Part 16 (1/2)

When I was in college I heard a visitor draw a contrast between Cicero and Demosthenes. I am not sure that it is fair to Cicero but it brings out an important distinction. As I recall it, the speaker said, ”When Cicero spake the people said, 'How well Cicero speaks'; when Demosthenes spake his hearers cried, 'Let us go against Philip.'” One impressed himself upon his audience while the other impressed his subject. It need hardly be said that in all effective oratory the speaker succeeds in proportion as he can make his hearers forget him in their absorption in the subject that he presents. I may add that there is a practical advantage in the speaker's diverting attention from himself. There is only one of him and he would soon become monotonous if he continually thrust himself forward; but, as subjects are innumerable, he can give infinite variety to his speech by putting the emphasis upon the theme.

It is better that the audience, when it breaks up, should gather into groups and discuss what the speaker said than to go away saying, ”What a delightful speech it was,” and yet not remember the things said. Whether the statements made are true or not it does no harm to have them challenged; if some dispute what has been said and others defend the speaker it is certain that thought has been aroused, and thinking leads to truth. That is why freedom of speech is so essential in a republic; it is the only process by which truth can be separated from error and made to stand forth in all its strength. We should, therefore, invite discussion.

While acquaintance with the subject and heartfelt interest in it are the first essentials of convincing speech, there are other qualities that greatly strengthen discourse. First among these I would put _clearness of statement_. Jefferson declared in the Declaration of Independence that _certain_ truths are self-evident. It is a very conservative statement of an important fact; it could be made stronger: _all truth is self-evident_. The best service one can render a truth, therefore, is to state it so clearly that it can be understood. This does not mean that every self-evident truth will be immediately accepted because there are many things that interfere with the acceptance of truth.

First, let us consider depth of conviction. Some people take their convictions more seriously than others. In India I heard a missionary speak of another person as having ”no opinions--nothing but convictions”; while one of the enemies of Gladstone described him as being the only person he ever knew who ”could improvise the convictions of a lifetime.” Depth of conviction gives great force to an individual when he is going in the right direction, but he is difficult to change if he is going in the wrong direction. When I visited the Hermitage for the first time they told me of an old coloured man, formerly a slave of Jackson's, who survived his master many years. He was, of course, an object of interest and many questions were asked in regard to Jackson's characteristics. One visitor inquired of him if he thought Andrew Jackson went to heaven. He quickly responded, ”If he sot his head that way, he did.”

Prejudice also delays the spread of truth. People sometimes brace themselves against arguments. If I may be pardoned a personal ill.u.s.tration I will cite a case of political prejudice that came under my own observation. I was speaking in a town in western Nebraska, an out-of-the-way place that I had seldom visited. A friend heard a man say, ”Well, I never heard him and I thought I would come and see what he has to say.” And then, with a determined look upon his face he added, ”But he will not convince me.” Political prejudice is not so hard to overcome as race prejudice and race prejudice is not so deep-seated as religious prejudice; but prejudice of any kind, whether it be personal, political, race, or religious, seriously interferes with the progress of truth.

Narrowness of vision often obstructs acceptance of truth. One must be made to feel interested in the subject before he will listen to that which is said about it. Aristotle has suggested a means by which each one can measure himself. ”If he is interested in himself only he is very small; if he is interested in his family he is larger; if he is interested in his community he is larger still.” Thus he grows in size as his sympathies expand--the largest person being the one whose heart takes in the whole world. In proportion as we can enlarge the horizon of the hearer we can increase the number of subjects to which he will give attention. The minister has an advantage in that he deals with the one subject about which all mankind thinks. The soul yearns for G.o.d: it is man's highest aspiration and his most enduring concern. When one's heart is changed--when he is born again--he listens to, understands and accepts arguments that he rejected before.

Selfish interest is one of the most common obstructions to the advance of truth. Very often this difficulty can be overcome by showing that the party is mistaken as to the effect of the proposed measure upon his interests. Fortunately in matters of government a large majority of the people have interests on the same side and the real task is to make this plain. Where there is a real opposing interest, argument is of little use unless it can be shown that the public welfare outweighs the personal interest--that is, that a public interest is large enough to swallow up the interest that is private and personal.

Whenever one refuses to admit such a self-evident truth, for instance, as that it is wrong to steal, don't argue with him--search him; the reason may be found in his pocket.

Next to clearness of statement, I would put conciseness--the condensing of much into a few words. This is a great a.s.set to a speaker. The moulder of public opinion does not manufacture opinion; he simply puts it into form so that it can be remembered and repeated; just as my father used bullet-moulds to make bullets when he was about to go squirrel hunting. The moulds did not create the lead, they simply put it into effective form. Jefferson was the greatest moulder of public opinion in the early days of this country. He did not create Democratic sentiment; he simply took the aspirations that had nestled in the hearts of men from time immemorial and put them into appropriate and epigrammatic language, so that the nation thought his thoughts after him, as the world is now doing. The proverbs of Solomon are priceless for the same reason; they are full of wisdom--wisdom so expressed that it can be easily comprehended.

When I was a boy my father would call me in from work a little before noon, read to me from Proverbs and comment on the sayings of the Wise Man. After his death (when I was twenty) I recalled his fondness for Proverbs and read the thirty-one chapters through each month for a year.

I was increasingly impressed with their beauty and strength. I have used many of them in speeches. The one I have most frequently used in the advocacy of reforms reads: ”A prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself; but the simple pa.s.s on, and are punished.”

I have often used a story to ill.u.s.trate how much can be said in a few words. A man said to another, ”Do you drink?” The man to whom the question was addressed, replied rather indignantly, ”That is my business, sir.” ”Have you any other business?” asked the first man. The story is not only valuable as an ill.u.s.tration of brevity but it has a moral side; if a man drinks much he soon has no other business.

In this connection I will speak of the words to be employed. Our use of big words increases from infancy to the day of graduation. I think it is safe to say that with nearly all of us the maximum is reached on the day when we leave school. We use more big words that day than we have ever used before or will ever use again. When we go from college into every-day life and begin to deal with our fellowmen we drop the big words because we are more interested in making people understand us than we are in parading our learning. The more earnest one is the smaller the words used. If a young man used big words to a.s.sure his sweetheart of his affection she would never understand him, but the word love has but one syllable, just as the words life, faith, hope, home, food, and work are one-syllable words. Remember that nearly every audience is made up of people who differ in the amount of book learning they have received.

If you speak only to those best educated you will speak over the heads of those less educated. A story is told on a great scientist who made two holes in the back fence and showed them to his wife, explaining that the big hole was for the cat and the small hole for the kitten. ”But cannot the kitten go through the same hole as the cat?” inquired his wife. If you use little words you can reach not only the least learned, but the most learned as well.

Ill.u.s.tration is one of the most potent forms of argument; we understand new things by comparing them with what we know. Christ was a master of ill.u.s.trations--the master. No one of whom history tells us has ever used the ill.u.s.tration as effectively as He. He took the objects of every-day life and made them mirrors which reflected truth. His parables give us a wide range of ill.u.s.tration--the Sower going forth to sow, the Wheat and the Tares, the Prodigal Son, the Wise and Foolish Virgins--in fact, all the ill.u.s.trations that He used might be cited to prove the power of this form of argument.

The question has been used throughout history; at every great crisis the orators of the day have used the question form of argument. Its strength depends upon the completeness with which the speaker includes all of the essentials involved in summing up the situation. The greatest question ever presented as an argument was that in which Christ concentrated attention upon the value of the soul. No one will ever place a higher estimate upon the soul than Christ did when He asked, ”What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?”

No greater question was ever asked, or can be asked. (See Lecture, ”The Value of the Soul.”)

Courage is the last attribute to which I shall invite your attention.

The speaker must possess moral courage, and to possess it he must have faith.

Faith exerts a controlling influence over our lives. If it is argued that works are more important than faith, I reply that faith comes first, works afterward. Until one believes, he does not act, and in accordance with his faith, so will be his deeds.

Abraham, called of G.o.d, went forth in faith to establish a race and a religion. It was faith that led Columbus to discover America, and faith again that conducted the early settlers to Jamestown, the Dutch to New York and the Pilgrims to Plymouth Rock. Faith has led the pioneer across deserts and through trackless forests, and faith has brought others in his footsteps to lay in our land the foundations of a civilization the highest that the world has known.

I might draw an ill.u.s.tration from the life of each one of you. You have faith in education, and that faith is behind your study; you have faith in this inst.i.tution, and that faith brought you here; your parents and friends have had faith in you and have helped you to your present position. And back of all these manifestations of faith is your faith in G.o.d, in His Word and in His Son. We are told that without faith it is impossible to please G.o.d, and I may add that without faith it is impossible to meet the expectations of those who are most interested in you. Let me present this subject under four heads:

First--You must have faith in yourselves. Not that you should carry confidence in yourselves to the point of displaying egotism, and yet, egotism is not the worst possible fault. My father was wont to say that if a man had the big head, you could whittle it down, but that if he had the little head, there was no hope for him. If you have the big head others will help you to reduce it, but if you have the little head, they cannot help you. You must believe that you can do things or you will not undertake them. Those who lack faith attempt nothing and therefore cannot possibly succeed; those with great faith attempt the seemingly impossible and by attempting prove what man can do.

But you cannot have faith in yourselves unless you are conscious that you are prepared for your work. If one is feeble in body, he cannot have the confidence in his physical strength that the athlete has, and, as physical strength is necessary, one is justified in devoting to exercise and to the strengthening of the body such time as may be necessary.

Intellectual training is also necessary, and more necessary than it used to be. When but few had the advantages of a college education, the lack of such advantages was not so apparent. Now when so many of the ministers, lawyers, physicians, journalists, and even business men, are college graduates, one cannot afford to be without the best possible intellectual preparation. When one comes into compet.i.tion with his fellows, he soon recognizes his own intellectual superiority, equality or inferiority as compared with others. In China they have a very interesting bird contest. The singing lark is the most popular bird there, and as you go along the streets of a Chinese city you see Chinamen out airing their birds. These singing larks are entered in contests, and the contests are decided by the birds themselves. If, for instance, a dozen are entered, they all begin to sing l.u.s.tily, but as they sing, one after another recognizes that it is outcla.s.sed and gets down off its perch, puts its head under its wing and will not sing any more. At last there is just one bird left singing, and it sings with enthusiasm as if it recognized its victory.

So it is in all intellectual contests. Put twenty men in a room and let them discuss any important question. At first all will take part in the discussion, but as the discussion proceeds, one after another drops out until finally two are left in debate, one on one side and one on the other. The rest are content to have their ideas presented by those who can present them best. If you are going to have faith, therefore, in yourselves, you must be prepared to meet your compet.i.tors upon an equal plane; if you are prepared, they will be conscious of it as well as you.