Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1910-07-03
LOVELY LITTLE THINGS" IN THE
PULPIT.

PULPIT.
Weak men in the pulpit is given as
one Of the main reasons for the spread
of materiaIism. Too much mandy
pambyism" on the part of the clergy
of the land is attributed the failure Of
men, in an ever increasing number, il
is claimed, to attend church or display
an active interest in religious affairs
Women are more and more running
the churches, so the critics say, and
the sort of preacher that the women
want does not appeal with any pc
culiar force to a man. Stronger men
must be put into the ministry, men of
power, men with plenty of iron in
their blood and grit in their craws
it is held, if the conditions over whicl
there is so much wailing are to be
changed.
Speaking of this necessity for diff
ferent type of men in the ministry
than many of them are now said to
be, the Washington Post writes as
follows:
Prof Arthur Holmes is not far
wrong in saying THAT the lovely lit
tie things" that women of the church
dote on are not the sort OF preachers
needed to roll back the wave of ma
terialism which the professor tells us
is sweeping over the country. Just
what measure of opportunity the pro-
fessOr has had for accurately gaug-
ing the drift away from the church
does not appear, but as member OF
the faculty of the University of Penn
sylvania, it must be conceded that he
has at least personal experience with
which to bolster his assertion. Each
year he sees the university send out
numbers Of young men who are fur
Their on the road to materialism than
when they took up the course of stu
dy. This is true of all the large insti-
tutiOns of learning, except divinity
schools, whence the preachers emerge
who ten years later have been molly
coddled by the women of the church
into "loVely little things" quite use
less FOR militant defense of their
faith.
A liberal education and the assoc
Citations of university life tend to
deaden, if not destroy the element of
mysticism which so powerfully con-
duces to an abiding faith in things
spiritual. Then, too, the divinity
schools are gradually broadening their
h. e
the graduates, and especially the
stronger minded ones, whose abser.cd
from the pulpit Prof. Holmes den4ores,
wander into other walks of life than
that to which they have been point
ed There is no counter movement
no drift from the non-s9ctarian body
OF collegians toward the pulpit-to Off
set The detection Ehdeed, the defec-
lion is reinforSNv4 from the ranks of
heresy. Doubts raised at school later
become competitions, with consequences
demoralizhng to the integrity of the
chJrcn.
These things, being of every dav
experience, and hence undeniably
true, It behooves those who would fiji
the pulpits with men energized ia
up Will biiC lOICtS Oh IIidItfldIlSm TO
Fgo to the root Of the trouble BY so
doing, Prof. Holmes and others of
ms class seek to recognize the
necessity of first strengthening the
ialty by weakening the recruiting
power of materialism. This can be
done only by fostering through the
formative stage of mans mind the in
born attributes Of religious faith. the
prlzing of which when he leaves school
to enter upon real life would stop
MIN from being engulfed in the dread
wave of materialism.
The lovely little things" the Post
refers to are few and far between in
the South. Occasionally one of this
type may be found, but he is lost in
the general shuttle. If the Northern
churches are served by such type
.1t is no wonder that they are said to
be losing ground year after year.