The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-01-02

JOHN Bright says

JOHN Bright says:
"When intend to speak on any
thing that seems to me important, /
consider what it is that I wish to i'm
press upon my audience. I do not
write my facts or my arguments, but
make notes on two or three or four
slips of note-paper, giving the line of
argument and the facts as they occur
to my mind, and I leave the words to
come at call while I am speaking.
There are occasionally short passages
which for accuracy I may write down,
as sometimes also-almost invariably
the concluding words or sentences
may be written"
Young ministers of religion would
do well to ponder these ingenious con-
fessions. 1t would probably be found
that all supremely successful speakers
of our own time have substantially
adopted the same method as Mr.. Bright
Very few, if any, great speakers in Par
Lament or the bar have fallen into what
Mr.. Bright truly describes as 1.-THE double
slavery" of writing out their speeches
at length, and then committing them
to memory. Reading speeches and re-
citing speeches are vices peculiar to the
Christian ministry. All the most pow
erful and successful pulpit orators of our
time have emancipated themselves from
the "double slavery" Even those who
began with that plan have discovered
that it is uncomfortable and fatal to the
highest success.
Mr.. Surgeons success is, on every
ground, phenomenal. Now his method
of preparation is substantially the same
as Mr.. Bright's. He prepares both of
his sermons on Saturday evening by
jotting down OH half sheet of note
paper the main outline, with suggestive
words. Like Mr.. Bright, heleaves very
much to the inspiration of the moment,
when under the glorious influence of
the great crowd that fills the MetrOpoli-
tan Tabernacle. Every true orator owes
of his best and most impressive
passages to the subtle, magnetic inflence
of his audience. The speaker and those
who listen, act and react upon one
another. Some of the loftiest achieve
ments of human speech are improvised
in the presence of sympathetic audito-
ry. The true speaker instinctively
modifies and readjusts in actual delivery
even what he had minutely prepared.
The man who reads or recites q sermon
is not an orator. He may be brilliant
or a refined scholar, or a con-
summate rhetorician but the very es-
sence of oratory is deXtrous adaptation
of speech to the exact circumstances OF
the living audience. A man who reads
his sermons is brilliant pianist who
may do wonderful execution with notes
mechanically prepared. He
may even by a subtle "touch" bring
much expression out of them. But the
true orator. of the Bright or~Spurgeon
type, is violinist who makes his own
notes, and produces subtle and exquisite
effect beyond the reach of art, and even
to himself instructive rather than delib-
crate.
Mere technical symmetry and arti-
fetal flourish should always be sacri-
feed to force and effect. A sermon IS
not an end in itself. 1t is Il means to an
end. The real end is to move the will
of the hearcr to the imitation OF CHRIST.
If the preacher only succeeds in awak-
cning admiration in the mind OF his
nearer, or in his own, his sermon is Il
dead failure. Sir Charlie Russell is the
leading orator ut the bar because he con-
vinces jurics and wins the verdict more
frequently than any other men.
Preaching is rs real ana practlcala athliiS
as forensic oratory, and must, in like
manner, be judged by its results. AS
men are increasingly interested in rclig-
ious questions, the public taste in pulpit
oratory is being revolutionized. Mere
rhetoric, mere clever word painting, is
becoming positively repellant. There
is profound truth in DR.. Parker's ia
NOUS exclamation "Prcparc your ser
mon? No; prepare YOURSELF" Let
men be simple and earnest; let them
use intelligiblc illustrations and argyll
ments; let them subordinate every
thing to the. great practical results !;
and they will not lack IN audience
wherever they are.
FORGOT HIN1sELF.-There was once
LII nf hi IL