Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-01-01
EMPTY CHURCHES.
Why Certain Ministers Fail to "Get att
Their Congregations.
[From the New York Tribune.l

Their Congregations.
from the New York Tribunel
The number of churches throughout
the country tlat are invariably full, not
to say crowded, on each recurring Sun
day is not large. We doubt if ii reaches
one-quarter Of one per cent. of the ag-
gregate. The majority of churches are
never more than wo-thirds full. A great
many are never more than a third full.
Not few are uniformity as "sparsely
settled" as very new country.
Various explanations have been sug-
gested to account for this state of things,
all of which are plausible. But it oc-
ours to us than one of these upon which
no unusual stress has ever been laid is
worthy of the serious consideration Of
the ministry. We mean the explana-
ton which refers Tie sinauaess of the
average attendance upon church-ser-
vices to the fa.ct "a la SCI, ons ere either
entirely read CT ;ir PREACHED from more
or less cop;ous note.s. The lawyer adj
dressing jury, q politician On the
stump, are not confined to notes; why
should ministers be? Is not the method
employed by lawyers and stump-speak-
ers better calculated to engage and hold
attention? Obviously so. It is hui
man instinct to believe that when man
is earnest, when the message he has to
Galiver comes from his heart as well as
from his head, he will find any but the
most casual and infrequent reference to
manuscript impossible, since he re-
allies that it can only be accomplished
by breaking the chain of attention that
connects the pulpit and the pew.
A well-knowD lawyer once said to a
friend: Wien was young in the pro-
fession I was assigned to the defence of
man who was indicted for murder.
When came to sum up, being profound
ly impressed with the Importance to my
client of what I had to submit to the
jury, I departed from custom and read a
carefully prepared speech. No sooner
had I done so than I regretted that I
had not thrown aside my notes. I found
that I could not get at the jury"
Scores of ministers are constantly com
planning that they cannot "get at" their
congregations. They are not ministers
who are independent of their manu-
scripts. Show us a minister who is
reckoned the most successful and we
will show you one who breaches with
out notes. There is much sense in the
eulogiurn passed upon a popular divine
by an old hunter. II like him." said
Nimrod, because he shoots without a
rest"
The preaching that is philosophic, re-
Elective, metaphysical, possibly without
serious disadvantage may be done from
the closely followed written page. So,
too, may that preaching be which is to
interest cultivated audience as a 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 instances, has its outcome in
loose and inconsecutive thought, but a
method which leaves the preacher as
free to come into personal, persuasive
relations with his hearers as if he were
a lawyer or a stump-speaker. We are
aware that some ministers say that they
cannot trust themselves to get up in
their pulpits without firm reliance on
their notes. The implication of course
is that they hold that they had better
preach with notes than not preach at
all. But it is question whether poor
preaching, preaching that does not take
hold, is not worse than no preaching.
No man would feel that he had call to
be jury-lawyer who found that he
could not "shoot without a rest" in
court. Why should a man with similar
limitations feel that he has a call to adj
dress for his fellows in relation to mat
tiers of the first Importance? A few
weeks ago minister III 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 a
mass of suggestive statistics and con-
Guided by an earnest appeal TO his hear
ers to join him in supplication TO the
throne of grace for revival The mat
ter Of the sermon was excellent. but the
manner? From first to last the speaker
was closely confined to his notes, and
the urgent appeal with which he con-
Guided was shorn of nearly all it's force
since it came from the lips of q man rot
leaning toward his hearers, but bending
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 a deep impress
sion. Apparently it prodtced none.
There was no magnetism in it,
4 poet of the forid school was once
criticized as having nothing to say hut
saying it magnifciently. The trouble
with so many ministers is that they
have much to say but they sav It with
distressing effect. If public serlti-
ment 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 sur
vival of the 6ttes5 And IN this field
above all others none bat the fittest
ought to survive
OWING to the low prices of tobacco n
Europe, the tobacco cultivation once 50
II