CLEARNESS AND TENDERNESS.
PHILIP DODDRIDGE was not a man of rich imagination, or of profound theological attainments, or of immense learning, or of polished rhetoric, or of original genius; yet both as a speaker and a writer he commanded general attention, and was blessed with no small success. A Scotch reviewer, in considering this fact, specifies two traits of the distinguished nonconformist as probably accounting for the acceptance he met with, so far as that is to be attributed to mere human causes. One of these was his simplicity. This was not the simplicity of homely language, in which Latimer, and Swift and Cobbett were such masters, and by which they wrought such mighty results. But it was the simplicity of clear conception and orderly arrangement. A text or topic may be compared to a goodly apartment still empty; and which will be very differently garnished according as you move into it, piece by piece, the furniture from a similar chamber, or pour in pell-mell the contents of a lumber attic. Most minds can appreciate order; and to a majority of minds it is a greater treat than ministers always imagine, to get some obscure matter made plain, or some confused subject cleared up. With this treat Doddridge’s readers and hearers were constantly indulged. The other trait was tenderness. Doddridge seems naturally to have been of a most affectionate disposition. And this constitutional gentleness was greatly intensified by his deep and earnest piety. No preacher ever felt more thoroughly the concern which a true-hearted pastor must have for perishing souls. Hence he was, like Paul, “gentle among them even as a nurse cherisheth her children, being affectionately desirous of them.” His heart was in his hand, in his eye, in his speech. He spoke the truth in love. His hearers never made, never could make the mistake of supposing that he was angry, even in his most animated and piercing utterances. There was that in the man which made them feel that his emotion was not of mere human or earthly excitement, but always that of Christian sympathy deepened by an incessant consciousness that eternity was just at hand. “He that winneth souls is wise; and this winsomeness was Doddridge’s main wisdom. There was something in his temper and affections more evangelical than even in his theology. His remonstrances were compassionate; his reproof regretful amidst their faithfulness; his warnings all the more solemn because of their evident sympathy; and his exhortations encouraging and alluring from the benevolent hopefulness with which they were freighted.”