Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1893-06-29
tors ID onr great newspapers know Il.

and know it to the bottom. And If there
is failure in our cities to save people
we must take upon our own shoulders a
large share of the weight of this fearful
responsibility.
The present condition of the city can
not be stated and waved aside by laying
it upon other shoulders. We, the min
listers of God, are in some measure GER
tainly responsible for that fact. If the
power committed to the ministry had
teen used in teaching the Jews, such
would not be today the fact. In an
Gent times the prophets Of God were
the leaders Of the race. Their authority
was the authority of truth, and it was
supreme. The prophet spoke to kings
and princes with his power. The proph-
ct of the modern Gay has the same right
He has the same commission. He has
the same duty. The prophets of today
are men of tslent. They are magnif-
Gently endowed. They are the best
trained ministry the world has ever
seen. Why this pitiable weakness in
our centers of life? Alas, they have
killed the prophetsl There is no doubt
ing the fact. Some of them have been
choked to death by orthodox collars.
sTRANGLED TO DEATH.
Professionalism has failed in our great
cities often because it had ia it too much
Romanism without the power of Rome.
The brethren have been busy keeping
the faith. They have kept large pack
of hounds to chase heretics out of the
fields. They have spept their energy in
silencing men that do not follow after
their sect. For the last 90 years the
church has been busy manufacturing
preachers who wear the collar of certain
creeds. Some Of our seminaries have
advertised that their collars are warrant
ed TO. hold, and when the victims have
begun to grow, the collar being made of
immovable material, they are Of necessity
choked TO death. You can 90 by some
of these churches and hear them wheeze.
You can hear the death rattle in their
Threats. Their teacher told them that a
sermon is work of art, and they have
been making it a work of art so skill
fully that there is not point or a cor
ner anywhere about it. Itmakes not the
slightest impression upon the hard con-
science of men and women who hear it. |
When some of these poor fellows get |
tired of the collar and try to take it off,
there is sensation of the wrong sort. |
Some of these preachers in our cities |
have been murdered to death. They |
have been murdered TO death by conven-
tionality and traditionalism. In all the
pews IN these solemn mausoleums there
sit strangers whose hands are skillful in
the art of throttling the personalityof
the men who fill the pulpits. Men come
TO the city full of rural enthusiasts.
They are fools enough to believe in the
possibilities of saving men and women.
They get into one of these iceboxes and
preach for a few months, until the very
in their bones is chilled, and
hen they try to get the people in. They
grow restless. They make desperate
sffort, but the dear brethren sit down on
hem, and they are smothered to death.
There are fewer Methodists in New
York now than there were 20 years ago,
md yet stirring Methodist evangelist
has been packing great theater full of
people during the past few months, and
he dear old mossbacks are clamoring for
his head in charger. They say he is
disturbing the cosmic dust that has set
led on their churches. They say that
Re is drawing away their constituency,
md they are going to make a motion to
asst him out of the synagogue. A man
,assed by a church where there was
yreat excitement the other day. He
Isked if a revival was in progress. The
exton said no; they We're trying her
tic. We have life of certain sort. 1t
S expended in hunting out the heret!cs
nd crucifying them and letting the
world go to the devil.
THE THIRTEEN REASONS.
Some of these men are scared to DEATH
lot because they are weak and craven,
nut because they are human. They have
he 10 reasons for not doing many
hings they want to do-a wife and 10
hildren. They are anxious to please
he pews, and they initiate the great ,
reacher of the sixteenth century. A
elbow wrote to me some time ago to
him to church looking for I
preacher and begged Inc to write him
4 advance the day the committee would
ONE to hear him preach that he might !
e ON the lookout for strangers in the
ews. Many of our preachers are afraid
the power of criticism. 1t is hard to !
e cursed, to be lied about. to be misrep-
scented and slandered by the tradition I
forces that maintain things as they
re and by a BLACKBOARD press that is I
YER ready to take up any cry against a
linister Of Christ.
And, alas! some of these men are
-orked to death The work to be done
modern city church cannot be done
Y one man. Whatever our fathers may
ave done. the man VINO stands at the
cad of a church in modern city and
.tempts of himself to master its work
as undertaken the impossible. 1t can
Of be done. The onlt churches in the
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