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As thro' this thorny vale of life we run,
Great Cause of all effects," thy will be done!"
Now had the Grecians on the beach arriv'd,
To aid the helpless few who yet surviv'd:
While passing they behold the waves o'erspread
With shatter'd rafts and corses of the dead,
Three still alive, benumb'd and faint they find,
In mournful silence on a rock reclin'd.
The generous natives, mov'd with social pain,
The feeble strangers in their arms sustain ;
With pitying sighs their hapless lot deplore,
And lead them trembling from the fatal shore

§ 159. Pulpit Eloquence from the English

Orator.

POLWHELE.

THEN deem not (as my previous strains have
taught)

Religion, a cold metaphysic form,
Musing o'er moral problems, and confin'd
To wisdom's eyes alone-behold, she sits,
While faith unveils her to the vulgar gaze,
Streaming cherubic effluence o'er her heaven
Of spotless azure! To the dazzling light
Her everlasting robe, the abestos floats
In vivid folds. Around her emerald throne
The passions tremble at her awful beck -
“Her ministers as flaming fire," to waft
Into the mortal bosom the pure spark
Æthereal, that refines our thought! Hence fly
The words that burn; while her impulsive
power

Jinparts an oratory only less

Than what inspir'd the apostles, when of old They spake all tongues, and saw confusion's reign, The curse of jarring Shinar, disappear.

And lo! she hails her Albion as the spot Auspicions to her orators, tho', long, Unfriended; whilst, in other climes, the pomp Of tyranny and superstition frowns, Ungenial inmates; and in sloth supine Snores the dark priory, or proud conclaves vaunt Their hierarchal honors! Here the mind Shall rise unshackled, if too nice a sense Fastidious intervene not, to retard Its flights! Here pathos may exert its powers.

First therefore, to produce the pathos, fix Upon the great emotions of the soul The mental eye; and deem thy heaters mov'd By similar sensations. Thus the case Of others may be accurately drawn From thine assenting heart that feels it true.

Thus intimately versant in the soul's Quick movements, thou wilt never harshly

treat

What should be gently tura'd to virtue's road; Removing each obstruction that may bar Persuasion, and preparing every mind

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Meantime thy style familiar, that alludes With pleasing retrospect to recent scenes, Shall interest every bosom. With the voice Of condescending gentleness, address Thy kindred people. Shun the distant air, The formal: shun the flippancy too smooth, The lightness too theatrical; the starts That waken for awhile the listening ear, But waken to antipathy. Be warm, Yet grave: unite an animated soul With dignified demeanor; and, untouch'd By the vainglory that on Herod beam'd A momentary rapture, big with death, Preach not thyself; but nurse an ardent zeal As for thy offspring rang'd below! The fire Of exhortation haply may diffuse Thy piety, thy virtues; as they see The emotions of a parent. But beware Of overacted violence, that turns To ridicule the best-imagin'd strain.

The pulpit-speakers that arose to fame, Ere Britain froin asperities had clear'd Her language, opening to thee ample stores For eloquence, may cool the intemperate

warinth

Of passion but the pulpit might in vain
Adopt their manner. Idly might a South
His witty turns his quaintnesses display,
Except to waken laughter. Barrow's style,
Redundant and involv'd, would soon oppress
Thy auditors even Tillotson's were cold,
Tho' thick with oratorial beauties sown ;
And Clarke's exactness, rigorous and precise,
Might vainly torture the protracted thought
No-to thy observation--to thy heart
Recur; nor ever slight them: and, now vers'd
In nature and religion, fix thy choice
Upon the topics that may best enforce
The moral sense, instil into the soul
The Christian spirit meek, audiend the heart.

If to the moral system we restrain Our search, select such topics as are sure, To suit thy various audience. To one point That turns on age or station or the modes Of character, thy apt discussions guide Unvarying. Many a preacher wanders wild O'er human life; exhibiting his draughts Confus'd and transitory to distract The attentive eye, that with wait, gure purales.

Is youth thy subject?-Fix'd within the pale
Of youth, delineate its peculiar bent —
Its failings, its affections; in full strength:
Show its appropriate duties; and address
The young around thee with the feeling tones
That speak the guardian father and the friend.

Or, on the duties of maturer years
Descanting, rove not with digressive wing.

But still to thy selected topic true,
Trace the hoar lineaments of tremulous age
Dropping into the grave. Trite is the tale
Of mortal frailness; but the gloomy truth
Yet interests and affects: and what affects
Will influence. For, tho' oft the passions,
rous'd

By vivid strokes of the pathetic, glow
With but a momentary flush, and faint
Full fast away; still something at the heart
Lingers in feeble pulses inextinct,
That quick recurs to conscience, at the hour
Of meditated evil: the weak sense
By oratorial energies renew'd,
Acquires an active vigor to repel

The power of vice. The pictur'd frown of
death

Hath even awak'd from lethargies of sin
The sluggard soul; and bade it trembling fly
The horrors that inwrap the yawning gulph.

Nor seldom, stealing with familiar strain
Into his business and his bosom, paint
The poor man's lot; whilst in the house of God
The virtuous peasant shall beside the peer
Stand forth, embolden'd. Tell him, if the glow
Of floating purple shade o'erweening pride,
His is the better livery that infolds

The limbs of want: and tell him, tho' his
hours

Of still devotional repose are few,
If pious meditation shall await

His steps into the field, the humble vow
Breath'd from amidst his labors, may ascend
The purest incense that embalins the skies.

Thus it behoves thee to inspect with care
Life's shifting circumstance. The social ties,
The duties that reciprocally bind

The human race, shall in strong light appear
Link'd with peculiar stations. Tho' alike
"The tender charities of father, son,
"And brother," interest all our mortal race;
Lovelier shall they attract the poor, if drawn
Beneath the straw-rooff'd dwelling, or the rich,
If shadow'd in the splendor of the dome.

And human character with no vain force
May arm thy eloquence. Its simple forms
Shall strike the rude spectator, and excite
The conscious feelings. But the draught
refin'd

Rarely the vulgar apprehension meets,
Tho' well thy pencil's mimic powers it prove.

Here may the historic instance give effect
To moral portraits. From the sacred fount
Bring forth the forcible example. Show
The grey Barzillai's honorable age
Placid, tho' to the minstrel's warbled voice-
To the sweet meltings of luxurious lutes
No more awake! Show Hezekiah frail
In human weakness, and still asking life!
Show faintly Timothy, tho' young, detach'd
From sensual joys. Exhihit Lazarus poor-
Arimathean Joseph rich, yet proud

To bear the Christian banner! And describe
The trembling Felix! Such as these beseem
Thy pulpit oratory, opening tracts
Recent in various beauties; where the heart
Throbs with the keen emotions of delight
Or fear; and (as the obedient memory stores
The striking incident) beats every pulse
In corresponding tones to nature's sense;
Till, sudden, by an unexpected stroke
At once discover'd to itself, it sees
Its every winding avenue; shrinks back
From its detected vices, (never view'd
Before, but with a transitory glance); •
And shudders at the brood it fosters there.

If in the Christian system, we behold
The radiant sun of righteousness arise
With healing in its wings-to stream forth
light

Upon the sterner virtues, to relume
By pure effulgence mild the moral world;
"Tis here pathetic eloquence shall greet
Prospects at which ev'n paradise night fade,
Tho' all its bowers hung blooming to the
breath

Of innocence!-'Twas Eden's happy pair
Announc'd creation's blessings. But here
burst,
Ineffably benign, redemption's rays,
Whilst in a mute amaze archangels hail
The infinitude of mediatorial love!

Here shall thy glowing oratory charm
With an unwonted lustre, as it meets
The meekness of the Christian -- his calm eye
Wet with the tear of gratitude! To prove
Religion's firmly rooted truths, by long
Elaborate deduction, were to freeze
That feeling tear! The unfathomable strain
The vulgar may admire: but not with breath
More idly eloquent, the sainted sage
Gather'd around him on the rocky shore
The scaly race that cleave the hoary deep.

Insist not, therefore, with a tedious length,
On proofs external. The strong leading facts
Concisely representing, quickly bring
The internal evidence to light, that strikes
Conviction while it sinks into the heart.

Faith is, perhaps, thy topic. Ah beware
Of mazy ambiguities too dark
For letter'd minds. Attempt not to premise
The

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These be thy topics thy sententious phrase
With each variety of figures fraught
That heighten the pathetic; while exclaim
The affections in apostrophes; suspend
Attention by the well-tim'd pause; contrast
The bold-drawn imag'ry; or break away,
In all the abruptness of transition, wild.

Thus, whilst thy pulpit-oratory lives
In nature, scripture echoes to its strain;
Whether the cheerful or serene shall flow,
Or the devout in feeling beauty breath'd,
The sorrowful, the joyous, the sublime.

And lo! the oration model'd by the rules
Of beautiful arrangement, shall despise
The studied air-the mechanism that marks
A chain of subdivision. Every part
Shall coalesce with ease; nor passion wait
Invariably, the peroration's call.

Such is the manner only, that becomes The pulpit. And it strikes with double force, While dignified demeanor, and a sense Of duty in the unerring conduct shown, And fatherly affection never damp'd By low pursuits of lucre, o'er thee spread The sunshine of sincerity. Can they, Whose inconsistent lives not rarely seem A very contrast to the truths they preach, Reform the general morals? When the light, The volatile, the modish churchman mouits The hallow'd rostrum with an airy step That rivals ev'n à Vestris' ease, and casts His careless glances on the pews below, What are his bosom-feelings? Sure, one pause, One little pause the vanities resign

To serious thought; as to his distant home
Retiring from Augusta, he yet deigns
To visit, for a while, his vagrant charge.
Alas! he scarcely knows (nor strives to know)
His blunt unfashion'd people; but to all
Bowing with graceful condescension, pays
An undistinguishing regard; then flies
(Delighted that his tedious task is o'er)
Back to the scenes, while, hailing his ap-
proach,

Soft pleasure strews the rosy couch, and clasps,

Familiar, the fond vot'ry to her arms!

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Of pulpit eloquence already trac'd-
But let us mark occasions that may ask
More argument or elegance than suits
The multitude; and touching on the modes
That in discriminated features show
Thy art, propose the models which may
claim

Thy just regard. — A learned audience loves,
Ey'n the polemic question. Not but there
As Granta's, or a Rhedycina's sons,
The champions of the theologic war
Misplace their oratory. For, behold,
Those hearers that await the preacher's nod
In academic bowers, are, chief, the young,
With fancy gay and vigorous. Doth the dry
The strict methodic dissertation suit
Their airy spirits? - Rather note the sting
Of secret vice, exhort to study, point
The prize of honor, and distinctly draw
Virtue's fair outline.

O'er thy reasoning throw The robe of rhetorick. Not that ornament Should, here, invest thy topics with a glare Of superficial richness. Rather verge To Sherlock's plain compactness, that admits No decorating figures, than o'erload Thy lessons with the metaphor's crude mass.

These, on a general survey, are the modes Of pulpit-oratory, which agree

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By copious sentiment, cotdens'd and strong;
Or graceful Hurd may reason in a style
Of elegant deduction, as a voice
More musical than Atterbury's, holds
The still attention; pathos best accords
With common hearers; nor is misapplied
Ev'n to the more refin'd. The statelier pomp
Of high cathedral dignities may frown
Upon the impassion'd period; and the pride
Of science too pedantic may propose
The closer method of the deep discourse,
As the sole imitable mode. Yet say,
Doth not the fane effuse its holy gloom
O'er various minds, the polish'd or unform'd
In each gradation -o'er the gentle breast
Whence unaffected sentiment aspires;
Whence pare devotion's flame? Is there a

heart

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From nature and the scriptures! These are thine
These are already open to thy view
In fair display! I see, auspicious youth,
Thy bosom kindle, as thy sacred guides
Pass in array before thee! I behold
Thine ardors mark a Saviour on the mount

That mocks the rigor of the stoic porch,
And his pathetic look on Peter cast,
And his heart-breathing accents in the path
To Emmaus, at dim eve! I see thee hail
The martyr's angel-features, all illum'd
By inspiration's lustre, while he bids
Sublinest truths inform the unhallow'd car! —
I see thee turn to Lystra's prostrate tribes
That fell astonish'd at the feet of Paul,
And, as the god of eloquence, ador'd
The saint! I see thee trace him, at the throne
Of the half-Christian king; or midst the
shrines

Of Athens! And thine own exalted mind
I see with transport glowing, as the powers
Of Blair and Stonehouse meet — combiu'd in
thee!

Thus then, (thy glorious mission daly
view'd

As of eternal moment) be it thine,
Whilst other speakers, less rever'd, pursue
Their own appropriate task, as erst my verse
Instructed; whether at the learned bar
Strict reasoning gain convietion; or the

dome

Of senates echoe to the embellish'd phrase ;
(Man's temporal welfare their inferior end);
Be thine the nobler office to persuade
By exhortation, fix in every soul

Its fervor for the immortal scene, and point The path-tho' here thou walk, yet lent to earth,

Thy heart establish'd in the bliss of heaven!

END OF THE SECOND BOOK.

19

·Te

C. Robinson, Printer, Rolls Buildings, Fetter Lane, London.

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