Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-01-31
Notes IN the Pulpit.
New York Trihune I

FAMILY per1SneQ mlSeraDly IN the names.
Notes IN the Pulpit.
New York Tribune
The number of churches throughout the
country that are invariably full, not to say
crowded, on each recurring Sunday is not
large. We doubt if it reaches one-quarter
of l per cent of the aggregate. The ma
jority of churches are never more than
two-thirds full. A great many are never
more than third full. Not a few are uni
formly as ''sparsely settled lis very new
country.
Various explana tions have been suggest
ed to account for this state OF things, all
of which are plausible. Bat it occurs to
US that one of these upon which no unusual
stress has ever been laid is worthy of the
serious consideration of the ministry. We
mean the explanation which refers the
smallness of the average attendance upon
church services to the fact that sermons
are either entirely read or are preached
from more or less copious notes.
The lawyer addressing a jury,
politician on the stump, are not con-
fined to notes; why should ministers be?
Is not the method employed by lawyers and
stump speakers better calculated to en-
gage and hold attention? Obviously so. 1t
is human instinct to believe that when a
man is in earnest, when the message he has
to deliver comes from his heart as we'll as
from his head he will find any but the most
casual and infrequent reference to a man
uscript impossible, since he realizes that
it can only be accomplished by breaking
the chain of attention that connects the
pulpit with the pew.
A well-known lawyer once said to a
friend: "When l was young in the profess
sion was assigned to the defense of man
who had been indicted for murder. When
came to sum up, being profoundly i'm
pressed with the importance to my client
of what had to submit to the jury, de-
parted from custom and read carefully
prepared speech. No sooner had done so
than regretted that had not thrown aside
my notes. 1 found that I could not get
at the jury" Scores of ministers
are constantly complaining that they
cannot ''get att their congregations.
They are not ministers who are independ
ent of their manuscripts. Show US min
lister who is reckoned tae most successful,
and we will show you one VINO breaches
without notes. There is much sense in the
eulogium passed upon a popular divine by
an old hunter. Il like him." said NiInrod,
''because he shoots without rest"
The preaching that is philosophic. re-
Elective, metaphysical, possibly without Sc
rious disadvantage, may be done from the
closely followed written page. So,
too, may that preaching be which is to
interest a cultivated audience as
fine lecture would. But the preaching
which is calculated to arouse and quicken
must follow not that method nor yet the
extemporaneous method, which, except in
rare ms 5ances, has its gu tcome in loose
and inconsecutive thought, but method
which leaves the preacher as free to come
into personal, persuasive relations with his
hearers as if he were lawyer or stump
speaker. We are aware that some minis
tiers say that they cannot trust themselves
to get up in their pulpits without
firm reliance upon their notes.
The implication of course is that they
hold that they had better preach with
notes than not preach at all. But il is a
question whether poor preaching, preach
ing that does not take hold, is not worse
than no preaching. No man would feel
that he had a call to De a. jury lawyer who
found that he could not "shoot without
rest III court. Why should man with
similar limitations feel that he has call
to address his fellows in relation to mat
mers of the first importance? A few weeks
ago minister i'll neighboring city who
breaches to more empty than occupied
pews took for the subject of his discourse
the decline of religion. He proved the
decline by reference to mass of suggest
i've statistics and concluded by al urgent
appeal to his hearers to join him in sup
plications to the throne of grace for re-
vivaI. The matter of the sermon was ex-
cellent, but the manner! From first to
last the speaker was closely confined to his
notes, and the urgent appeal with which
he concluded was shorn of nearly all its
force since it came from the lips of man
not leaning toward his hearers, but bend
ing over his desk; not looking into the |
eyes of those whom he desired to touch, |
but upon the printed page. The sermon |
ought to have produced adeep impression. |
Apparently it produced none. There was
no magnetism in it.
poet of the ford school was once |
criticised as having nothing to say but say |
ing it magnifcently. The trouble with 80 |
many ministers is that they have much to |
say but they say it with distressing effect |
If public sentiment could be organized |
intolerant of the reliance of ministers /
upon notes, the effect would doubtless be /
to exclude some very worthy men from
the pulpit But it would certainly lead to
the survival of the fttest. And in this
field above all others none but the fttest /
ought to survive.
Dangerous department in Ne,c Fork
Af<Ff0
A huromous affair took place few days
ago in a neighboring village, says the
Troy Press. A young man and woman in