In South Carolina. 195 



did not resume for several years, and to give up en- 

 tirely the advantages of any previous preparation for 

 the work of the ministry. Says the Bishop : 



What appeared to me desirable, and even necessary for ray suc- 

 cess, was a regular course of divinity studies, which I should pursue 

 without interruption for several years, till I had acquired a sufficient 

 fund of knowledge for preaching. The brief Methodistic course of 

 Brother Gassaway was to study and preach, and preach and study, 

 from day to day. It was several weeks before I could be brought to 

 acquiesce in his opinion, and for most of that time so clearly reason- 

 able and proper did it appear to me to desist from all pulpit exercises 

 till I should have qualified myself to perform them in a maimer 

 worthy of the sacred office, and it was a point so closely concerning 

 conscience, that I must have caused my excellent friend some un- 

 easiness. However, his patient spirit was sufficient for the trial, and 

 most kindly and affectionately did he argue on. One point which 

 he made, and a capital one, I thought he carried against me. I had 

 supposed two years to be necessary for the study of divinity before 

 I should exercise at all in public, and that the qualification gained 

 for more effective service in future by these two years of close study 

 would more than compensate for the loss of time from such imperfect 

 efforts as I might essay in the meantime on his plan of studying and 

 preaching, and preaching and studying. And the point he made 

 was, as to the qualification to be gained for future usefulness at the 

 lapse of two or more years, by the one course or by the other, hold- 

 ing it probable that a student on his plan would become a better 

 preacher at the end of a term of years than he would on mine. He 

 admitted that on ray plan he might learn more theology and be able 

 to compose a better thesis, but insisted he would not make a better 

 preacher. In this argument he insisted much on the practical 

 character of preaching, that to reach its end it must be more than 

 a well-composed sermon, or an eloquent discourse, or able disserta- 

 tion. It must have to do with men as a shot at a mark, in which 

 not only the ammunition should be good, but the aim true. The 

 preacher must be familiar with man to reach him with effect. And 

 the force of preaching must largely depend, under the blessing of 

 God, on the naturalness and truthfulness of the preacher's postulates, 

 arguing to the sinner from what he knows of him, the necessities of 

 his condition, appealing to his conscience, and recommending the 

 grace of God. But he quite overcame me with this final remark. 



