Preaching and Preachers [pp. 454-483]

Preaching and Preachers.
with others, perhaps as worthy, which need not now burden our
pages. It has sometimes been made a question how far it is
desirable for a preacher to collect and study the written labours
of others. There is a use, or rather an abuse, of other men's
compositions, which is slavish and dishonourable. No young
man of independent mind and high principle, will go to books
for his sermon, or for its method, or for any large continuous
portion. There is a tacit covenant between preachers and
hearers, in our Church and country, which makes it a deception for any man to preach that which is not original. Pulpit larceny is the most unprofitable of all frauds; it is almost
certain of detection, and it leaves a stigma on the fame, even
beyond its intrinsic turpitude. But surely, an honest soul may
wander among valuables without any necessity of thieving.
Some have excluded books of sermons from their libraries, and
by a "self-denying ordinance" have abstained from perusing
them, lest, forsooth, they should damage their own originality.
This is about as wise as if an artist should refrain from looking
at the frescoes of the Vatican, and the galleries of Florence,
Dresden, and the Louvre. We have seen the works of a Western painter, who is said to have acted on such a maxim; he
would see no Rafaelles or Van Dycks, lest he should spoil his
native manner. He has certainly succeeded in avoiding all
that one beholds in these great masters. But in all labours, to
the success of which, judgment, taste, and practice must combine, the highest capacity of production is fostered by studying
the works of others; and we see not why this is less true in
homiletics than in the arts. If a man may not read good sermons, we suppose he may not hear them. The wise student
will, with the utmost avidity, both read and hear all that is accessible, of the greatest achievements in the declaration of
God's truth. At the same time, he will sit down to his labours
as if he had known no performances but his own. He will borrow no man's plan; he will shun all repositories of skeletons
and what are ironically named " Preachers' Helps;" and will
be himself, even in his earliest and faintest efforts.
In any retrospect of the work of preaching in successive
ages, there is one snare which the young minister of Christ cannot too solicitously avoid; it is that of looking upon the utter
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