Homiletical Index

THE manifest value of this extensive and in some of its features entirely novel Homiletical Index, for bibliographical purposes, is too plain to need illustration. As a combined record of the variety of subjects treated of in Christian pulpits in past times and in our own day, and of the doctrines and duties which the several verses of the books of the Bible have been thought or made to teach, we have nothing in the English language to compare with it. It may be safely trusted to win its own way and to hold its own place, with the certainty of grateful recognition on the part of all who know the value of bibliographical helps.

To those engaged in the work of the Christian ministry, the special service which this elaborate index will be able to render, will depend, it is evident, upon the manner in which it is used, and the principles adopted and conscientiously acted on, in relation to the published sermons of others. On both of these. points the following observations are offered:

The preaching of the Gospel, or, more exactly, the Gospel as preached, is the message itself plus the preacher. In him and his work, if he is worthy, a real addition is designed to be made to the power of the glad tidings. He is appointed to be a witness for the truth, as one renewed by it himself; to restate it as it commends itself to his understanding, now enlightened from above; to connect it with existing phases of thought and feeling, in ways best fitted to win the hearts of men; to clothe it with the force and tenderness of sanctified emotion; and, finally, to adorn it with the beauty of a saintly life, in the presence of which the consciences of men shall be constrained to recognize in him the undoubted bearer of a Divine message. This work of the preacher, ever giving freshness to the Gospel, is the standing provision made by our Lord to guard against an enfeebling and fatal monotony; and so it comes to pass that they who have heard the glad tidings a thousand times flock, with an interest which never tires, to hear the Word preached by those who verify their calling.

If this is a true conception of the rationale of preaching, the preservation of the individuality of the preacher, within certain limits, becomes a matter of the highest importance. These limits define themselves the moment we distinguish between the true ideal of an individual, or what he might and should be in virtue of his mental endowments, combined with his relations and circumstances, on the one hand, and the imperfect realization of all this in his actual character, on the other. It is in the first of these senses that he has the right to be and is bound to be himself and no one else. It is in this sense that he stands alone in the world, with a make-up of qualities which, in just the same proportion and shading, no one else ever had or ever will have. True progress and growth depend upon a man's resolute acceptance of this. It is no lack of modesty, but may be a striking exhibition of it, for a preacher to regard himself as designed to be different in some respects from any who have preceded him— stronger, perhaps, than some in one or more directions, weaker certainly in many others; but, whether stronger or weaker, appointed to be himself, and as himself to serve the Lord in the ministry of His Word. The true ideal of himself may be imperfectly developed, and may be marred with defects and faults. These it is his business to correct, but yet always in his own line of things, and not in that of another, so that the result, steadily aimed at, shall be the most perfect realization possible of just the ideal which he was designed to exhibit, and the manifestation to the world of just the preacher which he was called to become. Quite possibly this may in some cases involve the existence of noticeable peculiarities, or even eccentricities; but, if these are the honest outworking of himself, and are not put on at the bidding of vanity, or for the sake of oddity, they will do no harm, and may even add to his power. It is only when he mistakes his deficiencies and faults for excellences that the result is evil.

What, now, is the bearing of this upon the preacher's study of the sermons. of others? First, it is evident that none of these productions, however excellent, are or can be simply models to be copied or reproduced by himself. Each of them, in conception, in arrangement, and in a style or mode of expression which reveals the subtile mental associations by which even the selection and collocation of words were determined, is a photograph of the writer or speaker, and of no one else. Chalmers is Chalmers and Bushnell is Bushnell in every thought and sentence and word. To attempt to change ourselves into either of them, or into any one else, is only to put on a mask. Success is simply impossible. What is strictly personal must ever remain such. We might as well attempt to wear the countenance of another as to borrow the peculiarities

of his mental structure, or to clothe our conceptions with forms of thought and expression which belong properly to him. The preacher who will be true to himself must respect the individuality of others and respect his own. He must be willing to say that for him, as a steward of the mysteries of God, there is and can be no absolute and exact model. At all hazards he must be himself.

There is another aspect of the case which confirms this view. The great preachers of the past had before them their own age, its wants, its dangers, its special associations of thought and feeling. The great preachers of our time, also, have and must have their sermons, if they are to be effective, moulded and fashioned with distinct reference to the community to which they are addressed. If we had the audiences of Chrysostom or Howe or Baxter to preach to, many things might be properly said which would now come without force or perhaps repel. To every age, and even to every community, the Gospel needs to be preached with a very special and distinct adaptation to its position and wants. Here is the place for the individuality of the preacher. As rhetorical or homiletical compositions, the discourses of Saurin or Mason may occupy an incomparably higher place than any which he can hope to prepare; but, in the well-considered application of the doctrines and precepts of the Gospel to the existing state of his congregation, every pastor can do what none else can. There is many a humble parish in which greater and better sermons, for that parish, are preached than any discourses of Massillon or Bossuet.

Closely connected with this is the preservation of the preacher's productivity. It is only thinking that produces thought. The conceptions, or even the facts, which come into a man's mind only by communication from others, and which remain there merely by the force of memory, are of comparatively slight value. Of themselves they make a conglomerate, and nothing more. It is not till the mind brings them into combinations of its own, and sets them actively to work, that they become elements of power. Even the knowledge given by revelation, the grand germinant truths of the Bible, are no exception to this law. They are presented to the soul as vital forces, to be taken up into its processes of thought and feeling, and to become springs of intellectual and spiritual life. Thus used, pondered upon, developed, brought into new relations and applications, made factors for wider generalizations, they constantly contribute to the full knowledge, èπlyvwois, of which the Apostle Paul speaks so highly, and to which he was ever seeking to elevate the early churches. Nothing to the preacher, therefore, can supply the place of honest production. The loss of it is death. If he sinks into a mere receiver of the

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