Show nonsensicalness OF SECTARIAN SERIN sermonizing SERMON IONIZING IZING the following strictures on the of modern sectarian pre preacher preachers achere or divines from the london spectator are aia abre more moie truth xui gul than poe ical there is a growing f r ling eling amongst thinking men that the S ermon sermon institution aa as dt at present enforced is altogether intolerable elat it is an intellectual burden which more or les lea sips the life ot of modern churches and more nore perhaps ih th n anything else introduces the ehe dry rot lit ocial docial worship hp p we hold hoid this lo 10 be true not because we are insensible to be the peculiar capacities of the pulpit not because we have failed to filid fiod in the higher department of this great fied of literature much of the noblest an ana most potent but because we hold that thai in ons otia que ce of atle tle true aim ot of the sermon as a propel ieli luil ly toi vol ol 01 hotary element in social worship voluntary both on the thie part of the pre pro ther and anti the hearer having been lost sight eight the whole character har acter of trie the institution has haa been depraved pew r ew thinking englisis Eng Engli lisam sim bim n even ot of the them present generation 0 can eau have grown up without wit but hut re zing in some form tie tiie influence i f the ew ev great preacher preachers sot of the age those few that can car utter the cry that comes coines from ube ibe i finite bide 0 marsna mads mans na ure the broadanx broa broad dand and t tely but painfully self manipulated cited or p father fathel newman Ne winan the metaphysical depth arid W subtlety of mr religious s ch or the spiritual ploughshare plough share A virth vt itt nth rth 1 JA A al I 1 aldu mau ice ce drives wi with th irresistible t for tey tel T I 1 h t t rough through b the neatly arrayed plantations 0 molimau it P man theory have ibn inn in one d direct direction i r ioki loat sr another the most powerful minds jf f the prent arit generation and have malu lluu encee them abt tbt rbt the most pa t through the medium of lof sermons Benn benh ros rog on a lower lover lev I 1 of genius thou thod though gh not lot cessar nc ly of practical power come a host hosto 0 f others who from the pulpit have influenced through some medium ar r other fine or coart coaree e brevil or evil or good or usually perhaps both the conscience of their co temporaries it would be simply absurd in the press of this country which wields a wider sweeping but fr far less I 1 penetrating enet rating weapon to depreciate at on e the fashion and the homely labor of brighton by which Mr Spurgeon rules the thousands whom no I 1 vulgarity will disgust with earnest and abd I 1 homely moral force by which the lord bishop of oxford compels attention and a mt pecuniary unwary ransom from the bright creatures that rise nae so easily to his glittering artificial flies rr cr by which even dr cumming aati vates latea the classes whom faith has steeled against 11 the astrological auguries au 1 guries uries urles of Zad kiel nor do we depreciate it but we are con vinc vine d trat tr at most of the causes which have degenerated the sermon and A aich are rapidly rendering re 1 it a mischief instead of a benefit to the present generation generali gen eraci on are aie materially aggravated bennot actually set la in motion by the loss of that ci unitary ciry and supplementary character which ought to make it no part and parcel of public w iship but a spontaneous appendix to it an a which the clergyman may either give or withhold according to resources oc of the week and which the creation rea tion may inay either attend or ignore accod aing to their own state stale of mind and their own estimate if tf the worth orth of these thebe V ebs ess voluntary 01 ol ga it seems to us avious obvious that in one sense the accidental imbor ance which noich the sermon assumed in protestant countries at the reformation matlon matlou mation when hen the mass of people had exceedingly lilg illg lyli li knowledge ot of we the primitive form ot of the hebrew ond christian revelation has io i 0 proper application to the present day ine were then in general the only media wedia for explaining the con ants of the bible to the people and ami partly from the freshness of these contents when frankly put before an eager peo ie le partly from the boldness which every great revolution revo luion lulion inspires inspire ov partly from the esha esna of responsibility accompanying so greata great a task no doubt there was wag proportionally mich moch lesk lest les tes of ate ste for formula milla and sanctify d mannerism in the medium than there is now the clergy felt that the sermon was really subsidiary to the exposition of the lible bible anci ana me hie weight of the r go gospel to a great extant drowned the egotism of their th air I 1 c e but now how the clergy clerey have exceedingly little advantage over the mass of he r hearers except in n opportunities for cohe ent a udy to balance which th y have the disadvantage growing rapidly ever every y day of belonging to a class almost isola e ea d from the living I 1 though hou h a of the world they address they find fid forms of ready to their mouth which represent a world neither human nol noi divine diane but rather shadows of both blended on a common field of view a world in which the current lano lanc language gage ia is tetu by generations of verbal definition and conven dional doctrine hom lom all direct contacts with spiritual things alid and by the force of professional ional I 1 etique etiquette tte from mil cill direct contact with actual human hinga what is the remedy for th a Clear clearly lr in the girse place that clergymen should be taught to distinguish more clearl clearly and to teach laymen to broad y between their own thoughts and nd the revelation they study and explain there is nothing more c e elenous either for the priesthood hood or the people than the quasi sacred chr ch r acter i hi ill hs hagi gi e i w toa t alst aist netlon to the whole sti ea in or of words sorda aich is ue from a pulpit whether they be BO so foolish as to insult the under stan lings of all who hear hf ar or so wise as to op n and enlarge them the first ani an most obvious check to ineptitude in the pulpit i the divine arvilee pr Vilee e of away without any implied disrespect to tile the devotional berie berle serie seone which prec proceeds eeds it and the next most obvious limitation to we same ineptitude is the davine divine right on the part of the cler cier clergyman yaran of the pulpit when he haa baa noth nothing distine L to P liy ay without any jany klur blur t lur jur on his character as a devout and energetic pastor of his p ople it is some something tUng simply mon mona troa a that because a christian wishes to pray with his fellow christians he lie should be enacted to listen as a rell reli om ous duty to all the remarks of any croupier or of the I 1 bulpit for the time bein being IV at la is the result of it why in ill the f first place that more than half the preachers come to 10 belleve believe in their own remarks however foolish and wild as a part of the christian oart eart faith how should IC ibbe e oth otherwise erwis they see the same solemn demeanor demea not noi they hear no ijo sign f disse t their remarks are never questioned it is an ais unheard oi of thing for a layman to go up after serece and say that service i was inconsistent both with itself and with I 1 fact 11 as any one would not scruple to tobay say after a political or scientific or literary lecture alio llio absurd est fanatical dreams or the boldest pla I 1 iu it es are sanctified by the same apparent at tenton lenton and assent which ia is commanded by the forms of worship how can the ordinary clergyman help gliding into the unreal fancy glrst first that his lis composite com posit on is as sacred as the bible next that the bible means as little aa as his hia composition in fie vie next place the result of this factitious sacredness sacred ness nesa of bensons ceralo ns is that half the kerpl e see the this real redl inner life of the od and new tc te cament olid orid rid lid of their 0 ii it Y lily illy ough this ibis dismal bienai berni opaque thought and are i ilver tf ver stirred into brea break breaking kinf kint I 1 ng through it for themselves to dL distinguish I 1 ish v gorou porously sly siy between the blinding blin biln ding Jing dust of half their teachers r Is moral fancies and ani facts they must learn to lose dobe all sense bense of sacredness in the volume of sound issuing from the pulpit merely as such this thia they have never yet done because they flave haie never liever been taught to listen tue the same independent judgment the same freedom dom to cease ceabe to listen which they exercise in all ali oher ober cases cabes yet any a hould should a L worthy man ot of limited lisai ted capaci capacity tybe be to di c tate on infinite and eternal subjects whose gor Bor nothing on any other wil wit why are arc we to listen aa as we do every sunday wit with grave acquiescence to the most moat express stAe statements ments as to the inner scenery of elijass Eli jahs mind when he be was anler the juniper trees or the motives which induced balaam to keep balaes mess messengers eners for another night or the reason why y twelve baskets of fragments were taken up after ore miraculous feast and only seven after ano another or why A by st paul left lef t his cloak at troas orthe or the rationale of infant baptism or 01 the causes why there were no bishops once and why they were appointed for our sins or any taher 0 ther of the ma many y questions we weekly hear bear decided for us without any iny hy possibility of protest pro why are we to listen patiently patie 11 aly to all these fanciful tx ex cathedra explanations from men hose whose reasons for supporting a political candidate for parliament we should scarcely weigh A beigh at all ail and whon whom we might decline to hear upon the ethics of family lif lit surely the remedy for these things is simple the de consecration of sermons there are portions of the religious service itself which usage has sepera ed from the rest port portions ione lone wh ch ili lit edthe celebration celebia tion of the comman on have fai fat more claim on melr mery than the private opinions pinions of the officiating priest wily why not then make the he serm n what hat it ought to be a matter of or fre free C choice both in preacher and audience if this were so the preacher would only speak milen when he had something that seemed to h him im of weight and the hearer bearer would only attend when he had bad reason to expect something worth attention both would be infinite gainers by dissociating a composition of no more intrinsic value than the aspea speaker speakers k e Ps 3 0 own wn rn mind i i id from this delusive aR association with the words which breathe the wants of centuries and the acts which reveal the mind of god |