, which
contradicts the whole testimony of antiquity, and all the experience of
the world. Doubtless, after the most that can be done, there will be
found the greatest variety of attainment; "men will differ," as Burnet
remarks, "quite as much as in their written compositions;" and some will
do but poorly what others will do excellently. But this is likewise true
of every other art in which men engage, and not least so of writing
sermons; concerning which no one will say, that as poor are not written,
as it would be possible for any one to speak. In truth, men of small
talents and great sluggishness, of a feeble sense of duty and no zeal,
will of course make poor sermons, by whatever process they may do it,
let them write or let them speak. It is doubtful concerning some whether
they would even steal good ones.

The survey we have now taken, renders it evident, that the evils, which
are principally objected against as attending this mode of preaching,
are not necessary evils, but are owing to insufficient study and
preparation before the practice is commenced, and indolence afterward.
This is implied in the very expressions of the objectors themselves, who
attribute the evil to "beginning at the wrong end, attempting to speak
before studying the art of oratory, or even storing the mind with
treasures of thought and language." It is, also, implied in this
language, that study and preparation are capable of removing the
objections. I do not therefore advocate the art, without insisting on
the necessity of severe discipline and training. No man should be
encouraged or permitted to adopt it, who will not take the necessary
pains, and proceed with the necessary perseverance.

This should be the more earnestly insisted upon, because it is from our
loose and lazy notions on the subject, that eloquence in every
department is suffering so much, and that the pulpit especially has
become so powerless, where the most important things that receive
utterance upon earth, are read like schoolboys' tasks, without even the
poor pains to lay emphasis on the right words, and to pause in the right
places. And this, because we fancy that, if nature have not designed us
for orators, it is vain to make effort, and if she have, we shall be
such without effort. True, that the noble gifts of mind are from nature;
but not language, or knowledge, or accent, or tone, or gesture; these
are to be learned, and it is with these that the speaker is conc