The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-12-03
WHERE AL SMOKE IN cHURoH.
Japanese Priest and Congregation
Refresh Themselves During the Ser
mon.
From the New York Tribune.

From the New York Tribune
During the progress of the sermons that
I had the opportunity Of hearing in the
great Buddhist temples of Shibba and
Nikko, in Japan, both the preacher and
the congregation were repeatedly re
freshed with cups of tea, while every
body. men. women and children and
priest, smoked till the air was thick with
tobacco fumes. This, of course, tended
to keep the congregation in an amiable
frame of mind and as such more ready to
take TO heart the doctrines and recon-
mendauons Of the preacher. 1t is impOs-
slble to deny that tobacco is conducive to
calm reflection and good temper, and
although nowadays we lind members of
church congresses in Europe and Amer
lea arguing that it is wrong for ecclesias-
ties TO smoke, yet our clergy in the last
century were so thoroughly alive to the
advantage Of the herba niCOtina, from
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 York and
brlmate of England, Is on record as hav-
ing interrupted his sermon on the occa-
sion of his holding confirmation at st.
Mary S, Nottingham, to order the church
WardenS to bring up fresh pipes and a
supply Of tobacco to the pulpit Dean
Swift used to smoke throughout his en-
tire sermon, occasionally refreshing him
self with a glass Of port, while Bishop
Duncan, of Dundee, is described as being
so ayarlCiOus that he was wont to make a
practice Of coming TO church without his
tobacco pouch and then, after ascending
the pulpit. of inquiring who among the
congregation would be willing to accom-
mOdate him with theirs. 1t is from those
days, too, that date those delightful old
fashioned peWS i'll the English country
churches fitted up with curtains, cushions,
treplaCeS, pOkers and tOngs, where the
squires slept and smoked away the entire
length of the sermon.
Another glass; as the Rev DR. Bar
row remarked each time that he turned
upside down the hOurglass on his pulpit
during his three-hour sermon before the
lord mayor. Why should the pulpit be
retained as part and parcel of the furni-
ture of our churches A sermon is far
more impressive when delivered from a
pulpit which, no matter how beautiful,
the carvings by which it is adorned, can
never under any circumstances 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 be-
ing the tubs fastened upon tops of poles,
forming the sort of crows nest from
which the ulema of Mecca and Cairo were
wont to address the followers 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 ser
mons | have heard likewise dispensed
with puipits preaching from behind a
table holding the rolls the sacred books,
and seated in those high, back breaking
armChairs that adorn every Buddhist
temple. In conclusion let me, with all
reverence, indorse the opinion put forth
by King Francis J. 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.