rebound upon himself. It is only for a time that the most injudicious or partial congregation can be held by indigested and unsubstantial matter, however gracefully delivered. They may not trace it to the right cause, but they know that they are wearied, if not disgusted. The minister, having rung all the changes on his very small peal of bells, has nothing for it but to repeat the old chimes. "Somehow or other Dr. Windy seems to hitch into the old rut. He gives us the same sermon. Especially he wears us out with the same heads of application." While this is going on among the hearers, it is wonderful how long the offender may remain ignorant of the reason; just as we old men do not know how often we repeat the same story.

Another inevitable result of unstudied preaching, is the habit of wandering or scattering. Nothing but laborious discipline, unintermitted through life, can enable a man to stick logically to his line of argument. Discerning hearers know better than the careless preacher why, after stating his point, he constantly plays about it and about, like a boat in an eddy, which moves but makes no progress. "Skeletons," as they are ludicrously called, however good, do not prevent this evil, unless they be afterwards thought out to their remotest articulations. The idle but voluble speaker will flutter about his first head, and flutter about his second, but will mark no close ratiocinative connection, and effect no fruitful deduction. Evidently, he who is continually pouring out, and but scantily pouring in, must soon be at the empty bottom.

Indolent preachers fall upon different devices for concealing the smallness of their staple, and for preaching against time. I have alluded to the bringing in of irrelative matter; kindred to this, and generally accompanying it, is undue amplification. The minute bit of gold must be beaten out very thin; hence wordiness, swollen periodicity, and Cicero's complementa numerorum. Such ministers seldom remain long in a place. The Presbytery is not, indeed, informed that Mr. Slender has preached himself out; some reading elder or surly Scotch pewholder is made the scapegoat; but the fact is, that the preacher goes away to fascinate some new people with his soft voice and animated manner.

Ministerial study is a sine quâ non of success. It is absurdly useless to talk of methods of preaching where there is no method of preparation. Ministerial study is twofold-special and general. By special study I mean that preparation for a given sermon which is analogous to the lawyer's preparation for his case. If faithful and thorough, this may lead to high accomplishment; but, as in the instance of case-lawyers, it may be carried too far, and if exclusively followed must become narrowing. The man who grows old with no studies but those which terminate upon the several demands of the pulpit, be

comes a mannerist, falls into monotony of thought, and ends stiffly, drily, and wearisomely. At the same time, he wants that enlargement and enriching of mind derived from wide excursion, into collateral studies, of which all the world recognizes the fruits in such preachers as Owen, Mason, Chalmers, and Hall. Yet even this inferior way of study into which busy and overtasked men are prone to slide, is infinitely better than the way of idleness, oscitancy, and indecent haste. For thus the student who begins betimes manages to pick up a great deal more than is necessary for his special task. In premeditating one sermon he often finds hints for three more. By tunnelling into the rock of a single prophetic passage, he comes upon gems of illustration, nuggets of doctrine, and cool springs of experience, all which go into the general stock. Yet no wise student will restrict himself to the lucubration asked by next Sunday's sermon.

By general study I mean that preparation which a liberal mind is perpetually making by reading, writing, and thinking over and above the sermonizing, and without any direct reference to preaching. Such studies do indeed pour in their contributions to every future discourse with a continually increasing tide; but this is not seen at once, nor is this the proximate aim. No man can make full use of his talent who does not all his life pursue a high track of generous reading and inquiry.

Your general studies will again subdivide themselves into those which are professional and those which are non-professional. Both are important and mutually advantageous. But the first claim is that of biblical and theological literature and science, upon which at present my remarks shall be brief, and respecting the point in hand. Let Theology afford us an instance; though every word I write may be just as well applied to History and Interpretation. Besides all your sermonmaking, Theology, as a system, must be your regular study. Neglect this, and your pulpit theology will be one-sided; many topics will never have due consideration. I shall augur badly for your career if you are found uninterested in great theological questions. Some established works should be daily in your hands; and of such works a few should be often re-perused. Find a clergyman who knows nothing of such pursuits, and you will observe his preaching to be unmethodical, and little fitted to awaken inquiry among deep thinkers in his flock. He will soon attain his acme, and will continue to dispense milk where he should give strong meat. The analogy of other professions will occur to you: the lawyer or physician who reads law or physics only for this or that case, can never take high rank. Non-professional studies open a wide field, and every minister must be governed by the indications of Providence. Extremes are perilous, and I know too well how, under the pre

text of cultivating general literature, and even art, a servant of Christ may almost alienate himself from what should be the darling studies of his life. Witherspoon has observed, that it is not to the credit of any gospel minister to be famous in any pursuit entirely unconnected with theology. Yet he who is a mere theologian, is a poor one. Bacon said, long ago, that no man can comprehend the canton of his own science, unless he surveys it from the heights of some contiguous science. Take Law for instance, though this is only one example out of a hundred. An acquaintance with jurisprudence is of the greatest value to the minister. No man can understand the practice of our Church Courts who does not discern their connection with the civil rather than the Common Law. Our very terms, especially in the older forms of process, savour of Justinian and the Code; and ignorance of this has frequently led to the substitution of English for Roman modes altogether subversive of the unity of our system. This will be more clear if you compare the progress of a Scottish ecclesiastical action with that of one in America, and observe how utterly we have lost all reference to the libellus and other civil forms of trial. Matthew Henry was sent by his father to Holborn Court, Gray's Inn, that he might study law as a preparation for theology; and every part of his Commentary shows familiar acquaintance with the terms of this science. This was not a rare opinion among the old Presbyterians. "I must be so grateful as to confess," says Baxter, "that my understanding hath made a better improvement of Grotius' De Satisfactione Christi and of Mr. Lawson's manuscripts than of anything else that I ever read. They convinced me how unfit we are to write about God's government, law, and judgment, while we understand not the true nature of government and law in general; and he that is ignorant of politics, and of the law of nature, will be ignorant and erroneous in divinity and the Sacred Scriptures." Half the disputes about Imputation could have been precluded if the combatants, instead of acquiescing in definitions of Webster, had familiarised themselves with the usage of genuine English writers in regard to the word guilt." But this is only a single specimen. The times demand that a well-furnished preacher should draw both argument and illustration from every science. Tell me how you spend your forenoon in your early ministry, and I shall be better able to predict how you will preach. If you idle, stroll, or even habitually visit before noon, your mental progress may be divined.— Letters to a young preacher by the late Dr. Alexander, New

York.

• Take one example out of many. "But concerning the nature or proper effects of this spot or stain, they have not been agreed; some call it an obligation, or a guilt of punishment; so Scotes."-Jeremy Taylor, Apples of Sodom, Part II.

ART. IX.-HOMILETICAL PARAGRAPHS.

Formalism of Sermons.-Without flattering myself with the notion that I was ever eloquent, I am persuaded that the most effective discourses I ever delivered were those for which I had made the least regular preparation. I wish I could make sermons as if I had never heard or read how they are made by other people. The formalism of regular divisions and applications is deadly. And as to written sermons, what is written with weariness is heard with weariness.

Avoid Abstractions.-If you would keep up attention, avoid abstractions in your sermons, except those of mere argument. Come down from generals to specifications, and especially to individual cases. Whenever possible, give name and place, and intersperse anecdote. By this means the Puritans, even when they were prolix, were vivacious. They subsidized every event of Old Testament history, and talked of David and of Judas, instead of royalty and treason.

Memoriter Discourse.-When Pompey the Great was going from the vessel to be murdered, he spent his time in the little Egyptian boat, in reading a little book in which he had written a Greek oration, which he had intended to speak to Ptolemy.

Suggested by my Last Sermon.-Unless a sermon is amazingly long, one must not write an analysis, or brief, of many members. You will find that on each you have hardly more than a couple of pages, in which short space you cannot get a-going on any of the topics.

Again: There is a greater force and condensation in the rapid first draughts which I write as a basis, than in the sermons which I make on them: Why? Because in writing the second time I try to expand each of the points. How shall the weakness consequent on this be avoided? By writing a rapid, warm, percussive, cordial basis, at a glow-and then doing little more than to put this into shape; turning the hints into propositions.

Diction. The great fastidiousness of the House of Commons is often mentioned, but it is nothing to that of the Greek Demos. The standard which Aristotle assumes, and which was evidently that of the times, was so severe as to exclude from oratory everything in the diction which betrayed the slightest artifice. Read particularly on this subject what is written, Chap. 2, Book iii. of the Rhet., especially § 10.

The third chapter of the third book, about Frigid diction, is capital. The four sources of the Frigid are flowing perpetually among our Americans. He speaks admirably of the tendency to make prose run into poetry.

Reading the Scriptures.-To-day I took up my Greek Testament, and, as I walked about the floor, read the 2nd Epistle to Timothy, pausing in thought on certain striking places. I saw many new excellencies-had some new rays of light-and was more than ever convinced of the excellency of this way of Scripture study. Especially when, after a number of rapid perusals, one goes over the ground with more and more ease every time.

On Composing Sermons.-Notes on Conversations with J. A. A.-My father says a man should not begin with making a plan. Should not wait until he is in the vein. Begin, however you feel, and write until you get into the vein, however long it be. 'Tis thus men do in mining. You may throw away all the beginnings. Men who write with ease think best pen in hand. This applies to sermons, and also to books. It might be well to write a sermon currente calamo, and then begin again and write afresh (not copying or even looking at the other, but) using all the lights struck out in the former exercise.

Preaching. The sermon I have last written on Gen. xlix. 4 is the least evangelical I ever made; yet this did not once enter into my head until I had finished. Let me learn to be careful how I censure others. Further, let me learn the importance of making all my written sermons discussions of some important point of doctrine. The times need this, and my mind needs it, both in regard of theological knowledge and ratiocinative discipline. Treat doctrines practically, and experience argumentatively. Avoid technicalities, avoid heaping up of texts, like stones without mortar.

Dwell on Good Thoughts.-Very important. This seems something more than what is hackneyed. Think it out. If it occur in reading, pause, raise your eyes from the book, and follow it out. Thoughts which come up first are naturally trite. This is especially so of illustration. If one occurs, pursue it, follow it into the particular parts of the resemblance. If a metaphor or similitude, carry it forth in all its lesser resemblances. If it seem hackneyed, take some analogous one-take several. All these processes of thought will be useful at some other time, for our good trains of thought are seldom entirely lost. No man could ever speak extempore if everything he said were literally the fruit of the moment. No; in many instances by some association a whole train of thoughts which had been forgotten for years will be brought up.

Sermon Writing.-(Concio ad meipsum.)-The Last Lord's day of the year has arrived, and, on reviewing your labours, you must feel that you have not stirred up the gift that is in you. Your talent, qualiscunque sit, has been too much laid up in the napkin. Especially in the matter of writing you have been delinquent. Many things you have written, and even