Phil 8876.29 By special arrangement, G. G. Evans will publish the Lectures and Sermons of the Rev. Hugh S. Brown; and it is the Author's wish that no parties shall infringe this contract. Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1859, by in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. STEREOTYPED BY JESPER HARDING & SON, PHILADELPHIA. CRITICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL INTRODUCTION. THERE is a complaint, in England, that there are few great preachers now, belonging to the Established Church (Protestant Episcopalian) of that country. Dr. Trench, Dean of Westminster, Dr. Croly, the Rev. Henry Melville, the Rev. Daniel Moore, Dr. Hook, Dr. McNeile of Liverpool, Dr. Villiers, Bishop of Carlisle, Rev. F. D. Maurice, the Rev. Hugh Stowell of Manchester, and a few others appear to stand almost alone, in the Church of England, as eminent preachers, as divines not only endowed with surpassing eloquence, but also as highly successful in their teaching. For to compose a good sermon and deliver it in an impressive manner constitutes one thing, and to plant conviction into the listeners' minds constitutes another. The mere elocutionary art, the literary power of composition, may be acquired by study and a quick intellect; but the fear and love of God, which breathes vitality into pulpit oratory, cannot be gained by any human effort. At this moment, the most powerful, effective, and eloquent preachers in "the old country," are to be found out of the pale of the Established Church, and in the ranks of what is called Dissent. The Methodists, among whom, in the early and (5) difficult days of that religious organization, anxiously labored such divines as Wesley, Whitefield, and Fletcher of Madeley, whose life and death are equally instructive, by the great lessons which they teach, the Methodists, widely spread over all parts of Great Britain and Ireland, emphatically forming what may be called "The Poor Man's Church," have many very able and eloquent preachers, whose ministrations are in the highest degree edifying and instructive. There are numerous other religious persuasions, possessing teachers who, in the pulpit, are at once eloquent, earnest, and successful. The names of Dr. Raffles of Liverpool, the Rev. John Angel James of Birmingham, the Rev. Alexander Fletcher of London, and a long array of spiritual pastors, whose very lives may be said to preach, who shun notoriety, and labor only to gather their hearers into the fold of the Good Shepherd of souls, are known far and wide throughout the Christian world, not alone because of the genius of the men, but of the practical piety of the lessons which they teach. Such men do not live and labor for distinction or emolument. They covet not worldly praise, but do their Master's errand without ostentation. They do not seek to attract public attention by eccentricity of manner or of language. They devote themselves to the mission which they undertake, and heed not what reproach worldly minds may cast upon their labors. There are thousands of able, earnest, eloquent preachers, all over the world, for missionary zeal has scattered them widely among all nations, carrying with them good tidings of great joy which the Gospel reveals, who are content to let their years glide on in obscurity, confident that such is God's good will, and that he has placed them, in his omniscient providence, precisely where they can do most good. The self-devotion of the humbler ministers of religion-we speak not of the magnates who fill large churches in great cities |