The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-10-23

|
! staid peace and comfort through Christ
then, too, l still preached what ! saw
| and felt" In this intense dhectneSs
and reality lay the secret of this man $
| power. He found his way to other
mems hearts because he spoke so truly
| out of his own. He not only told the
| truth, but he made the truth to tell,
| Said preacher who knew how to do 1t
himself. there must be that in our SER
mons which will both strike and stick.
A man may part with truth and not
| communicate ii. An important part
of communication is reception and that
| may mot have taken place. An arrow
| all wing but no point is worthless Au-
gustine was determined to get right
into the minds Of the people to whom he
spoke. II would rather said he,
that the gra'mmarians should criticise
| me than that my people should not I'M
derstand me-" An important rule TO
bear in mind is that you must keep
touch with your audience and carry
them along with you. Said Alexander
VIII to Cardinal Polignac, You al
ways commence by agreeing with me-
and you finish by making me agree
with you" There is nothing so unreal
as to see a man speaking before ms
bearers, but not to them. Some men
get into an unreal professional way or
speaking in public. In private con-
verse they are very sensible men ana
| worth listening to, but directly they
ct on to their feet their common sense
seems to have left them. Said
Frenchman of his priest when M. lie
Cure gives advice he does it admirably
but when he wishes to make sermon
he is unbeaiable" Nov doctor" said
a shrewd- wltted patient don't be pro-
fessional, but tell me the truth" Arch
bishop Magee used to say that all
preachers may be divided into three
classes-preachers you cannot listen to,
preachers you can listen to and preach
ers you cannot help listening to. Judg-
ing from his writings and from what
his contemporaries have told us of him,
Bunyan belonged to that class OF
preachers men cannot help listening to.
His reading and thinking; his expert
ence of life and knowledge of men; his
observation of character in the forming
and of motive in the worlIing-all were
made to bear on the great work on
which bis heart was set and to which
his life was consecrated A ministry
having such elements of power and re-
ality will be successful in this century
as well as in the seventeenth; While
mere made-up men, pieces of artificiality
and ofticialism, preachers who say
things merely because they are expect
ed to say them will be successful in
none of. the centuries, and If the truth
must be told they do not deserve to be.
Simplicity and directness Of speech
are great qualities in a preacher. 1t
does not require much genius 50 to
speak as that no man can for the life
of him make out what you are driving
at. 1t is mark of real power when
you can so put thing as that one
man shall wonder that he never saw the
subject in that light before. and to an
ether it shall seem so simple and OBJ
vious that he falls into the natural mis-
take of supposing that he could have
preached that sermon himself. 1t is a
difficult problem, no doubt, and one that
every preacher has had to face how to
speak to a miscellaneous audience so a g
to secure the interest of widely different
orders Of mind There can be no better
aim for a preacher than to try 50 to
present the truth Of God that the COM
mon people shall hear him gladly, and
at the same time the most intelligent
members of his congregation shall feel
that their understandings have been re-
spected and their interest secured.
Think with the wise" said Aristotle,
but speak with the common people"
On the matter Of literary form we
may notesthat Bunyan seems carefully
to have avoided one sin not easily for
cardinal sin of dullness. |
Neither in his character sketches nor in
his illustrations does he ever grow tedi-
Gus. The various people in his allego-
ries step out into the open--they inter |
est you or they amuse you, or they in |
struct you; there is one thing they new |
er do: they never weary you. They do |
all they We're meant to do and then they |
disappear, vet in that brief space they |
have left distinct impression of their |
own individuality upon you. Many of |
the illustrations in his sermons, too, are |
simply exquisite. Take for example |
that of Christian fellowship: Chris |
tians are like the several flowers in |
garden that have upon each of them |
thedew of heaven, which being staken |
with the wind, they let fall their DIV AT
each others roots, whereby they are |
Jointly nourished and become nourishers |
IF each other" That is an Illustration !
which is a word picture poem In |
prose. The most refined feel the charm
Of It, and the plainest man is conscious
IF its beauty and force. Moreover it is
an illustration which Is not dragged in
FORTS own sake. 1t really does illus
rate that is, it throws light on the
subject in hand Moreover 1t is not
1verdone. 1t leaves off at the precise
point at which ii ought TO stop 1t is
We'll sometimes to have the moral cour-
lge to leave out something. The leay-
ng out may really increase the value
If that which remains in. There are
lines when the half turns out to be
more than the whole.
Then again, in realizing his own ideal
is a preacher Bunyan tells us that he
laid the chief stress on |
and central truths. One of
he first things that strikes us about the
Pilgrims Progress is its universally.
Dean Stanley said Of ii that |
it is one of the few books which
he whole Christendom; that it is
,aT hans with six at hers and p1,,a1Iyy |