Morning journal and courier., 1892-06-30

one of the most eminent seniors of the
congregational pulpit in New York took
for his subject Herod's excuses for killing
John the Baptist in sequel to his Giving
with another woman" The matter of his
living with another woman" was put in
the foreground of the discourse, and on
| reaching the subject of the wretched ex-
cuses of Herod for killing John to please
| this "other woman" the laundering vieor
or the preacher was directed to the unsa-
| worry facts of the Herod story, at q safe
distance from the actual facts of Yale life
| to-day.
These are only extreme examples of q
method due to tradition, and seen at its
best in President Dwight's sermon of last
Sunday. Three things stood between that
sermon and the interest of the great body
of student hearers. First, 1t was based
on Paul and the Philippians, and on the
particular turn taken by Psul's words. 1t
was held back to history and to exposition,
and was largely expository and historical
Second. it dealt in gsneralizations, too
wide and commonplace to excite interest,
and without the specific applications and
the illustrations needed to arouse attention
and leave an impression in minds not al
ready religiously susceptible. And. third,
1t was read from a manuscript, and had
none of the grip upon attention which di-
rect speech has.
The pulpit wanted at Yale must take its
start, not from Paul or Jacob, or Herod,
but from facts of human and student life
now; and not from the terms of a biblical
text or the incidents of a Hebrew story
except as they may be made to open st
once into present day human and college
experience. There are things enough of
near and intense human and student in
terest to talk about, and needing to be
talked about, to the very great interest and
the very great advantage of the body of
students. The use of text and tenet may
remain, to give a point of departure, but
not to interfere with coming at once TO
facts and questions close at hand.
The specific lines of pulpit work to-day,
as to illustrations and applications, and
many times as to themes, ought to be those
of literature, of history and biography,
and of science, where these are most in
teresting and instructive. From even a
typical best sermon on the old lines no
student would learn anything of the great
matters of modern knowledge, on which
he ought to learn something every time he
is asked to listen. 1t would be an incal-
culable gain If the lives of notable men,
theevents of history on which the course
of the world has turned, the great steps of
literature, of science, of invention and
e~AAN'SNhtt aAo Aut tIhuu VI
ture, were taken for themes, or for Illus
trations, in preference to the biblical
characters and stories, and the theological
texts and tenets commonly dwelt upon.
Let but a master arise, alive to the scrip
ture which all nature and all humanity
continuously unroll, and not only would
he need no aid of compulsory attendance
to secure q crowded student audience, but
he would leave a moral and religious i'm
preston intellectually beyond anything
now produced. The comprehensive NOR
al disaster of the present state of things
is the total want of appeal to the inter
est of the non-pieiist mass of students,
and the utter failure of the college pull
pit to interpose a word of power against
the vogue which drinking habits are get
ting, and the evils which attach TO sth-
leticism running unchecked, and to 9th
er forms of sport, such as that to which
Rustin was a sacrifice.
1t is one of the worst failures of Yale
that next to nothing Is known, In its
pulpit or on its platforms, of effective
spoken utterance, and that manuscript
discourses read to students compelled to
sit and listen are supposed to be worth
| while. Until men arise who have some
thing of fresh instant interest to say,
| and able to get on their feet and say IL
effectively, the decline of religion at Yale
/ Is likely to go on, SO far as relates to the
| great body of students. If indeed athlet-
les have not already taken it's place.
PM BETA