The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-09-24
DR. TALMAGE'S SERMON.

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 Washington. Sept. l5.-Most enncourag- ing to all Christian workers Is this dis- course of Dr. Talmage while denying the accuracy of statistics which represent Sunday audiences as diminishing; text, Hebrews x, 25, Not forsaking the assem- bling of ourselves together"
 Startling statements have been made in many of the plpits and in some Of the religious newspapers. It Is heasd over er America is in decadence. l deny the 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 in exorable in the kingdom of God as 1t is in the world. More churches supplied argues more church privileges demanded. More banks, more bankers: more factories. more manufacturers; more ships more importers; more churches, more attend ants.
 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. | cannot understand with what kind of arithmetic and slate penciil man sion 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 1t with the aggre-
 
 of God twenty-five years ago, and the recent attendance Is four to one. The facts are most collaborating instead of be- ing depressing. That man who presents the opposite statistics must have been most unfortunate in his church acquaint- ance.
 here and there a church Is depleted. Churches have their day. Sometimes merchandise will entirely occupy a neigh borhood and crowd out the churches and attendant thpm Sometimes a church perishes through in- ternecine strife. But there are no facts made in regard to the increasing attend ance upon he house of God Now, l am ready to admit. as every intelligent man will admit. that there are churches which have been depleted, and 1t 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 are the causes of decline in any case. If mer- chandise crowd out church, that cannot be helped, but under all other circum- | is the fault either of the church or of the l pastor.
 Use of Modern Methods. l 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 today than the
 modes and methods of today will be ap- I | Dr. McElroy. pr. Mason, Dr. De Witt,
 Dr. Vermilyea and hundreds of other
 men just as good as they were never
 abreast of the time in which they lived.
 People will not be interested in what we
 say unless we understand the spirit Of
 begonish statistics are given by, those
 who are trying in our time to work with
 the wornout machinery of the past times.
 Such men might just as we'll throw the | fiji Of haSAmpnfS
 and substitute the foot stoves which our | grandmothers used to carry with them to
 meeting and throw out our organs and
 our comets and take the old-fashioned
 tuning fork. striking it 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 mod
 ern pulpits and substitute the .wineglass
 pulpit up 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. When you | can get the great masses of the people to
 take passage from Albany to Buffalo in
 the. lightning express train which does 1t
 in four hours. then you can get the great
 masses of the people to go to church
 nat trnb GemTy bsgns way sHe s 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 l 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 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 semiharies into hospitals for | sick and aged and infirm ministers. When a man begins to go down, they give him l the title of D. D. by way ftreSuscitation. | If that fails, then the tendency is to l elect him to professorats in some theo- captions to the rule. but 1t is often the case that the professorate in a theologi- cal seminary is occupied by some minis ter of the gospel who. not being able to preach, is set to teach others how to preach. In more cases than one the poor est speaker in the faculty Is the profes- awake, more able-bodIed, able-minded men. more enthusiastic men in our the ological seminaries and in the profess sorates-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 elo, , l think of faculty of unsuccessful mer- | chants to train young merchants or a faculty, of unsuccessful lawyers to train | young lawyers? It is often the case that | theological seminaries cut a man and clip | him and square him and mold him and bore him and twist him until all the in dividual Is gone out of him and he Is only | poor copy of man who was elected I to a professorate because he could not | preach. We want less deadwood in the | theological seminaries and more flaming | evangels. I declare that d man who can,
 not preach himself cannot teach others
 how to preach.
 Sympathies of the People.
 At a meeting of the General Assembly
 of the Presbyterian Church of the United
 States, a clergyman accustomed on the
 Sabbath to preach to an audience of two
 or three hundred people. in an audience
 room that could hold fifteen hundred. was
 appointed to preach a sermon on how to
 reach the masses l am told the incon-
 gruity was too much for the disabilities of
 many of the clergy in the audience. Now, | young man coming out from such be- l dwarfing influences how can he enter in- to the wants and the woes and the sym pathies of the people who want on the help them all the week and help them for | ever?
 Young ministers are told they must | preach Christ and hi mcrucihed. Yes, but | not as an abstraction. Many a minister has preached Christ and him crucified in such way that he preached an audi | ence of five hundred down to two hun dred, and from two hundred to one hun dred, and from one hundred to fifty and l from fifty to twenty, and on down until | there was but little left save the sexton, who was paid to stay until the services | was over and lock. up, There is a great | deal of cant about Christ and him cruel
 as an abstraction but as an omnipotent
 sympathy applied to all the wants and
 woes of our immortal nature-a Christ
 who will help us in every domestic, so-