The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1893-06-22

fields. 1ncy nave BpenJ JnClf energy III
silencing men that do not follow afte-
their sect. For the last 20 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 go by some |
of these churches and hear them wheeze. |
You can hear the death rattle in their |
throats. Their teacher told them that a |
sermon is a work of art, and they have |
been making it a work of art so skill |
fully that there is not point or q 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 o 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.I
.
| the art of throttliEg the personalityof
the men who fill the pulpits. Men come
to the city full of rural enthusiasms.
! They are fools enough to believe i'll the
! possibilities of saving men and women.
| They get into one Of these icGboxes and
| preach for 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 desperate
| effort, but the dear brethren sit down on
them, and they are smothered to death.
There are fewer Methodists in New
York now than there were 90 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 clanoring for
his head in charger They say he is
disturbing the cosmic dust that has set
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 q revival was IN progress. The
sexton said no; they were trying her
etic. We have life of certain sort. It
is expended in hunting out the heretics
and cruCifying them and letting the
| 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 have
the 10 reasons for not doing many
things they want to do-a wife and IL
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 q church looking for
q preacher and begged NE 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 the
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 q
, | 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
3 by one man. Whatever our fathers may
; have done, the man who stands at the
head of church in d modern city anG
attempts Of himself to master its worh
has undertaken the impossible, 1t can
. not be done. The only churches in the
: city of New York--the Episcopaland the
= | Roman Catholic--that have made any
, progress have been. the churches il
which the number of workers in giveI
parish have been adequate to the worl
to be accomplished. There are churches
in this city that require 10 men in thu
=. capacity of associates and assistants, il
!. which solitary little Protestant preach
, er stands up and hammers away unit
I they carry him off to the cemetery anC
. bury his little wornout body, for els
they take him to the insane asylum or t
+. some sanitarium, where he has the lux
= ury OF an inralid's life and poverty anC
E suffering for his portion.
IL THE BROADWAY CABLE.
- 1t is time for our churches to wake t,
. the sfact Of their failure and to adap
themselves to the changed conditions G
a modern city life. We do not need an,
9 more ecclesiastical tombs buildings
!, The people do not want them. They will
y not go into them after they are built
" They are useless baggage. We nee'
q buildings adapted to catch men. w
need sacred secular buildings. We nee,
a gospel cars to preach to railroad men be
4 meath the sheds. We need to lay on
= hands on the WAYS of travel. We nee,
" TO preach through the press ana TO con
vert the modern press to Jesus Christ
to preach to the press and through thu
!, press. The time has come for us to b(
u all things to all men, if by all means W.
may save some, and not be afraid o.
: making q sensation; to be wise as ser
> pents, to make friends Of the mammor
, of nrighteousness-tha is, to use com
> mon sense, to be alive, to do the worl
1 of the Master i'll living ways.
Whenever the church determines K
do its work it will be done. The power
: is at hand, if we will but utilize it.
is not q question of the loss of power; i
is the refusal of the Christian to use thC
power. A little child exploded the min,
/ under Hell Gate and cleared the channe
. of rocks that had defied navigation fol
] centuries. The little child simply pressed
! l the button that connected tho electric
! current with the hidden battery. TIL,
Christian has simply to touch the elec
: trio current Of the Spirit Of the Mos
Il Isa.I, ka l..