Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 22:88 (Oct 1865)
Article: Frederick Denison Maurice
Author: James M. Hoppin

BSac 22:88 (Oct 1865) p. 642

Frederick Denison Maurice

Rev. J. M. Hoppin

Frederick Denison Maurice was born in the year 1805. He was educated at Cambridge University, entering Trinity College, but ending his course in the smaller college of Trinity Hall, which he joined in 1823, together with his future brother-in-law, John Sterling. Being at that time a dissenter he did not take a degree, although he had a fellowship offered him. Two years after leaving Cambridge, having then become a member of the Established church, he took a degree at Oxford. He was for a short time editor of the “Athenaeum,” and since that period has been almost constantly before the public eye. He has written largely upon theological and practical subjects; has originated charitable and educational institutions for the working-classes; and for three years he held the chair of divinity at King’s College, London, which he was compelled to resign for alleged heterodox views upon the doctrine of eternal punishment. At the present moment Mr. Maurice is rector of the church at Lincoln-in-fields, London, which is a peculiar ecclesiastical organization, holding a somewhat anomalous relationship to the Established church. As a preacher he is without action or any of the graces of delivery, and has a decidedly sing-song tone. He has nothing to

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commend him in the pulpit but a spirit of simple earnestness, and now and then the flashing out of a striking thought, showing the scholar and thinker.

To describe Mr. Maurice’s real position in the English church and world of thought is more difficult. To do this we will glance at the state of religion and of church parties in England. There is much of a pleasant social aspect in the religion of England. At Christmas-time especially, when the wind howls and the snow falls, there is a universal kind-hearted entertainment of the poor, and abounding hospitality. The benevolence of English Christians, although often dispensed in a perfunctory way, handing down from the steps instead of coming down into the street to the poor, is an indisputable fact. A vast deal of the ample wealth of England flows in philanthropic channels, so that one’s eye can turn in no direction without seeing the visible signs of this. There is also a marked reverence paid to religion. It has its recognized and supreme place in society and in the state. Mr. Gladstone, chancellor of the exchequer, addresses a meeting in the senate-house at Oxford on the duty of establishing a missionary college in Central Asia; and the lord mayor of London opens the Mansion-house to the Evangelical Alliance. Even the more devotional and spiritual duties of religion are engaged in with an apparent interest and sincerity by all classes. The duke of Wellington was a scrupulous commu...