Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1881-10-24
CHURCH ATTENDANCE.
STARTLING TRUTHS AND INTEREST.
ING RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.
Enormous Attendance in Houses of Wor-
ship at the Present Tims-How to ln-
crease lt-How II Is Sometimes
Decreased I'VE Must
freshen Up."
SERMON OF REV. T. OsWiTT TAlMAGE

Special to the Register.
NEW YORK, October %.
The throngs attending the Brooklyl
Tabernacle are greater this season thai
ever before. At almost every servic
multitudes are unable to gain admission
Between five and six thousand peopl
make up the usual audience. Thi
morning Rev. Talmage discoursed as fol
lows:
Opening hymn:
.Hark! the song OF jubilee
Loud as mighty thunders roar."
subjeot-"Churoh Attendanoe-IsI II Fsll
ing OfP"
TExr-Hebrews Z. 25; mot forsaking the as
sembling Of ourselves together"
Most startling statements have beer
made IN many Of the pulpits OF this
country and some OF our religious pa
pers. 1t has been averrsd over and evel
again that attendance in the House oi
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 a new church
every day in the year. The law OF de-
mand and supply is indisputable in
religion as well as in the world. The
facts that more churches are supplied
proves that there are more church ad-
vantages demanded. More banks mean
more bankers; more factories, more
manufacturers; more ships, more i'm.
porters: more churches, more attend.
ants. | have known Brooklyn and New
York thirty years and never 30 many
people attended church in these two
cities as now. 1t is 40 10 Chicago, it is
so in Boston, it is 80 in many OF the
cities. The church records show that
there have been as many converts in the
last ten years as in the first fifty
years OF this century. That means
larger attendance, because nearly all
these persons were converted under
church influences. You must not judge
adversely because here and there a
church is depleted. Churches have
their day. Sometimes the neighborhood
is given up to merchandise, and the
families who would have attended a
particular church move far away. Some.
times it falls by Gissension and perishes.
But take the aggregate OF the people
who now enter religious service on the
Sabbath day and compare it with twenty
five years ago and there are at least four
to one. The facts are exhilarating in
stead of depressing. Those who have
furnished the opposite experience have
been unfortunate in their church ac.
Quaintanceship. Look over this city !.
Within a few years Hanson Place
Methodist and Baptist churches enlarg.
ed to almost double their siz',
I.pEsxettS-..., AJrarpa- -psaahvtorian
church built, Classon Avenue church
built, st. Johns Methodist church built,
and other immense structures, any ole
OF which is large enough to swallow up
two or three of the old time churches.
say nothing OF our own church. |
cannot imagine what kind OF an arlth.
meiic and slate pencil a man has who
calculates the decrease OF the churches.
Yet there are many churches that have
Decreased In Attendance,
and it is high 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. II COM
merce crowds out a church from \
neighporhood, that cannot be helped,
but in all other cases il a church decline
in attendance it is the fault OF the church
and its pastor.
Churches sometimes lose aud tors by
the attempt to bring the mo les 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 oday will do for
fifty years hence. Drs. Kirk, and Nc.
Elroy, and Mason, and De Witt, and
Vermilye and many Others just rs good
had no lack OF hearers in their day be-
cause they were abreast OF the times in
which they had lived. We must catch
the spirit OF the times 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 we'll throw out
the ir m 8 from o IT c urch Easements
and substitute the old.fashioned foot
stoves which our great grandmothers
carried with them TO the meeting house,
and throw out the organs and cornets
while they strike the old-fashioned
tuning fork on the knee in order to
catch the pitch for the hymn, and eject
the modern platform for the wine glass
pulpit, up the stairs OF which
The minister would climb to dizzy
height OF Mount Blanc isolated
and then 90 in out OF sight, shutting the
door behind him. When you can gel
the masses OF the people OF this day tt
| take passage in a stage coach or cana
boat from Albany to Buffalo instead o
| the lightning express or train, then yor
can get the masses Of the people TO at
tend churches half century behind tb'
t!mp. The difficulty begins clear baci
in the theological seminaries. II Is
shame that so little provision is nlad'
for the invalid and sged ministers wh'
have given all their strength 10 TIT
cause Of God. We have naval asylum
and soldiers asylums for those VIII
fought for the country on land and sea
and are disabled and old. And ough
no large provision to be made for th'
good soldiers OF Jesus Christ who hsv
worn themselves cut in battling sor tb,
Lord? For tn, lack Of proper provision
for them the tendency is to max
the pro.essorates in the theolo9ica
seminaries OF the country hospita
for aged and infirm ministers. Ate
the minister ceases to interest the peo
pie he has the title Of d. d. conferre'
upon him by the way OF resuscitation
II that fail then he 10 elected protessc
in some theological seminary. Will
there ars grand exception, many ofth
professoraas OF our theological semir
aries are occupied by ministers who no
being able 70 preach themselves, are ap
pointed to prepare men who can preach
IL is sometimes the case that q professo
of elocution in cur learned institution
is the poorest speaker in the faculty
We want more wide awake, robust an
| enthusiastic professors in our theolo2icz