Connecticut western news., 1893-06-22

Ol OilC 6CASdllOn 6uLCGCQ1uk dAObu6I. And yet churches built in his name in this day believe that they are disgraced if they have sensation of any sort in the pulpit or in the pews. They are cold and stiff and numb and formal. This is the hand of death. The dead are stiff and dignified. In proportion as men die they grow stiff Speed, force, are pos tulates of life. Many of our churches are magnificent mausoleums in which the dead move with silent tread, sit in solemn silence in solemn pews. They need life. They need sensation to do them good; to have any sort of a sensa- tion for change. Some of them never get it except an accident happens.
 I saw the other day how that parson in certain town long ago had a habit of putting off till tomorrow what ought to have been done today. Having some thing to do with a bottle of aqua fortis, which he should have used on Saturday, but which he put off till Sunday, he went into the pulpit with this bottle in his pocket. In the midst of his sermon, while his hands were uplifted and he was about to close fine sentence, he leaned heavily against the pulpit, and smash went the bottle. With hands up- lifted, still with his unfinished sermon, he rushed down the pulpit stairs, through the center aisle, out of the church, and all the congregation followed him. Had the good man gone crazy? On he rushed till he came to pond short distance from the church, into which he plunged, while the congregation stood in amaze ment, wondering if their pastor was about to commit suicide. He explained the action of the aqua fertis and in a short time secured some dry clothes and returned to the pulpit and finished his sermon.
 Ithink myself 8 little of the aqua fortis would be good for some of the brethren, and it would be wholesome perhaps in some of the pews. We need the old negro's prayer to be fulfilled here in New York. He prayed for the northern brother who came down to preach for him. He said: 'Lord bless dis yer white man dat's come down from de north to preach for US. Fill him with de flame of de spirit, annint him wid de kerosene ile of salva- tion and set him afire."
 FIGHT IN THE CHURCH.
 Fifth-They show that they are dead in the fact that they have no ear to hear, no heart to pity, no arm to save the struggling, suffering thousands that surge about their doors There is a ceaseless cry about the city that goes to the heart of one that knows it's distress. It is like the low moaning of the wind before the storm, and he whose ear is tuned to its weird music can hear it in the monday rush above the din and roar; can hear it in the silence of the night above the city's groan, for 1t never sleeps. And yet there are hundreds of churches that hear this cry and hear it unmoved. They are complacent in their ease. They have gotten in the old tra- 1itional jog trot and think it is all right. They jog smoothly along and never hear it thunder, and if anybody suggests that it thundered they are shocked, because they have been disturbed. They are welded to the mechanics of tradition Il progress that is no progress at all that is simply the refuse of small minds and weak personalities.
 Many of these churches have been cor rupted by the forces of our corrupt civ ilization. Fashion and pride and wealth have made their inroads and erected their standards around the very altar of the Most High God. A pastor was re- cently driven out of one of our great churches because of an old fight in the church. Four years ago minority of |. ,f &I,o @oI @< force him out, and on what grounds do you suppose they brought their action? First, he was not an orator; second, that he paid too much attention to the poor. Amazing fact! And yet Jesus said when Johns disciples came to ask if he be the Messiah, "Tell John the poor have the gospel preached unto them. ]" The whole truth is that these churches nave pushed back the people and neg lected them for their own clique and their own coterie until the spirit of God has in grief departed. They have lost the capacity to convey the spirit to other hearts.
 Sixth-Many of our churches are dead, md we know it, because they have dead preachers. We exclaim today, with the sacred seer, Lord, they have killed thy prophetsp The power of the pulpit is the power unto life when properly ap- piled. There is no power today in this nation equal to the power of the Chris han pulpit when it is used for all it is worth. Men may say that they despise it, that it is the parson who is prattling, but when the pulpit is united upon a great theme it's influence upon any com munity in America is simply resistless. Men of the world know this. The edi- tors of our great newspapers know it, 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. isters of God, are in some measure cer. tainly responsible for that fact. If the power committed to the ministry had been used in teaching the pews, sucl
 would not be today the fact. In an
 cient 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 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 magnif
 gently endowed. They are the best
 trained ministry the world has ever
 seen. Why this pitiable weakness il
 our centers of life? Alas, they have
 killed the prophetsl There is no doubt ing the fact. Some of them have beer choked to death by orthodox collars. STRANGLED TO DEATH.
 Protestantism has 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 pacl of hounds to chase heretics out of tht fields. They have spent their energy 1T silencing men that do not follow after 1a% E<,. Toe L.