The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1844-05-10
OTTAWA, ILLINOIS, FRIDAY, MAY 10, 1914.


groans, and sobs, and shrieks of the con-
gregaiion.
|. was sometime before the tumut sub.
sided so far as to permit him to proceed.
- Indeed, judging by the usual but la!la-
cious STANDARD of my own weakness, !
began to be very uneasy for the situation
of the preacher. For could not conceive
how he would be able to let his audience
down from the height to which he had
wound them. without impairing the sol
lemni,y and dignity Of the subject, or per-
haps shocking them by the abruptness of
his fall. But-no the descent was as
beautiful and sublime as The elevation had
been rapid and enthusiastic.
The first sentence with which he broke
the awful silence, was quotation from
Rousseau - Socrates edHke dphii0sO-
pier, bit Jesus Christ like Il COR
despair of giving you any idea Of the
effect produced by this short sentence,
unless you could perfectly conceive the
whole manner of the man, as well
as the peculiar crisis in the discourse.
Never before did completely understand
what Demoslhenes ment by laying SO
much stress on delivery.
You are 10 bring before you the vener-
able figure of the preacher; his blindness
constantly calling to your recollection old
II,n,,, n,c;,, ,n, NIil,nn opI ,cSooi,t
ing with his performance the melancholy
grandure Of their geniuses ; you are to
imagine you hear slow, solemn, well
accented enuncialons, and his voice Of
affecting, trembling, melody you are To
remember the pitch Of passion and enllu-
sasm to which the congregation was rails
ed and the few moments of poien,ous,
dea,h-like silence, which reigned through
ont the house; the preacher removing his
white handkerchief from his aged face,
even ye, wet from the recent torrent oil
his tears, and slowly stretching forth his
palsied hand which held it, begins the
sen,ence-'Socar,es died like a philoso-
pher'-lhen pausing and raising his other,
with warmth and energy, to his breast, llf-
ing his 'sighlless balls TO heaven. and
pouring his whole soul into his tremu-
lOus voice bu. Jesus Chris,--like
God =
If he had been in deed and in truth an
angel Of light, the cflec, could scarcely
have been more divine. Whatever had
been able to conceive Of the sublemity of
Messlon or the force Of Boerdaloue, had
fallen far short of the power which | felt
from the delivery CT this simple SEN
ience.
If This description gives you the impress
sion that this Incompatible minister had
any thing of shallow theatrical trick in
his manner, j, does him grea. injustice
! have never seen in any orator such
union of simplicity and majesty. lie has
not a gesture, an attitude, or an accent. TO
winch he does not seem forced Ivy the
sentiment lie is expressing. His mind is
TOO serious, too earnest, too s0llcltous.
and at the same .Ime, too dignllied to
sloop To ariiiice.
Although MS far removed from austen
taUnn as man can be, yet ii is clear,
from the train. the style and substance Of
his thought, tina, he is not only polite
scholar, but man Of profound education!
| was lorcibly struck with short yet
beautiful character which he drew Of your
learned and able couniryman, Sir Robert
Boyle he spoke of him rs if his noble
mind had, even before death. Invested it,
self of all influence lrcm his frai ,aberna-
Gle of llesh,' and called him, in his pecu-
liary emphatic and impressive manner.
pure intelligence lux between men
and angels
This man has been before my imagin
alton almost ever since. A thousand
times. as rode along, dropped the
reigns of my bride. and slreached forth
my hands. and tried to initiate his quota
from Rousseau ana Thousand times |
abandoned the altemp, in despair, and felt
persuaded that his peculiar manner and
power arose from an energy of soul
which nature could not give, but which
no being could justly copy. As ] recall,
at this moment, several Of his awfully
striking attitudes. the chilling tide, with
which my blood began to pour along my
arteries, reminds me Of The emotions pro-
duced by the first sight of Gray's intro
ductory picture of his Bible.