Morning journal and courier., 1891-12-07
Copyright, lS9i-)


Abuse of Manuscript.
Copyright, 1S9I0
Preachers are somewhat like railroads,
newspapers, hospitals and graveyards,
common property. Especially in the
country, almost every family owns stock
in the minister. Old and young discuss
him and his ways with all the freedom
with which stockholders discuss the man
sgement of their railroad corporations, and
pass their judgment on his public services
and private life with the same liberty that
they would take with the administration
of a town official. In the city the clergy
man belongs to n class open to public crit
icism. He is treated as a Wall street bro
ker or political speculator is treated. He
belongs to the people. The merchant has
his privacy; the minister has none. The
LAWYERS house is his castle; the minister
lives in glass house. The press handles
his accidents as it handles the misdemean-
ors of board of aldermen. His manners
and methods are open before all the peo-
pie, and he stands on pedestal where he
becomes a very conspicuous target for
abuse or praise. That the critics are not
members of his congregation or support
ers of his church makes no difference
whatever. Heber Newton is mauled and
pounded by men who never saw him, and
who never darkened the doors of his
church, as Justify as by those who pay his
salary and help him to live No fact is
more conspicuous than that the preacher
is common property, often very uncom-
mon property. Entire strangers feel at
liberty to call upon him to recommend
them for places of trust, to advertise their
books or their medicines, to bury their
dead and perform all kinds of service for
which they expect him to have no renuue-
ration, and hardly thanks. His time, his
brain, his home and his heart are TO he at
the demand of those to whom he is under
no obligation.
All this being so, is it not surprising
that his methods of preaching should be
open to criticism, his pulpit style the
theme of debate, his mannerisms and lido
syncrasies legitimate topics of converse
ton at hundred firesides
Among the many criticisms on ministe-
rial methods and manners are those which
relate to the Use or the absence OF manu-
script in preaching, in other words, the
way in which the pulpit pellets are dis
charged. Some clsrgymen write out the
sermons fully and read them word for
word. Some write their sermons and
commit them to memory, and without pa
per deliver them verbatim. This is the
parrot style. Some have full notes and
intermingle extemporaneous remarks.
The written passages form the basis of
INN rasr eNraws-gsSagn The NJ
Beecher's style when he did his best things.
He wrote: he read. but often, taking
wings, scared away from his manuscript,
and left that and earth behind In New
England manuscript preaching has been
| common from the days of the Puritans
The old fathers OF the early times deemed
the manuscript the sine qua non in pulpit
| orstory. An unwritten sermon was
deemed an harsngue. The Old Bay state
pulpit rested on paper. Cotton Mather,
John Cotton, Jonathan Mayhew and the
men of that early period were slaves to
paper. Their successors, Charming, Gan
nett and FrothiGgham among Unitarians;
Daniel Sharp, Baron Stow and William
Hague among Baptists: Timothy Dwight,
| Hubbard WiuslOw and Edward Griffin
among COngrtGatiUnalists, were all sermon
readers. In the south and west the use of
paper in the pulpit is generally taboed.
The people who fill the pews and pay the
/ bills don't like it. The prejudice is very
4 strong and equally unreasonable About
| New York and in the middle states the
! custom varies. a good pulpit reader finds
| little complaint of written sermons, but
he must preach them and not simply read
| them. Some men who began with the use
of manuscript have cast it off as shac-
| kle Dr. Storrs, of Brooklyn, once read
/ his sermons closely. a few years ago,
while his church was undergoing repairs,
| he preached in the Academy of Music.
! There he gave up the manuscript and has
not since taken it up. There would be a
difference of opinion as to whether 1t is q
gain or loss. The Rev. Dr. Anderson,
| who was pastor of the First Baptist church
on Broome street, was an eloquent sermon
reader in Boston. In New York he gave
up the manuscript in obedience to custom
in that church, and some think with a los:
of power. DR.. Gregg, the successor oi
Dr. Cuyler, has always read his sermons
and reads them most effectively. He ID
now said to be trying the other method
Time will tell the story of gain or loss. Il
the matter should be put to vote in New
York congregations there would be curl
ous verdict which would be rendered OF
the habit of their respective pastors. A
the Broadway Tabernacle DIR. William NJ
Taylor reads his discourses. At the Fiftl
avenue Presbyterian church DIR. John Hal
never reads. The eloquent DIR. John Nc
Neill, of Regent square church, London
who has been preaching to large audience
in this country, never writes, much les
reads, and says as reason: "If / 81
down to write a sermon / get into liters
ry style, entirely foreign to the free speecl
1 want to use in the pulpit! So / neve
use scrap of paper in the pulpit" Tn
old Scotch preacher of renown, Thoma
Chalmers, always resd-one-hAlf of hi
life would have been lost If he had not
He might have had fame as a preacher
but the works we prize 30 much neve
would have been written. Dr. Franci
Wayland, the honored ex-president @
Brown university, was In his early days
while pastor In Boston, . sermon reader