American union. [volume] (Morgantown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1855-1859, 1857-08-07
iFnis LeSRoS RAGE,

at present, is not an actor, nor q
singer, nora political or parliamentary
orator, but Mr.. STURGEON, a preacher,
lie is thus described, in letter of the
Post from London:-- 83ss aB
mo preacher, since the days of
Whitfield and Wesley, has obtained so
wide and rapid fame as Mr.. Spurgeon,
of London. He is now twenty. three
years of age, and is the pustor of
church of over one thousand communi-
cants. He was educated, as he tells
us, 'nominally atdiyers schools, really
by summer ramblcs, hard private stud.
els, and close observation While ush.
CT of a private school in Newmarket,
and afserwardsat Cambridge, he began
to speak in Sabbath. schools; and in 49,
t5l, at the age of fseventeen, he was I'M
vited to the pastorate of q small church
in the vicinity of Cambridge. His ex-
treme youth, energy, and enthusiasm,
attracted public notice, and in 1854 he
was called to the position he at present
occupies. He breaches ten times a
week, often travelling miles to accom-.
plish it. One who has often heard
him discourse, gives the following de-
scription :--'When he is fairly engaged
with his subject, his countenance is full
of earnestness, and he speaks with q
force and impetuosty, an intensity and
nimbleness, which at once engages and
rivets the attention of his audience. -
/ The force of his diction is absolutely
overwhelming. He pluHges at once
into his subject, illustrates it with the
Enoblest and grandest images which the
imagination is capable of conceiving,
until he conducts the listener to a clil
ma. at once startling from it's novelty
and striking from its appostcness.'--
The sermon given as a specimen of Mr..
Surgeons oratory does not justify
such high praise. 1t is simple, lucid,
and picturesque in style, original in
conception, and full of apt quotations.
The illustrations are sometimes home
ly, but always telling. Mr.. Surgeons
sermons are not written, but taken
down by shorthand reporters. Two
volumes have been published in tkis
country. OF the first, more than twen-
/ ty thousand were called for in single
IScar, and although the second is only
recently issued, ten thousand copies
are already sold. 1t is easy to see
how such passages as the following, ut
tered with enthusiasm and pathos, by a
man 0f magnetic and sympathetic tenn
permanent, have won for Mr.. Spurgcon
] his reputation as pulpit orator. !.
Night is the season of terror and
alarm to most men. Have you never
Istood by the seaside at night, and
heard the pebbles sing? I. Or have
I you never risen from your couch, and
thrown up the window of your chari-
bcr, and listened there? Listened to
what? Silencc--save now and then a
jmurmuring sound, which seems sweet
music then. And have you not fanci-
ed that you heard the harp of God play
! ing in heaven? Did you not conceive
that yon stars, that those eyes Of Cod,
looking down on you, were also mouths
of song-that every star was singing
| Gods glory as it bhone! We need not
much poetry in our spirit to catch the
song of night, and hear the spheres as
! they chant praises, which are loud to
the heart though they be silent to the
ear. AK s..gTttt5
Many songs we hear our fellow
creatures singing in the streets will not
do to sing by4and-by; Iguess they will
sing different kind of tune soon.-
They can sing nowadays, any rollick-
ing, drinking songs, but they will not
sing them when they como to die; they
are not exactly the songs with which
to cross Jordan's pillows. 1t will not
do to enter heaven singing one of those
unchaste, unholy sonnets. No; but
the Christian will not have to leave off
his song: he may keep ON singing it
forever. " .-.
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