Ii.—Extempore And Written Sermons.
CHAPTER V. THE MODE OF SCRIPTURAL PREACHING.
What diversity we observe in the mode in which our most approved Ministers exhibit the doctrines of the Gospel! Their style, their compositions, their mechanical system of instruction, each have an individual character; and something probably may be learned from all of them. Our tone of mind, habits, preparatory training, schemes of study, conversance with certain schools and standards of preaching—all combine to mould the character of our Ministrations. Some will adopt one mode, some another—nor can we pronounce absolutely the superior excellence of one of them over all the rest under all circumstances. The Divine blessing evidently does not depend on the discovery and practice of the best mode, but on our simplicity in seeking direction, and on our conscientious diligence in improving the light that has been afforded us. Yet there are some specialities worthy of our consideration, on which we shall venture to offer a few suggestions.
I.—TOPICAL AND EXPOSITORY PREACHING.
The mode of communicating our message is either topical, preaching from texts and small detached portions of Scripture—or expository, taking large and connected portions of sacred writ, as the ground-work of our public discourses.
Our Lord’s first sermon was an example of the topical scheme. He read his text, interpreted it, laid down the doctrine of it, began to apply it for reproof, and to illustrate it by Scripture example; and thus he would have proceeded to the end, had not the madness of the people, succeeding their wonder, interrupted him.1165 The design of this scheme is two-fold.
1st. discerning the mind of the Spirit in the text, as connected with the context, so as to reduce it to a single and definite proposition; and then—2ndly, to lay open the view of truth, which seems naturally to arise out of it. This enables us to diversify our application of truth in its place and season, and it prevents a wearisome repetition of the same
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general statement. For such is the fulness of the Gospel, that there is no part or proposition of God’s word, which does not permit rich and appropriate elucidation from it. A mind acquainted with the depth of this heavenly mine will find in every portion of Holy Writ some trace of “the unsearchable riches of Christ;” a failure to bring forth the fundamental doctrines from such resources will prove, not the exhausted state of the treasure, but the lack of spiritual and accurate observation of its hidden store.
The expository scheme, though a less impassioned exercise, yet by a judicious mixture with the topical system, forms a most important vehicle of instruction. Comprehensive and connected views of truth are thus set forth, equally conducive to Christian intelligence, privilege, and stedfastness. It avoids the habit of building on a text, what is not authorized by the context; and it enables our people to read the Scriptures with more interest, because it is done with more understanding, and with less danger of being misled by disjointed views of truth. Thus Scriptural doctrine is confirmed more from the general strain of the sacred argument, than it is from the partial citation of insulated texts.
Many subjects are also brought forward, which might otherwise have been omitted.1166 Matters of application to particular sins or errors occur in their course, without just imputation of personality; thus short occasional hints, naturally arising from our subjects, fall with a weight of conviction for which our hearers are often wholly unprepared. There is no time to be alarmed, and fortify the mind against conviction, as there is when the main subject is directly levelled against their known sins. The whole extent of the Scripture field is also thus laid open in its length and breadth. Occasions are offered to set forth every doctrine, and enforce every practical obligation. We are forced into an extended apprehension and application of truth. The mind of God is discovered more accurately in the precise statements, proportions, and connexions of truth. Here ‘God speaks much, and man little.’ 1167 Without being entangled in the trammels of a system, our views are both enlarged and controlled by tracing the scope, argument, and relative position of truth in its several compartments. The course of family worship would materially assist the moulding of the mind into this scheme. Large portions of Scripture drawn out within the limit of time usually allotted to this interesting
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service, would gradually train us in the successful habit of connecting the main points, rather than of analyzing the minute particles, of our subjects.
The scheme formed a prominent part of Primitive instruction.1168 Augustine, Basil, and Chrysostom dealt largely in it. The Homilies of the last father are justly considered as among the best models for expository preaching, and the most valuable relics of ecclesiastical antiquity. The course of exposition however, should not be too long; the subjects should be selected with a special regard to our own resources, and to the circumstances of our people; care should be taken to mingle conviction with instruction, to keep the heart and conscience in view in our endeavour to inform the understanding; we should watch the decline of interest in our course; and interchange the two systems for greater variety, and to obtain the advantage of both.
II.—EXTEMPORE AND WRITTEN SERMONS.
The Writer does not attempt to settle this mooted point for his brethren. None, however, but enthusiasts will contend for extempore preaching, strictly so called. Unpremeditated speech was promised to the Apostles in their particular difficulties, beyond all human resources.1169 But though their public Ministry was probably of this kind, no precedent can be drawn from miraculous influence, superinduced to overcome natural disadvantages, in an extraordinary work.
We therefore use the term in its popular reference to unwritten sermons, digested and arranged by preparatory meditation; the language and filling up of the outlines only being left to the moment of delivery.
As a general rule—we ourselves must feel, in order to excite others;1170 and perhaps the passage from heart to heart is more direct, and the sympathy is more immediate, with the natural sowings of the preacher’s heart, than it is with communications through a written medium. The look, attitude, manner of address of the extemporary
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Preacher, is more direct, personal, and arresting. His habit is more ready to make use of passing occasions, or to introduce a striking hint to rouse his careless hearers. The reality before his eyes at the moment of action inspires a warmth which, abstracted from the scene of work, he could never impart. The sight of his people in the presence of God—their very countenances—their attention or listlessness—their feeding interest or apparent dislike—suggests many points of animated address, which did not occur in the study; excites many visible impressions in his heart, stirs up a living energy of expression, which awakens corresponding sympathy and interest in his congregation. This is a matter of no small moment. Men are little influenced by argument; nor is conviction a matter of the intellect, but it is intimately connected with all the sympathies of the heart. Impressions made through this medium, and diligently cherished, are often of lasting effect. Nor does this course need to exhibit less substance and thought than written composition. The time necessarily given to writing is a subtraction from what might have been better spent thinking. Though indolence or self-conceit might abuse this exemption of the pen, a solid mind, that is impressed with the responsibility of the occasion, would gladly redeem the time for a more fruitful intellectual exercise.
Mr. Cecil’s advice for commencing this practice was—‘Begin at once, take the ease and pliancy of youth into the formation of your habit.’ Mr. Robinson on the contrary recommended very cautious steps—‘Let no man attempt to preach without book, till he has patiently written it all, and the whole of his discourses for seven years; let him then begin sparingly and gradually.’ 1171 This had been the rule of the first seven years of his own Ministry; from which, he declared, only dire necessity induced him to swerve. Much, however, must depend upon the preparatory discipline of the mind; upon the extent of its stores, and its success in conflicting with, and overcoming, constitutional or spiritual hindrances. Mr. Robinson (unlike Mr. Richmond, who subsequently attained unparalleled eminence in this practice1172) was successful from the first, and probably would have been equally so had his term of probation been curtailed to half its limits. A mind formed in his mould—correct and orderly in its arrangements, furnished with ample and solid materials, and trained to enlarged Ministerial exercises—might commence within a much shorter period.
Bishop Burnet acquired this gift by a fixed and constant habit of meditation upon an extended range of subjects, and by speaking
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his thoughts aloud at those times with a studied accuracy of expression.1173 A most erroneous notion prevails of the easiness of this attainment. A collection of words is often mistaken for a justly-defined sentiment; and fluency of utterance is considered to be either indicative of solidity of thought, or a fair amends for its deficiency. Now such an extemporaneous faculty can bring no substantial instruction to our people. Our subject must be studied, till it is understood, digested, and felt. For a well-conducted habit we need—not merely impulse or fluency—but a furnishing of solid knowledge—combined with simplicity of style—a solid as well as an animated manner—and instar omnium1174—a mind deeply enriched with the unsearchable treasure of Scripture.1175 This resource will supply the place of many secondary qualifications, while nothing will compensate for the lack of it.
Much help may also be derived from conversational habits with our people. What the moment suggests for individual use, would more or less apply collectively; and frequent interchange of communication will gradually inspire confidence in its delivery.
‘Smaller excursions’ 1176 in Cottage readings or family exposition are also among the best preparations. A young Minister studying a passage morning and evening, consulting commentators and expounding extempore, can hardly fail to enrich his mind, and acquire a Scriptural style of simplicity and the free natural method of pouring out a full heart in ready words.
This exercise, however, should be combined with thoughtful and well-digested habits of composition. Dr. Doddridge, without recommending the practice of written sermons, gives detailed rules for the most elaborate pulpit composition.1177 And thus the fluency of the pulpit, being the result of diligent employment in the study, has often been committed to the press with very slight variation from the public delivery. This system may therefore decisively claim the advantage, which Bishop Burnet ascribes to written sermons. It often combines ‘heat and force in delivery,’ with ‘strength and solid matter;’ 1178 and it has produced volumes of sermons, which in all essential points will rank with the most elaborate compositions of a more mechanical system.
Yet we must admit the advantages of written composition in avoiding wearisome repetition—defective modes of expression—a
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confused arrangement of the flowing thoughts of the moment——(evils more or less incidental to the opposite scheme) and embodying our matter in greater compactness and solidity, in lucid order, and correct style. So that (at the early stages at least) the Roman orator may justly recommend ‘much writing as the best preparation for good speaking.’ 1179 The tyro1180 in theology probably has little conception of his own immature attainments until his ideas have been expressed on paper. At every step he finds his need to expand or condense. Not having prepared his way as he advanced, by a thorough maturing of his subject, he has to “lay again the foundation” of what he fancied himself to have attained. The quantum of composition, however, will vary according to the natural or acquired habits of the mind; but in few cases a certain proportion can be omitted with advantage. Rarely do young men unite sound judgment with a lively imagination; and therefore ordinary sermons, without any pains of composition, would be a mass of inanimate matter, deficient in apt illustration and pointed application. The excursive 1181 preacher needs the use of his pen to restrain himself within the limits of an accurate and connected plan; without which, digressive and unconnected matter would probably form the main substance of his discourses. The fluent, unfurnished preacher, without this resource to fill his shadowy mechanism, will be wordy, declamatory, unsubstantial, and uninteresting. Indeed the gift of fluency, without furnishing or application, is a misfortune rather than a desirable qualification. Besides the personal danger of neglecting intellectual improvement, it digresses from our proper subject at times of embarrassment, to irrelevant but more agreeable points. Thus some have been spoiled from the lack of the book, while others have been fettered by its use.
The primitive records furnish traces both of the written and the extemporary form. Sermons could not then be wholly written, as they generally consisted of expositions of Scripture, commonly of the lesson last read (as being most fresh in the memory of the people); and two or three sermons were often delivered successively in the same service.1182 Origen is thought to have fully introduced the extemporary mode. Notices of this
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method are found in the writings of Augustine and Chrysostom, whose frequency of preaching naturally gave them this freedom; and whose incessant Ministerial activity rendered it morally impossible to have their sermons always written. At the same time, plain notices are found in the writings of the Fathers of sermons written—not only for the preacher’s own use, but for more general advantage.1183 Burnet mentions the practice of reading at the Reformation era; yet Latimer’s honest “plainness of speech,” and the memorials of some of his contemporaries, furnish evidence of the opposite usage.1184
Archbishop Seeker, after discussing the question of written and extempore sermons, recommends written sketches, combined with extempore delivery, as ‘a middle way used by some of our predecessors,’ 1185 and adds—‘perhaps duly managed, this would be the best.’ 1186 The scheme, argument, and application of the discourse are given, without needless anxiety to preserve the precise letter of the composition. This indeed is adopted when naturally occurring to the mind; otherwise the matter is clothed in the garb which the present moment supplies. This plan seems to combine the advantages of the two schemes—restraining within the bounds of chastised feeling and well-digested arrangement, without the shackles of a written composition. The memory is exercised without painful anxiety, while the mind is left free to the excitement of the feelings of the moment, dependent on Divine assistance. And this freedom must undoubtedly be claimed as not restricted to the letter of our premeditated sentiments. A richer unction of the spirit may reasonably be expected at the moment of preaching, after public and united prayer, while standing up in the immediate presence of God as an ambassador for Christ, beyond what had been previously granted in the study. As regards means, however, ‘a man cannot expect a good habit of preaching this way, without much study and experience. Young beginners should get used to a more exact and elaborate way. When a good style and expression is first learned by perusing, it will afterwards be more easily retained in discoursing.’ 1187 No lack
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either of matter or expression generally needs to be apprehended in a well-digested and arranged subject.1188 “Of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak;” ‘nor will the preacher be able to repeat a tenth part of the truths which God has communicated to him, while meditating on his text.’ 1189 Increasing interest aided by practice will also gradually remove difficulties; and that ‘vehement simplicity,’ which Cecil justly defined to be ‘true eloquence,’ 1190 will characterize our preaching, even amidst much humbling and most profitable experience of Ministerial weakness. If parliamentary or forensic speakers have attained an uninterrupted fluency of expression, even while “leaning to their own understanding,” then much more may we assure ourselves of a competent measure of spiritual ability, in the use of the appointed means and in dependence on his promised aid, if the Lord means to employ this habit in his service. And we are never better fitted for our work than while cherishing a deep-toned recollection—“Without me you can do nothing.” 1191
After all, however, as it appears to the Writer, far too great importance is often attached to this mode. Though much consideration has determined his own practice of it, he is fully persuaded that such is the diversity of gifts among preachers of equal eminence, that the best mode is not always the best in all cases. Some more readily express themselves by their pen. Others experience most freedom in the excitement of their feelings, by the vivid presentment of their awful responsibility. It will readily be granted that a judicious and animated system of reading (which is not very infrequent) is better than an ill-conducted and
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unfurnished habit of extempore speaking 1192—not to speak of the re-excited, remembered, and digested, materials of experience, which are more advantageously brought forward on this system.1193 The preaching of Mr. Milner of Hull, and Mr. Walker of Truro, the early years of Mr. Robinson, and some of the most successful Ministrations within the writer’s knowledge, have been formed upon the scheme of written compositions. And may we not ask on the ground of ecclesiastical consistency—Why should the book be more objectionable in the pulpit than in the desk? Why is it not possible to preach spiritually, as well as to pray spiritually, with a form? Extempore preaching is the mode, not the matter; the shell, the vehicle—not the essential substance. A sermon written or unwritten may alike be the fruit of prayer, and the exercise of faith; and it is accepted and honoured according to its spirit and principles, not according to the mode of its delivery. In either case, there is the same need for faith, and the same difficulty in its exercise. In either case, there is the same danger of formality; nor is it easier to say whether dependence on the book, or the gift, is more natural or delusive.
But it is hard to insist on advantages of one system, without an undue depreciation of the other. Many excellent divines trace the preaching of written sermons to unbelief, an undue regard to self, the fear of man,1194 or to “the spirit of the world.” 1195 But who, from the days of St. Paul, was less under the influence of these unevangelical principles than Luther? Yet he tells us ‘that (occasionally, not in his ordinary custom) he preached out of the book, though not of necessity, as if he could not do otherwise,
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yet for example’s sake to others.’ 1196 Mr. Milner’s written compositions, in faithfulness of statement, unction of style, and closeness of application, are not exceeded—we might almost say, not equalled—by any Ministry conducted upon the opposite system. Perhaps they could not be more justly characterized than by Mr. Budd’s description of the offensiveness of extemporaneous preaching.’ 1197
A Writer in the Christian Observer 1198 (who has offered some valuable hints on the general subject) charges this practice is based on idleness. The Quakers’ objection was—‘You read your sermons out of a paper, therefore, you do not have the Spirit.’ However, the principle of Mr. Baxter’s reply bears on this point. He rejoins ‘It is not lack of abilities... that makes Ministers use notes; but a regard to the work, and the good of the hearers,’—‘I use notes as much as any man, when I take pains; and as little as any man, when I am lazy, or busy, or do not have time to prepare. It is easier for us to preach three sermons without notes, than one with them.’ 1199 This accusation was made the ground of the celebrated mandate of King Charles.1200 But the theological authority of this curious document, issuing from a profligate court, is reduced to a minimum; and its universal observance at the time when religion was at the lowest ebb among the clergy, would have been a woeful calamity to the nation. For how much less calculated for instruction would have been extemporary addresses from unpracticed and unspiritual men, than written compositions, which might have embodied some useful substance from extrinsic resources! Besides, may not this charge be sometimes applied to the extempore system? May not indolence render the mind (with a tolerable fluency of utterance) unwilling to burden itself with the labour of thinking out important matters? 1201 In both cases it would be admitted to be the abuse; but both systems are evidently liable to such abuse. The same Writer somewhat boldly states, that a man incapable of preaching extemporaneously, is ‘not fit for the Ministry—not being “apt to teach.” ‘But
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would not this supposition have disqualified Moses from his Divine commission; which, though not identical with preaching, yet comprised a considerable portion of instruction, and would have been much commended by fluent utterance? Yet if God had deemed it indispensable for his work, would he not have supplied the personal deficiency, instead of compensating for it by extrinsic help? 1202 When, therefore, the heart is right, and the indications of the will of God clear, why may not the same deficiency be similarly provided for by another mode of administration?
The most common reason for the adoption of written sermons—is concession to the temper and prejudices of our people. It seems incurring a fearful responsibility, to repel any from our Ministry on account of an offensive mode. “The offence of the cross”—the only offence unconnected with personal guilt—respects the matter, and not the mode, of our Ministrations. The principle of “becoming all things to all men,” 1203 surely extends to every particular of the mode of address, and not to one particle of the fundamental matter.1204 If the Apostle Paul was accustomed to speak from the immediate impulse of his mind, it is hard to believe that he, who felt himself “a debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and to the unwise,” 1205 would not have used a different mode if it had been at any time necessary to answer his great end. Only a few would allow the spirit of Henry Martyn’s concession to his Anglo-Indian congregation, concerning his extempore preaching—‘saying, that he would give them a folio sermon book, if they would receive the word of God on that account.’ 1206 Nor is the propriety of conformity to established usage commonly questioned in the occasion of condones ad clerum,1207 whether in University, Cathedral, or Visitation Pulpits. The appendage of a written composition might here be made the vehicle of statements as faithful and as important, as has been delivered by the preacher in his ordinary Ministration through a more free medium.
The writer, therefore, fully accords with Archbishop Seeker’s view of the question—‘After all, every man (as the Apostle says on a very different occasion) has his proper gift of God, one after this manner, another after that. Let each cultivate his own, and let no one censure or despise his brother.’ 1208 This was Mr. Robinson’s judgment of the matter, who with a decided preference for extempore preaching, ‘taught his people to relish either; and to consider
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book or no book, as one of those circumstantials in the fulfilment of the ordinance, which was of secondary, or rather of no, moment.’ 1209—However this is one of those questions that can never be decided on paper. The conscientious Minister will consider the nature of his situation, the temper of his people, the character and suitableness of his individual talent—as to which mode is most adapted to assist his own Ministerial efficiency. It will probably be well for him to get used to both methods—to combine the freedom and vigour of extempore preaching with that clearness, regularity, and fulness of matter which is best secured by much reflection and writing. It might be his duty to yield to a decided preference for extempore preaching among his people; though it would be wise to avail himself of the judgment of his more discerning brethren in forming his ultimate determination.