Part 18 (2/2)

I would advise every young man who intends to enter the pulpit to read carefully the best life of this wonderful preacher, reformer, and statesman. And supplement your study of him and his methods by reading George Eliot's historical novel, ”Romola.”

The great Dominican was a Lombard, of harsh accent and strange face, come to live in the most cultured city in the world. Florence was then in the full flowering of literature and art; and in her overripe perfections the poison was distilling of greed and cruelty and lubricity and all loathsomeness.

Over this capital of learning, genius, and sin ruled ”The Magnificent”

Medici, sitting with easy power on his splendid throne and wielding his scepter with the accurate skill of a perfect craft and the strong decision of a fearless heart.

But you know the story. It was not an inviting field for a preacher who burned to utter the Word and at the same time hoped to enjoy the smiles and favors of the great. It was not an encouraging prospect for any one who wanted to restore the reign of righteousness, even though he were willing to pay the price of martyrdom.

But Savonarola accomplished all this and more; for he crowned the renaissance of letters and art with the renaissance of Christian morals and religion whose pure and beautiful influence reaches even unto our day.

And he did it by faith more than by all other things put together--a faith so rapt that, to our less pa.s.sionate natures, it seems to have been the very insanity of fanaticism. But it did the work; and that is the thing after all.

His sermons do not seem to be more remarkable when you read them than those of many another pulpiteer, although they are full of thought. We are told, however, that his voice had in it a terrible earnestness, and his manner was so impa.s.sioned that he sometimes seemed to forget himself.

But all agree that the magic with which he wrought his wonders from the pulpit was the feeling that everybody had that Fra Girolamo _believed what he said_, _knew_ what he said, _meant_ what he said.

The immediate effect was astonis.h.i.+ng--(the after effect still thrills the world). Mrs. Oliphant quotes Burlamacchi's description of Savonarola's influence over the people thus: ”The people got up in the middle of the night to get places for the sermon. They came to the door of the cathedral waiting outside until it should be opened, making no account of the inconvenience, neither of the cold nor the wind nor the standing in winter with their feet on the marble.”

I emphasize the point that this effect was not exclusively oratorical, nor merely magnetic. Chiefly it was what the world has always seen and always will see when it beholds a strong man in deadly earnest for a righteous cause.

We know that this is so because ”The Magnificent” induced the most cultivated pulpiteer in all Italy to preach sermons in Florence so as to divert attention from Savonarola; and this master of the pulpit, whom Lorenzo won to his purpose, was better liked and more greatly admired by the people of Florence than any other orator.

His name was Fra Mariano, and it was admitted that he was a far better speaker than Savonarola. Yet he failed utterly, unaccountably. He had better elocution, a richer voice, more ”magnetism,” more attractive qualities every way than Savonarola, and as much learning; _but he did not have as much faith_.

I am dwelling upon this because I am quite sure that the people are more interested in acquiring faith than they are in all your oratoricals; and because, too, I am quite sure that it is the only certain method of your effectiveness.

Faith is infectious. James Whitcomb Riley, whose sweetness of character and upliftedness of soul equal his genius, gave me the best recipe for faith in G.o.d, Christ, and Immortality I have ever heard:

”Just believe,” said he; ”don't argue about it; don't question it; simply say, 'I believe.' Next day you will find yourself believing a little less feebly, and finally your faith will be absolute, certain, and established.”

And why not--you of the schools who split hairs and dispute and come to nothing in the end, and whose knowledge, after all, as Savonarola so well said, comes to nothing--why not? For if you cannot _prove_ G.o.d and Christ and Immortality, it is very sure you cannot _disprove_ them; and it is safe--yes, and splendid--to believe in these three marvelous realities; or conceptions, if you like that word better.

The doctrine of _n.o.blesse oblige_ was one of the most beautiful of human conventions. It was based upon the proposition that a man being n.o.ble and the son of a n.o.bleman could not do a mean thing--it was not good form.

But if a man gets it into his consciousness that he is the child, not of a n.o.bleman, not of an earthly ruler, not of a great statesman, warrior, scientist, or financier, _but of the living G.o.d_ who presides over the universe, how large, how generous, how exalted, and how fine his att.i.tude toward life and all his conduct needs must be.

Savonarola was not alone in the vast crowds he drew by the simple method he followed. He was not original in that method either. Do we not read that when ”Philip went down to the city of Samaria and _preached Christ_ unto them, the people ... _gave heed_ unto those things which Philip spake.”

Of course they gave heed, just as they did to Savonarola. Recall the expression of the old journalist at the beginning of this paper. He would never have been bored by Philip or by the Lombard priest.

Paul got the attention even of the _blase_ Athenians, who would not listen to anybody or anything very long, ”because he preached unto them of Jesus and the resurrection.”

And you will remember the Master's experience at Capernaum: ”And straightway many were gathered together, _insomuch that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door_: and he PREACHED THE WORD unto them.”

That reads a good deal like the description of Savonarola's congregations, or of Wesley's, or of the young revivalist in Wales.

No difficulty about _their_ audiences--or congregations, if you insist on being technical.

Of course, everybody understands that preaching and faith and all that is not everything that the young minister must do for his fellow man.

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