The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1886-10-16
THE PULPIT AND THE PEW.
BY REV. j. ]. AUSTIN.
waterloo, Iowa.l


Iowa Convention at Cedar Rapids:
L am expected to say something
about the Pulpit and the Pew-the re-
ciprocal influence each has upon the
other-the attraction and repulsion be-
tween them.
Such attraction and repulsion are
matters of frequent, if not common OBJ
servation. And they doubtless come
from three sources: 1. The differences
in the mental and moral constitutions of
men. 2. The different degrees Of men
tai and moral culture among men. 3.
The different aspects of the Gospel in
its application to men.
l do not propose, in the time allotted
me, to present a complete analysis of
this great theme; but simply to call
your attention to few of its salient
features, and then leave each one of
you to complete and apply the subject
for yourself.
Did you never think how many sides
religion presents to the people of this
nineteenth century ?-One is lover of
forms, another of beautiful sentiments,
third of spasmodic devotion, fourth
of moral principles, fifth Of doctrinal
faith, while the religion of the sixth is
based on fear. There may be many
minor developments, but these are the
principal ones. They are so many as
poets of perfect religious character,
each one carried to extreme, perhaps,
and made to override all the rest. And
being so variously blended and COM
pounded among the people at large, as
well as among the preachers, it be-
comes very difficult, if not quite i'm
possible, for any one preacher of the
Gospel to give perfect satisfaction to
all his hearers.
Take the lover Of forms, for exam
pie. 1t is very difficult for him to I'M
der5tand that religion is anything but
forms. If man reads his prayers at
stated intervals, he thinks him a
Christian. Whoever neglects these out
ward forms he puts down as entirely
devoid of the spirit of Christ. He is
apt to forget that Christ and the Apos-
ties had no church liturgy nor rituals.
And such man would be likely to be
censorious of the preacher who did not
take precisely his view of religion.
And is not such the position of some
of the churches of our time I? Does
not each claim to be the church, even at
the expense of unchurching all churches
beside 1t certainly seems to be so.
These churches are devoted to the for
NAL aspect of religion, rather than the
spiritual. They are not wholly wrong,
because forms are not altogether false.
They are quite indispensable in world
like this, because they signify some
thing. and that something cannot well
be signifed without them. But ex-
treme Journalism is very bad, because
it makes religion one-sided thing
giving the crust without the kernel
the chaff without the wheat-and be-
cause the fruit of religion is lost at the
expense of excessive foliage.
Take the lover of beautiful senti.
ments as another illustration. Such q
man has little patience with your plain
hard-handed, matter-of-fa Christian
He thinks religion ine-spun theory
sparkling with gems Of poetic beauty,
and exactly adapted to the cultured
mind. He often forgsts that the ''com
mon people heard him gladly" in the
times of the Saviour. And of course
If every sermon does not come up to
his ideal of beauty-if it does not gilt
ter, and sparkle, and blaze with bril-
liants-he says at once the preacher is
behind the times, he is not adapted to
his place, and his people; he is not
fiowery enough, brilliantenough fashy
and trashy and sensational enough, and
the man flutters and sputters and with
draws-or compels the preacher to do
so-thus giving his influence to unset
tie the ministry because his own vain
standard of Judgment is not adopted by
all. ssasa s 4gk
Aud is not such the position of the
sensational and sentimental churches
of the day ? Do they not pride them
selves upon scholastic lore and human
itarian philosophy 2 DO they not play
between Orthodoxy and Universalism,
now having the warmest fellowship for
one party and then for the other, and
by and by, ignoring every one else and
pretending to be the only liberal peo-
pie in the world /? Do they not neglect
the great doctrines of the Lord Jesus
the fatherhood of God, the brotherhood
of man, and the equal destiny of the
world-while they try to feed the soul
with the trash of rhetoric, and the wind
bags of beautiful expressions? Some
affirm that such is the fact. Aud every
one knows, or ought to know, that it
makes religion one-sided thing-not
the formal, but the sentimental side
very beautiful without, but hollow and
heartless within, and having about as
much substance for food as the sun col
ored soap bubbles of our childhood days.