Preaching and Preachers [pp. 454-483]

Preaching and Preachers.
spiritual life of the Church would not instantly put to flight
many adventitious glories of the sermon, and restore a more
natural and impassioned species of sacred oratory. The ancient preacher was frequently interrupted by bursts of applause,
clapping of hands, and acclamations of assent. Chrysostom
says:-"We need not your applause or tumultuous approbation," and asks for silence. These tokens of admiration are
to be compared, not with the devout exclamations of the Methodists, in their more illiterate assemblies, but with the cheers of
our anniversary meetings, if not with the turbulent praise of
the House of Commons. The great preacher last named, found
it necessary, therefore, to remind the Christians of Antioch
that they were not in the theatre. Yet such signs of sympathy in the people, when moderate and decorous, were expected
and approved. For example, Augustine thus closes a sermon:
"Audistis, laudastis; Deo gratias."
In early times, public preaching was by no means confined to
the Lord's day; and its frequency indicates a great interest in
divine things on the part of the public. It is necessary only to
look through a number of consecutive sermons of Augustine,
particularly at the beginning and end of each, to learn that he
was accustomed to preach very often, and during sacred seasons for several days in succession, and at times more than
once in the same day. Seasons of extraordinary religious emotion are always signalized by this avidity for the word. So it
was at the Reformation; Luther preached almost daily at Wittenberg, and Calvin at Geneva, as did Knox and Welsh in
Scotland. And so it will be again when religion is greatly
revived in our own land.
As a matter of course, the great body of ancient sermons
has passed into oblivion; but enough remains to give us a very
complete notion of the way in which the fathers treated divine
subjects before the people. Of the Greeks, we possess discourses
of Origen, Eusebius of Coesarea, Gregory Thaumaturgus, Athanasius, Basil, the Gregories of Nyssa and Nazianzum, Cyril,
Macarius, Amphilochius and Chrysostom. In all these the
traces of Gentile rhetoric are visible. Of the Latins, none
are so remarkable as Ambrose, Augustine, and Leo the Great.
To gain some fair conception of the manner adopted, it wocld
1854.]
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