now take a greater liberty to talk, as he called it, in the pulpit, that is, to speak familiarly to the people. Yet to the last he abated not in his preparation for the pulpit.' '-like the royal preacher in Jerusalem, who in the decline of life "still taught the people knowledge." It is, however, yet more important, to cultivate a spiritual and experimental tone of our pulpit studies. The materials drawn from intellectual sources, or from a lowered standard of orthodox theology, only bring into the outer courts of the sanctuary. We must take a coal from the altar, that the "hearts" of our people may "burn within them."

There will be, however, great injury in slavishly following any popular pattern. It is useful to observe the diversities of gifts in our brethren; but our chief business is with the discernment and cultivation of our own gifts, and the sedulous endeavour to acquire a competent measure of all Ministerial gifts, at least so as not in any part wholly to come short. Many young Ministers have crippled their effectiveness, by a vain attempt to exercise the higher qualifications of their more favoured brethren; instead of improving the more humble, but perhaps equally useful capabilities, which had been distributed to them.3

Yet does fruitful pulpit preparation depend more upon our spirituality than even upon our diligence. It is an improving

Life, p. 192. His excellent son's preparation for the pulpit was equally unremitting. To that leading object every other was subordinate. All he said, and all he saw, as well as the things he heard, were regarded by him with less or with more attention, as they bore upon that. Nothing crude or indigested found its way through his agency into the solemn assembly. Take heed' (he would say) of growing remiss in your work. Take pains while you live. Think not that after a while you may relax, and go over your old stock. The scripture still affords new things to those who search them. Continue searching. How can you expect God's blessing on your people's observance, if you are careless ? '—Life, p. 112, 113. Eliot's view of the importance of preparation is admirable -'He liked no preaching, but what had been well studied for; and he would very much commend a sermon, which he could perceive had required some good thinking and reading in the author of it. I have been present,' (says his biographer) when he thus addressed a preacher just come home from the assembly with him- Brother, there was oil required for the service of the sanctuary, but it must be beaten oil; I praise God, that I saw your oil so well beaten to-day. The Lord help us always by good study to beat our oil, that there may be no knots in our sermons left undissolved, and that there may be a clear light thereby given in the house of God.' And yet he likewise looked for something in a sermon beside and beyond the mere study of man He was for having the Spirit of God breathing in it and with it; and he was for speaking those things, from those impressions and with those affections, which might compel the hearer to say- The Spirit of God was here. I have heard him complain- It is a sad thing, when a sermon shall have that one thing-the Spirit of God—wanting in it.' Mather's Life of Eliot. 2 Eccl. xii. 9. 3 See some valuable remarks in Raikes on Clerical Education. p. 221.

and industrious habit, flowing from the heart penetrated with a sense of the love of Christ, the value of souls, the shortness of time, and the supreme concerns of eternity. And when it is intelligently fixed upon the subject-matter, clear views of Scriptural truth are beautifully unfolded, flowing in perspicuous and natural order, and no less subservient to personal edification than to public instruction. Thus the Christian's operative principle realizes an accurate perception of the main object, and concentrates all the powers of the mind upon it; so that, without this habit, the most diligent Ministerial student becomes a mere trifler in his momentous work.

But the importance of this subject calls us to consider it more in detail, under the three particulars of-Composition of Sermons-Habit of Meditation-and Special Prayer.

I-COMPOSITION OF SERMONS.

How much responsibility attaches to our pulpit addresses! It cannot be of light moment, whether our people are "fed with knowledge and undertanding," or with ill-prepared and unsuitable provision. The pulpit is the ordinary distribution of the bread of life; and much wisdom indeed is required, " rightly to divide the word of truth," that each may be ready to say"A word spoken in season, how good is it!" 2

In the selection of our subjects, the Sacred Volume opens a field of almost infinite extent. We can only seize the most suitable points of present interest, without pretending to occupy the whole field. The Apostle gives us some wise cautionary rules respecting our choice of subjects-marking with equal distinctness "the things that are good and profitable to men," and "the things that are unprofitable and vain."3 He warns us against curious or speculative matters, as inconsistent with our office, and hurtful in their results. He would have us "affirm

2 Prov. xv. 23.

12 Tim. ii. 15. 3 Comp. Tit. iii. 8, 9. 42 Tim. ii. 15, 16, 23. Bishop Reynolds guards us against a danger closely allied to this the vain affectation of finding something new and strange in the plainest texts, which shows pride and wantonness much more than solid learning or judgment.' Sermon

constantly" the doctrine of man's ruin and recovery, as the sole efficient spring of practical godliness; and, after his own example, bend all subjects naturally to Christ, and concentrate them all in the full exhibition of his cross. The materials for this system of instruction occur in the daily course of reading, in secret retirement with God, in the habit of family intercourse, in unlooked for, or even ordinary, providences; and thus rising before us, they will always find a responsive interest in their adaptation to the present wants and sympathies of our people. Cases also in our parochial intercourse-of ignorance, of hardened obstinacy, of perplexity, or of awakened conviction— furnish some of the best matter for our Sabbath Ministrations.3

The meaning and object of a text is a definite passage from the word of God, as the ground-work of some statement of truth, drawn from the word. This is natural and obvious. But we question the propriety of selecting texts merely as mottos for pulpit dissertations. Instead of the sermon being made from the text, the text is made from the sermon. It is read as a customary introduction. It furnishes the occasion of the discursive inquiry, but its component parts, or its connexion with the context, are left untouched. This method-besides that it loses the office of the expositor seems scarcely to acknowledge due

on self-denial, Works, p. 810. The Minister's office in the pulpit-let it be remembered -is that of "an Interpreter," to expound the mind of God-not to show what the text may be made to speak, but what there is good reason to believe the Holy Ghost intended it to speak. Hence we may give a Scriptural statement, and at the same time, a false exposition of Scripture. This Ministration enervates the most forcible matter by an uncertain dependence upon Divine authority, and builds our faith upon human fancy and imagination. In the gratification of fancy and conceit, the true practical instruction is overlooked Scripture is treated as if it had no definite meaning: making of any thing' (as Hooker says, v. c. 59,) what it listeth, and bringing in the end all truth to nothing. On the subject of texts, see Claude's Essay, edited by Mr. Simeon, with many valuable improvements. Whatever may be thought of some of his minuter points of detail, no work will be found more useful in assisting a clear digestion, and a lucid arrangement of our subject matter. Some excellent hints also may be gathered from Lectures on Homiletics and Preaching, by E. Porter, D. D. Theological President of the Seminary at Andover, United States. Comp. Bowles. Lib. ii. c. 1, 2.

1 Titus iii. 8, wa-in order that--to the end that, &c.

See 1 Cor. ii. 2.

3 Blackwell notices, and profitably enlarges upon, the following particulars in reference to the choice of subjects. 1. The spiritual state of the people. 2. Their capacity for hearing the Gospel. 3. Their predominant sins. 4. Providential occasions. Meth. Evang. pp. 48-58. Cotton Mather's rule was to consider the case and circumstance of his hearers, as his means of direction to his subjects; and to have some particular design of edification in every sermon that he preached.' Bowles adds the main rule for constant recollection- Salus populi inter concionandum suprema lex esto.' Lib. ii. 1.

reverence to the word of God. And though it may sometimes afford opportunities for useful discussion, yet it tends to ́ divert the mind from the inspection, meditation, and weighing of sacred scripture, which is the true food of the soul, and the treasury of Divine wisdom: and to which alone the converting grace of the Holy Spirit is annexed.' 1

Some of Cotton Mather's rules for his student's treatment of texts are excellent; such as-If possible to read the text in the original, and consult commentators before he composed his sermon-to study a scriptural style in his sermons, and to confirm his several heads of discourse with some Scripture proof or illustration-to have much of Christ in all his sermons, as knowing that the Holy Ghost loves to glorify Christ; and hoping, that if he followed this rule, the Holy Spirit would favour him with much of his influence in the exercise of his Ministry to crowd every sermon as full of matter as possible without obscurity.

A remark on some of these rules may be allowed. The use of commentators is well, before we compose our sermons, but not before we have considered and arranged them. This was Mr. Cecil's plan of preparation; not to forestall his own views by the use of commentaries; but first to talk over the subject to himself, writing down whatever struck his mind: and after having arranged what he had written, settled his plan, and exhausted his own resources-to avail himself of all extrinsical help. There is no greater hindrance to solid learning, than to make such use of other men's resources, as to neglect our own. The use of helps generally, and especially Helps for Composition' in the form of 'Skeletons'-needs great discretion, discrimination, and diligence, lest, by restraining the active energy of our

Vitri. Methodus Homiletica, cap. iii.

? See his Life.

3 See his Life, prefixed to his Remains. The following are noticed by a valuable writer as among the important advantages arising from foreign research, as supplementary -not preliminary-to home resources- It will give excitement to the mind, and rouse it to a state of higher energy and activity--It will present ample materials for thought and reflection; and should the mind fix, with a vigorous grasp, only on some one interesting thought, that single idea may be the first of a train, which will give a character and a value to the whole discourse-It will give additional amplitude, richness, and vividness to many of the illustrations, which your own mind might have suggested in part, but with much less power of exciting interest and impression.--It will also serve to give additional confidence in the expression of your own opinion.'-Mental Discipline, by the Rev. H. F. Burder, p. 85.

native powers, they do not rather prove serious hindrances to composition. Mr. Simeon's well-known and most useful work, may be said to give precisely that measure of help which is required―encouragement to inexperienced diligence, and at the same time a fair scope for the exercise of talent. For the care and thought requisite to produce from his volume, a complete and well-proportioned discourse, are fully equal to the labour of an original composition; so skilfully are the breaks contrived, to exercise the judgment in suitable filling up of the vacuum, and in the accurate arrangement of the scriptural matter.1 Perhaps the highest commendation of the work is, that a mere copyist would exhibit the Skeletons like the bones in the prophetic vision, very dry; whereas a thoughtful mind would find ample and profitable employment in clothing them with solid matter, in the form of symmetry and strength.

As to Cotton Mather's rule of crowding his sermons with matter-It would be well, that our discourses should be like Elihu's, "full of matter;" 3 and we must regret, that a good man is not always a wise or a full man. Yet we must remember our people's capabilities, the limited nature of their digestive powers, and the serious injury of stretching them beyond their natural exercise. The principle of our Lord's instruction was, to" speak the word unto the people, as they were able to hear it." Had he said all that he could have said, it would have been infinitely more than they would have been able to have received; and consequently the grand end of his instruction would have been lost. It needs much prudence to select the most appropriate instruction, rather than by sweeping over too large a surface, to weaken distinctness of impression. Mr. Cecil justly

1 This remark applies with less force to the Horæ Homileticæ of this revered writer; which, being constructed for the use of the laity as well as the clergy, came from the author's hands with more substance and completeness.

2 Ezek. xxxvii. 2. We might take an illustration-Mr. Martyn's Sermon on Psalm ix. 17; which is the filling up of Mr. Simeon's Skeleton on that text. It was worked out (as we incidentally learn from his Life) under circumstances of peculiar disadvantage and mental agitation. But the life that is infused throughout, the variety of its enlargements, the accuracy of the proportions of its several parts, the skill with which the breaks are completed, and the warm and strong colouring given to the whole-all combine to give to it the power and effect of an original and talented composition. See his Life, pp. 130132, and compare his volume of Sermons (v) with Helps to Composition, Skel. 387.

3 Job xxxii. 18. Archbishop Usher used to call Dr. Manton a voluminous preachernot from the tedious length of his discourses, but from his art of compressing the substance of volumes of Divinity into a narrow compass. 4 Mark iv. 33.