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complaining of the heat, and seeming no less anxious to get away than they were a few minutes before to arrive; yet I am assured that this is a particularly select and elegant party; and if I may venture to ask in what its merits consist, I am shewn two or three cabinet ministers, several members of the corps diplomatique, varions Peers and Peeresses, and in their train some of the minor stars of the fashionable hemisphere, with the addition, perhaps, of a renowned English or foreign hero, an abdicated sove reign, an Otaheite chieftain, a Persian envoy, a Greek, celebrated for the tie of his turban, a learned lady, for the brilliancy of her wit, or a traveller, for his recent discoveries; in short of something extraordinary-of some object (no matter what) to which the eye of curiosity is at that moment directed; for rank has but one rival in England, and that is novelty; and the giver of a fete seems to think that but three things are necessary to ensure its success. I mean an ample supply of lords, ladies, and lions.

When, after having wasted a night at one of these parties, I read the description of it in the newspapers of the following morning, I smile at seeing it decked out in all the colours of high flown panegyric.

When I come, however, to examine the particulars of the narration, I find the editor of the Journal appears to think, with the donor of the establishment, that the charm of such a meeting consists in the titles of the company who compose it; for, after a few laudatory terms

about the taste of the lady, whose festivities he is recounting, and the nouvel style in which her house was decorated on the occasion (for some French word, however insignificant, must be used), the rest of his column is filled with a dull catalogue of exalted, names, beginning with Royal personages, and descending through all the intermediate degrees to Knights and Knightesses; to which is added a short, and only a very short list of simple Misters and Mistresses Indeed, the indecent custom of publishing an account of private assemblies seems to be one of the causes of the absurdity of which I complain; as, in order to supply materials, for. a pompous paragraph, every nerve is strained and every scruple of becoming pride is silenced-to congregate, no matter by what means, the greatest possible quantity of grandeur and notoriety.

In short, it appears to me that such is the reverence paid to rank, that those who possess that advantage, however deficient in mental or moral qualifications, are in little danger of being banished from the highest circles of London, unless the most egregious crimes are proved against them, on clear indispu table evidence; while persons not so distinguished, though eminent for virtue, talent, knowledge, and even ancient birth, may pass their time very dull in this gay city; particularly if too proud and too independent to propitiate, by presents and servile adulation, the very noble but very vicious leaders of the fashionable world. Adieu,

De Vermont,

LINES

For the blank leaf in the beginning of a Pocket-Book; ·

YEAR rolls on year, like wave on wave,

Each wafts us nearer to the grave:
Grateful for what the past has given,
The future we should leave to Heaven;
And learn from yonder passing bell,
To use the present moments well.

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S. R.

SKETCHES OF POPULAR PREACHERS.

(Continued from page 530.)

THE VERY REV. ROBERT STEVENS, DEAN OF ROCHester.

DR. STEVENS possesses a voice of very great compass, it is more distinguised for this than for sweetness and variety, as its faintest tones could be distinctly heard at the farthest extremity of the church of St. Margaret, Westminster (where he was some years lecturer), one of the largest, I believe, in the Metropolis; and, I should imagine from its construction, peculiarly ill calculated for the conveyance of sound.

His voice, however, is not of that harsher kind which is characterized by nothing but strength, and is incapable of expressing any but the more violent emotions; on the contrary, persuasion, pathos, indignation, devotion, have each a corresponding tone; and, though the variations are slight, they are sufficiently perceptible.

His deportment throughout the whole period of the service is perfectly unexceptionable, calm, dignified, and pious, without languor, haughtiness, or ostentation.

Dr. Stevens's unaffected earnestness of manner induces the conclusion, that he is actuated by a sincere desire to strengthen the faith, and improve the morality of his hearers; and that, experimentally sensible himself of the benefits which accrue from religion, he is deeply anxious that others should participate in its blessings.

Considered as an orator, he has many deficiences. His language is unmarked by that felicitous luxuriance, which astonishes by its copiousness, and clothes every idea in the most appropriate dress; it likewise frequently wants the polish and elegance which evince the presence of a correct aud cultivated taste.

The graces of action he either despises or neglects. His irony is not sufficiently pointed, while his arguments are sometimes defective in strength, and consequently enfeeble, instead of supporting his positions.

I now turn to the more grateful task of describing those qualifications, which procured for Dr. Stevens

the large share of popularity he en joyed in the Metropolis. As a practical preacher he certainly has no superior; his sermons have invariably one great end in view, that of remedying the morbid morality of his congregation. The subjects upon which he peculiarly excels are various. In his endeavours to expose and confute the Unitarian infidelities, he exhibits acuteness and ingenuity, an ardent desire to preserve unimpaired the purity of our faith, and, above all, moderation and candour, while employed in unravelling what he considers to be the delusive sophistries of error.

He never forgets the fallibility of reason, the obligation it imposes to examine conflicting opinions with impartiality, and to discuss them with charity; at the same time he never compromises his cause by lukewarmness or timidity. His sermons on the mercy of God to man, in creating, preserving, and redeeming him, are replete with representations which have a tendency to lead the soul to love and reverence its Maker. His discourses inculcate the nècessity of fervent and rational gratitude for the benefits we have received, and that the most conclusive demonstration of it is a pure and holy life. When advocating the excellence of Christianity, his eloquence can command admiration for what is sublime and pure in our religion, excite respect and reverence for what is awful and terrific in her denunciations, create attachment for her consolations, her hopes, her promises, and convince his hearers that mental peace is the consequence of her adoption into the heart. When he describes her power in alleviating adversity, her efficacy in re-awakening the mind to consciousness, after being stunned by the blow of unexpected calamity, he can reconcile it to misfortune, by gradually withdrawing its contemplations from the surrounding evils, and fixing them upon that hope, which shines the most brightly for the unhappy-the

hope of immortality. To win the soul to resignation, he represents the inutility of grief, its corroding tendency, the torpor and apathy it occasions, and the despair with which it bounds every prospect in futurity. The sufferer, who has be held the last flower of earthly happiness wither and decay, may listen to his delineations of the calm sere, nity which gilds the hours of the virtuous, and expect for an instant a resurrection of the blossoms of gladness and delight; anticipating the moment, when time shall have brought the olive branch to distress, when fortitude shall have subdued the warring passions to repose.

The Sacrament of the Lord's Sup. per is another subject upon which the Dean of Rochester is invariably heard with pleasure; his views of it are scriptural, his explanations of it satisfactory, his exhortations to participate in it frequently almost irresistible. The character of Dr. Stevens's mind is more solid than brilliant; it is good sense which gives the colour to his intellect. When he considers a subject, he does, not view it with reference to some preconceived theory of his own, distorting facts and torturing arguments that they may appear to confirm it, but, divesting the subject of its relative dependencies, he considers it with as much impartiality as the mind of man is capable of exercising.

His opinions are moderate and charitable; he never condemns those to whom truth appears in a garb unlike that which she assumes to him; but, firm in his own convictions, he pities their defection from what he conceives to be the truth, and laments the differences which divide them. Dr. Stevens inculcates pure morality as the most decisive manifestation of religious principles;

and enforces the necessity of re ligious principles as the best springs for moral actions.

His system of ethics is unincumbered by the fanatical interdictions and superstitous observances, which, having their origin in a diseased imagination, tend to retard whatever is good in conduct, or sound in principle. His eloquence, though defective in many of those qualities which indicate the presence of exalted genius, is admirably adapted to establish faith, when doubt has begun to poison her convictions, to confirm virtue when temptation has succeeded in weakening the fortifications that intrench it, to mature the first germ of penitence into fruit, when remorse has fertilized with her tears the soil which had hitherto produced noxious weeds in unlimited profusion.

To conclude. The characteristics of the Dean of Rochester's preaching may be defined in two words, good sense and usefulness. Whatever may be the sphere which has his exertions for a centre, that sphere will experience their salutary influence, in the gradual but perceptible declension of evil, in the benefits accruing from the dissemination of a code, imposed by Heaven for the moral and intellectual improvement of man; explained and enforced by a mind which has imbibed from that code its purest essence. Whether the sequestered village, fenced by its loneliness from the seductions of the world, or the populous city, where innocence is annihilated by its collision with crime, shall be the scene of his ministerial labours; his active rational piety, his unwearied endeavours to promulgate our divine religion, will always produce results that will entitle his name to be enrolled among the most respected and honoured of mankind.

THE REV. G. MATHEW, A.M.

THE Rev. George Mathew, A.M., is the Vicar of Greenwich, and alternate morning preacher at Saint James's, Westminster. His manner is serious and energetic; his voice, though deficient in variety of tone, is full and powerful, and, if not remarkable for its sweetness, har

monizes well with the solemnity of his manners. He delivers his sermon as if he was conscious of the dignity and authority of his office, and impressively inculcates those truths, of whose importance to the Happiness of man, he himself appears entirely convinced. Though

his reading is not disfigured by that drawling monotony of voice and manner which weary the attention, yet the obstacles interposed by nature in the construction of his voice will always prevent him from being considered a beautiful reader. His emphasis is judicious and correct: -the language of his discourse is rather forcible than harmonious, more frequently convincing than persuasive. His views of the depravity of our nature, of the pertinaciousness with which man clings to vice, of the corruption that mingles with his best resolves and his most virtuous actions, are mournfully correct. He is, perhaps, disposed to expatiate upon these subjects too frequently, for he should remember, that, however useful it may be to tear away the veil with which self-love conceals guilt from conscience, and compel her to confess that she has erred, yet descriptions of the encouraging promises of the Gospel, of the facilities it affords to eradicate evil propensities and implant virtuous dispositions, of its tranquillizing influence in the hour of adversity, and of the brightness which it diffuses over the variegated path of mortality, will sometimes succeed in humbling a spirit, which would have repelled remonstrance with disdain, as some flowers display their beauties and dispense their sweets to the soft balmy influence of nature, while

they shroud them in terror from the violence of the whirlwind and the storm.

Mr. Mathew's defects, as a sermon-writer, are the frequent want of methodical arrangement, not adhering to the plan which he lays down at the commencement of his discourse, and sometimes wandering so far from his text, that he appears entirely to have forgotten it. I by no means recommend the divisions, and sub-divisions, which formerly disfigured some of the productions of our English divines, but I think that arranging a sermon in such a manner as to render the heads of it more easily retainable by the me mory is well worth the sacrifice of a little oratorical beauty.

The defects I have mentioned Mr. Mathew abundantly atones for by his excellencies. Well-informed, sensible, and judicious, his sermons are fraught with solid instruction and improvement. The sinner, who listens to his denunciations of divine vengeance without dismay, must be nearly beyond the reach of human eloquence; and his addresses to the penitents at the Magdalen Hospital where he was formerly a preacher, were simple, pathetic, and admirably adapted to soften guilt to contrition and repentance. As a theologian, the principles of Mr. Mathew are in strict conformity with the doctrines of the Church of England.

THE REV. EDWARD REPTON, A. M.

The Rev. E. Repton is the minister of St. Philip's Chapel, Waterloo-place, and alternate evening preacher at the Magdalen Hospital.

Endowed by nature with a peculiarly sweet-toned voice, the minds of Mr. Repton's congregation are prepared to receive with pleasure the instruction conveyed through so attractive a medium; but, long before the conclusion of his discourse, they experience a feeling nearly allied to satiety, by attending to an undeviating uniformity of voice and nanner, which fatigue from their want of variety, and are apt to produce listlessness and apathy. He appears competent to persuade, to soothe, and to soften; but we look

in vain for spirited reprehension or fearless reproof. If he attempts either of these, we immediately discover that he is on foreign ground; that he has passed the boundary erected by nature, which declares, thus far shalt thou come but no farther. To originality of thought and language the subject of this article has no claim; they are trite and common-place; destitute indeed of flagrant absurdities, or glaring faults, but unadorned by the eloquence of genius, which fas cinates while it convinces. Mr. Repton is a preacher who may be well described by negatives; his manner, is not animated, his voice is not harsh, his rhythm is not rugged,

78233

Sketches of Popular Preachers,

his language is not vulgar, nor incorrect, nor yet beautiful nor elegant; in one word, he is medi: Taken in the ocrity personified. best point of view, Mr. Repton is mild and serious in his deportment, a devout reader, and a preacher whose excellence consists in describing well the mercy and beneficence of the Almighty, the pleasures of religion and virtue, and the advantages of penitence; he presents Christianity as the soother of affliction, the encourager of repentance, and the promoter of all the mild endearing charities of life, and, consequently, disposes the mind to love and venerate it.

Considered in the most unfavourable light; his mode of delivery is inanimate, his language insipid, and his ideas neither beautiful nor novel. He appears to have prescrib ed for himself a certain path,, out of which he is afraid to deviate for fear he should encounter any thing bearing the form of talent. It may be considered unfair to censure a preacher on account of natural incapacity; I shall be told, perhaps, that men are not the architects of their own minds. But if this plea was allowed, there would be an end to all criticism, since the same principle is applicable to all subjects; or if it was conceded to the critic, that he might praise if he pleased, provided he refrained from censure, then silence would be construed into an infraction of his compact, A man may be competent to fill, with honour to himself and advantage to the community, many situations in the scale of social existence, who only publishes his own weaknesses by assuming the high office of pub

lic instructor; or if the delusions
of self-love, and the flatteries of
friends, have unfortunately placed
him in it, he should be content to
execute the subordinate duties of
the establishment; and remember
that the unnoticed materials of the
foundation are more essential to
the building than the ornaments
which adorn the pillar and the ca
pital.

But to return to Mr. Repton,
The faults in his mode of delivery
he certainly may correct if he
pleases; as they are, principally,
tameness and monotony. His voice
I think must be capable of a much
greater variety of intonation than
he generally displays; the impro-
piety of reproving sin and encou
raging virtue in the same tone is
obvious. Energy of manner is like-
wise easily acquired; the advanta
ges of it are weighty and numerous
A truth which may be heard and
forgotten, if delivered in an inani-,
mate manner, may sink into the
mind never to be effaced, if uttered
by a preacher who appears deeply
interested in his subject. Mr. Rep
ton's deportment in the reading
desk and pulpit is exactly what
that of a clergyman ought to be-
serious, but entirely exempt from
ostentatious display of piety. With
respect to his sermons, he is pos
sessed of sufficient taste to reject
every thing incongruous or ridicu-
lous; whatever he attempts, he
appears to execute in the best man-
ner he is able, and therefore, though
he may never delight, he will never
disgust, but, pursuing the even te-
nour of his way, will probably al-
ways continue to hover between the
extremes of imbecility and talent.

THE REV. J. A, BUSFIELD, D.D.

THE Rev. Johnson Atkinson Busfield is the Rector of St. Michael's,' Wood-street, and Evening Lecturer, of St. Mary-le-bone Church. This gentieman's voice, though pleasing in its tone, is extremely feeble; and but for the assistance of a very deliberate enunciation, would be fre, quently inaudible, The mildness and solemnity of his deportment are appropriate and pleasing; his action, when he does indulge in it, Eur. Mag, Jan. 1823,

His sermons

is very ungraceful,
are characterized by an entire desti-
tation of originality of thought and
language. The latter frequently de.
generates into colloquial familiarity,
and is as far removed from the cor
rect, the elegant, and the ornamen
remote from the polished propor
tal, as the ill-constructed cottage is
vanity is, perhaps, one of the most
tions of Grecian architecture, As
E
indubitable manifestations of the

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