Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-06-21
PASTORS PLEASURES.
A Glimpse of Scenes on the Sunny
Side of a Preachers Life.
SUMNER VACATIONS ANDSALARIES
Comparative Value of Extemporaneous and
Written Sermons.
GLEANINGs FROM CHURCH FIELDS

GLEANINGS FROM CHURCH FIELDS
A generation ago two very popular novels
entitled, "Shady Side" and ''Sunny Side, "
had q great run. The object of the books
was to show forth the bright side and the
dark side of the preachers life. The girls
and boys of that day, who are the grand
mothers and grandfathers of to-day, dropped
many tear over the sorrows of those who
ministered to souls, as they read the graphic
stories picturing the preacher'slot In SHADY
Side" One of the boys of that tar-away
time has, after long experience, come to the
conclusion that preachers fare on the average
as we'll as any other class, that their lines
fall, in the main, in pleasant places.
In evidence that preachers do not endure
greater hardships than are ordinarily al
lotted to mortals, may be adduced the fact
that they have, as q rule length of days.
The average longevity Of clergyman is not
surpassed, if equaled by the other profes-
sions. 1t is not our impression, after long
experience that the lot of ministers is pecul-
passion. To be sure they have their drudgery,
their hard work as all professions have. What
class escapes special trialsf "Shadow and
shine is life, q over and thorn" The minister
does not find plain sailing. STORMS arise and
ocean rolls" If he be faithful and true he
will assuredly encounter breakers. Opposition
will come on account Of his fidelity, and all the
more certain on account Of the lack of fidelity.
Preachers often suffer more for right doing
than wrong doing. The greatest of all preach
ers said in message to me OF the cnurcnes ne
had planted: spray for us that we may be de-
livered from unreasonable men," The unreason
of men and women in the churches has proved
one of the great sources Of trial to ministers.
But after all there is a sunny side to the min.
isterial profession.
AMERICANS MOST FORTUNATE.
Thanks to the influence of the Scotch-Irish
stock who laid the foundations here Western
PENNSYLVANIA is the American paradise of
preachers. The pioneers of the Monongahela
Valley were educated in the fatherland to a
profound respect for the Lords annointed.
Their works do follow them. The writer, after
long experience and wide observation, is assured
that nowhere in the United States does the
minister fare rs well as in the region of which
Pittsburg is the center. There are in this city
and Allegheny almost $50 churches. nearly one
half of which are Presbyterian. The overseers
of these hocks are held in higher esteem than
preachers are held in any other city on the
continent. The proportion of fSabbath-keeping
and church-going people is larger in this city
than any other in the world outside Of Scot.
land. Better salaries are paid here to preach
ers, as rule. than in any other American city.
The few exceptions in New York and Boston,
where large salaries are paid to men of ex'
traordinary gifts prove the rule. There are
half dozen or more churches in Pittsburg which
pay salaries of S. 900 to So 000 with perquisites
making the position worth 81 900 or 81. 600 more.
All the prominent churches, in addition to
this, grant their ministers month or two of
a vacation which very few in other occupations
are able to obtain. Some newspaper men envy
the preachers in their opportunities for sum-
mer outing. The question Of eXtemporaneous
or written sermons is thus discussed in a recent
editorial in the Chtstidn Union: ministers
discuss long and elaborately the question
whether the extemporized or the written SER
mon is best To laymen this question does not
seem very important. have asked not a few
laymen. Does your minister read, or preach
extemporaneously,' If the minister is q sue
cessful preacher the general answer is, We'll,
don't know; rather think he has some notes
in the pulpit, but he never seems to be much
confined TO them,'"
THE SUCCESSFUL SERMON
is addressed to present congregation; it is q
medium for contact between the heart and
mind of the preacher and the heart and mind of
his auditors. If this contact is effected, and
there is electricity in the preachers soul. the
the written or the extemporaneous discourse
may either Of them prove to be good conduct
or What is essential is that the sermon should
be neither q mere essay nor mere exhortation.
If the minister ALWAYS writes, there is danger
that his sermon will become a mere essay; that
the preacher will have no object, and therefore
the sermon no fire; that his interest will be the
interest of scholar in his theme, or an artifcer
in his art not that of an apostle in the souls OF
men. If he always eXtemporiZes the danger
will be that his discourse will degenerate into .
mere exhortation; that il will be at first feeling
without thought, and eventually froth without
feeling. The essay is crate full OF Goals un-
lighted; the exhortation hearth full of lighted
shavings-a great blaze. but no warmth.
The higher the culture of the congregation
the more necessity that both their reason
should be informed and their emotions enkin-
died. He who always writes not only becomes
slave to his pen but is liable to lose that vital
contact with his congregation which comes
FROM or at least is best developed by, direct ad-
must be man of either rare genius or rare
mental discipline to avoid becoming rhetorical,
morbldly emotional and wearisomely repeti-
tious; he must be careful or his congregation
will apply to his sermons the criticism of the
newsboy on a white neckclothed discourse in .
Five Points mission: HE talked, and he talked,
and he talked, and he didn't say nothing"
RELIGION AND MORALITY.
From a discourse recently delivered by Rev
DR.. R. s. storrs, in the Church of the Pilgrims,
Brooklyn. on "Our Nations Work for the
Colored People," the following extract 10
taken: "And then an utter divorce not un-
frequently appears, and this is the most fearful
and almost fatal thing of all, between religion
and morality among them; SO that the same
man may be fervent exhorter In the pulpit,
and an adulterer or even murderer outside of
it-an instance of which was brought to my
attention through a friend at the South very
lately where a man had been a fervent
preacher, admired for his eloquence, and had
turned out afterward to have been at the same
time a brutal murderer, and was ere long con-
victed Of the horrible crime. Nevertheless he
had appeared to others, perhaps TO himself, to
be sincere in his fervent exhortations. This
whole strange conception of things wasisummed
up in the word of one man. preaching to q
colored congregation, himself colored man:
L have to confess, my dear brethren, that
have broken every commandment Of God, but
bless the Lord that have never yet lost my
religion? There is an absolute antithesis in
their mind between religion, on the one hand,
and morality on the other. Morality is a
matter of human law. Morality is mat
ter for the judges to investigate. and according
to artificial human rules to blame for OF to re-
ward for. But religion is with them matter
of excitement of the senses, Of nervous rap
tures of fancied visions of voices in the air, of
convulsive paroxysmal agitations of spirit"
STORIES BY MINISTER'S.
The late DR.. Bushnell used TO tell the follow.
ing anecdote to show the influence of climate
upon the judgment. As they were coming out
of church one drizzly Sunday, his wife re-
marked: "You would better burn that sermon;
il isn't worth repeating anywhere"