St. Landry democrat., 1879-04-12
CANON FARRAR.
The Great Ghmrch OF England Preacher
In Wesaminster

The Great Church OF England Preacher
In Westminster Abbey.
Edward Eggleston in the Brooklyn Times.
Finding that he wa to preach on
Sunday evening, I walked early to the
abbey, and was fortunate enough to
secure a 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 same!
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 al Englishman.
But the real %eIoquence of the sermon
lay, where the highest eloquence always
lies, in the weight of the man behind the
words. Canon Farrar has a pure and
lofty soul, eagerly seeking the highest
ends.
And then he has that sturdy English
pluck that knows no faltering. He set
forth admirably the contrast between
"that glorious young Greek" Alexan'
der, drinking himEel to death in self
indulgence, and the poor, brave, free old
Socrates, with his cup of poison. He
pronounced a noble eulogy on Cromwell
and the Puritans. It was a brave thing
to do. Right among all the monumental
decencies of Westminster abbey, he
praised the regicide Puritans in the very
abbey whose treasures the r%oundheads
had rihed, and whose tombs they had
broken. Then he depicted the wicked
ness of the restoration period, when
England's licentious king took subsidies
from France. He called Charles II. a
"perjured recreant, now sleeping in the
vaults Of this abbey" Then he con-
trasted the English with the French
revolution, and nobly set forth to young
men the danger, of those vices which
are more prevalent in England, if possi-
bic, than in America. He spoke strongly
on the subject of temperance.
While he was speaking, quietly,
bravely, and with a certain felicity Of
epithet and phrase that moved the audi.
ence like electricity, the sun struggled
through the clouds and shot a golden
stream into the windows of the clerestory
above, which fell away down a hundred
feet or 30 through the lofty cbancel 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 q
brave man. God has not lett Himself
without q prophet, even in this, our day.
to stand in this ancient place and speak
His words to the people. As I knelt at
the communion under those venerable
and lofty arches, I felt that Westminster
| Abbey was none other than the house OF
God.
Invent again in the afternoon. There
were other preachers in London, but
there was only one Farrar. The Abbey
was full to overlooking. The TRANSCRIPTS
were TANNED, aisles and all. The choir,
the nave, ven the chancel, were full of
people from the four quarters of the
lobe. The question over which En-
gland is now seething is not Russia or
Turkey, but the confessionalin the Church
| of England. Canon Farrsr spoke on
this matter with wonderful eloquence for
the better part of an hour. stood the
| whole time on the hard stone pavement,
and I could have stood twice as long
| He brushed aside all Intervention be
tween man and God. It was a fresh
breeze of nineteenth century reasonable
ness sweeping away cobwebs. 1t was
like the voice of the old reformers.
A Locomotive in a Quicksand.