sermon, on whatever authority it stands, or by whatever great name it is recommended, which has no effect on the congregation. Without entering at all into the general character of our printed sermons, among which it would be an easy task, no doubt, to find examples of all that is fervent in piety, splendid in eloquence, or sound in doctrine; I will venture to assert that no sermon, certainly no set of sermons, will be so useful to a congregation, as those which have been originally composed for it by a preacher residing amongst them, acquainted with their spiritual state, and adorned with the qualifications already premised. It no more follows that the same sermon should be useful or suitable to all congregations, because all Christians have the same doctrines to believe and the same duties to learn; than that the same character is applicable to every individual, because all mankind is endowed with the same nature, qualities, and passions. Two congregations can scarcely be found in precisely the same state of religious knowledge

and advancement, or with the same capabilities of comprehending a method of treating a subject, and the language in which it is clothed. What is too elementary in one place, will be too profound in another; what might be safely taught to those who are accustomed to " compare spiritual things with

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spiritual," might lead others into dangerous errors, who had little previous acquaintance with the Gospel. The general rules of medicine are uniform, as well as the general principles of the human constitution; but that would be a dangerous practice, which did not modify itself according to each particular case. On the same grounds, it is of supreme importance that the preacher should have a style of his own; a style of doctrine founded upon his individual views and conviction, and a style of language accommodated to the understanding and actual state of his flock. He will thus secure two points of the utmost consequence in all instruction, consistency and earnestness. He will not address his congregation as Calvinists to-day,

and Pelagians to-morrow, according to the humour of the writer on whom his choice may have fallen he will not treat them, sometimes as heretics, who must be untaught errors of which they never heard, and sometimes as far advanced in spirituality, to which, perhaps, they have not made the first approaches. He will not dwell at length upon what is called Christian liberty, to a congregation which is seeking a cloak for sin; nor abound in strong and unguarded statements upon those points which are liable to be wrested to the destruction of the hearer, till he is assured his flock are able" to bear them."*

* Some useful advice occurs in a Charge of Paley's (Sermons and Tracts, p. 103) as a comment on Archbishop Secker's recommendation to make sermons local: which he

interprets to mean the adapting them to the " particular state of thought and opinion which we perceive to prevail in the congregation ;" and exemplifies it from our Saviour's own habit of instruction; who did not entertain the Pharisees or Sadducees with invectives against the opposite party, but preached against hypocrisy to the one, and expounded the doctrine of the resurrection to the other. So to the Jews he inculcated a more comprehensive benevolence,

He who composes the groundwork of his own sermons cannot possibly fall into errors of this nature. What he sees in the Bible to-day, he will see in it to-morrow: and what he has found in it himself, he will set forth and explain to his congregation with an earnestness which none but an actor can assume, when delivering the thoughts of others. It is not, indeed, necessary that every sentence should be original. A person who is in the habit of studying the Scriptures, and devotional books, and religious subjects, with a view to its utility in the pulpit, will be at no loss for illustrations and comments, which will both enrich his style and abridge his labour. These the judicious writer, like the judicious reader, will make his own by his mode of applying them; and will feel that interest in the whole which only an author can know, and will receive that best gratification in the discharge of his duty which

to the Samaritans the orthodoxy of the Jewish creed. The whole Charge is worthy of its author, and calculated to supply very useful hints to the conscientious preacher.

C

arises from a conviction of success.

For suc

cess will, without doubt, reward his labours, as long as he takes simplicity of heart for his guide, and the rule of the Gospel for his standard; as long as he intimately feels what he earnestly inculcates, and acts himself, and leads his congregation to hear, under a practical sense of the necessity of the divine blessing. The power of the Gospel is never more strongly displayed, than in the success which attends the faithful declaration of its doctrines, and the plain enforcement of its precepts, even by the most limited powers and ordinary attainments; whereas great ability, and extensive stores of information, being applied to other subjects, and exhausted on other studies, are of no sort of avail as to spiritual instruction. *

Cùm alii faciant obtusè, deformitèr, frigidè, alii acutè, ornatè, vehementèr; illum ad hoc opus jam oportet accedere, qui potest disputare vel dicere sapientèr; etiamsi non eloquentèr; sapientèr autem dicit homo tanto magis vel minùs, quanto à Scripturis sanctis magis minùsve profuit." Augustin de Doctr. Christ. 1. iv. c. 5.