The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1859-08-25

is he?" "What is he going to do?' ''IIe
surely cannot be preacher!' But no one
answered the quick questions of curiosity !;
for the few that might have done so chose to
remain silent, in order to witness the present
and expected amazement at the rest. .h''E
In the meantime the stranger stood a brief
space motionless, as if buried in profound
revery of meditation, with his right hand
pressing on his massive brow, as if to force
the hidden thoughts from their secret re-
cesses in the brain. He then let his fingers
fall suddenly on the top Of the desk, and,
turning his head, swept the circle Of specta-
tors with glance vivid aud searching as the
light of electric fire, and the instant after
wards he commenced his sermon. His text
was the one hundred and tenth Psalm. He
did not open the Bible, or read from any writ
ten or printed manuscript. He lid not name
the ch apter or enumerate the verses, but re-
pcated the whole from memory, as if it FORM
ed compound part of his discourse. l shall
never forget the fourfold division of his mag
nifcent subject, embracing in his own Ian
guage, "the priesthood, the passion, the king
dom, and the conquest of Christ"
And then, all IN moment, unexpected as
the shock Of an earthquake, rapid as the flash
of lightning, came the thunderstorm of elo-
quence, such as never heard before, or
since, and never shall listen to again. There
were no PREDATORY signals, no preluslve blasts
of wind, no silent mastering of ominols
clouds, as harbingers of the sublime explo-
sion but ere We had leisure to think, or put
ourselves on guard, without note or warning,
we were borne away and tossed, as the this
ties down. on the giddy gyrations of the
tempest. Most orators rise, at first, slowly,
and soar by gentle graduations, as the gold
en- eagle scales the azure heights of air; but
this wild genius, in defiance of all rule,
bounds at once from earth to heaven, and
revcls, like an archangel, amidst the burning
beauty of the stars! ...... .-......
The most graphic pen might well despair
in the vain cndeavor to reproduce either the
sublimity of his ideas, or the magical might
OF their utterance. His sermon might be
best described, in short, as a swift succession
of Notwithstanding thunder claps, intermingled
with bursts o! volcanic fame, the collision of
adverse comets, with weird refrain borrow
ed from the roar Of ocean breakers, and the
terrible howl of hurricanes. Throughout The
entire lecture, he never once stopped from
the lofty elevation which he attained in the
outset Even when he paused, it was at the
close of dcafening dctonation, as he swept
his fingers across his ample brow, and the
next paragraph carried us back again into
the heart of the storm. We could find no
relief, no intermission, from the overpowcr-
ing emotions of wonder and awe. There
were no little spots Of bright green and mild
beauty-no dew-drops of tender pathos,
melting the heart to delicious tears; it was
all naked, nameless, uniinaginable sublimity,
such as might have issued, in words of fire,
from the pale, quivering lips of some Hebrew
prophet. .. .............. .......
The feelings called forth by this anomalous
and astonishing rhetoric, may be approx
lnately represented by an event which hap
pened at the time. A venerable local preach
er of moderate intellect but mighty faith, had
often heard of certain renowned orator,
whose marvellous efforts in the pulpit were,
indeed, in every Methodist's mouth from
Maine to Louisiana, but he had never yet be-
held the object of his spiritual idolatry. The
superannnated devotec sat in silence a long
while, listening in state of beatific rapture
to the grand appeal in favor Of the tenets of
his cherished church, and burning continu-
ally with fiercer desire, like the rest, to as.
certain the name of this youthful champion
Of orthodoxy, to whom even the great bsh-
op himself gave way, resigning the favorite
hour. Burst after burst of appalling thun-
der broke upon the midnight stiffness of the
air, and rolled along the galleries, as if it
would shake the frame of the building from
its foundation, until the speaker came to de
pict the conquests of Christ and poured out
his very soul, as it We're, in whirlwind Of
fire. The aged minister could stand it no
longer, but bounding to his feet, exclaimed,
in voice Of inconceivable ecstacy: at is the
archangel himself, or Henry B. Bascon r
The enthusiast had OWNED correctly
This man was truly the matchless preacher
Of Kentucky, who, when but be .rdless
youth, had been declared, by the calm judg.
ment of the immortal Clay, to be "the great
est, ,natura! orator in the world"
Heconcluded, after three hours of sustain
Ell and ceaseless grandeur with display
the most magnificent ofal. twas descrip.
tlcn of the triumphant reign Of the Redeem
or, during the long millennium Of thousand
years, measured" !" to use his own figurative
phrase, mot by the rise and setting of the
solar luminary, or the aceting changes Oft
queen Of night, buthy finger Of golden FIRE
fixed on the dial-plate Of all the stars, Keep
ing the record Of days that never die, and Of
months that oitlast the Alps and Andes p