The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1880-06-30
PREACHING IN CINCINNA TT

FhEACHING IN CINCIN-NA TT.
A Cincinnati correspondent of the N.
Y. Observer gives some facts about church
attendance in Cincinnati, and about the
afternoon services in Music Hall, con-
Quoted by DR.. Pratt, which furnish food
for reflection. The writer SAYS:
About one year and half ago the Gin
cinnati Gazette Company made arrangements
to have all the congregations of the Protestant
churches counted or closely estimated at the
morning service. In great majority of cases
the result was reached by actual count. The
general result was that, in one hundred and
seven Protestant churches, the average of the
congregations was one hundred and ten Select
ing the sixteen largest churches the writer
found the average to be two hundred and seven
teen; The largest of the audiences thus selected
numbered three hundred and twenty-f five. and
the smallest of the sixteen, one hundred and
sixty. The whole number found in the Pro
testant churches, including Unitarians, Univer-
salists, and Swedenborgians was twelve thou
sand four hundred and eighty seven Q2487.
On the same day when the
Protestant churches were thus examined, the
counters reported fully two thousand persons in
the Cathedral, as many more in st. Xavier's
church, and the general estimate for the Catho-
lie churches on that day was forty thousand"
1t will be seen from the above that
among the Protestants, the inhabitants of
cincinnati are not church-going people.
The largest audience collected on the
Sabbath morning in question numbered
only 325, and the average attendance was
only ITO. We wish DIR. Swing would
give his attention to the facts.
The correspondent proceeds then to
explain the origin of the Sunday after
noon services in Music Hall, stating that
on the first Sabbath an immense audience
some four thousand or more-assem-
bled-that It was found DIR. Pratt could
be distinctly heard-and that all seemed
delighted with the services.
From the opening to the present time
these great congregations, we are told,
gathered there, seldom numbering, as is
said, less than twenty hundred and
more often exceeding three thousand. :.
DR.. Pratts sermons are thoroughly and
polntedly orthodox. They are above the Or
binary level, and though adorned sometimes
with beautiful passages, he is in no respect a
sensational preacher. His sermons are of the
character best calculated to test the question
whether the people will gather to hear the
plain, undlluted and unveiled truths of the g>s-
pei. Thus far they have done so and in this
respect and to this extent, the experiment is
an exceedingly important one, and eminentlv
successful. 1t is nevertheless true that this and
similar movements like that of Moody and San
key, where the people gather by thousands as
IN mass meetings, to hear the gospel, are far
from settling the question, How are the masses
ava cali IL
facts indicate probably important coming
changes In our Protestant methods of church
action, and show that the indifference or dis
satisfaction Of the people is caused not so much
by any aversion to the gospel, as by the man
ner In which it is presented by the churches"
We rejoice that DR.. Pratt is doing this
good work in Cincinnati. But observe
Cincinnati has population of some 25O,-
OOO 1--WE are not accurately informed):
now on the Sunday morning. above re-
ferred to, when the enumeration took
place, less than $4,000 persons heard the
gospel What shall be done for the re-
naming 237,000 Is there nothing that
can be done? Must we sit down, and say,
Nothing? Does not the Music Hall SER
vice, at least, suggest one method of work?
But it is obvious that, as matters stand,
Cincinnati is, to large extent, heather
city.
If Christians would give of their sub
stance with free hand, one great step
would be taken. Now, in order to sup
port church, the pews have to be rented
at very high figures, and the church is
not'o free place like Music Hall. But if
Christians were really animated by a
thorough conservation to the work of saw
ing lost world, they would support their
preachers, and have free churches at the
same time And they would send out
Evangelists to preach in the public halls
to the non-church-going multitudes
no gfr :.