Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1901-10-03
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.
Subject: Tho Methods Needed in the Mod
ern Church--A Pra actical Gospel Is Help
ful-N inisterial Laziness Denounced
The Church Needs No Apologies.

ful-N Inisterlal Laziness Denounced
The Church Needs No Apologies.
copyright. 1sr.l
| WASHINGTON, d. Ghost encouraging
| to all Christian workers is this discourse
| of DR.. Taimage while denying the accur-
acy of statistics which represent Sunday
| audiences as diminishinC: text. Hebrews
X, %. "Nor forsaking the assembling of
| ourselves together"
Startling statements have been made IN
many of the pnlpits and in some religious
! newspapers. 1t is heard over and over
| again that church attendance in America
| is in decadence I denv 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 inexorable in
| the kingdom of God as it is in the word.
! church privileges demanded. More banks,
more bankers More factories, more man
ufacturers. More ships. more importers.
| More churches. more attendants.
| Tn all our cities within few ,..ears
| churches have been built large enough to
swallow up two or three of the old-time
| churches T 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
nresent attendance is four to one. The
| facts are most celebrating 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 church is depicted.
Churches have their day. Sometimes
merchandise will entirely occupy a neigh
borhood and crowd out the churches and
! families ordinarily attendant upon them Il;
| e0nn+' '~res ~hul.-N uc'''sh"s -"''our 10
ternecine strife. But there are no facts
to overthrow the statement that l have
made in regard to the increasing attend
ance upon the house of God. Now. / am
ready to admit, rs every intelligent man
will admit, that there are churches which
have been depleted. and it is high time
that 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 ere the
causes of decline in any case. If mer-
chandise crowd out church. that cannot
be 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 an
diences by the attempt to transplant the
modes of the past into the present. The
modes and methods of fifty wears ago are
| no more appropriate for to-day than the
modes aud methods of to-day will he an
propriate 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 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 our 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
cornets 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 we'll throw out our
modern platforms and modern pul pits
and 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 min 'Sters
of religion, for the sick and the as d and
the infirm who have worn themselves out
in the service of God. We have naval
asyiums 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
oF
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 infirm ministers.
! When man begins to go 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 a professorate IN
some theological seminary There are
grand exceptions to the rule. but it is of
ten the case that the professorate in
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 enthusas..
tic men, in our theological seminaries and
in the professorates-men like Addison
teach young men the theory of preaching
and then on Sunday go into the pulpit
and with the thunder and lightning of
Christian elouuence show them how. What
would you think of a faculty of unsuccess-
full merchants to train young merchants
or faculty of unsuccessful lawyers to
train young lawyers?
1t is often the case that theological SEM
inaries cut a 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
a man who was elected to professorate
because he could not preach.
We want less dead wood in the theologi-
ral seminaries and more flaming evangels.
I 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 risibilities of many of the
clergy in the audience. Now, young