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TWO GREAT ENGLISH EXAMPLES OF PARLIAMENTARY ORATORY
Joseph Chamberlain and William E. Gladstone as they appeared on opposite sides of a great question.
The composure of Chamberlain is in great contrast with the earnest eloquence of Gladstone.

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GEORGE WHITEFIELD AND JOHN WESLEY

These two orators of Methodism represent a peculiar style of pulpit oratory so powerful and effective in the 18th Century. They traveled much and were greeted by immense audiences. The names of Wesley and Whitefield are honored by all Protestants, and their sermons are still read with profit.

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BOOK VI.

The Pulpit Orators of Great Britain

I

N our series of European pulpit orators, extending from Augustine and Chrysostom, of the early Church, down to the famous preachers of the reign of Louis XIV., none of British birth were included. Yet the island of Great Britain has been by no means lacking in pulpit orators of fame. Among those of the earlier age, for example, may be included the stern and inflexible leader of the Scottish Reformation, John Knox, who did not hesitate to speak the unvarnished truth to Queen Mary in her palace halls, and Hugh Latimer, the ardent and eloquent Protestant preacher, who died heroically for his faith at the stake. In the eighteenth century we meet with Wesley, the founder of Methodism, whose principles he eloquently disseminated for many years, speaking in the open air to audiences of vast proportions and intent interest; and Whitefield, the originator of Calvinistic Methodism, a man of equal elo-· quence. The oratory of these men was not classic in form. It represented the unpolished outpourings of their minds to uncultured hearers. But it was eloquent with earnestness and zeal, and reached the hearts of those to whom they spoke. In the nineteenth century the pulpits of England were filled by many orators of fine powers of thought and eloquent rendering. If we should attempt to give all those of graceful oratory, we should run far beyond our limits, and it is necessary to confine our selections to a few of the more famous of these recent preachers.

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