led to these results, I see no way in
which it was possible for him to have avoided it. It was with an emotion
of reverence that I contrasted the bareness, plainness, and poverty of
the little chapel with that evident air of elegance and cultivation
which appeared in all that he said and did. The sermon was on the text,
"Now abideth faith, hope, and charity, these three." Naturally enough,
the subject divided itself into faith, hope, and charity.

His style calm, flowing, and perfectly harmonious, his delivery serene
and graceful, the whole flowed over one like a calm and clear strain of
music. It was a sermon after the style of Tholuck and other German
sermonizers, who seem to hold that the purpose of preaching is not to
rouse the soul by an antagonistic struggle with sin through the reason,
but to soothe the passions, quiet the will, and bring the mind into a
frame in which it shall incline to follow its own convictions of duty.
They take for granted, that the reason why men sin is not because they
are ignorant, but because they are distracted and tempted by passion;
that they do not need so much to be told what is their duty, as
persuaded to do it. To me, brought up on the very battle field of
controversial theology, accustomed to hear every religious idea guarded
by definitions, and thoroughly hammered on a logical anvil before the
preacher thought of making any use of it for heart or conscience,
though I enjoyed the discourse extremely, I could not help wondering
what an American theological professor would make of such a sermon.

To preach on faith, hope, and charity all in one discourse--why, we
should have six sermons on the nature of faith to begin with: on
speculative faith; saving faith; practical faith, and the faith of
miracles; then we should have the laws of faith, and the connection of
faith with evidence, and the nature of evidence, and the different kinds
of evidence, and so on. For my part I have had a suspicion since I have
been here, that a touch of this kind of thing might improve English
preaching; as, also, I do think that sermons of the kind I have
described would be useful, by way of alterative, among us. If I could
have but one of the two manners, I should prefer our own, because I
think that this habit of preaching is one of the strongest educational
forces that forms the mind of our country.

After the service was over I went into the vestry, and was introduced to
Mr. Noel. The congregati