DEAN CHURCH'S VILLAGE SERMONS.
[To THR EDITOR 07 TIM " SPECTATOR:1 Sin.—You recommended Dean Church's sermons in the Spectator of May 14th as models for the village preacher. May I ask, not captiously, whether there is evidence that, as -a village preacher, the rector of Whatley was a success ? That his sermons must always have been heard gladly in the Squire's pew goes without saying ; but did the villagers hear them gladly ? Could they keep their attention through the long periods, longer than those of any other writer, in which the sermons are written ? Could they even keep their head throagh the sentence you quote from the sermon on "Man's Desire for Good," beginning, "1 don't want to say that there is no advantage," ac. I beg leave to doubt it. From the passionate earnestness of the preacher they could not fail to get good, and the preacher may have had the power to vitalise his paragraphs, but I should like to know if it was so. A neighbour of mine, with sufficient gifts of voice and manner, and an ardent admirer of Church, made the experiment of reading a sermon from the second series to his congregation without announcing the fact that he was doing so, and he tells me that the chins of his hearers gradually sunk on their breasts. While admitting, then, that these sermons may well be an " inspiration " to the village preacher, I venture to say that they are not good " models."—I am, Sir, &c..
A COUNTRY PARSON,
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