Such are the observations which I have to make on delivery. Its real power depends, as you will have seen, not on any histrionic artifices of tone and posture, but on "the strong graphical expression of the feelings of the soul," pourtrayed by the tonè, the manner, and expression-" the commanding mind becoming visible," and the Christian spirit felt. To attain which, it is requisite that your hearers should be convinced, not only that you speak the genuine feelings of your own heart, but that you speak to them. Hence, highly important as are emphasis and pathos, and useful as gesture may be, there is something even beyond this in the searching and particularizing glance of countenance. This is the " caput artis;" this is that which, beyond all other gifts, calls forth the sympathy of your hearers, and opens their heart to the reception of your words.

I cannot do better than close the subject of delivery with an account, given by Dr. Gregory, of the effect produced by the preaching of Robert Hall, who, by common consent of men of all opinions, possessed, in the highest excellence, the essential qualities of delivery. "From the commencement of his discourse an almost breathless anxiety prevailed, deeply impressive and solemnizing from its singular intenseness: not a sound was heard but that of the preacher's voice; scarcely an eye but was fixed upon him, not a countenance that he did not watch, and read, and interpret, as he surveyed them again and again with his ever excursive glance. As he advanced and increased in animation, five or six of his auditors would be seen to rise and lean forward over the front of their pews, still keeping their eyes fixed on him. Some new or striking sentiment or expression would, in a few moments, cause others to rise in like manner; shortly afterwards, still more; and so on,

1 See Christian Observer, vol. xiv. 523,

until long before the close of the sermon it often happened that a considerable portion of the congregation was seen standing; every eye directed to the preacher, yet, now and then, for a moment glancing from one to another; thus transmitting and reciprocating thought and feeling. Mr. Hall himself, though manifestly absorbed in his subject, conscious of the whole, receiving new animation from what he thus witnessed, reflecting it back upon those who were already alive to the inspiration, until all that was susceptible of thought and emotion seemed wound up to the utmost elevation of thought upon earth, when he would close, and they reluctantly and slowly resume their seats."

LETTER XXXIII.

EXTEMPORANEOUS PREACHING.

We shall not have fully considered the subject of Delivery without entering upon the question, whether it is best that sermons should be written or extemporaneous. There is a good deal of prejudice and difference of opinion abroad on this subject. Some persons will leave their own parish church, and travel all over town and country, to hear an extemporary preacher; while others, who happen to have one in their own parish, will be constantly complaining of his extravagance or shallowness, and wish he would take the trouble to write his sermons.

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By the term extemporary," we do not mean what Johnson says it is, "unpremeditated;" we only mean that the preacher has not his sermon written out. It is the custom of the French preachers to mandate their sermons, or preach memoriter. Indeed, the excellent Massillon was in the pulpit nothing more than an accomplished actor; every sentence which he uttered was composed and practised beforehand. His most celebrated sermons are said to have been announced for repetition, like a theatrical performance, and persons would flock to hear him, and speculate in what manner he would pronounce certain well-known passages. Some there are in this country who follow the French fashion, notwithstanding its laboriousness and difficulty;

others will get by heart the principal passages of their sermons; others will have the skeleton only before them. But, it is probable, that no preachers in the present day ascend the pulpit without more or less preparation, not of the matter only, but of the language. The only essential for an extemporary sermon is that the preacher shall not have it set down on paper before him.

It has been generally asserted that written sermons came into use amongst the regular clergy about the time of the civil wars, in opposition to the violent extemporaneous harangues of the puritans. But Burnet, in his History of the Reformation, speaks of this practice having grown up in the time of Henry VIII., in consequence partly of the danger which preachers incurred, and partly of their ignorance.' "Those who were licensed to preach," he says, 66 being often accused for their sermons, and complaints being made to the King by hot men on both sides, they came generally to write and read their sermons, and thence the reading of sermons grew into a practice in this church; in which if there was not that heat of fire which the friars had shown in their declamations, so that the passions of the hearers were not so much wrought on by it, yet it has produced the greatest treasure of weighty, grave, and solid sermons that ever the Church of God had; which does in a great measure compensate that seeming flatness to vulgar ears, that is in the delivery of them."

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The witty monarch, Charles II., would, I fear, come under the censure of the historian, as being a vulgar" hearer of sermons, if we may judge from the following proclamation, extracted from the statute-book of the university of Cambridge.

1 Christian Observer, vol. xxxix. 164.

"VICE-CHANCELLOR AND Gentlemen,

"Whereas his Majesty is informed that the practice of reading sermons is generally taken up by the preachers before the university, and, therefore, continues even before himself; his Majesty hath commanded me to signify to you his pleasure, that the said practice, which took its beginning from the disorders of the late times, be wholly laid aside, and that the said preachers deliver their sermons, both in Latin and English, by memory, without books; as being a way of preaching which his Majesty judgeth most agreeable to the use of foreign churches, to the custom of the university heretofore, and to the nature of that holy exercise: and that his Majesty's command in these premises be duly regarded and observed, his further pleasure is, that the names, of all such ecclesiastical persons as shall continue the present supine and slothful way of preaching be, from time, to time. signified to him by the Vice-Chancellor for the time being, on pain of his Majesty's displea

sure.

"Oct. 8th, 1674.”

"MONMOUTH."

It does not appear that the reproof of his Majesty had the desired effect, for the practice of writing sermons has continued from that time to the present. Extemporaneous preaching is, perhaps, becoming, if any thing, rather more prevalent; but there exists, in some quarters, something of the old feeling against it. Perhaps it would be correct to say that this question, like most others, is commonly decided according to the general bias of people's minds: those who are fond of things as they are, like the common mode of writing sermons, and those who are inclined to novelty, prefer extemporaneous discourses.

Before considering the respective merits of the two modes, it will be well to notice one circumstance which