The Lutheran visitor. (Columbia, S.C.) 1869-1904, January 23, 1902, Image 12
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.