The subjects of the sermon have been divided into the doctrinal, the experimental, and the practical; but, in preaching, the end is usually best attained by blending these, or rather by presenting each truth in an experimental and practical manner. This division, however, is correct, as made according to the dominant, leading idea of the sermon. 1. _Doctrinal sermons._ Much is said in regard to preaching Christ, and not doctrine. But how is it possible to preach Christ apart from doctrine? Christ is not an abstraction, but a living, personal Being. If, then, we preach Him, we must preach His Divinity, His humanity, and His mediatorship between God and man. If we preach what He has done, we must declare His humiliation, His death, and the atonement He has therein made for sin. If we preach Him as He is, we must proclaim His enthronement in heaven, His intercession with the Father, and His Headship of the church, with all the laws and ordinances He has instituted for it. And if we preach Him as He shall be, we must affirm the final triumph of His Gospel, His second coming, the resurrection and the judgment, and the glory to which He will raise His people with Himself. It is not possible to preach Christ apart from doctrine; for His incarnation and vicarious death presuppose the Fall and depravity and guilt of men, and the need of regeneration, justification, and sanctification; and His resurrection and glorification equally involve the resurrection and glorification of His church. All the doctrines of Scripture thus center in Christ, and we preach Him only as we preach them. Here, therefore, is the true power of the pulpit. Only as the sermon lodges these great truths in the soul is it a living force for the salvation of men. They constitute the sole foundation of genuine experience and practical appeal. A merely hortatory ministry is of necessity a failure, since it lays no basis for experience and Christian life in the convictions of the people. In presenting the doctrines the following cautions should be observed: (1.) Beware of doctrinal one-sidedness. Every mind has its special theological tendencies; there is thus danger of pushing a single truth, or a class of truths, into too great relative prominence. A one-sided and, in its whole impression, a false view of the Gospel may in this way be presented. Seek rather to unfold a well-proportioned system of truth, where every doctrine is not only true in itself, but also stands in its just relations, alike of position and prominence, to all other truths. For it is possible, while preaching nothing but the truth, to put a truth in such false relations as to give it practically all the effect of error. (2.) Avoid, ordinarily, the controversial form in presenting subjects; its tendency is to put the mind of the hearer in an attitude of antagonism. Indeed, a controversial sermon, however well reasoned, will often suggest more doubts than it removes. Doubtless, controversy