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"To teach is a necessity, to delight is a beauty, to persuade is a triumph." [Cicero, Orator, 21.]
He, then, who speaks with the purpose of teaching should not suppose that he has said what he has to say as long as he is not understood; for although what he has said be intelligible to himself it is not said at all to the man who does not understand it.
THE HEARER MUST BE MOVED AS WELL AS INSTRUCTED.
If the truths taught are such that to believe or to know them is enough, to give one's assent implies nothing more than to confess that they are true.
When, however, the truth taught is one that must be carried into practice, and that is taught for the very purpose of being practised, it is useless to be persuaded of the truth of what is said, it is useless to be pleased with the manner in which it is said, if it be not so learnt as to be practised.
not only teach so as to give instruction, and please so as to keep up the attention, but he must also sway th...
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BEAUTY OF DICTION
O eloquence, which is the more terrible from its purity, and the more crushing from its solidity!
In a serious assembly, moreover, such as is spoken of when it is said, "I will praise Thee among much people," [Ps. 35. 18.] no pleasure is derived from that species of eloquence which indeed says nothing that is false, but which buries small and unimportant truths under a frothy mass of ornamental words, such as would not be graceful or dignified even if used to adorn great and fundamental truths.
designedly with this view, that posterity might see how the wholesome discipline of Christian teaching had cured him of that redundancy of language, and confined him to a more dignified and modest form of eloquence, such as we find in his subsequent letters, a style which is admired without effort, is sought after with eagerness, but is not attained without great difficulty. He says, then, in one place,"
There is wonderful fluency and exuberance of language here; but
And when the hour is come that he must speak, he ought, before he opens his mouth, to lift up his thirsty soul to God, to drink in what he is about to pour forth, and to be himself filled with what he is about to distribute.
the Holy Spirit makes them teachers,
three objects, either to teach, or to give pleasure, or to move, and should pray and strive, as we have said above, to be heard with intelligence, with pleasure, and with ready compliance·
teaching, giving pleasure, and moving,
great. For as the nature of the circle, viz., that all lines drawn from the centre to the circumference are equal, is the same in a great disk that it is in the smallest coin; so the greatness of justice is in no degree lessened, though the matters to which justice is applied be small.
moment. But we are treating of the manner of speech of the man who is to be a teacher of the truths which deliver us from eternal misery and bring us to eternal happiness; and wherever these truths are spoken of, whether in public or private, whether to one or many, whether to friends or enemies, whether in a continuous discourse or in conversation,
THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER MUST USE DIFFERENT STYLES ON DIFFERENT OCCASIONS.
CHAPTER 20. EXAMPLES OF THE VARIOUS STYLES DRAWN FROM SCRIPTURE.
