with me. After explaining and dilating upon a text in one view, then to go on to treat it in another, seems to be very like pulling down what you have just been building. The different views may be incompatible, and then half your sermon goes for nothing; and as your hearers, perhaps, are not competent to judge which half, an air of doubt and unimportance is thrown over the whole. I think it far better to take a text which has one clear and unequivocal meaning, than to choose one which may be taken in different views. For instance, suppose you preach on Romans vii. 21—“ I find a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me ;" and proceed to this effect, "Good and able men differ as to the application of the text. to St. Paul himself, some to a Jew under the law; let us consider it in both points of view." It is clear that one part of your sermon would be likely to neutralize the other. It would be much better to take decidedly one line, and dwell entirely on that; but if you cannot do this conscientiously, because you have not made up your own mind, still if you think fit to preach on this very striking and important part of Scripture, you may usefully do so, by saying, "Good men differ as to the primary application of this text. I shall not decide between them, but assume, what I suppose none of you will be disposed to deny, that it applies most plainly and forcibly to all of us."

Some apply it

The answers to the foregoing questions will have furnished you with sufficient matter to bring you a good way forward in your sermon. The following are questions which will come in towards the close.

Twelfthly: Is there any thing in what I have said which is liable to be misunderstood or misapplied? or is there any thing which requires further remark or elucidation? or any thing which is so important that it ought to be repeated and more fully dwelt on?

Thirteenthly Can I strengthen the force of what I have said, or render it more lucid and clear by any examples drawn from Scripture or elsewhere, or by any illustration or simile? I speak here of illustrations which serve to give force or beauty to the main subject; not such as relate to subordinate parts; for these may be reserved till the time of composing.

Fourteenthly: Is there any contrast or comparison by which you may set forth your subject more strongly or more agreeably? The conduct of the apostles before and after the descent of the Holy Ghost, affords a remarkable contrast. This topic will be found very useful in conjunction with the next.

:

Fifteenthly To how many sorts of persons does my subject apply? how may it be best applied? and what part of it requires most particular application? Though I have set down these questions here, yet they ought to have been well considered by you long before. Indeed, when you first chose your subject, you should have had an eye to the application of it.

Sixteenthly, and lastly: How shall I leave the main point of my discourse most deeply impressed on the mind of my hearers?

Other questions will probably occur to you; and each text will suggest questions peculiar to itself, by which you may turn over in your mind the matter of it. But those which I have set down will, I trust, prove serviceable as general directions to enable you to draw out your subject, and collect a stock of materials.

If your memory is not good, you will find it useful to note down the ideas, arguments, and illustrations, which occur to you. It does not follow, that all these materials are to be used. You will have to select those which you judge to be the best; but do not put pen to paper, except

for the purpose of making notes, until you have gone through this process. I am addressing you, you know, as a beginner; when you have gained more knowledge and experience, you will not need to work so much by rule. At present you must collect your stores,—

"Apis Matinæ

More modoque,

Grata carpentis thyma per laborem

Plurimum."

Your task, though grateful, will of necessity be laborious: hereafter, if you persevere,

"Concines majore poeta plectro."'

1 Hor. Od. iv. 9. 33.

LETTER XXII.

WHAT MATERIALS AND TOPICS SHOULD GENERALLY BE

THROWN ASIDE.

HAVING made these remarks upon the sources from whence you are to draw your materials, it may be well to mention what materials and topics should be thrown aside, and made no use of by the Christian minister.

First, you should admit nothing extraneous.

A sermon

"It is a

is too short a composition to allow of digressions. hard task," says Swift, "but he who wishes to be a forcible preacher, must submit to it: viz., to cut off without regret or mercy whatever is superfluous," whatever does not tend to enforce or illustrate the main point. Should you happen to strike into a rich vein of new ideas, you must cover it up carefully, till you have worked out the old one, and open it again next week.

Except for particular reasons,-as, for instance, when you are preaching a course of sermons, those topics should be unnoticed, which every one admits; as the existence of a God; the fact that Jesus Christ is the Son of God; the certainty of a future retribution. The very discussion of these plain and acknowledged truths is disadvantageous; as it only serves to raise a doubt where none before existed. If, unfortunately, infidel opinion have infected your neighbour

hood, then it will be necessary to confirm your hearers' mind in those elemental truths of religion.

Avoid an "impertinent way which some persons have of needlessly setting forth the originals." Two-thirds of one of Paley's sermons are taken up with proving that covetousness does not mean covetousness," but inordinate desire : so also in one of Dr. Parr's discourses, the author takes great pains to prove that 1 Cor. xi. 28, should not be translated, "let a man examine himself, and so let him eat," but, let a man distinguish himself. This is a great mistake in preaching. Our English translation is, on the whole, so correct, and the consequence of unsettling the minds of the common people so prejudicial, that a prudent preacher will carefully abstain from showing his erudition in this manner. Critical knowledge, though very useful and necessary for yourself in your study, is out of place in the pulpit; and indeed the exhibition of it is fortunately well nigh exploded. Sometimes, however, when verbal criticism is required, in order to remove some important misunderstanding, an exception should be made in its favour; as if you preach on 1 Cor. xi. 29, where it is said that "he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself;" or on the text in which we are bid to "hate father and mother"-in such cases as these, a critical explanation is needed; but it should be as brief and modest as possible, and not made the vehicle for a pedantic display of learning.

"2

"Never indulge in the poor vanity of handling a text in a new manner;" that is to say, in a manner which you know to be different from that which is generally received, and adopt it for that very reason, in order to show your ingenuity. It is ten to one that you will be wrong.

Never go beyond the Scriptures on any subject. "Speak where they speak, be silent where they are silent."

1 Bishop Burnet.

2 Paley, Sermon xi.