y
of Congregational divines. There is nothing pretentious in his
appearance; nothing ecclesiastical in his general framework; and in
the street he looks almost as much like anybody else as like a
parson. The education of Mr. Martyn is equal to that of the average
of Dissenting ministers, and better than that of several. He is,
however, more of a reader than a thinker, and more of a speaker than
either. On the platform he can make as big a stir as men twice his
size. His delivery is moderately even; his words clear; and he can
throw a good dash of imagination into his language. In the pulpit,
to the foot of which place he is led every Sunday, by certain sacred
diaconal lamas, who previously "rub him down" and saddle him for
action, in a contiguous apartment--in the pulpit, we say, he
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 i