feel it, can preach. He can make men believe things that are true, and even those that are not true, such as that ordinances are indispensable which are not indispensable. He can do almost everything with people, for he really believes his own doctrine. See Roman Catholic priests go into a community, and there are many of them that might be our exemplars in piety and self-denial, and with that intense faith and zeal which have made them martyrs among savages, see them labor among the people, and lead them into the fold of the Roman Church. That is largely the result of the Faith-power.

If you are going to preach, do not take things about which you are in doubt to lay before your people. Do not prove things too much. A man who goes into his pulpit every Sunday to prove things gives occasion for people to say, "Well, that is not half so certain as I thought it was." You will, by this course, raise up a generation of chronic doubters, and will keep them so by a little drilling in the nice refinement of doctrinal criticism. You can drive back from the heart the great surges of faith with that kind of specious argument, and even the true witness of the Spirit of God in men may be killed in your congregation by such doubting logic. Do not employ arguments any more than is necessary, and then only for the sake of answering objections and killing the enemies of the truth; but in so far as truth itself is concerned, preach it to the consciousness of men. If you have not spoiled your people, you have them on your side already. The Word of God and the laws of truth are all conformable to reason and to the course of things that now are; and,

certainly, everything that is required in a Christian life- repentance for sin and turning from it, the taking hold of a higher manhood, the nobility and disinterestedness of man goes with God's Word and laws naturally. Assume your position, therefore; and if a man says to you, "How is it you are so successful while using so little argument?" tell him that is the very reason of your success. Take things for granted, and men will not think to dispute them, but will admit them, and go on with you and become better men than if they had been treated to a logical process of argument, which aroused in them an argumentative spirit of doubt and opposition.

Remember, then, Imagination, Emotion, Enthusiasm, and Conviction are the four foundation-stones of an effective and successful ministry.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS.

Q. Suppose a man does not have the enthusiasm of which you have spoken, what is he to do?

MR. BEECHER. Do the best he can, and stop. I think it would be a very wholesome thing in a man's parish life, if once in a while, upon finding that he was not making much of a sermon, he should frankly confess it, and say, " Brethren, we will sing."

Q. Suppose a man tries to work himself up to a feeling of enthusiasm by action and increased emphasis, can he be successful?

MR. BEECHER. In regard to that, I will mention a circumstance that occurred to my father. I recollect his coming home in Boston one Sunday, when I was

quite a small boy, saying how glad he was to get home, away from the church; and he added, "It seems to me I never made a worse sermon than I did this morning." "Why, father," said I, “I never heard you preach so loud in all my life." "That is the way," said he, "I always holloa when I have n't anything to say!"

But how far a man may assume the language of feeling and he may sometimes, in order to its production is a fair question, though one I do not now wish to discuss. There is some difference in the questions put by gray hairs and those put by young men, I notice. [The questioner was an elderly man.] I am sure of one thing, and that is, where a man is naturally cold he is not as well adapted to the office of preaching as an enthusiastic man. I would say to such a man, "Put yourself in that situation in which sympathy naturally flows; then provide a mold for it, and it will fit the mould first or last." It is just like the cultivation of right feeling in any direction. One of my parishioners will say to me, "I have no benevolence, but you preach that I ought to give, what shall I do?" I say to him, "Give, as a matter of duty, until you feel a pleasure in doing it, and the right feeling will come of itself." So, in addressing a congregation, a man may use the language of a feeling for the sake of getting and propagating the feeling. Indeed, when it comes to preaching, I think it would be a great deal better to act as though you had the feeling, even if you had not, for its effect in carrying your audience whither you wish to carry them.

Q. Do you approve of the appointment of professional re

vivalists?

MR. BEECHER. Yes, if I employ them. If they use me, I do not like it. The term "professional revivalist" is a fortunate one. I have known a great many of these persons, and a great many that did not do much good. Others I have known who have done a great deal of good. I do not see why, if a man has received from God the gifts of arousing people, and bringing them to see and acknowledge the great moral truths of Christianity, he should not be employed as a revivalist, under judicious administration. He should be employed by others, always, so as to work into the hands of the pastors, so as to unite the church, and not to divide it. There are difficulties in the "evangelist system," but there are benefits in it also, and in many cases, and in many parts of the country, it would seem almost indispensable to the growth of the churches. In churches that maintain a regular organization, and are alive and active, I do not see the need of professional revivalists; but where they are run down, and in scattered neighborhoods, I would certainly advise the use of such instrumentalities.

VI.

RHETORICAL DRILL AND GENERAL

TRAINING.

February 21, 1872.

HERE is, in certain quarters, a prejudice existing against personal training for preaching, in so far as it is affected by

posture, gestures, and the like. There is a feeling abroad in regard to it, as though it would make a dramatic art out of that which should be a sacred inspiration. Men exclaim, "Think of Paul taking lessons in posturing and gesticulation, or of St. John considering beforehand about his robes and the various positions that he should assume!" They say, "Let a man who is called of God go into his closet, if he would prepare; let him be filled with his subject and with the Holy Ghost, and he need not think of anything else."

But suppose a man should stutter, and you should tell him to go into his closet and be filled with the Holy Ghost, would it cure his stuttering? Suppose a clergyman is a great, awkward, sprawling fellow, do you suppose he can pray himself into physical grace? You do not think that the call of the Divine Spirit is a