Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1877-10-07
SUNDAY READING.

J
Christian, Pagan or Pythagorian, will be upon
the necessity for more attractions and fewer
long sermons in the churches The Catholic
church tit is not an encouraging sign when
only one Christian sect is recognized as
catholic), was inspired by wisdom from above
when it made it the magnifcence of its archi-
lecture and the glory of its art-displays hides
pensable features of it's discipline and system.
The Puritan notion of conserving religion and
awakening the instinct Of worship between
four barren walls of implanted pine Is like
fallacy with that which should attempt to
raise lilies and passion flowers in the shade
and the dark Pictures-not by any means
always of the so-called ''sacred' subjects
should adorn the walls; pictures of beautiful
and far stretching and sublime landscapes;
pictures of pleasant domestic scenes, of ami
mails and Of handsome women and men and
children; sculpture should be represented
there; and growing, twining, budding, BIOS
soming and seed bearing flowers, and trailing
vines and colors that charm the eye and warm
all the senses. Then would have the
which are not sacred but still very delightful
to the ear; and we should now and then
preach of the necessity of merry making,
illustrating the same with such accessories as
should seem fittest. In good many instan-
ces one must get religion into people just as
nurses and mothers get calOmel and jalap
into the stomach of their infantile patients
by strategy. 1t must always be remembered
that there is only proportional very small
proportion indeed -of people who have any
capacity for taking in and holding and digest
ing religion The multitude have to be trap
ped, like so many beaver, or mink or musk
rats; taken unawares, it were, like that
naughty little girl who had the little curl and
who stood on her head on the little trundle
bed with nobody by for to hinder. Attrac
tiveness is the quality in music and art which
'soothes the savage breast and the sooth-
ing of our native savagery is one of those
moral anesthestics by the application Of which
much needless pain and many resisting strug-
gless may be avoided. We know of men who
would 90 to church at least once in six months
II Troratore; we know of other men who would
attend divine service, perhaps, half dozen
times year for the sake of seeing beauti-
full arrangement of flowers, or some well paint
ed pictures, or some clever specimens of the
sculptor's art. 1t is all very well to stand on
the high and lofty ground that nothing ever
like a quasi admission should be made that
the expounding of the Word of God is secon- |
Diary to any thing else that can be done in the |
churches, or even that the religious exc rcises |
of the stated days of preaching should be
compelledto share with other and less heavenly |
things the attention and admiration of the
congregation. But look at your Sunday
school picnics, your systematic brides lin the
way of books, and elseWise), to the little folk:
LOOK at the enthusiasm among young and old,
has no right to dull the edge of religious re-
gard by a persistent tameness of sermonistic
reiteration and repellant sanctimoniousness of
manner and method. Unavailable men have
no business with any party's candidatures
They do more harm than good. They bring
FeASeAO0 vi uiiPoPuAI1Aty upon lACI
political associates. So with the dull bores
who get into the pulpit. They drive people
away from the church-they not only do not
draw they repel. Nobody is 10 be blamed I
for being uninteresting and tedious of manner;
but there is blame to be attached to the keep (
ing of such persons in places where they pro-
mote dissatisfaction and breed distate for
the sanctuary. -. Same .of editors Well,
that's a fair rejoinder; and what's more, it is !
true. Persons whose narrowness of vision r
and paricity of ideas; whose perverted tastes t
and depravities of fancy; whose low ambitions |
and sordid aims; whose zeal for dollars out i
runs all desire for promoting the welfare of L
those to whom they are privileged to admin !
lister the daily food of journalistic fancies and
these should be broken of their |;
office if they have ever got so far as to control A
the obscurest of weeklies or the least known a
Of less frequent publications. And there is s.
that there are those b
among the craft whose best and most pains p
-akng endeaYors are only illus L
rative of their unftness for the high h
falling of enlightened journalsm and these 81
striving amid embarrassments for bread, al
working and toiling and worrying over pro- il