The Life of Duty, v. 2 A year's plain sermons on the Gospels or Epistles — A Reader’s Guide

Structure and Seasonal Framework

The volume is organized by the liturgical calendar from Trinity to Advent, with each sermon tied to a specific Sunday. The table of contents lists twenty sermons, each with a title and a scriptural epigraph. For example, "The Contrast" (First Sunday after Trinity) draws on the parable of Dives and Lazarus, while "The Preaching of Nature" (Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity) takes its cue from Matthew 6:28, "Consider the lilies of the field." This structure suggests the sermons were intended for weekly use, following the church year. The dedication to the author's mother, described as his "earliest and best teacher and guide," hints at a personal investment in the themes of duty and instruction that recur throughout.

Recurring Imagery and Metaphor

Wilmot-Buxton frequently employs natural imagery to reinforce his moral points. In the excerpt from "The Preaching of Nature," he describes the world variously as a "gigantic farm," a "great market," a "chess-board," a "play-ground," a "slave plantation," and a "graveyard"—each representing a flawed human perspective. The Christian, by contrast, sees the world as a "great and solemn Temple." The sermon then turns to the lilies and grass as teachers of God's care, human transience, and resurrection. A striking image appears when he recounts a workman finding a funeral urn containing Caesar's ashes, which were sent to bleach linen—a concrete illustration of mortality. Such details ground abstract lessons in tangible, sometimes jarring, examples.

Direct Address and Exhortation

The sermons are marked by frequent direct address to the listener. Phrases like "Brethren, let us work our work, but not put our trust in it" and "Let us hearken to the warning" create a sense of immediate pastoral engagement. The author uses imperatives to guide reflection: "Consider the lilies," "Let us listen to-day to the preaching of Nature." This rhetorical strategy positions the preacher as a spiritual guide, urging the congregation toward self-examination. The tone is earnest but not theatrical, aiming to persuade through reasoned appeal and shared scriptural reference rather than emotional manipulation.

Use of Quotation and Allusion

Wilmot-Buxton weaves multiple sources into his sermons. In the excerpt, he quotes a poem beginning "Oh, to what uses shall we put the wildweed flower" and a Yorkshire epitaph in verse: "Earth walketh on the earth, / Glittering like gold." He also alludes to Psalm 103 and Isaiah 40. These quotations serve as secondary authorities, reinforcing the sermon's message. The epitaph, with its refrain "All shall be ours," underscores the theme of earthly vanity. The poem about the wildweed flower suggests that nature yields moral meanings according to one's disposition. Such layering of voices—scripture, poetry, folk wisdom—gives the sermons a textured, homiletic quality.

Readers approaching this volume will find sermons that are compact, each built around a single scriptural text and developed through concrete imagery and direct exhortation. The seasonal arrangement invites sequential reading, but individual sermons stand alone. Pay attention to how Wilmot-Buxton moves from a verse to a moral application, often via a striking anecdote or natural observation. The sermons reward those interested in Victorian homiletics, pastoral theology, or the intersection of scripture and everyday life.

Those sermons on duty and the passing of things—the lily, the urn—have a way of settling quietly in the mind. I found myself thinking of them the other day while turning pages in The Life or Legend of Gaudama, the Buddha of the Burmese (Volume I) — Story, Setting & Ideas, where transience feels less like a lesson and more like a weather. Strange, how two old books can share that same hush.