Litchfield enquirer., 1875-09-30
pa. sToRRs im VACATION.
One of ths best iIlustrations of fhe

One of the best Illustrations of fhe use. fulnezs and power of the city pastor in vneafion may be found in the preaching of Df. Seorrs, of Brooklyn, at Litchfield, in Connecaicut, where he is spending q few
 weeks for rest and recruiting
 A community more intelligent and re-
 fined Is, probably, not to be found in New England. The natural beauties of the region. its elevation and healthfulness and traditional attractions, have made it justly famous, and the chosen summer re- sOEt of many whose scholastic pursuits. professional labors and quiet tastes, find oOngenial'pleasures IS this rural. pastoral, bracing and refreshing atmosphere and hilly country. Four or five New Haven professors, as many New York pastors and lawyers. and many more citizens from Hartford and Philadelphia, and some from moro distant places, with their fami- lies, are nestled under the magnificent eims of Litchfeld, cooling their brains, and enjoying themselves through thesum- meE.
 Dr. Storrs is among them, and with kindness that deserYes and receives grate- fal appreciation of Stranger and villager. he has again and again permitted them to hear lessons and truth from his eloquent hps- One evening in the middle of the week the people gathered in the public Hall, and at their Ilrgent request he gave them an elaborate lecture on the early popular clements of the English character tracing with the hand of Christian phi losOpher and statesman, the Anglo-Saxon pOSer, the Norman conquest, the blend ing of races, the dominating influence of blood and religion, and love of liberty, fighting its way along the centuries and becoming the leading and ruling idea, in the progress of free institutions in the earth. The lecture embodied volumes of thought and learning, and was in itself a large element in education of any one who would master it's principles and the gem eFal facts which the history of the ages in review presented. It is rare that such an audience, in Q country village. enjoys such q teacher and such lesson.
 Twice has Dr. Storrs consented to preach on the Sabbaths during his sojourn here. The Congregational Society has recently finished new stone edifce of fine proportions, Gothic architecture. and much beauty, in happy keeping with the lovely surroundings. When it was known that Dr. Storrs would preach, the people, far and near, focked in greal numbers to
 
 lake shores, and the hillsides, the farmers and their families came; the citizens, in whatever church they were won't to wor- the pastor of the Pilgrims.
 Dr. Stors has mastered the art of preaching without notes. Whether his lectures on the art will enable others to do SO also, is yet an unsettled question. It is not impossible that there must be something in the man which study and practice cannot supply. if nature has with held it. The faculty of public speaking is not altogether acquired though the pebbles in the mouth of Demosthenes are usually thrown at the head of boys who say they cannot learn to speak in public on the stage. As man may get grace if he needs Il, and learning if he be ignorant, but never can get common sense if nature has none to bestow upon him with his outfit at the start, SO it is quite possible that the rules of the books, and the exam. ples of the successful men may never en- able some preachers of the highest gifts to preach as usefully without notes as with. There are diversities of gifts. But Dr. Storrs is an illustrious instance of A successful rhetorican who has achieved eminence as Q preacher always using his manuscript, and therefore supposed by the people, and perhaps himself, incapa- ble of doing without. But like one who has been swimming with corks, and has learned that the water is not an element to be feared, suddenly filings away his supports and strikes out triumphing upon the waves. so he who was supported and fettered by his paper, in the meridian of his usefulness and success, threw it away and struck out and upward, with strong CT wing and loftier flight and more com handing power than he had ever before displayed. The sermons that he has given Tn Litchfield are doubtless former pre-. parations, for no man is supposed to pre- pare new discourses while seeking repose in the country. and if they are old it is evident that he has the power of retaining and recalling them as perfectly. as if they were written with a stylus on parchment. With readiness of utterance that puts nearer and speaker at ease. with fitness of words that, like a mosaic picture, has always the right stone in the right place, with such copiousness of illustration and compactness of augmentation that one knows not whether the imagination or reason IS supreme in the speakers mind, he quickens the attention, delights the 1SAAS Suo et1ObIOHS, uuu moves IhG heart. He breaches the gospel. That is saying much in our day. He breaches only on the subject of religion. It is very sweet to Christian congregstion, on the Sabbath day, to have the word of God exhibited with nothing mixed in. Dr. StOrrs finds as much as he can do to preach the gospel, and great is the com fort of them who hear it. Some of his periods are rounded with great skill, and some of his figures are very bold, but if they are artistic they are managed with that perfection of art that conceals itself, and compels you to feel that nothing else would have suited the thought, and that 1t was natural as could be to say it just as he did.
 How elevatiug, ,quickening andy improv- ing to people is such demonstration of the truth of God And how great the good which city pastor has it in his power to do, who brings the best -of his winters work into the country with him, and while he refreshes himself with the mountain air, and the meadow streams. dispenses to the multitude who gather about him such divine instruction! He gives while he receives: he is watered when ka waters others.
 And when the crowds went away from the village church, they said :: .'sIt was good for us to be there. ."-N r. Observer.
 ''O-er-Jarvis-woul you mind pre- tending to pick a quarrel with me, and rTnak mfwium q vnuOl. ~,ou