R.J. Campbell, M.A., Pastor of the City Temple, London (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1903 edition. Excerpt: ...of reasoning, lucidity, and the breadth of vision characterising the message. It was a remark able fact that they should have been delivered in the fourth year of the young preacher's ministry, and without note of any kind. We remember that at first he was dissuaded from the Congregational ministry because he had not passed through a theological course, and with his critics we say it was a courageous thing for him to expound a system of Christian belief so early in his career. The sermons also afford evidence of the community of interest between pulpit and pew. The style and manner of Mr Campbell's preaching remains to-day on the same lines, but it is evident that he fits his message for a wider circle of hearers, to whom spiritual guidance is of greater necessity than accurate discrimination upon theological beliefs. On these lines there is naturally a danger of diffuse thought and loose reasoning, which, if it ever occurred in his case, would be deeply deplored by his numerous friends. Here once again we remark that his studious habits will save him. CHAPTER IX. INFLUENCE AS A SPIRITUAL DIRECTOR. IT is an instructive sight to note the queue outside the vestry of the City Temple on a Thursday awaiting a brief audience with the pastor. All classes are represented-the prosperous middle-aged business man; the elderly matron; the spinster; the younger woman whose future is bright with hope, tinged by the red glow of romance; the young man whose career has yet to be made. In various degrees of fortune, they have come with one purpose as to a spiritual director. Theirs "the unquiet heart and brain," hidden by the conventional mask, only to be removed within the vestry. That Mr Campbell possesses the rare gift of...