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6 HE pulpit, in our humble opinion, lacks 1 in these days neither consideration nor power, and though all the talk that there is about how preachers should preach and hew hearers should listen, can cer tainly do no harm, and may do some good. We are not sure that there is much necessity for it. “Don't send us duffers.” said the Austra lians to Mr. Spurgeon, when applying to him for a supply of young preachers from his col lege ; and if there only were an infallible mech anism by which “duffers” could be prevented from devoting them elves for life to the pulpit, or sifted out of the ranks of the ministerial pro fession, when'they have shown their quality, the grand difficulty would be vanquished. This, however, must remain a pleasing imagination, and there might be reasons suggested why a large proportion of persons, sure, sooner or later to fail in the pulpit, are likely to make preaching the business of their lives. There are few men who pass through youth without some experience of spiritual ardour, some sincere exultation and fervor in the moral nature, some glcw of ambition to be engaged in the sacred enterprise of bettering mankind: and this emotional warmth is fitted to raise the entire mental frame-work into correspond ing energy, to fill the heart with thoughts, and the mouth with words. At such periods a young man and his friends, easily persuade themselves that he will be an eloquent preach er. But though the character is not insincere; though no real deadening of feeling upon spirit ual things takes place, this fervor may prove fleeting and the vigor cf thought and luxur iance of expression dependent upon it, may vanish. In the meantime, however, the minis try may have been entered, and there may be neither the power, nor the will for no one likes to acknowledge that he has made such a mis take, to adept another calling. We have glanced at but one of many causes, which render it inevitable that there shall be failures among preachers, and which make it absurd to ex pect that all churches or mission chapels shall be filled with attentive audiences. We are in clined to think, however, that there are causes which render congregations more difficult to please, more fastidious, more impatient in the present day than at any former period. There has never, indeed, been a time when the weariness of the hearers has been unknown even whenever Puritanism was at white heat, some people complained that they were preach ed to death. But it is also true that there never was a time when so many influences entered into com petition as new. Periodical literature of the most fascinating kind, daily newspapers, circu lating libraries have sharpened the critical fac ulty of the public and blunted the mental pal ate for all but superior food. Pulpit freshness is now more difficult to pro duce than it ever was in this world, and if any advice is likely to be of any practical use to the tens of thousands who preach twice or thrice every week in the United States, it is the advice to look this fact squarely in the face and to take special measures to deal with it. The main source of freshness in expression is fervor of feeling, of this there is no doubt; it has been an admitted common-place since the days of Horace. The very same ideas, the very same words, which fall flat when a man cares little about them, strike heme to the heart when winged with intense feeling. The history of the pulpit is full of illustrations of this fact. THE GOLDEN AGE FOR JULY 3, 1913 MINISTERS OF GOD By M. H. POGSON. Mr. Moody was but one of thousands of preach ers who have found the same, or very nearly the same, sermons, which had no effect at all when delivered in a hum-drum., conventional way, become capable of moving vast congrega tions when spoken with manifest interest, and intense feeling, direct from the heart. It is chiefly, however, in an indirect way that feeling is kept fresh and keen, and the grand plan cf filling the heart with heat is to fill the brain with the fuel of ideas. We are convinced that the most fruitful of all sources of pulpit dullness is the habit of beating lazily over a few stock dogmas, a few regulation themes. The text is made a mere sounding board fcr these. When this is the case, the hollowness of the performance makes itself felt even though there is a parade of feeling and a flow of words. In the whole course of my thirty years’ ex perience I have never known of a man, who honestly made the most of his text, being an ineffective preacher. He might not have a noisy popularity; he might not draw large audiences, but he is always listened to with attention, and he, as well as his hearers, always appeared to derive satisfaction from his preaching. This is not strange. The Bible, apart from all theo ries as to its in piration, is one of the most interesting volumes in the world. It consists of an immense variety of separate books, sep arate, yet combined in real unit yand every one of those books came into existence under par ticular circumstanceln many instances, as in that of the epistles of Paul, the circumstances were profoundly impressive. To treat a scripture text therefore with hon est desire to ascertain what, when set in the light of ether texts, it means: To follow the leading lines of Gospel truth as they shine out again and again under varying modes of inspi ration; is not only a spiritually profitable but a mentally exhilarating operation. Closeness of thought, clearness of exposition, accuracy of logical deduction are naturally stimulating and pleasant to the human mind, and the Bible affords the amplest opportunity for their dis play. This, however, asks real application, honest and concentrated work, and the temp taticn is great to shirk such labor and to take some old world theological problem or formula and beat it out into goody, goody platitudes. There is another reason why frank and searching exposition of scripture may be es chewed. It is no secret that there is a class of hearers who like nothing so well as to have the dogmas and phrases long sanctioned by authority repeated, with a reasonable amount of variation, again and again and yet again. If congregations indulge this humor, if they always suspect heresy when the preacher says anything to which they are not accustomed and have not been accustomed since childhood; they di an injustice both to themselves and their pastor. They make it impossible for the lat ter to avail himself of the floods of light which have within the last century been thrown upon the Scriptures and they condemn themselves to the wearisome reiteration cf formulas which other generations believed to be commensurate with the whole truth of God, but which as suredly were not so. As a practical hint, the advice sometimes given to preachers to dwell on particular moral failings, seems to us to be a good one. Prudence no doubt is necessary, but a pastor is bound to have an eye fcr the besetting sins of his locality or audience, and to know how to hit them. Though offense will be taken in some instances, the gain will on the whole outweigh the loss. The poet is enjoined by the critic to instruct his readers, or to smile or weep, which ever he pleases, “anything but sleep,” and the preacher who does not confine himself to the denun ciation of those abstract iniquities, in respect of which we may declare ourselves miserable sin ners for forty years without the faintest mean ing, but attacks such real and rampant vices as evil speaking, rancorous envy, purse pride, tippling and petty dishonesty, will at the worst,, have no trouble from drowsy indifference in his congregation. The duty of restitution has, it seems, been made at rare intervals the subject of discourse and on one occasion, it is said, a rousing sermon by Mr. Moody produced SIO,OOO of conscience money for the secretary of the treasury. This, suggestion would obviously meet with the ap proval of our national government, and if our leading preachers could be induced to deliver a series of pulpit orations in accordance with this idea, in New York and Brooklyn, a hand some surplus might be the result. It would be advisable, however, not to announce the theme of the reverend orator in advance, for in that case some of the richest members of the con gregation might stay at home on account of sudden indisposition. The present is an outspoken age. Whatever the public mind thinks it will express. It will have no reservation and no concealment. Os late it has been expressing it 3 mind pretty free ly on church questions and religious matters, and, among other things, serious charges have been preferred against the modern pulpit. Min isters have been denounced as inefficient, and their preaching tame and profitless. This ques tion has been largely canvassed in newspapers and magazines, but it is still questionable whether any clear case has been made out. GRUNTS AND GROANS. By A. C. Ward, D. D. The great Pennsylvania railroad system has adopted a sure way of testing the efficiency of its men. All train crews are required to sub mit to a breath-smelling . test to determine whether liquor has been drank. The “ultimat um” is “anyone having the odor of liquor on his breath will be suspended or discharged.” Petitions for a state-wide vote on a bill pro hibiting the shipments of liquors into “dry” territory are now being circulated in all parts of Ohio. What the Webb law means amongst the states the Ohio law proposes to do between its counties. The New York Eveniirg Journal put a whis key bottle at the head of a grave and a glass at the foot, and says “This is the most ex pensive tombstone in the world.” In the North Dakota state penitentiary there are only three women prisoners. Until recently there was only one. This condition is said to be due to “No saloons.” The state has a very low percentage of “lew-character” women. The people of Arkansas believe that next Jan uary they will practically be free from saloons. Instead of the people petitioning to get the sa loon out, the saloons will have to beg to come in. Best of all, the women wil Ibe permitted to have a say so in the matter.