KETCHES.

Observer, Volume 6, Issue 137, 28 April 1883, Page 89

KETCHES.

I^^^HoMAS SrUEGEON. j^^Hflking upon personal pfeto interrupt the conHBHBies, — commenced several a cant phrase among |^B|^Hitions are now favourable," hoping to be with greater system HH|B In doing so I intend to j^^^^Hnt plan, that I mentioned no settled order of the subject of each as fancy, inclination, or HHaVrnpt. Hence, there is no r comment as to this week's jlHHpon's settled residence in of a large congregation is H^Hgof accidental events. He H^^Sgh the Colonies for a dual of a holiday and the I^^^Hicate constitution — and he find its climate calculated IBBRist Church prospectively, if of a pastor ; and the H^^Bch or congregation urgently HBBfiH the anticipated vacancy. l^flHa he consented. His advent [^■Hiixed feelings. Very many the ability, influence and father, were prepared for Dj^S* son ; but there were others against him by reason of H^^Herences to his addresses down Hj^B^ual Improvement Associa—which smacked strongly and narrow bigotry. I my mind was not on the elapsed since then, and most of the prejudices so far, at least, as they HflH personality. He has led a taking no part in public HH fulfilling his clerical duties, for unswerving rectitude B^B^bility of disposition, and comH^Bwledgment of his undoubted HHieech, and persuasive, felicitous Hnlt, and of about the medium have a scholarly stoop, and rather elongated in HHner destitute of hirsute growth, appearance decidedly boyish, I^Hssed his 26th year. He dresses HHaing all the characteristic in|^Hstly office except the clerical for Sundays the broadHHrmal cut. On week days he I^Kg Paget instead of the sedate Hfcms to deriye much enjoyment HHexcursions upon his slrfek and J^Hr. It would be needlessly painHftLOst of Baptist maidens and their HBmmas to be told that the horse j^^Bi any of the said maidens ; yet [^BBitthe young pastor is still heartskilfully navigated through matrimonial entanglements, unwary feet. With one or |H»n he " bachelorises " at Mount housekeeper to attend to duties ; and if he is deB^Be ministerial qualifications, it is HHB^itation. Most people, who B^HB^natrons with marriageable j^Hrto engage attention, will be this failing with rather a comBRvith his function and character as Hit I am most concerned, and to I now address myself. He ■ogether with a sweet and full ■he faculty of facile expression, and \ H served to develop both gifts to B. His knowledge of elocution is Hmanifestly so, indeed. In either Biding his delivery is studied, each ■iculated so as to give its just value monent syllable, the phrases being Bed, and the passages given with a due Uiasis and their proper modulation fttic voice. There is no repellant ■straining after effect. Everything Rural. In oral delivery, Mr SpurBcid, and unhesitating. He has a ■ language, attractively Saxon in its ■Lhe never fails to select the right Repression of his ideas, while their H embellished and enforced by para■dotal illustration. In fact, his style If that of rhetorical exposition, and aye the same kind of action upon a I, welMnf ornied, and enquiring mind ii pastry upon an empty stomach. mv a bore. The matter may not be »ning or nutritious when it comes to ■ut the manner of serving it up is lasing. Let his text or subject be ■let his mood be as you will— he has ack of placing himself en rapport nee and of enchaining their interest, be places it before you in various bs its several shades of meaning, pe^Qus applications it will bear, and •fesspji it is designed, or he is anxious p|iib/an;. ordinary subject, he overlays fcanji of speech, picks out the ftj^iir, displays a quick eye for any rarely. fails to unburden j^^^lta^refiections. His sermons HHHHHktfie.'elucidation offchis, M e ' rarely

and admonishes, appeals to, and exhorts his congregation By turns, readily passing from one phase to another, and never impeded for want of words. In doctrine, he belongs to the extreme Evangelistic school, who work by means of revivals, and whose latest offshoot is the Salvation Army. The religion he holds and preaches is the very antithesis of that once expounded by the Key. S. Edgar, and now taught by his successor, the Rev. Thos. Hodgson, although they have their tenets much in common. Mr Hodgson's doctrine is liberal, spiritualised, educative and subjective ; Mr Spurgeon's is objective, narrow, and dogmatic, and is strongly charged with that kind of antinoniianisni which affirms that faith alone is necessary to salvation, and makes the moral graces of little account in comparison with it. He has had no experimental knowledge of scepticism, or the tendency and character of modern Scriptural criticism ; and, to judge by his pulpit deliverances, all these things are compacted and embodied for him in a terrible, malevolent, and God-defying ogre named Infidelity, who paralyses the judgment, distorts the vision, and wrecks the future happiness of those who fall into his toils. The young man has been brought up in a manner to ensure his orthodoxy ; he has been guarded against any acquaintance with heterodox literature, and he has been trained to a literal, unquestioning acceptation of Scripture. It matters not to him that science pronounces such and such things to be incredible and preposterous, or that it has become the fashion with ministers to surmount the difficulty by construing the adversely-criticised text in a symbolic way ; and he is equally oblivious to the results of literary and philological research and analysis upon the doctrine of inspiration. Polemics have no charms for him. He is dogmatic, not disputatious, and he has the organs of veneration and credulity abnormally developed. Nothing in the Bible has for him a secondary or latent meaning, and nothing is impossible of belief or repugnant to sense in the light of plenary inspiration. Scientific strictures on the impossibility of a universal deluge, and scientific pleasantry on the utter impracticability of the Noachian method of preserving the types of creation, are regarded as of as little account as disbelief in the Mosaic version of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and of the license obtained by his Infernal Majesty from Deity to torture and torment the patient Job ; while, with a strange forgetfulness of the Divine virtue of forgiveness, Elijah is praised for his ruthless slaughter of the fcur hundred priests of Baal; Saul is condemned for his manly reluctance to carry out a behest which commanded him to spare neither the women nor the helpless children of his adversaries ; and the lustful David is glorified as the man of God. Mr Spurgeon's doctrine is earthly, material, and sanguinary. He pursues the " good old rule, the simple plan " of threatening the terrors of Hell, and tempting our cupidity with the tangible benefits of Heaven, making belief in a Name the only price of salvation, and besmearing all his imagery with the gory hue of blood. In one memorable address, I heard him declare that the banner under which they (the elect) fought was streaming with blood ; that they themselves had washed in the same empurpled tide ; that they were wading kneedeep in it up to the throne of God ; and very much more to the same purport than I care to recollect. It was, in short, the apotheosis of blood. The young man has no conception of that higher spirituality which, with comprehensive breadth of vision, sees in all religions eternal truths, and discerns a gradual evolution of ideas tending to nobler beliefs and truer lives — that enlarged and tolerant spirituality which perceives that that religion is the best which works within the man, purifying his thoughts, ennobling his views, energising his spirit to the performance of work that will react beneficially for his fellows, and stimulating him to play his part bravely in his special sphere here below, untroubled by apprehensions of future pains or expectation of celestial rewards, but content to do good and be virtuous for goodness' and virtue's sakes alone. That Mr Spurgeon firmly believes what he preaches, I should be sorry to doubt. He is thoroughly earnest and conscientious ; so too, for the matter of that, are " Captain " Ted Wright and " Lieutenant " Johnny Bowerman of Salvation Army fame, but still the fact remains that he is narrow and sectarian to an exceptional degree, and that he has very little of that liberality of thought — that sturdy independence of criticism which impels young men to dare the scrutiny of old standards, old forms an(d old beliefs, over which the elder generation woulU fain preserve the veil of mysticism and the sacred. dust of superstitious regard. If our minds were all cast in the same mould as his, religion woulcj again be enclosed with the hedge of sacerdotalism-, Science would tremblingly stay her researches at the command of the Church, there would be btt,t one narrow road to Heaven, and Spurgeo"n woul^l be the chief guide, while the multitudes who crowd all the other avenues to better things ( would be preached down as hastening to damnation; a funereal gloom would overspread^ the social horizon ; concerts, balls, banquets, ancj. all recreation and junketting would be rigorously interdicted ; and a melancholy world wo'^uld await in sackcloth and ashes a miraculous inauguration of the long-deferred Millennium. c Mr Spurgeon is accused of being conceited ; fif the charge is true there is ample justifieaikm for . it. He has oratorical ability of which a youuy man might well be proud, and he lives oud breathes ie an atmosphere of incense which L'is Christian friends are never tired of offering up in his honour. No wonder, then, if his ideas | of himself should be rather exalted. But so/frc as I have been able to judge, conceit docs ,bot l betray itself in him to any inordinate extent. Afe ; anyrate, he adopts a tone of self-abasement iii his public speaking, and comports himself priv/ately with sufficient modesty and good sense. lin lif e and manners he will bear comparison wich his jj I brethren,! but in doctrine he is " cj^DbecLcat>ined " to a degree painf u^HßHfejmlate. HHH^Hk^d the age, but heflHßß^Hnd of l^^^^flSßßK^Jbis' share of