b T BEG EVERY YOUNG MINISTER VERY ESPECIALLY TO REMEMBER THIS.
the penitent before us. And here we observe a farther dis- crimination : the penitent's experience is delineated at two different periods; one in the beginning, and the other in the progress, of his repentance. This distinction serves to open an easy method for arranging what shall be spoken.
Upon investigating still more accurately his expressions, it appears that he laments his past incorrigibleness in the ways of sin, and, with an humble expression of his hope in God, implores converting grace. Soon afterwards, reflecting with a kind of joyful surprise upon the progress he has made, he thankfully ascribes the honour to God, through whose illumi- nating and converting grace he has been enabled to make such attainments. This experience being not peculiar to Ephraim, but common to all true penitents, we illustrate and confirm it by suitable passages of Holy Writ. A similar process is then pursued with respect to the second head : and when that is arranged and discussed in like manner, we proceed to the appli- cation. The nature of the application must depend in some measure on the subject that has been discussed, and on the state of the congregation to whom it is addressed. Where there are many who make a profession of godliness, it will be necessary to pay some attention to them, and to accommodate the subject in part to their state, in a way of conviction, con- solation, encouragement, &c. But where the congregation is almost entirely composed of persons who are walking in " the broad way" of worldliness and indifference, it may be proper to suit the application to them alone. In either case it may be done by inferences, or by address to distinct characters, or by a general address : but, for the most part, cither of the former methods is preferable to the last. As for the exordium, that is the last part to be composed ; and Mr. Claude's direc- tions for it cannot be improved.
Here then is an example of a discourse made on a text that affords an abundance of useful and important matter. But this is not the case in all texts : take Matt. xvi. 26, for instance. In that, the general scope of the text is, to declare the value of the soul ; the distribution of it into its leading parts might be varied in many ways: but whatever distribution were adopted, one must of necessity supply from one's own inven- tion matter for the illustration of it ; because the text itself,
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