they should never be forgotten.

I will endeavour that ye may be able, after my decease, to have these things always in remembrance." So men are taught by the instructions of Providence; and so, I need not scruple to say, they have been taught, from the pulpit, by the most skilful preachers, in all ages.

But where, it may be said, on these principles, lies the room for variety and richness of matter? It lies in the endless scope for illustration, by which the preacher of competent powers has opportunity to present the truths of the gospel, in aspects and relations so diversified, that while the same truths are taught, over and over, the hearers see them in new lights, and with eager interest stretch forward in knowledge.

Is not the book of providence various, rich, beautiful, and even sublime in its instructions? Yet the sun travels the same path through the heavens, and the seasons preserve their order. Regularity and repetition, in the natural world, fix impression; so that uniformity in its laws, is the basis of knowledge. If every fact in the kingdom of nature should occur but once, and the course of events should be a succession of absolute novelties, experience could not be the ground of foresight, the lessons of providence would convey no valuable instruction to men, and the business of the world must cease. The same principles apply to the instructions of the pulpit. They need not be tame and barren of interest, because they often dwell on the same great truths of religion. On the contrary, the man who, from affectation of constant novelty, should teach his hearers the doctrine of atonement, for example, but once in his life, might as well never have mentioned it at all.

4. That a sermon may be instructive, ITS MATERIALS

SHOULD GENERALLY BE THROWN INTO THE FORM OF DISCUSSION, IN DISTINCTION FROM THE DESUL

TORY MANNER.

My remarks on this topic will be brief, as partly superseded by those already made on Argument in Sermons. There is indeed a dry, technical mode of discussing subjects, which gives a logical air to a discourse, but which wearies rather than instructs the hearers. The formality of propositions and corollaries, is not at all the thing that I am recommending. But it is incumbent on the preacher to give his hearers substantial reasons for that which he urges on them, as a matter of faith or duty. The Senator, or the advocate at the bar, when he speaks, aims to establish some point by reasoning. Why should a Christian discourse be a mere declamatory harangue, not aiming to establish the truth of any thing, or to make any definite impression? Will it be said that, in the eloquence of the senate and the forum, argumentation is indispensable, because men will not act till they are enlightened and convinced; but that, in the sanctuary, the main object is to produce excitement and warmth? Of what value is that warmth, which is produced by the mere vociferation of a declaimer, and which vanishes, when the sound of his voice ceases? In my opinion, one of the greatest calamities that can befal a congregation, is to be placed under the ministry of a man who never discusses any subject in a regular manner, nor attempts to prove any thing, from reason and scripture, but gives his hearers declamation, instead of Christian instruction. Such sermons, if strictly unpremeditated, are more likely perhaps to have occasional flashes of vigour and vivacity, than if precomposed, in the extemporary and desultory mode of writing. In either case, they will utterly fail of instructing the hearers.

5. That sermons may be instructive, THEY MUST EX

HIBIT DIVINE TRUTH IN ITS CONNEXIONS.

Men in general spontaneously read and think very little on religious subjects. What they know of the gospel, they learn more from the pulpit, than from all other sources. No one sermon can contain the whole of Christianity; yet Christianity is a connected, consistent whole, which must be exhibited in parts; and no part can be fully understood, except in its relations to the rest. In every art or science, as I have before remarked, there are fixed principles, which are to be learned, distinctly, but which are inseparably related to each other. A knowledge of that art or science, is a knowledge of each part, and of its relative bearing on other parts. One principle of geometry, detached from the rest, signifies nothing; -the whole taken together constitute a perfect science. The wheels of a clock, viewed apart from the whole machinery, would apparently have no design; and any one of these wheels, indeed, if formed by the artist without regarding its adaptation to the rest, would be altogether useless. So it is in the system of religious doctrines; any one of these dissevered from its connection with the rest, may be so distorted, that it virtually ceases to be true. It is true in the connection in which the Bible has placed it; but apart from that connection it is liable to be misunderstood, and to have all the influence of falsehood.

To preach the gospel instructively then, is to preach all its parts, especially its essential parts; and to preach them in their symmetrical relation to one harmonious, connected scheme of religion. This will prevent that 'inconsistency which runs through the whole course of some men's preaching, who not only contradict in one discourse, what they have said in another, but say and

unsay the same things, in the same discourse.' The amount of my meaning is, that no single truth of the gospel. can be adequately taught from the pulpit, without being taught in its connections with the general scope of revealed religion; and the result is, that partial and superficial preaching, is not instructive preaching, Men may hear sermons through a whole life, which inculcate no falsehood, but on the contrary exhibit, in a detached way, one principle after another of true religion, and yet these hearers may never acquire an adequate knowledge of any one doctrine of the Bible.

The foregoing are some of the principal qualities of sermons, necessary to render them instructive.

LECTURE XIX.

CHARACTERISTICS OF SERMONS.

I shall proceed now,

II. To look at THE REASONS why it ought to be a prominent object with a Christian preacher TO RENDER

HIS SERMONS INSTRUCTIVE.

1. That this is his duty may be inferred FROM THE CONSTITUTION OF THE HUMAN MIND. The service which God requires of men is a reasonable service. All the laws of his moral kingdom are adapted to the condition of intelligent, moral agents. This kingdom is a kingdom of motives; and no action can possess a moral nature, except as it results from intelligence and purpose in the mind of the agent. The understanding therefore, is that leading faculty of the soul to which motives are addressed; and through which their influence bears on the heart, and conscience, and affections. Whatever emotion or action can be produced, without any intelligent, voluntary purpose in the agent, must be as destitute of moral qualities as are the actions of a manaic, or the ebbing and flowing of the tide. But if men are so made as to be influenced by motives, and this influence can operate only through the medium of light and conviction addressed to the understanding, then the sermon that communicates no instruction is useless, not being adapted to the constitution of the human mind.

2. That the Christian preacher should aim to render