Sydney Smith | Page 8

I saw a rascal gaping
as if his jaws were torn asunder."
But this, though perhaps it may have perplexed the worthy squire to
whom it was addressed, is mere self-banter. Sydney's preaching
attracted some of the keenest minds in Edinburgh. It was fresh,
practical, pungent; and, though rich in a vigorous and resounding
eloquence, was poles asunder from the rhetoric of which "O Virtue!" is
a typical instance.
So popular were these sermons at Charlotte Chapel that in 1800 the

preacher ventured to publish a small volume of them, which was soon
followed by a second and enlarged edition. This book of sermons is
dedicated to Lord Webb Seymour[17]--"because I know no man who,
in spite of the disadvantages of high birth, lives to more honourable and
commendable purposes than yourself."
The preface to the book is a vigorous plea for greater animation in
preaching, a wider variety of topics, and a more direct bearing on
practical life, than were then usual in the pulpits of the Church of
England.
"Is it wonder," he asks, "that every semi-delirious sectary, who pours
forth his animated nonsense with the genuine look and voice of passion,
should gesticulate away the congregation of the most profound and
learned divine of the Established Church, and in two Sundays preach
him bare to the very sexton? Why are we natural everywhere but in the
pulpit? No man expresses warm and animated feelings anywhere else,
with his mouth alone, but with his whole body; he articulates with
every limb, and talks from head to foot with a thousand voices. Why
this holoplexia on sacred occasions alone? Why call in the aid of
paralysis to piety? Is it a rule of oratory to balance the style against the
subject, and to handle the most sublime truths in the dullest language
and the driest manner? Is sin to be taken from men, as Eve was from
Adam, by casting them into a deep slumber? Or from what possible
perversion of common sense are we to look like field-preachers in
Zembla, holy lumps of ice, numbed into quiescence and stagnation and
mumbling?"
The subjects with which these sermons deal are practical in the highest
degree, such as "The Love of Country," "The Poor Magdalen," "The
Causes of Republican Opinions," "The Effect of Christianity on
Manners," and "The Treatment of Servants." One or two short samples
of his thought and style will not be out of place.
This is from his sermon on the Magdalen:--
"The best mediation with God Almighty the Father, and His Son of
Mercy and Love, is the prayer of a human being whom you have saved

from perdition."
This is from the sermon on "Christianity and Manners":--
"If ye would that men should love you, love ye also them, not with
gentleness of face alone, or the shallow mockery of smiles, but in
singleness of heart, in forbearance, judging mercifully, entering into the
mind of thy brother, to spare him pain, to prevent his wrath, to be unto
him an eternal fountain of peace. These are the fruits of the Spirit, and
this the soul that emanates from our sacred religion. If ye bear these
fruits now in the time of this life, if ye write these laws on the tablets of
your hearts so as ye not only say but do them, then indeed are ye the
true servants of Jesus and the children of His redemption. For you He
came down from Heaven; for you He was scorned and hated upon earth;
for you mangled on the Cross; and at the last day, when the trumpet
shall sound, and the earth melt, and the heavens groan and die, ye shall
spring up from the dust of the grave, the ever-living spirits of God."
All the sermons breathe the same fiery indignation against cruelty and
tyranny, the same quick sympathy with poverty, suffering, and
debasement; and, here and there, especially in the occasional references
to France and Switzerland, they show pretty clearly the preacher's
political bias. In his own phrase, he "loved truth better than he loved
Dundas,[18] at that time the tyrant of Scotland"; and it would have
been a miracle if his outspokenness had passed without remonstrance
from the authoritative and privileged classes. But the spirited preface to
the second edition shows that he had already learned to hold his own,
unshaken and unterrified, in what he believed to be a righteous cause:--
"As long as God gives me life and strength I will never cease to attack,
in the way of my profession and to the best of my abilities, any system
of principles injurious to the public happiness, whether they be
sanctioned by the voice of the many, or whether they be not; and may
the same God take that unworthy life