Lewistown gazette. [volume] (Lewistown, Pa.) 1843-1944, 1860-01-19
g. RELIGIOUS
lFOr the Gazette
Pulpit Influences.

That The power of the Pulpit is on the wane,
we think any candid mind at all addicted to
careful observation must cOneede, however re-
luctantly. When a power or force is no
longer wanted, it manifestly ceases to be the
power or force it might once have been con-
sdered. The Press and Society at large have
taken into their own hands the work which
truly Christian Pulpits originally set about
performing, but which the bald creedists never
could or would perform. Hence, the latter
are of necessity left out of the account alto
gether.
What men really want-when they know
how much they want it-they will he sure to
have. If their old ministers fail to supply
the spiritual food for which their developing
natures hunger, they will not hesitate long to
resort to new ones. All experience teaches
that this is the way with human nature every
where. Hence, while the great majority of
the pulpits have lost good part of that influ-
ence which they are wei! aware belonged to
them not many years ago, there are still a few
whose teachers are thoroughly men of the
present day, who partake of its sympathles,
interest themselves in It's actlv ties, keep up
with expanding movements that are going on
all around them, and throw their lives heart
lily into the great stream of the present CEN
tury. They are doing noble work, because
they are doing just what needs to be done by
somebody-if not by one, then by another
No danger of their churches or altars being
empty. No fear Of the echoes making sad
sounding music against their floors and cell
ings. The word they preach is the t'olng
word. The bread they break is the bread OF
life. The teachings they dispense enlarge the
capacities of the human soul, and never send
away sorrowing ones hungerlng and thlrstlng
This country, and this age, need just such
men, valiant workers in the vineyard. The
people want such men to teach them what IS
/ life, what is spiritual health and growth, and
what is abiding peace and happiness for the
human heart. There will always be help for
the world, so long as hearts like these dispense
so generously of their large and noble sympa-
thies to those who are needy.
IF the body of the clergy would but take
the hint that is enfolded in the success OF such
men as Wesley, Spurgeon, Chalmers, &c. and
in some similar degree endeavor to reach out
and take hold of the sympathes OF the mas
ses for whom and to whom alone they profess
to preach, there would be little complaint OF
the meagerness Of congregations, or OF the IN
efficiency and increasing uselessness OF the
clergy at large. We do not argue tor vulgar
ity in preaching, or for dramatic effect In any
wav; but we ask that the men who attempt
to instruct and awaken their fellow-men shall
be infused and informed with the living words
of Christ and his Apostles and Prophets, as
revealed in the Bible, and with anever-dylng
/ love for humanity: for the poorest and most
wretched of ftheir fellow-creatures, no less than
for the rich or well to dos" in the world.
And they who limit themselves in their labors
to attainments less than these, ought to make
up their minds at once that preaching the
Gospel of Christ is in no sense their true and
instructive vocation. They would do more et-
fectiye work in some of our State prisons.
On the other hand, what an astonishing
amount Of good may be accomplished by the
preacher, who, being himself renewed IN the
spirit of his mind" labors earnestly Tor the
true conversion Of the souls of his hearers