universal comprehension. Their magnitude makes them visibl and their force makes them felt. And, hence, the highest spec mens of eloquence are those which are recognized to be such b all classes. The true orator is he who thrills the peasant at th same time that he subdues the philosopher.

We only add that this element of eloquence the pulpit ha always at command. It is specially related to the highest a well as to the most sacred departments of thought. Its spher covers the whole field of moral and religious truth. God, i his being and character and government, and man in his natur and relations and destiny, belong to its province. It has th whole past, as far back as induction or imagination can go, offe ing to it its collected wisdom, and the future speaks to it from those infinite depths to which neither our computation nor ou though can fly. It may draw arguments from every sciend and illustrations from every page of history. It is the prope exponent of philosophy and the tongue of fact; the high inter preter of nature and the medium of revelation; the standin explanation of time and the herald of eternity. There if an where should utterance possess the effectiveness of thought;there if any where may and should be found the first condition o eloquence.

2. Pulpit eloquence requires that the language fairly measure and be appropriate to the thought.

This condition would lead us into extensive analyses, if i were thoroughly discussed. Let us simply indicate a few par ticulars. Language should be a true mirror of thought. I should express as clearly as possible the idea sought to be em bodied in it, and in terms as little ambiguous as possible. Otherwise the attention of the hearer will be divided between two objects, the thought and its drapery,—and the first can not produce its full impression.

There is doubtless a correspondence between thought and language; by which is meant that there is a tendency in every thought to clothe itself in appropriate words. But this affinity is neither so strong nor so independent of circumstances that thought will, in every case, find its fittest expression. The tendency may be thwarted by ignorance, by a perverted taste, or by

and, hence, he hesitates about receiving an announce embodies one of the noblest ideas most eloquently expr straining after high sounding terms, the multiplicatio lative epithets, when the subject matter does not requ detracts from the force of the speaker rather than a ability.

Generally a thought which admits of a brief and si ment is more forcible for finding such an expression. ly is this true of what may be regarded as strong an thought. In such a case it expends its whole force at so deepens the impression; just as a single severe yielding substance will impress it much more than sev combined, possess the same force. The expression, " said, Be Light, and Light was," owes much of its f simple and brief form. Express it by an extensive circ and it will lose its distinctive sublimity. Take He Beecher's remark,-" The Bible is sown as thick wit tions as heaven is with stars," and dilute it with a mo phraseology, and it ceases to impress us as it now doe

Language thus always employed, would, however, treme. Few ministers would be able to fill up an half each week with such sublime aphorisms-such gems of speech; and if they were, there is not one sand among their hearers whose mental apparatus is to digest such a mass of material. It would be a sa power, and, besides, it would satiate by its excess. riety of truth is to be uttered, and eloquence requires be the same varieties in the verbal medium. The L

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the pulpit should not be barren of ornament, neither should superabound. There should be sufficient to gratify the taste an the sense of the beautiful of which none are destitute, but no so much as to weaken the force of the thought by attracting th chief attention to the garb. The nature of the subject shoul govern the employment of it. Exclusive metaphysical and sci entific terms would be strangely out of place in speaking o Eden or heaven, and figures of rhetoric would yield little assist ance in developing the ground of moral obligation, or in show ing the distinction between a verdict of the conscience and a belief of the reason. The language must correspond to the thought if true eloquence is to be attained. Each will then add force and impressiveness to the other, and both will do not a little to render the utterance of the pulpit highly effective.

3. A third condition of Pulpit Eloquence is Independence. Fettered speech can never be really and highly eloquent speech By independence is not meant that no restraint should be laid upon it. Truth, sincerity and courtesy are its rightful and absolute lawgivers. We speak of independence as opposed to the timidity which fears to utter what the convictions and circumstances seem to require, lest offence should be taken or sympathy lost; as opposed also to that implicit submission to popular customs and accredited sentiments which makes them the standard of excellence and the test of orthodoxy; and especially as opposed to that servility which makes the speaker a copyist or a plagiarist—the mere echo of some mightier man's voice, or the parrot uttering simply what it has learned to imitate.

He who, in the pulpit, gives evidence that he is regarding himself as on trial before the critical tribunal of his audience, and is awaiting their verdict with anxiety, may be elegant but not eloquent in any high sense. If, under the inspiration communicated by his topic, his heart is swelling with emotion that seeks escape, he must restrain it; if a radical but just word rises to his lips, he must strangle it before it comes to life; if an inference that shall bear personally and severely upon his hearers is forced on his attention, he must suppress it. That timidity encloses his spirit and his utterance in a strait jacket, and they are as incapable of majestic and commanding activity as would be

the body dressed in the habit of the insane asylum. No man is eloquent till he gains the mastery over the sensibility and measurably over the will of his audience. Eloquence is a ruler, not a vassal; a dictator, not a sycophant; a majestic law-giver, not a trembling culprit. Its heart is all courage, its forms all freedom, its utterance all frankness. "Give me liberty or give me death," is always the expression of its spirit, whether threatened by the military force of a kingdom, the dissecting knife of unjust criticism, or the crucifixion of malice.

Internal conviction and perceived propriety alone keep guard at the door of an eloquent soul. Begotten of self-reflection, they hold their appointment by the highest authority. Well endorsed rules and theological formulæ may not supplant them but by violence and injury. And he who will or can bring his mind to say what by the simple virtue of his position he is expected to say, merely because it is expected; or who feels satisfied to utter himself in certain forms which custom has prescribed, merely on account of the prescription, and without the sanction of his own highest convictions, must satisfy himself with an utterance that neither is nor can be truly eloquent. He is not true but false to himself, and the more inspiration he acquires, the more will his insincerity reveal itself to his own eye and divest him of his confidence and his power. His heart is in rebellion against his rules; there is an intestine war; the unity of his being and action is lost; a portion of his power is withdrawn from his outward effort to still the mutiny within. Not that eloquence is lawless and reckless of authority; it rather shows its perfect allegiance to law when it tramples such authority under foot that it may submit itself to that which seems higher and divine. It defies the world, not because it loves bullying, or because it honors the world less, but because it hates mental despotism and will not dishonor itself.

The occupant of the pulpit must be and act himself, if he would hope to utter himself effectively. If he cannot find the elements of eloquence in himself, in his topics and position, it is useless for him to seek them in an attempted imitation of others. He who is capable of attempting to act such a part is incapable of acting it well. Being conscious that the excellences of

Demosthenes by creeping within a hollow statue of th orator, and reciting his harangues through the marble attempt to be really eloquent by seeking to personify masters of pulpit oratory. They may be studied with if we will simply allow them to teach us; but they dangerous beings if they are suffered to absorb us. were possible to act this assumed part fully, there wou the difference in the result that would be seen in an oal by human hands from without, compared with that w gone up to its matured grandeur in obedience to the force within. True eloquence is a life and not a statue, power and not a senseless image. Its thought is projec volcanic lava, from the depths of the internal fire, and, same lava, its forms are determined by the material medium through which it passes. And it were as eas juggler to counterfeit Vesuvius as for a clerical copyist to duce Whitefield. If eloquence be possible, it is only s veloping, through legitimate self-culture, the elements lo our own individual being.

4. The fourth condition of Pulpit Eloquence is Enthusias We do not use this word in its objectionable, but in sense. This it is chiefly which gives ardor and spirit and fulness and confidence to human effort. It is usually co with an active imagination and strong emotion. It is the of the heroism which makes human history an epic. not merely sit down and passively and firmly endure, fearlessly defies and invades. It is not strength merely,