Our Churches and Chapels: Their Parsons, Priests, & Congregations: Being a Critical and Historical Account of Every Place of Worship in Preston — John Shaqi
Our Churches and Chapels: Their Parsons, Priests, & Congregations: Being a Critical and Historical Account of Every Place of Worship in PrestonAtticus
History
Our Churches and Chapels: Their Parsons, Priests, & Congregations: Being a Critical and Historical Account of Every Place of Worship in Preston
Atticus
Preston (Lancashire, England) -- Church history
operates in a superior style, and he looks better there--more like a
parson--than anywhere else. He is here above the ordinary level of
his hearers; if it were not for the galleries, minute as may be his
physiology, he would be the loftiest being present; and if he wishes
to "keep up appearances," we would advise him to remain in the
pulpit and have his meals there. Casting joking overboard--out of
the pulpit if you like--it may be said that Mr. Martyn as a preacher
has many fair qualities. It is true he has defects; but who has
not?--unless it be a deacon;--still there is something in his style
which indicates earnestness, something in his language,
demonstrative of culture and eloquence. His main pulpit fault is
that he "goes off" too soon and too frequently. In the course of a
sermon he will give you three or four perorations, and sometimes
wind up without treating you to one. There is nothing very
metaphysical in his subjects; sometimes he wanders slightly into
space; occasionally he exhausts himself in fighting out the
mysteries of faith, and grace, and justification; but in the
ordinary run of his talk you can get good pictures of practical
matters. He is a lover of nature, is fond of talking about the
sublime and the beautiful, conjointly with other things freely named
in Burke's essay, can pile up the agony with a good deal of ability,
and split the ears of the groundlings as the occasion requires. He
can get into a white heat quickly, or blow his solemn anger
gradually--wind it up by degrees, and make it burst at a given point
of feeling. He is a better declaimer than reasoner--has a stronger
flow of imagination than logic. There is nothing bitter or mocking
in his tone. He seldom flings the shafts of ridicule or irony. He
constructs calmly, and then sends up the rocket: he draws you
slowly to a certain point, and then tells you to look out for "it's
coming." His apparatus is well fixed; he can give you any kind of
dissolving view. His ecstacies are rapid and, therefore, soon over.
The level places in his sermons are rather heavy, and, at times,
uninteresting. It is only when the thermometer is rising that you
enjoy him, and only when he reaches the climax and explodes, that
you fall back and ask for water and a fan. Taking him in the
aggregate we are of opinion that he is a good preacher; that he goes
through his ordinary duties easily and complacently. He gets well
paid for what be does--last year his salary exceeded 340 pounds; and
our advice to him is--keep on good terms with the bulk of "the
brethren," hammer as much piety into them as possible, tickle the
deacons into a genial humour, and look regularly after the pew-
rents.
No. IV.
LUNE-STREET WESLEYAN METHODIST CHAPEL.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account