The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1886-11-06

pulpit would acquire new life and de- |
velop all its latent power over the |
minds of men. do not mean that |
the preacher shall get his themes
by lounging or mixing in the endless
venomous gossip that is current on the
streets, but simply that some phase of
human life with which he has had ex-
perience, however limited it may be,
and toward which he can extend some
sympathetic counsel in the application
of spiritual truth, that this shall be his
theme, and that over this he shall
have studied and prayed. Texts, and
passages of Scripture, and biblical his
tory and teaching may come in, in
every variety of way, for illustration
and enforcement, and the preacher will
never forget that out of this sacred
magazine, the word of God, his spirit
ual truths are constantly to be drawn;
but his theme should be some concrete
problem of actual life with which all
minds are more or less exercised, and to
which they long to have counsels of
eternity applied. Let it be some event
occurring under the eyes of the preach
er, or, if reported, taking hold Of lines
of sympathy in him such as will ena-
BILE him to analyze and treat it under
the degree of spiritual enlightenment
he may possess. Let it be an expert
ence, q temptation, a joy, struggle, an
evil, benefcence, circumstance ly-
ing round the doors Of the preachers
own abode, and the abodes of his hear
ers-in short, living, palpitating frag-
ment of human life, that he will ex-
hibit to bis people On the day of his
public ministration of the eternal
world, and l think I can assure him the
unabated interest of his auditory from
beginning to end and that the painful
experience, now so common, of morti-
fed preacher on the one hand and dis
appointed aud chagrined audience on
the other, will at least cease to be the
general rule.
My brothers, we are living in a day
when all the churches are laboring un-
der sense of spiritual paralysis, and
are lay ing the blame, as in fairness they
must, on the pulpit which is their ex-
ecutive arm. When they say that the
churches are not reaching the masses,
they mean, that the preaching is not
such as to commend itself in adaptation
to the masses, and that the masses
coming to it for spiritual light and
comfort, find nothing there, and so do
not return. This disability of the pull
pit is everywhere painfully felt, and
innovations of all kinds are striking in
from all fanatical quarters, as il in
mere novelty alone a speedy remedy
were to be found.
The Salvation army has turned
preaching into braying Of trumpets,
and the whole system of religious wor-
ship into the raving orgies of noisy pro-
professions on the streets.
The army of evangelsts, in the use of
more moderate but none the less hys-
terical methods, go out in organized
bands and undertake through trained
musical entertainments and concen.
trated efforts to kindle enthusiasm in
the people for the absolute calyinistic
and chiliastic doctrine of the old theol-
gies, land the effect of their methods is
ephemeral, and, in the end, disastrous.
On the other hand, among liberal
ranks there is a disposition in some
quarters to abandon preaching altogeth-
er, in any traditional sense of that
term, and make up for the loss by NOR
al and scientific lectures on the Sabbath
day.
Our conception Of spiritual matters
and the imperishable claim of religion,
and distinctively of the Christian re-
Iigion, on the hearts of men, render it
impossible for us ever to go with these.
To us the problem is simply how in a
line of effort in which the lofty aim is
to apply spiritual truths as we have
them revealed and illustrated in the re-
ligion, of Jesus to the secular affairs of
men, how this work can be efficiently
and successfully done. And since the
right arm of this great enterprise is the
pulpit, and the disability is confessedly
there, 1, as layman, from layman's
point of view, have put forth these
suggestions as modest contribution
toward some rational and feasible
method of pulpit reform, that will
bring that mighty agency near to the
wants and woes of humanity; which it
was sent into the world to relieve.
THE PROPHET AND THE PREACHER