The Wichita daily eagle., 1893-12-01
Ssf1eg sysL
UUiljti s;a1Ble
IN JAPANESE CHURCHES
Priest and Congregation Refresh
Themselves During Service.
Women and Children Drink Tea and
Men Smoke Until the Air Is Black
with the Fumes OF
Tobacco.

During the progress of the sermons
that | had the opportunity of hearing
in the great Buddhist temples of Shib-
ba and Nikl1o, in Japan, says writer
in the New York Tribune, both the
preacher and the congregation were
repeatedly refreshed with cups of tea,
while everybody, men, women and
children and priest, smoked till the air
was thick with tobacco fumes. This,
of course, tended to keep the congre-
cation in an amiable frame of mind
and as such moro ready to take to
heart the doctrines and recoC1menda-
tions of the preacher. It is impoSslbl bic
10 deny that tobacco is conducive to
calm reflection and good temper, and
although nowadays we find members of
church congresses in Europe and
America arguing that it is wrong for
ecclesiasticS to smoke, yet our clergy
in the last century were so thoroughly
alive to the advantage of the herba
nicotina, from a religious point Of,
view, that they used to smoke not only
out Of church, but even when in the
pulpit. Thus, LauncelOt Blackburn,
lord archbishop of New York and
primate of England, is on record as
having interrupted his sermon, on the
occasion of his holding confirmation
at ST Mary's, Nottingham, to order the
church wardens to bring up fresh
pipes and q supply of tobacco to the
pulpit. Dean Swift used to smoke
throughout his entire sermon, oc-
casionaily refreshing himself with a
glass of port, while Bishop Duncan, of
Dundee, is described as being SO ava
ricious that he was wont to make a
practice of coming to church without
his tobacco pouch, and then; after as
cending the pulpit, of inquiring who
among the congregation would be
willing to accommodate him with
theirs. II is from those days, too, that
date those delightful old-fashioned
pews in the English country churches,
fitted up with curtains, cushions, fire.
places, polzers and tongs, where the
squires slept and smoked away the en-
tire length Of the sermon.
Another glass" as Rev. DR.. Barrow
remarked each time that he turned up
side down the hour glass on his pulpit
during his three-hour sermon before
the lord mayor. Why should the pull
pit be retained as part and parcel of
the furniture of our churches? A ser
mon is far more impressive when de-
]ivered from pulpit which, no matter
now beautiful the. carvings by which
it is adorned, can never under any cir
cunlstances add to the impressiveness
of the discourse. Pulpits, indeed,
Should have no place in Christian
churches, as they are of Mohammedan
origin, the earliest examples recorded
being the tubs fastened upon tops of
poles, forming the sort of crows nest
from which the ulema of Mecca and of
Cairo were wont to address the follow
ers of the prophet that thronged the
mosques every Friday. Curiously
enough, they have now been abandoned
by the Mohammedans, except in a few
isolated cases, and are only to be found
in Christian churches. The Japanese
and Chinese priests whose sermons 1
have heard likewise dispensed with
pulpits, preaching from behind table
holding the rolls Of the sacred books,
and seated in those high, back-break-
ing arInchairs that adorn every Bud
dhist temple. In conclusion let me,
with all reverence, indorse the opinion
put forth by King Francis l. of France
IN his memorable dispute with King
Henry VIII. of England, on the field
Of the cloth of gold, with regard to the
relative merits OF the liturgy and the
Sermon King Henry preferred the
latter, while King Francis pronounced
himself in favor of the liturgy, basing
his argument on the undeniable fact
that the founder of our religion has
assured us that it is not sermons nor
ethical discourse that are most accept
able in the sight of the divinity, but
prayer.