HOW NOT TO PREACH.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8992, 29 November 1907, Page 3

HOW NOT TO PREACH.

One- of the most interesting addresses- delivered at the recent Congress at Yarmouth was *'<vjkat of Sir Squire Bancroft on "The 4mxt of Reading and Preaching." The famous actor's address drew the largest gathering of the Congress, and his severe criticisms of clerical evolution were received with loud applause. He said that when he called to mind the care and money spent on the splendid choral services in cathedrals, and the pains taken to acquire the skill to chant the Litany melodiously, he asked in wonder, why the same labour and money were not spent in teaching young clergymen how to read. He had been ptruck with amazement at glaring instances of false emphasis in the dull recital of the Order for Morning Prayer, a sublime monument of learning and piety which should be spared sucli treatment. He had listened to the tales of the death of Absalom, the death of Jezebel Daniel in the lion's den, and the Prodigal's return, told as if these moving stories were little more dramatic than so many stale problems in Euclid. "I have heard the death chapter, from the Corinthians droned and mouthed, even in the warning presence of the King of Terrors, as to make the hallowed bones of the Apostles who bequeathed it to humanity turn in their restingplace." Why were so many clergymen apparently ignorant of the power of nacuralness? Why were they simple, unaffected, and delightful companions six days in the week and artificial on the seventh, inviting, "it might be, their congregations to attend some meeting or harmless amusement in a sing-song voice, with mournful intonation, well calculated fr\ to keep everyone away. Good sermons were forgotten simply because they were badly delivered. Every curate shiuld pass an examination before he was allowed to mount a pulpit, for a bad preacher would empty a church more easily than a good preacher would fill one." "Oh, there are preachers I have heard preach—-and heard others praise, and thitt highly—not to speak it profanely, who neither had the accent of Christian, pagan, nor man, they imitated humanity so abominably." The amusing feature of the address was that parts of it could not be heard. The speaker spoke of the need of the clergy making themselves cieary heard, and forgot to speak up himself. Needless to say, his hearers enjoyed the joke immensely.