Not only should pastors preach, but we think, with Fenelon, under our own explanation, that it belongs to them only to preach.* True political eloquence belongs only to the statesman; true sacred eloquence, only to the statesman in religion or religious affairs, that is to say, the pastor; who alternately passes from generalities to details, and from details to generalities; from theory to practice, and from practice to theory; who has been in contact with individuals, and is familiar with their ways. If certain men without a parish are successful in preaching, it is because they are pastors after another manner and at large.

It is true that the primitive Church divided ministerial functions. They had κυβερνήταίt and διδάσκαλοι. Are all apostles? are all teachers?"-1 Cor., xii., 29. But without saying that gifts are here referred to, and without speaking of what the necessity of the times might require, we may hold that the office of some was absolutely foreign to others. At a period when each Christian was a minister-when an Aquila and a Priscilla, simple artisans, became instructors of an Apollos, how can we suppose that the teacher was not a pastor? We may well think that there were elders (πрɛσbúτερol) who did not preach, but not preachers who were strangers to every other pastoral duty except preaching. Paul preached and governed: Timothy preached and governed.

The pastorate, then, is necessary to preaching; but it is yet more evident that preaching is essential to the pastorate,

"We must commonly leave preaching to pastors. Thus shall we give to the pulpit the simplicity and authority which belong to it. For pastors, who to experience in the work and in the conduct of souls unite the knowledge of the Scriptures, can speak in the manner best suited to the wants of their hearers; whereas preachers, who are merely speculative, enter less into the difficulties, and can scarcely adapt themselves to the minds of their hearers, and speak in a more vague manner.”-FENELON, Dialogues sur l'Eloquence (Dialogue III.). † Governors or directors.-Edit. ‡ Teachers.

and that we can not conceive of a pastor who does not preach; we would say, who does not preach in public (for, as respects preaching out of season, who can doubt this?); since, apart from preaching, to the minister there remains nothing of the feeder and of the pastor. But public preaching is essential to the pastorate, which, without this, can not reach all souls, and can not present truth under the most regular and most general form. It is the glory of our Reformation that it restored public preaching to the Church, I say even to the Catholic Church. How noble was it to advance the priest from the mere celebration of rites (which had become a species of magic) to science, to thought, to the word, to conflict?

§ 2. Principles or Maxims which should be maintained as to Preaching.

On the subject of preaching, we must adopt certain principles, or acknowledge certain commanding truths.

The first is, that preaching is an action, a real word, not the imitation of a word, and that eloquence is a virtue. Abstracting art, preaching is a work of love, a good work, a good office, a part of the service of God. But this is only the first step here is the second.

Preaching is a mystery. A mystery, I mean, as to its action and its effects, a mystery of reprobation and salvation ;* for the word of God (which we assume to be in the preacher's mouth) does not return to him without some effect; something of truth, whether for gain or for loss, always connects itself, and remains with him who has heard it. It is truly mysterious that on the voice of one man the soul and the eternity of another should depend. Mysterious truly a mode of action so peculiar, so inexplicable, the effect of which so far outreaches our calculations, and so often disappoints * St. Cyran calls it an almost sacrament, and more awful than that of the altar. (See in the Appendix, note B.)

our foresight: How often do we see the greatest effects connected with the smallest causes, as the smallest also with the greatest; power becoming feeble, and impotence powerful; one succeeding by another's shipwreck, and vice versa: Laws there are, no doubt, but no constancy; and all rules are subordinated to the liberty of the Spirit, which “bloweth as it listeth."

All this is awful, overwhelming, but suited to empty us of ourselves. It is evident that we carry this treasure in earthen vessels, and that all which depends on us (if any thing does depend on us) is that the vessel has no leak through which the living water may escape, and no impurity by which it may be corrupted. The rest belongs not to us; and so much the less does it belong to us, the more we imagine that it does. In respect to preaching, then, as well as in respect to the whole work of the ministry, we have cause to rejoice with trembling.

The sovereignty of God in this matter (the first point to be recognized) does not exclude human responsibility. Preaching is an action, but an action of the soul, and its effects are connected with the preacher's spiritual state. It is not so much by what he says as by what he is that the preacher may flatter himself that he does not beat the air. Before every thing, he is concerned to "hold the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.”—1 Tim., iii., 9. This pure conscience (that is to say, uprightness of intention) is the true force of preaching. A discourse is powerful from the motive of him who pronounces it, whatever may be the mode in which that motive expresses itself. A discourse is so much the better. the more it resembles an act of contrition, of submission, of prayer, of martyrdom. The preacher should regard himself' as a channel for what ought to be conveyed by him into the heart of his hearers."* "The ministry of the word," says Fenelon, “is wholly founded on faith." We must pray, * Praktische Bemerkungen, etc., p. 49. I

we must purify our heart, we must expect every thing from heaven, we must arm ourselves with the sword of the word of God, and not count upon any thing in ourselves: this is the essential preparation."* In a word, our lips are naturally defiled; they must be purged, and purged by fire.† In short, preaching, which is a divine mystery, is also a human action, and the best part of this action is inward, spiritual, anterior even to the act of composing the discourse. The discourse finishes the work which prayer should begin.

To this general direction we unite a more particular one, which is expressed by St. Paul in these words: "Let him who has received the gift of prophesying exercise it according to the proportion of faith which he has received" (Rom., xii., 6), which further signifies, according to the proportion of life which he has in him. It is true that he is obliged to preach on a fixed and prescribed day. If he does not always find himself in a frame for prophesying (that is to say, for speaking with that fullness of heart, and that force which will carry the hearers along with him), he must confine himself to teaching; that is to say, treating a subject regularly without aiming to impress any thing. "Whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God; or whether we be sober, it is for your cause."—2 Cor., v., 13.

The evil consists not in being in one state rather than another, but in not exercising our gift according to the measure of faith and of life with which we ourselves are exercised at a given moment, to wish to force our state -the hand of

*FENELON: Dialogues sur l'Eloquence (Dialogue III.).

"Then, said I, woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the cherubims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar; and he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged."—Isaiah, vi., 5–7.

‡ Praktische Bemerkungen, p. 37, 38.

God; to think that a blessing may be connected with a deception; for there is deception when our thought is surpassed by our word. We would always be very eloquent; we must content ourselves sometimes with being sober, humble, and feeble. A discourse cold and feeble, but honest, will often be more blessed than an eloquent discourse, which transcends the inward frame.

There is, moreover, in preaching an action more intellectual, more our own still. Neither the sovereignty of God nor the spiritual nature of the action diminishes its importance or impairs its necessity. God does not intend that a good and a bad instrument should give the same sounds, and indeed they do not. I admit that the power of God honors itself in our weakness, but not in our voluntary weakness, which is but a diminution of the strength He has given us, and a throwing away, so to speak, or a despising a part of His grace. The more we feel the seriousness, the responsibility, the danger of our mission, the more shall we be induced to watch, to exercise forethought, to make provision: Our own little providence enters into the account in the calculations of the providence of God. It was said to men once that they should not concern themselves as to what they should speak, expecting that what they ought to speak would be suggested to them at the time. — Mark, xiii., 11. But this has not been said to us, at least not in an absolute manner. We must, then, bestow pains upon preaching; we must preach well. Homiletics have no other object than to initiate us. They will be the most careful in preparation who best know that they can do nothing, and that they are nothing.

But an objection here occurs: May we both preach much and preach well? They who make this objection assume as evident, or at least take for granted, that we ought to preach much. All are not of this opinion; we must, then, in the first place, clear this point.

As it is evident that we are not at liberty to multiply