Arizona weekly citizen., 1892-03-19
ABOUT PREACHERS AND
 PREACHING.

An article in the CoDgregationalist is so crammed with good points on preach ing and preachers, that we give it's sub stance here. It is by Rt. Rev. Thomas D. D. really lenient Congre-' gational preacher of Boston, we'll known to many readers of the CITIZEN:
 Whenever I have an opportunity which is seldom-ot hearing a sermon, IS always strikes me as being much above the average" and 1 go away with the idea that the rise in values of ser monic discourse has been even greater than in Bell telephone stock. My con- viction is that there never has been m the history of the church so much good preaching or so many good preachers. That is the reason why n4en have been educated into a still higher expectancy. It is the good preaching that has done it. The preaching has been so good that it has awakened the preachers and hearers both.
 Every congregation has ifs percent age of grumblers. The supply IS always equal to the demand. Also, the people outside the church, who never hear us preach, have periodical propensity to complain of our preaching. Is It far for ministers to complain of the preach ing of brethren whom they have never heard? Moreover, the general state ment that "the preaching of today IS not what 1t ought to be" sounds too much like one of the stock phrases caught from the lips of peTipatetlc ex- horters.
 But a preacher may be q mere exhor- ter. He may be man moving within very narrow circle of truth. He may be a man who simply memories other mems modes of utterance and other men's phrassology until you may be quite certain that he will say the same thing in the same form of words over and over again with DO individual crea- tiveness. Or he may be preacher and teacher. The two ideas ought always to go together.
 A settled pastor, teacher and preach CT. dealing with the same congregation ali the time, steadily raising them in in- telligence and religious culture, must must not adopt the style of the revival ist or his tenure of office will be short.
 Then be must study his particular congregation. Each congregation has its individuality. With some not spec ially cultured congregations he can preach in an easy, extemporaneous fash ion. With other congregations it Is fa- tai for any length of time. They will eventually take all you can give them providing you do not act the professor but be the teacher and preacher.
 These men were not mere exhorters, mere disclaimers. They were teachers and preachers. They filled people full of idea. They did not merely stir feel ing. They built up men and women in- to strength and beauty of character. The preacher who is not also a teacher, simply a declaimer and exhorter, can never renew the mind of hIs congrega- tion.
 My contention is that any just ground of complaint that may exist in regard to the preaching of our time has been created by the adoption by preachers themselves of methods not natural to them, by the adoption of revivalistic methods in regular congestions of stated worshipers, by movement within very narrow area of scripture truth, by the appeal to feeling to the neglect of the intellect, the conscience and the inn agitation.