Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1879-07-10
The Relations of Literary Men to
Christianity.
BY PROF. SWING.

"nh6 loI HIS t6At tue WORDS
"What think ye of Christ 2" from
Matt. %: 40, he said: Resuming
the inquiry raised last Sunday what
cause or causes may exist for the
fact that so many OF the most emf
nent literary men are outside the
church rolls | would suggest that
part of the explanation may be
found in the fact that a powerful
pursuit, the pulpit, draws to itself
thinking multitude which otherwise
might be literary and religious. At
least there is a fact here worthy OF
beng investigated, and, if possible,
estimated in this case before us
The Influence of the pulpit in this
matter is obscure, and demands in
deed longer and deeper thought
than can now be given il, but it
seems to me probable that the group
OF eminent literary men appear in
their least religious quality from
the fact that the pulpit has for hun
dreds of years furnished semi lit
erary calling for the most religious
or the educated minds who have
wished to live by the expression of
thought.
do not know why the method
of reasoning which applies else
where will not apply in this case of
Investigation, the physical method
which assumes that all bodies are
attracting all other bodies. When
our astronomers found, some years
ago, that one of the planets was
wandering little from its mathe-
NAUTICAL orbit, they said there must
be some hidden planet not in our
tables, which is pulling on this orb
which is making such an error in
its circuit. Following this suspic-
ion the astronomers sought the
depths of space diligently, and
found the concealed hand that was
moving its fellow star. Such influ.
ences in the sky are embems of
similar conflicts on our land. One
wandering through New England
sees villages without young men,
deserted churches, and old mills
whose wheels no longer turn. Upon
reflection he finds that the West has
tor years been attracting out to its
broader and richer fields the young
men and young women; and the
| mon who desire to practice law or
medicine follow also
THE WESTWARD FLOW OF POPULATION.
Now if along the great pathway
of the intellectual host there is an
attractive force which will offer a
pursuit partially literary to those
who may possess the most religious
sentiments, then that profession will
draw into itself many a one who
otherwise would have been q dovo.
tee at tho shrine of literature alone.
While the pulpit is not literary
calling, while sermons are rarely
classed in the literature of any age,
yet the pulpit is near kin to the
thinking and beautiful arts, and in
Offering days and years of general
study and culture to minds that
hunger for mental work and food it
ID land rich enough and beautiful
enough to invite into its domain and
to detain there for ever many who
otherwise would have been embodi.
ments of both religion and litera.
ture. l do not mean that all the
worlds clergy would have been
Ginning lights in letters, had not the
pulpit diverted them from that ca
reer. 1t is to be hoped that had
the pulpit ceased TO draw US, very
many of US would have returned to
the ak or plow-emblems of an in
dustry that most OF us may have
been rash in discarding. My mean
ing is simply this, that In q given
Christian century which can point
US TO perhaps hundred popular
writers it may be assumed that that
century has lost some talents from
its literature by means of the rival
attractiveness of the church, and
that that church in drawing it's men
did by "natural selection" take
those minds that were most def.
nitely religious, and left for book
making those least in sympathy
with at least the sectarian creeds.
1t may illustrate this remark should
it be affirmed that in Dean Stanley
and Cannon Farrar, and 10 Cardi.
nal Newman. and in Hyaeinthe,a and
in Norman Mcleod, and 10 perhaps
Chalmers we see places where the
pulpit came in to divert great minds
from that pursuit of genius and log.
ic, and Imagination, and learning
called literature. 1t isperhaps well
for humanity that these enticements
took place, but the question wheth.
er great books from these men
would have been more useful than
good sermons from them is not be-
fore as.
WE ARE LOOKING FOR FACTS,
and no. the most desirable facts.
Let US assume therefore that the
literature of any Christian age is
modified somewhat in its positively
Christian character by the fact that
the pulpit draws away from literary
cha nneis some minds which would
have carried into letters their relig-
ious conclusions and sentiments.
This spiritual migration may be
seen in any epoch. In the classic
lands poetry robbed politics, and
then the spirit of conquest came to
lead away to war the youth who
would have been book makers, like
Virgil or Tacitus and in the mid.
die ages, the professions of law and
medicine failed because art and the.
ology drew to themselves all the
higher intellccts. Equally IN our
era. the pulpit has made some incur.
sions into the fields of letters, and
has borne away some prizes just
as the great prsiries of the West
steal children from the New Eng
land hills, and make in one place
solitude to make elsewhere will
derness to blossom.
Nor in after life do these clergy.
men return to literature. after hav.
ing given long and hard work to
the church, for il is impossible after
years of sermon making. after
writing and speaking 10 such spe-
cial form, ever to return to that Pc