The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1895-07-06
ARE SERMONS DULL?
REV. MADISON c. PETERS ANSWERS
4 QUESTION.


BE Great to lie EGective-Plafn Truths.
In his sermon at the BloorlinSdalc
Reformed church, New York, Sunday,
June 1G, Rev. Madison G. Peters spoke
in answer to question propounded by q
newspaper man, why Are Sermons
Generally Dull?" The text was Mat
thew xi, z, 1--WE have piped to You, and
We have not danced" The preacher re-
piled to the newspaper man as follows:
want to speak tonight i'll answer to
a question newspaper man recently
asked, ''Why Are Sermons Generally
Dull?'' Candidly I do not think that this
question undertakes the ministry. The
most attentive and regular churchgoers
do not fall behind this man of the world
in speaking freely of the dizziness, the
sameness and the inconsequence of the
average sermon. A preacher Of any but
the highest powers who ventures to de-
tain his hearers beyond half an hour is
regarded as a sort of social criminal,
The impatience Of preaching may we'll
demand the attention of the public press.
Of course some people come to church
for nothing and go away with nothing,
and the nothingness is their own. Their
own dull souls make the preachers prose.
A Beecher would be dull to dull soul
Eyes kept long in the dark go blind, and
long disuse of the SOULS power to think
of divine things throws it down to death
But still the fact remains that sermons
as sermons go are dull-many preachers
are like the Irish sportsman who aimed
at nothing and hit it every time. Good
old Andrew Fuller once exclaimed, ooh,
the holiness of their living and the pain
fulness of their preaching -
We have to preach too much. Garrick
and Foote agreed that Whitefeld's ora
tory twas not at it's height until he had
repeated Il discourse 40 times In re-
vised sermon there should be pleasure
much the same as that received from an
excellent piece Of music Our congrega-
tions now demand of Us two sermons
each Sabbath, II midweek lecture and
other addresses as occasion may de-
nand. Our congregations demand too
much in the way Of pastoral visitation.
A sermon need not be great, eloquent,
magnificent. But instead of glittering
generalitieS and piouS platitudes put
something i'll the sermon to glow,
brighten, convince, Subdue-" thoughts
that breathe and words that burn. -
The themes which cluster around the
pulpit are the Grandest the human mind
can contemplate and may we'll inspire
the loftiest efforts of genuine elOquence.
Sermons are generally dull because
people very often do not know what the
preacher is talking about. Our Lords
discourses are wonderfully plain. They
should be our models of style. A learned
teacher published a commentary Oh
Matthew. The text was printed III large
type and his notes upon it i'll small He
presented copy to an uneducated wom-
an i'll his congregation. Some time aft
erward he asked her how she liked his
book Indeed" she answered, "doc-
tor, I am sure it is all good, but some
how or other the fine print is not so
plain to my mind as the coarse print OH
the top of the pages. can understand
Matthew very well, but I can't get any
meaning out of your comments. Are
not good many sermons like THAI?
The people are tired of set terms and
theological phrases. Instead of telling q
Christian congregation every Sunday to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, thus
telling them to do what they are already
doing, let the gospel be applied practical
ly to society and the affairs of men. Let
us have ministers of the present and
not mere mouthpieces of the past
voices and not simply echoes. The great
need of the pulpit today is that broad
of mission which is in
volved in the petition of the Lords
Prayer, "Thy kingdom come. =" IF the
popular notion that religion concerns the
relation in which the soul stands to God
is the only true idea, then much of
Christ's life and teaching was not re-
hgious, and the final Judgment will not
be religious court. Christ's life was
as much secular as sacred, and he came
to the sacred through the secular. The
gospel Of Christ comprehends not only
the salvation Of the soul, but the estab-
lishment of a kingdom here and now,
the laws of which express Gods will
The work of the church should be as far
as human activity. We are not
only to fit men to do the will of God in
heaven, but hasten the answer to the
Lords Prayer, "Thy will be done OH
earth as it is in heaven. And, if the
preachers had always in their sermons
grasped Christ's idea of the kingdom
and recognized its relations to the world,
the worlds history would read different
". The church ought always to have