Gazette Of The United States

PREACHING. AN EXTRACT.

THE French are certainly our masters in pulpit eloquence; and I think the observations of the Bishop of Cambray, with respect to the structure of sermons, are to be preferred to those of the celebrated Blair. The former objects against the practice of formally laying down a number of heads, with their attendant subdivisions; the latter is an advocate for it, and compares the heads in a sermon to the mile posts on a journey; "these," says he, "give as much ease to the hearer as those to the traveller." This must suppose the whole discourse painful and laborious to the hearers, and that therefore, they rejoice at the little resting places. Can this be compatible with true eloquence, which never fatigues the hearer, and therefore requires no resting place for him to blow, pant, or get his breath at? Sermons thus fabricated and laid down, according to Mr. Blair's plan, with seven heads and ten horns, will never cease to be stiff, cold, tedious and phlegmatic. It is much better for the preacher to reserve than apprise the audience of the heads of his discourse; for, when once they are furnished with them, they begin to anticipate what is to be said upon the subject, and then take a nap to themselves; but, where we are not at once presented with a chart or draught of the sermon, the pleasure of novelty, which is constantly breaking in upon us, commands attention.
(From the Georgia Gazette.)