The National Register. — London, England, 1809-01-01 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER. 'lt POPULAR, PREACHERS. No. XXI. 'Tis pitiful To court a grin, when you should woo a soul; To break a jest, when pity should inspire Pathetic exhortation; and to address The skittish fancy with facetious tales, When sent with Gun's Cou►iuissiou W the lioart ! COW PI:R. IMP. ROWLAND HILL, M. A. U! SURRY CH' SM. 'WISDOM assures us there is a time for every thing. I wish, therelorc, that it. had fallen to my tot to characte rise the It KV. HOWLAN I) HILL when he was 1119 EC to listen to the sug.restions of observation, and more able to sustain critictl ; when years neither impaired his strength nor confirmed his opinions, and when family be reavements k n not particularly atfected his feelings. I *ay this unfeignedly. As a clergyman, I may disapprove of Mr. HA; but I an% induced to respect his private con duct, and to honour his social benevolence, The events of Mr. are too well known to re wire to be particularly detailed on this occasion. His lineal descent is highly respectable; and he was placed, at the proper age, in trainiug for the Christian ministry, agreeably to the discipline of the established church of these kingdonis. lie soon betrayed, however, an attach ment for v hat. was then generally stigmatised as methodism. revolted from the system for which he had been intend ed ; and, by this dorilectioa, incurred so much the displea sure of his relations, that we are informed, in Mr. Jay's of the Rev. Cornelius, Winter, he heCame, at one pe riod of his career, " a distressed gentl,eanan !"--Whether Olte InOves which induce d him to schism wereclearly con scientions, or whether he only preferred perwa.7%-ut popu larity to present property, forms no part of our immedi ate investigation, He " snared," as it was then consider • for righteousness sake ;" which. let it here be can • e:enuoted, ofVers no trivial evidence M favour of his slucerity. I do not deem it essential, to the purposes of this issquiry, to ascertain exim,i-tly yvhcii thc, Rev. hovlaud Hill first erected his, religions-", IteMnd *use," as his. place of wor ship hied been not unaptly• called ; uor dot think it at ail necessary to exhibit, were it in my power to procure, oue, an intelligible schedule of the ticketed seats of " Sorry Chapel." as the said " hound !lousy" is evangeli cally described. Speculation is not the business of the pre sent ilvquiry. I imagine; however, that Surry Chapel will not always coat vine so profit:Able! unto all things" as it may bitiicrto have proved. Novelty, ceases to attract its crowds to this evangelical octagon;, ancl the par. : gar' influence of its l'ountler whe,m there wi,ll not soon ► found :in adequate substitute, is now rapidty Like 'the late Mr. Menton, there is reason . to. apprehend that 31r. Hill inav outprfach, if not'aiso outlive, himself t Santilenvience, or. the elogneiace f the pulpit, is of so little value in the Judgment of this celebrated Preacher, that it is not to be suppo l / 2 ed he will pay the least degree of attention to anv observations of mine on his orato F ical qualifications. What 1 shall remark, therefore, can only benefit those who may wish to avoid the errors which so evidently belong to his system of preaching. 0( the .gyle of singing early adopted and still practised in his chapel, it mug with justice be asserted, in the versification . o Pope, flat The liTeQsiog thrills through alt th e , laboring throng;, And lleaven_is won b3—Violence of Song! p. crimp. it is owing to this " violence of song-,," as the poet by anticipation described it, that Mr. Hill is so sensi 'Me azitated when he enters his pulpit, and first surveys, in all directions, his surrounding congregation ; frequently dcwoustratiug, dun); this periud, by alternate moyeturts • t JAN. 1. of the hand or arm, how properly his mind is then engaged in imploring blessings on the people t Notwithstanding this display of pious prcciiion, there is, in this preacher, a neg ligence degenerating into slovenliness. Decorum really becomes the pulpit. It is painful, it is worse than - painful, to sec a divine, so placed, turn his back, the instalit he has finished his prayer, on the hearers; then, having pulled his robes into order, upon his cushion, rub his fate, feelihis mouth, and pi ck his hose, These things are not to be tolerated, Mr. ma gives his text very indistiactty, and almost inaudibly. The character of his discoerses is generally known;—sameness in substance, incoherent in arrange. meat, whimsical in illustration, commonly colloquial iR language, and abounding in strange flights of fancy, and apt but homourous stories. He absolutely tabours for his metaphors; and, in his zeal to lower himself to what he conceives to be the ".aptitude or capability" of his audi ence, he constantly mistakes - vulgarity for simplicity.— Let us try, from memory, some of those passages by which Mr. Hill's sermons are distinguished. He invariably professes a holy hatred againet play-Nausea. " \o man, indeed would go to a play-tionst," exclaimed Mr. 11 , "if he supposed it would be burnt down [mach smiling on the part of those who heard this, and who did not mistake his neat allusion to the conflagration in a certain part of Corent Garden !] or else fall down while he was there !" It is, I believe, equally notorious, tbat Mr.. Hill feels no great affection for the established Clergy of the Church of England.—" Sea t tle preachers," he lately signi ficantly observed to his hearers, " had need he Doctors e Divinity [he meant nothing uncourteous, let uncharitably think, towards Doctor (Shyer] in order to carry their non* sense down !" He shortly after declared, however, by way of concession to, or compromise with, other clergymen, " I don't blame those who must preach bad sermons, if they read good ones; for it is certainly better-to read good ones of other people's, than to preach bad ernes of their own" He, then, by no unnatural transition, began to descant o Village PFcaebing ; and preferred, for " this evangelical trork," men with less learning- in their heads than prase in their hearts," to all the dignified divines in existence.-- I should only spoil his description of these Pillage Mission.. cries, whose tabours are so piously seconded by the " money her," to record Mr. Ifitl's strong similie for begging, " frmn the London Mines," were iii attempted by meta retrace it on. paper. When other giik?y fellows are settio'ng out in their whiskeys, sabbatb after sabbaib, then it is that these simple souls, the Village Missionaries of the k". Loadoa Itinerant Society" start foe the " evangelizing work i" and, as ,Mr. llirremarketh, " what a comfortable employment it is for young men t"... While others are spending money, these are saving it a and, white others are whiskeying along the brood way that leadeth to destruction i these are socially trotting, two by two, the norrow path that must i*vitahly kart to blessed ness I So, at least, Mr. Ilill'Assures in not a most admirable recruitin-serjeant, is the service of the evan gelical - Mr. Hill's talent at exciting. serious merriment i able. 'tie does not content hies elf with standir4. 014. low ground qf free-will," nor dyes he 1041 g settle, on " the high ground free-grace;," but alights,. from Ls, ultuost spiritual altitude, and condesceads to notice " the great difference there is between getting over things anti getting into, things ;" between preachii evangelically, aud de claiming, in - the style of common preachers, tike the " sounding-brass," or the " Here, in deed, it was that Mr. Hill, much as he affects, to decry oratory in others, was himself completely oratorical mouthed the supposed sounding brass; and, like those pro. Pane girls who play the triangle throagh the streets of our metropolis, he most skilfully imitated, by the Inetionin ji tigers, the nature of the tin kit m hal. " I ant sure," said Mr. Hill, " that *hut they ea cotrt- TormitiQn„ and the rest of ris k clues more hap thaw good.":-", • • I • 11%. tWe z!I WY I 1 • • • 4 MOIR