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ministerial career , as thev roav hence infer , that this mode of preaching will be the most likely to ensure their popularity and usefulness . But if Mr . Turner only meant the latter , then my remarks will not apply to these , because , as so much depends on extraneous circumstances , I do not
pretend to give an opinion on the best mode of performing them . In order , however , to understand this subject clearl y * it will be necessary to define the terms we use , or we shall only wage a war of words . By extempore preaching-, I mean a discourse
delivered without premeditation , or with premeditation , as it respects the matter it contains , but the language in which it is expressed is suggested to the mind of the speaker at the moment of delivery . Any other mode than this I do not call extempore
preaching , and , of course , should not object to it . I have said tfyat I believe this mode of preaching will not be acceptable to the majority of members of most of our regular congregations ; for , although our congregations may not be so numerous as some of the
other classes of Dissenters , yet , I think , it will be generally admitted , they contain , according to their numbers , a greater proportion of intelligent hearers ; and I cannot conceive that these will be as well satisfied with
extempore preaching , as with the present mode , unless it can be supposed that extempore sermons will , in general , be equally as good , in matter and arrangement , as written ones ; but this , I believe , the most sanguine advocate of extempore , preaching will
not undertake to prove . If ministers were only required to address their congregations some few times in the course of a year , some of them , probably , might , by previous preparation , according to Mr . Brougham ' s recommendations , become as finished
orators in the pulpit as any of those who have signalized themselves in the Senate , at the bar , or on the stage . But can there be any comparison instituted between the ministerial profession and any other respecting the
frequency of its public addresses ? Are not the great majority of ministers , especially among the Dissenters , obliged to address their hearers twice on wcry Sunday throughout the year ? From what other profession is an
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equal exertion required ? If the other professions have their busy times in which great exertions may be required of them , they have long-er intervals of leisure to prepare for them . But in any other profession which requires much public speaking , how few is the
number of those who attain any high degree of eminence as public speakers compared with those who scarcely reach the point of mediocrity ! But to be able to form some itlea what extempore preaching would generally be , we have only to ascertain how this
kind of preaching is performed among the other classes of Dissenters , whose preachers generally adopt this mode of preaching ; and then we may , probably , be-able to determine whether * setting aside their peculiar doctrines * the members of our different congregations would be satisfied with a
similar strain and style of preaching ; for something similar it undoubtedly would be . I willingly acknowledge there are some excellent preachers among those to whom I refer , men of considerable talents and attainments
in this mode of preaching ; but , it must also be admitted , they are thinly scattered ; the great majority cannot be quoted as examples of the excellence of this kind of preaching ; and though it may give satisfaction to the
members of their different congregations , would it satisfy the majority of ours ? Do not they , also , overlook or excuse many imperfections in their preachers , if they do not discover any lack in soundness of faith ? But would
similar imperfections be thus easily passed over among the Unitarians ? Do they not , likewise , generally believe that , both in praying and preaching , the preacher receives certain aids and assistances from heaven , and ,
therefore , to give utterance to these , he must necessarily speak extempore , or these could not be granted him ? They , therefore , readily overlook many delinquencies against logic and sound sense , too glaring to escape detection ; and , if compelled to notice them , it is
generally done with this kind ot an apology for them , that the preacher depended too much on human aid , and not sufficiently on divine . But is this belief prevalent among the Unitarians , and would they thus readily excuse the blundering ^ or thcu ' preachers ?
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652 On Extempore Preaching .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1825, page 652, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2542/page/12/
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