of their own preaching talents. MODERN HISTORY AND LITERATURE. I 35 This was the case, e.i^'-., with Philarethes, metropolitan of Rostow (t 1633); Procopowitch (t 1736), favourite orator of Peter the Great, called the " father of the liberal sciences in Russia ;" Lewschin, metropolitan of Mos- cow (t 181 2), who delivered an oration at the coronation of Alexander I., which was translated into seven languages. For the theory of Homiletics within this circle the "Tractatus de concionum dispositionibus formandis" (1806), by Bratanowski, was long regarded as the best. For the practice a contribution was afforded in our own time by Macarius, Archbishop of Lithuania ; a " Choix de Sermons et de Discours " by whom, published in a French translation in 1869, bears as a whole a more political and eccle- siastical, than it does an evangelical, character. Those of the professor Amphitheatrow were already earlier (1855) translated into German, and have been highly commended. Whether the hope for the revival of the Greek Church, cherished by many, will be realised in this domain, is a question, the answer to which as yet lies hidden in the womb of the future. In order to witness interesting manifestations of a life in vigorous develop- ment, we must, for the present, turn our eye northward.. Comp. *A. ViNET, Histoire dc la Predication parmi les Reformes de France du lye sieclc (1S60). P. Jacquinet, Des Predicateurs du dixseptihne siecle avant Bossuet (1864). An interesting dissertation of L. RoGNON, " Du R^alisme dans la Predication" (having special reference to Dumoulin), in his Melanges Philosophiipies, Pefigieiix et Liltcraires (1S70), pp. 165 — 204. J.J. VAN O., Jacques Satirin, a page from t/ie History of Pulpit Eloquence (French tr., 1856 ; Dutch, 2nd edn., 1869), and the literature there mentioned. To which add the works on Saurin by J. Gaberel (1864) and E. A. Berthault (1875). "*J. S. Maury, Essai sur r Eloquence de la Chaire (a'' ed. 1835), p. 343 sqq. *F. Bungener, Un Sermon sous Louis XIV. (1849). The same, Trois Sertnons sous Louis XV. (1849). Ch. Weiss, Histoire des Rifugies Frattfais (1858). N. Peyrat, Histoire des Pasteurs du Desert. Ch. Coquerel, I'Eglise du Desert (1843). For Paul Rabaut, G. de Felice, History of the Protestants of France from the beginning of the Refwmation, translated from the second French edition (1853), pp. 416 — 422. And further, the articles bearing on our subject in the Bibliotheque Universelle, Herzog's R.E., and Dr. Wm. Smith's Did. oj Chr. Biog. III. I. The seed of the Reformation, sown by Wiclif and others, very quickly sprang up in England also, and if the controversy between Henry the Eighth and Luther had checked the influence of the latter in England, yet so much more was the Calvinistic spirit introduced by men like Peter Martyr, Martin Bucer, John a Lasko, John Knox, and others. Yet in this country the word of preaching did not at first assume the lofty flight, nor exert the mighty influence, of which it had shown itself capable elsewhere. In an evil hour a Book of Homilies on the fixed pericopes of the Church year was prepared by order of Henry the Eighth, and placed in the hands of the preachers ; a work to which very much was wanting, in point alike of contents and form, of a nature to edify the congregation ; and although the ritual was purged of the Romish leaven, the liturgy still continued to occupy the first place in the worship of the Church. Even in the time of Elizabeth the preachers thought they had done enough when they had read to the congregation in a sleepy and soothing tone a sermon out of the Book of Homilies ;^ while, moreover, the wealth of some of the higher dignitaries ' The First Book of Homilies was published in the beginning of King Ed\\ard the 136 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. of the Church did not prove an incentive to their zeal. In the judgment of Hugh Blair, the English sermon even in later times displayed the cha- racter of " a document of calmly instructive reasoning," as compared with which the pathos of the French orators might easily appear excessive. Nor can it surprise us, upon a glance at the English temperament, that the saying of Cicero^ has been thought applicable in this case : " lUis non in- genium, sed oratorium ingenium defuit." Nevertheless the early English pulpit orators of the Reformed Church were men who, in point of massive- ness of thought, depth of theological knowledge, and power of applying the saving truths of the Gospel to the hearts and consciences of their hearers, yield the palm to none. We may in this connection pass over Master Hugh Latimer, who is yet more remembered as the preacher for the common people than as Bishop of Worcester (until the episcopal office was voluntarily laid down by him), and who, like John Hooper, Bishop of Gloucester, and Nicholas Ridley, Bishop of London, preached his noblest sermon at the stake in 1555.^ Of the contents of the two volumes of his published discourses, the sermon on "the Sower," preached at Paul's Cross, affords the most favourable specimen of his popular style. It is with the latter part of Elizabeth's reign, and in that of her successor, that the great Puritanic era dawns ; during the reign of Charles I. and the time of the Commonwealth that it culminates; and with the reign of James 11. that it closes, with the virtual triumph of the doctrines of Laud within the Establishment, and the advancing inroads of distintegration and decay out- side of it. For some time after this the voice of Puritanism made itself heard with freshness and power in the New England States of America, until here also — but here without any violence or abrupt transition — it gave place to the more artistic pulpit discourses of modern times. Among the most famous preachers of the English Reformation may be reckoned Edwin Sandys, Archbishop of York (b. 1519, d. 1588) ;3 John Jewell, Bishop of Salisbury (b. 1522, d. 1571); Richard Hooker (b. about 1553, d. 1600);* Lancelot Andrewes, Bishop of Winchester (b. 1555, d. 1626); Henry Smith (b. 1560, began his ministry 1582, d. 1591); Robert Bolton (b. 1572, d. 1631); Thomas Taylor (b. 1576, d. 1632); Nicholas Byfield (b. 1578, d. 1622); Richard Sibbes, author of the "Bruised Reed" and the "Soul's Conflict" (b. 1577, began preaching soon after 1602, d. 1635); John Preston (b. 1587, d. 1628); John Davenport (b. 1597, emigrated to Boston, New England, 1637, died in America 1670); Thomas Adams Sixth's reign, in 1547, having been composed (as it is thought) by Archbishop Cranmer and Bishops Ridley and Latimer. It was reprinted in 1560. The Second Book appeared in 1563, having been printed the year before, in the reign of Elizabeth. Bishop Jewell is supposed to have had a great share in its composition. — So Hook, on the authority of Burnet.^ — Church Diet., p. 371. ' Cicero, Brutus, no. ^ The best biography of Latimer is that by the late Rev. R. Demaus : "Hugh Latimer. From Original Documents." R. T. Soc. (1874). ^ For specimens of the style of some of these earlier English preachers, see Dr. James Hamilton, Our Christian Classics, vol. i. (1857). One of the earliest English Reformers was Thomas Becon (b. 1512, d. abt. 1570)- * On the extant sermons of Hooker, five in number, cf. Ramsay, as before, pp. 108— no. MODERN HISTORY AND LITERATURE. I 37 (began his ministry in 1612, preacher at St. Gregory's, under St. Paul's, in 1618, died before 1660); Thomas Goodwin (b. 1600, Ucensed a preacher in 1625, d. 1679); John Trapp (b. 1601, d. 1669); Ant. Farringdon (b. 1596, d. 1658) ; Henry Tozer (b. 1602, d. 1650) ; Richard Baxter (b. 1615, began his ministry 1638, d. 1691) ; John Owen (b. 1616, d. 1683) ; Thomas Manton (b. 1620, d. 1677); Thomas Brookes (began his ministry about 1651, d. 1680J; David Clarkson (b. 6th Feb., 1621 o.s., 1622 n.s., began his ministry 1682, d. i686) ; WilUam Bates (b. 1625, d. 1699); Richard Gil- pin (b. about 1624, d. Feb., 1699 or 1700); Thomas Adams (b. 1626, d. 1670); Stephen Charnock (b. 1628, began his ministry soon after 1642, d. 1680); John Bunyan (b. 1628, d. 1688); John Howe (b. 1630, d. 1705); James Janeway (b. 1636, d. 1674, after a ministry of sixteen years). As the more distinguished Anglican preachers of this period are to be mentioned Joseph Hall, Bishop of Norwich (b. 1574, d. 1656); James Usher, Archbishop of Armagh (b. 1580, d. 1656); Robert Sanderson, Bishop of Lincoln (b. 1587, d. 1663); Robert Leighton, some time Arch- bishop of Glasgow (b. 1613, d. 1684); Jeremy Taylor, "the English Chrysostom" (b. 1613, d. 1677); John Pearson (b. 1613, d., Bishop of Chester, 1686). John Donne, Dean of St. Paul's (b. 1573, d. 1631), John Cosin, Bishop of Durham (b. 1594, d. 1672).^ The properly so-called history of the development of sacred eloquence upon English soil can, however, only be said to begin with the Archbishop of Canterbury, John Tillotson (11694), who, specially as compared with predecessors and contemporaries, might be termed a preacher in many respects meritorious. Inclined to a mildly orthodox, somewhat latitudina- rian mode of thought, and formed by the study of Chrysostom and Basil the Great, Tillotson is distinguished by great clearness, sound exposition of Scripture, accuracy and force of demonstration, by a ]jure, although not very vigorous, style, now and then, too, by an unnecessary display of learning, as also by a vehement polemic against Rome. That the great sobriety of his discourse occasionally also degenerates into coldness, and the sermon usually bears too much the character of a doctrinal or moral treatise, is a defect which he shared with many later preachers of his nation, and one which was subsequently intensified by the slavery of a verbal reading, which afforded only too much ground for the jests about " a sleep- ing sermon." In the sermons of his contemporary, Isaac Barrow (t 1677), one sees, moreover, the traces of the author having been, assuredly not with advantage to the fervour of his eloquence, for a time professor of mathe- matics. Side by side with him are mentioned with distinction the names of John Sharp, Archbishop of York (ti7i4); Richard Lucas (ti7i5); Thomas Sherlock, Bishop of London (t 1761); Simon Patrick, Bishop of Chichester (t 1707); Thomas Tennison, Archbishop of Canterbury (t 17 15); Samuel Clarke (f 1769), of whom Voltaire said that "he had, with Locke,' the keys of the intellectual world in his hand." As a Hfe-a wakening ' The first work on Homiletics in the English language was published by John Wilkins (d. Bp. of Chester, 1672) : " Ecclesiastes, or a Discourse concerning the Gift of Preaching" (1646), although Robert Mossom (d. Bishop of Derry, 1679) is said to have published his " Tripartite Preacher" as early as 1637. The best known edition is that of 1657. Another edition appeared in 1685. 13^^ PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. preacher of the Gospel, however, this philosopher in the pulpit was far sur- passed by the quondam sailor, John Newton (f 1807), after a wild and dissolute life mightily awakened and converted, and made a blessed means for the conversion of others ; a practical preacher, to whose influence the renowned Wilberforce (1759 — 1833) owed the powerful impulse to his labour on behalf of the slaves, and whose " Cardiphonia" and other works of edification have been useful to many far beyond the limits of his own country.^ Much more abundant becomes the harvest of eminent preachers when we turn our glance to the Puritans or Nonconformists. At the head of the most illustrious shines the name of [the earlier] Thomas Adams, who exercised his ministry in London in the first half of the seventeenth century, "the Shakespeare of the Puritans," as he was later termed, whose works (first published in 1629, and reprinted in our own day) present to us the model of a truly popular and original preacher. Very soon, however, and not without reason, was his name eclipsed by that of Isaac Watts (t 1748) and PhiUp Doddridge (t 175 1). The former, author of two volumes of " Sermons on Various Subjects," combined in a happy manner the analytical and synthetical method of preaching, by reason of more than ordinary practical skill a source of blessing to old and young even after his decease. The latter knew above many how to speak to the hearts of his hearers, and was so much beloved that after his death his name could not be mentioned in his congregation without drawing forth tears, even on the part of the young preachers whom he had trained in his seminary for the ministry of the Gospel. The name and work, too, of James Foster, teacher of a Baptist congregation in London (t 1753), G. Benson (t 1762), and Laurence Sterne (t 1768), each testifies in its way to talent and develop- ment [but neither of them is Evangelical]. By the last-named humorist two volumes of discourses were published, which differ entirely from the ordinary style of preaching, and show how Yorick in the pulpit knew how ^ [Among the preachers who have exerted the greatest influence upon the English pulpit from the time of the Act of Uniformity (1662) to the close of the eighteenth cen- tury may 1)6 enumerated Robert South (b. 1633, d. 1694) ; George Bull, Bp. of St. David's (b. 1634, d. 1710) ; Edward Stillingfleet, Bp. of Worcester (b. 1635, d. 1699); Wm. Beveridge, Bp. of St. Asaph (b. 1638, d. 1708) ; Gilbert Burnet, Bp. of Salisbury (b. 1643, d. 1715) ; Thomas Sherlock, Bp. of London (b. 1678, d. 1761) ; Joseph Butler, Bp. of Durham (b. 1692, d. 1752) ; Thomas Seeker, Archb. of Canterbury (b. 1693, d. 1768) ; Wm. Warburton, Bp. of Gloucester (b. 1698. d. 1779) ; John Jortin (b. 1698, d. 1770); Matthew Henry (b. 1662, beg. min. 1687, d. 1714) ; Isaac Watts (b. 1674, d. 1748) ; Thomas Bradbury (b. 1677, d. 1759) ; Phil. Doddridge (b. 1702, d. 1751) ; John Wesley (b. 1703, d. 1791) ; James Hervey (b. 1714, d. 1758) ; George Whitefield (b. 1714, d- 1770) ; William Romaine (b. 1714. d. 1795); Richard Hurd, Bp. of Worcester (b. 1720, d. 1808) ; John Newton (b. 1725, d. 1807) ; Henry Venn (b. 1725, d. 1797) ; John Fletcher (1729— 1785) ; Sam. Horsley, Bp. of St. Asaph (b. 1733, d. 1806); Abraham Booth (L"- ^734' d. 1806) ; Robert Robinson, of Cambridge (b. 1735, d. 1790) ; Richard Watson, Bp. of Llandaff (b. 1737, d. 1816) ; Augustus Toplady (b. 1740, d. 1778) ; Wm. Paley (b. 1743, d. 1805) ; Thomas Scott (b. 1747, d. 1821) ; Richard Cecil (b. 1748, d. 1810) ; Thomas Robinson, of Leicester (b. 1749, d. 1813) ; John Ryland, of Bristol (1753— 1825) ; Andrew Fuller (b. 1754, d. 1815) and the Tollers, of Kettering. Nor must we omit the excellent clergyman, John Berridge (b. 1716, d. 1793). — A pulpit character for this period, whose vagaries stood out in relief from the conventional deadness generally pre- vailing, was Wm. Huntingdon, "Sinner Saved," b. 1744, d. 1S13.] MODERN HISTORY AND LITERATURE. I 39 to attract, but not always equally well how to practise self-control. ^ His sermon on the Prodigal Son, for instance, with its sharp opposition to the taste for travelling " on the Continent " on the part of the young English aristocracy, with all its attendant perils, may be taken as a type of his peculiar genre. — There were no preachers, however, of the eighteenth century in England who could, even distantly, rival in point of influence and importance the two great Methodist preachers, George Whitefield (t 1770) and John Wesley (t 1791), although later separating the one from the other, on the ground of differences with regard to the doctrine of predestination. If the former saw himself, on account of the opposition of the Anglican clergy, as also because almost all churches were too small to contain the audience which gathered to hear him, excluded from the majority of pulpits, his powerfully awakening voice was heard resounding in the open air, not seldom over an audience of from ten to twenty thousand.2 The latter, founder of the society of Wesleyan Methodists, although less impetuous than Whitefield, exerted no less powerful an influence. Unceasingly might one see him testifying under God's free heaven, with nothing lout an open Bible in his hand, to a multitude of thirty, forty, or fifty thousand people, of the misery of sin and the power of grace. Owing to the influence of Deism, the need for a living and life -awakening preaching was called forth more than ever ; and that need was met by these men far more than by the official utterances of the slumbering Establishment. From the standpoint of homiletic art, their sermons, of course, left not a Httle to be desired : the outpouring of the awakened feeling was to be restrained by no rules or forms, and of express preparation for the pulpit one could here hardly speak. But whatever sort of commendation may be refused to the two preachers above named, that of an all-surmounting faith certainly cannot be withheld, and that of an unceasing labour equally little. In his eighty-fifth year Wesley could still work on, and ascribed this power to his daily practice of rising at four o'clock, and retiring to bed before ten. He could declare that in two and fifty years he had preached no fewer than forty thousand times. The sermons published by him in 1746 prove that, as he says in the preface, he refrained on principle from philosophic speculations and all that was known only in the schools of the learned. The secret of the wonderful reception of this preaching is to be found exclusively in the power of truth on the consciences of men and upon the personahty of the preacher himself. And in what else is to be sought the key to the marvellous power with which John Bunyan (t 1688), the writer of the "Pilgrim's Progress," and Richard Baxter (t 1691), the author of the ' [Unhappily Jonathan Swift (d. 1745) and Lawrence Steme were by no means the least worthy occu])ants of the Christian pulpit during this age. There was only too much ground for the stern rebuke Lord Bolingbroke once gave to a worldly clergyman at Battersea : " Let me seriously tell you, that the greatest miracle in the world is the subsistence of Christianity, and its continuetl preservation as a religion, when the preaching of it is committed to the care of such unchristian wretches as you." Bolingbroke, who died in 1 75 1, had in the evening of his life a great admiration for Whitefield.] - [About four thousand remained to partake of the Lord's Supper on one occasion after George Whitefield had preached in the West of Scotland.] 140 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. " Reformed Pastor," could by their simple language attract and win so many, and yet speak so long after their death ? Nor among the great preachers who did so much for the regeneration of Wales during the second half of the eighteenth century must be forgotten Thomas Charles of Bala (b. 1755, d. 1814); Christmas Evans, "the Bunyan of Wales " (b. Dec. 25th, 1766, d. 1838) ; John Elias, perhaps the most powerful preacher the Princi- pality has ever produced, a man possessing all the qualifications of an dvai avSpwv in the oratorical domain (b. 1774, d. 1841);^ and Wm. Williams, of Wern (b. 1781, d. 1840), whose sermons were characterised by an almost classical refinement and beauty of diction. Among the earlier preachers shone Walter Cradoc (d. 1659), Daniel Rowlands (b. 1713, d. 1790), and Howell Harris (b. 17 14, d. 1773); among the later, especially Henry Rees (b. 1797, d. 1869), who deserves to be called the Monod of Wales. 2. In Scotland, the annals of the history of Homiletics were brilliantly opened with the name of John Knox {f 1572), who "never feared the face of man. "2 But other names, too, deserve at least a brief mention when our limits do not admit of a full discussion. Andrew Melville, the warm Presbyterian, irreconcilable opponent of the episcopal system in the beginning of the seventeenth century, who died professor at Sedan in 1622. Alexander Henderson (f 1646), leader of the Scottish Presbyterians in their struggle against Charles I., characterised by competent judges as a learned, vigorous, edifying preacher. G. Campbell, professor at Aber- deen (t 1796), powerful opponent of Hume, author of very solid discourses, to which a permanent value attaches. For the theory of preaching, good precepts were given in the middle of the eighteenth century by David Fordyce (t 1751)? Professor of Philosophy in Aberdeen, whose "Art of Preaching" was also translated into German and Dutch (1754). In practice Hugh Blair, Presbyterian preacher in Edinburgh (t 1800), excelled very many. In a homiletic respect the glory of his land and age, read too in other lands, and commended by the most diverse voices ; excelling specially as a moral preacher for more cultured hearers, and address- ing himself by preference to the intellect and good taste of his hearers ; renowned, too, for his "Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres," still worthy the attention of all friends of eloquence -and literature. [The memory of John Maclaurin, of Glasgow (f 1754), on the other hand, shines with a nobler kind of immortality. His one sermon on Gal. vi. 14, if it were the only one in the two little volumes of his " Remains," would alone suffice to rescue himself and the age in which he lived from oblivion.] The sermons of John Drysdale (t 1788), although they enjoyed less run than those of Blair, are rated by duly qualified critics not much lower than Blair's. The oratory of a heart penetrated with the vital truths of the Gospel found one of its noblest exponents, of this or any other age, in the person of the youthful Robert Murray McCheyne (t 1843), whose "Memoir ' At the climax of his discourse his words descended like an avalanche, sweeping away everything that would offer resistance. The saying of Luke i. 1 7 most naturally occurs to the mind in connection with his ministrations. (See on Welsh preaching generally, a (Welsh) work on the Life and Times of John Jones, Talysarn, by Dr. Owen Thomas. Invaluable. ) - Words pronounced by Regent Moray at the grave of Knox. MODERN HISTORY AND LITERATURE. I4I and Remains " and " Additional Remains " (by his friend Andrew Bonar) have passed through numerous editions, and whose influence continues to exert itself with blessed results both far and near even to the present day. In point of eloquence, nevertheless, the fame of all was eclipsed during the first half of this century by that of Thomas Chalmers (t 1847), whose discourses, it is true, no longer produce in reading the impression which they produced upon the audience at the time ; but certainly were more generally intelligible, even for the plainer part of the congregation, than those of Blair. Of more than ordinary eloquence testify specially his " Discourses on the Christian Revelation Viewed in Connection with the Modern Astronomy" (181 7), a work which may be read over again with advantage in the present day, in opposition to the modern Naturalism of our time. His countryman and contemporary, Edward Irving (f 1834), exerted an influence rather powerful than beneficial, of which he availed himself for the diffusion of crypto-catholicising ideas. ^ — The early sermons of Dr. Pusey, John Henry Newman, and Henry Edward Manning are to be regarded as models of homiletic treatment from the standpoint of their authors ; while Cardinal Wiseman (f 1865) passed for the most eloquent preacher of the English Romish Church in his day, but is far excelled by his successor, Henry Edward Manning. As an interesting representative of a freer tendency of thought and preaching on the side of the Protestants, F. W. Robertson (f 1853), the renowned preacher of Brighton, who died comparatively early in life, is justly admired by very many who are not insensible to his errors on some essential points. On the conservative side shone among "the Lamps of the Temple" a R. W. Hamilton (f 1848), a James Hamilton (f 1867), a Henry Melvill (t 1871), Rob. Newton (fabt. 1853), Baptist Noel {t 1873), Wm. Brock (f 1873), and many others. The names, finally, of the authors and preachers, known and loved by many in Holland also, through the translation of their writings, John Caird, of Glasgow, John Cumming, of London, Thomas Guthrie, and R. J. Candlish, the last two of whom died in 1873, point to brilliant stars in Caledonia's sky. The third of these published moreover homiletic precepts, which attracted attention in other lands too. See the " Conseils sur la pre'dica- tion par Dr. Guthrie, trad, librement de I'Anglais par L. Rufifet.''^ ' [Unless the proclamation of these ideas was itself the last desperate effort to regain a waning popularity, or else to find a compensation for the loss of it. Was he not being urged in spite of himself down a sloping plane, without finding any way of retracing his steps? Though a sincere man, he was marked by a very fitful temperament.] '' [Of the Scottish preachers of the Reformation, the following, among others, are worthy of special mention : Patrick Hamilton (b. 1503, d. 1527), George Wishart (d. 1546), John Knox (1505 — 1572), Andrew Melville (1545— 1622), Robert Bruce (1599— 163 1), Samuel Rutherford (1600— 1661), John Livingston (1603— 1672 ; part of his time minister of the Scots' Church in Rotterdam), Zachary Boyd (d. 1653), John Lockhart, Robert Traill, the latter educated at Edinburgh and Utrecht, subsequently minister of the Scots' Church in London (b. 1642, d. 1716), Robert Fleming, pastor of Cambuslang, ejected 1662, henceforth pastoral Rotterdam (1630— 1694), R. Flemingjun., Scots' Church, Lond. (d. 1716), Henry Scougal (1650 — 1678), Thomas Halyburton (1674— 1712), Thomas Foston (1676— 1732), John Maclaurin (1693 — 1754), Robert Riccaltoun (1691 — 1764), John Brown, pastor of the Scots' Church, Rotterdam (d. 1679), John Brown, of Haddington (1722— 1787), Andrew Thomson (1779 — 1831), John Brown, Edinburgh (b. 1785, d. 1858). Nor must we overlook the spiritually-minded John Welsh of Ayr (d. 1622), Hugh Binning (d. 1654), 142 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. 3. With a view to completeness we mention here what we are able to communicate in this respect as regards Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. In Stveden the history of Homiletics in modern times naturally attaches itself to the illustrious names of Olaus and Laurentius Petri, whose dis- courses, though but simple homilies, far surpass all others of their time and circle. In the seventeenth century there come into special prominence Budbeckius, Bishop of Westeras (f 1613); J. Botvidi, Bishop of Linkoping (t 1635), highly esteemed chaplain of Gustavus Adolphus ; J. Gesehus, the Swedish Spener; H. Spegel and Jesper Swedberg (t 1735). Side by side with the last-named were the court-preacher Nohrborg (t 1767) and others, the ornaments of the eighteenth century. Nohrborg is a kindred spirit with Bengel, but more scholastic in form than the latter. His dis- courses are still read, in preference to any other, by the Lasaren (orthodox Pietists) of our own time. A more Moravian tendency of mind found its James Durham (d. 1658), David Dickson (d. 1663), a man renowned for his eloquence ; John WilHson (d. 1750), an excellent practical theologian ; John Gillies (d. 1796), minister of New College Chapel, Glasgow ; and John Witherspoon (d. 1794), who contributed greatly to the later awakening by his "Ecclesiastical Characteristics, . . . being an hum- ble attempt to open up the Mystery of Moderation" (first edit. 1753, third edit. 1754; passed into at least five editions). This was followed by a "Serious Apology for the Characteristics," in which he avowed his authorship of that work. He removed to New Jersey in 1 768, and occupied the chair of Jonathan Edwards and Samuel Davies, until his death. Finally, T. S. Jones, minister of Lady Glenorchy's Chapel, Edinburgh, a man of great usefulness, published a volume of discourses in 1819. Of those whose ministry was exercised within the United Kingdom during, or about, the first half of the present century, the following, among others, may be mentioned with distinction: Rowland Hrll (1774— 1833), Charles Simeon (1759— 1836), Robert Hall, the Demosthenes of the English pulpit (1764 — 1831). Richard Watson (1781 — 1833), John Foster, of Bristol (1770— 1843), William Howells (1778— 1832), Thomas Chalmers (1780 — 1847), Edward Bickersteth (1786— 1850), Charles Wolfe (1791 — 1823), Thomas Spencer (1791— 1811), Edward Irving (1793 — 1834), Augustus Hare (1792 — 1834), Richard Winter Hamilton (1794— 1848), Julius Charles Hare (i795— 1855), R- L. McAll, of Manchester, William Jay, of Bath (d. 1853), R. Murray McCheyne, of Dundee (1813 —1843), David Russell, Dundee (d. 1848), Ralph Wardlaw, Glasgow (d. 1853), John Angell James, of Birmingham (d. 1859), Robert Montgomery (d. 1855), Charles Bradley, of Clapham, Jabez Bunting (1858), John Robertson, of Glasgow (d. 1865), James Hamilton, London (d. 1867), Robert Vaughan (d. 1868), Wm. Archer Butler, of Dublin (d. 1848), James Harrington Evans (d. 1849), M. Villiers. Bp. of Durham (d. 1861), Wm. Cunningham, Edinburgh (d. 1864), Hugh Stowell, Manchester (d. 1865), James Sherman, London (d. 1862), in the same year, Drs. A. Reed and Leifchild, Thomas Raffles (1863), Henry Melvill, the "Golden Lecturer"' (d. 1871), Henry Alford (d. 1871), Norman Macleod, oif Glasgow (d. 1872), and Dean Ramsay, of Edinburgh, in the same year ; while among the distinguished preachers cut off in 1 873 were Thomas Guthrie, Robert Candlish, Samuel Wilberforce, formerly Bishop of Oxford, died Bishop of Win- chester, Baptist Noel, Thomas Binney, and William Brock ; Charles Kingsley (1819 — 1875), James Parsons (1877), Capel Molyneux (1878). Within recent years, too, Homiletic practice has suffered great loss in the death of Isiay Burns, of Glasgow (1874), William Arnot, Edinburgh (1875), ^•i*^ Canon Mozley (1877). A man of less brilliant ability than some of the foregoing, but not less honoured than any in the success of his minis- terial work, was Richard Knill, formerly minister of the English congregation, St. Peters- burg, and afterwards pastor at Chester, where he died, in his seventieth year, 1857. A model of effective preaching to boys was afforded by Thomas Arnold (d. 1842), in his sermons preached in Rugby School. Among the celebrated preachers of the first half of this century, who still survive, may be specially mentioned Hugh McNeile, the two Bonars, and John Gumming.] MODERN HISTORY AND LITERATURE. 1 43 exponents in Rutstrom (t 1765) and Hamberg (t 1764); a freer in G. P^nneborn ; while as representatives of Rationalism in the pulpit are mentioned J. MoUer, bishop in Gothland (t 1805), and Lehnberg, bishop in Linkoping (t 1808), and as Swedenborgian P. Fredell. With the beginning of the present century a great improvement became manifest in the preaching of Sweden. More value than before was attached to a sound exposition of Scripture and a good form of presentation ; while variety was provided for by the appointing of three different series of texts for using in the Church year. Gladdening especially was the growth of a more Evangelical spirit, as opposed to the Rationalistic one of former times. Worthy of mention are the names of Wallin of Stockholm (t 1839, at the age of sixty), and known, on account of his beautiful hymns, as "the David of the North;" L. S. Odmann (t 1829), at Upsala ; P. C. Hagberg (t 1837), at Lund; Esaias Tegner, also at Lund (f 1846), one of the most amiable poets and theologians of our century, fresh and vigorous as is nature in his native land ; J. H. Thomander, bishop of the same place (t 1865), of Scottish descent, as of Scottish ingenium and style of preaching, greeted by his associates in the faith as another Luther; while his contemporary. Bishop Reuterdahl, laboured more in the spirit of Schleiermacher. In the present day the names of Lindblad, Emanuelson, Toren, and Rudin, among others, are in good repute as Swedish preachers. In Nor7vay it was long the practice to subsist on the nourishment afforded by the translated works of English and German homiletes, while, moreover, that which Sweden and Denmark yielded did not there remain unknown. During our own century are specially to be mentioned in Norway J. N. Brun, Bishop of Bergen (t 1816), a man of powerful imagination and fiery eloquence, and withal a vigorous opponent of Rationalism, of whose " Sacred Orations " a third edition appeared at Christiania in the years 1841 — 1843 ; and Niels Stockfleth Schultz, preacher at Drontheim (t 1842), who wrote a course of sermons for all the Sundays and festivals of the Church year, which have been received with great favour. A very celebrated House-postil was put forth at Christiania in 1847, by H. Hailing. That published by W. A. Wexels (t 1866), of the same city, has attained to an eleventh edition ; an honour well deserved, it is said, on account of its truly evangelical spirit, although on the part of some the author is suspected of being a Grundtvigian. One can perhaps best learn what is the present state of things in this respect in Norway from a year's issue of discourses, pubUshed at Christiania in 1863, to which contribution was made by many popular preachers of that land. — In Denmark the names which more especially attract attention are those of J. P. Mynster, Bishop of Zealand (t 1854), whose "Ordination Sermons" (two series, of the years 40 and 46) are commended as models, who moreover published (1810) a work on "The Art of Preaching"; Soren Kierkegaard, an individualist of the noblest kind, who has been termed the Vinet of his native land ; and H. Martensen, to whom we owe, inter alia, a " Hirtenspiegel," consisting of two collections of twenty addresses, each delivered at the ordination of future preachers — a work which merits a place in the library of every pastor and teacher. 144 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. Comp. on some of the English and Scottish preachers, "Isaac Watts : His Life and Times," by E. Paxton Hood (R. T. S.), 8vo., 1877.—* "The Life of John Howe, with an Analysis of his Writings," by the late Prof Henry RoGERb (R. T. S.), 8vo., 1877. — *Charlesworth's Life of Rowland Hill.— *Tyerman, Life of Whitefield. — Idem, Life of John Wesley. — Sermons of Rev. Wm. Archer Butler, 1st series, 9th edit., 8vo. ; 2nd series, 7th edit., 8vo. — Hooker's works. Clarendon Press. — ^John Owen's works, edited by Dr. Goold, of Edinburgh. — *McCrie's Life of Knox. — * Chalmers' Memoirs, by his son-in-law. Dr. Hanna, 2 vols. (1850). — Archb. Leighton's E.xposition of Peter (Nelson's edit.). — Works of Robert Hall (Bohn's edit.). — Life of Edward Payson (John- stone and Hunter). — Life of Dr. McAU, by Ralph Wardlaw (1840).— George Offer's Life of Bunyan (1853). — Life of James Hamilton, by Arnot (1870). — Life of Dr. John Duncan, by Dr. David Brown (1872). — Life of F. W. Robertson, by Rev. Stopford Brooke. — Life of Edward Irving, by Mrs. Oliphant, 2 vols. (1862). *Life of W. C. Burns, by his brother, Islay Burns, author of "The Pastor of Kilsyth," 4th edit., 1870.— On Jeremy Taylor, etc., Dean Ramsay, pp. 104 — ill. For his sermons : "The whole Sermons of Jeremy Taylor," one vol., Edin., Black (1840). — For a sketch of celebrated preachers of the modern English pulpit, E. Paxton Hood : "The Lamps of the Temple," 3rd edit. (1856). — On Henry Melvill, a critique by Paxton Hood, in the Preacher's Lantern, vol. i. pp. 193, 257, 342. — Dr. John Stoughton, the Ecclesiastical History of England, 5 vols. (1867 — 1874). — Rev. John Hunt, Religious Thought in England, 2 vols. (1870- 71). — For a lively sketch of some of the great Welsh preachers of last century, a series of papers by E. Paxton Hood, in Sunday at Home for 1876. — On Tegner, * J. J. L. TEN Kate, Esaias Tegntr als godgeleerde en dichter {iSjz). Further, the articles, on some of the persons here mentioned, in Herzog's /?. E., where, however, the North receives on the whole but scant attention. On the decline in the preaching of the eighteenth century, as compared with that of the seventeenth, see the brilliant chapter of Shedd, pp. I — 32. For most of the names mentioned in the English and American literature of our subject, see * S. Austin Allibone, A Critical Dictionary of English Literatu7-e of British and American Authors, 3 vols., Phila. and Lond. 1872 — 1875. IV. If, finally, we conclude with a glance at the Netherlands, we must in the first place record an earnest protest against the equally unfair as super- ficial manner in which the history of Homiletics in this country is usually treated by foreign writers. Without much proof, the verdict of Mosheim, to the effect that " the Dutch are by nature no orators," has been handed down from one to another. The fact is rather this, that at the commence- ment of modern history matters stood in this respect considerably better in Holland than in England, and not so much worse than in many parts of Germany. A concise review of the modern history and literature of Homiletics in this country will present the spectacle of a gradual progress, although a progress retarded by many a false step, and not eventually accomplished without sundry painful deviations from the direct path. I. The first preachers who here proclaimed the Gospel of the Reforma- tion were the so-called hedge -preachers, unlearned but God-fearing men, partly laymen, partly such as had once been priests, whose eyes had been opened to the errors of the mother-Church. The names of a J. Arends, P. Gabriel, Nicholas Sheltius, and others, are resplendent in the history of the kingdom of God, though the preaching which they represented could not fail to display at best only a very primitive character. The preaching was in great part an apologetic and practical exposition of Scripture, in accord with the wants of the moment ; but even the mention of the name of a P. Datheen (t 1590) suffices to show the power with which the simple Word could affect great multitudes. Naturally, at the beginning especially, the want of regular and duly qualified preachers was great ; the few that there were had often to divide their services between different congrega- MODERN HISTORY AND LITERATURE. 1 45 tions. As far as possible it was sought to provide against this want by inducing the most spiritually intelligent laymen of the congregation to come forth as ministers of the Word, after they had been to some extent trained in the " colleges of the prophets." Accordingly, as is well known, it was especially to the desire to secure a better education for the future ministers of the Word that the University of Leyden (1575) owes its foundation. From the time of H. Modet and his companions we see a freer intellectual tendency favoured at Utrecht by the pastor of St. Jacob, Huib. Duifhuis (t 1581), who has been, not without reason, termed a pre- cursor of the Remonstrants, but as to whom nevertheless Prince William I. (William the Silent) testified "that he had never attended better preaching." His footsteps were immediately trodden by men like D. R. Kamphuizen (t 1627), S. Episcopius (t 1643), and others j but there had already arisen a totally different spirit to this in the second half of the sixteenth century. Even at the time of the fixing of the ritual of Wesel (1568) it was felt necessary to warn against " all hateful and offensive affectation or high- flown style ; " and to express the wish that the preacher should " watch against sundry useless speculations, which wander away from the point in the text ; into which many have fallen, who play with all kinds of subtle allegories, who set themselves with deliberation to be obscure in words and sentences, and in such way aim more at empty display than at edification in their preachings." Yet this counsel of wisdom was for only too many a vox damantis in deserto. More and more do the pulpits of the Reformed Church begin to resound with passionate controversies of all kinds ; first on the authority of the magistracy in Church affairs, then on the doctrinal points of difference, which divided Remonstrants from Contra-Remonstrants. The consequences were the more sad, inasmuch as faith and love were only too much wanting on both sides, and with these also the requisite knowledge : the professor Maresius, e.g., declared at Groningen in the beginning of the seventeenth century, that an acquaintance with Hebrew was a thing altogether superfluous for the theologian. Personal examina- tion into truth appeared constantly less and less necessary, where Dogma- tism held sway over minds and hearts, and rising Scholasticism, too, threatened the Christian doctrine of life with a mortal stab ; so that the name of " Doctor Scriptuarius, vel Biblicus," given to some, was regarded by most as a name of reproach. "The disputes of the university were intro- duced into the pulpit; that which was before treated of only in Latin, before the students, was afterwards discussed in the mother-tongue, in the audience of the people " (Brandt). The explanation of the text was usually empty word-mongering, with a foolish display of learning, imme- diately to be followed by a passionate inveighing against all real or sup- posed heretics. With a few praiseworthy exceptions, the state of things with the Lutheran Church in Holland during this period was not better than with the Reformed. Yet something better might have been learnt from the useful hints, for homiletes too, given by our Marnix of St. Alde- gonde (t 1598) in his "Via veritatis," later reprinted in P. Mageri " Metho- dus formandarum concionum," pp. 145 — 223; or from the "Axiomata concionandi practica," translated into the Dutch in 1616, and published under the title, "Axioms for Teaching to Preach well and to Edification." 146 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. 2. With the period of Gisbert Voetius (t 1676) preaching in Holland comes wholly under the influence of Scholasticism. Voetius himself fur- nished some few homiletical precepts in his " Politica Ecclesiastica " (I. ii. 2), precepts afterwards extended and modified by his colleague, Joh. Hoornbeek, in his "Tractatus de ratione concionandi " (1645), the first original treatise on Homiletics, strictly speaking, published on Dutch soil ; afterwards followed by the " Concionator " of Desiderius Nedlasius (Sol- denus), published in 1655, and dedicated to the renowned John Leusden ; as also by Knibbe's " Manducatio ad oratoriam sacram " (6th ed. 1697), in which the analytical method of preaching is emphatically commended. Unquestionably these precepts possessed not a little that was meritorious, and the fundamental law here enunciated, " Duo requiruntur ad concio- nem, studia et preces," deserved being largely taken to heart. But in the practical part of the Voetian preaching so exceedingly much was wanting, that it might rather be mentioned as a warning to others, than proposed as a model for their imitation. The method is as a rule wholly analytic; dry, diffuse exposition of Scripture, perhaps alternated or concluded with more or less appropriate exhortations, characterises by far the greater part of the public ministrations ; the text ordinarily serves as a peg on which firmly to hang the ecclesiastical system, and the form, while in a few cases rising to the most unnatural bombast, very frequently sinks down to the level of an insipid flatness. A glance at the pulpit labours of one of the most renowned preachers of that time, J. Borstius (t 1680), whose sermon on " the long hair" of i Cor. xi. 14, set the whole Church of the Nether- lands for years in a blaze, may suffice to show to what a sad pass things in general had come. Nor is it necessary to make more than a passing mention of the hundred and forty-five sermons on " the bruised reed " of the once highly celebrated B. Smijtegeld of Middelburg (t 1739). If they display in many respects the results of the Voetian method consistently pursued — though not without considerable modification in the spirit of Witsius — this very consistency may at the same time be regarded as their legitimate ground of condemnation. Long after the name of S. did that of the Rotterdam preacher, A. Hellenbroek (ti73i), stand forth with honour before the eye of many ; and whoever takes in hand, i.a., his " Choice Biblical Subjects " {Bybelsche Keurstoffe?i), or his " Cross-triumph of the Prince Messias," will be in a position to explain the admiration with which he was listened to by a number of contemporaries. Even his discourses, however, abound with all kinds of strange quotations from profane sources, and a needless learnedness of language which could only stand in the way of real edification ; but his preaching certainly displayed a much more un- artificial character than the inflated genre by which one of his predecessors, Wilh. Velingius (t 1690), obtained a melancholy renown in the same con- gregation. As one of the noblest representatives of the Voetian school must be mentioned Wilh. a Brakel (t 17 n), a man speaking to many in the Church of his native land long after his death, in particular by his treatise on " Reasonable Religion " ;^ in whom, as a preacher, the hardness and dryness of the analytical style is softened by a mystico-practical sense, ' [With reference to the XoytKj) Xarpiia of Rom. xii. i.] MODERN HISTORY AND LITERATURE. 1 47 and the psychological element in preaching is brought into greater honour than in former times. The same may be said of Brakel's intellectual kinsman at Middelburg, W. Teelinck (f 1629), a man highly praised by Voetius himself, who specially as an ascetic had obtained a legitimate renown; as also of Aeg. Francken of Maassluis (t i743)» writer of "The Holy Sacrificial Lamb," who presents the Voetian school to us on its most favourable side. In him there is moreover to be observed a certain re- action in favour of the more synthetic method, flavoured also on the part of others, e.g., the Utrecht professor, Melchior Leydecker (t 1722), whose " Methodus concionandi" (1683) manifested great prepossession for the English style of preaching, and at the same time the indirect influences of Coccejanism. 3. Under the influence of Coccejus (11669) we see the Homiletics of Holland gradually freed from the supremacy of Scholasticism, and, alike for the theory as the practice, a better state of affairs first prepared for and afterwards began. The Coccejan professor, S. van Til (t 1731), published in 1688 a " Methodus Concionandi," in which there was no lack of judi- cious precepts, and his discourses, prepared in harmony with these precepts, have been by many not only imitated, but also appropriated. A like spirit is breathed in the " Rhetorica Ecclesiastica " of his disciple, F. H. van den Honert (t 1740), as also in the " Tabulae analyticae, exhibentes ea quae ad methodum concionandi spectant" of H. S. van Alphen (t 1742). Entirely in harmony with the principles of the school does the prophetic-typical element here appear prominently in the foreground, although only too frequently accompanied with the needless labour of the most exact analysis of every single word of the text; though the adherents of this school opposed in word and deed the folly of the so-called " methodus concor- dantiaUs," pursued by only too many alike in Holland and Germany. Of this last-named method, in accordance with which all those passages of Scripture were treated, in which the same word is to be met with which was found in the text, and for which the well-known Nederlandsche Concor- dajitie des Bijbels of Abraham Trommius (t 17 19) afforded invaluable aid, we meet with several representatives at this period, among others C. van Rie, preacher at Sliedrecht, whose "Public discourses" (1696) may be called in many respects a type of homiletic folly. He belongs to that long succession of so-called Leyden theologants, as also " Groene Coccejanen," who regarded themselves and each other as par excellence the true sons of the great Master ; but instead of leading their flocks into the fresh pastures of the Word, preferred taking them to the dry thistle fields of philological exegesis. No lesson on etymology could be more wearisome than such preaching. At the same time there was wanting to the style that noble simplicity which must be regarded as one of the first requirements of truth and beauty. The representatives of the Coccejan theology uttered what were in the estimation of themselves and some others philosophemes of the first rank, doing so, according to the testimony of a contemporary, "fre- quently in a tone of authority, calling themselves ministers of state_ to Prince Messiah, authorised here on earth to approach into God's immediate presence, as being urged with redoubled impulse often to obtain a hint out of the sanctuary of the awful King of heaven." Can we wonder that a 148 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. preaching so amply stored with sacred and profane learning, accompanied with the most painful want of taste, should be for many unintelligible, and for all right-thinking persons offensive and ridiculous ? The task would be an endless one if we should attempt to enumerate only the principal instances illustrative of the decay of pulpit eloquence furnished to us by the literary history of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.^ 4. The more agreeable is it that, in opposition to such " allumeurs de quinquets, qui voudraient etre acteurs," we see arising a group of so-called earnest Coccejans, who are favourably distinguished from those of the Leyden school. They were at least more easily understood by the people than their high-soaring kinsmen, and displayed the serious intention of rendering their hearers not only more learned, but also wiser and better. At their head an honourable place is maintained by David Flud, who died preacher at Dort in 1701, a man not without reason termed the reformer of the preaching of his time. He reduced to practice the better principles given by Witsius, Roell, Vitringa, and others, and enunciated in particular by his friend and kindred spirit, J. van der Waaijen (t 1701), in his " Methodus concionandi." Though even his interpretation of Scripture is still much more prolix than is demanded for the edification of the congre- gation, yet considerably more care than before is devoted to the application. In place of the demands of a lifeless orthodoxy are to be met with those of a living and active Christianity ; side by side with Dogmatics, Morals too begin to make their voice distinctly heard in the pulpit. The sermon becomes gradually more that which Vitringa had wished it to be, an "institutio et consolatio sohda et pura, ex sola S. Scriptura haurienda," and the good seed sown in the " Animadversiones ad methodum Homilia- rum Ecclesiasticarum " of the last-named scholar { 1 7 2 1 ) bore abundant and blessing- fraught fruits. — A pity only that among men of this fraction the passion for allegorical interpretation of Scripture sometimes displayed itself in so extravagant a manner : witness, e.g. — not to speak of his fourteen quarto volumes on the Parables — the sermon on " Solomon's bed of love, guarded by threescore valiant men" (Cant. iii. 7, 8), preached by the renowned J. d'Outrein, who died pastor at Amsterdam in 1722, in other respects a very meritorious Practiealist in his day. Yet the preludes of a better time began to make their appearance in ever greater numbers under the influence, among others, of the Leyden professor Fabricius (t 1738), whose address " de oratore sacro " bears testimony to a clear insight into the nature and aim of sacred eloquence. While Voetians and Coccejans had stood up to this time sharply oppc'sed, the one to the other, a bridge was formed between the two by the school of the eminent F. A. Lampe, a short time professor at Utrecht, and afterwards at Bremen (t 1729), spiritually akin to the earnest Coccejans, and — as powerfully advancing the so-called " experimental " preaching of his own and a later time — greatly beloved by many, and as passionately opposed by others. The bright side of this method was to be found unquestionably in its deep practical earnest- ' Comp. the " Nouveaux Entretiens sur les differentes methodes d'appliquer rEcriture et de prScher, de ceux qu'on appelle Coccejens et Voetiens, dans les Provinces Unies." Amst., 1707. MODERN HISTORY AND LITERATURE. 1 49 ness; its shady side consisted, la., in the endless dividing and subdividing of the hearers in reference to their various spiritual needs and conditions, and in the fostering of a certain peculiar phraseology, usually designated " the language of Canaan," not seldom at the cost of truth and clearness. Lampe himself expounded his homiletic principles in his " Institut. Homilet. Breviarium " (1742), and his numerous public discourses enable us to see how he carried them into practice. Still more would his word and example have tended to edification, had not his vigorous procedure cast an apple of discord into the bosom of the Church and its teachers, which became an occasion of years of controversy. Here too, in opposition to the " he is good " of the one party, the " nay, but he misleads the people," of the other, could not fail to be heard. In addition to this, the many perversities in the method of preaching, carried over into our country from Germany, only too greatly made their influence felt. Take for instance a foolish custom on the part of some of employing two, nay three, exordiums, the " generale, speciale, et specialissum," each with a particular text at the head, so that eventually for every sermon in due order no fewer than three texts were required. — The Remonstrants favoured in this domain an anti- scholastic tendency, which might indeed very easily lead to a crypto- Rationalism, but on the other hand preserved from many follies. The precepts of Philip a Limborch (t 1712) "de recta concionandi ratione," as illustrated by his excellent example, were given not in vain for many. Among the Baptist preachers of the eighteenth century, John Stinstra (t 1790) is particularly deserving of mention. For the benefit of a fraction in their midst, that of the CoUegiants, J. Wagenaar wrote in 1751 his " Seven Lessons on the Treatment of Holy Scripture," which are still worthy of being remembered. Among the Lutheran preachers too of this period a reaction is to be observed in favour of synthesis, which is by no means to be lightly rated. But specially have we to speak in this place with great commendation of the favourable influence exerted in our land by the Walloon preachers, those of the Re'fuge in particular. (See above, II. 2.) The "orator sacer " of Louis Wolzogen, which appeared in 167 1, still recommended indeed the analytic method, but at the same time entered a vigorous protest against the faults of which many of its advocates ha been guilty. A work of Homiletics in verse was also published, " L'Ar de Precher" (1687), and an " Examen de la maniere de Precher des Pro- testants Frangois " contributed its part to purge the style of preaching of the men of the Walloon school from the blots which earlier disfigured it. Formed in part also under the influence of Tillotson and the great models of the Romish pulpit, they became, more particularly in the larger towns, a leaven which wrought favourably ; although it is not possible to show clearly the precise manner in which our homiletes were led, by their influence also, into a better path. Enough that when once the half of the eighteenth century was past, the evil in this domain too was at least in principle van- quished by the good. 5. In answer to the question, whence properly speaking the new day for Homiletics and the preaching of the Gospel arose in the Netherlands, we may speak with legitimate pride of the three principal Universities of our country. Ew. HoUebeek of Leyden (t 1796), Gisbert Bonnet of Utrecht I50 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. (t 1805), and Paul Chevalier of Groningen (t 1795) were the theologians to whom in this respect also the Evangelical Protestant Church of this land was under unspeakable obligation. The first-named merits in this connection the place of honour ; from the study of Tillotson's discourses he not only became convinced that preaching in our land stood in need of a great reformation, but also had the courage to favour a point of view which might easily expose him to the suspicion of heterodoxy. This he did in an oration "de optimo concionum genere," first published in 1768, in which he pleads the claims, too long ignored, of the synthetical method. More emphatically than any one before him did he oppose all unnecessary verbal explanations, and insisted that the main contents of the discourse should be devoted to the unfolding of the ideas contained in the text. At first his endeavour encountered manifold resistance, and this was increased when his theory was commended in particular by the Dissenters. The deeply rooted attachment to what was called " the usual Dutch style of preaching " awakened a prejudice against the English manner, which was only slowly overcome. Not any better was the state of matters when the third of the above-mentioned Professors pubHshed in 1770 a few " Church addresses," composed in accordance with the obnoxious method. Devoted pre-eminently to the treatment of moral subjects, they reminded rather of dissertations than of discourses, such as men were till then wont to expect, and unquestionably presented the synthetical somewhat too strongly in the foreground. Increasing numbers nevertheless began to appreciate that which was praiseworthy in the new endeavour; specially when Gisbert Bonnet put forth a vigorous effort to combine in a natural manner that which was good in the older system with the good in the new. From him dates the practice [now generally adopted] of devoting a first part of the discourse, of not too great extent, to the explanation of the text ; a second to the formal treatment of the subject to which the text refers, and closing the whole with a part apportioned to the application, constantly modified in accordance with the nature of the subject and the wants of the hearers. The best illustration of his method is to be found in his own published sermons, which, whatever their faults in point of detail, may be regarded as models for the period to which they belong. No less commendation is merited by the Gellert of Utrecht, as he has been not inaptly termed, James Hinlopen (t 1803), during more than half a century a living protest in his congregation against all Scholasticism, a daily sermon on the practical nature of Christianity. He lived on in spirit in the person of L. Egeling of Leyden (t 1835), whose fatherly preaching testified of the most loyal earnestness, and whose "■ friendly query to my brethren in the ministry" (1832) sought to do all that is possible in the way of commending a more effective and fruitful preaching of the Gospel. But we must return to Bonnet and his mode of preaching. The work was continued in his spirit by A. van den Berg of Arnheim (t 1809), Is. Leeuw of Rotterdam (t 1775), to some extent also by G. J. Nahuys of Amsterdam (t 1780), and others. Hebrew and Greek were now entirely banished from the pulpit, and much more labour than before was bestowed upon style and language. Unquestionably there were not wanting dark sides to this method too. To these belonged, among others, the bad habit. MODERN HISTORY AND LITERATURE. 151 come into vogue with the second half of the eighteenth century, of reading the sermon word for word ; and not less the affecting of a certain inflated, high-flying style, imitated from Hervey and others, and not without reason characterised in later times as prose run mad. The published Discourses of B. Bosch and J. van Loo, both of the closing period of last century, may serve as warning mirrors in that respect. But yet, where the folly stood self-condemned, the wisdom was ever more justified of its children ; and if we should characterise the history of Homiletics as a whole during the first half of the present century, we should declare without fear of contradiction, that it presents in our own land too a scene of progress such as no previous period had witnessed. 6. Where the material is so abundant, and has reference to men whose name and work in part still lives in the memory of the older generation, we have a twofold reason for conciseness. We shall do our best, in reviewing that which the first half of this century has afforded as regards the pulpit, to arrange the most eminent preachers into the single classes to which they more particularly belong. If we take into account the demands with regard to form and contents made by the time of delivery, we shall find the line of Bonnet and kindred spirits continued by the Utrecht Professor J. Heringa (t 1840), whose excellent example and instruction exerted a powerful influence during many successive years upon the formation of a great number of the preachers of Holland. His preaching bore on the whole an exceptionally Biblico-practical character, and his " Bible Studies in Sermons," models of pastoral popularity, testify to a notable endeavour to combine as far as possible the advantages of the analytical with those of the synthetical method. To a like endeavour also do the ministrations of his venerable colleagues, H. J. Roijaards (t 1859), H. E. Vinke (t 1862), H. Bouman (t 1864), bear witness ; and not small is the number of good — nay, excellent — preachers who have proceeded from his school and theirs. Many of them favoured a conservative, others again a more liberal tendency, in which the radically supranatural character of their teaching was not free from rationalistic influences ; such were H. H. Donker Curtius (t 1839) at Arnheim, and P. van der Willigen at Thiel (t 1847), men who, from their standpoint, were wanting not in light, but only too much in warmth. In this last respect both were surpassed by the highly gifted J. Wijs (son of J. C. Wijs), who died at the Hague in 1828, a Biblical theologian of a liberal spirit, but at the same time a skilful homilete, who did not shrink from thoroughly and clearly treating in the pulpit of very difficult doctrinal questions, such as Original Sin and Election. But specially must be mentioned, among the most excellent Biblical preachers, the name of J. Moll of the Hague, who has enriched homiletical literature with a volume of discourses entitled " Merkwaardigheden uit de geschie- denis van den Pro feet Jeremia " (3rd ed., 1851), and that of J. A. D. Molster of Utrecht (t 1850), whose volume, " Nagelaten Leerredenen," awakens a natural regret that he did not publish more. Leyden, too, maintained its homiletical renown in a worthy manner. This is associated to no small extent with the name of J. Clarisse (t 1846). Though his father, the Groningen Professor Th. A. Clarisse (t 1782) wa^ spoken of as an effective preacher, his renown was eclipsed by that of 152 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. the son, a man of rare learning, who laboured — for the pulpit also — more abundantly than many. In his preaching, abounding with marks of an inventive imagination and a shrewd knowledge of mankind, the Doctrine of Faith, as that of Morals, receives its due place ; but at the same time a much greater space is conceded to the presentation of the majesty of God in the kingdom of nature, than was wont to be the case in his day. As a preacher, too, for special occasions, and as a Passion-preacher, he is dis- tinguished above others ; a pity only that many of his pieces are disfigured by a certain ruggedness of style, and that — particularly in his earlier labours — not a little is to be desired as regards purity of diction. In this last respect the " nagelaten Leerredenen " of his son, early departed, Th. A. Clarisse of Groningen (t 1829) excel those of the father and editor, while those of Th. Clarisse's colleague, J. van Voorst (t 1833), remain in point of form below them. The tone and tendency of the Leyden Homiletics was for many years determined by Prof. W. A. van Hengel (t 1871), whose " Institutio oratoris sacri" (1829) served for a time as a useful text-book for homiletic instruction, and who, specially in his earlier period, showed himself an independent follower of Reinhard, making up for what was lacking in the agreeableness of his presentation by its thoroughness and clearness. — How little, however, true homiletic genius is to be restrained by traditional rules, was shown even before his time in the pulpit labours of the unique E. A. Borger (t 1820). He, if any one, had the right to attack with boldness, as he did, the prevailing style of preach- ing, specially with regard to the established custom of particular applica- tion. For he certainly showed by example how even without this one can animate and enchain an audience, and soared, like a royal eagle, far above the crowds of powerless imitators and envious detractors. Whatever weak sides may have been justly found in his two volumes of " Leerredenen," there is not one of his discourses which does not present traces of a master's hand, or which does not upon reading again, after so many years, still powerfully affect and touch. What wonder that his discourses, repeatedly reprinted and widely diffused,have still, a half-century after his death, not ceased to be held in honour among all friends of apologetic literature ! Borger was more than anything else an Apologetic preacher, and in this respect too he excels all others. Yet side by side with him, though at a great distance, the same character was sustained by W. Broes, who departed this life at an advanced age in Amsterdam in 1858. He is worthy of men- tion in such connection, not only on account of his pithy, though somewhat odd discourses on " the Internal Evidence for the Truth of the Gospel History" (three parts, 1810 — 1814), but also on account of the large " Tek- stenrol" (1852) which, after the example of the English Enfield, he with great liberality placed in the hands of the preachers of the fatherland — difons sapietiticR for many, a pons asinorum for others. While many a lesson therein to be found displays a more or less humoristic vein, yet it is D. M. Kakebeen (t 1835) who deserves commendation as the intellectual kinsman of Matthias Claudius in the Amsterdam pulpit, more particularly on account of his sermons on the book of Job. There was no preacher of Holland, however, who as a fine humorist could rival J. Steenmeyer of Arnheim MODERN HISTORY AND LITERATURE. I 53 (t 1866), who, as witness his sermons on Moses, and those published after his death, with an introduction by Professor B. ter Haar, could draw in turn a smile or a tear from his hearers, and moreover by his " Letters on Eloquence" (third ed. 1876), laid under the deepest obligation alike his contemporaries and posterity. The doctrine of Christian life, too, has found eloquent advocates in Holland during this period. To this number belongs, e.g., the Haarlem preacher, J. van der Roest (t 18 14), author of some very good sermons on " instructive deaths," " the pleasures of religion," etc., and at the same time one of the most vigorous pioneers in the domain of Sermons to Children. Frequently, however, he was surpassed by the Dort preacher, Ew. Kist (t 1822), who in other domains too has rendered excellent service, but whose proper homiletical tact lies in the province of the Christian doctrine of life. A genuine disciple of HoUebeek, he excels his master in the manifest endeavour always to do full justice to his text, and meets the demands of Christian life without in the least detracting from the purity of doctrine. As a preacher of morals he is equalled only by C. Fransen van Eck, Professor at Deventer {t 1830) — a man in some respects even sur- passing Kist — whose two nervous " Decades " contain manifold evidences of deep knowledge of Scripture, of men, and of his own heart, combined at the same time with a sacred earnestness. 7. As truly Oratorical preachers, three richly gifted men have shone in our country during the first half of the nineteenth century. We speak of the Hague court preacher, J. I. Dermout (t 1867), the man in whom the analytic-synthetical method attains a brilliant triumph, and who by those perfectly qualified to judge was proclaimed " the Napoleon of the pulpit." He merits this appellation on account of the rare power of utterance, combined with the choicest form of expression, of which the four volumes we possess of his sermons afford admirable specimens. There is something about his diction which irresistibly reminds one of the imperatoria vi7iiis of the ancients ; the pallium of the orator is broad, but it rests upon robust and vigorous shoulders. Not so much in the euphony as rather in the gravity of his style consists the secret of his power ; a power perfectly able to command the audience, and yet always so tempered that it never degenerates into severity or passion. Whether he is sketching pictures of domestic life, or is speaking of the public affairs of the Church ; whether he is treating of intricate doctrinal subjects or select moral ones, nowhere do we fail to perceive a master's hand, and least of all where he occupies his peculiar place as a preacher for special occasions ; but everywhere the marshal's baton is crowned with flowers, andthe^r///^r /;/ re — where this is necessary — is always accompanied with the suaviter in modo. — Side by side with him, though not above him, shone for some years the brilliant light of the Leyden University, J. H. van der Palm (t 1840), the model preacher for many in Holland, equally distinguished for the gracefulness of his discourse, as Dermout for the power, and Borger for the splendour of his. Of his homiletic principles he had already early given an account, in his academic oration " De oratore sacro, litterarum divinarum interprete " (1806). Without binding himself slavishly to any one system, he sought and found his power in the aesthetic exposition of Holy Scripture, specially 154 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. of the Old Testament, and as regards his dogmatic standpoint, showed himself a moderate representative of the doctrine of the Bible and the Church. His sermons, circulated by thousands, and lastly reprinted in sixteen parts (1841 — 1845), constantly present to us the man of tact and talent, whose discourse ordinarily ripples past like a pleasant brook be- tween flowery banks, but on some particular occasions — specially in his oratorical works — rushes down like a swollen mountain stream. In his lifetime perhaps held by some in extravagant admiration, after his death certainly by many too quickly forgotten. Van der Palm occupies a place in the history of the Homiletics of our age somewhat akin to that which Walter Scott holds in the literature of romance, and retains, amidst the greatly altered taste and spirit of the time, his place in the unfeigned esteem of the friends of the beautiful and the good. As " a man of the true golden mean," he was honoured after his death by the third pulpit orator of whom we have to speak, the Remonstrant Professor, A. des Amorie van der Hoeven (t 1855), with all the warmth of a genuine enthusiasm. It is impossible to form a due judgment of this last-named preacher merely from the volumes of sermons he published in 1835 and 1847. One must have personally listened to his unequalled delivery in order to explain the magic power of a preaching which to the last could with undiminished force hold spell- bound a numerous audience. Van der Hoeven was in the first place, in the second place, and in the third place, an Orator ; not like v. d. Palm confined to the letter of his MS., but speaking entirely without notes, assisted by his admirable memory, without at any time showing a trace of a verbal repetition ; in inflection of the voice, attitude, gesture, distinguished above all his contemporaries, and moreover a model of that pectus, in which the secret of true eloquence is to be found. That the admiration of his pupils has expressed itself with exact justice in calling him " the Chrysostom of his time," may not be admitted by all ; it is certain that v. d. Hoeven, as a warm, talented, influential preacher of the Gospel, specially as a man of peace in the midst of a period of disquiet, continues to occupy a brilliant place in the history of modern Homiletics. He himself enriched this history with an important treatise on " John Chrysostom, specially regarded as a model of true pulpit eloquence" (second ed., 1852), of which the notes in particular merit the most serious consideration. 8. Already has the last-mentioned name led us beyond the pale of the Netherlands Reformed Church, but in reality there is much to be mentioned beyond the same, which testifies of great progress. In the Walloon pulpit of our country there fall within this period the closing years of S. T. J. Rau (t 1807), an excellent orator, writer also of an " Oratio de natura, optima Eloquentise Sacrse Magistra" (t 1806), J. Tessedre I'Ange, who knew how to clothe the good old Dutch method in a tasteful French form ; besides the few others before mentioned. Ath. Coquerel, already referred to, was from about 1820 to 1830 an eloquent and gifted Walloon preacher at Amsterdam. J. C. J. Secretan of the Hague (t 1875), less eloquent, more profound than Coquerel, whose "Sermons" (1834) were manifestly inspired with the breath of the Reveil of his days. D. T. Huet (t 1874), for about thirty years preacher at Rotterdam, a man inclined to a more liberal tone of thought in the ecclesiastical domain, but attached MODERN HISTORY AND LITERATURE. 155 with unalterable fidelity to the great principles of the Christian faith, con- fessed by him with much clearness in more than one volume of sermons, as well Dutch as French. The Baptist Society mentions with affectionate reverence, besides the names of Hulshoff, Siegenbeek, Molenaar, Mess- chaert, Sybrandi, Van Gilse, specially that of S. Muller (t 1875), with Van Gilse for many years engaged in the endeavour to train up thorough preachers of the Gospel, who should aim at excelling rather in the didactic than in the oratorical domain. As Muller's teaching and published pulpit addresses are adapted to confirm the conviction that the preacher has above all to show himself a well-furnished theologian, if he will not sink down to the low standpoint of an actor, so in particular was this the tendency of his "Letter to a Student on the word Sermon.'"'^ — In the Romish Church we find the true principles advocated and commended specially by J. M. Schrant, who in 181 7 pubhshed a Dutch adaptation of the before-mentioned Dialogues of Fenelon, and enriched the homiletical literature of our country with some praiseworthy discourses. — In the Lutheran Church of the begin- ning of the present century, the influeuce of the German models upon the course of the preaching made itself more perceptibly felt than was the case in other communities ; of the obscurity and ruggedness thereby occasioned J. Decker Zimmermann (t 1865) may, as witness his homiletic remains, be considered a fair representative. Nevertheless, here too the better way was pointed out by J. W. Statins Muller, and others with him. B. T. Lublink Weddik obtained a reputation as an original, tasteful, more or less humoristic preacher; and the Prof F. J. Domela Nieuwenhuis (t 1869) reaped as a preacher so great a harvest of praise on account of his eloquence, that his name was frequently spoken of by those of his own community as on a par with that of Abrah. des Amorie v. d. Hoeven, whose " Life and Character" was written in a meritorious manner by Nieuwenhuis in 1859. — Lastly, as regards the Remonstrants, of whose community Prof. v. d. Hoeven was for so many years the ornament, his predecessor, J. Konijnenburg, had already pubhshed in 1802 his "Lessons on the Preacher's Office in the Christian Church," wherein not a few appropriate homiletic precepts were presented ; preachers like M. Stuart (t 1826), and some others, had afforded a commendable example, and to v. d. Hoeven himself was given the privi- lege of training a small but select number of disciples, who, while retaining their own independence of character, never denied the Master, and in many respects reflected honour upon him. Among these there was none more distinguished than his own son, Abraham des Amorie van der Hoeven, jun., who, as an orator indeed, but certainly not as a preacher, stood below his father, as witnesses his frequently reprinted " Posthumous Discourses " (1849) ; but who was taken away in early life (1848), and toward the end of the first half of this century bore with him to the grave fair expectations for the domain also of sacred eloquence. Comp. *J. Hartog, Geschiedenis van de Predikkunde en de Evangelieprediking in de Protest. Kerk van Nederland (1861), and the literature there given, p. 4 ff. *F. J. Domela Nieuwenhuis, Geschiedk. overzicht der Predikwijze in de Nederl. Luth. Kerk * Godgel. Bijdr. of 1843. 156 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. (1845). SiNCERUS (J. P. Sprenger van Eyk), De Kanselonthiistering in de Nederl. Hei'V, Kerk, tijdens de ly en iSe eeiaa (1853). L. HiJFFELL, J/e^ Protest. Leeraarsambt, i. (1835), pp. 208 — 232. *C. Sepp, Pragmat. Geschied. der Theol. in Nederl., 3rd ed. (1868), ii., p. 507 ff. B. Glasius, Gadget. Nederland, three parts ( 185 1— 1856), on most of the persons mentioned here. On Molster, H. C. Vourhoeve, The Potirait of y. A. D. M., sketched as a preacher of the Gospel (Dutch, 1850). On Borger, the * Oration of v. d. Palm, in his Oratorische werken, iii. (1854), p. 22 ff. On v. d. Palm himself, *N. Beets, Life and Character of J. H. van der Palm (Dutch, 1842). On J. I. Dermout, the biographical sketch by J. J. VAN O., in the Transactions of the Society for the Literature of the Netherlands, 1868. On Van der Hoeven, the monograph of NlEU- WENHUIS already referred to, and the lit. there given, p. 204 ff. On v. d. Hoeven, jun., the necrology of J. J. VAN O., prefixed to the volume Proza en Poezij of the departed (1850). Points for Inquiry. Agreement and diversity between the modern, the medieval, and the ancient history of preaching. — What influences, vifithout the sphere also of the Church, specially contributed, during the first half of the nineteenth centuiy, to favour the flourishing of sacred elo- quence ? — Elucidation and complementing of some of the particulars here touched upon. § XVII. PRESENT CONDITION AND REQUIREMENT. Although preaching, in our time also, continues to maintain its legitimate place with honour and blessing, the danger of standstill and retrogression in the domain of Homiletics is nevertheless, for the present, under the influence of various circumstances, by no means imaginary. It is therefore more than ever incumbent on the science to accomplish all that is in any way possible, in order that a truly efficient proclamation of the Gospel may become once more a life-awakening power in the world and in the Church. 1. With the close of the first half of the nineteenth century is brought to an end our critical review — a review which, from the nature of the case, can be only incomplete. Were it further continued, we should become involved in difficulties which are better avoided. A glance at them helps us rather to answer the question as to the present condition of Homiletics — its bright and its shady sides ; and affords us, at the same time, an appro- priate occasion, in continuing what has been already spoken of, to point to a few more names which must not here pass unmentioned. 2. If we turn our attention to the condition of Homiletics in general at the beginning of the second half of the century, we see its theory and practice raised to a height which inspires with reverence. In Germany, F. W. Krummacher (t 1868) stood for many years with honour at the head, as an orthodox, eloquent, geistreich preacher of the Gospel ; an animated and animating witness for Christ ; by his " Elias," his "Advent and Passion PRESENT CONDITION AND REQUIREMENT. I 57 Sermons," his " Sabbathglocke," and other volumes, a preacher of justifica- tion by faith to Christians of the Old World and the New. This also was the Berlin court preacher, Friedrich Strauss (t 1864), in his measure, as witness, i.a., his volume "Sola" (1844), the amiable writer, too, of the " Glockentone ; " and Professor Andr. Tholuck (t 1877) showed himself throughout life distinguished also as a preacher. He published several volumes of discourses, designed in the first instance for an academic audience, but not less a source of blessing to the Church of Christ within wider circles ; discourses which testify to the earnest endeavour to be " profound, and yet clear ; gently rippling, and yet not empty ; powerful, but not raging ; without overflowing, full, like the English Thames," as he somewhere declared they ought to be.^ In the preface to the first volume (1843) he has expressed himself as to the principle, aim, and method of Christian preaching in a manner which calls forth grateful appreciation ; while in his colleague and friend Julius Miiller, whose " Predigten " on the Christian life were published in 1847, it has been shown in a manner equally convincing how much that preaching gains, which displays not only in the ordinary sense an edifying character, but also in the higher sense a vigorous theological character. That theological element pre- dominated to the end, though not to the diminution of popularity, in the pulpit ministrations of the venerable Carl Imman. Nitzsch (t 1869), who in this respect, too, showed himself a pupil of Schleiermacher, but, far more than Schleiermacher, placed the great substance of the Gospel in the fore- ground of his teaching. This element rises here and there to the nature of theosophy in the sermons of R. Rothe (t 1867), and associates itself with poetic flight in the preaching of J. P. Lange. In the person of Franz Beyschag (t 1858), as before in that of K. G. F. Stockhardt, the Church of the Lord in Germany was deprived, by an early death, of a highly pro- mising youthful preacher. For a number of years past, on the other hand, we see such men as Fr. Ahlfeld, Biichsel, Von Kapff, and others, still con- tinuing their labours in the third quarter of this century, to the abundant blessing of the Evangelical- Lutheran Church of their native land and else- where ; the Reformed Church of Bremen for years held in honour her preacher Fr. Mallet (t 1865); and names like those of O. Funcke, K. Gerok, R. Kogel, belong not to one land or denomination alone. While they with their kindred spirits all represent a conservative tendency of theology, the " modern " theological tendency has made itself heard in the pulpit ; and only the prepossession of partiality can deny the homiletic skill of men like C. Schwartz of Gotha, D. Schenkel of Heidelberg, and H. Lang (t 1876) of Zurich. Even their opponents in principle may still in respect of form learn much of them. 3. In France we see the hne of Christian oratory of A. Monod continued by the prince of the French pulpit orators of the present day, Eug. Bersier, whose preaching bears specially an anthropological character. His pub- lished discourses, equally excellent from a Christian-homiletic as from an sesthetic-literary point of view, merit the admiration which they have called ' " Tief und doch klar, sanft rauschend, doch nicht hohl ; gevvaltig doch nicht wild, ohne Ueberschwemmung voll." 158 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. forth also beyond the limits of the French Reformed Church. The more dialectic and psychological line of Vinet has been pursued, more or less successfully, by E. de Pressense, Verny, D'Hombres, Bungener, F. Coulin, and others, in the orthodox Christian sense ; in the modern tendency, but with unmistakable talent, by T. Colani, A. Reville, A. Coquerely^A (t 1874), and their fellow-workmen. In the Romish Church, Felix and Hyacinthe especially have followed in the brilliant footprints of Lacordaire. — In England the name of C. H. Spurgeon is resplendent above that of many others, who, in 1874, on looking back at twenty years' issue of printed sermons, circulated and read, in their original and in a translated form, in hundreds of thousands, felt constrained to give humble thanks for rare blessings upon his unwearied labours. His power is to be sought in the warmth of his heart, the glow of his imagination, the ease of his language, the practical bearing of his preach- ing, which is able everywhere with firm hand to take a hold of real life ; his weakness — but his course is not yet ended, and long may it be continued. We may be permitted here, however, to express our great liking for his " Lectures to my Students," ^ wherein, as regards Homiletics too, not a little is said which is worthy of being proclaimed far and wide. In America his renown is equalled only by that of H. Ward Beecher of Brooklyn, whose preaching is a talented reproduction of a peculiar cycle of thought, which his neighbours have stamped with the name of Beecherology, in its full extent perhaps only to be enjoyed by a thorough American. In his "Lectures on Preaching " (1872) he has embodied many fresh and just ideas on the voca- tion of the minister of the Gospel. The annals of the American pulpit are resplendent with names of the first rank in the domain of pulpit eloquence. Among the earlier preachers of note may be mentioned Thomas Hooker (b. 1586, emigrated to New England 1633, d. 1647); Samuel Stone (d. 1663), who emigrated with Hooker and John Cotton (1585 — 1652); Richard Mather (1596 — 1669, emigrated 1635); Roger Williams, a native of Wales, (b. abt. 1600, emigrated 1631, d. 1683). Increase Mather (1639 — 1723); Cotton Mather (1663 — 1728); Jonathan Edwards, the Prince of NewEngland preachers (1703 — 1758) ; Dav. Brainerd, devoted Missionary to the Indians (1717 — 1747); Sam. Hopkins (1721 — 1803); Timothy Dwight (1752 — 1817); Edward Payson (1783 — 1827); Lyman Beecher (1775 — 1863); Chas. G. Finney (1792 — 1875); John Summerfield (b. 1798, emigrated to America, 1821, d. 1825); William Patten (1763 — 1839); Erskine Mason (1805 — 1 851). While in later times the names of Charles Mcllvaine, Stephen and Dudley Tyng, Albert Barnes (d. 1870), John Todd (d. 1873), I. S. Spencer (d. 1864), F. D. Huntington, R. S. Storrs, Francis Wayland, Horace Bushnell (d. 1876), Gardiner Spring, Cheever, Talmage, Theodore L. Cuyler, and many others, are of European as well as American celebrity. Among the ornaments of the Unitarian pulpit of that land, W. E. Channing (1780 — 1842) and Orville Dewey (1794 — 1867) stand, in the estimation of quahfied judges, at the head ; among the " moderns," Theodore Parker (t i860) stands foremost. 4. In the Netherlands, finally, we see, towards and during the second half of the nineteenth century, the seed sown by the most influential and ' First series, 1875 ; second series, 1877. PRESENT CONDITION AND REQUIREMENT. I 59 renowned preachers of the first half developing itself in full splendour, but at the same time preaching brought under the changing influence of different theological schools and systems. The Groningen school counts, among its most beloved and revered names in the homiletical domain, those of Hof- stede de Groot, Pareau, Meyboom (in his first period) ; the Leyden school saw its principles ably represented in the sennons of J. H. Scholten (1854). " The Apostolic Gospel " found in the author of two volumes of sermons under the above title (1864), C. E. van Koetsveld of the Hague, an advocate of unquestionable originality, who worthily opposed all that seemed to him untrue and dangerous in the " modern " conception of Christianity. Yet the last-named tendency, too, has not been wanting in eloquent representatives in the Holland of our own time ; among whom must be mentioned L. S. P. Meyboom, in his later period (t 1874), J. P. de Keyser, J. C. Zaalberg, C. P. Tiele, A. Pierson, and others. A bordering, though independent, posi- tion was taken up at their side by E. Laurillard, whose pulpit labours, moreover, are characterised by a poetic-humoristic vein. Still more powerfully does the force of the poetic element make itself felt in the pub- lished discourses of B. ter Haar, and specially in those of J. J. L. ten Kate and J. P. Hasebroek, of which some have had the honour of being translated into other languages ; in the volumes of Hasebroek the influence is clearly to be observed, not only of the best French models, but also of the Revetl. The principles of the ethical theology have been represented with worthiness and talent by D. Chantepie de la Saussaye (t 1874) and N. Beets, to whom, not without justice, the place of honour has been assigned among the more recent practicalists of our country. Those of the so-called modern orthodoxy have been for a number of years advocated, inter alios, by J. I. Doedes and J. J. van Oosterzee,^ the former in a more dialectic and elenctic (searching) manner, the latter in a more apologetic and oratorical ; while M. Cohen Stuart, in his Kanselredenen (i860), sought specially to commend the an- thropological character of Christian truth. — It is impossible here to mention all that should not be omitted in a comprehensive historic account. On the whole we may say, on a glance at all schools and parties, that if the preaching in the Netherlands was formerly below that of other countries, in the second half of the nineteenth century it needs not to shrink from com- parison with that of any land or Church of Christendom — yea, could not exchange with many a foreign land without incurring great loss. 5. When we regard the present state of affairs somewhat more in detail, we have, after what has been said, to rejoice in more than one bright side. The fact in itself may serve as a victorious sign of better principles, that between the most distinguished preachers of our age much greater harmony of aim and method is to be observed than in former times, and that conse- quently the lessons of history have not been listened to in vain. This brighter side is to be witnessed in our fatherland as well as in other coun- tries ; and not only recent history, but that of to-day, confirms the justice ' Al de Leerredenen, 1843 — 1875. Complete edition of his Discourses, in twelve parts. Schiedam, 1871 — 1876. Fifty-two sermons on the Heidelb. Catechism, 2nd ed., Amsterd., 1873 ; also in a German translation. Christusunter den Leuchtem, Leipzig, 1854. Moses, Zi&olf Prcdigtcn, Bielefeld, i860 (Engl, trans. Edinburgh, 1876); and others. l6o PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. of the remark of Palmer, that " preaching has been for a series of years undergoing an important revolution {Uj/isc/iwiing)." Not without good results did Napoleon Roussel hold up to his contemporaries a warning mirror in his instructive treatise, " Comment il ne faut pas precher " (1857). Upon the practice of preaching, varied powers of a distinguished order have been exercised with delight and affection ; while for its theory, contributions and aids have been afforded, of which it would be ungrateful not to recognise the high value. In order not to repeat what has already been said of Practical Theology in general, and is thus applicable to this subdivision in particular, we men- tion with commendation only R. Stier, Kurzer Grundriss einer biblischen Keryktik (2^ Aufl. 1844) ; C. G. Ficker, Grimdlinien der Evang. Homiletik (1847); Gust. Bauer, Gnmdzuge der Homiletik (1848); Al. Schweitzer, Homiletik der Evang. Prot. Kir die (1848) ; C. Palmer, Evangel Homiletik (5^ Aufl. 1867); Al. Yinet, Ho miletique, ou theorie de la predication (1853, Engl, tr., Edinburgh) ; K. R. Hagenbach, Grimdlinien der Liturgik und Homiletik (1863) ; George Campbell (of Aberdeen), Lectures on Pulpit Eloquence ; David Fordyce, Theodorus : a Dialogue on the Art of Preaching (3rd ed. 1755) ; Ebenezer Porter (American), Lectures on Homiletics (latest ed. 1861); S. T. Sturtevant, The Preacher' s Manual {I'-X ed. 1828, 4th ed., Lond., 1866); T. H. Skinner, Aids to Preaching and Hearing (Phila. 1839, Lond., 8vo., 1840). The subject is also treated by the Rev. Charles Bridges, The Christian Ministry (ist ed. 1829, 7th ed. 1850) ; Archdeacon Evans, The Bishopric of Souls (1842, 3rd. ed. 1844) ; Dean Burgon's work on The Pastoral Office ; and more expressly in the recent works of Dr. John Hall, God's Word through Preaching {id,"! $) ; Dr. Wm. M. Taylor, The Ministry of the Word (1876) ; Rev. R. W. Dale, Nine Lectures on Preaching (1877) ; Canon Miller, Letters to a Young Clergyman (1878); to which yet others might be added. Of periodical aids and writings also there is no lack ; e.g., in Germany, Mancherlei Gaben und Ein Geist, a homiletic quarterly edited (since its appearance in 1861) by E. Ohly. Gesetz und Zeugniss, by C. Zimmermann, continued since 1871 under the title Pastoralbldtter. Die Predigt der Gege/nvai't, published from 1864 by some ministers of Weimar ; and the Zeitschrift fiir Pastor altheologie, published at Heilbronn (1878). In England The Preacher's Lantern, a monthly magazine, from 1871 to 1874. The Homilist : a Monthly Pulpit Revinv, of which already more than thirty parts have appeared. The Clergyman's Magazine, pub- lished since 1875. The Expositor, to which some of the most eminent English theologians are contributors ; and others. In America the admirably conducted Bibliothcca Sacra has maintained its place of honour during many years. The Princeton Review likewise holds a foremost place among the organs of believing theology. — Street preaching, too, has found its organs and heroes, as witness the work of William Taylor : " Seven Years' Street Preaching in San Francisco" (1867); and the instructive "Life of Duncan Matheson," by the Rev. John McPherson (187 1). And what a wide circle has been described by the activity of Revivalism in our time need hardly be called to mind. Along with the name of Pearsall Smith and his fellow-labourers, that of D. L. Moody lives, on account of his evangelistic labours, in countless mouths and hearts. PRESENT CONDITION AND REQUIREMENT. i6l 6. If we enter yet somewhat more into details, we shall not be saying too much in characterising the present time as one of emancipation from many a_ galling bond, even as regards Homiletics. The yoke of Scholasticism is broken, and the conviction is confirmed that the laws and rules of art are made to serve us, and not we to serve these laws and rules, however aimless or obstructive they may chance to be. The book language of the past is in growing measure succeeded by the language of nature and of life; and, without damage to true aesthetics, the unendurable profes- sorial or transaction tone of an earlier period is banished from many pulpits. The prayer of the " Lay Poet " — " Deliver us from the sermon tone. Lord ; Give us intellect and truth again," although not particularly reverent, begins to receive its fulfilment at the present time, and besides the clang of trumpet and bassoon, the genuine vox huma)ia is heard from many a pulpit. The preaching has become poorer in theological lore, but, taken as a whole, even with the great differ- ence of standpoint and tendency, not poorer in moral and religious earnestness. More unfettered in addition is the personality of the preachers themselves ; the days are over, when the majority of sermons resembled each other as two drops of water. No longer does the corslet repress free respiration ; the individuality has resumed its rights too long ignored, and not a few preachers display a physiognomy of their own, which may attract or repel you, but which you can in no case confound with that of their neighbours. Preaching becomes in our day less transaction, more than before a testimony, not merely touching something Christian, but touching Christ Himself in His glory ; a testimony in connection with the indi- vidual and changing character of which, it is true, weaknesses may be apparent, (formerly with a little tact easily concealed,) but of such a nature that a response is more readily awakened by it, than was formerly the case by many a hopeless objective explanation of that which is in itself not at all obscure, or unfolding of that which was before by no means in- volved or doubtful. The audience is no longer satisfied, so soon as the sacred orator shows that he has not studied Cicero or Demosthenes in vain ; it desires — at least the best and most advanced part of the congrega- tion desires — something more than this. It is felt, in other words, that the new wine must have new bottles, and that thus the preaching of the Gospel has not by preference to seek its laws and forms in a domain wholly foreign to it. The speaking before the congregation has become much more a speaking to and with the same ; and the didactic element, still placed in the foreground in the Dutch word Z^^rrede, is, let us not say replaced, but complemented, by a discourse filled with unction, one which is in its nature heart-raising and animating. A manifest endeavour is to be perceived on the part of the best preachers to speak in accordance with the wants of the time ; adaptation to actual life takes the place of empty abstraction, and restless zeal here and there overcomes the sopo- rific effect of custom. V/e might add more ; but enough has been said to show that in our day, too, there is no cause for despairing of the effective advance of the science of Homiletics. Its copious and fair history is at I 62 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. the same time, if it so please God, a prophecy of a future in many respects yet better. 7. Yet the very development we desire might be delayed by means of a precipitate Optimism, and for that reason among others it is of importance for us here to return more particularly to the shady side, to which we before alluded (§ XI. 4). We mean that there is ground for speaking of perils more than imaginary which lie ahead, as regards the science with so much reason dear to us. We have already called attention to so many an excellent aid for the theory afforded by our age on a level with, nay, above those of previous times ; yet we cannot, on the other hand, suppress the complaint that a great deal of the zeal in the study of this theory is far from keeping equal pace with the demands of the times and the impor- tance of the subject. If the academic instruction given at the present time, in this part too of the Practica, is on the whole a good deal more thorough and efficient than that of a former period, by not a few who receive it that is regarded as a subordinate matter which will later be seen to be the chief matter. And as regards the practice, we now direct our eye not only to our own country, but also to other lands, and discover on closer inspection not a little by which the question is legitimated, whether there exists no reason to speak of standstill, nay, of retrogression and decay. We at least, with the long list in our hands of great preachers departed within the last twenty years, are involuntarily disposed to sadness, because more than one vacant place has indeed been filled up as well as was possible under the circumstances, but not on that account by any means worthily filled up. Brilliant suns have gone down, and in their place, in part at least, only friendly stars have appeared. We have only to open some repertories — for instance, the above-mentioned Vierteljahrschrift of E. Ohly — in order to convince ourselves how much that is only mediocre, insignificant, even positively hurtful, is sold in the homiletic market, as compared with the relatively little which is in all respects good, and the still less which may be regarded as truly eminent. It is easy to collect, specially in Germany, and even from the writings of those " who seem to be pillars," specimens of misplaced ingenuity and bad taste, which prove equally the low standard of homiletic art and the patience of the press. Shall we speak of the foolish custom of indicating the theme and divisions of the sermon in verses frequently worthless, and almost always arbitrary ? or of the slipshod way in which so many skip over the text, in place of digging therein to the very bottom, as in a gold mine ? or of the servile imitation of mannerisms on the part of many others ? But the evidences are innumer- able for the justice of the complaint, " How much old useless lumber of schematism is precisely here to be cast overboard ! How much stiff formality in the division, in its express and repeated anouncement ! How much abstract logic, how much needless proving, with the application of clumsy machinery to things which are entirely self-evident ! How much seeming demonstration without real inner progress ! Is it not as though the pedant were immortal?" (C. Schwartz.) Such was the complaint made a few years ago in Germany ; and now in our own country ? Although we have need to recal nothing of that which has been said with regard to so many a favourable sign of the times, may PRESENT CONDITION AND REQUIREMENT. 1 63 it not easily be shown that the number of the less favourable signs may be said to be rather ascending than declining? Here, too, the spirit of eman- cipation has not failed to bring with it its usual consequences : it has led to caprice and the absence of restraint. We have no pleasure in arising as the accuser of the brethren : we prefer therefore clothing our thoughts and difficulties in the most modest form, that of the question. From the unnatural " speaking like a book " we are notably breaking away ; but is not naturalness with only too many on the highway to a triviality, in which the boundary line between sacred and profane becomes almost entirely obliterated? ^Esthetic preaching has certainly made progress; but has also the heartfelt, the convincing, the practical ? Does not the preaching in the one case float too high in the air, and in the other creep too low on the ground ? Does not liberty from time to time degenerate more into licentiousness, specially with regard to the employment of the text ? Does not in particular the Modern tendency lead its advocates into a pulpit chit- chat on all imaginable subjects, which threatens the true end of preaching, the proclamation of Christ, with being almost entirely forgotten? And conversely the Orthodox, does it not too often make a false use of Homi- letics in the service of a polemic, in which a good deal of unhallowed fire is offered upon the altar of the Lord ? Does not, on the one side and the other, many a preacher take his work extremely easily ? and is not already in many a youthful heart awakened a longing for a so-called "prophesying," in which the Church of the Lord by no means profits {proffiteert), but with gigantic strides declines ? Is it entirely without fault of the ministers of the Gospel that, specially in large towns, the chasm between modern society and the Church of Christ is ever deepening and widening? Is in reality substance and form of the preaching of such nature as to compel the esteem and reverence of an unbelievmg world, and even sometimes to force those to listen who reject its message ? We condemn no one, take with others our legitimate share of the blame, and desire to overlook nothing of all that which may serve, if not for excusing, at least for explain- ing the phenomenon of the "hands which hang down, and the feeble knees." But after such questions no one may compose himself for sleep, even though he should personally have little or nothing with which to reproach himself; since the fact itself that the power of the pulpit has decreased to an alarming extent within the past twenty years is certainly calculated to awaken reflection as to that which is possibly, nay, certainly wanting in so many a pulpit labour. If we really believe in the promise of Isaiah Iv. 10, II, we cannot possibly escape the inference that if the sowing had been better there would also often have been a more abundant harvest. Very much of this unfruitfulness may be explained from the nature of the soil and the state of the atmosphere : have the sowers absolutely nothing with which to reproach themselves ? If the sacred fire were really burning Avith so many watchmen of the sanctuary, would the number of sparks which are communicated remain so comparatively small ? Is it felt, in the case of the majority of preachers, that the love of Christ constraineth them ? that a pulsation of life beats in the word of their testimony ? that they in truth cannot but speak of the things which they have seen and heard ? For not a few the sermon is, and with reason, a work of art ; for I 64 PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. how many is it first and above all a matter of conscience ? One readily adapts himself, so far as he is able, to the taste of his hearers ; but also equally much to their true wants ? Alas ! how much would be other and better, if all were manifestly convinced of the truth once uttered by Juan d'Avila, the Apostle of Andalusia (t 1569), that " love to Christ is the best teacher of sacred eloquence " ! But sometimes the form, sometimes the subject-matter, gives melancholy proof of the opposite. Old paths are forsaken, without the new being duly prepared and levelled. Here golden apples are presented, but upon earthen plates ; there silver plates, but with unripe or unsound apples thereon, are offered to the hungry multitude.^ According to the saying of the same ancient wisdom, '■ Where there is no vision (prophecy), the people perish j"^ yet, even with a regularly continued preaching of the Gospel, spiritual poverty is likely to ensue, where so much, even of really orthodox preaching, is wanting in this higher, anointed, prophetic character.^ And if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it itself, wherewith shall finally the saltless food, be salted?* 8. The observing of so many a shady side, in opposition to the bright side, must not be suffered to depress our courage, but must rather augment our zeal. Only by Christ is the world to be saved, and the Holy Spirit works through the Word alone. That Word must once more become a power, and the manner in which it is proclaimed must serve to raise it to such a power. To this end science may by no means accomplish all, but yet something, and even comparatively much ; and all that it is able to accomplish it is bound to place at the service of the kingdom of God (comp. § Xn. 5). At this end must, accordingly, the developing part of Homiletics, to which we now pass, entirely aim. Let us survey in a single glance the way we have further to walk, and let us enter upon it having in our heart the prayer of Melancthon, the Prccceptor Germaniiz : — ' Prov. XXV. II. ^ Prov. xxix. 18. ^ "A minister may have piety, and yet not the quality of piety for this task. He may preach awakening sermons on such subjects as the value of the soul, the uncertainty of life, the terrors of the coming judgment ; he may enlarge forcibly on the various branches of Christian practice ; he may reiterate in every variety of form the doctrine of justifica- tion by faith, and yet but inadequately fulfil this part of his commission [the conducting of those who have already believed onward to the higher experiences of grace and a more enlarged acquaintance with its blessings]. To exhibit the Saviour Himself to the eye of faith, and not a mere doctrine concerning Him ; to expose the devices of Satan, and unravel the windings of that labyrinth, the human heart ; to enter into the exercises of Christian experience ; to conduct the flock into the interior recesses of the sanctuary, where the hidden manna of the Gospel lies concealed, where Jesus manifests Himself to His people as He does not to the world, and the Spirit bears witness with their spirit that they are the children of God, and so to promote growth in grace by unfolding the rich privileges of the Christian calling, — this is to feed the flock, this is to make /?^// proof of one's ministry. And who is sufficient for these things ? Assuredly none but he who through the Spirit's grace has penetrated into the mysteries of the life of faith, and knows the truth in its reality and power." (From a sermon by the Rev. Edw. Arthur Litton, cited by Principal Fairbairn, in his Fastoral Theology, p. 87.) ■* " Unde in plurimorum pectore adeo friget Christus, ne dicam extinctus est, unde sub Christiano nomine tantum paganitatis, nisi ex inopia fidelium Ecclesiastarum ? " (Erasmus, in the dedication of his Ecclesiastes.) PRESENT CONDITION AND REQUIREMENT. 1 65 "Fac lit possim demonstiaie Quam sit duke Te amare, Tecum pati. Tecum flere. Tecum semper congaudere." Great Principles naturally present themselves for treatment in the first place, ere we can speak of homiletical Precepts strictly so termed. The last-mentioned, again, have reference either to the Contents or to the Form of the discourse ; which cannot, indeed, well be sharply separated, but yet may and ought, for more than one reason, to be as much as possible dis- tinguished. Thus our Homiletics naturally divides itself into a science of \.\\Q principles, the subject-matter, and the. for in of the public presentation of the Gospel. The first has to investigate as to the connection of the preaching of the Gospel, partly with the requirement of public eloquence, of which it is the exponent ; partly with that of public worship, of which it is an element ; partly, finally, with that of the personaUty of the preacher, of which it must be the expression. The second treats, first, of the subject- matter of the sermon in general ; afterwards, of that of the different kinds oi sermons ; lastly, of each complete sermon in particular. The questions here to be treated of naturally lead to the last and formal part. Under this head we have to speak of all that concerns the arraiigement, the expression, and the delivery of a sermon ; after which it will not be difficult to sum up the whole conclusion of homiletic teaching in few words. Comp. on the theory and practice of preaching in Germany in the present day, J. J. VAN O., in the Nieuwe Jaarbb. voor wctoischapp. Tlieol. ii. (1859), bl. 263 — 303. On Stockhardt and Fr. Beyschlag, see literature under § III. On F. Strauss, *J. P. Hase- BROEK, De laatste Kerkklokstoon (1864). On F. Mallet, "The Witness for the Truth," the beautiful monograph of *C. A. Wilkens (1872). On the present condition of Protestant eloquence in France, important contributions of J. Bastide and others in the French Christian periodicals. — Some sermons by Dutch preachers of the present day are given in the " Zeugnisse des Evangel, aus der Holland. Kirche, in Predigten van O.'s und anderer." Elberfeld, 1855. — An interesting article on Spurgeon in his younger days, in " The Lamps of the Temple" (1856), p. 542 ff. — Various "Model Preachers" of Britain are sketched from the life in the Preacher s Lantern for 1871, 1872. See also Orthodox London, by the Rev. Llewelyn Davies (1872). "Lamps, Pitchers, and Trumpets : " Lectures by E. P. Hood (1867). Henry C. Fish, Putpit Eloquence of the Nineteenth Century (N. Y. 1857). * Wm. B. Sprague, Annals of the American Pulpit from the earliest settle- ments to 1853, vols, i.- — ix. (New York, Carter, 1857 — 1869.) " A rich storehouse for Homiletics" (Dr. Schaff). Points for Inquiry. Is not the complaint as to the powerlessness of the pulpit in modern times, frequently exaggerated ? — To what extent may standstill or retrogression in this domain be explained ? to what e.xtent arrested ? SECOND DIVISION. THE DEVELOPING PART. I. HOMILETICS IN RELATION TO PRINCIPLES. § XVIII. NATURE AND CHARACTER OF THE SERMON. The Sermon is a concatenated address of Christian-religious contents, to be delivered in an unfettered style by the minister of the Gospel at the public worship of the congregation, in the name and at the command of the Lord, with the explicit aim that the congregation be thereby edified, and the coming of the kingdom of God advanced. In the treatment of the questions regarding principles, now in place, it seems necessary to start with an accurate definition of the nature and character of the Christian sermon. For so long as uncertainty or want of agreement remains on this point, it is impossible here to build on a firm foundation. I. As to the tvord Sermon, its meaning is indicated by its derivation : from Lat. sermo, "connected speech," "discourse." The Xjexvcv preaching is from Xh^ y^.\:\x\ prcedicare {Krjpvcra-eiv, ^