Year: 1873

/ The sermon has been and is much
abused--so much so that it has become


to many men, who are neither atheists


nor reprcbates, thing to be avoided


by all means, or, failing that, to be
abridged, endured, slept through, any
thing but listened to. 1t cannot be
denied that much of this feeling is the


result of our increasing hatred of any,


thing ike physical discomfort or pen


ance, and our natural distaste for all


things sacred and spiritual. But


preach as the preacher may against
/ the world, the flesh and the devil, We


cannot abolish either of them, and the


second will cling to us as persIstently


even in church, while the other two


are never very far off. What better


opportunity can the mind have for


wandering into secular thoughts than


the weary, sleepy forty-6ve minutes of


poor sermon? The slight impress


which even "a good sermon


makes in the first twenty min


utes is more than dIssipated


by the concluding twenty, and the


last state of that man Is worse than


the first'-because he rises weary, i'm


patient, exasperated, and painfully
aware that in enduring, as he has
done, he has been a martyr to public
opinion more than to his own sense
of right. There is but little need to
dwell upon the musical and devotion
al part of service, for much has been
done to improve and make these at
tractiye. The sermon, however, has
not kept pace with the other depart
ment. In many cases, especially In
dissenting churches, it has grown too
long. Were all sermons of forty-tive
minutes eloquent and able, they
would still be too long for
standing dish. The ser mon Is
no longer needed (as it once
was) as the chief medium of instruc-
ting the people in religious truth. The
hearer needs not so much to be taught
as to be reminded, and to have
heart and con science stirred up
This constitutes the great diff
erence between sermons and po-
litical or other speeches, which
must sometimes be hours long. tire
quires very able preacher, indeed, to
interest all his hearers to the end OF
a fOrty-fve minutes sermon, because
he has little new to tell Few men
can compose two original sermons, OF
forty-fve minutes, every week, which
will command patient attention, and
tend to edifcation more than weari-
ness. What misery must common
place men inAict, and what misery
must they endure, in their vain endeay-
ors to keep up the market. Need We
wonder that the conscientious, sensi-
tive man often breaks down under the
task, while he of the easy temper and
ready tongue shirks it by trusting to
weak and rambling extemporary effu-
sions2. The most obvious remedy is
to shorten and simplify the sermon,
and perhaps have only one instead Of
two per week. 1t is doubtless more
difficult to give fixed amount OF mat
ter in twenty than in forty minutes,
but then don't compress the matter of
forty into twenty minutes give short,
forcible, earnest addresses of about
twenty-five minutes in the every day
language of educated men; expunge
all useless verbiage and conventional
set phrases go over very little ground;
have no 'fourthly, filthy, and in con-
clusion, but one leading, prominent,
thought on truth of duty, and only
one; illustrate and enforce this with
all knowledge and eloquenee, and do
not weary hearers by long and super
fuous applications, because this one
distinct thought will be firmly fixed
and carried away in their minds. If
all sermons were short, more sermons
would be good. Doubtless, were all
men devout, there would be little
need for good sermons, and we should
go to church and worship and praise
God each for himself and all together;
our devotion stimulated, as it was in
tended to be, by social sympathy, into
a grand volume of praise. But alas
we have not reached this point, and the
crying want-is fewer, shorter, and yet
more intense and powerful sermons.
We demand this both on behalf OF
preacher and hearer, and most of all,
on behalf of that growing class of peo-
pie, especially men, who are fast slip
ping beyond the influence of vital re-
ligion.