If a severe truth is to be urged on the congregation, it might be introduced thus:—"You will permit me to declare the truth unto you; for you love the truth. The people have never been hostile to it. … You yourselves would not be satisfied with half truths; you desire something better. Therefore I shall deem it my duty to tell you the whole truth with the freedom of an apostle, but at the same time, with all Christian charity."
In a word, you should exhibit that gentle admixture of power and benignity which so well befits him who speaks in the name of the Most High; exciting the love of your hearers as with the influence of a mother. Or, following therein the example of Saint Paul, being like one who serves, and not like one who rules; condescending toward all; striving to withdraw them from the sorrows and passions of life, that you may lead them to the truth, to virtue, and to heaven. …
On great occasions it is usual to recite the Ave Maria before the sermon. It is a venerable and edifying practice which ought to be followed; but forbear invoking the Holy Spirit or the blessed Virgin unless you do it devoutly and sincerely. It is frequently otherwise: one appeals to heaven, and fixes his eyes on the earth: another, instead of the posture of prayer, assumes the attitude of menace, and looks very much like a man who demands your money or your life.
There should be order in the sermon, and the ideas should be linked together, and should mutually support each other. But it should not be laid down as an invariable rule always to follow those categorical divisions which necessarily cut up a truth into two or three parts, these to be cut up again into two or three sections of truth, giving the speaker the air of a man who is amusing himself with pulling a machine to pieces, and then putting it together again. The Fathers did not ordinarily follow that course. Indeed all discourses cannot be so subdivided; for not every subject will bear it without losing much of its interest. … Most sermons seem to be modelled on the same pattern, so much so, that the hearer is disposed at the very outset to remark:—"I have heard that already twenty times over, set forth just in the same way. What use is there in my listening to it again?" This is one drawback, in addition to the consideration that it is not prudent to take the audience into your confidence as to the conclusion to which you intend to lead them. … Or another listener will say:—"Alas! we are still at the second subdivision of the first part. What a long sermon it will be!" He is seized with ennui, and then farewell to all feeling of interest in the Divine word, and to all hope of any benefit to be derived from it.
It is preferable to have a range of ideas known to yourself alone, with intervening pauses. In that way you will carry the hearers along with you. They will listen, will be moved, will forget how time passes, and at the conclusion will not feel tired with having followed you. It appears that the mania for subdividing every thing is a complaint of long standing. La Bruyère has passed his judgment upon it; which, apart from exaggeration—the inseparable companion of criticism—is not inapplicable at the present day.
Speaking of preachers he says:—"They hold three things to be of indispensable and geometrical necessity, and to deserve your admiring attention. They will prove a certain proposition in the first part of their discourse, another in the second part, and an other in the third. Thus, you are to be convinced, first, of a certain truth—that is their first point; then of a third truth—which is their third point; so that the first reflection is to instruct you on one of the most fundamental principles of religion; the second, on another not less so; and the third, on a third and last principle, the most important of all, but which, nevertheless, must be postponed for lack of time to another occasion. Finally, in order to resume and sum up these divisions, and to form a plan. … What! you are ready to exclaim, more yet! And are these merely the preliminaries to a discourse of forty-five minutes duration which is still to follow! Why, the more they attempt to digest and throw light upon the subject, the more they confuse me! I readily believe you, for it is the most natural effect of that heap of ideas, which always turns upon one and the same thought, with which they pitilessly burden the memory of their hearers. It would seem, to witness their obstinate adherence to this practice, as if the grace of conversion was attached to these preposterous divisions. I heartily wish that they would pause in their impetuous course to take breath, and give a little breathing-time to others. Vain discourses! Words thrown away! The time of homilies exists no longer; our Basils and Chrysostoms will fail to reclaim them; people will pass over into other dioceses to be beyond the reach of their voice and familiar instructions: for men in general like set phrases and finely turned periods, admire what they don't understand, consider themselves edified thereby, and rest satisfied with deciding between the first and second points of a discourse, or between the last sermon and that which preceded it."
Division must not be sought for; it must present itself, and spring out of the subject which you are about to discuss, or the object which you have in view. For instance, you intend to treat on deference to man's opinion. Establish these two points:—1st. That there is no disgrace attached to the practice of religion; and 2nd. That even if there were, in the estimation of some men, it is our bounden duty to brave it.
When a dogma of the faith is to be treated either before the people or others, never propound the truth in a hypothetical form, which is fraught with danger. Thus, do not say:—"Does the soul die with the body or does it pass to another life?" … "Is Jesus Christ a mere man; or is he the Son of God?" Always use the affirmative form:—"The soul does not die with the body; the soul will live for ever." … "Jesus Christ is the Son of God; he is God Himself." Otherwise, you will seem to question those verities, and may give rise to doubts. Such was the result in the cause of an artisan, who remarked, after listening to a sermon:—"For my part, I was quite sure that there was another life; but I learn from what the preacher has stated to-day, that there is something to be said against as well as in favor of the doctrine."
The people like a strong, self-reliant, and fearless affirmative, declared boldly and sincerely in the name of God, which admits of no buts, or ifs, but which descends from on high, claiming the ready assent of all without distinction.