The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1882-08-30
. DULL SERMONS.

D.. DULL SERMONS.
We often hear the remark of late that
the pulpit is losing its power. We are
reminded that before the multiplication
of books and newspapers the pulpit was
almost the only instrument for the moral
instruction of the masses, but that since
the discovery of the art which preserves
all other arts, the press divides the bust
ness of ethical teaching with the pulpit,
and that in proportion to the ever in
creasing power of the press the influence
OF the pulpit must decline
1t IS true that the religious press has
become the most efficient ally of the pull
pit, but it is not true that it has even the
tendency to supplant or supercede it.
On the contrary, those whose minds and
hearts have been most informed and ben
Gifted by religious reading are those who
most prize the ministrations of the pulpit.
But one thing the press has done. 1t
has elevated the standard Of the pulpit
and made the work of the minister more
difficult than before. There is no subject
relating to doctrine or Christian life which
has not been discussed by authors thor
oughly qualified for the task by learning
and piety. What they have written goes
to the public not only in the form OF
books but in the more popular form OF
reviews and magazines, and many of our
secular newspapers now publish the ser
mons of the ablest divines of the world
and thus bring the choicest productions of
the pulpit within the reach of all classes
of readers. This imposes upon the
preacher the necessity of the most care
full PREPARATION, if he would escape the
damaging fleet of comparison between
his crude discourses and the matured
productions, whose merits entitle them to
the widest circulation the press can give
them.
1t may be said, it is hard and unrea-
sOnable that the overworked pastor, ex-
pected, as he is, to take part in ali the
benevolent and philanthropic enterprises
of the day; with an endless round OF
visits to receive and make; and often
with domestic cares to distract him..
that he should be expected to produce
discourses which will compare in interest
with the essay of the magazine writer
who has had as much time as he chose to
bestow on its composition, or with the
published sermon of the great divine
whose genius makes such efforts easy to
him. 1t IS hard, and no doubt unreason-
able to institute such comparisons, but
there is no help for it. The preacher
must accept the inevitable. Yet let him
not be discouraged. If he is truly good
and earnest man, always trying to do his
best, let him remember his compensa-
tons. He has advantages which the man
who addresses the public through the
press can never attain. He has in his
favor the sympathy Of an attached people
assured of his love-and loving him in
return-who recognize in all his utter
ances from the pulpit a responsiveness
which can come from no other lips, much
less from the pen of any writer. AS he
speaks face to face with his hearers-his
emotion glowing in his countenance and
expressing itself in the very tones of his
voice, he Yields magnetic power which
the cold and silent page can never awaken.
The preacher too has the additional ad-
vantage Of addressing his hearers on
day free from the bewilderment and pres
sure Of the business of the world and
that too amidst the hallowed associations
OF the sanctuary, giving to the truth
he utters new sweetness, pungency, and
power.
If we use the word pulpit to express
the divinely appointed fundamentally
by which the knowledge Of God and His
great salvation are to be kept alive among
men, then the pulpit can never lose its
power, simply because it is the divinely