The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1879-02-22
PULPIT SENsA7IONAusM.
How to Reach the People.
Let the Preacher Speak Living Language
Sermon by Rev. David Swing, of Chi cage

all JeWry."
Oflate years there has come along per
haps more than the usual number of new
and amazing men and methods to perform
their part in the never-ending drama
OF religion. Our own age has been called
upon to crowd the room where some "boy'
preacher" or evangelist" was to speak as
from God to men. 1t is possible that each
age has had its equal proportion of these
new men and new measures, and that we
see only the novelties of our times from
the common law that we know best what
is nearest to our own faces. AS men know
their own village better than they know
the world, so they perceive the "boy-
preachers" and "widow-preachers" of to-
day better than those of that immense
and distant land of yesterday. We need
not, however, pause over the inquiry
whether there has always been group OF
these startling heraldS for each genera
ton, but rather let us look into the mer-
its Of what is called sensationalism in re-
ligion leaving unanswered the question
what age has been blessed or injured with
this virtue or vice in it's largest quantity.
Since this term was first formed and
honored with place i'll our leXicons, it
has undergone change OF import. Sen
sationalism was originally the name OF
that philosophy which referred all our
knowledge to the fivesenses. 1t was held
bv certain school that our idea of time
and space and of good and evil had an
origin in what the senses brought to the
reflection and judgment, as distinguished
from the spiritualism which held that GER
tain ideas were planted by the Creator in
the soul. By degrees, the debate oyer
these two PHILOSOPHERS died away, and the
words they used were left empty to be let
along with certain plays which appealed
to the eye only, or the lower senses OF the
body, and moralists soon began to call
that drama which pleased the senses and
shut out the intellect sensationalism.
Step by step the word gathered additional
import, until it came to moan anything
that would cause q sudden t1utter of the
heart or sudden charging OF the eyes or
a sudden clatter of feet. This end the
a gun or cannon at the summit of a musi-
cal climax, and the same result the dra-
matip men have reached by the free use
of colored lights and by Transformation
scenes; and this thrilling OF the audience
some of the pulpit-men have attempted to
reach by such agencies as could be intro
duo6d into their shape of intellectual art.
Having thus seen the origin OF the word
and its subsequent use, IT Is perfectly
used in describing the manner OF thought
which belongs to the pulpit. IfdramRtists
or musicians see fit to make use OF this
sensationalism-an abnormal appeal to
the senses,-let them do so at their peril,
but there is no form of eloquencc, wheth-
er OF the preacher, or the lawyer, or states
man, that can resort to Rgeh a childish or
false art without suffering in the end q
great injury. AS fact, the word sensa-
tionalism, the art OF making sensation,
should be virtually omitted from all esti-
mates ofthe duty or privilege of the clergy
man, While, therefore, / speak OF discus
sing sonsati0nalism in the pulpit, it is not
my wish or intention to help retain any
religious use of that term, hut only 10 dis
cuss questions which the term suggests "a
the public, namely, whether the pulpit
does sufficiently, or as much as possible,
interest its audience, and whether II
should make special effort to arouse the
Thought and feelings of its hearers? And,
if SO, by what means?
Assuming that those who listen regu-
larly to all these Sunday teachers have
often an hour to endure rather than to ell
10Y, assuming that at tho close OF q SER
mon we grasp the hyn n-book with an OK
quisite delight, delight that springs not
from the music to come SO much as from
the sermon done and gone, yet we must
alone. We must remember that no prcactl-
er enjoys the opportunity OF either law
yer or statesman in the power to arouse
the peoplc The lawyer and the states
man have a great case which is pressing
in that very instant upon the public heart.
When Webster and Calhoun and Clay, and
afterward Phillips and Parker, spoke ON
tIo roll
hot even before the speakers had uttered
word. When clergyman rises to adj
dress an audience about their relations to
God whom they have never seen, and
about future life from which all hope
at loast that they are very far
away, he rises to no such oppor,
tunity as that which aids tho eIoquence
over a coming war, or coming
bondage, or liberty. The Christian says
ncarness of eternity, just as the patriots
feel the ne&rncss of great events in the
State,-but that which ought to be never
influences men MS deeply as that which is
Robert Emmett and Thomas Adds Emmett
aroused more souls in Ireland in the name
of liberty than they could themselves
have aroused in the name OF future lie
and in the same island Daniel O'ConncIl
swept along, so years ago, with an elo'
IuSIICc WHICH, III VI lAAS ~ A.tAN
euualIcd; and chiefly because while the
priest speaks of joy or n suffering be,
yond this life, the Emmcts and OCOnnel
smoke of an Ireland and certain sorrows
right by the hearthstones OF all. In an
alyzing the vital iOrG3 of the pulpit il
must be kept in memory that the human
heart does not bctray much scnsibiity
to those scenes which are on the Other
side OF deaths river. The Irish, dispers
ing from church where the priest haC
painted awfully tho last judgment, chatted
pleasantly and went homo with each 9th
err TO Sunday dinner, but the same mor
went away from Robert Emmct's harnn
CUES with compressed lips and with clinch
ed fists which BODIED no good to England
In theory the pulpit holds in its grasp thu
largest themes upon which the mind cal
dwell-death, resurrection, n judgmen
for the deeds of this life, a perpetual sec
ond life OF Joy or regret-but this groatncs
is in vain il there be anything in the sou
which turns these subjects into ideas tina
are uncertain as facts, or infinitely remot
IA to time of occurrence. Could that some
thing which we call eternity only lie be
fore the public senses i'll all the reality O
an Atlantic Ocean, or of our continent
preaching would be an easy work, for til
yates Of death would help tho audience
an awful fear or most sweet hope. Pol
tics possesses the advantage OF being