THE LATE REV. DR. DAVIDSON.

Evening Star, Issue 2937, 18 July 1872, Page 4

THE LATE REV. DR. DAVIDSON.

Seldom has a minister attained so high and permanent a measure of popularity in his native place, and never has popularity been attained by more legitimate means. During the forty years of his ministry in Aberdeen, his energies had been devoted almost exc'usively to preparation for the pulpit, and the results of that preparation were never meretricious. His groat aim and his great success was the attainment of that plain, full, satisfying simplicity, which is, after all, (he highest achievement and the highest evidence of mental power. From the clearness of his expositions the hearer was often apt to lose consciousness of their depth. His great sphere was the pulpit. His preaching was enjoyed by a wonderful variety of persons. Judges and lawyers on the circuit rejoiced in the opportunity of hearing him for a single day. Students crowded to his ministry. His services were eigerly sought on every hand, and his sermons were treasured wherever they were preacl ed. The superiority of his preaching did not arise from the lustre of any single quality so much as from the happy combination of of many. For substance, it always kept close to the great central truths of Divine revelation. It was always biblical and practical, plain and pointed. In illustration he was often highly successful, and at the period to which the rec dlect ons of the present writer chiclly belong, be bad a large command of figurative language. The fervour and free outflow of his feelings were remarkable. They were not checked by his habit of reading his discourses, for he always threw his soul into them, aud as he went on the glow of feeling deepened. There was a steady cumulative power about his preaching —the momentum was always growing. It was always plain what he would be at, and ho went to his point with a firm, steady movement, carrying his audience with him.