1.D 00. THE STUDY OF HUMAN NATURE

Chapter 4: THE STUDY OF HUMAN NATURE. MY impression is that preachers are quite as well acquainted with human nature as the average of well-informed citizens, but far less than lawyers, or merchants, or teachers, or, especially, politicians. The preachers of America have been, I think, as intelligent and successful as any that ever lived. As a body of men they have been upright, discreet, and wise in the general management of the affairs of Christian churches. As a body they have, in their personal and administrative or pastoral relations, been, on the whole, sagacious in matters pertaining to human nature. Nevertheless, preachers, both English and American, have not preached to man’s nature as it is.

It is true that in the applications of sermons, particularly such as are known in America as revival sermons, much knowledge of human nature is shown, and efficient use is made of it. But, in a larger generalization, it may be said that there have been but two schools of preachers. One may be called the ecclesiastical school, in which term I include the whole body of men who regard the Church on earth as something to be administered, and themselves as channels, in some sense, of divine grace to direct the flow of that divine institution. Ecclesiastical preachers are those who administer largely and preach incidentally, if one might say so. There is also the dogmatic school of preachers, or those who have relied upon a pre-existing system of truth which has been founded before their day and handed down from generation to generation, and who apparently proceed upon the supposition that their whole duty is discharged when they have made a regular and repetitious statement of all the great points of doctrine from time to time.