It does not give the advantages of thorough doctrinal and practical exegesis, to all who need it. The whole congregation ought, as it were, to be organized into a Bible Class, for a part of the year at least ; that, with the sacred volume open before them, both old and young may follow the preacher from verse to verse, from paragraph to paragraph, from chapter to chapter, till the Gospel, Epistle, or whatever book it may be of either Testament is finished. This, were the exposition properly conducted, would tend to fix the attention of the whole audience; would afford abundant matter for profitable conversation in families, and in conference and neighborhood meetings; would suggest many important enquiries, which rarely occur to the mind in hearing a regular sermon, and would give the preacher opportunity to bring up every subject, that the Bible touches upon, in its proper place and connection. This is an advantage which the expository method of preaching alone can secure. we go over the scriptures in this manner, new views of truth are continually elicited, and a thousand valuable thoughts are suggested, which cannot be brought into sermons, or which, if they could, would rarely occur to the mere topical, or textual preacher. Were a minister to live a hundred years, and take two new texts every sabbath, he would be in danger of leaving out some things after all, which the Holy Ghost regards as important, and which would have been suggested to him in the very first year of his ministry, had he "expounded the scriptures in order" to his people.

As

I hope, my dear son, you will effectually try this

ancient and divine method of pulpit instruction; and that you will begin early. If you put it off very long, I am afraid your habits of preaching from isolated texts will get confirmed, and you will not begin at all. I do not recommend it, to save labor; for a series of good expository discourses will cost you more study, than an equal number of sermons from separate texts. You might, no doubt, take up a chapter, or part of a chapter, and spend half an hour in reading it over to your congregation, and offering some common place remarks without much preparation, but nothing can be more uninteresting than such an exercise. Whatever method of pulpit instruction you adopt, you must make your people feel that it is worth listening to, or they will not be satisfied, and will not long put themselves to the trouble of attending upon your ministry. They come out to be interested, to be enlightened, to hear something which they can carry home to think of and talk about. Make your expositions therefore as rich and instructive as you can. Spare no pains. Study the chapter or paragraph thoroughly, before you open a commentary. Look out and compare parallel scriptures. Enter into the spirit of the writer. Consider when and where and for what purpose the book was written. Pray for that illumination which cometh down from the Father of lights, and which he alone can bestow. Draw out your own plan. First exhaust your own resources in filling it up, and then avail yourself of all the helps within your reach. In this way the exposition will be yours, and not Calvin's, nor Scott's, nor Macknight's, nor Henry's.

Whereas, if you first turn over all the commentaries you can find, you will lean upon them till your own strength is all gone. You will never be an independent thinker an original; but a mere copyist, and of course there will be no freshness, none of that glow, of that sparkling vivacity, which springs up in a man's own mind under proper training, and which pours itself out as from an inexhaustible fountain.

Before I dismiss this subject, let me give you one caution. Never astonish and bewilder your people with the show of great learning. If you were a professor of Sacred Literature, and teaching a class of theological students, you might go as critically into the original Hebrew and Greek, as you pleased. But remember, that you are preaching to a common audience which cannot follow you a step beyond the English translation. You can make them stare; you can make plain unlettered christians wonder how anybody can know so much about strange languages, and some will take your new translation as all gospel, because you say so. But generally, this show of exegetical learning in the pulpit, will do more hurt than good. I do not say that it can never be safe or proper for you to put on the professor for a moment in the pulpit; that you may never offer a new translation of a difficult passage, nor comment at all upon the received version. I must say, however, that none but a real scholar should do it, and that he should do it very sparingly indeed. Unless the preacher is known to be a good Biblical scholar, it is apt to make the impression upon a part of his audience, that he does it to show off himself, and to

shake the confidence of others in the vernacular translation. Of all places in the world, pedantry is most disgusting in the pulpit. I once heard a preacher, in explaining his text, 1 Samuel 18: 1. "The soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David," &c., tell his hearers, that it was not such kind of knitting as they were familiar with in their families, and which was invented in such a year of the Christian era. Be as learned and critical in the study as you please. Take nothing upon trust, which you can investigate for yourself. Appeal to the highest authorities for your own satisfaction; but when you come before your people, give them the results rather than the process of your labors. The one they can appreciate, but the other would only bewilder and unsettle them.

You will commonly, I suppose, take a new text for every new sermon; and this perhaps, is ordinarily the best way. But double sermons are sometimes very profitable and even necessary. You cannot do justice to every subject in a single discourse, and breaking it up into two from separate texts, would often destroy the unity. Double sermons if not too frequent, will also give a pleasing variety to your preaching, and while they are more interesting and useful to your congregation, they will be easier for yourself. You will have one introduction to write, and one subject for the day, instead of two. And this will sometimes make a very material difference in the labor of preparation. Some ministers preach double sermons almost every sabbath. It is not so common, however, as it used to be when I was

noon.

young; and I think the change is upon the whole for the better. In medio tutissimus ibis, you know, is my favorite motto. A few among the fathers, who have rested from their labors, were in the regular habit of finishing the body of their discourses in the forenoon, and reserving a long string of inferences for the afterDr. Emmons, lately deceased, was one of the most able and distinguished of this class of preachers. His people always knew, when the morning service closed, that he had been mounting heavy ordinance, and that he would bring his guns to bear with great effect upon the enemy's lines somewhere, though it was not always easy for the wisest of them to tell where. Could that venerable father return and resume his labors, I am not sure that I should wish him to adopt a different mode of preaching; and I confess, that when I occasionally hear an able discourse constructed and divided in the same way, it interests me exceedingly. But it requires more talent to write sermons after Dr.Emmons's model, than we can expect to find in every pulpit. Saul's armor will not do for striplings.

Another method of pulpit instruction, which I like very much, is to make out a regular and connected series of discourses on some important subject—as the Lord's Prayer, the Beatitudes, the Parables, the Golden Rule, the Fourth or any one of the Ten Commandments, the Character of Christ, the nature and evidences of True Religion, &c. &c. If young ministers would commence preaching in this way, and bring out two or three series of half a dozen discourses each, in the course of every year, they would