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THE PREACHER’S DEUVERY
The Matter of Feeling, or Emotion, in the Sermon* S HOULD feeling in the pulpit ever express itself in tears?. There should be no weeping for effect. Frequent weeping is a weakness. So is wholly unrestrained weeping, however infrequent. It may show the violence of the emotion, but it also reveals the weak ness of the preacher. But deep emotion that will break out, yet" which is partially suppressed, upon which the preacher has the curb and bit, will melt an audience as no violent manifestation can by any possi bility. “Nothing approaches nearer to the ridiculous than an attempt to be affecting which is at the same time violent and unsuccessful.” But argument with true pathos means mastery. And the pathos of tears is some times of resistless power. Yes, weep in the pulpit, when the weeping is for real grief of heart. Paul wept many tears as he warned men. He told the Church, “even weeping,” of some who were the enemies of the cross of Christ. Augustine- wept, and moved his whole audience to tears by his weeping. But these occasions were rare, and only when he could not keep down the sobs of his great heart. Artifi cial tears will only lead men to repeat the question once asked concerning a preacher by an unaffected auditor, “What is the man crying about?” And the question will evoke the same answer that was given then: “If you were up there yourself, and had so little to say, perhaps you’d be cry ing too!”
How is feeling to be cultivated ? (a) By the true actor’s way, is one ans wer. By reflection—by meditation, bring ing the occasion, the object, and the sub ject repeatedly before the mind, getting the total meaning and bearing of the subject, vitalizing one’s self with it, until it per vades the whole nature. To fill the heart with heat, one must fill the brain with the fuel of ideas. (b) Another way to cultivate Heeling is by always exercising the sensibilities. Choose proper objects for quickening the the sensibilities; and then, when aroused, let them go out into action. A sluggish nature will grow tender and sensitive by this process. (c) Still another way to cultivate feeling is not to be afraid of it, nor of manifest ing it. Let the lips quiver with emotion, let the eyes suffuse with tears, if they will. The man who resolutely fights down feel ing, who represses it, is putting out the fire with which he can best kindle and inflame souls, and move them upward and God- ward. He is in the pulpit, called there of God to help men and women to a better life. If he fail of this he would better get out of the pulpit. And to be afraid of enthusiasm, to stamp out all feeling, is the surest way to fail. There is danger, of course, that the feel ing may not always have wisest manifesta tion ; but there is a hundredfold greater danger of deadening all feeling and empty ing heart and soul of it, both of preacher and hearer, by its constant repression.
From “The Ideal'M inistry” -by Dr. H errick Johnson.
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