sermon. There is such a variety of aspects in which truth may be presented, so different a complexion does it take in passing through different minds, that a good minister will glean something instructive from about every sermon which he may hear. I have often felt myself deeply interested and profited by a sermon which embraced perhaps not a single fact or thought but such as had long been familiar to my own mind. The mode of presenting its truths and the spirit and unction with which they were enforced, baptized the sermon into_Christ and blessed it to my soul's edification. And I have usually found it to be the case that clergymen, older and better and more experienced than myself, are quite as apt to be interested in an ordinary pulpit effort as are those who are not so far advanced as they in the wisdom that cometh from God.

These facts would seem to indicate that very much depends on the temper, the spirit, or the disposition of those who hear; that the more truly good and devout the mind and the heart are, the more attractions will be found in every pulpit effort which is at all respectable.

Now if this is really the case in regard to preachers; if, as a general thing, they can derive some profit or instruction from even an ordinary sermon, must we not infer that its failure to impart information is not the principal reason for its being so unattractive to the most enlightened and best educated portions of society?

It should be borne in mind here also, that there is still a very large proportion of every community who are comparatively ignorant on most religious subjects; whose ideas, so far as they have any, are vague and unformed, and to whom the pulpit is still a most necessary means of assistance. Indeed, if we take these alone, and connect with them only those of our children and youth who are old enough to be instructed, we might have enough to fill, twice over, every church through the length and breadth of the land.

While such as these continue to exist, the pulpit can never become unnecessary, even as an agent in teaching; and ought, for this reason if there were no other, to be sustained even by those who can find in its ministry nothing instructive for their own minds. It should likewise

be remembered, that this is but one office of th after all. Doubtless it is one of its most impor: poses, but not its only one. The church is a p worship, as well as for teaching; and, in Protesta standing or falling with the pulpit, is the public a of God.

Another reason for the present comparative larity of the pulpit, may be found in its new r lecture-room. This, I have no doubt, has helped from it some of its former attractions, and lessen t lic interest in its ministry. Courses of popular pub tures are now common to almost every town and throughout the whole land. They enlist some finest specimens of talents and eloquence which the try can furnish. None but such indeed could proper for any great degree of success in this work. Men w celebrated as brilliant writers, and fine speakers, up now as a regular business affair; and it is not u mon for some of the more popular among them, I b to lecture in some forty or fifty different places p in a single season.

They choose the most favorable topics from the domain of art, science, philosophy, and morals; almost every department of study and of thought, s ing such as will most readily and deeply excite the p attention. As a general thing, but a single lectu prepared in the year; the writer gives to it all the and care that he can wish; he repeats it whereve goes, rendering it familiar to his own thoughts, and t fore doubly effective in delivery. Under these cir stances the production is one of a high order, and captivating influence upon the public mind. Now w a community has listened to a series of these effort twelve or fifteen successive weeks, as is often the c how very tame and dull comparatively must the ordin discourses of a Sunday appear! If the people are s ing only for intellectual gratification, or a pleasant me stimulus, and this doubtless is chiefly what many after, both in the church and the lecture-room,-the mon will probably seem a heavy and uninteresting af to them. The ordinary Sabbath discourse cannot comp with the lecture in these respects.

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Unless favored by exchanges, the minister must prepare two, at least, every week; many of them must be upon topics of no great popular interest; vicious habits, tastes, and inclinations, must be combatted in the hearer, rendering the effort still less palatable,-for wholesome counsel is somewhat like medicine, very necessary to be taken, though not very pleasant to take; and the sermon must sometimes be prepared too in the midst of a press of other cares and duties, domestic and parochial; very possibly when "the head is sick and the heart is faint"; and under these circumstances, I have often wondered, except in the case of some remarkable man, how the average of pulpit efforts should be equal in interest to what they are. Certainly these facts should be taken into the account, not only when estimating the demands which can properly be made upon the ministry, but especially when considering the attractions of the pulpit. If I am asked how it is, that some of the most popular lecturers are themselves clergymen, and not only celebrated in the former office but equally so in the latter, I can only reply that, by great natural endowments, such as God confers alone upon a chosen few, constituting the nobility of his intellectual empire,-aided perhaps by attainments that are hardly possible to any others,-these are exceptions to the common rule, and must be so regarded. The mass of the ministry, at any rate, can never hope to rival them, and ought not to be expected to do so.

Alluding to the lecture and the lecture-room in this manner, I wish carefully to avoid being misunderstood. I would not have these done away with, or perhaps essentially altered. In many respects they have been of very great benefit to society, and their rivalry of the pulpit has been merely an incidental evil, for which they are not to be condemned, but which could not nevertheless be wholly overlooked in a paper of this character. It is, in this matter, very much as it has been in years past with what was known as Revivalism. A celebrated ranter would go into a society and get up a 66 protracted meeting." He would be a very popular and effective speaker. His handful of discourses would be mainly prepared before hand, and by the time he had gone through with these;

having previously repeated them until they were u ally familiar, exciting, and powerful, the people wou heartily sick of their dozy old pastor and very likel up an indignation meeting and turn him away dir After having tasted pepper, how could common fo tolerated? It would not be pungent enough. I can several instances of which this is a literal history very similar influence has been exerted by the led upon the pulpit,-very innocently to be sure, but ne less really; and after listening to his attractive and liant performance, it is with far less relish that the p sit down to an ordinary ministerial entertainment o Sabbath.

It may be mentioned, also, that the pulpit has, especially, still another more formidable rival in press. Reading, in this age, is about the cheapest our luxuries. A man can obtain all that he wishes little trouble and at a nominal cost. With our weekly, monthly, and quarterly issues, added to a unnumbered books, pamphlets, and other publicat every nook, corner, and cranny of society is full to flowing. There is enough, and more than enough every one; and if a person were to read all the he could hardly devour a twentieth part of it. the increase of general enlightenment, the public demands a greater supply of reading matter; and increased supply in return has stimulated and sharp the public appetite, until some considerable amoun each person is regarded to be as necessary almost a daily food. Occasionally a new book, with some o daily and weekly papers, and probably a magazin two, will be found on the tables of most of our fam even of the poorer classes. If we then take into account the fact that the greater portion of our popula are daily laborers at some kind of industrial employn that many of them use up the intervals of business h in domestic or other duties, it will be seen that the little opportunity left them for reading except on Sun and how very natural it is that they should seize that time for the purpose, and leave the poor preach utter his homily to naked pews! In many of t publications, book and periodical, they find a gre

interest and attraction than they can in an ordinary sermon; and unless the preacher is a remarkably popu lar man, or has announced some very exciting topic for discussion, the book, the magazine, or the paper, will be chosen in preference to the pulpit effort.

Chiefly on this account, it has now become a common thing, especially in New York and Philadelphia, to get out, in the Saturday papers, attractive notices of taking subjects of preachers that will be exhibited on the following day. It is thought to be about as necessary in insuring a large congregation, as a similar advertisement would be to crowd the theatre or the circus. I cannot but think that this practice generally is in bad taste, that it argues a morbid and unhealthy state of the public mind, and that where it is adopted, except on some very peculiar occasions, it tends slowly to defeat its own object, inasmuch as when no particular preacher or subject is mentioned, the inference is that nothing which deserves much attention is to be expected.

I ought not to omit the mention here of still another cause of the decline of pulpit attractions, viz: an allengrossing, and, if possible, increasing devotion to worldly affairs, chiefly money-getting. I believe that there are more valuable riches in the Bible than in California, but the latter will find ten miners probably where the former will get one. There is a growing and dangerous mania in regard to this matter. Men love distinction, as well as pleasure. And in a free government like ours, where European notions of caste are nominally prohibited, the disposition which has instituted its orders of nobility there, finds activity here in the attainment of wealth, and seeks to build up a sham aristocracy by the prestige and power of great riches. This may not furnish the sole motive in any case; it may not be even a leading motive with all; but that it is a prominent one with many can hardly be doubted. The whole tone of their deport ment and habits indicate it. If they cannot gain legal titles and honors, they will strive for the position and influence which these give through the over-shadowing greatness of gold. Pleasure, too, is to be purchased with its gratification for the appetites, and indulgence for all sensual lusts. Many regard these as the most desirable