“Not being ‘a brown man of
Pennsylvania,’ I pay my just debts; and I offer to you the
tribute of my sincere thanks for one of the most impressive and eloquent
discourses, delivered yesterday at St. Paul’s, that it has ever fallen to
my lot to hear. I wish I could read it. There is a magic in your name, which,
if it was published, would incite everybody to read it, and no one is too good
or too bad not to derive profit from such an appeal to his reason and his
conscience. To pass by your merits of style and elocution,—peculiar, and beyond
my praise,—the simple, straightforward method of treating your subject,
delighted me. It is a rare and refreshing gratification to listen, in these
times of discord and strife on matters of faith, to a preacher whose
improvement of his text is not encumbered by references to historical or
traditional details; and whose style, clear, logical, and fervid, carries with
him the reason as well
| MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. | 307 |
