THE

ART OF PREACHING.

BY

A CLERGYMAN OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.

"And moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught
the people knowledge; yea he gave good heed, and sought out,
and set in order, many proverbs."-Eccles. xii., 9.

"Would I describe a preacher, such as Paul,
Paul should himself direct me."

COWPER.

OTHECTS

BOD

DEDICATED

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

THE EARL OF CHICHESTER,

WITH THE AFFECTIONATE ESTEEM

OF

THE AUTHOR.

THE

ART OF PREACHING.

CHAPTER I.

SERMONISING SHOWING HOW SERMONS WERE

MANUFACTURED IN DAYS GONE BY.

THE long and elaborate sermons, bristling with divisions and sub-divisions, manufactured for the Scotch and Dissenting pulpits, during the last two centuries, would not be tolerated, or endured, in the present day. Sermonising and preaching were then labours of love, and, let me add, works of no small ingenuity.

The division of a verse of Scripture, commonly called a "text," into various parts, for the production of a sermon, was styled a skeleton" and sometimes "a plan." Both terms were equally happy

and graphically descriptive of the process. Some of