As thro' this thorny vale of life we run, Great Cause of all effects," thy will be done!" Now had the Grecians on the beach arriv'd, To aid the helpless few who yet surviv'd: While passing they behold the waves o'erspread With shatter'd rafts and corses of the dead, Three still alive, benumb'd and faint they find, In mournful silence on a rock reclin'd. The generous natives, mov'd with social pain, The feeble strangers in their arms sustain ; With pitying sighs their hapless lot deplore, And lead them trembling from the fatal shore
§ 159. Pulpit Eloquence from the English
THEN deem not (as my previous strains have taught)
Religion, a cold metaphysic form, Musing o'er moral problems, and confin'd To wisdom's eyes alone-behold, she sits, While faith unveils her to the vulgar gaze, Streaming cherubic effluence o'er her heaven Of spotless azure! To the dazzling light Her everlasting robe, the abestos floats In vivid folds. Around her emerald throne The passions tremble at her awful beck - “Her ministers as flaming fire," to waft Into the mortal bosom the pure spark Æthereal, that refines our thought! Hence fly The words that burn; while her impulsive power
Jinparts an oratory only less
Than what inspir'd the apostles, when of old They spake all tongues, and saw confusion's reign, The curse of jarring Shinar, disappear.
And lo! she hails her Albion as the spot Auspicions to her orators, tho', long, Unfriended; whilst, in other climes, the pomp Of tyranny and superstition frowns, Ungenial inmates; and in sloth supine Snores the dark priory, or proud conclaves vaunt Their hierarchal honors! Here the mind Shall rise unshackled, if too nice a sense Fastidious intervene not, to retard Its flights! Here pathos may exert its powers.
First therefore, to produce the pathos, fix Upon the great emotions of the soul The mental eye; and deem thy heaters mov'd By similar sensations. Thus the case Of others may be accurately drawn From thine assenting heart that feels it true.
Thus intimately versant in the soul's Quick movements, thou wilt never harshly
What should be gently tura'd to virtue's road; Removing each obstruction that may bar Persuasion, and preparing every mind
Meantime thy style familiar, that alludes With pleasing retrospect to recent scenes, Shall interest every bosom. With the voice Of condescending gentleness, address Thy kindred people. Shun the distant air, The formal: shun the flippancy too smooth, The lightness too theatrical; the starts That waken for awhile the listening ear, But waken to antipathy. Be warm, Yet grave: unite an animated soul With dignified demeanor; and, untouch'd By the vainglory that on Herod beam'd A momentary rapture, big with death, Preach not thyself; but nurse an ardent zeal As for thy offspring rang'd below! The fire Of exhortation haply may diffuse Thy piety, thy virtues; as they see The emotions of a parent. But beware Of overacted violence, that turns To ridicule the best-imagin'd strain.
The pulpit-speakers that arose to fame, Ere Britain froin asperities had clear'd Her language, opening to thee ample stores For eloquence, may cool the intemperate
Of passion but the pulpit might in vain Adopt their manner. Idly might a South His witty turns his quaintnesses display, Except to waken laughter. Barrow's style, Redundant and involv'd, would soon oppress Thy auditors even Tillotson's were cold, Tho' thick with oratorial beauties sown ; And Clarke's exactness, rigorous and precise, Might vainly torture the protracted thought No-to thy observation--to thy heart Recur; nor ever slight them: and, now vers'd In nature and religion, fix thy choice Upon the topics that may best enforce The moral sense, instil into the soul The Christian spirit meek, audiend the heart.
If to the moral system we restrain Our search, select such topics as are sure, To suit thy various audience. To one point That turns on age or station or the modes Of character, thy apt discussions guide Unvarying. Many a preacher wanders wild O'er human life; exhibiting his draughts Confus'd and transitory to distract The attentive eye, that with wait, gure purales.
Is youth thy subject?-Fix'd within the pale Of youth, delineate its peculiar bent — Its failings, its affections; in full strength: Show its appropriate duties; and address The young around thee with the feeling tones That speak the guardian father and the friend.
Or, on the duties of maturer years Descanting, rove not with digressive wing.
But still to thy selected topic true, Trace the hoar lineaments of tremulous age Dropping into the grave. Trite is the tale Of mortal frailness; but the gloomy truth Yet interests and affects: and what affects Will influence. For, tho' oft the passions, rous'd
By vivid strokes of the pathetic, glow With but a momentary flush, and faint Full fast away; still something at the heart Lingers in feeble pulses inextinct, That quick recurs to conscience, at the hour Of meditated evil: the weak sense By oratorial energies renew'd, Acquires an active vigor to repel
The power of vice. The pictur'd frown of death
Hath even awak'd from lethargies of sin The sluggard soul; and bade it trembling fly The horrors that inwrap the yawning gulph.
Nor seldom, stealing with familiar strain Into his business and his bosom, paint The poor man's lot; whilst in the house of God The virtuous peasant shall beside the peer Stand forth, embolden'd. Tell him, if the glow Of floating purple shade o'erweening pride, His is the better livery that infolds
The limbs of want: and tell him, tho' his hours
Of still devotional repose are few, If pious meditation shall await
His steps into the field, the humble vow Breath'd from amidst his labors, may ascend The purest incense that embalins the skies.
Thus it behoves thee to inspect with care Life's shifting circumstance. The social ties, The duties that reciprocally bind
The human race, shall in strong light appear Link'd with peculiar stations. Tho' alike "The tender charities of father, son, "And brother," interest all our mortal race; Lovelier shall they attract the poor, if drawn Beneath the straw-rooff'd dwelling, or the rich, If shadow'd in the splendor of the dome.
And human character with no vain force May arm thy eloquence. Its simple forms Shall strike the rude spectator, and excite The conscious feelings. But the draught refin'd
Rarely the vulgar apprehension meets, Tho' well thy pencil's mimic powers it prove.
Here may the historic instance give effect To moral portraits. From the sacred fount Bring forth the forcible example. Show The grey Barzillai's honorable age Placid, tho' to the minstrel's warbled voice- To the sweet meltings of luxurious lutes No more awake! Show Hezekiah frail In human weakness, and still asking life! Show faintly Timothy, tho' young, detach'd From sensual joys. Exhihit Lazarus poor- Arimathean Joseph rich, yet proud
To bear the Christian banner! And describe The trembling Felix! Such as these beseem Thy pulpit oratory, opening tracts Recent in various beauties; where the heart Throbs with the keen emotions of delight Or fear; and (as the obedient memory stores The striking incident) beats every pulse In corresponding tones to nature's sense; Till, sudden, by an unexpected stroke At once discover'd to itself, it sees Its every winding avenue; shrinks back From its detected vices, (never view'd Before, but with a transitory glance); • And shudders at the brood it fosters there.
If in the Christian system, we behold The radiant sun of righteousness arise With healing in its wings-to stream forth light
Upon the sterner virtues, to relume By pure effulgence mild the moral world; "Tis here pathetic eloquence shall greet Prospects at which ev'n paradise night fade, Tho' all its bowers hung blooming to the breath
Of innocence!-'Twas Eden's happy pair Announc'd creation's blessings. But here burst, Ineffably benign, redemption's rays, Whilst in a mute amaze archangels hail The infinitude of mediatorial love!
Here shall thy glowing oratory charm With an unwonted lustre, as it meets The meekness of the Christian -- his calm eye Wet with the tear of gratitude! To prove Religion's firmly rooted truths, by long Elaborate deduction, were to freeze That feeling tear! The unfathomable strain The vulgar may admire: but not with breath More idly eloquent, the sainted sage Gather'd around him on the rocky shore The scaly race that cleave the hoary deep.
Insist not, therefore, with a tedious length, On proofs external. The strong leading facts Concisely representing, quickly bring The internal evidence to light, that strikes Conviction while it sinks into the heart.
Faith is, perhaps, thy topic. Ah beware Of mazy ambiguities too dark For letter'd minds. Attempt not to premise The
These be thy topics thy sententious phrase With each variety of figures fraught That heighten the pathetic; while exclaim The affections in apostrophes; suspend Attention by the well-tim'd pause; contrast The bold-drawn imag'ry; or break away, In all the abruptness of transition, wild.
Thus, whilst thy pulpit-oratory lives In nature, scripture echoes to its strain; Whether the cheerful or serene shall flow, Or the devout in feeling beauty breath'd, The sorrowful, the joyous, the sublime.
And lo! the oration model'd by the rules Of beautiful arrangement, shall despise The studied air-the mechanism that marks A chain of subdivision. Every part Shall coalesce with ease; nor passion wait Invariably, the peroration's call.
Such is the manner only, that becomes The pulpit. And it strikes with double force, While dignified demeanor, and a sense Of duty in the unerring conduct shown, And fatherly affection never damp'd By low pursuits of lucre, o'er thee spread The sunshine of sincerity. Can they, Whose inconsistent lives not rarely seem A very contrast to the truths they preach, Reform the general morals? When the light, The volatile, the modish churchman mouits The hallow'd rostrum with an airy step That rivals ev'n à Vestris' ease, and casts His careless glances on the pews below, What are his bosom-feelings? Sure, one pause, One little pause the vanities resign
To serious thought; as to his distant home Retiring from Augusta, he yet deigns To visit, for a while, his vagrant charge. Alas! he scarcely knows (nor strives to know) His blunt unfashion'd people; but to all Bowing with graceful condescension, pays An undistinguishing regard; then flies (Delighted that his tedious task is o'er) Back to the scenes, while, hailing his ap- proach,
Soft pleasure strews the rosy couch, and clasps,
Familiar, the fond vot'ry to her arms!
Of pulpit eloquence already trac'd- But let us mark occasions that may ask More argument or elegance than suits The multitude; and touching on the modes That in discriminated features show Thy art, propose the models which may claim
Thy just regard. — A learned audience loves, Ey'n the polemic question. Not but there As Granta's, or a Rhedycina's sons, The champions of the theologic war Misplace their oratory. For, behold, Those hearers that await the preacher's nod In academic bowers, are, chief, the young, With fancy gay and vigorous. Doth the dry The strict methodic dissertation suit Their airy spirits? - Rather note the sting Of secret vice, exhort to study, point The prize of honor, and distinctly draw Virtue's fair outline.
O'er thy reasoning throw The robe of rhetorick. Not that ornament Should, here, invest thy topics with a glare Of superficial richness. Rather verge To Sherlock's plain compactness, that admits No decorating figures, than o'erload Thy lessons with the metaphor's crude mass.
These, on a general survey, are the modes Of pulpit-oratory, which agree
By copious sentiment, cotdens'd and strong; Or graceful Hurd may reason in a style Of elegant deduction, as a voice More musical than Atterbury's, holds The still attention; pathos best accords With common hearers; nor is misapplied Ev'n to the more refin'd. The statelier pomp Of high cathedral dignities may frown Upon the impassion'd period; and the pride Of science too pedantic may propose The closer method of the deep discourse, As the sole imitable mode. Yet say, Doth not the fane effuse its holy gloom O'er various minds, the polish'd or unform'd In each gradation -o'er the gentle breast Whence unaffected sentiment aspires; Whence pare devotion's flame? Is there a
From nature and the scriptures! These are thine These are already open to thy view In fair display! I see, auspicious youth, Thy bosom kindle, as thy sacred guides Pass in array before thee! I behold Thine ardors mark a Saviour on the mount
That mocks the rigor of the stoic porch, And his pathetic look on Peter cast, And his heart-breathing accents in the path To Emmaus, at dim eve! I see thee hail The martyr's angel-features, all illum'd By inspiration's lustre, while he bids Sublinest truths inform the unhallow'd car! — I see thee turn to Lystra's prostrate tribes That fell astonish'd at the feet of Paul, And, as the god of eloquence, ador'd The saint! I see thee trace him, at the throne Of the half-Christian king; or midst the shrines
Of Athens! And thine own exalted mind I see with transport glowing, as the powers Of Blair and Stonehouse meet — combiu'd in thee!
Thus then, (thy glorious mission daly view'd
As of eternal moment) be it thine, Whilst other speakers, less rever'd, pursue Their own appropriate task, as erst my verse Instructed; whether at the learned bar Strict reasoning gain convietion; or the
Of senates echoe to the embellish'd phrase ; (Man's temporal welfare their inferior end); Be thine the nobler office to persuade By exhortation, fix in every soul
Its fervor for the immortal scene, and point The path-tho' here thou walk, yet lent to earth,
Thy heart establish'd in the bliss of heaven!
C. Robinson, Printer, Rolls Buildings, Fetter Lane, London.
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