New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-09-09
MnnERY PREACHLNG.

few days ago "A number of eminent clergy
men met together in Saratoga, to discuss the
best mode of preaching the Gospel Such dis
cussiOns are common at gatherings OF the
Clergy that we have ceased to see anything III
congruous in them. And yet the incongrulty ex-
lists Christianity has been on the earth Tor
almost nineteen centuries; why should the best
method 0e prOmul eating it he "a subject oil DIS
cussiou nowY Moreover, the excellent clergy
men who debated that question are mos:
Of them graduates of theological semina-
res where the best aud most approved methods
Of preaching are presumably taught. Why. then,
should they meet at Saratoga to learn these
methods, unless. indeed the old conceptions of
Christianity, together with the old methods of
preaching it, are dying ont
The frequency with which tho various ques-
tons relating to preaching are discussed now
laws by the clergy indicates clearly fact
which the Church ia loath to acknowledge.
Whether rightly or wrongly, it has failed to
keep up with the march of the world. To
certain extent, therefore, tho C,nrch and the
world are looking ut different problems, and
striving for different objects. Ii is the boast of
the Church that it is ever the same; 1t is the
glory of the world that it is never the some, but
that it is moving On to higher aspects Of duty
and nobler conceptions of truth. Formerly the
Church and the world were almost identical;
but they are no longer. And Sd the Clergy
often feel that they are speaking to the air, and
that n chasm has opened between the.pulpit and
the ppws which the most iacile pulpit elOquence
il powerless to bridge over.
But this state of affairs need not exist, and
in fact ought not to exist. The Church may
hold firmly to the ideas which it believes to
bc essential to salvation, and which have been
handed down from venerable past, and yet
adapt itself, in it's practical work, to the
changed conditions of modern life. wise
development is just as necessary to its we'll
being, and even its existence, as wise con-
seryatism. Aud il, as it claims, 1t has
message for the living men and women of TO-
day, il must in some way come to them with
that message; for they may never come to 1t.
Besides the old truths which 1t Is set to guard,
there are new and deep problems of life de-
manding solution and upon the right solution
OF which depends the welfare of myrlads OF
human beings. Who better than the Church
can help men to the right solution7
IL is therefore absolutely necessary that the
clergy should be men of the world in the best
sense oil tnaJ muci-hDuS'u lHty
should know a great deal not only of the
peopie of rhe frs but OF the people of the
Nineteenth century. They should De acquainted
MOI only with the learned speculations of the
schooImen. but also with the unlearned specu-
ations of the supplemented folk in their
marshes. Thus the Church, though IN Il differ
ent way, may again become the power winch
II was m the so-called ages OF faith, and
represent not only The splendid achievements
of vanished past, but the more splendid
uiumphs of living present
And in addressing themselves to the needs
of the age, the clergy will be dong only what
has been done before by the Church over and
over again. What is now accepted because OF
the stamp OF antiquity, we must remember, was
once looked on with suspicion because 1t was
new; and what is now 80 crude AMI new, or
even radical, will one day have the sanction of
a venerable antiquity. Christianity itself was
at the beginning "A new thing, and 1t con-
quered its place in the history OF mankind,
not because 1t appealed TO the past, but be-
cause It had message for the throbbing life
of its age. That message may DO made as
vital to-day, if modern preaching wall concern
itself with tue needs and ionginSs oil modern
men.
Will the coming woman carry her pocket-book In
..h.,, cha yoea ahnnnnaf The frequent