When I Awake

Charles John Vaughan was an English clergyman of some prominence in the mid 1800s, and When I Awake collects sermons and devotional pieces drawn mostly from his parish work. The title comes from Psalm 17, the line about awaking with God’s likeness.

Vaughan’s writing has the careful, almost legal cadence common to Anglican preaching of the period. He builds his arguments slowly and circles back to the central biblical text again and again.

The pieces work better individually than read straight through. The themes are similar from chapter to chapter, and modern readers may find the rhetorical style ornate.

For anyone studying Victorian Anglican thought, the history of preaching, or the devotional reading habits of the period, this is a useful primary source. As bedside devotional reading today, it requires patience.