Page:Psychology and preaching.djvu/75

 MENTAL SYSTEMS 57

never legitimate to mislead. But if the speaker tries never so hard to make himself clear, he will often have cause to wonder at the strange meanings attributed by various hearers to statements which seem to him to be capable of only one interpretation. There is laid upon him the necessity of entering, as far as is humanly possible, into the mental systems of his hearers and of limiting himself as closely as practicable to the use meanings that are common to his own and the various minds of his auditors. For he is addressing an audience all of whose mental systems are different from his own ; but that is not the worst of it all their mental systems are different from one another. Be fore him are represented mental divergences arising from organic differences, differences of occupation, various types and stages of culture, and usually also divergences arising from various mental environments in which the hearers have lived. But as a rule the preacher is in a worse case than any other public speaker, for usually his audiences are not selected on any definite principle, unless it be that of creed, and that counts for less than ever before as a prin ciple by which a mentally homogeneous group may be brought together. His audiences are likely to be a sort of omnium gatherum. And his disadvantage is increased by the fact that he has usually had special training in an order of ideas and terms which in recent times seem to be becom ing less and less familiar to the people. This does not mean that he should quit studying theology, but that he needs more and more to study the daily life of the people as well. It is obvious to one who closely studies preaching today that comparatively few preachers realize the extent to which they are not understood, or are positively misunder stood, in their solemn deliverances. They simply do not know how seriously they are insulated mentally from the masses of the people.

It is worthy of note that the speaker has the advantage of the writer in two ways. He is permitted greater latitude in repetition, and he may interpret his meaning not only by

�� �