gesis to the
topstone of application. We do not refrain from emphasising this
necessity because of any thought that even the elder brethren will find
such studies without profit. To read once more some of the homiletic
manuals of our far-off days, would not be for many of us a foolish
method of spending a quiet hour "between the mount and multitude!"

To these books, with others more recently published, we refer the
reader who is on the lookout for "rules." In our youth there were many
of them:--"Kidder," "Phelps," "Broadus," "Beecher," "Parker's Ad
Clerum." Add to these "Phillips Brooks," "Dale," "The Cure of Souls,"
and as many more as can be remembered; their name is legion--all
helpful to wise men and good. Our present duty seems to be that of
naming certain principles which must be remembered by all who would
attain to effectiveness in pulpit expression.

And the first of these principles seems to be this:--That the sermon
should have the quality of _attractiveness_, that it ought to be so
interesting that the man in the pew will _wish_ to listen to it, find
it harder _not_ to listen than to attend to its every word. You will
never save or help a man if you never interest him!

Now, whether there be need to emphasise this very obvious consideration
we may judge from the talk we hear about sermons in general. We have
already spoken of the wonderful popularity of this form of public
address; but this popularity is not unqualified by complaints, the most
frequent of which is, perhaps, about the preacher's dulness. "As dull
as a sermon" is a familiar expression--so familiar that no one troubles
to protest against its use and application. One of our most hoary and
patriarchal anecdotes tells of the minister who, finding a burglar in
his study, held the man in deep slumber by the reading of last Sunday's
discourse while his wife slipped out for the policeman. An American
humorist, who has laid us under life-long obligation for hours of
honest laughter, tells us, in the history of his courtship of Betsy
Jane, that her folks and his "_slept_ in the same meeting house."
Again and again have we heard of the risks run by insurance companies
in granting fire policies upon the houses of the clergy, because of the
immense quantities of very dry material they contain. All these
humorous stories and sallies find appreciation because there is, alas!
a certain amount of truth at the heart of them. Then there is also
t