Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1870-12-09
THE PREAoHINe oF To-DAY.
Fcom seribner's Monthly.


1t is an event in the experience of an
ordinary human life, to hear the rapt Sc
raphic testimony of preacher whom,
for that single sermon, perhaps, in the
whole history of his pulpit career, the
spirit of Almighty God has caught up to
some seventh heaven Of apocalyptic
moral vision, whence, as from Mount
Sinai, IN the voice of thunder and with
the tongue of the lightning, he launches
down the flaming bolt of his speech upon
a barred. a scathed, a kindling sin, en-
bodied before him.
Most persons, we suppose, will agree
that the regular attendants at the Sun
day services of the average religious
congregation of the day generally listen
to preaching pitched in very different
KEY from this The minister, if he be of
the better, that is to say, the staid and
sober type, and not exceptional by ge-
MUS OF by spiritual fervor, probably tor
pifes you with the ten-thousandth itera-
ton of some doctrine dessicated to the
very dust of death from among the in
tense Nitalities of the New Testament /;
or else he gently huns his tune about
some point of abstract ethics, which the
unearthly manner of the man seems all
the while, as IN a dream, to remove I'M
measurably far away from any ettectual
contact With the human daily life that IS
throbbing, and shining, and suffering,
and perishing innumerabiy around him.
If on the other hand, your minister be
of the progressive type, he, does differ
entity and worse. He takes the same
mummy doctrine, perhaps, which his
brother preacher had reverently wrap
ped around with one pious swaddle
more, and reverently laid away to its
immemoriaI sleep again-the sensation
preacher takes this supposititious doc
trine, and with much ostentation of his
pride in emancipated thought, shreds II
vehemently to tatters, and puffs the re-
siduous dust of it in his hearers eyes
and in his own. Meanwhile, the I'M
mortal doctrine itself, rooted inthe heart
of the Lord ana bearing fruit in the life
of His Church, maintains its youth anC
strength, maugre them both. Quite as
| likely, again, the advanced" preacher
selects a Give" subject, theme for the
/ times, for his discourse, and beats abou
( his impertinent hour in a point-no-poin
! dissertation on the woman question,
| the "labor movement, the Franco
! Prussian wal" or some other such secu
lar matter that he found IN his newspa
/ per, land had better left there topic
and treatment There are honorable
| and notable exceptions but such IS th'
average American pulpit of the day
| The Sinaitic thunder of its denunciatior
| for sin sleeps The sword that goetf
out from its mouth has lost the bitterness
of the edge of its rebuke.
And yet we institute no injurious com
parison between the pulpit of the pres
ent and the pulpit of the past. We d.
not charge that the pulpit of the presen
is degenerate. We do not think that
is degenerate. 1t IS not decay, it is de
fciency, of severity and earnestnes
that we deplore. Our preachers failur
is not comparative failure, it is positiv
failure. The failure falls at the poin
where no doubt it has always fallen.
touches the most distinctive, most vital
and most arduous function of the pro
phetic office-the vigor of protest, tn
energy of rebuke.
we charge that the effrontery of siI
stares through eyes that stand out witt
fatness, and with safe scOrn vainly court
the Abdiel encounter that should max
it quail We do not mean that abstraC
sin does not get its due of faithful
| scoring Ministers ever and anon eX
haust the resources of their rhetoric i
exhibiting its exceeding sinfulness. w
do not mean that the concrete sins c
the transatlantics and the antipodes ar
not, from time to time, relentlessly ez
posed and wholesomely damned. Wha
we mean is, that the concrete sins of th
actual congregation, once sanctioned
open practice, generally enjoy vail
guaranty against rebuke from its pulpi
A bishop of the Roman Catholic Churc
dropped in to hear Hugh Latino
, preach. Latimer was in the midst {
his sermon but he saw the bishop eI
a ter, and instantly changing his them,
drew an ideal picture of what a prelat
a should be. 1t was not Latimer's fau
2 that his auditor's character did not CO..
respond 1t was an honestly-shotte
and not a blank cartridge rebuke.
3 had an aim, and was not fired at raj
dom. 1t hit. But Hugh Latimer
dead.
Let us be fair. We frankly admit til
the pulpit Of the day does sometimes az
minister the semblance of rebulze. N
to do so much, would be too palPable q
abdication of the authority of its offic
The expectations of the audience, ar
the unsatisfed proprieties of the pla
and of the pastoral relation, demand
But 1t is usually painful to a degree
assist as auditor at the ceremony. tt
manful starts to charge and the crav,
. recoils, the missiles fairly aimed al
y fundamentally hurled short of tn,
" mark, the round rebuff that the ne,
ty door neighbor of the actual sin receiv,
pI the reprehension not well uttered till it
IT. qualified or withdrawn, the thousal
O. feints to strike and the continued 81
pense of the blow, and the long-dra,
breath at last of mutual relief betwe