"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_.
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Just Published, price 3_s._ 6_d._, bound in cloth,