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12 HIVTS ON SERMONIZING. Written for Young Preacher* From Preachers' Journal. II. Work of Preparation.—Continued. There is another difficnlty, yon may be caught sometime or other; t and this, besides being rather em barrassing, will assuredly lower yon in the estimation of those whose good opinion is worth hav ing, and will lessen yonr influence. Some few years ago three clergy man preached at the opening ser vices of a church, one of them, from a neighboring parish, being highly esteemed as a preacher, ilis sermon that day was admirable, and every one was delighted with it. But, unfortunately for his reputation, a gbntleman who was present had already met with the discourse in a volume of sermons published by an English bishop. He showed it to one or two others; the piece of plagiarism soon be came generally known, and the estimation in whiph the preacher had been held before was exchanged for contempt. It is related that a certain famous archbishop of Dub lin used frequently to go to evening service, how here, now there, amongst the city churches—not as archbishop, but as one of their con gregation—for the purpose of hear ing what sort of sermons were preached by his clergy. On one occa sion bewailed after the service until the rector came out the ves try ;&ud then, having congratulated him upon preaching such an excel lent sermon, said: “It must have taken you a long time to prepare it, Mr A.”—“0, no, you^Grace,” was the reply, “I got it ready inside of forty-eight hours.”— “Very remarkable,” said the arch bishop, for I assure you it cost me a fortnight’s hard work to prepare the same sermon!” It is hardly necessary to say that the clergyman would not have preached it had be known who was the author; but It had been published anonymously in a magazine which circulated chiefly amongst the clergy. If for any reasan a man should find him self forced to preach another man’s sermon, or if he even thinks it desirable to do so (and such occas ions are quite conceivable), let him take it into the pnlpit, and there and then tell his people who wrote it and why he is going to read it. One can respect such a man’s hon esty, but one can feel only con THE LUTHERAN VISITOR tempt for the man who takes the sermon of another and tries to palm it off as his own. Rather than be guilty of such an action as this one bad better follow the ex ample of the preacher who, finding it impossible to have a sermon ready for Sunday morning, went into the pulpit at the usual hour, and then said, “Brethren, I have not been able to prepare a sermon for yon during the week; but I will read for yon a couple of chapters out of the book of Job, which are better than any sermon I ever preached in my life”. Third caution. Never “cram” for the immediate purpose of pre paring a sermon. It may be nec essary to read up specially in order to give an address on some particular subject with which you are not familiar; but it will scarcely ever be necessary to do so in order to preach the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, if you be only regular and systematic in your reading, as above recommended. An athlete, about to give an exibition of his powers, will not prepare for the task by being careless of his exer cises for a month or two, and then * work hard in the gymnasium for a couple of days immediately pre ceding, but will depend upon the training to which he has subjected himself for years: nor will a man who has a hard day’s manual labor to perform depend for the necessary strength upon the food which he eats that same day, but upon the muscle which is the product of the food he has been eating and of the work he has been doing since he first began to labor. The preacher’s course should be analogous. By regularly attending to his religious devotions and to snch reading as is suitable to his calling, he will gen erally be ready at any time to pre pare a sermon, and will never, undecprdinary cironmstances, have to read up specially for the pur pose. This, however, does not mean that when preparing a sermon he must never consult any book on the shelves; for indeed he must often do so for some snob purpose as, e. g., to find a date of which he is not quite certain, to get the exact words of some passage which he wishes to use as a quotation, or to ascertian if his exegesis of some particular text is warranted by standard authors. Bnt he should be familiar with his subject long before preparing his sermon, as an accomplished architect is familiar with the style of architecture in ac cordance with which he has to pre pare plans and designs for some edifice, or as the skillful physician is able to diagnose a disease with out looking up the anthoaities at the moment be visits the patient, and can write ont the necessary prescription without having to con- snlt the pharmacopoeia. But the young preacher should know what to do as well as what not to do in the work of sermonizing. Assuming, then, that he is ready both spiritually and mentally, he must first select a subject. Here he must be left to himself, for he knows (or ought to know) better than any one else what those relig ions topics are, whether doctrinal or practical, upon which his people most need instruction, exhortation or encouragement, and also what sins should be particularly de nounced. It is is usual to preach sermons from texts of Scripture,and such a text should be selected as contains the subject of the sermon. In the pulpit anything eccentric is properly regarded as being in very bad taste, and there a text which would be* likely to excite people’s risibilities should not be chosen. Thus, it would not be an evidence of the preacher’s good breeding if shortly after a death in the neigh borhood, be were to preach from the words, “Thou art but a dead man,” or “Then I said I shall die in my nest,” or “It came to pass that the beggar died,” or “The rich man died, and was buried; and in hell he lifed up his eyes, be ing in torment.” So also, soon after a marriage, no man who has any sense of the fitness of things would think of preaching from such a text as, “It is not good to mar ry,” or “They neither marry, nor are given in marriage,” or “When they have begun to wax wanton against Christ they will marry,” or “The last state of that man is worse than the first.” It would not be difficult to give scores of examples showing how easy it is for the young preacher to fall into the “faux pas” against which he is here pnt on his guard. Again, it is decidely “infra dignitatem” to select as text a few words which, by themselves, have a very different meaning from what they have legitimately when taken with the context; as, e. g., “Baptism doth also now save ns,” “I thank God that. I baptized none of yon,” “Christ sent me not to baptize,” “The flesh profiteth nothing,” “Ye see then how that by workp a man is justified.” A text, then, sboqld be simply a passage of January 23, 190] . Scripture which fairly contains thi subject of the sermon that is to bt preached from it; and it will b« none the worse if it consists of two or three words. Sometimes, how ever, a very brief text contains the subject more plainly and fullj! than a lengthy one. Thus, for « sermon on repentance, pure au<l simple, it would be difficult to* select any text more suitable than the three words, “Repentance to- ward God,” or “Not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.” Either of these ia certainly much more appropriate than “Except ye repent, ye shall likewise perish,” or “Ye know that afterward, when be would have inherited the blessing, he was re jected : for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.” A Chance to Make Money. I have been selling Perfnmes for the past six months. I make them myself at home and sell to friends and neigh bors. Have made $710, Everybody buys a bottle. For Mots, worth of mat erial I make Perfume that would cost $3.00 in drug stores. I also sold 12S formulas for making perfume at $!.(0 each. I first made it for my own nSe only, but the curiosity of friends as to where 1 procured such exquisite odors promp ted me to sell it. I clear from$2S.00to $35 00 per week. I do not canvass; people come and send to me for tne per fumes. Any intelligent person can do as well as I do. For 42cte in stamps I will send you the formular for making all kinds of perfumes and sample bottle prepaid. I will also help you to get started in the business. Martha Francis. II South V.tndeventer Ave,, St. Louis, Mo. Sleeping; Cars to Charleston. The Southern railway announces the establishment of an additional sleeping car line to Charleston, 8. C, from Cincinnati, Chattanooga and At lanta, via Augusta, southbound leav ing Cincinnati at 8:05 p. m., Chatta nooga at 6:45 a. m., Atlanta 3:10 p. in., Augusta 11 p. in., arriving Charles ton 7 a. m. Returning leave Charles ton 11 p. m.. arrive Augusta 7:15 a.m., Atlanta i2:45 p. in., Chattanooga 9:50 p. m., Cincinnati 8:10 a. m. On this sleeping car line will be han dled sleeping cars, and this completes the excellent service afforded by the Southern railway and its connections to Charleston on account of the expo sition. New York and ThomasrtUa. The Southern railway announces effective Thursday, January 9th, and continning each Thursday thereafter, through Sleeping oar line will be inau gurated between NewYork and Thoin- asville, Ga., on train 33. The north bound train on this line will leave Thomasville on the Plant system train connecting with the Southern railway train No. 34 Tuesday, Jana- uary 14,1902, and each Tuesday there after during the winter tourist season. For Whooping Congh use CHE NEY’S EXPECTORANT.