THEODORE LEDYARD CUYLER, THE REFORMER AND PREACHER. "The only son of his mother, and she was a widow.' THE American Pulpit includes not a few preachers characterized by their advocacy of what are styled "the Reforms of the day," of which, for many years, the Temperance Reform has been the chief. These preachers are not confined to any one denomination. Tyng of the Episcopal, Barnes of the Presbyterian, Beecher and Kirk of the Congregational, Chapin of the Restorationist, Osgood of the Unitarian, Cuyler of the Dutch Church, and others, are pronounced "Reformers." Neither do they all advocate every Reform movement, unless we except the Temperance Reform, in which they are united. One is distinguished for his zeal in behalf of the "Children's Aid Society," another in behalf of "Homes for the Friendless," another in behalf of the Slave, and another for his denunciation of Theatres and Gambling. But they have two characteristics in common. They are all extempore preachers, and they are all beneficent Christians. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh," is their descriptive point. The ground on which they meet is the popular platform, and the bond of union, their sympathy with human misery, their faith in human restoration, and their belief that external relief precedes internal regeneration. They approach the religious nature not only directly by religious truth, but indirectly by bodily comforts. They prepare for heart-purification by first washing, clothing, and housing the body. They reform destroying appetites by providing healthy and natural stimulants. They feed the hungry stomach before administering the “bread of life." They give to the unfortunate all those appliances of physical comfort, and agreeable surroundings, and social entertainments, which have been the means of preservation to the fortunate. Hope they rekindle, self-respect they support and protect, till, by slow degrees and through long anxieties, it lifts its drooping form, and stands in the vigor and beauty of a new life. They give work to the hands, and occupation to the thoughts, and recreation to the leisure hours. They believe Christ taught that the amelioration of the Physical is a prerequisite to the elevation of the Moral. Yet this class of "Reformers" and preachers do not make the pulpit secondary to the platform, nor physical regeneration an end in itself. The preaching of the Gospel is their main pursuit, and the salvation of the soul their chief purpose. Neither are pulpit ministrations deteriorated by platform harangues, nor is spirituality alloyed by attention to the physical; on the contrary, the Gospel seems to shine with a richer lustre, and love to God burn with an intenser fire. We have selected Mr. Cuyler as the best representative of this class, because he is associated with a greater variety of reforms than any other, and because he includes all the characteristics of the class. He pleads in behalf of Mr. Brace's "Children's Aid Society;" he appears as the champion of Mr. Pease's "Five Points Mission;" his labors in behalf of Temperance are unusual; his sympathy for the oppressed of foreign lands, and for the enslaved of this, is deep and outspoken. He has also the gift of Extempore which distinguishes the class. He resembles Mr. Kirk in his power of arousing emotion and touching the tenderest sensibilities, differing from him somewhat in the means. Mr. Kirk makes direct appeals of gentle persuasiveness or of thrilling paraphrase, with voice modulated so as to impart the greatest effect. Mr. Cuyler elaborates descriptions of thrilling circumstance, and deals in glowingimagery, in finely-wrought analogies, and in historical illustrations, which enchain attention and stir emotion. He resembles Gough in making outward delineation picture soul-experience. Take, for ex CHARACTERISTICS OF HIS PREACHING. 333 ample, Gough's noted portrayal of the downward career of the pleasure-seeker, by the analogy of a sailing party drawn into the Norway Maelstrom-the afternoon bright and still-the danger un known-the quiet propulsion of the outermost current enjoyedthe warnings of friends unheeded-the inner circle reached-the current swifter the danger recognized-the frantic efforts-the snapping oars-the roar of the engulfing whirlpool-the shriek of the victims, and all is over! In such elaboration Mr. Cuyler delights and excels. In analogies from nature he is also very happy. We heard a sermon on Regeneration from the text "I will take away their stony heart and will give them a heart of flesh," in which the analogies were well adapted not only to secure attention, but to make permanent impression. Another sermon, from the text "The righteous shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon," developing the many resemblances between the real Christian and the cedar, was not only an ingenious, but an impressive presentation of the truth. In this he resembles Dr. Tyng, of whom he also reminds us in his precision and emphasis of utterance and abruptness of close. These characteristics constitute the attraction of his preaching. He is a favorite with young men, like all those with whom, in our grouping, he is associated. His voice is strong, wider in its range than Mr. Beecher's, but not so sonorous and musical as Mr. Kirk's; while he evolves power, by a swell of tone on the vowels, with more effect than either. In adaptation of gesture and personal presence he does not equal Mr. Kirk, as few do. Neither has he the dramatic picturing of thought, by look and attitude, peculiar to Mr. Beecher, yet he is not inferior to him in the department of gesture and action, producing by their means marked effect. He resembles Mr. Gough more nearly than any one, in the sphere of impassioned delivery. He has much the same style of illustration and appeal, with the free use of voice and arm, though restrained somewhat by the place and subject, the sanctities of which do not allow unlimited sweep of declamation. In form he is a counterpart of Mr. Gough, and we may also add that in friendship they are brothers. And Mr. Cuyler resembles these three popular ora tors-Kirk, Beecher, and Gough-in that peculiar friendly intonation which, at the outset, wins the hearer, and is an important element of their successful oratory. One is drawn insensibly within the circle of their influence by those genial tones which result, not from any special gift of musical utterance, but from the heart-sympathies and yearnings which always attend their ministrations to the people. And, finally, Mr. Cuyler resembles every individual of our group (except, perhaps, Mr. Barnes), in this, that their best expressions flow from the tongue and not from the pen, and that they attain their highest inspiration and fullest eloquence only before a sea of upturned faces. Indeed, it is not uncommon for Mr. Cuyler to forsake the notes before him, and, lifted on the wings of a more buoyant inspiration than that of the closet, soar away in the freer, stronger sweep of unpremeditated Extempore. BIOGRAPHY. Theodore L. Cuyler was born on the 10th of January, 1822, at Aurora, New York, a beautiful town on the shore of Cayuga Lake. His father, B. Ledyard Cuyler, was a young lawyer of great promise, and an intimate friend and room-mate at college of Gerritt Smith, with much the same oratorical power. He died at the age of twenty-nine, leaving Theodore, his only child, when four years old. Theodore's mother was Miss Louisa F. Morrell, a woman of strong intellect and active piety, who has always been the companion of her son, and now resides with him in New York. His great-grandfather was Rev. Dr. Johnes, who administered the sacrament to Washington during his winter encampment at Morristown, and was pastor of the church at Morristown for fifty years. Washington was much at his house, and Mr. Cuyler has now in his parlor the large china bowl out of which Washington was accustomed to drink his favorite beverage of chocolate when enjoying Dr. Johnes's hospitality. On the father's side Mr. Cuyler is related to John Ledyard, the traveller. His father's mother, Mary Ledyard, was a cousin. The family were of New London, Connecticut. Colonel William Ledyard, his great uncle, was an officer at the siege of Fort Griswold. Jacob Cuyler, who was mayor of Albany for thirty years, and the prince of conservative Dutch burgomasters, was an ancestor. Mr. Cuyler entered Princeton College in 1838, and was graduated, at the age of nineteen, in 1841. His standing in every respect was of the best, excelling, however, in Belles-Lettres and in public speaking. His college life was very happy, partly in consequence of the kindness of Professor Henry, now superintendent of the Smithsonian Institute, of whom he was somewhat of a protégé, and to" whom he is greatly indebted for happy influence and fruitful conversations. He was also much in the family of Dr. Archibald Alexander. The next year after graduation he spent in Europe, and wrote sketches of foreign travel, and particularly of distinguished men— Wordsworth, Carlyle, and others--which attracted at the time considerable attention. And it is worthy of note, inasmuch as he was only twenty years old, that when at Glasgow he addressed the citizens, at the City Hall, on the first reception of Father Mathew. Mr. Cuyler entered the Princeton Theological Seminary in 1843, and was graduated in May, 1846. He spent the next six months in preaching at a small place in Wyoming Valley, opposite Wilkesbarre, the region immortalized by death and by poetry, of which Campbell writes: "On Susquehanna's side, fair Wyoming! Although the wild-flowers on thy ruined wall Yet thou wert once the loveliest land of all That see the Atlantic wave their morn restore. Sweet land! may I thy lost delights recall, And paint thy Gertrude in her bowers of yore, Whose beauty was the love of Pennsylvania's shore !" Dr. Murray, of Elizabethtown, New Jersey, preached at the same place in early life. In the autumn of 1846 he accepted a call to a Presbyterian Church at Burlington, New Jersey, where he remained three years. It was |