The Preacher's Physical Action, Part 1

Introduction: The Preacher's Physical Action in Preaching

0:03 Now, once again, we address ourselves this morning to the vital subject of the act of preaching itself, and we do so continuing under the second major heading. We've considered the preacher in his relationship to God in the act of preaching, and the second heading, the preacher in relationship to himself, and thus far we've covered three areas, the general appearance and bearing or pulpit demeanor of the preacher, his emotional constitution and activity in the act of preaching, and last week, the matter of his vocal powers.

0:45 Now, today we take up the fourth and final subdivision of this third aspect of the preacher in relationship to himself, namely, the preacher's relationship to himself in terms of physical action in preaching, the preacher's relationship to himself in terms of physical action in preaching. Now, in marking out the field of our study in this way, I'm obviously excluding the use of the voice from physical action in preaching, though indeed, as we considered last week,

1:23 proper speaking involves arduous physical exertion and controlled physical activity. But we are concerned this morning with such things as gesture, posture, movement, and other aspects of physical animation as they appear and are present in the act of preaching, and we want to consider everything from the motion of the hands to the look of the eye, and even the set of the eyebrow. In other words, we're dealing with the act of preaching as it touches the

The Legitimacy and Function of Physical Action in Preaching: Biblical Examples

2:02 upon physical action in the preacher who is engaged in the proclamation of the word. Now, we begin our lecture, then, with the first major category, number, Roman numeral one, the legitimacy and function of physical action in preaching. The legitimacy and function of physical action in preaching. The moment we address ourselves to the question, place, if any, does physical action have in the proclamation, explanation, and application

2:40 of the word of God, we've placed ourselves once again within the framework of the oft-repeated axiom of this course, that there is no conflict between general and special revelation. There is no real conflict between nature and grace.

3:04 There is no tension between what we are as men and what we are as preachers. The Bible everywhere assumes, and not infrequently actually describes, the relationship which naturally exists between thought and physical states or actions consistent with or expressive of that thought. And let me give several examples from the Old and from the New Testaments. In Genesis chapter 4, in the incident

3:45 recorded concerning Cain and Abel, you know the basic facts of the incident. Cain becomes jealous of Abel, and upon what he thinks is a convenient occasion, he kills him. But in the process of describing the incident, he kills Abel. He kills Abel. He kills Abel. He kills Abel. He kills Abel.

4:09 Having that, we read in Genesis 4 and verse 5, But unto Cain and his offering he, that is, Jehovah, had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, or angry, and his countenance fell. So the state of mind and soul described as an angry or wrathful state produced a corresponding observable effect upon the physiology of Cain. His countenance fell. And when the Lord comes

4:50 on his mission of inquisition, he is careful to underscore the inseparable relationship between those two things. And Jehovah said unto Cain, Why are you angry, state of the soul? Why is your countenance falling, an observable condition of his face? So the disposition of the soul, as it were, instinctively and naturally took to itself an observable condition of his

5:27 countenance. Very clear relationship between the two. In 2 Samuel chapter 6, we have another very graphic example of this principle in operation. 2 Samuel and chapter 6, beginning with verse 12.

5:47 In this incident, with respect to the bringing in of the ark of God, and it was told King David saying, Jehovah has blessed the house of Obed-Edom and all that pertains unto him because of the ark of God. And David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom, and he brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom, and he brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-Edom into the city of David, now notice, with joy, a state of the heart, of the spirit. Here was great ebullience in the inner man of David. And it was so that when they that bear the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ox and a fatling, and David

6:27 danced before the Lord with all his might. And David was girded with a linen ephod, so David in all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet. Now here there was this intimate relationship between David's state of soul described as joy, and a bodily expression that did not stop short of dancing. And I don't know where it was, but on one occasion, I think it was a couple of years ago, I saw just a portion of a

7:06 film in which they captured this incident. Now whether it was a film on the life of David, I don't recall the circumstances, but it was fascinating. The actor just did a marvelous job of reproducing what David probably did on that occasion. And to see this man who was all man engaged in a dance that had none of the oozing effeminacy of the dance of the ballet, I can't stand to watch.

7:36 ballet. If they are women, I don't want to watch it because it's too sensuous. If they're men, it's too effeminate to see men, you know, this. And I'm sure there was something in David's dancing that exuded distinctive masculinity. But the point is this, the joy in his soul

7:57 produced at the level of bodily action and appropriate expression. Now, his wife didn't think it appropriate, and she mocked him for it, and God obviously did, because he struck her barren so that she bore no children. And you find this emphasis throughout the scriptures, where the sign is often spoken of for the things signified, and where someone being called to adorn himself in sackcloth was a call to inner mourning. And so this is found, as I say, up and down the range of the scripture.

8:35 Many instances in the book of Psalms. But then you have in Daniel chapter 5 another very graphic illustration of this very natural relationship between physical states or actions consistent with a frame of mind or a state of the soul. Daniel chapter 5, and again you will be familiar with the basic facts. Daniel chapter 5.

9:08 So the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand. Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels, which Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple that was in Jerusalem, that the kings and his lords and his wives and his concubines might drink thereof. So in the midst of this Machiavellian feast, in which there is drinking, and beyond, obviously, the point of moderation, in which there is the praising and the worshiping of their false gods, and you get the idea of the kind of loud reverie there would be at a drunken

9:52 feast when people's tongues are loosed and their inhibitions go down. We read in verse 5, In the same hour came forth the fingers of a man's hand, and rode over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace. And the king said, The king saw the part of the hand that wrote. Then the king's countenance was changed in him, and his thoughts troubled him. The joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote

10:25 one against another. What a graphic illustration of how a state of the mind and the soul can affect a man's physiology. His countenance changes, his joints, they're distorted, and his hands are loosed. He was described as being loosed, and his knees smote one against another.

10:43 We talk about getting sober real quick. This was better than ten cups of black coffee. This handwriting on the wall, and with it this sense of something preternatural, something that was out of the ordinary, so seized him that there was an appropriate physiological response. He didn't have to sit and lecture to himself. It was automatic, the state of

11:07 the mind and of the soul changed. He was seen as the perfect example of that. The face, and the joints, and the knees are all registered, and the knees are all taken into account. Likewise in the New Testament we have these examples. I hope you don't think it's tedious

11:18 for me to give you these biblical examples, but because this is an aspect of preaching that is greatly challenged in our day, I want you to have at your fingertips some of these very obvious examples that this is indeed an integral part of human experience. We read in Matthew 2 and verse 11 these words, And they came into the house, speaking of the Magi, and saw the young child with Mary his mother, and, physical action, they fell down and worshipped him, an inner state of the soul, and offering, opening their treasures,

12:03 they offered unto him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And that conjunction between worship and falling down, the external expression of the internal state of the soul, was recognized even by the devil in the temptation with our Lord, chapter 4 and verse 9 of Matthew, and he said unto him, All these things will I give you, if you will fall down, that is, assume the physical posture, of obeisance, of submission, if you will fall down and worship me.

12:41 So the inward disposition is joined to the outward posture of prostration before the object of worship. In the case of the Magi and our Lord, legitimate worship in what Satan proposes, that which would have been illegitimate or idolatrous worship. Likewise, in the experience of our Lord. In John 17, we have this beautiful little stroke in John's description of our Lord's high priestly prayer.

13:12 These things spake Jesus, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, Father, the hour is come. As he's concentrating all of the energy of his soul upon pouring out this petition to his Father, the Father who is in the heavens. Here was an appropriate physical action. He lifted up his eyes in the direction of heaven.

13:41 And likewise, in Luke, chapter 24, in verse 50, we see the intimate conjunction between the inner state of the heart and the outward expression of that state in physical action. In Luke 24, in verse 50, and here I must resist the temptation to preach. Because this is one of the most marvelous and often neglected passages in the Gospels. And he led them out until they were over against Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and blessed them.

14:19 So that the lifting of his hands in priestly posture expressed the inward disposition of his heart. And this was the last sight they had of their Lord, and it came to pass while he blessed them, that God made me. He parted from them and was carried up into heaven. When we read in Acts 1 that a cloud enveloped him, before the cloud enveloped him and while it enveloped him, the last image they had of their resurrected Lord was hands stretched out in blessing.

14:51 And in a sense, that became the sacramental symbol of what he was doing as he went into heaven, that he might carry on that wonderful work of blessing his people. But there was a second image. And that is the image of the Lord. But there was a second image.

15:03 But there was a second image. And there was a second image. And there was a second image. a conjunction, you see, between the upraised hands and the disposition of our Lord's heart and the speech of his mouth. Now, a couple of instances out of the book of Acts, Acts chapter

15:15 3. Acts chapter 3 and verse 8. Let's back up. You remember the incident, the lame man who was healed by the apostles, verse 7, and he took him by the right hand, raised him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. Now his heart is full of joy, so what does he do?

15:42 And leaping up, he stood, began to walk, and entered with them into the temple, walking. But then his joy would overcome him, and he would leap, and his leaping would be attended with praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God. So this physical action of actually becoming a man of God, of actually becoming a man of God, of actually becoming a man of God, of actually becoming a man of God, of actually becoming a man of God, of actually becoming the first of the leapers, of the jumpers, as they were later called. This man stands at the head

16:14 of the society of the jumpers, and one can only imagine the disruption this created in the propriety of temple worship, to have some character come leaping and jumping and praising God at the top of his lungs. But there is no sense in which Luke describes this activity as in any way excessive. It was perfectly suitable to the state of the temple. It was perfectly suitable to the state of this man's soul, that he should be found bellowing out his praise, and finding that even his vocal cords couldn't get rid of the energy of his soul.

16:46 Some of it had to find an outlet in his feet, which had been lame for years, but now upon which he could leap and jump and pirouette in the temple as he brought praise to his God. Well, Acts chapter 26, we have a totally different setting, but again showing the connection between physical action and the state of the soul and human speech. Paul is before Agrippa, and Agrippa says, you are permitted to speak for yourself, Acts 26, 1, then Paul stretched forth his hand and made his

17:25 defense. Here Luke gives this little stroke of historical detail and says that his defense was made either as he...

17:36 began it with the stretched out hand, or he may have kept the hand stretched out throughout much of that defense. Well, in 1 Corinthians 14, 25, we have another very clear example of how the state of the soul, giving birth to certain speech, is often accompanied by an appropriate physical activity. Here he's regulating the exercise of the gift of prophecy, and he says in 1 Corinthians 26, 14, 24, . But if all prophesy, and there come in one unbelieving or unlearned, he is reproved by all,

18:15 he is judged of all, the secrets of his heart are made manifest, and so he, physical action, will fall down on his face, inward experience, and worship God, verbal expression, declaring that God is among you indeed. And there is no sense in which the apostle, writes this in a forced way. He assumes that a man who for the first time has come to an experimental acquaintance of the livingness of God will be so overwhelmed with it that there would be a state of

18:54 the soul producing an appropriate physical response. He will fall down upon his face and worship God, saying, God is of the truth among you. And then you can go right through the book of the Revelation, those beautiful examples of the various groupings of those who are worshiping, and again and again there is this conjunction of the physical posture. They fell down before the throne upon their faces, saying, worthy is the Lamb. Well, this stuff is scattered all the way through the Word of God,

The Legitimacy and Function of Physical Action in Preaching: Unprejudiced Observation and Expert Testimony

19:29 and I've only taken a few passages out of the Old and the New Testaments to underscore that the Bible describes man as man acts when he's acting consistent with his created humanity. That there is an intimate relationship between physical action and the state of the mind and soul which produces it. Now, unprejudiced observation of common human behavior validates this relationship between physical action and the state of the mind and soul which produces it.

20:07 And those who have written on this subject have been very careful to observe this. For example, if I have brought my friend Blakey with me, I did. He's still in the briefcase. In Blakey's work for the work of the Christian ministry, on page 155, he comments as follows.

20:47 And in saying it, say it as you feel it, and let the feeling mold your voice, your gesture, and your countenance in the natural way. Simple though this advice is, it's not very easy. To some persons, the most difficult thing in the world is to be natural. The model of a perfectly natural manner is to be found, some would say, rather low down, that is, in a little child.

21:18 Who has not observed the perfect grace, freedom, naturalness of a little child's whole manner? Its tones of voice are exactly adapted to the nature of its remarks. Its eye and face are a perfect mirror of its heart. The movement of its arms, the gesture of its whole body, is free and unrestrained. If one would attain a good manner in the pulpit, one must, in a sense,

21:47 become natural. A little child. If reasons be sought for the faultlessness of a child's manner, they are to be found in its guilelessness and reality, the transparency of its whole nature, and in its freedom from acquired habits, in the elasticity and vigor of its muscular system, and last but not least, in its lack of self-consciousness. And you observe little children. They've broken their favorite little toy as in worth their

22:17 15 cents, and the face goes down and they cry, or they want something desperately that they think they ought to have, and everything from their fingertips to the tone of their voice to the look in their eye is trying to manipulate you into believing exactly as they do about that object that they so desperately desire. Well, that doesn't need to be taught to the child. Whoever had to sit down with the child and say, now look, when you don't get your own way, and you feel disappointed and self-centered, you must learn to pout. Now, this is how you pout, and then you teach it. Who out here

22:55 had to teach his kid how to pout? I didn't teach any of mine. They instinctively know it. And when something excites them, I don't care how reserved their parents are, until they pick up their parents' cursed reserve by example, what do they do? Why, they express it in their natural childless exuberance.

23:16 That's it. That's the point that Blakey is making. And this connection between the state of the soul and physical states, including even the look in the countenance, Blakey observes, is very natural in little children because they have not yet been influenced by forces that have made them unnatural in that connection. Broadus, on page 496 and 497, observes, the term action is now commonly restricted to what Cicero called,

23:53 the sermo-coporis, or speech of the body, including expression of countenance, posture, and gesture, but not including the use of the voice. Now, notice his observation. The freedom and variety of action exhibited by children when talking to each other shows that it is perfectly natural. Its wonderful expressiveness, even apart from language, is sometimes displayed by the deaf and dumb, and by others still.

24:23 There's a familiar story of the dispute between Cicero and Rossius, an actor famous for pantomime, as to which could express a thought more eloquently, the one by words or the other by signs. In many cases, a gesture is much more expressive than any number of words. How truly language must be regarded as a hindrance to thought, though the necessary instrument of it we shall clearly perceive on remembering the words. Now, notice his observation. The freedom and variety of action exhibited by children when talking to each other shows that it is perfectly natural, the one by words or the other by signs. In many cases, a gesture is much more expressive than any number of words. How truly language must be regarded as a hindrance to thought, though the necessary instrument of it we shall clearly perceive on remembering the words. How truly language must be regarded as a hindrance to thought, though the necessary instrument of it we shall clearly perceive on remembering the words. How truly language must be regarded as a hindrance to thought, though the necessary instrument of it we shall clearly perceive on remembering the words.

24:56 Simple ideas are communicated by signs. To say, leave the room, is less expressive than pointing to the door. Placing a finger on the lips is more forcible than whispering, do not speak. You want it so silent you're not even going to give the prohibition. You feel the force of that. He's just saying. It's common observation. Who can deny that?

25:28 unless he wants to deny his own consciousness. A beck of the hand is better than come here. Catch someone's eye.

25:37 They get the message. No phrase can convey the idea of surprise so vividly as the opening of the eyes and the raising of the eyebrows.

25:47 Surprise. A shrug of the shoulders would lose much by an attempt to translate it into words. And my little granddaughter is a master of that. Justly, where's your dolly?

25:58 And she turns up those little fat hands of hers. One of her favorite little...

26:07 Says worlds. Says worlds. He who is master of this sign language has indeed an almost magic power. When the speaker can combine it with the spoken language, he acquires thereby exceeding vivacity of expression.

26:23 Not only his mouth, but his eyes, his features, his fingers speak. His hearers read the coming sentiment upon his countenance and limbs almost before his voice reaches their ears. They are both spectators and listeners. Every sense is absorbed in giving attention.

26:47 It was said of Cicero that there was an eloquence even to the tips of his fingers. And of Garrick, that was the famous English actor who said he would give, I forgot how many pounds or how many guineas.

27:01 Of money, if he could say the word, oh, as Whitefield said it. It was said of Garrick that by merely moving his elbow he could produce an effect that no words could achieve. So you see, the old masters in preaching recognized that God has so constituted us that there is this relationship between physical action and the state and mind of the soul expressive of that action and that because we are speaking, speaking the word of God, we are not to be neutered in terms of this element of our created humanity. In a helpful little book that one of the former students gave me, Atwell's Epitome of Elocution,

27:45 in which he has tried to reduce into a little manual the basic rules of elocution and vocal culture. If we ever get to printing books, this is one that will be high on the list for a textbook in astral theology. Very, very helpful material. But let me just read a section of Atwell, page 25,

28:06 that again underscores this matter.

28:12 Let me get the part that is most helpful.

28:16 He's talking about the necessity for cultivation in pulpit demeanor, particularly physical action. Pronunciation would be studied, an ear would be formed, the voice modulated, every feature of the face, every motion of the hands, every posture of the body would be brought under, proper management. A graceful and correct and animated expression in all of these would be ambitiously sought after. Mutual criticisms and friendly hints would be universally acknowledged.

28:50 Light and direction would be borrowed from every quarter and from every age. The best models of antiquity would be in a particular manner admired, surveyed, and imitated. The sing-song voice and the seesaw gestures, if I may, be allowed to use those expressions, would of course be exploded. And in time, nothing would be admitted, at least approved, among preachers but what was decent, manly, and truly excellent in its kind.

Conclusion on Legitimacy: God's Design and the Preacher's Usefulness

29:21 Even the people themselves would contract insensibly a growing relish for such a manner of delivery. And those preachers would at last be in chief repute with all who followed nature, overlooked themselves, appeared totally absorbed in their subject, and spoke with real propriety and pathos from the immediate impulse of truth and virtue. Well brethren, I could go on giving you quotes from the old masters, but all of them underscore this principle that I'm seeking to articulate of the legitimacy and function of physical action in preaching. The scriptures show

30:04 from Genesis to Revelation, they record it as a fact of observation of human behavior, that there is this intimate and natural conjunction between the state of the soul and an appropriate physical expression of that state. I'm simply adding to that the universal testimony of those who studied the subject that everyone observes this and it is most particularly and eloquently born witness to in the case of children. Therefore, as physical action is a vital part of effective, narrow, and natural oral communication among all but the blind, we should expect that the all-wise God

30:48 who's given a supremacy of usefulness to living oral communication would incorporate and not negate this factor in the accomplishment of his sovereign purposes through preaching. As surely as possible, as we aim at clarity and accuracy in conveyance of the truth in the words that we choose, so we should aim at appropriateness, forcefulness, and interest in the action which attends those words. The person who would ignore

31:31 this aspect of preaching sets up a dangerous theological structure in which special revelations are put in conflict with general revelation. And he who would ignore this aspect of preaching will generally do so to the impairment of his usefulness. And here I would lean upon McElvain to conclude this first heading on page 387 in the section dealing with the matter that he calls gesture. He says, Gesture is the principal element of the symbolical language of nature

32:15 and of the passions which is universally understood. That's his major axiom. Then he breaks it down. This language is wonderfully copious and significant.

32:27 Second head he makes, Gesture is a principal element of this symbolical language and more expressive than words. Strong passion or profound emotion is never satisfied with any expression of itself that is possible in mere words. It feels itself to be still pent up until it finds an outlet by embodying itself in some appropriate act or motion of the body. Even slight and transient feelings require action in order to their full and adequate expression.

33:08 Then he goes on to elaborate. This language, he then says, is universally understood. And he illustrates and demonstrates it. Then his next axiom, by gesture the speaker is enabled to express his sentiments to the eye at the same time that by his words he expresses them to the ear.

33:30 His thoughts are expressed to the eye as his words are addressed to the ear. And then again he indicates that because of the faculties that God has given us in this area, the art of pantomime is capable of exciting a powerful interest and deaf mutes are able to communicate by signs alone. And then he makes this very important observation. It's his third major axiom under this.

34:02 Gesture is expressive of passion and emotion rather than of thought. Gesture is expressive of passion and emotion rather than of thought. This is a general principle and one of great importance in determining the character, place and frequency of the gestures which are required in public speaking. Emotion rather than thought is the immediate cause of gesture.

34:36 Gesture corresponds to the nature of emotion rather than to that of thought. And then he goes on to lay out some of his general principles. I hope to have some of this material copied for you as well. Then he goes down to show how the countenance speaks, how the hands speak and the whole man is engaged in the act of speaking.

The Diversity and Variety of Legitimate Physical Action in Preaching

34:58 Well, so much for that first heading then, the legitimacy and function of physical action in preaching. Now then, let's take up secondly the diversity and variety. The diversity and variety of legitimate physical action in preaching. Having dealt with its legitimacy, now the diversity and variety of physical action in preaching.

35:32 Any treatment of the subject that aims at specific rules which would result in detailed regulatory guidelines is doomed to fail at the outset. The broad factors relative to cultural habits and tastes render some categories quite inappropriate in differing cultural settings. Add to that the differences of personality, physical stature, native energy, individual temperament in each individual preacher within a given cultural framework and here again, there must be great liberty allowed and great diversity expected.

36:17 Perhaps Spurgeon's remarks are most helpful in this regard. Page 281 in his lectures to my students. As most of you know, he has a chapter on posture, action and gesture. This is what Spurgeon says on page 281.

36:37 In this matter, saying that our physical action should not be excessive, bodily exercise profiteth little. We cannot readily judge when action is excessive for what would be excessive in one man, may be most fitting and proper in another. Different races employ different action in speaking. Two Englishmen will talk very quietly and soberly to one another compared with a couple of Frenchmen.

37:05 Notice our Gallic neighbors. They talk all over and shrug their shoulders and move their fingers and gesticulate most vehemently. Very well then, we may allow a French preacher to be more demonstrative in preaching than an Englishman because he is so in his ordinary speech. I am not sure that a French theologian is so as a matter of fact, but if he were so, it could be accounted for by the national habit.

37:31 If you and I were to converse in the Parisian fashion, we should excite ridicule. And in the same way, if we were to become violent, violent, violent, violent, violent, violent, violent, violent, violent, violent, violent, violent, violent, violent, violent, violent and vehement in the pulpit, in… If we were to become violent and vehement in the pulpit, we might run the same risk. For as Addison be an authority, English speakers use fewer gestures than those of other countries, as it is with races so it is with men. Some naturally gesticulate more than others and if it be really natural,

38:13 we have little to find fault with. Well you see brethren, within our own cultural framework, own cultural framework. God has put some of us together in such a way that from our infancy we always talked with our fingers and with our eyebrows and with every faculty of our being. Well, should that suddenly be neutered or set aside because we stand in the pulpit? Of course

38:37 not. So that in this whole matter we must at the outset establish that there will be great diversity and variety of physical action in preaching. In a totally secular book used as a freshman textbook in speech by one of my relatives who has taught speech at the university level, there's an excellent statement here under the heading of individual differences in the use of gestures. The frequency and kind of gesture used depend upon the particular speaker and the circumstances of the speaker.

39:14 There are individual differences as well as cultural and possibly racial differences. Persons with large vocabularies and relatively fluent speech would seem to have less need for gesture than persons with more limited vocabularies and less fluent speech. Voluble persons usually talk with an abundance of gesture as well as an abundance of audible words. Gestures appropriate to some public speakers, appropriate to some public speakers, may be most inappropriate to others. A medium-sized man on a public platform might emphasize a point

39:53 by banging his fist on the speaker's stand. The same gesture by a short person might seem ludicrous. He's reaching up to bang. For a tall, heavyset person to bang on a speaker's stand might constitute a threat. See, he's already, his presence is imposing. Cultural differences

40:13 become apparent when we contrast the frequent and generous use of gestures by the southern Europeans with the more restrained use of gestures by the northern Europeans. The French, Italians, and Spanish people as a group are much freer in their use of gestures than are the inhabitants of the Scandinavian countries. The differences are more likely cultural than racial. And then he goes on to make the same observation as a totally secular speech teacher, as McElvain, Spurgeon, Broadus, and all of the others have made.

Regulative Principles: General Guidelines - Forget Yourself, Be Yourself

40:50 So, having addressed ourselves to the legitimacy and function of physical action, we must keep in mind the diversity and variety of physical action in preaching, and we cannot set up any iron-clad rule book as to what is appropriate and to what is inappropriate. Now then, we come to what is really the heart of the lecture, Roman numeral 3, some regulative principles concerning physical action in preaching.

41:26 Some regulative principles concerning physical action in preaching.

41:32 Now, as we come to this division of our study, I remind you of our two cardinal texts, 1 Corinthians 14.26, let all things be done unto edifying, and Galatians 5.23, the fruit of the Spirit is self-control. Now, I want to give you some general guidelines, then I'm going to give you some specific guidelines for the more naturally animated among us, and then thirdly, some specific guidelines for the less naturally animated among us.

42:05 All right? So, under this heading of Regulative Principles, number one, General Guidelines.

42:15 Here's the first. Perhaps no principle is of greater importance than expressed in the simple couplet, Forget yourself, be yourself. Forget yourself, be yourself. The idea behind this advice is that as an ideal, we ought to seek such total absorption with the burden of our message,

42:44 such total preoccupation with the delivery of that message, that no conscious thought, whatever, is given. to physical action.

42:59 Whatever action grows out of that absorption with the message, and with that preoccupation with delivering the message, that physical action is probably the proper kind and measure.

43:21 Forget yourself, be yourself. So forget yourself that you are totally absorbed and preoccupied with the message, and you are not fully absorbed in the message, and you are not fully absorbed in the message, and with the determination to deliver it, accurately engaging those before you as you do, then whatever comes, let it come. Forget yourself, then be yourself. Alexander, on page 30, note number 47.

43:52 On page 30, paragraph number 47 says, on this matter of animation, Every man may be said to have his, a quantum of animation, beyond which he cannot go without forcing himself and appearing affected. Hence, to exhort a young man to be more animated is perhaps to mislead and to spoil him, unless you mean to inculcate the cultivation of inward emotion. You see what he's saying? Exactly what McElvain said.

44:30 Animation is the fruit of the emotion which attends, our thought. So if a man is not animated enough, it's probably that he's not feeling deeply enough. So go to the root issue. Say, brother, you're not feeling what you're saying, and it's evident in the manner in which you say it.

44:49 Your total lack of animation is either that you have learned how to project a lie, the lie being, I am feeling nothing as I speak, in which case, don't lie while speaking truth. And if you're feeling it, let it be shown in the manner of your speaking. Let your hands speak truth as well as your mouth.

45:12 Let your whole humanity speak truth. It is better, therefore, to let nature work, even though for the time the delivery is tame, than to generate a manner only rhetorically and artificially warm, which is hypocrisy.

45:28 Very, very wise statement. Excellent insights into both the psychology as well as the theory. Theology of animation. So forget yourself and then be yourself.

45:44 Spurgeon underscores this on page 279 when he writes as follows.

45:52 Unstudied gestures to which you never turned your thoughts for a moment are the very best. And the highest result of art is to banish art and leave the man as free to be graceful as the gazelle. Upon the mountains.

46:12 Did you ever see pictures of a little doe after it's born and just beginning to learn to walk? Very awkward and stilted. Until walking and running become as natural as breathing. Well, that's what he's saying.

46:28 That we must aim at that element of naturalness. Dabney again, the rather, what we would say, doughty Presbyterian. One whose demeanor and the rest as we read his biography would not seem to be one that would be characterized by passion that would show itself. But he observes, let him, that is the preacher,

46:57 now so master his subject by faithful preparation when about to preach that he shall be thoroughly at ease touching his command over it. And let him also master his self-importance, his conceit, his lust of applause, so as to forget himself in his sacred task. Let him throw himself into his topic without taking care for gesture. And gesture will take care of itself.

47:29 Forget yourself, be yourself. Be absorbed in the message. I would testify to you, I pray you note my testimony, that constraint, awkwardness, exaggeration in the rhetorical action usually proceed from one or more of the following. There are both of these two causes.

47:46 The embarrassment of the mind from the consciousness of deficient preparation and mastery of the subject or the embarrassment of self-love from overweening concern about one's own appearance. Let your heart be right, your preparation be adequate, and your previous social training will suggest the right gestures. Forget yourself, be yourself. All right?

Regulative Principles: General Guidelines - Never Premeditate or Force Action

48:13 The second principle, under general guidelines. The second principle is never premeditate any specific physical action. Never premeditate any specific physical action or force such action while preaching.

48:39 Never premeditate, that's prior to preaching, nor force while preaching. Never premeditate any physical action or conscious action. Now, it is a bad theology of preaching that practices or encourages any premeditated physical action or any conscious engagement in this or that action while preaching.

49:15 Dabney writes as a sound theologian and a sagacious observer of the realities of human nature when he says on page 323 and you just see if this doesn't strike a note in your own mind that you have to say amen to.

49:33 You may ask me, should not the preacher study to possess this power, that is the power of appropriate gesture? I answer yes, by all means. But it's the wrong time to study it when you're in the actual delivery of your discourse. Because unless the looks and hands speak the unstudied language of nature in their pantomime, they are false and displeasing.

49:59 And furthermore, how can your mind be preoccupied with truth if you're wondering, this is the place where I'm supposed to speak loud and raise my voice. This is the place where I'm supposed to whisper and drop my voice and turn to the right or turn to the left. No, never premeditate any physical action or consciously force such action while actually preaching. The broadest likewise exhorts on page 507 on the other hand, never make any gesture from calculation.

50:34 It must be the spontaneous product of present feeling or it is unnatural and has but a galvanized life. He who declaims or even thinks over his address beforehand and arranges that here or there he will make such a gesture will inevitably mar his delivery at that point by a fault. Were he, and this must have been a well-known actor in that day, Edward Everett himself. And then he goes on to say that when you have teachers of preachers who advocate this that they greatly err.

51:12 Now brethren, may I give my own testimony that I only did this one time in my life and that's all it took and I shall never forget it as long as I live.

51:22 I was 19 years old, student pastor of a little mission work down in Augusta, Georgia. And it was at this time, at the end of the year because I was preaching an Easter message and as I was thinking through the message I remember in my preparation thinking, albeit a very brief period of time that I would deliberately in describing the crucifixion and the subsequent taking down of the form of our Lord and laying him in the tomb gradually bring my voice down to a whisper and then pause and when I spoke of the resurrection just let out all the stops and I'll never forget to my dying day as long as I live. Because I have memory that when I did that in the pulpit

52:06 I felt like a man should feel who had just sold his virtue in a whorehouse.

52:14 I felt filthy, unclean. I wanted to run and hide and never open my mouth again. And I said, Oh God, I shall never, never as long as I live premeditate physical action.

52:32 And by the grace of God God has helped me to stick to that. So when the accusations come and they've come all through the years Oh, he's an actor he's histrionic and all the rest Brethren, they don't stick for one millisecond. I know how God immunized me as a 19-year-old kid and that shot has never worn off.

52:53 Would to God I could have learned it some other way. I hope you never feel as filthy and dirty in the pulpit as I felt that morning. I felt filthy. And I said, God, never again.

53:04 Never again. Never again.

Regulative Principles: General Guidelines - Eliminate Distracting Mannerisms

53:09 The third general principle is The third general principle is this. And we're going to state it both negatively and positively.

53:25 Negative to rid yourself of all distracting incongruous non-edifying physical mannerisms.

53:39 That's the negative. You're going to seek to rid yourself of all distracting incongruous non-edifying non-edifying physical mannerisms.

54:00 Now, what are the more common distracting physical mannerisms? Well, nervous gestures.

54:09 People that all the while they're preaching twiddle their hands or pick the side of their finger or do some other distracting. And in that way people's eyes are impeding what their ears are getting. Well, if you have some distracting physical gesture such as twiddling the hands the fidgets twitching of the shoulders some men have a terrible habit all the while they're preaching. You'd think they had a a fly crawling down the back of their shirt.

54:36 You want to just stop and say, brother if you've got an ant there stop, I'll go in there and squash him and pull him out. But nervous gestures you see that just terribly distracting. I mean, a man may have tremendous richness of thought but if he's got the twitches in his shoulders it's awfully hard to pay attention. And then with some it's what I would call the incongruent actions.

54:58 A man, this pleading with people to come to Christ with closed fists that's incongruous. He's speaking the freeness of God's mercy and he's got his chest constricted and his fist in.

55:12 Or a Spurgeon so typical Spurgeonic he spoke of the man who was urging people to seek the city which is above and while he is speaking of the glories of heaven he's pointing down in the other direction. Incongruous actions where the action is not appropriate to the word. And then of course there are grotesque actions and Spurgeon again speaks to this in his second lecture on posture, gesture, etc. Actions that are grotesque they are totally out of character with the overall seriousness and solemnity of pulpit themes or there are strained actions

55:56 actions that go far beyond the weight or the passion of the thought.

56:04 It's in gestures what it is in words when an 18 year old visiting preacher stands up and in the presence of men old enough to be his grandfather addresses a congregation where he's a visiting preacher and says my beloved you know you just say hey kid it doesn't fit in your mouth it's just incongruous and it's strained it's excessive. Well in terms of this matter of our goal it should be negatively speaking to rid us of the of all distracting physical actions. Now some men may speak with such profound richness of thought

56:47 force of vocal power and vividness of imagery as to neutralize their oddities of physical action. But don't assume that you have all these qualities and that you can get away without cutting off these incongruous incongruous actions these nervous actions these grotesque actions which will underscore your true usefulness. Spurgeon quotes Homer writing on Ulysses on page 273 and this is what was said Homer would appear to have considered the entire absence of gesture to be no detriment

57:32 to eminent power in speech for he pictures one of his greatest heroes as entirely adjuring it though not without some sense of censure from his audience and this is a translation of Homer but when Ulysses rose in thought profound his modest eyes he fixed upon the ground as one unskilled or dumb he seemed to stand nor raised his head nor stretched his sceptered hand but when he speaks what elocution flows soft as the fleeces of descending snows and the wind the copious accents fall with easy art melting they fall

58:16 and sink into the heart wondering we hear and fixed in deep surprise our ears refute the censures of our eyes in other words we're moved beyond what we would expect from a man who stood with his eyes down and spoke well if his words had such an impression in the total absence of the words of physical gesture how much more would they have had if they were clothed with appropriate gesture and that's the point that Spurgeon makes so seek to rid yourself of distracting physical actions that's the negative

Regulative Principles: General Guidelines - Be Liberated from Inhibitions

59:01 and then the positive here's the positive side of this third general principle make it your goal to be liberated from all inhibitions and reservations which would rob you would rob your delivery I'm sorry which would rob your delivery of its optimum forcefulness you want to rid yourself of the distracting but then your goal is to be liberated from all inhibitions reservations which would rob your delivery

59:45 of its optimum forcefulness sin culture examination and the like of it all would be the same thing and I'm sure you've seen a lot of examples training have all influenced all of us and somewhere along the line we've picked up some inhibitions some reservations from which we need to be delivered and we are Christ's free men 1 Corinthians 7 23 you were bought with a price be not the servants of men but as a servant of God if ever Romans 6 is true present your members instruments of righteousness unto God it's when we present all the members of our body to be liberated from anything that would inhibit them from being

60:29 optimum in their forcefulness in the proclamation of God's truth alright so there are the three general guidelines forget yourself be yourself never premeditate or consciously force physical action make your goal to rid yourself of the distracting and to be liberated from all that would inhibit you