ページの画像
PDF
ePub

.

very peculiar as a ministerial walk. Almost all a Minister can do, is, by the pulpit and the pen. His hearers are so occupied in the world,' he

6

justly adds, that if he visit them, every minute, perhaps, brings in some interruption.'

Seeing therefore the high importance of ministerial abilities to the proper discharge of the ministerial work, it is consoling to contemplate such clerical characters as the subject of this sketch, who, while placed in a situation where almost all he can do is by the pulpit or the pen, is enabled to render the pulpit effectual to the great purposes of his immortal calling. Pope might have said of him, had he but preached in his age, an age when we are to suppose our prelates not such as we now see,-what his lines assert of some one, whose name and style here

meet.

Let modest Foster, if he will, excel
Ten metropolitans in preaching well.

Perhaps there does not exist the preacher to whom, considering his weight and his celebrity, the term modest more applies than this preacher. Diffidence is, in him, united to dignity; and energy is attenuated by placability. But he wants neither force nor fire. He can correct the thoughts, and rebuke sin, whilst he consoles the

heart. Still there is kindness in his voice, and there is mildness in his face. There seems what we may call an unobtrusive superiority in his speech and his looks.

With respect to what are denominated doctrinal points, Mr. Foster uniformly steers clear of modern blame. He steers between the two rocks, arminianism and antinomianism, and thus makes calmly for port. Doctrinally he is moderate as to points, therefore, whilst he is practical as to consequences.

Intelligibility appears to be his wish, and he makes himself understood. None can well misconceive or misapply what he says. From him we have line upon line, precept upon precept, yet never lose sight of their end. Icongruous

he is not; nor is he incoherent.

Mr. Foster, indeed, uses notes. Not that he proves a slave to his notes. That these memoranda are of secondary consequence to him, may be satisfactorily ascertained by observing him well. Though he refers to his notes, he does not depend on them.

His exordiums are natural and interesting; his arguments clear; his elucidations scripturally drawn; his ejaculatory exhortations both pertinent and forcible; and his applications close. His language, always equal, never sinks. He

still retains as much of the eloquence of action as the circumstance of his being now compelled to sit whilst he is preaching will permit in him.

Has Mr. Foster no faults? Strange would it be, if he had none. Perhaps there is somewhat of trimming in his system; and, although mild himself, something like scolding, now and then, in his manner. He also drops, towards the finish of a sentence, his closing words.

Mr. Foster first became known, in the metropolis, as Curate to Mr. Romaine; but, although the prophet is mostly without honour only in his own country, the church of his native place was always crowded whenever he happened to preach there. It may also be worth recording, respecting this preacher's contest for Clerkenwell, that a majority of fifty-eight, the majority that first returned him, subsequently decided the further contest about continuing the old churchwardens, for another year, in order that they might abide the decision of that Appeal to the Bishop which had been commenced during their first year. The Rector of Clerkenwell has no determinate or fixed pay.

THOMAS FRY, M. A.

HAVING enjoyed the advantage of knowing, and the privilege of succeeding, some of the most eminent extemporaneous preachers which this country has produced, one must be permitted to regret the circumstance of the present preacher choosing to pursue the too common practice of preaching written sermons. Hackneyed must this style of sermonising be deemed, when we find that, during the long period of eighty-nine years, only one instance of clerical spontaneity occurs throughout the sermons which have been annually delivered for the benefit of the Sons of the Clergy, in the cathedral of the metropolis! Considering the singularity of this fact, and the inference deducible from it, the readers of these volumes may wish to see it here recorded, that a sermon was thus preached extempore,' April 17, anno 1755, in the cathedral church of St. Paul, by the Reverend Samuel Salter, D. D. and Master of the Charter-House.

[ocr errors]

Preachers should observe for themselves the different effects produced by the reading and

speaking of sermons. generally delivered in the extemporary way, clergymen would cease to have their sermons for rainy days; they would no longer be troubled to set a private mark (preached at such a time, and in such a pulpit), lest improper repetitions should take place; nor would they extort from mortified auditors the continual complaint, that, having a set of sermons ready by them, there are not, through the year, above fifty-two sentiments of Scripture explained, though the same minister should preach statedly before them for years. Pulpiteering accommodation would be, at the same time, happily discontinued. Persons who chance to frequent more places of worship than this or that one, would not then hear the same sermon preached by two of our preachers. Cowper would not, had such a reformation been completed in past years, have described for us the character, who

Were sermons, moreover,

Grinds divinity of other days
Down into modern use; transforms old print
To zig-zag manuscript, and cheats the eyes
Of gallery critics by a thousand arts!

But it is not regarding Mr. Fry, that these observations are now thrown out. However highly the present writer must continue to esti

« 前へ次へ »