New-York tribune., 1880-01-18


TO indulge the luxury Of fictitious sympathy
and sentimental rapturcs, we are luesistlDy
reminded of the popular lines:
When the costcr'- finished jumping on his mother
lie loves to lie a bassing in The sun.
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CBTPcUGOERS md NON-CHERCH-GOE OERS.
Many OF the friendly letters which we have
received. counsclling direct moral influence
in the Sunday TRIBUNE. have reminded us
that "the majority OF its readers do not go 10
church, This is probably tue. The ma
iority of lis readers are men, and 1t
IL lamcntabe fact that the major
iiy of men do not now 90 to church.
II is safe to assert that two-thirds Of
every congregation IN the county this morn
ing are women. Forty years ago it was not
so. In our inland towns the man who then
was not seen II his pew once - least on
SUNDAY was suspected Of being Tom Paine
i'm disguise. while now the man who is reg
ular church-gocr is set down as exception
ally pious Our ioreiathers dozcd pa
icrqv under discoulscs Of sixteen sections;
and sought on week days the PARSONS advice
on worldly and family affairs. Country news
rapcrs Of half century ago were largely
filed with polcmical ,!scus.i0ns; Bunyan's
Works and the Saints Rest lay on every pnlor
table. Now the PiiNm's Progress is read SIM
plya.auasterpiecc of literature; and the good
man in the pulpit Is no longer tie "scrsc
carrier for his congregation indeed. many
OF them have but a boWing acquaintance with
him. Yet he is rs good a man as his prcde-
cc..or; hls twenty minutes addresses are
vital with as mnch learning, zeal and force as
the old mtcrmiuablc ,haraugues. He Is apt
10 think that It j, sheer godicssncSs IN the
intelligent doctors lawyers and merchants.
whose wives Gll his pcws. that keeps them from
coming TO hear him. The world. he says, Is
grown more worldly; we serve AIanmon more
aud God lees than our forcilthcrs.
DO wei We doubt whether this answer
quite solves the problem. We suspect 1t was
not altogether devotion which tool, ;hc business
man to church in oldcn times. 1t WAS almost the
only intellectual stimulu, he had there lay
his social world, his news, his friendships.
The congr, CATION Of the little meeting
house were the audience, judge aud jury whose
verdict on his daily liz from his birth to
Gaa,h was final. Ills gaudsOn'~ brain, on the
contrary. is acting, strained from Monday
until Saturday; it feels the physical need
of rest; not stimulus, ON Sunday. There
is no intellectual incrucss which the
preacher can readily turn to action on
religious questions; he must drag the minds
Of his hearers from dozen other live pursuits
Even the farmer sits to-day IN the centre OF
things. The telegraph, newspapers illimit-
able gOings t0 and fro make all nations pres
ent 10 him; knowledge OF all sorts comes
TO him condensed, hot-prcssed why, he
thinks, should he look upon Dean or
ID. ID. with awe, or accept his opinions
He lives in the broad glare of cnlightcn-
ment which blthes the modern world and the
social hfe of the little mecting-housc and
even the sect itself, its doGmas and prejudces,
shrink into insgnilicance IN his view, The
danger is that religion may shrink with
them.
Now these are actual changes in the posi-
ton and needs of the time which the clergy
man cannot alter. Unfortunately he does not
always meet them wisely. Sometimes, being
young or weak-brained, and therefore pur-
blind. he tries to assume the priestly authority
which circumstances gavo to his predecessor.
But he finds that it Is not the cloth " which
men respect nowadays. but the man behind ii
they stand up to him face to face, and measure
him by themselves. Sometimes he tries
to command attention by making his
sermons purely intellectual efforts then
he is popular or unpopular, like any
novelist or actor who tckes or offends the
public taste, and for no higher reason. But
secular Observers ask, is this his work
Often, being neither a humbug, ambitious
nor silly, but an honest man who knows
what his Master has sent him to do, he
fails in the doing of it from utter ig-
norancc OF the world. He knows his text
books and the affairs of his little parish but
to many sincere men outside who stand breast
high in the great currents of human action,
who have grappled with the temptations and |
passions that age body and soul, his mild ad- |
vice sounds unreal. ~ the piping OF play |
shepherd in II pastoral poem. Added to these |
hindrances to pulpit influences is the abus- |
i've slang popular even among educated |
classes, against the clergy. We find cheap and |
ready comfort for our own shortcomings in |
ieering at the church as "shamn and SER
mons as "cant." Not one of us, whatever
our trade or business. is pitted against worse
difficulties than the man in the pulpit but |
he, at any rate. knows what his real work is,
as some of us do not. He is sure of his back
ing, and his worst enemies, as with every other |
man, are in himself.
AS THE TRIBUNE is secular paper. we can
ask question, therefore, without offence to |