The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1901-09-20
HE ENTERS A DENIAL.
Sermon Regarding the Diminishing
of Sunday Audiences.
DIR. Talmage Presents Some HARD
Facts showing That Church At
tendance in America Is Not
i'm Decadence.

4
Most encouraging 10 all Christian
workers is this discourse of DIR. Tai
mage while denying the accuracy OF
statistics which represent Sunday au-
diences as diminishing. Text, He
brews 1925, Not forsaking the as
sembling of ourselves together.
Startling statements have been made
in many of the pulpits and in some OF
the religious newspapers. 1t Is hearo
over and over again that church at
tendance in America is in decadence-
deny the statements by presenting
some hard facts. No one Will dispute
the fact that there are more churches
in America than ever before, one de-
nomination averaging two ne"
churches every day of the year. Inc
law of demand and supply is as mex
orabie in the kingdom of God as IT Is
in the world. More churches supphed
argues more church privileges demand
| ed. More banks, more bankers; more
| factories, more manufacturers; more
| slips, 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. / cannot understand
with what kind of arithmetic and slate
pencil 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 it with the aggregate of the
people who entered the house of God
25 years ago, and the present attend
ance is four TO one. The facts are
most celebrating instead of being de-
pressing. 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 a church is de-
pleted. Churches have their day.
Sometimes merchandise viii entirely
occupy neighborhood and crowd out
the churches and families ordinarily
attendant upon them. Sometimes
church perishes through internecine
strife. But there are no facts 70 over
throw the statement that l have made
in regard to the increasing attendance
upon the house of God. Now. l am
ready 10 admit, as every intelligent
man will admit, that there are
churches which have been depleted.
and il is high time that a sermon be
preached for the benefit of young men
who are just entering the Gospel min
istry and for the warning of prosper
Gus churches as to what are the causes
Of decline in any case. If merchandise
crowd out church. that cannot be
helped, but under all other circum-
stances decadence in church attend
ance is the fault either of the church
or of the pastor.
Churches are often cleared of their
audiences by the attempt to transplant
the modes of the past into the pres
ent. The modes and methods of so
years ago are no more appropriate for
to-day than the modes and methods OF
to-day will be appropriate for so years
hence. DIR. Kirk, DIR. McElroy. Dr. Ma
son, DIR. 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 woe-begonish
statistics are given by those who are
trying in our time TO work with the
WORKOUT machinery of the past times.
Such men might just as well throw the
furnaces out of our church Easements
and substitute the foot stoves which
our grandmofhers used TO carry with
them TO meeting. and throw out our
organs and our comets and take the
old-fashioned tuning fork, striking il
on the knee and then lifting it to the
ear TO catch the pitch of the HYMN.
and might as well throw out our mod
elm platforms and modern pulpits 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. When YOU can
get the great masses of the people to
take passage from Albany to Buffalo
in stage coach or canal boat in prefer
ence to the lightning express train
which does il in four hours. then You
can get the great masses of the peo-
pie 10 go to church half a century be-
hind the time.
The trouble begins away back in the
theological seninaries. 1t is a 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
il is a shame that larger provision is
not made for the good soldiers of Jesus
Christ who have worn themselves ont
in battling for he Lord. But lack of
provision in that respect makes tend
ency 10 turn our theological seminaries
into hospitals for sick and aged and
infirm ministers. When a man begins
TO go down, they give him the title of
ID. ID. by way of resusci,ation. If that
fails. then the tendency is to elect him
to professorship in some theological
seminary. There are grand exceptions
10 The rule. but it IS often the case that
the professorate in theological sem
mary IS occupied by some minister of