Preaching and Preachers [pp. 454-483]

Preaching and Preachers.
nished for the worshippers. Augustine speaks of this, in apologizing for a sermon longer than usual, and contrasts his easy
posture with theirs.
Every one must be persuaded that early preaching was without the use of manuscript. It was in regard to expression
extemporaneous. Here we might again quote Justin. Socrates
tells us indeed, concerning Atticus, Bishop of Constantinople,
that he committed to memory at home such things as he was
about to deliver in the church; but afterwards, he says that he
spoke from the impulse of the moment. Sidonius, addressing
himself to Faustus Rejensis, writes thus: cc Preedicationes tuas
nunc repentinas, nunc cum ratio proescripsit elucubratas, raucus plosor audivi." The allusion is to the audible applause given
to popular orators. Pamphilus relates of Origen, that the discourses which he delivered almost daily in church were extempore, and that they were taken down by reporters, and so preserved for posterity. We find Chrysostom changing his
subject, in consequence of tumults in the street on his way to
the public assembly. His discourses as now extant contain
many observations which plainly arose from the circumstances
in which he stood during the delivery; such as the clapping of
hands, the shouts heard from the neighbouring hippodrome,
and the entrance of attendants to light the lamps. In one
instance we find Augustine suddenly taking up a passage which
the lector, who it seems was a boy, had read by mistake, instead
of the one which the preacher had premeditated. The whole
air of his Sermones is that of the extemporaneous preacher.
Again and again he descants on the psalm which has just been
sung. Hie throws in such remarks as this: "You see, beloved,
that my sermon to-day differs from what is usual; I have not
time for all," etc. And we may here observe that the four
hundred sermons of this father afford the richest treasure for
any one who wishes to study the peculiarities of Ancient Latin
preaching. Gregory the Great says in one place: "I understand some hard passages now, coram fratribus, which I could
not master solus." "In the earliest times," says Thiersch, "it is
certain the free outpouring more prevailed, the nearer we get
to primitive simplicity, and the liberal manifestation of the
charismata." According to Guericke, the reading of sermons
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