25 OCTOBER 1873, Page 13

THE USELESSNESS OF ABSTRACT PREACHING.

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."] SIR,—If you were the clergyman of the country parish in which you have lived for the last ten years, you would not condemn abstract preaching so emphatically. Concrete preaching, which you and Professor Seeley so much admire, is doubtless the pleasantest 'to listen to. Moreover, in London and large towns it fills the church and does good. No one who knows Mr. Wilkinson's church in Eaton Square can doubt that, but in country parishes it empties the church, and produces no reformation. I have .preached the duties of making true returns of income, of thrift, of sending children to school, and so on, and the result has been empty seats for the three Sundays after each sermon of this kind, and criticisms of this sort, " We do not come to church to hear that," "This is not the Gospel." Perhaps you ask why is concrete preaching useful in towns, and useless in the country. The answer is that in the country definite preaching means personalities ; that in St. Paul's Mr. Liddon may say what he likes, because he knows none of his listeners, but that the rector of a country parish, who is intimate with each and all of his 200 or 400 hearers, must be cautious and tender, if he wishes to make his people better. Does a father tell his son plainly of the temptations he will meet with in a public school ? Never. He cannot, he dare not do so. His preaching is abstract. He says,—My son, be pure. Just so must the pastor (as opposed to the occasional preacher) act. If he were to preach as Latimer preached, he would very soon have no .one to preach to.

One word more. Do you really agree with Macaulay in his estimate of the worth of general maxims ? His criticism seems to me to be what he thought La Rochefoucald's " Pensees " were, sparkling and whimsical. I will take a general maxim which all good men regard as detestable, " Honesty is the best policy." But that maxim has made millions honest.—I am, Sir, &c., F. P.