1.F 06. Gesture
Gesture. So with gestures. There are certain people who will never make many gestures, but they should see to it that what they do make shall be graceful and appropriate. There are others who are impulsive, and so full of feeling that they throw it out in every direction, and it is, therefore, all the more important that their action shall be shorn of awkwardness and constrained mannerism. Now and then a man is absolutely dramatic, as, for instance, John B. Gough, who could not speak otherwise. It is unconscious with him. It is inherent in all natural orators; they put themselves at once, unconsciously, in sympathy with the things they are describing. In any of these situations, whether you are inclined to but little action or a great deal, or even to dramatic forms of action, it is very desirable that you should drill yourselves and practise incessantly, so that your gestures shall not offend good taste. This, too, is a very different thing from practising before a mirror, and it is a very different thing from making actors of yourselves. It is an education that ought to take place early, and which ought to be incorporated into your very being.
SEMINARY TRAINING.
I will pass on now to some suggestions in respect to your seminary course. I know very well how impatient and eager many students are to get rid of the two or three years training which is required in the seminary. A man who is naturally a scholar loves to procure knowledge, because it is a luxury for him to study. He will probably be an overstudious man, and will need to be checked rather than stimulated to greater activity. But those who are impatient of study, and are longing to go into the field, and who want to pray and converse with impenitent sinners and bring them into the Kingdom, will often say, “ What do you suppose Latin and Greek have got to do with that; can’t we begin the work without any such laborious preparation as this? “ I know what the feeling is; I have seen it displayed very often.
If you will read the familiar correspondence of General Sherman during the war, which was published by the War Department, you will see that, months and months before his great march, he was studying the country through which he was about to go, its resources, its power of sustaining armies, its populousness, the habits of the people, in short, everything that belonged to it, in every relation, and all the questions that could possibly arise in regard to it. He had discussed them on both sides and on two or three hypotheses, so that when he started upon his famous march he had really gone over the country in advance, and made himself the military master of its features and character. He was possessed of all the knowledge necessary to enable him to grapple with any event that might take place.
He was prepared for any of two or three different lines of action. Now, you have a campaign that is a great deal longer than his, and an enemy that is a great deal harder to fight; and you must make diligent preparation. You must lay up all the know ledge you can, now, and form habits of earnest study that shall make your whole after-life’s work comparatively easy. You will have enough direct action when you get into the field; and it behooves you now to do whatever you can to abbreviate your future labours.