the antagonist view,
maintain as a self-evident proposition what has neither standing
in the New Testament, nor yet guarantee in the experience of the
Church.

No apology whatever ought to be sustained for imperfect pulpit
preparation; nay, practically at least, no apology whatever has or
will be sustained for it. It is no unusual thing to see a church
preached empty; there have been cases of single clergymen, great in
their way, who have emptied four in succession: for people neither
ought nor will misspend their Sabbaths in dozing under sermons to
which no effort of attention, however honestly made, enables them to
listen; and what happens to single congregations may well happen to a
whole ecclesiastical body, should its general style of preaching fall
below the existing average. And certainly we know nothing more likely
to produce such a result than the false and dangerous opinion, that
preaching is comparatively a small part of a minister's duty. It is
supereminently dangerous for one to form a mean estimate of one's
work, unless it be work of a nature very low and menial indeed. 'No
one,' said Johnson, 'ever did anything well to which he did not give
the whole bent of his mind.' It is this low estimate--this want of a
high standard in the mind--that leads some of our young men to boast
of the facility with which they compose their sermons,--a boast alike
derogatory to the literary taste and knowledge and to the Christian
character of him who makes it. Easy to compose a sermon!--easy to
compose what, when written, cannot be read; and what, when preached,
cannot be listened to. We believe it; for in cases of this kind the
ease is all on the part of the author. We believe further, we would
fain say to the boaster, that you and such as you could scuttle and
sink the Free Church with amazingly little trouble to yourselves. But
is it easy, think you, to mature such thoughts as Butler matured? And
yet these were embodied in sermons. Is it easy, think you, to convey
in language exquisite as that of Robert Hall, sentiments as refined
and imagery as classic as his? And yet Hall's noblest compositions
were sermons. Is it easy, think you, to produce a philosophic poem,
the most sublime and expansive of any age or country? And yet such is
the true character of the Astronomical Sermons of Chalmers. Or is that
spirituality which impresses and sinks into the heart of a people,
independently at times of thought of large calibre or