The Express.
London, England, 1868-03-12 00:00:00

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LONDON, THURSDAY, MARCH 12.

PULPITS %. PEWS.

Dr. Csrae, one of her MAJESTY'S chaplains,
and the most eloquent preacher in Scotland, has
an article in the current number of Good Words,
on " The Declining Influence of the Pulpit iu
Modern Times." This title is in itself an aelmow-
lodgment of what few laymen doubt, that the
power once wielded by the pulpit has of late years
sensibly diminished. Indeed, Dr. CAIRD manfully
confesses what he is bound to regard as an evil,
mid accounts fur it on reasonable grounds. In-
stead of preaching at his readers for not
liking dull sermons, he remarks that
the lack of clerical influence is duo in large
measure to superficial culture on the part of the
clergy, but still more to the unconscionable
demands made upon a clergyman who is expected
to be a man of affairs as well as a man of thought.
Dr. Canto does not stand alone among the clergy
in his readiness to compass the unattractiveness of
the pulpit and in his wish to devise a remedy. At
a clerical meeting held last year in Nice it was ,
resolved to obtain the opinions of a number of
laymen on the subject, and these opinions
have since been published. It will be
remembered also that at a Church Con-
gress held some time ago at York, working
men were requested to state their objections
to the services and especially to the preaching of
the Church, and did state them with considerable
freedom. The subject, therefore, on its secular
side, at least, is fairly brought within the range of
the journalist. To hear sermons once a week is
supposed to be the duty, and is assuredly the lot
of a vast proportion of what are called the respect-
able classes. Preaching in England is identical
with worship, and penance is not, therefore,
necessarily confined to the Roman Catholic
Church. A long sermon after a long service may
produce resignation in some mina, and patience,
as we all know, is a Christian virtue, but it
is a virtue that should not be too sorely
tried. The truth is that our church autho-
rities are too exacting on the one hand, and the
laity on the other. They demand from us more than
we can give, and we require from the clergy far more
than they can be ream, mably expected to bestow.
No man of devotional feeling, or even of cultivated
tub, .fri fail to appreciate the simple but sublime
liturgy i f the Church of England ; but why are
wo doomed, Sunday after Sunday, to listen to
needless repetitious and is it for our benefit that
two or three services are so ruthlessly jumbled
into one! But this is not all. The inevitable
sermon 'follows with the certainty of fate, and
there is no alternative but to hearken to it or to
sleep under it. Now we believe that the
strongest objection that can be urged against
the sermon is that it is thus periodical and
perfunctory. Why should there not be freedom
on the one side to listen and freedom on the other
side to preach or to be silent ? A clergyman, who
has a great lesson to deliver on the most serious
of all subjects will always be heard with interest
by earnest men. There is no fear that anyone
who can preach, and has the heart to preach, will
fail to obtain an audience. The pulpit is as
powerful as it ever was, when the speaker who
occupies it is alive to the importance of his work
and possesses the requisite eloquence and culture.
But is it probable or possible that the hard-worked
priest who has been engaged all the week in the
wearisome routine of his parish duties shall
be able to preach two original sermons upon the
Sunday which shall stimulate the thought and
arouse the interest of his hearers" Why should
we expect such an effort from him, or why should
he undertake what, with a few rare exceptions, is
utterly beyond his power! Everybody knows the
miserable shifts to which some clergymen resort to
escape from a burden that is too heavy for them,
and bow they read as their own what has been
purchased for five shillings, to the debasement of
of their consciences and to the discredit of their
calling. It would be surely better for them and
better for their hearers if they followed the custom
of Sir ROGER DE COVERLET'S chaplain, and reed
with due acknowledgment the sermons of eminent
divines. No one need grumble, nor would any
one grow weary who listened in this way
to Bosimrsos or M LVI LLE, to CHALMERS
or Do/me. To our thinking, then, it
would be well if pastoral duties did not necessarily
include preaching, and if the clergyman whose
ability gives him greater influence in the pulpit
than in the parish were free to follow his special
vocation. We should then have good sermons as
well as effective pariah work. At present it
happens but too frequently that we obtain neither.
If Convocation, instead of wasting the little
strength it has in useless discussions, would revise
the services of the church, and give greater vitality
and elasticity to the pulpit, it would deserve the