Marshall County independent. (Plymouth, Marshall County, Ind.) 1897-1902, 1901-09-20
TALMAGE'S SERMON,
"CHURCH DECADENCE" LAST SUM-
DAYS SUBJECT.
Says That Church Attendance Is on the
Increase-"Not FOrsaking the Assem-
bling OF Ourselves Together" He
brews 30.

brews go.
copyright, 1901, by Louis Klopsch. N. VI
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 Y: %, Not for
saking the assembling of ourselves to-
| gether."
| Startling statements have been made
| In many Of the pulpits and in some OF
! the religious newspapers. 1t is heard
| over and over again that church at
! tendance in America is in decadence.
l 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 new church
| es every day of the year. The law OF
/ demand and supply is 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 fac
tories, more manufacturers; more
ships, more importers; more churches,
more attendants.
In all our cities within a few years
| churches have been built large enough
i 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 mouse 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 represents
the opposite statistics must have been
most unfortunate in his church &C
quaintance.
Use of Modern Methods.
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 to-day
than the modes and methods of to-day
will be appropriate for fifty years
hence. DIR. Kirk. DR.. McElroy, DR..
| Mason, DR.. De Witt, Dr. Vermilyea and
hundreds OF other men just as good as
tney were never lacked audiences, be-
cause they were abreast of the time in
which they lived People will not be
| interesting 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.
Such men might just as we'll throw the
! furnaces out of our church Easements
| 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 it to the
| ear to catch the pitch of the hymn, and
might as we'll throw cut our modern
stitute the wineglass pulpit up which
| the minister used to climb to the dizzy
height of Mont Blanc solitariness and
J then go in and out of sight and shut
/ the door after him. When you can get
the great masses of the people to take
| passage from Albany 70 Buffalo in
/ stage-coach or canalbOat in preference
;-I,%
| does it in four hours, then you can get
| the great masses of the people to go to
| church half century behind the
| time
Sympathies of the People.
At meeting of the general assembly
| Of the Presbyterian church of the
| United States a clergyman accustomed
| on the Sabbath to preach to an audi
ence 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. / am told the incongruity
was too much for the risibilities OF
| many of the clergy in the audience
Now, young man coming out from
, such bedwarfing influences, how can he
! enter into the wants and the woes and
the sympathies OF the people who want
on the Lords day practical gospel
that will help them all the week and
| help them forever?
Young ministers are told they must
preach Christ and him cruCified. Yes.
but not as an abstraction. Many a
minister has preached Christ and him
crucified in such way that he preach
ed an audience of five hundred down
to two hundred. and from two hundred
to one hundred, and from one hundred
to fifty, and from fifty to twenty. and
| on down until there was but little left
save the sexton, who was paid to stay
until the service was over and lock up.
Christ and him crucified. 1t is not
| Christ and him crucified as an abstrac-
| ton. 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, social,
financial political, national struggle
q Christ for the parlor. Christ for the
nursery, Christ for the kitchen. a
| for the banking house, a Christ for the
street, a Christ for the store, Christ
for the banking house, Christ for the
| factory, Christ for the congressional
assembly a Christ for the courtroom,
Christ for every trial and every