The Osceola times., 1876-10-14
GREAT LONDON PREACHERS.
Their Relative Mesits-Mr. sPurgeos
Clear and Practical Dean Stanley
Ornate mud Liberal Canon Lid.
don Eloq uent. hut C0nser-

Their Relative MeritA-Mr. spurgeon
| clear and Practical Dean Stanley
| Ornate aud Liberal Canon Lid.
don Eloquent. hut Conser
sattve.
London Correspond nee OF the New York Tribune.
Having bad excellent opportunities for
hearing the greatest preachersof London,
] will give my impressions regarding
them. 1t is strange that with the rare
advantages possessed by the established
church, in its universities, the greatest
and most popular preacher in the city
should be non conformist, who has had
no collegiate training. Mr.. Spurgeon, to
whom ! refer, has been over twenty
years in London. There is nothing in
his manner that ordinarily gives preach
er popularity. He is not sensational, and
has few eccentricities. He is never
coarse, vulgar or profane. There is no
trifling or levity in the discourse, though
there is sometime trenchant wit. There
is, however, a thorough and careful ex-
position Of the truths of the Scriptures
as he understands them. His sermons
are constructed simply, and clothed in
language of common everyday life. They
are lighted up with brilliant metaphors,
and impressed on the mind with strong
illustrations drawn from various sources,
but mainly from the Bible. The seven
thousand people who go to the taber-
nacle every Sunday are held face to face
with God. They are placed beneath
his law, and are pointed TO the eternal
judgment which awaits them. All this
is not calculated, ordinary, to make the
preacher popular. But, after all these
years, Mr.. Spurgeon has stronger hold
on the public than ever. 1t may well be
asked how he succeeded in maintaining
and strengthening it. The answer is
near at hand. He has been a most labo-
rious student of everything connected
with the Scriptures. He is thoroughly
in earnest No one questions his SINGER.
| ity. His life has been above reproach.
Besides, he has been gifted with great
common sense and marvellous voice.
His labors are almost incredible. More
than sixty of his sermons are published
every year, and they are of such merit
that they are eagerly printed and read
by the inhabitants of the two continents
His lectures and preaching, and the pas
torial work among the students in his
training college for preachers, are unsur-
passed. His exposition of the Psalms OF
David has grown already to four large
volumes, and is acknowledged to be the
best ever given to the world, being read
by all, ritualists, high and low church
men and dissenters.
A very different preacher is Dean
Stanley. His sermons are polished in
theirstyle as his lectures on the Jewish
or the eastern church. They are broad
enough for the most liberal In the
sermon which he preached in Westmin-
ster Abbey, in concluding a course deliv-
cred by various clergymen recently from
the text, "Gather up the fragments" )"
the Dean said they should gatherup the
fragments" of truth contained in hymns
| like one which he quoted from Dod-
bridge, and then he followed the hymn
with glowing eulogy upon this great
nonconformist of the last century"
"Gather up the fragments" he said
again, "of truth found in the Xenda
Vesta," and in the scientific teachings
of the time. The Dean, too, is very
popular, as might be judged from hun
dreds being unable to get admission to
the abbey on this occasion.
Canon Liddon, of st. Paurs, is a
preacher of different order. His style
of sermons might be deemed almost
faultless. His style and form of expires
sion are unexcelled. Although his voice is
not over strong, no one of the 5000 people
who sat under the great dome last Sun.
day afternoon need have lost word OF
his discourse Unlike Dean Stanley,
Canon Liddon leans towards the ritual.
lists. This party is now giving the es-
tablishment great deal of trouble. The
Arches court is busy dealing with accu-
sations of ritualism. Whatever may be
their faults it must be admitted, however
that the ritualists set in some respects a
good example. st. Adams church, which
has a confessional, and system resemb
ling that OF the Roman Catholic monas
teries, is in Baldwin's court, a most
wretched place, inhabited by the very
lowest classes. The rector of this church
who has been repeatedly under discipline
for his rituslistic practices, is doing more
for the poor people of this district than
all the other churches therein. Perhaps
after all he is not under discipline by
"the Judges of all the earth" who may
look more to his work than how ht
does il.
A MILL FOR THE GoDs.-Canon City
(Col.) Avalanche: A camp OF pilgrimi
were preparing breakfast under a cotton
wood tree Yesterday morning, and /,
small boy to whom the task of grinding
coffee with a worn cut coflee-mill hat
been assigned, after twisting away until
he got plumb sick of the job, startled tn,
camp by the assertion:
"This ought to be the gods coffee
mill.'
"What do you mean by such non
sense?" asked the head of the family.
Why" he replied, "they say tn,
mills OF the gods grind slowly, and i
slows any object they'd better com
and get tbis'p."