Nineteenth Century Preachers and their Methods. By the Rev. John
Edwards. (C. H. Kelly. 35. ad.)—Mr. Edwards gives us here studies of fourteen preachers. (Of the six Anglicans in this number, four, we may remark, are Bishops and one a Dean.) We do not always agree with Mr. Edwards's estimate of their merits, nor do the methods, as they are here described, seem always admirable. Mr. Ward Beecher seems to us to have had no method at all. "His Sunday morning sermons were prepared after breakfast, and the evening sermons after tea." Of course he must have had the subjects in his mind all the week. Mr. Edwards, however, seems to put too much stress on his habit of reading. Surely " Stanley's Commentary on the Epistles to the Corinthians " could not have occupied him for a whole winter. It is not a very important book, and could be made to yield all that it contains of value in a much shorter time. On the whole, these studies may be consulted with much profit.
Previous page
