The Progress., 1893-06-24


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 10y laying
it upon other shoulders. We. the min
listers of God. are in some measure Ger
tainly r, sponsible for that fact. If the
power committed 10 the ministry had
been used in teaching the pews, such
would not he today the fact. In an
cicnt times the prophets Of God were
the leaders of the race. Their authority
was the authority of truth. and it WIS
supreme. The prophet spoke to kings
and princes with his power. The proph-
ct of tho modern day has the same right.
He has the same commission. He has
the same duty. The prophets of today
are men of talent They are magnifi-
Gently endowed. They are the best
trained ministry the world has ever
seen. Why this pitiablc weakness in
our centcrs of life? Alas, they hare
killed the prophets! There is no doubt
ing the fact. Some of them have been
choked to dc;rth by orthodox collars.
STEANGLED To DEATH.
Professionalism mas failed in our great
cities often because it had in 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 ont of the
fields. They have spent their energy in
7 silcnCing men that do not follow after
their sect For the last % 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
chokcd to death. You can go by some
of these churches and hear them wheeZe.
You can hear the death rattle in their
throats. Their teacher told them that Il
sermon is "A work of art. and they have
been making it work of art so skill
fully that there is not point or Il cor
ner anywhere about it, II makes 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 Il sensation of the wrong sort
Some of these preachers i'll 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 entEusiasins.
They are fools enough to believe in the
possibilities of saving men and women.
They get into one of these iceboXes and
preach for II few months, until the very
marrow in their bones is chilled, and
then they try To get the people in. They
grow restless. They make Il desperate
effort, but the dear brethren sit down on
them. and they are smothered to death.
There are fewer Nethodists in New
York now than there were 20 years ago.
and yet a stirring Methodist evangelist
has been packing great theater full of
people during the past few months. and
the dear old mOssbacks are clamoring for
his head in charger. They say he is
disturbing the cuslnic dust that has sci
tied on their churches. They say that
he is drawing away their constituency,
and they are going to make a motion TO
cast him out of the synagogue. A man
passed by church where there was
great excitement the other day. He
asked if revival was in progress. The
sexton said no; they were trying her
etic. We have life of certain sort. 1t
is expended in hunting out the heret;cs
and crucifyinS them and letting tho
world go to the devil
THE THIRTEEN REASONS.
Some of these men are scared to death.
not because they are weak and craven,
but because they are human. They havo
the 13 reasons for not doing many
things they want to do-a wife and 13
children. They are anxious to please
the pews. and they initiate the great
preacher of the sixteenth century. A
fellow wrote to me some time ago to
recommend him to "A church looking for
n preacher and begged me to write him
in advance the day the committee would
come to hear him preach that he might
be on the lookout for strangers in tho
pews Many of our preachers are afraid
of the power of criticism. 1t is hard to
be cursed, to be lied about, to be misrep-
resented and slandered by the tradition
al forces that maintain things as they
are and by blackguard press that is
ever ready to take up any cry against a
minister of Christ.
And, alas! some of these men are
worked to death. The work to be done
in modern city church cannot be done
by one man. Whatever our fathers may
have done, the man who stands at tho
head of church in u modern city and
attempts of himself to master its work
has undertaken the impossible. 1t can
| not be done. The only churches in the
city of New York-tAe Episcopal and the
Roman Catholic-that have made any
progress have been the churches in