T

HE sermon of Our Blessed Lord on the Mount, and His other divine discourses, addressed not to selected pupils and admiring friends, but emphatically to the multitude-to publicans and sinners, to toil-worn traders and humble artisansare the first original examples, as they are the unapproachable models, of Christian preaching. St Peter's inspired discourse on the day of Pentecost, when three thousand were pricked to the heart, naturally follows them; and so we study in succession the addresses of the apostles, and such specimens of the sacred oratory of the first three centuries as have been handed down to us, until we reach the fourth century, when the art of preaching culminated; and from John of the Golden Mouth, presbyter and bishop, from the lips of St Augustine and St Basil, there issued sermons of such intellectual strength, such persuasive, loving force, as have been rarely equalled, and certainly never surpassed. There were giants in those days. Among others, St Pantænus, the Sicilian bee, who flourished towards the close of the second century, was so called because his sermons were like honey flowing from the Rock of Ages. St Cyprian and Ephrem Syrus were

22

Gibbon on the Power of the Pulpit.

also everywhere famed for their pungent and sublime appeals. The historian Gibbon, in the twentieth chapter of "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," section vi., describes with cynical sarcasm the rise and progress of pulpit oratory; but while intending to depreciate the motives of the great preachers among the Nicene Fathers, he bears involuntary testimony to their method and influence. In this point of view his words deserve quotation:

"Every popular government has experienced the effects of rude or artificial eloquence. The coldest nature is animated, the firmest reason is moved, by the rapid communication of the prevailing impulse, and each hearer is affected by his own passions, and by those of the surrounding multitude. The ruin of civil liberty had silenced the demagogues of Athens and the tribunes of Rome; the custom of preaching, which seems to constitute a considerable part of Christian devotion, had not been introduced into the temples of antiquity; and the ears of monarchs were never invaded by the harsh sound of popular eloquence till the pulpits of the empire were filled with sacred orators who possessed some advantages unknown to their profane predecessors. The arguments and rhetoric of the tribune were instantly opposed, with equal arms, by skilful and resolute antagonists; and the cause of truth and reason might derive an accidental support from the conflict of hostile passions. The bishop, or some distinguished presbyter to whom he cautiously delegated the powers of preaching, harangued, without the danger of interruption or reply, a submissive multitude, whose minds had been prepared and subdued by the awful ceremonies of religion. Such was the strict

Preaching Power in the Fourth Century.

23

subordination of the Catholic Church, that the same concerted sounds might issue at once from an hundred pulpits of Italy or Egypt, if they were tuned by the master-hand of the Roman or Alexandrian Primate. The design of this institution was laudable, but the fruits were not always salutary. The preachers recommended the practice of the social duties, but they exalted the perfection of monastic virtue, which is painful to the individual and useless to mankind. Their charitable exhortations betrayed a secret wish that the clergy might be permitted to manage the wealth of the faithful for the benefit of the poor. The most sublime representations of the attributes and laws of the Deity were sullied by an idle mixture of metaphysical subtleties, puerile rites, and fictitious miracles; and they expatiated, with the most fervent zeal, on the religious merit of hating the adversaries and obeying the ministers of the Church. When the public peace was distracted by heresy and schism, the sacred orators sounded the trumpet of discord, and perhaps of sedition. The understandings of their congregations were perplexed by mystery, the passions were inflamed by invectives, and they rushed from the Christian temples of Antioch or Alexandria, prepared either to suffer or to inflict martyrdom. The corruption of taste and language is strongly marked in the vehement declamations of the Latin bishops; but the compositions of Gregory and Chrysostom have been compared with the most splendid models of Attic, or at least of Asiatic eloquence.'

St Chrysostom may be selected as the best specimen of preaching power in the fourth century. He was born in 354 at Antioch, on the Orontes, then, as the apostate Julian informs us, the very centre of splendour, luxury,

24

St Chrysostom's Method of Preaching.

vice, and depraved sophistical thought. He owed much to his venerable instructor, but far more to his refined and accomplished mother. There is a peculiarity about his homilies which renders them invaluable to the archæologist, as well as to the theologian and devout Christian. They set before us, as in a photograph, the manners, the costume, the family life, the vices, the politics of the wild and turbulent age in which he lived. "The emperor, the commissioners, bishops, and prefects," says one of his panegyrists, "are by his genius preserved like pieces of weed in amber." One can see how the fashionable gentlewoman of the new Rome that was rising on the Bosphorus attired her feet and dressed her hair. He was a man of infinite resources. He drew his illustrations, analogies, and arguments from every department of the creation, even from grotesque incidents which might occur in the church while he was preaching; but, above all, from the rich stores of the inspired writings of the Old Testament. These he diligently studied and fervently believed, and, therefore, he quoted them with an unction which was irresistible. And it may be maintained, that when the same Scriptures are so studied, believed, and quoted as the foundation of argument in the present day, it is discovered that they have not lost one jot or tittle of their vital force. He who is "mighty in the Old Testament Scriptures" will be a winner of souls.

Any attempt to illustrate St Chrysostom's method of preaching from his numerous writings, will appear to those who have diligently studied them like the conduct of the simple Athenian, who, when he had a country house to sell, brought a single brick into the agora as a specimen to enable the intending purchaser to judge of the build

The Great Christian Orator.

25

ing. But as few have the leisure, and still fewer the learning requisite to realise all the golden stores of the great Christian orator, the attempt must be made. Let the following quotations invite the reader to explore further the rich mine of treasure.

Take, for instance, the following passage on

The Infinite Love of the Lord.

"A man has been insulted, and we are all in fear and trembling-both those of us who have been guilty of this insult, and those of us who are conscious of innocence. But God is insulted every day. Why do I say every day? Rather should I say every hour, by rich and by poor, by those who are at ease and those who are in trouble, by those who calumniate and those who are calumniated; and yet there is never a word of this; therefore, God has permitted our fellow-servant to be insulted, that thou mayest know the loving-kindness of the Lord. This offence has been committed only for the first time, yet we do not, on that account, expect to reap the advantage of excuse or apology. We provoke God every day, and make no movement of returning to Him; and yet He bears with all long-suffering; see you how great is the loving-kindness of the Lord. In this present outrage, the culprits have been apprehended, thrown into prison, and punished; and yet we are in fear. He who has been insulted has not heard of what has been done, nor pronounced sentence; and we are all trembling. But God hears day by day the insults offered to Him, and no one turns to Him, although God is so kind and loving. With Him it is enough to acknowledge the sin, and the guilt is absolved. . . Do you not hence conclude how unspeak