The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-08-05

pepper. This is one of the undesirable
results of pulpit popularity. Another is its
tendency to take the virility out of a man.
The same admiration which leads the women
of the society to present worsted slippers to
the pastor, until he has enough of them to
stock q Broadway shop, gives rise TO an APP
prehension that his brain must be softening.
that his lungs are weak, that he is in danger
of a confirmed bronchitis. Tenderly he is
asked, ten times adayi-'Does Gastrodynia's
tiny gimlet bore ?'-only the kind and fair
querists say dyspepsia instead of using the
classical word. No wonder that he falls into
Fichte's condition, when that philosopher
wrote to a friend:-"You know that before
leaving Zurich, L became somewhat sickly;
either it was partly Imagination, or the cook
cry did not agree with me-"
But for all his f~elicities of coddling, she
clergyman days a heavy price. He is bothered
by women; he is criticized by men; once in
seven days he is weighed in q balance, or dis
cussed by the retiring crowd; if he be a man
of brains and culture he is in continual dan
ger of preaching over the heads of his con-
gregation; and, if he be a man of culture
without brains, he must laboriously work
upon most of the secular days at his warping
and woofing of a brilliant cento for next Sun
day. If he be a man of ardent piety, he is
continually worried by the tepidarean con-
dition of his society. "Alas !" he cries,
'if they would only be hot, or, at any rate,
cold !" If q pastor thus worked and
worried demands leave of absence, and
runs away from the fold for a time, there is
nothing in his boiling which is in the least
to be wondered at. The main difficulty, we
venture to suggest, is too much sermon
making. The congregation is critical by
habit, and knows, by a sort of instinct, a
good sermon from a bad one. We do not
say that this is an intelligent knowledge, for
it reminds us, we confess, of Jeremy Tay-
lor's rustic audience gaping with delight at
bis Latin and Greek quotations. But
church goers soon come to recognize an able
preacher, without any proper appreciation of
his ability. They may not comprehend, but
they have the keenest of memories, and they
all mention to each other as they walk home
to dinner that DIR. - preached that dis
course about two weeks after he was or
dained. The poor clergyman who fishes in
the very bottom of his barrel for an MS,
good enough for tenantless pews upon q
summer Sunday, may be sure that there will
always be somebody present who will find
him out, and take the greatest pleasure in
telling those of slower recollection.
Now, if the reader will but consider the
matter fairly, he will see that it is almost an
impossibility for a pastor to write one hun
bred and four excellent new sermons yearly.
If put to such a task, especially if he be dys-
peptic, he will either break down or he will
break through the bindings of his books, and
desperately steal, or else he will dispense the
mere sugar-plums of rhetoric to hungry souls.
He must be a pretty good worker who can
write, let US say, a dozen really f~irst-rate SER
mons in a year, for these will demand for
their preparation study, reflection, castigation,
and a good deal of rewriting. 1t must be re.
membered that we are speaking of sermons
which are sermons-really great works of art
like those of Jeremy Taylor, or DIR. South, or
Robert Hall, or Claiming, or Chalmers. The
late DR.. Wayland was fond of telling his
class how many drafts he made of his re-
nowned sermon on Missions, and he may we'll
have been a little proud of it, for it laid the
foundation of his subsequent fame. Doubt.
less his congregation would have liked two
such sermons every Lords day, but they
might as well have expected a stated supply
of archangels to preach to them.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, at least
among Protestants, preaching sermons has
become the most important function of the
priestly Office, with certain results which are
to be deplored, and with others which are ia
be commended. But wardens and vestrymen
and standing committees may be assured thai
they will in the end lose nothing by allowing
the brains from which they expect sc
much an occasional season of repost
the human body SO rejoices, aftel
hard work, at an interval of rest al
that pulpy prisoner within the wall
of the Uranium; while there is no organ
which so rapidly and satisfactorily achieve.
recuperation 1t is quite wonderful to int
how easy brain-work is made by a week OF
fortnight of perfect rest-of rest from think
ing, and writing, and constructing, and from
all reading except that of travels and biogral
phies, of novels and newspapers. Wherefore
we beseech clergymen, when they desire
furlough, not to talk about their Threats d
stomachs, but to say boldly that they wad
rest, because rest is a good thing in itself.