The Divine Art of Preaching

REACHING is a divine art, and therefore the finest of the fine arts. There is, about the logical structure of a true sermon, that which suggests all that is most beautiful in architecture; about the elaboration of its rhetorical features, all that is most symmetrical in sculpture; and about the use of imagination in illustration and metaphor, all that is most fascinating in painting; while oratory, itself a fine art, suggests that other kindred art of music to which it is so closely allied in the utilization of all that is most attractive and persuasive, melodious and martial, in the human voice. As Paul Veronese said of painting, preaching is "a gift from God."