On Extemporaneous Preaching, Concluded
If the least thought had crossed my mind that familiar advices on a point which interests you would have grown from one letter to three, I should certainly have attempted a more formal disposition of these desultory remarks. Take them, however, as they rise and flow. I have written in earnest, because I know your solicitude and augur your success. Do me the justice to believe that I am not exalting my own little method as the only one in which excellence may be attained. I should painfully doubt my enlargement of view and maturity of judgment, if I felt myself sliding into such a pedantry. From our own poor pedestrian level let us look up at the mighty preachers of the past — the Bossuets, Whitefields, “Wesleys, Chalmerses, and Masons, and own that God accomplishes his gracious ends not only by a variety of instruments, but in a variety of ways. If there is any maxim which you might inscribe on your seal-ring and your pen, it is this, Be yourself. As Kant says, every man has his own way of preserving health, so we may assert that every true servant of the gospel has his own way of being a preacher; and I pray that you may never fall among a people so untutored or so straitened as to be willing to receive the truth only by one sort of conduit. Every genuine preacher becomes such, under God, in a way of his own and by a secret discipline. But after having reached a certain measure of success, it will require much humility, much knowledge of the world, and much liberality of judgment, to preserve him from erecting his own methods into a standard for even all the world.
When you resolve to attempt yreaching ex tem- ‘pore in the qualified sense of that phrase, you by no means renounce order, correctness, or elegance. Of all these we have repeatedly known as gi-eat exampples in those who did not write as in those who did. All these qualities will be found to depend less on writing or not writing, than on the entire previous discipline. As well might you say that no one can speak good grammar unless he has previously written.
“Whether he speaks good grammar or not depends on his breeding in the nursery, in school, and in society. He who has been trained cannot but speak good English; and so of the rest. You have read what Cicero says concerning the latinity of the old model orators — they could not help it:” Ne cupientes qiddem potuerimtloqiii nisi LatineP’’^ Madison, Ames, Wirt, Webster, or Everett, could not be cornered into bad English. Cicero goes aside even in his great ethical treatise to relate with gusto how delicious was the Latin sj)eech of the whole family of CatuUi.f And in regard as well to this as to flow of words, he lays down the grand principle when he says: “Abundance of matter begets abundance of words; and if the things spoken of possess nobleness, there will be derived from that nobleness, a certain splendour of diction. Only let the man who is to speak or write be liberally trained by the education and instruction of his boyish days; let him burn with desire of proficiency; let him have natural advantages, and be exercised in innumerable discussions of every kind, and let him be familiar with the finest writers and speakers, so as to comprehend and imitate them; and {Noi ille haud sane) you need give yourself no trouble about such a one’s needing masters to tell him how h3 shall arrange or beautify his words!” %
* De Oratorc III. 10. f Do Officiis I. 87. X Oratore II. 81.
Your own observation will predisjDose you to accept the testimony of all competent persons, that method, closeness of thought, and the utmost polish may exist where there has been no nse of the pen in immediate preparation. Fenelon, Burke, Fox, Robert Hall, and Eandolph, are cases in point. Let me dwell a few moments on the first-named, for these two reasons: first, that he is unsurpassed in correctness and elegance; and secondly, that he is the most celebrated advocate of ex tempore preaching. His remarks are too long to be fully cited, but they furnish a qualification which is needed just in this place, to show you what degree of rhetorical elegance should be craved. The extemporaneous preacher (says Fenelon) on the supposition that, “as Cicero enjoins, he has read all good models, that he has much facility, natural and acquired, that his fund of principles and erudition is abundant, and that he has tJiorougJily premeditated his subject so as to have it well arranged in his head, will, we must conclude, speak with force, wdtli order, and with fulness. His periods will not amuse the car so much: all the better; he will be all the better orator. His transitions will not be so subtle: no matter; for — not to say that these may be prepared even when they are not learned by heart — such negligences will be common to him and the most eloquent orators of antiquity, who believed that here we must often imitate nature, and not show too miicli preparation. What then will be wanting? He may repeat a little; but even this has its use: not only will the hearer, who has good taste, take pleasure in thus recognizing nature, who loves to return upon what strikes her most; but this repetition will impress truth more deeply. It is the true mode of giving instruction.” ‘’’ But read and ponder the whole of these matchless “Dialogues on Eloquence.”
You will have observed my disposition to cite authorities on this difficult subject, rather than to vent opinions peculiarly my own; authorities, let me add, who have themselves exemplified what they taught. Among all contemporary preachers whom I have had the good fortune to hear, I cannot hesitate to give the palm of oratory to Adolphe Monod. And with what solemnity and tenderness do I write this beloved name, as fearing lest, even before these lines reach you, he should have departed to that world of which he has spoken so much, and for which he is so graciously prepared. The point to which I ask your attention is, that the most elegant pul^Dit writer in France is equally, elegant in extemporaneous discourse. But then it is the eles-ance of a Grecian marble; it is beautiful simplicity. It is nature — nay, it is grace! What a lesson is contained for you in his
* D’oeuvrcsde Feuclon. Paris, 1838. Ed. Did at. Tom. II. p. 674.
remarks on self-])osse8sion in the pidpit! I will quote them from a lecture which Mr. Monod delivered to his theological class at Montaiiban, sixteen years ago. Observe that he has been speaking on the incompatibility of perfect eloquence with “self-observation,” or thinking how one is doing it; and he has been showing that such constraint is not confined to those who get their sermons by heart, but may exist in extempore preachmg.
“Suppose,” says he, “you have the finest parts; of what use will they be to you unless you have presence of mind? On the other hand, he who is at his ease says only what he means to say; says it as he means to say it; reflects; stops a moment, if need be, to cast about for a word or a thought; borrows even from this pause some expressive tone or gesture; takes advantage of what he sees and hears; and in a word, brings all his resources into play; which is saying a great deal; for ’ the spirit of man is the candle of the Lord, searching all the inward parts.’” “You will perhaps tell me,” adds this delightful writer, “that this self-possession which I recommend is rather a boon to be wished for than a disposition to be enjoined; that it is the happy result of temperament, of previous successes, of talent itself, and that it is not in a man’s power to be at ease whenever he chooses. I admit that it depends partly on temperament, and this is a reason for strengthening it when timid; partly on previous successes, and this is a reason why a young man should apply all his powers to take a fair start in his course; and partly, also, on talent itself, and this is a reason for diligently cultivating that measure which has been received. But there is yet another element which enters into the confidence which I at the same time desire for you and recommend to you; IT IS FAITH. Take your stand as the ambassador of Jesus Christ, sent of God to sinful men. Believe that he who sends you will not have you to speak in vain. Seek the salvation of those who hear you, as you do your own. Forget yourselves so as to behold nothing but the glory of God, and the salvation of your hearers. You will then tremble more before God, but you will tremble less before men. You will then speak with liberty, according to the measure of facility and correctness which you possess in other circumstances of life. If our faith were j)erfect, we should scarcely be in any more danger of falling into false or declamatory toues in preaching, than we should in crying out to a drowning man to lay hold on the rope thrown to him to save his life.” ‘^’*
It is in perusing such passages as this that I begin to comprehend the source of power in this writer and
* Discours prononce a Touvcrture d’un cours de debit oratoirc, u la faculte de Montauban, le 26 Novembre, 1840.
LETTEES TO YOUNG inNISTEES. 167
other great masters of pulpit eloquence, and discover at the same time why such treatises on extempore preaching as those of ^yare are cold and inoperative. The study of unapproachable exemplars must not stimulate us to experiments like that of ^sop’s frog. According to our measm-e, we may succeed here as elsewhere. I would most earnestly counsel you to throw aside, by every possible effort, all that resembles self-critical observation, while you are speaking in the name of the Lord. If your tendency should be towards scantiness of vocabulary, broken sentences, or involuntary gaps, halts and pauses, by all means encourage a floio. The advice which might be fatal to a voluble loquacity is all-important for you. Kee]3 up the continuity. Let trifles go. What Dr. Johnson says to a young writer, to wit, “It is so much easier to acquire correctness than flow, that I would say to every young preacher, Write as fast as you can,” is even more necessary for a young speaker: — Speak as uninterruptedly as you can. Let little things go. Return for no corrections. The wise will understand your slips and forgive them. Whitefield’s rule was, “Xevcr to take back any thing unless it were wicked.” This is very difierent from rapid utterance or precipitancy. Deliberate speech is, on the whole, most favourable. Good pastor Harm’s three L’s arc worthy of being applied to delivery, but arc poorly represented in English by the alliteration, Lengthened — Loud — Lovely.” Lnther’s maxim for a yomig preacher is still more untranslatable; but the sense is — “Stand up cheerily — speak up manfully — leave off speedily.” TriU frisch auf tliiCs mcml anf Mr laid auf.
It is high time I obeyed the last direction by leaving off. As I do so, let me again remind you that great eloquence is not necessary to great success; that there may be great power of discourse where there is little elegance: that the mighty works of Divine grace have not been always or chiefly wrought by the popular preachers who draw vast assemblies; that no man can be always great, and no wise man will seek to be always so; and that, after all, a man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven.