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 mAHlTOBR GOUliEGE. 
 
 Um GREAT PREAGHEHS 
 
 VINET, LIDDON AND NEWMAN 
 
 BKING 
 
 The Opening Lecture of the Theological Department, 
 
 OCTOBER 30TH, IB^O. 
 
 BY f^EV. JOHN JVI. KING, D.D., 
 
 Principal of Maiii/oba College. 
 
 WINNIPI^G : 
 MANITOBA FRER PRKSS I'RINT. 
 
 1890. 
 
Three Great Preachers, 
 
 tVINET, LIDDON AND NEWMAN.) 
 
 — BKIN(; — 
 
 THE OPPING LECTURE OF THE THEOLOGICAL DEPARTMENT. 
 
 ♦ ♦ 4 
 
 
 At the icccnt'ojx'niiii;" of tlio session of tlie TluM)logi,^al 
 DrpMi'tineiit of Mnnitt)l;a Collt'c^c, Rev. Prinrijinl Kini;^ (U- 
 livej'otl tlif- followinjjj Icoture:— 
 
 Amon^ tilt' too nunxTons snhjects ussi^ncd to the eliaii- of 
 tlin Principal of Manitoba College, Honiiletics, at least since 
 'tile Rev. Mr. I'itMado's regi'etted (lef)arture, has had to have a 
 place. In <lealino' with this lininch of preparation foi* the 
 ministry, my plan has l»een to state and expound with as 
 much fulness as possible the moi-e important principles of the 
 Science or the Art (it is both); and in addition to pass in re- 
 view .some of the more eminent preachers, both of earlier and 
 of later times, with the view of ascertaininuj their distinctive 
 mei-its and of tixino- attention on the sources of their powei'. 
 
 In pursuance of the latter ]>art of this plan, and as alf^o 
 supplyinG: >^ subject which maj* not be without interest to tl\e 
 (/hnstinn )»ublic, who have favored us with their presence, I 
 desire to speak to you this evening' of an illustriou.s triad of 
 ])reacheT's: Vinet, Liddon and Newnum. Supei'Hcially vie'wed, 
 they may appear to have very little in conjmon, more closely 
 reoaided they will be found to have much: I am not con- 
 cerned, however, to justify theii- combination in this lecture 
 by any other consideration than this, that they hav(» oil been, 
 in very different degi'ees indeed, helpful to myself in exercis- 
 ing the ministry; more, perhaps, than any other preachei-s, 
 whose ac((iiaintance has been luadt.' siniply thiouo-h their pub- 
 lished writinii;s. Of the three, one spoke in French, the other 
 two in our English tongue. 'I'he former end<'<l his career 
 almost half a century ago, the grave has just closed over 
 the two latter. Exercising their gifts in spheres wide apart, 
 and amid vei'V dit^erent surronndiufjs, it will be found that in 
 their hearts they adored the same Saviour, and by their 
 elcxpience vindicated the same essential and eternal verities. 
 
VINE'I'. 
 
 Viiiofc, th<i first iiainoil, was born towaids the olosc of tlie 
 last century in Lausanne, one of the most heautit'ul cities in 
 Switzerland, or, in«1ee(l, in the vvorhl; liavinir at its feet tlw^ 
 blue waters of the lake of (Tcneva, and in the distance, but in 
 full view, t!ie majestic and snow clad peaks of Mont Blanc. 
 He received his education in his native city, which then as 
 now was the seat of an ancient school of leainiiig. He was 
 destine*] to the n)inistry by his father, but bavins- early dis- 
 played liteijiry an<l philosophical abilities of a high order, he 
 was. at the aoc of twenty-two, appointed professor of the 
 b'rench language and literature in the University of Basle, 
 receiving ordination as a minister of the Ggspel about the 
 same period, in that famoiis border city, even at that early 
 date the scene of zealous ndssionary enterprise, Vinet con- 
 tinued to teach from 181!) to 18;i(S. There probahly he forme(l 
 those decid<Mlly spiritual views t)f religion, which are found in 
 all his discourses. In 1888 he was recalled to his native city 
 as professor of theology; a position which, first in connection 
 with the ecclesiastical establishment, and afterwaids with tlu' 
 lu.'wly formed Free Church of the Canton de Vaud, he occu- 
 pied until his death. He was in his day a ju'olific author, 
 giving to the press as many as twelve or fourteen volumes on 
 varioys subjects of a literary, philosophical or religious 
 character. It is his sermons only with which we have to do 
 hell'. These were given to the pul)lic at various times, and 
 C()m])rise in all several volumes. A large number of the most 
 sti-ikiuir of them have been ma<le accessible to the Enoli.sh 
 reader in two volunies, entitled respectively, Vital (yhristianity 
 and (lospel Studies. 
 
 'J'he sermon must take its character to a large extent from 
 the audience to which h is a<ldressed. Its form, its contents 
 even, must l»e govei-ned in some degiee by the needs, the 
 tastes, certainl}' by the intellectual and moral appreciations of 
 those whom it is designe<l to help. V^inet addressed himself 
 largely to men of cidture, man}' of whom were either uneasy 
 in their hold on the Christian faith or had actually relin- 
 quished it under the influence f>f the Uiateiialistic and skep- 
 tical thought of -the age. It was his aim to recover for them 
 their impaired or theii' lost leligious convictions. This aim he 
 seeks to a^omplish by calling attention with rare and pene- 
 ti'ating insight to the spiritual in man, an<l to the adaptation 
 of the gos|)el to all its deeper needs and its loftier aspii'ations, 
 The worthlessness of all material splendors; the insignificance 
 of all nun-ely intellectual achievements, the transcendent glor}' 
 
8 
 
 of the mornl »uul the spiritual above all triuiiiphs of intellect, 
 as seen in the widow's uiite cast into the treasury, in the Ik)X 
 of ointment bnjken by the hand of i)resei(nt love on the 
 Saviour's person, in the tears of penitenee washiiiL,' His leet: 
 the mystery of hmiinn sorrow, the boundlessness of humar\ 
 aspiration, the blendini,' ^landeur and beauty of the Saviour's 
 character, the power which belongs to the heart — to love — to 
 apprehend anrl to verify the gospel; these supply him with 
 the lofty themes on which he discourses with marvellous force 
 and elo(|uenor. Without being formally and <lirectly an argu- 
 ment for Christianity, these sermons are only the more really 
 au apolojretic of the juost effective kind: one by which the 
 faith of many a hesitatin*; believer has been greatly strenjjfth- 
 eued. A brief (juotation will be of more service than any 
 (lescii})tion in enabling you to understand and appieciate this 
 chai'acter'istic of the discourses of Vinet. 'Humanity hath 
 separated itself iVom (lod. "^rhe storms of passion have broken 
 the ujysterions cable which retained the vessel in poi't. Shaken 
 to its base, and feeling itself driven upon unknown seas it 
 seeks to I'cbind itself to the shore; it endeavours to renew its 
 broken stiands; it nuikes a desperate etiin't to re-establish 
 these connections without which it cannot have either peace 
 or security. In the midst of its njieatest waTiderin<»s, luinia- 
 nity never loses the idea of its origin and destiny; a dim I'c- 
 collection of its ancient harmony pui-sues and agitates it; and 
 with(mt renouncing its passions, without ceasing to love sin, 
 it longs to reattach its being full of daj'kness and miseiy to 
 something luminous and peaceful and its fleeting life to some- 
 tiling innnovable and etei'nul. In a word, (Jod has never 
 ceaseil to be the want of the human I'ace. Alas! their lu)mage 
 wanders fi'om its proper object, theii worship becomes de- 
 ])raved, their jnety itself is impious; the religions which covei* 
 the earth are an insult to tlie uidvnown (lod, who is their 
 object. Hut in the midst of tliese mousti'ous aberrations, a 
 sul)lime' instinct is revealed: and each of these false religions 
 is a, puniful cry of the soul, torn froui its centre and separated 
 from its object. It is a despoiled existenee which in seeking 
 to clothe itself, seizes upon the first rags it finds: it is a disord- 
 ered sjnrit, which, in the ardour of its thirst, plunges all 
 panting into fetid and troubled waters; it is an exile who in 
 seeking the road to Ids native land, buries himself in frightful 
 deserts." 
 
 But these discourses are nnich more than a powerful argu- 
 ment for the (tospel; they are a singularly beautiful exhibition 
 of its contents. and of its spirit. Thev are the former nuiinlv, 
 indeed, in virtue of being the latter. They are n(jt less 
 
adaptoil to tiansl'orni a cold, inort faith into a devout and 
 livinjjf lionuioc, tha!J to eon(|Ui'r doubt, oi to ivplat'o nnboliof 
 by faitli. I'boy arc distinctly cvan;^a'lical, brind'ul <•( (}o.sp(.'l 
 truth, but it is ( !o.s[H'1 truth in its givat |)iinci|)lcH rather than 
 in its iniiuite details,— (jiospol truth on its ethical nion; than 
 on its doctrinal si<lL', in its spirit more than in its letter. And 
 they are instinct throui^hoiit with warm (christian fecjjing. 
 The emotion, indeed, is not loud and vehement, it is cahii 
 and repressed ratliei- than stimulated; but it is there all the 
 same; now tender and retj;'reti'ul, now elevated and joyous, 
 always deei) and liealtht'ul. The rea<ler of these di.scourses 
 feels him.self to be in contact throu^diout with a man of broad 
 views and of warm human sympathi(!s. The harsh and narrow 
 dogmatism which .so often repels the fiiKpiirer on the threshold 
 is conspicuously ab.sent; but it is not replaced in Vinets eas«', 
 as in that of many preachers of liberal culture, by mere 
 humanitarian ethics or weak sentiment. The cross, with all 
 its offence, if with all its my.sterious power of attraction, is 
 there and is central, as it should be. " Stripped of the great 
 fjict of expiation," says N'inet, "and all that cluster of ideas 
 connected with it, what, 1 ask, is Christianity '. For ordinary 
 minds, an ordijiary morality; for others, an abyss of incon- 
 sistencies." Again "It is not so much the (lospel that has 
 preserved the doctrine of the cross, as the doctiine of the ci'oss 
 that has preserved the Gospel." "All the might, all the reality 
 of Christianity in each Christian is there and only there. 
 Even the les.sons and exf^niple of Jesus Christ, in order to be- 
 conu^ living and fruitful, require a ray darted froui the cros,s." 
 But these discourses, marked by .such uncompromising de- 
 votion to the distinctive truths of the (Jospel, are worthy of 
 our attention not only because of what they say, b\it 
 even becau.se of what they do not .say. Their idicence 
 itself is inst'-uctive. Rather desi)'ing com})letc agreement 
 with D'Aubigiie. CJau.ssen and otlxirs of the Ceneva school, 
 in the details of Christian doctrine than actually attain- 
 ing it, the i)reacher .scrupulously abstains fi'om .statements 
 which Uiight present the appearance of a gi-eater degree 
 of accord with these distingui.sfied exponents of evangelical 
 thought than he had renlly reached. lndee<l there is scajcely 
 any feature in tlusse .sermons nioi'e markinl, as thei'e is none 
 n:ore worthy of inutation, than their severe truthfulness, their 
 prudent reserve, the determination of the speaker everywhere 
 maiiifest to kee]) utterance well within tlie limits of conviction 
 and of feeling. "We have forbidden our words," he say«, "to 
 transcend the limits of our personal emotions; ;tn artificial 
 heat would not be .salutary." "Feeble, i address myself to the 
 
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 When some ol" ns beeoiiic stionj^er than the re«t nnc will to- 
 gethtM' demand the bn-ad oi the strong." Henee tiui entire 
 freedom from eant, the naturalness, the wise and attractive 
 reasonableness of the discourses composed' in such a spirit; 
 contrasting, oh, how stiongly, with the wihl exti'avagance, the 
 vulgar exiggeration, the frank egotism which is dis|)laycd by 
 mol'c than one ])rominent pulpit of our day. Surely po[>ula- 
 rity is i)U)'chase<l at too great a cost, when it involves the 
 sacrifice at once of the saeredness of the sanctuary and the 
 self-res])eet of the ])reaeher. 
 
 Inhere is still another characteristic of N'inet s sermons, too 
 striking to be passed over even in this l>rief estimate; they 
 ai'e marked by a certain tingt; of sadness — marked, not 
 manetl; it is in part even the secret of the charm which they 
 have foi' the sensitive reader. For tlie tcme of melancholy, if 
 one must designate it l)y such a term, which per\ ades th(.'m, 
 is that of a pure and gentle spirit, .saddimeij and chastened by 
 the sight of human sin and human suffering. One has only 
 to listen to its strains to coid'ess their 8])ell. "Every soul,* 
 doubtless, cairies within itself a ti'casure of soi-row. It is 
 even a condition (.)f our nature, that in all our joys, even the 
 most intiiuse I know not what s(M"row ever mingles, as in a 
 song of gladness, a hollow murmur, or a stilled groan. It 
 might be said that the very voice of joy awakens in the 
 depths of the soul ashnabeiing grief:" or again "Tiife is passe* 
 amid temptations to joy incessantly repressed. Jo}' has mo- 
 ments, sorrow the whole of life. That is a moment of joy 
 wIk^i a cheiished hope is realized; that is a life of sorrow 
 when we feel that the successive realization of all our hopes 
 lias not filled the infinite abyss of the soul. That is a moment 
 of iov, which <jives us the smile of a beautiful da v,' the sun 
 so plea.sant to behold, the free develo[)ment of any t>f our 
 powers, the feeling of existence in the ])lenitude of health; 
 that is a life of sorrow which hurries proujiscuoilsly to the abyss 
 hefoi'e us oar good and our evil liours, oui' })ains and our 
 ] Measures, nay more, oui- soul itself; for the thoughts and 
 artecti(jns of which it is compo.sed piecede us to the tomb, 
 w idle of all that we po.ssess and all we have been, we can re- 
 tain nothing, no, not even our most cherish<Ml griefs." Or 
 once more "From the very sources of ou'' happiness s))ring 
 forth bitter soi-rows. Our mt>st tender attachments arm death 
 with some of his sharpest darts; for although St. Paul has 
 said with truth that "tlie sting of death is sin," it is true that 
 this sting multiplies itself and makes sharp points of all the 
 flowers with which we deck our heads. Kverv crown of 
 
6 
 
 Howei'M, HODiu'i' or latt'i". lir(M)in('s a crown of tl»t)ni.s." And 
 what (li'ptli of r«'tl«'ctivo thought, as woll as teiiiUM'm'Hs of 
 [)hiintivo sorrow ha\*' we not in tlu.'so words! "To blunt tins 
 sting of grit'f, time is Ix'ttor tluui [)rid(' ; hut tijnc wears out 
 the soul as well as all the rest, 'i'he powei* ot forgetting is 
 only a weakness. liife tlnis becomes less .sowowful, but it 
 also becomes less serious, le.ss noble." 
 
 It is ahno.Ht unnoC(.'ssary to add, after what has been Hai<l 
 and what has Ixsen (|Uoted, that Vinc^t has found warm ad- 
 mirers in every ccmntiy which his woiks have reached; not 
 oidy in his native Switzeiland. but in (lernumy, in Finance, in 
 Kngland and in America. His sermons are not indee(l popular 
 m the oj'dinary sense of that term. I^hey ai'e for the most 
 part I'eligious essays or meditation.s. They art- made to be 
 read and re-rend. That is perhaps their delect as stsrmons. 
 They have to seek and to sele(;t their audience, but they hold 
 it without diHieulty when once found. How indeed could it 
 be otherwise with discourses whicli exhibit so i-are a union of 
 intellectual and moral excelhaice, such originnlitv of concep- 
 tion, such depth of insight, such elevation of sentiirient, such 
 precision and beauty of expi-ession, such wealth of imagina- 
 tion, such w»irmth of atl'ection, such tenderness, such humility. 
 Add to this a persomUity singulai'ly bright and gentle, en- 
 riched with the best cidtuie of France »ind (rermany, and 
 adorned with "the ornament of a meek and (|uiet spirit," and 
 it cannot sur|)ri.se us that Vinet has won a very high place in 
 the esteem and aHection of tlK)Ughtrul Christiaps in Europe 
 and America, ^'ear8 before I made my first visit to the con- 
 tinent of Furope, he had passed out of life, but at on(> point 
 and another — in a loV(;ly chateau, the honie of a reHiUMl (chris- 
 tian family, on the slopes of the .Jura, and in the midst of a. 
 (juiet Moravian connnunity in Giiinany 1 met those who 
 had known thc! man as well as waited on his teaching, and 
 had cause to note the warm and reverend aH'ection with which 
 they cherished thj meinory of his lihmding genius imd good- 
 ness. For myself (if I may be permitted a personal allusion 
 on this occasion) T confess I owe more to Vinet for intellectual 
 stimulus and spiritual hel[) than to any unins]>ired teacher. 
 
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MDDON. 
 
 Ill pnsisiii^jf from Viiiot to Liddon, wo onroiintor inaiiy stiik- 
 ']U^ eoiJtiasts; tho oiu' philosopliie and critical, the other 
 authoritative and (h>j»;u)atic; the one timid and seif-distruHtl'ul, 
 without the coui'ntj^c to open his mouth e\-en once in thi> lieau- 
 titid and spacious catliedral of his native city, the other to 
 the last, fillin^f witli Ids rin^dnuf voice and his stately periods 
 the far Inriicr St. Paul's; the one enirving conciliation to the 
 ver^e of eoniproniise, the other d(j<^niatism to the verja;** of 
 defiMnce. Kach wms in a niMnnei- true to his nationality; in 
 the oiKf the li^ht touch, the «iry l>rilliance of the Frenchman, 
 in the other the vii^oious directness, the rohust self-assei-tion 
 of the Fine;lishman. In Liddon we ndss the |)hilosophical in- 
 sijLjht, the sulitU; heauty, the sweet persuasiveness of Vinet, 
 hut we find in him on the other hand, a massiveruiss of 
 thoujjht, a ifiandeur of statement and an authoritativeness of 
 utterance, which Vinet cannot claim. Fncpiirers after truth 
 will linijrer over the pa^es of the one; the mass, ev<»n of the 
 thoughtful, craviujL; alxtve all else, certainty in regar<l to spiri- 
 tual thi,n<rs, will hnni; on the lijts of the other, or. ns death lias 
 now sealed these, will tm'n to the writini;s in which the 
 author has expre.s.scd his unskaken faith in the great Christian 
 vei'ities. 
 
 En addition to his gieat Bampton lecture on the Divinity 
 of .Chiist, Liddon ])ublished from tinie to time several \olume.s 
 of sei'mons, some of them preached in Oxfoi-d, l»cfoi-e the 
 IJnivei'.sity, and others, in St. Paul's Cathedral. Those in 
 Nvhich, so far as my ac(juaintanc»' i^^oes, he is .seen at his best 
 are found in the two volumes entitl«Ml " llTiiversity Sermons " 
 and "Some wt)rda for CJod." Hut while natuially of uneipial 
 merit, they are all strono-, and baiting their sacerdotalism 
 true to Scripture teaching and stJ-engthening to faith. 
 
 At the time of his death, a few weeks ago, Liddon stood 
 by almost universal consent nt the head of the English pul- 
 pit. Whem ver it was known that he was to preach, the great 
 cathedral was filled with an audience embracing indee<l all 
 classes, but in winch there wen; suie to be found many men 
 of liberal (;ulture, and among them some of the leading in- 
 tellects of the clay. Young men of education waited with 
 eagerness on his ministrations. Many Londoners had fo» 
 years never ndssed an opportunity of heaiing him: and his 
 popularity .seein.s to have continued without diminutitm to the 
 last. What was its secret? No single explanation, we niaj- 
 be sure, will suffice. There must have been more than one 
 element of j>ower in the preacher who could attract and re- 
 
s 
 
 tain tlironn;l» so many years m\ aiidioneo so lar^'o and of sneli 
 a cliarav'tcr. 
 
 Ill ncc'ountiii^' f\)r t-liis success wo arc sni'tj in givin*:^ a fore- 
 most place to the prominence whicli the ^reat and superna- 
 tural facts of redemption, and the doctrines which grow out 
 of these facts, received in liis preaching. 'I'hese are not sim- 
 ])ly presupposed, aigued, defended; they are proclaimed, and 
 proclaimed with an authority which comes not from the 
 Sjieakcr, hut from (ilod who has put His woi'd into his mouth 
 and with an cnthusiam which is born of his own assured 
 faith in theii- verity. He is not a ])hilosopher propounding a , 
 theory, not a critic in(|uiring into the truth of a system, not 
 a mei"e mondist enforcing a code of ethics; he is first and be- 
 fore^ all else a preacher, a man with a message which he has 
 receive<l, in which lie believes, which it is his to expound and 
 apply, but in any case to proclaim, and to proclaim in the very 
 terms in which it has been jziven and with all the marvellous 
 significance attaching to it. Not his to reduce by a single 
 hair's breadth the vast pioportioiisof the truth, not his to tone 
 down the dimensions of the supernatural, whethei" as dis- 
 played in the Saviours incarnation and (lodhead or in the sin- 
 nei's i'eij:ene)'ation to newness of life: his rather to assert and 
 to emj)hasize it, whincvv'r Holy Scri]»ture teaches him to find 
 its presence, whethei' in creation or in re<l<Miiption; sometnnes, 
 perhaps, as in his sacramentai.ian views, to discover and assert 
 its jiresenco where it is not. 
 
 Liddon's preaching is thus distinctively dc>ctrinal, ex'cn 
 dogmatic. Tlie great connnon places of religion, — (lod and 
 eternity, sin and grace, i-edemption .-md atonement, death and 
 judgment, are neither ignoie<I, nor thrown into the back 
 ground. < )n the contrar\^ they are constantly upon his lip.s. 
 They form the staple of his discourse. Tlu* only effect on the 
 [•readier of the destructive ci'iticism or of the inijiudent de- 
 nials of th(5 time — and it is unmistakable--is to compel a 
 deeper and trutr concf))tion of these e.s.seiitial and eternal 
 verities, to stifien the grasp with which they are held, and to 
 intensify the emphasis wnth which they are proclaimed. It 
 should be added, as al', important to an undei standing of his 
 .success, that these verities so often su]>erficially viewed, as- 
 stniie a deepei' significance, become invested with a more 
 .soleuni grandeu)', in the hands of this great preacher. Set in 
 the light of his powerful intellect and glowing imagination, 
 they are seen to posse.ss larger ])roportions, to liave deeper an<.l 
 wider im))lications id the principles of human reason and the 
 facts of human exj)erience, than had been previou.sly discerned : 
 while ever and again there flashes out some abusive phrase. 
 
 ni 
 To 
 
9 
 
 or some flaminti; metaphor, wliicli at once wi«lonH an<t illumines 
 the siiiritual lK)j"izon,or opons out in it new and honmlless vistas 
 for thougfht ami t'anev to exr)lore. As the result, the hearer is 
 both eontirmed in his faith in revealed truth andnuide to feel 
 its ))ossession to be a more than ever inestimalile treasure. 
 
 I eannot doubt that these (jualities in the sermons of ('anon 
 Liddon supply the main explanation of their wonderful power. 
 Something no doubt was due to the speaker's tine presence, 
 to his powerful and melodious voiee heard distinctly at the 
 farthest point in that vast laiildinL^, to his passion born of 
 deep conviction, to his massive and stately oratory, and to the 
 unicpie and attractive personality, which was behind the 
 words and lent them weight; but after due aTiOwance has 
 been made for all these, it still remains true, that what more 
 than all else gave this far-famed preacher the power to attract 
 and to retain his crowding audiences, was his strong grasp of 
 the frnidam(!ntal verities of the Oospel, his deep and d<vout 
 insight into their meanino' and the assui-ed and assurini-- con- 
 tidence with which he never ceased to proclaim them. 
 
 One point more, and we take farewell of Liddon. I have 
 spoken of the vein of nielancholy which is so fre((uently met 
 with in the .sermons of Vjnet. A similar tinge of sadness 
 appears, though pprha])s less ol)trusively, in those of Liddon. 
 With all the strong pei-.sonal faith which th<\y express, they 
 cannot be spoken of as predominantly hopeful. There are 
 freipiently forthcoming in them, not oii'v the sad vicissitudes 
 of human life, its inconsolable griefs, l)ut also the weary 
 struggle of the faith, its dark outlook, the possibility ot |>hi'- 
 tial and temjuirary defeat even, before the hour of tinal 
 triumph. The sorrow, the unrest, the oft l»atHed endeavour 
 of th(^ age is again and again sympatlietically i'etlecte<l in the 
 woi-ds and th'e tones of the great preacher: and just therein 
 lay a part of his charm. You know the spi.'ll which is ex- 
 ercised over us by the pathos of the plaintive song, by the 
 notes of the minor tune, even by the hues of the fading year. 
 Vou know that that joy is ever the mo.st attractive, in which 
 is heard a faint undertone of sadness, as that beauty is the 
 most fascinating in which is seen a tinge t)f melancholy, such 
 as all the great painters, therefore, have thrown into the fac«' 
 in which they sought to endtody their highest conception of 
 female beauty, that of the mother of our Lord. In any case, 
 M'hether a part of their charm or not, a shade of gloom is an 
 unmistakable feature in the seiMuoiis of Liddon, as it is ind«MMl, 
 also in those of his gi-eat compeer : Who do«^s not fed its spell 
 in his hyn)n, " Lead kin<lly light amid the encircling gloom"? 
 To him we now turn for a very brief pei'iod. 
 
10 
 
 NEWMAN. 
 
 Novvinan as a jm'cjicIioi- is eliicliy known to tliose of the 
 pivsont (lay tliiough eioJit volumes of " F'arochial and Plain 
 Seiiuons" (It'livcred by him, while still a minister in the 
 Churph of Entfland. It is i^siial to speak of him as a great 
 |»reacht'r, ami if the greatness of the pn'acher is to be mea- 
 sured by the effect produce<l l)y his sei'mons, he must he 
 lield to be a very great one. It lias been said of tliem by 
 one well (jiialifiiMl to form a correct judgment, they "have done 
 more tlian an}' one thing in mould and (|uicken and brace the 
 i-eligions temper of our time; they luive acted with e(|ual 
 foi'ce on those who were nt'arest and on those who were 
 fulthest fi'om him in theological opinion." Tt is certain they 
 have enteretl as a (juite apprecial>le force into thc^ intellectual 
 and .spii-itual life of the mition: They may be said even to 
 have accomplished little less than a revolution in the prevail- 
 ing style of ])i caching, making it nmch less conventional ajid 
 much more direct and pi'a(;tical. And their intinence has 
 been confined to no one l)i'anch of the Christian church. It 
 has probably Ijcon even more felt in the Non-conformist 
 churches than in that body to which, as all Protestants will 
 regret, their author deemed it dutiful to transfer his allegiance. 
 Yet it is easy to j-ead these sermons witl.out having forced on 
 one's attention anv sintrle excellence or any cond)ination of 
 excellences, so unusual as to account for this wiiJe and deep 
 iuHuenet'. They do not often .startle the reader by the bohl- 
 ness an<l oi'iuinality of the thought, as do those of Frederick 
 Robi'i'tson. riiey have not the tender pathos and exquisite 
 beauty of tlie di.scour.ses of John Kerr, and tliey ai'e still far- 
 ther removed from the elaborate word-painting of Guthrie. 
 Nor does the |)reacher, like Chalmers, carry his audieiavc along 
 (»n a flood of im[)assioni'd sj)eech. All these legitimate and 
 natural means of im|)ression, Newman .seems as if on f?et pur- 
 po.se to avoid. He does not once step aside friim the direct 
 path in which his theme leads him to lay hold of a striking 
 thought or to cull a flower of rhetoric. His imagery is 
 thi'oughout of the simplest kind and is such as .serves, 
 merely to display the thought, never to attract attention to 
 itself. He shuns seduhaisly not only exaggeration, V)ut even 
 vehement emotion, as if it weie not a strength but a weak- 
 ness. His speech is for the most part as calm and unim- 
 passioned, as it is ])reci.se and clear. The \isual (pudities of 
 the orator are conspicuously absent, and indeed liis warmest 
 admirer declares "he was utterly unlike an oi-ator in all out- 
 ward ways' What tlien was the secret of his great power? 
 
11 
 
 and 
 
 Wht«t lent sucli a coiniuandiny^ and pri-sistent inilnoncc to 
 those scrnioiiH pivached dnrino- the second (|nai ter (.'t' tin; ci'ii- 
 tuiy tVoin tlio puljiif^jf St. Mary's clmich, Oxford. I men- 
 tion just three considerations. 
 
 First: — The profound spiritual insight of the preacher. 
 The most cursory reader cannot fail to be struci< hy the .suhth^ 
 and penetrating- analysis of human cliaracter and Mction on 
 the religious side, which tliese sermons display. They are not, 
 indeiMl, purely sultjective. The great tVctsof redenjption have 
 their full place accorded to them and the leading S(;iipture 
 characters are nuide to pass in succession before lis. Hut they 
 are predominantly suhjrctive. it is mninly I'eligion in human 
 action, the truth as honored or dishonoied in the life, the 
 workings ol sin and of grace in the heait, of which they treat; 
 and the treatment is of the most searching kind, 'llxe stiatiire 
 complexity of motive at work in lives at le»st paitially C'hri.s- 
 tian is unravelled fearlessly and with appureut ease. Tin; 
 wiles and feints of the deceitful heart are laid bare. The dis- 
 guises with which self-love seeks to cover up departures front 
 truth and righteousn.ess an- stripped off with pitiless hand. 
 Often the sermon in its calm and severe airaignment of 
 human conduct seems a kind of rehearsal ol' the judgment; 
 only the preacher passes sentence on himself as well as on 
 others and is careful to unfold the irvixci^ which is still within 
 reach. Newman's preaching is thus at once intensely spiritiud 
 and intensely practical. The spiritual good of the hearer is 
 not once lost sioht of and the character uuiler which that 
 good is sought is of the very highest kind. Such sermons, 
 for example, as those entitled "Knowledge of (iod's will with- 
 (Hit obedience," "Pronnsin<x with(mt doino," "Obedience the 
 remedy for religious perplexity" are nvodels of calm, sober, 
 instructivi' statement, and of solemn and earnest nppeal. The 
 ]U'eacher is far advniiced in his art who eainiot learn iVom 
 their study to ])reach still better, and the j)rivate Cljristian is 
 not to be envied who can lise from their perusal without 
 [irotit.' 
 
 Second: — There is the great excellenci' t)f their style — the 
 uuirvellous clearness, precision and simplicity of the ex])i-es- 
 sion — as a farther explanation oi the power exerted by thes(i 
 sei'mons. It is true, the preacher seems to have conce)Jie<l 
 himself little, if indeed at all, with the foini his thought was 
 to a.ssume. He was too intent on the thought itself to allow 
 of this. There is no discernible eHbrt on liis |)art after force 
 or beauty of ex])ression : no long drawn metaphor, no elabo- 
 rate antithesis to .suggest that the form in which the thought 
 is clothed is the result of much care and work; but such mas- 
 
I 
 
 c 
 
 12 
 
 tery does ho ])os8ess over the instniiiiont which he wields in 
 i/he English tongue, that the tJiuught takes at once and with- 
 out effort the fitting form ; tlie allusive nietaplioi', the orna- 
 ment, when there is any, comes naturally, spontaneously and 
 not as having been sought. The language is always precise 
 and cleai', often neautifid, but th«; hearer no more thinks ot 
 tlie simplicity and beauty of the teru's in which the thought 
 is couched, until attention is called to it, than the spectator 
 charmed with the distant landscape, thinks of the })urity of 
 the atmosphere through which it is seen. There the rugged 
 mountain peak or the river gleaming in the sunlight, is every- 
 thing; here the supernatural fact, or the s})iritual tiutli. This 
 [ need scarcely say is tlie very ])ei-fection of style. And it 
 dues not only possess a great charm, in the sermon at least it 
 possesses high ethical value. It betokens a mind too serious, 
 too strongly .seized of the truth, too much in earnest concerning 
 the ends to be served by it, to lend itself to rhetorical orna- 
 mentation. It betokens the preacher's confidence in the 
 power, his sense of the majest}', of the truth which it has 
 i>een given him to proclaim. Any studied beauty of expres- 
 sion in a .sermon, any beauty of form which detains the nnnd 
 is at once a rhetorical mistake and a moral fault, ami the lat- 
 ter is the worse blemish— the more injurious — of the two. 
 Let us be thn,nkf\d then, at a rime when frecpien* recourse to 
 rhetorical artifice, labored oi'namentation of the thought ami 
 accompaniments still less defensible, seem to ])roclaim in so 
 njany (pmrters the speaker's distrust in the ability of the 
 thought itself to liold uKai, foi' preachers like Newman, who 
 have the courage to stake all upon the naked truth — who are 
 too reverent, too much in earnest, to furbish with th'e tiap- 
 ))ings of rhetoric that swa)rd of the Spirit which is the word 
 of (lod. 
 
 Third: — Once more, and moiv important than all else as 
 explaining the great influence undeniably exerted by the.se 
 sermons, there is the obvious and umnistakable sincerity of 
 the preacher; a something in his method of presenting trutli, 
 which gives to his statements, even when most directly spiri- 
 tual, a tlistinct note of reality. For one thing there is the en- 
 tire absence of exaggeration — of the swollen phrases, which 
 are horn of the craving foj" immediate impression, as distinct 
 from the desire foi- la.sting good. There is the absence also of 
 conventionalism — of modes oi expression that belong to the 
 pulpit only and are not heai'd at all in common life All is 
 simple and natural. The preacher speaks about God and 
 rhrist and .sin an<l salvation, and heaven, always with rever- 
 ence indeed, never with tlie vulgar familiaricx' an<l still Ics-t; 
 
with tlie buftooiiL'iy vvlucli are too often enjuloycd ami wliieli 
 are at vvai* l)otli with religious fV-eliii^ ami good taste, but lie 
 s|)eaks (jf theui at the same time with a directness and a cir- 
 cumstantiality, such as we might employ in speaking about the 
 friend wlio visited us yesterday or about tlie busint'ss we are 
 going to transact to-morrow; or in writing to a person regard- 
 ing a countiy witli which we are familiar and which he is 
 about to visit. IMiere is as the result an air of realuess giv«m 
 to the subjects of which he treats, which in the measure of it 
 is very rare, b.it which is at the same t'me mt)Ht helpful to 
 the hearer. Evidently the worhl of spiritual things is a very 
 real world to hiui. He has looked it in the face. He has 
 .scrutinized it closely, and lie speaks of it with a simplicity 
 and a directness and withal a confidence that nnist go far to 
 make it real U) others also. This is indeed about the most 
 original and distinctive characteristic of the sermons of this 
 gieat preacher; as it is one of their highest merits, if not in- 
 deed their ver}' highest. Foi' there is scai'cely any service, 
 which a Christian man can render to his fellowmen more im- 
 portant at least in our age, than to invest the spiritual world 
 witli realuess to tlnnn: not to divest it of its mystery, for if 
 that w^ere possible, it wotild be a loss and not a gain, but to 
 take it out of the region of eloudhuid and dreaui and give to 
 it the air of definite, undeniable i-t.'ality, whicli we nuist be- 
 lieve belongs to it. To do this, it must be altogetlun- real to. 
 the man himself. His speech regarding it nmst be obviou.sly 
 apd entirely sincere. It must be impo.ssible for even the most 
 sensitive hearer to detect in it the false and therefore the 
 disenchanting n'ote. This was in a high degrec,-^id with all 
 Ins faults, thiy service which Newiuan rendered to oiti: common 
 Christianity and by it he made not sim|)ly the Oxfom of his 
 day, but the pulpit of England and of Auierica in ouis, his 
 debtor. \ 
 
 1 have thus ])as,sed in review, at undue length. 1 fear, 
 these distinguished preachers, all of wIkmii "now re.st from tlieii- 
 labors." As the result, I trust, they stand out before you in 
 their distinct individuality ; V^net, the cahii, philosophic en- 
 fpiirer, the representative of reason in relation to religion, 
 original in thought, gra(H'ful in speech, lofty in character, 
 .sweet and gentle in spirit, looking with wistful and tender 
 .soirow, even on those who hesitate to enter, or who actually 
 turn away from, the great temple of truth and love within 
 which he worships. Liddon, the princely preachei*, the repre- 
 sentative of authority, of dogma in religion, cultured, stately, 
 elo(|uent, witnessing with a power which in our age has not 
 been surpassed, if indeed it has been ecpialled for the super- 
 
14 
 
 natural facts of redemption, and the bitterly assailed but in- 
 destructible verities of ,the Christian faith: and NewrnMi, the 
 subtle, severe, devout analyst of Ohristirin character and 
 action, keen in tlu)U<?ht, clear and musical in expression, con- 
 Hdent in belief and practical in aim. the representative in the' 
 years in which alone we are conceni«.'(l with him — probably 
 iiis happiest and most useful — of the i-evived piety of the 
 Church, of wdiich he was so great an ornament, and to which 
 his withdrawal from its nunistry was so great a loss. 
 
 In conclusion, gentlemen of the theological classes, 1 ex- 
 tend to you in the name of the senate and in my own nauie, 
 a cordialWclcome to the Institution, whether you are leturn- 
 ing to it to resumt>, in some cases to complete, your studies, or 
 whether you are entering it for the iirst time. Whatever the 
 lecture of the evening has done for others or has failed to do, 
 1 hope it has deepened in you the sense of the importance and 
 dignity of the work of preaching. I shall regard it as the 
 highest service which I can render you, as your teacher in 
 Homiletics, much nion? important even than any instruction 
 in the princijiles of the science, if I can help you to feel 
 the grandeur of the preacher's office, inspire you with the 
 ardent desire to excel in it, and lead you to regard all gifts, 
 whether natural or acquire"!, whether of vigorous thought or 
 of graceful speech, as having their very highest value in the 
 power with which they clothe you, to expound, to apply, and 
 above all, to proclaim Christ's message of love, "the glorious 
 gospel of the blessed God."