Pulpit Eloquence of the Seventeenth Century: A Lecture (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Pulpit Eloquence of the Seventeenth Century: A Lecture

Such demands as these are beginning to be heard far and wide over society in our Christian England; and not only are they heard, but they are also listened to, and their effect is becoming daily greater. For the most part, they are just and reasonable. It is true that, like all just and reasonable claims which become a popular cry, they are in danger ot being pushed to an extreme. You, perhaps, Christian young men, are in as much danger of doing this as any class among us. You love to hear what is lively, stirring, earnest; you do well. But forget not at the same time, that very much of what isto be done in the pulpit cannot, from its very nature, be thus lively and stirring, and outwardly earnest. What a lively, what a stirring sight is the laying the first stone of a house of prayer. All is liveliness, all is joy; the sun seems to shine brighter than usual, the work men wear their holiday dresses, the schools wave their banners; the great men of the county gather round, and their words do one good to hear: and so, amid the darkness and weakness and worldliness of humanity, that little new discovered isle of light is inaugurated. Great thoughts swell up in the bosom as we lie down that night, and it seems as if heaven had come down nearer to earth, and earth had risen nearer to heaven. Yet, my friends, from that night onwards, how much dull work has to be done, before any can pray in that temple. How many tlmes ln the dusk of the morning, in the noonday heat, in the wide shadows of the gleaming West, will the mortar-boy plod up the weary ladder, and the loaded cart discharge its rumbling l/\ mu.

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