III.
EVANGELICAL TEACHING: DR. CUMMING.[1]
Given, a man with moderate intellect, a moral standard not higher than the average, some rhetorical affluence and great glibness of speech, what is the career in which, without the aid of birth or money, he may most easily attain power and reputation in English society? Where is that Goshen of mediocrity in which a smattering of science and learning will pass for profound instruction, where platitudes will be accepted as wisdom, bigoted narrowness as holy zeal, unctuous egoism as God-given piety? Let such a man become an evangelical preacher; he will then find it possible to reconcile small ability with great ambition, superficial knowledge with the prestige of erudition, a middling morale with a high reputation for sanctity. Let him shun practical extremes and be ultra only in what is purely theoretic; let him be stringent on predestination, but latitudinarian on fasting; unflinching in insisting on the Eternity of punishment, but diffident of curtailing the substantial comforts
- ↑ 1. "The Church before the Flood." By the Rev. John Cumming, D.D. 2. "Occasional Discourses." By the Rev. John Cumming, D.D. In two vols. 3. "Signs of the Times; or, Present, Past, and Future." By the Rev. John Cumming, D.D. 4. "The Finger of God." By the Rev. John Cumming, D.D. 5. "Is Christianity from God? or, a Manual of Christian Evidence, for Scripture-Readers, City Missionaries, Sunday-School Teachers, etc." By the Rev. John Cumming, D.D. 6. Apocalyptic Sketches; or, Lectures on the Book of Revelation." First Series. By the Rev. John Cumming, D.D. 7. "Apocalyptic Sketches." Second Series. By the Rev. John Cumming, D.D. 8 "Prophetic Studies; or, Lectures on the Book of Daniel." By the Rev. John Cumming, D.D.
