Toil on forever; piece together fragments; By words which come seductive from the heart! need Be honest, if you would be eloquent; These filigree ornaments, are good for nothing, the pulpit. SECTION XVI. THE METHOD OF HOMILETICS. Exercises which afford a preparation for preaching are: (1) The Preparations for cultivation and quickening of the practical faculty in the general study of the Bible; (2) The preserving of particular thoughts in writing, which contain the germs of future themes; (3) Practice in delivery. Constant and devotional listening to sermons in the services of the Church, and also the reading of homiletical productions, whether old or new, aid greatly in the forming of the future pulpit speaker. Exegesis should not be studied alone with a view to the pulpit. But practical exegesis should, nevertheless, always be enjoined with critical. The person who studies the Scriptures as a preacher should must often be struck by their flashes of light even when engaged upon the driest subjects. Such flashes indicate fruitful seasons. Every preacher should keep a notebook, upon which to enter the seedthoughts gained from the Scriptures, together with brief hints with regard to disposition and elaboration. In all his walks and most leisurely moments his eye should be on his pulpit. The pulpit al the mind. The most useful scrapbooks for preachers are those which each man compiles for himself. Exegesis in preaching cannot be conducted on the same plan as surgical prac- ways before tice upon a skeleton. It is a skeleton, indeed, when a student is required to preach in the presence of his fellow students and a faculty of theologians, who are to personate the absent congregation. We suppose there is necessity for this in theological seminaries, but no student is expected to do full justice to himself under such circumstances. Young Rothe, in his student days, wrote this to his father: "Frankly stated, it appears to me that an experiment of this kind is a questionable matter. It is surely a repulsive thought that a Christian congregation should sit like a sort of wig-block upon which a young bungler is to try his sermon; and yet in another direction such an experiment can, in view of the entire nature of the sermon, be undertaken nowhere but in the congregation, and it must, therefore, be carried through in that way." A sermon may be read, or recited, or gone through somehow, before an audience of critics, but it cannot be delivered in the highest sense. Might it be proper in like manner to pray by way of test? or to exhort, or to censure or comfort, all by way of practice? But there ought to be practice in delivery? Yes, and the more the better, provided it is rightly done. The school should aim to promote this end, and do this work. Student associations for practice in speaking will also render valuable aid. But when it is required that a sermon should be preached by way of practice-and this should come to pass in the last year of the course-let it be undertaken with the help of God, and with full allowances for all the disadvantages of the hour. Many preachers attempt to display the whole of their theology in their first sermon; many others endeavour to concen- Defects of first trate in it all the feeling of their hearts. A wise re- sermons. straint is highly needed at this point. Persons who have not yet passed beyond the period of theological conflict should beware of troubling the congregation with their doubts, or with the questions of the schools in general. Let them select themes which they are able to discuss, which have become transparent and concrete to their minds, and which they are competent to manage. Herder's paternal counsel has a general application here: "O friend, friend, do not hasten into the pulpit while too young or too thoughtless. You are not without other exercises which, though conducted in private, will forward you further on your way. If you insist on preaching, at least clothe yourself in modesty from head to foot. Nothing is more attractive in a youthful speaker, and especially a pulpit speaker, than this." Timidity no Many, however, are restrained from entering the pulpit by excessive timidity, and by the fear of breaking down. Such ground for dis- difficulties, which have their origin as frequently in selfcouragement. ish pride as in a really sacred awe respecting the character of the office, can only be overcome in a moral way. The true Tappηoía is a gift of grace. The best young preachers, however, παῤῥησία have always been most alarmed. Pliny says: "Quod M. Cicero de stilo, ego de metu sentio. Timor est emendator acerrimus. Hoe ipsum, quod nos recitaturos cogitamus, emendat; quod auditorium ingredimus, emendat; quod pollemus, horrescimus, circumspicimus, emendat." Luther preached his first sermon in the convent of the Augustine monks before venturing to present himself before the public. Spener says that when he entered the pulpit for the first time he felt as though he were being led to the place of execution. Moeves testifies that he trembled far more while preaching his first sermon than when listening to the thunder of his first battle. a lesson. Criticism may follow the sermon of the young preacher, but it should not be allowed to intimidate him beforehand. It is, moreover, a fact that he only is able to feel and hear himself into the real spirit of a sermon who gladly and frequently listens to the sermons of other men. One of the faults of our surfeited age consists in its unwillingness to hear other than distinguished orators. SomeEvery sermon thing may be learned from every sermon, even though it be a poor one. But there is no objection to our becoming acquainted with what is best and most perfect whenever opportunity is afforded. In this direction the rich sermon literature of our English theology is of great assistance. The reading of a sermon is not, of course, equivalent to hearing it, but it possesses advantages of its own. Criticism may be applied with much less. restraint in this case than when listening during the hour of worship in the church. The reading of sermons should be elevated into a study to a much greater extent than is actually the case. Artists are directed to examine works of art, and poets are obliged to read the works of other poets. Why should not a similar rule apply to sermons? To construct anew a sermon that has been read by a master in the pulpit, and to search out its effective points, penetrate into the mystery of its profound connexion with the Christian life, and compare its method with that of another, constitutes a valuable exercise for young ministers of the Gospel, and one upon which teachers of homiletics should lay greater stress. Such critical readings, moreover, afford the surest defence against the danger of slavishly imitating so-called "sermon skeletons," in which undertaking it generally happens that the imitators copy precisely their faults and excesses. Better study a great sermon than any skeleton. But do not steal either, or from either. SECTION XVII. THE HISTORY OF HOMILETICS. I. HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN SERMON. Schuler, Gesch. der Veränderungen des Geschmacks im Predigen, Halle, 1792-94, 3 vols.; and ibid., Beiträge zur Gesch. d. Veränd. des Geschmacks im Predigen, Halle, 1799; Ammon, Gesch. d. Homiletik, etc., Göttingen, 1804, Part I. (the first period from Huss to Luther, with historical introduction to the history of homiletics, from the rise of Christianity down to the beginning of the fifteenth century); Schmidt, Kurzer Abriss d. Gesch. d. geistl. Beredsamkeit u. Homiletik, Jena, 1790; Schuderoff, Vers. einer Kritik d. Homiletik, Gotha, 1797; Lentz, Gesch. d. christl. Homiletik, Brunsw., 1839; Paniel, Pragm. Gesch. d. christl. Beredsamkeit u. d. Homiletik, Leips., 1839; Schenck, Gesch. d. deutsch-Protest. Kanzelberedsamkeit von Luther bis auf d. neuesten Zeiten, Berl., 1841; Doering, Die deutschen Kanzelredner des 18ten u. 19ten Jahrhunderts, Neustadt a. d. Oder, 1830; Leopold, Predigtamt im Urchristenthum, etc., Lüneburg, 1846; Marbach, Gesch. d. deutschen Predigt vor Luther, Berl., 1873; Beste, Die bedeutendsten Kanzelredner d. ältern Lutherischen Kirche, von Luther bis Spener (2 vols.), Leips., 1856-58; Al. Vinet, Histoire de la prédication parmi les Réformés de France au dix septième siècle, Paris, 1860, Sack, Gesch. d. Predigt in d. deutschen evangel. Kirche, Heidelberg, 1866; Schmidt, Gesch. d. Predigt i. d. evangel. Kirche Deutschlands von Luther bis Spener, etc., Gotha, 1872. For English and American bibliography, see below. The earliest preaching was a kńovyμa, a declaration, a heralding, and the formal homily was not developed until a sys- The early homtem of Christian worship had been constructed, although ilies. it did not entirely supersede free discourse even then. Either homilies or free discourses were handed down by Origen, Eusebius of Cæsarea, Eusebius of Emisa, Gregory Thaumaturgus, Athanasius, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, Gregory of Nazianzen, Cyril of Jerusalem, Ephraem Syrus, Macarius, Amphilochius, and John Chrysostom. These were not always free from the influence of the ancient rhetoric learned from heathen schools. In the Latin Church the discourses of Zeno of Verona, Ambrose, Gaudentius, Augustine, Leo I., and others, are worthy of note. Preaching declined in the Middle Ages. In the Greek Church John of Damascus and Photius delivered addresses in Medieval honour of the Virgin Mary and of images; but the preaching. Trullan Council (692) had already directed the clergy to make use of old and approved homilies. In the Western Church recourse was likewise had at first to collections, postils, i. e., post illa scil. verba Domini sive Scripturae Sacrae, the earliest of which were undertaken by Paul Warnefried and Alcuin, and followed by the similar collections of Raban Maur, Haymo of Halberstadt, and others. These collections were designed to serve as models for imitation in the vernacular. But this design was gradually laid aside as the growth of the hierarchy and of externality in the worship became more pronounced. The power of Christian oratory was henceforth less apparent in the church than in the open air, frequently in the public streets. The preaching in convents was conducted in the Latin language. St. Bernard (Doctor mellifluus), and also the great scholastic Thomas Aquinas, attained to special eminence in this regard. The Begging Friars, from the thirteenth century, gave a new impetus to preaching. According to the historians, Bertholdt of Regensburg (died 1272), a Franciscan monk, preached to sixty thousand people. Among the Mystics special importance attaches to Master Eckart, The Mystic Heinrich Suso, and particularly to John Tauler. John preachers. Melicz, the forerunner of Huss, and the latter reformer himself, likewise brought a beneficial influence to bear upon the work of preaching. Chancellor Gerson preached in both Latin and French, and the great Florentine, Girolamo Savonarola, was especially powerful of speech. The fifteenth century brought with it some strange contrasts, the comical being closely connected with. the serious. This reflection will serve to explain the burlesque mode of preaching followed by Gabriel Barletta, Olivier Maillard, Michael Menot, and, to some extent, by the excellent Geiler of Kaisersberg. The Brothers of the Common Life, on the other hand, contributed toward the promotion of Protestant preaching. The Reformation of the sixteenth century, however, was preeminently a regeneration of the Christian sermon as based on the word of God, Luther himself being distinguished above the Reformers. all others, although Zwingli does not need, upon the whole, to take a much lower place. The personal traits and situation of these men were very different. Calvin was also peculiar, and most of the remaining reformers, as Ecolampadius, Bullinger, and Haller, were good preachers. The time, however, when men attained to eminence in such labours soon came to an end. Luther's "postils" were followed by others, of which still others availed. themselves with more or less benefit. Of writers of postils we may mention Anton Corvinus, Brentz, Avenarius (Habermann), Chemnitz, Osiander (Peasant Postils), Matthesius (Mountain Postils), and Dietrich (Children's and Home Postils). Preaching by Much insipidity prevailed at the close of the sixteenth century and during the seventeenth, and it was especially common to introduce disputes into the pulpit, and to chastise heretics. But worthy and edifying preachers were not wanting, of whom we name especially Arndt (died 1627), the author of the treatise on True Chris |