New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-06-25
SUMNER PREACHING.

is the dull season Of religion. Churches
that are able to pay large salaries, or to
make donations for the benefit of cler-
gyman's throat in Europe, favor the early
closing NOV ement, and grant summer
vacation to their preacher. Congrega-
tons not able to indulge in the luxury of
preachers vacation generally have a
run of morning sermons all through the
hot season. From every Protestant pulpit
in the land it has been argued that there
is time to rest and time to pray, and
that the clergyman needs summer recrea-
ton as well as men of other professions.
While that proposition is conceded, there is
still stronger one calculated to effect the
same result. While one man in the pull
pit needs relaxation from labor, five hun
dred men in pews need rest Many
persons 60 to church regularly from
consciousness that their duty lies in that
direction, and church going is not alto
gether a voluntary action. The sinner
will take his case and comfort whenever
he can get it. If it is under shady tree
in the country, or by a bit of still water in
green pastures, or near laughing brook
that winds its way through fertile mea-
dows. he will most likely 60 there for it,
if it is Sunday, or catch it at home in
shirt sleeves and slippered feet. The good
chor Of
fort. 1t is solemn thing to dress in
solemn black and 60 solemnly to church
on hot summer morning. A man settles
himself down squareiy in a cushioned
seat he fans himself vigorously, but the
starch of his shirt collar soon gives way,
and he becomes limp and damp worship
er. The prayer seems longer than usual
and he wonders how he can take the ser
mon. A man is never SO sleepy as in a
hot church, where he ought not to
sleep. The Sunday school children 60
to sleep as soon as they have studied
the pictures in their papers, and the
little ones fall off from their seats, or
sleep with their heads on mothers
laps. Big swapping bugs make discord-
ant music on the hot looking gas fixtures;
mosquito dragons bump their heads
against the stained panes of glass; there
are obtrusive flies persistently renewing
attacks on every human nose in the con-
gregation. Everybody and every thing is
hot and wants to get out. The bells OF
the ice cream man are heard in the dis
lance, and the male worshiper looks
at his broadcl6th coat and wishes he
was not quite so good. If the preacher
is to be commiserated for being
obliged to work on the hot Sab
bath day, how much more is to be
pitied the patient hearer. As preaching
goes, with reference to hotter hereafters,
it is much easier to preach than to be
preached at. A judge on the bench CIV
ing sentence somehow feels superior to
the poor fellow who takes it in the pris-
oner's box. The preacher is the batter in
the game, and the man in the pew is the
short stop. 1t is the short stop man who
gets his fingers broken and his eyes put
out. A short service in the cool of the
evening may be profitable, that men may
not altogether forget the way to church !;
but the broiled piety of eleven o'clock in
the morning is not consistent with human
comfort. Man is scarcely reasonable
when the glazing sun crowds him to the
wall. He will admit and accept Of most
any plan of salvation rather than hear the
case argued. Clergymen need rest in sum-
mer, and congregations need it also. Mr.
Beecher has the heathenish W isdom of
Mahommed. He can not bring the cool
mountains and perpetual snow to him,
and so he goes to the cool White noun
tains., HIS sermons on ice in July are
comfortable; thinking of them, hot SER
mons in dry church appear more un-
comfortable. We can not all go to the
White mountains in the swel.ering sum-
mer, yet some of Us may be forgiven if We
stay away from church.