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and is continually violating the laws of congruity by judging customs peculiar to the East by a western standard. 3. His sceptical proclivities darken and pervert his understanding. In criticising the sacred book he is ever displaying a perverse faculty of magnifying molehills into mountains, or of creating difficulties where none exist, while on the other hand he is blind as a bat to the circumstances which soften and lessen, if they do not wholly remove the real difficulties to be met with.

But are we obliged to allow that there are real difficulties in the Pentateuch? Yes; as nothing good comes of shutting our eyes to fact, let us acknowledge that real difficulties exist. But, in the first place, those difficulties are of no great magnitude in themselves, and are gradually lessening by the application of an enlightened and candid criticism. In the second place, they are of no account, absolutely of no account, when contrasted with the amount of evidence adducible in confirmation of the historic authority and divine inspiration of the Pentateuch. First of all, there is the internal evidence incorporated with the text, arising from the simplicity, honesty, and singleness of purpose everywhere manifest, together with the innumerable undesigned and occult coincidences in reference to persons, places, and times, which the thoughtful reader cannot fail to observe, and which serve to impress him with the trustworthiness of the record. It is also a weighty consideration that the Jews have ever regarded the Pentateuch as divinely inspired. But how they could possibly have been got to receive it as such, except on the assumption of its historical validity, it would be difficult to imagine. For, although it recognises them as a race specially favoured of heaven, it furnishes the most humiliating accounts of their national character, and even attributes to their most distinguished leaders faults of a disgraceful kind. Judging of human nature as it is, it is impossible to conceive of any man, be he patriot or priest, writing a book of this description with any hope of imposing it on the belief of his countrymen. And yet from a rem te antiquity the Jews have clung to this book as a reliable history of their nation with a tenacity of belief which no misfortune or hardship has been able to shake. That the Christian church from its first planting has firmly held to the Mosaic authorship and divine authority of the Pentateuch, is an additional consideration of great weight. But the most weighty consideration of all lies in the fact, that our blessed Lord adopts and gives his sanction to the belief of the Jews with reference to the Pentateuch. Repeatedly and in language which does not admit of a double sense, he refers to that part of the sacred volume as the production of Moses, and as invested with divine authority. On these severa grounds of evidence which we have not time to discuss fully, ou faith in the historic validity and infallible trustworthiness of th books of Moses may rest secure.

As for this attempt of Bishop Colenso to overthrow the authority of the Bible, it will end as similar attempts have ended before. After the conflict is over and the puny assailant is forgotten, the citadel of God's truth will appear more majestic in strength, more faultless in symmetry, more resplendent in beauty. We have nothing to fear: the Bible remains with us and will remain our most blessed heritage. Its sweet stories and beautiful lessons mingled with the dreams of our childhood; its sublime principles and glorious hopes sustain and cheer us amidst the struggles and sorrows of mature life; and when we lay down our head on death's pillow and our feet stand in the cold waters of Jordan, the exceeding great and precious promises of that blessed book will comfort us with more than earthly comfort, and will be as a bridge of love over which our redeemed spirits will pass to their everlasting home in heaven.

ART. VIII.-EXTEMPORANEOUS PREACHING.

YOU

OU 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 spirit 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.

You have expressed fears as to your ever becoming an extemporaneous preacher, and I shall confine myself to practical advices. Many who have excelled in this may have had fears like yours. My counsel is that you boldly face these obstacles, and begin ex abrupto. The longer you allow yourself to become fixed in another and exclusive habit, the greater will be your difficulty in throwing it aside. Some of the authors whom I respect and shall quote 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, begin at once. When a friend of mine, who was a pupil of Benjamin West, once inquired of the celebrated Gilbert Steuart, then at work in London, how young persons should be taught to paint, he replied, "Just as puppies are taught to swimCHUCK THEM IN!" No 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 following reason for the advice which I am giving you. 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 suppose, 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.

utter.

As I am perfectly convinced that any man can learn to preach extempore who can talk extempore, always provided 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 You will say that is not extemporaneous which is prepared, and, etymologically, you are doubtless right. But the purely impromptu method, or the taking of a text ad aperturam 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 be observed with regard to the speaker which is enjoined 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, affording a most important clue in the remembrance of what has been prepared.

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Early extemporaneous efforts are frequently made futile or injurious by the unwise selection of a topic. The opprobrium of this mode of preaching is the empty rant of some who use it. Preachers there are who have mighty 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, exposition of the Scripture text, and secondly, the proof 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 bona 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. You cannot do better, therefore, than to seek some humble byplace where souls are desiring salvation, there to pour into their uncritical 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. Nettleton. 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 much 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, USE NONE. 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 about my age who has never employed a note of any kind. But while this is a counsel for which, if you follow it, you 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. Now, 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 lauguage 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 prepare your words. 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:

"Verbaque provisam rem non invita sequentur."

Nothing more effectually ruffles that composure of mind which the preacher needs, than to have a disjointed train of half-remem

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