The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-01-20 00:00:00

SERMON BY DR. GUTHRIE.

The famous Presbyterian minister, Dr. Guthrie, preached
fu..l.oudon last Sunday alteruoon, at the Agricultural hall,

Islington.
With no reference to any text of Scripture, Dr.
Guthrie began by summing up the imputations which
were cut on his Master, and said there was one from
which he did not recoil. The Pharisees had declared
Him to be a blasphemer, to be a glutton and a
wine-bibber, to be a rebel against Ccesar and
Cmaar'a crown. And they had said, "This man
receiveth sinners." To the last imputation he re-
plied assentingly with the touching story ‘of
.the
Prodigal Son. Dwelling on the lowliness of ( hnst s
life, the preacher said it Was pardonable to think of
such words as those addressed to Elijah, "What dost
thou here?" as being addressed to Jesus. In the car-
penter's shop the Maker of the World, making ploughs
for neighbouring rustics, might have heard an angel's
voice saying, " Son of the Most High, what dost
Thou here?" With a great deal of human tender-
ness that would win from less ready believers
than those who listened to him assent to harder
truths, Dr. Guthrie proceeded to talk—his style of
oratory is the colloquial without lack of dignity—
concerning Christ's love for those who most need
love. It is not easy to give an adequate impression of
Dr. Guthrie's command over a large body of hearers
by repeating his words. Though the rhetoric is of no
mean order, much of the effect is also due to intona-
tion, and even to that Scottish accent which is of the
deliberate and emphatic kind that will sometimes
make Southerners doubt whether the best English,
after all, is not spoken by the Scotch. Dr. Guthrie's
eloquence, moreover, has the force which only
an impulsive earnestness can give. It is true
vital speech that rolls from soul to soul, like
Tennyson's bugle-echo. A printed sermon by Dr.
Guthrie is, no doubt, vastly inferior to any one
of Butler's sermons in the Rolls Chapel; but Dr.
Guthrie has a great advantage over Butler, in being
alive, and, consequently, able to talk saving truths to
people who will listen to but will not read them. New
who listened on Sunday afternoon will forget the grand
voice and noble diction, the manner and the matter.
"What chat thou here ? " he quoted again and again.
Where should the soldier be, but in the din, and male,
and blood of battle? Where should the Saviaur be,
but with sinners? Sinners! It was that word on
which Dr. Guthrie built one of his finest and least
expected structures of eloquence. Having shown that
the devised publican was an offcast of male society,
he briefly reminded his audience that the sinners
mostly pointed at were women. With an unaffected
tenderness that was in the highest degree manly, and
that was not the less so for the sorrowful rebuke of
sin, Dr. Coithiie spoke of these sinners, and drew tears
from the eyes of their innocent sisterhood. He
preached humility, gentleness, compassion. You who
would lie in Jesus' bosom, he said at the end of his
address, must first lie at Jesus' feet; and happy those
who lie havest there—as low an that sinner who washed
them with her tears and dried them with her hair.
When the discourse was finished, and the immense
congregation was dispersing, after a final hymn, many
friends pressed round the preacher to shake hands and
to thank him.