Hints on Extemporaneous PreachingHilliard, Gray, Little and Wilkins, 1831 - 98 pages |
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able accustomed acquire advantages animated argument attained attempt attention audi Burnet cern cess Cicero command compo composition consequence course cultivated declamation Demosthenes diction Dinouart discourse doubtless earnest earnestly effect effort elocution eloquence embarrassment ence equally ercise evil excitement exhortation experience expression EXTEMPORANEOUS PREACHING extemporaneous speaking extempore facility fail familiar feelings fluency gift give habits of mind harangues Harvard University hearers heart important indolence inelegance intellectual interest ject labor less mand manner measure meditation memory ment method minister ministry mode of preaching modum natural ness never object observed occasion orators practice preachers preparation pulpit purpose racter reading reason religious remark render rhetorical rule says sentences sideration soul speaker speech spirit spontaneous style success tain talents taste thing Thomas Scott thought and language tion topics train true truth tural unpremeditated language utter words written
Popular passages
Page 86 - ... true eloquence I find to be none but the serious and hearty love of truth; and that whose mind soever is fully possessed with a fervent desire to know good things, and with the dearest charity to infuse the knowledge of them into others, when such a man would speak, his words...
Page 88 - In a word, to feel your subject thoroughly, and to speak without fear, are the only rules of eloquence, properly so called, which I can offer.
Page 61 - Success in every art, whatever may be the natural talent, is always the reward of industry and pains. But the instances are many, of men of the finest natural genius, whose beginning -has promised much, but who have degenerated wretchedly as they advanced, because they trusted to their gifts, and made no effort to improve.
Page 11 - ... itaque eius oratio nimia religione attenuata doctis et attente audientibus erat illustris, a multitudine autem et a foro, cui nata eloquentia est, devorabatur. tum Brutus, Atticum se, inquit, Calvus noster dici284 oratorem volebat : inde erat ista exilitas , quam ille de industria consequebatur.
Page 53 - A much smaller proportion of the citizens were educated than amongst us ; but of these a much larger number became, orators. No man could hope for distinction or influence, and yet slight this art.* The commanders of their armies were orators as well as soldiers, and ruled as well by their rhetorical as by their military skill. There was no trusting...
Page 23 - The degree in which, after the most careful preparation for the pulpit, new thoughts, new arguments, animated addresses, often flow into my mind, while speaking to a congregation, even on very common subjects, makes me feel as if I was quite another man, than when poring over them in my study. There will be inaccuracies, but, generally, the most striking things in my sermons are unpremeditated.
Page 60 - But the extempore speaker', who is to invent as well as to utter, to carry on an operation of the mind as well as to produce sound', enters upon the work without preparatory discipline, and then wonders that he fails'.
Page 60 - If he were learning to play on the flute for public exhibition, what hours and days would he spend in giving facility to his fingers, and attaining the power of the sweetest and most impressive execution.
Page 76 - ... to it, it contains great facilities and reliefs for the inexperienced speaker. The close study of a passage of Scripture which is necessary to expounding it, renders it familiar. The exposition is inseparably connected with the text, and necessarily suggested by it. The inferences and practical reflections are, in like manner, naturally and indissolubly associated with the passage. The train of remark is easily preserved, and embarrassment, in a great measure, guarded against, by the circumstance...
Page 55 - He exiled nimself from home; and during his absence, in various lands, passed not a day without a rhetorical exercise, seeking the masters who were most severe in criticism, as the surest means of leading him to the perfection, at which he aimed. Such, too, was the education of their other great men. They were all, according to their ability and station, orators; orators, not by nature or accident, but by education, formed in a strict process of rhetorical training ; admired and...