New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-09-27
YESTERDAYS SERMONS.

The majority of city churches were oprr
Yesterday the ministers and the bulk OF theil
congregations in their accustomed places Win
| faces more tanned and healthier than III the
Spring, and also with new look OF vitality
and attention in their regards for each other.
Rest and change of scene, and sometimes com
panionship with Nature, had apparently
Weakened pastors and people up; then there
was the heartiness and satisfaction Oh coming
back, meeting, settling down again at nome.
Almost every sermon had the ring or
n personal, friendly greeting in it, subjects and
Illustrations were drawn less than usual from
books, and more from outdoor life; the sea
and the mountains, new places ana new
people had infused something OF their own
freshness and reality into the mind or the
speaker, and consequently into his WORDS !;
the congregation listened as though they had
come, not from mere routine duty, but from
real wish to hear something strong and help
full, and different from their ordinary thoughts.
This condition of affairs no doubt was
owing to the novelty of meeting again:
and in a few Sundays people and pastors VIII
drop down into the regular round OF duty.
There are dozens of men in the Christian
ministry to-day in this and every other city
whose influence may be counted as purely
negative; they would be ranked as men OF
ability, too in other professions are possessed
Of good sense, discrimination, taste, have been
accurately fitted by education for their work;
hold their tools-the0logical knowledge, argu-
rncnt, persuaSion-woll in hand; nobody finds
any fault with their sermons. They may even
receive high praise IA intellectual efforts, but
as far as their purpose is concerned OF BRING
ing souls to Christ, they are utterly ineffective.
The minister sees that, despairs, and under
rates himself; or, still worse, does not see IT,
overrates himself, and is fatally complacent.
Ont in neighboring village or down on the
wharf, there is man without education, re-
iinement, or TASTE who tells the same story OF
Jesus and Him cruciied, and holds lis audi
ence as the Ancient Mariner the wedding
guest they are helpless in his grip; they can
not choose but hear.
Or the young minister looks outside OF his
profession; here is an actor, for example, a
man of the thinnest culture, who SEXES on
some phase Of character or story and makes 1t
50 real and powerful that he holds the town
spelbound; the fantastic tIille becomes
reality to thousands, wrings their hearts, makes
them laugh or cry. He, the preacher, has for
his theme a story of all realities the most ter
Iible, whose import is to each individual more
momcntOus than any other. Yet no cannot
compel their eyes or ears for moment; his
words pass them by as an idle tale. Nor can
he lay the blame wholly on Indifference III his
hearers. No man is indifferent to bis
own eternal fate Heaven and he'll
and God are matters to which we turn
with thoughts no other themes can waken.
The multtudes who have followed Moody and
Sankey, or any other rcviyalist, prove that the
subject of salvation is not repugnant to the
average mind. Our unsuccessful minister prob
ably reads the sermons of Mr.. Moody and can
find in them neither logical argument nor ex-
ceptional powers of any kind; he reads the
sermons of various sensational preachers and
is moved to disgust, finds bad taste, bad gram
mar, bufoonery in them. Yet the fact remains
The multitudes crowd about these people and
leave him standing alone. Whether these
actors, revivalsts, sensational preachers, lead
their audiences to evil or good, is not the
question it is-how do they lead them9 Hon.
do they win their attention, confidence, faith
We suspect the answer lies in the simple
fact that the story they tell is absolutely real
to the great actor and to the reviyalist, and
therefore real to their hearers. Their cOncep-
ton of it may be low and its effect debasing
TO their audiences, but if it has taken hold of
themselves entered into and possessed them
rs demons did men of old, it gives them for
the time an inexplicable power. A man, how
ever pure his motive or thorough his prepare
ton, who breaches religious truths, will find
their effect upon his hearers to be precisely
the same that he has felt from them himself.
If he has learned them from books, they will
reach his audiences like a printed message; if
they have been slowly wrought out for him
from his own misery or happiness, they
will take hold of other mems hearts,
as do real pain or joy. There is no counter
feiting this force. The great actor must not
only comprehend, but for the time be Hamlet;
the revivalist must feel within himself the
needs of the sinner and the compassion of the
Great Helper The English who attempted to
prove that Moody or Sankey were specializing
Adventures argued against common sense. No
man moved to preach for money ever drew
the great multitudes about him. "As in water
"face answers. face, so the heart of man to
"man." 1t wolld be well at the beginning
of this Winters work for all teachers of
Gods word who find their ministry I'M
successful to examine themselves and their
motives in teaching it. Were they influenced
in their choice of profession by the salary
If their conscience acquts them on that score
the chances are that they hold themselves so
far aloof from other men that they have not
human experiences with which to touch them
1t is Il defect easily removed. Let them shut
up all books, except the Bible; go out into
drawing-rooms, Offices, prisons, asylums and
almshollscs, and preach what they find there,