Address to the London Clerical Conference, in the Vestry of
St. Giles- in-the-Fields. By the Rev. J. Kirkman, M.A. March, 1872. (Paul.)—
We call attention to this singularly able little pamphlet, which has been published at the request of the Conference to which it was addressed, and which forms merely a doable number of the Penny Pulpit, 566-67, because the question which is the subject of it bears largely on the whole problem which seems so difficult of solution, namely, the essential common-placeness of the modern pulpit. The question here submitted is how far may the old models be followed in the preaching of the present day ? And we commend the answer to the attention of preach- ers generally. We cannot, of course, analyse these pages in our limited space. They contain some of the gravest reflections of one who repudi- ates in his own ministry the conventional idea that "sermons cannot be too simple," maintaining practically as well as theoretically that "the minister is too simple if he does not teach." We fancy some of his clerical listeners must have slightly winced under his subtle satire; as, for instance, "there is a following of models that kills individu-
ality (if that can be called killing which ends so incipient a germ);" or, speaking of some high models of the aphoristic style, "but, I should insert a caution, that unless you have some genius of aphorism in your own constructive thought, you cannot follow a model herein ;" or, again, "it is easy to clothe ourself in regal robes, and then think one- self a king." There are valuable cautions against the common clerical error of seeking to amass libraries of purely theological works, and hints on the necessity of lasing "well acquainted with books on all other subjects besides divinity," and specially on the great need for that intimate acquaintance with the highest models which begets "not studied imita- tion, but spontaneous resemblance."
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