1 The above-named tendencies of extemporaneous oratory to improve the character of the orator become the more obvious when we consider the rules which have been given for attaining perfection in his art. "Studendum vero semper et ubique. Neque enim fere tam est ullus dies occupatus, ut nihil lucrativae, ut Cicero Brutum facere tradit, operae ad scribendum aut legendum aut dicendum rapi aliquo momento temporis possit. Siquidem C. Carbo etiam in tabernaculo solebat hac uti exercitatione dicendi." While yet a boy the future orator must accustom himself to such graceful attitudes of body, to such expressive gestures and intonations, as will make dignified and easy speech a second nature to him. While a youth he must inure himself to think logically sometimes, appropriately always, on the subjects coming within the range of his conversation or study. In his early years he must store his memory with facts for the sake of improving his judgment, with illustrations for the sake of enlivening and refreshing his nature, so that his speech may flow from a fountain rather than a reservoir. He must struggle against all those faults which debilitate his manhood, and he must take especial pains to practise those virtues which invigorate it. The lives of William Pitt and Thomas Erskine illustrate the manner in which a clergyman must enrich and adorn his mind, if "elegant maxims" are to "flower off" from it at once when needed. To train a child perfectly for an extemporaneous preacher is to educate him for a perfect man. Milton is certainly safe in asserting that if his system of education were adopted, "there would then appear in pulpits other visages, other gestures, and stuff otherwise wrought than what we now sit under, oft times to as great a trial of our patience as any other that they preach K. The reasonable practice of preaching extempore helps to establish the minister's influence. We may consider the bearing of the practice upon his reputation as well as upon his character. Men love to detect the workings of a speaker's 1 Quinct. Inst. Lib. x. Cap. 7. 2 Prose Works, Vol. ii. p. 12. mind, to watch the play of his features as they are lighted up with a new emotion, as a sudden change of thought comes over him, as he begins doubtfully to form a sentence and ends it triumphantly. We feel an admiration for the statue of the god of eloquence standing on a breath of air. A speech at a dinner is the dessert of the feast. It is often a kind of amusement to all at the table, except one man and his particular friends. In England and America it seems to take the place of the Spanish bull-baiting and the Roman gladiatorial shows. Where the mind is free, popular oratory will be cultivated, and in the main will be extemporaneous. Hence among the English and Americans there will be more of this oratory than among the subjects of despotic governments. In the main, therefore, the eloquence of the English and American pulpit will be extemporaneous. The pastor, then, who cannot speak without his papers will so far forth lose the reverence of men who are fluent in the political assemblies of his parish. They will look upon him as the Jews looked upon a son of Aaron who had "a blemish in his eye." To have the extemporary power will not be so much of an honor. as the want of it will be a disgrace. If he cannot speak easily when he presides over a meeting of his church, he will be mortified at his inferiority to his lay brethren. Still, a marked felicity in his impromptu speech will aid in giving him that good name which the Scriptures regard as of no small value to a bishop. By the dignity combined with the plainness, by the precision combined with the ease of his impromptu eloquence, a democratic community will be electrified. There is something overawing, because mysterious, in his ability to look with a hundred eyes, like Briareus, at the different phases of his subject, at the different expressions on the countenances of his hearers, at the different probabilities of succeeding in different methods of appeal to these different hearers, and in his power of preserving, amid all 1 "No man that hath a blemish". "shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the Lord"-"a blind man or a lame"-"or a man that is broken-footed or broken-handed or crook-backed, or a dwarf, or that hath a blemish in his eye.” -Leviticus xxi. 17-21. this tumult of his thoughts, such a sanctity of religious feeling and such a dominion over himself as will contribute to his sway over his audience. There is something easily mistaken for inspiration in his mental processes, when he is so embarrassed as to be almost unconscious of what he is saying, as to be mortified with the suspicion that he is uttering mere nonsense, and when amid all this confusion he pursues a consecutive train of thought, uses the most apposite words, and exhibits to even his critical hearers not the faintest sign of his wandering or faltering. His mind moves forward, like the rail-car when the engine is detached from it. Such a wonderful power, even if not fully apprehended, will awaken the admiration of the hearers. Their admiration will arouse their sympathy with the preacher. They will yield themselves to the influence of a man while he manifests his superiority to them. One emotion excites another, as one ignited grain of powder fires the whole arsenal. Thus fools who came to scoff at the preacher remain to pray with him. Two actors on the stage would speak to a beggarly show of empty boxes, if each one held before his eyes the manuscript which he was reading to his fellow. They would need a coliseum for the multitude thronging to hear them, if they could utter impromptu such thoughts and feelings as Shakespeare and Schiller have expressed for them. John Wesley is said to have agitated the quarry-men who formed his congregation at Portland, when in the midst of his sermon he struck out an extemporaneous hymn as suddenly as they ever struck fire from a rock. They were amazed and enraptured with the words, ringing like a hammer upon the stone; they looked at him as well. nigh inspired, and then joined with him in the prayer: "Come thou victorious Lord, Thy power to us make known; Strike with the hammer of thy word, 1 See Ware's Hints on Extemporaneous Preaching, pp. 75, 76. V. OBJECTIONS TO THE EXTEMPORARY METHOD OF PREACHING. 1. Various objections result from overlooking the fact that the extemporary method has conflicting tendencies - some good, others bad. Thus it is said that this method encourages indolence. Writing is both a means and a result of hard study. If a man cannot preach a creditable sermon without committing it to paper, he has therein a kind of mechanical incentive to work. At the least, he is compelled to think of his subject as long as he is writing upon it. If, however, he can satisfy his people with unwritten discourses, he will be in danger of neglecting his pen altogether; and if he do not write on the doctrines which he ought to preach, he will not thoroughly understand them; for these doctrines require that kind of investigation which is carried on with the aid of a manuscript; and if he do not understand the truths peculiar to his profession, he is like the artist who neglects the sciences on which his art is founded. Such an artist is apt to illustrate the saying that men are as indolent as they can be conveniently. A minister who abandons the habit of writing is tempted to neglect, not perhaps all study, but that kind of study which is most appropriate to his calling. He is in danger of being, not perhaps an indolent man, but an indolent minister. Nor is this all. As the Gadarene demoniacs came forth from the tombs, so does a legion of faults come forth from idleness, which is the tomb of a living man. There is force in this objection. But, while we concede that extemporaneous preaching, conducted in one way, has a tendency to encourage indolence, we need not cease to affirm that, conducted in another way, it is an incentive to intellectual enterprise. Regulated by the principles laid down in the foregoing parts of this Treatise, it calls for a degree of energy which few men are brave enough to put forth. Some ministers do preach extempore because they are indolent; but others are indolent because they do not preach extempore. To proscribe this method altogether, because when unwisely pursued it tends to relax the minis ter's discipline is about as reasonable as to proscribe the summer season because one of its varied influences is debilitating. Theological students are now amused, and then amazed, when the advocate of speaking extempore affirms: "It stirs the preacher up to habits of forceful thought," and the opponent says: "It lets the preacher down into habits. of lethargy"; and the advocate of writing sermons affirms: "The practice favors intellectual effort," and the opponent affirms: "It satisfies the minister with that kind of easy employment which is one of the worst kinds of indolence." The idlest man is willing to perform labor enough to save him from the workings of his conscience. Easy occupation is often laziness. The truth is, that, as every form of civil and ecclesiastical government has its good and its evil tendencies, so has each one of the fundamental methods of preaching; and if we refuse to adopt either method on account of the perils attending it, we forget that this is a world of peril, and dangers should not deter us from duties. Even a faultless method would have some pernicious influences, unless it were conducted by a faultless man; and such a man, out of Laputa, is yet to be sought. 2. Various objections result from overlooking the fact that one class of subjects needs to be treated in one way, and a different class in a different way. The same garment does not fit all bodies. Thus an objector says that the extemporaneous method, failing to tone up the extemporizer's mind, deteriorates his style of preaching. We are compelled to admit that of two men, one of whom uniformly preaches what he has written, and the other uniformly preaches what he has not written, the former will in mature life be apt to excel the other in depth and comprehensiveness of discourse. There are certain doctrines which must be stated with discrimination, explained with punctilious care, proved by closely-connected argument, defended against subtile objec-. tions, applied in "thick-warbled" speech. On these doctrines. an ordinary minister ought to write. But there are some themes on which his written sermons prepare him to extem |