Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1870-07-10
THE LATE CHARLES DICKENS.
Sermon of Dean Stanley at Westminster
Abbey, on the Life and Works Of
the Novelist.
rom the London Times, june 2O.I

From the London Times, June 20.l
The announcement in our impress
sion of Wednesday that Dean Stanley
| intended to make "Charles Dickens
and his Works" the subject of his
sermon in Westminster Abbey, on
Sunday, brought together, as might
be expected, a very large cOngrega-
ton to the afternoon service, yester-
day, and some time before three
O'Clock the choir and traDsepts yer
filed to overlooking, as well as the
seats in the Sacrarium. The service
(Which was FaTrant, in G min0r) had
nothing remarkable about il. At the
end of the third collect the Dean was
Econducted to the pulpit, and took his
] text from the Gospel of the day, the
parable of the rich man and Lazarus,
which, be observed, was most appro-
pirate to the occasion, and chimed in
admirably with the service performed
within those walls on Tuesday-the
funeral of :" that gifted being who for
! years had delighted and instructed
| the generation to which ne Belonged
He showed that the story of Dives
and Lazarus formed something more
than an ordinary parable" and that,
in spite of both the one and the other
being "as purely imaginary beings as
Hamlet and ShylOck," it was a " tale
Of real life, so real that we a hardly
believe it to be fiction, and not an
actual history" The Bible,
then, urged the preacher, sane
tiOns this mode of teaching,
which has been in a
special sense Gods gift to our own
race. SIN various ages" he eOntin-
ued, "this gift has assumed various
forms, the divine flame Of poetry,
the far-reaching page of science, the
searching analysis of philosophy, the
4 glorious page of history, the stirring
elOquenee of preacher or orator, the
/ grave address of mOralist or divine
all these we have had in ages past,
and 10 some extent we have them still;
but no age has developed like this the
gift of speaking in parallels, of teach
ing by fiction" "POetry," he con-
tinued, "may kindle a lOftier fire, the
drama may rivet the attention more
firmly, science may open a wider hori-
ION, and philosophy may touch a
deeper spring, but no works are 50
penetrating or so persuasive, enter so
many houses, or attract sOmany read
erS, as the romance or novel of mod
ern times" And in proportion as
the good novel is the best, so is the
bad novel the worst, of instructors:
but the work of the successful novel
ist, if pure in style, elevating in
thought, and true in its sentiment, is
the best of blessings to the Christian
home, which the bad writer would
debase and defile. In the writings Of
Charles Dickens it is clearly shown
that sit is possible to move both the
old and young to laughter without
the use of a single expression which
could defle the purest or
shock the most sensitive;" he
taught a lesson to the world
that it is possible to Jest without the
introduction of depraving scenes or
the use of unseemly and filthy Jokes.
$50 thought and so wrote not only the
genial and loving humorist whom we
mourn, but Walter Scott, and Jane
Austen, and Elizabeth GaskelL. and
William Thackeray.p But, he urged,
there was sOmethingeven higherthan
this to be learned in the writings of
Charles Dickens, and which it is well
to speak Of in the house of God and
beside that new-laid grave. sin that
long series OF stirring tales, now
closed, there was 3 palpable serious
truth-might he not say a Christian
and Evangelical truth2-of which we
all need much to be reminded, and of
which in his own way he was the
special teacher. In spite of the ORR
entail imagry with which It is sur
rounded, the Gospel tells US, and the
departed writer did bat re-echo the
truth, that the rich man and Lazarus
lived very near and close to each
other; he showed Us, in his own dra-
matte and sympathetic manner, how
close that lesson lay at the gates of the |
upper and weaithier classes of modern
English society in this age of Wide-
spread civilization and luxury. The
poor man had but one name given to
him in the parable, but in the writ
ings of Charles Dickens he bore many
names and wore many fOrms-now
coming to us in the type of the forlorn
outcast, now in that of a work-house
child struggling toward thegOod amid
an atmosphere of cruelty, Injustice
and vice. "We have need, them he I
continued, of such a teacher to
US of the one great les J
of life, the duty of sympathy I
with the poor and the weak, with the J
and with those who cannot
speak for themselves. And it IS be-
cause this susceptibility, this gift of I
sympathy is 50 rare, that we ought to