SERMONS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3420, 28 January 1890, Page 2

SERMONS.

''Baron'Alde'rson when asked'what he thought the .proper length of a sermon answered—" Twerityminutcs with a loaning, to the side of mercy." The merciful side, it need not be stated; was in the direction indicated by nineteen:; and; noli by. twenty-one minutes, Still, the opinion of Bacon Aldersou. Some folks have ; ah.insatiable appetite for sermons, and in the possession of this graving the Sootoh Presbyterians 'are'■supposed, to the preeminence. Sermons of an hour-aud-a-half long have been known to be listened to with avidity, bat whether or not this patient hoaring [arises, from a delight' taken by the listener in tho exercise of the critical faculty i he believes himself to possess, and a lively lookout for any symptom of laxity or unsoundness in the matter of dogma,' is doubtless matter for reflective investigation^: Tho instance of the old lady'who wistoldithat she believed only herself and the minister were in a,sound condition-as. to.; the dootnneand:who,replied that she was "whiles no sae 1 sure about the meehistdr,"seemstolendcolourtothis theory of a passion for criticism'. But we fear that the majority , : of people; attending Divine Service are more of the opinion of Baron Alder-, son than of the'long-suffering-or severely critical—Scotch'. Presbyterian; and it .is matter' of notoriety that unless a man is and powerful, or,a famous-preaeher—-not always the : same th.ing-r his popularity as a preacher is in inverse ratio to the length of his sermons. One reason for this is undoubtedly the.fact that the sermon is ho : longer necessary as a source of information as it'.used to be.' The people "lip now not onjy/tlip daily press, which' gives, them news and intelligent comment on that: newty but they have also,a large supply of well-.opnduoted religious magazinos in which, if they' are' not of a severely oritioalturn of Wind, they can have their : thinking' on religious matters, done for them without going, ;to;hear'a sei'loion. Moreover! if tho 'writer should become a. trifle dull.heniay be laid aside and resumed at another time, while the. same relief cannot well be obtained: from « tedious oral discourse. Of course there x Die riot many men who, ap, born .orators,either on religions' or any other' subje'cts.men who can expresß'Huoughts that bre&the'! in!! words 1 that burn,^:' : whocandressin-language at .once forcible j attractive, and tobb;remembeted, 'the ideas they wish to oouvey' to their audience, accompanied by the

a,S3urance of .earnestness and oonvic- • tion ■'; and .not' all the men who have: 'pan faculty enter the Church. When Buoh a man is met with his sermons j will rarely ba complained af as being too long. Tharo never was a'time whon the Church possessed an abler, more thoughtful,- more earnest, or more conscientious ministry than she possesses at presenter when sermons^ — taken as a whole, were perhaps better worthilistehingjto.'But thVfaot Mill■/•' remains th!^ who have not the gif™ eloquenceln r "?' its Bimplest,and,most literiTsenser,; ',, 'that of i' forffardlyl-Yorksliife'Post; k: ' x ' ,A