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them; neither, in strictness of terms, does he preach memoriter. He is careful to retain in memory the course of thought and the most striking illustrations of the written sermon, but beyond this trusts entirely to extemporaneous impulse. It need not be added, that a man of his quick sensibility and rich treasures of language, is fluent and even voluble in his unpremeditated addresses. "In the power of composition and oratory," says one who has frequently heard him, "Tholuck stands unequalled in Germany."

It has already been remarked, that our author's faithfulness of appeal to the conscience is sometimes offensive to his hearers. In general, however, his preaching is by no means unpopular. "The university of Halle," says Prof. Sears, "has no place of worship attached to it; it has, however, a morning service once in two weeks, in one of the principal churches in the city. The preacher, who is appointed by the King of Prussia, was Prof. Marks; but when Dr. Tholuck came to Halle, and was appointed associate preacher, he drew so much larger audiences than Prof. Marks, that the latter resigned." Whatever may be thought of the adaptedness of Tholuck's sermons to affect an American audience, they certainly do affect, deeply and beneficially, the audiences for which they are intended. The critic, before he pass sentence upon their general

The following extract from the review of Tholuck's sermons by J. Müller in the Stud. und Krit. Vol. VIII. pp. 239, 240, will show the estimation in which his sermons are held by many of his own countrymen.

"Everything presents itself to the mind of Prof. Tholuck in large outline. It is foreign from his cast of mind to analyze any subject minutely, so as to exhibit all its elements; to define any doctrine with precision in all its relations. There are always, if I may so express myself, great masses, which he sets in motion so as best to promote his own design. The happiness of heaven, and the pain of perdition, the struggles of our life on earth, the forebodings and dreams of childhood, the emptiness and misery of later years that are passed without religion, the terrors of the hour of death, and the ecstasies of the hour when we are born into a new life; these dissimilar topics he brings together, with a strong hand, so as to form one picture, the central figure of which is the sacred form of the Son of God; and he penetrates with these themes into the inmost recesses of the heart, now producing in it the deepest pain, and now raising it to the highest joy. For the feeling of grief at the power of sin, of longing after the unknown God and Redeemer, of joy at the possession of his grace, of desire to possess it in its highest degree, of silent resignation to the will of God, for all such feeling he has the liveliest, the most pathetic, the tenderest expressions. Bold and brilliant images are always at his command. Not only does the Holy Bible

character, should summon up, in ideal presence, not a New England auditory, nor a Scottish, but a German. He should attend to the impressive and venerable rites with which the delivery of the sermons was accompanied, to the music from thrilling and deeptoned instruments, from the powerful choir of men, and the still more affecting one of boys. The best comment, however, that can be made on the preaching of Dr. Tholuck is this; it is often instrumental, through the divine blessing, in effecting that radical transformation of character, without which no man can see the Lord.

open to him its treasure-chambers, but the sages of Greece, the ancient and modern teachers of the church, the christian lyric poets present him their most beautiful flowers, and lay at his feet the most apposite expressions. Nor are allusions to unsanctified poets rejected from his sermons, but the world, willing or unwilling, is made serviceable to the sacred orator. There is given to Dr. Tholuck the power of enchantment over mind. His discourses possess, in a degree altogether peculiar, everything which secures the most powerful, immediate impression upon the hearers. We can very easily imagine how often a student, having never before listened to an animated discourse, which penetrated into the inmost soul, and who has therefore gradually accustomed himself to look upon a certain kind of dullness and tediousness as belonging to the very essence of a sermon, and constituting its edifying quality, when he has once strayed into Dr. Tholuck's church, would hang with fixed eye upon the lips of the preacher, and be confounded at the new and wonderful power of language with which he was addressed."

1 The following is a condensed description of the rites, more impressive probably upon Germans than they would be upon us, which were connected with the delivery of the fourth sermon in this Volume. We sat,' says

Prof. Sears," directly in front of the pulpit, and when the congregation paused, we could just hear, at the altar at our extreme left, the accents of the preacher uttering the Lord's prayer; then suddenly voices of melody broke upon our ear from the orchestra in the gallery of the opposite extreme of the house. The preacher and the choir were facing each other, and responding; while the whole congregation, standing, occupied the vast space between.-During the responses the organ was silent. Then followed that which is called the chief song,' in which everything, that could utter a sound, united. In these shouts of the multitude, and tumultuous clangor of the instruments, which appear like an attempt to carry the heart by storm, there is, in my opinion, something too gross and physical to have the happiest effect. Before the hymn was concluded, the preacher was standing in the pulpit in true German style, in a fixed posture, with his hands clasped before his breast, and his eyes turned upward," etc.

THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD.

BY

DR. L. J. RÜCKERT.

THE DOCTRINE

OF THE

RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD.

A COMMENTARY ON THE FIFTEENTH CHAPTER OF THE FIRST EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS.1

THIS chapter includes the last principal section of the Epistle, the defence and development of the doctrine of the resurrection, against certain deniers of it in Corinth. Who these were and what it was particularly which they denied will be a theme for inquiry at the appropriate place. The importance of this section is generally acknowledged, as it contributes the greater part of what we know respecting the form, in which the doctrine had developed itself in the mind of our apostle. A high value he evidently attached to it. Accordingly he handles it with much fulness, and, as we shall perceive, very systematically. Hence also the special introduction which precedes the consideration of it.

CHAP. XV. v. 1, 2. I now call your attention, brethren, to the Gospel which I preached unto you, which ye received, and by which ye stand, by which also ye shall be saved, if ye hold fast the word which I declared unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.

The construction demanded by Heydenreich and Billroth,2 makes so harsh an inversion of the passage, that on no account can we

1 See Note A, at the close of the Article.

* Namely, γνωρίζω ὑμῖν τίνι λόγῳ εὐηγγελισάμην ὑμῖν τὸ εὐαγγελίον ὅ εὐηγγελ10άuŋv úμïr ö zai 2.7.2. I call to your remembrance with what discourse (or what was the nature of the Gospel which) I preached,' etc.

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