The interest and value of worship, as conducted in most churches, depend chiefly on the pastor. The service [p. 28] is almost wholly led by him. It is, therefore, of the highest moment not only that the sermon be thoroughly studied, but also that his spirit be prepared to lead and elevate the souls of the people in acts of devotion; for instruction is not the only object of the service: it is intended to inspire and lead souls in true, spiritual worship, such as will be acceptable to God and profitable to the people. Three things are here specially to be sought.  
1. Unity of thought. Each occasion of worship should ordinarily have one leading, pervading, governing thought which shall individualize that occasion and distinguish it from others. By this it is not meant that the subject should always be advertised in the hymns and Scriptures and prayers that precede the sermon; this might be unfortunate, as interfering with the purpose of general worship. But all parts of the service should be consistent with the subject of the discourse, and should flow naturally into it; if possible, nothing should be allowed to enter which may divert from it. The assembly should be dismissed filled with one subject and bearing away one great thought. On this account it is usually better to exclude all other subjects, both during and immediately following public worship, and when a subject out of the usual order is to be presented, such as some benevolent object, to give up the entire service to that and concentrate attention on it.
 
2. Sustained interest. The interest should rise with the progress of the service, and find its highest point at the close; otherwise, the good impressions made in the earlier part are lost in the weariness and apathy of the later. Failure in sustaining interest to the end may result from several causes: (1.) Imperfect preparation, so that the matter of the service is commonplace and uninteresting. In this age of intense mental activity, a want of freshness, [p. 29] vigor, and variety of thought is at once felt by the people, and the attention is lost. (2.) Defective, monotonous delivery, which often destroys the force of the best thought. For this the only remedy is persistent training, taken, if possible, under a good elocutionist; and where such a defect exists, to apply this remedy seems clearly the imperative duty of a man whose success in his work depends on power in public speech. (3.) Wearisome protraction of the exercises. Few sermons hold the interest of a congregation beyond half an hour. The effect of the first thirty minutes is in most cases destroyed by seeking to force attention through another fifteen or twenty. (4.) Too great exhaustion of the physical and nervous force of the preacher before the service in preparing for it. The pastor should secure thorough rest of body and mind before the Lord’s Day services, so as to come to them fresh and strong. It is better to leave the sermons unfinished than to fail of this. Preserve at all hazards a high tone of physical vigor and a healthful, elastic nervous organism; otherwise, the speaking will lack force and magnetism, and the most able and elaborate sermon will fall flat and powerless. Some of the most successful preachers avoid all severe study on Saturday, making that a day of rest and recreation, that they may come to their Lord’s Day work with full nervous and physical vigor.
 
3. Religious impression. This is the chief design of religious worship, so far as it is intended to influence men; and however much an assembly may be interested in a preacher, the thoughtful and judicious always feel a painful lack if the service has not stirred their deeper religious nature. The pulpit may be able, eloquent, intellectually stimulating; but if it does not touch these inner springs of the soul, it has fatally failed, and the great object of public worship has not been secured.
 
[p. 30] I. Pulpit Decorum.
 
The spirit and bearing of a pastor in the pulpit have a marked influence on the tone of public worship. If he is devout and reverential, as conscious of being in the house of God and of bearing a message from God, his manner will inspire in the congregation a like reverence for the sacredness of worship. The whole service will receive tone from the spirit of its leader. Here I suggest: 1. A careless manner in the pulpit is to be avoided, either in the posture or movements of the body, or in handling the hymn-book and Bible when preparing for service; as also is the opposite fault of a manner studied and artificial, whose stiffness and formality repel sympathy and give an icy chill to worship. Against both of these faults a devout, reverential heart thoroughly pervaded by the spirit of worship will be the best safeguard. 2. In the pulpit the pastor should be, and should appear to be, absorbed in his work and his message; any act on his part which creates a doubt of this destroys the value of the service to the people, and is to be carefully avoided. Thus, if, before the opening of the service or during its progress, he is listlessly gazing around the congregation as if occupied in mentally commenting on them, or is engaged in conversation with some brother-minister seated with him, the impression is inevitable that the service does not absorb him, and his power with the people is weakened alike in his devotional exercises and in his preaching. 3. As far as possible, all arrangements should be previously made, so as to avoid, during the service, any necessity for consultations with officers of the church; and all notices to be given should be required to be handed in to the pastor before the services begin and should be reduced to the minimum in number and length. For any [p. 31] diversion of the attention from the service itself is ordinarily an evil.
 
In all this, however, it is evident that a devout, reverent spirit, thoroughly entering into the true idea of worship, is of far higher moment than any formal rules; for such a spirit will instinctively feel the proprieties of the sacred time and place and will perpetually seek to realize its own ideal of public service. Cowper has well said:[1]
 
“Would I describe a preacher, such as Paul,
 Were he on earth, would hear, approve, and own,
 Paul should himself direct me. I would trace
 His master-strokes and draw from his design.
 I would express him simple, grave, sincere;
 In doctrine uncorrupt; in language plain,
 And plain in manner; decent, solemn, chaste,
 And natural in gesture; much impressed
 Himself, as conscious of his awful charge,
 And anxious mainly that the flock he feeds
 May feel it too; affectionate in look
 And tender in address, as well becomes
 A messenger of grace to guilty men.”
 
II. The Service of Song.
 
This is one of the most difficult, as it is one of the most important, parts of public worship. Much diversity exists in the method of conducting it. Whether the singing should be congregational or restricted to a choir; whether, in the former case, it should be led by a choir or by a precentor; whether an instrument should be used or only human voices,—all these questions have been differently answered. My own observation is that the method adopted is of far less importance than the spirit with which the method is pursued. An inferior method carefully and enthusiastically pressed will give better results than the best method poorly followed. In singing, as in preaching, [p. 32] the men rather than the method determine its effectiveness, and in any church suffering from defective singing I should seek rather to infuse enthusiasm and the spirit of musical culture in the singers than to change hastily any method to which they had become accustomed.
 
Here, then, I suggest: 1. The pastor should feel and should manifest a hearty sympathy for the singers and an appreciation of their work; the lack of this is a frequent cause of discouragement and disorganization in choirs. He should consult with them in regard to the musical interests of the congregation, should recognize their work as an important service done to Christ and the church, should express, in public and private, his appreciation of whatever is excellent in their performances, and should use his pastoral influence to secure from the congregation the necessary means for such books and instruments as may be important to their success. A good choir, besides contributing the results of long previous training, spend much time each week in practice for the service of the Lord’s Day, and no true pastor should fail, or allow his congregation to fail, in an appropriate expression of appreciation of the work thus done. Such a spirit in pastor and people will seldom fail to secure a well-trained and enthusiastic choir and will make the service of song a power and a blessing in public worship. 2. In the selection of hymns special adaptation to the subject of the sermon is important chiefly in the one which follows it; the others, especially the first, while fittingly leading to the sermon, should be adapted to the purposes of general worship. When the singing is congregational, regard must be had to the tunes as well as to the hymns; for in most congregations the range of tunes in which the people can or will unite is comparatively narrow, and the best hymn will fail with [p. 33] an impracticable tune. The pastor, therefore, should carefully note the tunes which the congregation readily sing, and make his selection within this range. A few months’ observation, with careful noting of results, will enable him to select wisely. 3. Singing in public worship should be devotional. It is not a musical recreation nor an artistic musical display, but an act of worship offered to the Most High. The language of sacred song is often directly addressed to God in praise, thanksgiving, and prayer; it is, therefore, of doubtful propriety to call for singing, while a collection is taken up or business is transacted, merely to occupy the time. Nor should the preacher, during the singing, allow himself to be occupied in conversation, or in the study of his sermon; rather he should, if possible, himself participate devoutly with the congregation in this act or worship, and thus by his example recognize the devotional nature of the service.
 
III. Reading of the Scriptures.
 
The reading of the Bible should form a part of public worship, both because it is the fitting recognition of Scripture as the Word of God and the church thus presents itself as reverently seeking instruction from Him, and because the omission of this would imply that the words of man are of higher moment than the words of God. The Scriptures should have a large and reverent use in the pulpit, as the fountain of all instruction and the sole standard of faith and practice.
 
1. The selection. Here several suggestions may be made: (1.) The passage should be adapted to the purposes of devotion. Thus, a selection from Leviticus giving minute regulations in regard to leprosy, or one made from the long genealogical lists of Chronicles, however instructive to the student of the Mosaic system or Jewish history, [p. 34] might not be the most helpful to devotion in a Christian congregation. The primary end in any selection is instruction adapted to inspire devotion. (2.) The passage should be, in its character and tone, in harmony with the subject of the sermon, but it need not be the passage from which the text is taken. If the text has an extended connection—and an understanding of this is important to the force of the sermon—then this may be selected, unless, as would rarely be the case, it is unfitted to aid devotion. Often, however, a related passage presenting and illustrating the subject of the text may be a wiser selection, and sometimes a devotional passage having no special reference to the text may be of more interest and value. (3.) Some read a selection from both Testaments. In such case the passages selected should harmonize in general teaching and tone. This method has the advantage that, while it reverentially recognizes the Old Testament, it often strikingly presents the harmony between the Old Testament and the New, and thus shows the essential unity of the Bible as in all parts the utterance of the one Spirit. (4.) The length of the passage selected must depend, to some extent, on the subject of it, for it should, at least in some measure, have completeness. The reading service should always occupy such prominence as to show a true reverence for God’s Word. Any abridgment of it, such as might suggest that the preacher thought his sermon of higher moment, would obviously be unfortunate. The pastor himself, when he knows the ordinary limit for the whole service, can best determine the amount of time to be occupied by this part of it, and especially as he marks the extent of the interest of the congregation in it, for no part of worship should reach the point of weariness.
 
2. The reading. Effective reading of Scripture in the [p. 35] pulpit is a comparatively rare attainment. Many able preachers fail in this—a failure which probably arises from an undue concentration of interest on the sermon, and consequent want of care in preparing for this service. This, however, is undoubtedly a mistake. A correct expression in reading is the best commentary on Scripture and is often the most effective way of developing and enforcing truth. No minister should allow himself to fail of power in this. The following remarks may here be of value: (1.) The passage should be carefully studied, so that its true meaning, not only in its general scope, but also in the connection of its separate thoughts, be thoroughly understood. Without this the emphasis will often be misplaced and the truth thus be obscured. (2.) It should be so studied that its thought shall fully permeate the mind of the reader and enlist his sympathy, for only thus will the modulations and tones of his voice give a natural and clear expression of the passage. Without this sympathy a practical elocutionist may indeed develop the thought, but his emphasis and tones will of necessity be artificial, and he must fail to make the thought a power to touch the springs of emotion and conviction in the hearers. (3.) True expression in emphasis and tone will often be attained simply by attending to the above suggestions; but in some instances, false habits in reading have become so fixed that only thorough elocutionary drill can break them up. In this case the duty of the young minister is plain: he should take all possible means to remove such an obstruction to his pulpit power.
 
3. Comments. On the question whether the minster should make a running commentary on the passage while reading, there are several points to be considered: (1.) It is doubtful whether such an interjecting of man’s [p. 36] words among the words of God, though elucidating possibly here and there an obscure point, does not on the whole mar the impression of the passage as the Word of God, and whether the simple reading of the Bible, with just emphasis and expression, is not more instructive and impressive than a reading thus broken up into fragments by interjected comments. I confess that this doubt grows on me with added observation and experience, and my impression is that in most cases the majesty and power of the Scriptures will be most distinctly presented in a careful reading, without commingling the words of man with the words of God. (2.) Besides, such comments require time, and the practice thus tends to an undue protraction of public worship, seriously interfering with the Sunday-school when, as in many places, it immediately follows the service. (3.) Few men possess the gift for such an exercise. Spurgeon, indeed, has it in an eminent degree, and makes effective use of it. This is true, perhaps, of some others, but most men fail; and if there is a failure, it is here a most serious one. My advice, therefore, is that, unless a minister have special aptitude for it, he should not attempt this form of exposition, but in the public reading of the Scriptures make his best effort to develop and impress God’s thoughts in the simple, right reading of them.
 
IV. Public Prayer.
 
Public prayer is the worship of the church presented audibly through its representative or leader. The minister gives vocal expression to the devotions of the assembly. But it is more than this. The public prayer not only gives a voice to the devotions of the people: it stimulates the thoughts and desires of the assembly, and gives direction and form to them, so that their hearts are quickened and borne heavenward by the prayer of the leader. It [p. 37] is here the pastor’s heart touches most directly the hearts of the people, and all the spiritual forces of his nature are felt, inspiring, guiding, and helping souls in their approach to God. Power here, therefore, depends, not so much on the observance of any special rules, however judicious, as on a soul habitually living in the Spirit, and thus profoundly realizing spiritual verities and sympathizing with the experiences and necessities of men. A few suggestions, however, may be of value, and we consider—
 
1. The Form.—It should ordinarily be unwritten. Liturgical forms are to be rejected for several reasons: they have no example in the Scriptures; they did not come into use until the general corruption of worship; they serve to repress and fetter a devotional spirit both in the minister and the people; and they cannot be adapted to the varied, special exigencies of the congregation. But prayer, though extemporaneous in form, is not necessarily unpremeditated. The mind should, if possible, be lifted into the sphere of devotion and filled with the subjects of petition by previous reflection. Too often the pastor is anxious only for the sermon, and leaves the prayer, both in matter and form, to the moment of utterance; and an ordinary result is the repetition of solemn commonplaces which fail to inspire and lead the devotions of the congregation.
 
2. The Matter.—The best materials for prayer are derived from the following sources: (1.) The devotional parts of Scripture, made familiar by constant study. Bible thoughts in Bible imagery are best, because so sacredly linked with the experiences of all Christian hearts. These never grow old, and they afford endless variety and freshness. The mind should be thoroughly imbued with their spirit and stored with their forms of expression. [p. 38] (2.) Secret prayer, constantly maintained, with a deep and rich personal experience. More than any other exercise, public prayer is the outflow of the minister’s inner life. His holiest experiences, gathered on his knees in secret, here find unpremeditated expression, and elevate and enrich and spiritualize the acts of public devotion. (3.) A full, heartfelt sympathy with the life of the people, in their temptations, their sorrows, their hopes, and their dangers. Their pastor’s life should touch the life of his people on every side, and his heart beat in perpetual sympathy with them. Only thus can he truly lead them in presenting their hearts’ desires before God. The mere recluse whose life is with books and not with men, who deals with ideas and not with experiences, may utter an elegant, and even an eloquent, prayer; but he has no power to inspire and lead souls, in these acts of public devotion, to come with all their needs to the Throne of Grace.
 
In respect to the matter of prayer, the following cautions are to be observed: Avoid, (1.) Frequent references to self. The minister is the medium of the devotions of the people; whatever, therefore, cannot properly be uttered by the assembly should not, ordinarily, be uttered by the pastor. Any intimations in the prayer respecting the pastor’s health or the pressure of his work, intended as an apology for a poor sermon or as deprecating an unfavorable criticism of it, indicate an unmanly weakness which is unworthy of the pulpit and is quickly felt by the discerning. A petition asking Divine help for the pastor in his work is indeed eminently fitting, for in this the assembly may naturally unite; but when associated with an apologetic purpose, looking only to the ear of the people, such a prayer savors of impiety. (2.) Personalities. Cases of deep affliction do indeed occur, which [p. 39] move the sympathy of a whole community, and in which the person or family specially afflicted may properly be directly alluded to in prayer; and this is true, also, of any cases in which special request has been made for the prayers of God’s people. But beyond these limits it is seldom wise to pass. Compliment or criticism in public prayer is especially to be avoided. The temptation to this is often great when another has preached for you; but plainly the time and place alike make it unbefitting thus to publish the pastor’s estimate of a brother-minister’s character or sermon. (3.) All admonition or scolding. This, though it is clothed in the language of prayer to God, is, and will be felt to be, intended for the ear of man; and, as in the preceding cases, it is an offensive form of hypocrisy. But in this case, there is ordinarily the added element of moral cowardice; for the man utters in prayer to God what he would fear, when looking his people in the face, to speak directly to them. (4.) A didactic, doctrinal method in prayer. This is improper alike in that it assumes the tone of instructing God, and in that it is contrary to the nature of prayer. For prayer is not a sermon; it is the outflowing of religious emotion and desire toward God. It is, indeed a means of instruction, but it teaches through the medium of the emotional rather than the logical faculties. Prayer, therefore, should never take the logical form, but should ever be an expression, not dominantly of the intellect, but of the heart.
 
3. The Order.—Order in the topics has many advantages. It concentrates attention on one subject at a time, thus increasing the interest of both minister and people. It aids the memory, thus avoiding the omission of necessary subjects, and leaving the mind unconfused in recalling them. An unarranged, confused prayer, in which the [p. 40] mind utters at haphazard whatever may first enter it, must always fail of the true ends of public worship. A natural and common order is this: invocation, adoration, thanksgiving, confession, petition, and intercession. Invocation recognizes dependence on the Divine Helper, the Holy Spirit, and implores His presence and aid. In adoration the character, perfections, and works of God are celebrated, usually employing largely for this the language and imagery of the Scripture, which in variety and beauty has here a wealth simply inexhaustible. Thanksgiving naturally comprehends the whole range of providential mercies which attend our earthly life, personal, local, and national, and also all those spiritual blessings which spring from the Gospel in the experiences and hopes of the personal life, and in the associations and helps and prospects of the church of God. Confession presents alike the individual soul, the church as a body, and the community in the attitude of penitence, acknowledging its sins and failures and humbly recognizing the rectitude of the Divine judgment. Petition is prayer offered in behalf of our own needs, imploring for the individual soul and for the church, not only providential favors, but also Divine illumination, penitence for sin, faith in Christ, victory in temptation, support in trial, growth in all the graces of Christian character, and success in all the efforts of Christian labor. Intercession relates more distinctly to those without us—the families represented in the congregation, the Sunday-school and its work, the afflicted, the unconverted, other Christian congregations in the vicinity, the community with its varied interests, the nation and its rulers, and the great missionary work in its various departments and spheres of effort. Each of these topics furnishes within itself a wide range of subjects for prayer, and the pastor whose soul is in [p. 41] living sympathy with his people and his work, if he makes proper preparation, may give to this part of worship an endless variety and make it an exercise of immense power. No one order, however, should be invariable, for it leads to sameness of thought and language, and thus has all the disadvantages of a stereotyped form, with none of the advantages of a liturgy. The order, with the selection of leading subjects in it, should be a matter of careful premeditation, so that there may be variety in the general plan of the prayer, while yet there is no omission of necessary topics and no confusion. Within such a general plan of prayer, mentally prearranged, there will still be the amplest scope for those impromptu utterances which the heart or the occasion may suggest.
 
4. The Manner.—This is not less important than in preaching, and should be carefully considered, for the danger of false habits here is even greater than in the sermon, because in prayer the mind is less disposed to be self-critical. And here: (1.) As to the posture of the body. The Scriptures sanction both standing and kneeling. It should be an attitude of reverence. Ordinarily there should be no gesticulation. The eyes should be closed, the countenance natural and serious. The speaker should remember that all eyes before him are not closed, and any distortion or mal-expression of his countenance, however innocent on his part, is sure to be observed and provoke thought and comment. (2.) The language should be simple, devout, and scriptural. All rhetorical flourishes and attempts at eloquence; all terms of endearment and familiarity with God; all accumulation of the Divine names in one expression, or use of frequent interjections, as oh! ah! etc.; and all vulgarisms and oddities of expression, are to be carefully avoided; they destroy the spirit of worship. The [p. 42] vulgar and thoughtless may applaud, but the judicious and prayerful will be grieved; and all such characteristics in prayer weaken the moral power of a minister and lessen his usefulness. Reverence, naturalness, simplicity, are essential in public devotion. (3.) The tone of voice should be the natural expression of supplication. The faults especially to be avoided here are such as these: a boisterous tone, which, while it adds no force to the petition, wearies both minister and hearer; an arrogant, commanding tone, which is suggestive of irreverence; and a whining, complaining tone. These false tones often originate in an unnatural position of the head, which is thrown back, with face turned upward; or forward, with face down, and the organs of the voice thus injured. Throat disease among ministers is due very largely to the unnatural use of the vocal organs in prayer. Great care should be exercised that the position of the head and the tone of the voice be perfectly natural.
 
It is obvious that in public prayer a spirit imbued with Divine influences is higher than all rules; it instinctively recognizes the true proprieties of prayer; and this, therefore, is chiefly to be sought. Nor do I forget that the mental and spiritual idiosyncrasies of the man must here, as in preaching, largely influence the manner, and may sometimes justify in one what in another would be offensive. But success in this service is so vital to the interest of public worship, while failure is so frequent, that a pastor should exercise constant self-scrutiny, often reviewing his prayers to detect their defects, and often timing them so as to know their length. The young pastor, especially, should select some judicious, confidential friend in his congregation who will faithfully point out defects, and should thus, by a rigid process of self-discipline, secure at the outset of his ministry right habits of prayer. For [p. 43] then while body and mind are yet plastic, the power of a false habit may be broken, and the man may be molded anew; but a few years’ persistence will fix the habit beyond possible change, and ensure its weakening, perhaps fatal, power through life.
 
V. Preaching.
 
Christ is the one great theme of the pulpit; around this all other themes gather as to their center and end. Paul said: “We preach Christ crucified” (1 Cor. i. 23). He states the message of the ministry: “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you, in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor. v. 19–21). All true preaching, therefore, however wide the range of its topics, has a real relation to Christ; and no topic is fit for the pulpit which does not lead to Him. The themes of the preacher are essentially the same in all ages, for the human heart, in its depravity and needs, does not change with changing years; and God’s remedy, the simple, primitive Gospel, remains ever the same. The facts, the doctrines, the duties, the promises, the threatenings, of the Bible are the subjects for the pulpit; none are needed beyond those supplied in God’s Word. The effective preachers in all ages have adhered to the same great truths; they have differed only in modes of illustrating and applying them. The idiosyncrasies of the preacher and the circumstances of his times necessarily modify the form of presentation, but the subject-matter of the ministerial message is unchangeable.
 
[p. 44]Sermons.
 
The Gospel furnishes an exhaustless supply of topics. Every minister should, however, use great care to secure copiousness and variety of matter and illustration. The best means are such as these: 1. The constant, careful study of the Bible itself. Its words are the words of God, living and powerful. “They are spirit, and they are life” (John vi. 63); and the pastor who makes this Divine book his chief study has a mind filled, not with the feeble, evanescent thoughts of man, but with the quickening, eternal thoughts of God. The difference is world-wide between a sermon filled with God’s thoughts and delivered as God’s Word—a Divine message to men—and one which is a philosophical discourse wrought out of the preacher’s own mind, and resting its authority on the mere force of human reasoning; and this difference is not simply in the unspeakably greater power of the former to stir and save the souls of the hearers, but also in the ever-increasing power of the preacher in sermon preparation, arising from the absolute inexhaustibleness of the materials for such a sermon. Some able and laborious men early exhaust themselves and fail of richness and power in the pulpit because their sermons are spun out of their own brain rather than from God’s Word. They draw from the finite instead of the infinite fountain, and the waters necessarily fail. 2. A rich personal religious experience. All hearts are essentially alike, and he will best know other hearts who most truly knows his own. The power of a pastor depends largely on his knowledge of the heart and its experiences under the influences of the Gospel. This is more than a knowledge of human nature as delineated in Shakespeare and works of fiction, valuable as this is; it is a knowledge of the human soul [p. 45] under the power of sin and of the Holy Spirit, as its experiences are delineated in the Bible and in the religious life and are realized in his own soul. 3. An intimate acquaintance with the religious state of the individuals composing his own congregation in their special tendencies, temptations, and experiences. Almost every religious conversation will suggest new topics of living interest for sermons. 4. Habitual reading of the best religious authors, especially works on theology, exegesis, and experimental religion. 5. A careful preservation of texts, subjects, trains of thought, and illustrations, by noting them down as they occur. These are continually presenting themselves in the social meeting, in pastoral visits, in reading, and in reflection. No man can afford to lose these. They should be preserved to enrich and make effective the work of the pulpit, and so preserved as to be readily utilized; for one may have large accumulations of such materials, but if they are not grouped under appropriate headings and made easily accessible, they may be comparatively useless, because eluding the search at the moment of need.
 
The subjects of the sermon have been divided into the doctrinal, the experimental, and the practical; but, in preaching, the end is usually best attained by blending these, or rather by presenting each truth in an experimental and practical manner. This division, however, is correct, as made according to the dominant, leading idea of the sermon.
 
1. Doctrinal sermons. Much is said in regard to preaching Christ, and not doctrine. But how is it possible to preach Christ apart from doctrine? Christ is not an abstraction, but a living, personal Being. If, then, we preach Him, we must preach His Divinity, His humanity, and His mediatorship between God and man. If we [p. 46] preach what He has done, we must declare His humiliation, His death, and the atonement He has therein made for sin. If we preach Him as He is, we must proclaim His enthronement in heaven, His intercession with the Father, and His Headship of the church, with all the laws and ordinances He has instituted for it. And if we preach Him as He shall be, we must affirm the final triumph of His Gospel, His second coming, the resurrection and the judgment, and the glory to which He will raise His people with Himself. It is not possible to preach Christ apart from doctrine; for His incarnation and vicarious death presuppose the Fall and depravity and guilt of men, and the need of regeneration, justification, and sanctification; and His resurrection and glorification equally involve the resurrection and glorification of His church. All the doctrines of Scripture thus center in Christ, and we preach Him only as we preach them. Here, therefore, is the true power of the pulpit. Only as the sermon lodges these great truths in the soul is it a living force for the salvation of men. They constitute the sole foundation of genuine experience and practical appeal. A merely hortatory ministry is of necessity a failure, since it lays no basis for experience and Christian life in the convictions of the people. In presenting the doctrines the following cautions should be observed: (1.) Beware of doctrinal one-sidedness. Every mind has its special theological tendencies; there is thus danger of pushing a single truth, or a class of truths, into too great relative prominence. A one-sided and, in its whole impression, a false view of the Gospel may in this way be presented. Seek rather to unfold a well-proportioned system of truth, where every doctrine is not only true in itself, but also stands in its just relations, alike of position and prominence, to all other truths. For it is possible, [p. 47] while preaching nothing but the truth, to put a truth in such false relations as to give it practically all the effect of error. (2.) Avoid, ordinarily, the controversial form in presenting subjects; its tendency is to put the mind of the hearer in an attitude of antagonism. Indeed, a controversial sermon, however well reasoned, will often suggest more doubts than it removes. Doubtless, controversy is sometimes necessary, as in defense of some imperiled truth or principle; but the controversial form, as an ordinary characteristic of preaching, is most seriously to be deprecated. (3.) A dry, formal, metaphysical method is also to be carefully avoided; it is entirely unadapted to a popular assembly. The sermon is not a theological essay; and the preacher, therefore, in dealing with hungry souls, should ever remember, as John Newton suggests, the important distinction between bones and meat.
 
2. Experimental Sermons. Here it is vitally important to make a clear discrimination between the genuine and the spurious in religious experience. The welfare and comfort of souls depend much on this, but it is one of the most delicate and difficult parts of a pastor’s work. Experimental preaching is sometimes decried as tending to turn the minds of the people inward upon their own hearts, rather than upward upon Christ, and as thus creating a habit of morbid introspection and weakening the power of Christian hope and Christian life. Undoubtedly, there is a real danger of this where the preaching is predominantly of this character; and a pastor, especially if his own spiritual tendency is intensely subjective, must be on his guard lest he present this side of truth in undue proportion, and thus hinder instead of helping the souls of his charge. But no minister should fail to preach experimental sermons; for nothing is more obvious than the [p. 48] large place experience has in Scripture, and the urgency and frequency of its exhortations to self-examination. Self-knowledge is of primary moment, and the pulpit should be helpful to this. The presentation of objective truth, apart from the subjective, tends to self-deception and ends in Antinomianism. The Bible is wonderfully rich and full in its delineation of character; and a careful study of these Divine pictures of life will greatly aid in the work of skillful discrimination. The Psalms, the Prophets, the Gospels, and the Epistles abound in statements defining true and false experience, discriminating between “the works of the flesh” and “the fruit of the Spirit.” Such books also as Edwards on The Affections, Fuller on The Backslider, Doddridge’s Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul, and Hodge’s Way of Life are of value, often suggesting important lines of discrimination. Added to these, the study of his own heart and an intimate knowledge of the experience and character of his people will prove eminently helpful to the minister in such sermons. On this I suggest: (1.) The spiritual principles by which the true and false experience may be distinguished should be made clear and distinct. A common fault in such discourses is that they state and insist on certain exercises as characteristic of Christian experience, but do not show why they are so. The hearers are not put in possession of the principle which makes such characteristics essential. Or there is a denunciation of certain exercises as not Christian without developing the principle which demonstrates their spuriousness. (2.) Avoid any attempt to make all experiences fit into the same mold. Religious experience has endless diversity in form, while yet in all persons it has certain well-defined common characteristics. The consciousness and acknowledgment of sin as the one hope of acceptance, the trust of the soul in Christ, the submission [p. 49] of the will in a complete self-surrender to God, then will appear with greater or less distinctness in all regenerate souls. Thus also, in the experiences of the Christian there is endless variety in form, in special doubts and fears, special temptations, special tendencies to sin, special manifestations of self-will, pride, self-righteousness, and self-indulgence; and in like manner faith and love, hope and joy, and every Christian exercise have various forms of manifestation in different souls. Here, then, the point to be emphasized is that, in discriminating between the true and the false in religious experience, the thing of vital moment is the nature of the exercise, and not the form or manner of its manifestation. (3.) It seems hardly necessary to add that frequent reference to self, as setting up one’s own experience as a standard, is not only in bad taste, but is also of bad tendency as directing from the true standard found alone in God’s Word.
 
3. Practical Sermons. The symmetry and beauty of Christian character, and the consequent power of Christian life, much depend on the wisdom and fidelity with which the pulpit presents the duties of religion. The New Testament reveals a sublime system of Christian morals which, clearly unfolded and properly pressed, will elevate and ennoble the life of the church. Here the pulpit has one of its widest and noblest fields of effort. The education of the Christian conscience is one of its primary and most imperative functions; for an orthodox creed and a regenerate heart may be very possible where, from lack of moral instruction and culture, the life is sadly defective. The soul is indeed regenerated, but the new life is not developed in the conscience by the enlightening of the moral judgment and quickening of the moral sensibilities. True ideals of Christian living have not been formed, and the outward character, instead of [p. 50] being a magnet radiant with the beauty of holiness and attracting men to Christ, is marred by moral blemishes which reproach the Gospel and repel men from Christ. The widespread demoralization of late in business life, manifest, too often even among Christian men, in the absence of integrity and of fidelity to trust, should at least suggest the question whether the pulpit has adequately set forth and enforced the morality of the Gospel. I suggest the following hints: (1.) In presenting a duty the grounds of its obligation should be clearly unfolded, that the conscience, thus enlightened, may be awakened to full power in pressing its discharge. No permanent obedience will be secured until the conscience distinctly perceives the ground of obligation or the moral principles on which the duty rests; nor does the performance of the duty, apart from this clear recognition of the moral grounds of it, serve to purify and elevate the character. It is the enthronement of an ethical principle within the conscience, and not the mere blind performance of an outward act, which enlarges and ennobles the man. (2.) The motives urged should be evangelical, not legal, drawn from the Christian’s relations to Christ, appealing not to fear only or chiefly, but to love. The moral helplessness of a Christian soul, when acting under the impulsion only of legal fear, is vividly portrayed by Paul in the seventh chapter of Romans, where with graphic power he depicts his own fruitless strivings for the good when impelled by the law, and the utter defeat and despair to which he was reduced. Christ alone is the life, and only faith in Him brings victory to any soul in the conflict with sin. His character is the great ideal set before a Christian soul, and His love the impulsive force in seeking to realize it: “The love of Christ constraineth us” (2 Cor. v. 14). A true Christian life is the outflow of grateful, adoring [p. 51] love to Him. Motives drawn from the soul’s relations to Him, therefore, alone move the Christian heart and have permanent power to impel to God and holiness. (3.) Ministerial fidelity doubtless requires a plain presentation of duties and a fearless exposure of sin, but it is seldom wise to employ the style of denunciation. A cheap reputation for boldness and fidelity is sometimes thus obtained among the unthinking, but most men know that at this day denunciation from the pulpit requires no moral courage and will be likely to regard it as a sensational bid for popularity. True boldness shows itself not so much in the manner as in the matter of the sermon. It consists in exposing clearly and fearlessly popular forms of error and wrong, and applying to them, in all plainness and sincerity, the principles of the Gospel. Here, while real boldness in manner should never be wanting, true persuasiveness in manner should always be preserved, thus avoiding needless irritation.
 
In the selection of subjects, I suggest: (1.) The subject should be, as far as possible, adapted to the existing state of the people. This requires an intimate, vital relation between the life of the pastor and the actual living of the people, for the isolated recluse will waste much of his pulpit work on subjects which do not touch the real experiences and life of his hearers. (2.) Every subject should be selected with earnest prayer for Divine guidance. God alone knows what are the real needs of those who will hear; and a theme thus chosen is delivered with authority as a message from Him, for a sermon is a growth with the preacher’s soul, possessing vitality and power as the product of the Holy Spirit; and when thus obtained from God by the inworking of the Spirit, it becomes to the hearers a Divine message such as should be borne by “ambassadors for Christ.”
 
[p. 52]Exposition.
 
This method of preaching has of late years gone into disuse, partly because success in it is really difficult to attain, and partly because, the Bible having ceased to be the chief reading of the churches, the popular interest in exposition has decreased; but when rightly followed it has advantages, both to minister and people, beyond those of any other form of preaching.
 
Advantages to the Preacher.—It promotes exegetical study and acquaintance with the original Scriptures, the neglect of which is fostered by an exclusively topical method. The process is an ever-enriching one, constantly widening the range of biblical and theological knowledge. It ensures against sameness. Instead of growing stale, the preacher becomes more rich and varied in his range of thought and illustration with every added year. It gives, moreover, familiarity with the forms of Scripture thought and expression, and thus adds simplicity and force in addressing the Christian heart. Above all, it brings the preacher’s soul into constant, living communion with the spirit of the Bible, and the study becomes in this way a fountain of religious life ever flowing into his heart, and out of it into the hearts of the people.
 
Advantages to the Congregation.—It is obvious that such a method of preaching would serve to remove many of the popular doubts and difficulties with the Bible which are at this day so greatly weakening its hold on the masses. It would enable the preacher to put before the people the results of modern historic, arch?ological, and geographical investigation which have thrown so great light on the Bible and so greatly confirm its truth. Such treatment of the Scriptures in the pulpit would also lead to a discriminating [p. 53] use of them, as well as familiarity with them, among the people It would necessarily develop the principles of interpretation, and thus educate the people in right methods of using the Bible, making it of far higher value to them. And, more than all, it would accustom Christians to rest their faith, not on the mere dogmas of the pulpit and the creed, but on the very words of God, and would furnish a basis of religious confidence which can never be shaken. The modern pulpit, from its neglect of the Bible, is singularly narrow, exhibiting little of the vast wealth and variety of Divine truth. It leaves by far the larger part of the Bible a sealed book. Its types, its poetry, its prophecies, its parables, its presentations, as in the Epistle to the Romans, of the truths of the Gospel in their connection as one grand, comprehensive system of salvation—how little of all this wealth of Scripture is presented in the pulpit! The result is, and must necessarily be, the absence of depth and fulness of Christian life in the church and the complaint of a loss of power in the pulpit.
 
Hints on Method.—1. The pastor should select for exposition such parts of Scripture as are susceptible of intelligent explanation to a promiscuous congregation. The symbolic visions of Ezekiel and of Revelation might awaken curiosity, but except under extraordinary circumstances could hardly be profitable for such an exercise. 2. Divide the selected portion into sections, each sufficient for a sermon, and as far as possible let each have a single general topic. This secures unity in the discourse. For example, the first chapter of the Sermon on the Mount might be divided thus:
 
I. Vs. 1–12. The beatitudes: Happiness, its source not external, but internal; not material, but spiritual.
 
II. Vs. 13–16. Relation of the disciples to the world: [p. 54] Christians God’s medium of saving influence and spiritual knowledge among men.
 
III. Vs. 17–20. Relation of Christ to the Old Testament: Christ not the destroyer, but the fulfiller, of the ancient law.
 
IV. Vs. 21–48. The law as interpreted by Christ: Sin, not in the overt act only, but also in the secret thought.
 
1st example (vs. 21–26): The law of murder.
 
2d example (vs. 27–32): The law of adultery.
 
3d example (vs. 33–37): The law respecting oaths.
 
4th example (vs. 38–48): The law of retaliation.
 
The first three of the above divisions and the four examples under the fourth would each furnish a fitting passage for a sermon with a single and well-defined general theme. Much of Scripture is susceptible of equally distinct division, so that the preacher will rarely fail of unity in his discourse. 3. Develop the general theme by explaining the several parts of the passage, so as to unfold the special phase of the truth which the Holy Spirit there presents. Take, for example, Rom. v. 1–11. Here, in the progress of the apostle’s argument, the general theme is: The effects of justification by faith in the believer. These effects are four: (1.) vs. 1, 2, the perfect adjustment of his relation to God. (2.) vs. 3–5, the transmuting of earthly trial into blessing. (3.) vs. 6–10, the absolute certainty of his eternal salvation. (4.) v. 11, a delight in the Divine character as God is revealed through Christ in the atonement. The several points made in the passage itself thus constitute the inspired development and illustration of the main theme and indicate the direction and method of the exposition. 4. Having thus developed the theme by an analysis and exposition of the passage, deduce the inferences as to doctrine and duty, and make a practical application to [p. 55] the heart and conscience. The inferential development is often very important, as affording manifold and vital applications of truth to character, to Christian experience and life, and to the various forms of error and sin. Nowhere is the value of expository preaching more manifest than in the wide range and the special power of its practical application. 5. Avoid in exposition verbal criticism, parade of learning, allusion to commentators, or reference to different views of the passage; it impairs the interest and weakens the moral effect. The critical apparatus should be carefully used in the study, but it has no place in the pulpit. It is mere scaffolding, which should disappear when the structure is finished. In the sermon the work of the study should appear, not in its processes, but only in its results. The citing of conflicting opinions on a passage will, as a general fact, only perplex the people. Ground your interpretation on thorough and conscientious study, and then present clearly and strongly the results. A doubting manner awakens doubt; and the pulpit, therefore, while avoiding an offensive dogmatism, should be positive in its presentations of God’s Word. A good expository sermon costs far more labor than any other, but it is also of far higher value to preacher and hearer. Without thorough preparation no one should undertake exposition; for, superficially done, it is sure to fail. But success in this highest form of preaching is an achievement worthy of the preacher’s highest effort and is of unspeakable importance. The mightiest pulpit power of Chrysostom and Augustine, of Luther and Calvin, was in their expository sermons. Chalmers and Andrew Fuller were powerful in exposition; and this form of the sermon is still a chief characteristic of the British pulpit, as illustrated in many of its most illustrious preachers. Dr. William [p. 56] M. Taylor, of the Broadway Tabernacle, New York, gives one sermon each Lord’s Day to exposition, and makes it a blessing and power.