utility of this mode of preaching, which render it desirable that every
minister should devote a considerable proportion of his labors to it; it
contains great facilities and reliefs for the inexperienced speaker. The
close study of a passage of scripture which is necessary to expounding
it, renders it familiar. The exposition is inseparably connected with
the text, and necessarily suggested by it. The inferences and practical
reflections are in like manner naturally and indissolubly associated
with the passage. The train of remark is easily preserved, and
embarrassment in a great measure guarded against, by the circumstance
that the order of discourse is spread out in the open Bible, upon which
the eyes may rest and by which the thoughts may rally.

5. A similar advantage is gained to the beginner, in discourses of a
different character, by a very careful and minute division of the
subject. The division should not only be logical and clear, but into
parts as numerous as possible. The great advantage here is, that the
partitions being many, the speaker is compelled frequently to return to
his minutes. He is thus kept in the track, and prevented from wandering
far in needless digressions--that besetting infirmity of unrestrained
extemporizers. He also escapes the mortifying consequences of a
momentary confusion and cloudiness of mind, by having it in his power to
leave an unsatisfactory train at once, before the state of his mind is
perceived by the audience, and take up the next topic, where he may
recover his self-possession, and proceed without impediment. This is no
unimportant consideration. It relieves him from the horror of feeling
obliged to go on, while conscious that he is saying nothing to the
purpose; and at the same time secures the very essential requisite of
right method.

6. The next rule is, that the whole subject, with the order and
connexion of all its parts, and the entire train of thought, be made
thoroughly familiar by previous meditation. The speaker must have the
discourse in his mind as one whole, whose various parts are distinctly
perceived as other wholes, connected with each other and contributing to
a common end. There must be no uncertainty, when he rises to speak, as
to what he is going to say; no mist or darkness over the land he is
about to travel; but conscious of his acquaintance with the ground, he
must step forward confidently, not doubting that he shall find the
passes of its mounta