abstractions, a mere speaking into the air. The practical. preacher should deal with the living man; go down among the sympathies, the wants, the aspirations of the living soul, and show how these are affected by the influences to which the soul is subjected in this world, and how they may be refined and elevated by a wise and Christian culture, and by the strenuous and faithful exercises of the will when freed and sanctified by the power of truth. Finally, let there be expository preaching. Preach the gospel; preach Jesus Christ; but not for the purpose of settling chronological difficulties, or reconciling apparent discrepancies. Let the hearer be led rather to enter into the mind of Christ; to comprehend the deep spiritual meaning of his teachings, and to recognise and acknowledge the light from heaven which they flash into the dark chambers of the soul. The complaint has come up from some quarters that the preaching of Rational Christians is not sufficiently effective and satisfying; and to this multitudes are ready to reply. "They preach over the heads of the people; they do not preach enough to feelings." This, however, as it seems to me, is taking a very superficial view of the difficulty, which consists, I believe, so far as there is any ground for the complaint, in not paying a proper regard to the doctrine it has here been my humble endeavor to expound. We must guard against a tendency to dwell too much on the outside of life, or on merely speculative or negative views. We must help the hearer to resolve the mystery of his own inward being, and comprehend its law. We must make it to be our leading object to impress the guilty soul with a sense of its guilt, and the anxious soul with a clear view of the way of reconciliation, and every soul with a living consciousness of its unbounded and indestructible capacities of knowledge, improvement and happiness. |