Price 3s. 6d., bound in cloth,
second edition, revised and enlarged,

THE LONDON PULPIT.

by

JAMES EWING RITCHIE.

Contents: The Religious Denominations of London—Sketches of the Rev. J. M. Bellew—Dale—Liddell—Maurice—Melville—Villiers—Baldwin Brown—Binney—Dr Campbell—Lynch—Morris—Martin—Brock—Howard Hinton—Sheridan Knowles—Baptist Noel—Spurgeon—Dr Cumming—Dr James Hamilton—W. Forster—H. Ierson—Cardinal Wiseman—Miall—Dr Wolf, &c. &c.

OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.

The subject is an interesting one, and it is treated with very considerable ability. Mr Ritchie has the valuable art of saying many things in few words; he is never diffuse, never dull, and succeeds in being graphic without becoming flippant. Occasionally his strength of thought and style borders rather too closely on coarseness; but this fault of vigorous natures is counterbalanced by compensatory merits—by an utter absence of cant, a manly grasp of thought, and a wise and genial human-heartedness. The book is a sincere book; the writer says what he means, and means what he says. In these half-earnest days it is a comfort to meet with any one who has “the courage of his opinions,” especially on such a subject as the “London Pulpit.”—Daily News.

“One of the cleverest productions of the present day.”—Morning Herald.

“Mr Ritchie is just the man to dash off a series of portraits, bold in outline, strikingly like the originals in feature and expression, and characterized by bright and effectual colouring. We have here photographed a group of the most distinguished pulpit orators of the metropolis, of all religious denominations and sects.”—Civil Service Gazette.

“The style of Mr Ritchie is always lively and fluent, and oftentimes eloquent. It comes the nearest to Hazlitt’s of any modern writer we know. His views and opinions are always clear, manly, and unobjectionable as regards the manner in which they are set forth. Many, no doubt, will not agree with them, but none can be offended at them. As we have already remarked, Mr Ritchie does not write as a sectarian, and it is impossible to collect from the treatise to what sect he belongs. The tendency of these sketches is to introduce into the pulpit a better style of preaching than what we have been accustomed to.”—Critic.

“Mr Ritchie has written in a graphic, nervous, and most just spirit.”—Court Circular.

“Written in a fluent and easy style.”—Weekly Times.

“The personal sketches will engage attention; for the author has evidently been a close and attentive observer.”—News of the World.

“Mr Ritchie’s pen-and-ink sketches of the popular preachers of London are as life-like as they are brilliant and delightful. The thought of producing them was a happy one, and has been carried out in the volume before us with much agreeable animation. The collection of silhouettes herein presented to our contemplation will be especially acceptable, we conjecture, to our country cousins, as a guide among the more generally known of the metropolitan ecclesiastics. It will be perceived at a glance that the writer has familiarized himself with the subject, before undertaking its treatment. Chapter after chapter brings the popular preachers of the Capital before our mind’s eye in a sort of stately clerical procession.”—The Sun.

“Without going so far as the late Sir Robert Peel, and saying that there are three ways of viewing this as well as every other subject, it will be allowed that the clerical body may be contemplated either from within one of their special folds, and under the influence of peculiar religious views, or in a purely lay historical manner, and, so we suppose we ought to say, from the ‘platform of humanity’ at large. The latter is the idea developed in Mr Ritchie’s volume, and cleverly and amusingly it is done. One great merit is, that his characters are not unnecessarily spun out. We have a few rapid dashes of the pencil, and then the mind is relieved by a change of scene and person . . . He displays considerable discrimination of judgment, and a good deal of humour.”—The Inquirer.

“There is considerable verisimilitude in these sketches, though they are much too brief to be regarded as more than mere outlines. It is possible, however, to throw character even into an outline, and this is done with good effect in several of these smart and off-hand compositions.”—Tait.

“It is lively, freshly written, at times powerful, and its facts carefully put together. It bears the stamp of an earnest spirit, eager in its search after truth, and strongly set against affectation and pretence of every sort.”—Globe.

“Some of the sketches are very good.”—Literary Gazette.

“They are penned in a just spirit, and are of a character to afford all the information that may be needed on the subjects to which they refer. The author’s criticisms on preachers and preaching are candid, and for the most part truthful. This book ought therefore to be popular.”—Observer.

“They are written with vigour and freedom, and are marked by a spirit of fairness and justice—an admirable trait, if we recollect how much the spirit of partisanship governs such strictures as a rule.”—Weekly Dispatch.

“A sketch of the comparative force of the religious denominations in London, and notes upon the chief popular preachers, orthodox or dissentient, republished from a newspaper—we think the Weekly News and Chronicle. The book, which is written in a sufficiently impartial spirit, will interest many people, and offend few.”—Examiner.

“In this volume we have within a moderate space pen-and-ink sketches of most of the popular preachers of the metropolis. We are bound to say that they are drawn with fidelity, and that the admirers of each Sabbath orator whose mental lineaments are placed before us will easily recognise the prominent features of the original. Although brief, they evince discrimination and talent; a fluent style being one of their chief recommendations, not much space is devoted to each. The writer only reviews the most striking characteristics, and his sympathies are manifestly with those who display most liberal and manly tendencies in their religious expositions.”—Sunday Times.

“What Mr Francis did some few years since for the parliamentary orators of the age, Mr Ritchie has in the volume before us effected for the pulpit orators of the day. In brief but graphic delineations, he gives daguerreotypes, as it were, of the living manners of the chief popular preachers of various Christian denominations.”—The Church and State Gazette.

“This is a second edition of Mr Ritchie’s smart little sketches taken from the life of the most noted metropolitan preachers. The outline is bold, rather than minute and diffuse; now and then character is seized with remarkable fidelity; whilst the genial spirit which generally pervades the volume takes from occasional passages approaching censure anything like the sting of bitterness. There is scarcely a page that does not give the reader faith in the sincerity of the writer.”—Manchester Examiner and Times.

“His sketches are characterized by a boldness, freedom, and vigour, which are rarely to be met with in works of that class. He is no hero-worshipper, but he shows that he has a keen appreciation of the higher forms of pulpit eloquence.” The People.

LONDON: WILLIAM TWEEDIE, 337, STRAND.