It was not until
then, as all who had known him agreed, it was not until one had
heard and seen him in the pulpit, that one could fully realise
what it was to be face to face with Dr. Arnold. The whole
character of the man--so we are assured--stood at last revealed.
His congregation sat in fixed attention (with the exception of
the younger boys, whose thoughts occasionally wandered), while he
propounded the general principles both of his own conduct and
that of the Almighty, or indicated the bearing of the incidents
of Jewish history in the sixth century B.C. upon the conduct of
English schoolboys in 1830. Then, more than ever, his deep
consciousness of the invisible world became evident; then, more
than ever, he seemed to be battling with the wicked one. For his
sermons ran on the eternal themes of the darkness of evil, the
craft of the tempter, the punishment of obliquity, and he
justified the persistence with which he dwelt upon these painful
subjects by an appeal to a general principle: 'The spirit of
Elijah,' he said, 'must ever precede the spirit of Christ.'
The impression produced upon the boys was remarkable. It was
noticed that even the most careless would sometimes, during the
course of the week, refer almost involuntarily to the sermon of
the past Sunday, as a condemnation of what they were doing.
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