The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-07-21
WHAT SOME SERMONS COST.

Some have such conception of the
time and toll that ought to be put upon
a sermon that they do not see how the
preacher can give himself to all sorts of
work during the week. OF some of his
sermons, it is said of Norman Macleod,
that he wrote them as many as seven
times. In writing to his son about
one of these he said: "But it may en-
courage you to know that this is the
seventh time, at least, have corrected
it, and each time just as fully as the
previous one" 1t is said that White
field ''ransacked creation for figures,
time for facts, and heaven for motives,
hell for warnings, and eternity for
arguments" When Adam Clarke was
asked how sermon should be prepar-
ed, he said: Study yourself dead, and
pray yourself alive again." Rev. DR..
James W. Alexander said: II more
and more believe that constant Bible
study, using Scripture to explain itself,
and culture of the heart by prayer, etc.,
are the great preparation of the
pulpit"
But many sermons cost more than
time and labor. Indeed, if these be
all that are given to sermon it may be
very defective as a sermon. Shepard
of Cambridge, Mass, said: LAS to
myself l can say three things; that the
study of every sermon cost me tears,
that before 1 preached a sermon 1 got
good by it myself; that always went
up into the pulpit as if went to give
my account to my master" 1t is re-
lated of DR.. Robert j. Breckinridge
that he was SO overcome by emotion
once in preaching that he sat down in
the midst of his sermon and wept like
a child. DR.. James W. Alexander
says: mo man can be great preach
er without great feeling" and DR..
Lyman Beecher wrote: "If a man
have no feeling let him not attempt to
preach" Payson said: 81 never was
fit to say a word to a sinner except
when / had broken heart myself,
when was subdued and melted into
tenderness, and felt as though 1 had
just received pardon to my own soul,
and when my heart was full Of tender
ness and pity"
Trials have done much to make a
good sermon. No one probably had to
pass through greater trials in his early
ministry than Bascom of the Methodist
church. He was charged with pride,
his work was disparaged, he was driven
into the most unpromising fields in the
conference, and yet none of these who
prosecuted him so much could preach
as he preached. He rose out of the
place of obscurity, and is remembered
as one of the great preachers of this
country. The best sermon is that in
which the whole man is surrendered to
the work. When every power, the
reason, the memory, the fancy, con-
trolled by the holy spirit, is employed
in the production of a sermon, then
we feel that it is worthy the minister
and worthy the audience that may hear
it. 1t was said Of Henry Ward Beech
er's preaching in his best days that it
was the most delightful preaching to
which anyone could listen. The power
and beauty of such preaching was
found in the fact that he gave himself,
all his splendid powers to that work.
He made all his reading and all his
conversations with men upon the
street, all he saw and all he heard CON
tribute to the preparation of the ser
mon, and in its delivery the whole man
was absorbed.
Robert Hall, the great British
preacher, was not unlike Mr.. Beecher
in some respects. He was one who |
surrendered all his great powers to the
work of preaching. This man, so de-
voted, so self-surrendering, said: ~
always conceive that it is a respect due