careless hirelings, when they look down upon their congregation, call to mind the line from Milton

"The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed:"

let them think that souls longing for the bread of life, (or if not longing for it, yet on that very account in greater need of it,) are through their negligence perishing from hunger; and if they have a grain of feeling or common honesty, they will surely take pains to provide such food as may nourish them.

The second class of sermon-writers are those who have a great notion of their own ability, and take mighty pains to write their sermons with a view to display their talent. But these for the most part lose their labour. "The more pains," says the Archbishop of Cambray, "an haranguer takes to dazzle me by the artifices of his discourse, the more I despise his vanity. I love a serious preacher, who speaks for my sake, not his own; who seeks my salvation, not his own vainglory." Carefully avoid, therefore, whatever indicates a wish to make the service of Almighty God a vehicle for the display of your talent, or the gratification of your selflove. "To be despised for vanity is, perhaps, the greatest evil which can befall a preacher." Whatever good he may say will be of none effect. No talent, no eloquence, no pains, will avail him any thing, if he is evidently preaching not Christ, but himself. Above all things, therefore, aim at singleness of heart. Do not think "What shall I say, and how shall I say it, so that I may be thought an excellent preacher, and draw crowds to my church, and fix their attention, and move their feelings; but, how shall I most edify my flock?" Think of this alone. Many, indeed, preach with a sincere desire to do good, but still there is a degree of self-complacency, a desire of effect, mortification at failure, a wish not to be common-place, but to be original and

*

powerful, an anxiety to obtain the approval of their Christian friends. Even genuine Christians cannot always escape these errors.

"O popular applause, what heart of man

Is proof against thy sweet seducing charms ?"1

All these secondary and equivocal motives should be put away altogether; and you should strive and pray that you may be enabled to preach with a single eye to the salvation of the souls committed to your charge.

Let us trust that, in spite of the infirmity of our nature, there are thirdly, many, very many, Christian preachers, who, through the aid of the Holy Ghost, are influenced by this motive; who "believe and therefore speak;" who are like "the good shepherd; and the sheep know their voice, and follow them." To such preachers the Holy Spirit will sanctify and bless the pains which they take for the fulfillment of their arduous office.

My first advice then to you, with a view to gaining the confidence of your hearers, is-let me again repeat it—that you compose and preach your sermon, with a single eye to their salvation.

Cowper.

LETTER V.

HOW TO GAIN THE CONFIDENCE OF THE HEARERS. FIRST, BY SHOWING GOODNESS OF CHARACTER.

SUPPOSING, then, that you sit down in your study to compose your discourse with a true and single heart, the next point is to know how to give your hearers this impression. It is scarcely necessary that I should here protest against the supposition, that I would recommend any unworthy or unjustifiable artifice. I shall speak of nothing but what is the preacher's bounden duty. It is his business to persuade his hearers, and this he cannot do without gaining their confidence: to gain their confidence then by all justifiable means is his bounden duty. I shall recommend nothing for which I cannot bring forward the authority of an Apostle. Nay, I will stop short of St. Paul. St. Paul scruples not, on many occasions, openly to commend himself. His station, and office, and the circumstances, and the manners of the times allowed it. He says-God "hath made us able ministers of the New Testament." 991 "I suppose I am not a whit behind the very chiefest Apostles, but though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge."2 "We are not as many, which corrupt the word of God." "Our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we 2 2 Cor. xi. 5, 6.

12 Cor. iii. 6.

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3 2 Cor. ii. 17.

4

have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward." "I laboured more abundantly than they all." Thus, also, Moses recounts his services;3 and Samuel publicly testifies his integrity. Occasions may indeed. arise, when it will be necessary for a modern preacher to appeal to his own character and conduct, and to assert his claims to the regard of his hearers; but, generally speaking, you cannot do so. You cannot say, I am an able minister, full of godly sincerity, and have nothing so much at heart as your salvation. But it is very right and necessary that you should endeavour by all honest means, to give your hearers this impression, which is so conducive to your success in persuading them. You should do incidentally what the times and circumstances allowed St. Paul to do openly and directly. Your discourse should be what Aristotle calls ethical." that is, such as shall show forth your character and feelings.

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In this letter I shall suggest to you the best mode of evincing your Christian integrity (άgeτń).

The first point to be noticed is of a negative sort ;—it is that you should take great care that your arguments be fair and logical. Like the knights of ancient chivalry, you should be scrupulous to come into the field, "without guile or evil arts." The slightest dishonesty in argument will throw discredit on your whole discourse. Men are impatient of the least symptom of sophistry in a sermon. I do not suppose that you would wilfully use fallacious arguments; but you must be very cautious not to fall into them inadvertently. Be careful not to represent as a necessary consequence what is only probable, nor press an argument which is liable to manifest objections. For which cause you

1 2 Cor. i. 12.

21 Cor. xv. 10.

3 Deut. i. 9, &c.

4 1 Sam. xii. 3.

See also Acts xx. 33.

5 Arist. Rhet., xi. 21, 16.

should beware how you adopt those which you find in writers of a controversial turn. They are very likely to lead you astray; for in the heat of controversy men are not scrupulous as to the arguments they use; and, however honest they may be in heart, yet their minds having a decided bias one way, they are apt to attribute more than just weight to their own arguments, and to undervalue those which make against them. So far from using sophistry, you should not even slur over objections. It is not meant that you are to put forward objections which your congregation would never have dreamt of; this would be going into the contrary extreme; but admit candidly, and answer fairly, those to which the subject is obviously liable. You will find that in this, as well as in other matters, honesty is the best policy. Candour is far more likely to convince opponents, and will not hazard any thing with friends. If there be the least suspicion of any thing being kept in the back-ground, your argument will lose its force. I do not say that it is good to choose subjects which involve difficulties and objections, but, if you meet with them, state them fairly.

On the same principle, do not exaggerate and magnify things beyond their due proportion, or depreciate them excessively. It gives an air of declamation and insincerity to the discourse. And do not bring forward texts, as confirmatory of your argument, which are notoriously disputed. Do not quote 1 John v. 7, "There are three that bear record in heaven," as a proof of the Trinity. It is possible you may have investigated this matter, and may be convinced in your own mind of the genuineness of the text; yet you must be well aware, that any of your congregation who have looked into the Unitarian controversy are informed, that the text in question is strongly disputed. Therefore, if you quote it without remark, as beyond doubt genuine, it