Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1871-07-15
Nelieious.'
INTELLECTUAL PAUPERs IN THE
PULPIT.

y EiIHt lOIllol vi ilit Htulil loOh VI il'
people, whether it be thought or husks of
thought, comes from contemporary literature
and addresses from the pulpit. Persons,
mentally poor, fly to literature to he mental
ly enriched; persons, spiritually poor, go to u
church to he spiritually enriched; but it is
too often their fate to come away from both
the same paupers they were before. The
minister's brain is often the poor box" of
the church. The object of establishing the
thousands on thousands of pulpits in the Uni
ted States is, we suppose, the religious edu-
cation and inspiration of the millions who
crowd the pcws. 1t is expected every week
that from the clergymen will be radated IN
immense stream of religious vitality into the
wills of the congregations. The known eff
fects produced by great preachers in impart-
ing religious power, US well as communca-
ting religious knowledge, demonstrate the
fact of the possibility of spiritual influence.
But to be Il conductor of life one must have
life; to break through the inward defenses
of sin and scliishncss, and make words feel
their way surely to the springs of motive,
one must have vigorous nature, impartng
itself in vigorous speech. Now, how far
does the rhetorical training of clergymen of
average force qualify them for this work?
The tendency Of this training is undoubtedly
to dcnudc language of its vitality by viewing
it us something to be learned apart from the
soul of thought, sentiment and volition, of
which language is naturally the body. Style
is taught us if words We're not windows but
window-screens' OF natures. The future pas
tor is told to seek his words, not in the depths
of his own heart and brain, where they are
quivering with the spirit of the ideas and
emotions there just starting into being, but
to seek for them in Hooker, or Taylor, or
Baxter, or Doddridge or the dictionary. He
goes to masters of expression in order to be
the slave of their expression. His indvidu-
ality is consequently impoverished with eve
~ addition to his vocabulary. The gulf he
tween himself and his words widens with
his increased dexterity in marslaling them
BY the time he is qualified to preach, his style
has acquired its finishing touch of accurate
fluent and elegant impotence. What he is
in himself nobody knows. He may he con-
scientious and devout; he may be a debau-
chez and scoffcr; the only certain thing
about the matter is, that the sermon is not
the man. Instead of looking directly ut the
spiritual condition of his flock, and driving
the thought or appeal right home to their
hearts in words instinct with an awful mean
ing and II resolute purpose, he clearly and
smoothly states certain doctrines, illustrates
them with faded images and stereotyped ex-
amples, and enforces them with the hard and
brittle defamation of false feeling. Where
is the dying man speaking to dying man? In
fact, there is no man mt all; no person, no
thought no perception, but Il mechanical I'M
derstanding gifted with some learning and
Il large array of dead words. Is it not fright
FIJI that this theological pauper should trihe
with such themes as the salvation and dam
nation of sous?-E p. Whipple.