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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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standing th ^ etitffevbtii ^ ble di ^ lrtnstanc ^ s ; ~ ' * W « » - ^ ^ gkfrfaSMjf' 4 £ 00 o ^^ £ | £ ^ M ^^ bK ^ dV yr by the' jbungr 41 & $ e'r iii 6 n $ wei ^ di stirigui $ &tea t # a % 8 tft ^^ l 8 ^ Sf farj cy and seniibilityj ^ likm fcis animated cotiiitetWi ^ kdtf WpSt ^ iM ^ tbTMxff his voice * brought fully hotne to the hear ^ ;^<^ H * I ^^ to write out his discourses word for word , bu | usually etfipK $ yec ^ it /^ 'jsjatkie time , an abbreviated sketch and distribution o # hisr&uraect / to ^ hici ^ in
latter years , he entirely confined himself , filling up the outline by the extern po £ afie&us effusion of his thoughts in preaching . Those of bis dfecourses , which were printed after his death , appear to have been written out by him , subsequent to delivery , for the gratification of particular friends . Writing to a fnend oh this subject in 1775 , he says , " W * hat I here send you is not a sermon , but a scheme . I preach , as much as I can , in a popular strain . I cannot write a sermon at my desk , but preach only from a plan or outline . What I afterwards compose is thus a regular treatise , with all the stiffness which belongs to my written style , or else merely a scheme and a recollection of what I have said in preaching . "
J . G . Miiller , the brother of the celebrated historian of Switzerland , 3 pupil of Herder ' s , and the editor of his theological works , has left us a charming description of his revered instructor ' s pulpit-eloquence : * ' He knew how to speak directly to the heart—to the holiest ^ princi p le in the soul of man—his religious sentiment ; sometimes with ail the fceal of a glowing eloquence , and sometimes with a gentleness that refreshed the tender est heart . Correspondent to this was his style of delivery ; with a noble calmness and dignity of manner wholly free from all violence and noise , he
spoke through the understanding to the heart , disclosed its secrets with a profound knowledge of mankind , detected errors in their most hidden retreats , and , without falling into vague generalities , but with constant applica . tion to individual situations in life , he administered such admirable advice , consolation , instruction , and encouragement , that it might have been thought he was saying to one what was spoken to many . " * In his preaching he is said to have confined himself to the development of scriptural ideas , which he deduced from an analytical exposition of the text . All dogmatical and ascetic forms of speech he carefully avoided , as only exciting sectarian associations , and as destructive of true feeling . A sefrnon ,-f
which he delivered at Riga , on the Divinity and Use of the Bible , throws an interesting light on the state of his religious views and sentiments at tins period of his life ; and while it shews how his mind had been enlarged by the study of general literature , and by the habit of seizing ' upon the national spirit of the productions of different ages and nations , conveys some admirable suggestions as to the duties of a Christian teacher , which , perhaps , after
the interval of more than half a century , are not yet altogether superfluous . After having alluded to the unreasonable objections raised ^ by many against the Bible in consequence of the oriental form in which ii&trutns ate lexpressed , he Proceeds , ' : ' ' " If the Bible be a divine work , in what Christian family should one book at least not be found , in which the principal and most instructive passages in the Bible are , explained in a clear and simple manner , according to fhje notioiiib ^ out age ? If the Bible be divine , then should public , ^ iscojdfi ; a ^ a exhibit the truths of religion in that mode in which ttey-wcjufyl mqst ^ asily ' 'be comprehended in the present day . In this view , I thiftkl sfciill n ' e perform-. . ,. . . . - , ; .- ¦¦ ' , t *\ t .-. it , / U \¦ nuwvuitti- ' ¦ - <
' * Herder's WeiW Religion und Theologle . Erster ThejH , X ' ^ ^? s- 15 * t CHristliche Reden und Homilien . 2 lor Thoil . S . 293 . '
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Life and iWritings of Herder . 735
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1830, page 735, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2590/page/7/
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