Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1857-03-19

part, the congregation come to near SER
mon yes, they. come to hear sermon; a
certain amount is to be dispensed, and a gen.
eral assent to be returned, and the church
breaks up, and all 90 home The sermon is
criticised; the sentiments may be applauded;
and it is considered very good advice; and
there the matter ends
Not one heart has been touched-not one
emotion awakened-not one resolution adopt
ed. Not human being, it may be, but, in
a general way, has assented to, or admired
the sermon; not one who, especially, and
with personal application, has grappled
with its thoughts in his heart.
How poor, to such listener, such aspeech-
making as this after listening to the fervid
appeals in the forum, where every sentence
strives towards n mark-or to the varied,
easy, familiar, elocution of the stump!
Perhaps our adventurer has found his way
into an Episcopal church There is death
like propriety. All is still as the grave. 1t
is a "dim religious" edifce. There is
stained glass, and lofty groined arches
People step about as ifthe ground was haunt
ed. A genteel, grave sexton moves mystic
riously from pew to pew. There are solemn
texts staring out from the walls. The great
emblem of Christianity is there broadly
prominent, and now ingeniously evolved
Fashionable ladies and gentlemen-no one
knows how-gradually fill the church. A
solemn form comes silently forward in state
ly robe, and, amid multitudinous folds, dra-
matically kneels in prayer. A strain of
dream-like music breathes through the spa
cious aislcs. And presently, "The Lord is
in his Holy Temple, let all the earth keep
silence before him." from clear, chaste
voice, initiates the pageant. The different
parts of the service are then more or less
devoutly gone through-one of the most
splendid and imposing rituals that the i'm
agination has ever conceived, and one the
most calculated to touch and impress the i'm
aginative heart A hymn is then read from
the chancel, and sung in the gallery and
then twenty-five minutes are devoted to the
reading of perfectly unexceptionable and
elegant production.
And that is the trumpet.call ert uttered
ssin the wilderness which was thun-
dered at Cesaraea before Felix and Drusilla
touching that righteousness, temperance
and Judgment to come"
This is the dainty method by which the
tremendous import of the gospel-like ar
row root to the dyiug-is communicated to
the mawkish stomachs of the higher socie-
ty.
How often is a true, manly, straightfor-
ward address heard in such pulpit?
Such are no highly colored pictures Of
the preaching we hear in Presbyterian and
Episcopal churches. OF minor points we
will not just now speak. We commenced
by speaking of the sermon. Here, as We
have said, lies, we believe, one of the great
and main obstacles to the success Of these
churches. It is in the mode of preparation,
and delivery, of these sermons, that is to be
found in great measure, wethink, the source
of that barrenness of results which charac-
terizes this preaching. The Sunday address
is prepared in the closet as paper to be
read, or as discourse to be declaimed from
a manuscript, and the mind becomes direct
ed rather at certain abstract theme, than
on the audience itself as a body of living
men to be melted to real action.
The great question tobe decided is, wheth-
er uriHcn sermons are effective {? We as
sumo, for such is the case, that the organi-
cations in question do write their sermons.
We know the vast difference of opinion that
exists on this subject. We know how many
of the most highly intelligent advocate it q
priort. But our convictions are not at all
the less implicitly established ; We are, al
most without waveriug of opinion, deci-
sively fixed in our conclusion, that MS. SER
mons are the bane of these churches-and
hang up on their ministries like pestilen-
tial vapour, when it behooves that they
should be breathing the free and open air
1t is like the dry and sickly temperature OF
close and heated room, when what is want
ed is the pure and life.fraught warmth Of
the light from Heaven.
We assent fully to these conclusions of the
writer in the Messenger. A sermon written
out in the closet, and read from the desk,
may be entertaining and instructive, and dis
play learning, piety and feeling, but it can
not accomplish the results Of effective public
speaking. 1t cannot have the appropriate
ness, the directness, the spontaneousness Of
feeling and of expression, if we may use
the term, of extemporary speaking, and can
not, therefore, have the eloquence, upon
which the effect of public speaking depends.
But this is not question for argument
The statistics of the churches in which the
custom of reading sermons most generally
prevails, show that their additions per an
mum are in the proportion Of one or two only
to each minister! Without argument, it is
clear that any mode of preaching which is
so ineficient-so barren Of resuzts-ought
to be abandoned.
NAMES OF THE DAYS OF THE WEEK.
Ts IL not strange that Christians should