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Again , in p . S 8 : € < A Christian Entering eternity may be said to "go into life , in some such sense as a cottager , brought up in obscurity , would be said to go into life , on leaving his native village to reside in the metropolis—the scene of things is so much more enlarged thau before . " * One more specimen must suffice : u With Him [ the Supreme Judge ] nothing is great , nothing is little ; so that when we stand before his bar , he will have as clear a recollection of all the words we ever spake , as if we had never uttered but one in the whole course of
our lives . And ( what an amazing and alarming rise upou the thought !) he can in a sense communicate his memory to me ; or , in other words , he can so strengthen the faculties and powers of my mind , as that I shall have as clear a . recollection , of all the words I ever
uttered as be himself has , and of the temper with which I uttered them , and the motive which led me to use them ; just as a philosopher , who has seen a thousand stars in the firmament more
than you ever saw , can , by the application of his telescope to your eye , shew you . as many as he himself discerns /*—Pp . 116 , 117 .
The Sermons of Mr . Toller claim our regard , on the ground of their arrangement . Method , is uniformly observed ; and , though , the subdivisions are more numerous and minute than we commonly perceive in modern discourses from the pulpit , readers and hearers will find their
memories to be assisted by this clearness and regularity of plan , and will admire the lucid order and natural and easy transition of the preacher ' s thoughts . Illustrations of the property that we are commending , will have been supplied by the former part of the present
article of Review ; one of the happiest divisions is seen in No . XIII ., which treats of the history of A ' nanias and Sapphim . We cannot subscribe to the opinions delivered by the biographer in the following passage , pp . 36 , &c , where lie says of Mr . Toller ,
* ' In his public discourses , he was apt to limit himself too much for time , either to do full justice to his subject , or to prolong the impression until it had completely incorporated itself with the mind of the hearer : the curtain was let fall at ¦ - - - "" ¦ * ¦ " " - ¦—¦— » i ¦* - »¦¦ ' ¦¦'•¦»¦ ¦» ¦ i '« Possibly , Mr . T . might have a view to Virg , Buc . 1 . /• 20 , &c .
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the mcnrient the scene w ^ s most interesting , and the current of emotion suddenly checked ) and iuternipted , when it was just rising to its height , The-tniud is so constituted , that in order to produce a permanent effect , a train of thought ,
however interesting , must occupy the attention for a considerable space : the soul kindles by degrees , and must pass through successive gradations of feeling before it reaches the utmost elevation of sublime a » d pathetic emotion . Hence it
is that the most powerful speakers ^ in every age , have had recourse to a frequent repetition of the same arguments and topics , quite useless on auy other account than its tendency to prolong the impression , and to render it by that means more durable and intense . Had Mr .
Toller paid more attention to this principle of our constitution , I will not say he would have been a more interesting and delightful preacher , for it is not easy lo conceive how his sermons could have been much more impressive than they frequently were , duriug their delivery ; but their power over the audience would
probably have been more lasting and more salutary . The defect which we have taken the liberty of noticing may perhaps be ascribed to the habit of writing his sermons , a practice more favour ^ able to accuracy of language and condensation of thought than to copiousness and expansion . "
More favourable , we should rather have said , to clearness and method than to needless repetition and a want of arrangement ! If Mr . Toller ' s style of composition was eminently colloquial , and this although " he invariablv delivered his sermons from
notes , to which he strictly adhered f if it had all the careless ease , negligence and occasional inaccuracy , which might be looked for in an extemporaneous address , then we may fairly ask , how could such a practice be , in
the present instance , unfriendly to " copiousness and expansion" ? Evi T dently , the cause of what Mr . H . terms " a defect , " must not be sought in our preacher ' s habit of writing sermons , but in his sound judgment , in his deliberate and well-considered
choice . To the arts of rhetoric Mr . Toiler was a perfect stranger . Studying and following nature , he knew that habits of all kinds , and therefore those of feeling , are to be formed by moderate yet regular and frequent acts . Between impression and conviction , between present emotions and
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Review *—' Toller ' s Sermons 6 n Various Subjects . 351
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1824, page 351, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2525/page/31/
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