Homer, Jonathan, D.D., a Congregational minis- ter, was born October, 1759. He graduated at Harvard College in 1777, was ordained pastor of the First Church in Newton Feb. 13, 1782, resigned in April, 1839, and died Aug. 11, 1843. Dr. Homer published a Lhscription and History of Newton in the Massachi'S( t/s ///•s/nrirfd Collection, \o\. v (1798), and a few occasidiKil Minions. He also superintended an edition uf 7'( (//'.-■ Ctihnnlnan Bililc. — Sprague, Annals, ii, 173.
Homer, "William Bradford, a Congiegational minister, was born in Boston Jan. 31, 1817. He was educated at Amherst College, from which he graduated in 1830, and immediately entered on a course of tlieo- logical study at Andover. While in the middle year of his course he declined the offer of a tutorshij) in Am- herst College. He was ordained pastor of South Ber- wick, Me.. Nov. 11, 1840, where he died, March 22, 1841. The remarkable development of Homer's intellect was a matter of great surprise to all of his instructors. When only eleven years old he was already thorough- ly conversant withthe Latin, the modern Gre(^k, and French languages. The last two he is said to liave spoken with fluency. At Andover he closed the exer- cises of his class by an essay so scholarly in its bearings that he was requested to publish it. An oration of his, delivered on leaving the president's chair of the Porter Rhetorical Society of the Theological Seminary, was also printed. His "^^Titings" have been published, rvith. an Introductory Essay and a Memoir, by Prof. Edward A. Park, of Andover Theological Seminary (2d ed. Boston, 1849, 8vo). See also the Christian Review (ilay, 1849). — Sprague, A nnals, ii. 753 sq.
Homerites. See Himvarites.
Homes or Holmes, Nathaniel, a learned Eug-
HOMES
314
HOMILETICS
lish divine, was for a time inciimljent of the li\-ing of St. Mary Staining, London, but was ejected for noncon- formity in 1662. He died in 1678. His publications, now become rare, include The Resurrection Revealed (Lond. 1654, fol. ; 2d ed. 1833, 8vo) -.—The Resurrection Revealed raised above Doubts ami Difficulties, in ten Ex- ercitations (London, 1G61, folio):— ^ Continuation of the Histories of Foreign Martyrs from the Reign of Queen Elizabeth to these Times (in Fox's A cts and Monuments, ed. 1684, iii, 865) : — The New World, or the Neiu Re- formed Church discovered out of 2 Pet. iii, 13 (London, 1641, 4to). See Wood, A thenm Oxon. ; Darling, Cyclop. BibliogrujMca, vol. i ; Allibone, Diet, of A uthors, i, 873. Homes, "William, was born in Ireland in 1663, and was ordained in that country in 1692. He emigra- ted to America in 1714, and became minister at Mar- tha's Vineyard, Mass. He died in 1746. Homes pub- lished four sermons (1732, 1747, etc.). — Allen's A merican Biographical Dictionary.
Homicide. See Man-slayer. Homiletics is the science of Christian address. The term is derived from of-uXla, converse, which, in early Christian usage, signified a religious address; or, more directly, i'rom the adjective uixiXrirticog, conversa- tional, or pertaining to verbal communion. It came into permanent use during the 17th century, at a period when, imder the influence of the scholastic method, the principal branches of theology received scientific desig- nations derived from the Greek language : e. g. Apolo- getics, Dogmatics, Hermeneutics, Polemics. Although promptly naturalized on the continent of Em-ope, the term Homiletics was not for a long time generally adopt- ed in England. In fact, its present accepted use in the English language is largely due to American author- ship. In Germany some attempts have been made to introduce other terms also derived from the Greek. Stier proposed Keryktics, from KJjpi'^, a herald; and Sickel Halieutics, from ciXuvQ, a fisherman ; the latter being used tropically in the Gospels in application to the disciples as " fishers of men." Both of these terms have been regarded as fancifid and midesen-ing of per- petuation, even though limited to missionary preach- ing. The term Homiletics is not entirely unexception- able, but is retained and employed for lack of a better.
I. History. — With some authors, especially in Ger- many, the use of a scientific term to designate the the- ory of preaching has seemed to extenuate, if not to suggest, some practical errors in its treatment. Set- ting out with the idea of exhibiting a science in a sci- entific manner, not a few writers have ignored the proper origin and the religious design of preaching. They have treated it exclusively from the rhetorical and human point of view. They have cumbered it with artificial and arbitrary rides, apparently not hav- ing conceived of it as an agency specially and divinely appointed for the moral renovation of the world. But a perverted use of terms was not the origin of mistakes on this subject, nor was error in reference to it first de- veloped in modern times. Indeed, misconceptions of the true design of preaching, as well as of the Christian truth it had been appointed to propagate, became com- mon at a very early period in the history of the Church. 1. The true scriptural idea of preaching was corrupted in the ancient Church by (1) ritualistic tendencies ; (2) rhetorical ambition. No sooner had the idea that the Christian ministry is a priesthood gamed prevalence in the Church than preaching became secondary to sacer- dotal rites, and the power of the Gospel waned under an increasing array of forms and ceremonies. Instead of being foremost as the grand agency of Christian prop- agandism, it became an appendage to public worship. Instead of going forth to find hearers in the market- places and by the wayside, preaching began to be re- garded as one of the m3'steries of the Church from which the heathen, and even catechumens of the first degree, were excluded. Catechumens of the second degree were