tian
demand. This would necessitate that every preacher be a specialist in
theology and apologetics, which is obviously impossible. Happily, the
situation, strained as it is, is not such as to render it needful that
only experts should venture to preach the gospel. But it is needful
that the sermon stand the test of common sense and, in that way, carry
in it its own defence. It is needful that, as the preacher proceeds to
develop his subject, the hearer shall find cause to assent to the
positions taken up. Otherwise it will be useless to invite him to
forsake his own ground in order to share that from which he has been
addressed. Of course it must be conceded that even this modest demand
will mean much study for the preacher and a careful preparation of the
sermon. Surely, however, the end is worth the labour. In no work is
proficiency gained without some taking of pains. That preacher who is
afraid of a little toil in order that he may thereby improve his
usefulness, and increase his success, should find proof in this fear of
effort that his commission--if ever he had one--has expired. One thing
is sure:--That a sermon which fails to satisfy the intellect--we do not
say of the atheist or the agnostic, to whom, by the way, we are hardly
ever called to preach, but of the average hearer--will ask in vain for
the surrender of men to God. It may be full of sentiment and
overflowing with emotion; it holds no true appeal!

But the intellect is not the whole of a man. The sermon that contains
no appeal to a hearer's emotions will fail, just as certainly as one
that contains no address to his reason. If sermons are full of
emotion, and empty of arguments, they are invertebrate and produce but
transient effects. If the sermon be simply and solely an intellectual
effort it will be cold and nerveless and ineffective. You may
_convince_ a man beyond all possibility of contradiction or protest,
and at the same time utterly fail to bring him to the decision you
desire him to register. Probably an analysis of most of our
congregations would prove that so far as merely intellectual agreement
is concerned the great majority of hearers are already on the
preacher's side as a result of years of hearing while, as yet,
undecided to attempt the path so plainly stretching away before them.

The preacher must address himself to _all_ the emotions of the heart
for any one of them may be the means of carrying his message to that