ANECDOTES OF ROBERT HALL.

North Otago Times, Volume I, Issue 12, 12 May 1864, Page 2 (Supplement)

ANECDOTES OF ROBERT HALL.

The " Life of the Rev. Dr. Liefchild," just published, gives some fresh anecdotes of the famous Baptist preacher. Dr. Liefchild writes in his diary : — "I contrived to hear him often on Thursday evenings preceeding the Ordinance Sunday, and was always delighted and edified. We went to a great number of anniversary services, and I enjoyed much of his conversation. At first, I fancied it would be difficult to preach before him ; but I found him to be so kind and candid, and sometimes even commendatory, that at length the difficulty wore off. I learnt from him that most of his great sermons were first worked out in thought and inwardly elaborated in the very words in which they were delivered. Thus they were held so tenaciously in the memory, that he could repeat them verbatim at the distance of years. He ridiculed the delusion of those who supposed that the perorations of his sermons were delivered impromptu, observing that ' they were the most carefully studied parts of the whole discourse.' We were present, together with several ministers, at the opening of Mr Hare's new chapel, at Bedminister, on which occasion Dr. Chalmers preached the morning sermon. In the course of it he took occasion to commend ornamental building, and described most vividly the beauty of a landscape with its village spire pointing to heaven. When we all dined together afterwards, Dr. Chalmers was thanked for his admirable discourse, to which Mr Hall expressed only a qualified assent. Some of us who were near him pressed him to say what he really thought about the part on village spires, when he simply said, ' Apocryphal, sir, apocryphal ' The preacher in the evening not boing a favorite with Mr Hall, he begged to be left to himself in the hoiise. After a long service we returned, and I asked him if he did not feel weary of solitude. ' No, sir,' he replied, ' I have been well occupied ; I have read the whole of Dr Watts' Psalms and Hymns through, j quite through, sir, every one of, them, sir — a thing I have never done before, nor even thought of doing — every one of them, sir, I assure you.' He observed respecting a sermon preached by a Baptist minister at Broadmead Chapel, on the discouraging signs and then the encouraging ones in the present condition of Christianity in this country, that it reminded him ' of a man driving two pigs to market, when one every now and then got behind the other, until the man, whipping them up alternately, brought them both in together to market. A friend of my father's and of Mr Hall communicated the following observations to the former. These were his observations on three sermons which he and I heard many years ago :— ' Well, Mr Hall, what do you think of the first sermon, the morning one ?' His reply was. ' Horrid, sir, horrid ; very much like death upon a broomstick,' ' But you surely don't think so of the second sermon ?' ' Very tame, sir, very tame indeed ; verymuch like the chirping of a sparrow in Windsor Forest.' ' But what do you say of Mr Fuller's sermon, sir ?' ' Oh he embowelled tke text, and showed us all that was in it.' He could be blunt, and almost insulting. A Baptist minister of Bristol, who had travelled with him in Wales, where they had heard Christmas Evans, a celebrated Welsh preacher, was listening to Mr Hall's vivid description of the power of that man's address, appearance, and preaching. ' But, sir,' observed his companion, ' you remember that he had but one eye.' ' One eye, sir!' exclaimed Mr Hall, « why, sir, if I had a thousand eyes such as yours, I would give them all for that one.' He often expressed himself extravagantly, and as some would think profanely ; but this arose from the force of his conceptions. Once, referring to the difficulty of finding a dwelling-house in all respects pleasing to his wife, he said to me with seriousness, 'I believe, sir, if a council were called in heaven, with Gabriel as the chief, they couldn't suit Mrs Hall with a house. I do believe it, sir.'