Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 May 1882 — Preaching by Weight. [ARTICLE]

Preaching by Weight.

The question is agitated among ohurchgoing people, “Why are bo many learned ministers poor preachers ?” The trouble is that many of the learned ones are content to load themselves with mighty stores of knowledge, never tbinkiug of how they are tip benefit their fellow men by giving it out Unfortunately, some of our most learned clergymen are the driest of preachers. To learn or practice the ordinary arts of oratory does not seem to have occurred to these good men. The art of pleasing their audiences is something to which they can not conveniently desoend. Perhaps they despise it because there are so many empty-headed men who have succeeded in holding their congregations spellbound. They may think that to interest an audience is an evidence of sensationalism. Therefore, they are couteut to plod on in the delivery of matter which is really valuable, but which loses its value because uttered in suoh a lifeless fashion. One of our most learned preachers used to have a habit of meander)fig along in a sing-song monotone for the first fifteen minutes of his discourse. The effect on strangers was to weary them or pnt them to sleep, under the impression that the whole discourse was to be delivered in this style. On those who were accustomed to hearing him it was different. They knew he would have something of interest for them, and waited for it. After a while he would wake up to a most earnest style of delivery and continue in it to the end of his sermon. Some great scholars are so pompous that they can not preach as if to ordinary mortals. Some preach fairly well, but, because they are such great men, do not stop short of an hour and a half. This may impress the weary hearers with a sense of greatness, but at the same time oppresses them with the ponderousness of it. Learning and good oratory are not necessarily out of harmony with each other. There is no reason why a learned person should not add to his other accomplishments the art of imparting his wisdom to others in the most graceful, attractive, and convincing way.—Philadelphia Timea.