YALE LECTURES ON PREACHING. BY HENRY WARD BEECHER. DELIVERED BEFORE THE THEOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT OF YALE OF THE "LYMAN BEECHER LECTURESHIP ON PREACHING." FIRST SECOND, AND THIRD SERIES. Three Volumes in One. NEW YORK: FORDS, HOWARD, & HULBERT. 1881. The most suggestive address was delivered by Rev. Thomas Cook, the Connexional Evangelist, who said :— A man told him the other day, "You don't preach; you talk." He replied, "Yes, I talk to save people." Mr. Wesley very forcibly put it, not to preach so many sermons merely, or take care of this or that society, but to save as many souls as he could, to bring sinners to repentance, and with all his power to build them up in that holiness without which no man could see the Lord. Ward Beecher delivered hundreds of sermons before he could see the real design of preaching. For a long time preaching with him was an end only. He got baptized with the Holy Ghost and then he saw it was only a means to an end; he saw that preaching was only a method of enforcing truths, not for the sake of the truths themselves, but for the result he saw in men. A sermon was good when it had power on the heart, and was good for nothing when it had no moral power on men. It was their duty and privilege to be co-workers with God in saving this lost world. What would be thought of the lawyer who was always pleading and never getting a verdict? What of the physician always in practice and never healing? If nothing but barrenness marked their ministry there must be something wrong. They ought to expect results, and nothing should satisfy them but results. Instead of adopting a lofty style, he tried to preach as he talked. "Too colloquial !' !" was the verdict upon his trial sermon, but subsequent events justified the method, and the more he saw of it the more he was convinced that this was the method that saved souls. What was the use of a distinguished preacher preaching to a full chapel in a style that not more than six people could follow? St. Paul would have called him a barbarian. The other day he made a new sermon and tried it—it did not go. He soon found out the fault; it preached at sin and not at sinners. They were told that working men did not go to their chapels because they hit them so hard. He found it quite the reverse. Again, they must not be afraid to illustrate. Many did not "illustrate" for fear of being known as the "anecdotal parson." The Master never preached without a parable. Then it was not popular nowadays to preach that God would punish sin; but they must do so for all that; he kept to the words of Scripture and preached both heaven and hell. They must have convictions on these things and then dogmatise. Souls could not be saved by "ifs" and "buts" and "whens" and "whys." Lastly, there could be no greater calamity to Methodism than a belief that souls only were to be saved by evangelists. They depended on the rank and file, and if they were strong in the circuit they would be strong everywhere. B4 LECTURES ON PREACHING. FIRST SERIES. THE PERSONAL ELEMENTS WHICH BEAR AN IMPORTANT RELATION TO PREACHING. 111 LETTER. THEOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT, YALE COLLEGE, REV. HENRY WARD BEECHER. Feb. 23, 1872. DEAR SIR, Allow us to express our high estimation of the Lectures on Preaching given by you in the Marquand Chapel to the students of this Department. We value them for the views which they give of eloquence in general, and of that eloquence in particular which seeks to save men by the exposition and application of the gospel. We value them for their stimulating and inspiring effect on the hearers, and for the high ideal which they hold up before ministers and students for the ministry. We cannot but hope that in some form of publication they will have a wider usefulness, not only among students preparing for the ministry, but among preachers of the gospel in all the churches. It is with great satisfaction that we look forward to the enjoyment of other courses from you in successive years. The Lyman Beecher Lectureship which was founded by your parishioner, Mr. Sage, and of which you are so fitly the incumbent, promises to exceed in usefulness our highest expectations. Yours truly, LEONARD BACON, (Lecturer on Church Polity, etc.) SAMUEL HARRIS, (Prof. of Systematic Theology.) GEORGE E. DAY, (Prof. of Hebrew and Biblical Theology.) JAMES M. HOPPIN, (Prof. of Homiletics and the Pastoral Charge.) (Prof. of Ecclesiastical History.) (Prof. of Sacred Literature.) PREFACE. IN 1871, Mr. Henry W. Sage, of Brooklyn, New York, contributed the funds necessary to found a Lectureship on Preaching in the Divinity School at Yale College, New Haven, Conn. In honor of my father, it was styled the LYMAN BEECHER LECTURESHIP ON PREACHING. As this title implies, it was the design of the donor and of the Theological Faculty to secure a more perfect preparation of young men for preaching, as the highest act of the Christian ministry, by providing for them, in addition to their general and professional studies, a course of practical instruction in the art of preaching, to be given by those actively engaged in the practice of it. At the request of both the Founder and the Theological Faculty, I consented to serve as Lecturer in this course for three consecutive years. Since each class, however, passes through a threeyears' course, it was deemed desirable that the lectures |