Southport telegraph. [volume] (Southport, W.T. [i.e. Kenosha, Wis.]) 1840-1850, 1842-08-03
PULPIT INFLUENCE.

AT the recent conservation Of the
Church Of the Messiah" located on
Broadway, fronting Wavery Place, New
York, and erected at an expense of $780,
600, the Rev: Orville Dewey, who is
pastor Of the Church, held the following
language to an immensely numerous au-
ditory:
@The great error in preachers Of the
preses1daY, is, that they do not allow the
pulpit to recognize the principles Of hu-
man nature, Joy and sorrow, hope and
misery. 1t stands aloof from the beaten
path of life, and turns a deaf ear to the
human sympath;es. The pulp, does not
know the passion Of the human mind
The biblical essay the Theological dis
course-however deliberately drawn Up,
has, unfortunately nothing to do with the
imprisoned throbs Of feeling, that swell
the human heart almost to bursting The
parent does not sufficiently consider the
respect and sympathy due the passion Of
the child; the pulpit does not consider these
things as it ought it is theological tub at
sea, without rudder or compass, and con-
tains no chart or map Of the human mind
The pull pit should operate like newspapers
connecting the whole army of human
passions as with one electric chainl
elbow much that is bright, blessed and
beautiful in the world, is now rejected and
kept aoof by the pulpit; its existence
doubted, its appeals rejected The many
beautiful and glowing passions, that thrill
through the human soul; the lineamen,s Of
moral love. the affections Of sympathy, be-
tween the sexes, the majesty of natural
sympathy, the pride Of the manly brow,
the self satisfied feeling of the successful
| student in science, the immortal feeling Of
affection that would yield up mortal life
tor the objects Of ITS love, the senses Of IA Il
things beautiful in nature and art-the re-
! liglon that breathes ia the soul and in po-
etry. With these, the pulpit too seldom
communes. Hence the pulpit is SO often
useless. and its emanatons wor,hlcss.-
The religion Of the pulpit must be practi-
cally connected with all the relations,
movements, hopes, fears, joys, pains, suf-
! lerings, and passions Of human life, or il
IL is barren and nugatory in its results
And of so much importance do deem this
| practical religion, that | shall never find
time to talk upon points Of sectarian con-
| troversy.
| have studied human nature, | will
walk and talk with human nature from the
pulpit in this church. know that all
shades and graces Of life will come TO hear
me. All that love music, and poetry,
and painting, and science, and learning,
and beauty, and affection, and all that
makes life lovely, and know whence trey
shall come From the lovely home and
fond husband, from the aged parent and
darling child, from the desk, the store,
the mandatory, the tavern, the paths OF
| pleasure, the SEX bed, the market, the
| crowded streets, and from the ever sound
ing sea. And you will come here for a
calm and quie: hour from this routine, and
of these things we will discourse as human
beings, to human beings, free from fanati-
cism. And | know whence ye shall gol
A little time, ana the sound Of our foot
steps shall die away on the earth; and il
we have lived in the practice Of true relig-
ion and human sympa,hies we shall not
depart in sorrow, but wake up by the side
Of beloved ones, in house not made with
hands, eternal in the heavens;-where we
shall ascribe glory and power to him that
stitch on the throne, and to the Lamb
] forever and ever"