The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-10-07 00:00:00

_ter.
I could

pews to themselVei if they lid—(laughter an
plenty of air. To all sextons and chapel-keepers I
would give this wrinkle—open your windows often.
(Laughter. I often preach in country chape's
where the people get packed like herrings in
a barrel—(laughter)—and I have tried to get
the windows opened, but they wouldn't, for they
never had been opened. (A laugh.) I went into
one of these places once, and it was so close and hot
that I asked every gentleman near a window to
smash a pane or two. (Laughter.) There was soon
a very grand smash, but then the beautiful fresh air
streamed in. I paid the bill afterwards like an
honest man; but it was much better to do that than
bear the cruelty of preaching in such an atmoephere or
forcing people to listen when they were more disposed to
sleep. There is a common complaint that the preacher
can neither be understood nor heard, and there is
some truth in it. I wish some preachers who mumble
at a very great rate would get a new set of teeth. If
men have -anything worth being heard, they should
speak out. I have heard of clergymen in Australia
and Africa—l did not say in England—(a laugh)
—of whom it is said that when you hear them
once yon hear as much of them as you want to
hear. (Laughter.) Preachers use various kinds of
Englhihine siith-many-syllabled words. the other the
Saxon their mothers talked, and which they them-
selves begin to use when they prattled as children. I
beard a story once of a number of sailors who were
playing cards up aloft, and had a light for the pur-
pose. The captain sent a midshipman to tell them to
put it out, and the midshipman told them to "extin-
guish that luminary." But the sailors did not under-
stand him. Then the captain called out, "Douse that
glim "—and out went the candle. (Great laughter.) I
should not have said that, but I should have taken a
milder point, and said, "Put out that candle, old
boys." (Laughter.) I believe " high-falutin "is too
much used in the pulpit. We preachers should
speak so that people could not misunderstand
us even if they tried to do so. Some men occasionally
stay away from communion because their wives
have a large little family—(a laugb)—and these poor
women cannot leave the children. I should like to
whisper in the ears of some Christian young women
that they mLht go and take care of the children for a
Sunday and let the mother get out. (Applause.) As
for the husbands, I don't think they always take their
fair turn with their wives, for I see some Christian men
out on Sunday whose wives never get out for a month
together. I think, too, that people have a good deal
to do with the filling of the churches and that they
might bring friends when they could, and certainly
when they found it necessary to say the good man
preaching had his wits a wool-gathering, they ought
only to say it out in the country, when there was no
one within a mile or so of them. (Laughter.) I'll tell
you what I often find. When I go into a street and ask
for a chapel I am told it is round the corner by the Duke
of Prussia, or the Marquis of Granby, or the Mother
Red Cap; bat I don't find that the churches are
conspicuous places. Don't let this happen with you.
Advertise, distr bate handbills, for the life of business
is black ink. You ought to distribute tracts—l mean
good ones-rand if I knew where you could get good
ones I should tell you, for they are generally soporific
articles. (Laughter.) Mr. Spurgeon concluded, after
an earnest exhortation, by remarking that as book
numbers sold best when they were illustrated with
plates, so in that meeting they were going to see what
could be done with plates. A handsome collection was
taken up, Mr. Spurgeon beginning it with £lO.