PULPIT ORATORY.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2529, 13 February 1877, Page 3

PULPIT ORATORY.

Now it may be asked how it is that the parson fails to chain the attention of his auditors, while lecturers and writers invariably succeed in doing so. This fact appears all. the more strnnge from circumstance that the preacher handles those themes in which humanity generally might be expected to take the most profound interest, while lecturers and -writers often deal with topics of comparatively little moment. The query is one which it is not very easy to answer. Perhaps, however, we may not be far from the truth when we state that many men preach who are but ill-adapted to do so, but that there are comparatively few regular lecturers and writers who have not certain qualifications for their office. While a man becomes a writer or a lecturer because he has tastes which lead him in the direction . that he lakes, young men, of no great natural parts are made preachers of by the score. Every year our colleges are sending forth crowds of lackadaisical young fellows, of feeble intellectual calibre, and little strength of character. These youngsters, lacking alike experience of the world and a knowledge of human nature, are put into pulpits to instruct men and women of advanced years and extended knowledge. Naturally, the milk-and-watery homilies made of stale reflections and piety of the. manufactured-to-order type, which the striplings lisp forth, fail to impress any persons save, perhaps, a few weak-minded young ladies and others, who are disposed to believe in the semiinfallibility of the clergy, and so are prepared to recognise in a simpering young curate a person of a very interesting type. The case was different in the past, when people were willing to allow that preachers so to speak, spoke with a certain amount, of divine authority. Now, however, very few believe that preachers are any more than other men inspired.— Liberal Review.