02.00. On the Preparation and Delivery of Sermons

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LECTURE I. SPECIMENS OF PREACHING IN THE BIBLE.
Design of the lectures 5.
Judah before Joseph 6.
Moses and Joshua 7:1-26.
Jotham 8.
David 8.
Solomon 10.
The Prophets 10.
Elijah 12.
Amos 13.
Jonah 14.
Isaiah 14:1-32.
Jeremiah 16:1-21.
Ezekiel 17:1-24.
John the Baptist 19.
Our Lord as a Preacher . . . 22-36.
Authoritative 22.
Relation to the common mind 24.
Controversial 25.
Repetitions 27.
Variety 81.
Use of paradox and hyperbole 81.
Tone and spirit 33.
Mel
The Epistles 36.
Paul 38.
His style 39.
Adaptation 40.
Christian Rhetoric 43.

LECTURE II. PREACHING IN THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CENTURIES.
First period 44.
Second century 45.
Informal preaching 46.
Lay-preaching 47.
Forgotten laborers 49.
Not many wise 50.
Origen 51.
As scholar and teacher. 52.
As to allegorizing. . . 53.
As a preacher 56.
Second period 57.
Eusebius 63.
Athanasius 63.
Ephraem Syrus 64.
Macarius 65.
Asterius 66.
Basil the Great 67.
Gregory Nazianzen 71.
Chrysostom 73.
Ambrose 79.
Augustine 81.
General remarks, as to entrance on the ministry 84.
As to education 86.
A Theological Seminary 89.
As to Christian classics 91.
Blank after Chrysostom and Augustine , 91.

LECTURE III. MEDIEVAL AND REFORMATION PREACHING.
Reasons for attention to Medieval Preaching 93.
Peter the Hermit :... 95.
St. Bernard 97.
Dominicans and Franciscans ....... 100.
Antony of Padua 101.
Thomas Aquinas 106.
Why all in twelfth and thirteenth centuries 109.
Tauler 110.
Huss and Savonarola 112.
Reformation Preaching 1 13.
A revival of preaching 113.
A revival of Biblical and expository preaching 114.
Of controversial preaching 116.
Of preaching upon the doctrines of grace 117.
Contrast between Luther and Calvin 118.
Yet both great preachers 119.
Calvin as a commentator and a preacher 121.
Luther as a preacher 122.
Personality in preaching 124.
Zwingle 127.
Public debates 128.
Anabaptist preachers, viz
Hiibmaier 129.
Grebel 132.
Menno 133.
Use of printing to aid preaching 188.

LECTURE IV. THE GREAT FRENCH PREACHERS.
Keltic eloquence 185.
Ageol Louis XIV 180.
Prosperity of France 137.
An age of great intellectual activity 141.
Of elegant general literature , 144.
Excellence of the French language 145.
Art 146.
Catholics stimulated by the Reformed and by the Jansenists 147.
The king s penchant for eloquent preaching . 148.
Fashionable to admire pulpit eloquence 149.
Low stage of the Catholic pulpit before Bossuet 151.
Able Reformed preachers before Bossuet, viz.
Du Moulin 153.
Faucheur 154.
Daille 156.
Bossuet 158.
Bourdaloue 164.
Fenelon 170.
Du Bosc 171.
Claude 172.
Massillon 174.
Saurin 177.
Decline of the French pulpit in the eighteenth century . . . 180.
Eloquent French preachers in the nineteenth century .... 182.
Certain faults of the great French preachers 183.
Letter from M. Bersier . . . 185.

LECTURE V. THE ENGLISH PULPIT.
Five periods 186.
Wyclif 188.
Colet 191.
Latimer 192.
John Knox 194.
Decline after the Reformation 197.
Revival in the next century 20(1.
Jeremy Taylor 201.
Leighton , 203.
Baxter 204.
Owen... ... 206.
Flavel 207.
Bunyan 207.
John Howe 209.
Barrow 212.
South 217.
Tillotson 217.
Threatened decline in the eighteenth century 219.
Atterbury, Watts, Doddridge 221.
Whitefield 222.
Wesley 222.
Robert Robinson 223.
Robert Hall 224.
Christmas Evans 226.
William Jay 227.
Chalmers 227.
Recent English preachers 228.
Expository preachers 229.
Importance of reading old books 230.
Suggestions for the future, viz.
As to Physical Science and Theology 231.
Reaction from skepticism 231.
Humanity of Christ 232.
Humanitarian and liberal tendencies 233.
Freedom as to methods of preaching 233.
Love of sensation 234.
Genuine eloquence 234.
Conclusion . . . 235.

APPENDIX. ON THE LITERATURE OF THE SUBJECT.

PREFACE.

THESE lectures were delivered at the Newton Theological Institution, near Boston, in May last. I had been requested to discuss subjects connected with Homiletics, and the place of delivery was the lecture-room of the church. It was therefore necessary that the lectures should be popular in tone, and should abound in practical suggestions. Under such circumstances, I could not fail to perceive the difficulty of treating, in four or five lectures, so vast a subject as the History of Preaching. For this history is interwoven with the general history of Christianity, which itself belongs inseparably to the history of Civ ilization. Yet I greatly desired to develop, however imperfectly, the leading ideas involved in the history of preaching ; to show what causes brought about the prosperity of the pulpit at one time and its decline at another ; to indicate the great principles as to preaching which are thus taught us. I trust that my at tempt may be of service to those who have never made any survey of this wide field, and may stimulate some persons to study particular portions of it with thoroughness, and thus gradually to fill up the gap which here exists in English religious literature. The principal helps which are accessible, chiefly in other languages, are mentioned in the Appendix. While using them with diligence, I have scarcely ever simply borrowed their statements, and in such cases have always indicated the fact. Where not giving the results of my own study and teaching in the past, I have sought to test by personal examination the ideas and critical judgments of others, before adopting them. At some points my knowledge has of necessity been quite limited. If errors have arisen as to matter of fact, I shall esteem it a favor to have them pointed out. As regards the merits of particular preachers, there is of course much room for difference of opin ion. The sketches of eminent preachers are usually very slight, but it could not be otherwise if space wai to be saved for general ideas and for practical hints.

Some further explanations will be found at the be ginning and end of the closing lecture. V The kind reception given to the lectures at New ton by a general audience of ladies and gentlemen, as well as by the Faculty and Students, has led me to hope that they may find readers who are not ministers, but who take interest in preaching, in Christianity, in history.

God grant that the little volume may be of some real use.

GREENVILLE, S. C. OCT. 1876.