CORRESPONDENCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 148, 25 June 1877, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

ABOUT LONG SERMONS. To the Editor op thb "Evekiko Mail.' Sir— A young woman who was just beginning to make her observations on life once said to me, " Have you not remarked that people blame others for the same faults which they commit themselves?" When I read "E.s" letter last- week I thought it was " much ado about nothing," or at the most " a jgreat deal of smoke with very little fire." If we are such a lazy lot that we want our clergy to do all our precii work for vs — to condense their sermons so as never to say one word more than necessary, yet to speak the whole truth without offending any one, can we not reflect, without finding fault with them, how almost impossible it is to do this even in daily conversation, and still more (as"E." has shown) when writing a letter to a newspaper? I myself prefer short practical sermons, and think they have sometimes more influence than long ones, but I fear that the shortest sermon I ever heard has had woefully little influence — namely, that of St. John, who, we are told, for several Sundays before his death only said, "Brethren, love one another." People found fault with that, and I suppose will continue to do so with whatever they hear before they begin to set their own house in order. But I must conclude, having already transgressed my own maxims.] I am, &c., Onb op the Lazy Ones. Nelson, June 23.