should be at his finger tips. No book on the subject should be
unread. No year of college life should pass without contributing
materially towards the elocutionary equipment of the future
preacher. The college that neglects this training and permits
young men to go into the ministry without this needful art is
guilty of a most serious sin of omission.

What I do mean is _preach_ your sermons and do not _declaim_
them. How is this accomplished?

For the first year bend all your powers to capturing the
intellects of your auditors, holding in reserve, for the time
being, the elocutionary forces. Then, when you have acquired the
habit of convincing the intelligence, let the elegancies of
finished declamation insinuate themselves gradually into your
delivery. Thus art will so engraft itself on nature, the
rhetorical graces so entwining and dovetailing into your
convictions and passions that they will appear as growing out of
and not added on to them. Here is perfection--

_Ars artium celare artem_.

Reverse this: make declamation your first concern, and let us
even suppose the artificiality is not detected, which is
supposing a great deal. What is the result? Your sermon is
declamation and nothing else. This means failure, for no matter
how the passions are aroused, if they are not upheld by the
pillars of conviction, your finest effort is a fire of chips: a
blaze for a moment, then ashes.