Yet does fruitful pulpit preparation depend upon the spirituality as well as the diligence of the habit. It is an improving 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. This spiritual disposition realizes an accurate perception of the main object, directing the studies to it with power of interest; so that, even with the most unwearied course of application, the Minister without this habit becomes a mere trifler in his momentous work.

But the general importance of this subject will justify us in considering it more in detail, under the three particulars of Composition of Sermons-Habit of Meditation and Special Prayer.

SECTION I.

COMPOSITION OF SERMONS.

How much responsibility attaches itself to the subject matter and the mode of our pulpit addresses! It cannot be of light moment, whether our people are "fed with knowledge and understanding," or with ill-prepared and unsuitable provision. The pulpit is the ordinary distribution of the bread of life for their daily nourishment, and much wisdom indeed is here required, "rightly to divide the word of truth," that each may be ready to say-" a word spoken in season, how good is it."*

In the selection of the subject matter of our public instructions, the Sacred Volume opens to us a field

* 2 Tim. ii. 15. Prov. xv. 23.

of almost infinite extent. To occupy the whole field is impossible. To seize the definite points, best adapted to the occasion, is the desirable object. The Apostle gives us some wise cautionary rules respecting our choice of texts and subjects, marking with equal distinctness" the things that are good and profitable to men," and "the things that are unprofitable and vain."* He would have us avoid curious or speculative matters, as inconsistent with the design of our office, and unprofitable in their results.† He would have us "affirm 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. Various sources for the direction of 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 providential occurrences. Subjects thus rising before us will always find a responsive interest in their adaptation to the present wants and cares of individual cases. Cases more especially in our parochial intercourse-of ignorance, of hardened obstinacy, of perplexity, or of awakened conviction, will furnish some of the best materials for our Sabbath Ministrations. This was Cotton Mather's excellent rule, to consider the case and circumstance of his hearers as his means

*Comp. Tit. iii. 8, 9.

† 2 Tim. ii. 15, 16, 23. Bishop Reynolds warns 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 on Self-denial, Works, p. 810.

Tit. iii. 8, va-in order that--to the end that, &c.
§ See 1 Cor. ii. 2.

of direction to his subjects, and to have some particular design of edification in every sermon that he preached.'

The propriety of selecting texts merely as mottos for pulpit dissertations may be questioned. The occasion of the discursive inquiry is perhaps taken from the text, but the text itself is left nearly untouched in its own place, without any exposition of its component parts, or of its connexion with the preceding and subsequent context. Vitringa justly observes of this method, that though it may afford in some cases. opportunities for useful discussion, yet that it is liable to considerable objections, as tending to divert the mind from the direct meditation of the sacred text, which is the true food of the soul, and the treasury of Divine wisdom, and to which alone the converting influence of the Spirit of God is annexed.'*

In speaking of the treatment of texts, we may refer to some of Cotton Mather's admirable rules, such as the following-If possible-to read the text in the original, and consult commentators before he composed his sermon-to endeavour after a scriptural style in his sermons, and not commonly to dismiss any heads of discourse without 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.†

One or two remarks upon these rules may be allowed. The use of commentators is well before we compose our sermons, but not before we have considered and arranged

Vitri. Methodus Homiletica, cap. iii.

† See his Life.

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.* The use of helps so as to call forth
the native energies, and original resources of the mind,
requires much consideration. There is no greater hind-
rance to solid learning, than to make such use of other
men's resources, as to neglect our own. Helps for
composition in the form of 'Skeletons' need great dis-
cretion, discrimination, and diligence, to employ with
personal and Ministerial advantage, so that the proposed
helps do not rather prove serious hindrances to compo-
sition. The Writer has been forcibly struck with the
successful ingenuity displayed in Mr. Simeon's well-
known and most useful work. The care and thought
requisite to produce from his volume a complete and
well-proportioned discourse, is fully equal to the labour
of an original composition; so skilfully are the breaks
contrived to exercise the judgment in the suitable filling
up of the vacuum, and arrangement of the Scriptural
matter in its proper place and proportion.*
A mere
copyist of the 600 Skeletons would constantly trans-
plant his people into the valley of dry bones, where the
bones were both "very many and very dry." But a
thoughtful mind would find ample and profitable em-
ployment in clothing the Skeletons, and exhibiting them
fitted with solid matter, in the form of symmetry and

*See his Life, prefixed to his 'Remains.'

This remark applies with less force to the Hora 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.

strength. As an illustration of this, Henry Martyn's sermon on Psalm ix. 17. is the filling up of Mr. Simeon's Skeleton on that text. It was worked out (as we accidentally 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 it the power and effect of an original and talented composition.* A remark may also be made upon 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;" and we must regret, that a good man is not always a wise or a full man. Yet we must remember

instruction was, to 66

Their

our people's capabilities as well as our own. digestive powers for the reception of food are limited, and it would be most injurious to stretch them beyond their healthful exercise. The principle of our Lord's speak the word unto the people as they were able to hear it." Had he said all that he might 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. Such is the fertility of the field of Scripture doctrine, that consummate prudence is often required to select the most appropriate instruction. Mr. Cecil justly remarks, that 'it requires as much * See his Life, pp. 130-132, and compare his volume of Sermons (v.) with Helps to Composition, Skel. 387.

† Job xxxii. 18.

Archbishop Usher used to call Dr. Manton a voluminous preacher-not from tedious length of his discourses, but from his art of compressing the substance of volumes of Divinity into a narrow compass.