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diff --git a/26308-8.txt b/26308-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c4e8c4e --- /dev/null +++ b/26308-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2194 @@ +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 + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HINTS ON EXTEMPORANEOUS PREACHING *** + +***** This file should be named 26308-8.txt or 26308-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/3/0/26308/ + +Produced by Barbara Tozier, Bill Tozier and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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