The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1878-01-10

how spacious and attractive they
are. Hear the swell Of their organs
and the melody Of their singers
How lovely are the hymns. This,
now, is the holy incense of prayer
Listen to the voices of their preach
ers, soft and sweet, as they advance
through their sermons from exordi-
UNI to peroration, as they rise in elo-
quence, as they wander through the
fields of imagination, as they pro
coed with their orderly ratiocination,
as they indulge in appeal and exhor-
tation, as they take their fight be-
yond the clouds. Learned men are
these preachers; most Of them have
studied Hebrew, Greek, and Latin,
as well as logic, metaphysics, and
mathematics. Excellent salaries do
they draw, as stimulus to their
minds. They are men of good social
standing, so called, men Of elegant
manners, men who know how e, to
dress aud dink and drixn. and 4a.Aa
are iamiliaJ with the respectable
world of which they area part.
Yet, with all these attractions, the
Cincinnati churches do not. attract
audiences, and the preachers are
holding meetings to find out what
they shall do abont it.
The preachers whose eloquence is
displayed in them deal with subjects
of the most tremendous import to
mankind. The relations OF man to
his Maker, the everlasting interests
of the immortal soul, heaven and
hell, the eternal and inaexible laws
Of truth and right, the principles of
practical righteousness in their APP
plication to life, and the whole duty
of man in this world-these are the
themes which it is their business to
oxpound from their pulpits. What
other themes can equal these in in
terest? Yet the Cincinnati preach.
ers complain that the people will
not listen to them, and that the at.
tendance upon their churches is fall
ing off year after year, Is it not
ground for wonderment?
The Cincinnati preachers do well
to confer with each other about the
matter, while yet there are some
hearers left, Let them question one
another closely, and see if they them
selves are not somehow at fault
Can each one of them say that he
truly and firmly believes, with all
his heart and mind and strength, the
doctrines of his creed, and that he
exemplifes this belief in his daily
life in the world? Does he go forth
as the Hebrew prophets went forth
among the stifFnecked and hard
hearted sinners of their time? Does
he proclaim his faith as the apostles
of primitive Christianity proclaim
ed theirs? Does he believe in hell,
and is he devoured with zeal to save
men from it? Does he accept the
Scriptures in their original mean
Ing, and does he enforce the vital
duties of action that they lay down
even those severe dutivG that 2sem
like stumbling blocks to the heat.
en-? Does he illustrate the power of
practical righteousness in his own
conduct? Does he, in short, give the
people to know, by his words and his
ways, that the religion he breaches
from the pulpit is to him as the mar.
row of his bones, the substance of
his being, and the consuming fire of
his life? Or, on the other hand, is
his mind filed with doubts about
the doctrines of his sermons; is his
daily practical action a parody upon
the words of the Scriptures; does he
seek to please his fashionable hear
ers by fine language at the expense
of stern truth; and does he remain
in the clerical profession from the
love of money, or the pride of the
place?
1t is a melancholy and humilia-
ting business in which the Cincin-
natl preachers have to engage when
they hold meetings to find out why
people refuse to listen to them.
From a tabular statement printed
in the Richmond Dispatch, VIC gather
that in the year 1877, the Richmond
manufactures, sold 21,966,396-
worth of p,onufnct,rnd orI;cloS Tho