The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-02-08
PREACHER AND HIS PLACE.
Able Discourse by Dr. David Greer in
 Marqnand Chapel.

The second in the Lyman Beecher
 course of lectures was delivered yester-
 day afternoon in Marquand chapel by
 Rev. David H. Greer of New York. The
 subject of these lectures is ''The Preach
 CT and His Place" Dr. Greer spoke
 substantially as follows;
 What should be the message of the
 Christian pulpit? and how should
 the preacher preach it? These
 seem at first superficial questions,
 but there is only one answer to
 them. The gospel of Jesus Christ should
 be the message. Whether the people
 want to hear 1t or not it should be the
 message just the same. But suppose
 he can preach 1t in a way that they
 will want to hear it, should he preach 1t
 SO? Perhaps yes; perhaps no. The
 greatest of preaching is not primarily
 to make people go to church. The good
 of going depends on what they are go-
 ing to hear when they get there. If
 sensationalsm is the attraction then
 we had better not go. But there is some
 preaching that is good whether learned
 or not; whether we agree with what the
 preacher has to say or not.
 It is because the preacher had
 message, a message of his own for us,
 that it found an echoing response in
 us. It may have been familiar truth,
 but it had in 1t something new; 1t had the preacher in it. He had wrought it out or fought it out; he had 1t Tor himself. He was telling what he had by his own living, thought and ex- perience made his very own. He had wrought 1t out by the travail of his soul, and we saw it and felt it and were satisfied with it because it was living thing. When Christianity loses this power it has none. Creeds are good, theology is good, but the man must give us himself, his own thought and lfe.
 There is a plagiarism of doctrine as we'll as a plagiarism of ideas. The pla- giarising preacher is never an effective preacher. Some ministers say what they do say because they are Baptists, Meth odists, Episcopalians and are expected to say it. Such preaching as that dis satisfies after awhile. We are perfect ly familiar with what they will say; we know it already. Why should we go to Know 1t some more?"
 What then shall we do? Shall we give up doctrinal preaching? By no means, all preaching is doctrinal Doctrine means faith. The question rests with the kind of doc trinal preaching. People don't want the kind of doctrinal preaching that has more of Calvin's doctrines in it | than the doctrines of the preacher is the great thing people | demand in the preacher, truth in the | soul of the man himself.
 The orator who moves us most is | he orator who is most moved, not the | 1ne who displays the most, but the | one who really feels the most. So the | preacher who would make truth live | ruth must wrestle with it, in agony | till he gets it and holds t and makes it his own. It was so with Jesus. He taught many things hat were old, but "He spoke as one having authority and not as the icribes."
 It takes an eyewitness of an event | o describe 1t perfectly and make it i've before us. So Jesus was an eye witness of truth. He saw it first hand, lot as from man, but from God He aught it, He made it His, He made { Him. Here comes in the doctrine of apostolic succession. Those who breach Jesus Christ must be eye-wit- lesses of Jesus Christ. They must be lis spiritual successors. To preserve he pulpit there must be spiritual suc- essors. Ecclesiastical successors may ,e necessary for polity, but we cannot 'verlook spiritual succession (and let ne whisper to you in confidence that |
 think the latter the more important f the two)
 There is a great demand for practical preaching to-day. What is practical reaching? Practical preaching for one nan is not practical preaching for an- ther Practical preaching for the rich 1T the old is not practical preaching for he poor or the young, A score of things must be taken into account to make reaching practical. What men really mean when they say they want practi- al preaching is personality preaching. len are stirred and kindled because the preacher is stirred and kindled.
 In the last lecture mention was made f the materiallstic standard of modern ociety This is the ailment of modern ociety which the minister must try to ure
 Truth must be life to make it effect ve, and unless truth is life it is for nula. It may be sound orthodox, but is received as a formula and not as a wing truth. Perhaps change is com ng. God rules to-day as He has ever ruled. What is needed to-day is something to estroy our Journalism and make truth wing. The same speaker will deliver another ,cture in this course at Marquand 1apel this afternoon at 3:15 o'clock. STRUCK 4 SUBWERGED WRECK.