The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1901-10-18

Copyright, 1911
WASHINGTON, d. Ghost encouraging
10 all Christian workers Is this discourse
Of Dr. Talmage while denying the accur-
acy Of statistics which represent Sunday
audiences as diminishing; text, Hebrews
X % Nor forsaldng the assembling Of
ourselves together"
Startling statements have been made in
many of the pulpits and in some religious
newspapers. II is heard over and over
again that church attendance in America
is in decadence. / deny the statement hy
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 il as memorable in
the kingdom Of God as it is in the world
More churches supplied argues more
church privileges demanded More banks,
more bankers More factories, more msn-
uiacturers. More ships. more importers
More churches, more attendants.
In all our cities within a 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 a man
calculates when he comes to the conclusion
iIldb tuuANu hlNNuQh'lAE III hlutIlGh ~ III
decadenCe. Take the aggregate of the
number of people who enter the hGlse Of
God now and compare it with the ndsre-
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-
ance.
You are not to argue adversely because
! here and there a church is depleted.
Churches have their day. Sometimes
merchandise will entirely occupy a neigh.
horhood and crowd out the churches ana
families ordinarily attendant upon them;
! sometimes 0lur'" oo,'ehes -hr0neH 'o-
ternecine strife. But there are no facts
| 70 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
will 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
/ ne nelpeu, DuI uuueF all OJleT ClTCum-
stances decadence in church attendance
is the fault either of the church or of the
/ pastor.
! Churches are often cleared Of their au-
! diences 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 aD-
! propTiate for fifty years hence. DR.. Kirk,
/ DR.. McElroy Dr. Mason. Dr. De Witt,
! DR.. 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 he 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 we'll throw the furnaces
out of our church Easements and substi-
tute the foot stoves which our grand
mothers used to carry with them to meet
ing and throw ont our organs and our
comets aud 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
which the minister used to climb to the
dizzy height of Mont Blanc soltariness,
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 infrm 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 a tendency to turn our theological
seminaries into hospitals for sick and
aged and infrm ministers.
When a man begins to 60 down they
give him the title Of D. D. by way of re-
suscitation. If that fails, then the tend
ency is to elect him to q professorate in
some theological seminary. There are
grand exceptions to the rule, but it is Of
ten the case that the professorate in a
theological seminary is occupied by some
minister of the gospel who, not being able
to 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 elocution
We want more wideawake, more able
bodied, able-minded men, more enthusiasts
tic men, in our theological seminaries and
in the professorates 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 nlO01aONa chou fbpra how Wbp 4
would you think of faculty of unsuecess-
full merchants to train young merchants
or faculty of unsuccessful lawyers to
train young lawyers?
It is often the case that theological SEM
inaries cut q man and elm him and square