Mountain Democrat. [volume] (Placerville, El Dorado Co., Cal.) 1854-1860, 1859-03-19
aAcKWGOng PREACHING.

America IL the Promised Land Of eccentrici.
ties; there they flourish and become strong;
You search Tor them in vain within the sound
q Bow bells The modern Englishman has
not the gin Of wonder; he is aStOniShed and
touched by nothing. Weare all 10 much alike,
one knows not lord from tailor; and out Of
livery, "JeamcS" sometimes looks q pr0perer
man than his master. Every now and then =
man is born who claims to think, and act, and
speak for himself; but society soon yells him
down, and he vanishes, or, IL he be worth his
money, society soon buys him up, and makes
Of him useful officials mighty red-tapist,
aiudge or bishop. Who shall say that So
ciety ID wrOngl Society asks uniformity
Where religion Is concerned-where the inter
ests. not Of them, but Of eternity, are involved
where the message PROCESSES to be not hu-
man but divine. We have right to expect a
frOsr spirit and language less shackled by
common modes OF utterance and Of thought.
IL 1t soH Go any Sunday you like, enter an
average metropolitan churcb-hOw demure is
the preacher, how faultlcss the discourse, with
what good taste are the devotional parts Of the
service performed, with what exquisite pathos
do father and son-mothcr and maid-confess
themselves to be miserable sinners! Alas
al Is here but the one thing which can make
the simple man eloquent-the inspiration that
made the Hebrew fisherman and tentnakers
moro than match for the rhetoric and philo-
s0phy Of Greece and Rome. Look at the pro.
per person, the idol Of the women, the envy
OF the men f; can that scented, curlcd, pale
faced, whitc-handed, cffeminate man.miliner
arrest the sinner. case the agony Of the wound
ed conscience, sound the depths Of the human
hearth "Canst you draw out leYiAthan with
. hook |" With . penny whistle can you
wake the echoes Of the universe! In the
American backwOodE, 1t any rate, We shall
f1nd eluEdier figures. Manly physical power,
at least the preacher in that district must
have. In his way, he is . sun Of thunder
He may lack much grace and culture, but he
is in earnest He prays till he sweats-he
breaches till no is hoarse. To compete with
him, man must have the bodily strength Of
an OK or . prizcfghter. Multitudes come out
In the desert to him. and hundreds own his
power; they yell, they scream, they fall on the
ground, they tear their hair and their gar.
mentS They sit in sackclOth and ashes, and
are saved, as they tell US from the wrath to
come. Uncultivated human nature always
gets converted in this violent way. It was so
with our Wesley and WhiteReld. It was so
in the days Of the commonwealth, when the
saints welded the sword Of the Lord and Of
UiucOH. IL was no, VIC DeHcVe, WITCH Tue NE"
so-GOthic version Of the Bible by UphiIas was
composed, With the omission Of the Jewish
wars, lest its warlikc readers should find
fresh sanction for their cruelties And even in
our day, amongst the Rantcrs and Primitive
Methodists, something Of the same sort exists.
We may laugh at and dcspise il, but the fact
is reality. Inward terror and alarm operate
upon the body. Where men are not taught
restraint-wherc they have room to turn, as
it were-whcrc one mans feelings does not in
terfere with another-here there is no English
dread Of q scenc-we moy expect preachers to
produce an effect outwardly which you may in
vain look for here. Add to this that the audi
ences thus collected are rare; that preacher
10 an event, not an every day occurrence; that
whilst among ourselves the excitement Of the
drama, Of literature, Of music. and Of oratOry,
rivals that Of the pulpit, there the preacher
stands aiOne.-LOHdOn Times.