nworthiness, no fear that he is
trespassing on sacred ground, or that he is attempting a task beyond his
powers, impedes the utterance of his fluent tongue. Not a trace of the
scholarship, or reading, or severe thought, or God-sent genius, or of
that doubt in which there lives more faith than in half the creeds, will
you find in the whole of his harangue.

On the pulpit, or rather the platform, Mr. Spurgeon imitates Gough, and
walks up and down, and enlivens his sermons with dramatic
representations. He is 'hail fellow, well-met' with his hearers. He has
jokes and homely sayings and puns and proverbs for them. Nothing is too
sacred for his self-complacent grasp; he is as free and unrestrained in
God's presence as in man's. Eternity has unveiled its mysteries to him.
In the agonies of the lost, in the joys of the redeemed, there is nothing
for him to learn. His 'sweet Saviour,' as he irreverently exclaims, has
told him all. Of course, at times there is a rude eloquence on his lips,
or, rather, a fluent declamation, which the mob around takes for such.
The orator always soars with his audience. With excited thousands
waiting his lightest word, he cannot remain passionless and unmoved.
Words and thoughts are borne to him from them. There is excitement in
the hour; there is excitement in the theme; there is excitement in the
living mass; and, it may be, as the preacher speaks of a physical hell
and displays a physical heaven, some sensual nature is aroused, and a
change may be effected in a man's career. Little causes may produce
great events; one chance word may be the beginning of a new and a better
life; but the thoughtful hearer will learn nothing, will be induced to
feel nothing, will find that as regards Christian edification he had much
better have staid at home. At the best Mr. Spurgeon will seem to him a
preacher of extraordinary volubility. Most probably he will return from
one of Mr. Spurgeon's services disgusted with the noisy crowding,
reminding him of the Adelphi rather than the house of God; disgusted with
the common-place prayer; disgusted with the questionable style of
oratory; disgusted with the narrowness of the preacher's creed, and its
pitiful misrepresentations of the glorious gospel of the blessed God;
disgusted with the stupidity that can take for a divine afflatus brazen
impudence and leathern lungs. Most probably he will come back confessing
that Mr. Spurgeon is the youngest, and the lo