Page:Psychology and preaching.djvu/76

 58 PSYCHOLOGY AND PREACHING

words, but by intonations, gesticulations and changes of facial expression all of which are very important ways of conveying meaning. But he has one serious disad vantage he has to make his meaning apparent at once. The hearer can not linger upon words, phrases and sentences to extract their meaning, as the reader can; and if the hearer attempts to carry them away in memory to ponder upon their meaning, it will be found that the probability of misapprehension and misinterpretation will be greatly increased.

But the problem of understanding is a double one. We must not only try to make others understand us ; it is equally important for us to understand others. We must not only communicate; we must interpret. And the latter is quite as difficult to do as the former. In every-day intercourse we face this difficulty, and it should, perhaps, challenge one s conscience more strongly than the difficulty of accurately communicating one s own thought, though usually people are much more careless about it. For certain classes of public speakers also it is a problem which will engage most serious attention, if they be conscientious, and this is par ticularly true of the preacher, whose function is so largely one of interpretation.

2. The problem of exposition. This is really a com bination of the problems of communication and interpreta tion. Much of preaching is and should be exposition, i.e., taking the ideas of one, and communicating them to another mind. It is, so to speak, a three-cornered process. A must take B s thought and communicate it to C. Now, A has one mental system; B if only a single person represents another; C if only a single person still another. In order to understand B perfectly, A has his first difficult task. He can not do so until he has comprehended B s mental system in its completeness. It is manifest that he can do this only approximately. His second difficulty is to communicate B s thought to C. To do this perfectly he must comprehend adequately not only B s but also C s men-

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