Morning journal and courier., 1885-03-20
YALE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL

Rev. DIR. Burton, of Hartford, Gives
Hints as to the Selection and Sue
cession of Preaching Topics to the
Students.
DIR. Burton delivered his third lecture to
the theological students yesterday afternoon.
His subject was 1.-THE Succession of Preach
ing Topics" What determines tho preach
ing topics? If they eohere, is the coherence
Intentional and therefore persistent and uni.
form7 Almost always the answer is that il
it not intentional. All conceivable laws fol-
the selection of topics are either interior Oh
exterior laws, or the subjective and objective
laws. In the former the preacher gets his
themes from the experiences of his own
separate individuality; he breaches on what
he does and in the way he does, because he
is exactly the man he is; or he may follow
the impelling of the Holy Ghost in his own
soul, rejecting all studied subjects. All real
preachers can tell of experiences in this line
where they have chosen subjects by SUI
preme individualistic impulse, or had the
subject chosen for them by the Holy Spirit
within them.
By the objective law the preacher may
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in their lives, making their necessities themes
for sermons. Or he may spend a part of his
sermons for revivalistic ends and make the
rest of diverse kind. Again he may make
his morning sermons of the doctrinal type
and the second service more miscellaneous;
this makes the preacher and people more
consecutive and systematic. Then, too, he
fo11orxy fho 1ifo of oT1r ay6 fob
amples from the cycle of the Christian year.
Dwelling on these laws more particularly,
first, if the preacher follows the bent of his
own genius he becomes narrowed and his
personality becomes formulated on the indi-
viduality; he will be lop-sided and eccentric.
Influences are excluded that would make him
universal; he is only pipe of the organ, not
the whole organ. Though we don't object
to the preachers being only a pipe
we do object to the number of pipes
that are made of the members of the
congregation. They watch and learn to like
the personal evolution and prayer becomes a
mere form of formal service. The differ
ence between Christianity and every other re-
ligion is in the resurrection of Christ which
any number of important creeds do not men
ton. If the preacher follows his own genius
and his individuality this great teaching of
Christianity is lost and people sit at the table
of the preacher, not of the Lord God has
provided externals for the guidance of men.
He intended that man should not walk wholly
by the inner life. God gave us body and spirit
and wants us to lead double life, that is
doubly influenced The apostles and first
disciples were full of the Holy Spirit, but
this fu1lness of spirit did not always save
them from error. We must stay ourselves
by the ballast of authority in the great gales,
lets us blunder. The secret of equi-
ibrium lies in due balance
of the outward and inward No
outline of thought is better than the life
of the Lord followed as it is in fact; it has
the advantage of sweeping the entire circle
OF Christian truth and does not leave the
pastor and people subject to a balanced Gull
tivation. The Bible in its entirety and not
in selected parts is our text book. The whole
Bible must be utilized by the preacher; if it
cannot be utilized in any plan
of sermons that plan is defective
and good for naught. Christ is the
outcome of ages and to find him we must
search the Old Testament, the history of those
ages. There we find him in sayings which
seem at first sight to contain only their local
meaning The whole Bible is redolent of
Jesus and we should thank God that we are
privileged to explore book that is so ger
minated and phenomenal. Every part
can be drawn on to illustrate the Christ SER
mons. We cannot find any subject for
sermons which does not combine in it some
scene from Jesus.
For use it is best to be har-
messed to a certain round, as then
the preacher corrects all over-specializino
and disproportion, all location and denomi.
nationalism. Then the Christian era be-
comes his subject and not the extemporsne-
GUS wisdom of any individual. He investi-
gates and draws on the aggregate wisdom of
all. His congregation know that he is in the