Of the style of the sermon.
§ 1
The style of the sermon is the peculiar form of the sermon presentation, in which the truths gained through in -depth meditation are expressed in an appropriate manner.
Annotation
According to etymology, "style" would only mean the manner of writing, because "style" comes from the Greek, which originally means a stylus for writing. However, the meaning of the word "style" has been extended by usage to include architecture (e.g., Gothic, Romanesque style), sculpture, painting, and so on. In this broader sense, Hüffell defines 'style' "as the peculiar setting and form of expression in which our ideas and feelings are plastically presented," whereas 'style' in the narrower sense - writing style, "as the peculiar setting and dressing of our ideas and feelings in the written representation of language (Wesen und Beruf, p. 393). Schott says (Kurzer Entwurf etc. § 85, p. 144 f.): "We think of style as the particular application which one makes of language, in so far as it possesses a certain peculiar character, which must necessarily also be determined differently by the diversity of the intention which the representation is intended to achieve, the mental formation of the listeners and readers, the mood of mind from which the written or oral presentation emerges, th e mental individuality of the speaker or writer himself."
Certainly, the difference that some want to find between style and manner of writing is not rooted in the essence of the matter itself, but is to be sought only in the fact that style has been transferred from the written to the oral presentation in language, while manner of writing is used exclusively for the written presentation. In the sense, then, style and manner of writing are not different. Of the good, skillful speaker one says: He has the language in his power", of the good writer: He has a beautiful style," which basically means the same thing. According to the foregoing definitions, the truths, thoughts, or ideas which are expressed are the substance, or material, but the style, or peculiar manner in which these truths, etc., are presented, is the form of the address. By means of this presentation of speech, the same ideas, thoughts, and sensations are to be produced in the hearers as the pastor has; they are to be brought to the same clarity of view of the subject which the sermon treats, to the same sensations and resolutions which are found in the pastor, for the latter always has in view with respect to his hearers a certain purpose which he wishes to accomplish, whether it be to instruct their minds, or to act upon their feelings, or to determine their will, to move them to certain resolutions.
But even if the style appears to be the form of the sermon, it is so little independent of the material or conten t that it is rather determined by the latter. "A common, ignoble, humble material," Hüffell rightly says, "even presented in the most perfect form, can never be considered a perfect stylistic product; rather, the material must always be added to the form i n order to produce such a product.".... "In true eloquence, substance and form constantly interpenetrate, and where one part slackens, the attention of the hearers sinks, for all the beauty of the mere form; indeed, there is nothing more wearisome than mere form without substance; it is the empty declamation from which the church has so much to suffer among aspiring clergymen." But even if the material is a thoroughly noble, worthy one (and it is in every sermon that really deserves this name, because it c onsists in divine truths), the other nature of it still determines the style. For the pastor speaks differently when he addresses himself exclusively or primarily to the mind of his listeners, namely when he teaches them in order to broaden their knowledge, differently when he seeks to determine the will through rebuke and exhortation.In the former case, he will primarily use the words in their proper meaning, will avoid ornamentation, and his speech will flow calmly, while in the latter case, when he descr ibes the vice or the virtues, puts the abomination of the latter, the pleasantness of the latter in the light, in order to fill his listeners with abhorrence of the latter, with pleasure in the latter, he will use more rhetorical language and speak more vi vidly. As different as is the affect from which the pastor speaks, so different is also the form of his address, because this is determined by it. One need only compare several sermons by a famous pastor to find this confirmed.
Grotefend writes about this: "It is obvious that the acting person of the address can be sometimes more lively, sometimes calmer, in that one can The audience's participation for or against must be thought to be soon more tense, soon more relaxed. This is decided partly by the election and quality of the material, partly by the intention of the speaker. If the calm insight and conviction of the mind are to be acted upon more, the action itself is calmer and comes closer to the tone of the discourse, without, however, passing entirely into it; but if the lower powers of the soul are more called upon, the action becomes more lively. If the listener's conviction of the subject is easier to win over, the action proceeds more calmly; if, however, the speaker must fear more doubts, misgivings, objections, it becomes more lively, more alternating. If the inclinations of the will are already more inclined and favorable to the object, the encouragement flows along gently; but if one may suppose more resistance and aversion in the sensual impulses or in the power of habit, the action becomes more strenuous and the admonition or warning more urgent." (Views, etc., on Spiritual Eloquence, p. 177.)' Compare, for example, Luther's sermons of 1532: "On Christian Armor and Weapons" and "On Love" on the epistle of 1 Sunday after Trinity. (1. Joh. 4, 16-21)
B. 19, p. 248 ff and 358 ff; furthermore the sermons of Dr. Walter on the Ev. am
Sonnt. Sexag. in 'Gnadenjahr', p. 138 ff and the Kirchweihpredigt on Psalm 87 in 'Casual-Predigten und -Reden' p. 228 ff. - Finally, the style is determined by the individuality of the pastor. "How palpable is the difference" writes Hüffell, "between Göthe and Schiller! And it is not the material, the higher or lower degree of correctness, fullness, and richness of language, but something else that makes the difference; for the material is equally noble in several, and the grammatical, logical, and aesthetic laws are equally fulfilled, but the representations differ characteristically, and one would recognize Schiller and Göthe instantly with completely identical material: One must therefore say: the style is man himself; in the style the most secret individuality of man paints itself, and as this, so the style.
But if one wants to go further and try to explain this, the reason might be sought partly in the degrees of cognition, feeling, and willing, partly in the relationship in which these faculties stand to each other, and in the more or less predominant prominence of the one and the other, partly finally in general intellectual formation and in special mastery over language; For in style, clarity and obscurity, depth and superficiality, em otion and insensitivity, strength and weakness, richness of language and poverty are painted in all possible nuances." (op. cit., p. 393 f.) From the foregoing, it is obvious that there is a It is an idle demand if it is demanded that all sermons must be held in a certain style.
This demand could only be met if one could destroy all individualit y, i.e., all idiosyncrasy of the person. As important as it is to preserve this individuality from excesses or, if such exist, to eliminate them, it is impossible to eliminate the individuality itself, and if it were possible, it would not be advisable, be cause a uniformity and monotony would result that would lack any freshness and liveliness. As little as there are two men who are completely alike in outward appearance, so little is there complete sameness in regard to the interior, the spirit, mind, character; in the greatest resemblance there is nevertheless this or that peculiarity which reveals itself as a distinguishing characteristic, and this peculiarity, precisely because it is peculiar, can be imitated to a certain extent by another person, but ne ver completely appropriated. For this very reason, the imitation of style, declamation and action in the sermon is a thing of its own. For essential and inner things, because they are nature, cannot be imitated at all. The peculiar spirit with which a man observes, grasps, evaluates and reproduces everything, the particular way in which he thinks, examines something in all directions, processes a material in himself and then presents it, can be recognized and learned in something, but not actually imitated; But if this is nevertheless attempted, then what is nature in the former becomes unnature in the latter, imitation becomes imitation, as can be perceived in this or that person who has attempted to imitate a famous pulpit orator in declamation or style. Thus, for imitation, only the exterior remains, which consists in the peculiar form of treatment and diction, or one could say: the subjective style (also called by some, but probably not correctly, "manner," because this has the secondary term of the erroneous, artificial). But in this, too, the personality of the pastor is expressed and therefore cannot actually be imitated. As an example, we will only mention the aphoristic or laconic style, which was used by H. Mueller and Cober, among others.
The former says in a sermon on the Gospel on the 2nd Sunday after Epiphany to the words: "You have kept the good wine until now ": "Is God's way, - at last the best. First water, then wine. First law, then gospel. First temptation, then redemption. First humiliation, then exaltation. First suffering, then joy. First struggle, then the crown. First disgrace, then honor. First killed, then made alive. From hell to heaven. With tears sown, with joys reaped." (Ev. Final Chain, p. 139.) The self... The idiosyncrasy of this style consists in the fact that all binding words and sentences are omitted, and the aphorisms, loosely juxtaposed, appear through their brevity of expression and their abruptness as important ap horisms and sayings. Whoever wants to make use of this aphoristic style must have a special richness of thought and be inspired by deep, heartfelt feeling; whoever lacks this and yet writes and speaks in such a way in order to imitate H. Mueller, these bro ken sentences, because they do not contain weighty aphorisms, would appear infinitely lame and give the impression of ridiculousness. He would therefore make use of the opposite, the periodic style, with far greater skill and success, because this is more natural to him.
Thus, the accidental or special qualities of style must be distinguished from the general and necessary good. These must be found in all stylistic products that lay claim to good style; those may be absent or present because they depend on the individuality of the speaker. General and necessary qualities are, for example: Precision in expression, by which everything superfluous and tedious is avoided, liveliness, so that no tedious monotony emerges; special and accidental qualities are: crowdedness in expression (aphoristic style), the individual kinds of liveliness, the solemn, the sublime, the touching. How much, to mention only this one here, the touching is based on the individuality of the speaker. We have already heard that everything t ouching in the sermon was scornfully dismissed and ridiculed. This mockery is very cheap and is probably only poured out by those who, because they are of a kind of icy nature, lack any warmer feeling even when they preach about the most moving and shattering moments in the Lord's passion. Certainly, what does not come from the heart does not reach the heart; he who is not moved himself cannot move others. The cold reflection of the intellect does not do it. "There are natures," says Hüffell, "on whose face the holiest things become a mockery, and nothing appears to them worthy and deeply felt. Meanness, and sometimes badness, has lodged itself so firmly in looks, gestures, and tones that it cannot be suppressed even in the most venerable business. Such pastors cannot move, even if they wanted to.
On the other hand, there are others whose whole being expresses conviction, devotion and love, and the more natural, the more effective. These fortunate ones are already moved by the tone of their voice, by the piou s eye, by the liveliness of their gestures, and since there is a peculiar interaction between the speaker and the devout listener, the pastor's emotions are also automatically awakened without any special art. The word of God is a word that is not only a word, but also a word of faith. It is difficult to explain, but it is really like that: many pastors are believed on the word and others not at all, they may present what they want. This idiosyncrasy is actually what is most touching." We have the most famous example of this in Bernard of Clairveaux. A peculiar charm and a peculiar power to move the minds lay in the tone of his voice; added to this was the awe -inspiring quality of his whole appearance, the way in which his whole being and the movement of his body bore witness to that which had seized him and inspired him. From this it is explained that, when he went about Germany and preached, even those could be powerfully seized and moved, shed tears and beat their breasts, who, because he spoke in French, understood little or nothing of his words, indeed were more powerfully shaken by his speech in a foreign language than by the subsequent translation of another. (Cf. Neander, Relig. Gesch. B. 5, p. 294.)
All stirrings are to be rejected which are produced: at the expense of truth by untrue ideas and exaggerated descriptions; by arousing sensual passions, by theatrical effect, facial and gestural play, tears, etc. "Pastors who have nothing to advance take it most upon themselves to stir in this way, in order to elicit a few tears from weak eyes. Not infrequently they weep first, where there is nothing to weep for but their bad talk." (Hüffell.) As unjustified as we have seen would be the demand that a pastor must renounce all individuality of style and fully adopt the style of another, so justified is the demand that the style of the sermon must correspond as far as possible to the material which is treated in it and to the purpose which is to be achieved. The pastor wants either to doctrinate, or to stir, or to determine. The doctrines are directed to the intellect, the heart or the emotional faculty, and the will to the determination. Just as there are different forms of the inner spiritual life, the state of calm contemplation and thinking, the state of lively feeling, and the state of intimate striving, so there are also three different kinds of style corresponding to these states: namely, the prosaic style, which expresses the state of calm contemplation a nd thought, calculated for instruction; the poetic, the style of the poets, in which the living feeling expresses itself; and the rhetorical, or oratorical, whose basis and source is the state of intimate aspiration. This division of the genres of style ac cording to the states of the inner, spiritual life has its psychological reason, while the above-mentioned division into aphoristic, periodic, turgid, etc., has its reason in the individuality of the speaker. It is self-evident that every individual style must belong chiefly to one or other of the general genres of style, chiefly: for more or less in every address or sermon the style will be a mixed one, namely, a prosaic-rhetorical one, while the poetic one will be left on the whole to t he poet. "It may," says Schott, "by the way, well exist with this attitude of stylistic character in the whole of the lecture, if the exposition in individual sections, where the nature of the matter and the mood of the writer or speaker give occasion for it, approaches another form of style, which lies nearest to that prevailing in the stylistic product, or if it passes into it for a short time." (op. cit., p. 20.) Hüffell:
"The character of the pulpit language should, on the whole, occupy that of the middle sphere of style and remain as far removed from poetry as from the tone of mere prose. This middle style of writing allows everything that we have called beauty of style; it permits the use of all appropriate figures and tropes, but in a moderate sense; for it need not be noted that all those figures and tropes have their degrees. Poetry is used in its highest momentum and in its full boldness, secular eloquence in a somewhat degraded degree, and pulpit oratory in a gentle play of colors, without losing its charm; for since the sermon must allow neither passions nor that mighty storm of emotions, it cannot make use of any language that is calculated only for that purpose." (op. cit., p. 419.)
As a model for the style that the pastor should use, we enclose here the introduction to Reinhard's sermon, which he preached on the Reformation feast of 1800 on the text Rom. 3, 23 -25 and which caused a tremendous stir among the rationalist preachers of his time. Individual echoes of rationalistic expression will have to be overlooked. In this introduction form and content are alike exemplary. It reads: "Although, as I can sincerely affirm and testify before God, I have never proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus with more emotion and gratitude to God, with more joy and courage, on almost any day of the year since I have been in charge of the Christian teaching ministry, than on the feast which we celebrate today: I cannot deny that for some years now, on this very day, I have appeared among you, my listeners, with a secret sorrow and embarrassment which I have hardly been able to conceal, and which I cannot but confess to you at last and make known to you. It is in the nature of this feast that it confronts the one who is to speak publicly at the same with a quite It is dedicated to the greatest and most beneficial change that has taken place since the introduction of Christianity on earth. It is dedicated to the greatest and most beneficent change that has taken place since the advent of Christianity on earth; it recalls the strange circumstances and efforts to which our Church owes her existence and all the advantages she enjoys; it renews the memory of the great men who, by their courage, by their steadfastness, by their confidence in God and in their good cause, won the most beautiful victory that has ever been won; it is sacred to the most honorable triumph that truth has celebrated over error, liberty over tyranny, and the Gospel of Jesus over superstition. Who can contemplate this spectacle without being moved and stirred; who can visualize the efforts with which the founders of our church carried on and perfected their great work without being seized and inspired, as it were, by their heroism; who can feel himself in possession of the light, freedom, and blessi ng which is the fruit of those efforts without raising his hands gratefully to God, without becoming loud and eloquent, without speaking with an emphasis, with a fire peculiar only to the enthusiastic and enraptured? And indeed, if I ever succeeded in communicating this warmth of enthusiasm, this fire of rapture in my address, it happened on this day; it happened especially in Wittenberg, where I was able to proclaim what had happened through them at the graves of the great men who brought about the improve ment of the church, where I was surrounded by their images and monuments, where I was, as it were, surrounded by their perfected spirits.
But already for some years, I have already stood, already for some years this joyfulness has diminished, and a quiet s orrow, an embarrassment, which I could hardly conceal, has taken its place. For I have long been unable to conceal the fact that our church, at least those who speak loudest in it and want to be considered its most excellent and enlightened teachers, are i ncreasingly distancing themselves from the actual doctrines of Luther and his friends, and from their true meaning as evidenced by their writings; that the great man whose merits we remember today, and whose successors want to be the teachers of our church, could not possibly, if he should return from his grave, consider them his own, and count them among the church he founded; that, if it continues in this way, if our fellow believers remember so little on what doctrines and truths our church was originall y founded, we shall soon no longer be the church at all which came into being through the efforts of Luther and his friends. And yet we want to celebrate this feast? want to call upon men who taught an entirely different doctrine? want to Do them still in their graves the wrong of imputing to them opinions and assertions which they did not have, and misuse their name, their reputation, their example, to whitewash our deviation and unbelief with it?
Behold here the embarrassment in which everyone must find himself on this feast day who is to speak publicly, who is to encourage his congregation to rejoice and to be thankful to God for the restoration of the truth and the pure gospel of Jesus. He sees it disputed, sees it rejected, sees it declared to be superstition, the very gospel which Luther preached, for which he fought, for which he was ready to lay down his goods and blood; sees it disputed and rejected by those who most loudly refer to Luther and boast of a free, bold spirit with great complacency. Do not think that I am saying too much here, that I am presenting our deviation from the doctrine and sense of the founders of our church as too great. Oh, one does not notice how far we have already departe d from their faith, because one is not at all concerned about what they actually insisted on; because one allows oneself to be misled by pretenses, which are quite contrary to history, into quite false ideas about the church improvement of the sixteenth century, and about the spirit and sense that prevailed in it.
So it may be the business of this hour to remind you of the actual true origin of this church,
m. Br.; to show you on which main and basic doctrine it has been built by the efforts of Luther and
his friends. Listen to me with attention and thought; judge for yourselves whether I will prove what I have to say, and do not be surprised if this time I sometimes let the great men speak for themselves, whose true meaning we are concerned with. But you, of whom they testified, whose salvation they proclaimed, for whose honor they fought and suffered, Lord Jesus, be with us and bless this hour."
§ 2
The style of the sermon is mainly determined by the election, binding and dignity of the words used in the preparation of the sermon.
Annotation
About the right election and binding of words, Schott writes (Theorie des ornerischen Styls,
p. 29 f.): "Apart from the grammatical correctness and purity of the language ...., however, the
perfect comprehensibility of the presentation, or the appropriateness to the demands of the faculty of cognition, also requires that continuous Correctness of expression, which refers to the nature of the ideas to be expressed, i.e., the election of such words and phrases as are quite suitable for expressing both each individual idea and each relation of ideas whose representation is intended. The one differs exactly from the other. For, just as some expressions, considered in themselves, apart from the form given to them, are well suited to the object that is now to be designated, but violate linguistic correctn ess by their grammatically defective or non-analogous form, so, on the other hand, a perfectly pure and linguistically correct expression may lack correctness in relation to what is now to be said. Multiple errors of this kind have their reason partly in t he ignorance and neglect of the use of language, partly in the lack of clarity, of certainty, of the inner coherence of thought itself. From this it is explained that words of related meaning, e.g., affect and passion, understanding and reason, piety and virtue, are regarded as completely synonymous and confused with one another; that not infrequently a predicate is bound to the subject that does not correspond properly to the nature of the subject, e.g., a benevolent person, or a person who is a good perso n, or who is a good person, or who is a good person, or who is a good person, or who is a good person, or who is a good person, or who is a good person, or who is a good person, or who is a good person, or who is a good person, or who is a good person, or who is a good person, or who is a good person, or who is a good person, or who is a good person. For example: a benevolent heart does good where it can, or: a truth-loving mind always speaks the truth; that one lets follow the antecedent clause a suffix th at does not fit the subject of the antecedent clause, for example: This picture was so well taken that everyone recognized him at once, instead of: he was so well taken in the picture that, etc.; that one chooses particles which do not express the correct relation of the ideas, e. g. a sentence which is intended merely to explain what has just been said, begins with but, or such a sentence which does not reveal any conclusion from what has gone before, connects it by thus, therefore, hence, and the like."
This also includes such binding and positioning of pronouns that they can be related to more than one subject, a mistake in style that is made very often and is found even in the sermons of honored pulpit orators. Even a Reinhard found this error in his ser mons. In his " Confessions," in which he deals with his sermons in terms of content and form with unrelenting severity, he writes with regard to this point: "I have always found quite peculiar difficulties in the use of the pronominum. I have taken great pains to use them in such a way that no ambiguity arises and no relation of them to an incorrect subject is possible. And yet I have not always succeeded; nevertheless, when reading my sermons, I come across Passages that can be misinterpreted, where not all misunderstandings are properly prevented. In the fourth and fortieth sermon of the year 1799, on page 404, there is the following passage: God did not connect our spirit with a body for nothing; he did not assign it (to whom, the spirit or the body?) a dwelling place on earth for nothing; it is to be (who? God, or the spirit, or the body?). The first time he referred to God: now it suddenly gets a quite different relation, not even to be determined with sufficient certainty from the context) he shall practice his powers on what he finds here, and learn to be faithful over little'. That it is extremely difficult to prevent all ambiguities of this kind, I know well; it often cannot be done otherwise than by a completely changed position of the thoughts. But notwithstanding this, it remains an indispensable condition of good writing that one should not be guilty of such errors." From his Reformation sermon of 1796, Reinhard also cites the following misleading passage: "Heavenly truth, revealed by God Himself, was the religion contained in the Holy Scriptures of the Jews; on it" (truth, or religion?) "is founded the more perfect one, which we owe to the Son of God Himself. But what had it" (which, the Jewish or Christian?)
"become in the hands of the Jews!" Reinhard finally remarks that such errors in the sermon are all the more unforgivable because the listener has no time to consult the context, but must be able to grasp everything immediately and on the spot. (Confessions, etc., pp. 172-174.) The details about the election and binding, as well as about the dignity of the words will find its place in the following §§.
§ 3
In the election of words, every care should be taken to ensure purity, simplicity, clarity, and sanctity appropriate to the holy place.
Annotation
By purity of speech we understand that in the address only such words and phrases are used which really belong to the language in which speech is made, or have acquired citizenship in it, and which are valid in the present age in the language which is generally recognized as the language of the educated. To this purity belongs also the correctness of the language, that is, that the grammatical laws of inflection and binding of words are faithfully observed. "Basically," writes Schott, "the former, language purity, could also be applied to the latter (language correctness). Since in both cases something is always added to the certain language used that is in some way foreign and does not belong to its peculiar character, thus contaminating the language, be it through individual expressions and idioms that do not have the righ t of citizenship in this language, or through violation of the grammatical rules of inflection and word combination; and one could just as well include the other, linguistic correctness, in the first, since the neglect of the one, as of the other, is a dev iation from what is recognized as lawful for this language....
The general theory of good style demands these qualities, partly because everything in expression that conflicts with the use of language and the laws of grammar more or less hinders intelligibility, partly because the unity of form is thereby violated; It is a necessary, negative condition of the aesthetic value of form that it not suffer from these infirmities, and experience shows how much the pleasure in beauty, which a representation could produce through manifold aesthetic merits, is disturbed and inhibited by conspicuous violations of the use of language and grammar, especially when they appear frequently and have almost become the habit of the speaker or writer. Therefore, the product of eloquence cannot and must not escape these requirements. For what is contrary to the language and grammatically incorrect in expression already causes offence to the attentive listener by appearing as something foreign, violating the peculiar character of this language, disturbing the unity of the form, and even making the presentation dark, at least hindering the easy and quick comprehension of the thoughts". (op. cit., p. 22 f.)
The simplicity of the style consists in avoiding all highly poetic idioms, sought-after puns, everything sought-after, artificial and exaggerated, all pompous phrases and flowers, in short everything turgid, but expressing the thoughts in actual words and only as many words as are necessary to be properly understood. We call the style clear which is such that the listener or reader, without effort and further thought, immediately receives from what he hears or reads the ideas which the speaker wanted to awaken in him. Clarity, then, is the opposite of obscurity in any form, whether this obscurity lies in the matter or in the language. We call holy the style in which everything ridiculous and witty, everything profane and common, in a word, everything that is incompatible with the seriousness and sublimity of the Word of God's sermon, is fearfully avoided, but only such words and phrases are used as are out of heartfelt reverence for God.
and his words fluent, quite appropriate to the high seriousness and importance of the action that takes place in the sermon between the pastor and the audience.
§ 4
The purity of style demands that all barbarisms and soloecisms: all foreign, scholastic, rustic, and obsolete words and phrases be avoided, but only words and phrases that have been received by current usage, and constructions that have been established by grammar, be used.
Note 1
"Barbarisms are such errors, which lie in individual words considered by themselves, namely the mixing in of foreign words, which belong to a completely different language, the language - unfriendly omission of necessary, or addition of superfluous letters or syllables, or the interchanging and displacement of the same. Soloecisms, on the other hand (a term of art that is usually derived from the city of Soloe in Cilicia, whose inhabitants are said to have had a very incorrect pronunciation), appear in words and expressi ons, in so far as they stand in connection with each other, as incorrectness in the use of numerus and casus, of tempus and modus in time words, incorrect inflections, constructions and displacements of words, ellipses or pleonasms in word order and connec tion that are contrary to the language, p. 23 f.). To these two types, the barbarisms and soloecisms, Schott counts: 1. obsolete words, idioms, constructions and inflections, which are excluded from the classical language in the course of progressive language formation and only occasionally occur in common life; 2. neologisms, i.e. new words and word combinations, which are formed without sufficient reason and are incompatible with the etymology, analogy and grammar of the language or with other necessary c haracteristics, e.g.
comprehensibility, euphony, etc., of good style; 3. neologisms, i.e. new words and word combinations, which are formed without sufficient reason and are incompatible with the etymology, analogy and grammar of the language or with other necessary characteristics, e.g. comprehensibility, euphony, etc., of good style, 3. foreign words, where they are not unavoidably necessary, and foreign word combinations, such as Latinisms, Graecisms, Gallicisms, Anglicisms;
4. so-called provincialisms, namely such words and word combinations which, being peculiar to
the inhabitants of a province, have not been included in the classical written language and are therefore not understood everywhere. If we go into the details, the following are to be avoided in the sermon, which is to be delivered in the purest High German:
1. all foreign words. The German language is so rich in words and phrases that there is no
need to go begging to other languages. One does not need Latin, French, English or other foreign words to proclaim the Word of God to the audience, but has an abundance in the vocabulary of the German language. Rambach gives the following examples: "Christ is echappiret to the Jews, because they wanted to bombard him with stones in the temple!" - God had such affection against the world that he gave his Son for its redemption. - "Whoever wants to advance happily in his Christianity must do this and that." Such a mixture of all kinds of foreign words has its reason either in vanity, to show that one has learned several languages, or in bad habit.
However, many words are permissible which originally belong to a foreign language, but which have passed into the German language since anc ient times, partly through Luther's translation of the Bible, and have become completely naturalized in it, so that neither their form nor their sound remind us of foreign words. Just think of such words: like body, alms, sack, nose. Yes, there are many fo reign and foreign-sounding words that we have to use in today's German language in order to be understood, e.g. person, nature, studiren, triumphiren, jubiliren, etc. Who would understand a pastor today if, instead of "nature," he said " the great witness m other of all things," instead of "person," " independence," instead of "the twelve apostles," " the twelve messengers"? But what is the use of such foreign words and designations in the address to the people, for which there are words enough in our German mo ther tongue? Why, for example, say religiosity and morality, since piety and morality or virtue denote the same thing; why "moral" instead of virtuous; all the duties of Christianity are "concentrirt" in love instead of being contained or comprehended? Cf. Luther's "Sendbrief vom Dolmetschen und Fürbitte der Heiligen," E. A., B.
65, p. 103 ff; J. Köstlin: "Martin Luther', B. 1, p. 491 ff. - Rambach also rightly remarks that the "foreign words also include the Greek and Hebrew words", "which are mixed into the sermon without necessity", that it usually testifies to vanity, "if one brags before simple -minded listeners with Greek, Hebrew, Syrian, or even with Arabic and Persian word s, or first prays the sayings in Greek and Hebrew, and then adds Luther's translation". (Cf. Cap. VI, § 1, note 2, p. 217 f.).
2. all scholastic (metaphysical, technical) expressions. "Inappropriate without doubt," writes
Schott, "in any lectures to the people, or to a mixed Audience those words (termini tsellnioi) that occur only in the schools and the proceedings of scholars, e.g. subject and object, negative and positive, principle, ideal, harmony, system and the like. Since in the sphere of eloquence, especially of spiritual eloquence, only such truths, thought connections, and thought forms b elong that are generally comprehensible; since speech as address never rises to those heights of abstraction and speculation for which such terminologies are created, expressions of this kind are already excluded for the most part by the material and by the purpose of the speech." Such expressions can also very well be avoided. One does not need to say: 'The subject of this text is the Messiah', but can well turn it into German: 'This text is about the Messiah'. 'Whoever wants to follow Christ must also tak e up his cross' is in any case more understandable than: 'The achunewm of following Christ is the cross' - Also the technical expressions, which only occur in certain crafts, must be avoided. Mathesius could probably say in his 16th sermon on Luther's life: "Therefore they saw beforehand in their misery and conversion, that God in this land kind his sareptans. and spiritual miners, smelters and glassmakers, according to the prophecy, who would put the Romanists' pagament through the furnace, melt it, drive it off, or seygern it, so that Christianity, according to the twelfth Psalm, would become a burnt, pure, superfine, leached silver and separate and drive off all foulness and savagery from the sight of God" (p. 196b), because he preached to miners who understood these expressions, but to other listeners such terms would be completely incomprehensible.
3. all rude, impure and offensive words and phrases. The common man has many words and
phrases that, if used, would not adorn the style of the sermon at all. FOR EXAMPLE: "If the ungodly will not dance to God's tune, he may yet drive them to couples"; or, "The hypocrites are mixed with the true Christians as mice are mixed with pepper." Such expressions are to be kept out of pulpit language, though such men as Luther, Herberger, and others have sometimes made use of them. With regard to Luther's language, what Hüffell says applies: "To want to speak at present in Luther's language is worthy of a petty striving for supposed originality, Luther's power also grasps our language; unfortunately, however, our breast no longer grasps Luther's power." Herberger has some sayings which could rather be used in his time, but which in our time must not appear in a sermon; e.g..: "The devil drives the children of unbelief on his cart into the infernal pit of shame," or: "It often happens with the godless and the hidden The children of the world are like a drunken peasant; if you lift him up in the saddle on on e side, he will prance down again on the other. If a pastor of more recent times thought he had to make the horrors of hell quite comprehensible to his listeners by saying: 'In hell it stinks as of a hundred million stinking cats', this might be more new t han worthy of imitation. Here is a longer passage from a sermon of the famous Geiler von Kaisersberg, which reads:
"They offered Jesus with them and with the procession to Jerusalem, and did in the seven things which we are to do spiritually unto the Lord: 1) That they offered unto the Lord the old ass, and the young ass. Your body is the old donkey, and your soul is the young donkey. Thou shalt subdue thy flesh unto thy reason, and set it in order unto the service of the LORD. Likewise thy soul shall order the young ass for the love of God. 2) And they took their hides, and their garments, and their skirts, and their coats, and put them upon the asses of the LORD, and saddled them to the ass. So thy body and thy soul saddle the Lord, that he may sit thereon, and so forth. In another sermon, on the 2nd Sunday of Tr. There was a man who made a great supper and so on, it says: "The first said: I have bought a village and so on. That was pride, which wants to rule, he has bought a village or a hamlet. the other has bought oxen, which he must try. The third said: I have taken a wife. These three whole bites us. I. The first one that bites us is Hoffart; a) it is large, b) coarse, c) graw. II. the second one is evil, which is a) black, b) ugly...... III. The third is unchastity, and that is white, a) on the outside, so the women also want to be white and certainly on the inside a real unchastity; b) of feathers and skin, so the women also care for white skin; c) but the head is not white, in the head is no wisdom, the women are the genß; d) it is not good a white ganß considered, so it is also not good, a white women considered." (From Hüffel, p. 403.)
4. obsolete words that have been eliminated from use because they no longer correspond to
the refined taste. Rambach lists as obsolete expressions that are found in Luther's translation of the Bible: 'casteien his body', Deut. 16, 29; -Boas was a willful man', Ruth 2, 1; hofiren, Jer. 4, 30; Koller, Isa. 3, 23; Apost. 19, 12. 19, 12. We also add: endelich, Luc. 1, 39; Krebs, Ephes. 6, 4; Fegopfer, 1 Corinth. 4, 13; horny, Luc. 11, 6; become horny against Christ, 1. Timoth. 5, 11; to ride beautifully with the people, 2 Corinth. 5, 11; Humpler, passages. 26, 10; köken, Isa. 28, 7. On the other hand, other expressions, such as wasting, afflicting, overshadowing, should not be objectionable because they are either generally understandable or can be explained very soon. Who, for example, would like to see the word: hoard, Ps. 18, 3 replaced by another? And Wouldn't the taste in language, because it is partly outdated, turn back to Luther's language?
Schott: "The Lutheran translation of the Bible contains many outdated expressions, which, considering the level at which German language stood at that time and h ow much this great reformer had achieved in terms of style, can by no means be a reproach to the venerable author. As little as it follows from this that any other newer translation of the Bible should henceforth be introduced for public use in churches and schools, the ecclesiastical speaker, observing the needs of the present time, nevertheless feels compelled to declare by a suitable addition such words and phrases used by Luther which, being obsolete, are not likely to be clear and comprehensible to all listeners, or, where the more delicate taste of our present aesthetic education should unavoidably require it, to exchange them for another (e.g., Phil. 3:8, 1 Corinthians 3:8, 1 ). For example, Phil. 3, 8 the coarse expression: "and consider it filth" with the finer: "and consider it filth")(?).
Concerning the language in which a pastor should address his congregation, Palmer writes: "On the other hand, the congregation lives in the given, concrete reality. Consequently, the pastor must not ignore it as if it were not there, must not use abstract language, and must not want to feed the people with abstract ideas; A popular speech will rather reach into real life, will prove the eternal truth in and at this reality, will achieve the illustration of the idea by pictures, examples, experiences from the circles, in which the men move and move factually, will even try to merge the real language of life, the way of speech of the people ( populi, not plebis) with the holy language. In doing so, of course, the boundary between what can be merged with the sacred and what cannot, what remains common, is not to be crossed; and as little as it is wrong if now and then a smile plays around a listener's mouth at an apt thought and expression - as is well known, a portrait similar in speech has the same effect on many, especially natural men: - Everything that touches the realm of comedy, of jokes in the alleys and beer houses, everything that cannot be elevated to the sacred seriousness of the sermon, is to be kept so far away. In this, too, personality stands before us as the last instance; for many things that one finds quite natural in one person are not at all suitable for another; it cannot be said: this expression, this turn of phrase is popular, therefore you may bring it into the pulpit; this freedom can be detrimental to you, for the whole man must be made for it. (Homiletics, p. 491 ff.).
Furthermore, Tholuck writes: "By the eloquence of common sense we will understand such an eloquence, which, in connection with... The preacher should then present the Christian truth in the form of a concrete view and applicability to the maxims and views, facts and experiences that exist and are well known among the people....... But the pastor should then also present his subject in the way that a healthy, uneducated people do, that is, in concrete terms. Our sermons lack this gift to an even greater degree than the connection to the life of the people...... Education may help in this matters as well, education through the study of writers such as Hippel, Claudius, Schubert, Heinrich Müller, Harms, and even more education through the life of the people; but that the most beautiful gift of this eloquence must come from somewhere else is told to us by the name Mutterwitz. Where, however, the address lacks those luminous sparks, those lightning-like catchwords and tangible comparisons which, once heard, are no longer forgotten in life, where one can feel by the twitching of the faces that they have arrived in the right place in the heart: The speaker is also a popular speaker, a speaker of common sense, who knows how to bring the subject close to the heart with that clarity of address, with that logic which is understood in the village schools as well as in the lecture halls, relying on experience to the right and to the left." (Preface to his sermons, p. 47 f.)
§ 5
Simplicity of style demands that all highly poetic idioms, pompous epithets, sought-after puns, eloquent circumlocutions, mystical and ambiguous phrases, and in general all things bordering on affected grandeur, be avoided.
Annotation
About the necessity of preaching "simply," i.e., to use the simplest possible language. Luther says about the necessity to preach "simply", i.e. to use the simplest possible language: "Eternal pastors should get used to preaching badly and simply, and should decide and remember that they must preach to people without understanding, as peasants, who understand just as little as young people under 12, 13, 14, 20 years of age, to whom one also preaches alone; this is also the great majority, so that they may u nderstand it or learn something from it and improve their lives. To be sure, no one is allowed to preach to me and Philippo, although we can learn something from it that is of use to us. One does not have to preach and bravely strut about with great words, splendidly and artfully, so that one may be seen to be learned and to seek one's honor. Oh no, it does not apply here!
One should be guided by the listeners, and this is common to all pastors, that they preach so that the poor people get very little out of it. The same as Butzer and Zwingel did in Marburg in great splendor and everything in the most artistic way, so that they would have the praise of it; as if they wanted to say: See, D. Mart. and Philip see how I am such a learned journeyman. Simple preaching is a great art. Christ does it himself; he speaks only of the work of the field, of the mustard seed, and so forth, and uses vain, rustic parables." (E. A., B. 59, P. 228.) The words of Paul, 1 Corinthians 2:1 -2, will always serve as a standard for every pastor concerning the language he should use in his sermon: "And I, brethren, when I came unto you, came not with high words, or great wisdom, to preach unto you the divine sermon: for I thought not that I knew any thing among you, save Jesus Christ crucified." Not with 'high words, or high wisdom', or actually: not according to an excellence of address, i. e. ( ου χα& υπεροχήν λόγου η σοφίας) Paul wanted to preach the divine sermon among the Corinthians, but in all simplicity, in plain speech, to preach Christ, and that Christ crucified, which was a vexation to the Jews and a foolishness to the Greeks. He did not want to add any other knowledge to this sermon, nothing of the so famous philosophy of the Greeks, but he also di d not want to dress it in the shining garment of worldly eloquence; his word and his sermon were not to go along in sensible speeches of human wisdom, but in proof of the spirit and of power. The high apostle did not use philosophical words to persuade his listeners, as the Greek orators used to do, but the spirit and power hidden in the simple word, but revealing itself, should convince and win the listeners. The Word of God does not need the paltry trappings of human eloquence, for it carries its power and might within itself and often proves it most when it resounds from the mouth of a faithful witness of Christ without any ornamentation of speech. The simplest sermon about Christ often makes a wonderful impression when it comes from the heart and is a li ving testimony of the Crucified One, while the rush for oratorical effect destroys any effect of the sermon from the start.
Especially beginners have to be careful in this, for they are inclined before others "to sprinkle their listeners with flowers; but these are without fragrance and bear no fruit at all: at the most, a sensitive soul will wet them with a tear. Here is a sample: "Do you know the place where in the icy arm of death the fresh blossom of youth is frozen, where in the iron arm of the grave t he strength of the proud man lies bound; where no longer the fluting nightingale's butterflies, no longer the sky-sweeping lark's trills, no longer the glimmer of color of the the whole of nature? It is, etc." - Note, however, that not every, but only the affected sublimity of style, as it is found in the preceding example, is rejected in the §. Rather, the right sublimity is often quite appropriate, indeed it is demanded by the object of the address and by the circumstances.
One will have to agree with Augustine, who in the 4th book of his De doctrina Christiana writes the following: "Although the teacher of the church always speaks of great things, he nevertheless speaks in the simple style when something is being taught; in the rich (more tasteful) style then, when rebuking or praising. Only when something is to be done, and we address those who should do it but do not want to, then the sublime style is used. One and the same great thing can be addressed in different styles, even God, who is the greatest of all. He who wants to address others about the unity in the Trinity must speak simply, so that the doctrine may be understood as far as possible. He who wants to praise God or His works seeks the most beautiful and richest words to express what he never succeeds in fully expressing, and yet what he cannot hold back. But if there is no greater harm than that God is not worshipped, or that there are idols and other creatures beside him, then such harm must by all means be warded off among the people in the most sublime language."
With regard to this point, Schott writes: "To those feelings whose character is calm greatness and depth belongs the great and sublime of stylistic representation. Both expressions designate essentially the same thing, that kind of representation which has the effect that the object, as one that stands out and is honored above others, is not only recognized by the faculty of thought, but is also vividly grasped by the faculty of feeling. The difference lies only in the fact that with the expression: great style, we think first of all more of the objective, of the vividly sensualized relationship in which the object stands to others, likewise great, compared with it; with the other:
sublime style, more' of the subjective, of the vividly sensualized relationship of the obj ect to the limits of our human nature. For we call sublime that which prompts our imagination to a free preoccupation with ideas which the imagination is not able to encompass in a picture, and the intellect not in a concept, so that through this awareness of those limitations the Bernunftvermögen, the faculty of ideas, is set in motion, e.g. in external nature, the sight of the starry sky, in the spiritual world, the contemplation of the purest, perfected morality in the life of Jesus. In the emotional faculty, the uplifted first of all produces a mixed feeling of the But when the faculty of ideas enters into full activity, and the preponderance of freedom over natural necessity, of the infinite over the limits of the finite, is vividly grasped by feeling, the feeling of purest pleasure triumphs over displeasure in the end. Although the genuine greatness and sublimity of style always necessarily presupposes that there is something in the thoughts themselves, in the thing, by which this stylistic character is established; yet expression has it in its power to make the great and sublime of the thought itself stand out with special vividness and deep impressions on the mind, and, in so far as this happens, we also take these qualities from the stylistic form. Not infrequently, the shortest and simplest description of the object is the surest means to achieve this end. How great and sublime is the Old Testament: God said, let there be light, and there was light! Any further paraphrase or figurative dressing would only weaken the impression here; it is said just as it is here, enough to make the infinity and majesty of God's creative power as clear as tangible. And the mind of the speaker often feels most deeply where he speaks least of his feelings. But not infrequently the nature of the object permits a further development of individual characteristics, by which its greatness and sublimity can be even more strongly sensualized and taken eve n closer to the feeling; and to the state of mind which the contemplation of the great and sublime object has produced in the performer himself, it is often quite natural that the representation should spread out somewhat further, in manifold, proper and f igurative turns of address, which awaken the ideas of sensuous or spiritual greatness and dignity, and directly denote the admiration, the astonishment, the reverence of the speaker; the stylistically great and sublime can therefore also unite with fullness and splendor. (A. u. O. p. 100 f.)
As an example serve the following passage of Reinhard, in which the sublime is particularly prominent: "Are you in danger of taking the trifles of the earth for something great; of attaching to human endeavors and activities an importance which they do not have; of sharing in the astonishment with which the great multitude contemplates the splendor and majesty of the rich and powerful; are you in danger of even becoming proud of your own merits, of your power and greatness; lift up your eyes, I beseech you, and behold: what are those whom you admire in comparison with the globe on which they are with so many millions; what is the globe in comparison with the sun, which leads it mightily around itself; what is the sun with so many millions?
What are these suns and worlds against the immense creation, whose most distant regions no human look reaches? And in this infinity, where our globe is a hardly noticeable dust, would anything human be important and great, there would not everything be lost in nothing? Is it finally this latter feeling that becomes too powerful for you; is it the awareness of your weakness, your frailty, your nothingness that torments you; do you think you are apparitions that, like fleeting shadows, arise and pass away aga in; do you look up once more at the immense universe; do you contemplate it in all its glory; do you think you were called to look at it for nothing?
Would you grasp it, would you think anything of it, would you be able to recognize it for the work, for th e immeasurable realm of an infinite spirit, if you were not spirit yourselves; if you did not belong to the beings for whose sake all that is visible and corporeal, this quite splendid equipment, exists; if you were not better and nobler than everything that presents itself to your eye?" (Sermons of 1810, p. 104.) So they are not to be used:
1. high poetic expressions . FOR EXAMPLE: If someone were to say, "The
King of kings has caused the juice of his crimson blood to flow from the canals of his sacred veins to the earth," this would be pompous, poetic speech, which should hardly be allowed in a hymn, much less in a sermon. It has to read briefly and simply: Christ shed his blood for us on Golgotha.
2. turgid epithets. E.G.: To offer a thankful heart to one' s Creator, instead of:
to have a thankful heart; or: "When we look up to him, from him in whom and through whom all things are, when we lift up the spirit to the Infinite and Omnipotent, the Creator of the shining moon, the flaming sun, the twinkling stars, the great, vast earth resplendent in the green carpet and most delightful play of colors; how then all the imaginations of our agitated heart take a higher and freer trend."
3. sought-after puns (paronomasias), in which words that mean different
things, but are completely identical except for individual letters, are put together more. Thus: "Let us avoid sin as an abomination and an abomination, and envy, hate and leave it ", or: "The hypocrites are like the whitewashed graves, outwardly lime and snow, inw ardly mischief and woe", or "Close to the cross, close to the wreath" - "What not to avoid, you must suffer" (Cober). "Word plays, used in sermons," says Chr. Chemnitz, "have something unpleasant and disgusting about them and betray something youthful."
4. rambling oratorical paraphrases, which make the address
incomprehensible, and then impose on the listeners an imposition that borders on real punishment, namely that they have to listen to such a broad, rambling and sluggish address that lasts for an hour, and then perhaps leave the church with a dull feeling in their heads, but also do not com e back so soon when they have to listen to the same pastor. Only the following example: "The divine life which faith instills in the soul is a succulent, green, fruitful tree, which produces not only leaves of empty words, not only blossoms of good hope, but also rich and ripe fruits of holy works of love." This sound of words is meant to express the simple truth: "Faith is active through love!"
5. high mystical sayings. For example: "The little spark of our soul will not be
happy until it falls into the fire of the Godhead and forms a single flame with it. Or: "How often Satan in his fury devours our creaturely life, that we hang between time and eternity and lose ourse lves with our thoughts completely in the dark abyss." With the former sentence the unio mystica is meant, with the latter a heavy challenge. However, such addresses are not only not simple but also very misleading. 6 All ambiguous expressions. Ambiguity arises either from the use of individual expressions and phrases, which in themselves admit of a double or multiple sense, or from such words as are used in different senses in one and the same period, or finally from the connection and position of the words. The sentence: "He was a man who always pursued the truth and overlooked everything in the administration of manifold professional affairs" can be understood praisingly and blamingly, because the words "pursue" and "overlook" are ambiguous. It can be understood in different senses: "You will certainly regard an event that brought about such a movement with the greatest attention; your visible movement vouches for that. And what does it mean: "This kingdom which Europe feared?" or: "The God who created the heavens which surround the whole earth (Who? the heavens, or God?), should not let the bliss of a whole species of creatures, which is so entirely his work (species or bliss?), last longer than this life?". - Other ambiguous expressions are: "A faithful man is deified," and similar ones.
§ 6
The clarity of style demands that poetic and mystical phrases, new and obsolete words, frequent parentheses be avoided, and words be brought into their proper meaning and order.
Annotation
Clarity (cf. § 3, p. 367) is one of the general and essential qual ities that must be demanded of every stylistic representation. This quality, however, can only be found if the representation is at the same time definite, i.e., does not move in general, ambiguous and multiple expressions and idioms, but is such that the words, etc., can only be taken and understood in one sense. This clear style is opposed to the incomprehensible or unclear, to the dark and heavy, to the in definite and wavering. (Cf. Schott, op. cit., p. 31.) A style that unites purity and correctness, clarity and definiteness, was actually called "elegant" (oratio elegans) by the ancient orators, even if the ornament (ornatus) of the address was more often included under this designation. How ponderous, indistinct, and tautological, to say nothing of other defects, is, for example The following period: "The serious, silent, thought-provoking, pre-festival time of Passion, through which we are taken back to the beginning of the new covenant, to the time of the suffering of the appeared Redeemer, to the one who came into the flesh to redeem us, and who always and forever comes into the heart and will one day come for judgment - this time of Passion, which is co nducive to mourning, not only contains that which must make us serious, thoughtful, sad and despondent, but it is also the time of abundant consolation and hope. Now, the ambiguity or incomprehensibility of a presentation can also have its reason in the subject matter, if it is of such a nature that it cannot be presented in a completely comprehensible way, e.g. a treatise on determinism (theory of determination); but such subjects do not belong in the pulpit. Therefore, the blame for the ambiguity will always be placed on the pastor, on the way he presents his material. Grotefend elaborates on this by writing:
"But a far richer source of incomprehensibility (namely than the matter) is the mode of presentation; for the lightest matter can be presented in suc h an incomprehensible way that one does not know what is actually the address. We must trace this source of incomprehensibility still more closely, and seek to discover it in the individual influxes. Certainly, the first inflow or the first share of this source is the Lack of the own correct thinking, observing and the correct experience. What one thought darkly oneself, or saw and observed only half oneself, one can certainly not render otherwise than darkly and half only. This darkn ess and indeterminacy is perhaps not even recognized by some speakers as darkness and noticed as indeterminacy, and that is where a lot of words come from, a prolixity that fills the time but gives no light. One will be able to perceive it in oneself. The clearer a thought is in our mind, the clearer the insight into the individual parts of it is, the more certain one recognizes the differences, the contrasts, the similarities or affinities with others and from others, the more concisely and pertinently one knows how to represent such a thought and the words seem to offer themselves. But the more the opposite occurs, the more words we have to use, because something still seems to be missing, because a new determination is still necessary, which is basically not determined, and in the end we are dissatisfied with our own representation. It is difficult to give examples in this case, and they would not be necessary, because some acquaintance with printed sermons, and a closer investigation of the cause of the ambiguity will show us this source. Sometimes this incomprehensibility lies in a single main concept, which we did not think quite clearly, and which is always like a dark point in our way throughout the whole consideration....... For example, in the topic: ' The atonement of Jesus Christ the reason of our reassurance.' If in this subject the speaker has not grasped a certain and clear concept of reconciliation and made it quite clear to himself, his whole address will be a confused back and forth talk without attitude and unity, especially since the concept of reassurance is also taken only in general terms.......
A second secondary source of this incomprehensibility is the lack of logical order, whereby the individual parts either do not get t heir place, or whereby gaps arise, which should be filled. It will be clear enough to everyone that this deficiency must become a source of incomprehensibility; but not so easily will everyone admit and feel that it is precisely in his works that this error prevails. It is therefore well to take occasion from time to time to inquire of more insightful members of the congregation, or of friends, whether they have understood our lectures, and then, if this understanding should not have occurred, not to rest u ntil one has discovered the cause in one's own works....
Sometimes, however, it is also a sought-after dignity, which one wants to give to his pulpit language, by which the incomprehensibility is brought about. Young orators quite often suffer from this disease, when They immediately reject everything ordinary as unworthy, and only take pleasur e in the more unusual expression, which is often not even so beautiful. Occurrences, instead of incidents, events, occurrences - the Christian's striving for praiseworthy judgment instead of a good name. It is precisely this struggle for dignified expression that produces the long, ponderous and poorly rounded periods, because everything natural and unforced seems ordinary, and everything ordinary seems unworthy. What is not full of light and clear, what the educated man and especially the educated woman does not immediately understand, or does not become clear to her through added explanations, is certainly not popularly understandable, even if it should sound so melodious." (op. cit., p. 162 ff.)
In detail, if the presentation is to be easily understandable, must be avoided:
1. high poetic expressions. S. Dietrich has the following disposition on Pastor
16, 10: "The golden jewel of David, for it sparkles forth 1. the red ruby of the victorious descent into hell; 2. the green emerald of the joyful resurrecti on of Christ." Another begins the introduction to a sermon on the Lord's likeness of the laborers in the vineyard with the words: "Your silver has become foam, these are words of Esaiä, in which he sees a wreath of flowers on his official zeal. The silver flower is the pure doctrine. Others say that the false doctrine is stoned (that is, rebuked) by the prophets." The expressions: 'wreath of flowers', 'little silver flower' etc. make the whole address dark and incomprehensible.
2. mystical sayings. Thus, when in his time Carlstadt said: "The souls that want
to be filled by God should stand in serenity and boredom", and in "bored longing" become similar to burnt trees; or: "Man should stand idle, do nothing and suffer the long time, for the Sabbath is appointed for this reason, that the spirit may come into boredom and learn something in its long time; - moderation drives the coarse skins and constipation from the heart, if man understands it". - "Man must devalue himself if his heart is to be given to God"; - "Egoity must be discarded in true denial"; - "If man wants to approach the center of the divine essence again." In the "Teutsche Theologia" it says Cap. 55, p. 65: "And thus man becomes completely poor, and also in himself becomes nothing, and in him, and with him everything that is something, that is, all created things, only there arises an inward life, and then henceforth God himself becomes man, so that there is no more that is not God, or God's." (Teutsche Theologia, edited by Joh. Arndt, Lüneberg 1681.)
3 New and obsolete words. Especially such new words are to be rejected, which are formed only because one does not know the language and therefore does not have the usual, corresponding expressions at hand, or because one tries to shine by affectirt originality. Obsolete words are: Kolken for water pi ts, wähnen for my; stracks, so instead of which. These and other words were in use and understandable in Luther's time, but who knows today what Kolken is! (Cf. § 4, note 1, p. 368.)
4. too frequent and too long parentheses. E.G.: "Christ is to be worshipped also
according to his human nature (not only according to his divine nature, which he has in common with the Father), and with such veneration as is also manifested by outward gestures, but which must be removed from superstition (of which we are falsely accused by some when we bend the knee in the name of Jesus). This period is dark because too long and interrupted by two parentheses.
Note 2
The clarity of style, however, demands not only that all words that hinder the easy understanding of the address be avoided, but also that the words be used as far as possible in their own, original meaning, in the meaning that is common, in which they are used by all, scholars and unscholars. Actual words and idioms are therefore always preferable to non-actual metaphorical ones, unless the need for a brief and yet all-embracing presentation necessitates the election of figurative words, so that the subject matter is perceived with a particular impression. In the work of Schott, "Die Theorie des Styls" (The Theory of Style), we learn the following:
"The lack of clarity and especially of definiteness of style is not infrequently due to the fact that one does not pay proper attention to those words and phrases which the prevailing linguistic usage has once determined for the designation of certain ideas, either solely or i n particular; the so -called vocabula and verba solennia. Often reasons can be shown why one has preferred just this or that expression for certain objects, concepts, associations of thoughts to others. For example, in figurative address one says: " The thread of our life winds inexorably on through a thousandfold alternations and turns of our destinies." Why does one not say: " The wheel of our life rolls through a thousandfold etc.? The comparison in itself would not be inappropriate, and the Greek language had the expression: "wheel of life" is not uncommon. But the former is preferred because the rolling wheel almost involuntarily directs the attention only to the noisy activities and changes of life, which one does not want to remember first or only when one speaks of the inexorable, often quiet and silent progress of the years of life under manifold changes. We say: the sun of my happiness, or the star of my happiness has risen, and it is understandable why we consider the great star of the day, or the generic term: star in general, to be more appropriate than the mention of the moon, in order to describe vividly and vividly the beneficial, uplifting, invigorating nature of a happy change that has come to us. Very often, however, no other determining reason can be given for such idioms than that they have gradually, through long habit, even among the best writer s, received the place they prefer to claim. One says, for example, " I take something into consideration, " not, " I take something into consideration," although one just as often says: with consideration, as: with regard to a person or thing. Or: "to put oneself in another's place", "to put oneself in another's position", not: to put oneself in another's condition. Or: "to stand in binding with someone", not: in linkage. Or (tropical): "he has a very good, capable head", not: a good, capable head. Or: "Jesus Christ is the invisible head of his great congregation," not: he is the invisible head, etc., although the latter corresponds to the Greek κεφαλή just as the former. What the use of language has sanctified in this way for certain ideas or associations of thoughts, that is what the listener and reader are to expect, and the clear and certain concept of the matter is usually most easily attached to it.
§ 7
Holiness of style presupposes true reverence for God and holy things, and demands holy words that are worthy of God and conform as much as possible to the style of Scripture.
Note 1
"The sanctity of style," writes Rambach, "requires 1. a holy affect, that one speak of divine things not otherwise than with a holy reverence and awe before the eyes of God. This is the reason for the holiness of style. A profane mind, which has no reverence before God, will not be able to hold itself in the pulpit, no matter how devoutly it wants to do so, and with a masquerade of holy sighs and devotional gestures it can hide the mischievousness of the words. in the heart. But this is an atrocious abuse of the name of God, which the Lord does not want to let go unpunished. There must therefore be a true reverence for God and His Word of God in the heart, and in order that this may be inflamed anew at all times, one must first approach this great and adorable Being in prayer, so that one may receive an impression of His majesty and glory." Luther says: "Let us, dear Lord and brethren, diligently wait for our office in the fear and reverence of God, that is, to offer the Gospel to the hearers in humility, the fear of God, and in supplication.
Then let us be confident in God, that this thing is, and remain steadfast in such fear of God and honor, and not let ourselves be bitten and torn by it" (B. 59, p. 256).
Note 2
Holiness of style demands holy words worthy of God. All vain gossip, which is contrary to the respectability of a pastor of the Gospel, must be kept out of the sermon. This includes:
1. expressions that provoke the audience to laugh. We have heard of a pastor
who preached on Christmas Day in such a way tha t the audience almost always laughed. Such pastors turn the sermon into a comedy and the church into a playhouse. Instead of the official dress they wear a fool's cap, and the word of the Lord Matth. 18, 6 applies to them: "But who shall offend one of these least ones who believe in me" etc.?
2. all farcical and insulting words and addresses, which are only used by the
rough, common rabble, such as: "That is falsehood and lies"; - "The miser speaks: rips, raps, all in my sack". Even worse, if the pastor get s into a carnal rage, is the use of insulting words, e.g. "fools", - "louts" and the like.
3. worldly and courtly expressions. "To love Christ" then means: "to consume
one's heart in the pleasant flames of love"; "to be gentle": to lead irritated anger by the reins of composure; "to pray": "to pay one's most devoted respects before the throne of God". "To this," says Rambach, "also belongs the theatrical word: to perform. There are those who say that in the Gospel two persons are performed: 1. a rich man, 2. a poor Lazarus; or a tax collector and a Pharisee; just as if the pulpit were a theater where persons were to be performed and presented to the congregation." The famous chancellor of the University of Paris Pierre d'Ailly († 1425) said in a sermon: Monsieur Samt Paul, and an Italian The pastor called out when he preached about the temptation of Christ: Retirate voi Signor Diaboli!
4 All quibbles and witty antitheses. "Thus," we read in Ammon (Handbuch der Anleit. z. Kanzelberedsamkeit, p. 311), "Lohon, Bishop of Nismes, preached on Magdalen's Day about the tears of this sinner, of whom he claimed that she had opened heaven through them: elle avoit fait un chemin par eau, qu'on fait rarement par terre. Thus the missionary Brydaine, in a sermon on the punishments of the damned, compared the persistence of the torment of hell to the pendulum of a clock, which strikes incessantly: always, never; never, always; a damned man awakes asking: what time is it? Muffled it sounds: eternity!" Such things are calculated more to tickle the ears than to edify the listeners. Pointed themes are found in Riemer's Postille and the Erquickstunden of Lassenius, e.g.: The sweet bitterness, the dry tears; the waking sleeper. Cober has: "The lovely whore lady; the unpietistic pietist; the venerable thieves' guild; the crowned ass; the fallen riser.
5. ill-considered, distasteful and offensive parables . Well -chosen parables
serve as explanations and are therefore to be re commended; but parables that are repugnant and disgusting should never appear in a sermon. Take the following: "Such people place themselves among the unreasonable creature. We all know the care of a mother hen for her chicks, how she not only restlessly seeks food for them from morning till evening, but also teaches them which grains, bugs and worms belong to their food; and the chicks peck only where the mother hen lures them. A cat is not content with feeding its young; it also ensures that the small animals learn how to (?) catch the quick mouse. So even the animals are driven by nature to educate their young in a certain sense, so that they are able to live their lives afterwards. How sad (?). therefore appear such parents, who only care for the nutrition, but not for the education of their children, who indeed (?) care for the body, but neglect the spirit! They act against the natural conscience, which demands from parents the most extensive care for their children."
6. funny and droll stories. These do not belong at all in the pulpit, from which
the Word of God is preached and the listeners are not to be entertained but edified. One should leave the telling of such stories to the pulpit hawks among the sect preachers. As is well known, Beecher, the actor, was able to include all sorts of little laughable stories in his sermons. and had a large audience because of this. The godly Scriver also often interwove stories into his sermons, but before one imitates him in this, one should see whether one also has the skill of a Scriver. Chr. Chemnitz writes: "What is not in accordance with the majesty of the divine word, one should avoid with the utmost diligence when lecturing. For we are, as Paul says 2 Cor. 5, 20, ambassadors in Christ's stead.
Therefore we must leave out of the sermons 1. silly and ridiculous fables; for again Paul says 1 Tim. 4, 7: "Abstain from unspiritual and old-fashioned fables. 2. Profane parables and addresses, as when someone would compare the Savior who overcomes the tempter with a pugilist, or call Pastor the Duke of Jerusal em, the twelve apostles ambassadors, as Balduin heard from someone, Brev. inst. p. 147;
3. excessively exaggerated and ridiculous sayings; 4. proverbs, especially those that
are common and have long been widely trodden." Even if the pastor has to preach in the countryside in front of a perhaps quite uneducated audience, he still has to mean that he is a sermon, a servant of Christ and a steward of God's mysteries, especially when he preaches, and therefore has to abstain from all unworthy expressions par excellence. Addresses such as: sweep at his own door; Peter stood dumbfounded; eat; cry; throw; man lies there like cattle; many a dog has it better than many a man; are indecent and therefore to be avoided. One should also not be misled by the fact that som etimes great, famous pulpit orators have used such expressions. It certainly does not sound nice and sweet when it is said, "Here comes one with a thick head of reason and wants to poke his head, as Luther says, through the narrow door of faith," or, "Your wisdom, you worldly man, has a big hole." This is not popular, but vulgar language.
Note 2
Just as all profane words must be avoided in the sermon, so, on the other hand, such words are to be used that are worthy of God and as similar as possible to the style of the Holy Scriptures. On the other hand, words that are worthy of God and as similar as possible to the style of Holy Scriptures are to be used; for whoever wants to address spiritual, heavenly things should also use such words that are in accordance with the words of the Holy Spirit. But this does not mean that a sermon must be composed of Bible words. "One finds," remarks Rambach, "pastors who stubble together a heap of passages from the German Concordance.....and then think that they have preached a sermon quite rich in Scripture, because they have made use of the words of the Holy Spirit everywhere. Then it happens that one often comes across the heaviest and darkest sayings in the high hymn of Solomon, in the prophets, in the revelation of John etc., which no one who has no trained senses can understand without explanation, and thus that is made dark which could have been said much more clearly in one's own words. Everyone understands what I want to say when I say: He who loves Christ also keeps his commandments; but it will be dark if I want to express this with the following words of Scripture: He who can say to his Savior: "I love you dearly, Lord, my strength, Lord, my rock, my fortress, my deliverer, my God, my s tronghold, in whom I trust; he can also say: I rejoice in the way of your testimonies, more than in all riches. I delight in thy right hand, and forget not thy words." It would be a plain address to say that the whole life of a Christian is nothing but a continual strife and battle; but darkly, "The heroes of the heavenly Solomon are all skilful to fight, every man having his sword upon his thigh for fear of the night. They sleep, but their heart waketh. When they lie in the field, they shine like the wings of doves, gleaming like silver and gold.
To preach Scripturally is by no means to speak with words of Scripture, but to proclaim and use the doctrine of Holy Scriptures purely and unadulteratedly in a manner appropriate to its content. One sermon may be interwoven with a multitude of biblical passages and yet contain nothing less than Word of God, while another may have this characteristic without many citations from the Bible.
§ 8
Once the correct and appropriate words have been chosen, they must be properly bound together and put together, paying attention to both the quantity and the rhythm of the periods.
Note 1
We call a period a circle of sentences in which the subordinate cla uses are united into a unit by the main clause in which the leading idea is expressed. The beauty of a period depends on its regular rounding, which includes fullness, distinctness, and regularity of the links. "The most distinguished characteristics of a period," Grotefend remarks, "are 1. a logically correct and thereby easily overlooked binding of the related sentences. 2. symmetry of the main sentences not only, but also of the smaller links. 3. avoidance of the monotonous in the manner of binding, without harming clarity, appropriateness and naturalness. 4. Euphony of the individual parts and words. 5. a certain oratorical numerus, which spreads over the whole and becomes most palpable at the end. 6. roundness of the whole, which is brought about by the fact that no part is superfluous or in an improper place, and the end seems to constitute, as it were, the keystone of the whole. (op.
cit., p. 209.) Above all, in a good p eriod the main idea must not get lost among the secondary ideas, but must fall through the whole like a ray of light, or run through a circle like the diameter. FOR EXAMPLE. The following period should serve: " O all of you who are bowed down and in mourning, who have to fight the difficult battle of duty and faith in the midst of an unholy and vicious world; who lament that merit is disregarded, hated, and lies in the dust when happy vice triumphs; who, bowed down by worries and troubles of all kinds, are often in doubt as to whether, despite all your blamelessness, you will not nevertheless succumb and perish: strengthen your sinking courage in the great divine predecessor, at whose glorious feast of victory you must become acquainted with the wealth of inn umerable means in the hand of your God, by which he is able to save and make happy his steadfast children." Here occurs the main clause, which consists only of subject and predicate:
'Ye bowed down and mourning, be ye humbled ', stands out clearly. Through the subordinate clauses from: "you who have fought the hard fight," etc., to the predicate: The subject is expanded, and at the same time the anaphora is used to facilitate the overview. By indicating the means of strengthening, the predicate has found the necessary symmetry against the extended subject. The whole has received euphony through this and that small means, e.g. the sentence: O you bowed and mourning all through the inversion, then through added epithets. Symmetry can be achieved in many ways, either by giving each main word to be emphasized a corresponding proper word, so that the one does not stand naked in comparison to the other, or by distributing the antitheses appropriately; by letting the one sentence follow in vivid images, the other not in the dry language of abstraction, and so on. Symmetrical, for example, is the following: "Every thought is a silent word, every word a loud thought.
As far as the quantity of the periods is concerned, care must be taken that they are neither too long nor too short. They are too long if too many subordinate clauses are inserted between the subject and the predicate, and each clause is loaded either with too many things or, what is worse, with many empty words and tautologies. that one cannot find the end. Unfortunately, there are too many long, partly incomprehensible periods in the works of the otherwise so excellent Guericke. Just look at the preface to the 1st edition. As an example of empty tautology can be considered the following: "It is the sign of a true, genuine, sincere admirer of religion, if every opportunity to stimulate, awaken, make alive and effective religious sensations and feelings in his inner being is dear, valuable and precious to him."
Rambach remarks quite true: "Because of the great mass of words, the liste ners forget the beginning of the period before they hear its end, and thus cannot form a clear concept of the thing that the pastor wanted to say in it; indeed, the pastor loses himself in his long labyrinth, so that he either forgets to add the predicate in the extensive description of the subject, and thus makes a period that has a beginning but no end; or he does not hit the right verb with which the period should have been closed, but in the confusion into which he has plunged himself through his prolixity, he seizes an incorrect verb that is not at all suitable for the construction he has begun, especially when he extemporizes in his diffuse style."
On the other hand, the periods are too short if they consist of only five to six or even fewer words. Thi s has already been discussed in § 1, Annot. p. 359 f. has already been addressed. Here only as an example a passage from Cober: "The sleep of sin plunges into eternal death. My Christian, do not delay your repentance: Say every day with that supreme gift: Today I remember my sin. Sigh every hour with the publican: God, be merciful to me a sinner! The third is the hour of the cross. No Christian can do without it. Cross and Christian are inseparable. The righteousness have much suffering. Thus God has ordain ed it." (The On. Cahinet Pastor, Th. II, p. 49.) These juxtaposed aphorisms can easily be transformed into longer, coherent petiods, if only the connecting particles are added. E.G.: "The third hour is an hour of the cross, which is not missed by any Christian, because the cross and the Christian are inseparably bound together," etc. As periods that are too long become dark because they are too full of words, so those that are too short often become dark because they lack words. One should avoid both extrem es and "remain," as Rambach advises, "on the middle road. In general, alternation must occur. "A good sermon must not consist of nothing but compound periods, but of a harmonious alternation of them, so that the speech progresses from sentences to simple, from these to compound and dissected periods. Just so, in music, simple passages alternate with heavy ones, and heavy ones with very heavy and intricate ones, until the notes dissolve into harmony, and leave a dominant sensation in the soul of the listener." (Ammon, op. cit., p. 306.)
Furthermore, Pastor Burk's remark is quite correct: "In its unaffected lecture, Scripture usually loves short periods that do not have many intermediate sentences, but rather present something whole to the reader every moment. Whoever gets used to such periods in his lecture will feel benefit in his listeners and relief in himself. But it requires a lively heart and a fluent tongue. He who is poor in words or empty of heart prefers to hide his awkwardness in long periods." (Samml. z. Past., p. 140.)
Note 2
About the use of recipirated words and phrases and correct coustructions, Rambach writes: "It should be noted that not everyone is free to make a new phrase, i.e., to bind a noun with this or that tense word (i.e., a phrase) at will; but must look at the use of language. If, for example, one wanted to bind the word Buße with the verb verrichten, this would not be possible. There one hears two German words: Buße, verrichten, but we are not used to the construction of these words, but we say Buße thun. Thus, one would not receive approval in German ears if one wanted to say: to perform good works, to faithfully pursue the denial of the world, to take up the cross, instead of: to take up the cross; to descend into the following of Christ, for: to go into the fo llowing of Christ, etc. In this is variously sinned against by studiosis when they preach, that they make new phrases which no man uses in ordinary life....
One must use correct constructions. There is a manifold mistake that the dative, accusative and ablative are confused with each other, as when one says: I thank thee, dear Lord, that thou hast kept me, etc., for: I thank thee, dear Lord, that thou hast kept me. One says incorrectly: going to church, for: going to church. To go to church means to walk back and forth in church, but to go to church means to go to church and be present in it. So these are false constructions, when one says: Christ threatens the lukewarm Christians, for: Christ threatens the lukewarm Christians, that he would spit them out of his mouth.... Christ has not only acquired freedom for us, but has also brought about the right to eternal life. Thus many say:
not so well, but also; but these words do not go together at all, but are correlative particles: as well as, and: not only, but also. Thus must Now it should be said here: Christ has not only purchased for us the right to salvation, but also freedom from the bondage of sins. It is wrong to say that Satan tempts us not only to sin, but also to despair; not only, but also are correlative particles; not only, but also. And who can tell all that is lacking in constructions. In general, then, it is to be noted: one must make use of ordinary words, correct idioms, and correct constructions, if one wants to observe the purity of style." Cf. § 2, p. 365, the citations by Schott and Reinhard.
Note 3
Hüffell gives such an excellent account of rhythm that we cannot deny ourselves the opportunity to reproduce it here in extenso. Hüffell writes (Being and Calling, p. 414, ff.): If the correct use of figures and tropes gives life to the style and that which is called flourishing, its beauty is perfected by its fullness and rhythm. The fullness consists in that completeness which, without getting into overload and prolixity, surrounds the main ideas with those secondary ideas which are suitable, as in a painting, to paint the whole into its most delicate shades and to make it attractive and rich. The fullness of style, therefore, presupposes as much richness of thought as mastery over language, and it might best be compared to the art of the painter, who is able to give his subject that full life which he claims in reality. In relation to the address and the speaker, fullness, without prolixity, is the real power of speech.
Splendor, however, is something quite different from fullness. The style can be splendid without being full, and vice versa. The splendor of the style is based mainly on the quantity and sublimity of the figures and tropes; the fullness, on the other hand, on the richness of expression in every turn of the address. In contrast to the fullness stands the poverty, the scantiness of the style, which, as it were, only gives outlines, and even these are conducted with a weak hand. Among German pulpit orators, Reinhard still holds a high rank with respect to the fullness of style. Beginners do well if, in order to give their style more fullness, they rework a concept several times; the effort expended on this will be richly rewarded. In general, however, frequent writing is one of the most important means to form the style. - The rhythm in the technique of the oratorical form is to be distinguished from the poetic syllable measure and consists partly in the sound, partly in the numerus and in the symmetry of the syllables.
words and the individual sentences. The ancient rhetors were very active against the poetic syllabic measure in the address. The sound is based on the proper election of the individual words, which are full-sounding and pleasant to the ear, and in their composition observe the right alternation between long and short syllables. A series of short syllables will always sound unpleasant, and Ammon, in his instructions for pulpit eloquence, rightly notes that no address, and least of all the prayer, may begin with a series of short syllables, or with bouncing finger strokes. The solemnity of the prayer rather requires spondaics, or rather iambs and trochaics. Particularly important for the sound is the fact that the final word of a sentence has the appropriate syllable measure. The numerus shows itself in the relationship of the individual phrases and links that make up a period, in their correct measure and in the correct meter that arises from them, about which, of course, on ly feeling can decide, but an educated feeling never wavers. Finally, symmetry consists in the equal measure of the periods in relation to each other, so that the style flows in the same pure measure without soon getting into aphoristic inequalities or sud den leaps. This will become clearest with an example. We will choose one from a sermon by Reinhard: "A sense for nature, a powerful inclination to observe the objects and changes of the visible creation with attention and admiration, and to draw instruction and joy from their observation, has always been a distinguishing characteristic of honored men, m. Z., a quality that belonged to them in the very degree in which they rose above the common crowd of their fellow men. At all times one has rightly honored the rare men who, seized by a higher enthusiasm, enraptured their listening brethren by harmonious hymns, and softened even insensate hearts by the magic of their songs. It was the creation of God where they learned these songs, where they gathered their images and sounds, where they were warmed and thrilled; there has never been a poet without a sense of nature. Unusual phenomena are those thinkers who devote their lives to laborious investigations, who with the torch of truth dispel the night of human err ors, and expand the scope of our knowledge by their discoveries. Follow them on the quiet path of their researches, you will also find them in the sanctuary of nature; there are the objects of their observations, there is the field of their discoveries, th ere are spread the treasures which they collect and with which they enrich our knowledge.
With willing submission we pay homage to the extraordinary men who, by the superiority of the spirit and by their impressive efficacy, establish and perfected everything, improved everything, and made everything better. and often determine the fate of entire peoples and ages. Get to know them better, these powerful decision-makers of human affairs; you will find that nowhere do they prefer to rest from their efforts, nowhere do they refresh themselves more deeply, nowhere do they gather courage and strength for new undertakings more easily than in the gentle bosom of nature. Finally, no one is more worthy of our respect, admiration and love than those noble men in whom we see touching examples of faith in God, genuine virt ue and true piety. But with them, too, nothing is more dominant than the sense of nature: nature is the holy temple where they most like to dwell, where they most often feel the shivers of God's omnipresence, where they strengthen themselves to good dispos itions and deeds, where they easily and happily rise above all visible things to God on the wings of devotion". (Cf. Reinh.
sermon. in 1801 on the 15th S. n. Trinit.) Now dissect this masterly passage and you will find everything in it that sound, numerus and symmetry require. First of all, in relation to the sound in the sense given above, notice the beginning: "Sense of nature, a powerful inclination, the objects, etc." How pure and melodious these words fall on the ear; one would like to say of them: one could sing them. If Reinhard, on the other hand, had begun thus: A sense of nature, a strong inclination to look at the objects in the wide creation attentively and with thought also with admiration and to look for in it what is instructive and what gives joy, is found everywhere in men who excel: then all rhythm would be gone. The position of the two words: m. Z. already has a peculiar sound, which would cease if these stood at the beginning. One does not claim too much when one says that in this whole pa ssage, every word is exactly calculated with respect to its length and brevity in order to produce Cicero's mensura aurium.
Furthermore, note the well-calculated numerus that the individual sentences have to each other. That: "a powerful inclination" corresponds completely to that: "sense for nature"; each member has five syllables; that: "to look at the objects and changes of the visible creation with attention and admiration", corresponds likewise to the following sentence: "and to draw instruction and jo y from their observation", not in the number of syllables, but in the filling of the tone; the addition, according to M. Z., "a quality that gives them a sense of nature", corresponds to that: "a sense of nature". Z. "a quality that came to them in just th e same degree" etc. is absolutely necessary to perfected the filling of the period. Furthermore, one observes the highly successful symmetry in all periods. That: "With reason"; that: "Unusual phenomena";
that: "No one is finite to our respect" etc. produc e a symmetry that is truly musical. And at the same time, with all sound and numerus and, with all symmetry, nothing sought after, nothing monotonous, nothing that does not captivate and tense. The beginner should study such patterns in this way; he will sharpen his feeling and rarely violate the rhythm. In particular, you have to pay attention to the following points in the rhythm:
1. that neither monosyllabic nor long words immediately follow each other, but
that both constantly alternate with each other. The following examples will show what kind of uppercase sound many monosyllabic and polysyllabic words following one another produce: Whoever ventures too boldly into trouble and death can easily kill himself before the time. These are seventeen one -syllable words in a row. - So now I will only use them to indicate a need' - 'Unworthy, lowly, pernicious attitudes contrary to the way of God. How easily a euphony can be achieved by mixing sho rt and longer words, e.g.: Whoever puts himself in danger of his life without a calling can very easily shorten his life.
2. that neither trochees (two-syllable words whose first syllable is long and the
second short) nor iambs (two -syllable words whose fi rst syllable is short and the second long) nor dactyls (three -syllable words whose first syllable is long and the others short) follow one another. The word 'life' is a trochee. A sentence that consists almost entirely of trochaea does not sound pleasant a t all. Read the following: 'Our life hurries, as it were, faster than the arrows of a strong bow pressed loose towards eternity. - The following sentence contains too many dactyls and, because it is erratic, or leaping, also sounds unpleasant: 'Many a lavi sh, sinful, slippery, poisonous address is spoken in the world.' - Ammon gives another important hint by writing, 'No address, and least of all prayer, may begin with a series of short sylphs, or with leaping finger strokes (dactyls). e.g.: It is founded i n the nature of the thing. The solemnity of the prayer and entrance rather demands spondaics (verse feet of two long sylphs), or yet iambs and trochaics, e.g.: 'One says something very true and accurate.' Or, 'To Thee, O Lord of heaven and earth, rises at this hour the silent thanksgiving of our hearts.'" (Op. cit., p. 308.)
3. one does not let a complete verse steal into the address unnoticed, as it
were. It is reported by Demosthenes and Cicero that they were very concerned when a hexameter or a lyrical measure of time accidentally strayed into their addresses. The sentence serves as an example: He who has God for a friend must not be afraid of men and devils, yes he can be comforted in the midst of death.' The words: 'he must not be afraid of man or the devil' contain a perfect dactylic verse.
4. do not place words that have too many of the same vowels, nor words that
have many consonants, immediately after each other, because the euphony is also impaired by this. FOR EXAMPLE: "All truth and all light, all comfort and all refreshment, all faith and all hope flow out." - The period must not end with a series of long syllables, nor with a number of short ones, and just as little with many monosyllables. 'Everything proclaims God's greatness, mountain, valley, forest, field. - The bliss of beloved and loving happy souls awaits us there. - Those who do not want to bend their knees to God willingly here, will be bent there as they will not be dear to them. (Four one-syllable words at the end!)
§ 9
Dignity and adornment is given to the style by moderate and wise use of figures and tropes.
Note 1
The requirement that the style of the sermon must also have dignity has its reason above all in the nature of the subject with which it deals: in the holy, sublime Word of God itself. Therefore, the pastor should use only such words as are noble and decent, and which, in the course of the address, must be taken by the hearers in a noble sense. He must anxiously avoid anything that might offend the sense of decency and morality, which is often just as well developed in the simplest listeners as in the educated, and which might betray in the pastor himself a lack of education, of fine tact and moral judgment. Even if the listeners mostly belong to the uneducated class, one should never forget that in many of them one has sincere Christians before one, who have a far finer feeling for what is proper and improper than many educated worldly people. They therefore take offense at all expressions which offend dignity, even at those which occur often enough in the daily colloquial language of the common man, because they feel that the language in the pulpit must be superior to the language in the street. Even a painting of objects, which in themselves have nothing indecent about them, in a language borrowed from everyday life, should by all means be avoided in the ser mon. Who, for example, could call the language of the following passage from a sermon worthy: "To these members" (which we need to speak) "belong first of all the lungs and windpipe, as no less our tongue and mouth, and especially the teeth, which are, as it were, closed in the same. For it is by means of our tongue and our mouth and the lips of the same that we form from the air which the lungs provide us with those sounds which constitute human speech. And so the teeth in particular also render us no small service in this. For how unpleasant is our address if we lack either some or all of our teeth? Above all, however, the tongue and the free and unhindered use of it are indispensable to those who want to address us. Com pare with this the following passage dealing with the same subject: "God,... how highly you have esteemed man, taking from his tongue the gift of speech! With what heavenly privileges you have endowed him by making his palate the seat of audible words! How great and glorious you have done to him by splitting his lips with an almighty finger, so that they reveal what is going on in the hidden space of his mind." When Geiler of Kaisersberg, already mentioned, could say: "The bride of Christ plays blind mouse with the servants" - "Let herself be graced with the bacon of God's grace" - "The must be cooked with meat broth", his speech certainly lacked the dignity befitting a sermon; likewise when Berth. v.
Regensburg says: "I know quite well that I am not much good to these old people" (the miserly) "because old horses need food"; or: "If there is any old skull that has stumbled into the same rope with old tired legs, he is completely the devil's laughing stock. How easily a pastor can violate dignity in speech is shown not only by these examples from the pre-Reformation period, but even in the works of a Herder and Cl. Harms such violations are found, e.g.: "whipping up hymns learned by heart", - "not only for my lump of ashes do I want to stand before the throne of the Highest" (Herder); - "nothing can come of them but money hounds and procenten disciples" (Harms). The pastor is limited by the content and purpose of the sermon, by the place, and by the genuine Christian spirit and sense which he is presupposed to have. To our knowledge, the most perfect model in this respect are Dr. Walther's sermons, in which one could hardly find even the slightest violation of dignity. Cf. § 7 on the sanctity of style.
Note 2
Concerning the use of the figures and tropes Hüffell writes a. a. O., p. 404 ff.: "It can be a stylistic product all the qualities specified so far: accuracy, purity, clarity and precision, The first thing that is missing is the highest possible perfection of form, by means of which the style enters the sphere of a work of art, and this form only comes into being through the conditions given in §. Above all, the deeply significant symbolism of language in the rhetorical figures and tropes belongs here, which is not invented and striven for by a vain artifi ce, whereby the Christian spirit cannot be violated, but which is contained in the most secret essence of language. All expression of address is either actual or inauthentic. Actual, in so far as the thing is called by its ordinary name; inauthentic, in so far as an inferior but significant figurative expression is chosen for the thing. When we say: the dead rest in the womb of the earth, this is inauthentic; for actually the dead do not rest, and actually the earth has no womb. The psychological reason for the inauthentic or figurative language lies first of all in the fact that the actual expression is no longer sufficient for the heightened feeling, as well as for the deeper and more comprehensive conception; indeed, we have no actual expressions for the most sublime emotions, just as the word never quite reaches the feeling. A sublime nature, an exquisitely beautiful region, a particularly noble attitude and deed cannot be described at all by the usual expression.... In addition to this psychological reason for figurative expression, there is another, namely, that by means of it we can have a deeper effect on the imaginative and emotional faculty of others, because the imagination and the feeling are expanded, elevated and completed in the degree to which we know how to use figurative language properly and to mix colors. If I say: from every faint trace of the youthful history of the Redeemer, as it were still restrained, the extraordinary spirit already flashes forth, which later emerged so comprehensively and gloriously, that is figurative; but the thing I want to designate becomes more vivid, more alive, and with it a great deal is gained, in any case more than if I say: in the child the future Redeemer already showed himself. Religion and virtue are the pillars of states, while politics is only the crutch on which a state sustains itself for a time and drags itself along with difficulty, is again figurative; but how much more vividly, vividly and comprehensively than if one says: not on politics, but on virtue and religion, rests the strength of states. Incidentally, that noble simplicity of which we spoke earlier, and which we eagerly claim especially for the pulpit speech, can exist quite well next to this well -chosen figurative language. Rather, the fi gurative of expression approaches its ideal only when it appears nobly simple. Nothing would be more adverse, and weaken the peculiar effect more, than a continuous imagery.
The sermon is not a good one, especially if the imagery is badly chosen, empty and meaningless in itself, and serves nothing but as a substitute for the missing thoughts and feelings. Whoever therefore understands the higher laws of style will use figurati ve language only where actual expression is lacking, and will find the spice and charm of the lecture precisely in the noble mixture of actual and inauthentic address. Schott, in his Theorie der ornerischen Schreibart, Leipz. 1838,
p. 96, therefore very co rrectly remarks: where a figure stands in the right place, where it really
intervenes in the context and in the character and spirit of the whole presentation, there it is also nature, i.e., really appropriate to the inner mood of the speaker or writer, and he could often speak less naturally, describe his inner life less perfectly and truly, if he did not speak figuratively. We hear unlearned people who certainly do not strive for any art of representation: we hear the leaders and orators of such peoples and tribes, who know nothing of rhetoric and poetics, speak figuratively and tropically," and so on. Schott could have added that the naturally enthusiastic or only warm mind speaks most often in figures and tropes and often struggles visibly to express itself properly in figurative expression. Therefore, the great art of speaking figuratively and tropically cannot be learned by any theory, but it is only the full, deeply feeling heart that breaks through in figurative and tropical expression; nevertheless, theory must not be lacking, because it at least introduces the aspiring orator to this world of higher style, and brings him to learn to evaluate his stylistic products properly.
Furthermore, Dr. Walther states in "Gesetz und Zeugniß": "Such, beautiful par ables, beautiful images, beautiful figures of speech are not to be rejected, — if you had understood what I said in the introduction in this way, you would have misunderstood me completely; - only then are such poetic tropes, such parables, such contrasts to be condemned and condemned, if one uses them to be considered a fine speaker and to be marveled at. Otherwise, one cannot preach beautifully enough, if one, enlightened and guided by the Holy Spirit, has nothing else in mind than to adorn the Word of Go d, to make it quite lovely, quite forceful, quite refreshing. Let us read, for example, the prophets! Where are there more glorious, more eloquent passages and more poetic views than, for example, in Isaiah? It is truly delightful to read in it. And the mo st eminent rhetoricians and poets have declared that nothing like it can be found in any profane scribes. But this was not to show what an extraordinary man Isaiah was, but it served only the divine truth. This has brought the precious Evangelical promises of the Messiah like the breath of heaven to the poor despondent and fainthearted.
conscience into it. When one does this, he may always speak beautifully. But you can tell right away that he does not speak so beautifully because he likes it, but because his heart is so full and his heart burns with the desire: "Oh, if only I could bring all the precious, sweet promises into the minds of my listeners! The figurative expression of address is usually distinguished into figurative and tropical. Some contest this distinction and rather refer to tropes as a species of figures. Thus Schott, who says: "I consider the whole concept: figures of address...as the generic concept, which includes the tropes in the appropriate place," and prefers to distin guish between objective and subjective figures. We stick to the usual classification. According to this, figures are the figurative expression that runs faithfully and uniformly through an entire conception; tropes, on the other hand, are the figurative ex pression that emerges only in individual words; for this reason, the former are also called objective figures, the latter word figures.
For the sake of the importance of figurative expression, both in the language of the sermon and in the language of ordinary life, the most important figures and tropes must be treated here in more detail. The most important figures to be mentioned here are the following:
A. Figures.
1. exergasia (execution), by which the subject is bound to several predicates and thus the
same is expanded, illustrated, and represented from several sides. Example: "With holy clarity the infinite goodness of God is everywhere revealed, which we are not able to reach with our deeds, not to express with our mouths, not to embrace in thought." 2 The comparative and the simile. In the comparative, the idea that evokes the similar one appears as the main thing, and only a comparati ve word indicates the similarity with the counter - image. Examples: "With joyful consciousness of the earthly life accomplished and uplifting hope reflected in his countenance, the pious Christian dies as the evening sun departs." - "Like the storm the enemy appeared, like waves his ranks thronged."
In the likeness, however, the counter-image appears as the main thing and the main image is mentioned only briefly. Example: "Behold, how the evening sun separates, how its last golden ray still blesses the earth and how it hides itself in the shadows of the night with silently sublime grandeur, in order to go out again gloriously and gloriously! This is how the wise and pious Christian dies.
3. the antithetical, which compares two objects that are only partially alike, thus indicating
not only the similarity but also the difference. Example: "The destruction of a dangerous error, which had spread its dominion far and wide, is a glorious victory, which the friend of truth, armed by faith, carries off with a heroic arm - and no rivers of blood accompany him, in his wake are no devastated regions. 4 The antithesis opposes two ideas without indicating the similarity. Example: "Let us then celebrate, not with ostentation, but in a manner pleasing to God; not worldly, but supramundane; not our feast, but the feast of ours, or rather of the Lord; not the feast of sickness, but that of healing; not the feast of our creation, but that of our re -creation". (Gregory v. Nazians, Address on the Feast of the Nativity of Jesus.) - Here belongs the binding of a subject with a predicate apparently contradictory to it; e.g., a groveling pride, a sweet toil; "When thou humblest me, thou makest me great" (Ps. 18:36).
The question is not originally a figurative expression, but becomes one when it is used as a means to vividly denote the feeling of certainty of an assertion, or to excite the mental self - activity of the listeners, or to bind both with each other. Examples (Reinh. Pred. 1810, B. 2, p. 200): "But what sentences will you say, what assertions? (namely that crying is better than laughing). Would it then be unlawful, reprehensible and foolish to make one's life as enjoyable and cheerful as possible? Do not all the inclinations of our being strive for enjoyment?" - "Where shall I begin, where shall I end, in addressing the monuments of God's almighty love in His great, glorious creation?" - "How, the goods which you seek so eagerly here, in which you feast, in the enjoyment of which you revel so intemperately, would be capable of grantin g you ever new pleasures? Do they not lose their charm in the very degree in which you get to know them more closely and use them? Do they not become more and more indifferent and commonplace the more often you enjoy them? Doesn't the former desire often g et replaced by satiety and weariness? Do you not look at many things, which were otherwise the object of your hottest desires, which gave you the highest delight, with disgust and contempt, even with disgust and hatred?
(6) Preoccupatio (anticipation), also called dubitatio (doubt), is used when a doubt is raised and answered by the speaker himself against his own just stated assertion. Will. Examples: "But we do not see him, the artist" (namely the soul) "when he leaves his building, when he departs? And can you, O man, see him? Could you form a picture of him even when he was in you, even when you felt him? Behold, the moment thou didst feel thyself, that thou didst think that thou hadst a soul!" (Herder.) The phrase also belongs to the preoccupatio, in which one addresses oneself instead of speaking of oneself in the first person. Example: "O, a waken it often, my spirit, this great thought, and nourish it with prayer and contemplation" (Cl. Harms, Wint., p. 83).
7) The concession, which concedes an objection expected by the listeners in whole or in part, in order to then present the truth of the assertion all the more victoriously. Examples: "We are not more discerning of heart, this I willingly admit; but it is wrong that we do not notice anything of the thoughts of others, that we could in no way know how they judge" (Reinhard). - "Yes, I do not deny it, there are grave, painful temptations, there are trials of our virtue which we are hardly equal to; but for that reason we still by no means maintain that every man has his price, and we do not give up the belief in human virtue." -
8. the preteritio (transition), which apparently passes over certain ideas, but by this very fact
emphasizes the whole all the more, because the most important thing still appears as the less important. Example: "I am not addressing the grief that the prodigal son causes his parents, not the mother's tears, not the father's sickening grief, not the disruption of an entire family; I am addressing the curse that weighs on the wretch who has broken a father's and mother's heart through his guilt." 9 Epanorthosis, or Correctio, when one corrects in some respect what one has said, usually to use an even stronger expression. Example: "What shall we say, dear firstfruits among our brethren, venerable predecessors in faith and love, witnesses of our Lord, who first knew hi m, first loved him, first endured for him! What heavenly splendor surrounds your image; how it shines through the night of the centuries, and how ashamed, how darkened we feel, by your enduring, never-extinguishing glory. But no, we do not hesitate, we take courage; we gather our strength; we want to follow you, strive after you, become like you. For we belong to you, we are related to you.
One Body, One Spirit, One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism, One God and Father of All, who is over us all, and through us all, and in us all." (Reinh.)
10. the gradatio, climax (increase), in which the subsequent idea (reason, motive, etc.) is
always more important than the preceding. A figure that is used when the speaker is powerfully moved and wants to move, to shake. Example: "Contempt for the indolent, who takes no notice of the change of time! Disgrace to the reckless, who does not take it seriously! Disgrace to the wretch who looks upon the mischief and disorder of the times with applause and pleasure! (Reinh.) The anticlimax, which follows the opposite order, namely, descends from the stronger to the weaker ideas. This figure of speech is always erroneous where it is not used intentionally, namely, calculated for comic representation, Schott rightly remarks. Example: "How, you want to rebel against your creator? But what are you proud of; of your reason, of your knowledge, of these fragments, of these splinters of the true, of this actual not -knowing? Or of thy virtue, of these virtues so sparsely flourishing, of this supposed virtue imbued with so many impure motives? If we are good and great in excellent powers, we are so everywhere, on the throne, in the palace, in the hut."
12. hyperbole, which makes the object larger than it really is when the expressions are
taken literally. If used at all, it is to be applied with extreme caution. Example: "He who has eagle's claws to hold on, has also eagle's eyes to spy his prey far around." (Cl. Harms.)
13. the litotes, which represent the subject less than it really is, if the expressions are taken
literally. Examples: "It is an action that brings him little honor." - He has not to be ashamed of the past years of his life." (The litotes is the figur e of sparing, modesty, decency, and - subtle mockery). 14) The affirmation, a solemn confirmation of what has been said. Example: "As my Redeemer lives, it is my holy will to proclaim his gospel with unwavering faithfulness!" 15) Irony, the representation of an object by its opposite. The speaker wants the opposite of what he sa ys. It is the figure of displeasure and mockery. Example: Cl. Harms says in a sermon (Winterpost, p. 67) of such men who have sunk into spiritual slumber: "You want to rest!
Have you no goal toward which life must stride - a goal that does not permit a day of rest, a jewel that does not grant an hour? Happy men, I envy you! But - jest aside! I do not envy you, for your rest is a false rest!" 16 Epizeuxis (repetition of words) is when one or more words are repeated at the same time in the same sentence. Example: "Watch, O Christian, watch over yourself!" 17 Anaphora (repetition), which consists in beginning several successive sentences with the same word or the same combination of words. Example: "What degrades a man more deeply than when he deliberately desires error; what degrades him more deeply than when he lives in sin; what degrades him more deeply than when he falls away from God? Or, seek ye truth, seek it diligently;
seek ye truth, desist not in your endeavors; seek ye truth, be not dismayed at the doubt that encircles its course." The epiphora, repetition of the same word at the end of several successive sentences. Example: "What lures us so magically in youth to enter the path of life that lies before us with resolute courage and a joyful soul? hope! What strengthens and uplifts a man so that he will not be defeated in the battle of life? hope! What refreshes and refreshes the weary old man in the evening of his days? hope!
19. asyndeton, the omission of linking words, for the use of which the speaker has no time,
as it were. Examples: "Let us, like Jesus, believe, hope, work, endure, fight, overcome!" - "Cry out with a panting tongue: I thirst! Cried, drank, thirsted, trembled, grew pale, bled, cried, Father, into thy hands I commend my soul!" (Knocks. Messiah.) The polysyndeton (accumulation of the connective) is used when the mind is deeply excited and causes the listener to linger a little longer over the individual. Examples: "The coming victor and the rearing horse and the roaring armor roar, And the shouting, and the killing fury, and the thundering sky r ushed upon him." (Knock. Messiah.) - "Love hopes all things, and believes all things, and bears all things, and endures all things."
21 The exclamation (excamatio) is also one of the figures used in the deepest excitement to express joy, sorrow, hope and pain. Examples: "O that all lips would open to the price of the Infinite!" - "What a world it would be, in which nothing lasting showed itself but perishing; what a life it would be, which of all its expectations, hopes, endeavors and sacrifices would bear nothing of it but - eternal perishing!" - But beware of the abuse of the exclamation. Grotefend rightly remarks: "I remember having heard an address in which the weak voice and indistinct pronunciation of the speaker made almost all understanding impossible; but the ever-recurring O, Ach, Yes, no were understood only to a just not great edification. By such exclamations, by which a certain pathos is to be forced, even talented speakers miss their purpose." (Views, etc., p. 206.)
22. the apostrophe in which absent and invisible persons and i nanimate objects are
addressed as present. Examples: "Heavenly powers! Spirits of the perfected, to you I call out!" - "Behold here your condemnation, idlers, who have not even a calling; wretches, who neglect your calling. He will one day be your judge, who spared no danger, who did not respect death itself, in order to do what he was commanded to do." (Reinh.)
23. inversion (word transposition), by which the words of a sentence are rearranged in order
to draw special attention to the word standing in an unusual place. Examples: "How they have delighted me, these proofs." - "Yet all this could not preserve and protect me from it" instead of, "Yet all this," etc. The ellipsis (omission), when the excitement becomes so great that secondary ideas, which belong to the completeness of the address, are omitted. Example: "So far - no further." The interruptio (abruptness). This is what the ellipsis is called when it runs through an entire sentence or several sentences. Example: "A year, what a significant part of life! A year - how much can be gained or lost in the course of such a year! A year - what a sum of high truths can be contemplated!"
26. aposiopesis (concealment), when the word combination that has been started is
suddenly interrupted without the meaning being perfected. Example: "He who notices with secret joy that the general misery is increasing, and with a callousness that becomes cruelty and inhumanity, devises acquisitive plans to derive advantage from the misery of his brethren, and to fatten himself, as it were, with their blood; who - but for what, for what the terrible image of such monsters; it profanes this holy place, it escapes, it flees where it belongs, to hell!" (Reinh.)
B. Tropics.
The metonymy (change of name), which elevates the idea through the sensual designation. It names the cause instead of the effect, the tool instead of the work, the preceding for the following, the place and the time for what is at the place and what happened in time, the properties instead of the subject itself, and so on. Examples: "The pain was on his face." - "He did his last sigh." - "He won the laurel after a bloody battle."
2. synecdoche (co-relation) denotes the higher term instead of the lower, the whole instead of
the parts, the generation instead of the generation, the genus instead of the species, etc. Examples: "The forest rustles" instead of: The trees of the forest rustle. - "We proclaim this to you in the name of the gospel" instead of: I proclaim to you, etc. - "The miser, who with greedy eyes squints after hard thalers" for: after money and goods. The metaphor (Uebertragung) designates a similar concept instead of the main concept to be expressed, so that it announces the chosen image as an image by the attached closer definition. Examples: "The bloom of the whole population" for youth. - "The spring of life" for youth. - "The queen of the day" for sun.
The allegory (image equation) is the continued metaphor, which hides the actual object under the cover of a continued image. The weaker allegory occurs in individual expressions without completely painting the object used for the image; the stronger one completely paints the object serving for comparison and causes greater vividness than the address in actual words. Examples (weaker alleg.): "But why does intemperance impress the mark of its ignominy on all those who allow themselves to be dominated and stupefied by it; why do the ig nominious and shameful figures of untruth, deceit, and hypocrisy stand out unmistakably from the glances of men? why do anger, ambition, covetousness, melancholy, etch themselves with terrible features on the countenances of their servants; why is the imprint of dignity and nobility so entirely obliterated in the countenances of the vain, the proud, the rude, and the absent -minded?" (Stronger Alleg.): "If the weak and inexperienced wanderer, who hurries along rough and impassable paths over cliffs, mountai ns, and hills toward the realms where strength, rest, and more salvation await him, if on his journey he throws away the staff that would have led him over to better climes, who should not mourn over the deluded one who trusts in his own powers where he must see himself most forsaken by them?"
5. the periphrase, which represents an object according to all its predicates without actually
naming it. Example: "The serious hour, which no mortal can escape, which separates us from all that is dear to us on earth and closes our earthly eye forever.
6. personification (prosopopoeia), by which inanimate objects are conceived and represented
as living beings. Example: "Be my guide, holy gospel, in all situations of life! Reach out your hand to me when I stumble, shine your light on me. Light, if I err, woe me with thy breath, if I grow dim!" - Certain metaphors are also called personifications, for example: "the laughing seed," "the thirsting field," "the dreadfully threatening storm." In the proper sense, however, the personification is the figure which represents the main concept by several predicates entirely as a living and acting person, and makes special use of the salutation. "Happy fatherland," says Reinhard, "already once you have become important for the world and for the kingdom of God through this zeal! May God make thee anew the faithful preserver of his Gospel and the scene of his still far more glorious creation!"
Sermocination is the highest degree of personification, which introduces inanimate objects or beings of the spirit world in speech. Example (Cl. Harms): "And not alone do we want to know anything at all about our continued existence, oh no, but what matters to us more than hearing a thousand valid witnesses about our continued existence, that is: how, as which will we live there and whither will the departed soul wander? Will we stiffen or sink? Creation has no other answer than: When you see a fish become a bird and a monkey become a man, you may believe that a man will become an angel. Nature, you speak cruelly. She replies: 'Why do you ask me about things I do not know? ' But the God, who makes his glorious name proclaim through my mouth in so many ways, will not let it be enough in me, but he will have appointed others with doctrines to you, such as I have not; to these turn away from me, and from these learn what I cannot teach." - "Fie, ye wretched devils, what a rope ye have forged of this! It is stronger than steel, or bells, or anything that is on earth." (Berthold v. Regensburg, Ausgew. Pred. v. Hering, p. 107.)
§ 10
As a means of acquiring a style that corresponds as much as possible to the requirements set forth in the preceding paragraphs, homiletics recommends the reading of good works and the careful written elaboration of sermons.
Note 1
As high a value as the form of the sermon has, as high formal demands must be placed on it: the content is and always remains the main thing. There must be no empty fine -talking, no playing with soap bubbles in the pulpit. "Where the If the word," says Luther, "comes out of the church, and if, for instance, babblers are allowed on the preaching chair, who pass off their own art, then the church is done for, and the crowd becomes like its pastors. (IX, 321.) And the content of the sermon is all the more important here, since, as we have seen in § 1, p. 357, the form is absolutely conditioned by the content. If, therefore, it is a matter of indicating the means by which students of theology and young pastors can acquire as good a style as possible, then, insofar as these aids are the work of others, only those can be considered which stand as models not only in formal but also in material respects. As such samples may be mentioned here:
1. the works of our great poets: Schiller, Göthe, Klopstock, Lessing, etc.
2. works in the various fields of theology, such as Köstlin, Martin Luther, L. v. Ranke: The
Roman Popes; Kahnis: Der innere Gang des deutschen Protestantismus (stylistically quite honored) and others. The postils of Luther, Dr. Walther, Reinhard, the latter of which still deserves to be read diligently in stylistic terms. We still mention Menken: The Prophet Elijah. 4 Luther's complete works. The judgments about the incomparable value of Luther's writings by friends and enemies of Luther, see Walther Pastorale, p. 10 ff. Cf. p. 66, 2. 5 Holy Scriptures. How important the most assiduous study of the Holy Scriptures is also for the formation of style, we find about this in the 7th volume of the "Homil. Mag." an excellent article, from which we let follow here the following. It reads:
The Bible teaches not only the right content, but also the most appropriate form of sermon and doctrines. We should not only think with it, but also speak with it and according to it. The language of the Bible is and remains the unsurpassable, inexhaustibl e, in every respect correct and well-formed pattern of all spiritual oratory. To preach biblically according to content and form is the goal set before all pastors, always to be kept in mind. The form of speech and the mode of expression chosen by the Holy Spirit Himself is undoubtedly the most appropriate, the most fruitful and the most blessed, so that one can well say with reason of truth: The closer the sermon comes in its form of expression, assuming a like content, to the model of Scripture, the more perfect it is.
How carefully, therefore, one should pay attention to this when writing sermons! If God considers it worth the effort to provide us with a wonderful style as a model, then we should certainly also consider it worth the effort In addition to the adorable content of his address, the incomparable divine form of it must also be considered and learned from. The Scriptures have in common with the highly praised Son of Man that their intrinsic glory is hidden from the carnal eyes of human reason. "He had no form, nor was he beautiful; we saw him, but there was no form to please us," says Isaiah, when he beheld in the spirit the Savior's form on the cross, while the same Savior, seen with other eyes, must be called out: "Thou art the most beautiful of the children of men; blessed are thy lips." It is similar with the Scriptures. Most of those who have passed through the school of the old classical rhetors and poets, who have learned to admire the famous works of Cicero, Demosthenes, Homer, Virgil, etc., find no taste in the, as it seems at first sight, uneducated way of presenting the Bible. Even Augustine admits that he had quite similar experiences with regard to the latter. A writing by Cicero, which had seemed to him like an anchor in his inner conflict in his youth, nevertheless did not satisfy his heart and conscience in the long run. "Therefore I decided," he says, "to turn to the Holy Scriptures to see what was in them. Of course, I encountered things that are hidden from the proud, things that are not revealed to boys, things that at first seem humiliation, but later appear to be sublime, shrouded in mystery;
but I was not able to penetrate them and bend my neck to their course. Now, however, I s ee the matter differently, but at that time I did not feel so. The Holy Scriptures did not seem to me to compare with Cicero's in terms of grandeur and dignity. My lofty sense bristled at its manner, and my eye lacked the acuteness to penetrate its depths. " All spiritually dead men, proud of their rational wisdom and world education, still feel the same way today. The manner of speaking, the style of Scripture is not to their taste, not piquant, not attractive, not captivating, not artfully beautiful enough; they turn away from it with the same contempt as from the servant figure of the Crucified.
Oh, if they only had eyes to see, they would be filled with the highest admiration for the inner glory of a book that confronts them in such humble gestures. Just as it is two different things to set something apart clearly in the teaching tone and then to inspire the hearts for the same thing, to move the minds powerfully, so there are also primarily two different styles, one that is calm and simple, and another that is full of majesty and inner power. The former appeals more to the intellect, the latter more to the mind and its affects. In the writing we find These two modes of representation are found side by side and in the most marvelous mixture, only that now the one, then the other prevails more. The Scriptures teach the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven in the Old as well as in the New Testament, and where they teach, there is no simpler, more commonly understood language in the world than that of the Scriptures. With the simple connecting particle "and" it joins one thought to another, one truth to another, without all artificial, difficult to grasp, diffi cult to overlook concatenation of sentences. Like a loving mother with her child, the Scriptures, where they merely address doctrines, speak to men. A simplicity, a condescension, a clarity and unambiguity of address is shown in it, which is quite astonishing and which is not found in such a degree in any book of the world. We would have to write out half the Bible if we were to prove this assertion. Beside this so simple and plain going way of speaking, the style rises again to a majesty, sublimity and majesty, which pulls down on the knees, resembles the storm wind and the thunder, shakes marrow and leg and penetrates like a double-edged sword through the most secret folds of the heart and conscience, a majesty, which throws everything, which rises against it, to the ground and speaks with the mightiest of the earth like with a flying stick. Just think of passages like Is. 47, 1: "Down, virgin, daughter of Babylon, sit down in the dust, sit down on the earth; for the daughter of the Chaldeans has no more chair. You will no longer be called: Thou tender and lewd. Take the mill and grind flour."
Or Isa. 57:12: "For thus saith he that is high and lifted up, that dwelleth for ever, whose name is Holy, who dwelleth on high and in the sanctuary, and with them that are bruised and lowly in spirit, that I may quicken the spirit of the lowly, and the heart of the bruised." If we read the Scripture with an unbiased eye, we will be astonished by two things concerning its style: the simplicity and plainness on the one hand, and on the other hand, the grandeur and majesty of the divine way of speaking. In particular, the last-mentioned quality appears so clearly in it that even the stupid eyes of a heathen can perceive something of it. The orator and philosopher Longinus, teacher and counselor of Zenobia of Palmyra, who was involved in the fate of this rebellious queen and was beheaded as a traitor by order of the emperor Aurelianus in 273 A.D., cites in his book on the sublime (περί υψους) as an example of sublime style the words Gen. 1, 3: "And God said, Let there be light; and there was light." To which Herder (Rel. u. Theol., vol.
5, p. 56) remarks: "A heathen, certainly not taken for this document in advance, has admired the sublime simplicity of the expression. Deeper in meaning and context, how much more could he have admired!" In both cases, however, where the Scripture speaks in a simple, calm teaching tone, as well as where it wants to move and shake our hearts, the effect of the word depends on the divine power inherent in it; the form of it may be what it wants, the word of the Lord is spirit and life everywhere; "for if he speaks, it is done; if he gives, it is written." The plainest, simplest word from his mouth, such as the word: "The righteousness lives by faith," is able to do wonders for souls, to transform a whole world, to awaken the church, when it lies as in death, to new life. The Lord, in order to make his word strong in the hearts of men, does not first need certain rhetorical devices, not the use of eloquence, as it is held in high esteem and cultivated by th e world. On the contrary, when we look at the style of the Scriptures, we are soon convinced that the Spirit of God spurns all those means by which human oratory seeks to gain influence, and by this very means puts to shame the pomposity of proud spirits. - And yet the human kindness of our God is so infinitely great that he not only speaks to us in our language, but that he also does this completely according to the laws of this language of ours, that he binds himself to its rules, and follows the generall y valid regulations of human eloquence in his address to men and thereby sanctifies them. The same means that we men use to win the hearts of our fellow men, to convince them, to bring them to a decision, to determine their will, and the like, the Holy Spirit, the heavenly Master of Speech, also uses according to His good pleasure to win our hearts, to convince us, and to cause the movements in our inner being that He intends by grace. In a word, eloquence, or, as we prefer to say, eloquence, is nevertheless found in Scripture in an admirable degree, in so high a degree that all the rules of rhetoric, as human powers of observation and sagacity have gradually discovered them, can be proved with abundant examples from the same. An irrefutable proof that these laws of address are by no means devised by idle minds, but are implanted in the latter by God, the Creator of human speech and language Himself. The difference between the Holy Scriptures and human masters of speech consists mainly in the fact that the el oquence of men is mixed with ambition, a craving for fame, all kinds of vanity and human splendor, or even the striving to achieve a purpose, however reprehensible, by means of persuasion, while the eloquence of the Scriptures is absolutely pure, holy, perfect and divine. However great and splendid the eloquence of the sacred writers may be, they have everywhere only the correct representation of divine truth, never They have sought eloquence, which, so to speak, has followed their God-given address of its own accord. They have presented the saving doctrine in such a way that one can see that they do not act contrary to the natural rules of eloquence, although the latter is only an accessory for them.
Neither did they want to give reason to use eloquence as a means to gain reputation and honor among men, nor should their example encourage to neglec t the natural laws of eloquence. Thus they take just such eloquence as was necessary to honor and make emphatic the truth of God, and on the other hand again abstain from all worldly splendor of address to shame the vanity of worldly oratory."
Note 2
Opinions differ widely about the written elaboration, the concipiren, of the sermons. While some have rejected all concipiren par excellence, others have demanded it par excellence, and the cessation of it has been called indolence and the like. It should be generally known that one of the first orators of the Christian church, Origen, held his church lectures in the form of homilies, mostly without any written preparation, that men like Herder, Schleiermacher, etc., held excellent sermons in a formal respect, although they usually did not concipirate. But it is just as well known that Luther worked out the sermons, which he held in the monastery and city church of Wittenberg from 1515 on, in writing, partly in Latin, partly in German, either in whole or in part, and also with what conscientiousness Spener and others took care to concipirate. Dr. Walther probably never preached a sermon that was not worked out and memorized with all due care. A pastor once came to Claus Harms and said to him: "Isn't it true, Lord, that you no longer write your sermons? When I was a young pastor, I wrote them down, but now the Holy Spirit tells me what to say." Claus Harms answered seriously: "I still write down all my sermons. Only once in my life did I not do it. Then the Holy Spirit said to me in the pulpit, 'Claus, you have been lazy? The Holy Spirit did not tell me anything else." Doesn't the Holy Spirit say this to every pastor who has had time enough to prepare in writing, but still has completely cessation from it? Let u s take a closer look at the reasons that have been and are still being asserted against the written preparation of the sermon.
The first reason given is the example of honored pulpit orators who have delivered excellent sermons without having concipated them. Yes, but this only proves that eminently gifted men who are practiced in preaching can also deliver good sermons without wr itten preparation, but not that all pastors, even those (and these are the great majority) who are only endowed with an ordinary measure of talent and knowledge, can produce equally good things without preparation. The mediocre will, without written prepar ation, at best only achieve mediocrity, but mostly something inferior; they will, to use Luther's expression: 'get into the wash'. These pastors may have a great wealth of words at their disposal, and their lecture may flow without hesitation, but whether they treat their text correctly, exhaust it, whether the content stands in the right relation to their words, whether they really preach the Word of God, that is quite another question. We have known a pastor educated at a German university who considered it beneath his dignity to prepare himself thoroughly for his sermons, even pitying those who did so conscientiously, but of whom his listeners also judged that he always preached about incidents in ordinary life. That the Scriptures were first and foremost useful for doctrines was not considered or known by that chatterbox.
Secondly, it is argued that the sermon takes on too much the form of a work of art, that it moves in too rigid forms, that it lacks free movement, inner warmth, and the power to interest and move the listeners. We maintain the exact opposite. A well-designed and elaborated sermon will least of all move in a stiff form, as if in a straitjacket; it will rather be laid out, executed, and delivered according to the simple laws of thought and speech, which are by no means artificial, but quite natural. Concipirening should be done precisely for this purpose, in order to eliminate everything that is incorrect in content and form. We remember having received advice from Dr.
Walther to leave sufficient space in the margins of the manuscripts in order to be able to properly improve everything that is not completely correct in terms of content and form, even while memorializing. Those who declare themselves against concipireness do not want to give t he word to extemporireness either, and thus demand a more or less detailed meditation. But are meditation and conception essentially different? We rather think that both are basically the same and differ only in that the former is done only in the mind wit h thoughts, but the latter also with the hand, the pen. Through meditation, thoughts are to be gained, developed, ordered, clothed in the right words, and - recorded; quite the same thing is to be done by writing them down.
The latter, however, offers the great advantage that the pastor can examine what has been set down in writing far better, na mely, whether it is in accordance with the pure doctrine of the divine word, whether it is given in the right form, whether it is well ordered, clear and understandable. In this way, every deficiency can be recognized and improved at the first, as is never possible in mere meditation. And if the pastor has thus immersed himself in his sermon and has really made it his own, both as a whole and in detail, should he, if he is a faithful man, as we presume, lack warmth in his delivery? Should not the sermon, wh ich has become his flesh and blood, as it were, flow over his lips as a natural heartfelt outpouring, interest the listeners and produce the intended effect in them, so far as this depends on the pastor at all?
Be it as one may, there are so many weighty reasons in favor of the written elaboration of the sermon that it can be argued: It is the sacred duty of the pastor to prepare all his sermons and addresses in writing, and only the case of extreme necessity can excuse him if it is not done once. The begin ner must write down his sermons in their entirety, word for word, must also memorize and recite them verbatim, and may only depart from this after years, leaving it at a more elaborated disposition, or draft, when he has attained sufficient skill in doctri ne as well as in expression. "I consider it good," says Sarcerius, "that everyone who wants to preach should write his sermons, especially those who are not well practiced and experienced, although I do not exclude the others. For such writing does much for good order, strengthens and sharpens the memory, makes it possible to investigate, consider and contemplate all things all the better; one may also rely on it all the better; it prevents doubt and gives greater joy in speaking." Zalansky writes: "A young pastor should sit out and sweat out his sermons:
first concipirate them, and when they are thoroughly prepared, recite them to the people. He should not extemporize.... Let those be ashamed who still want to make a fame out of the fact that they have not used a single sheet of paper to write their sermons in many years. The careful written elaboration of the sermon is, of course, a sour, annoying work for the flesh, to which it submits only with reluctance. But must not and will not every faithful pastor crucify his flesh together with its lusts and desires, namely to lea d a pleasant life and to do other things that are binding with less effort? Will not and must not the consciousness of the high responsibility which he has to his Lord and his hearers with every sermon make him willing to do this work again and again? Let us briefly consider the reasons which speak for the written elaboration of the sermons, these are:
(1) Because especially younger pastors can only be sure that they are preaching God's Word and nothing but God's Word. "If someone speaks," Peter writes in 1.E. 4, 11, "that he speaks it as the Word of God," and Luther: "A pastor does not have to pray the Lord's Prayer, nor seek forgiveness of sins when he has preached, but must say and boast with Jeremiah, Jer. 17, 16: Lord, you know that what has gone ou t of my mouth is right and pleasing to you; yes, with St. Paul, all the apostles and prophets say defiantly: Haec dixit Dominus, that God himself has said...... He who cannot boast of such things from his sermon, let him only stop preaching; for he certain ly lies and blasphemes God" (XVII, p. 1685). Rambach: "They are careful not to blurt out everything that occurs to them, but take all their words on the gold scale, whether they are also in accordance with the model of the salvific doctrine? whether someone could make a false concept of a divine truth out of it? whether a scoffer could take occasion from it to mock and despise the Word of God."
2. because they learn to organize their thoughts properly and to express them clearly
before they are presented to the congregation. For by reading over the concept several times, the ambiguity and ambiguity of the expression is noticed first and can thus be improved in time. "If one" (namely, when reading over the concept), Rambach remarks, "becomes aware.... that here and there an inserted parenthesis" (in sermons parentheses should not occur at all) "obscure the meaning, etc., then one can change this and substitute other words and phrases in front of it, and delete the parenthesis." This also applies to more exper ienced pastors; for most of them, if they are not properly prepared, will often lack an appropriate expression, and in order to find it, they will use words that they would certainly have deleted on the concept.
And how often do exaggerations occur in descriptions of the vices, in the prices of the happiness that Christians already enjoy here, which are not compatible with truthfulness and can only have a harmful effect; furthermore, repetitions because the thoughts are missing, wrong turns of phrase and bumpy transitions!
3. they are thereby spurred on to the right diligence and care . Experience teaches that
pastors who do not let themselves be put off by the effort to prepare their sermons become more careful and efficient the longer they do so, and their congregations soon notice this in the content of the sermons they receive, while those pastors who concentrate on extemporaneous preaching from the outset are more successful. After a short time, they get to the point where they can no longer work in writing, and thus become the most insipid talkers. In his work: "Free Address", M. Beautain remarks: "One will not be able to speak well in public until one has attained such a mastery of one's thoughts that one can break them down into their parts and analyze them with respect to their elements, and then put them together again according to need, dissolve them again and concentrate them again through a synthetic process. This analys is of the idea, however, which it develops to a certain extent before the eyes of the mind, is well executed only by writing. The pen is the dissecting knife that dissects the thoughts, and only by writing down what one sees inwardly can one succeed in cle arly recognizing everything that is contained in an idea or in clearly perceiving the scope of it. One then understands for oneself and can make oneself understood by others." Spurgeon, from whose works "Lectures" etc. we take the above quotation from Beautain, remarks: "Our first remark about this (namely, about speaking extemporaneously) is that we do not recommend anyone to preach in this way as a rule. If someone did so, in our opinion, he would certainly succeed in creating an empty room in his meeting place; his gift for dispersion would be most clearly revealed. Unstudied thoughts, arising from the mind without previous consideration, which have not been preceded by any research on the subjects to be treated, must be of a very subordinate nature even in excellent men; and since no one among us will have the impudence to want to be admired as a genius or a miracle of learning, I fear that our unstudied thoughts on most subjects will not be particularly worthy of attention.
Congregations can be held toge ther by nothing other than a ministry that provides real instruction; merely filling the time with declamations is not enough. Souls everywhere want food, real food. Those new -fangled enthusiasts, whose public service consists of some brethren, who just happens to jump up and speak, giving his wisdom to the best, have, in spite of the attraction they offer to ignorant babblers, mostly the fate that they quickly dissolve and die out; because even men who have the wildest fancies, and think it the intention of the Holy Spirit that every member of the body should be a mouth, soon tire of listening to other people's nonsense, however much they delight in dredging up their own, while the mass of truly pious people tire of their tedious ignorance, and return, or w ould return, to the congregations from which they have been turned away, if from the pulpits of them thorough instruction would be given to them. - If we add as a final reason that the necessary certainty in lecturing can only be attained through careful concentration (and memorization), especially by beginners, because one knows what one is to present and has really familiarized oneself with it, then the necessity of concentration should be sufficiently proven.
Whoever believes himself to be above this effort is at least in a fatal error.