The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-08-02
MANUAL FOR PREACHERS.

Preaching and Public Speaking. A
manual for the Use of Preachers OF the
Gospel and Public Speakers in General.
BY n. L. Nelson, Professor of Rhetoric
and Elocution in the Brigham Young
academy, Provo City, Utah.
This manual is prepared orlmarli2
for the use of the elders of the Mormon
church, and it is one from which they
can derive great profit, The work is
divided into eight chapters as follows:
Consideration of Objections; Qualifi-
cations of the Preacher; SubJect-matter
for Sermons; The Art Of Thinking;
characteristics of the Sermon; Kinds
of Sermons; Methods of Communicat-
ing Thought; Analysis of the Sermon;
Rhetorical and Evolutionary Embel-
lishments.
The work is really an excellent one,
and if mastered by those for whom it
is especially intended, it cannot fail
to have much influence for their good.
1t is a real pleasure to read IT here
and there, it is so thoroughly fresh and
unconventional, not that Professor Nell
son does not treat his subject in thor
oughly scientific manner for he does.
Never did a man know better the class
of readers to whom his book is address
ed than does Professor Nelson. He
knows them like a book being thor
oughly acquainted with their habits of
thought and there intellectual lido
syncracies. When he illustrates point
he uses for that purpose objects that
are familiar to those whom he ad
dresses. He knows the shortcomings
of the Mormon preachers, and he boldly
and fearlessly points them out; his
criticisms will be a revelation to them.
and there isn't one that isn't just and
warranted. We give q. few, taken at
random.
Speaking of the vanity young elders
are liable to get because they find that
they can talk certain length of time.
he gives this Illustration: How long"
says the young missionary, did 1 hold
out this timer" ''Twenty-four min
utes" We'll, that's encouraging.
That's 10 minutes better than / did last
time. 1 am growing" And then the
author makes this scathing comment:
Before the elder returns he has learn
ed TO hold them an hour, and alas for
the Door saints in the valley there
aftert'
We make few more quotations, quo
tations that those for whom this book
is intended should commit TO memory,
for they are invaluable:
The temptation to vagrancy as OPP
posed TO system and method. is by no
means peculiar to preaching. 1t has
struck in on the farming community
OF Utah, as any one who will examine
the farms as he rides along can testify;
and it manifests itself more or less in
all fields of activity" page 1879
Here, then, we elders should learn
a profound lesson. Instead of loading
our minds with passages of scripture
and firing them Unfortunately upon
an audience, we should make a mental
analysis of our hearers" (P. 1911
But if these same things are advo-
Gated by preachers whose only basis
OF reasoning is memory, and to whose
own minds many of the arguments so
drawn from memory are not even in
telligible, is it any wonder that think
ing men and women refuse to enter
tain them?" Up. 1881
Most of our elders are plain, blunt
speakers, who do not dream that the
sermons they preach have definite
parts: men who despise artifciality so
much that they would give themselves
up to random remarks rather than
arouse the faintest suspicion that they
were trying to initiate sermons which
too often are constructed to tickle the
carp" ~.
This attempting to speak upon sub
jects too broad is a common failing
among Latter-day saints" (P. 327.)
Necessarily the work is more or less
doctrinal. but if the Mormon mission
aries, home and foreign. will master it,
their preaching will be greatly i'm
proved. Professor Nelson has done
them signal service, for he talks
right out in meetin'."