New-York tribune., 1870-08-04
CLERICAL VACATIONS.

The Methodist clergymen of Chicago were,
at the date of our last advices, engaged IN
considering the important query, Whether
minister should travel for his health in hot
weather. leaving his sanctuary shut up or his
pulpit TO the mercy of chance supplyf In
this city the matter (hOwever it may be in
Chicago does not seem to be one of much
importance When the sheep have wandered
to the seaside or up the mountains, or have
taken ship strange countries for to see," it
is hardly worth while for the shepherd to
linger at home merely to read prayers and
sermons to dearly beloved Roger" the
sexton. Parsons who are accustomed to full
houses never exhOrt at their best to a
beggarly account of empty pews. This is one
of the inevitable results of the prominence
which has been given to the sermon at the
expense of the service If people go to
church simply for the sake of intellectual
qualification, or merely follow the crowd to
listen to popular speaker, then numerous
auditory is just as necessary in church
as it is in a playhouse Indeed, one
cannot sometimes help remembering
that the pulpitum in the Roman theater
was the place where the actors exhibited
themselves. A preacher accustomed to the
stimulus of ga sea of upturned faces,D to the
qualification of congregational applause, to the
assurance of many accordant voices that the
sermon just enunciated was perfectly beautiful,
soon finds that the flavor of his preaching is
lamentably dependent upon this particular
kind of 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 worsed slippers to
the pastor, until he has enough Of them to
stock Broadway shop, gives rise to an appre-
henson 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 day: "Does Gastrodynia's tiny
"gimlet bore Y'-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,
al became somewhat sickly; either it was
"party imagination, or the cookery did not
agree with me-"
But for all his felcities of codding, the
clergyman pays heavy price. He is bothered
ny hOHutuy ID NihiNiS'h W hi'h Vh'O III
seven days he is'weghed in balance, or dis
cussed by the retiring crowd; if he be a man
of brains and culture he is in continual danger
of preaching over the heads of his congrega-
ton and, if he be man of culture without
brains, he must laboriOusly work upon most of
the secular days at his warping and wooting
of brilliant cento for next Sunday. If he be
a man of ardent piety, he is continually wor-
ried by the tepidarean condition of his society.
Alas" he cries. if they would only be hot,
"or at any rate, coldm If a pastor thus worked
and worried demands leave of absence, and
runs away from the fold for time, there is
nothing i'll 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 sort of in
stinct good sermon from a bad one. We
do not say that this is. an intelligent knowl-
edge, for it reminds u.s.. we confess, of Jeremy
Taylor's rustic audience gaping with delight
at his 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
/, hey cannot be cheated. For an old sermon,
Tn y have tho keenest vi memories, and they