The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-08-15

Arthur T. Person ID. D., in Presbyterian Monthly.
We had been seated but few moments when
the preacher walked forward toward the pit
rail- and raised his hand to invoke the divine
blessing. But for having become familiar with
his face by the help of photograph and the
engraving. we should have been taken by sur
prise more unclerical-looking man we could
scarcely imagine as occupying the METROPOLITAN
pulpit Rather short and decidedly thick,
his head meets his shoulders with neck so
short that 1t would be difficult to hang
him that way His head Is a study.
Some one says that ''he would have made a
good life insurance agent, for he runs to cheek. "
His forehead is low and not broad, his hair en-
croaching from above and from each side upon
the brow, making the lower part of the face look
even more like an inflated balloon than it would
otherwise. His eyes have little fire, his nose Is
fat and fat, his mouth very capacious; and
altogether, had met him on the streets of
London, we should have taken him for high
living, beer drinking, lethargic, Emphatic can
didate for the honors of the govt But when
he began to speak the animal was forgotten in
the intellectual and the spiritual have known
many people who were good looking till they
opened their mouth. Mr. Spurgeon becomes
good looking when opens he his mouth.
To describe the whole service would be to give
undue prominence to details. Suffice it TO say
that it was lengthy but not long, plain but in
teresting and absorbing. Nothing can be found
more primitive than Mr.. Surgeons method OF
lining out the psalms and hymns as when there
were no books in the pews. But 1t Is very
effective, for it prevents those who sing from
losing sight of the sentiment OF the verse,
upon which he will occasionally pause to
comment, as in Scripture reading. The music,
led by preceptor, without choir or instrument,
is exceedingly primitive. One part of the aud
fence follows another, out of time, like a duck
dragging a broken or lame leg; and judging from
the singing OF party just behind me, some or
the attempts at melody and harmony must be
desperate indeed but. nevertheless. never heard
such singing 1t was like great wave of praise,
surging up against the pillars of Gods throne.
1t bore you on it's crest. It lifted you upward.
it carried you forward. And no matter how
refined your ear, how cultivated your voice, how
trained your taste-all offenses against the laws
of art were forgotten in the impression of music
in which there was devotion. 1t was like a
gentle summer shower, that made the soil ready
for the sowing of the seed. And in comparison
with it all the splendid swell Of the grandest
organ, all the finished culture OF the costllest
quartet were as parody on worship. Think of
substituting for such music one of our Boston
Sunday concerts, as In the New England
Church when Adirondack Murray" preached,
amid all the elaborateness of an operate re-
hearsal.
Mr. Spurgeon's prayer is marvellous. 1t is full
of alteration, and in this it is marked and pecu-
liar. I have heard from others pathetic con-
fession of sin, fervent supplication, importunate
lntercession; but never before NOR since such
praise. He rises as on eagles wings, and carries
you on his pinions. You seem to stand before
the throne; you see the glory you feel the
power, wisdom, goodness of God shifting you
like an insuferable. binding splendor And
said he is not only singing, but praisng and
praying. The reading of the Scriptures occu
pied, perhaps half an hour, interspersed with
short, pithy. suggestive comments, which both
served to make the word plain and to make it
practical
Before he came to the sermon we felt that we
had all received blessing. Everything had
thOngh
pected to bring God near. There was rapid
hurrying over the preliminaries, as though to
sing, to read the word. to pray, were the mere
forms by which the sermon is approached Each
part of the service was in itself a sermon, pro-
ducing definite spiritual impressions and results
And the sermon was preaching. indeed. The
text was the sermon contracted; the sermon was
the text expanded.