People do not come to church to hear spoken treatises or witness dissecting operations on subtle distinctions. They come to be instructed, pleased and moved.
Again, for the perfect fulfilment of the preacher"s task, amongst other gifts he must have imagination; but to the master of an exact science like theology an exuberant fancy might prove a fatal dowry.
A clear statement of this truth holds out hopeful encouragement to the man whose theological attainments could not be described as "brilliant": it teaches, too, the man who has distinguished himself in theology that if he ambitions being a preacher he has an entirely new set of sciences to master, but, best of all, it breaks into small bits an oft-used weapon in the hands of the young preacher"s arch-enemy--the critic.
[Side note: The critic at work]
How often do we see this self-const.i.tuted oracle rely for his sole support on this sophistry?
You turn from a church door filled with admiration; there is a glow of rapture around your heart; every nerve is tingling; you have been enthralled. A truth, old indeed but now dressed in a new robe, lives before your mind with a meaning and a richness of colour never experienced before. Your will is swept captive on the crest of that subtle tide of unseen fire that seems to fill the air. You are bracing yourself to a heroic resolve. The preacher"s voice, like ceaseless music, is still thrilling down through the avenues of your soul. When the critic comes and in pity asks you--"Do you really think that a good sermon?" he compa.s.sionates your poor judgment, leads you to the library, takes down a volume of Lehmkuhl or Suarez, and with a triumphant wave of his hand a.s.sures you that every idea in that sermon may be found there.
You are now face to face with the most perplexing of sophistries--the half truth.
Your judgment is staggered by two apparently contradictory facts--it was a fine sermon, yet every idea may be found in the theological treatise.
To enable you to extricate yourself from the puzzle, ratify your first opinion and confound the critic; picture another set of circ.u.mstances. You stand before St. Peter"s, wrapped in admiration at this world"s wonder.
"Power, glory, strength and beauty, all are aisled In this eternal ark of worship undefiled."
You are marvelling how did human brains conceive and human hands embody this mighty dream of art. One of the pest tribe yclept "critic" comes pitying your simple heart; he leads you to a quarry, and triumphantly pointing says: "Here every stone of that building was found. Now, what becomes of the glory simple people like you bestow on Bramante and Michael Angelo?" How would you answer him? Easily enough. Make him a present of the quarry, and ask him to produce another St. Peter"s. The challenge is conclusive. You have him impaled.
Come back now to the library. Present the preacher"s critic with a hundred tomes, give him all this raw material multiplied ten times over out of which that masterpiece of sacred eloquence was built, and ask him to enthral those thousands that hung spellbound on that man"s lips, whose thrilled hearts were aflame, who left the church examining their consciences and vowing better lives. Alas! he who was so eloquent in tearing others to rags when he himself essays their task himself--angels well might weep.
No department of life is secure against this sophistry.
You listen till you are dazed with admiration at one of those masterpieces of forensic pleading that have flung a deathless glory around the names of Russell and Whiteside; but the critic, with a superior toss of his head, a.s.sures you that this can be found in Magna Charta and the Statute book. Here is the tantalising half truth.
To be sure the principles and groundwork of reasoning are there; but the office of the advocate was to draw them from the dust and darkness, to gather these scattered articles, statutes and precedents into his capacious brain, and from them evolve a framework of argument to fit his purpose. He moulds them into an impregnable bulwark of law and reasoning to shelter his client.
So naturally does he bend them to his case that every listener is impressed with the conviction that surely the framers of these statutes and principles must have a case like this before their minds when they committed them to parchment.
Yet in the judgment of the critic the variety of talents brought to this complex task count for nothing.
Here we see what a distinction must be made between the office of theologian and preacher, and what a confusion of thought is saved by keeping this line of demarcation in view.
[Side note: Parting advice]
Now that the subject of pulpit oratory is swept clear from misleading theories and set in its true light before the young preacher"s eyes, let us see how further we can a.s.sist him to discharge his high office with honour and efficiency.
[Side note: I.--Be natural in development]
"To thine own self be true" is the soundest of advices.
From the beginning the young preacher should aim at developing on his own lines, thinking in his own way and expressing his thoughts in their own native dress. No matter how eminent the paragon you admire, do not become an understudy of him. Remember he is great only because he is himself and not the imitation of another. Try, however, to get at the secret of his greatness.
What is it? He discovered his strong points and cultivated them.
Go and do likewise.
You see a man with clear sequence of ideas and easy expression, but without those exceptional gifts that go to make the born orator. He could attain even eminence as a lecturer or instructor, but lecture or instruct he will not, for he has read Ventura and become smitten. He tries to imitate the Padre"s lofty style, and succeeds in "amazing the unlearned and making the learned smile." "Failure" is written large over all his efforts.
David could not fight with the gorgeous but c.u.mbersome arms of Saul: with his own homely sling and the polished stone from the brook, the weapon to which he was accustomed, he achieved victory.
I knew a priest who had a marvellous charm as a storyteller. He invested the merest trifles of incident with resistless fascination. Hours in his society flew like moments.
He became a distinguished preacher. I went to hear him, and quickly discovered the secret of his success. He knew his strong point, and staked his all on it. He preached his sermons as he told his stories--in graphic, familiar narrative. The congregation felt they were taken into his confidence; they were hypnotised. You forgot that you were sitting in stiff dignity in a church, and imagined yourself one of a group around the winter"s log listening to a delightful _raconteur_, and you willingly surrendered to the pleasing delusion.
Every play of fancy, every flash of thought, every clinched conviction pa.s.sed from him to his hearers till the souls of preacher and listeners became like reflecting mirrors. There was always regret when he finished.
Now, had that man attempted to become Demosthenes instead of himself he would have succeeded in becoming ridiculous.
[Side note: 2.--Be natural in composition]
The natural outpouring of thought has a relish and a resistlessness of force that no art can rival. The scent of a sprig of wild woodbine holds a charm beyond all the perfumes of the chemist"s shop.
In order to be natural there is no necessity to ignore the elegancies of style; for what is style? _Le style est l"homme_.
The style is the man. A perfect style, then, is attained when the written page is the exact expression of the train of thought as it lies in the writer"s head. A style is absolutely perfect when it is absolutely natural.
Artificial embroidery, purple patches, and golden vapour are often the defects and not the perfection of style.
Language can be simple, however, without being vulgar or commonplace.
What book will ever equal the Bible for simplicity, yet what dignity? What preacher ever approached OUR DIVINE LORD; and, humanly speaking, what was the source of His strength?
He accommodated Himself to His hearers. From the open book of nature He made the realms of grace familiar to the minds of children. He pointed to the lilies of the field, to the ravens of the wood, to the ripening bud and the angry cloud. "_Ut ex iis quae animus novit, surgat ad incognita quae non novit_."[1]
[1] Third Nocturn for Non-Virgins.
He used the world around us to lift our thoughts to the world above us.
When He spoke to fishermen His ill.u.s.trations were taken from seas and nets. When He preached to farmers the word of G.o.d was the seed falling on rocky soil or the fertile furrow. When the merchants with caravans and silken tunics surrounded Him it becomes the pearl of great price. When amongst simple villagers it is the lost groat in search of which the housewife sweeps the floor and searches each nook and cranny.
Here is language coming down to the level of every hearer, abounding in familiar pictures, yet never losing dignity.
While composing sermons for factory hands Cardinal Wiseman employed a weaver to teach him the technicalities of the loom that he might reach their hearts through the only channel of thought they understood.
It is wonderful how the natural world around us can be used to bring even the most sublime truths within the grasp of the plainest intellects. Why do we not draw more frequently and more abundantly from this source?
When we hear of a man whose discourses "are too sublime for the ordinary intelligence" it is hard to forbear a smile. Our pity goes out not to "the ordinary intelligence," but to the cloudy dweller in Patmos. Mystic obscurity is used more frequently as a cloak for muddle-headed thinking than as a robe with which to drape sublimity of thought. Hence, if people do not understand the preacher, blame not the people, but let the preacher look to it.
Our nimble-minded imaginative people will rise to and grasp the most elevated ideas if properly presented.
I listened to a sermon in an English church preached before a congregation of Irish poor. The keynote was lofty, but beautifully sustained throughout. The range of thought was high, but the truths clarified by an abundance of happy ill.u.s.tration.
That discourse was so cla.s.sic in its beauty that it might be preached before an Oxford audience, yet not an idea was lost on that breathless congregation, where every female head was covered by a shawl. The speaker possessed in an eminent degree three gifts that must command success:--He could think clearly; he could so express his thoughts that his language became the mirror of his mind; he made a large demand on the familiar scenes of nature with which to ill.u.s.trate his ideas and send his reasoning home; he possessed a mind at once logical and imaginative and a manner of expression that formed a definition of perfect style--_Le style c"est l"homme_--the style is the man.
[Side note: 3.--Be natural in delivery]
The faintest suspicion of art immediately sets your audience up in arms. Their teeth are on edge; their heart locked against you.
"This is acting and not preaching" seals your fate.
Do not imagine for a moment that I advocate the neglect of elocutionary graces. So far from that I hold that every young priest leaving college should be a past master of all rhetorical arts. Gesture, articulation, voice production and inflection should be at his finger tips. No book on the subject should be unread. No year of college life should pa.s.s without contributing materially towards the elocutionary equipment of the future preacher. The college that neglects this training and permits young men to go into the ministry without this needful art is guilty of a most serious sin of omission.