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See also: bow, sword, See also: dagger or other small thing belonging to war
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M=V
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22,no greater authority can be desired, defines a See also: sermon as a religious address, in which the word of See also: God is stated and explained, and in which an See also: audience is excited to the practice of virtue
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This may be so extended as to include a discourse in favour of pure morality, though, even in that See also: case, the morals are founded on Christian See also: doctrine, and even the sermon which the See also: fox preaches in La Fontaine's Fables is a parody of a Christian discourse
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The Latin sermons of St Augustine, of which 384 are extant, have been taken as their See also: models by all sensible subsequent divines, for it was he who rejected the formal arrangement of the divisions of his theme, and insisted that simplicity and familiarity of See also: style were not incompatible with dignity and See also: religion
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His See also: object was not to dazzle by a conformity with the artificial rules of oratory, but to move the soul of the listener by a See also: direct See also: appeal to his See also: conscience
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His adage was Qui sophistice loquitur odibilis est, and his influence has been exercised ever since in warning the Christian orator against artificiality and in urging upon him the See also: necessity of awakening the See also: heart
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Nevertheless, on many occasions, fashion has led the preachers of a particular epoch to develop rules for the composition of sermons, the value of which is more than doubtful
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See also: Cardinal Siffrein, who is known as the See also: Abbe Maury (1746-1817), resumed all the known artifices of sermon-style in a See also: volume which has a permanent See also: historical value, the well-known Essai sur l'eloquence de la See also: chaise (1810); he was himself rather a fiery politician than a persuasive divine
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Maury describes all the divisions of which a See also: good sermon should consist—an exordium, a proposition, a section, a confirmation in two or more points, a peroration; and he holds that a sermon on morals should have but two points, while one on the Passion must have three
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These are effects of pedantry, and seem rather to be founded on a cold-blooded analysis of celebrated sermons than on any instinctive sense of the duty of the preacher
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We may wish to see in a good sermon, what See also: Bossuet recommended, not the result of slow and tedious study, but the flush of a See also: celestial fervour
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Voltaire makes an interesting observation on the technical difference between an See also: English and a French sermon in the 18th century; the former, he says, is a solid and somewhat dry dissertation which the preacher reads to the See also: congregation without a gesture and without any inflection of his See also: voice; the latter is a long declamation, scrupulously divided into three points, and recited by heart with See also: enthusiasm
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Among the earliest examples of pulpit oratory which have been preserved in English literature, the discourses of Wycliffe and his disciples may be passed by, to arrive at the English sermons of See also: John
See also: Fisher (1469?-1535), which have a distinct See also: literary value
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But Hugh See also: Latimer (1485?-1555) is the first See also: great English preacher, and the wit and power of his sermons (1549) give them prominence in our literature
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One of the expository discourses of John Knox (1505-1572), we are told, was of more power to awaken his hearers than a blast from " five See also: hundred trumpets." When we come to Elizabethan times, we possess a few examples of the sermons of the " judicious " See also: Hooker (1554-1600) ;
See also: Henry
See also: Smith (1550-1591) was styled " the
See also: prime preacher of the nation "; and Lancelot See also: Andrewes (1555-1626), whose sermons were posthumously printed at the command of See also: James I. in 1628, dazzled his contemporaries by the brilliancy of his euphemism; Andrewes was called " the
See also: star of preachers." At a slightly later date John See also: Donne (1573-1621) and See also: Joseph See also: Hall (1574-1656) divided the suffrages of the pious
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In the
See also: middle of the 17th century the sermon became one of the most highly-cultivated forms of intellectual entertainment in Great Britain, and when the theatres were closed at the See also: Common-See also: wealth it See also: grew to be the only public See also: form of eloquence
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It is impossible to name all the eminent preachers of this See also: time, but a few must be mentioned
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John Hales (1584-1656); Edmund Calamy (1600-1666) ; the Cambridge Platonist, Benjamin See also: Whichcote (1609-1685); See also: Richard See also: Baxter (1615-1691); the puritan John See also: Owen (1616-1683); the philosophical See also: Ralph See also: Cudworth (1617-1688); Archbishop Leighton (1611-1684)—each of these holds an eminent position in the records of pulpit eloquence, but all were outshone by the gorgeous oratory and See also: art of See also: Jeremy See also: Taylor (1613-1667), who is the most illustrious
II
writer of sermons whom the
See also: British See also: race has produced
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His matchless collection of discourses delivered at See also: Golden See also: Grove, The Eniautos, was published in 1653–1655
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The fault of the 17th-century sermon was a tendency, less prominent in Jeremy Taylor than in any other writer, to dazzle the audience by a display of false learning and by a violence in imagery; the great merit of its literary form was the fullness of its vocabulary and the richness and melody of style which adorned it at its best
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Some of the most remarkable divines of this great
See also: period, however, are scarcely to be mentioned as successful writers of sermons
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At the Restoration, pulpit oratory in See also: England became drier, less picturesque and more sententious
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The great names at this period were those of IsaacSee also: Barrow (1630–1677); Robert See also: South (1634–1716), celebrated for his wit in the pulpit; John See also: Tillotson (1630-1694), the See also: copyright of whose sermons fetched the enormous sum of 2500 guineas after his See also: death, and of whom it was said that he was " not only the best preacher of the age, but seemed to have brought preaching to perfection "; and See also: Edward Stilling-See also: fleet (1635–1699), styled, for his appearance in the pulpit, " the beauty of holiness." These preachers of the Restoration were controversialists, keen, moderate and unenthusiastic
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These qualities were accentuated in the 18th century, when for a while religious oratory ceased to have any literary value
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The sermons of Benjamin See also: Hoadly (1676–1761) have a place in See also: history, and those of Joseph See also: Butler (1692–1752), the Rolls Sermons of 1726, have great philosophical importance
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See also: Thomas
See also: Boston's (1676–1732) memory has been revived by the praise of See also: Stevenson, but his zeal was far exceeded by that of John See also: Wesley (1703–1791), who preached 40,000 sermons, and by that of See also: George See also: Whitefield (1714-1770)
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Of all countries, however, See also: France is the one which has shown most brightly in the .cultivation of the sermon
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In the 14th century See also: Gerson (1363–1429) seems to have been the earliest divine who composed and preached in French, but his example was not followed by any See also: man of equal See also: genius
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It was the popular See also: movement of the See also: Reformation, which made the sermon a piece of literature, on the lips of See also: Jean See also: Calvin (1509–1564), See also: Pierre Viret (1511–1571) and See also: Theodore de Beze (1519–1605)
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With these stern See also: Protestant discourses may be contrasted the beautiful, but somewhat euphuistical sermons of St See also: Francois de Sales (16o5–1622), full of mystical imagery
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See also: Father See also: Claude de Lingendes (1591–166o) has been looked upon as the father of the classic French sermon, although his own conciones were invariably written in Latin, but his methods were adopted in French, by the school of See also: Bourdaloue and Bossuet
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In the great See also: body of See also: noble religious eloquence delivered from French pulpits during the 17th century, the first place is certainly held by the sermons of J
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B
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Bossuet (1627–1704), who remains perhaps the greatest preacher whom the See also: world has ever seen
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His six Oraisons Funebres, the latest of which was delivered in 1687, form the most majestic existing type of this See also: species of literature
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Around that of Bossuet were collected other noble names: See also: Louis Bourdaloue (1632–1704), whom his contemporaries preferred to Bossuet himself; Esprit Flechier (1632–1710), the politest preacher who ever occupied a Parisian pulpit; and Jules
See also: Mascaron (1634–1703), in whom all forms of eloquence were See also: united
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A generation later appeared See also: Baptiste Massillon (1663–1742), who was to Bossuet as Racine to Corneille; and Jacques Saurin (1677–1730), whose evangelical sermons were delivered at the Hague
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These are the great classic preachers whose discourses continue to be read, and to form an inherent See also: part of the body of French literature
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There was some revival of the art of the sermon at See also: Versailles a century later, where the Abbe Maury, whose critical See also: work has been mentioned above, preached with vivid eloquence between 1770 and 1785; the Pere Elisee (1726–1783), whom See also: Diderot and Mme See also: Roland greatly admired, held a similar place, at the same time, in See also: Paris
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Since the end of the 18th century, although a great number of volumes of sermons have been and continue to be published, and although the pulpit holds its own in Protestant and Catholic countries alike, for purposes of exhortation and encouragement, it cannot be said that the sermon has in_any way extended its influence as a formof pure literature
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It has, in general, been greatly shortened, and the ordinary sermon of to-See also: day is no longer an elaborate piece of carefully balanced and ornamental literary architecture, but a very See also: simple and brief See also: homily, not occupying the listener for more than some ten minutes in the course of an elaborate service
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In See also: Germany, the great preachers of the middle ages were Franciscans, such as See also: Brother See also: Bertold of See also: Regensburg (1220-1272), or See also: Dominicans, such as Johann See also: Tauler (r 290–1361), who prea!bhed in Latin
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The great period of vernacular preaching lasted from the beginning of the 16th to the end of the 17th century
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See also: Martin
See also: Luther was the most See also: ancient type of early Reformation preacher, and he was succeeded by the mystic Johann Arndt (1555–1621); the Catholic See also: church produced in Vienna the eccentric and almost burlesque oratory of Abraham a
See also: Santa See also: Clara (1642–1709)
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The last of the great See also: German preachers of this school was P
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J
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Spener, the founder of the Pietists (1635–1705) . Among the best authorities on the history of the sermon are Abbe Maury: Essai sur l'eloquence de la chaire (2 vols., Paris, 181o) ; See also: Rothe, Geschichte der Predigt (See also: Bremen, 1881)
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