3dly. Action should be edifying.
The bearing of a man who speaks in the name of the Gospel should be full of grace and truth. It is most desirable that he should possess knowledge and talent, but those endowments do not suffice; he must possess, in addition, a virtuous, yea, even a holy exterior. Frenchmen are much more sensitive on this point than is usually thought. A godly man at once inspires their respect and veneration; and were a saint to appear in our midst, it is certain that he would reproduce many of the scenes of the middle ages. A saint is essentially a man beloved by the people, because he is surrounded with a Divine halo.
The Christian orator makes his appearance with simplicity and modesty. He kneels and bows profoundly, rises up, and then looks round upon his audience with a kindly expression, devoutly makes the sign of the cross, and then begins his sermon, thinking only how to arrest the attention of his hearers.
The time is happily long gone by when the preacher used to enter the pulpit with great formality, a flushed countenance, and hair most carefully got up; then place by his side a fine white handkerchief, sometimes of costly silk, which ever and anon he methodically passed over his face. These airs no longer suit the times: the preacher nowadays must not be engrossed with self, with his handkerchief, or his surplice, or his hair; neither must he cause others to be taken up with such trifles. In the pulpit the man should disappear, and the apostle alone be seen. …
The people, who have an exquisite notion of propriety, are very sensitive on all such matters; and God often derides our affected words and actions by rendering them vain and barren, and by making use of the most insignificant things to convert the souls of men.
A converted Parisian operative, a man of a wilful but frank disposition, full of energy and spirit, who had often spoken with great success at the clubs composed of men of his own class, was asked by the priest who had reconciled him to God to inform him by what instrumentality he who had once been so far estranged from religion had eventually been restored to the faith. "Your doing so," said his interrogator, "may be useful to me in my efforts to reclaim others."
"I would rather not," replied he; "for I must candidly tell you that you do not figure very conspicuously in the case."
"No matter," said the other; "it will not be the first time that I have heard the same remark."