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+Project Gutenberg's Hints on Extemporaneous Preaching, by Henry Ware
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Hints on Extemporaneous Preaching
+
+Author: Henry Ware
+
+Release Date: August 13, 2008 [EBook #26308]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HINTS ON EXTEMPORANEOUS PREACHING ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 HINTS
+
+                                  ON
+
+                       EXTEMPORANEOUS PREACHING.
+
+
+                           BY HENRY WARE, JR.
+                MINISTER OF THE SECOND CHURCH IN BOSTON.
+
+
+      Maximus vero studiorum fructus est, et velut præmium quoddam
+        amplissimum longi laboris, ex tempore dicendi facultas.
+
+                                                 _Quinct._ x. 7.
+
+
+                                BOSTON:
+                 PUBLISHED BY CUMMINGS, HILLIARD & CO.
+                                 1824.
+
+
+                 University Press--Hilliard & Metcalf.
+
+
+
+
+                                   TO
+                              THE STUDENTS
+                                 IN THE
+              THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY,
+                         THIS LITTLE TREATISE,
+                                WITH THE
+                 SINCEREST PRAYERS THAT THEY MAY BECOME
+                PROFOUND DIVINES AND POWERFUL PREACHERS,
+                      IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED
+                                   BY
+                               THE AUTHOR.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+  CHAPTER I.
+  Advantages of Extemporaneous Preaching
+
+  CHAPTER II.
+  Disadvantages--Objections considered
+
+  CHAPTER III.
+  Rules
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+It is the object of this little work, to draw the attention of those who
+are preparing for the christian ministry, or who have just entered it,
+to a mode of preaching which the writer thinks has been too much
+discountenanced and despised; but which, under proper restrictions, he
+is persuaded may add greatly to the opportunities of ministerial
+usefulness. The subject has hardly received the attention it deserves
+from writers on the pastoral office, who have usually devoted to it but
+a few sentences, which offer little encouragement and afford no aid.
+Burnet, in his Treatise on the Pastoral Care, and Fenelon in his
+Dialogues on Eloquence, have treated it more at large, but still very
+cursorily. To their arguments and their authority, which are of great
+weight, I refer the more distinctly here, because I have not quoted them
+so much at large as I intended when I wrote the beginning of the second
+chapter. Besides these, the remarks of Quinctilian, x. 7. on the subject
+of speaking extempore, which are full of his usual good sense, may be
+very profitably consulted.
+
+It has been my object to state fully and fairly the benefits which
+attend this mode of address in the pulpit, and at the same time to guard
+against the dangers and abuses to which it is confessedly liable. How
+far I may have succeeded, it is not for me to determine. It would be
+something to persuade but one to add this to his other talents for doing
+good in the church. Even the attempt to do it, though unsuccessful,
+would not be without its reward; since it could not be fairly made
+without a most salutary moral and intellectual discipline.
+
+It is not to be expected--nor do I mean by any thing I have said to
+intimate--that every man is capable of becoming an accomplished preacher
+in this mode, or that every one may succeed as well in this as in the
+ordinary mode. There is a variety in the talents of men, and to some
+this may be peculiarly unsuited. Yet this is no good reason why _any_
+should decline the attempt, since it is only by making the attempt that
+they can determine whether or not success is within their power.
+
+There is at least one consequence likely to result from the study of
+this art and the attempt to practise it, which would alone be a
+sufficient reason for urging it earnestly. I mean, its probable effect
+in breaking up the constrained, cold, formal, scholastic mode of
+address, which follows the student from his college duties, and keeps
+him from immediate contact with the hearts of his fellow men. This would
+be effected by his learning to speak from his feelings, rather than from
+the critical rules of a book. His address would be more natural, and
+consequently better adapted to effective preaching.
+
+
+
+
+HINTS ON EXTEMPORANEOUS PREACHING.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+It is a little remarkable that, while some classes of christians do not
+tolerate the preaching of a written discourse, others have an equal
+prejudice against all sermons which have not been carefully precomposed.
+Among the latter are to be found those who favor an educated ministry,
+and whose preachers are valued for their cultivated minds and extensive
+knowledge. The former are, for the most part, those who disparage
+learning as a qualification for a christian teacher, and whose ministers
+are consequently not accustomed to exact mental discipline, nor familiar
+with the best models of thinking and writing. It might seem at first
+view, that the least cultivated would require the greatest previous
+preparation in order profitably to address their fellow-men, and that
+the best informed and most accustomed to study might be best trusted to
+speak without the labor of written composition. That it has been thought
+otherwise, is probably owing, in a great measure, to the solicitude for
+literary exactness and elegance of style, which becomes a habit in the
+taste of studious men, and renders all inaccuracy and carelessness
+offensive. He who has been accustomed to read and admire the finest
+models of composition in various languages, and to dwell on those
+niceties of method and expression which form so large a part of the
+charm of literary works; acquires a critical delicacy of taste, which
+renders him fastidiously sensitive to those crudities and roughnesses of
+speech, which almost necessarily attend an extemporaneous style. He is
+apt to exaggerate their importance, and to imagine that no excellencies
+of another kind can atone for them. He therefore protects himself by the
+toil of previous composition, and ventures not a sentence which he has
+not leisurely weighed and measured. An audience also, composed of
+reading people, or accustomed to the exactness of written composition in
+the pulpit, acquires something of the same taste, and is easily offended
+at the occasional homeliness of diction, and looseness of method, which
+occur in extemporaneous speaking. Whereas those preachers and hearers,
+whose education and habits of mind have been different, know nothing of
+this taste, and are insensible to these blemishes; and, if there be only
+a fluent outpouring of words, accompanied by a manner which evinces
+earnestness and sincerity, are pleased and satisfied.
+
+It is further remarkable, that this prejudice of taste has been suffered
+to rule in this way in no profession but that of the ministry. The most
+fastidious taste never carries a written speech to the bar or into the
+senate. The very man who dares not ascend the pulpit without a sermon
+diligently arranged, and filled out to the smallest word, if he had gone
+into the profession of the law, would, at the same age and with no
+greater advantages, address the bench and the jury in language
+altogether unpremeditated. Instances are not wanting in which the
+minister, who imagined it impossible to put ten sentences together in
+the pulpit, has found himself able, on changing his profession, to speak
+fluently for an hour.
+
+I have no doubt that to speak extempore is easier at the bar and in the
+legislature, than in the pulpit. Our associations with this place are of
+so sacred a character, that our faculties do not readily play there with
+their accustomed freedom. There is an awe upon our feelings which
+constrains us. A sense, too, of the importance and responsibility of the
+station, and of the momentous consequences depending on the influence he
+may there exert, has a tendency to oppress and embarrass the
+conscientious man, who feels it as he ought. There is also, in the other
+cases, an immediate end to be attained, which produces a powerful
+immediate excitement; an excitement, increased by the presence of those
+who are speaking on the opposite side of the question, and in assailing
+or answering whom, the embarrassment of the place is lost in the
+interest of the argument. Whereas in the pulpit, there is none to
+assault, and none to refute; the preacher has the field entirely to
+himself, and this of itself is sufficiently dismaying. The ardor and
+self-oblivion which present debate occasions, do not exist; and the
+solemn stillness and fixed gaze of a waiting multitude, serve rather to
+appal and abash the solitary speaker, than to bring the subject forcibly
+to his mind. Thus every external circumstance is unpropitious, and it is
+not strange that relief has been sought in the use of manuscripts.
+
+But still, these difficulties, and others which I shall have occasion to
+mention in another place, are by no means such as to raise that
+insuperable obstacle which many suppose. They may all be overcome by
+resolution and perseverance. As regards merely the use of unpremeditated
+language, it is far from being a difficult attainment. A writer, whose
+opportunities of observation give weight to his opinion, says, in
+speaking of the style of the younger Pitt--"This profuse and
+interminable flow of words is not in itself either a rare or remarkable
+endowment. It is wholly a thing of habit; and is exercised by every
+village lawyer with various degrees of power and grace."[1] If there be
+circumstances which render the habit more difficult to be acquired by
+the preacher, they are still such as may be surmounted; and it may be
+made plain, I think, that the advantages which he may thus ensure to
+himself are so many and so great, as to offer the strongest inducement
+to make the attempt.
+
+    [1] Europe; &c. by a Citizen of the United States.
+
+That these advantages are real and substantial, may be safely inferred
+from the habit of public orators in other professions, and from the
+effects they are known to produce. There is more nature, more warmth in
+the declamation, more earnestness in the address, greater animation in
+the manner, more of the lighting up of the soul in the countenance and
+whole mien, more freedom and meaning in the gesture; the eye speaks, and
+the fingers speak, and when the orator is so excited as to forget every
+thing but the matter on which his mind and feelings are acting, the
+whole body is affected, and helps to propagate his emotions to the
+hearer. Amidst all the exaggerated colouring of Patrick Henry's
+biographer, there is doubtless enough that is true, to prove a power in
+the spontaneous energy of an excited speaker, superior in its effects to
+any thing that can be produced by writing. Something of the same sort
+has been witnessed by every one who is in the habit of attending in the
+courts of justice, or the chambers of legislation. And this, not only in
+the instances of the most highly eloquent; but inferior men are found
+thus to excite attention and produce effects, which they never could
+have done by their pens. In deliberative assemblies, in senates and
+parliaments, the larger portion of the speaking is necessarily
+unpremeditated; perhaps the most eloquent is always so; for it is
+elicited by the growing heat of debate; it is the spontaneous combustion
+of the mind in the conflict of opinion. Chatham's speeches were not
+written, nor Sheridan's, nor that of Ames on the British treaty. They
+were, so far as regards their language and ornaments, the effusions of
+the moment, and derived from their freshness a power, which no study
+could impart. Among the orations of Cicero, which are said to have made
+the greatest impression, and to have best accomplished the orator's
+design, are those delivered on unexpected emergencies, which precluded
+the possibility of previous preparation. Such were his first invective
+against Catiline, and the speech which stilled the disturbances at the
+theatre. In all these cases, there can be no question of the advantages
+which the orators enjoyed in their ability to make use of the excitement
+of the occasion, unchilled by the formality of studied preparation.
+Although possibly guilty of many rhetorical and logical faults, yet
+these would be unobserved in the fervent and impassioned torrent, which
+bore away the minds of the delighted auditors.
+
+It is doubtless very true, that a man of study and reflection,
+accustomed deliberately to weigh every expression and analyze every
+sentence, and to be influenced by nothing which does not bear the test
+of the severest examination, may be most impressed by the quiet,
+unpretending reading of a well digested essay or dissertation. To some
+men the concisest statement of a subject, with nothing to adorn the
+naked skeleton of thought, is most forcible. They are even impatient of
+any attempt to assist its effect by fine writing, by emphasis, tone, or
+gesture. They are like the mathematician, who read the Paradise Lost
+without pleasure, because he could not see that it proved any thing. But
+we are not to judge from the taste of such men, of what is suitable to
+affect the majority. The multitude are not mere thinkers or great
+readers. From their necessary habits they are incapable of following a
+long discussion except it be made inviting by the circumstances
+attending it, or the manner of conducting it. Their attention must be
+excited and maintained by some external application. To them,
+
+  Action is eloquence, and the eyes of the ignorant
+  More learned than their ears.
+
+It is a great fault with intellectual men, that they do not make
+sufficient allowance for the different modes of education and habits of
+mind in men of other pursuits. It is one of the infelicities of a
+university education, that a man is there trained in a fictitious scene,
+where there are interests, associations, feelings, exceedingly diverse
+from what prevail in the society of the world; and where he becomes so
+far separated from the habits and sympathies of other men, as to need to
+acquire a new knowledge of them, before he knows how to address them.
+When a young man leaves the seclusion of a student's life to preach to
+his fellow-men, he is likely to speak to them as if they were scholars.
+He imagines them to be capable of appreciating the niceties of method
+and style, and of being affected by the same sort of sentiment,
+illustration, and cool remark, which affects those who have been
+accustomed to be moved and guided by the dumb and lifeless pages of a
+book. He therefore talks to them calmly, is more anxious for correctness
+than impression, fears to make more noise or to have more motion than
+the very letters on his manuscript; addressing himself, as he thinks, to
+the intellectual part of man; forgetting that the intellectual man is
+not very easy of access, that it is barred up, and must be approached
+through the senses and affections and imagination.
+
+There was a class of rhetoricians and orators at Rome in the time of
+Cicero, who were famous for having made the same mistake. They would do
+every thing by a fixed and almost mechanical rule, by calculation and
+measurement. Their sentences were measured, their gestures were
+measured, their tones were measured; and they framed canons of judgment
+and taste, by which it was pronounced an affront on the intellectual
+nature of man to assail him with epithets, and exclamations, and varied
+tones, and emphatic gesture. They censured the free and flowing manner
+of Cicero as "tumid and exuberant," nec satis pressus, supra modum
+exultans et superfluens. They cultivated a more guarded and concise
+style, which might indeed please the critic or the scholar, but was
+wholly unfitted to instruct or move a promiscuous audience; as was said
+of one of them, oratio--doctis et attente audientibus erat illustris; a
+multitudine autem et a foro, cui nata eloquentia est, devorabatur. The
+taste of the multitude prevailed, and Cicero was the admiration of the
+people, while those who pruned themselves by a more rigid and
+philosophical law, _coldly correct and critically dull_, "were
+frequently deserted by the audience in the midst of their harangues."[2]
+
+    [2] Middleton's Life of Cicero, III. 324.
+
+We may learn something from this. There is one mode of address for books
+and for classical readers, and another for the mass of men, who judge by
+the eye and ear, by the fancy and feelings, and know little of rules of
+art or of an educated taste. Hence it is that many of those preachers
+who have become the classics of a country, have been unattractive to the
+multitude, who have deserted their polished and careful composition, for
+the more unrestrained and rousing declamation of another class. The
+singular success of Chalmers, seems to be in a considerable measure
+owing to his attention to this fact. He has abandoned the pure and
+measured style, and adopted a heterogeneous mixture of the gaudy,
+pompous, and colloquial, offensive indeed to the ears of literary men,
+but highly acceptable to those who are less biassed by the authority of
+a standard taste and established models. We need not go to the extreme
+of Chalmers,--for there is no necessity for inaccuracy, bombast, or
+false taste--but we should doubtless gain by adopting his principle. The
+object is to address men according to their actual character, and in
+that mode in which their habits of mind may render them most accessible.
+As but few are thinkers or readers, a congregation is not to be
+addressed as such; but, their modes of life being remembered, constant
+regard must be had to their need of external attraction. This is most
+easily done by the familiarity and directness of extemporaneous address;
+for which reason this mode of preaching has peculiar advantages, in its
+adaptation to their situation and wants.
+
+The truth is, indeed, that it is not the weight of the thought, the
+profoundness of the argument, the exactness of the arrangement, the
+choiceness of the language, which interest and chain the attention of
+even those educated hearers, who are able to appreciate them all. They
+are as likely to sleep through the whole as others. They can find all
+these qualities in much higher perfection in their libraries; they do
+not seek these only at church. And as to the large mass of the people,
+they are to them hidden things, of which they discern nothing. It is not
+these, so much as the attraction of an earnest manner, which arrests the
+attention and makes instruction welcome. Every day's observation may
+show us, that he who has this manner will retain the attention of even
+an intellectual man with common-place thoughts, while with a different
+manner he would render tedious the most novel and ingenious
+disquisitions. Let an indifferent reader take into the pulpit a sermon
+of Barrow or Butler, and all its excellence of argument and eloquence
+would not save it from being accounted tedious; while an empty declaimer
+shall collect crowds to hang upon his lips in raptures. And this manner,
+which is so attractive, is not the studied artificial enunciation of the
+rhetorician's school, but the free, flowing, animated utterance, which
+seems to come from the impulse of the subject; which may be full of
+faults, yet masters the attention by its nature and sincerity. This is
+precisely the manner of the extemporaneous speaker--in whom the
+countenance reflects the emotions of the soul, and the tone of voice is
+tuned to the feelings of the heart, rising and falling with the subject,
+as in conversation, without the regular and harmonious modulation of the
+practised reader.
+
+In making these and similar remarks, it is true that I am thinking of
+the best extemporaneous speakers, and that all cannot be such. But it
+ought to be recollected at the same time, that all cannot be excellent
+_readers_; that those who speak ill, would probably read still worse;
+and that therefore those who can attain to no eminence as speakers, do
+not on that account fail of the advantages of which I speak, since they
+escape at least the unnatural monotony of bad reading; than which
+nothing is more earnestly to be avoided.
+
+Every man utters himself with greater animation and truer emphasis in
+speaking, than he does, or perhaps can do, in reading. Hence it happens
+that we can listen longer to a tolerable speaker, than to a good reader.
+There is an indescribable something in the natural tones of him who is
+expressing earnestly his present thoughts, altogether foreign from the
+drowsy uniformity of the man that reads. I once heard it well observed,
+that the least animated mode of communicating thoughts to others, is the
+reading from a book the composition of another; the next in order is the
+reading one's own composition; the next is delivering one's own
+composition memoriter; and the most animated of all is the uttering
+one's own thoughts as they rise fresh in his mind. Very few can give the
+spirit to another's writings which they communicate to their own, or can
+read their own with the spirit, with which they spontaneously express
+their thoughts. We have all witnessed this in conversation; when we have
+listened with interest to long harangues from persons, who tire us at
+once if they begin to read. It is verified at the bar, and in the
+legislature, where orators maintain the unflagging attention of hearers
+for a long period, when they could not have read the same speech without
+producing intolerable fatigue. It is equally verified in the history of
+the pulpit; for those who are accustomed to the reading of sermons, are
+for the most part impatient even of able discourses, when they extend
+beyond the half hour's length; while very indifferent extemporaneous
+preachers are listened to with unabated attention for a full hour. In
+the former case there is a certain uniformity of tone, and a perpetual
+recurrence of the same cadences, inseparable from the manner of a
+reader, from which the speaker remains longer free. This difference is
+perfectly well understood, and was acted upon by Cecil, whose success as
+a preacher gives him a right to be heard, when he advised young
+preachers to "limit a written sermon to half an hour, and one from notes
+to forty minutes."[3] For the same reason, those preachers whose reading
+comes nearest to speaking, are universally more interesting than others.
+
+    [3] _Cecil's Remains_--a delightful little book.
+
+Thus it is evident that there is an attractiveness in this mode of
+preaching, which gives it peculiar advantages. He imparts greater
+interest to what he says, who is governed by the impulse of the moment,
+than he who speaks by rule. When he feels the subject, his voice and
+gesture correspond to that feeling, and communicate it to others as it
+can be done in no other way. Though he possess but indifferent talents,
+yet if he utter himself with sincerity and feeling, it is far pleasanter
+than to listen to his cold reading of what he wrote perhaps with little
+excitement, and delivers with less.
+
+In thus speaking of the interest which attends an extemporaneous
+delivery, it is not necessary to pursue the subject into a general
+comparison of the advantages of this mode with those of reading and of
+reciting from memory. Each has prevailed in different places and at
+different periods, and each undoubtedly has advantages and disadvantages
+peculiar to itself. These are well though briefly stated in the
+excellent article on Elocution in Rees' Cyclopædia, to which it will be
+sufficient to refer, as worthy attentive perusal. The question at large
+I cannot undertake to discuss. If I should, I could hardly hope to
+satisfy either others or myself. The almost universal custom of reading
+in this part of the world, where recitation from memory is scarcely
+known, and extempore speaking is practised by very few except the
+illiterate, forbids any thing like a fair deduction from observation. In
+order to institute a just comparison, one should have had extensive
+opportunities of watching the success of each mode, and of knowing the
+circumstances under which each was tried. For in the inquiry, which is
+to be preferred in the pulpit,--we must consider, not which has most
+excellencies when it is found in perfection, but which has excellencies
+attainable by the largest number of preachers; not which is first in
+theory or most beautiful as an art, but which has been and is likely to
+be most successful in practice. These are questions not easily answered.
+Each mode has its advocates and its opponents. In the English church
+there is nothing but reading, and we hear from every quarter complaints
+of it. In Scotland the custom of recitation prevails, but multitudes
+besides Dr. Campbell[4] condemn it. In many parts of the continent of
+Europe no method is known, but that of a brief preparation and
+unpremeditated language; but that it should be universally approved by
+those who use it, is more than we can suppose.
+
+    [4] See his fourth Lecture on Pulpit Eloquence.
+
+The truth is, that either method may fail in the hands of incompetent or
+indolent men, and either may be thought to succeed by those whose taste
+or prejudices are obstinate in its favor. All that I contend for, in
+advocating unwritten discourse, is, that this method claims a decided
+superiority over the others in some of the most important particulars.
+That the others have their own advantages, I do not deny, nor that this
+is subject to disadvantages from which they are free. But whatever these
+may be I hope to show that they are susceptible of a remedy; that they
+are not greater than those which attend other modes; that they are
+balanced by equal advantages, and that therefore this art deserves to be
+cultivated by all who would do their utmost to render their ministry
+useful. There can be no good reason why the preacher should confine
+himself to either mode. It might be most beneficial to cultivate and
+practise all. By this means he might impart something of the advantages
+of each to each, and correct the faults of all by mingling them with the
+excellencies of all. He would learn to read with more of the natural
+accent of the speaker, and to speak with more of the precision of the
+writer.
+
+The remarks already made have been designed to point out some of the
+general advantages attending the use of unprepared language. Some others
+remain to be noticed, which have more particular reference to the
+preacher individually.
+
+It is no unimportant consideration to a minister of the gospel, that
+this is a talent held in high estimation among men, and that it gives
+additional influence to him who possesses it. It is thought to argue
+capacity and greatness of mind. Fluency of language passes with many,
+and those not always the vulgar, for affluence of thought; and never to
+be at a loss for something to say, is supposed to indicate inexhaustible
+knowledge. It cannot have escaped the observation of any one accustomed
+to notice the judgments which are passed upon men, how much reputation
+and consequent influence are acquired by the power of speaking readily
+and boldly, without any other considerable talent, and with very
+indifferent acquisitions; and how a man of real talents, learning, and
+worth, has frequently sunk below his proper level, from a mere
+awkwardness and embarrassment in speaking without preparation. So that
+it is not simply superstition which leads so many to refuse the name of
+preaching to any but extemporaneous harangues; it is in part owing to
+the natural propensity there is to admire, as something wonderful and
+extraordinary, this facility of speech. It is undoubtedly a very
+erroneous standard of judgment. But a minister of the gospel, whose
+success in his important calling depends so much on his personal
+influence, and the estimation in which his gifts are held, can hardly be
+justified in slighting the cultivation of a talent, which may so
+innocently add to his means of influence.
+
+It must be remembered also, that occasions will sometimes occur, when
+the want of this power may expose him to mortification, and deprive him
+of an opportunity of usefulness. For such emergencies one would choose
+to be prepared. It may be of consequence that he should express his
+opinion in an ecclesiastical council, and give reasons for the adoption
+or rejection of important measures. Possibly he may be only required to
+state facts, which have come to his knowledge. It is very desirable to
+be able to do this readily, fluently, without embarrassment to himself,
+and pleasantly to those who hear; and in order to this, a habit of
+speaking is necessary. In the course of his ministrations also amongst
+his own people, occasions will arise when an exhortation or address
+would be seasonable and useful, but when there is no time for written
+preparation. If then he have cultivated the art of extemporaneous
+speaking, and attained to any degree of facility and confidence in it,
+he may avail himself of the opportunity to do good, which he must
+otherwise have passed by unimproved. Funerals and baptisms afford
+suitable occasions of making good religious impressions. A sudden
+providence, also, on the very day of the sabbath may suggest most
+valuable topics of reflection and exhortation, lost to him who is
+confined to what he may have previously written, but choice treasure to
+him who can venture to speak without writing. If it were only to avail
+himself of a few opportunities like these in the course of his life, or
+to save himself but once the mortification of being silent when he ought
+to speak, is expected to speak, and would do good by speaking, it would
+be well worth all the time and pains it might cost to acquire it.
+
+It is a further advantage, not to be forgotten here, that the excitement
+of speaking in public strikes out new views of a subject, new
+illustrations, and unthought of figures and arguments, which perhaps
+never would have presented themselves to the mind in retirement. "The
+warmth which animates him," says Fenelon, "gives birth to expressions
+and figures, which he never could have prepared in his study." He who
+feels himself safe in flying off from the path he has prescribed to
+himself, without any fear lest he should fail to find his way back, will
+readily seize upon these, and be astonished at the new light which
+breaks in upon him as he goes on, and flashes all around him. This is
+according to the experience of all extemporaneous speakers. "The degree
+in which," says Thomas Scott,[5] who practised this method constantly,
+"after the most careful preparation for the pulpit, new thoughts, new
+arguments, animated addresses, often flow into my mind, while speaking
+to a congregation, even on very common subjects, makes me feel as if I
+was quite another man than when poring over them in my study. There will
+be inaccuracies; but generally the most striking things in my sermons
+were unpremeditated."
+
+    [5] Life, p. 268.
+
+Then again, the presence of the audience gives a greater seeming reality
+to the work; it is less like doing a task, and more like speaking to
+men, than when one sits coolly writing at his table. Consequently there
+is likely to be greater plainness and directness in his exhortations,
+more closeness in his appeals, more of the earnestness of genuine
+feeling in his expostulations. He ventures, in the warmth of the moment,
+to urge considerations, which perhaps in the study seemed too familiar,
+and to employ modes of address, which are allowable in personal
+communion with a friend, but which one hesitates to commit to writing,
+lest he should infringe the dignity of deliberate composition. This
+forgetfulness of self, this unconstrained following the impulse of the
+affections, while he is hurried on by the presence and attention of
+those whom he hopes to benefit, creates a sympathy between him and his
+hearers, a direct passage from heart to heart, a mutual understanding of
+each other, which does more to effect the true object of religious
+discourse, than any thing else can do. The preacher will, in this way,
+have the boldness to say many things which ought to be said, but about
+which, in his study, he would feel reluctant and timid. And granting
+that he might be led to say some things improperly, yet if his mind be
+well disciplined, and well governed, and his discretion habitual, he
+will do it exceedingly seldom; while no one, who estimates the object of
+preaching as highly as he should, will think an occasional false step
+any objection against that mode which ensures upon the whole the
+greatest boldness and earnestness. He will think it a less fault than
+the tameness and abstractness, which are the besetting sins of
+deliberate composition. At any rate, what method is secure from
+occasional false steps?
+
+Another consideration which recommends this method to the attention of
+preachers, though at the same time it indicates one of its difficulties,
+is this; that all men, from various causes, constitutional or
+accidental, are subject to great inequality in the operations of their
+minds--sometimes laboring with felicity and sometimes failing. Perhaps
+this fact is in no men so observable as in preachers, because no others
+are so much compelled to labor, and exhibit their labors, at all
+seasons, favorable and unfavorable. There is a certain quantity of the
+severest mental toil to be performed every week; and as the mind cannot
+be always in the same frame, they are constantly presenting proofs of
+the variation of their powers. Now an extemporaneous speaker is of
+course exposed to all this inequality of spirits, and must expect to be
+sometimes mortified by ill success. When the moment of speaking arrives,
+his mind may be slow and dull, his thoughts sluggish and impeded; he may
+be exhausted by labor, or suffering from temporary indisposition. He
+strives in vain to rally his powers, and forces his way, with thorough
+discomfort and chagrin, to the end of an unprofitable talk. But then how
+many men _write_ under the same embarrassments, and are equally
+dissatisfied; with the additional mortification of having spent a longer
+time, and of being unable to give their poor preparation the interest of
+a forcible manner, which the very distress of an extemporaneous effort
+would have imparted.
+
+But on the other hand, when his mind is bright and clear, and his animal
+spirits lively, he will speak much better after merely a suitable
+premeditation, than he can possibly write. There will be more point and
+vigor and animation, than he could ever throw into writing. "Every man,"
+says Bishop Burnet, "may thus rise far above what he could ever have
+attained in any other way." We see proof of this in conversation. When
+engaged in unrestrained and animated conversation with familiar friends,
+who is not conscious of having struck out brighter thoughts and happier
+sayings, than he ever put upon paper in the deliberate composition of
+the closet? It is a common remark concerning many men, that they pray
+much better than they preach. The reason is, that their sermons are made
+leisurely and sluggishly, without excitement; but in their public
+devotions they are strongly engaged, and the mind acts with more
+concentration and vivacity. The same thing has been observed in the art
+of music. "There have been organists, whose abilities in unstudied
+effusions on their instruments have almost amounted to inspiration, such
+as Sebastian Bach, Handel, Marchand, Couperin, Kelway, Stanley, Worgan,
+and Keeble; several of whom played better music extempore, than they
+could write with meditation."[6]
+
+    [6] Rees' Cyclopædia.
+
+It is upon no different principle that we explain, what all scholars
+have experienced, that they write best when they write rapidly, from a
+full and excited mind. One of Pope's precepts is, "to write with fury
+and correct with phlegm." The author of Waverley tells us, "that the
+works and passages in which he has succeeded, have uniformly been
+written with the greatest rapidity." Fenelon's Telemachus is said to
+have been composed in this way, and sent to the press with one single
+erasure in the manuscript. The celebrated Rockingham Memorial at the
+commencement of the late war, is said to have been the hasty composition
+of a single evening. And it will be found true, I believe, of many of
+the best sermon writers, that they revolve the subject till their minds
+are filled and warmed, and then put their discourse upon paper at a
+single sitting. Now what is all this but _extemporaneous writing_? and
+what does it require but a mind equally collected and at ease, equally
+disciplined by practice, and interested in the subject, to ensure equal
+success in _extemporaneous speaking_? Nay, we might anticipate
+occasional superior success; since the thoughts sometimes flow, when at
+the highest and most passionate excitement, too rapidly and profusely
+for any thing slower than the tongue to afford them vent.
+
+There is one more consideration in favor of the habit I recommend, which
+I think cannot fail to have weight with all who are solicitous to make
+progress in theological knowledge; namely, that it redeems time for
+study. The labor of preparing and committing to paper a sermon or two
+every week, is one which necessarily occupies the principal part of a
+minister's time and thoughts, and withdraws him from the investigation
+of many subjects, which, if his mind were more at leisure, it would be
+his duty and pleasure to pursue. He who _writes_ sermons, is ready to
+consider this as the chief object, or perhaps the sole business of his
+life. When not actually engaged in writing, yet the necessity of doing
+it presses upon his mind, and so binds him as to make him feel as if he
+were wrong in being employed on any thing else. I speak of the tendency,
+which certainly is to prevent a man from pursuing, very extensively, any
+profitable study. But if he have acquired that ready command of thought
+and language, which will enable him to speak without written
+preparation, the time and toil of writing are saved, to be devoted to a
+different mode of study. He may prepare his discourses at intervals of
+leisure, while walking or riding; and having once arranged the outlines
+of the subject, and ascertained its principle bearings and applications,
+the work of preparation is over. The language remains to be suggested at
+the moment.
+
+I do not mean by this, that preparation for the pulpit should ever be
+made slightly, or esteemed an object of small importance. It doubtless
+demands, and should receive the best of a man's talents and labors. What
+I contend for is, that a habit of mind may be acquired, which shall
+enable one to make a better and more thorough preparation at less
+expense of labor and time. He may acquire, by discipline, that ease and
+promptitude of looking into subjects and bringing out their prominent
+features, which shall enable him at a glance, as it were, to seize the
+points on which he should enlarge. Some minds are so constituted as "to
+look a subject into shape" much more readily than others. But the power
+of doing it is in a great measure mechanical, and depends upon habit.
+All may acquire it to a certain extent. When the mind works with most
+concentration, it works at once most quickly and most surely. Now the
+act of extempore speaking favors this concentration of the powers, more
+than the slower process of leisurely writing--perhaps more than any
+other operation; consequently, it increases, with practice, the facility
+of dissecting subjects, and of arranging materials for preaching. In
+other words, the completeness with which a subject is viewed and its
+parts arranged, does not depend so much on the time spent upon it, as on
+the vigor with which the attention is applied to it. That course of
+study is the best, which most favors this vigor of attention; and the
+habit of extemporaneous speaking is more than any thing favorable to it,
+from the necessity which it imposes of applying the mind with energy,
+and thinking promptly.
+
+The great danger in this case would be, that of substituting an easy
+flow of words for good sense and sober reflection, and becoming
+satisfied with very superficial thoughts. But this danger is guarded
+against by the habit of study, and of writing for other purposes. If a
+man should neglect all mental exertion, except so far as would be
+required in the meditation of a sermon, it would be ruinous. We witness
+its disastrous effects in the empty wordiness of many extemporaneous
+preachers. It is wrong however to argue against the practice itself,
+from their example; for all other modes would be equally condemned, if
+judged by the ill success of indolent and unfaithful men. The minister
+must keep himself occupied,--reading, thinking, investigating; thus
+having his mind always awake and active. This is a far better
+preparation than the bare writing of sermons, for it exercises the
+powers more, and keeps them bright. The great master of Roman eloquence
+thought it essential to the true orator, that he should be familiar with
+all sciences, and have his mind filled with every variety of knowledge.
+He therefore, much as he studied his favorite art, yet occupied more
+time in literature, philosophy, and politics, than in the composition of
+his speeches. His preparation was less particular than general. So it
+has been with other eminent speakers. When Sir Samuel Romilly was in
+full practice in the High Court of Chancery, and at the same time
+overwhelmed with the pressure of public political concerns; his custom
+was to enter the court, to receive there the history of the cause he was
+to plead, thus to acquaint himself with the circumstances for the first
+time, and forthwith proceed to argue it. His general preparation and
+long practice enabled him to do this, without failing in justice to his
+cause. I do not know that in this he was singular. The same sort of
+preparation would ensure success in the pulpit. He who is always
+thinking, may expend upon each individual effort less time, because he
+can think at once fast and well. But he who never thinks, except when
+attempting to manufacture a sermon (and it is to be feared there are
+such men), must devote a great deal of time to this labor exclusively;
+and after all, he will not have that wide range of thought or
+copiousness of illustration, which his office demands and which study
+only can give.
+
+In fact, what I have here insisted upon, is exemplified in the case of
+the extemporaneous _writers_, whom I have already named. I would only
+carry their practice a step further, and devote an hour to a discourse
+instead of a day. Not to all discourses, for some ought to be written
+for the sake of writing, and some demand a sort of investigation, to
+which the use of the pen is essential. But then a very large proportion
+of the topics on which a minister should preach, have been subjects of
+his attention a thousand times. He is thoroughly familiar with them; and
+an hour to arrange his ideas and collect illustrations, is abundantly
+sufficient. The late Thomas Scott is said for years to have prepared his
+discourses entirely by meditation on the Sunday, and thus gained leisure
+for his extensive studies, and great and various labors. This is an
+extreme on which few have a right to venture, and which should be
+recommended to none. It shows, however, the power of habit, and the
+ability of a mind to act promptly and effectually, which is kept upon
+the alert by constant occupation. He who is always engaged in thinking
+and studying, will always have thoughts enough for a sermon, and good
+ones too, which will come at an hour's warning.
+
+The objections which may be made to the practice I have sought to
+recommend, I must leave to be considered in another place. I am
+desirous, in concluding this chapter, to add the favorable testimony of
+a writer, who expressly disapproves the practice in general, but who
+allows its excellence when accompanied by that preparation which I would
+every where imply.
+
+"You are accustomed," says Dinouart,[7] "to the careful study and
+imitation of nature. You have used yourself to writing and speaking with
+care on different subjects, and have well stored your memory by reading.
+You thus have provided resources for speaking, which are always at hand.
+The best authors and the best thoughts are familiar to you; you can
+readily quote the scriptures, you express yourself easily and
+gracefully, you have a sound and correct judgment on which you can
+depend, method and precision in the arrangement of proofs; you can
+readily connect each part by natural transitions, and are able to say
+all that belongs, and precisely what belongs to the subject. You may
+then take only a day, or only an hour, to reflect on your subject, to
+arrange your topics, to consult your memory, to choose and to prepare
+your illustrations,--and then, appear in public. I am perfectly willing
+that you should. The common expressions which go to make up the body of
+the discourse, will present themselves spontaneously. Your periods,
+perhaps, will be less harmonious, your transitions less ingenious, an
+ill placed word will sometimes escape you; but all this is pardonable.
+The animation of your delivery will compensate for these blemishes, and
+you will be master of your own feelings, and those of your hearers.
+There will, perhaps, be apparent throughout a certain disorder, but it
+will not prevent your pleasing and affecting me; your action as well as
+your words will appear to me the more natural."
+
+    [7] Sur l'Eloquence du Corps, ou L'Action du Prédicateur.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+Against what has been advanced in the preceding pages, many objections
+will be urged, and the evils of the practice I recommend be declared
+more than sufficient to counterbalance its advantages. Of these it is
+necessary that I should now take notice, and obviate them as well as I
+may.
+
+It should be first of all remarked, that the force of the objections
+commonly made, lies against the exclusive use of extempore preaching,
+and not against its partial and occasional use. It is of consequence
+that this should be considered. There can be no doubt, that he would
+preach very wretchedly, who should always be haranguing without the
+corrective discipline of writing. The habit of writing is essential.
+Many of the objections which are currently made to this mode of address,
+fall to the ground when this statement is made.
+
+Other objections have been founded on the idea, that by _extemporaneous_
+is meant, _unpremeditated_. Whereas there is a plain and important
+distinction between them, the latter word being applied to the thoughts,
+and the former to the language only. To preach without premeditation, is
+altogether unjustifiable; although there is no doubt that a man of
+habitual readiness of mind, may express himself to the greatest
+advantage on a subject with which he is familiar, after very little
+meditation.
+
+Many writers on the art of preaching, as well as on eloquence in
+general, have given a decided judgment unfavorable to extempore
+speaking. There can be no fairer way of answering their objections, than
+by examining what they have advanced, and opposing their authority by
+that of equal names on the other side.
+
+Gerard, in his Treatise on the Pastoral Charge, has the following
+passage on this subject.
+
+"He will run into trite, common-place topics; his compositions will be
+loose and unconnected; his language often coarse and confused; and
+diffidence, or care to recollect his subject, will destroy the
+management of his voice." At the same time, however, he admits that "it
+is very proper that a man should be able to preach in this way, when it
+is necessary;--but no man ought always to preach in this way." To which
+decision I have certainly nothing to object.
+
+Mason, in his Student and Pastor, says to the same effect, that "the
+inaccuracy of diction, the inelegance, poverty, and lowness of
+expression, which is commonly observed in extempore discourses, will not
+fail to offend every hearer of good taste."
+
+Dinouart,[8] who is an advocate for recitation from memory, says that
+"experience decides against extemporaneous preaching, though there are
+exceptions; but these are very few; and we must not be led astray by the
+success of a few first rate orators."
+
+    [8] Sur l'Eloquence du Corps, ou l'Action du Prédicateur.
+
+Hume, in his Essay upon Eloquence, expresses an opinion that the modern
+deficiency in this art is to be attributed to "that extreme affectation
+of extempore speaking, which has led to extreme carelessness of method."
+
+The writer of an article, on the Greek Orators, in the Edinburgh
+Review,[9] observes, that "among the sources of the corruption of modern
+eloquence, may clearly be distinguished as the most fruitful, the habit
+of extempore speaking, acquired rapidly by persons who frequent popular
+assemblies, and, beginning at the wrong end, attempt to speak before
+they have studied the art of oratory, or even duly stored their minds
+with the treasures of thought and language, which can only be drawn from
+assiduous intercourse with the ancient and modern classics."
+
+    [9] No. LXXI. p. 82.
+
+These are the prominent objections which have been made to the practice
+in question. Without denying that they have weight, I think it may be
+made to appear that they have not the unquestionable preponderance,
+which is assumed for them. They will be found, on examination, to be the
+objections of a cultivated taste, and to be drawn from the examples of
+undisciplined men, who ought to be left entirely out of the question.
+
+1. The objection most urged is that which relates to style. It is said,
+the expression will be poor, inelegant, inaccurate, and offensive to
+hearers of taste.
+
+To those who urge this it may be replied, that the reason why style is
+an important consideration in the pulpit, is, not that the taste of the
+hearers may be gratified, for but a small part of any congregation is
+capable of taking cognizance of this matter;--but solely for the purpose
+of presenting the speaker's thoughts, reasonings, and expostulations
+distinctly and forcibly to the minds of his hearers. If this be
+effected, it is all which can reasonably be demanded. And I ask if it be
+not notorious, that an earnest and appropriate elocution will give this
+effect to a poor style, and that poor speaking will take it away from
+the most exact and emphatic style? Is it not also notorious that the
+peculiar earnestness of spontaneous speech, is, above all others, suited
+to arrest the attention, and engage the feelings of an audience? and
+that the mere reading of a piece of fine composition, under the notion
+that careful thought and finished diction are the only things needful,
+leaves the majority uninterested in the discourse, and free to think of
+any thing they please? "It is a poor compliment," says Blair, "that one
+is an accurate reasoner, if he be not a persuasive speaker also." It is
+a small matter that the style is poor, so long as it answers the great
+purpose of instructing and affecting men. So that, as I have more fully
+shown in a former place, the objection lies on an erroneous foundation.
+
+Besides, if it were not so, it will be found quite as strong against the
+_writing_ of sermons. For how large a proportion of sermon writers have
+these very same faults of style! what a great want of force, neatness,
+compactness, is there in the composition of most preachers! what
+weakness, inelegance, and inconclusiveness; and how small improvement do
+they make, even after the practice of years! How happens this? It is
+because they do not make this an object of attention and study; and some
+might be unable to attain it if they did. But that watchfulness and care
+which secure a correct and neat style in writing, would also secure it
+in speaking. It does not naturally belong to the one, more than to the
+other, and may be as certainly attained in each by the proper pains.
+Indeed so far as my observation has extended, I am not certain that
+there is not as large a proportion of extempore speakers, whose diction
+is exact and unexceptionable, as of writers--always taking into view
+their education, which equally affects the one and the other. And it is
+a consideration of great weight, that the faults in question are far
+less offensive in speakers than in writers.
+
+It is apparent that objectors of this sort are guilty of a double
+mistake; first, in laying too great stress upon mere defects of style,
+and then in taking for granted, that these are unavoidable. They might
+as well insist that defects of written style are unavoidable. Whereas
+they are the consequence of the negligent mode in which the art has been
+studied, and its having been given up, for the most part, to ignorant
+and fanatical pretenders. Let it be diligently cultivated by educated
+men, and we shall find no more cause to expel it from the pulpit than
+from the forum or the parliament. "Poverty, inelegance, and poorness of
+diction," will be no longer so "generally observed," and even hearers of
+taste will cease to be offended.
+
+2. A want of order, a rambling, unconnected, desultory manner, is
+commonly objected; as Hume styles it, "extreme carelessness of method;"
+and this is so often observed, as to be justly an object of dread. But
+this is occasioned by that indolence and want of discipline to which we
+have just alluded. It is not a necessary evil. If a man have never
+studied the art of speaking, nor passed through a course of preparatory
+discipline; if he have so rash and unjustifiable a confidence in
+himself, that he will undertake to speak, without having considered what
+he shall say, what object he shall aim at, or by what steps he shall
+attain it; the inevitable consequence will be confusion,
+inconclusiveness, and wandering. Who recommends such a course? But he
+who has first trained himself to the work, and whenever he would speak,
+has surveyed his ground, and become familiar with the points to be dwelt
+upon, and the course of reasoning and track of thought to be followed;
+will go on from one step to another, in an easy and natural order, and
+give no occasion to the complaint of confusion or disarrangement.
+
+"Some preachers," says Dinouart, "have the folly to think that they can
+make sermons impromptu. And what a piece of work they make! They bolt
+out every thing which comes into their head. They take for granted, what
+ought to be proved, or perhaps they state half the argument, and forget
+the rest. Their appearance corresponds to the state of their mind, which
+is occupied in hunting after some way of finishing the sentence they
+have begun. They repeat themselves; they wander off in digression. They
+stand stiff without moving; or if they are of a lively temperament, they
+are full of the most turbulent action; their eyes and hands are flying
+about in every direction, and their words choke in their throats. They
+are like men swimming, who have got frightened, and throw about their
+hands and feet at random, to save themselves from drowning."
+
+There is doubtless great truth in this humorous description. But what is
+the legitimate inference? that extemporaneous speaking is altogether
+ridiculous and mischievous? or only that it is an art which requires
+study and diligence, and which no man should presume to practice, until
+he has fitted himself for it?
+
+3. In the same way I should dispose of the objection, that this habit
+leads to barrenness in preaching, and the everlasting repetition of the
+same sentiments and topics. If a man make his facility of speech an
+excuse for the neglect of all study, then doubtless this will be the
+result. He who cannot resist his indolent propensities, had best avoid
+this occasion of temptation. He must be able to command himself to
+think, and industriously prepare himself by meditation, if he would be
+safe in this hazardous experiment. He who does this, and continues to
+learn and reflect while he preaches, will be no more empty and
+monotonous than if he carefully wrote every word.
+
+4. But this temptation to indolence in the preparation for the desk, is
+urged as in itself a decisive objection. A man finds, that after a
+little practice, it is an exceedingly easy thing to fill up his
+half-hour with declamation which shall pass off very well, and hence he
+grows negligent in previous meditation; and insensibly degenerates into
+an empty exhorter, without choice of language, or variety of ideas. This
+is undoubtedly the great and alarming danger of this practice. This must
+be triumphed over, or it is ruinous. We see examples of it wherever we
+look among those whose preaching is exclusively extempore. In these
+cases, the evil rises to its magnitude in consequence of their total
+neglect of the pen. The habit of writing a certain proportion of the
+time would, in some measure, counteract this dangerous tendency.
+
+But it is still insisted, that man's natural love of ease is not to be
+trusted; that he will not long continue the drudgery of writing in part;
+that when he has once gained confidence to speak without study, he will
+find it so flattering to his indolence, that he will involuntarily give
+himself up to it, and relinquish the pen altogether; that consequently
+there is no security, except in never beginning.
+
+To this it may be replied, that they who have not principle and
+self-government enough to keep them industrious, will not be kept so by
+being compelled to write sermons. I think we have abundant proof, that a
+man may write with as little pains and thinking, as he can speak. It by
+no means follows, that because it is on paper, it is therefore the
+result of study. And if it be not, it will be greatly inferior, in point
+of effect, to an unpremeditated declamation; for in the latter case,
+there will probably be at least a temporary excitement of feeling, and
+consequent vivacity of manner, while in the former the indolence of the
+writer will be made doubly intolerable by his heaviness in reading.
+
+It cannot be doubted, however, that if any one find his facility of
+extemporaneous invention, likely to prove destructive to his habits of
+diligent and careful application; it were advisable that he refrain from
+the practice. It could not be worth while for him to lose his habits of
+study and thinking for the sake of an ability to speak, which would
+avail him but little, after his ability to think has been weakened or
+destroyed.
+
+As for those whose indolence habitually prevails over principle, and who
+make no preparation for duty excepting the mechanical one of covering
+over a certain number of pages,--they have no concern in the ministry,
+and should be driven to seek some other employment, where their
+mechanical labor may provide them a livelihood, without injuring their
+own souls, or those of other men.
+
+If the objection in question be applied to conscientious men, whose
+hearts are in their profession, and who have a sincere desire to do
+good, it certainly has very little weight. The minds of such men are
+kept active with reflection, and stored with knowledge, and warm with
+religious feeling. They are therefore always ready to speak to the
+purpose, as well as write to the purpose; and their habitual sense of
+the importance of their office, and their anxiety to fulfil it in the
+best manner, will forbid that indolence which is so disastrous. The
+objection implies, that the consequence pointed out is one which cannot
+be avoided. Experience teaches us the contrary. It is the tendency--but
+a tendency which may be, for it has been, counteracted. Many have
+preached in this mode for years, and yet have never relaxed their
+diligence in study, nor declined in the variety, vigor, and interest of
+their discourses;--sometimes dull, undoubtedly; but this may be said
+with equal truth of the most faithful and laborious writers.
+
+5. Many suppose that there is a certain natural talent, essential to
+success in extempore speaking, no less than in poetry; and that it is
+absurd to recommend the art to those who have not this peculiar talent,
+and vain for them to attempt its practice.
+
+In regard to that ready flow of words, which seems to be the natural
+gift of some men, it is of little consequence whether it be really such,
+or be owing to the education and habits of early life, and vain
+self-confidence. It is certain that the want of habit, and diffidence
+are great hindrances to fluency of speech; and it is equally certain,
+that this natural fluency is a very questionable advantage to him who
+would be an impressive speaker. It is quite observable that those who at
+first talk easiest, do not always talk best. Their very facility is a
+snare to them. It serves to keep them content; they make no effort to
+improve, and are likely to fall into slovenly habits of elocution. So
+that this unacquired fluency is so far from essential, that it is not
+even a benefit, and it may be an injury. It keeps from final eminence by
+the very greatness of its early promise. On the other hand, he who
+possesses originally no remarkable command of language, and whom an
+unfortunate bashfulness prevents from well using what he has; is obliged
+to subject himself to severe discipline, to submit to rules and tasks,
+to go through a tedious process of training, to acquire by much labor
+the needful sway over his thoughts and words, so that they shall come at
+his bidding, and not be driven away by his own diffidence, or the
+presence of other men. To do all this, is a long and disheartening
+labor. He is exposed to frequent mortifications, and must endure many
+grievous failures, before he attain that confidence which is
+indispensable to success. But then in this discipline, his powers,
+mental and moral, are strained up to the highest intenseness of action;
+after persevering practice, they become habitually subject to his
+control, and work with a precision, exactness, and energy, which can
+never be the possession of him, who has depended on his native,
+undisciplined gift. Of the truth of this, examples are by no means
+wanting, and I could name, if it were proper, more than one striking
+instance within my own observation. It was probably this to which Newton
+referred, when he said, that he never spoke well till he felt that he
+could not speak at all. Let no one therefore think it an obstacle in his
+way that he has no readiness of words. If he have good sense and no
+deficiency of talent, and is willing to labor for this as all great
+acquisitions must be labored for, he needs not fear but that in time he
+will attain it.
+
+We must be careful, however, not to mistake the object to be attained.
+It is not a high rank in oratory, consummate eloquence. If it were, then
+indeed a young man might pause till he had ascertained whether he
+possessed all those extraordinary endowments of intellect, imagination,
+sensibility, countenance, voice, and person, which belong to few men in
+a century, and without which the great orator does not exist. He is one
+of those splendid formations of nature, which she exhibits but rarely;
+and it is not necessary to the object of his pursuit that the minister
+be such. The aim and purpose of his office are less ambitious, to impart
+instruction and do good; and it is by no means certain that the greatest
+eloquence is best adapted to these purposes in the pulpit. But any man,
+with powers which fit him for the ministry at all,--unless there be a
+few extraordinary exceptions--is capable of learning to express himself
+clearly, correctly, and with method; and this is precisely what is
+wanted, and no more than this. I do not say eloquently; for as it is not
+thought indispensable that every writer of sermons should be eloquent,
+it cannot be thought essential that every speaker should be so. But the
+same powers which have enabled him to write, will, with sufficient
+discipline, enable him to speak; with every probability that when he
+comes to speak with the same ease and collectedness, he will do it with
+a nearer approach to eloquence. Without such discipline he has no right
+to hope for success; let him not say that success is impossible, until
+he has submitted to it.
+
+I apprehend that these remarks will be found not only correct in theory,
+but agreeable to experience. With the exceeding little systematic
+cultivation of the art which there is amongst us, and no actual
+instruction, we find that a great majority of the lawyers in our courts,
+and not a small portion of the members of our legislatures, are able to
+argue and debate. In some of the most popular and quite numerous
+religious sects, we find preachers enough, who are able to communicate
+their thoughts and harangue their congregations, and exert very powerful
+and permanent influence over large bodies of the people. Some of these
+are men of as small natural talents and as limited education, as any
+that enter the sacred office. It should seem therefore that no one needs
+to despair.
+
+In the ancient republics of Greece and Rome, this accomplishment was a
+necessary branch of a finished education. A much smaller proportion of
+the citizens were educated than amongst us; but of these a much larger
+number became orators. No man could hope for distinction or influence,
+and yet slight this art.[10] The commanders of their armies were orators
+as well as soldiers, and ruled as well by their rhetorical as by their
+military skill. There was no trusting with them as with us, to a natural
+facility, or the acquisition of an accidental fluency by actual
+practice. But they served an apprenticeship to the art. They passed
+through a regular course of instruction in schools. They submitted to
+long and laborious discipline. They exercised themselves frequently,
+both before equals and in the presence of teachers, who criticised,
+reproved, rebuked, excited emulation, and left nothing undone which art
+and perseverance could accomplish. The greatest orators of antiquity, so
+far from being favored by natural tendencies, except indeed in their
+high intellectual endowments, had to struggle against natural obstacles;
+and instead of growing up spontaneously to their unrivalled eminence,
+they forced themselves forward by the most discouraging artificial
+process. Demosthenes combated an impediment in speech and ungainliness
+of gesture, which at first drove him from the forum in disgrace. Cicero
+failed at first through weakness of lungs, and an excessive vehemence of
+manner, which wearied the hearers and defeated his own purpose. These
+defects were conquered by study and discipline. Cicero exiled himself
+from home, and during his absence in various lands passed not a day
+without a rhetorical exercise; seeking the masters who were most severe
+in criticism, as the surest means of leading him to the perfection at
+which he aimed. Such too was the education of their other great men.
+They were all, according to their ability and station, orators; orators,
+not by nature or accident, but by education; formed in a strict process
+of rhetorical training; admired and followed even while Demosthenes and
+Cicero were living, and unknown now, only because it is not possible
+that any but the first should survive the ordeal of ages.
+
+    [10] It is often said that extemporaneous speaking is the
+         distinction of modern eloquence. But the whole language of
+         Cicero's rhetorical works, as well as particular terms in
+         common use, and anecdotes recorded of different speakers,
+         prove the contrary; not to mention Quinctilian's express
+         instructions on the subject. Hume, also, tells us from
+         Suidas, that the writing of speeches was unknown until the
+         time of Pericles.
+
+The inference to be drawn from these observations, is, that if so many
+of those who received an accomplished education became accomplished
+orators, because to become so was one purpose of their study; then it is
+in the power of a much larger proportion amongst us, to form themselves
+into creditable and accurate speakers. The inference should not be
+denied until proved false by experiment. Let this art be made an object
+of attention, and young men train themselves to it faithfully and long;
+and if any of competent talents and tolerable science be found at last
+incapable of expressing themselves in continued and connected discourse,
+so as to answer the ends of the christian ministry; then, and not till
+then, let it be said that a peculiar talent or natural aptitude is
+requisite, the want of which must render effort vain; then, and not till
+then, let us acquiesce in this indolent and timorous notion, which
+contradicts the whole testimony of antiquity, and all the experience of
+the world. Doubtless, after the most that can be done, there will be
+found the greatest variety of attainment; "men will differ," as Burnet
+remarks, "quite as much as in their written compositions;" and some will
+do but poorly what others will do excellently. But this is likewise true
+of every other art in which men engage, and not least so of writing
+sermons; concerning which no one will say, that as poor are not written,
+as it would be possible for any one to speak. In truth, men of small
+talents and great sluggishness, of a feeble sense of duty and no zeal,
+will of course make poor sermons, by whatever process they may do it,
+let them write or let them speak. It is doubtful concerning some whether
+they would even steal good ones.
+
+The survey we have now taken, renders it evident, that the evils, which
+are principally objected against as attending this mode of preaching,
+are not necessary evils, but are owing to insufficient study and
+preparation before the practice is commenced, and indolence afterward.
+This is implied in the very expressions of the objectors themselves, who
+attribute the evil to "beginning at the wrong end, attempting to speak
+before studying the art of oratory, or even storing the mind with
+treasures of thought and language." It is, also, implied in this
+language, that study and preparation are capable of removing the
+objections. I do not therefore advocate the art, without insisting on
+the necessity of severe discipline and training. No man should be
+encouraged or permitted to adopt it, who will not take the necessary
+pains, and proceed with the necessary perseverance.
+
+This should be the more earnestly insisted upon, because it is from our
+loose and lazy notions on the subject, that eloquence in every
+department is suffering so much, and that the pulpit especially has
+become so powerless, where the most important things that receive
+utterance upon earth, are read like schoolboys' tasks, without even the
+poor pains to lay emphasis on the right words, and to pause in the right
+places. And this, because we fancy that, if nature have not designed us
+for orators, it is vain to make effort, and if she have, we shall be
+such without effort. True, that the noble gifts of mind are from nature;
+but not language, or knowledge, or accent, or tone, or gesture; these
+are to be learned, and it is with these that the speaker is concerned.
+These are all matters of acquisition, and of difficult acquisition;
+possible to be attained, and well worth the exertion that must be made.
+
+The history of the world is full of testimony to prove how much depends
+upon industry; not an eminent orator has lived, but is an example of it.
+Yet in contradiction to all this, the almost universal feeling appears
+to be, that industry can effect nothing, that eminence is the result of
+accident, and that every one must be content to remain just what he may
+happen to be. Thus multitudes, who come forward as teachers and guides,
+suffer themselves to be satisfied with the most indifferent attainments,
+and a miserable mediocrity, without so much as inquiring how they might
+rise higher, much less making any attempt to rise. For any other art
+they would have served an apprenticeship, and would be ashamed to
+practise it in public before they had learned it. If any one would sing,
+he attends a master, and is drilled in the very elementary principles;
+and only after the most laborious process dares to exercise his voice in
+public. This he does, though he has scarce any thing to learn but the
+mechanical execution of what lies in sensible forms before his eye. But
+the extempore speaker, who is to invent as well as to utter, to carry on
+an operation of the mind as well as to produce sound, enters upon the
+work without preparatory discipline, and then wonders that he fails! If
+he were learning to play on the flute for public exhibition, what hours
+and days would he spend in giving facility to his fingers, and attaining
+the power of the sweetest and most impressive execution. If he were
+devoting himself to the organ, what months and years would he labor,
+that he might know its compass, and be master of its keys, and be able
+to draw out, at will, all its various combinations of harmonious sound,
+and its full richness and delicacy of expression. And yet he will fancy
+that the grandest, the most various, the most expressive of all
+instruments, which the infinite Creator has fashioned by the union of an
+intellectual soul with the powers of speech, may be played upon without
+study or practice; he comes to it, a mere uninstructed tyro, and thinks
+to manage all its stops, and command the whole compass of its varied and
+comprehensive power! He finds himself a bungler in the attempt, is
+mortified at his failure, and settles it in his mind forever that the
+attempt is vain.
+
+Success in every art, whatever may be the natural talent, is always the
+reward of industry and pains. But the instances are many of men of the
+finest natural genius, whose beginning has promised much, but who have
+degenerated wretchedly as they advanced, because they trusted to their
+gifts, and made no effort to improve. That there have never been other
+men of equal endowments with Demosthenes and Cicero, none would venture
+to suppose; but who have so devoted themselves to their art, or become
+equal in excellence? If those great men had been content, like others,
+to continue as they began, and had never made their persevering efforts
+for improvement, what would their countries have benefited from their
+genius, or the world have known of their fame? They would have been lost
+in the undistinguished crowd, that sunk to oblivion around them. Of how
+many more will the same remark prove true! What encouragement is thus
+given to the industrious! With such encouragement, how inexcusable is
+the negligence which suffers the most interesting and important truths,
+to seem heavy and dull, and fall ineffectual to the ground, through mere
+sluggishness in their delivery! How unworthy of one who performs the
+high function of a religious instructer, upon whom depend, in a great
+measure, the religious knowledge and devotional sentiment and final
+character of many fellow beings,--to imagine that he can worthily
+discharge this great concern by occasionally talking for an hour, he
+knows not how, and in a manner which he has taken no pains to render
+correct, impressive, or attractive; and which, simply through want of
+that command over himself which study would give, is immethodical,
+verbose, inaccurate, feeble, trifling. It has been said of the good
+preacher, that "truths divine come mended from his tongue." Alas, they
+come ruined and worthless from such a man as this. They lose that holy
+energy by which they are to convert the soul and purify man for heaven,
+and sink, in interest and efficacy, below the level of those principles
+which govern the ordinary affairs of this lower world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+The observations contained in the preceding chapter make it sufficiently
+evident, that the art of extemporaneous speaking, however advantageous
+to the christian minister, and however possible to be acquired, is yet
+attended with embarrassments and difficulties, which are to be removed
+only by long and arduous labor. It is not enough, however, to insist
+upon the necessity of this discipline. We must know in what it consists,
+and how it is to be conducted. In completing, therefore, the plan I have
+proposed to myself, I am now to give a few hints respecting the mode in
+which the study is to be carried on, and obstacles to be surmounted.
+These hints, gathered partly from experience and partly from observation
+and books, will be necessarily incomplete; but not, it is hoped,
+altogether useless to those who are asking some direction.
+
+1. The first thing to be observed is, that the student who would acquire
+facility in this art, should bear it constantly in mind, and have regard
+to it in all his studies, and in his whole mode of study. The reason is
+very obvious. He that would become eminent in any pursuit, must make it
+the primary and almost exclusive object of his attention. It must never
+be long absent from his thoughts, and he must be contriving how to
+promote it, in every thing he undertakes. It is thus that the miser
+accumulates, by making the most trifling occurrences the occasions of
+gain; and thus the ambitious man is on the alert to forward his purposes
+of advancement by little events which another would pass unobserved. So
+too he, the business of whose life is preaching, should be on the watch
+to render every thing subservient to this end. The inquiry should always
+be, how he can turn the knowledge he is acquiring, the subject he is
+studying, this mode of reasoning, this event, this conversation, and the
+conduct of this or that man, to aid the purposes of religious
+instruction. He may find an example in the manner in which Pope pursued
+his favorite study. "From his attention to poetry," says Johnson, "he
+was never diverted. If conversation offered any thing that could be
+improved, he committed it to paper; if a thought, or perhaps an
+expression more happy than was common, rose to his mind, he was careful
+to write it; an independent distich was preserved for an opportunity of
+insertion, and some little fragments have been found containing lines,
+or parts of lines, to be wrought upon at some other time." By a like
+habitual and vigilant attention, the preacher will find scarce any thing
+but may be made to minister to his great design, by either giving rise
+to some new train of thought, or suggesting an argument, or placing some
+truth in a new light, or furnishing some useful illustration. Thus none
+of his reading will be lost; every poem and play, every treatise on
+science, and speculation in philosophy, and even every ephemeral tale
+may be made to give hints toward the better management of sermons and
+the more effectual proposing and communicating of truth.
+
+He who proposes to himself the art of extemporaneous speaking should
+thus have constant regard to this particular object, and make every
+thing co-operate to form those habits of mind which are essential to it.
+This may be done not only without any hindrance to the progress of his
+other studies, but even so as to promote them. The most important
+requisites are rapid thinking, and ready command of language. By rapid
+thinking I mean, what has already been spoken of, the power of seizing
+at once upon the most prominent points of the subject to be discussed,
+and tracing out, in their proper order, the subordinate thoughts which
+connect them together. This power depends very much upon habit; a habit
+more easily acquired by some minds than by others, and by some with
+great difficulty. But there are few who, should they have a view to the
+formation of such a habit in all their studies, might not attain it in a
+degree quite adequate to their purpose. This is much more indisputably
+true in regard to fluency of language.
+
+Let it, therefore, be a part of his daily care to analyze the subjects
+which come before him, and to frame sketches of sermons. This will aid
+him to acquire a facility in laying open, dividing, and arranging
+topics, and preparing those outlines which he is to take with him into
+the pulpit. Let him also investigate carefully the method of every
+author he reads, marking the divisions of his arrangement, and the
+connexion and train of his reasoning. Butler's preface to his Sermons
+will afford him some fine hints on this way of study. Let this be his
+habitual mode of reading, so that he shall as much do this, as receive
+the meaning of separate sentences, and shall be always able to give a
+better account of the progress of the argument and the relation of every
+part to the others and to the whole, than of merely individual passages
+and separate illustrations. This will infallibly beget a readiness in
+finding the divisions and boundaries of a subject, which is one
+important requisite to an easy and successful speaker.
+
+In a similar manner, let him always bear in mind the value of a fluent
+and correct use of language. Let him not be negligent of this in his
+conversation; but be careful ever to select the best words, to avoid a
+slovenly style and drawling utterance, and to aim at neatness, force,
+and brevity. This may be done without formality, or stiffness, or
+pedantic affectation; and when settled into a habit is invaluable.
+
+2. In addition to this general cultivation, there should be frequent
+exercise of the act of speaking. Practice is essential to perfection in
+any art, and in none more so than in this. No man reads well or writes
+well, except by long practice; and he cannot expect without it to speak
+well, an operation which is equivalent to the other two united. He may
+indeed get along, as the phrase is; but not so well as he might do and
+should do. He may not always be able even to get along. He may be as
+sadly discomfited as a friend of mine, who said that he had made the
+attempt, and was convinced that for him to speak extempore was
+impossible; he had risen from his study table, and tried to make a
+speech, proving that virtue is better than vice; but was obliged to sit
+down without completing it. How could one hope to do better in a first
+attempt, if he had not considered beforehand what he should say? It were
+as rational to think he could play on the organ without having learned,
+or translate from a language he had never studied.
+
+It would not be too much to require of the student, that he should
+exercise himself every day, once at least, if not oftener; and this, on
+a variety of subjects, and in various ways, that he may attain a
+facility in every mode. It would be a pleasant interchange of employment
+to rise from the subject which occupies his thoughts, or from the book
+he is reading, and repeat to himself the substance of what he has just
+perused, with such additions and variations, or criticisms, as may
+suggest themselves at the moment. There could hardly be a more useful
+exercise, even if there were no reference to this particular end. How
+many excellent chapters of valuable authors, how many fine views of
+important subjects, would be thus impressed upon his mind, and what rich
+treasures of thought and language would be thus laid up in store. And
+according as he should be engaged in a work of reasoning, or
+description, or exhortation, or narrative, he would be attaining the
+power of expressing himself readily in each of these various styles. By
+pursuing this course for two or three years, "a man may render himself
+such a master in this matter," says Burnet, "that he can never be
+surprised;" and he adds, that he never knew a man faithfully to pursue
+the plan of study he proposed, without being successful at last.
+
+3. When by such a course of study and discipline he has attained a
+tolerable fluency of thoughts and words, and a moderate confidence in
+his own powers; there are several things to be observed in first
+exercising the gift in public, in order to ensure comfort and success.
+
+It is recommended by Bishop Burnet and others, that the first attempts
+be made by short excursions from written discourses; like the young bird
+that tries its wings by short flights, till it gradually acquires
+strength and courage to sustain itself longer in the air. This advice is
+undoubtedly judicious. For he may safely trust himself in a few
+sentences, who would be confounded in the attempt to frame a whole
+discourse. For this purpose blanks may be left in writing, where the
+sentiment is familiar, or only a short illustration is to be introduced.
+As success in these smaller attempts gives him confidence, he may
+proceed to larger; till at length, when his mind is bright and his
+feelings engaged, he may quit his manuscript altogether, and present the
+substance of what he had written, with greater fervor and effect, than
+if he had confined himself to his paper. It was once observed to me by
+an interesting preacher of the Baptist denomination, that he had found
+from experience this to be the most advisable and perfect mode; since it
+combined the advantages of written and extemporaneous composition. By
+preparing sermons in this way, he said, he had a shelter and security if
+his mind should be dull at the time of delivery; and if it were active,
+he was able to leave what he had written, and obey the ardor of his
+feelings, and go forth on the impulse of the moment, wherever his spirit
+might lead him. A similar remark I heard made by a distinguished scholar
+of the Methodist connexion, who urged, what is universally asserted by
+those who have tried this method with any success, that what has been
+written is found to be tame and spiritless, in comparison with the
+animated glow of that which springs from the energy of the moment.
+
+There are some persons, however, who would be embarrassed by an effort
+to change the operation of the mind from reading to inventing. Such
+persons may find it best to make their beginning with a whole discourse.
+
+4. In this case, there will be a great advantage in selecting for first
+efforts expository subjects. To say nothing of the importance and
+utility of this mode of preaching, which render it desirable that every
+minister should devote a considerable proportion of his labors to it; it
+contains great facilities and reliefs for the inexperienced speaker. The
+close study of a passage of scripture which is necessary to expounding
+it, renders it familiar. The exposition is inseparably connected with
+the text, and necessarily suggested by it. The inferences and practical
+reflections are in like manner naturally and indissolubly associated
+with the passage. The train of remark is easily preserved, and
+embarrassment in a great measure guarded against, by the circumstance
+that the order of discourse is spread out in the open Bible, upon which
+the eyes may rest and by which the thoughts may rally.
+
+5. A similar advantage is gained to the beginner, in discourses of a
+different character, by a very careful and minute division of the
+subject. The division should not only be logical and clear, but into
+parts as numerous as possible. The great advantage here is, that the
+partitions being many, the speaker is compelled frequently to return to
+his minutes. He is thus kept in the track, and prevented from wandering
+far in needless digressions--that besetting infirmity of unrestrained
+extemporizers. He also escapes the mortifying consequences of a
+momentary confusion and cloudiness of mind, by having it in his power to
+leave an unsatisfactory train at once, before the state of his mind is
+perceived by the audience, and take up the next topic, where he may
+recover his self-possession, and proceed without impediment. This is no
+unimportant consideration. It relieves him from the horror of feeling
+obliged to go on, while conscious that he is saying nothing to the
+purpose; and at the same time secures the very essential requisite of
+right method.
+
+6. The next rule is, that the whole subject, with the order and
+connexion of all its parts, and the entire train of thought, be made
+thoroughly familiar by previous meditation. The speaker must have the
+discourse in his mind as one whole, whose various parts are distinctly
+perceived as other wholes, connected with each other and contributing to
+a common end. There must be no uncertainty, when he rises to speak, as
+to what he is going to say; no mist or darkness over the land he is
+about to travel; but conscious of his acquaintance with the ground, he
+must step forward confidently, not doubting that he shall find the
+passes of its mountains, and thread the intricacies of its forests, by
+the paths which he has already trodden. It is an imperfect and partial
+preparation in this respect, which so often renders the manner awkward
+and embarrassed, and the discourse obscure and perplexed.[11] But when
+the preparation is faithful, the speaker feels at home; being under no
+anxiety respecting the ideas or the order of their succession, he has
+the more ready control of his person, his eye, and his hand, and the
+more fearlessly gives up his mind to its own action and casts himself
+upon the current. Uneasiness and constraint are the inevitable
+attendants of unfaithful preparation, and they are fatal to success. It
+is true, that no man can attain the power of self-possession so as to
+feel at all times equally and entirely at ease. But he may guard against
+the sorest ills which attend its loss, by always making sure of a train
+of thought,--being secure that he has ideas, and that they lie in such
+order as to be found and brought forward in some sort of apparel, even
+when he has in some measure lost the mastery of himself. The richness or
+meanness of their dress will depend on the humor of the moment. It will
+vary as much as health and spirits vary, which is more in some men than
+in others. But the thoughts themselves he may produce, and be certain of
+saying _what_ he intended to say, even when he cannot say it _as_ he
+intended. It must often have been observed, by those who are at all in
+the habit of observation of this kind, that the mind operates in this
+particular like a machine, which, having been wound up, runs on by its
+own spontaneous action, until it has gone through its appointed course.
+Many men have thus continued speaking in the midst of an embarrassment
+of mind which rendered them almost unconscious of what they were saying,
+and incapable of giving an account of it afterward; while yet the
+unguided, self-moving intellect wrought so well, that the speech was not
+esteemed unwholesome or defective by the hearers. The experience of this
+fact has doubtless helped many to believe that they spoke from
+inspiration. It ought to teach all, that there is no sufficient cause
+for that excessive apprehension, which so often unmans them, and which,
+though it may not stop their mouths, must deprive their address of all
+grace and beauty, of all ease and force.
+
+    [11] Nemo potest de eâ re, quam non novit, non turpissime
+         dicere. Cic. de Or.
+
+7. We may introduce in this place another rule, the observance of which
+will aid in preventing the ill consequences resulting from the
+accidental loss of self-possession. The rule is, utter yourself very
+slowly and deliberately, with careful pauses. This is at all times a
+great aid to a clear and perspicuous statement. It is essential to the
+speaker, who would keep the command of himself and consequently of his
+hearers.
+
+One is very likely, when, in the course of speaking, he has stumbled on
+an unfortunate expression, or said what he would prefer not to say, or
+for a moment lost sight of the precise point at which he was aiming, to
+hurry on with increasing rapidity, as if to get as far as possible from
+his misfortune, or cause it to be forgotten in the crowd of new words.
+But instead of thus escaping the evil, he increases it; he entangles
+himself more and more; and augments the difficulty of recovering his
+route. The true mode of recovering himself is by increased deliberation.
+He must pause, and give himself time to think;--"ut tamen deliberare non
+hæsitare videatur." He need not be alarmed lest his hearers suspect the
+difficulty. Most of them are likely to attribute the slowness of his
+step to any cause rather than the true one. They take it for granted,
+that he says and does precisely as he intended and wished. They suppose
+that he is pausing to gather up his strength. It excites their
+attention. The change of manner is a relief to them. And the probability
+is, that the speaker not only recovers himself, but that the effort to
+do it gives a spring to the action of his powers, which enables him to
+proceed afterward with greater energy.
+
+8. In regard to language, the best rule is, that no preparation be made.
+There is no convenient and profitable medium between speaking from
+memory and from immediate suggestion. To mix the two is no aid, but a
+great hindrance, because it perplexes the mind between the very
+different operations of memory and invention. To prepare sentences and
+parts of sentences, which are to be introduced here and there, and the
+intervals between them to be filled up in the delivery, is the surest of
+all ways to produce constraint. It is like the embarrassment of framing
+verses to prescribed rhymes; as vexatious, and as absurd. To be
+compelled to shape the course of remark so as to suit a sentence which
+is by and by to come, or to introduce certain expressions which are
+waiting for their place, is a check to the natural current of thought.
+The inevitable consequence is constraint and labor, the loss of every
+thing like easy and flowing utterance, and perhaps that worst of
+confusion which results from a jumble of ill assorted, disjointed
+periods. It is unavoidable that the subject should present itself in a
+little different form and complexion in speaking, from that which it
+took in meditation; so that the sentences and modes of expression, which
+agreed very well with the train of remark as it came up in the study,
+may be wholly unsuited to that which it assumes in the pronunciation.
+
+The extemporaneous speaker should therefore trust himself to the moment
+for all his language. This is the safe way for his comfort, and the only
+sure way to make all of a uniform piece. The general rule is certain,
+though there may be some exceptions. It may be well for example, to
+consider what synonymous terms may be employed in recurring to the chief
+topic, in order to avoid the too frequent reiteration of the same word.
+This will occasion no embarrassment. He may also prepare texts of
+scripture to be introduced in certain parts of the discourse. These, if
+perfectly committed to memory, and he be not too anxious to make a place
+for them, will be no encumbrance. When a suitable juncture occurs, they
+will suggest themselves, just as a suitable epithet suggests itself. But
+if he be very solicitous about them, and continually on the watch for an
+opportunity to introduce them, he will be likely to confuse himself. And
+it is better to lose the choicest quotation, than suffer constraint and
+awkwardness from the effort to bring it in. Under the same restrictions
+he may have ready, pithy remarks, striking and laconic expressions,
+pointed sayings and aphorisms, the force of which depends on the precise
+form of the phrase. Let the same rule be observed in regard to such. If
+they suggest themselves (which they will do, if there be a proper place
+for them), let them be welcome. But never let him run the risk of
+spoiling a whole paragraph in trying to make a place for them.
+
+Many distinguished speakers are said to do more than this,--to write out
+with care and repeat from memory their more important and persuasive
+parts; like the _de bene esse's_ of Curran, and the splendid passages of
+many others. This may undoubtedly be done to advantage by one who has
+the command of himself which practice gives, and has learned to pass
+from memory to invention without tripping. It is a different case from
+that mixture of the two operations, which is condemned above, and is in
+fact only an extended example of the exceptions made in the last
+paragraph. With these exceptions, when he undertakes, _bonâ fide_, an
+extemporaneous address, he should make no preparation of language.
+Language is the last thing he should be anxious about. If he have ideas,
+and be awake, it will come of itself, unbidden and unsought for. The
+best language flashes upon the speaker as unexpectedly as upon the
+hearer. It is the spontaneous gift of the mind, not the extorted boon of
+a special search. No man who has thoughts, and is interested in them, is
+at a loss for words--not the most uneducated man; and the words he uses
+will be according to his education and general habits, not according to
+the labour of the moment. If he truly feel, and wish to communicate his
+feelings to those around him, the last thing that will fail will be
+language; the less he thinks of it and cares for it, the more copiously
+and richly will it flow from him; and when he has forgotten every thing
+but his desire to give vent to his emotions and do good, then will the
+unconscious torrent pour, as it does at no other season. This entire
+surrender to the spirit which stirs within, is indeed the real secret of
+all eloquence. "True eloquence," says Milton, "I find to be none but the
+serious and hearty love of truth; and that whose mind soever is fully
+possessed with a fervent desire to know good things, and with the
+dearest charity to infuse the knowledge of them into others,--when such
+a man would speak, his words, like so many nimble and airy servitors,
+trip about him at command and in well ordered files, as he would wish,
+fall aptly into their own places." Rerum enim copia (says the great
+Roman teacher and example) verborum copiam gignit; et, si est honestas
+in rebus ipsis de quibus dicitur, existit ex rei naturâ quidam splendor
+in verbis. Sit modo is, qui dicet aut scribet, institutus liberaliter
+educatione doctrinâque puerili, et flagret studio, et a naturâ
+adjuvetur, et in universorum generum infinitis disceptationibus
+exercitatus; ornatissimos scriptores oratoresque ad cognoscendum
+imitandumque legerit;--næ ille haud sane, quemadmodum verba struat et
+illuminet, a magistris istis requiret. Ita facile in rerum abundantiâ ad
+orationis ornamenta, sine duce, naturâ ipsâ, si modo est exercitata,
+labetur.[12]
+
+    [12] De Or. iii. 31.
+
+9. These remarks lead to another suggestion which deserves the student's
+consideration. He should select for this exercise those subjects in
+which he feels an interest at the time, and in regard to which he
+desires to engage the interest of others. In order to the best success,
+extemporaneous efforts should be made in an excited state, when the mind
+is burning and glowing, and longs to find vent. There are some topics
+which do not admit of this excitement. Such should be treated by the
+pen. When he would speak, he should choose topics on which his own mind
+is kindling with a feeling which he is earnest to communicate; and the
+higher the degree to which he has elevated his feelings, the more
+readily, happily, and powerfully will he pour forth whatever the
+occasion may demand. There is no style suited to the pulpit, which he
+will not more effectually command in this state of mind. He will reason
+more directly, pointedly, and convincingly; he will describe more
+vividly from the living conceptions of the moment; he will be more
+earnest in persuasion, more animated in declamation, more urgent in
+appeals, more terrible in denunciation. Every thing will vanish from
+before him, but the subject of his attention, and upon this his powers
+will be concentrated in keen and vigorous action.
+
+If a man would do his best, it must be upon topics which are at the
+moment interesting to him. We see it in conversation, where every one is
+eloquent upon his favorite subjects. We see it in deliberative
+assemblies; where it is those grand questions, which excite an intense
+interest, and absorb and agitate the mind, that call forth those bursts
+of eloquence by which men are remembered as powerful orators, and that
+give a voice to men who can speak on no other occasions. Cicero tells us
+of himself, that the instances in which he was most successful, were
+those in which he most entirely abandoned himself to the impulses of
+feeling. Every speaker's experience will bear testimony to the same
+thing; and thus the saying of Goldsmith proves true, that, "to feel
+one's subject thoroughly, and to speak without fear, are the only rules
+of eloquence." Let him who would preach successfully, remember this. In
+the choice of subjects for extemporaneous efforts, let him have regard
+to it, and never encumber himself nor distress his hearers, with the
+attempt to interest them in a subject, which excites at the moment only
+a feeble interest in his own mind.
+
+This rule excludes many topics, which it is necessary to introduce into
+the pulpit, subjects in themselves interesting and important, but which
+few men can be trusted to treat in unpremeditated language; because they
+require an exactness of definition, and nice discrimination of phrase,
+which may be better commanded in the cool leisure of writing, than in
+the prompt and declamatory style of the speaker. The rule also forbids
+the attempt to speak when ill health, or lowness of spirits, or any
+accidental cause, renders him incapable of that excitement which is
+requisite to success. It requires of him to watch over the state of his
+body--the partial derangement of whose functions so often confuses the
+mind--that, by preserving a vigorous and animated condition of the
+corporeal system, he may secure vigour and vivacity of mind. It requires
+of him, finally, whenever he is about entering upon the work, to use
+every means, by careful meditation, by calling up the strong motives of
+his office, by realizing the nature and responsibility of his
+undertaking, and by earnestly invoking the blessing of God--to attain
+that frame of devout engagedness, which will dispose him to speak
+zealously and fearlessly.
+
+10. Another important item in the discipline to be passed through,
+consists in attaining the habit of self-command. I have already adverted
+to this point, and noticed the power which the mind possesses of
+carrying on the premeditated operation, even while the speaker is
+considerably embarrassed. This is, however, only a reason for not being
+too much distressed by the feeling when only occasional; it does not
+imply that it is no evil. It is a most serious evil; of little
+comparative moment, it may be, when only occasional and transitory, but
+highly injurious if habitual. It renders the speaker unhappy, and his
+address ineffective. If perfectly at ease, he would have every thing at
+command, and be able to pour out his thoughts in lucid order, and with
+every desirable variety of manner and expression. But when thrown from
+his self-possession, he can do nothing better than mechanically string
+together words, while there is no soul in them, because his mental
+powers are spell-bound and imbecile. He stammers, hesitates, and
+stumbles; or, at best, talks on without object or aim, as mechanically
+and unconsciously as an automaton. He has learned little effectually,
+till he has learned to be collected.
+
+This therefore must be a leading object of attention. It will not be
+attained by men of delicacy and sensibility, except by long and trying
+practice. It will be the result of much rough attrition with the world,
+and many mortifying failures. And after all, occasions may occur, when
+the most experienced will be put off their guard. Still, however, much
+may be done by the control which a vigorous mind has over itself, by
+resolute and persevering determination, by refusing to shrink or give
+way, and by preferring always the mortification of ill success, to the
+increased weakness which would grow out of retreating.
+
+There are many considerations, also, which if kept before the mind would
+operate not a little to strengthen its confidence in itself. Let the
+speaker be sensible that, if self-possessed, he is not likely to fail;
+that after faithful study and preparation, there is nothing to stand in
+his way, but his own want of self-command. Let him heat his mind with
+his subject, endeavour to feel nothing, and care for nothing, but that.
+Let him consider, that his audience takes for granted that he says
+nothing but what he designed, and does not notice those slight errors
+which annoy and mortify him; that in truth such errors are of no moment;
+that he is not speaking for reputation and display, nor for the
+gratification of others, by the exhibition of a rhetorical model, or for
+the satisfaction of a cultivated taste: but that he is a teacher of
+virtue, a messenger of Jesus Christ, a speaker in the name of God; whose
+chosen object it is to lead men above all secondary considerations and
+worldly attainments, and to create in them a fixed and lasting interest
+in spiritual and religious concerns;--that he himself therefore ought to
+regard other things as of comparatively little consequence while he
+executes this high function; that the true way to effect the object of
+his ministry, is to be filled with that object, and to be conscious of
+no other desire but to promote it. Let him, in a word, be zealous to do
+good, to promote religion, to save souls, and little anxious to make
+what might be called a fine sermon--let him learn to sink every thing in
+his subject and the purpose it should accomplish--ambitious rather to do
+good, than to do well;--and he will be in a great measure secure from
+the loss of self-command and its attendant distress. Not always--for
+this feeble vessel of the mind seems to be sometimes tost to and fro, as
+it were, upon the waves of circumstances, unmanageable by the helm and
+disobedient to the wind. Sometimes God seems designedly to show us our
+weakness, by taking from us the control of our powers, and causing us to
+be drifted along whither we would not. But under all ordinary
+occurrences, habitual piety and ministerial zeal will be an ample
+security. From the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak. The most
+diffident man in the society of men is known to converse freely and
+fearlessly when his heart is full, and his passions engaged; and no man
+is at a loss for words, or confounded by another's presence, who thinks
+neither of the language, nor the company, but only of the matter which
+fills him. Let the preacher consider this, and be persuaded of it,--and
+it will do much to relieve him from the distress which attends the loss
+of self-possession, which distorts every feature with agony, and distils
+in sweat from his forehead. It will do much to destroy that incubus,
+which sits upon every faculty of the soul, and palsies every power, and
+fastens down the helpless sufferer to the very evil from which he
+strives to flee.
+
+After all, therefore, which can be said, the great essential requisite
+to effective preaching in this method (or indeed in any method) is a
+devoted heart. A strong religious sentiment, leading to a fervent zeal
+for the good of other men, is better than all rules of art; it will give
+him courage, which no science or practice could impart, and open his
+lips boldly, when the fear of man would keep them closed. Art may fail
+him, and all his treasures of knowledge desert him; but if his heart be
+warm with love, he will "speak right on," aiming at the heart, and
+reaching the heart, and satisfied to accomplish the great purpose,
+whether he be thought to do it tastefully or not.
+
+This is the true spirit of his office, to be cherished and cultivated
+above all things else, and capable of rendering all its labors
+comparatively easy. It reminds him that his purpose is not to make
+profound discussions of theological doctrines, or disquisitions on moral
+and metaphysical science; but to present such views of the great and
+acknowledged truths of revelation, with such applications of them to the
+understanding and conscience, as may affect and reform his hearers. Now
+it is not study only, in divinity or in rhetoric, which will enable him
+to do this. He may reason ingeniously, but not convincingly; he may
+declaim eloquently, but not persuasively. There is an immense, though
+indescribable difference between the same arguments and truths, as
+presented by him who earnestly feels and desires to persuade, and by him
+who designs only a display of intellectual strength, or an exercise of
+rhetorical skill. In the latter case, the declamation may be splendid,
+but it will be cold and without expression; lulling the ear, and
+diverting the fancy, but leaving the feelings untouched. In the other,
+there is an air of reality and sincerity, which words cannot describe,
+but which the heart feels, that finds its way to the recesses of the
+soul, and overcomes it by a powerful sympathy. This is a difference
+which all perceive and all can account for. The truths of religion are
+not matters of philosophical speculation, but of experience. The heart
+and all the spiritual man, and all the interests and feelings of the
+immortal being, have an intimate concern in them. It is perceived at
+once whether they are stated by one who has felt them himself, is
+personally acquainted with their power, is subject to their influence,
+and speaks from actual experience; or whether they come from one who
+knows them only in speculation, has gathered them from books, and
+thought them out by his own reason, but without any sense of their
+spiritual operation.
+
+But who does not know how much easier it is to declare what has come to
+our knowledge from our own experience, than what we have gathered coldly
+at second hand from that of others;--how much easier it is to describe
+feelings we have ourselves had, and pleasures we have ourselves enjoyed,
+than to fashion a description of what others have told us;--how much
+more freely and convincingly we can speak of happiness we have known,
+than of that to which we are strangers. We see, then, how much is lost
+to the speaker by coldness or ignorance in the exercises of personal
+religion. How can he effectually represent the joys of a religious mind,
+who has never known what it is to feel them? How can he effectually aid
+the contrite, the desponding, the distrustful, the tempted, who has
+never himself passed through the same fears and sorrows? or how can he
+paint, in the warm colors of truth, religious exercises and spiritual
+desires, who is personally a stranger to them? Alas, he cannot at all
+come in contact with those souls, which stand most in need of his
+sympathy and aid. But if he have cherished in himself, fondly and
+habitually, the affections he would excite in others, if he have
+combated temptation, and practised self-denial, and been instant in
+prayer, and tasted the joy and peace of a tried faith and hope;--then he
+may communicate directly with the hearts of his fellow men, and win them
+over to that which he so feelingly describes. If his spirit be always
+warm and stirring with these pure and kind emotions, and anxious to
+impart the means of his own felicity to others--how easily and freely
+will he pour himself forth! and how little will he think of the
+embarrassments of the presence of mortal man, while he is conscious only
+of laboring for the glory of the ever present God.
+
+This then is the one thing essential to be attained and cherished by the
+Christian preacher. With this he must begin, and with this he must go on
+to the end. Then he never can greatly fail; for he will FEEL HIS SUBJECT
+THOROUGHLY, AND SPEAK WITHOUT FEAR.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Hints on Extemporaneous Preaching, by Henry Ware
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+Project Gutenberg's Hints on Extemporaneous Preaching, by Henry Ware
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
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+Title: Hints on Extemporaneous Preaching
+
+Author: Henry Ware
+
+Release Date: August 13, 2008 [EBook #26308]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HINTS ON EXTEMPORANEOUS PREACHING ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
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+
+</pre>
+
+	<div id="the_beginning">&nbsp;</div>
+	<div id="title_page"><a class="pagenum disguise" id="pagei" title="i">&nbsp;</a>
+		<h1>HINTS<br />
+			<span class="smaller">ON<br />
+			EXTEMPORANEOUS PREACHING.</span></h1>
+		<p id="byline">By HENRY WARE, Jr.<br />
+			<span id="works">MINISTER OF THE SECOND CHURCH IN BOSTON.</span></p>
+		<div class="epigram">
+			<p>Maximus vero studiorum fructus est, et velut prÊmium quoddam
+			amplissimum longi laboris, ex tempore dicendi facultas.</p>
+			<p class="source"><cite>Quinct.</cite> x. 7.</p>
+		</div>
+		<p id="pub_info"><span id="pub_cities">BOSTON:</span><br />
+		<span id="publisher">PUBLISHED BY CUMMINGS, HILLIARD &amp; CO.</span><br />
+		<span id="pub_date">1824.</span></p>
+	</div>
+	<div id="copyright_page"><a class="pagenum disguise" id="pageii" title="ii">&nbsp;</a>
+		<p>University Press&#8212;Hilliard &amp; Metcalf.</p>
+	</div>
+	<div id="dedication_page"><a class="pagenum disguise" id="pageiii" title="iii">&nbsp;</a>
+		<p>TO<br />
+			<span class="largest">THE STUDENTS</span><br />
+			IN THE<br />
+			THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY,<br />
+			<span class="larger">THIS LITTLE TREATISE,</span><br />
+			WITH THE<br />
+			SINCEREST PRAYERS THAT THEY MAY BECOME<br />
+			PROFOUND DIVINES AND POWERFUL PREACHERS,<br />
+			IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED<br />
+			BY<br />
+			<span class="large">THE AUTHOR.</span></p>
+	</div>
+	<div id="contents" class="section"><a class="pagenum disguise" id="pagev" title="v">&nbsp;</a>
+		<h2 class="section_title">CONTENTS.</h2>
+		<ol>
+			<li><p class="chapter_number"><a href="#chapter_i">CHAPTER I.</a></p>
+				<p>Advantages of Extemporaneous Preaching <a href="#page1" class="toc_page">1</a></p>
+			</li>
+			<li><p class="chapter_number"><a href="#chapter_ii">CHAPTER II.</a></p>
+				<p>Disadvantages—Objections considered <a href="#page37" class="toc_page">37</a></p>
+			</li>
+			<li><p class="chapter_number"><a href="#chapter_iii">CHAPTER III.</a></p>
+				<p>Rules <a href="#page63" class="toc_page">63</a></p>
+			</li>
+		</ol>
+	</div>
+	<!-- <a class="pagenum" id="pagevi" title="vi">&nbsp;</a>[Blank Page] -->
+	<div id="preface" class="section">
+		<h2 class="section_title"><a class="pagenum disguise" id="pagevii" title="vii">&nbsp;</a>PREFACE.</h2>
+
+		<p><span class="first_word">It</span> is the object of this little work, to draw the
+		attention of those who are preparing for the christian
+		ministry, or who have just entered it, to a mode
+		of preaching which the writer thinks has been too
+		much discountenanced and despised; but which, under
+		proper restrictions, he is persuaded may add
+		greatly to the opportunities of ministerial usefulness.
+		The subject has hardly received the attention it deserves
+		from writers on the pastoral office, who have
+		usually devoted to it but a few sentences, which offer
+		little encouragement and afford no aid. Burnet, in
+		his Treatise on the Pastoral Care, and Fenelon in his
+		Dialogues on Eloquence, have treated it more at large,
+		but still very cursorily. To their arguments and their
+		authority, which are of great weight, I refer the more
+		distinctly here, because I have not quoted them so
+		much at large as I intended when I wrote the beginning
+		of the second chapter. Besides these, the
+		remarks of Quinctilian, x. 7. on the subject of
+		speaking extempore, which are full of his usual good
+		sense, may be very profitably consulted.</p>
+
+		<p>It has been my object to state fully and fairly the
+		benefits which attend this mode of address in the
+		<a class="pagenum" id="pageviii" title="viii">&nbsp;</a>pulpit, and at the same time to guard against the
+		dangers and abuses to which it is confessedly liable.
+		How far I may have succeeded, it is not for me to
+		determine. It would be something to persuade but
+		one to add this to his other talents for doing good in
+		the church. Even the attempt to do it, though unsuccessful,
+		would not be without its reward; since
+		it could not be fairly made without a most salutary
+		moral and intellectual discipline.</p>
+
+		<p>It is not to be expected—nor do I mean by any
+		thing I have said to intimate—that every man is capable
+		of becoming an accomplished preacher in this
+		mode, or that every one may succeed as well in this
+		as in the ordinary mode. There is a variety in the
+		talents of men, and to some this may be peculiarly
+		unsuited. Yet this is no good reason why <em>any</em> should
+		decline the attempt, since it is only by making the
+		attempt that they can determine whether or not
+		success is within their power.</p>
+
+		<p>There is at least one consequence likely to result
+		from the study of this art and the attempt to practise
+		it, which would alone be a sufficient reason for urging
+		it earnestly. I mean, its probable effect in breaking
+		up the constrained, cold, formal, scholastic mode of
+		address, which follows the student from his college
+		duties, and keeps him from immediate contact
+		with the hearts of his fellow men. This would be
+		effected by his learning to speak from his feelings,
+		rather than from the critical rules of a book. His
+		address would be more natural, and consequently
+		better adapted to effective preaching.</p>
+	</div>
+	<p class="internal_title"><span class="super_emphasis">HINTS</span><br />
+	ON EXTEMPORANEOUS PREACHING.</p>
+	<div id="chapter_i" class="chapter"><a class="pagenum disguise" id="page1" title="1">&nbsp;</a>
+
+		<h2 class="chapter_title">CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+		<p><span class="first_word">It</span> is a little remarkable that, while some
+		classes of christians do not tolerate the
+		preaching of a written discourse, others
+		have an equal prejudice against all sermons
+		which have not been carefully precomposed.
+		Among the latter are to be
+		found those who favor an educated ministry,
+		and whose preachers are valued for
+		their cultivated minds and extensive
+		knowledge. The former are, for the most
+		part, those who disparage learning as a
+		qualification for a christian teacher, and
+		whose ministers are consequently not accustomed
+		to exact mental discipline, nor
+		familiar with the best models of thinking
+		and writing. It might seem at first view,
+		that the least cultivated would require
+		the greatest previous preparation in order
+		profitably to address their fellow-men,
+		and that the best informed and most accustomed
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page2" title="2">&nbsp;</a>to study might be best trusted to
+		speak without the labor of written composition.
+		That it has been thought otherwise, is
+		probably owing, in a great measure, to the
+		solicitude for literary exactness and elegance
+		of style, which becomes a habit in
+		the taste of studious men, and renders all
+		inaccuracy and carelessness offensive.
+		He who has been accustomed to read and
+		admire the finest models of composition
+		in various languages, and to dwell on those
+		niceties of method and expression which
+		form so large a part of the charm of literary
+		works; acquires a critical delicacy of
+		taste, which renders him fastidiously sensitive
+		to those crudities and roughnesses
+		of speech, which almost necessarily attend
+		an extemporaneous style. He is apt to
+		exaggerate their importance, and to imagine
+		that no excellencies of another kind
+		can atone for them. He therefore protects
+		himself by the toil of previous composition,
+		and ventures not a sentence which he
+		has not leisurely weighed and measured.
+		An audience also, composed of reading
+		people, or accustomed to the exactness of
+		written composition in the pulpit, acquires
+		something of the same taste, and is easily
+		offended at the occasional homeliness of
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page3" title="3">&nbsp;</a>diction, and looseness of method, which
+		occur in extemporaneous speaking. Whereas
+		those preachers and hearers, whose
+		education and habits of mind have been
+		different, know nothing of this taste, and
+		are insensible to these blemishes; and, if
+		there be only a fluent outpouring of
+		words, accompanied by a manner which
+		evinces earnestness and sincerity, are
+		pleased and satisfied.</p>
+
+		<p>It is further remarkable, that this prejudice
+		of taste has been suffered to rule in
+		this way in no profession but that of the
+		ministry. The most fastidious taste never
+		carries a written speech to the bar or
+		into the senate. The very man who dares
+		not ascend the pulpit without a sermon
+		diligently arranged, and filled out to the
+		smallest word, if he had gone into the profession
+		of the law, would, at the same age
+		and with no greater advantages, address
+		the bench and the jury in language altogether
+		unpremeditated. Instances are not
+		wanting in which the minister, who imagined
+		it impossible to put ten sentences together
+		in the pulpit, has found himself able,
+		on changing his profession, to speak fluently
+		for an hour.</p>
+
+		<p>I have no doubt that to speak extempore
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page4" title="4">&nbsp;</a>is easier at the bar and in the legislature,
+		than in the pulpit. Our associations
+		with this place are of so sacred a character,
+		that our faculties do not readily play
+		there with their accustomed freedom.
+		There is an awe upon our feelings which
+		constrains us. A sense, too, of the importance
+		and responsibility of the station, and
+		of the momentous consequences depending
+		on the influence he may there exert, has
+		a tendency to oppress and embarrass the
+		conscientious man, who feels it as he ought.
+		There is also, in the other cases, an immediate
+		end to be attained, which produces
+		a powerful immediate excitement; an
+		excitement, increased by the presence of
+		those who are speaking on the opposite
+		side of the question, and in assailing or answering
+		whom, the embarrassment of the
+		place is lost in the interest of the argument.
+		Whereas in the pulpit, there is
+		none to assault, and none to refute; the
+		preacher has the field entirely to himself,
+		and this of itself is sufficiently dismaying.
+		The ardor and self-oblivion which present
+		debate occasions, do not exist; and the
+		solemn stillness and fixed gaze of a waiting
+		multitude, serve rather to appal and
+		abash the solitary speaker, than to bring
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page5" title="5">&nbsp;</a>the subject forcibly to his mind. Thus
+		every external circumstance is unpropitious,
+		and it is not strange that relief has
+		been sought in the use of manuscripts.</p>
+
+		<p>But still, these difficulties, and others
+		which I shall have occasion to mention
+		in another place, are by no means such as
+		to raise that insuperable obstacle which
+		many suppose. They may all be overcome
+		by resolution and perseverance. As
+		regards merely the use of unpremeditated
+		language, it is far from being a difficult attainment.
+		A writer, whose opportunities
+		of observation give weight to his opinion,
+		says, in speaking of the style of the younger
+		Pitt—“This profuse and interminable
+		flow of words is not in itself either a rare
+		or remarkable endowment. It is wholly a
+		thing of habit; and is exercised by every
+		village lawyer with various degrees of
+		power and grace.”<a href="#footnote_1" id="fnm1" title="Europe; &amp;c. by a Citizen of the United States." class="fnmarker">1</a> If there be circumstances
+		which render the habit more difficult
+		to be acquired by the preacher, they
+		are still such as may be surmounted; and
+		it may be made plain, I think, that the advantages
+		which he may thus ensure to
+		himself are so many and so great, as to
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page6" title="6">&nbsp;</a>offer the strongest inducement to make
+		the attempt.</p>
+
+		<p>That these advantages are real and substantial,
+		may be safely inferred from the
+		habit of public orators in other professions,
+		and from the effects they are known to produce.
+		There is more nature, more
+		warmth in the declamation, more earnestness
+		in the address, greater animation in
+		the manner, more of the lighting up of the
+		soul in the countenance and whole mien,
+		more freedom and meaning in the gesture;
+		the eye speaks, and the fingers speak, and
+		when the orator is so excited as to forget
+		every thing but the matter on which his
+		mind and feelings are acting, the whole
+		body is affected, and helps to propagate
+		his emotions to the hearer. Amidst all the
+		exaggerated colouring of Patrick Henry’s
+		biographer, there is doubtless enough that
+		is true, to prove a power in the spontaneous
+		energy of an excited speaker, superior in
+		its effects to any thing that can be produced
+		by writing. Something of the same
+		sort has been witnessed by every one who
+		is in the habit of attending in the courts of
+		justice, or the chambers of legislation.
+		And this, not only in the instances of the
+		most highly eloquent; but inferior men
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page7" title="7">&nbsp;</a>are found thus to excite attention and produce
+		effects, which they never could have
+		done by their pens. In deliberative assemblies,
+		in senates and parliaments, the
+		larger portion of the speaking is necessarily
+		unpremeditated; perhaps the most eloquent
+		is always so; for it is elicited by the
+		growing heat of debate; it is the spontaneous
+		combustion of the mind in the conflict
+		of opinion. Chatham’s speeches
+		were not written, nor Sheridan’s, nor that
+		of Ames on the British treaty. They
+		were, so far as regards their language and
+		ornaments, the effusions of the moment,
+		and derived from their freshness a power,
+		which no study could impart. Among the
+		orations of Cicero, which are said to have
+		made the greatest impression, and to have
+		best accomplished the orator’s design,
+		are those delivered on unexpected emergencies,
+		which precluded the possibility of
+		previous preparation. Such were his
+		first invective against Catiline, and the
+		speech which stilled the disturbances at
+		the theatre. In all these cases, there can
+		be no question of the advantages which
+		the orators enjoyed in their ability to make
+		use of the excitement of the occasion, unchilled
+		by the formality of studied preparation.
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page8" title="8">&nbsp;</a>Although possibly guilty of many
+		rhetorical and logical faults, yet these
+		would be unobserved in the fervent and
+		impassioned torrent, which bore away the
+		minds of the delighted auditors.</p>
+
+		<p>It is doubtless very true, that a man of
+		study and reflection, accustomed deliberately
+		to weigh every expression and analyze
+		every sentence, and to be influenced
+		by nothing which does not bear the test of
+		the severest examination, may be most
+		impressed by the quiet, unpretending reading
+		of a well digested essay or dissertation.
+		To some men the concisest statement of
+		a subject, with nothing to adorn the naked
+		skeleton of thought, is most forcible. They
+		are even impatient of any attempt to assist
+		its effect by fine writing, by emphasis, tone,
+		or gesture. They are like the mathematician,
+		who read the Paradise Lost without
+		pleasure, because he could not see that it
+		proved any thing. But we are not to judge
+		from the taste of such men, of what is
+		suitable to affect the majority. The multitude
+		are not mere thinkers or great
+		readers. From their necessary habits
+		they are incapable of following a long discussion
+		except it be made inviting by the
+		circumstances attending it, or the manner
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page9" title="9">&nbsp;</a>of conducting it. Their attention must be
+		excited and maintained by some external
+		application. To them,</p>
+
+		<div class="poem">
+		    <p>Action is eloquence, and the eyes of the ignorant</p>
+		    <p>More learned than their ears.</p>
+		</div>
+
+		<p>It is a great fault with intellectual men,
+		that they do not make sufficient allowance
+		for the different modes of education and
+		habits of mind in men of other pursuits.
+		It is one of the infelicities of a university
+		education, that a man is there trained in a
+		fictitious scene, where there are interests,
+		associations, feelings, exceedingly diverse
+		from what prevail in the society of the
+		world; and where he becomes so far
+		separated from the habits and sympathies
+		of other men, as to need to acquire a new
+		knowledge of them, before he knows how
+		to address them. When a young man
+		leaves the seclusion of a student’s life to
+		preach to his fellow-men, he is likely to
+		speak to them as if they were scholars.
+		He imagines them to be capable of appreciating
+		the niceties of method and style,
+		and of being affected by the same sort of
+		sentiment, illustration, and cool remark,
+		which affects those who have been accustomed
+		to be moved and guided by the
+		dumb and lifeless pages of a book. He
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page10" title="10">&nbsp;</a>therefore talks to them calmly, is more
+		anxious for correctness than impression,
+		fears to make more noise or to have more
+		motion than the very letters on his manuscript;
+		addressing himself, as he thinks,
+		to the intellectual part of man; forgetting
+		that the intellectual man is not very easy
+		of access, that it is barred up, and must
+		be approached through the senses and affections
+		and imagination.</p>
+
+		<p>There was a class of rhetoricians and
+		orators at Rome in the time of Cicero,
+		who were famous for having made the
+		same mistake. They would do every
+		thing by a fixed and almost mechanical
+		rule, by calculation and measurement.
+		Their sentences were measured, their
+		gestures were measured, their tones were
+		measured; and they framed canons of
+		judgment and taste, by which it was pronounced
+		an affront on the intellectual nature
+		of man to assail him with epithets,
+		and exclamations, and varied tones, and
+		emphatic gesture. They censured the
+		free and flowing manner of Cicero as
+		“tumid and exuberant,” nec satis pressus,
+		supra modum exultans et superfluens.
+		They cultivated a more guarded and concise
+		style, which might indeed please the
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page11" title="11">&nbsp;</a>critic or the scholar, but was wholly unfitted
+		to instruct or move a promiscuous
+		audience; as was said of one of them,
+		oratio—doctis et attente audientibus erat
+		illustris; a multitudine autem et a foro,
+		cui nata eloquentia est, devorabatur. The
+		taste of the multitude prevailed, and Cicero
+		was the admiration of the people,
+		while those who pruned themselves by a
+		more rigid and philosophical law, <em>coldly
+		correct and critically dull</em>, “were frequently
+		deserted by the audience in the midst
+		of their harangues.”<a href="#footnote_2" id="fnm2" title="Middleton’s Life of Cicero, III. 324." class="fnmarker">2</a></p>
+
+		<p>We may learn something from this.
+		There is one mode of address for books
+		and for classical readers, and another for
+		the mass of men, who judge by the eye
+		and ear, by the fancy and feelings, and
+		know little of rules of art or of an educated
+		taste. Hence it is that many of
+		those preachers who have become the
+		classics of a country, have been unattractive
+		to the multitude, who have deserted
+		their polished and careful composition, for
+		the more unrestrained and rousing declamation
+		of another class. The singular
+		success of Chalmers, seems to be in a considerable
+		measure owing to his attention
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page12" title="12">&nbsp;</a>to this fact. He has abandoned the pure
+		and measured style, and adopted a heterogeneous
+		mixture of the gaudy, pompous,
+		and colloquial, offensive indeed to the ears
+		of literary men, but highly acceptable to
+		those who are less biassed by the authority
+		of a standard taste and established models.
+		We need not go to the extreme of
+		Chalmers,—for there is no necessity for
+		inaccuracy, bombast, or false taste—but
+		we should doubtless gain by adopting his
+		principle. The object is to address men
+		according to their actual character, and
+		in that mode in which their habits of
+		mind may render them most accessible.
+		As but few are thinkers or readers, a congregation
+		is not to be addressed as such;
+		but, their modes of life being remembered,
+		constant regard must be had to their need
+		of external attraction. This is most
+		easily done by the familiarity and directness
+		of extemporaneous address; for
+		which reason this mode of preaching has
+		peculiar advantages, in its adaptation to
+		their situation and wants.</p>
+
+		<p>The truth is, indeed, that it is not the
+		weight of the thought, the profoundness of
+		the argument, the exactness of the arrangement,
+		the choiceness of the language,
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page13" title="13">&nbsp;</a>which interest and chain the attention of
+		even those educated hearers, who are able
+		to appreciate them all. They are as
+		likely to sleep through the whole as others.
+		They can find all these qualities in
+		much higher perfection in their libraries;
+		they do not seek these only at church.
+		And as to the large mass of the people,
+		they are to them hidden things, of which
+		they discern nothing. It is not these, so
+		much as the attraction of an earnest manner,
+		which arrests the attention and makes
+		instruction welcome. Every day’s observation
+		may show us, that he who has this
+		manner will retain the attention of even
+		an intellectual man with common-place
+		thoughts, while with a different manner he
+		would render tedious the most novel and
+		ingenious disquisitions. Let an indifferent
+		reader take into the pulpit a sermon
+		of Barrow or Butler, and all its excellence
+		of argument and eloquence would not
+		save it from being accounted tedious;
+		while an empty declaimer shall collect
+		crowds to hang upon his lips in raptures.
+		And this manner, which is so attractive, is
+		not the studied artificial enunciation of the
+		rhetorician’s school, but the free, flowing,
+		animated utterance, which seems to come
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page14" title="14">&nbsp;</a>from the impulse of the subject; which
+		may be full of faults, yet masters the attention
+		by its nature and sincerity. This
+		is precisely the manner of the extemporaneous
+		speaker—in whom the countenance
+		reflects the emotions of the soul,
+		and the tone of voice is tuned to the feelings
+		of the heart, rising and falling with the
+		subject, as in conversation, without the
+		regular and harmonious modulation of the
+		practised reader.</p>
+
+		<p>In making these and similar remarks,
+		it is true that I am thinking of the best
+		extemporaneous speakers, and that all
+		cannot be such. But it ought to be recollected
+		at the same time, that all cannot
+		be excellent <em>readers</em>; that those who
+		speak ill, would probably read still worse;
+		and that therefore those who can attain to
+		no eminence as speakers, do not on that
+		account fail of the advantages of which I
+		speak, since they escape at least the unnatural
+		monotony of bad reading; than
+		which nothing is more earnestly to be
+		avoided.</p>
+
+		<p>Every man utters himself with greater
+		animation and truer emphasis in speaking,
+		than he does, or perhaps can do, in reading.
+		Hence it happens that we can listen
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page15" title="15">&nbsp;</a>longer to a tolerable speaker, than to a
+		good reader. There is an indescribable
+		something in the natural tones of him who
+		is expressing earnestly his present thoughts,
+		altogether foreign from the drowsy uniformity
+		of the man that reads. I once
+		heard it well observed, that the least animated
+		mode of communicating thoughts to
+		others, is the reading from a book the
+		composition of another; the next in order
+		is the reading one’s own composition; the
+		next is delivering one’s own composition
+		memoriter; and the most animated of all
+		is the uttering one’s own thoughts as they
+		rise fresh in his mind. Very few can
+		give the spirit to another’s writings which
+		they communicate to their own, or can
+		read their own with the spirit, with which
+		they spontaneously express their thoughts.
+		We have all witnessed this in conversation;
+		when we have listened with interest
+		to long harangues from persons, who tire
+		us at once if they begin to read. It is
+		verified at the bar, and in the legislature,
+		where orators maintain the unflagging attention
+		of hearers for a long period, when
+		they could not have read the same speech
+		without producing intolerable fatigue. It
+		is equally verified in the history of the
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page16" title="16">&nbsp;</a>pulpit; for those who are accustomed to
+		the reading of sermons, are for the most
+		part impatient even of able discourses,
+		when they extend beyond the half hour’s
+		length; while very indifferent extemporaneous
+		preachers are listened to with unabated
+		attention for a full hour. In the former
+		case there is a certain uniformity of tone,
+		and a perpetual recurrence of the same
+		cadences, inseparable from the manner of
+		a reader, from which the speaker remains
+		longer free. This difference is perfectly
+		well understood, and was acted upon by
+		Cecil, whose success as a preacher gives
+		him a right to be heard, when he advised
+		young preachers to “limit a written sermon
+		to half an hour, and one from notes
+		to forty minutes.”<a href="#footnote_3" id="fnm3" title="Cecil’s Remains—a delightful little book." class="fnmarker">3</a> For the same reason,
+		those preachers whose reading comes nearest
+		to speaking, are universally more interesting
+		than others.</p>
+
+		<p>Thus it is evident that there is an attractiveness
+		in this mode of preaching, which
+		gives it peculiar advantages. He imparts
+		greater interest to what he says, who is governed
+		by the impulse of the moment, than
+		he who speaks by rule. When he feels
+		the subject, his voice and gesture correspond
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page17" title="17">&nbsp;</a>to that feeling, and communicate it
+		to others as it can be done in no other way.
+		Though he possess but indifferent talents,
+		yet if he utter himself with sincerity and
+		feeling, it is far pleasanter than to listen to
+		his cold reading of what he wrote perhaps
+		with little excitement, and delivers with
+		less.</p>
+
+		<p>In thus speaking of the interest which
+		attends an extemporaneous delivery, it is
+		not necessary to pursue the subject into a
+		general comparison of the advantages of
+		this mode with those of reading and of
+		reciting from memory. Each has prevailed
+		in different places and at different
+		periods, and each undoubtedly has advantages
+		and disadvantages peculiar to itself.
+		These are well though briefly stated in the
+		excellent article on Elocution in Rees’ CyclopÊdia,
+		to which it will be sufficient to refer,
+		as worthy attentive perusal. The question
+		at large I cannot undertake to discuss.
+		If I should, I could hardly hope to satisfy
+		either others or myself. The almost universal
+		custom of reading in this part of the
+		world, where recitation from memory is
+		scarcely known, and extempore speaking
+		is practised by very few except the
+		illiterate, forbids any thing like a fair
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page18" title="18">&nbsp;</a>deduction from observation. In order to
+		institute a just comparison, one should have
+		had extensive opportunities of watching
+		the success of each mode, and of knowing
+		the circumstances under which each
+		was tried. For in the inquiry, which is
+		to be preferred in the pulpit,—we must
+		consider, not which has most excellencies
+		when it is found in perfection, but which
+		has excellencies attainable by the largest
+		number of preachers; not which is first
+		in theory or most beautiful as an art, but
+		which has been and is likely to be most
+		successful in practice. These are questions
+		not easily answered. Each mode
+		has its advocates and its opponents. In the
+		English church there is nothing but reading,
+		and we hear from every quarter complaints
+		of it. In Scotland the custom of
+		recitation prevails, but multitudes besides
+		Dr. Campbell<a href="#footnote_4" id="fnm4" title="See his fourth Lecture on Pulpit Eloquence." class="fnmarker">4</a> condemn it. In many parts
+		of the continent of Europe no method is
+		known, but that of a brief preparation and
+		unpremeditated language; but that it
+		should be universally approved by those
+		who use it, is more than we can suppose.</p>
+
+		<p>The truth is, that either method may
+		fail in the hands of incompetent or indolent
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page19" title="19">&nbsp;</a>men, and either may be thought to
+		succeed by those whose taste or prejudices
+		are obstinate in its favor. All that I
+		contend for, in advocating unwritten
+		discourse, is, that this method claims
+		a decided superiority over the others
+		in some of the most important particulars.
+		That the others have their own advantages,
+		I do not deny, nor that this is
+		subject to disadvantages from which they
+		are free. But whatever these may be I
+		hope to show that they are susceptible of a
+		remedy; that they are not greater than
+		those which attend other modes; that they
+		are balanced by equal advantages, and that
+		therefore this art deserves to be cultivated
+		by all who would do their utmost to render
+		their ministry useful. There can be no good
+		reason why the preacher should confine
+		himself to either mode. It might be most
+		beneficial to cultivate and practise all.
+		By this means he might impart something
+		of the advantages of each to each, and correct
+		the faults of all by mingling them
+		with the excellencies of all. He would
+		learn to read with more of the natural accent
+		of the speaker, and to speak with
+		more of the precision of the writer.</p>
+
+		<p>The remarks already made have been
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page20" title="20">&nbsp;</a>designed to point out some of the general
+		advantages attending the use of unprepared
+		language. Some others remain to be
+		noticed, which have more particular reference
+		to the preacher individually.</p>
+
+		<p>It is no unimportant consideration to a
+		minister of the gospel, that this is a talent
+		held in high estimation among men, and
+		that it gives additional influence to him
+		who possesses it. It is thought to argue
+		capacity and greatness of mind. Fluency
+		of language passes with many, and those
+		not always the vulgar, for affluence of
+		thought; and never to be at a loss for
+		something to say, is supposed to indicate
+		inexhaustible knowledge. It cannot have
+		escaped the observation of any one accustomed
+		to notice the judgments which are
+		passed upon men, how much reputation
+		and consequent influence are acquired by
+		the power of speaking readily and boldly,
+		without any other considerable talent, and
+		with very indifferent acquisitions; and how
+		a man of real talents, learning, and worth,
+		has frequently sunk below his proper level,
+		from a mere awkwardness and embarrassment
+		in speaking without preparation. So
+		that it is not simply superstition which
+		leads so many to refuse the name of
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page21" title="21">&nbsp;</a>preaching to any but extemporaneous harangues;
+		it is in part owing to the natural
+		propensity there is to admire, as something
+		wonderful and extraordinary, this
+		facility of speech. It is undoubtedly a
+		very erroneous standard of judgment. But
+		a minister of the gospel, whose success in
+		his important calling depends so much on
+		his personal influence, and the estimation
+		in which his gifts are held, can hardly be
+		justified in slighting the cultivation of a
+		talent, which may so innocently add to his
+		means of influence.</p>
+
+		<p>It must be remembered also, that occasions
+		will sometimes occur, when the want
+		of this power may expose him to mortification,
+		and deprive him of an opportunity of
+		usefulness. For such emergencies one
+		would choose to be prepared. It may be
+		of consequence that he should express his
+		opinion in an ecclesiastical council, and
+		give reasons for the adoption or rejection
+		of important measures. Possibly he may
+		be only required to state facts, which have
+		come to his knowledge. It is very desirable
+		to be able to do this readily, fluently,
+		without embarrassment to himself, and
+		pleasantly to those who hear; and in order
+		to this, a habit of speaking is necessary.
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page22" title="22">&nbsp;</a>In the course of his ministrations also
+		amongst his own people, occasions will
+		arise when an exhortation or address
+		would be seasonable and useful, but when
+		there is no time for written preparation.
+		If then he have cultivated the art of extemporaneous
+		speaking, and attained to
+		any degree of facility and confidence in it,
+		he may avail himself of the opportunity to
+		do good, which he must otherwise have
+		passed by unimproved. Funerals and
+		baptisms afford suitable occasions of making
+		good religious impressions. A sudden
+		providence, also, on the very day of the
+		sabbath may suggest most valuable topics
+		of reflection and exhortation, lost to him
+		who is confined to what he may have previously
+		written, but choice treasure to him
+		who can venture to speak without writing.
+		If it were only to avail himself of a few
+		opportunities like these in the course of
+		his life, or to save himself but once the
+		mortification of being silent when he ought
+		to speak, is expected to speak, and would
+		do good by speaking, it would be well
+		worth all the time and pains it might cost
+		to acquire it.</p>
+
+		<p>It is a further advantage, not to be forgotten
+		here, that the excitement of speaking
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page23" title="23">&nbsp;</a>in public strikes out new views of a
+		subject, new illustrations, and unthought of
+		figures and arguments, which perhaps never
+		would have presented themselves to the
+		mind in retirement. “The warmth which
+		animates him,” says Fenelon, “gives birth
+		to expressions and figures, which he never
+		could have prepared in his study.” He
+		who feels himself safe in flying off from
+		the path he has prescribed to himself,
+		without any fear lest he should fail to find
+		his way back, will readily seize upon these,
+		and be astonished at the new light which
+		breaks in upon him as he goes on, and
+		flashes all around him. This is according
+		to the experience of all extemporaneous
+		speakers. “The degree in which,” says
+		Thomas Scott,<a href="#footnote_5" id="fnm5" title="Life, p. 268." class="fnmarker">5</a> who practised this method
+		constantly, “after the most careful
+		preparation for the pulpit, new thoughts,
+		new arguments, animated addresses, often
+		flow into my mind, while speaking to a
+		congregation, even on very common subjects,
+		makes me feel as if I was quite
+		another man than when poring over them
+		in my study. There will be inaccuracies;
+		but generally the most striking things in
+		my sermons were unpremeditated.”</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page24" title="24">&nbsp;</a>Then again, the presence of the audience
+		gives a greater seeming reality to the
+		work; it is less like doing a task, and
+		more like speaking to men, than when one
+		sits coolly writing at his table. Consequently
+		there is likely to be greater plainness and
+		directness in his exhortations, more closeness
+		in his appeals, more of the earnestness
+		of genuine feeling in his expostulations. He
+		ventures, in the warmth of the moment,
+		to urge considerations, which perhaps in
+		the study seemed too familiar, and to
+		employ modes of address, which are allowable
+		in personal communion with a
+		friend, but which one hesitates to commit
+		to writing, lest he should infringe the dignity
+		of deliberate composition. This forgetfulness
+		of self, this unconstrained following
+		the impulse of the affections, while
+		he is hurried on by the presence and attention
+		of those whom he hopes to benefit,
+		creates a sympathy between him and his
+		hearers, a direct passage from heart to
+		heart, a mutual understanding of each
+		other, which does more to effect the true
+		object of religious discourse, than any thing
+		else can do. The preacher will, in this
+		way, have the boldness to say many things
+		which ought to be said, but about which,
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page25" title="25">&nbsp;</a>in his study, he would feel reluctant and
+		timid. And granting that he might be led
+		to say some things improperly, yet if his
+		mind be well disciplined, and well governed,
+		and his discretion habitual, he
+		will do it exceedingly seldom; while no
+		one, who estimates the object of preaching
+		as highly as he should, will think an
+		occasional false step any objection against
+		that mode which ensures upon the whole
+		the greatest boldness and earnestness. He
+		will think it a less fault than the tameness
+		and abstractness, which are the besetting
+		sins of deliberate composition. At any
+		rate, what method is secure from occasional
+		false steps?</p>
+
+		<p>Another consideration which recommends
+		this method to the attention of
+		preachers, though at the same time it indicates
+		one of its difficulties, is this; that
+		all men, from various causes, constitutional
+		or accidental, are subject to great inequality
+		in the operations of their minds—sometimes
+		laboring with felicity and sometimes
+		failing. Perhaps this fact is in no
+		men so observable as in preachers, because
+		no others are so much compelled to
+		labor, and exhibit their labors, at all seasons,
+		favorable and unfavorable. There is
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page26" title="26">&nbsp;</a>a certain quantity of the severest mental
+		toil to be performed every week; and as
+		the mind cannot be always in the same
+		frame, they are constantly presenting
+		proofs of the variation of their powers.
+		Now an extemporaneous speaker is of
+		course exposed to all this inequality of
+		spirits, and must expect to be sometimes
+		mortified by ill success. When the moment
+		of speaking arrives, his mind may be
+		slow and dull, his thoughts sluggish and
+		impeded; he may be exhausted by labor,
+		or suffering from temporary indisposition.
+		He strives in vain to rally his powers, and
+		forces his way, with thorough discomfort
+		and chagrin, to the end of an unprofitable
+		talk. But then how many men <em>write</em> under
+		the same embarrassments, and are
+		equally dissatisfied; with the additional
+		mortification of having spent a longer time,
+		and of being unable to give their poor
+		preparation the interest of a forcible manner,
+		which the very distress of an extemporaneous
+		effort would have imparted.</p>
+
+		<p>But on the other hand, when his mind is
+		bright and clear, and his animal spirits lively,
+		he will speak much better after merely
+		a suitable premeditation, than he can possibly
+		write. There will be more point
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page27" title="27">&nbsp;</a>and vigor and animation, than he could
+		ever throw into writing. “Every man,”
+		says Bishop Burnet, “may thus rise far
+		above what he could ever have attained in
+		any other way.” We see proof of this in
+		conversation. When engaged in unrestrained
+		and animated conversation with
+		familiar friends, who is not conscious of
+		having struck out brighter thoughts and
+		happier sayings, than he ever put upon paper
+		in the deliberate composition of the
+		closet? It is a common remark concerning
+		many men, that they pray much better
+		than they preach. The reason is, that
+		their sermons are made leisurely and sluggishly,
+		without excitement; but in their
+		public devotions they are strongly engaged,
+		and the mind acts with more concentration
+		and vivacity. The same thing has
+		been observed in the art of music. “There
+		have been organists, whose abilities in unstudied
+		effusions on their instruments have
+		almost amounted to inspiration, such as
+		Sebastian Bach, Handel, Marchand, Couperin,
+		Kelway, Stanley, Worgan, and
+		Keeble; several of whom played better
+		music extempore, than they could write
+		with meditation.”<a href="#footnote_6" id="fnm6" title="Rees’ CyclopÊdia." class="fnmarker">6</a></p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page28" title="28">&nbsp;</a>It is upon no different principle that we
+		explain, what all scholars have experienced,
+		that they write best when they write
+		rapidly, from a full and excited mind.
+		One of Pope’s precepts is, “to write with
+		fury and correct with phlegm.” The author
+		of Waverley tells us, “that the works
+		and passages in which he has succeeded,
+		have uniformly been written with the
+		greatest rapidity.” Fenelon’s Telemachus
+		is said to have been composed in
+		this way, and sent to the press with one
+		single erasure in the manuscript. The
+		celebrated Rockingham Memorial at the
+		commencement of the late war, is said to
+		have been the hasty composition of a single
+		evening. And it will be found true,
+		I believe, of many of the best sermon
+		writers, that they revolve the subject till
+		their minds are filled and warmed, and
+		then put their discourse upon paper at a
+		single sitting. Now what is all this but
+		<em>extemporaneous writing</em>? and what does
+		it require but a mind equally collected and
+		at ease, equally disciplined by practice, and
+		interested in the subject, to ensure equal
+		success in <em>extemporaneous speaking</em>? Nay,
+		we might anticipate occasional superior success;
+		since the thoughts sometimes flow,
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page29" title="29">&nbsp;</a>when at the highest and most passionate
+		excitement, too rapidly and profusely for
+		any thing slower than the tongue to afford
+		them vent.</p>
+
+		<p>There is one more consideration in favor
+		of the habit I recommend, which I think
+		cannot fail to have weight with all who are
+		solicitous to make progress in theological
+		knowledge; namely, that it redeems time
+		for study. The labor of preparing and
+		committing to paper a sermon or two
+		every week, is one which necessarily occupies
+		the principal part of a minister’s
+		time and thoughts, and withdraws him
+		from the investigation of many subjects,
+		which, if his mind were more at leisure,
+		it would be his duty and pleasure to pursue.
+		He who <em>writes</em> sermons, is ready to consider
+		this as the chief object, or perhaps the
+		sole business of his life. When not actually
+		engaged in writing, yet the necessity
+		of doing it presses upon his mind, and so
+		binds him as to make him feel as if he
+		were wrong in being employed on any
+		thing else. I speak of the tendency, which
+		certainly is to prevent a man from pursuing,
+		very extensively, any profitable study.
+		But if he have acquired that ready command
+		of thought and language, which
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page30" title="30">&nbsp;</a>will enable him to speak without written
+		preparation, the time and toil of writing are
+		saved, to be devoted to a different mode
+		of study. He may prepare his discourses
+		at intervals of leisure, while walking or
+		riding; and having once arranged the outlines
+		of the subject, and ascertained its
+		principle bearings and applications, the
+		work of preparation is over. The language
+		remains to be suggested at the moment.</p>
+
+		<p>I do not mean by this, that preparation
+		for the pulpit should ever be made slightly,
+		or esteemed an object of small importance.
+		It doubtless demands, and should receive
+		the best of a man’s talents and labors.
+		What I contend for is, that a habit of mind
+		may be acquired, which shall enable one
+		to make a better and more thorough preparation
+		at less expense of labor and time.
+		He may acquire, by discipline, that ease
+		and promptitude of looking into subjects
+		and bringing out their prominent features,
+		which shall enable him at a glance, as it
+		were, to seize the points on which he
+		should enlarge. Some minds are so constituted
+		as “to look a subject into shape”
+		much more readily than others. But the
+		power of doing it is in a great measure
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page31" title="31">&nbsp;</a>mechanical, and depends upon habit. All
+		may acquire it to a certain extent. When
+		the mind works with most concentration,
+		it works at once most quickly and most
+		surely. Now the act of extempore speaking
+		favors this concentration of the powers,
+		more than the slower process of leisurely
+		writing—perhaps more than any
+		other operation; consequently, it increases,
+		with practice, the facility of dissecting
+		subjects, and of arranging materials for
+		preaching. In other words, the completeness
+		with which a subject is viewed
+		and its parts arranged, does not depend
+		so much on the time spent upon it, as on
+		the vigor with which the attention is applied
+		to it. That course of study is the best,
+		which most favors this vigor of attention;
+		and the habit of extemporaneous speaking
+		is more than any thing favorable to it, from
+		the necessity which it imposes of applying
+		the mind with energy, and thinking
+		promptly.</p>
+
+		<p>The great danger in this case would be,
+		that of substituting an easy flow of words
+		for good sense and sober reflection, and
+		becoming satisfied with very superficial
+		thoughts. But this danger is guarded
+		against by the habit of study, and of writing
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page32" title="32">&nbsp;</a>for other purposes. If a man should
+		neglect all mental exertion, except so far
+		as would be required in the meditation of
+		a sermon, it would be ruinous. We witness
+		its disastrous effects in the empty wordiness
+		of many extemporaneous preachers.
+		It is wrong however to argue against
+		the practice itself, from their example;
+		for all other modes would be equally condemned,
+		if judged by the ill success of indolent
+		and unfaithful men. The minister
+		must keep himself occupied,—reading,
+		thinking, investigating; thus having his
+		mind always awake and active. This is
+		a far better preparation than the bare writing
+		of sermons, for it exercises the powers
+		more, and keeps them bright. The
+		great master of Roman eloquence thought
+		it essential to the true orator, that he
+		should be familiar with all sciences, and
+		have his mind filled with every variety of
+		knowledge. He therefore, much as he
+		studied his favorite art, yet occupied more
+		time in literature, philosophy, and politics,
+		than in the composition of his speeches.
+		His preparation was less particular than
+		general. So it has been with other eminent
+		speakers. When Sir Samuel Romilly
+		was in full practice in the High
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page33" title="33">&nbsp;</a>Court of Chancery, and at the same time
+		overwhelmed with the pressure of public
+		political concerns; his custom was to enter
+		the court, to receive there the history of the
+		cause he was to plead, thus to acquaint
+		himself with the circumstances for the first
+		time, and forthwith proceed to argue it. His
+		general preparation and long practice enabled
+		him to do this, without failing in justice
+		to his cause. I do not know that in
+		this he was singular. The same sort of
+		preparation would ensure success in the
+		pulpit. He who is always thinking, may
+		expend upon each individual effort less
+		time, because he can think at once fast
+		and well. But he who never thinks, except
+		when attempting to manufacture a
+		sermon (and it is to be feared there are
+		such men), must devote a great deal of
+		time to this labor exclusively; and after
+		all, he will not have that wide range of
+		thought or copiousness of illustration,
+		which his office demands and which study
+		only can give.</p>
+
+		<p>In fact, what I have here insisted upon, is
+		exemplified in the case of the extemporaneous
+		<em>writers</em>, whom I have already named. I
+		would only carry their practice a step further,
+		and devote an hour to a discourse instead
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page34" title="34">&nbsp;</a>of a day. Not to all discourses, for
+		some ought to be written for the sake of writing,
+		and some demand a sort of investigation,
+		to which the use of the pen is essential. But
+		then a very large proportion of the topics
+		on which a minister should preach, have
+		been subjects of his attention a thousand
+		times. He is thoroughly familiar with
+		them; and an hour to arrange his ideas
+		and collect illustrations, is abundantly
+		sufficient. The late Thomas Scott is said
+		for years to have prepared his discourses
+		entirely by meditation on the Sunday, and
+		thus gained leisure for his extensive studies,
+		and great and various labors. This is
+		an extreme on which few have a right to
+		venture, and which should be recommended
+		to none. It shows, however, the power
+		of habit, and the ability of a mind to
+		act promptly and effectually, which is
+		kept upon the alert by constant occupation.
+		He who is always engaged in thinking
+		and studying, will always have thoughts
+		enough for a sermon, and good ones too,
+		which will come at an hour’s warning.</p>
+
+		<p>The objections which may be made to
+		the practice I have sought to recommend,
+		I must leave to be considered in another
+		place. I am desirous, in concluding this
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page35" title="35">&nbsp;</a>chapter, to add the favorable testimony of
+		a writer, who expressly disapproves the
+		practice in general, but who allows its excellence
+		when accompanied by that preparation
+		which I would every where imply.</p>
+
+		<p>“You are accustomed,” says Dinouart,<a href="#footnote_7" id="fnm7" title="Sur l’Eloquence du Corps, ou L’Action du Prédicateur." class="fnmarker">7</a>
+		“to the careful study and imitation
+		of nature. You have used yourself
+		to writing and speaking with care on different
+		subjects, and have well stored your
+		memory by reading. You thus have provided
+		resources for speaking, which are
+		always at hand. The best authors and
+		the best thoughts are familiar to you; you
+		can readily quote the scriptures, you express
+		yourself easily and gracefully, you
+		have a sound and correct judgment on
+		which you can depend, method and precision
+		in the arrangement of proofs; you
+		can readily connect each part by natural
+		transitions, and are able to say all that
+		belongs, and precisely what belongs to the
+		subject. You may then take only a day,
+		or only an hour, to reflect on your subject,
+		to arrange your topics, to consult your
+		memory, to choose and to prepare your
+		illustrations,—and then, appear in public.
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page36" title="36">&nbsp;</a>I am perfectly willing that you should.
+		The common expressions which go to
+		make up the body of the discourse, will
+		present themselves spontaneously. Your
+		periods, perhaps, will be less harmonious,
+		your transitions less ingenious, an ill placed
+		word will sometimes escape you; but
+		all this is pardonable. The animation of
+		your delivery will compensate for these
+		blemishes, and you will be master of your
+		own feelings, and those of your hearers.
+		There will, perhaps, be apparent throughout
+		a certain disorder, but it will not prevent
+		your pleasing and affecting me; your
+		action as well as your words will appear
+		to me the more natural.”</p>
+	</div>
+	<div id="chapter_ii" class="chapter"><a class="pagenum disguise" id="page37" title="37">&nbsp;</a>
+		<h2 class="chapter_title">CHAPTER II.</h2>
+
+		<p><span class="first_word">Against</span> what has been advanced in
+		the preceding pages, many objections will
+		be urged, and the evils of the practice I
+		recommend be declared more than sufficient
+		to counterbalance its advantages. Of
+		these it is necessary that I should now take
+		notice, and obviate them as well as I may.</p>
+
+		<p>It should be first of all remarked, that
+		the force of the objections commonly
+		made, lies against the exclusive use of
+		extempore preaching, and not against its
+		partial and occasional use. It is of consequence
+		that this should be considered.
+		There can be no doubt, that he would
+		preach very wretchedly, who should always
+		be haranguing without the corrective
+		discipline of writing. The habit
+		of writing is essential. Many of the objections
+		which are currently made to this
+		mode of address, fall to the ground when
+		this statement is made.</p>
+
+		<p>Other objections have been founded
+		on the idea, that by <em>extemporaneous</em> is
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page38" title="38">&nbsp;</a>meant, <em>unpremeditated</em>. Whereas there
+		is a plain and important distinction between
+		them, the latter word being applied
+		to the thoughts, and the former to the
+		language only. To preach without premeditation,
+		is altogether unjustifiable; although
+		there is no doubt that a man of
+		habitual readiness of mind, may express
+		himself to the greatest advantage on a
+		subject with which he is familiar, after
+		very little meditation.</p>
+
+		<p>Many writers on the art of preaching, as
+		well as on eloquence in general, have given
+		a decided judgment unfavorable to extempore
+		speaking. There can be no fairer
+		way of answering their objections, than by
+		examining what they have advanced, and
+		opposing their authority by that of equal
+		names on the other side.</p>
+
+		<p>Gerard, in his Treatise on the Pastoral
+		Charge, has the following passage on this
+		subject.</p>
+
+		<p>“He will run into trite, common-place
+		topics; his compositions will be loose and
+		unconnected; his language often coarse
+		and confused; and diffidence, or care to
+		recollect his subject, will destroy the management
+		of his voice.” At the same time,
+		however, he admits that “it is very proper
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page39" title="39">&nbsp;</a>that a man should be able to preach in
+		this way, when it is necessary;—but no
+		man ought always to preach in this way.”
+		To which decision I have certainly nothing
+		to object.</p>
+
+		<p>Mason, in his Student and Pastor, says
+		to the same effect, that “the inaccuracy
+		of diction, the inelegance, poverty, and
+		lowness of expression, which is commonly
+		observed in extempore discourses, will
+		not fail to offend every hearer of good
+		taste.”</p>
+
+		<p>Dinouart,<a href="#footnote_8" id="fnm8" title="Sur l’Eloquence du Corps, ou l’Action du Prédicateur." class="fnmarker">8</a> who is an advocate for recitation
+		from memory, says that “experience
+		decides against extemporaneous
+		preaching, though there are exceptions;
+		but these are very few; and we must not
+		be led astray by the success of a few first
+		rate orators.”</p>
+
+		<p>Hume, in his Essay upon Eloquence,
+		expresses an opinion that the modern deficiency
+		in this art is to be attributed to
+		“that extreme affectation of extempore
+		speaking, which has led to extreme carelessness
+		of method.”</p>
+
+		<p>The writer of an article, on the Greek
+		Orators, in the Edinburgh Review,<a href="#footnote_9" id="fnm9" title="No. LXXI. p. 82." class="fnmarker">9</a> observes,
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page40" title="40">&nbsp;</a>that “among the sources of the
+		corruption of modern eloquence, may
+		clearly be distinguished as the most fruitful,
+		the habit of extempore speaking, acquired
+		rapidly by persons who frequent
+		popular assemblies, and, beginning at the
+		wrong end, attempt to speak before they
+		have studied the art of oratory, or even duly
+		stored their minds with the treasures of
+		thought and language, which can only be
+		drawn from assiduous intercourse with the
+		ancient and modern classics.”</p>
+
+		<p>These are the prominent objections
+		which have been made to the practice in
+		question. Without denying that they have
+		weight, I think it may be made to appear
+		that they have not the unquestionable preponderance,
+		which is assumed for them.
+		They will be found, on examination, to be
+		the objections of a cultivated taste, and to
+		be drawn from the examples of undisciplined
+		men, who ought to be left entirely
+		out of the question.</p>
+
+		<p>1. The objection most urged is that
+		which relates to style. It is said, the expression
+		will be poor, inelegant, inaccurate,
+		and offensive to hearers of taste.</p>
+
+		<p>To those who urge this it may be replied,
+		that the reason why style is an important
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page41" title="41">&nbsp;</a>consideration in the pulpit, is, not that the
+		taste of the hearers may be gratified, for
+		but a small part of any congregation is
+		capable of taking cognizance of this matter;—but
+		solely for the purpose of presenting
+		the speaker’s thoughts, reasonings,
+		and expostulations distinctly and forcibly
+		to the minds of his hearers. If this be
+		effected, it is all which can reasonably be
+		demanded. And I ask if it be not notorious,
+		that an earnest and appropriate elocution
+		will give this effect to a poor style,
+		and that poor speaking will take it away
+		from the most exact and emphatic style?
+		Is it not also notorious that the peculiar
+		earnestness of spontaneous speech, is,
+		above all others, suited to arrest the attention,
+		and engage the feelings of an audience?
+		and that the mere reading of a
+		piece of fine composition, under the notion
+		that careful thought and finished diction
+		are the only things needful, leaves the majority
+		uninterested in the discourse, and
+		free to think of any thing they please? “It
+		is a poor compliment,” says Blair, “that
+		one is an accurate reasoner, if he be not
+		a persuasive speaker also.” It is a small
+		matter that the style is poor, so long as it
+		answers the great purpose of instructing
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page42" title="42">&nbsp;</a>and affecting men. So that, as I have
+		more fully shown in a former place, the
+		objection lies on an erroneous foundation.</p>
+
+		<p>Besides, if it were not so, it will be
+		found quite as strong against the <em>writing</em>
+		of sermons. For how large a proportion
+		of sermon writers have these very same
+		faults of style! what a great want of force,
+		neatness, compactness, is there in the
+		composition of most preachers! what
+		weakness, inelegance, and inconclusiveness;
+		and how small improvement do they
+		make, even after the practice of years!
+		How happens this? It is because they
+		do not make this an object of attention
+		and study; and some might be unable to
+		attain it if they did. But that watchfulness
+		and care which secure a correct and
+		neat style in writing, would also secure it
+		in speaking. It does not naturally belong
+		to the one, more than to the other, and
+		may be as certainly attained in each by
+		the proper pains. Indeed so far as my
+		observation has extended, I am not certain
+		that there is not as large a proportion
+		of extempore speakers, whose diction is
+		exact and unexceptionable, as of writers—always
+		taking into view their education,
+		which equally affects the one and the other.
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page43" title="43">&nbsp;</a>And it is a consideration of great
+		weight, that the faults in question are far
+		less offensive in speakers than in writers.</p>
+
+		<p>It is apparent that objectors of this sort
+		are guilty of a double mistake; first, in
+		laying too great stress upon mere defects
+		of style, and then in taking for granted,
+		that these are unavoidable. They might
+		as well insist that defects of written style
+		are unavoidable. Whereas they are the
+		consequence of the negligent mode in
+		which the art has been studied, and its
+		having been given up, for the most part, to
+		ignorant and fanatical pretenders. Let it
+		be diligently cultivated by educated men,
+		and we shall find no more cause to expel
+		it from the pulpit than from the forum or
+		the parliament. “Poverty, inelegance,
+		and poorness of diction,” will be no longer
+		so “generally observed,” and even hearers
+		of taste will cease to be offended.</p>
+
+		<p>2. A want of order, a rambling, unconnected,
+		desultory manner, is commonly
+		objected; as Hume styles it, “extreme
+		carelessness of method;” and this is so
+		often observed, as to be justly an object
+		of dread. But this is occasioned by that
+		indolence and want of discipline to which
+		we have just alluded. It is not a necessary
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page44" title="44">&nbsp;</a>evil. If a man have never studied
+		the art of speaking, nor passed through a
+		course of preparatory discipline; if he
+		have so rash and unjustifiable a confidence
+		in himself, that he will undertake to speak,
+		without having considered what he shall
+		say, what object he shall aim at, or by
+		what steps he shall attain it; the inevitable
+		consequence will be confusion,
+		inconclusiveness, and wandering. Who
+		recommends such a course? But he
+		who has first trained himself to the
+		work, and whenever he would speak, has
+		surveyed his ground, and become familiar
+		with the points to be dwelt upon, and the
+		course of reasoning and track of thought
+		to be followed; will go on from one step to
+		another, in an easy and natural order, and
+		give no occasion to the complaint of confusion
+		or disarrangement.</p>
+
+		<p>“Some preachers,” says Dinouart,
+		“have the folly to think that they can
+		make sermons impromptu. And what a
+		piece of work they make! They bolt out
+		every thing which comes into their head.
+		They take for granted, what ought to be
+		proved, or perhaps they state half the argument,
+		and forget the rest. Their appearance
+		corresponds to the state of their
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page45" title="45">&nbsp;</a>mind, which is occupied in hunting after
+		some way of finishing the sentence they
+		have begun. They repeat themselves;
+		they wander off in digression. They
+		stand stiff without moving; or if they are
+		of a lively temperament, they are full of
+		the most turbulent action; their eyes and
+		hands are flying about in every direction,
+		and their words choke in their throats.
+		They are like men swimming, who have
+		got frightened, and throw about their
+		hands and feet at random, to save themselves
+		from drowning.”</p>
+
+		<p>There is doubtless great truth in this
+		humorous description. But what is the
+		legitimate inference? that extemporaneous
+		speaking is altogether ridiculous and mischievous?
+		or only that it is an art which
+		requires study and diligence, and which
+		no man should presume to practice, until
+		he has fitted himself for it?</p>
+
+		<p>3. In the same way I should dispose of
+		the objection, that this habit leads to barrenness
+		in preaching, and the everlasting
+		repetition of the same sentiments and topics.
+		If a man make his facility of speech an
+		excuse for the neglect of all study, then
+		doubtless this will be the result. He who
+		cannot resist his indolent propensities,
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page46" title="46">&nbsp;</a>had best avoid this occasion of temptation.
+		He must be able to command himself to
+		think, and industriously prepare himself
+		by meditation, if he would be safe in this
+		hazardous experiment. He who does this,
+		and continues to learn and reflect while he
+		preaches, will be no more empty and monotonous
+		than if he carefully wrote every
+		word.</p>
+
+		<p>4. But this temptation to indolence in
+		the preparation for the desk, is urged as
+		in itself a decisive objection. A man finds,
+		that after a little practice, it is an exceedingly
+		easy thing to fill up his half-hour
+		with declamation which shall pass off
+		very well, and hence he grows negligent
+		in previous meditation; and insensibly
+		degenerates into an empty exhorter, without
+		choice of language, or variety of ideas.
+		This is undoubtedly the great and alarming
+		danger of this practice. This must be
+		triumphed over, or it is ruinous. We
+		see examples of it wherever we look
+		among those whose preaching is exclusively
+		extempore. In these cases, the evil
+		rises to its magnitude in consequence of
+		their total neglect of the pen. The habit
+		of writing a certain proportion of the time
+		would, in some measure, counteract this
+		dangerous tendency.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page47" title="47">&nbsp;</a>But it is still insisted, that man’s natural
+		love of ease is not to be trusted; that
+		he will not long continue the drudgery of
+		writing in part; that when he has once
+		gained confidence to speak without study,
+		he will find it so flattering to his indolence,
+		that he will involuntarily give himself
+		up to it, and relinquish the pen altogether;
+		that consequently there is no security,
+		except in never beginning.</p>
+
+		<p>To this it may be replied, that they
+		who have not principle and self-government
+		enough to keep them industrious,
+		will not be kept so by being compelled to
+		write sermons. I think we have abundant
+		proof, that a man may write with as little
+		pains and thinking, as he can speak. It
+		by no means follows, that because it is on
+		paper, it is therefore the result of study.
+		And if it be not, it will be greatly inferior,
+		in point of effect, to an unpremeditated
+		declamation; for in the latter case, there
+		will probably be at least a temporary excitement
+		of feeling, and consequent vivacity
+		of manner, while in the former the
+		indolence of the writer will be made doubly
+		intolerable by his heaviness in reading.</p>
+
+		<p>It cannot be doubted, however, that if
+		any one find his facility of extemporaneous
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page48" title="48">&nbsp;</a>invention, likely to prove destructive
+		to his habits of diligent and careful application;
+		it were advisable that he refrain
+		from the practice. It could not be worth
+		while for him to lose his habits of study
+		and thinking for the sake of an ability to
+		speak, which would avail him but little,
+		after his ability to think has been weakened
+		or destroyed.</p>
+
+		<p>As for those whose indolence habitually
+		prevails over principle, and who make no
+		preparation for duty excepting the mechanical
+		one of covering over a certain
+		number of pages,—they have no concern
+		in the ministry, and should be driven to
+		seek some other employment, where their
+		mechanical labor may provide them a livelihood,
+		without injuring their own souls, or
+		those of other men.</p>
+
+		<p>If the objection in question be applied
+		to conscientious men, whose hearts are in
+		their profession, and who have a sincere
+		desire to do good, it certainly has very
+		little weight. The minds of such men
+		are kept active with reflection, and stored
+		with knowledge, and warm with religious
+		feeling. They are therefore always ready
+		to speak to the purpose, as well as write
+		to the purpose; and their habitual sense
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page49" title="49">&nbsp;</a>of the importance of their office, and their
+		anxiety to fulfil it in the best manner, will
+		forbid that indolence which is so disastrous.
+		The objection implies, that the consequence
+		pointed out is one which cannot be avoided.
+		Experience teaches us the contrary.
+		It is the tendency—but a tendency which
+		may be, for it has been, counteracted.
+		Many have preached in this mode for
+		years, and yet have never relaxed their
+		diligence in study, nor declined in the
+		variety, vigor, and interest of their discourses;—sometimes
+		dull, undoubtedly;
+		but this may be said with equal truth of
+		the most faithful and laborious writers.</p>
+
+		<p>5. Many suppose that there is a certain
+		natural talent, essential to success in extempore
+		speaking, no less than in poetry;
+		and that it is absurd to recommend the
+		art to those who have not this peculiar
+		talent, and vain for them to attempt its
+		practice.</p>
+
+		<p>In regard to that ready flow of words,
+		which seems to be the natural gift of some
+		men, it is of little consequence whether it
+		be really such, or be owing to the education
+		and habits of early life, and vain self-confidence.
+		It is certain that the want of
+		habit, and diffidence are great hindrances
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page50" title="50">&nbsp;</a>to fluency of speech; and it is equally
+		certain, that this natural fluency is a very
+		questionable advantage to him who would
+		be an impressive speaker. It is quite observable
+		that those who at first talk easiest,
+		do not always talk best. Their very
+		facility is a snare to them. It serves to
+		keep them content; they make no effort
+		to improve, and are likely to fall into slovenly
+		habits of elocution. So that this unacquired
+		fluency is so far from essential,
+		that it is not even a benefit, and it may be
+		an injury. It keeps from final eminence
+		by the very greatness of its early promise.
+		On the other hand, he who possesses originally
+		no remarkable command of language,
+		and whom an unfortunate bashfulness
+		prevents from well using what he
+		has; is obliged to subject himself to severe
+		discipline, to submit to rules and
+		tasks, to go through a tedious process of
+		training, to acquire by much labor the
+		needful sway over his thoughts and words,
+		so that they shall come at his bidding,
+		and not be driven away by his own diffidence,
+		or the presence of other men.
+		To do all this, is a long and disheartening
+		labor. He is exposed to frequent mortifications,
+		and must endure many grievous
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page51" title="51">&nbsp;</a>failures, before he attain that confidence
+		which is indispensable to success. But
+		then in this discipline, his powers, mental
+		and moral, are strained up to the highest
+		intenseness of action; after persevering
+		practice, they become habitually subject
+		to his control, and work with a precision,
+		exactness, and energy, which can never
+		be the possession of him, who has depended
+		on his native, undisciplined gift. Of
+		the truth of this, examples are by no
+		means wanting, and I could name, if it
+		were proper, more than one striking instance
+		within my own observation. It
+		was probably this to which Newton referred,
+		when he said, that he never spoke
+		well till he felt that he could not speak at
+		all. Let no one therefore think it an obstacle
+		in his way that he has no readiness
+		of words. If he have good sense and no
+		deficiency of talent, and is willing to labor
+		for this as all great acquisitions must be
+		labored for, he needs not fear but that in
+		time he will attain it.</p>
+
+		<p>We must be careful, however, not to
+		mistake the object to be attained. It is
+		not a high rank in oratory, consummate
+		eloquence. If it were, then indeed a
+		young man might pause till he had ascertained
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page52" title="52">&nbsp;</a>whether he possessed all those extraordinary
+		endowments of intellect, imagination,
+		sensibility, countenance, voice,
+		and person, which belong to few men in
+		a century, and without which the great
+		orator does not exist. He is one of those
+		splendid formations of nature, which she
+		exhibits but rarely; and it is not necessary
+		to the object of his pursuit that the minister
+		be such. The aim and purpose of his
+		office are less ambitious, to impart instruction
+		and do good; and it is by no means
+		certain that the greatest eloquence is best
+		adapted to these purposes in the pulpit.
+		But any man, with powers which fit him
+		for the ministry at all,—unless there be a
+		few extraordinary exceptions—is capable
+		of learning to express himself clearly, correctly,
+		and with method; and this is precisely
+		what is wanted, and no more than
+		this. I do not say eloquently; for as it is
+		not thought indispensable that every writer
+		of sermons should be eloquent, it cannot
+		be thought essential that every speaker
+		should be so. But the same powers which
+		have enabled him to write, will, with sufficient
+		discipline, enable him to speak;
+		with every probability that when he comes
+		to speak with the same ease and collectedness,
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page53" title="53">&nbsp;</a>he will do it with a nearer approach
+		to eloquence. Without such discipline
+		he has no right to hope for success;
+		let him not say that success is impossible,
+		until he has submitted to it.</p>
+
+		<p>I apprehend that these remarks will be
+		found not only correct in theory, but
+		agreeable to experience. With the exceeding
+		little systematic cultivation of the
+		art which there is amongst us, and no actual
+		instruction, we find that a great majority
+		of the lawyers in our courts, and not a
+		small portion of the members of our
+		legislatures, are able to argue and debate.
+		In some of the most popular and quite
+		numerous religious sects, we find preachers
+		enough, who are able to communicate
+		their thoughts and harangue their congregations,
+		and exert very powerful and permanent
+		influence over large bodies of the
+		people. Some of these are men of as
+		small natural talents and as limited education,
+		as any that enter the sacred office.
+		It should seem therefore that no one needs
+		to despair.</p>
+
+		<p>In the ancient republics of Greece and
+		Rome, this accomplishment was a necessary
+		branch of a finished education. A much
+		smaller proportion of the citizens were
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page54" title="54">&nbsp;</a>educated than amongst us; but of these a
+		much larger number became orators. No
+		man could hope for distinction or influence,
+		and yet slight this art.<a href="#footnote_10" id="fnm10" title="It is often said that extemporaneous speaking..." class="fnmarker">10</a> The commanders
+		of their armies were orators as well as
+		soldiers, and ruled as well by their rhetorical
+		as by their military skill. There was
+		no trusting with them as with us, to a natural
+		facility, or the acquisition of an accidental
+		fluency by actual practice. But
+		they served an apprenticeship to the art.
+		They passed through a regular course of
+		instruction in schools. They submitted
+		to long and laborious discipline. They
+		exercised themselves frequently, both before
+		equals and in the presence of teachers,
+		who criticised, reproved, rebuked, excited
+		emulation, and left nothing undone which
+		art and perseverance could accomplish.
+		The greatest orators of antiquity, so far
+		from being favored by natural tendencies,
+		except indeed in their high intellectual
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page55" title="55">&nbsp;</a>endowments, had to struggle against natural
+		obstacles; and instead of growing up
+		spontaneously to their unrivalled eminence,
+		they forced themselves forward by
+		the most discouraging artificial process.
+		Demosthenes combated an impediment
+		in speech and ungainliness of gesture,
+		which at first drove him from the forum
+		in disgrace. Cicero failed at first through
+		weakness of lungs, and an excessive vehemence
+		of manner, which wearied the
+		hearers and defeated his own purpose.
+		These defects were conquered by study
+		and discipline. Cicero exiled himself
+		from home, and during his absence in
+		various lands passed not a day without a
+		rhetorical exercise; seeking the masters
+		who were most severe in criticism, as
+		the surest means of leading him to the
+		perfection at which he aimed. Such too
+		was the education of their other great
+		men. They were all, according to their
+		ability and station, orators; orators, not
+		by nature or accident, but by education;
+		formed in a strict process of rhetorical
+		training; admired and followed even
+		while Demosthenes and Cicero were living,
+		and unknown now, only because it is
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page56" title="56">&nbsp;</a>not possible that any but the first should
+		survive the ordeal of ages.</p>
+
+		<p>The inference to be drawn from these
+		observations, is, that if so many of those
+		who received an accomplished education
+		became accomplished orators, because to
+		become so was one purpose of their study;
+		then it is in the power of a much larger
+		proportion amongst us, to form themselves
+		into creditable and accurate speakers.
+		The inference should not be denied until
+		proved false by experiment. Let this art
+		be made an object of attention, and young
+		men train themselves to it faithfully and
+		long; and if any of competent talents and
+		tolerable science be found at last incapable
+		of expressing themselves in continued
+		and connected discourse, so as to
+		answer the ends of the christian ministry;
+		then, and not till then, let it be said that
+		a peculiar talent or natural aptitude is
+		requisite, the want of which must render
+		effort vain; then, and not till then, let us
+		acquiesce in this indolent and timorous
+		notion, which contradicts the whole testimony
+		of antiquity, and all the experience
+		of the world. Doubtless, after the most
+		that can be done, there will be found the
+		greatest variety of attainment; “men will
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page57" title="57">&nbsp;</a>differ,” as Burnet remarks, “quite as
+		much as in their written compositions;”
+		and some will do but poorly what others
+		will do excellently. But this is likewise
+		true of every other art in which men engage,
+		and not least so of writing sermons;
+		concerning which no one will say, that as
+		poor are not written, as it would be possible
+		for any one to speak. In truth, men
+		of small talents and great sluggishness, of
+		a feeble sense of duty and no zeal, will of
+		course make poor sermons, by whatever
+		process they may do it, let them write or
+		let them speak. It is doubtful concerning
+		some whether they would even steal good
+		ones.</p>
+
+		<p>The survey we have now taken, renders
+		it evident, that the evils, which are
+		principally objected against as attending
+		this mode of preaching, are not necessary
+		evils, but are owing to insufficient study and
+		preparation before the practice is commenced,
+		and indolence afterward. This
+		is implied in the very expressions of the
+		objectors themselves, who attribute the
+		evil to “beginning at the wrong end,
+		attempting to speak before studying the
+		art of oratory, or even storing the mind
+		with treasures of thought and language.”
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page58" title="58">&nbsp;</a>It is, also, implied in this language, that
+		study and preparation are capable of
+		removing the objections. I do not therefore
+		advocate the art, without insisting on
+		the necessity of severe discipline and
+		training. No man should be encouraged
+		or permitted to adopt it, who will not take
+		the necessary pains, and proceed with the
+		necessary perseverance.</p>
+
+		<p>This should be the more earnestly
+		insisted upon, because it is from our loose
+		and lazy notions on the subject, that eloquence
+		in every department is suffering
+		so much, and that the pulpit especially
+		has become so powerless, where the most
+		important things that receive utterance
+		upon earth, are read like schoolboys’
+		tasks, without even the poor pains to lay
+		emphasis on the right words, and to pause
+		in the right places. And this, because
+		we fancy that, if nature have not designed
+		us for orators, it is vain to make effort,
+		and if she have, we shall be such without
+		effort. True, that the noble gifts of mind
+		are from nature; but not language, or
+		knowledge, or accent, or tone, or gesture;
+		these are to be learned, and it is with
+		these that the speaker is concerned.
+		These are all matters of acquisition, and
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page59" title="59">&nbsp;</a>of difficult acquisition; possible to be
+		attained, and well worth the exertion that
+		must be made.</p>
+
+		<p>The history of the world is full of testimony
+		to prove how much depends upon
+		industry; not an eminent orator has
+		lived, but is an example of it. Yet in
+		contradiction to all this, the almost universal
+		feeling appears to be, that industry
+		can effect nothing, that eminence is the
+		result of accident, and that every one
+		must be content to remain just what he may
+		happen to be. Thus multitudes, who
+		come forward as teachers and guides,
+		suffer themselves to be satisfied with the
+		most indifferent attainments, and a miserable
+		mediocrity, without so much as inquiring
+		how they might rise higher, much
+		less making any attempt to rise. For any
+		other art they would have served an
+		apprenticeship, and would be ashamed to
+		practise it in public before they had learned
+		it. If any one would sing, he attends a
+		master, and is drilled in the very elementary
+		principles; and only after the most
+		laborious process dares to exercise his
+		voice in public. This he does, though
+		he has scarce any thing to learn but the
+		mechanical execution of what lies in
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page60" title="60">&nbsp;</a>sensible forms before his eye. But the
+		extempore speaker, who is to invent as
+		well as to utter, to carry on an operation
+		of the mind as well as to produce sound,
+		enters upon the work without preparatory
+		discipline, and then wonders that he fails!
+		If he were learning to play on the flute for
+		public exhibition, what hours and days
+		would he spend in giving facility to his
+		fingers, and attaining the power of the
+		sweetest and most impressive execution.
+		If he were devoting himself to the organ,
+		what months and years would he labor,
+		that he might know its compass, and be
+		master of its keys, and be able to draw
+		out, at will, all its various combinations of
+		harmonious sound, and its full richness
+		and delicacy of expression. And yet he
+		will fancy that the grandest, the most
+		various, the most expressive of all instruments,
+		which the infinite Creator has
+		fashioned by the union of an intellectual
+		soul with the powers of speech, may be
+		played upon without study or practice;
+		he comes to it, a mere uninstructed tyro,
+		and thinks to manage all its stops, and
+		command the whole compass of its varied
+		and comprehensive power! He finds
+		himself a bungler in the attempt, is mortified
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page61" title="61">&nbsp;</a>at his failure, and settles it in his
+		mind forever that the attempt is vain.</p>
+
+		<p>Success in every art, whatever may be
+		the natural talent, is always the reward of
+		industry and pains. But the instances are
+		many of men of the finest natural genius,
+		whose beginning has promised much, but
+		who have degenerated wretchedly as they
+		advanced, because they trusted to their
+		gifts, and made no effort to improve. That
+		there have never been other men of equal
+		endowments with Demosthenes and Cicero,
+		none would venture to suppose; but
+		who have so devoted themselves to their
+		art, or become equal in excellence? If
+		those great men had been content, like
+		others, to continue as they began, and
+		had never made their persevering efforts
+		for improvement, what would their countries
+		have benefited from their genius, or
+		the world have known of their fame?
+		They would have been lost in the undistinguished
+		crowd, that sunk to oblivion
+		around them. Of how many more will
+		the same remark prove true! What encouragement
+		is thus given to the industrious!
+		With such encouragement, how
+		inexcusable is the negligence which suffers
+		the most interesting and important
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page62" title="62">&nbsp;</a>truths, to seem heavy and dull, and fall
+		ineffectual to the ground, through mere
+		sluggishness in their delivery! How unworthy
+		of one who performs the high
+		function of a religious instructer, upon
+		whom depend, in a great measure, the
+		religious knowledge and devotional sentiment
+		and final character of many fellow
+		beings,—to imagine that he can worthily
+		discharge this great concern by occasionally
+		talking for an hour, he knows not
+		how, and in a manner which he has taken
+		no pains to render correct, impressive, or
+		attractive; and which, simply through
+		want of that command over himself which
+		study would give, is immethodical, verbose,
+		inaccurate, feeble, trifling. It has
+		been said of the good preacher, that
+		“truths divine come mended from his
+		tongue.” Alas, they come ruined and
+		worthless from such a man as this. They
+		lose that holy energy by which they are
+		to convert the soul and purify man for
+		heaven, and sink, in interest and efficacy,
+		below the level of those principles which
+		govern the ordinary affairs of this lower
+		world.</p>
+	</div>
+	<div id="chapter_iii" class="chapter"><a class="pagenum disguise" id="page63" title="63">&nbsp;</a>
+
+		<h2 class="chapter_title">CHAPTER III.</h2>
+
+		<p><span class="first_word">The</span> observations contained in the preceding
+		chapter make it sufficiently evident,
+		that the art of extemporaneous
+		speaking, however advantageous to the
+		christian minister, and however possible
+		to be acquired, is yet attended with embarrassments
+		and difficulties, which are
+		to be removed only by long and arduous
+		labor. It is not enough, however, to
+		insist upon the necessity of this discipline.
+		We must know in what it consists,
+		and how it is to be conducted. In
+		completing, therefore, the plan I have
+		proposed to myself, I am now to give a
+		few hints respecting the mode in which
+		the study is to be carried on, and obstacles
+		to be surmounted. These hints,
+		gathered partly from experience and
+		partly from observation and books, will
+		be necessarily incomplete; but not, it is
+		hoped, altogether useless to those who
+		are asking some direction.</p>
+
+		<p>1. The first thing to be observed is,
+		that the student who would acquire facility
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page64" title="64">&nbsp;</a>in this art, should bear it constantly in
+		mind, and have regard to it in all his
+		studies, and in his whole mode of study.
+		The reason is very obvious. He that
+		would become eminent in any pursuit,
+		must make it the primary and almost exclusive
+		object of his attention. It must
+		never be long absent from his thoughts,
+		and he must be contriving how to promote
+		it, in every thing he undertakes. It
+		is thus that the miser accumulates, by
+		making the most trifling occurrences the
+		occasions of gain; and thus the ambitious
+		man is on the alert to forward his purposes
+		of advancement by little events which
+		another would pass unobserved. So too he,
+		the business of whose life is preaching,
+		should be on the watch to render every
+		thing subservient to this end. The
+		inquiry should always be, how he can
+		turn the knowledge he is acquiring, the
+		subject he is studying, this mode of reasoning,
+		this event, this conversation, and
+		the conduct of this or that man, to aid the
+		purposes of religious instruction. He
+		may find an example in the manner in
+		which Pope pursued his favorite study.
+		“From his attention to poetry,” says
+		Johnson, “he was never diverted. If
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page65" title="65">&nbsp;</a>conversation offered any thing that could
+		be improved, he committed it to paper;
+		if a thought, or perhaps an expression
+		more happy than was common, rose to
+		his mind, he was careful to write it; an
+		independent distich was preserved for an
+		opportunity of insertion, and some little
+		fragments have been found containing
+		lines, or parts of lines, to be wrought
+		upon at some other time.” By a like
+		habitual and vigilant attention, the preacher
+		will find scarce any thing but may be
+		made to minister to his great design, by
+		either giving rise to some new train of
+		thought, or suggesting an argument, or
+		placing some truth in a new light, or furnishing
+		some useful illustration. Thus
+		none of his reading will be lost; every
+		poem and play, every treatise on science,
+		and speculation in philosophy, and even
+		every ephemeral tale may be made to
+		give hints toward the better management
+		of sermons and the more effectual proposing
+		and communicating of truth.</p>
+
+		<p>He who proposes to himself the art of
+		extemporaneous speaking should thus
+		have constant regard to this particular
+		object, and make every thing co-operate
+		to form those habits of mind which are
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page66" title="66">&nbsp;</a>essential to it. This may be done not
+		only without any hindrance to the progress
+		of his other studies, but even so as to promote
+		them. The most important requisites
+		are rapid thinking, and ready command
+		of language. By rapid thinking I
+		mean, what has already been spoken of,
+		the power of seizing at once upon the
+		most prominent points of the subject to be
+		discussed, and tracing out, in their proper
+		order, the subordinate thoughts which
+		connect them together. This power depends
+		very much upon habit; a habit
+		more easily acquired by some minds than
+		by others, and by some with great difficulty.
+		But there are few who, should
+		they have a view to the formation of such
+		a habit in all their studies, might not
+		attain it in a degree quite adequate to
+		their purpose. This is much more indisputably
+		true in regard to fluency of language.</p>
+
+		<p>Let it, therefore, be a part of his daily
+		care to analyze the subjects which come
+		before him, and to frame sketches of sermons.
+		This will aid him to acquire a
+		facility in laying open, dividing, and
+		arranging topics, and preparing those
+		outlines which he is to take with him into
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page67" title="67">&nbsp;</a>the pulpit. Let him also investigate carefully
+		the method of every author he reads,
+		marking the divisions of his arrangement,
+		and the connexion and train of his reasoning.
+		Butler’s preface to his Sermons will
+		afford him some fine hints on this way of
+		study. Let this be his habitual mode of
+		reading, so that he shall as much do this, as
+		receive the meaning of separate sentences,
+		and shall be always able to give a better
+		account of the progress of the argument
+		and the relation of every part to the
+		others and to the whole, than of merely
+		individual passages and separate illustrations.
+		This will infallibly beget a readiness
+		in finding the divisions and boundaries
+		of a subject, which is one important
+		requisite to an easy and successful speaker.</p>
+
+		<p>In a similar manner, let him always
+		bear in mind the value of a fluent and
+		correct use of language. Let him not be
+		negligent of this in his conversation; but
+		be careful ever to select the best words,
+		to avoid a slovenly style and drawling
+		utterance, and to aim at neatness, force,
+		and brevity. This may be done without
+		formality, or stiffness, or pedantic affectation;
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page68" title="68">&nbsp;</a>and when settled into a habit is
+		invaluable.</p>
+
+		<p>2. In addition to this general cultivation,
+		there should be frequent exercise of
+		the act of speaking. Practice is essential
+		to perfection in any art, and in none
+		more so than in this. No man reads well
+		or writes well, except by long practice;
+		and he cannot expect without it to speak
+		well, an operation which is equivalent to
+		the other two united. He may indeed
+		get along, as the phrase is; but not so
+		well as he might do and should do. He
+		may not always be able even to get along.
+		He may be as sadly discomfited as a
+		friend of mine, who said that he had made
+		the attempt, and was convinced that for him
+		to speak extempore was impossible; he
+		had risen from his study table, and tried
+		to make a speech, proving that virtue is
+		better than vice; but was obliged to sit
+		down without completing it. How could
+		one hope to do better in a first attempt, if
+		he had not considered beforehand what
+		he should say? It were as rational to
+		think he could play on the organ without
+		having learned, or translate from a language
+		he had never studied.</p>
+
+		<p>It would not be too much to require of
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page69" title="69">&nbsp;</a>the student, that he should exercise himself
+		every day, once at least, if not oftener;
+		and this, on a variety of subjects,
+		and in various ways, that he may attain a
+		facility in every mode. It would be a
+		pleasant interchange of employment to
+		rise from the subject which occupies his
+		thoughts, or from the book he is reading,
+		and repeat to himself the substance of
+		what he has just perused, with such additions
+		and variations, or criticisms, as may
+		suggest themselves at the moment. There
+		could hardly be a more useful exercise,
+		even if there were no reference to this
+		particular end. How many excellent
+		chapters of valuable authors, how many
+		fine views of important subjects, would be
+		thus impressed upon his mind, and what
+		rich treasures of thought and language
+		would be thus laid up in store. And
+		according as he should be engaged in a
+		work of reasoning, or description, or exhortation,
+		or narrative, he would be
+		attaining the power of expressing himself
+		readily in each of these various styles.
+		By pursuing this course for two or three
+		years, “a man may render himself such
+		a master in this matter,” says Burnet,
+		“that he can never be surprised;” and
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page70" title="70">&nbsp;</a>he adds, that he never knew a man
+		faithfully to pursue the plan of study he
+		proposed, without being successful at last.</p>
+
+		<p>3. When by such a course of study
+		and discipline he has attained a tolerable
+		fluency of thoughts and words, and a
+		moderate confidence in his own powers;
+		there are several things to be observed in
+		first exercising the gift in public, in order
+		to ensure comfort and success.</p>
+
+		<p>It is recommended by Bishop Burnet
+		and others, that the first attempts be made
+		by short excursions from written discourses;
+		like the young bird that tries its
+		wings by short flights, till it gradually
+		acquires strength and courage to sustain
+		itself longer in the air. This advice is
+		undoubtedly judicious. For he may safely
+		trust himself in a few sentences, who
+		would be confounded in the attempt to
+		frame a whole discourse. For this purpose
+		blanks may be left in writing, where
+		the sentiment is familiar, or only a short
+		illustration is to be introduced. As success
+		in these smaller attempts gives him
+		confidence, he may proceed to larger;
+		till at length, when his mind is bright and
+		his feelings engaged, he may quit his
+		manuscript altogether, and present the
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page71" title="71">&nbsp;</a>substance of what he had written, with
+		greater fervor and effect, than if he had
+		confined himself to his paper. It was
+		once observed to me by an interesting
+		preacher of the Baptist denomination, that
+		he had found from experience this to be
+		the most advisable and perfect mode;
+		since it combined the advantages of written
+		and extemporaneous composition. By
+		preparing sermons in this way, he said,
+		he had a shelter and security if his mind
+		should be dull at the time of delivery;
+		and if it were active, he was able to leave
+		what he had written, and obey the ardor
+		of his feelings, and go forth on the impulse
+		of the moment, wherever his spirit
+		might lead him. A similar remark I
+		heard made by a distinguished scholar of
+		the Methodist connexion, who urged,
+		what is universally asserted by those who
+		have tried this method with any success,
+		that what has been written is found to be
+		tame and spiritless, in comparison with the
+		animated glow of that which springs from
+		the energy of the moment.</p>
+
+		<p>There are some persons, however, who
+		would be embarrassed by an effort to
+		change the operation of the mind from
+		reading to inventing. Such persons may
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page72" title="72">&nbsp;</a>find it best to make their beginning with
+		a whole discourse.</p>
+
+		<p>4. In this case, there will be a great
+		advantage in selecting for first efforts
+		expository subjects. To say nothing of
+		the importance and utility of this mode of
+		preaching, which render it desirable that
+		every minister should devote a considerable
+		proportion of his labors to it; it contains
+		great facilities and reliefs for the inexperienced
+		speaker. The close study
+		of a passage of scripture which is necessary
+		to expounding it, renders it familiar.
+		The exposition is inseparably connected
+		with the text, and necessarily suggested
+		by it. The inferences and practical
+		reflections are in like manner naturally
+		and indissolubly associated with the passage.
+		The train of remark is easily preserved,
+		and embarrassment in a great
+		measure guarded against, by the circumstance
+		that the order of discourse is
+		spread out in the open Bible, upon which
+		the eyes may rest and by which the
+		thoughts may rally.</p>
+
+		<p>5. A similar advantage is gained to the
+		beginner, in discourses of a different
+		character, by a very careful and minute
+		division of the subject. The division
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page73" title="73">&nbsp;</a>should not only be logical and clear, but
+		into parts as numerous as possible. The
+		great advantage here is, that the partitions
+		being many, the speaker is compelled frequently
+		to return to his minutes. He is
+		thus kept in the track, and prevented
+		from wandering far in needless digressions—that
+		besetting infirmity of unrestrained
+		extemporizers. He also escapes the mortifying
+		consequences of a momentary confusion
+		and cloudiness of mind, by having
+		it in his power to leave an unsatisfactory
+		train at once, before the state of his mind
+		is perceived by the audience, and take up
+		the next topic, where he may recover his
+		self-possession, and proceed without impediment.
+		This is no unimportant consideration.
+		It relieves him from the horror
+		of feeling obliged to go on, while conscious
+		that he is saying nothing to the purpose;
+		and at the same time secures the very essential
+		requisite of right method.</p>
+
+		<p>6. The next rule is, that the whole subject,
+		with the order and connexion of all
+		its parts, and the entire train of thought,
+		be made thoroughly familiar by previous
+		meditation. The speaker must have the
+		discourse in his mind as one whole, whose
+		various parts are distinctly perceived as
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page74" title="74">&nbsp;</a>other wholes, connected with each other
+		and contributing to a common end. There
+		must be no uncertainty, when he rises to
+		speak, as to what he is going to say; no
+		mist or darkness over the land he is about
+		to travel; but conscious of his acquaintance
+		with the ground, he must step forward
+		confidently, not doubting that he
+		shall find the passes of its mountains, and
+		thread the intricacies of its forests, by the
+		paths which he has already trodden. It
+		is an imperfect and partial preparation in
+		this respect, which so often renders the
+		manner awkward and embarrassed, and
+		the discourse obscure and perplexed.<a href="#footnote_11" id="fnm11" title="Nemo potest de eâ re..." class="fnmarker">11</a>
+		But when the preparation is faithful, the
+		speaker feels at home; being under no
+		anxiety respecting the ideas or the order
+		of their succession, he has the more ready
+		control of his person, his eye, and his
+		hand, and the more fearlessly gives up his
+		mind to its own action and casts himself
+		upon the current. Uneasiness and constraint
+		are the inevitable attendants of unfaithful
+		preparation, and they are fatal
+		to success. It is true, that no man can
+		attain the power of self-possession so
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page75" title="75">&nbsp;</a>as to feel at all times equally and entirely
+		at ease. But he may guard against the
+		sorest ills which attend its loss, by always
+		making sure of a train of thought,—being
+		secure that he has ideas, and that they lie
+		in such order as to be found and brought
+		forward in some sort of apparel, even
+		when he has in some measure lost the
+		mastery of himself. The richness or
+		meanness of their dress will depend on
+		the humor of the moment. It will vary
+		as much as health and spirits vary, which
+		is more in some men than in others. But
+		the thoughts themselves he may produce,
+		and be certain of saying <em>what</em> he intended
+		to say, even when he cannot say it <em>as</em>
+		he intended. It must often have been
+		observed, by those who are at all in the
+		habit of observation of this kind, that the
+		mind operates in this particular like a
+		machine, which, having been wound up,
+		runs on by its own spontaneous action, until
+		it has gone through its appointed course.
+		Many men have thus continued speaking
+		in the midst of an embarrassment of mind
+		which rendered them almost unconscious
+		of what they were saying, and incapable
+		of giving an account of it afterward; while
+		yet the unguided, self-moving intellect
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page76" title="76">&nbsp;</a>wrought so well, that the speech was not
+		esteemed unwholesome or defective by
+		the hearers. The experience of this fact
+		has doubtless helped many to believe that
+		they spoke from inspiration. It ought to
+		teach all, that there is no sufficient cause
+		for that excessive apprehension, which so
+		often unmans them, and which, though it
+		may not stop their mouths, must deprive
+		their address of all grace and beauty, of all
+		ease and force.</p>
+
+		<p>7. We may introduce in this place
+		another rule, the observance of which
+		will aid in preventing the ill consequences
+		resulting from the accidental loss of self-possession.
+		The rule is, utter yourself
+		very slowly and deliberately, with careful
+		pauses. This is at all times a great aid
+		to a clear and perspicuous statement. It
+		is essential to the speaker, who would
+		keep the command of himself and consequently
+		of his hearers.</p>
+
+		<p>One is very likely, when, in the course
+		of speaking, he has stumbled on an unfortunate
+		expression, or said what he would
+		prefer not to say, or for a moment lost
+		sight of the precise point at which he was
+		aiming, to hurry on with increasing rapidity,
+		as if to get as far as possible from his
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page77" title="77">&nbsp;</a>misfortune, or cause it to be forgotten in
+		the crowd of new words. But instead of
+		thus escaping the evil, he increases it; he
+		entangles himself more and more; and
+		augments the difficulty of recovering his
+		route. The true mode of recovering
+		himself is by increased deliberation. He
+		must pause, and give himself time to think;—“ut
+		tamen deliberare non hÊsitare videatur.”
+		He need not be alarmed lest
+		his hearers suspect the difficulty. Most
+		of them are likely to attribute the slowness
+		of his step to any cause rather than the
+		true one. They take it for granted, that he
+		says and does precisely as he intended
+		and wished. They suppose that he is
+		pausing to gather up his strength. It excites
+		their attention. The change of
+		manner is a relief to them. And the
+		probability is, that the speaker not only
+		recovers himself, but that the effort to do
+		it gives a spring to the action of his powers,
+		which enables him to proceed afterward
+		with greater energy.</p>
+
+		<p>8. In regard to language, the best rule
+		is, that no preparation be made. There
+		is no convenient and profitable medium
+		between speaking from memory and from
+		immediate suggestion. To mix the two is
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page78" title="78">&nbsp;</a>no aid, but a great hindrance, because it
+		perplexes the mind between the very different
+		operations of memory and invention.
+		To prepare sentences and parts of
+		sentences, which are to be introduced
+		here and there, and the intervals between
+		them to be filled up in the delivery, is the
+		surest of all ways to produce constraint.
+		It is like the embarrassment of framing
+		verses to prescribed rhymes; as vexatious,
+		and as absurd. To be compelled to shape
+		the course of remark so as to suit a sentence
+		which is by and by to come, or to
+		introduce certain expressions which are
+		waiting for their place, is a check to the
+		natural current of thought. The inevitable
+		consequence is constraint and labor,
+		the loss of every thing like easy and flowing
+		utterance, and perhaps that worst of
+		confusion which results from a jumble of
+		ill assorted, disjointed periods. It is unavoidable
+		that the subject should present
+		itself in a little different form and complexion
+		in speaking, from that which it took in
+		meditation; so that the sentences and modes
+		of expression, which agreed very well with
+		the train of remark as it came up in the
+		study, may be wholly unsuited to that
+		which it assumes in the pronunciation.</p>
+
+		<p><a class="pagenum" id="page79" title="79">&nbsp;</a>The extemporaneous speaker should
+		therefore trust himself to the moment for
+		all his language. This is the safe way
+		for his comfort, and the only sure way to
+		make all of a uniform piece. The general
+		rule is certain, though there may be
+		some exceptions. It may be well for example,
+		to consider what synonymous terms
+		may be employed in recurring to the chief
+		topic, in order to avoid the too frequent
+		reiteration of the same word. This will
+		occasion no embarrassment. He may
+		also prepare texts of scripture to be introduced
+		in certain parts of the discourse.
+		These, if perfectly committed to memory,
+		and he be not too anxious to make a place
+		for them, will be no encumbrance. When
+		a suitable juncture occurs, they will suggest
+		themselves, just as a suitable epithet
+		suggests itself. But if he be very solicitous
+		about them, and continually on
+		the watch for an opportunity to introduce
+		them, he will be likely to confuse himself.
+		And it is better to lose the choicest quotation,
+		than suffer constraint and awkwardness
+		from the effort to bring it in. Under
+		the same restrictions he may have ready,
+		pithy remarks, striking and laconic expressions,
+		pointed sayings and aphorisms,
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page80" title="80">&nbsp;</a>the force of which depends on the precise
+		form of the phrase. Let the same rule
+		be observed in regard to such. If they
+		suggest themselves (which they will do,
+		if there be a proper place for them), let
+		them be welcome. But never let him run
+		the risk of spoiling a whole paragraph in
+		trying to make a place for them.</p>
+
+		<p>Many distinguished speakers are said to
+		do more than this,—to write out with care
+		and repeat from memory their more important
+		and persuasive parts; like the <em>de
+		bene esse’s</em> of Curran, and the splendid
+		passages of many others. This may undoubtedly
+		be done to advantage by one
+		who has the command of himself which
+		practice gives, and has learned to pass
+		from memory to invention without tripping.
+		It is a different case from that mixture of
+		the two operations, which is condemned
+		above, and is in fact only an extended
+		example of the exceptions made in the
+		last paragraph. With these exceptions,
+		when he undertakes, <em>bonâ fide</em>, an extemporaneous
+		address, he should make no preparation
+		of language. Language is the last
+		thing he should be anxious about. If he
+		have ideas, and be awake, it will come of
+		itself, unbidden and unsought for. The
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page81" title="81">&nbsp;</a>best language flashes upon the speaker as
+		unexpectedly as upon the hearer. It is
+		the spontaneous gift of the mind, not the
+		extorted boon of a special search. No
+		man who has thoughts, and is interested
+		in them, is at a loss for words—not the
+		most uneducated man; and the words he
+		uses will be according to his education and
+		general habits, not according to the labour
+		of the moment. If he truly feel, and wish to
+		communicate his feelings to those around
+		him, the last thing that will fail will be language;
+		the less he thinks of it and cares
+		for it, the more copiously and richly will
+		it flow from him; and when he has forgotten
+		every thing but his desire to give
+		vent to his emotions and do good, then
+		will the unconscious torrent pour, as it
+		does at no other season. This entire surrender
+		to the spirit which stirs within, is
+		indeed the real secret of all eloquence.
+		“True eloquence,” says Milton, “I find
+		to be none but the serious and hearty love
+		of truth; and that whose mind soever is
+		fully possessed with a fervent desire to
+		know good things, and with the dearest
+		charity to infuse the knowledge of them
+		into others,—when such a man would
+		speak, his words, like so many nimble and
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page82" title="82">&nbsp;</a>airy servitors, trip about him at command
+		and in well ordered files, as he would
+		wish, fall aptly into their own places.”
+		Rerum enim copia (says the great Roman
+		teacher and example) verborum copiam
+		gignit; et, si est honestas in rebus ipsis
+		de quibus dicitur, existit ex rei naturâ
+		quidam splendor in verbis. Sit modo is,
+		qui dicet aut scribet, institutus liberaliter
+		educatione doctrinâque puerili, et flagret
+		studio, et a naturâ adjuvetur, et in universorum
+		generum infinitis disceptationibus
+		exercitatus; ornatissimos scriptores oratoresque
+		ad cognoscendum imitandumque
+		legerit;—nÊ ille haud sane, quemadmodum
+		verba struat et illuminet, a magistris istis
+		requiret. Ita facile in rerum abundantiâ
+		ad orationis ornamenta, sine duce, naturâ
+		ipsâ, si modo est exercitata, labetur.<a href="#footnote_12" id="fnm12" title="De Or. iii. 31." class="fnmarker">12</a></p>
+
+		<p>9. These remarks lead to another suggestion
+		which deserves the student’s consideration.
+		He should select for this exercise
+		those subjects in which he feels an
+		interest at the time, and in regard to
+		which he desires to engage the interest of
+		others. In order to the best success, extemporaneous
+		efforts should be made in
+		an excited state, when the mind is burning
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page83" title="83">&nbsp;</a>and glowing, and longs to find vent.
+		There are some topics which do not admit
+		of this excitement. Such should be
+		treated by the pen. When he would
+		speak, he should choose topics on which
+		his own mind is kindling with a feeling
+		which he is earnest to communicate; and
+		the higher the degree to which he has
+		elevated his feelings, the more readily,
+		happily, and powerfully will he pour forth
+		whatever the occasion may demand.
+		There is no style suited to the pulpit,
+		which he will not more effectually command
+		in this state of mind. He will
+		reason more directly, pointedly, and convincingly;
+		he will describe more vividly
+		from the living conceptions of the moment;
+		he will be more earnest in persuasion,
+		more animated in declamation, more urgent
+		in appeals, more terrible in denunciation.
+		Every thing will vanish from before
+		him, but the subject of his attention,
+		and upon this his powers will be concentrated
+		in keen and vigorous action.</p>
+
+		<p>If a man would do his best, it must be
+		upon topics which are at the moment
+		interesting to him. We see it in conversation,
+		where every one is eloquent upon
+		his favorite subjects. We see it in deliberative
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page84" title="84">&nbsp;</a>assemblies; where it is those
+		grand questions, which excite an intense
+		interest, and absorb and agitate the mind,
+		that call forth those bursts of eloquence
+		by which men are remembered as powerful
+		orators, and that give a voice to
+		men who can speak on no other occasions.
+		Cicero tells us of himself, that the
+		instances in which he was most successful,
+		were those in which he most entirely
+		abandoned himself to the impulses of
+		feeling. Every speaker’s experience will
+		bear testimony to the same thing; and
+		thus the saying of Goldsmith proves true,
+		that, “to feel one’s subject thoroughly,
+		and to speak without fear, are the only
+		rules of eloquence.” Let him who would
+		preach successfully, remember this. In
+		the choice of subjects for extemporaneous
+		efforts, let him have regard to it, and
+		never encumber himself nor distress his
+		hearers, with the attempt to interest them
+		in a subject, which excites at the moment
+		only a feeble interest in his own mind.</p>
+
+		<p>This rule excludes many topics, which it
+		is necessary to introduce into the pulpit,
+		subjects in themselves interesting and important,
+		but which few men can be trusted
+		to treat in unpremeditated language;
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page85" title="85">&nbsp;</a>because they require an exactness of definition,
+		and nice discrimination of phrase,
+		which may be better commanded in the
+		cool leisure of writing, than in the prompt
+		and declamatory style of the speaker.
+		The rule also forbids the attempt to speak
+		when ill health, or lowness of spirits, or
+		any accidental cause, renders him incapable
+		of that excitement which is requisite
+		to success. It requires of him to watch
+		over the state of his body—the partial
+		derangement of whose functions so often
+		confuses the mind—that, by preserving a
+		vigorous and animated condition of the
+		corporeal system, he may secure vigour
+		and vivacity of mind. It requires of him,
+		finally, whenever he is about entering
+		upon the work, to use every means, by
+		careful meditation, by calling up the strong
+		motives of his office, by realizing the nature
+		and responsibility of his undertaking,
+		and by earnestly invoking the blessing of
+		God—to attain that frame of devout engagedness,
+		which will dispose him to speak
+		zealously and fearlessly.</p>
+
+		<p>10. Another important item in the discipline
+		to be passed through, consists in
+		attaining the habit of self-command. I
+		have already adverted to this point, and
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page86" title="86">&nbsp;</a>noticed the power which the mind possesses
+		of carrying on the premeditated
+		operation, even while the speaker is considerably
+		embarrassed. This is, however,
+		only a reason for not being too much distressed
+		by the feeling when only occasional;
+		it does not imply that it is no evil.
+		It is a most serious evil; of little comparative
+		moment, it may be, when only occasional
+		and transitory, but highly injurious
+		if habitual. It renders the speaker
+		unhappy, and his address ineffective. If
+		perfectly at ease, he would have every
+		thing at command, and be able to pour
+		out his thoughts in lucid order, and with
+		every desirable variety of manner and expression.
+		But when thrown from his self-possession,
+		he can do nothing better than
+		mechanically string together words, while
+		there is no soul in them, because his mental
+		powers are spell-bound and imbecile.
+		He stammers, hesitates, and stumbles;
+		or, at best, talks on without object or
+		aim, as mechanically and unconsciously
+		as an automaton. He has learned little
+		effectually, till he has learned to be collected.</p>
+
+		<p>This therefore must be a leading object
+		of attention. It will not be attained by
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page87" title="87">&nbsp;</a>men of delicacy and sensibility, except
+		by long and trying practice. It will be
+		the result of much rough attrition with the
+		world, and many mortifying failures. And
+		after all, occasions may occur, when the
+		most experienced will be put off their
+		guard. Still, however, much may be done
+		by the control which a vigorous mind has
+		over itself, by resolute and persevering
+		determination, by refusing to shrink or give
+		way, and by preferring always the mortification
+		of ill success, to the increased weakness
+		which would grow out of retreating.</p>
+
+		<p>There are many considerations, also,
+		which if kept before the mind would operate
+		not a little to strengthen its confidence
+		in itself. Let the speaker be sensible
+		that, if self-possessed, he is not likely
+		to fail; that after faithful study and preparation,
+		there is nothing to stand in his
+		way, but his own want of self-command.
+		Let him heat his mind with his subject,
+		endeavour to feel nothing, and care for
+		nothing, but that. Let him consider, that
+		his audience takes for granted that he
+		says nothing but what he designed, and
+		does not notice those slight errors which
+		annoy and mortify him; that in truth such
+		errors are of no moment; that he is not
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page88" title="88">&nbsp;</a>speaking for reputation and display, nor
+		for the gratification of others, by the exhibition
+		of a rhetorical model, or for the
+		satisfaction of a cultivated taste: but
+		that he is a teacher of virtue, a messenger
+		of Jesus Christ, a speaker in the name of
+		God; whose chosen object it is to lead
+		men above all secondary considerations
+		and worldly attainments, and to create in
+		them a fixed and lasting interest in spiritual
+		and religious concerns;—that he himself
+		therefore ought to regard other things
+		as of comparatively little consequence
+		while he executes this high function; that
+		the true way to effect the object of his
+		ministry, is to be filled with that object,
+		and to be conscious of no other desire but
+		to promote it. Let him, in a word, be
+		zealous to do good, to promote religion,
+		to save souls, and little anxious to make
+		what might be called a fine sermon—let
+		him learn to sink every thing in his subject
+		and the purpose it should accomplish—ambitious
+		rather to do good, than to do
+		well;—and he will be in a great measure
+		secure from the loss of self-command and
+		its attendant distress. Not always—for
+		this feeble vessel of the mind seems to be
+		sometimes tost to and fro, as it were, upon
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page89" title="89">&nbsp;</a>the waves of circumstances, unmanageable
+		by the helm and disobedient to the
+		wind. Sometimes God seems designedly
+		to show us our weakness, by taking from
+		us the control of our powers, and causing
+		us to be drifted along whither we would
+		not. But under all ordinary occurrences,
+		habitual piety and ministerial zeal will be
+		an ample security. From the abundance
+		of the heart the mouth will speak. The
+		most diffident man in the society of men
+		is known to converse freely and fearlessly
+		when his heart is full, and his passions engaged;
+		and no man is at a loss for words,
+		or confounded by another’s presence, who
+		thinks neither of the language, nor the
+		company, but only of the matter which
+		fills him. Let the preacher consider this,
+		and be persuaded of it,—and it will do
+		much to relieve him from the distress
+		which attends the loss of self-possession,
+		which distorts every feature with agony,
+		and distils in sweat from his forehead.
+		It will do much to destroy that incubus,
+		which sits upon every faculty of the soul,
+		and palsies every power, and fastens down
+		the helpless sufferer to the very evil from
+		which he strives to flee.</p>
+
+		<p>After all, therefore, which can be said,
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page90" title="90">&nbsp;</a>the great essential requisite to effective
+		preaching in this method (or indeed in
+		any method) is a devoted heart. A strong
+		religious sentiment, leading to a fervent
+		zeal for the good of other men, is better
+		than all rules of art; it will give him courage,
+		which no science or practice could
+		impart, and open his lips boldly, when the
+		fear of man would keep them closed. Art
+		may fail him, and all his treasures of
+		knowledge desert him; but if his heart be
+		warm with love, he will “speak right on,”
+		aiming at the heart, and reaching the
+		heart, and satisfied to accomplish the great
+		purpose, whether he be thought to do it
+		tastefully or not.</p>
+
+		<p>This is the true spirit of his office, to be
+		cherished and cultivated above all things
+		else, and capable of rendering all its labors
+		comparatively easy. It reminds him that
+		his purpose is not to make profound discussions
+		of theological doctrines, or disquisitions
+		on moral and metaphysical science;
+		but to present such views of the
+		great and acknowledged truths of revelation,
+		with such applications of them to the
+		understanding and conscience, as may affect
+		and reform his hearers. Now it is
+		not study only, in divinity or in rhetoric,
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page91" title="91">&nbsp;</a>which will enable him to do this. He
+		may reason ingeniously, but not convincingly;
+		he may declaim eloquently, but not
+		persuasively. There is an immense, though
+		indescribable difference between the
+		same arguments and truths, as presented
+		by him who earnestly feels and desires to
+		persuade, and by him who designs only a
+		display of intellectual strength, or an exercise
+		of rhetorical skill. In the latter
+		case, the declamation may be splendid,
+		but it will be cold and without expression;
+		lulling the ear, and diverting the fancy, but
+		leaving the feelings untouched. In the
+		other, there is an air of reality and sincerity,
+		which words cannot describe, but
+		which the heart feels, that finds its way
+		to the recesses of the soul, and overcomes
+		it by a powerful sympathy. This is a difference
+		which all perceive and all can account
+		for. The truths of religion are not
+		matters of philosophical speculation, but of
+		experience. The heart and all the spiritual
+		man, and all the interests and feelings of
+		the immortal being, have an intimate concern
+		in them. It is perceived at once
+		whether they are stated by one who has
+		felt them himself, is personally acquainted
+		with their power, is subject to their influence,
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page92" title="92">&nbsp;</a>and speaks from actual experience;
+		or whether they come from one
+		who knows them only in speculation, has
+		gathered them from books, and thought
+		them out by his own reason, but without
+		any sense of their spiritual operation.</p>
+
+		<p>But who does not know how much
+		easier it is to declare what has come to
+		our knowledge from our own experience,
+		than what we have gathered coldly at second
+		hand from that of others;—how much
+		easier it is to describe feelings we have
+		ourselves had, and pleasures we have ourselves
+		enjoyed, than to fashion a description
+		of what others have told us;—how
+		much more freely and convincingly we can
+		speak of happiness we have known, than
+		of that to which we are strangers. We
+		see, then, how much is lost to the speaker
+		by coldness or ignorance in the exercises
+		of personal religion. How can he effectually
+		represent the joys of a religious
+		mind, who has never known what it is to
+		feel them? How can he effectually aid
+		the contrite, the desponding, the distrustful,
+		the tempted, who has never himself passed
+		through the same fears and sorrows? or
+		how can he paint, in the warm colors of
+		truth, religious exercises and spiritual desires,
+		<a class="pagenum" id="page93" title="93">&nbsp;</a>who is personally a stranger to them?
+		Alas, he cannot at all come in contact
+		with those souls, which stand most in need
+		of his sympathy and aid. But if he have
+		cherished in himself, fondly and habitually,
+		the affections he would excite in others,
+		if he have combated temptation, and
+		practised self-denial, and been instant in
+		prayer, and tasted the joy and peace of
+		a tried faith and hope;—then he may
+		communicate directly with the hearts of
+		his fellow men, and win them over to that
+		which he so feelingly describes. If his
+		spirit be always warm and stirring with
+		these pure and kind emotions, and anxious
+		to impart the means of his own felicity to
+		others—how easily and freely will he pour
+		himself forth! and how little will he think
+		of the embarrassments of the presence of
+		mortal man, while he is conscious only of
+		laboring for the glory of the ever present
+		God.</p>
+
+		<p>This then is the one thing essential to
+		be attained and cherished by the Christian
+		preacher. With this he must begin, and
+		with this he must go on to the end. Then
+		he never can greatly fail; for he will
+		<span class="small_all_caps">FEEL HIS SUBJECT THOROUGHLY, AND
+		SPEAK WITHOUT FEAR</span>.</p>
+
+	</div>
+	<div id="footnotes" class="section">
+		<h2 class="section_title">Footnotes</h2>
+		<ol>
+			<li id="footnote_1">Europe; &amp;c. by a Citizen of the United States. <a href="#fnm1" title="Return to marker 1" class="returnFN">Return</a></li>
+			<li id="footnote_2">Middleton’s Life of Cicero, III. 324. <a href="#fnm2" title="Return to marker 2" class="returnFN">Return</a></li>
+			<li id="footnote_3"><cite>Cecil’s Remains</cite>—a delightful little book. <a href="#fnm3" title="Return to marker 3" class="returnFN">Return</a></li>
+			<li id="footnote_4">See his fourth Lecture on Pulpit Eloquence. <a href="#fnm4" title="Return to marker 4" class="returnFN">Return</a></li>
+			<li id="footnote_5">Life, p. 268. <a href="#fnm5" title="Return to marker 5" class="returnFN">Return</a></li>
+			<li id="footnote_6">Rees’ CyclopÊdia. <a href="#fnm6" title="Return to marker 6" class="returnFN">Return</a></li>
+			<li id="footnote_7">Sur l’Eloquence du Corps, ou L’Action du Prédicateur. <a href="#fnm7" title="Return to marker 7" class="returnFN">Return</a></li>
+			<li id="footnote_8"> Sur l’Eloquence du Corps, ou l’Action du Prédicateur. <a href="#fnm8" title="Return to marker 8" class="returnFN">Return</a> </li>
+			<li id="footnote_9"> No. LXXI. p. 82. <a href="#fnm9" title="Return to marker 9" class="returnFN">Return</a> </li>
+			<li id="footnote_10">
+				It is often said that extemporaneous speaking is
+				the distinction of modern eloquence. But the whole
+				language of Cicero’s rhetorical works, as well as
+				particular terms in common use, and anecdotes recorded
+				of different speakers, prove the contrary;
+				not to mention Quinctilian’s express instructions on
+				the subject. Hume, also, tells us from Suidas, that
+				the writing of speeches was unknown until the time
+				of Pericles.
+				<a href="#fnm10" title="Return to marker 10" class="returnFN">Return</a>
+			</li>
+			<li id="footnote_11">
+				Nemo potest de eâ re, quam non novit, non
+				turpissime dicere. Cic. de Or.
+				<a href="#fnm11" title="Return to marker 11" class="returnFN">Return</a>
+			</li>
+			<li id="footnote_12"> De Or. iii. 31. <a href="#fnm12" title="Return to marker 12" class="returnFN">Return</a> </li>
+
+		</ol>
+	</div>
+	<div id="the_end">&nbsp;</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
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+Project Gutenberg's Hints on Extemporaneous Preaching, by Henry Ware
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Hints on Extemporaneous Preaching
+
+Author: Henry Ware
+
+Release Date: August 13, 2008 [EBook #26308]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HINTS ON EXTEMPORANEOUS PREACHING ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+                                 HINTS
+
+                                  ON
+
+                       EXTEMPORANEOUS PREACHING.
+
+
+                           BY HENRY WARE, JR.
+                MINISTER OF THE SECOND CHURCH IN BOSTON.
+
+
+      Maximus vero studiorum fructus est, et velut praemium quoddam
+        amplissimum longi laboris, ex tempore dicendi facultas.
+
+                                                 _Quinct._ x. 7.
+
+
+                                BOSTON:
+                 PUBLISHED BY CUMMINGS, HILLIARD & CO.
+                                 1824.
+
+
+                 University Press--Hilliard & Metcalf.
+
+
+
+
+                                   TO
+                              THE STUDENTS
+                                 IN THE
+              THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY,
+                         THIS LITTLE TREATISE,
+                                WITH THE
+                 SINCEREST PRAYERS THAT THEY MAY BECOME
+                PROFOUND DIVINES AND POWERFUL PREACHERS,
+                      IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED
+                                   BY
+                               THE AUTHOR.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+  CHAPTER I.
+  Advantages of Extemporaneous Preaching
+
+  CHAPTER II.
+  Disadvantages--Objections considered
+
+  CHAPTER III.
+  Rules
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+It is the object of this little work, to draw the attention of those who
+are preparing for the christian ministry, or who have just entered it,
+to a mode of preaching which the writer thinks has been too much
+discountenanced and despised; but which, under proper restrictions, he
+is persuaded may add greatly to the opportunities of ministerial
+usefulness. The subject has hardly received the attention it deserves
+from writers on the pastoral office, who have usually devoted to it but
+a few sentences, which offer little encouragement and afford no aid.
+Burnet, in his Treatise on the Pastoral Care, and Fenelon in his
+Dialogues on Eloquence, have treated it more at large, but still very
+cursorily. To their arguments and their authority, which are of great
+weight, I refer the more distinctly here, because I have not quoted them
+so much at large as I intended when I wrote the beginning of the second
+chapter. Besides these, the remarks of Quinctilian, x. 7. on the subject
+of speaking extempore, which are full of his usual good sense, may be
+very profitably consulted.
+
+It has been my object to state fully and fairly the benefits which
+attend this mode of address in the pulpit, and at the same time to guard
+against the dangers and abuses to which it is confessedly liable. How
+far I may have succeeded, it is not for me to determine. It would be
+something to persuade but one to add this to his other talents for doing
+good in the church. Even the attempt to do it, though unsuccessful,
+would not be without its reward; since it could not be fairly made
+without a most salutary moral and intellectual discipline.
+
+It is not to be expected--nor do I mean by any thing I have said to
+intimate--that every man is capable of becoming an accomplished preacher
+in this mode, or that every one may succeed as well in this as in the
+ordinary mode. There is a variety in the talents of men, and to some
+this may be peculiarly unsuited. Yet this is no good reason why _any_
+should decline the attempt, since it is only by making the attempt that
+they can determine whether or not success is within their power.
+
+There is at least one consequence likely to result from the study of
+this art and the attempt to practise it, which would alone be a
+sufficient reason for urging it earnestly. I mean, its probable effect
+in breaking up the constrained, cold, formal, scholastic mode of
+address, which follows the student from his college duties, and keeps
+him from immediate contact with the hearts of his fellow men. This would
+be effected by his learning to speak from his feelings, rather than from
+the critical rules of a book. His address would be more natural, and
+consequently better adapted to effective preaching.
+
+
+
+
+HINTS ON EXTEMPORANEOUS PREACHING.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+It is a little remarkable that, while some classes of christians do not
+tolerate the preaching of a written discourse, others have an equal
+prejudice against all sermons which have not been carefully precomposed.
+Among the latter are to be found those who favor an educated ministry,
+and whose preachers are valued for their cultivated minds and extensive
+knowledge. The former are, for the most part, those who disparage
+learning as a qualification for a christian teacher, and whose ministers
+are consequently not accustomed to exact mental discipline, nor familiar
+with the best models of thinking and writing. It might seem at first
+view, that the least cultivated would require the greatest previous
+preparation in order profitably to address their fellow-men, and that
+the best informed and most accustomed to study might be best trusted to
+speak without the labor of written composition. That it has been thought
+otherwise, is probably owing, in a great measure, to the solicitude for
+literary exactness and elegance of style, which becomes a habit in the
+taste of studious men, and renders all inaccuracy and carelessness
+offensive. He who has been accustomed to read and admire the finest
+models of composition in various languages, and to dwell on those
+niceties of method and expression which form so large a part of the
+charm of literary works; acquires a critical delicacy of taste, which
+renders him fastidiously sensitive to those crudities and roughnesses of
+speech, which almost necessarily attend an extemporaneous style. He is
+apt to exaggerate their importance, and to imagine that no excellencies
+of another kind can atone for them. He therefore protects himself by the
+toil of previous composition, and ventures not a sentence which he has
+not leisurely weighed and measured. An audience also, composed of
+reading people, or accustomed to the exactness of written composition in
+the pulpit, acquires something of the same taste, and is easily offended
+at the occasional homeliness of diction, and looseness of method, which
+occur in extemporaneous speaking. Whereas those preachers and hearers,
+whose education and habits of mind have been different, know nothing of
+this taste, and are insensible to these blemishes; and, if there be only
+a fluent outpouring of words, accompanied by a manner which evinces
+earnestness and sincerity, are pleased and satisfied.
+
+It is further remarkable, that this prejudice of taste has been suffered
+to rule in this way in no profession but that of the ministry. The most
+fastidious taste never carries a written speech to the bar or into the
+senate. The very man who dares not ascend the pulpit without a sermon
+diligently arranged, and filled out to the smallest word, if he had gone
+into the profession of the law, would, at the same age and with no
+greater advantages, address the bench and the jury in language
+altogether unpremeditated. Instances are not wanting in which the
+minister, who imagined it impossible to put ten sentences together in
+the pulpit, has found himself able, on changing his profession, to speak
+fluently for an hour.
+
+I have no doubt that to speak extempore is easier at the bar and in the
+legislature, than in the pulpit. Our associations with this place are of
+so sacred a character, that our faculties do not readily play there with
+their accustomed freedom. There is an awe upon our feelings which
+constrains us. A sense, too, of the importance and responsibility of the
+station, and of the momentous consequences depending on the influence he
+may there exert, has a tendency to oppress and embarrass the
+conscientious man, who feels it as he ought. There is also, in the other
+cases, an immediate end to be attained, which produces a powerful
+immediate excitement; an excitement, increased by the presence of those
+who are speaking on the opposite side of the question, and in assailing
+or answering whom, the embarrassment of the place is lost in the
+interest of the argument. Whereas in the pulpit, there is none to
+assault, and none to refute; the preacher has the field entirely to
+himself, and this of itself is sufficiently dismaying. The ardor and
+self-oblivion which present debate occasions, do not exist; and the
+solemn stillness and fixed gaze of a waiting multitude, serve rather to
+appal and abash the solitary speaker, than to bring the subject forcibly
+to his mind. Thus every external circumstance is unpropitious, and it is
+not strange that relief has been sought in the use of manuscripts.
+
+But still, these difficulties, and others which I shall have occasion to
+mention in another place, are by no means such as to raise that
+insuperable obstacle which many suppose. They may all be overcome by
+resolution and perseverance. As regards merely the use of unpremeditated
+language, it is far from being a difficult attainment. A writer, whose
+opportunities of observation give weight to his opinion, says, in
+speaking of the style of the younger Pitt--"This profuse and
+interminable flow of words is not in itself either a rare or remarkable
+endowment. It is wholly a thing of habit; and is exercised by every
+village lawyer with various degrees of power and grace."[1] If there be
+circumstances which render the habit more difficult to be acquired by
+the preacher, they are still such as may be surmounted; and it may be
+made plain, I think, that the advantages which he may thus ensure to
+himself are so many and so great, as to offer the strongest inducement
+to make the attempt.
+
+    [1] Europe; &c. by a Citizen of the United States.
+
+That these advantages are real and substantial, may be safely inferred
+from the habit of public orators in other professions, and from the
+effects they are known to produce. There is more nature, more warmth in
+the declamation, more earnestness in the address, greater animation in
+the manner, more of the lighting up of the soul in the countenance and
+whole mien, more freedom and meaning in the gesture; the eye speaks, and
+the fingers speak, and when the orator is so excited as to forget every
+thing but the matter on which his mind and feelings are acting, the
+whole body is affected, and helps to propagate his emotions to the
+hearer. Amidst all the exaggerated colouring of Patrick Henry's
+biographer, there is doubtless enough that is true, to prove a power in
+the spontaneous energy of an excited speaker, superior in its effects to
+any thing that can be produced by writing. Something of the same sort
+has been witnessed by every one who is in the habit of attending in the
+courts of justice, or the chambers of legislation. And this, not only in
+the instances of the most highly eloquent; but inferior men are found
+thus to excite attention and produce effects, which they never could
+have done by their pens. In deliberative assemblies, in senates and
+parliaments, the larger portion of the speaking is necessarily
+unpremeditated; perhaps the most eloquent is always so; for it is
+elicited by the growing heat of debate; it is the spontaneous combustion
+of the mind in the conflict of opinion. Chatham's speeches were not
+written, nor Sheridan's, nor that of Ames on the British treaty. They
+were, so far as regards their language and ornaments, the effusions of
+the moment, and derived from their freshness a power, which no study
+could impart. Among the orations of Cicero, which are said to have made
+the greatest impression, and to have best accomplished the orator's
+design, are those delivered on unexpected emergencies, which precluded
+the possibility of previous preparation. Such were his first invective
+against Catiline, and the speech which stilled the disturbances at the
+theatre. In all these cases, there can be no question of the advantages
+which the orators enjoyed in their ability to make use of the excitement
+of the occasion, unchilled by the formality of studied preparation.
+Although possibly guilty of many rhetorical and logical faults, yet
+these would be unobserved in the fervent and impassioned torrent, which
+bore away the minds of the delighted auditors.
+
+It is doubtless very true, that a man of study and reflection,
+accustomed deliberately to weigh every expression and analyze every
+sentence, and to be influenced by nothing which does not bear the test
+of the severest examination, may be most impressed by the quiet,
+unpretending reading of a well digested essay or dissertation. To some
+men the concisest statement of a subject, with nothing to adorn the
+naked skeleton of thought, is most forcible. They are even impatient of
+any attempt to assist its effect by fine writing, by emphasis, tone, or
+gesture. They are like the mathematician, who read the Paradise Lost
+without pleasure, because he could not see that it proved any thing. But
+we are not to judge from the taste of such men, of what is suitable to
+affect the majority. The multitude are not mere thinkers or great
+readers. From their necessary habits they are incapable of following a
+long discussion except it be made inviting by the circumstances
+attending it, or the manner of conducting it. Their attention must be
+excited and maintained by some external application. To them,
+
+  Action is eloquence, and the eyes of the ignorant
+  More learned than their ears.
+
+It is a great fault with intellectual men, that they do not make
+sufficient allowance for the different modes of education and habits of
+mind in men of other pursuits. It is one of the infelicities of a
+university education, that a man is there trained in a fictitious scene,
+where there are interests, associations, feelings, exceedingly diverse
+from what prevail in the society of the world; and where he becomes so
+far separated from the habits and sympathies of other men, as to need to
+acquire a new knowledge of them, before he knows how to address them.
+When a young man leaves the seclusion of a student's life to preach to
+his fellow-men, he is likely to speak to them as if they were scholars.
+He imagines them to be capable of appreciating the niceties of method
+and style, and of being affected by the same sort of sentiment,
+illustration, and cool remark, which affects those who have been
+accustomed to be moved and guided by the dumb and lifeless pages of a
+book. He therefore talks to them calmly, is more anxious for correctness
+than impression, fears to make more noise or to have more motion than
+the very letters on his manuscript; addressing himself, as he thinks, to
+the intellectual part of man; forgetting that the intellectual man is
+not very easy of access, that it is barred up, and must be approached
+through the senses and affections and imagination.
+
+There was a class of rhetoricians and orators at Rome in the time of
+Cicero, who were famous for having made the same mistake. They would do
+every thing by a fixed and almost mechanical rule, by calculation and
+measurement. Their sentences were measured, their gestures were
+measured, their tones were measured; and they framed canons of judgment
+and taste, by which it was pronounced an affront on the intellectual
+nature of man to assail him with epithets, and exclamations, and varied
+tones, and emphatic gesture. They censured the free and flowing manner
+of Cicero as "tumid and exuberant," nec satis pressus, supra modum
+exultans et superfluens. They cultivated a more guarded and concise
+style, which might indeed please the critic or the scholar, but was
+wholly unfitted to instruct or move a promiscuous audience; as was said
+of one of them, oratio--doctis et attente audientibus erat illustris; a
+multitudine autem et a foro, cui nata eloquentia est, devorabatur. The
+taste of the multitude prevailed, and Cicero was the admiration of the
+people, while those who pruned themselves by a more rigid and
+philosophical law, _coldly correct and critically dull_, "were
+frequently deserted by the audience in the midst of their harangues."[2]
+
+    [2] Middleton's Life of Cicero, III. 324.
+
+We may learn something from this. There is one mode of address for books
+and for classical readers, and another for the mass of men, who judge by
+the eye and ear, by the fancy and feelings, and know little of rules of
+art or of an educated taste. Hence it is that many of those preachers
+who have become the classics of a country, have been unattractive to the
+multitude, who have deserted their polished and careful composition, for
+the more unrestrained and rousing declamation of another class. The
+singular success of Chalmers, seems to be in a considerable measure
+owing to his attention to this fact. He has abandoned the pure and
+measured style, and adopted a heterogeneous mixture of the gaudy,
+pompous, and colloquial, offensive indeed to the ears of literary men,
+but highly acceptable to those who are less biassed by the authority of
+a standard taste and established models. We need not go to the extreme
+of Chalmers,--for there is no necessity for inaccuracy, bombast, or
+false taste--but we should doubtless gain by adopting his principle. The
+object is to address men according to their actual character, and in
+that mode in which their habits of mind may render them most accessible.
+As but few are thinkers or readers, a congregation is not to be
+addressed as such; but, their modes of life being remembered, constant
+regard must be had to their need of external attraction. This is most
+easily done by the familiarity and directness of extemporaneous address;
+for which reason this mode of preaching has peculiar advantages, in its
+adaptation to their situation and wants.
+
+The truth is, indeed, that it is not the weight of the thought, the
+profoundness of the argument, the exactness of the arrangement, the
+choiceness of the language, which interest and chain the attention of
+even those educated hearers, who are able to appreciate them all. They
+are as likely to sleep through the whole as others. They can find all
+these qualities in much higher perfection in their libraries; they do
+not seek these only at church. And as to the large mass of the people,
+they are to them hidden things, of which they discern nothing. It is not
+these, so much as the attraction of an earnest manner, which arrests the
+attention and makes instruction welcome. Every day's observation may
+show us, that he who has this manner will retain the attention of even
+an intellectual man with common-place thoughts, while with a different
+manner he would render tedious the most novel and ingenious
+disquisitions. Let an indifferent reader take into the pulpit a sermon
+of Barrow or Butler, and all its excellence of argument and eloquence
+would not save it from being accounted tedious; while an empty declaimer
+shall collect crowds to hang upon his lips in raptures. And this manner,
+which is so attractive, is not the studied artificial enunciation of the
+rhetorician's school, but the free, flowing, animated utterance, which
+seems to come from the impulse of the subject; which may be full of
+faults, yet masters the attention by its nature and sincerity. This is
+precisely the manner of the extemporaneous speaker--in whom the
+countenance reflects the emotions of the soul, and the tone of voice is
+tuned to the feelings of the heart, rising and falling with the subject,
+as in conversation, without the regular and harmonious modulation of the
+practised reader.
+
+In making these and similar remarks, it is true that I am thinking of
+the best extemporaneous speakers, and that all cannot be such. But it
+ought to be recollected at the same time, that all cannot be excellent
+_readers_; that those who speak ill, would probably read still worse;
+and that therefore those who can attain to no eminence as speakers, do
+not on that account fail of the advantages of which I speak, since they
+escape at least the unnatural monotony of bad reading; than which
+nothing is more earnestly to be avoided.
+
+Every man utters himself with greater animation and truer emphasis in
+speaking, than he does, or perhaps can do, in reading. Hence it happens
+that we can listen longer to a tolerable speaker, than to a good reader.
+There is an indescribable something in the natural tones of him who is
+expressing earnestly his present thoughts, altogether foreign from the
+drowsy uniformity of the man that reads. I once heard it well observed,
+that the least animated mode of communicating thoughts to others, is the
+reading from a book the composition of another; the next in order is the
+reading one's own composition; the next is delivering one's own
+composition memoriter; and the most animated of all is the uttering
+one's own thoughts as they rise fresh in his mind. Very few can give the
+spirit to another's writings which they communicate to their own, or can
+read their own with the spirit, with which they spontaneously express
+their thoughts. We have all witnessed this in conversation; when we have
+listened with interest to long harangues from persons, who tire us at
+once if they begin to read. It is verified at the bar, and in the
+legislature, where orators maintain the unflagging attention of hearers
+for a long period, when they could not have read the same speech without
+producing intolerable fatigue. It is equally verified in the history of
+the pulpit; for those who are accustomed to the reading of sermons, are
+for the most part impatient even of able discourses, when they extend
+beyond the half hour's length; while very indifferent extemporaneous
+preachers are listened to with unabated attention for a full hour. In
+the former case there is a certain uniformity of tone, and a perpetual
+recurrence of the same cadences, inseparable from the manner of a
+reader, from which the speaker remains longer free. This difference is
+perfectly well understood, and was acted upon by Cecil, whose success as
+a preacher gives him a right to be heard, when he advised young
+preachers to "limit a written sermon to half an hour, and one from notes
+to forty minutes."[3] For the same reason, those preachers whose reading
+comes nearest to speaking, are universally more interesting than others.
+
+    [3] _Cecil's Remains_--a delightful little book.
+
+Thus it is evident that there is an attractiveness in this mode of
+preaching, which gives it peculiar advantages. He imparts greater
+interest to what he says, who is governed by the impulse of the moment,
+than he who speaks by rule. When he feels the subject, his voice and
+gesture correspond to that feeling, and communicate it to others as it
+can be done in no other way. Though he possess but indifferent talents,
+yet if he utter himself with sincerity and feeling, it is far pleasanter
+than to listen to his cold reading of what he wrote perhaps with little
+excitement, and delivers with less.
+
+In thus speaking of the interest which attends an extemporaneous
+delivery, it is not necessary to pursue the subject into a general
+comparison of the advantages of this mode with those of reading and of
+reciting from memory. Each has prevailed in different places and at
+different periods, and each undoubtedly has advantages and disadvantages
+peculiar to itself. These are well though briefly stated in the
+excellent article on Elocution in Rees' Cyclopaedia, to which it will be
+sufficient to refer, as worthy attentive perusal. The question at large
+I cannot undertake to discuss. If I should, I could hardly hope to
+satisfy either others or myself. The almost universal custom of reading
+in this part of the world, where recitation from memory is scarcely
+known, and extempore speaking is practised by very few except the
+illiterate, forbids any thing like a fair deduction from observation. In
+order to institute a just comparison, one should have had extensive
+opportunities of watching the success of each mode, and of knowing the
+circumstances under which each was tried. For in the inquiry, which is
+to be preferred in the pulpit,--we must consider, not which has most
+excellencies when it is found in perfection, but which has excellencies
+attainable by the largest number of preachers; not which is first in
+theory or most beautiful as an art, but which has been and is likely to
+be most successful in practice. These are questions not easily answered.
+Each mode has its advocates and its opponents. In the English church
+there is nothing but reading, and we hear from every quarter complaints
+of it. In Scotland the custom of recitation prevails, but multitudes
+besides Dr. Campbell[4] condemn it. In many parts of the continent of
+Europe no method is known, but that of a brief preparation and
+unpremeditated language; but that it should be universally approved by
+those who use it, is more than we can suppose.
+
+    [4] See his fourth Lecture on Pulpit Eloquence.
+
+The truth is, that either method may fail in the hands of incompetent or
+indolent men, and either may be thought to succeed by those whose taste
+or prejudices are obstinate in its favor. All that I contend for, in
+advocating unwritten discourse, is, that this method claims a decided
+superiority over the others in some of the most important particulars.
+That the others have their own advantages, I do not deny, nor that this
+is subject to disadvantages from which they are free. But whatever these
+may be I hope to show that they are susceptible of a remedy; that they
+are not greater than those which attend other modes; that they are
+balanced by equal advantages, and that therefore this art deserves to be
+cultivated by all who would do their utmost to render their ministry
+useful. There can be no good reason why the preacher should confine
+himself to either mode. It might be most beneficial to cultivate and
+practise all. By this means he might impart something of the advantages
+of each to each, and correct the faults of all by mingling them with the
+excellencies of all. He would learn to read with more of the natural
+accent of the speaker, and to speak with more of the precision of the
+writer.
+
+The remarks already made have been designed to point out some of the
+general advantages attending the use of unprepared language. Some others
+remain to be noticed, which have more particular reference to the
+preacher individually.
+
+It is no unimportant consideration to a minister of the gospel, that
+this is a talent held in high estimation among men, and that it gives
+additional influence to him who possesses it. It is thought to argue
+capacity and greatness of mind. Fluency of language passes with many,
+and those not always the vulgar, for affluence of thought; and never to
+be at a loss for something to say, is supposed to indicate inexhaustible
+knowledge. It cannot have escaped the observation of any one accustomed
+to notice the judgments which are passed upon men, how much reputation
+and consequent influence are acquired by the power of speaking readily
+and boldly, without any other considerable talent, and with very
+indifferent acquisitions; and how a man of real talents, learning, and
+worth, has frequently sunk below his proper level, from a mere
+awkwardness and embarrassment in speaking without preparation. So that
+it is not simply superstition which leads so many to refuse the name of
+preaching to any but extemporaneous harangues; it is in part owing to
+the natural propensity there is to admire, as something wonderful and
+extraordinary, this facility of speech. It is undoubtedly a very
+erroneous standard of judgment. But a minister of the gospel, whose
+success in his important calling depends so much on his personal
+influence, and the estimation in which his gifts are held, can hardly be
+justified in slighting the cultivation of a talent, which may so
+innocently add to his means of influence.
+
+It must be remembered also, that occasions will sometimes occur, when
+the want of this power may expose him to mortification, and deprive him
+of an opportunity of usefulness. For such emergencies one would choose
+to be prepared. It may be of consequence that he should express his
+opinion in an ecclesiastical council, and give reasons for the adoption
+or rejection of important measures. Possibly he may be only required to
+state facts, which have come to his knowledge. It is very desirable to
+be able to do this readily, fluently, without embarrassment to himself,
+and pleasantly to those who hear; and in order to this, a habit of
+speaking is necessary. In the course of his ministrations also amongst
+his own people, occasions will arise when an exhortation or address
+would be seasonable and useful, but when there is no time for written
+preparation. If then he have cultivated the art of extemporaneous
+speaking, and attained to any degree of facility and confidence in it,
+he may avail himself of the opportunity to do good, which he must
+otherwise have passed by unimproved. Funerals and baptisms afford
+suitable occasions of making good religious impressions. A sudden
+providence, also, on the very day of the sabbath may suggest most
+valuable topics of reflection and exhortation, lost to him who is
+confined to what he may have previously written, but choice treasure to
+him who can venture to speak without writing. If it were only to avail
+himself of a few opportunities like these in the course of his life, or
+to save himself but once the mortification of being silent when he ought
+to speak, is expected to speak, and would do good by speaking, it would
+be well worth all the time and pains it might cost to acquire it.
+
+It is a further advantage, not to be forgotten here, that the excitement
+of speaking in public strikes out new views of a subject, new
+illustrations, and unthought of figures and arguments, which perhaps
+never would have presented themselves to the mind in retirement. "The
+warmth which animates him," says Fenelon, "gives birth to expressions
+and figures, which he never could have prepared in his study." He who
+feels himself safe in flying off from the path he has prescribed to
+himself, without any fear lest he should fail to find his way back, will
+readily seize upon these, and be astonished at the new light which
+breaks in upon him as he goes on, and flashes all around him. This is
+according to the experience of all extemporaneous speakers. "The degree
+in which," says Thomas Scott,[5] who practised this method constantly,
+"after the most careful preparation for the pulpit, new thoughts, new
+arguments, animated addresses, often flow into my mind, while speaking
+to a congregation, even on very common subjects, makes me feel as if I
+was quite another man than when poring over them in my study. There will
+be inaccuracies; but generally the most striking things in my sermons
+were unpremeditated."
+
+    [5] Life, p. 268.
+
+Then again, the presence of the audience gives a greater seeming reality
+to the work; it is less like doing a task, and more like speaking to
+men, than when one sits coolly writing at his table. Consequently there
+is likely to be greater plainness and directness in his exhortations,
+more closeness in his appeals, more of the earnestness of genuine
+feeling in his expostulations. He ventures, in the warmth of the moment,
+to urge considerations, which perhaps in the study seemed too familiar,
+and to employ modes of address, which are allowable in personal
+communion with a friend, but which one hesitates to commit to writing,
+lest he should infringe the dignity of deliberate composition. This
+forgetfulness of self, this unconstrained following the impulse of the
+affections, while he is hurried on by the presence and attention of
+those whom he hopes to benefit, creates a sympathy between him and his
+hearers, a direct passage from heart to heart, a mutual understanding of
+each other, which does more to effect the true object of religious
+discourse, than any thing else can do. The preacher will, in this way,
+have the boldness to say many things which ought to be said, but about
+which, in his study, he would feel reluctant and timid. And granting
+that he might be led to say some things improperly, yet if his mind be
+well disciplined, and well governed, and his discretion habitual, he
+will do it exceedingly seldom; while no one, who estimates the object of
+preaching as highly as he should, will think an occasional false step
+any objection against that mode which ensures upon the whole the
+greatest boldness and earnestness. He will think it a less fault than
+the tameness and abstractness, which are the besetting sins of
+deliberate composition. At any rate, what method is secure from
+occasional false steps?
+
+Another consideration which recommends this method to the attention of
+preachers, though at the same time it indicates one of its difficulties,
+is this; that all men, from various causes, constitutional or
+accidental, are subject to great inequality in the operations of their
+minds--sometimes laboring with felicity and sometimes failing. Perhaps
+this fact is in no men so observable as in preachers, because no others
+are so much compelled to labor, and exhibit their labors, at all
+seasons, favorable and unfavorable. There is a certain quantity of the
+severest mental toil to be performed every week; and as the mind cannot
+be always in the same frame, they are constantly presenting proofs of
+the variation of their powers. Now an extemporaneous speaker is of
+course exposed to all this inequality of spirits, and must expect to be
+sometimes mortified by ill success. When the moment of speaking arrives,
+his mind may be slow and dull, his thoughts sluggish and impeded; he may
+be exhausted by labor, or suffering from temporary indisposition. He
+strives in vain to rally his powers, and forces his way, with thorough
+discomfort and chagrin, to the end of an unprofitable talk. But then how
+many men _write_ under the same embarrassments, and are equally
+dissatisfied; with the additional mortification of having spent a longer
+time, and of being unable to give their poor preparation the interest of
+a forcible manner, which the very distress of an extemporaneous effort
+would have imparted.
+
+But on the other hand, when his mind is bright and clear, and his animal
+spirits lively, he will speak much better after merely a suitable
+premeditation, than he can possibly write. There will be more point and
+vigor and animation, than he could ever throw into writing. "Every man,"
+says Bishop Burnet, "may thus rise far above what he could ever have
+attained in any other way." We see proof of this in conversation. When
+engaged in unrestrained and animated conversation with familiar friends,
+who is not conscious of having struck out brighter thoughts and happier
+sayings, than he ever put upon paper in the deliberate composition of
+the closet? It is a common remark concerning many men, that they pray
+much better than they preach. The reason is, that their sermons are made
+leisurely and sluggishly, without excitement; but in their public
+devotions they are strongly engaged, and the mind acts with more
+concentration and vivacity. The same thing has been observed in the art
+of music. "There have been organists, whose abilities in unstudied
+effusions on their instruments have almost amounted to inspiration, such
+as Sebastian Bach, Handel, Marchand, Couperin, Kelway, Stanley, Worgan,
+and Keeble; several of whom played better music extempore, than they
+could write with meditation."[6]
+
+    [6] Rees' Cyclopaedia.
+
+It is upon no different principle that we explain, what all scholars
+have experienced, that they write best when they write rapidly, from a
+full and excited mind. One of Pope's precepts is, "to write with fury
+and correct with phlegm." The author of Waverley tells us, "that the
+works and passages in which he has succeeded, have uniformly been
+written with the greatest rapidity." Fenelon's Telemachus is said to
+have been composed in this way, and sent to the press with one single
+erasure in the manuscript. The celebrated Rockingham Memorial at the
+commencement of the late war, is said to have been the hasty composition
+of a single evening. And it will be found true, I believe, of many of
+the best sermon writers, that they revolve the subject till their minds
+are filled and warmed, and then put their discourse upon paper at a
+single sitting. Now what is all this but _extemporaneous writing_? and
+what does it require but a mind equally collected and at ease, equally
+disciplined by practice, and interested in the subject, to ensure equal
+success in _extemporaneous speaking_? Nay, we might anticipate
+occasional superior success; since the thoughts sometimes flow, when at
+the highest and most passionate excitement, too rapidly and profusely
+for any thing slower than the tongue to afford them vent.
+
+There is one more consideration in favor of the habit I recommend, which
+I think cannot fail to have weight with all who are solicitous to make
+progress in theological knowledge; namely, that it redeems time for
+study. The labor of preparing and committing to paper a sermon or two
+every week, is one which necessarily occupies the principal part of a
+minister's time and thoughts, and withdraws him from the investigation
+of many subjects, which, if his mind were more at leisure, it would be
+his duty and pleasure to pursue. He who _writes_ sermons, is ready to
+consider this as the chief object, or perhaps the sole business of his
+life. When not actually engaged in writing, yet the necessity of doing
+it presses upon his mind, and so binds him as to make him feel as if he
+were wrong in being employed on any thing else. I speak of the tendency,
+which certainly is to prevent a man from pursuing, very extensively, any
+profitable study. But if he have acquired that ready command of thought
+and language, which will enable him to speak without written
+preparation, the time and toil of writing are saved, to be devoted to a
+different mode of study. He may prepare his discourses at intervals of
+leisure, while walking or riding; and having once arranged the outlines
+of the subject, and ascertained its principle bearings and applications,
+the work of preparation is over. The language remains to be suggested at
+the moment.
+
+I do not mean by this, that preparation for the pulpit should ever be
+made slightly, or esteemed an object of small importance. It doubtless
+demands, and should receive the best of a man's talents and labors. What
+I contend for is, that a habit of mind may be acquired, which shall
+enable one to make a better and more thorough preparation at less
+expense of labor and time. He may acquire, by discipline, that ease and
+promptitude of looking into subjects and bringing out their prominent
+features, which shall enable him at a glance, as it were, to seize the
+points on which he should enlarge. Some minds are so constituted as "to
+look a subject into shape" much more readily than others. But the power
+of doing it is in a great measure mechanical, and depends upon habit.
+All may acquire it to a certain extent. When the mind works with most
+concentration, it works at once most quickly and most surely. Now the
+act of extempore speaking favors this concentration of the powers, more
+than the slower process of leisurely writing--perhaps more than any
+other operation; consequently, it increases, with practice, the facility
+of dissecting subjects, and of arranging materials for preaching. In
+other words, the completeness with which a subject is viewed and its
+parts arranged, does not depend so much on the time spent upon it, as on
+the vigor with which the attention is applied to it. That course of
+study is the best, which most favors this vigor of attention; and the
+habit of extemporaneous speaking is more than any thing favorable to it,
+from the necessity which it imposes of applying the mind with energy,
+and thinking promptly.
+
+The great danger in this case would be, that of substituting an easy
+flow of words for good sense and sober reflection, and becoming
+satisfied with very superficial thoughts. But this danger is guarded
+against by the habit of study, and of writing for other purposes. If a
+man should neglect all mental exertion, except so far as would be
+required in the meditation of a sermon, it would be ruinous. We witness
+its disastrous effects in the empty wordiness of many extemporaneous
+preachers. It is wrong however to argue against the practice itself,
+from their example; for all other modes would be equally condemned, if
+judged by the ill success of indolent and unfaithful men. The minister
+must keep himself occupied,--reading, thinking, investigating; thus
+having his mind always awake and active. This is a far better
+preparation than the bare writing of sermons, for it exercises the
+powers more, and keeps them bright. The great master of Roman eloquence
+thought it essential to the true orator, that he should be familiar with
+all sciences, and have his mind filled with every variety of knowledge.
+He therefore, much as he studied his favorite art, yet occupied more
+time in literature, philosophy, and politics, than in the composition of
+his speeches. His preparation was less particular than general. So it
+has been with other eminent speakers. When Sir Samuel Romilly was in
+full practice in the High Court of Chancery, and at the same time
+overwhelmed with the pressure of public political concerns; his custom
+was to enter the court, to receive there the history of the cause he was
+to plead, thus to acquaint himself with the circumstances for the first
+time, and forthwith proceed to argue it. His general preparation and
+long practice enabled him to do this, without failing in justice to his
+cause. I do not know that in this he was singular. The same sort of
+preparation would ensure success in the pulpit. He who is always
+thinking, may expend upon each individual effort less time, because he
+can think at once fast and well. But he who never thinks, except when
+attempting to manufacture a sermon (and it is to be feared there are
+such men), must devote a great deal of time to this labor exclusively;
+and after all, he will not have that wide range of thought or
+copiousness of illustration, which his office demands and which study
+only can give.
+
+In fact, what I have here insisted upon, is exemplified in the case of
+the extemporaneous _writers_, whom I have already named. I would only
+carry their practice a step further, and devote an hour to a discourse
+instead of a day. Not to all discourses, for some ought to be written
+for the sake of writing, and some demand a sort of investigation, to
+which the use of the pen is essential. But then a very large proportion
+of the topics on which a minister should preach, have been subjects of
+his attention a thousand times. He is thoroughly familiar with them; and
+an hour to arrange his ideas and collect illustrations, is abundantly
+sufficient. The late Thomas Scott is said for years to have prepared his
+discourses entirely by meditation on the Sunday, and thus gained leisure
+for his extensive studies, and great and various labors. This is an
+extreme on which few have a right to venture, and which should be
+recommended to none. It shows, however, the power of habit, and the
+ability of a mind to act promptly and effectually, which is kept upon
+the alert by constant occupation. He who is always engaged in thinking
+and studying, will always have thoughts enough for a sermon, and good
+ones too, which will come at an hour's warning.
+
+The objections which may be made to the practice I have sought to
+recommend, I must leave to be considered in another place. I am
+desirous, in concluding this chapter, to add the favorable testimony of
+a writer, who expressly disapproves the practice in general, but who
+allows its excellence when accompanied by that preparation which I would
+every where imply.
+
+"You are accustomed," says Dinouart,[7] "to the careful study and
+imitation of nature. You have used yourself to writing and speaking with
+care on different subjects, and have well stored your memory by reading.
+You thus have provided resources for speaking, which are always at hand.
+The best authors and the best thoughts are familiar to you; you can
+readily quote the scriptures, you express yourself easily and
+gracefully, you have a sound and correct judgment on which you can
+depend, method and precision in the arrangement of proofs; you can
+readily connect each part by natural transitions, and are able to say
+all that belongs, and precisely what belongs to the subject. You may
+then take only a day, or only an hour, to reflect on your subject, to
+arrange your topics, to consult your memory, to choose and to prepare
+your illustrations,--and then, appear in public. I am perfectly willing
+that you should. The common expressions which go to make up the body of
+the discourse, will present themselves spontaneously. Your periods,
+perhaps, will be less harmonious, your transitions less ingenious, an
+ill placed word will sometimes escape you; but all this is pardonable.
+The animation of your delivery will compensate for these blemishes, and
+you will be master of your own feelings, and those of your hearers.
+There will, perhaps, be apparent throughout a certain disorder, but it
+will not prevent your pleasing and affecting me; your action as well as
+your words will appear to me the more natural."
+
+    [7] Sur l'Eloquence du Corps, ou L'Action du Predicateur.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+Against what has been advanced in the preceding pages, many objections
+will be urged, and the evils of the practice I recommend be declared
+more than sufficient to counterbalance its advantages. Of these it is
+necessary that I should now take notice, and obviate them as well as I
+may.
+
+It should be first of all remarked, that the force of the objections
+commonly made, lies against the exclusive use of extempore preaching,
+and not against its partial and occasional use. It is of consequence
+that this should be considered. There can be no doubt, that he would
+preach very wretchedly, who should always be haranguing without the
+corrective discipline of writing. The habit of writing is essential.
+Many of the objections which are currently made to this mode of address,
+fall to the ground when this statement is made.
+
+Other objections have been founded on the idea, that by _extemporaneous_
+is meant, _unpremeditated_. Whereas there is a plain and important
+distinction between them, the latter word being applied to the thoughts,
+and the former to the language only. To preach without premeditation, is
+altogether unjustifiable; although there is no doubt that a man of
+habitual readiness of mind, may express himself to the greatest
+advantage on a subject with which he is familiar, after very little
+meditation.
+
+Many writers on the art of preaching, as well as on eloquence in
+general, have given a decided judgment unfavorable to extempore
+speaking. There can be no fairer way of answering their objections, than
+by examining what they have advanced, and opposing their authority by
+that of equal names on the other side.
+
+Gerard, in his Treatise on the Pastoral Charge, has the following
+passage on this subject.
+
+"He will run into trite, common-place topics; his compositions will be
+loose and unconnected; his language often coarse and confused; and
+diffidence, or care to recollect his subject, will destroy the
+management of his voice." At the same time, however, he admits that "it
+is very proper that a man should be able to preach in this way, when it
+is necessary;--but no man ought always to preach in this way." To which
+decision I have certainly nothing to object.
+
+Mason, in his Student and Pastor, says to the same effect, that "the
+inaccuracy of diction, the inelegance, poverty, and lowness of
+expression, which is commonly observed in extempore discourses, will not
+fail to offend every hearer of good taste."
+
+Dinouart,[8] who is an advocate for recitation from memory, says that
+"experience decides against extemporaneous preaching, though there are
+exceptions; but these are very few; and we must not be led astray by the
+success of a few first rate orators."
+
+    [8] Sur l'Eloquence du Corps, ou l'Action du Predicateur.
+
+Hume, in his Essay upon Eloquence, expresses an opinion that the modern
+deficiency in this art is to be attributed to "that extreme affectation
+of extempore speaking, which has led to extreme carelessness of method."
+
+The writer of an article, on the Greek Orators, in the Edinburgh
+Review,[9] observes, that "among the sources of the corruption of modern
+eloquence, may clearly be distinguished as the most fruitful, the habit
+of extempore speaking, acquired rapidly by persons who frequent popular
+assemblies, and, beginning at the wrong end, attempt to speak before
+they have studied the art of oratory, or even duly stored their minds
+with the treasures of thought and language, which can only be drawn from
+assiduous intercourse with the ancient and modern classics."
+
+    [9] No. LXXI. p. 82.
+
+These are the prominent objections which have been made to the practice
+in question. Without denying that they have weight, I think it may be
+made to appear that they have not the unquestionable preponderance,
+which is assumed for them. They will be found, on examination, to be the
+objections of a cultivated taste, and to be drawn from the examples of
+undisciplined men, who ought to be left entirely out of the question.
+
+1. The objection most urged is that which relates to style. It is said,
+the expression will be poor, inelegant, inaccurate, and offensive to
+hearers of taste.
+
+To those who urge this it may be replied, that the reason why style is
+an important consideration in the pulpit, is, not that the taste of the
+hearers may be gratified, for but a small part of any congregation is
+capable of taking cognizance of this matter;--but solely for the purpose
+of presenting the speaker's thoughts, reasonings, and expostulations
+distinctly and forcibly to the minds of his hearers. If this be
+effected, it is all which can reasonably be demanded. And I ask if it be
+not notorious, that an earnest and appropriate elocution will give this
+effect to a poor style, and that poor speaking will take it away from
+the most exact and emphatic style? Is it not also notorious that the
+peculiar earnestness of spontaneous speech, is, above all others, suited
+to arrest the attention, and engage the feelings of an audience? and
+that the mere reading of a piece of fine composition, under the notion
+that careful thought and finished diction are the only things needful,
+leaves the majority uninterested in the discourse, and free to think of
+any thing they please? "It is a poor compliment," says Blair, "that one
+is an accurate reasoner, if he be not a persuasive speaker also." It is
+a small matter that the style is poor, so long as it answers the great
+purpose of instructing and affecting men. So that, as I have more fully
+shown in a former place, the objection lies on an erroneous foundation.
+
+Besides, if it were not so, it will be found quite as strong against the
+_writing_ of sermons. For how large a proportion of sermon writers have
+these very same faults of style! what a great want of force, neatness,
+compactness, is there in the composition of most preachers! what
+weakness, inelegance, and inconclusiveness; and how small improvement do
+they make, even after the practice of years! How happens this? It is
+because they do not make this an object of attention and study; and some
+might be unable to attain it if they did. But that watchfulness and care
+which secure a correct and neat style in writing, would also secure it
+in speaking. It does not naturally belong to the one, more than to the
+other, and may be as certainly attained in each by the proper pains.
+Indeed so far as my observation has extended, I am not certain that
+there is not as large a proportion of extempore speakers, whose diction
+is exact and unexceptionable, as of writers--always taking into view
+their education, which equally affects the one and the other. And it is
+a consideration of great weight, that the faults in question are far
+less offensive in speakers than in writers.
+
+It is apparent that objectors of this sort are guilty of a double
+mistake; first, in laying too great stress upon mere defects of style,
+and then in taking for granted, that these are unavoidable. They might
+as well insist that defects of written style are unavoidable. Whereas
+they are the consequence of the negligent mode in which the art has been
+studied, and its having been given up, for the most part, to ignorant
+and fanatical pretenders. Let it be diligently cultivated by educated
+men, and we shall find no more cause to expel it from the pulpit than
+from the forum or the parliament. "Poverty, inelegance, and poorness of
+diction," will be no longer so "generally observed," and even hearers of
+taste will cease to be offended.
+
+2. A want of order, a rambling, unconnected, desultory manner, is
+commonly objected; as Hume styles it, "extreme carelessness of method;"
+and this is so often observed, as to be justly an object of dread. But
+this is occasioned by that indolence and want of discipline to which we
+have just alluded. It is not a necessary evil. If a man have never
+studied the art of speaking, nor passed through a course of preparatory
+discipline; if he have so rash and unjustifiable a confidence in
+himself, that he will undertake to speak, without having considered what
+he shall say, what object he shall aim at, or by what steps he shall
+attain it; the inevitable consequence will be confusion,
+inconclusiveness, and wandering. Who recommends such a course? But he
+who has first trained himself to the work, and whenever he would speak,
+has surveyed his ground, and become familiar with the points to be dwelt
+upon, and the course of reasoning and track of thought to be followed;
+will go on from one step to another, in an easy and natural order, and
+give no occasion to the complaint of confusion or disarrangement.
+
+"Some preachers," says Dinouart, "have the folly to think that they can
+make sermons impromptu. And what a piece of work they make! They bolt
+out every thing which comes into their head. They take for granted, what
+ought to be proved, or perhaps they state half the argument, and forget
+the rest. Their appearance corresponds to the state of their mind, which
+is occupied in hunting after some way of finishing the sentence they
+have begun. They repeat themselves; they wander off in digression. They
+stand stiff without moving; or if they are of a lively temperament, they
+are full of the most turbulent action; their eyes and hands are flying
+about in every direction, and their words choke in their throats. They
+are like men swimming, who have got frightened, and throw about their
+hands and feet at random, to save themselves from drowning."
+
+There is doubtless great truth in this humorous description. But what is
+the legitimate inference? that extemporaneous speaking is altogether
+ridiculous and mischievous? or only that it is an art which requires
+study and diligence, and which no man should presume to practice, until
+he has fitted himself for it?
+
+3. In the same way I should dispose of the objection, that this habit
+leads to barrenness in preaching, and the everlasting repetition of the
+same sentiments and topics. If a man make his facility of speech an
+excuse for the neglect of all study, then doubtless this will be the
+result. He who cannot resist his indolent propensities, had best avoid
+this occasion of temptation. He must be able to command himself to
+think, and industriously prepare himself by meditation, if he would be
+safe in this hazardous experiment. He who does this, and continues to
+learn and reflect while he preaches, will be no more empty and
+monotonous than if he carefully wrote every word.
+
+4. But this temptation to indolence in the preparation for the desk, is
+urged as in itself a decisive objection. A man finds, that after a
+little practice, it is an exceedingly easy thing to fill up his
+half-hour with declamation which shall pass off very well, and hence he
+grows negligent in previous meditation; and insensibly degenerates into
+an empty exhorter, without choice of language, or variety of ideas. This
+is undoubtedly the great and alarming danger of this practice. This must
+be triumphed over, or it is ruinous. We see examples of it wherever we
+look among those whose preaching is exclusively extempore. In these
+cases, the evil rises to its magnitude in consequence of their total
+neglect of the pen. The habit of writing a certain proportion of the
+time would, in some measure, counteract this dangerous tendency.
+
+But it is still insisted, that man's natural love of ease is not to be
+trusted; that he will not long continue the drudgery of writing in part;
+that when he has once gained confidence to speak without study, he will
+find it so flattering to his indolence, that he will involuntarily give
+himself up to it, and relinquish the pen altogether; that consequently
+there is no security, except in never beginning.
+
+To this it may be replied, that they who have not principle and
+self-government enough to keep them industrious, will not be kept so by
+being compelled to write sermons. I think we have abundant proof, that a
+man may write with as little pains and thinking, as he can speak. It by
+no means follows, that because it is on paper, it is therefore the
+result of study. And if it be not, it will be greatly inferior, in point
+of effect, to an unpremeditated declamation; for in the latter case,
+there will probably be at least a temporary excitement of feeling, and
+consequent vivacity of manner, while in the former the indolence of the
+writer will be made doubly intolerable by his heaviness in reading.
+
+It cannot be doubted, however, that if any one find his facility of
+extemporaneous invention, likely to prove destructive to his habits of
+diligent and careful application; it were advisable that he refrain from
+the practice. It could not be worth while for him to lose his habits of
+study and thinking for the sake of an ability to speak, which would
+avail him but little, after his ability to think has been weakened or
+destroyed.
+
+As for those whose indolence habitually prevails over principle, and who
+make no preparation for duty excepting the mechanical one of covering
+over a certain number of pages,--they have no concern in the ministry,
+and should be driven to seek some other employment, where their
+mechanical labor may provide them a livelihood, without injuring their
+own souls, or those of other men.
+
+If the objection in question be applied to conscientious men, whose
+hearts are in their profession, and who have a sincere desire to do
+good, it certainly has very little weight. The minds of such men are
+kept active with reflection, and stored with knowledge, and warm with
+religious feeling. They are therefore always ready to speak to the
+purpose, as well as write to the purpose; and their habitual sense of
+the importance of their office, and their anxiety to fulfil it in the
+best manner, will forbid that indolence which is so disastrous. The
+objection implies, that the consequence pointed out is one which cannot
+be avoided. Experience teaches us the contrary. It is the tendency--but
+a tendency which may be, for it has been, counteracted. Many have
+preached in this mode for years, and yet have never relaxed their
+diligence in study, nor declined in the variety, vigor, and interest of
+their discourses;--sometimes dull, undoubtedly; but this may be said
+with equal truth of the most faithful and laborious writers.
+
+5. Many suppose that there is a certain natural talent, essential to
+success in extempore speaking, no less than in poetry; and that it is
+absurd to recommend the art to those who have not this peculiar talent,
+and vain for them to attempt its practice.
+
+In regard to that ready flow of words, which seems to be the natural
+gift of some men, it is of little consequence whether it be really such,
+or be owing to the education and habits of early life, and vain
+self-confidence. It is certain that the want of habit, and diffidence
+are great hindrances to fluency of speech; and it is equally certain,
+that this natural fluency is a very questionable advantage to him who
+would be an impressive speaker. It is quite observable that those who at
+first talk easiest, do not always talk best. Their very facility is a
+snare to them. It serves to keep them content; they make no effort to
+improve, and are likely to fall into slovenly habits of elocution. So
+that this unacquired fluency is so far from essential, that it is not
+even a benefit, and it may be an injury. It keeps from final eminence by
+the very greatness of its early promise. On the other hand, he who
+possesses originally no remarkable command of language, and whom an
+unfortunate bashfulness prevents from well using what he has; is obliged
+to subject himself to severe discipline, to submit to rules and tasks,
+to go through a tedious process of training, to acquire by much labor
+the needful sway over his thoughts and words, so that they shall come at
+his bidding, and not be driven away by his own diffidence, or the
+presence of other men. To do all this, is a long and disheartening
+labor. He is exposed to frequent mortifications, and must endure many
+grievous failures, before he attain that confidence which is
+indispensable to success. But then in this discipline, his powers,
+mental and moral, are strained up to the highest intenseness of action;
+after persevering practice, they become habitually subject to his
+control, and work with a precision, exactness, and energy, which can
+never be the possession of him, who has depended on his native,
+undisciplined gift. Of the truth of this, examples are by no means
+wanting, and I could name, if it were proper, more than one striking
+instance within my own observation. It was probably this to which Newton
+referred, when he said, that he never spoke well till he felt that he
+could not speak at all. Let no one therefore think it an obstacle in his
+way that he has no readiness of words. If he have good sense and no
+deficiency of talent, and is willing to labor for this as all great
+acquisitions must be labored for, he needs not fear but that in time he
+will attain it.
+
+We must be careful, however, not to mistake the object to be attained.
+It is not a high rank in oratory, consummate eloquence. If it were, then
+indeed a young man might pause till he had ascertained whether he
+possessed all those extraordinary endowments of intellect, imagination,
+sensibility, countenance, voice, and person, which belong to few men in
+a century, and without which the great orator does not exist. He is one
+of those splendid formations of nature, which she exhibits but rarely;
+and it is not necessary to the object of his pursuit that the minister
+be such. The aim and purpose of his office are less ambitious, to impart
+instruction and do good; and it is by no means certain that the greatest
+eloquence is best adapted to these purposes in the pulpit. But any man,
+with powers which fit him for the ministry at all,--unless there be a
+few extraordinary exceptions--is capable of learning to express himself
+clearly, correctly, and with method; and this is precisely what is
+wanted, and no more than this. I do not say eloquently; for as it is not
+thought indispensable that every writer of sermons should be eloquent,
+it cannot be thought essential that every speaker should be so. But the
+same powers which have enabled him to write, will, with sufficient
+discipline, enable him to speak; with every probability that when he
+comes to speak with the same ease and collectedness, he will do it with
+a nearer approach to eloquence. Without such discipline he has no right
+to hope for success; let him not say that success is impossible, until
+he has submitted to it.
+
+I apprehend that these remarks will be found not only correct in theory,
+but agreeable to experience. With the exceeding little systematic
+cultivation of the art which there is amongst us, and no actual
+instruction, we find that a great majority of the lawyers in our courts,
+and not a small portion of the members of our legislatures, are able to
+argue and debate. In some of the most popular and quite numerous
+religious sects, we find preachers enough, who are able to communicate
+their thoughts and harangue their congregations, and exert very powerful
+and permanent influence over large bodies of the people. Some of these
+are men of as small natural talents and as limited education, as any
+that enter the sacred office. It should seem therefore that no one needs
+to despair.
+
+In the ancient republics of Greece and Rome, this accomplishment was a
+necessary branch of a finished education. A much smaller proportion of
+the citizens were educated than amongst us; but of these a much larger
+number became orators. No man could hope for distinction or influence,
+and yet slight this art.[10] The commanders of their armies were orators
+as well as soldiers, and ruled as well by their rhetorical as by their
+military skill. There was no trusting with them as with us, to a natural
+facility, or the acquisition of an accidental fluency by actual
+practice. But they served an apprenticeship to the art. They passed
+through a regular course of instruction in schools. They submitted to
+long and laborious discipline. They exercised themselves frequently,
+both before equals and in the presence of teachers, who criticised,
+reproved, rebuked, excited emulation, and left nothing undone which art
+and perseverance could accomplish. The greatest orators of antiquity, so
+far from being favored by natural tendencies, except indeed in their
+high intellectual endowments, had to struggle against natural obstacles;
+and instead of growing up spontaneously to their unrivalled eminence,
+they forced themselves forward by the most discouraging artificial
+process. Demosthenes combated an impediment in speech and ungainliness
+of gesture, which at first drove him from the forum in disgrace. Cicero
+failed at first through weakness of lungs, and an excessive vehemence of
+manner, which wearied the hearers and defeated his own purpose. These
+defects were conquered by study and discipline. Cicero exiled himself
+from home, and during his absence in various lands passed not a day
+without a rhetorical exercise; seeking the masters who were most severe
+in criticism, as the surest means of leading him to the perfection at
+which he aimed. Such too was the education of their other great men.
+They were all, according to their ability and station, orators; orators,
+not by nature or accident, but by education; formed in a strict process
+of rhetorical training; admired and followed even while Demosthenes and
+Cicero were living, and unknown now, only because it is not possible
+that any but the first should survive the ordeal of ages.
+
+    [10] It is often said that extemporaneous speaking is the
+         distinction of modern eloquence. But the whole language of
+         Cicero's rhetorical works, as well as particular terms in
+         common use, and anecdotes recorded of different speakers,
+         prove the contrary; not to mention Quinctilian's express
+         instructions on the subject. Hume, also, tells us from
+         Suidas, that the writing of speeches was unknown until the
+         time of Pericles.
+
+The inference to be drawn from these observations, is, that if so many
+of those who received an accomplished education became accomplished
+orators, because to become so was one purpose of their study; then it is
+in the power of a much larger proportion amongst us, to form themselves
+into creditable and accurate speakers. The inference should not be
+denied until proved false by experiment. Let this art be made an object
+of attention, and young men train themselves to it faithfully and long;
+and if any of competent talents and tolerable science be found at last
+incapable of expressing themselves in continued and connected discourse,
+so as to answer the ends of the christian ministry; then, and not till
+then, let it be said that a peculiar talent or natural aptitude is
+requisite, the want of which must render effort vain; then, and not till
+then, let us acquiesce in this indolent and timorous notion, which
+contradicts the whole testimony of antiquity, and all the experience of
+the world. Doubtless, after the most that can be done, there will be
+found the greatest variety of attainment; "men will differ," as Burnet
+remarks, "quite as much as in their written compositions;" and some will
+do but poorly what others will do excellently. But this is likewise true
+of every other art in which men engage, and not least so of writing
+sermons; concerning which no one will say, that as poor are not written,
+as it would be possible for any one to speak. In truth, men of small
+talents and great sluggishness, of a feeble sense of duty and no zeal,
+will of course make poor sermons, by whatever process they may do it,
+let them write or let them speak. It is doubtful concerning some whether
+they would even steal good ones.
+
+The survey we have now taken, renders it evident, that the evils, which
+are principally objected against as attending this mode of preaching,
+are not necessary evils, but are owing to insufficient study and
+preparation before the practice is commenced, and indolence afterward.
+This is implied in the very expressions of the objectors themselves, who
+attribute the evil to "beginning at the wrong end, attempting to speak
+before studying the art of oratory, or even storing the mind with
+treasures of thought and language." It is, also, implied in this
+language, that study and preparation are capable of removing the
+objections. I do not therefore advocate the art, without insisting on
+the necessity of severe discipline and training. No man should be
+encouraged or permitted to adopt it, who will not take the necessary
+pains, and proceed with the necessary perseverance.
+
+This should be the more earnestly insisted upon, because it is from our
+loose and lazy notions on the subject, that eloquence in every
+department is suffering so much, and that the pulpit especially has
+become so powerless, where the most important things that receive
+utterance upon earth, are read like schoolboys' tasks, without even the
+poor pains to lay emphasis on the right words, and to pause in the right
+places. And this, because we fancy that, if nature have not designed us
+for orators, it is vain to make effort, and if she have, we shall be
+such without effort. True, that the noble gifts of mind are from nature;
+but not language, or knowledge, or accent, or tone, or gesture; these
+are to be learned, and it is with these that the speaker is concerned.
+These are all matters of acquisition, and of difficult acquisition;
+possible to be attained, and well worth the exertion that must be made.
+
+The history of the world is full of testimony to prove how much depends
+upon industry; not an eminent orator has lived, but is an example of it.
+Yet in contradiction to all this, the almost universal feeling appears
+to be, that industry can effect nothing, that eminence is the result of
+accident, and that every one must be content to remain just what he may
+happen to be. Thus multitudes, who come forward as teachers and guides,
+suffer themselves to be satisfied with the most indifferent attainments,
+and a miserable mediocrity, without so much as inquiring how they might
+rise higher, much less making any attempt to rise. For any other art
+they would have served an apprenticeship, and would be ashamed to
+practise it in public before they had learned it. If any one would sing,
+he attends a master, and is drilled in the very elementary principles;
+and only after the most laborious process dares to exercise his voice in
+public. This he does, though he has scarce any thing to learn but the
+mechanical execution of what lies in sensible forms before his eye. But
+the extempore speaker, who is to invent as well as to utter, to carry on
+an operation of the mind as well as to produce sound, enters upon the
+work without preparatory discipline, and then wonders that he fails! If
+he were learning to play on the flute for public exhibition, what hours
+and days would he spend in giving facility to his fingers, and attaining
+the power of the sweetest and most impressive execution. If he were
+devoting himself to the organ, what months and years would he labor,
+that he might know its compass, and be master of its keys, and be able
+to draw out, at will, all its various combinations of harmonious sound,
+and its full richness and delicacy of expression. And yet he will fancy
+that the grandest, the most various, the most expressive of all
+instruments, which the infinite Creator has fashioned by the union of an
+intellectual soul with the powers of speech, may be played upon without
+study or practice; he comes to it, a mere uninstructed tyro, and thinks
+to manage all its stops, and command the whole compass of its varied and
+comprehensive power! He finds himself a bungler in the attempt, is
+mortified at his failure, and settles it in his mind forever that the
+attempt is vain.
+
+Success in every art, whatever may be the natural talent, is always the
+reward of industry and pains. But the instances are many of men of the
+finest natural genius, whose beginning has promised much, but who have
+degenerated wretchedly as they advanced, because they trusted to their
+gifts, and made no effort to improve. That there have never been other
+men of equal endowments with Demosthenes and Cicero, none would venture
+to suppose; but who have so devoted themselves to their art, or become
+equal in excellence? If those great men had been content, like others,
+to continue as they began, and had never made their persevering efforts
+for improvement, what would their countries have benefited from their
+genius, or the world have known of their fame? They would have been lost
+in the undistinguished crowd, that sunk to oblivion around them. Of how
+many more will the same remark prove true! What encouragement is thus
+given to the industrious! With such encouragement, how inexcusable is
+the negligence which suffers the most interesting and important truths,
+to seem heavy and dull, and fall ineffectual to the ground, through mere
+sluggishness in their delivery! How unworthy of one who performs the
+high function of a religious instructer, upon whom depend, in a great
+measure, the religious knowledge and devotional sentiment and final
+character of many fellow beings,--to imagine that he can worthily
+discharge this great concern by occasionally talking for an hour, he
+knows not how, and in a manner which he has taken no pains to render
+correct, impressive, or attractive; and which, simply through want of
+that command over himself which study would give, is immethodical,
+verbose, inaccurate, feeble, trifling. It has been said of the good
+preacher, that "truths divine come mended from his tongue." Alas, they
+come ruined and worthless from such a man as this. They lose that holy
+energy by which they are to convert the soul and purify man for heaven,
+and sink, in interest and efficacy, below the level of those principles
+which govern the ordinary affairs of this lower world.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+The observations contained in the preceding chapter make it sufficiently
+evident, that the art of extemporaneous speaking, however advantageous
+to the christian minister, and however possible to be acquired, is yet
+attended with embarrassments and difficulties, which are to be removed
+only by long and arduous labor. It is not enough, however, to insist
+upon the necessity of this discipline. We must know in what it consists,
+and how it is to be conducted. In completing, therefore, the plan I have
+proposed to myself, I am now to give a few hints respecting the mode in
+which the study is to be carried on, and obstacles to be surmounted.
+These hints, gathered partly from experience and partly from observation
+and books, will be necessarily incomplete; but not, it is hoped,
+altogether useless to those who are asking some direction.
+
+1. The first thing to be observed is, that the student who would acquire
+facility in this art, should bear it constantly in mind, and have regard
+to it in all his studies, and in his whole mode of study. The reason is
+very obvious. He that would become eminent in any pursuit, must make it
+the primary and almost exclusive object of his attention. It must never
+be long absent from his thoughts, and he must be contriving how to
+promote it, in every thing he undertakes. It is thus that the miser
+accumulates, by making the most trifling occurrences the occasions of
+gain; and thus the ambitious man is on the alert to forward his purposes
+of advancement by little events which another would pass unobserved. So
+too he, the business of whose life is preaching, should be on the watch
+to render every thing subservient to this end. The inquiry should always
+be, how he can turn the knowledge he is acquiring, the subject he is
+studying, this mode of reasoning, this event, this conversation, and the
+conduct of this or that man, to aid the purposes of religious
+instruction. He may find an example in the manner in which Pope pursued
+his favorite study. "From his attention to poetry," says Johnson, "he
+was never diverted. If conversation offered any thing that could be
+improved, he committed it to paper; if a thought, or perhaps an
+expression more happy than was common, rose to his mind, he was careful
+to write it; an independent distich was preserved for an opportunity of
+insertion, and some little fragments have been found containing lines,
+or parts of lines, to be wrought upon at some other time." By a like
+habitual and vigilant attention, the preacher will find scarce any thing
+but may be made to minister to his great design, by either giving rise
+to some new train of thought, or suggesting an argument, or placing some
+truth in a new light, or furnishing some useful illustration. Thus none
+of his reading will be lost; every poem and play, every treatise on
+science, and speculation in philosophy, and even every ephemeral tale
+may be made to give hints toward the better management of sermons and
+the more effectual proposing and communicating of truth.
+
+He who proposes to himself the art of extemporaneous speaking should
+thus have constant regard to this particular object, and make every
+thing co-operate to form those habits of mind which are essential to it.
+This may be done not only without any hindrance to the progress of his
+other studies, but even so as to promote them. The most important
+requisites are rapid thinking, and ready command of language. By rapid
+thinking I mean, what has already been spoken of, the power of seizing
+at once upon the most prominent points of the subject to be discussed,
+and tracing out, in their proper order, the subordinate thoughts which
+connect them together. This power depends very much upon habit; a habit
+more easily acquired by some minds than by others, and by some with
+great difficulty. But there are few who, should they have a view to the
+formation of such a habit in all their studies, might not attain it in a
+degree quite adequate to their purpose. This is much more indisputably
+true in regard to fluency of language.
+
+Let it, therefore, be a part of his daily care to analyze the subjects
+which come before him, and to frame sketches of sermons. This will aid
+him to acquire a facility in laying open, dividing, and arranging
+topics, and preparing those outlines which he is to take with him into
+the pulpit. Let him also investigate carefully the method of every
+author he reads, marking the divisions of his arrangement, and the
+connexion and train of his reasoning. Butler's preface to his Sermons
+will afford him some fine hints on this way of study. Let this be his
+habitual mode of reading, so that he shall as much do this, as receive
+the meaning of separate sentences, and shall be always able to give a
+better account of the progress of the argument and the relation of every
+part to the others and to the whole, than of merely individual passages
+and separate illustrations. This will infallibly beget a readiness in
+finding the divisions and boundaries of a subject, which is one
+important requisite to an easy and successful speaker.
+
+In a similar manner, let him always bear in mind the value of a fluent
+and correct use of language. Let him not be negligent of this in his
+conversation; but be careful ever to select the best words, to avoid a
+slovenly style and drawling utterance, and to aim at neatness, force,
+and brevity. This may be done without formality, or stiffness, or
+pedantic affectation; and when settled into a habit is invaluable.
+
+2. In addition to this general cultivation, there should be frequent
+exercise of the act of speaking. Practice is essential to perfection in
+any art, and in none more so than in this. No man reads well or writes
+well, except by long practice; and he cannot expect without it to speak
+well, an operation which is equivalent to the other two united. He may
+indeed get along, as the phrase is; but not so well as he might do and
+should do. He may not always be able even to get along. He may be as
+sadly discomfited as a friend of mine, who said that he had made the
+attempt, and was convinced that for him to speak extempore was
+impossible; he had risen from his study table, and tried to make a
+speech, proving that virtue is better than vice; but was obliged to sit
+down without completing it. How could one hope to do better in a first
+attempt, if he had not considered beforehand what he should say? It were
+as rational to think he could play on the organ without having learned,
+or translate from a language he had never studied.
+
+It would not be too much to require of the student, that he should
+exercise himself every day, once at least, if not oftener; and this, on
+a variety of subjects, and in various ways, that he may attain a
+facility in every mode. It would be a pleasant interchange of employment
+to rise from the subject which occupies his thoughts, or from the book
+he is reading, and repeat to himself the substance of what he has just
+perused, with such additions and variations, or criticisms, as may
+suggest themselves at the moment. There could hardly be a more useful
+exercise, even if there were no reference to this particular end. How
+many excellent chapters of valuable authors, how many fine views of
+important subjects, would be thus impressed upon his mind, and what rich
+treasures of thought and language would be thus laid up in store. And
+according as he should be engaged in a work of reasoning, or
+description, or exhortation, or narrative, he would be attaining the
+power of expressing himself readily in each of these various styles. By
+pursuing this course for two or three years, "a man may render himself
+such a master in this matter," says Burnet, "that he can never be
+surprised;" and he adds, that he never knew a man faithfully to pursue
+the plan of study he proposed, without being successful at last.
+
+3. When by such a course of study and discipline he has attained a
+tolerable fluency of thoughts and words, and a moderate confidence in
+his own powers; there are several things to be observed in first
+exercising the gift in public, in order to ensure comfort and success.
+
+It is recommended by Bishop Burnet and others, that the first attempts
+be made by short excursions from written discourses; like the young bird
+that tries its wings by short flights, till it gradually acquires
+strength and courage to sustain itself longer in the air. This advice is
+undoubtedly judicious. For he may safely trust himself in a few
+sentences, who would be confounded in the attempt to frame a whole
+discourse. For this purpose blanks may be left in writing, where the
+sentiment is familiar, or only a short illustration is to be introduced.
+As success in these smaller attempts gives him confidence, he may
+proceed to larger; till at length, when his mind is bright and his
+feelings engaged, he may quit his manuscript altogether, and present the
+substance of what he had written, with greater fervor and effect, than
+if he had confined himself to his paper. It was once observed to me by
+an interesting preacher of the Baptist denomination, that he had found
+from experience this to be the most advisable and perfect mode; since it
+combined the advantages of written and extemporaneous composition. By
+preparing sermons in this way, he said, he had a shelter and security if
+his mind should be dull at the time of delivery; and if it were active,
+he was able to leave what he had written, and obey the ardor of his
+feelings, and go forth on the impulse of the moment, wherever his spirit
+might lead him. A similar remark I heard made by a distinguished scholar
+of the Methodist connexion, who urged, what is universally asserted by
+those who have tried this method with any success, that what has been
+written is found to be tame and spiritless, in comparison with the
+animated glow of that which springs from the energy of the moment.
+
+There are some persons, however, who would be embarrassed by an effort
+to change the operation of the mind from reading to inventing. Such
+persons may find it best to make their beginning with a whole discourse.
+
+4. In this case, there will be a great advantage in selecting for first
+efforts expository subjects. To say nothing of the importance and
+utility of this mode of preaching, which render it desirable that every
+minister should devote a considerable proportion of his labors to it; it
+contains great facilities and reliefs for the inexperienced speaker. The
+close study of a passage of scripture which is necessary to expounding
+it, renders it familiar. The exposition is inseparably connected with
+the text, and necessarily suggested by it. The inferences and practical
+reflections are in like manner naturally and indissolubly associated
+with the passage. The train of remark is easily preserved, and
+embarrassment in a great measure guarded against, by the circumstance
+that the order of discourse is spread out in the open Bible, upon which
+the eyes may rest and by which the thoughts may rally.
+
+5. A similar advantage is gained to the beginner, in discourses of a
+different character, by a very careful and minute division of the
+subject. The division should not only be logical and clear, but into
+parts as numerous as possible. The great advantage here is, that the
+partitions being many, the speaker is compelled frequently to return to
+his minutes. He is thus kept in the track, and prevented from wandering
+far in needless digressions--that besetting infirmity of unrestrained
+extemporizers. He also escapes the mortifying consequences of a
+momentary confusion and cloudiness of mind, by having it in his power to
+leave an unsatisfactory train at once, before the state of his mind is
+perceived by the audience, and take up the next topic, where he may
+recover his self-possession, and proceed without impediment. This is no
+unimportant consideration. It relieves him from the horror of feeling
+obliged to go on, while conscious that he is saying nothing to the
+purpose; and at the same time secures the very essential requisite of
+right method.
+
+6. The next rule is, that the whole subject, with the order and
+connexion of all its parts, and the entire train of thought, be made
+thoroughly familiar by previous meditation. The speaker must have the
+discourse in his mind as one whole, whose various parts are distinctly
+perceived as other wholes, connected with each other and contributing to
+a common end. There must be no uncertainty, when he rises to speak, as
+to what he is going to say; no mist or darkness over the land he is
+about to travel; but conscious of his acquaintance with the ground, he
+must step forward confidently, not doubting that he shall find the
+passes of its mountains, and thread the intricacies of its forests, by
+the paths which he has already trodden. It is an imperfect and partial
+preparation in this respect, which so often renders the manner awkward
+and embarrassed, and the discourse obscure and perplexed.[11] But when
+the preparation is faithful, the speaker feels at home; being under no
+anxiety respecting the ideas or the order of their succession, he has
+the more ready control of his person, his eye, and his hand, and the
+more fearlessly gives up his mind to its own action and casts himself
+upon the current. Uneasiness and constraint are the inevitable
+attendants of unfaithful preparation, and they are fatal to success. It
+is true, that no man can attain the power of self-possession so as to
+feel at all times equally and entirely at ease. But he may guard against
+the sorest ills which attend its loss, by always making sure of a train
+of thought,--being secure that he has ideas, and that they lie in such
+order as to be found and brought forward in some sort of apparel, even
+when he has in some measure lost the mastery of himself. The richness or
+meanness of their dress will depend on the humor of the moment. It will
+vary as much as health and spirits vary, which is more in some men than
+in others. But the thoughts themselves he may produce, and be certain of
+saying _what_ he intended to say, even when he cannot say it _as_ he
+intended. It must often have been observed, by those who are at all in
+the habit of observation of this kind, that the mind operates in this
+particular like a machine, which, having been wound up, runs on by its
+own spontaneous action, until it has gone through its appointed course.
+Many men have thus continued speaking in the midst of an embarrassment
+of mind which rendered them almost unconscious of what they were saying,
+and incapable of giving an account of it afterward; while yet the
+unguided, self-moving intellect wrought so well, that the speech was not
+esteemed unwholesome or defective by the hearers. The experience of this
+fact has doubtless helped many to believe that they spoke from
+inspiration. It ought to teach all, that there is no sufficient cause
+for that excessive apprehension, which so often unmans them, and which,
+though it may not stop their mouths, must deprive their address of all
+grace and beauty, of all ease and force.
+
+    [11] Nemo potest de ea re, quam non novit, non turpissime
+         dicere. Cic. de Or.
+
+7. We may introduce in this place another rule, the observance of which
+will aid in preventing the ill consequences resulting from the
+accidental loss of self-possession. The rule is, utter yourself very
+slowly and deliberately, with careful pauses. This is at all times a
+great aid to a clear and perspicuous statement. It is essential to the
+speaker, who would keep the command of himself and consequently of his
+hearers.
+
+One is very likely, when, in the course of speaking, he has stumbled on
+an unfortunate expression, or said what he would prefer not to say, or
+for a moment lost sight of the precise point at which he was aiming, to
+hurry on with increasing rapidity, as if to get as far as possible from
+his misfortune, or cause it to be forgotten in the crowd of new words.
+But instead of thus escaping the evil, he increases it; he entangles
+himself more and more; and augments the difficulty of recovering his
+route. The true mode of recovering himself is by increased deliberation.
+He must pause, and give himself time to think;--"ut tamen deliberare non
+haesitare videatur." He need not be alarmed lest his hearers suspect the
+difficulty. Most of them are likely to attribute the slowness of his
+step to any cause rather than the true one. They take it for granted,
+that he says and does precisely as he intended and wished. They suppose
+that he is pausing to gather up his strength. It excites their
+attention. The change of manner is a relief to them. And the probability
+is, that the speaker not only recovers himself, but that the effort to
+do it gives a spring to the action of his powers, which enables him to
+proceed afterward with greater energy.
+
+8. In regard to language, the best rule is, that no preparation be made.
+There is no convenient and profitable medium between speaking from
+memory and from immediate suggestion. To mix the two is no aid, but a
+great hindrance, because it perplexes the mind between the very
+different operations of memory and invention. To prepare sentences and
+parts of sentences, which are to be introduced here and there, and the
+intervals between them to be filled up in the delivery, is the surest of
+all ways to produce constraint. It is like the embarrassment of framing
+verses to prescribed rhymes; as vexatious, and as absurd. To be
+compelled to shape the course of remark so as to suit a sentence which
+is by and by to come, or to introduce certain expressions which are
+waiting for their place, is a check to the natural current of thought.
+The inevitable consequence is constraint and labor, the loss of every
+thing like easy and flowing utterance, and perhaps that worst of
+confusion which results from a jumble of ill assorted, disjointed
+periods. It is unavoidable that the subject should present itself in a
+little different form and complexion in speaking, from that which it
+took in meditation; so that the sentences and modes of expression, which
+agreed very well with the train of remark as it came up in the study,
+may be wholly unsuited to that which it assumes in the pronunciation.
+
+The extemporaneous speaker should therefore trust himself to the moment
+for all his language. This is the safe way for his comfort, and the only
+sure way to make all of a uniform piece. The general rule is certain,
+though there may be some exceptions. It may be well for example, to
+consider what synonymous terms may be employed in recurring to the chief
+topic, in order to avoid the too frequent reiteration of the same word.
+This will occasion no embarrassment. He may also prepare texts of
+scripture to be introduced in certain parts of the discourse. These, if
+perfectly committed to memory, and he be not too anxious to make a place
+for them, will be no encumbrance. When a suitable juncture occurs, they
+will suggest themselves, just as a suitable epithet suggests itself. But
+if he be very solicitous about them, and continually on the watch for an
+opportunity to introduce them, he will be likely to confuse himself. And
+it is better to lose the choicest quotation, than suffer constraint and
+awkwardness from the effort to bring it in. Under the same restrictions
+he may have ready, pithy remarks, striking and laconic expressions,
+pointed sayings and aphorisms, the force of which depends on the precise
+form of the phrase. Let the same rule be observed in regard to such. If
+they suggest themselves (which they will do, if there be a proper place
+for them), let them be welcome. But never let him run the risk of
+spoiling a whole paragraph in trying to make a place for them.
+
+Many distinguished speakers are said to do more than this,--to write out
+with care and repeat from memory their more important and persuasive
+parts; like the _de bene esse's_ of Curran, and the splendid passages of
+many others. This may undoubtedly be done to advantage by one who has
+the command of himself which practice gives, and has learned to pass
+from memory to invention without tripping. It is a different case from
+that mixture of the two operations, which is condemned above, and is in
+fact only an extended example of the exceptions made in the last
+paragraph. With these exceptions, when he undertakes, _bona fide_, an
+extemporaneous address, he should make no preparation of language.
+Language is the last thing he should be anxious about. If he have ideas,
+and be awake, it will come of itself, unbidden and unsought for. The
+best language flashes upon the speaker as unexpectedly as upon the
+hearer. It is the spontaneous gift of the mind, not the extorted boon of
+a special search. No man who has thoughts, and is interested in them, is
+at a loss for words--not the most uneducated man; and the words he uses
+will be according to his education and general habits, not according to
+the labour of the moment. If he truly feel, and wish to communicate his
+feelings to those around him, the last thing that will fail will be
+language; the less he thinks of it and cares for it, the more copiously
+and richly will it flow from him; and when he has forgotten every thing
+but his desire to give vent to his emotions and do good, then will the
+unconscious torrent pour, as it does at no other season. This entire
+surrender to the spirit which stirs within, is indeed the real secret of
+all eloquence. "True eloquence," says Milton, "I find to be none but the
+serious and hearty love of truth; and that whose mind soever is fully
+possessed with a fervent desire to know good things, and with the
+dearest charity to infuse the knowledge of them into others,--when such
+a man would speak, his words, like so many nimble and airy servitors,
+trip about him at command and in well ordered files, as he would wish,
+fall aptly into their own places." Rerum enim copia (says the great
+Roman teacher and example) verborum copiam gignit; et, si est honestas
+in rebus ipsis de quibus dicitur, existit ex rei natura quidam splendor
+in verbis. Sit modo is, qui dicet aut scribet, institutus liberaliter
+educatione doctrinaque puerili, et flagret studio, et a natura
+adjuvetur, et in universorum generum infinitis disceptationibus
+exercitatus; ornatissimos scriptores oratoresque ad cognoscendum
+imitandumque legerit;--nae ille haud sane, quemadmodum verba struat et
+illuminet, a magistris istis requiret. Ita facile in rerum abundantia ad
+orationis ornamenta, sine duce, natura ipsa, si modo est exercitata,
+labetur.[12]
+
+    [12] De Or. iii. 31.
+
+9. These remarks lead to another suggestion which deserves the student's
+consideration. He should select for this exercise those subjects in
+which he feels an interest at the time, and in regard to which he
+desires to engage the interest of others. In order to the best success,
+extemporaneous efforts should be made in an excited state, when the mind
+is burning and glowing, and longs to find vent. There are some topics
+which do not admit of this excitement. Such should be treated by the
+pen. When he would speak, he should choose topics on which his own mind
+is kindling with a feeling which he is earnest to communicate; and the
+higher the degree to which he has elevated his feelings, the more
+readily, happily, and powerfully will he pour forth whatever the
+occasion may demand. There is no style suited to the pulpit, which he
+will not more effectually command in this state of mind. He will reason
+more directly, pointedly, and convincingly; he will describe more
+vividly from the living conceptions of the moment; he will be more
+earnest in persuasion, more animated in declamation, more urgent in
+appeals, more terrible in denunciation. Every thing will vanish from
+before him, but the subject of his attention, and upon this his powers
+will be concentrated in keen and vigorous action.
+
+If a man would do his best, it must be upon topics which are at the
+moment interesting to him. We see it in conversation, where every one is
+eloquent upon his favorite subjects. We see it in deliberative
+assemblies; where it is those grand questions, which excite an intense
+interest, and absorb and agitate the mind, that call forth those bursts
+of eloquence by which men are remembered as powerful orators, and that
+give a voice to men who can speak on no other occasions. Cicero tells us
+of himself, that the instances in which he was most successful, were
+those in which he most entirely abandoned himself to the impulses of
+feeling. Every speaker's experience will bear testimony to the same
+thing; and thus the saying of Goldsmith proves true, that, "to feel
+one's subject thoroughly, and to speak without fear, are the only rules
+of eloquence." Let him who would preach successfully, remember this. In
+the choice of subjects for extemporaneous efforts, let him have regard
+to it, and never encumber himself nor distress his hearers, with the
+attempt to interest them in a subject, which excites at the moment only
+a feeble interest in his own mind.
+
+This rule excludes many topics, which it is necessary to introduce into
+the pulpit, subjects in themselves interesting and important, but which
+few men can be trusted to treat in unpremeditated language; because they
+require an exactness of definition, and nice discrimination of phrase,
+which may be better commanded in the cool leisure of writing, than in
+the prompt and declamatory style of the speaker. The rule also forbids
+the attempt to speak when ill health, or lowness of spirits, or any
+accidental cause, renders him incapable of that excitement which is
+requisite to success. It requires of him to watch over the state of his
+body--the partial derangement of whose functions so often confuses the
+mind--that, by preserving a vigorous and animated condition of the
+corporeal system, he may secure vigour and vivacity of mind. It requires
+of him, finally, whenever he is about entering upon the work, to use
+every means, by careful meditation, by calling up the strong motives of
+his office, by realizing the nature and responsibility of his
+undertaking, and by earnestly invoking the blessing of God--to attain
+that frame of devout engagedness, which will dispose him to speak
+zealously and fearlessly.
+
+10. Another important item in the discipline to be passed through,
+consists in attaining the habit of self-command. I have already adverted
+to this point, and noticed the power which the mind possesses of
+carrying on the premeditated operation, even while the speaker is
+considerably embarrassed. This is, however, only a reason for not being
+too much distressed by the feeling when only occasional; it does not
+imply that it is no evil. It is a most serious evil; of little
+comparative moment, it may be, when only occasional and transitory, but
+highly injurious if habitual. It renders the speaker unhappy, and his
+address ineffective. If perfectly at ease, he would have every thing at
+command, and be able to pour out his thoughts in lucid order, and with
+every desirable variety of manner and expression. But when thrown from
+his self-possession, he can do nothing better than mechanically string
+together words, while there is no soul in them, because his mental
+powers are spell-bound and imbecile. He stammers, hesitates, and
+stumbles; or, at best, talks on without object or aim, as mechanically
+and unconsciously as an automaton. He has learned little effectually,
+till he has learned to be collected.
+
+This therefore must be a leading object of attention. It will not be
+attained by men of delicacy and sensibility, except by long and trying
+practice. It will be the result of much rough attrition with the world,
+and many mortifying failures. And after all, occasions may occur, when
+the most experienced will be put off their guard. Still, however, much
+may be done by the control which a vigorous mind has over itself, by
+resolute and persevering determination, by refusing to shrink or give
+way, and by preferring always the mortification of ill success, to the
+increased weakness which would grow out of retreating.
+
+There are many considerations, also, which if kept before the mind would
+operate not a little to strengthen its confidence in itself. Let the
+speaker be sensible that, if self-possessed, he is not likely to fail;
+that after faithful study and preparation, there is nothing to stand in
+his way, but his own want of self-command. Let him heat his mind with
+his subject, endeavour to feel nothing, and care for nothing, but that.
+Let him consider, that his audience takes for granted that he says
+nothing but what he designed, and does not notice those slight errors
+which annoy and mortify him; that in truth such errors are of no moment;
+that he is not speaking for reputation and display, nor for the
+gratification of others, by the exhibition of a rhetorical model, or for
+the satisfaction of a cultivated taste: but that he is a teacher of
+virtue, a messenger of Jesus Christ, a speaker in the name of God; whose
+chosen object it is to lead men above all secondary considerations and
+worldly attainments, and to create in them a fixed and lasting interest
+in spiritual and religious concerns;--that he himself therefore ought to
+regard other things as of comparatively little consequence while he
+executes this high function; that the true way to effect the object of
+his ministry, is to be filled with that object, and to be conscious of
+no other desire but to promote it. Let him, in a word, be zealous to do
+good, to promote religion, to save souls, and little anxious to make
+what might be called a fine sermon--let him learn to sink every thing in
+his subject and the purpose it should accomplish--ambitious rather to do
+good, than to do well;--and he will be in a great measure secure from
+the loss of self-command and its attendant distress. Not always--for
+this feeble vessel of the mind seems to be sometimes tost to and fro, as
+it were, upon the waves of circumstances, unmanageable by the helm and
+disobedient to the wind. Sometimes God seems designedly to show us our
+weakness, by taking from us the control of our powers, and causing us to
+be drifted along whither we would not. But under all ordinary
+occurrences, habitual piety and ministerial zeal will be an ample
+security. From the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak. The most
+diffident man in the society of men is known to converse freely and
+fearlessly when his heart is full, and his passions engaged; and no man
+is at a loss for words, or confounded by another's presence, who thinks
+neither of the language, nor the company, but only of the matter which
+fills him. Let the preacher consider this, and be persuaded of it,--and
+it will do much to relieve him from the distress which attends the loss
+of self-possession, which distorts every feature with agony, and distils
+in sweat from his forehead. It will do much to destroy that incubus,
+which sits upon every faculty of the soul, and palsies every power, and
+fastens down the helpless sufferer to the very evil from which he
+strives to flee.
+
+After all, therefore, which can be said, the great essential requisite
+to effective preaching in this method (or indeed in any method) is a
+devoted heart. A strong religious sentiment, leading to a fervent zeal
+for the good of other men, is better than all rules of art; it will give
+him courage, which no science or practice could impart, and open his
+lips boldly, when the fear of man would keep them closed. Art may fail
+him, and all his treasures of knowledge desert him; but if his heart be
+warm with love, he will "speak right on," aiming at the heart, and
+reaching the heart, and satisfied to accomplish the great purpose,
+whether he be thought to do it tastefully or not.
+
+This is the true spirit of his office, to be cherished and cultivated
+above all things else, and capable of rendering all its labors
+comparatively easy. It reminds him that his purpose is not to make
+profound discussions of theological doctrines, or disquisitions on moral
+and metaphysical science; but to present such views of the great and
+acknowledged truths of revelation, with such applications of them to the
+understanding and conscience, as may affect and reform his hearers. Now
+it is not study only, in divinity or in rhetoric, which will enable him
+to do this. He may reason ingeniously, but not convincingly; he may
+declaim eloquently, but not persuasively. There is an immense, though
+indescribable difference between the same arguments and truths, as
+presented by him who earnestly feels and desires to persuade, and by him
+who designs only a display of intellectual strength, or an exercise of
+rhetorical skill. In the latter case, the declamation may be splendid,
+but it will be cold and without expression; lulling the ear, and
+diverting the fancy, but leaving the feelings untouched. In the other,
+there is an air of reality and sincerity, which words cannot describe,
+but which the heart feels, that finds its way to the recesses of the
+soul, and overcomes it by a powerful sympathy. This is a difference
+which all perceive and all can account for. The truths of religion are
+not matters of philosophical speculation, but of experience. The heart
+and all the spiritual man, and all the interests and feelings of the
+immortal being, have an intimate concern in them. It is perceived at
+once whether they are stated by one who has felt them himself, is
+personally acquainted with their power, is subject to their influence,
+and speaks from actual experience; or whether they come from one who
+knows them only in speculation, has gathered them from books, and
+thought them out by his own reason, but without any sense of their
+spiritual operation.
+
+But who does not know how much easier it is to declare what has come to
+our knowledge from our own experience, than what we have gathered coldly
+at second hand from that of others;--how much easier it is to describe
+feelings we have ourselves had, and pleasures we have ourselves enjoyed,
+than to fashion a description of what others have told us;--how much
+more freely and convincingly we can speak of happiness we have known,
+than of that to which we are strangers. We see, then, how much is lost
+to the speaker by coldness or ignorance in the exercises of personal
+religion. How can he effectually represent the joys of a religious mind,
+who has never known what it is to feel them? How can he effectually aid
+the contrite, the desponding, the distrustful, the tempted, who has
+never himself passed through the same fears and sorrows? or how can he
+paint, in the warm colors of truth, religious exercises and spiritual
+desires, who is personally a stranger to them? Alas, he cannot at all
+come in contact with those souls, which stand most in need of his
+sympathy and aid. But if he have cherished in himself, fondly and
+habitually, the affections he would excite in others, if he have
+combated temptation, and practised self-denial, and been instant in
+prayer, and tasted the joy and peace of a tried faith and hope;--then he
+may communicate directly with the hearts of his fellow men, and win them
+over to that which he so feelingly describes. If his spirit be always
+warm and stirring with these pure and kind emotions, and anxious to
+impart the means of his own felicity to others--how easily and freely
+will he pour himself forth! and how little will he think of the
+embarrassments of the presence of mortal man, while he is conscious only
+of laboring for the glory of the ever present God.
+
+This then is the one thing essential to be attained and cherished by the
+Christian preacher. With this he must begin, and with this he must go on
+to the end. Then he never can greatly fail; for he will FEEL HIS SUBJECT
+THOROUGHLY, AND SPEAK WITHOUT FEAR.
+
+
+
+
+
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