Men and Things by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 19, 1872

Men and Things.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

MANNERS IN THE DESK.

On this subject the Methodist Monthly has the following good advice to ministers. A disregard of more or less of these just rules often spoils an otherwise good sermon and kills the influence of the minister. Let us read them, consider them, and observe them:

“1. If a brother preacher is in the pulpit with you, do not engage him in conversation any further than may be strictly necessary. Your auditors might think your message to them was not bearing with much weight on your own heart.

“2. When you desire the people to kneel for public prayer, do not throw up your hands and arms as though you would hurt somebody. It would seem more appropriate to say, ‘Let us pray,’ and make no gesture with arms and hands.”

“3. Read your text distinctly, and do not say, ‘You can find the text by reference to the twentieth verse and fifth chapter of the gospel according to St. Matthew’; but say, ‘Matthew, fifth chapter and twentieth verse.’ Everybody knows that Matthew is a saint, and that the book which bears his name is a gospel, that Hebrews was written by Paul, and that it is an epistle. Why then repeat it every time you announce your text?”

“4. Do not close the Bible after reading your text, but let it remain open before you during the sermon. To close it indicates a little egotism, and seems to say, ‘I don’t need you any longer.’”

“5. Avoid extremes in gesture. Do not be too stiff on the one hand, nor like a limber jack on the other; and remember that gestures are to be seen not heard.

“6. Do not try to tell all you know in one sermon. The art of condensing costs study, but when once attained its value is priceless. Never talk to hear yourself; if you do, others will get tired.

“7. Avoid levity in the pulpit. Once in a while something may be said to excite a smile, but let it be the exception. A common buffoon can make people laugh.

“8. Be natural. Don’t try to ape the tone or gestures of some great man. Be great by being yourself. Guard against what is termed ‘heavenly tones,’ a tremulous voice, and ‘ministerial twang.’”

“9. Be in earnest. Let your hearers see that you believe what you are preaching. How can any preacher go with God’s awful message to dying men and women with feelings of indifference? How dare he trifle away the sacred hour on some dry metaphysical disquisition in which his own heart never becomes enlisted.

“10. Articulate plainly. Let every word be heard from the number of the first hymn to the Amen of the benediction. [This you cannot do with tobacco in your mouth.]

“11. Above all, and first of all, seek the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

“[We would add one or two other hints, which it may be useful to observe. The spirit of the pulpit should be high, holy, Godlike, and not combative, revengeful, or too scary. Fear may be appealed to occasionally; but love is more potent to move and soften the hearts of sinners. A clergyman with very large cautiousness and little hope will picture one’s future in colors dismal and dreadful. Fear is a good thing, but don’t use too much of it. One with large hope and less cautiousness will try to influence his hearers to look upward. . . . . . . . Clergymen with large self-esteem sometimes forget that it is the gospel they are expected to preach, and unconsciously—let us suppose—preach themselves. I did so and so, I am your guide, etc. This is also seen in those with small veneration and large approbativeness. The minister’s calling, which is justly regarded as the highest of all human pursuits, requires the best organization, the best culture, and the best spirit to do it in the best way. We have bunglers and imposters in the pulpit as well as elsewhere; still, here, much more than elsewhere, we should seek to put the right man in the right place.]”

A LOVELY SENTIMENT.

“The words which Walter Scott puts in the mouth of Jennie Deans in her memorable address to the Queen, are as true as they are beautiful: ‘When the hour of trouble comes—and seldom may it visit your ladyship—and when the hour of death comes to high and low—long and late may it be yours, O, my leddy—it is na what we have done for oursels, but what we have done for others that we think on most pleasantly.’”

A GOOD HIT.

“The man who is too poor to take a paper has bought a dog, a shot gun, and, two dollar watch. He educates his children in the streets, and boards his chickens on his neighbors.”

There is much truth in this little paragraph, as any one may prove by looking around him. It is with shame that I say that I know persons who profess to be keeping the law of God and looking for the end of all things, who fill the above bill, and in addition chew tobacco and drink tea and coffee. God pity them. Thank the Lord they are few. Wish they could see this. But alas! they are the very ones who won’t see it. D. M. CANRIGHT.