The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1901-09-19
The MODERN CHURCH.
The Rev. DR.. TaIu,age Says Practical
Gospel Is Helpful.
ministerial Lsrincss Is Denounced. Church
Needs No Apologies.


tCOpffffnt i"i.t
WASHINGTON, ID. C.--Most encouraging
10 all Christian workers is this discourse
OF DR.. Talmage while denying the accir-
ncy Of statistics which represent Sunday
audiences as diminishing; text, Heb.ews
x, 25, ''Nor fcrsskipg the assembling OF
ourselves together"
Startling statements have been made in
many Of the pulpts and in some religious
newspapers. II is heard over and over
again that church attendance in America
is in decadence. | DENY the statement by
presenting some hard facts. No one will
dispute the fact that there are more
churches in America than ever before.
one denomination averaging two new
churches every day of the year The law
of demand and supply is as memorable in
the kingdom Of God as il is in the world.
More churches supplied argues more
church privileges demanded. More banks,
more bankers More factories. more man
ufact,rers. More ships more importers.
More churches, more attendants.
In all our cities within few years
churches have been built large enough to
swallow up two or three of the old-time
churches. I cannot understand with what
kind OF arithmetic and slate pencil man
calculates when he comes to the conclusion
that church attendance in America is in
decadence. Take the aggregate of the
number of people who enter the house OF
God now and compare it with the aggre-
gate of the people who entered the house
OF God twenty-five years ago, and the
present attendance is four to one. The
facts are most exhilerating instead OF
being depressing. That man who presents
the opposite statistics must have been
most unfortunate in his church acquaint-
ancc.
You are not to argue adversely because
here and there a church IL depleted.
Churches have their day Sometimes
merchandise will entirely occupy neigh
borhood and crowd out the churches and
families ordinarily attendant upon them;
sometimes church pe-ishns tnrnrgr ir-
ternecine strife But there are no facts
to overthrow the statement that i have
made in regard to the increasing attend
ance upon the house Of God. Now. am
ready to admit, as every intelligent man
viii admit, that there are churches which
have been depleted and it is high time
that a sermon be preached for the benefit
OF young men who are just entering the
gospel ministry and for the warning of
prosperous churches as to what are the
causes of decline in any case. If mer-
chandise crowd out a church. that cannot
he helped, but under all other circum-
stances decadence in church attendance
is the fault either of the church or OF the
pastor.
Churches are often cleared of their au-
dences by the attempt to transplant the
modes of the past into the present. The
modes and methods of fifty years ago are
no more appropriate for to-day than the
modes and methods of to-day will be ap-
propriate for fifty years hence. DR.. Kirk,
DIR. McElroy DIR. Mason. DR.. De Witt,
DIR. Vermilyea and hundreds of other
men Just as good as they were never
lacked audiences, because they were
abreast of the time in which they lived.
People will not be interested in what we
say unless we understand the spirit of the
day in which we live. All the woebegon-
ish statistics are given by those who are
trying in our time to work with the worn
out machinery of the past times. Such
men might just as well throw the furnaces
out Of your church Easements and substi-
tute the foot stoves which our grand
mothers used to carry with them to meet
ing, and throw out our organs and our
coruets and take the old fashioned tuning
fork. striking it on the knee and then lift
ing it to the ear to catch the pitch of the
hymn, and might as well throw out our
modern platforms and modern pulpits
aud substitute the wineglass pulpit up
which the minister used to climb to the
dizzy height of Mont Blanc solitariness,
and then go in out Of sight and shut the
door after him.
The trouble begins away back in the
theological seminaries. 1t is a shame that
larger provision is not made for ministers
of religion, for the sick and the aged and
the nfirm who have worn themselves out
in the service Of God. We have naval
asylums and soldiers asylums for men who
fought on land and sea for our country
when these men have become aged or
crippled, and it is a shame that larger
provision is not made for the good sol
diers of Jesus Christ who have worn
themselves out in battling for the Lord.
But lack of provision in that respect
makes tendency. to turn our theological
...A~ tuln fxr asnl- at,1
aged and in6rm ministers.
When a man begins to go down they
give him the title Of ID. ID. by way of re-
susctation. II that fails, then the tend
ency is TO elect him to a professorate in
some theological seminary. There are
ten the case that the professorate in a
theological seminary is occupied by some
minister OF the gospel who, not being able
90 preach himself, is set to teach others
how to preach. In more cases than one
the poorest speaker in the faculty is the
professor of eocution.
We want more wideawake, more able
bodied. able minded men, more enthusas.
tic men, in our theological seminaries and
in the professorates-men like Addison
Alexander, who could during the week
teach young men the theory of preaching
and then on Sunday go into the pulpit
and with the thunder and lightning OF
Christian eloauence show them how. What
would you think of faculty of unsuccess-
ful merchants to train young merchants
or faculty of unsuccessful lawyers to
train young lawyers?
II is often the case that theological SEM
inares cut man and clip him and square
him and mold him and bore him and
twist him until all the individual is gone
out of him and he is only poor copy OF
man who was>elected to a professorate
because he could not preach.
We want less dead wood in the theologi-
cal seminaries and more flaming evangels.
] declare that man who cannot preach
himself cannot teach others how to
preach.
AT meeting OF the General Assembly
Of the Presbyterian Church of the United
States, clergyman accustomed on the
Sabbath to preach to an audience of two
or three hundred people in an audience
room that could hold 1900 was appointed
TO preach sermon on how to reach the
masses ! am told the incongruity was
too much for the risbilities of many Of the
clergy in the audience. Now, a young
man coming out from such bedwar6ng in-
huences, how can he enter into the wants
and the woes and the sympathies of peo-
pie who want on the Lords day pracSi-
cal gospel that viii help them all the
week and help them forever?
-. ALI L.. -