DEAR BROTHER,—
1. Consider, in the first place, the great importance to a preacher of a blameless life.
You must, like Timothy, “flee youthful lusts,” as you would escape from beasts of prey; for there are kinds of beasts, living in the wilderness of man’s corruption, that will charm, by means of their beauteous colours, those that walk among their haunts; there is no safety but by keeping from them, and adhering to such as live by faith, and watch and pray. It will be well for you, while you travel through the coppice of youth, to keep from all appearance of evil. May you have grace to pass through the coppice of forbidden trees, without cutting your name into the bark of one of them, or you may be upbraided at critical times by those who may wish to prove that you are not better than themselves; even the iota, inserted by your hand, may be produced after many years.
2. I remember the words of Luther. that reading, prayer, and temptation are necessary to strengthen and to purify the talents of a minister.
Read to extend your general knowledge, especially as to the plan of redemption, according to the Scriptures, in all its parts, from the election to the glorification, that you may, like a spiritual watchmaker, know all the relative cog-wheels, and be able to open them in the pulpit, and to connect them all by faith, hope, and charity, that they may occupy their own places, and exhibit their true results on the dial-plate; thus proving yourself a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Be not like that thrasher, who presumptuously took his watch to pieces in the barn, and could not put it together again, but was obliged to carry it home in his handkerchief. The messengers of God, described in the book of Revelations, are full of eyes behind and before. You must use prayer to fetch strength out of Christ, like the homer to carry home the manna in, or the water-pot of the woman of Samaria. Without the prayer of faith the preacher will have “nothing to draw with,” from the well that is deep—even the deep things of God. Temptation is requisite to prove the nature of the metal of the preacher’s character and doctrine—”approved of God.” The piece of gold in every true minister’s ministry must be tried in some furnace prepared by Divine Providence. He must, therefore, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil his ministry, endure hardness and affliction, and thus prove himself a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
3. Avail yourself, in the morning of your days, of every opportunity to acquire knowledge useful for the ministry.
Let it be your constant aim to turn every stream and rivulet of knowledge in the right direction, to facilitate the work of the ministry, for the good of souls and the glory of God; as the bee, in all her excursions amongst the flowers of the gardens and the hedges, gathers honey to enrich the hive, as the common treasury of the industrious race. Always have a book to read, instead of indulging in vain conversations. Strive to learn English, as you cannot have academical training. Learn your own mother-tongue well. Learn to write a good hand by frequent practice. Avoid vain conversation instead of growth in knowledge. Remember this, that you cannot commit some loved sin in private and perform the work of the ministry in public with facility and acceptance. For a preacher to fall into sin, be it a secret one, and to live in it, is as fatal, ultimately, as the cutting of Samson’s hair. Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus against all corruption.
4. With regard to the composition of your sermons:
first, let the matter be evangelical. The doctrine of the Gospel is a mould from heaven, and not changed. It puts its own impress and shape on the professor that is melted into it, so that his justification, sanctification, and all his salvation flow from the merits of Christ; and all through God’s grace, and not of ourselves. The Gospel, as a glass, should be kept clean and clear in the pulpit, that the hearers may see the glory of Christ, and be changed to the same image. Every duty is to be urged by evangelical motives. “Let us have grace,” etc. Hereby we can serve God in all the duties of the kingdom of heaven. The whole is summed up in living by faith, which worketh by love, to Him that died for us, and rose again for our justification. Secondly, let your divisions be natural to the text. Take care that your interpretation accord with the contexts. Two or three general heads; avoid many. Four or five remarks you may make on each head; see that they are fairly in the truth of the text. Thirdly, I am not inclined to make inferences or applications from the whole. When the preacher has expended his strength or ingenuity in endeavouring to impress and apply the truth to the minds of his hearers, application seems to me to be doing again what has been effected already. The blacksmith does not put the horse-shoe in the fire after he has nailed it to the hoof, and the cook does not spread the cloth again when dinner is over. Fourthly, beware of long sermons as well as long prayers. When there is but one preacher, he should not preach for more than an hour; when there are two, both should not be more than an hour and a half, that the worship may close within two hours; whenever this time is passed, coolness and fatigue ensue. To put three ministers to preach (in one meeting) is a modern corruption, and likely to make some progress in Wales; while the English, generally, have but one sermon in one service. They excel us herein; for we do not read that, on the day of Pentecost, Peter, James, and John preached after each other; but Peter, “one of the twelve,” delivered that successful sermon. When we lose sight of the Scriptures and common sense we are driven to extremes, though it be with the kindly purpose of respecting strange ministers by putting them to preach.
5. Attend, also, my young brother, to your outward appearance in the pulpit.
Beware of a proud, haughty appearance, with wandering eyes and unfeeling countenance, so that the people utterly fail to see the man of God in you. We must, in order hereunto, have something like unto Moses, when he had been on the mount with God, that will indicate seriousness, love to souls, a spirit of prayer, zeal for Christ, and longing for the salvation of men; like unto those who have felt the fear of perdition ourselves, and the infinite value of salvation by God’s grace; and that we wrestle with God in order to be useful to souls. These things must be imprinted on our appearance and deportment, having transformed us, in some measure, to a heavenly form and habit. Our outward conversation should be conversant herewith, or men will despise us as hypocrites, without the fear of God.
6. Avoid, my dear, brother, all foolish bodily gestures.
7. We now come to the part of the subject upon which you are most anxious to have my thoughts: that refers to the delivery of your sermons.
It is difficult to put general rules of rhetoric into execution. After reading all that has been said by Blair, Williams, Fuller, and the Archbishop of Cambray (Fenelon), who have spoken at length of Cicero and Demosthenes, it is easy, by endeavouring to follow them, to lose the spirit of the work, and thus, by seeking the form, to forfeit the life. Preach the gospel of the grace of God intelligibly, affectionately, and without shame—all the contents of the great box, from predestination to glorification. It was the closing and concealing of this box that occasioned the opening of the venomous Mohammedan box, as well as that of Popery, together with all the vain legality that is to be found among Protestants, established and dissenting. It may be said that they seek justification, but it is by the deeds of the law. The locking up and the losing of the doctrine of grace, through the merits of Christ, utterly destroyed the Jewish Church; for it was in the chest, which they locked up by their false interpolations of Scripture, that the “things which belong to their peace” were contained; “but now,” says the Redeemer, “they are concealed from their eyes;” shut up under unbelief. “The things that pertain to their peace” belong also to our peace as Gentiles. The Deity of Christ, etc.; Redemption, etc. Excuse this digression, for the river of God’s throne moved me along.
We were upon the best mode of delivering sermons for edification. It is not easy to reduce the rules of prudence into practice. I have seen some men of the highest powers, who understood Greek better than their mother tongue, attempting to preach according to rule, and to them the pulpit was like unto Gilboa; they neither affected themselves nor their hearers. The difficulty was the bringing of their regulations into natural practice. I saw one of those men, the most eminent for learning and genius, who found the right way, under the influence of a mighty fervency that descended upon him in the pulpit, so that his voice became utterly different from what it used to be, and his tongue at liberty, as though something was cut that had hitherto restrained his tongue and affections from natural exercise.
Here you have the sum and substance and mystery of all rules:—1. Let the preacher influence himself; let him reach his own heart if he would reach the heart of others; if he would have others feel he must feel himself. Dry shouting (or vociferation) will not do this. The shout of a man who does not himself feel the effect of what he says hardens instead of softening; locks instead of opening the heart. 2. The elevation and fire of the voice must accord with the fervency of the matter in the heart. A person said to me once, “Mr. Evans, you have not studied Dr. Blair’s Rhetoric.” That man, with his rules, was always as dry as Gilboa. “Why do you say so,” replied I, “when you just now saw hundreds weeping under the sermon? That could not be had I not first of all been influenced myself, which, you know, is the substance and mystery of all rules for speaking.” Wherever there is effect there is life; and rules without life have no power. Now, brother, follow the natural course of affection and voice. Raise not the voice while the heart is dry; but let the heart and affections shout first; let it commence within. Take this comparison:—Go to the blacksmith’s shop; he first puts the piece of iron in the fire, and there is no sound of striking the anvil; he collects together the coals for heat; then he tells the boy, “Blow!” while he masterly manages the shovel, adjusting the coals, and asking sundry questions. He calmly looks at the fire heating the iron, and does not yet take hold of the hammer, nor order his assistants to use the sledge; but at length, seeing that the iron has attained the proper malleability, he takes it out, covered with sparkling fire, puts it on the anvil, handles the hammer, and orders his workman to take the larger one, and fashions it according to his pleasure; and so on all day long. Here, observe, he does not beat the iron in order to make it hot, for without first heating it the beating process is in vain. Equally vain is the hammer of vociferation, unless the matter is brought home with warmth into our hearts. We have often sought to produce effect, and to influence our hearers, much as though the smith merely put the iron in fire and barely warmed it; it is contrary to the nature of things to use the hammer while the material is not duly tempered. Thus I have frequently, brother, found myself in preaching. You have, above, the mystery of all effective speaking, in Parliament, at the bar, and in the pulpit; remembering the difference in the subjects, and the sources of heat. In the pulpit we speak of the deep things of God; and we are to pray for and to expect warmth from the Divine Spirit.
You complain that you cannot get your voice into a manageable key, and yet to speak with liveliness and power. Many, with a bad voice, well-governed, have become powerful speakers; while others, with a good voice, have, in consequence of not mastering a natural key, and not being able to move themselves, been most ineffective speakers. I would direct you to fix your voice at its natural pitch, which you may easily do; you may then, with facility, raise and lower it according to the subject in hand. If you commence in too high a key you cannot keep it up long. First, you cannot modulate it as the occasion may require; and you fall into an unpliant, tedious monotony, and all natural cadence and emphasis is lost. Without attuning the voice into the natural key effective oratory is impossible. Secondly, remember not to speak in your throat or nostrils. If the former, you must soon become hoarse, and harsh loudness follows; the glory and vivacity are then departed, and, instead of facility and cheerfulness, you have the roarings of death—the breath failing, with forced screams, and harsh whisperings. Thirdly, raise your voice to the roof of your mouth; do not close your teeth against it, neither imprison it in the nostrils, but open your mouth naturally, and keep your voice within your lips, where it will find room enough to play its high and its low intonations, to discourse its flats and sharps, to utter its joys and sorrows. When you thus have your voice under control, instead of you being under its control, dragging you about in all disorder, you will find it your servant, running upon your errands, up and down, all through the camp, alternating in energy and pliability to the end of the sermon, and not becoming cold and weak, scarcely bearing you through, like Bucephalus, Alexander the Great’s horse, which, mortally wounded, just brought his master out of the battle, and then expired. Fourthly, remember not to press too much upon your breath, when you have attained the natural use of it, by using very long sentences, without pausing at proper places, which (pauses) will add to the effect, as well as preserve the voice; so that you will be, like the smith, ready to strike the duly-tempered metal, prepared to give the suitable emphasis at the end of the paragraph. Let the matter raise the voice; do not attempt by the voice to elevate the subject. Fifthly, use words easily understood, that the people’s affections may not cool, while the mind is sent to a dictionary, to understand your terms. The great work, the exploit of a minister, is to win the heart to believe in Christ, and to love Him. Sixthly, bear in mind, also, the necessity of keeping the voice free, without (affected) restraint; give every syllable, and every letter, its full and proper sound. (It is one of the peculiarities and excellences of the Welsh language, and proves its Eastern origin). No letter has to complain that it is (condemned to be) mute, and neglected, and has no utterance. In English many letters have this complaint; but in Welsh every letter, even as the knights of the round table of King Arthur, has, without preference, its own appropriate and complete sound. Seventhly, remember, also, to enunciate clearly the last syllable in every Welsh word; that will cause your most distant hearer to understand you; while, without this, much of what you say must be inevitably lost. Eighthly, in order to all this, carefully attend to the manner of the best and ablest preachers, and imitate not their weaknesses but their excellences. You will observe that some heavenly ornament and power from on high are visible in many ministers when under the Divine irradiation, which you cannot approach to by merely imitating their artistic excellence, without resembling them in the spiritual taste, fervency, and zeal which Christ and His Spirit “work in them.” This will cause not only your being like unto them in gracefulness of action and propriety of elocution, but will also induce prayer for the anointing from the Holy One, which worketh mightily in the inward man. This is the mystery of all effective preaching,
We must be endowed with power from on high: here is the grand inward secret. Without this we (often) perceive that it is impossible, with all academic advantages, to make good preachers of young men from any college, in the Church of England, or among the dissenters, in the English or the Welsh language. A young preacher must have the mystery of being “constrained” by “the love of Christ;” “the gift of God” must be kindled in him; and He alone, by the Spirit, can sustain that gift by the Holy Spirit. “Who is sufficient for these things?” May the Lord give you, brother, a good understanding in all things; and preserve in you the heavenly gift by the Holy Ghost! may it be rekindled where it is, and contributed where it is not! Without it we can do nothing for the glory of God or the good of souls.— Affectionately, CHRISTMAS EVANS.