"There  appeared,"  says  Van  Oosterzee,  "during  the
second  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  'agricultural'  dis-
courses, 'nature  sermons  and  field  sermons,'  homiletic
commendations  of  vaccination  (end  of  eighteenth  century),
silk-worm  culture,  etc.  Who  has  not  heard  of  the  Christ-
mas sermon  on  the  stall-feeding  of  cattle ;  of  the  Epiphany
sermon  on  listening  to  good  counsels ;  of  the  Palm  Sunday
sermon  on  the  damaging  of  trees ;  the  Easter  sermon  on  the
benefit  of  a  walk  (the  travellers  to  Emmaus) ;  the  Pentecost
sermon  on  drunkenness,  etc.  ?  not  to  speak  of  a  Maundy-
Thursday  discourse  'on  the  making  of  a  good  will';  or
another  on  the  exciting  theme, '  how  wise  and  beneficial  the
arrangement,  that  death  is  placed  not  at  the  beginning,  but
at  the   end  of  lifa'     The   'sermons  on  texts  taken  from

1  HLH,  pp.  160-161.
202  THE   CHRISTIAN   PREACHER

nature/  by  J.  L.  Ewald  (died  1822)  and  others,  in  which,  e.g.,
the  storm,  the  eye,  the  tongue,  etc.,  supplies  the  theme  to
be  treated  of,  were  of  this  kind,  still  the  best."  ^

4.  Amid  such  conditions  no  great  preaching  is  to  be
expected ;  but  a  few  of  the  notable  preachers  may  be
mentioned.  (1)  Johann  Joachim  Spalding  (1714-1804)2
offered  a  defence  of  the  ministry  against  the  assaults  of
unbelief  in  his  book  on  the  Utility  of  the  Office  of  the
Preacher.  The  preacher's  duty  is  to  instruct  and  improve
his  hearers.  He  should  not  teach  theology,  the  meta-
physical doctrines  which  the  common  people  cannot
understand  and  of  which  they  can  make  no  good  use ;  such
as  the  Trinity,  the  two  natures  of  Christ,  the  atonement.
All  moral  duties  are  to  be  enforced  by  diligent  presentation
of  the  teaching  and  example  of  Christ.
