the volumes of Reinhard, he seems to come into a new hemisphere, and like a traveller into the Oriental world, he is interested in the hitherto unseen flowers and fruits which attract his vision. There is a contracted circle of subjects on which some divines run a perpetual round; but our author has overstepped the circumference of this circle, and expatiated on themes which have seldom been approached by others. The variety of his subjects is as remarkable as their novelty. Like all other authors he has, indeed, his favorite themes; he recurs with pleasure to the dignity of human nature, the virtues of the Messiah, his relations to men as they are mortal, bereaved, prosperous, etc.; but many of these themes he was obliged to discuss by the ecclesiastical rules which fettered him. While hampered by these rules, to have prepared nine hundred sermons for the press on subjects so different as his from each other and from those ordinarily discussed in the pulpit, indicates a fertility of genius, an extent of observation, a richness of spiritual feeling, a practical tact, which are but seldom combined in one man. The following are selected, not by any means as the most peculiar, or the most fruitful of his topics, but as giving a fair specimen of their original, fresh, diversified character; We should derive nourishment for our philanthropy from the unexpected discovery of good qualities in others; The influence of old age upon our love to men; The desire of living long enough to witness certain expected and important events; The results of that Providence by which men of different ages in life are associated together; Necessity, a means of intellectual and moral improvement; The connection between humility towards God and a hearty confidence in him; The union which Christianity forms between the love of one's country and the love of the entire race of man; The evil influence which the pleasures of the table exert upon the human heart; Why do the most weighty truths generally excite the greatest opposition? How important for us is the connection which Christianity, at the beginning, formed with the lowest classes of society; The instruments which God chooses for executing his benevolent purposes, are not such as man would have chosen; How happy should we be in taking our departure from the world, if, like our Saviour, we should leave no one behind us who would regret that he had formed our acquaintance; The history of Christ's resurrection gives the best instruction on the rapid changes in the affairs of men; We should live for those high ends which will make our existence important for our fellow men, and worthy of mention when we are dead; How appropriate it is to the feelings of true Christians, not to distrust the future amelioration of human character; The best men do not receive their merited honor until 1849.] Effort to avoid Monotony. 305 they are dead; The duties imposed upon us by the promising prospects of the young; The duties resulting from the fact, that many persons have far more good qualities than we have usually ascribed to them ; The injurious influence of sudden prosperity upon the moral feelings of men; Even in our opportunities of doing good, there are sometimes temptations against which we should be on our guard; The disposition of men to strive for communion with the higher orders of being; Warnings against false conscientiousness; A cheerful, equable temper essential to the most active piety; Hindrances to true peace of mind among real Christians; How carefully good men should guard against becoming the sport of circumstances; The impossibility of satisfying the unwarranted hopes which men cherish concerning us; The birth of Jesus is the most instructive memento of our own birth; The serious thought on the incarnation of the Son of God, is the best means of awakening within us a lively feeling of the dignity of our own nature; In entering upon a new year, how much reason we have to be thankful for the pressure of duty; The providence of God toward our little ones; The furtherance of truth by means which are uncongenial with it; The duty of deriving useful lessons from our past mistakes; We should not be offended at the mingling of worthy and unworthy members in the Christian church; What shall we think of the uncertainty in which our religion leaves us, with regard to the particulars of our residence in the future world? etc. The question arises, where does Reinhard find passages in the Bible suggesting such themes? This leads us to consider the § 4. Connection of his Themes with his Texts. The German Lutheran church, it is well known, prescribe a series of biblical lessons, a pericope, for every sabbath and religious festival day of the year. From these lessons the preacher is obliged to take his texts. Year after year, therefore, he is compelled to preach on the same passages of Scripture. Hence results a danger of monotony in the choice of his themes. In order to guard against this tiresome sameness, an inventive mind like that of Reinhard is prompted to search out the hidden meanings of the lessons selected for him, and to found his discourses on implications rather than on assertions of Scrip 1 The text of this discourse is Luke 17: 11–16; which is said to imply that the Samaritan who was healed had more gratitude than was expected of him. * The supposed advantages of preaching from such prescribed texts, rather than from such as each clergyman chooses for himself, are stated in Bib. Sac. Vol. III. p. 473. ture. The reader is constantly surprised at the ease and naturalness with which our author merges his texts into Propositions which, but for his ingenuity in explaining them, would seem altogether too farfetched. The artifice with which he connects his novel themes with the lessons which suggest them, may be seen in the following examples. Often it is a fault incident to the circumstances in which he wrote; although it is far more disagreeable in these insulated illustrations, than in the neat and flowing discourses from which they are detached. From the fact mentioned in John 4: 47-54 that Christ, when urged to visit the nobleman's house, persevered in refusing the entreaty, and even rebuked the supplicating father, although he restored the dying son, Reinhard discourses on the doubtful value of complaisance, and the duties resulting from the ambiguous morality of this trait. We should not say, yes, to every solicitation. From the same text he discourses2 again on the immodesty which leads men to ask too much of God. The narrative, in Matt. 9: 1-8, of the palsied man who was brought to Jesus by persons who showed great faith in the Messiah's willingness and power to heal their friend, is the foundation of a discourse by our author, on the conduct required of Christians by the confidence which others repose in them.3 An English or an American divine discoursing on Luke 8: 4—15, the passage containing the parable of the sower, would have derived from it a lesson with regard to the duty or the mode or the results of hearing, or preaching the gospel, or with regard to the good and evil influences which operate upon man while listening to the truth. But the German divine shows from this text, how we ought to be influenced by the known fact, that we must live and hold intercourse with men of the most widely different characters and manners.4 In another sermon from the same text,5 he proposes to state some grounds of consolation for those who think that they can effect nothing by their most faithful exertions A discourse in relation to Christ's healing the dropsical man on the sabbath, Luke 14: 1-6, would ordinarily be devoted to the mode of keeping holy holy time; but as the Pharisees were inquisitive to know whether the Saviour would heal on the sabbath day, and as he at once performed the miracle without previously explaining the reasons for it, Reinhard devotes his sermon on this text to the habit of answering men by acPredigten im Jahre 1795 gehalten, Band II. ss. 332-345. 2 Predigten im Jahre 1796 gehalten, Band I. ss. 312-330. 3 Predigten im Jahre 1795 gehalten, Band II. ss. 356-370. Predigten im Jahre 1801 gehalten, Band I. ss. 116—137. Predigten, 1797. Band I. ss. 87-104. 1849.] Connection of his Themes with his Texts. 307 We are accus tions instead of words, Das Antworten mit der That. tomed to hear discourses on the proper use of the tongue from such texts as Ps. 39: 1, or James 1: 26, or 3: 2 seq., but our author has a sermon2 on the duty of manifesting the true Christian spirit in our words, and founds it on the record of the miracle which Christ performed on the man who "had an impediment in his speech," Mark 7: 31-37. The narrative of our Saviour's miracle of feeding the four thousand, Mark 8: 1-9, would suggest to an ordinary preacher the benevolence or power of Christ, but Reinhard deduces from it the the theme, Christians must always rely on themselves more than on others.3 Men are apt to rely on their companions for even the entertainment of a social party, but Christ attracted four thousand persons to himself, entertained them three days by his own words, and at last, although he asked the advice of his disciples, did not follow it, but fed the multitude by his own power. So should we rely upon ourselves: a) we should expect more from our own judgment than from that of our fellow men in forming our plans; b) from our own activity than from that of our fellow men in executing our plans; c) from our own energy than from that of our fellow men in extricating ourselves from trouble. We should rely upon ourselves in this manner, because such reliance best accords with, a) our duty, b) our honor, c) our interest, d) the general welfare. If we would thus expect more from ourselves than from others, we must, a) cherish a fitting regard for our own dignity, b) endeavor to discipline our powers so as to become more and more judicious and practically useful, c) strive to possess within ourselves as many resources as possible, d) in all ways confirm within us the filial assurance that, while in the way of prudence and duty, we shall receive the aid of the Most High. The fact that the multitude had been with Jesus three days and without provisions, suggests to Reinhard, as a theme of another sermon from the same text, the Proposition that we should be very miserable if God did not, without ceasing, remedy the evils of our improvidence; a theme ingeniously illustrated by the incidents of the text, but too homely and secular for the taste of English and American divines. From the expression, Many prophets and kings have desired, etc., in the lesson Luke 10: 23-37, our author preaches an intellectual discourse,5 on the yearnings of the noblest minds after a higher good than they have already attained. 'Predigten 1807, Band II. ss. 121-138. 2 Predigten, 1797, Band I. ss. 297-315. When there are several parallel passages of Scripture which might, with some propriety, be used as texts for a particular sermon, Reinhard is often obliged to employ the least appropriate of these passages for his text, and refer to the more appropriate as illustrating it. healing of Jairus's daughter is described more fully in Mark 5: 22--53 and Luke 8: 41-56 than in Matt. 9: 18-26; yet the latter is one of the selected lessons, and must therefore be the foundation of Reinhard's sermon, although the principle which he derives from it is far more clearly developed in the other histories. "Jairus came to Capernaum," says our author in one of his discourses from Matt. 9: 18-26,1 "but found the Messiah thronged with inquisitive men. He persuaded the Saviour to accompany him, yet the multitude of curious observers streamed after this object of their unceasing wonder. When Jesus arrived at the ruler's house, he saw the same love of novelty developed there. A crowd had assembled to gaze at the scene of death. He expelled the inquisitive multitude from the house, that he might perform his miracle in quietness. The curiosity of modern times is greater than was that of ancient days; for then it was limited to the news of neighboring villages, now it is extended to the news of distant nations. This curiosity is not itself blamable, but should be regulated on Christian principles. The inquisitiveness of Christ's contemporaries led but very few of them to a hearty faith in him; and our curiosity for the social or literary, written or oral news of the day, is often unproductive of good, because it is not subjected to the law of Christianity. The design of this sermon is, to state the duties which the Christian religion devolves upon us in regard to the news of the day. A. A Christian is required to be deliberate in his attention to the news of the day. He should attend to them, but, a) should not eagerly seize at popular rumors, for they are generally too frivolous to be hunted for; and, b) he should not credit them without a searching examination, for they are often untrustworthy. B. A Christian is required to be cautious in communicating the news of the day. a) He should guard against repeating them in a gossiping spirit, for such a spirit leads to exaggerations of the truth, b) he should be influenced by circumstances in communicating them. The Saviour performed his miracle in the house of Jairus privately, for circumstances rendered such a mode expedient. But on his way to this house, he made known a miracle which he had secretly performed. Why did he expose the woman who had touched the hem of his gar 1 Predigten, herausgegeben von Hacker, Band IV. ss. 145-163. An abstract of this sermon is here given, as illustrating the mode in which Reinhard constantly refers to his text. |
