←1192
←1192
The following lines have much good sense in them:
‘Should you, my friend, the important question ask—
With or without my papers shall I preach?
My answer hear and weigh. Your sermons write
From end to end; and every thought invest
With full expression, such as best may suit
Its nature and its use; and then pronounce
As much as your remembrance can retain.
Rather read every sentence word for word,
Than wander in a desultory strain—
A chaos, dark, irregular, and wild—
Where the same thought and language oft revolves,—
And re-revolves to tire sagacious minds;
However loud the momentary praise
Of ignorance, and empty fervors charm’d.
But never to your notes be so enslav’d,
As to repress some instantaneous thought,
That may, like lightning, dart upon the soul,
And blaze in strength and majesty Divine.’
Gibbons’ Christian Minister.