LECTURES ON PREACHING. DELIVERED TO THE STUDENTS OF YALE COLLEGE, IN 1879. BY REV. MATTHEW SIMPSON, SIMPSON, D.D., BISHOP OF METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, NEW YORK. LONDON: RICHARD D. DICKINSON, FARRINGDON STREET. 1879. [From the Records of the Corporation of Yale College, April 12, 1871.] "Voted, To accept the offer of Mr. HENRY N. SAGE, of Brooklyn, of the sum of ten thousand dollars, for the founding of a Lectureship in the Theological Department, in a branch of Pastoral Theology, to be designated The Lyman Beecher Lectureship on Preaching,' to be filled from time to time, upon the appointment of the Corporation, by a minister of the Gospel, of any evangelical denomination, who has been markedly successful in the special work of the Christian ministry.” THE PREACHER'S WÒRK. DR. LEONARD BACON opened the course by the following remarks: "It is understood, of course, that these Lyman Beecher Lectures are for and to students of theology-the students of this school. They are not addressed to the public at large. They are not of the nature of an amusement for the public. They mean business; and we have invited for this year a distinguished preacher to give the results of his long experience in the form of counsels to these students. Well, there are a great many ministers here who are, I trust, themselves students even yet; and it won't hurt them to hear it. And they are welcome; and others are welcome. Our friends who are present here are welcome to the privilege and enjoyment, and profit-as, I trust, they will find— of hearing the lectures which begin to-day. And now I have the pleasure of introducing to you the Rev. Dr. Simpson, one of the bishops of the Methodist Episcopal Church." BISHOP SIMPSON: Young Gentlemen: How natural is it for a speaker to wish to say something before he begins! Hence I may indulge in a few preliminary remarks. And first of all I wish to express my high esteem of the practical wisdom and catholic spirit which influenced the founder of this lectureship. So far as I know, this is the first endowment of a lectureship devoted specially to preaching. Homiletics and the pastoral office, including preaching, have long been in the curriculum of the theological seminary; but this chair is devoted specially to the subject of preaching. It is an agency by which God has promised to save them that believe; and, if so, it is the most important that was ever committed to human hands, and surely |