A POPULA.13, PREACHER.*
THE heading of this review means•no kind of disrespect. It is a disparagement only when the personality of the man betrays some inconsistency. No one can say that of Canon Fleming. He was equal to his reputation. This does not
mean that his sermons, when the fascination of presence, delivery, and voice had cease& showed conspicuous merit. This they certainly did not. They cannot be compared, from this point of view, with the discourses of Liddon, or with the marvellous succession of utterances, so pointed and so original, which issued for a whole generation from the pulpit of Charles Spurgeon. Bat James Fleming was no "direction-post.." He went on the way on which he urged others to proceed. It is, perhaps, but a commonplace test, yet it is significant that year after year St. Michael's, Chester Square, of which Canon Fleming was incumbent from 1874 up to hie death, showed the largest collection made on Hospital Sunday. No mere rhetorician could have achieved such a result.
Of James Fleming's University career we are told very little. He did not graduate in honours,—perhaps the Mathematical Tripos, which was still obligatory, stood in his way. But be was appointed to a Travelling Fellowship, and this must have meant something. At twenty-six he had a church of his own (All Saints', Bath), and made his mark as a preacher. Eight years in a Camberwell parish followed; and then came the charge which filled up nearly two-thirds of his active life. In 1877 he was appointed by the Crown to a canonry in York. The Dean and Chapter took a different view of the situation, and protested against the appointment. It is useless to discuss the matter, which is mentioned only because Fleming came out of it very well. He was at one time minded to resign the preferment for the sake of peace ; but this might have seemed an abandonment of principles. In the end there was a general agreement that he was in his right place. We cannot attempt to summarise the biography. Perhaps we may say that Mr. Finlayson is a little too florid in his praises. We certainly could have done without the quotations from verse. But he is successful in showing us a picture of a useful and happy life.
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