The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1884-04-11
THE PULPIT OF TODAY.

The conditions of powerful pulpit to-day
are essentially the same as formerly: devo-
ton, sincerity, open indedness, translucency
of soul. The pulpit must contain consecrated
men, who live for the highest thought, the
noblest life, the purest sympathies; who are
out of the world, do not seek its prizes, do
not court its applause; who are not polemics
men who lay by their individuality, their
pride, their self-suf6ciency who are no hypo-
critics or pretenders; who do not strut, vapor,
put on airs of superiority, or practice affecta-
tons of any kind, but who stand fairly on
the border line where humanity blends with
divinity-men of glowing enthusiasm, of in
vincible hopefulness, of perfect good will,
friends and servants of mankind. Such are
not rare, and they are becoming less uncom-
mon with every generation. 1t will be gen.
orally allowed that the great need in all COM
munities and at all times is men of this
stamp. The culture of the moral nature is
still the chief concern. The prevalence of
knowledge renders compulsory finer inter-
probation of nature, history, experience. We
depend on the pulpit to supply this perennial
demand. We depend on the pulpit to fur
nish the conditions of its maintenance. The
habit of fault finding because it does not sat-
isfy them is an evidence of the expectation
that exists yet in the world of thinkers. That
people are disconnected, that they complain,
that they stay away from church, may be a
good sign. The pulpit should be based on
!
cupant of it should be held to high stand
ard 1t is our duty to insist that the Sunday
shall not be wasted given up to quacks, driv-
oilers, buffoons My quarrel with the COM
munity is that it is too acquiescent; criticises
too little; is too easily satisfied accepts
mediocrity of learning, talent, devotion;
abuses too mildly, ridicules too gently. The
people who say the hardest things are, unfor
tunately, people who do not begin with aspi-
ration. Religious men are the first to detect
imposture. The pulpit can be trusted to
purge itself from intruders. A distinguished
preacher once said, "When 1 wish to throw
stones at the church windows, 1 shall go out
side" 1t was we'll remarked, for to throw
stones is hostile and rather lawless pro-
ceeding. 1t is true, all the same that the
real improvement of the pulpit comes from
the inside, from the growth of serious opinion
among earnest men, who see what the age
and the soul require. The correspondence
between John Ruskin and certain clergymen
of the Church of England, published two Or
three years ago, throws much light on the
prevailing tendency toward more spiritual
understanding of the pulpit's Office, the short
preface by DIR. Matteson displaying admir-
ably the temper of the leading ecclesiastics
AS in the case of a battle the hard fighting is
done by the ordinary soldier, whose disci-
plined valor carries the day, so in this warfare
of religion the ordinary labor is performed by
obscure men, whose names are never spoken,
and whose consecrated lives attest their fdel-
ity to the highest interests of man. The
officers bear the brunt of the criticism, but
they do not fill the ranks.
The best and the worst has been said about
the pulpit, yet it is not probable that any
agency will ever take its place. Its very i'm
perfections-and in the nature of things it
cannot be all it aims to become-act as con-
slant spur to its improvement. Other minis
trations, honorable and capable as they may
be, do not propose to themselves the same
Objects of course cannot produce the same
results
1T is time that the dime novel nuisance was
abated The influence of such vile literature
on the minds of the rising generation is a
powerful one and leads only to evil. We hear
repeatedly of boys whose heads have been
turned by reading of the fanciful exploits of
some fictitious gang of border rufians, and