Non-fiction: Sermons by Mr. Yorick (First Series)

Overview
Laurence Sterne's Sermons by Mr. Yorick (First Series), published in 1760, gathers a selection of sermons delivered and revised by the author under the theatrical persona of "Mr. Yorick." The collection presents religious instruction shaped by Sterne's ear for speech and his novelist's taste for digression, making moral discourse feel like intimate conversation rather than formal liturgy. The voice is pastoral and human, aiming to instruct without alienating a lay readership.
The sermons move between earnest spiritual counsel and moments of lightness, revealing a preacher who neither shrinks from moral gravity nor renounces the consolations of wit. They reflect Sterne's belief that the preacher's task is to touch conscience and feeling as much as to teach doctrine, addressing ordinary listeners with familiar imagery, anecdotes, and direct appeals to sympathy.

Themes and Tone
Central themes include mortality, charity, repentance, the examen of conscience, and the cultivation of humility and benevolence. Sterne treats these topics with an emphasis on inward disposition rather than abstract theological speculation, urging readers to practical goodness and softened hearts. The sermons frequently call attention to the fragility of life and the ethical demands of Christian fellowship.
Tone oscillates between tender earnestness and playful asides; solemn admonition is often undercut or enhanced by unexpected metaphors and a storyteller's dramatic timing. This mix of gravity and levity does not trivialize the religious message but aims to make moral points more accessible and emotionally resonant for an eighteenth-century parish audience.

Style and Rhetorical Method
The rhetorical method blends homiletic conventions with the digressive, conversational style associated with Sterne's fiction. Sentences often mimic spoken cadences, addressing listeners directly and inviting them to share in reflections rather than merely submit to instruction. Short narratives, vivid similes, and self-deprecatory remarks humanize the preacher and invite identification.
Sterne frequently uses irony and paradox to unsettle complacency, prompting readers to reexamine received notions of piety and propriety. The pulpit persona of Yorick allows him to play with theatricality and to adopt a sympathetic, sometimes wry, perspective that softens rebuke and sharpens moral insight through engagement rather than authority.

Historical Context and Reception
Emerging from an era when sermons were a principal vehicle for public moral education, these discourses reflect both Anglican pastoral concerns and the cultural taste for sensibility. Sterne's dual identity as clergyman and novelist made him uniquely positioned to translate sentimental sensibilities into spiritual exhortation, meeting readers who expected moral consolation alongside polished prose.
Contemporary reception was mixed: many readers appreciated the humane, accessible tone and the refreshing departure from dry scholastic homiletics, while some critics faulted the theatricality and occasional levity in matters of faith. Over time the sermons contributed to Sterne's reputation as a writer who blurred boundaries between literature and religious address.

Legacy and Continuing Interest
Sermons by Mr. Yorick illustrates how eighteenth-century sermonizing could intersect with literary artistry, influencing later preachers and authors who sought a conversational and compassionate pulpit voice. The collection remains of interest to readers studying the history of preaching, the period's sensibility, and the ethics of sentimental literature.
Beyond historical curiosity, the sermons still speak to readers seeking practical moral reflection couched in humane diction. They offer a model of religious persuasion that privileges sympathy, narrative, and moral imagination, demonstrating how a preacher's personality can shape spiritual appeal without abandoning doctrinal concern.