Connecticut western news., 1901-09-19
{2aIlg1gag8$|!sS 3!
 EagAkeN@ MN
 kS@HlI6lQ)l1sif' fl IGHH88Egy

WASHINGTON, Sept. 15.-Most encour, aging to all Christian workers Is this discourse of Dr. Talmage while deny ing the accuracy of statistics which represent Sunday audiences as dimin- ishing; text, Hebrews X, 25, Not for saking the assembling of ourselves to. gether."
 Startling statements have been made in many of the pulpits and in some religious newspapers. It Is heard over and over again that church attendance i'll America Is in decadence. 1 deny the statement by presenting some hard facts. No one will dispute the fact lhat there are more churches In Amer ica 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 1t Is in the world. More churches supplied argues more church privileges demanded. More banks, moro, bankers. More factories, more manufacturers. More ships, more im- porters. More churches, more attend ants.
 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 a man calculates when he comes to the conclusion that church attend ance in America Is in decadence. Take the aggregate of the number of people who enter the house of God now and compare 1t with the aggregate 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 exhilarating instead of being depressing. That man who presents the opposite statistics must have been most unfortunate in his church ac- Quaintance.
 You are not to argue adversely be- cause here and there church Is de pleteds Churches have their day. Some times merchandise will entirely occupy a neighborhood and crowd out the churches and families ordinarily at tendant upon them; sometimes church perishes through internecine strife. But there are no facts to overthrow the statement that have made in re- gard to the increasing attendance upon the house of God. Now, am ready to admit, as every intelligent man will ad- init, that there are churches which have been depleted, and 1t is high time that sermon be preached for the ben eft of young men who are just enter ing the gospel ministry and for the warning of prosperous churches as to what are the causes of decline In any case. If merchandise crowd out a church, that cannot be helped, but un- der all other circumstances decadence in church attendance Is the fault either of the church or of the pastor.
 Modern Church Methods Needed.
 Churches are often cleared of their audiences 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 today than the modes and methods of today will be appropriate 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 be interested in what we say unless we understand the spirit of the day In which we live. All the woebegonish statistics are given by those who are trying in our time to work with the wornout machinery of the past times. tnHt ct Inc. furnaces out of our church basements and substitute the foot stoves which our grandmothers used to carry with them to meeting, and throw out our or gans and our comets and take the old fashioned tuning fork, striking 1t on the knee and then lifting 1t to the ear to catch the pitch of the hymn, and might as well throw out our modern platforms and modern pulpits and sub stitute 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. It Is shame that larger provision is not made for ministers of religion, for the sick and the aged and the infirm 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 soldiers of Jesus c% xxxN,~ thny, ,Ix ont in battling for the Lord. But lack of provision in that respect makes tend ency to turn our theological seminaries into hospitals for sick and aged and inf1rm ministers. When a man begins to go down, they give him the title of D. D. by way of resuscitation. If that fails, then the tendency Is to elect him to a profesSorate In some theological seminary. There are grand exceptions to the rule, but it Is often the case that the professorate in a theological semi nary 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 wide awake, more ablebodied abIeminded men, more enthusiastic men, in our theological seminaries and in the professorates-men like Addison Alexander, who could dl ring the week
 each young men the theory of preach hg and then on Sunday go into the pulpit and with the thunder and light ming of Christian eloquence show them how. What would you think of fac ulty of unsuccessful merchants to train young merchants or a faculty of un- successful lawyers to train young law yers? It Is often the case that theolog- ical seminaries cut man and clip him and square him and mold him and bore him and twist him until all the individ- ual Is gone out of him and he is only poor copy of man who was elected to professorate because he could not preach. We want less deadwood in the theological seminaries and more flaming eyangels. declare that man who cannot preach himself cannot