Nine Lectures on Preaching, by R. W. Dale (Hodder and
Stoughton) ; Lectures on Preaching. By the Rev. Philip Brooks. (Dutton, Boston, U.S.) —Some few years ago a " Lyman-Beecher Lectureship on Preaching " was founded in Yale College, Connecticut. It was to be held by " a minister of the Gospel, of any evangelical denomination, who has been markedly successful in the special work of the Christian ministry." The two volumes before us are the most recent results of this founda- tion. It is impossible to help comparing them together, but the com- parison is not easy. Mr. Dale shows the more practised literary hand. The illustrations are both numerous and telling. His language is vigorous and pointed, and not unfrequently enlivened by a humour which, unless the divinity school of Yale is unusually favoured in this respect, must have been a pleasant surprise to the audi-
ence. The lectures, too, leave what is at least a first impres- sion that they are more practical than those of the companion volume. Mr. Dale descends to particulars. He must have sent away his hearers feeling that they had learnt something definite Mr. Brooks, who is an American Episcopalian, is not, indeed, un- practicaL But he keeps steadily to first principles, and we are not sure whether his reserve, if we may so call it, is not the better in the end. Mr. Dale, for instance, to exemplify the benefit of connected reading, draws out from a passage in the Epistle to the Romans an argument as to the character of the work of reconciliation. And he
speaks, again, with groat force on the subject of conversion. But he risks the success of his lectures in doing so. In theory, at least, the lecturer on preaching must bo in the same position as the logician, who should deal with the methods, not the subject-matter of thought. Aristotle, however, devotes a great part of his " Rhetoric " to the sug- gestion of "topics," and something of the kind can scarcely be avoided in the treatment of such a subject. About Mr. Brooks's discourses there is a glow which makes them very effective. It is the general impression which they leave rather than any passages that could be detached by which they must be judged. Sometimes, however, he makes a point very sharply and emphatically. Thus, speaking of the freedom with which some very reserved men express themselves in thoir preaching, he says very well,—" Humanity, without the offence of individuality, stood there before them. It was no violation of their loyalty to themselves to tell their secret to mankind. It was a man who silenced them." And some- times he is humorous. He tells us on one occasion how he had expressed his admiration for a groat speech to a friend. Tho friend had penetrated the secret of the preacher's success. " Yes,' he replied briskly, I watched him, and it is in the double motion of his hand. When he wanted to solemnise, and calm, and subdue us, he turned the palm of his hand down ; when he wanted to elevate and inspire us, he turned the palm of his band up. That was it !' And that was all the man had seen in an eloquent speech. He was no fool, but he was an imitator. He was trying to find in a single secret for a multifarious effect. I suppose he has gone on from that day to this turning his hand upside down and downside up, and wondering that nobody is either solemnised or inspired." We had marked many passages in both volumes for comment, but must leave them with a general recommendation. No aspirant to the ministry should fail to read Mr. Dale's volume ; no one, we may add with equal emphasis, should fail to read Mr. Brook's.
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