The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1869-04-28
THE ELoQUENCE OF BossUET.

THE EL0QUENCE OF B0ssUET.
The Court preachers at Versailles were
admirably fitted for their Office. They were
men who might not have found their voca-
ton, like some Of the great preachers be-
fore them, in missions to the heather at
home and abroad; they were not born to be
voices crying in the wilderness. But, on
the other hand, neither were they the mere
"players upon pleasant instrument" to
whom kings and courtiers might love to lis
ten as an intellectual excitement, and who
carefully avoided, as Court preachers before
and since have done, any such too-plain de-
livery of their message as might offend the
ears of their royal and illustrious auditory.
The first of this brilliant line of orators
was Jacques Bossuet, who received his early
education at the Jesuit's College in his ma
tive town of Dion, and subsequently at the
College of Navarro at Paris. There, be-
fore he was sixteen, the fame of his remark.
able talents and learning had reached even
the fashionable circles of the capital. At
one of the celebrated soirees at the Hotel
de Rambouillet, the Marquis de Feuquieres
spoke in raptures of the extraordinary prom
ise of protege of his who was studying for
the Church. He undertook that, if allowed
few minutes of solitude for collecting his
thoughts, the young student should preach
an extempore sermon on any text which
might be given him. The company, by
whom any literary novelty was welcomed
with enthusiasm, at once challenged the
Marquis to the proof. Young Bossuet was
sent for, and in Madame de Ranlbouillet's
salon, before that brilliant and critical au-
dience, the young preacher of sixteen de-
livered his first sermon at eleven o'clock at
night Voltaire remarked that he had never
heard any one preach SO early-or 80 late.
The Bishop of Lisieux, who was then in
Paris, heard of the precocious performance; (;
and Bossuet was invited to display his pow
ers a second time, before himself and two
other prelates. They were equally aston
ished and charmed; and Cardinal de Baus.
set, who tells the story, fairly remarks that
their verdict as to the true qualifications of
a preacher was more reliable than that Of
the wits and courtiers of the salons of Ram
bouillet. The gifts which could impress two
such audiences must have been remarkable
indeed. Bossuet distinguished himself, soon
after his ordination, as a controversialist
against the Protestants in the diosese of
Metz; but it was not until his thirty-second
year that he had an opportunity of preach
ing before the Court; and even this, it must
be remembered, was an unusually early age
for such an honor He had lost none Of
his youthful powers. He preached six
courses of Lent sermons, and four in Ad.
vent, at Paris and Versailles, and moved his
courtly audience by turns to tears and ad
miration by his nervous eloquence. YET
these grand sermons, though not extempore
were merely hastily dashed on paper and
roughly corrected; and he is said never tc
have preached the same sermon twice. HI
is best known, perhaps, by his funeral ora
tions; but this branch of pulpit oratory il
by no means as congenial to the English al
to the French taste, and in spite Of thei
unquestioned eloquence they will be apt tt
weary the English reader. Dean Ramsa.
thinks otherwise, and quotes Robert Hall
marginal note written upon his copy of tn
volume-"I never expect to hear languag
like this till hear it from the lips of Sc
raphs round the throne of God" But Hall
own taste was forid. What affects our ap
probation of Bossuet's oratory is not onl.
that the exciting interest is that of bygon
period, and that Conde and La Valliere ar
names almost forgotten in the busy present
Dut 1uneral sermons, even on tne heroes
the day, are mode of celebration whicl
jars on the religious as well as the intellec
tual instincts of most educated Englishmen
The custom, it is true, has come down to u
with all the sanction of antiquity. Ber
nard's touching apostrophe to his brothe
Gerard, whom he had himself converted t
the faith, and who died on the very day o
which the sorrowing survivor had to preach
has been often quoted for its simplicity an
beauty; and the same great preacher deli1
cred panegyric, which has been compare
with the grandest efforts of Demosthene
over the Irish saint Malachi-him of eth