Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1857-02-26
selttt Ata0nlg.
Observation-Disclosures

PULPIT CELEBRITIESINL LONDON.
From an interesting letter of the Rev. DR..
Cross, which we find in the Christian Advo-
cate of this week, we copy the following
sketches of two of the most popular preach
ers in the Great Metropolis
DR.. CUMMING.
Sabbath morning we sought the Scotch
Church, in Crown Court, where DR.. Cum
ming ministers, and has for the last twenty
years. 1t is spacious and rather handsome
edifce, with the pulpit on one side, and a
deep gallery in front, and across the two
ends. It's dimensions I know not, but [
counted eleven large windows in the upper
tier of one side alone. Before the Rev. gen.
tleman entered, the church was crowded to
its utmost capacity both above and below
The service commenced with hymn, which
was sung by the whole assembly standing,
without the aid of any instrumental accom-
paniment Next the DR.. read lesson from
the Old Testament, which he followed with
clear, comprehensive, and very beautiful
exposition, occupying fifteen or twenty min
utes The prayer which succeeded was ap-
propriate, but nothing remarkable. Then
an anthem was chanted by the choir, short
invocation was offered for blessing upon
the word, another hymn was sung by the
congregation, and finally the pastor began
his sermon, which was just like one Of DR..
Cummings lectures, and could never have
been mistaken for anything else, by one IA
miliar with his works. There were passages
in it of considerable beauty, but nothing bold
or striking. We were waited along by a
gentle breeze, on smooth and placid stream,
lined with the vernal emerald, with here and
there gay bank of primroses, and cluster
of sweet breathing riolets, while the soft air
trembled with the mellow symphonies of birds
and the Ginning of silver bells; but there
was no Niagara, no thunder cloud upon the
deep, no trumpet summoning to the battle,
nothing to stir and stimulate the soul, though
there was much to soothe and fascinate the
hearer. The manner was suited to the mat
ter-gentle, winning, faultless except that it
was rather too fne-too manifestly studied
and artistic-for the pulpit; the voice very
pleasing, the enunciation remarkably clear
and precise, the elocAtion finished and ele-
CANT to the last degree. The great excel
lence of his preaching is its practical char
aoter: whatever subject he undertakes, he
is sure to turn it to good account. If We
except Mr.. Spurgeon, Cumming and Mel
vile are the most popular preachers in Lon
don but the three ought never to be men,
toned together, for each is entirely of diff
ferent type from the others. DR.. Cumming
is, withal, a very industrious man and while
presiding over one of the largest churches in
England, manages to write and publish two
or three volumes a year.
In the afternoon I visited the Doctors
Sunday School. 1t is erylarge, numbering
over three hundred scholars, and is carried
on in the most orderly and beautiful manner.
The polite superintendent urged ME to ad-
dress the school; and I did so, giving them
pretty full account of our Sunday School
of three hundred colored children in Trinity
Church, which opened every eye and every
ear; for they knew very little of our colored
population, as I was told, except what they
had learned from "Uncle Toms Cabin"
The following description of Mr.. Spur
geou is more favorable, and probably more
truthful, than some that have been hereto.
fore published in this country:
Mr.. Surgeons style lis very unequal; pas
sages otherwise of exquisite beauty being Of
ten disfgured by expressions common even
to .coarseness as if the "storied windows
richly digit" in Westminster Abbey we're
patched with plain glass and putty, or the
magnificent Victoria Tower of Westminster
Palace, finished out with clumsy super
structure of brick and mud. His great ex-
cellences are, his originality, simplicity, and
directness; the fearless and earnest manner
in which he states his views of truth an ex-
ceedingly happy faculty of illustration f.
deity of application, and fervor of appeal,
with a powerful and we'll managed voice, and
an action at once easy, natural, and impress
sive. Into the province of logic, I judge,
he seldom or never intrudes nor ought hG
to; for, most evidently, whatever he was
made fer, he was not made for reasoner.-
With this exception, if indeed it be not
deemed capital defect, he has all the elo-
quence of superior oratory and with his
extraordinary dramatic power, do not Won
der that the common people follow him by
thousands, wherever he is to preach.
No pulpit man, but Whitfield and Ed
ward Irving, ever attracted such crowds in
London. His chapel being found too small
for the audience, an immense hall has lately
been engaged for him, where he holds forth
on Sabbath mornings, for the present, to
eight or nine thousand hearers. They are
admitted on tickets, at a shilling piece !;
yet multitudes come who cannot even obtain
standing place in the hall. The money
thus collected, after paying current expenses
is to be applied to the building of large
tabernacle for his congregation. Recently
the young man was married, and thousands
focked to witness the ceremony, and it is
said there never was so large concourse on
any similar occasion in the metropolis. He
is a man of greatindustry, energy, and zeal !;
and probably no ministerin all England does
more work than he. He has religious SER