It's a phrase that I've usually encountered in the past tense. Google Ngrams shows that in 1800 "held forth" was used about three times as frequently as "hold f

It's a phrase that I've usually encountered in the past tense. Google Ngrams shows that in 1800 "held forth" was used about three times as frequently as "hold forth" [1], but this ratio decreased as both uses became less common. [1]: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=held+forth%2Chold+forth&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cheld%20forth%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Chold%20forth%3B%2Cc0 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=held+forth%2Ch...