For such as are merely desirous to avoid the common faults in declamation, the following are the principal precautions which ought to be adopted.

They should indulge a favourable hope of the suc

have introduced accuracy, but it has done great prejudice to eloquence; for a discourse read is far inferior to an oration spoken. It leads to a different sort of composition as well as of delivery, and can never have an equal effect upon any audience. The odium of the different sects about the time of the Restoration drove the Established Church from that warmth which the sectaries were judged to have carried too far, into the opposite extreme of a studied coolness and composure of manners. Hence, from the art of persuasion, which preaching ought always to be, it has passed in England into mere reasoning and instruction; which not only has brought down the eloquence of the pulpit to a lower tone than it might justly assume, but has produced this farther effect, that by accustoming the public ear to such cool and dispassionate discourses, it has tended to fashion other kinds of public speaking upon the same model."-BLAIR'S Lectures, vol. ii., p. 43, 44.

The same author says elsewhere, "that the practice of reading sermons is one of the greatest obstacles to the eloquence of the pulpit in Great Britain, where alone this practice prevails. No discourse, which is designed to be persuasive, can have the same force when read as when spoken. The common people all feel this, and their prejudice against this practice is not without foundation in nature what is gained hereby in point of correctness, is not equal to what is lost in point of persuasion and force."Ibid., p 118.

BB

cess of their performance at the very moment of delivery, that they may speak without reluctance or uneasiness. They should be deeply penetrated with their subject, and recall what passed in their mind while engaged in composition. They should diffuse throughout every part of the discourse the ardour with which they are animated. They should speak authoritatively, in order to arrest the attention of the hearers. They should avoid the declamation of an actor, and be cautious of introducing theatrical pantomime in the pulpit, which will never succeed. They should begin with pitching their voice at a proper medium, so that the tone may be capable of rising without producing discord, and of being lowered without becoming inaudible. They may be well assured that the effect is lost when they attempt to strain their voice to the highest pitch; that bawling repels attention instead of assisting it; and that the lower they sink their voice in pathetic passages, the better they are heard. They should not allow themselves to make use of a multiplicity of gestures; and they should especially guard against laying an undue stress on a particular word in the general movement of a period. They should avoid all corporeal agitation, and never strike the pulpit either with the feet or hands. They should vary the in flections of their voice with each rhetorical figure, and their intonations with every paragraph. Let them imitate the simple and impressive accents of nature in delivery as well as in composition. In a word, with the rapidity of utterance they should

blend pauses, which are always striking when but seldom used and properly timed.

Such are the innocent artifices which a Christian orator may render subservient to the success of his ministry.

Bourdaloue's action was very impressive, although he continually had his eyes shut when he was preaching.

Massillon spoke also with much authority, but scarcely made use of any action.

The Abbé PoULLE and the Abbé RENAUD, an orator of older standing, have united to their other talents action of a higher quality; and there is no preacher of this century who has been able to equal them in this respect.

It is an excellent method to revise a sermon as soon as it has been preached. The pulpit discovers its beauties and its faults; and, provided the orator is skilful to remark the impression that the discourse makes upon the auditory, it is easy for him to observe the weak or prolix passages which require to be improved.

Let him, then, pass judgment upon himself, when quitting the pulpit, less by the report of others than by his own observations.

SECTION LX.

OF MOTIVES TO EXCITE THE EMULATION OF CHRISTIAN

ORATORS.

I AM aware that these multiplied corrections occasion very painful labour to Christian preachers. Nevertheless, that which is really disheartening and seriously alarming to us in our ministry, is neither the study which composition requires, nor the restriction which memory imposes on us; but the discouragements increasing as we grow old in our profession; the lassitude which perpetually attends the repetition of sermons no longer delivered but with reluctance; the certainty of discovering faults continually in our discourses, and of finding ourselves thus not only very much on this side of perfection, but even below the level of our own abilities; and, above all, the indifference of our age for religion. Hence it is that persons attend to religious instruction as they would to a profane spectacle; that they are desirous of reducing our zeal to the sacrifice of the most important truths, and the most forcible eloquence to I know not what frivolous subject or rhetorical flowers; and that, in fine, it seems as if it were expected of us to degrade ourselves both as apostles and orators, in order to please the multitude.

These draughts are no doubt bitter. It is, however, necessary to swallow them, should we only succeed in reclaiming one wicked man to virtue, of preserving one wretched man from despair: in a word, of preventing one single crime from the earth.

Ah! what more can be necessary in order to quicken our ardour? Is there a virtuous and feeling mind that can despise such a delightful reward?

We shall have fulfilled the end of our vocation when we render ourselves useful to men; in their felicity we shall receive an indemnification for all our sacrifices: the pleasing remembrance of our youthful labours will serve to delight the solitude, and to console the inactivity of our advanced years; and when death shall lay his heavy hand upon our eyelids, we shall each be able to say to that great GOD, whose laws we have published, “O my Father! thou hast given me thy children to instruct. I restore them to thee better. Remember all the blessings which thou hast poured upon thy people, through the instrumentality of thy ministering servant. Let the tears which I have dried up, the tears which I have excited when pleading in thy name, plead with thee on my behalf. I have been the instrument of thy clemency: make me hereafter the object of thy tender mercies."

Every other inducement doubtless dwindles to a point before these great objects.

If it were allowable, when entering upon this course of life, to hold encouragements in any degree of estimation, I should say, without dread of contradiction, that, with a view of reviving the relish for evangelical eloquence, the same means are made use of among us which excited so successful an emulation in the excellent days of the age of Louis XIV.