276 HORACE BUSHNELL

well know how to speak in any other way. He was
not only a great preacher, but he was great at the
outset, and the designation never was amiss. What-
ever came from him bore the unfailing mark of his
best qualities, — insight, comprehension, power of
statement. When he preached his first sermon,
some one said : " There is more where that came
from." The sermon " Duty not measured by our
own Ability," in which he fianked each wing of
the contending factions of the day, was writ-
ten in the first year of his ministry, and it might
have been written in the last. His first printed
sermon, called out by the mobbing of Garrison
in Boston in 1835, wears the statesmanlike cast
that marks aU of his sermons on political topics ;
they are always discussions of principles and
tendencies, and invariably reveal an insight into
causes.
