RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Preaching
no less than others. A general survey of preaching in the earlier period shows that the main lines of life and progress which began in the 1. ..°^ e eighteenth century had their natural development. Variety, freedom, practical adaptation and directness, evangelistic power continue to characterize the American pulpit. It responded to the demands of a progressive age and kept pace with the growth of culture and religion. The traditions, history, and sermons of the period indicate that the views of Christian truth which are usually called "orthodox," and "Evangelical," were in the ascendant, though " liberal " opinions did not lack free and able utterance. Preachers as a class were held in high esteem and had a strong influence. The pulpit was conscious of power, able and efficient. It is probable that the two decades from 1840 to 1860 witnessed on the whole the highest point of American preaching. Among the Roman Catholics may be named Bishop England (d. 1842) of Charleston, Archbishop Spalding (q.v.), and Archbishop Kenrick (q.v.). The Episcopalians had such men as G. T. Bedell (d. 1854), Stephen H. Tyng (q.v.), and his sons; Bishop Alonzo Potter of Pennsylvania (q.v.), and Bishop C. P. Mcllvaine of Ohio (q.v.). Foremost among the Unitarians was W- E. Channing (q.v.), pastor in Boston, highly gifted in thought and style. Others of this body were Kirkland, Norton, H. W. Bellows (q.v.), and the agitator and reformer, rather than preacher, Theodore Parker (q.v.). The Congregationalists had many great men. Nathaniel Emmons (q.v.) had already achieved fame as a preacher and theologian in the preceding century, but his remarkable work and influence went on well into the nineteenth. Lyman. Beecher (q.v.), the father of distinguished children, was himself a man of might and influence in the pulpit. Charles Grandison Finney (q.v.) with his strain of mysticism was also a cogent reasoner, a theologian and college president (Oberlin), but is best remembered as a remarkably successful evangelist. Horace Bushnell (q.v.), pastor at Hartford, was a man of powerful and independent mind, whose thoughtful sermons have had lasting influence. In the middle stage of his remarkable career Henry_Ward Beeoher (q.v.) was perhaps the most famous of all American preachers ; a man of acute and versatile intellect, broad sympathies, splendid imagination, impressive personality, and so an orator of the first rank. To the Presbyterians likewise this was an age of pulpit excellence. Some of their best representatives are: Archibald Alexander (q.v.), and his son, James W- (q.v.), professor at Princeton and pastor in New York; Albert Barnes (q.v.), the commentator, pastor in Philadelphia; and James H. Thornwell (q.v.), of South Carolina, educator, theologian, preacher. To the Dutch Reformed Church belongs the beloved and eloquent GeorgeJW- Bethune (q.v.), pastor in New York. Of notable Methodists were : the young Irishman John Summerfield (q.v.), called " seraphic " for his moving eloquence; William McKendree (d. 1835), one of the early Methodist bishops, a man of large mind and labors; Stephen Olin (q.v.), a strong and logical preacher; John P. Dtirbin
(q.v.), original and striking; and the exuberant and rhetorical Henry B. Bascom (q.v.), one of the first bishops of the Southern Methodist Church. The Baptists also had not a few notable preachers, among whom were: William Staughton (d. 1829), of English birth, a very impressive speaker; Andrew Broaddus (d. 1848) of Virginia, preferring rural pastorates, a man of noble eloquence and great influence; Spencer H. Cone (d. 1855), pastor in New York, strong preacher and trusted leader; Francis Wayland (q.v.), for a short time pastor in Boston but better known as president of Brown University, a great preacher of solid thought and balanced judgment; and, now just at the height of his great powers and influence, Richard Fuller (q.v.), of South Carolina and Baltimore, a preacher of striking personality, broad culture, deep piety, and sweeping eloquence.
Most of the characteristics and tendencies noticed in the preceding section went on with developed force during the wonderful era of expansion and growth in the country since the war. But some additional matters require notice. The „. ' ^ differences between the North and the and After South — social, political, religious, temperamental— naturally were more or less reflected in the pulpit. The North was more commercial and progressive, the South more rural and conservative. There was more of political and reformatory preaching in the North, but the South had the balance in favor of a devout adherence to the evangelical traditions. In the armies on both sides there was excellent preaching by chaplains with much resultant good. After the war the North prospered and entered on an age of rapid accumulation of wealth; the impoverished South recovered very slowly, and only toward the close of the century began to regain its place in the national life. The North was more hospitable to new ideas in science, philosophy, and religion. There the struggle with scientific and critical unbelief, with the influx of various foreign peoples, and other modifying influences upon religious thought and custom, were more keenly felt; and the pulpit reflected all these things. Modern modes of thought have profoundly influenced preaching at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century, and have greatly changed the aspect of American preaching on the whole. The pulpit has been less dignified, more inclined to sensation and opportunism, and has had less hold upon popular respect than formerly. Yet such loss has not been total, and some advantages have accrued. American preaching has been modern, popular in style, aggressive, evangelistic, successful. The Episcopalians have had such excellent preachers as Bishops Huntington, Doane, Potter, Dudley, Gailor, together with Drs. Newton, Rainsford, Greer, and others; but the preeminent name in the Episcopal pulpit of America is that of Phillips Brooks (q.v.), pastor in Philadelphia and Boston, and bishop of Massachusetts, a man of large mold, devout, sympathetic, cultured, refined, spiritual, with rapid and forcible address. The Congregationalists still had Beecher in his closing years and declining influence; but along with him were: R. S. Storrs of Brooklyn, W M. Taylor of
Preaching:
Precious Stones