The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1879-03-13
CANON FARRAR.
The Great Church OF England Preacher
in Westminster Abbey.

| The Great Church or England Preacher
in Westminster Abbey.
Edward EEgleston in the BROOKLYN Times
Finding that he WAS to preach on
Sunday evening, l walked early to the
abbey, and was fortunate enough to
secure seat in the nave. And now the
Lofty perpendicular arches began to take
hold of me. As the sweet boy sopranos
and the exceedingly RICH bass and tenor
voices chanted the service, could feel
the influence of the place, the oldest
place of Christian worship in the world,
it is said. How has the abbey stood in
all the connections and crimes and base
deeds of English history, like a rock
beaten upon by each days waves, but
standing still the samel
There was a great throng. Already
Fsrrar is coming to be q great preacher
in England. Give him ten, twenty
years or more and men will confess that
England has no finer preacher. He
carried me by storm. He preached on
the bondage of sin and the liberty of
righteousness. Every word was we'll
chosen. Every thought was fine. The
delivery was good for an Englishmar.
But the real eloquence of the sermon
lay, where the highest eloquence always
lies, in the weight of the man behind the
words. Canon Fsrrsr has a pure and
lofty soul, eagerly seeking the highest
ends.
And then he has that sturdy English
pluck that knows no fsltering. He ret
forth admirably the contrast between
" that glorious young Greek" Alexsn-
der, drinking himsel to death in self
indulgence, and the poor, brave, free old
Socrates, with his cup OF poison. He
pronounced noble eulOgy on CrOmweI
and the Puritang. 1t was brave thing
to do. Right among all the monumental
decencies of Westminster abbey, be
praised the regicide Puritans in the very
abbey whose treasures the rOundhesds
had rifed, and whose tOmbs they had
broken. Then be depicted the wicked
ness of the restoration period, when
England's licentious king took subsidies
from France. He called Charles II.
peIjured reoreant, now sleeping in the
vaults Of this abbey" Then he con
trssted the English with the French
revolution, and nobly set forth to young
men the dangers OF those vices which
are more prevalent in England, if possi-
Bile, than in America. He spoke strongly
on the subject of temperance.
While he was speaking, quietly,
bravely, and with certain felicity of
epithet and phrase that moved the audi
ence like electricity, the sun struggled
through the clouds and shot q golden
stream into the windows of the clerestory
above, which fell away down hundred
feet or 80 through the lofty chancel until
it lighted on the preacher. All the
thousand associations of the Abbey
rushed upon me at once, and tears came
into my eyes. For now there was a soul
in tit was not only the burying place
of brave men, but the battlefield of
brave man. God has not lett Himself
withouta prophet, even in this, our day, |
to stand in this ancient place and speak
His words to the people. As knelt at
the communion under those venerable !
and Lofty arches, l felt that Westminster |
Abbey was none other than the house Of
God.
l went again in the afternoon. There
were other preachers in London, but |
there was only one Fsrrsr. The Abbey |
was full to OVERLOOKING. The transepts
were jammed, sisles and all. The choir,
the nave, even the chsncel, were full of |
people from the four quarters of the |
globe. The question over which En-
gland is now seething is not Russia or
Turkey, but the confessional in the Church |
of England. Canon Fsrrsr spoke on
this matter with wonderful eloquence for
the better part of an hour. stood the
whole time on the hard stone pavement,
and l could have stood twice as long
He brushed aside all Intervention be
tween man and God. 1t was q fresh
breeze of nineteenth century ressonable>
ness sweeping away cobwebs. 1t was
like the voice of the old reformers.