LETTER IV.

HOW TO GAIN THE CONFIDENCE OF THE HEARERS.

THE end of preaching is, as we have seen-like that of all other speaking-persuasion. Your hearers are of all degrees of intellect, and of every shade of character; all you have a right to assume respecting them is, that they have natural feelings, conscience, and common sense. It is through the means of these faculties that you have to influence the will. These are the avenues by which you are to reach it. The will is the fortress which you have to take, and it will require all your skill and energy, all your appliances and means. A simultaneous attack must be made on all points: you must win their confidence, convince their understanding, and move their feelings; and, above all, you must pray for the Divine blessing, without which your most strenuous efforts will be unavailing.

Most writers agree in assigning the first place in the art of persuasion to the employment of arguments

to convince the understanding; yet Aristotle1 incidentally confesses that the opinion formed by the hearer respecting the speaker is, so to speak, the most important point. If the great master of rhetoric allows this fact, when speaking of oratory in general, we shall do well to consider it so in that branch of rhetoric of which we are treating. Conviction, strictly speaking, is not an essential part of a sermon. Your office is not always to convince your hearers of any thing which they are inclined to dispute; but, perhaps, more frequently to instruct them in what they are ignorant of, or imperfectly acquainted with; to remind them of what they have forgotten, and to urge them to act upon undisputed principles. You have not so much to convince them of the danger of sin, the mercy of God, and their own high privileges, as to induce them to think seriously on these matters, and to act accordingly.

But, in order to compass any one of these points, it is indispensable that you should gain their confidence until you have done this, there will be a prejudice against every thing you say. Now by far the most important point, with a view to gain their confidence, is that they should be, in the first place, aware that you have received a divine commission to teach them. On this point I would only observe, that in the lamentable ignorance of Church

1 Arist. Rhet., lib. i. cap. ii. sec. 4.

principles which at present unhappily prevails, it is absolutely necessary that you should, from time to time as occasion serves, set forth, discreetly but boldly, the doctrine of the apostolic succession; the fact that the Bishops alone have received authority in the Church of Christ to ordain Ministers, and the claim which Ministers so ordained have to the attention of the people. But this is a subject which scarcely comes within the province of rhetoric, and I touch on it only by the way, and proceed to the rhetorical requirements.

In order to gain the confidence of your hearers, three points must be established in their opinionthat you have good principle, good will towards them, and good sense'. You must give them reason to believe that you are sincere,—that you have their good at heart, and that you are competent to instruct them. I need scarcely observe to you, that the first step towards making them believe that you possess these qualities is really to possess them. Even a heathen rhetorician' declared "that none but a good man could be an orator." How much more does this apply to a preacher of the Gospel than to any other speaker! If the congregation suspect, despise, or dislike, the man, not even the eloquence of Saint Paul would effectually move them. They might admire his

1 ̓Αρετή, εὔνοια, φρόνησις.—Arist. Rhet., lib. ii. cap. i. sec. 5. 2 Quinctilian.

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preaching,―nay, yield to his arguments, but they would not follow his advice. "A minister of evil life," says Bishop Jeremy Taylor, "cannot preach with that fervour and efficacy, with that life and spirit, as a good man does. For, besides that he does not himself understand the secrets of religion, and the private inducements of the Spirit, and the sweetness of internal joy, and the inexpressible advantages of holy peace, besides all this, he cannot heartily speak all he knows. He hath a clog at his foot, and a gag in his teeth. There is a fear, and there is a shame, and there is a guilt, and a secret willingness that the thing were not true, and some little private arts, to lessen his own consent, and to take off the asperities, and consequent trouble, of a clear conviction '.' St. Ambrose justly said, "Ipsam obmutescere eloquentiam si ægra sit conscientia."

It is apart from my present subject to enlarge on the necessity of general good character.. I cannot, however, resist the opportunity of offering one or two remarks. You will have made but a very small progress towards the true character of a Christian minister, if you content yourself with merely avoiding evil; you must be ever striving after holiness, endeavouring to go on from strength to strength, and rendering yourself, by God's grace, more and more qualified for your responsible office'. The first thing is to purify

1 Sermon ix.

2 I would strongly recommend you to read the lives of eminently

your heart, "to take care that all is right within ;' the next, to regulate your outward conduct in scrupulous accordance with the requirements of the Gospel. You must not only abstain from evil, but you must “abstain from all appearance of evil'," "in all things showing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine showing uncorruptness, sincerity, sound speech "." Do all you can, even in the smallest things, to gain the respect and love of your parishioners; be affable, courteous, patient, just, and charitable; pay your debts regularly; give no offence in any thing; be always ready to visit and converse with all your parishioners; and interest yourself both in their temporal and spiritual welfare.

If you visit

them at their houses, they will visit you at Church. With regard to your intercourse with the world and its amusements, I shall only set down one observation. It matters not to the wolf what innocent recreation the shepherd is engaged in, if he be not tending his flock. Always be adding to your store of theological knowledge, for unless your head is well stored, your efforts will be only like

66 Dropping buckets into empty wells,

And growing old in drawing nothing up."

Lastly, often read your ordination vows, and the

pious and devoted ministers-no matter of what persuasion: if of a different persuasion from yourself, perhaps in some respects the better, to "provoke emulation."