Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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12 i HIHTS OH SXSMOKIZIBfO. 4 Written it>r Young Preacbera. From Preacbera Jpnrnal. 111. Character and Length of Sermona. Only in non Christian countries, i.e., amongst uon-Christian people, can the gospel be preached as it>aa in the early days of Christianity. Kernssem is the verb, and it means to proclaim as a herald, to call, to summon, to invite, to deliver a meesage. Hence, the the Gospel has been already made known, where the people are professedly Christian,the chief object of preach • ing to instruct, to build op by sup plying food, to edify— which last word oomes, yon remember, from edere, to eat. Undoubtedly there are in Christian lands many who practically are heathen. With these, however, this paper is not directly concerned, bnt with those who attend the services of God's Loose—or, aa they are sometftnes C’llled, chorcb going people. They know the principal parts of the Gospel, the facts which the Apos tles and others proclaimed to both Jew and Gentile as the Gos pel. The chief object, then, of preaching to soeh poeple as nsoal ly attend chnrch is theiredifloation by means of teaching, by which teaching they, so far as they are devont Christians, will be guarded against the danger of being "oar ried about with every wind of doc trine, by the sleight of men, and conning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive." By this process of edification, through in strnction, there is, so to speak, built op in the Christian sonl a good sound, orthodox coastitation, in which.the noxious bacteria of false teaching can find no lodgment. To attain this result direct contro versy does not seem to be necessary; the plain preaching of positive truth will be more effectu 1 than openly controvorsial sermons. Nay, few things are better adapted to keep men "sound in the faith" than the freunent and devout repetition of the simple facts of the Gospel. Probably the regular recitation of the Constantinopolitan Symbol, together with almost con stant nse of the Gloria Patri in the pnblio services, has done more to keep Episcopalians safe from the Socinian and other heresis than all the controversial sersoms that have ever been preecbed in their churches. THE LUTHERAN VISITOR When the preacher is recom mended to make his sermons in- atrnotive it is not meant that be is never to be hortatory; indeed m- ■trnction may well be followed by exhortation, seeing that those parts of a sermon which a man ahonld take to himself particnarly are jnst the parts which be thinks most suitable to another. The very thing yon have introduced specially for Brother A and other* like him is the very thing of which Brother A is almost sure to say, "H*! that just suits Brother B; it hits him hard, and I do hope he’ll take it to himself." Let your in struction, therefore, be followed by exhortation; and let both be so plain that yonr congregation, not only need not, but cannot mis understand wbat yon mean, except by sheer willfulness or obstinacy. 8o, too, when the preacher is re commended to avoid controversy. That, instraotive sermona on the God head of Christ are necessarily opposed to Ariamsm; sermons on Christ's humanity are opposed to Gnosticism; and sermona ou the neoes.-ity of sopernatara! grace art opposed to Pelagianism. But it is not necessary to preach snob ser mons in controversial form, or to name any one of the heresies. This way of defending the troth will be mnoh more effectual than the com mon plan pursued by controversial ists, namely, supposing objections to be advanced by an opponent and then answering them, for the re plies which yon make to those ob jections may not be understood by all yonr hearers, thoogb perfectly plain and oonclnaive to yonr- self; and, beside, in answering yonr hypothetical objections yon may suggest other difficulties to thsir minds, and these yon, not knowing of their existence, leave onanswered. In whet is known as a Bible olees the arguments which nnbelievera bring against the faith may be mentioned and answered categorically, for the members are expected and encouraged to ask, there and then, for an explanation of wbat they do not understand; but people listening to a sermon are obviously in a very different position. 'Bnt, see, shonld contro versy be forced upon yon, and under such oironmstancea that it would be likely to do more harm to ignore it than to take it np, strike for God and the right, and strike with all yonr force—re membering, howevrr, that no mat ter how severe the blow, it may be delivered in the spirit of love and chivalry. It is not ont of the place to say here that it is very desirable to have the Psalms, hymns, lessons, and even, the prayers in part in harmony with the subject of the sermon as far as possible. The preachers in episoopally governed churches seem to have an advan tage in tbia respect over those of other communions, seeing that all those portions of any service which are not common, i. e., constant, snob as the collects, epistles, gos pel, end so on, are intended te em phasise some one prominent fact, doctrine or practice; and thns the preacher can always select such a subject for bis sermon as will be in harmony with ths service. But wbat the episcopal minister find* already arranged for him others oao arrange for ihemtelves, if4hey will only take ths pains to do so. At any rate, Uey can avoid all soch incongruities as, e. g., ui- mg lessons and hymns which spesk of the creation, the goodness of God, or future rewards and punish ments at a aerviee when the sermon treats of jna'.ifloation, saintliness of life, or self aacrifloe for the sake of others. The length of a sermon most, to a great extent, depend upon ths sobjeet. In these days people in general do not care to listen to a preacher for more than half an boor, unless he is far aboee tie aeerage; and really tbe man who avoids verbosity, and is tbrooghly in earnest, can say a good deal in half an boor, can give his congre gation much food for tboaght in half an boor. If, then, when pre paring yonr sermon, yon find it likely to ron much over thirty minutes, yon had better dieide it into two or more parts, to be preached in the same chorcb at con- seontife services. While yon shonld never nse "padding" to make yonr yonr sermon last thst conventional twenty five or thirty minutes, it is still worse to slight yonr sub ject in order to bring yonr sermon within that length of time. Re member, yonr object is not to write a strmon which it will take yon just so many minutes to preach, but tbe discussion of a certain sub ject, and that your duty is do jus tice to your subject irrespective of the length of the sermon—though, as has been said, if it it is going to rno an inordinate length, it bad better be preached as a short course rather than a single ser mon. To be sure, if yon are a re markably clever and brilliant February G, 1902 preacher, and have a very intel lectual andience, yon may, if yon are foolish enough to do ao, preach for an hoar or longer. Foolish enough to do sot Yes, for/remem ber, yon ere to preach to the same congregation week after week, and the greater your effort on any given Sunday, the more they will expect from yon the following Sunday. Let tbe yonng preacher think of tbia before he decides that bis sermona shall in general exceed, say.twenty- two hundred words at the outside. By the way, if you write yonr ser mons in extenso they are not like ly to be too long. It is said that the lat* Canon Liddon—and he al ways preached from his MB.—ael- dom took less thsn an hoar and a half to preach his great Lenten sermons, and that the immenae congregations that used to assem ble under tbe dome of St. Psul'a to bear them were always sorry he did not preach longer. Some thing similar ia said to be true of the late Messrs. Spurgeon and Ponsboo. But. then, there are ao few Punshons, Spurgeons, or Lid- dons. For Whooping Congh nse CHE NEY’S EXPECTORANT. Buildres’ Supplies. All Kiadt. All Cheap, Bat foaa Poor. 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