jMosheim, the Church historian of the middle of the 18th century, Avas also a celebrated preacher, and is re- garded as having introduced another homiletical e])och in Germany. His style Avas majestic and oratorical, similar to that of Tillotson in England, and Bourdaloue in France. By him it A\-as Avell applied to religious in- struction, but after him it greatly degenerated, many of his imitators being more noted for the form of sound Avords than for the spirit of vital piety. By degrees, preaching declined in its reUgious poAver, until sermons scarcely aimed at being more than didactic or rhetorical entertainments.
Reinhard, court preacher in Dresden about 1800, not only inaugurated a better style of preaching, l^ut illus- trated his theor\' in numerous published sermons (a col- lection of his sermons Avas pubUshed at Sukb. 1831-7, in 39 vols. 8vo), and also in a series of letters entitled his
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" Confessions." His style was characterized by richness of thought, clearness, dcfiniteness, force, and dignity of expression. It prevailed both among the rationalists and the orthodox to the time of Schleiermacher. The pow- er of Schleiermacher as a preacher corresponded to his great influence as a theologian, and his example is re- garded as having introduced another period in German homiletics, although he did not write specially on that topic. In the course of his life his own style of preach- ing improved, rising from the moralisms with which he commenced to a more evangelical tone in subsequent years.
Apart from those who have treated of preaching as a branch of practical theology, the more prominent Ger- man authors on homiletics during the current centurj' have been Schott, Keinhard, Jlarheinecke, Theremin, Stier, Lentz, Paniel, Palmer, Ficker, Schweitzer.
In France the golden age of pulpit oratory occurred about the close of the 17th and at the beginning of the 18th century. It was the age of Bossuet, Bourdaloue, Massillon, and Fenelon, among the Koman Catholics, and of Claude, Superville, and Saurin, among the Prot- estants. Fenelon and Claude became representative authors of the two churches : the former by his Dia- logues on Eloquence, particularly that of the Pulpit; the latter bj'' his Essay on the C'ompositio7i of a Sermon. These valuable contributions to homiletical literature are still read with interest, not onh' in the French, but in the English language. Even the former has been more appreciated and oftener reprinted by Protestants than b}' Romanists. France, in the 19th century, has also produced many examples of great preachers and good writers on homiletics. Without attempting to enumerate the former, the principal authors are Yetu, IMartin, Bautain, and JIullois, of the Catholics, and Vi- r.et, Vincent, and Coquerel, of the Protestants.
In Great Britain, tlie principal liomiletical writers of the 18th centuiy were John Edwards, 1705; Dr. Dod- dridge, 1751 ; Fordyce, 1754 ; and George Campbell^ 1775.
Apart, however, from the influence of any of tlicsc ■writers, there arose during that century a style of Chris- tian address destined to have a great influence upon tl.o subsequent preaching of English-speaking countries. Allusion is made to the reformation that commenced in connection Avith the labors of Wesley, Whitefield, and others about 1740. The preaching of these men was characterized by a return to scriptural simplicity and fervor, and was followed by extensive religious awaken- ings, which in due time extended a quickening influ- ence to ministers of all the churches. The Wesleyan reformation was further characterized by field-preach- ing, and by the employment of unordaincd men as lay preachers, who gave evidence of a divine impulse to call sinners to repentance. John Wesley, like Luther, though he VTote no treatise on preaching, gave numer- ous advices and some rules to preachers, which largely influenced the practice of those who became associated with him, and which did not, as in the case of Luther, soon after become obsolete under the influence of for- malistic reaction. In the minutes of one of his early conferences, Wesley gave rules for his preachers which have been officially perpetuated in JNIethodist societies and churches ever since. These rules pointed out in the briefest words the grand objects and essentials of preaching, regarding all rhetorical precepts and " small- er advices" as mereh' auxiliary-. " (2"<".s^What is the best general method of preaching? Ans. 1. To invite. 2. To convince. 3. To offer Christ. 4. To build up." Here was the essence of the evangelical idea of preach- ing, and its fruits followed. Fletcher's portrait of St. Paul expanded and illustrated the same idea; but no extended work on preaching was produced by any Methodist of that period.
The early part of the 19th century witnessed the pub- lication in England of but few, if any, homiletical works of permanent value. Between 1808 and 1819 the Eev. Charles Simeon, of Cambridge, laboriously developed
the sj'stem of Claude on the composition of a sermon in a series of plans of sermons on the principal texts of Scripture from Genesis to Kevelation. This work, which attained the magnitude of twenty-one octavo volumes, was designed to be a thesaurus of help and guidance in sermonizing. It contained no less than 253G "skele- tons," enough to supply two sermons each Sabbath for nearly a quarter of a century. What more could a minister want? Such a wealth of supply would not have been provided had there not been a demand. The demand may have been healthy as far as it indicated a disposition on the part of the English clergy to escape from the still more indolent practice, not yet entirely extinct, of copying sermons in full, and reading manu- scripts prepared for market, and sold in the shambles. Nevertheless, the idea that sermon plans for use. any more than sermons for deliverj-, could be an article of merchandise, was inherentlj' wrong, and, as far as adopt- ed, could only tend to mental torpor, and a servile de- pendence on the brain-work of others. Yet pulpit as- sistants, pulpit cyclopredias, books of sketches, and other devices for " preaching made easy," have had their day in England, as well as in Germany and France. Sim- eon's Jlorm Homilefica; notwithstanding inherent faidts, was by far the noblest of its class. It may now be pro- nounced obsolete in reference to its primary design, yet one of its features is imitated in some of the best com- mentaries of the present day, by the insertion in a less fonnal manner of homiletical notes on important texts and passages.