Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-10-15
OLD TIME SERMONS.
overgenerous Measure of oratory From
the Preachers.

| Bishop Weldon, in the Nineteenth Century
| There is no doubt that a good many ser
mons are dreadfully dull. But 1t is an eie-
ment in the difficulty of preaching that
clergymen, in preparing and delivering their
sermons, are practically debarred from
adopting some accepted oratorical means.
Thus the use of humor in a sermon Is al
most unknown within the Church OF Eng
land Nonconformist preachers like the late
Mr. Spurgeen have sometimes employed
humor in their sermons with striking erect
When he preached Of the story is truel
upon the Martyrs Memorial at oxford, ana
asked where it was possible to find mar
tyrs at the present day, and suggested thht
IL the bishops and clergy of the Church uI
England were the martyrs they would De
sure to burn well, they were so dry, he re-
sorted to a device which might or might
not be allowed and approved by his own
congregation, but would certainty Braee
upon the critical taste of churchmen
Time was when sermons, like speeches.
were subject to Interruption. as Chrysos-
TOMS were. for example, at Constantinopie'
and the interruption, II 1t was disturoihe,
was enliyeniug There Is indeed, story
that Chrysostom once preached a sermon
against the practice of applauding preach-
ers by olapping of hands and stamping OF
feet and that his congregation received
even that sermon with applause. But piety,
or perhaps decorum, has long since forbid
den the expression of approval or dissent
Il
thing that any one listening to sermon
should cry "Hear, hear" or mo. no.. such
CALCULATIONS are wholly undesirable; they
are fatal to reverence. But the absence OF
them enhances the difficulty of preaching.
For when an audience gives no visible or
audible sign of emotion how can a speaker
tell what the effect of his words is, or
whether they have any effect at all? Inc
secular speaker knows more or less II he IS
in touch with his hearers, but a preacher
never knows.
Thomas Boston, minister of the gospel at
Ettrick, in a sermon on Fear and hope,
Objects of the Divine Competency, after
an introduction in four sections, ded lced
six doctrines. each subdivided into from
three to eight heads; but the last doctrine
required another sermon which contained
practical Improvement of the whole, ar
ranged under eighty-six heads. A sermon
on Matthew XII. %. was subdivded into sew
enty-sx heads: on this text. indeed, Mr..
Boston preac hed four such sermons.
A Scotch preacher, not in the present de-
generate age, has been known TO preach
from five to six hours at stretch, and
sometimes when one preacher had finished
his sermon another would begin. and there
would be succession of preachers deliver
ing sermon upon sermon, until the unhappy
congregations were kept listening to the
Word" for many as ten hours without
break.
There may be at the present time GER
tain interest attaching to contemporary
account of one of the fast days connected
with the framing of the Westminster con-
fession of faith. After DIR. Twisse had be-
gun with brief prayer. Mr.. Marshall pray
ed two hours most divinely After, Mr.. Ar
rowsmith preached an hour. then a psalm:
thereafter, Mr.. Vines prayed near two
hours, and Mr.. Palmer preached an hour,
and Mr.. Seaman prayed near two hours,
then a psalm
But it is not only In regard to the length
of sermons that the public taste has under
gone a change. If may specify four cele-
brated preachers of the Church of England
Bishop Andrewes. Bishop Jeremy Taylor.
DIR. South and Bishop Butler-it Is safe to
say that there is not one of them whose
sermons would be appreciated or perhaps
tolerated at the present day.