The weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa) 1858-1860, 1859-01-25
Daekvoods Preaching.

1aakweods Preaching.
America u the Promised Land Of eccen.
ticities; there they flourish and become
strong; you search for them in vain within
the sound Of Bow bells. The modern Eng
ishman has not the gift Of wonder; he is
astonishsd and touched BY nothing. Weare
I ali % much alike, one knows not lord from
. tailor; and out of livery, "Jeames some
\ times looks properer man than his master
Every now and then man 10 born who
claims to think, and act and speak for him.
self; but society soon yells him down, and
] hs yanishes, or, if he be worth his money,
i society soon buys him up, and makes Of him
useful oficial-a mighty red-tapist
judge or bishop. Who shall say that so
ciety is wrong2 Society asks uniformity.
Where religion 10 concerned-where the
interests. not Of them. but Of eternity, are
involved-where the message processes to
be not human but divine, we have right to
expect q fresr spirit and language less
shackled by common modes of utterance
and OF thought. ls itso2 Go any Sunday
you like, enter an average metropolitan
church--how demur is the preacher, how
faultless the OBSCURE, with what good taste
are the devotional parts ofthe service per-
formed, with what exquisite pathos do faith
or and son-mother and maid-confess I'll en-
selves TO be miserable sinners Alas all is
here but the ore thing which can make the
simple man eloquent-the inspiration which
made the Hebrew fishermen and tentmakers
more than match for the rhetoric and
philosophy Of Greece and Rome Look at the
proper person, the idol of the women, the
envy of the men; can that scented, curled,
pale faced, white-handed, efeminate man
milliner arrest the sinner, ease the agony of
the wounded conscience, sound the depths
of the human heart s'Canst you draw out
leviathan with hook?' With penny
whistle can you wake the echoes of the uni
verse2 In the American backwoods, at any
rate, we shall find sturdier figures Manly
physical power, at least, the preacher in that
district must have In his way, he is SON
Of thunder. He may lack much grace and
culture, but he is in earnest. He prays till
) he sweats-he breaches till he is hoarse =
To compete with him, o man must have the
the bodily strength of an OK or prizeighter.
Multitudes come out in the desert to him,
and hundreds own mis- power; they yell,
they scream, they fall on the ground, they
tear their hair and their garments. They
sit in sackcloth and ashes, and are saved, as
they tell us from the wrath to come. I'M
cultivated human nature always gets con-
verted in this violent way 1t was SO with
our Wesley and Whitefold. 1t was SO in
the days of the commonwealth, when the
saints welded the sword of the Lord and of
Gideon. 1t was so, We believe, when the
Meso-Gothic version of the Bible by Uphilas
was composed, with the omission of the
Jewish wars, lest its warlike readers should
find fresh sanction for their cruelties.-
And even in our day, amongst the Ranters
and Primitive Methodists, something of the
same sort exists. We may laugh at and
despise it, but the fact is reality. Inward
terror and alarm operate upon the body -
Where men are not taught restraint-where
they have room to turn, as it were-where
one mans feelings does not interfere with
another-here there is no English dread of
scene-we may expectpreachers to produce
IN effect outwardlv which you may in vain
Look for here. Add to this that the audiences
thus collected are rare that q preacher is
an event, not an every day occurrence that
whilst among ourselves the excitement of
the drama, Of literature, of music, and of
oratery, rivals that of the pulpit there the
preacher stands alone.-London Times.
S0ktOOS REtkLATlON.-MFs 11uiS0lnaHu,
tine Austrian Minister, will return home in
month, and close his establishment here,
owing to the death Of his brother. 1t is not
yet certain whether he will resume the
mission again. His principal diplomatic no
toriety was derived from memOr able letter
addressed to him by Mr.. Webster, the pater-
nifty of which since his death has been
ascribed to Edward Everett As the fact
is an historical one of some moment, it may
not be out of place to say in this connection,
that the letter in question was not written
by Mr.. Webster or Mr. Everett, but by Wm
Hunter, the modest and able Chief Clerk Of
the Departmental State. The original
draft Of that paper was submitted to another
person before it was ever seen by either of
the parties whose names have been so habit
ually associated with it in the public mind,
and though it may have received and proba-
bly, did receive, certain finishing touches
and turns Of phraseology from the hand OF
MIR. Everett, it is now substantially what it
was when it left the possession of the real
author, who never permitted even preten-
sion to be suggested when the production
excited SO much comment and admiration,
nor since then The information came to
me by mere accident, and is nov disclosed
without the possibility Of any knowledge
on the part of the person most interested.
1t is thus that the fame of public men is
often created by the superior intellect OF Toe
unseen subordinate, or the toilsome strug-
giles of unrewarded genius.-[ Cor. Bait
American,