is flesh,) and they who are in the flesh can not please God, but live in sin, committing many actual transgressions; and our Saviour Christ saith, None can enter into the kingdom of God except he be regenerate and born anew of Water and of the Holy Ghost; I beseech you to call upon God the Father, through our Lord Jesus Christ, that of his bounteous goodness he will grant to these persons that which by nature they can not have; that they may be baptized with Water and the Holy Ghost, and received into Christ's holy Church, and be made lively members of the same."-Baptism of Adults.

All didactic passages demand naturally the moderate degrees of force.

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5. "Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers; but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth; and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep. And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it

again. This commandment have I received of my Father." --St. John, x., 7-18.

The Stronger Degrees of Force.-To give the commanding effect of the authoritative reading of the Law of God, as contained in the Ten Commandments, the voice must necessarily be strong and full. Any degree of pathetic expression (by no means an uncommon defect in reading) destroys the character of the expression of authority. Light, deprecating, pleading tones in the reading of the Decalogue are puerile and not commanding. The language is positive and emphatic; the utterance should imply nothing less than this. Majesty and dignity alike demand a just degree of force. Any familiarity or triviality in the Vocal utterance would, therefore, destroy the gravity and character given to the voice in proclaiming those laws of God which, by their very utterance, challenge man's obedience. The effort to secure the just degree of authority in the expression should, however, lead the reader carefully to avoid that personality of tone in the utterance which would imply that he was exacting of his hearers absolute obedience to his own laws.

1. I. "God spake these words, and said; I am the Lord thy God Thou shalt have none other gods but me.

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II. “Thou shalt not make to thyself any graven image, nor the likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down to them, nor worship them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, and visit the sins of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and show mercy unto thousands in them that love me, and keep my commandments.

III. "Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain for the Lord will not hold him guiltless, that taketh his Name in vain.

IV. "Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath-day.

Six days shalt thou labour, and do all that thou hast to do: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God. In it thou shalt do no manner of work; thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, thy man-servant, and thy maid-servant, thy cattle, and the stranger that is within thy gates. For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it.

V. "Honor thy father and thy mother; that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

VI. "Thou shalt do no murder.

VII. "Thou shalt not commit adultery.

VIII. "Thou shalt not steal.

IX. "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.

X. "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his servant, nor his maid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is his."

All the bolder and more authoritative passages of Scripture demand the louder degrees of force in their expressive rendering.

2. "Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I can not away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth : they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes

from you; yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear your hands are full of blood.”—Isaiah, i., 10–15.

Frequent use of the voice in sustained exercise on the louder degrees will give that firmness and body of tone requisite for commanding effects, and which can be acquired in no other way.

Practice upon such passages as the following, with full declamatory effect, will strengthen and improve the voice:

3. Eloquence of John Adams.-Webster.

"The war must go on. We must fight it through. And, if the war must go on, why put off longer the Declaration of Independence? That measure will strengthen us. It will give us character abroad.

"Why then, sir, do we not, as soon as possible, change this from a civil to a national war? And, since we must fight it through, why not put ourselves in a state to enjoy all the benefits of victory, if we gain the victory?

"Read this declaration at the head of the army; every sword will be drawn from its scabbard, and the solemn vow uttered, to maintain it, or to perish on the bed of honor. Publish it from the pulpit; religion will approve it, and the love of religious liberty will cling round it, resolved to stand with it or fall with it. Send it to the public halls; proclaim it there; let them hear it who heard the first roar of the enemy's cannon; let them see it who saw their brothers and their sons fall on the field of Bunker Hill, and in the streets of Lexington and Concord, and the very walls will cry out in its support.

"Sir, I know the uncertainty of human affairs, but I see, I see clearly, through this day's business. You and I, indeed, may rue it. We may not live to the time when this Declaration shall be made good. We may die; die, colonists; die, slaves; die, it may be, ignominiously and on the scaffold. Be it so. Be it so. If it be the pleasure of Heaven that my country shall require the poor offering of my life,

the victim shall be ready, at the appointed hour of sacrifice, come when that hour may. But, while I do live, let me have a country, or at least the hope of a country, and that a free country.

"Sir, before God, I believe the hour is come. My judgment approves this measure, and my whole heart is in it. All that I have, and all that I am, and all that I hope, in this life, I am now ready here to stake upon it; and I leave off, as I began, that, live or die, survive or perish, I am for the declaration. It is my living sentiment, and by the blessing of God it shall be my dying sentiment: independence now; and INDEPENDENCE FOREVER."

Sustained vociferation, taking care at the same time to guard against impurity of sound or over-tasking of the organs, is an invigorating drill for the voice. Atonic elements may be called out with the fullest supply of breath and voice, as in the effort to send the sound to a listener half a mile distant. Especial attention should be paid to the production of the voice in the calling exercise, without exhausting effort. The degree of force should be no louder than the vocal and physical powers of the student would warrant.

CHAPTER VII.

PITCH.

THE ordinary compass of the human voice is about two octaves, and the command of all the intervals between the two extremes of highest and lowest is a great power in public speaking. Under the impulse of excitable feelings, in contrast with those which are deep and profound, we naturally find the full scope of pitch above indicated. If, for instance, we express the profoundest horror, and contrast its utterance with that of a loud cry of terror, we shall