Page:Psychology and preaching.djvu/130

 112 PSYCHOLOGY AND PREACHING

oped. Fundamentally it is a process of habit formation. But at one point we should be on guard : it is to be accom plished not so much by the identical repetition of one act intended to excite a pleasant feeling. For unfortunately the continued repetition of this one act will gradually cease to excite feeling. It comes rather by varied experiences which excite the appropriate feelings.

I can not stop here to dwell upon the importance of read ing as a means of developing the sentiments, though its importance can hardly be over-estimated. Especially are certain kinds of literature, such as poetry and fiction, appro priate for this purpose. The sentiments and ideals of the average person are, in our reading age, created and modified to a very large extent by the poems and stories which he reads; and with many people the drama also is a potent factor in the development of feeling-dispositions.

Our purpose, however, is not to discuss the significance of literature and the drama for our emotional life to which a whole chapter, or many chapters, might well be devoted ; but it is to emphasize the relation of preaching to this most important aspect of character-making. To direct and or ganize the emotional life of the people is a principal business of preaching perhaps it would not be an exaggeration to say that it is the chief function. And the method is obvious. If the preacher s object is, for instance, to develop in his hearers the sentiment of love for God, the idea of God must be repeatedly presented to them in such ways as to be attrac tive, to awaken in them pleasant feelings with respect to Him; but if the love they are led to feel for Him is to be reverential, the feeling of reverence must also be repeatedly aroused. His goodness, kindness, self-sacrifice must be pre sented in varied lights together with His majesty and holi ness, and in such ways as to arouse the appropriate feelings. If the aim is to develop the sentiment of love for humanity, then humanity, both in the concrete and the abstract, must be so presented as to arouse a kindly, brotherly feeling for individual men, and for man in the abstract, and incite to its

�� �