The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1881-11-03
DEAD WOOD.
A Sermon of Interest by Rev. Il.
Dewitt Talmage.

BROOKLYN. Oct 2S.-The thrOng atten-
ding the Brooklyn Tabernacle are great
er this autumn than ever before. At al
most every service multitudes are una
BILE to gain admission. Between five
and six thousand people make up the
usual audience.
SUBJECT-CHURCH ATTENDANCE-IS 1T
FALLING OFF?
Text-Heb 1925: 'NOt forsaking the
assembling of ourselves together"
Most startling statements have been
made in many of the pulpits of this
country in some of our religious papers.
1t has been averred over and over again,
that attendance in the house of God is
decreasing. We oppose this statement
by some hard facts. No one will deny
that there are more churches than ever
before, one denomination averaging
new church every day in the year. The
law of demand and supply Is indisputa-
bic in religion as well as in the world.
The fact that more churches are sup
piled proves that there are more church
advantages demanded. More banks mean
more bankers; more factories, more man
ufacturers; more ships, more importers;
more churches, more attendants. L have
known Brooklyn and New York thirty
years, and never so many people at
tended church in these two cities as
now. 1t is so in Chicago; it is so in
Boston; it Is so in many of the cities.
The Church records also show that there
nave been as many converts in the last
ten years as in the first fifty years of
this country. That means larger at
tendance, because nearly all these per-
sons were converted under Church in
fluence. You must not judge adversely
because here and there church is de-
pleted. Churches have their day. Some
times the neighbOrhoOd is given up to
merchandise, and the families who have
attended a particular church move far
away. Sometimes it falls by dissensiOn
and perishes. But take the aggregate
of the people who now enter religious
services on the Sabbath day and COM
pare it to twenty-five years ago, and
there are at least four to one. The facts
are exhilarating instead of depressing.
Those who have furnished the opposite
experience have been unfortunate in
their church acquaintanceship. Look
over this city. Within few years Han
som Place Methodist and Baptist
Churches enlarged to almost double
their original size. Lafayette
avenue Presbyterian Church built, Cen
tral Congregational Church built, Clos
son Avenue Church built, St.JOhn's Meth
odist Church built, and other immense
structures, any one of which large
enough t9 swallow up two or three of
the Old-time structures. | say nothing
of our own church. [ cannot imagine
what kind of arithmetic and slate pencil
a man has who calculates the decrease
of the churches. Yet there are many
churches that have decreased attendance
and it is nigh time that a sermon be
preached for the benefit of young men
starting in the ministry, and for a warn
ing to this and all other churches on the
cause of decline in any case. If COM
orpyUIG q phnrph from nairrh-
borhOOd that can not be helped, but in
all other cases if a church decline in at
tendance it is the fault of the church and
its pastor.
Churches sometimes lose auditors by
the attempt to bring the modes and
methods Of the past into the present
The modes and methods of fifty years
ago will not do now any more than the
modes and methods of to-day will do for
fifty years hence. DTs. Kirk, and McElrOy
and Mason, and Dewitt, and Yer
milye, and many others just as good,
had no lack of hearing in their day. be-
ceause they were abreast of the times
in which they lived. We must catch the
spirit of the time in which we live or
people will not have any interest in
what we say. In nine cases out of ten
the dOlOrOus statistics about the de-
crease of church attendance are given
by those who are trying to work in our
day the wOrn-Out machinery of other
times. They might as well throw out
the furnaces from our church easements
and substitute the Old-fashiOned foot
stoves which our great-grandmOthers
carried with them to the Westinghouse
and throw out the organs and cOrnets
while they strike the Old-fashiOned tun-
ing-fOrk on the knee in order to catch
the pitch for the hymn and eject the
modern platform for the wine-glass
1Vif nm of q iro of biah tho in
lister would climb to dizzy height of
Mont Blanc isolation, and then go in
out of sight, shutting the door behind
him. When you can get the masses of
the people of this day to take passage in
a stage coach or canal boat from Albany
to Buffalo, New York, kinstead of the
lightning express rail train, then
you can get the masses of the peo-
pie to attend churches half century
behind the time. The difficulty begins
clear back in the theological seminaries.
1t is shame that so little provision is
made for the invalid and aged minis
ters who have given all their strength
to the cause Of God. We have Naval
Asylums and Soldiers Asylums for
those who fought for the country on
land and sea and are disabled and old.
And ought no large provision be made
for the good soldiers of Jesus Christ
who have worn themselves out in bat
Ting for the Lord? For the lack of
proper provision for them the tendency
is to make the professorate in the theo-
logical seminaries of the country hos
pital for aged and infirm ministers.
After the minister ceases to interest the
people he has the title of D. d. con-
ferred upon him by the way of resusci-
tatiOn. If that fail, then he is elected
professor in some theological seminary.
While there are grand exceptions, many
of the prOfessorates of our theological
seminaries are occupied by ministers
who, not being able to preach them
selves, are appointed to prepare men
who can preach. 1t is sometimes
the case that a professor of elocu-
tiOn in our learned institutes is
the poorest speaker in the Fac
ulty. We want more wide-awake, ro-
bust and enthusiastic professors in our
theological seminaries; men who, like
Addison Alexander, cannot only teach
young men the theory of preaching, but
get up next Sunday in the pulpit, and,
with the thunder and lightning of
Christian eloquence, show them how.
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