A sermon on Zaccheus from the words, _He was little of stature_, claims for its theme, "The stature and size of Zaccheus." The first division is, _he_; the second, _was_; third, _small stature_. Application _first_, The text teaches us the variety of God's works; _second_, it consoles the poor; _third_, it teaches us to make amends for our personal defects by virtue. Tholuck well asks, who would imagine that the author of this sermon was the minstrel of "When the early sun arises," "Oh Jesus, all thy bleeding wounds," and so many other deeply earnest Christian songs which have touched the hearts of many generations,--the immortal Hermann von Koeben? A pastor of Wernigerode preached from Matthew x. 30. His divisions were, 1: Our hair--its origin, style, form and natural circumstances. 2: On the right use of the human hair. 3: The memories, admonition, warning and consolation that have come from the human hair. 4: How hair can be used in a Christian way! A Brunswick pastor commenced his Sabbath discourse on one occasion with the words, "A preacher must have three things; a _good conscience_, a _good bite_, and a _good kiss_;" wherefore his transition was made to the theme under consideration: "_an increase of my salary_." But it is needless to continue illustrations of the almost universal dearth of preaching. One hardly knows whether to laugh at its absurdity or weep over its prostitution. Andreae's caustic pen revelled in satire at the depreciation of this important agency of good. Some of his ideas are by no means ill-timed in the present century. In the Dialogue of the Pulpit Orator he thus speaks:[22] A. Tell me earnestly, I pray you, what you find wanting in my present sermon. B. One thing only, but that a main point. A. It cannot be in the arrangement? B. It was, I believe, according to all the rules of the methods. A. Then the pronunciation was defective? B. You must speak as God has made you; only you must not be an imitator. A. Then the action was wrong? B. About that I am indifferent, if it be only quiet and not gesticulatory. A. My sermon must have been much too long? B. _If a sermon be good it can't be too long: a bad one always is._ A. Certainly I did not produce illustrations enough? B. You could not have meant to empty a basket of quotations. A. Then I spoke too slow? B. Ha! In the pulpit we must teach, not talk too volubly. A. I should have spoken louder too? B. I like the voice of man, not the braying of an ass. A. Should I not have used more subtle distinctions? B. You were there to instruct the ignorant, not to dispute with heretics. A. Do then explain yourself more fully. B. Hear me: you said, "I think much, very much," which was good, but it only flowed through you as through a pipe. A. Indeed!