The record-union., 1896-12-13

rugged strength in Mr. Moody's SER
mons which grips the mind as with
hooks of steel, where the smooth peri
DDS of elegant discourse flow like un-
impeded water through a sluice.'
I'VE dissent in toto says the
''Watchman" (Bapt) of Boston, from
the implication that ministers of gen.
erous culture are not needed in the
churches to-day. One reason why
more men are not found in our churches
to-day is that too much of the preach
ing lacks mental strength. The ap-
peal of the Gospel is not presented to
them with the same mental grasp Of
the facts with which political or busi-
ness appeals are constantly presented.
An earnest evangelical spirit is not the
only factor for successful preaching,
though without it all else is vain. With
1t you cannot have too much mental
discipline and culture. 1t is an enor-
nous gain when a congregation feels
that 1T is in the presence not only OF
good man, but a good man VINO IN
knowledge and mental power is a
master. Quite a number of semi-reilg-
ious stories have lately been published
showing the power that young minis
ters have gained over young men by
their skill in various athletic games.
Why may not minister gain power
over men by the superiority OF his
mental discipline and culture? Ger
tainly he does. And there is this adj
vantage that the minister cannot take
his tennis racket or football into the
pulpit, but he cannot leave his mental
equipment outside of it. 1t is there
winning respect for him anyway. The
argument that uncultivated persons
should have the Gospel preached to
them in their vernacular cuts both
ways. If it is necessary to put the
Gospel in rough and sometimes coarse
forms to reach the ignorant ana
coarse, why by parity of reasoning
should not the Gospel be put in the
forms of cultivated speech to reach
the educated and refined? The argu-
ment is just as good on the one side
as on the other.
1T may seem like a paradox" says
the New York "Churchman" (P. e..
ito affirm that We believe Christian
socialism will be likely to win its best
and most effectual influence among the
rich and the powerful rather than
among the poor and the downcast. We
do not mean that the poor man may not
be taught that the fullness of life on
earth, social. moral, and material, is
to be found in aspiring toward high
Christian ideal, but we mean that mer-
ciful and just legislation, liberal wage
for toiers, social liberty for all. can
come only through the influence of
Christian ethics upon those who rule
and those who have. The cry for pleas
ure sadly re-echoes the old cry of the
down-trodden plebs of Rome, Panem
ct Circenses. The terrible need and
distress of that cry it is affecting to
hear, for it is the complaint of famine
and misery. The cry will be answered
and the want supplied only when the
rich and the powerful become Christian
Socialists. How to respond to the bit
ter cry, how to advise a better scheme
than the rude and impracticable pro-
posals of socialists and anarchists, IS
the great question of the present time,
both in church and state"
do not the objections which lie
against our education societies also ap-
ply to every form of public free educa-
tion?" asks the New York Examiner"
Bapt) why should the State edu-
cate the children free of charge? Be
cause the State needs, as it's citizens,
men and women raised above the level
of ignorance Why should the Nation
educate soldiers at West Point and
sailors at Annapolis, and not only edu-
cate them, but give them an adequate,
though modest support all through the
course? Because the State, for its own
safety, needs educated soldiers and
seamen And is there not the same
reason why the Christian churches
should educate those who are to be its
ministers? There would be real
ground for objection to the education
societies if they permitted low stand
ard. Every one is proud to have been
educated at West Point or Annapolis,
because the fact of his having been
graduated from either school is a cer
tificate to his scholarship and his pro-
fessional ability. In a still higher
sense it ought to be understood that
every one aided by the education So