With what ask himself the question from time to time, tone, or in what manner should I naturally utter this sentiment in serious conversation with a friend?' This is precisely the tone, and for the most part the manner which become also the pulpit. Nothing is more mistaken than the notion, that in the delivery of our sermons, our ordinary mode of speaking is to be abandoned, and that we are to assume some plaintive, stately, or pompous tone, which is at once unnatural to us, and uninteresting to our hearers. In extemporary preaching, there is considerably less danger of falling into this error ; and hence the principal cause of its acknowledged superiority in awakening attention. But why should the written sermon be allowed to operate so unfavourably on the tone and manner of the preacher? Why should he regard his manuscript as anything more than a remembrancer, or fail to realize the thought that he is not reading an essay with which he has no concern, but conveying to his hearers, his own sentiments and feelings with as much truth and reality, and heartfelt sincerity, as can possibly be felt by the most extemporaneous preacher. The same general direction will be found applicable to most other faults in the delivery of sermons from the pulpit, and equally serviceable in assisting the preacher to attain the manner most natural and easy to himself. For after all the rules which the Elocutionist and Rhetorician can devise, there is no one direction so material to the improvement of the speaker as this, of forming the tones and inflexions of public speaking upon those of sensible and animated conversation. Most men when engaged in speaking with others on subjects of mutual interest, will give utterance to their sentiments in the tones and cadences of natural eloquence. Let the preacher then bear in mind that whether he is discussing a topic of considerable interest in his own parlour in the company of a few friends, or addressing a large assembly from the pulpit, he still speaks, and should preserve the manner and appearance of speaking, and the tones and modulations of voice which are natural to him. How much of the propriety, the force, and the interest of a discourse must depend on such modulations will appear from this single consideration, that to almost every sentiment we utter, and every emotion we profess to feel, nature has adapted some peculiar tone of voice; insomuch that he who without that corresponding tone should tell another, that he was grieved or anxious, or displeased, or afraid, would be so far from being believed, that he would probably be considered as speaking ironically. Sympathy is one of the most powerful principles by which persuasive discourse is made instrumental in operating on the human mind. The speaker endeavours to transfuse into the minds of his hearers his own sentiments and emotions: which he can never be successful in doing, unless he utters them in such a manner as to convince the audience that he feels them. The proper expression of tones, therefore, deserves to be attentively considered by every one who aims with the blessing of God to be a successful pleader with immortal souls. Much also of the force of delivery will depend upon the judicious use of pauses, of which there are two kinds. The first, or ordinary pause, is that which takes place at the close of divisions, paragraphs, sentences, or even parts of sentences, with a view to the sense. The other, or extraordinary pause, is used in an arbitrary manner before certain emphatic words depending altogether for its success upon the taste and judgment of the speaker. The pause to be observed at the close of a general head or division of a discourse should be of considerable length. Two important purposes will be answered by it the attention of the hearer will be recruited by a short but complete repose; and the continuity of sound having been broken, the preacher will be able to descend with greater ease into the ordinary pitch of his voice, should he have previously risen to a higher elevation, or have closed the preceding division in a declamatory or pathetic strain. : On the subject of action, or gesture, little more need be said than that it should be natural and simple. The delivery of written sermons obviously admits of less action than extemporary preaching; but it is far from prohibiting it altogether. Awkwardness, affectation, and excess, are the three dangers to be shunned. The Preacher should for the most part, stand erect in the pulpit it is at once the most natural and dignified posture, and at the same time the most conducive to the proper management of his voice and manner. He should carefully guard against the awkward habit of raising and lowering the head simultaneously with the action of the eyes in glancing at the manuscript before him. Few things tend more powerfully than this to give the delivery of a sermon the air and appearance of mere reading, and to divest it altogether of the character of preaching. Necessity requires that in the use of a manuscript the eyes should be withdrawn from time to time to the cushion; but in no other respect should he permit his delivery to be less natural or interesting than that of the extemporary speaker. To the few simple rules which the Editor has thus ventured to suggest with a view to assist his younger brethren in the ministry in their laudable endeavours to obtain an unexceptionable and forcible delivery, he would add one caution. He would earnestly warn every one against giving way to the too frequent consequence of discouragement-the abandonment of all attempts at improvement. A rigid attention to rules will at first, doubtless, be irksome and unpleasant: it will distract probably the attention of the young preacher from subjects in themselves of far greater importance. But this will be only for a short time: what is at first distracting and constrained, becomes, after a little practice, natural and free. Perseverance will be found, with God's blessing, to overcome every ordinary obstacle; and good delivery will become so habitual, that instead of proving detrimental to the spirituality of the preacher, it will rather tend to promote it. He will experience fresh delight in his pulpit duties, and by observing the increased and increasing attention of his hearers, he will be stimulated with stronger desires to benefit their souls. II. ON THE PRINCIPLES, PHYSIOLOGICAL, MENTAL, AND GRAMMATICAL,-OF oral delIVERY. FROM THE CHRISTIAN OBSERVER.1 IF the practice of elocution had improved in proportion to the number of books which have been written upon it, it would long ago have attained no slight degree of advancement. Yet to this hour how few public speakers deliver themselves even passably well; and how rare is it to find one who, with the higher intellectual qualities of composition, combines the elocutionary aids of strength, melody, harmony, expression, and the numerous legitimate graces which constitute a pleasing and impressive address? Such being the fact, what are the causes of the deficiency? The first and most obvious cause is, that, among the large body of persons who are professionally called upon to speak in public, comparatively few devote themselves, as an important portion of their early training, to the diligent study of elocution. Most of the treatises which are likely to fall into the hands of a student, are rather calculated to teach the art of composition than that of speaking: they are treatises on eloquence, not elocution; rhetoric, not delivery: so that what the ancients considered the first, the second, and the third 1 January, 1835. |