will be more useful if they read their sermons. The majority of these men might have had the power to speak extempore, but they have never gained this power. They might gain it now, but the time and labor spent in acquiring it might be more profitably spent in other modes for which nature has more distinctly qualified them. A few clergymen have the temperament of the Catholic priest, Lamennais, who, while eminent for rapidity of thought and intensity of feeling, was unable to command his voice and control his mental action in an extemporaneous address. Some clergymen have an excitability like that of Rousseau, which does not prevent them from writing extempore in private, but does prevent them from speaking extempore in public. There is a second class of preachers who are signalized by a ready and retentive memory, and seem thus predestined to speak memoriter. If they premeditate what they are to say, they must say it memoriter, or else make an artificial effort not to do so. A third and still larger class should form the habit of preaching extempore. There are some audiences before whom it is advisable to read a sermon; other audiences, before whom it is advisable to speak from memory; others, who demand the extemporaneous method. So there are different occasions and likewise different subjects requiring, one the first, another the second, another the third of the three modes. Robert Hall is not known to have committed, with a formal and deliberate purpose, more than one entire sermon to memory. He preached his "Reflections on War," to a congregation of differing political partisans, and at a critical conjuncture tempting him to make remarks which might give needless offence, and, therefore, he did not allow himself to utter a word which he had not antecedently selected. There are, moreover, different parts of the same sermon, one of which may require to be written and read, another to be spoken as remembered, another to be spoken extempore.

2. But although no universal rule can be given, yet two general rules may be. The first of them is, that the three fundamental methods be intermingled. The change from

one method to another gives to the preacher elasticity and completeness, and relieves his pulpit from a most deadening evil - monotony. Various methods of commingling the three are suggested in Section 2 of this Article. The second of these general rules is, that a majority of a man's sermons be preached extempore. This rule is expressed so that it may not seem to require that every preacher should generally adopt the extemporaneous method, nor that any preacher should adopt it on every occasion or in every part of his discourse, nor that any preacher should spend the greater part of his time in directly preparing extemporaneous sermons. On the contrary this rule admits, although it does not require, that every preacher intermingle the three methods, and that he spend the greater part of his time in directly preparing his written sermons, while he preaches the greater number of his sermons extempore. This rule implies that, in the majority of instances, the main effort of a pulpit orator should be to educate himself for the extemporaneous method. He should practise the other two methods with the hope and the aim to acquire the greater precision and power in preaching extempore. By the various discipline of writing he prepares himself to put the proper words in the proper places when he speaks without writing. By committing to memory some of his more exact, terse, pungent, or impassioned sentences he improves his vocabulary. On the other hand, by speaking extempore he will improve his style of writing, and sometimes he will write the better if he expects to learn by heart what he has written.

The foregoing remarks are designed to make an impression more or less favorable to each of the three fundamental methods of preaching. As the writing of sermons is connected with each of these three methods; remotely implied in the most successful extemporary discourse; more directly and commonly implied in the memoriter discourse, and always in the discourse which is read, it may here be insulated from its connections, and considered apart by itself, as essential, or more or less auxiliary to the reading, reciting, and extemporaneous uttering of the preacher's words.

§ 2. THE WRITING OF SERMONS.

I. Different methods of writing. - We will consider three different modes of conducting this exercise of writing. The first is that of writing the entire sermon in the author's most elaborate style; the second is that of writing portions of the sermon in that style; the third is that of easy writing, which may be either unpremeditated or else intermediate between the extemporaneous and the author's most carefully studied composition.

1. The whole sermon may be written in the preacher's most elaborate style. This implies that, first of all, he study the subject of his discourse in its various relations until he obtain, so far as his mental limitations allow, the mastery of it. It is a rule of secular rhetoric that an author should not write up to his subject, it being above him; but he should master it so thoroughly that he can write down upon it. He can never write down on a sacred theme; but he can obtain such a familiarity with it as to give him spirit and confidence in writing upon it. This elaborate plan of writing implies, as the second but most important requisite, that the author meditate on his subject until he become saturated with the moral influences of it. He must often exert himself in order to catch the spirit of his theme, as it differs from the spirit of every other. He cannot write well unless his heart be fully absorbed with what his intellect has clearly apprehended. Pectus est quod disertum facit. This plan implies, thirdly, that among the various methods of treating his theme he search for the best; arranging his various topics, like soldiers for the battle, each in the position where it can be most effective.1 Fourthly, the plan implies that after he has written his discourse he minutely criticise its language, and that among the different modes of constructing his sentences he select those which he judges to be most apposite. This rule does not mean that he labor to introduce

1 "Haec est velut imperatoria virtus copias suas partientis."- Quinctilian. Inst. ii.

jingling words, sonorous phrases

he should labor to get -but it does mean that he

such terms out rather than in; should labor to introduce such words as will most exactly express his thoughts, and above all most effectively call forth the appropriate feelings. No man was further removed from prudery of style than Dr. Emmons, yet he says: “I have often spent a whole day in selecting the right phrase for a good thought." Another divine who has been called a "prince of pulpit orators," and whose style is rough rather than smooth, spent a fortnight on a single paragraph of one of his published sermons. The time was spent not in balancing his phrases in order that they might sound well, but in so adjusting them that they should unfold his thoughts fully, precisely, effectively. In the fifth place, this plan of writing implies that the preacher work on his sermon until it is "about finished" in distinction from its being ended. Michael Angelo spent twenty months in painting the ceiling of the Sistine chapel, and to the Pope, Julius II, urging him to hasten the frescoes and impatiently asking "when will you finish your work?" the faithful artist replied, " When I I can."

To finish a sermon in this manner requires time. Let the minister take the time. He may as profitably spend it in writing well as in afterward repenting that he has written ill. But what shall he do for his pulpit before his elaborate sermon is finished? Occasionally he may gratify his people by an exchange of pulpits with a clerical neighbor; sometimes he may avail himself of his former preparations; but more commonly he may compose new extemporaneous sermons. His one elaborate composition will suggest not only the subjects, but also the plans of several correlated, but distinct homilies, and will inspirit him to deliver them. It was the rule (varied according to his exigencies) of one pastor to spend the morning study-hours of a week on his written composition, the afternoon and evening study-hours on his extemporary sermons; to preach his written discourse on the next Sabbath, if he had "about finished" it; to preach

his extemporaneous sermons, if he had not "about satisfied" himself with his writing; to pursue the same course during the second week, the third, if need be; and to preach his elaborate sermon (often a double sermon) when it was done, and not before. It was a rule (followed, of course, with varied modifications) of another pastor to spend the first days of the week in writing, or preparing to write, his labored discourse; and, if he foresaw that he could not preach it on the next Sabbath, to suspend his studies on that discourse in season to prepare two extemporaneous sermons for that day; to persevere, during the first days of the succeeding week in the studies pertaining to his elaborate discourse; to preach it on the next Sabbath, if he was "about ready," if not, not; and to labor on it until he deemed it "about fit" to be delivered, or until it had ceased to inspire him with fresh thoughts for new extemporary sermons. Other preachers have adopted still different courses in pursuing the same general plan. The plan itself produces many good effects, and is attended with some evils.

A. Good results of the plan.

a. It gives a useful discipline to the preacher's intellect. He permanently enlarges it by expanding it on one great doctrine of the Bible. John Howe in writing his sermon on "The Vanity of Man as Mortal," Robert Hall in writing his sermon on "Modern Infidelity," invigorated their mental powers by tasking them to the utmost. A preacher is stimulated to fresh enterprises by striving for a few hours every day to make the most of himself as a thinker. He who aims high reaches a higher mark than he who aims low. A man does not know himself unless he labor sometimes to make "full proof" of his faculties. The laziness of a good man consists in making moderate exertion. The great artists of the world have "laid themselves out" on some of their works. Michael Angelo devoted sixteen months to the

1 In some branches of mechanical work, in which there is need of special accuracy, it is found that the journeymen are the more successful if they are required to perform operations which, while not surpassing their power, tax it to the utmost.