Miscellaneous Counsels ''Preaching was an art which required the most careful study, as well as great natural gifts, and excellence could not be attained without much practice and training, yet every young clergyman was allowed to go his own way, with little help or guidance. And the natural result followed; pulpit oratory had fallen to a lower level than ever before. It was past praying for, he said; and preachers, if they were to be found at all, were only to be found among the Nonconformists."
Life of Bengamin Jowett.
Miscellaneous Counsels READING J EAD the most useful books, and that regularly and constantly. Steadily spend all the morning in this employ, or, at least, five hours in four-and-twenty.
"""But I read only the Bible.'
Then you ought to teach others to read only the Bible, and by parity of reason, to hear only the Bible.
But if so, you need preach no more.
This is rank enthusiasm. If you need no book but the Bible, you are got above St. Paul. He wanted others too. 'Bring the books,' says he, 'but especially the parchments,'
John Wesley on Preaching those wrote on parchment. 'But I have no taste for reading.' Contract a taste for it by use, or return to your trade."
Letter to Mr. John Trembath (1760) :— '¢What has exceedingly hurt you in time past, nay, and I fear to this day, is want of reading. I scarce ever knew a preacher read so little.
And perhaps, by neglecting it, you have lost the taste for it. Hence your talent in preaching does not increase. It is just the same as it was seven years ago. It is lively, but not deep; there is little variety; there is no compass of thought.
Reading only can supply this, with meditation and daily prayer. You Miscellaneous Counsels wrong yourself greatly by omitting this. You can never be a deep preacher without it, any more than a thorough Christian. O begin!
Fix some part of every day for private exercises. You may acquire the taste which you have not. What is tedious at first, will afterwards be pleasant. Whether you like it or no, read and pray daily. It is for your life; there is no other way; else you will be a trifler all your days, and a pretty superficial preacher. Dojustice to your own soul; give it time and means to grow. Do not starve yourself any longer. Take up your cross and be a Christian altogether. Then will all the children of God rejoice (not grieve) over you.' b/
John Wesley on Preaching Letter to Mr. Joseph Benson, (1768) :— '"You have now twenty more volumes of the Phzlosophical Transactions. Dr. Burton's Latin and Greek Poems you have in the study.
Malebranche, and some other books, are coming. Logic you cannot crack without a tutor. I must read it to Peter and you, if we live to meet.
It would not be amiss if I had a catalogue of the books at Kingswood, then I should know the better what to buy. As fast as I can meet with them at sales, I shall procure what are yet wanting. But beware you be not swallowed up in books: an ounce of love is worth a pound of knowledge."
Miscellaneous Counsels Wesley's interest in the reading of his preachers is also shown by the following extracts from his Journal :-— '* Kingswood, 1749.—My design was to have as many of our Preachers here, during the Lent, as could possibly be spared ; and to read lectures to them every day, as I did to my pupils in Oxford. I had seventeen of them in all. These I divided into two classes; and read to one, Bishop Pearson on the Creed; to the other, Aldrich's Logic; and to both, Rules for Action and Utterance.—/Journal, ie 128.
'' London, October, 1756.—I began reading, over with the Preachers that were in town, Mr. Pike's Phzlosophia Sacra. It contains the marrow of Mr. Hutchinson's philosophy clearly
John Wesley on Preaching and modestly proposed; but upon a closé examination, I found the proofs were grievously defective. I shall never receive Mr. Hutchinson's Creed, unless zpse dzxzt pass for evidence." —/Journal, ii. 388.
'* London, December, 1756.—I read with the Preachers this week the Glasgow Abridgment of Mr. Hutchinson's Works; wherein the abridgers have expressed, with surprising exactness, not only his sense, but his very spirit. But in truth, I cannot admire either; nay, I admire his hypothesis less and less, as I see the whole is unsupported by Scripture.
Very ingenious, but quite precarious." —/Journal, ii. 389.
Surely evidence of his open mind and confidence in truth to select for Miscellaneous Counsels reading with his preachers works with which he so strongly disagrees.
READING AND VISITATION Letter to Mr. Joseph Benson (1774) — ''Many persons are in danger of reading too little. You are in danger of reading too much. Wherever you are, take up your cross, and visit all the society from house to house. The fruit which will ensue (perhaps in a short time) will abundantly reward your labour."
Letter to Mr. Zechariah Yewdall (1779) -— **You would do well to read every morning a chapter in the New Testament, with the Notes, and to spend
John Wesley on Preaching the greatest part of the morning in reading, meditation, and prayer. In the afternoon you might visit the society from house to house, in the manner laid down in the Minutes of the Conference. The more labour, the more blessing."
GENERAL METHOD OF PREACHING ''(1) To invite. (2) To conginee:
(3) To offer Christ. (4) To build up; and to do this in some measure in every sermon."
SMALLER ADVICES ''(1) Be sure never to disappoint a congregation, unless in case of life or death.
''(2) Begin and end precisely at the time appointed.
Miscellaneous Counsels *€(3) Let your whole deportment before the congregation be serious, weighty, and solemn.
'*(4) Always suit your subject to your audience.
**(5) Choose the plainest texts you can.
**(6) Take care not to ramble ; but keep to your text, and make out what you take in hand.
**(7) Be sparing in allegorising or spiritualising.
**(8) Take care of anything awkward or affected, either in your gesture, phrase, or pronunciation.
**(g) Sing no hymn of your own composing.
'*(10) Do not usually pray above eight or ten minutes (at most) without intermission.' '
John Wesley on Preaching Short prayers are very desirable.
Very wearisome to a congregation are long addresses to the Almighty.
''(11) Everywhere avail yourself of the great festivals, by preaching on the occasion, and singing the hymns, which you should take care to have in readiness.
'*(12) Beware of clownishness either in speech or dress."
PREACHING CHRIST '' Have not some of us been led off from practical preaching by what was called preaching Christ? Indeed we have. The most effectual way of preaching Christ is to preach Him in all His offices, and to declare His law as well as His gospel, both to believers and unbelievers. - Let us
Miscellaneous Counsels strongly and closely insist upon inward and outward holiness in all its branches."'
TEMPERANCE ''(1) Are you temperate in all things? instance in food: Do you use only that kind and that degree which is best both for your body and soul? Do you see the necessity of this?
**(2) Do you eat no flesh suppers, no late suppers ?
**(3) Do you eat no more at each meal than is necessary? Are you not heavy or drowsy after dinner?
**(4) Do you use only that kind and degree of drink which is best both for your body and soul?
**(5) Do you drink water? Why John Wesley on Preaching not? Did you ever? Why did you leave it off? If not for health, when will you begin again? to-day?
**(6) How often do you drink wine or ale? every day? Do you want it?"
THE CALL TO PREACH ''How shall we try those who think they are moved by the Holy Ghost to preach?
''Inquire, (1) Do they know God as a pardoning God? Have they the love of God abiding in them? Do they desire and seek nothing but God? And are they holy in all manner of conversation? (2) Have they gifts (as well as grace) for the work? Have they (in some tolerable degree) a clear, sound understanding?
Miscellaneous Counsels Have they a right judgment in the things of God? Have they a just conception of salvation by faith?
And has God given them any degree of utterance? Do they speak justly, readily, clearly? (3) Have they fruit?
Are any truly convinced of sin, and converted to God by their preaching?
''As long as these three marks concur in any one, we believe he is called of God to preach. These we receive as sufficient proof that he is 'moved thereto by the Holy Ghost.' "
MODEL OF STYLE FOR YOUNG PREACHERS '"The wind in our face tempering the heat of the sun, we had a pleasant ride to Dublin. In the evening I began expounding the deepest part of Holy Scripture, namely, the First
John Wesley on Preaching Epistle of St. John, by which, above all other, even inspired writings, I advise every young preacher to form his style. Here are sublimity and simplicity together, the strongest sense and the plainest language."— Journal, 1765.
Interestingly accordant with this is the language in which a recent able writer on Fénelon expresses that prelate's view of pulpit eloquence: ''Akin to the Greek in form and movement, almost in narrative and substance, was another literature still higher; Demosthenes must yield place to St. Paul, and Homer to Moses and the prophets, for the Scriptures, in their grand simplicity, were the true, the Divine model of Christian eloquence." * * Francois de Fénelon, by VisCcOUNT St. CyREs.
Miscellaneous Counsels PULPIT REBUKE DIFFICULT '' Thur., December 1.—The storm was ready to bear away both man and beast. But it abated about noon; so that, after preaching at Margate, I had a pleasant ride to Canterbury.
**T made an odd observation here, which I recommend to all our Preachers. The people of Canterbury have been so often reproved (and frequently without a cause,) for being dead and cold, that it has utterly discouraged them, and made them cold as stones. How delicate a thing it is to reprove; To do it well requires more than human wisdom."