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There may be lazy preachers, for ought I know, who go jogging on with a few old rags of sermons for many years in succession, without adding one to the lot. And if they do this, they resemble some of our old-fashioned vicars and curates, who have one lot of sermons to last through one year, and as they are preached they are carefully deposited in a tub, and when the first sunday in the new year arrives, the tub is turned bottom upwards, and they begin again; and so they go on, till their congregations know what is coming from the pulpit as well as from the reading desk.

I mean no offence, but if they will make themselves merry at our expense, they cannot take it amiss if we give them gentle hints in their own fashion.

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But to our point, about these sermons. it known unto all men then, that there are circuits in Great Britain, in which, if a man stays two years, he must preach three hundred sermons to the same people; and should he stay three years, he must preach four hundred and fifty. And these must all be different sermons. This is especially the case in Scotland, and more especially in the north of Scotland, where our labours are confined to one or two chapels, and we have no local preachers. I myself have

had to preach three hundred sermons to the same people, and most of them about an hour in length.

Let clergymen then, many of whom I very sincerely respect, and with whom I have had much affectionate intercourse, speak carefully about us, and not at random.

Let them also be informed, that numbers of our ministers, though possessing hundreds of well-studied discourses, are often freshening themselves up with new ones, for their own improvement, and that of their peeple.

Brethren let us be awake!

Church clergymen of superior piety and eminent talents are rising up all around us. We can rejoice in their success. But, as there are people enough to fill chapels and churches too, let us do the utmost to retain our members and congregations. Let us keep up by diligent study, our influence in the pulpit. Local preachers can do this. Some of you are so talented that the bishops and clergy invite you into the establishment. You go to college, and come out curates or vicars. Our people too, whether from altered views in favour of the establishment, or because it is so respectable and genteel, go to church. Nobody disputes their right to go, if they think proper, but I humbly think

they would not go in so great numbers, if we always did our best in the pulpit. They like methodism still, and some of those clergymen whose preaching is so attractive to them, are the sons or grandsons of methodist preachers!

Yes brethren, not a few of the brightest ornaments of the church of England, have been either methodist preachers, or are the sons of methodist preachers.

Good preaching, I grant you, has for a century past been rendered more difficult than it ever need to have been, by the insane prejudices against the use of notes in the pulpit. These prejudices have driven some good men to extremities. They have been obliged either to get their sermous by heart, or to extemporize, without sufficient ability. But happily people are now coming to their senses, and a reciter of sermons is as much complained of as a man who reads them. Steer between these extremities. If indeed you can preach well without notes, and yet put no merciless burden on your memory, do so; if not, study your sermon well-write a good solid outline of your thoughts-place it before you, and fill it up by extemporizing.

Good extemporary preaching is the result

of extensive reading and profound thinking, on a large number and variety of subjects. Be then a diligent reader and a close think

er.

Be also a man of prayer and piety, and your "profiting will appear unto all."

As to notes, I may just add-you will seldom need them for sermons that you have often preached, and that are familiar to you. But on subjects entirely new, they will be of great service, only do not use them slavishly.

Note F. No preacher ought to appropriate this term to himself, or allow it to be given him by others, in a sense which excludes the great body of christian ministers. All pious ministers are revivalists. They may rationally object to innovations and self-inspired excitement in the church of God, but in the very best sense they are revivalists. They never preach the pure word of God faithfully, without reviving a concern in the ungodly, when open to conviction; and also reviving the great principles and qualities of personal holiness, in the minds and hearts of believers.

Note G. I once knew a child, of respectable parents, who had a strong relish for raw turnip parings, decayed vegetables, and tallow candles. He used to eat them, and was par

ticularly indifferent to the ordinary and wholesome food. But this diseased appetite beginning to injure his health, he submitted to be cured of it. Are they not "children in understanding" who delight in those pulpit exhibitions called sermons, which do not nourish the soul unto life eternal ?

FINIS.

IRONBRIDGE:

PRINTED BY J. SLATER, SALOP ROAD.

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