A FAMOUS PREACHER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 7912, 2 April 1887, Page 2 (Supplement)

A FAMOUS PREACHER.

•The Bishop of Peterborough has not often been heard in London of late years, but, ,"whenever he is advertised to preach, crowds flock to hear him. His is a rousing elo-

quence, spirited, combative, often sarcastic,

and always directed against some evil which f 38 preoccupying public attention at the time being. Dr. Magee is not merely a hater, •but an aggressive enemy, of "humbng," clothe itself in what garb it may. With his ■animated Celtic features, long upper lip, large mouth, energetic nose, and shaggy 'eyebrows, with his gruffness and broad

emile which breaks up the whole of his face

into comical lines, he has all the look of a V humourist. The glance all round which he

.takes at his congregation when he has got • into the pulpit is that of a master. His first wqrds arrest attention ; and, if some unlucky man drops a book during his exordium, that man will stare hard at the

pulpit, and pretend to have no connection whatever with the book, le3t His Lordship's ' eyes should suddenly be turned upon him ,- like two fiery points of interrogation. Pre- - sently, when the Bishop warms to his work, his anils arms hit out from the shoulder like -v. piston-rods wrapped in lawn ; down cotno his large hands with great slaps on his book Or cushion ; and, if ho is preaching in a church ,where the beadle has not heard of

his little ways, and has not been careful to « give tho cushions a beating, enough dust will be raised to make a fine powdering for the heads of the people in the pew beneath. The Bishop of Peterborough once said that he "would rather see England free than sober," which amounted to declaring

that ho would rather men conquered tempta

tion for themselves than have it removed from their way by legislation which might be oppressive to sober people. His words, of course, drew a howl from temperanco associations, but the inculcation of manliness is the head and front of Dr. Magee's preaching, and he has never swerved from the

position, that, if men cannot be made sober ,by their own efforts and the encouragements

of their friends, the policeman will not make them so. " Don't let us create artificial sins," he once said. "There are plenty of •things against which my cook and housemaid must pray ,$o be guarded ; don't try •and make the poor souls feel wicked because they enjoy a glass of beer." A young curate, not very long ago, called on the Bishop with a very broad piece of blue ribbon in his buttonhole. His Lordship took no notice of the ornament, and this evidently disappointed the curate, who kept -turning his lappet to the light, till the Bishop opened a New Testament at the passage where the Pharisees are condemned for wearing broad phylacteries. " Let men speak of you as sober," he said, when the curate had digested this little morsel ; "you will not need then to advertise yourselves as such,"

It was in tho same spirit that he answered a lady who asked him whether she ought to wear the blue ribbon. " Put it on by all means, hut remember to how much it Will pledge you. If men go wrong from drink, gins are more liable to bo led astray through love of finery; and, if you want to set a good example, give up jewellery, feathers, furs, and silks. Dress in unconspicuous stuffs, bay a plain, serviceable bonnet meant for use, not show : and mind you keep always to the same fashions, for I assure you a great deal of foolish extravagance arises out of changing fashions." The lady winced at all this, so the Bishop 'broke off abruptly, "Then what is the sense ■of your blue ribbon ? I suppose ft costs yon 110 effort to give up wine and beer ; then why Jnakefa virtue of renouncing them ?" Such a3 Dr. Magee is in his private con-. versations so is he in the pulpit. Plainspoken and shrewd, discussing all questions "with easy arguments, never stooping to subtleties, clear in his delivery, happy in his choice of words, he keeps his hearers bound, like Ogmius, that God of Eloquence among the Gauls, who used to be represented with chains flowing out of his month. On occasions he rises to the highest flights of oratory, but never loses sight of his congregation. who have always been carried along by him through the successive degrees of his own enthusiasm. He should be beard delivering a charity sermon, for this Is a duty which he discharges in no perfunctory fashion. He masters his subject thoroughly; speaks of the poor or afflicted for whom he i 3 pleading like one who knows them ; and his advice as to supplying their wants is never dictated by eccentric philanthropy, but springs from that true benevolence which has common sense for its source. He was being asked to interest himself in a carpenter's clever young apprentice whom some good people wanted to send to college. "Let him first graduate as a good carpenter," said the Bishop when he has become a skilled craftsman, so that he is proud of his trade, and can fall back upon it if others fail, then will be the time is see if he is fit for anything better." Temple Bar.