Word: preacher
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Dates: during 1870-1879
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...this criticism upon their weekly sermons. Hard enough it is for clergymen in general to lift themselves out of the sermonizing ruts that their fathers and grandfathers wore deep for them; yet that some do so we all know; and when once we find the large - hearted, great - souled preacher, who seems to have his hand ever on the pulse of humanity, and whose words fire us with ambition for true manliness and greatness, we feel how infinitely more effective might be the words of the great mass of preachers would they but be a little less ready to tread...
...these high-flown and often utterly ridiculous descriptions of a future state were simply indifferent as a means for good or evil, or if they combined in themselves harmlessness for the hearers and satisfaction for the abnormal state of the preacher's mind, we could contentedly refrain from even a passing remark on the waste of time and effort...
...have been compelled to listen to such a description of heaven as no educated preacher can or does believe in; such a description as, taken even in its most figurative meaning, could inspire no enthusiasm for its attainment in any but the most animal natures. Perpetual rest, unending song, and Oriental luxury have been the spiritual food the preacher has offered under the appellation of heaven; and this, too often, to those. who despise the effeminacy of such luxury, and whose work, not rest, is their real happiness...
SAID a great Congregational preacher...
...another graduate of Harvard, - an Episcopal clergyman, young enough to have sympathy with the students, - instantly hurled back the remarks to which we have alluded, instancing the fact of the crowded assemblies in Appleton Chapel on those occasions when simple eloquence and hearty zeal were the characteristics of the preacher. The different modes of address employed by the two gentlemen to whom we have alluded may be taken in illustration of the power which man exercises over his fellows, and of the force of plain dignified truth as opposed to specious eloquence...