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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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t * he choice of his expressions and the arrangement of his periods . He has , besides , the opportunity of correcting any impropriety which might have escaped him in composing : and it is his superiority in these particulars that has probably obtained him that preference which he enjoys in the judgment of many persons . Great correctness of style is , however , rarely to be
found lh those hasty compositions for the pulpit ^ of which alone the ordinary course of a minister ' s duty can in general admit ; and , on the other hand , it ought not to be concluded , that speakers in general will be found so very incorrect as to disgust a considerable part of their hearers . Speakers in the senate , or at the bar , are not found so disgustingly incorrect ; nor is there any reason why those in the pulpit should be . Clergymen are * to say the least , not inferior in education to either senators or
barristers * Wh y ^ then 5 should they be inferior to them in correctness of style ? If an appeal be made to experience , it will appear that there is no such inferiority . The fact is , that men indulge a more fastidious taste , and thence apply more rigid TuJes of criticism to sermons than to other speeches ; probably because the subjects of the latter are more agreeable to them than those of the former ^ . Be it , however , admitted that the $ tvle of the writer is more correct and elegant than that of the
speaker , still it is not so natural ; and therefore , though it approve itself better to the judgment of the critic , it does not seem as likely to excite the attention of the congregation . Adde 4 io this , the style of the speaker is more likely to be animated than that of the writer , because in the presence of his hearers
he feels his subject rriore strongly than a man who was writing upon it alone in his study ; and , feeling it more strongly , he will express it with greater force and animation , and thus be jnore likely to gain attention , ( 2 ) To give the audience a clear , correct , and complete view of the subject , the preacher must both have formed such . views himself , and also arrange the several parts of his discourse in a
clear and just order * As far as the former depends on the general knowledge which the preacher possesses , the consideration of it will be conveniently postponed for the present : but as far as it depends on his study of the subject of each parr ticular sermon , it is probable that the speaker will have the advantage of the writer , because so much less of his time is em « - ployed in preparing the papers which he carries with him into the pulpit , that he must have much more time to employ on * The preaching from notes lias by many persons been considered as a mark of ignorance ; yet the being able to speak in public on other occasions has been r < rfcarded by the same persons as a mark of superior ability . Whcucc c «* n this 4 i £ . ference of opinion have arisen ?
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Sssay on the Delivery of a Sermon . 523
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1806, page 523, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1729/page/19/
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