the helm and
disobedient to the wind. Sometimes God seems designedly to show us our
weakness, by taking from us the control of our powers, and causing us to
be drifted along whither we would not. But under all ordinary
occurrences, habitual piety and ministerial zeal will be an ample
security. From the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak. The most
diffident man in the society of men is known to converse freely and
fearlessly when his heart is full, and his passions engaged; and no man
is at a loss for words, or confounded by another's presence, who thinks
neither of the language, nor the company, but only of the matter which
fills him. Let the preacher consider this, and be persuaded of it,--and
it will do much to relieve him from the distress which attends the loss
of self-possession, which distorts every feature with agony, and distils
in sweat from his forehead. It will do much to destroy that incubus,
which sits upon every faculty of the soul, and palsies every power, and
fastens down the helpless sufferer to the very evil from which he
strives to flee.

After all, therefore, which can be said, the great essential requisite
to effective preaching in this method (or indeed in any method) is a
devoted heart. A strong religious sentiment, leading to a fervent zeal
for the good of other men, is better than all rules of art; it will give
him courage, which no science or practice could impart, and open his
lips boldly, when the fear of man would keep them closed. Art may fail
him, and all his treasures of knowledge desert him; but if his heart be
warm with love, he will "speak right on," aiming at the heart, and
reaching the heart, and satisfied to accomplish the great purpose,
whether he be thought to do it tastefully or not.

This is the true spirit of his office, to be cherished and cultivated
above all things else, and capable of rendering all its labors
comparatively easy. It reminds him that his purpose is not to make
profound discussions of theological doctrines, or disquisitions on moral
and metaphysical science; but to present such views of the great and
acknowledged truths of revelation, with such applications of them to the
understanding and conscience, as may affect and reform his hearers. Now
it is not study only, in divinity or in rhetoric, which will enable him
to do this. He may reason ingeniously, but not convincingly; he may
declaim eloquently, but not persuasively. There is an immense, though