The National Register. — London, England, 1814-06-26 00:00:00

411 ebe Formality in pray'r And the dull service cf the hp, were there! COWPER. .7. R. PITMAN, 8.. A. MORNING PREACIII.It AT B::!KKELEY AND FITZROY CHAPELS. • When the late celebrated Mr. Windham was at Bois-le. Due, in the year 179-4, a Dutch clergyman, mistaking our use of the word minister, put various questions to him re specting the state of religion in England; and, being par ticularly anxious to ascertain how the English Preachers ,• manufactured their sermons," was much disappointed on discovering that Mr. Windham could give him no specific information on this point. Curiosity of this description was mot illaudabie in this clergyman. hlad our own countryman been in reality a minister of the church, however, and not of the state, he would still have experienced some difficulty in conveying to his clerical interrogator an adequate concep tion of the different ways in which bermons were manufac tured among the divines of his own age and country. There is, perhaps, as great diversity of operation with regard to preaching as to poetry, in which, agreeably to Cowller, the gradation runs— Film - him who rears a . poem lank awl long, 'Vu hin► who straini his all into a song. In their construction, sermons, as well a; poems, admit of la!itude and variety, and exhibit very disisimilar j as they are either the productions. of grave and le:lilted clerks,' i)r (Ise the compositions of those mote " cletics, who. will 'a round of ladyships,' and exposed to nther 66 incidental annoyances," are thus compelled !(-) con sume the hours that should be engrosed !iy their studies, if Jiot devoted to their charge, in !.ur , nits more befitting their elevated stations in the world of fashion. _ " It has long and justly been complained," observes preacher, " that ierrins are less read than tales," 1-:espect ing the justice of this ectnolaint, men tt , av be left to decide each as he think , fit but it really m.,uld appear, amongst many other improvements, that tales are about to be pro posed, if not as the basis of them, at least as allowable appendages to certain kinds of sermons. Ours are, indeed, mew times. Every day, nay hour, has given birth to some thing out of the ordinary course; and years will in all proba bility elapse before we shall fairly .return to that sob , icy of thinking, and that sedateness of acting, which formerly dis tinguished us above all nations. It may have been owing to thi; late rage for novelty, perhaps, that we are at length Livoured with new vehicles for theological instruction, en titlgd Samortets," pt ofessedlv calculated for and "addressed to Those who Thee Nut 2/et acquired, or IVA° may Mee Lost, theinelination to appt'y the power cf ,zittntion to Compositions of a Higher Kind." Addressed, in the first instance, to those who have not yet acquired the capacity to profit by the perusal of sterling divinity,—fottned, •secondly, for the purpose of alluring those who pay have lost the inclination to apply the power of attention to compositions worthy of the pulpit;—being de signed, in short, for " those who arc not in the habit of ieading a grownup sernion,"—no religious man, with ,phis avowal as jr the oljeet of the " Sermonets," by the Authors of them, will he altogether surprised to fin& what otherwise might wc!l have astonished him, that they arc uniformly en livened anecdotes, - which are appended to each sermonet. Slice tales, it appears, are IllorC read than sermons, there is THE N-ATIONAT, REGISTER. .1 I NF. 26' some chance That sermons - may get 'more read for the sake (,f the tales thus attached to them. Anecdotes and divinity trot hand-in-hand I And where, say some, is the harm ? Un thinking teligionists can see nothing ominous in such theo logical innovations. While, however, we have got the art of making grave things light, we have got the knack, also, of making light things grave. Philosophy and politics, as well as divinity, have fearfully attested our morbidness of taste and superficiality of intellect. JOHN ROGERS llvrmarr, B. A. originally from Chrht College, Cambridge, and some time Curate of Hackney, but At present alternate Morning Preacher at Berkeley and Fitz , roy Cbapels, seems likely to take no Lima' ked station among the more polished preachers of his day ; and, though he " has hitherto escaped tie notice" of the writer of this work, appeals on the whole entitled to his portion of such cleiieal distinction as these rages may be supposed calculated to confer upon the respective candida'es for pulpit fame. Preaching will commonly prove more efficacious than reading. This consideration is practically admitted by the present preacher, as far as preaching can be combined with mere reading ; since, although his sermons arc written, he labours to give them, throughout his deli v Ty, the fascination of extemporary grace. Ills " utterance" is not merely free from constraint, but pei fectly disembariassed ; and his action is not only easy and gtaceful, but also impressive, and even commanding. This preacher, too, has the advantages both of person and voice. Ills countenance is expressive; he is above the mid dle height; his voice is grave, flexile, and eircumsonant; and his evunciation is emphatically clear. Advantages of this desel ipt ion are not hastily to he under valued. Their et re( t may t o witnessed in the preaching of the clergyman now before Its; who, however. is open to le . proof for his partial failure in that unity of decorum which to peculiarly belongs to the pulpit. Let an anecdote illus trate this. When the late Bev. Thomas Spencer was preaching at Jcwin Stick, early in his cat eer, he, one after noon, took the two low:e steps, at once, in ascending the pulpit stairs. One of this young preacher's Weeds, joinin g him after the service, said—' Did you notice the manner of your going into the pulpit ?' • I did,' replied Spencer, ' and thought you would also : it was inadveitent, but it was wrong. It did not become the solemnity of the place. I never remember such a circums.ance before ; and,' added the preacher, will be more guarded in future.' Some time after this, says Spencer's friend, an aged Christian obset ved to me—' I loved Spencer's sermons ; hut there was a light ness about him.' A lightnecs !' rejoined the former, • when and where did he diteover At our meeting (Jewin-street fleeting) in jumping up the pulpit stairs.' • Did you see it more than once ?" No.' 'Then, I can tell you that, tha t once, he felt and lamented it as deeply as you could; and lam sure that he never• repeated it. Is not that satisfactory ?" It is.' Now, though it cannot exactly be said, respecting Air. Pitman, that he takes two steps at once in ascending the pulpit stairs, or that he absolutely jumps up them, yet there is that trippingness in his manner of going into the pulpit, conveying an idea of lightness, which by no means comports with the solemnity of the cir cumstance, and is opposed to the general fitness of his de- • portment. With an highly cultivated taste, and an exquisitely po lished style, his fault is, that he continually rhetoricates—that he prefers the pi m of declamation to the impress of argu. melt ; and that, ai ning at gracefulness of diction, lie. i lavish of his incense to the idol deities of fancy or sfashion , Ilence it is that the preacher at one moment seems employe