On Extemporaneous Preaching
YoTJ desire some information from me about extemporaneous preaching. Before I throw on paper my desultory thoughts, I beg leave to premise that you must expect nothing from me in the syirit of those censors who, in the language of King James’s translators, “give liking unto nothing but what is framed by themselves, and hammered on their own anvil.” After about thirty years of talking for my Master, often in a method ex tempore enough to satisfy the most rigorous, I cannot forget that there have been other anvils before mine, and that their work has been turned off by such workmen as Edwards, Davies, and Chalmers. I am not ready to say that their “reading “was no ‘’ preaching.” This prefatory disclaimer will embolden me to use some freedom in recommending the method of free utterance.
Toil have expressed fears as to your ever becoming an extemporaneous preacher, and I shall confine myself to practical advices. Many wdio have excelled in this may have had fears like yours. My counsel is, that you boldly face the obstacles, and begin ex cibrujrAo. The longer you allow yourself to become fixed in another and exclusive habit, the greater will be your difiiculty in throwing it aside. - Some of the authors whom I respect and shall cpiote below, recommend a beginning by gradual approaches; such as committing to memory a part, and then going on from that impulse. This is what Cicero illustrates by the fine comparison of a boat which is propelled by its original impulse, and comes up to the shore even when the oars are taken in. Others tell you to throw in passages extemporaneously amidst your written materials; as one who swims with corks, but occasionally leaves them. Doubtless many have profited by such devices; yet if called on to prescribe the very best method, I should not prescribe these. Again, therefore, I say, l)egin at once. When a friend of mine, who was a pupil of Benjamin West, once inquired of the celebrated Gilbert Stuart, then at work in London, how young persons should be taught to paint, he replied: ‘’ Just as puppies are taught to swim — CHUCK them in!” E’o one learns to swim in the sea of preaching without going into the water.
Such observation as I have been able to employ suggests the followmg reason for the advice which I am giving jon. The whole train of operations is different in reading or reciting a discourse and in pronouncing it extempore. If I may borrow a figure from engines, the mind is geared differently. No man goes from one track to the other without a painful jog at the “switch.” And this is, I suj)pose, the reason why Dr. Chalmers, in a passage which I reserve for you, cautions his students against every attempt to mingle reading with free speaking. It is not unlike trying to speak in two languages, which reminds me of what a learned friend once observed to me in Paris, concerning the Cardinal Mezzofanti; that this wonderful linguist, when he left one of his innumerable tongues to speak in another, always made a little pause and wet his lips, as if to make ready for going over all at once. It requires the practice of years to dovetail an extemporaneous paragraph gracefully into a written sermon.
As I am ]3erfectly convinced that any man can learn to preach extempore who can talk extempore, always provided that he has somewhat to say, my earnest advice to you is that you never make the attempt without being sure of your matter. Of all the defects of utterance I have ever known the most serious is having nothing to utter. You will say that is not extemporaneous which is prepared, and, etymologically, you are doubtless right. But the purely improm’ptu method, or the taking of a text ad ajpertuTcmi libri is that towards which I shall give you no help, as believing it to be the worst method possible; for however suddenly you may ever be called upon to preach, you will choose to fall back to a certain extent, upon some train of thought which you have previously matured. In all your experiments, therefore, secure by premeditation a good amount of material, and let it be digested and arranged in your head, according to an exact partition and a logical concatenation. The more completely this latter provision is attended to, the less will be the danger of losing your self-possession or your chain of ideas. I lay the more stress on this because it must commend itself to you as having a just and rational basis. Common sense must admit that the great thing is to have the matter. All speaking which does not presuppose this is a sham. And of method, the same may bo observed with regard to the speaker which is cujoined by all judicious teachers with regard to the hearer, namely, that even if divisions and subdivisions are not formally announced, they should be clearly before the mind, as affording a most important clue in the remembrance of what has been prepared.
Early extemporaneous efforts are frequently made futile or injurious by the unwise selection of a topic. The opprobrium of this mode of yreacliing is the empty rant of some who nse it. Preachers there are who have miglitj vociferation, extreme volubility, highly coloured diction, and glorious pageantry of metaphor, but who prove nothing, teach nothing, and effect nothing. Inexperienced speakers fancy that they shall have most to say upon a sentimental, an imaginative, or a hortatory topic. There is a snare in this. The more special the subject, the richer will be the flow of thought: let me recommend to you two classes of subjects above all others, for your early attempts — first, exjDOsition of the Scripture text, and secondly, the j)roof of some theological point. Argumentative discourse is best fitted to open the fountains of speech in one whose words flow scantily. There is no one fit to speak at all who does not grow warm in debate. And still more specially confutation of error is adapted to promote self-possession, which, as we shall see, is a prime quality in extempore speaking.
It is hardly possible for any man to produce valuable matter in a purely academical exercise. Hence it is all-important to practise hona fide preaching before a real audience. All pretences there vanish; there is an object to be gained; and the true springs of preaching are unsealed. This is the discipline by which all great extemporaneous speakers have reached facility and eminence. Yon cannot do better, therefore, than to seek some Immble by-place where souls are desiring salvation, there to ponr into their nncritical ears the truths which, I trust, burn in your heart. I can warrant you that a few weeks of exhortation to awakened sinners will show you the use of your weapons in this kind. Revivals of religion always train up off-hand speakers. It was my privilege to be early acquainted with the late Dr. ISTettleton. I heard him in most favourable circumstances in Pittsfield, four-and-thirty years ago, and again at two later periods. Though one of the most solid, textual, and methodical speakers, he usually laid no paper before him. His speaking in the pulpit was exactly like his speaking by the fireside. I introduce his name for the purpose of reciting his observation that in the great awakenings of Connecticut, in which he laboured with such amazing results, he scarcely ever remained in any parish of which the minister did not acquire the same extemporaneous gift.
If you press me to say which is absolutely the best practice in regard to “notes,” properly so called, that is, in distinction from a complete manuscript, I unhesitatingly say, rsE noxe. Carry no scrap of writing into the pulpit. Let your scheme, with all its branches, be written on your mental tablet. The practice will be invaluable. I know a public speaker
14:6 THOUGUTS ON PKEACHING.
about my own age, who has never employed a note of any kind. But while this is a comisel for which, if yon follow it yon will thank me as long as you live, I am pretty sure you have not courage and self-denial to make the venture. And I admit that some great preachers have been less vigorous. The late Mr. Wirt, himself one of the most classical and brilliant extempore orators of America, used to speak in admiration of his pastor, the beloved Nevins of Baltimore. low, having often counselled with this eloquent clergyman, I happen to know that while his morning discourses were committed to memory, his afternoon discourses were from a “brief.” A greater orator than either, who was at the same time a friend of both, thus advised a young preacher: “In your case,” said Summerfield, “I would recommend the choice of a companion or two, with whom you could accustom yourself to open and amplify your thoughts on a portion of the word of God in the way of lecture. Choose a copious subject, and be not anxious to say all that might be said. Let your efforts be aimed at giving a strong outline; the filling up will be much more easily attained. Prepare a skeleton of your leading ideas, branching them off into their secondary relations. This you may have before you. Digest well the subject, but be not careful to choose your words previous to your delivery. Follow out the idea with such language as may offer at the moment. Don’t be discouraged if you fall down a hundred times; for though you fall, you shall rise again; and cheer yourself with the prophet’s challenge, ‘Who hath despised the day of small things? ‘” If any words of mine could be needed to reinforce the opinion of the most enchanting speaker I ever heard, I should employ them in fixing in your mind the counsel not to prejpare your luords. Certain preachers, by a powerful and constraining discipline, have acquired the faculty of mentally rehearsing the entire discourse which they were to deliver, with almost the precise language. This is manifestly no more extemporaneous preaching than if they had written down every word in a book. It is almost identical with what is called memoriter preaching. But if you would avail yourself of the plastic power of excitement in a great assembly to create for the gushing thought a mould of fitting diction, you will not spend a moment on the words, following Horace:
“Vcrbaque provisam rem non invita scqucntur.”
lothing more effectually rufiles that composure of mind which the preacher needs, than to have a disjointed train of half-remembered words floating in the mind. For which reason few persons have ever been successful in a certain method inch I have seen proposed, to wit: that the young speaker should prepare his manuscript, give it a thorough reading beforehand, and then preach with a general recollection of its contents. The result is that the mind is in a libration and pother, betwixt the word in the paper and the probably better word which comes to the tip of the tongue. Generally speaking, the best possible word is the one which is born of the thought in the presence of the assembly. And the less you think about words as a separate affair, the better they wdll be. My sedulous endeavour is then to carry your attention back to the great earnest business of conveying God’s message to the soul; being convinced that here as elsewhere the seeking of God’s kingdom and righteousness will best secure subordinate matters.
‘No candid observer can deny to the Wesleyans extraordinary success in extemporaneous preaching. While the lowest class of their itinerants are all rant and bellow, their mode of gradual training, in class-meetings, in societies, and finally in immense outdoor gatherings, is one of the best for bringing out whatsoever natural gifts there may be among their young men; and hence they have from the very days of the Wesleys, had an unbroken succession of eloquent men in their first rank. You will call to mind Kewton, Summerfield, and other familiar names. A traditionary manner of elevated discourse, at once colloquial and passionate, lias no doubt been handed down from the origin of the society. There is an account of Charles Wesley’s debut which cannot fail to interest you. It Vv’as in the year 1738, and in the little church of St. Antholin, Watling street, originally founded in the fourteenth century that he first attempted to fly from the nest. “Seeing so few present,” says he, “I thought of preaching extempore; afraid, yet I ventured on the promise, ‘Lo, I am with you alway,’ and spoke on justification, from Romans iii. for three-quarters of an hour wdthout hesitation. Glory be to God, wdio keepeth his promise forever! “^^ “Which reminds me to quote Mr. ]Ionod in another place, and to assure you that the true way of being raised above the fear of man in your early services is to be much filled with the fear of God; and that the only just confidence of the preacher is confidence in the promised assistance of God. Until you cease to regard the preaching of the word as in any sense a rhetorical exercise, it matters little whether you read or speak, or what method of preparation is ado]oted; you will be “as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.”
Contrary to my supposition when I began, the sequel will demand at least one letter more.
* Life of Charles Wesley, p. 117,