He was a fine tall man,
grey-haired, well dressed, with commanding aspect and a powerful voice.
I ceased to wonder at the emphasis with which the Scotchman called him
_Doctor_ Plummer. He was quite the _ideal_ of a _Doctor_. His text was
John iii. 18: "He that believeth on Him is not condemned, but he that
believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the
name of the only begotten Son of God." His subject was, that "man is
justly accountable to God for his belief." This truth he handled in a
masterly manner, tossing about as with a giant's arm Lord Brougham and
the Universalists. Notwithstanding my want of rest on the previous
night, the absurd heaviness of the building, and the fact that the
sermon--which occupied a full hour--was all read, I listened with
almost breathless attention, and was sorry when he had done.
And who was this Dr. Plummer? It was Dr. Plummer late of Richmond, in
Virginia. "Richmond," says Dr. Reed, "is still the great mart of
slavery; and the interests of morality and religion suffer from this
cause. Several persons of the greatest wealth, and therefore of the
greatest consideration in the town, are known slave-dealers; and their
influence, in addition to the actual traffic, is of course
unfavourable.
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