The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-09-02
BREviTY IN SERMONS.

An Eastern paper remarks that SER
mons are becoming shorter. The truth
of the statement is not married by the
fact that sermons have been gradually
shortening for a hundred years past.
Time was when a sermon lasted for two
hours and when a minister who could
not give his congregation refreshing
sleep was looked upon as misfit.
Thirty-five years ago the 'eighthly"
marked the close of the discourse, all
chapters up to the "sixteenthly' being
Topped off for the next sermon. This
made the exhortation about one hour
long. Then the time-linit on both the
sermon and prayer began to contract
until now the whole service In an evan
gelical church takes about an hour and
a quarter, the sermon occupying per-
haps thirty minutes.
Can the sermon still be cut down to
advantage? No doubt many sermons
would profit by the pruning knife; we
are not sure but all of them would. The
best sermons preached in the United
States today are made. familiar to the
Hawaiian public every Saturday in the
columns of the Advertiser. They are
those contributed to the New York Sun
day Herald by the Rev. DR.. George IL.
Hepworth and one of them may be
preached with the most stately DELHI
Grafton, in less than ten minutes. Each
one of these sermons drives home some
important truth with the force and pre-
cision of n steam hammer. Not one
tries the plan of driving a dozen impor-
tant truths partially home with scat
tering blows. There s no trouble to
remember what Hepworth has preach
ed. Once heard, the whole sermon, from
text to benediction, is imbedded in the
memory. Is it not fair presumption
that a sermon so constructed does more
good or at least attains the object of
all sermons, more certainly than the
kind which is called exhaustive? In
editorial work there can be no ques-
ton about the high uses of brevitY. Few
newspaper writers, whatever the theme,
care to exceed a column in any given
discussion in one issue; and the ablest
Of them cover the ground thoroughly in
that, or shorter space. The typical SER
mon, however, is two columns long or
more.
We are tempted to say that all the
best appeals to the public of this coun-
try are briefly phrased. Not only are
the best sermons and the best editorials
short and crisp but so are the best ora
lions. Edward Everett. the Cicero of
America in the Civil War era, was
chosen as the orator of the day at Get
tysburg, and his address there was as
scholarly as it was prolonged. But the
one address which outlived the day was
Lincoln's, few simple words simply
n 4 r. t.
touched its highest point during the fif-
teen minutes of his trial at Brooklyn
when he answered the direct and lead
ing question of his counsel William NJ.
Evarts. Wendell Phillips three-hun-
dred-word Characterization of Rufus
Choate, the criminal lawyer, "of whose
health thieves asked before theys b egan
to steal" was his masterpiece. Patrick
Henry set the American colonies on
fire with a speech not ten minutes
long. The history making speech which
Shakespeare put in the mouth u
Antony is not too prolonged for a de-
clamation at school, but Shakespeare
did not stretch the license of the
-dramatist when he made 1t turn the
mob, that had but now applauded
Brutus, into a pack Of bloodhounds on
the trail of the conspirators
Undoubtedly a brief, if cogent dis
course, requires more ability in the pro-
duction than a sermon covering the
same points but twice or three times as
long. 1t is easier to write long
speech, 4 long article or a long ser
mon n a short one. Condensing is
hard Work, but the thoughtful clergy
man who acquires the habit will never
have to ask why people don't go to
church; the orator who gets it will be
asked 70 speak often from the same
platform; the well-informed editor who
has it needs no stronger weapon of de-
bate.