Article July 20, 1912 Issue

FROM OUR EXCHANGES

with contributions from J. H. Jowett, M. M. Pattison Muir

[Christian Register.]

It must not be for one moment forgotten that the church is a spiritual institution, and that the object of gathering together on Sunday is to sweeten life and inspire the week's action with noble motives. A church that turns itself into a Browning association or a pastor who gives lectures on the poets will soon have a very select audience. The people need on Sunday a sort of moral bath, something to help them meet the temptations of business life and the hardships of work life with a better spirit. We believe that ten minutes' talk right from the heart of the minister to the hearts of the people will be far better than a half-hour of well-worded discussion or eloquent passages. The orator has largely lost his place, and the platform no longer gives the commanding position that it gave the minister of one hundred years ago, or even fifty. But when life speaks to life, and love speaks to love, and there is a desire to do good and not to persuade, the road is open. We sincerely believe that, whether the poet is born and not made, surely the minister is born and not made. Theological training will not do the work, but a burning heart will fit the man to reach the people in this age just as well as it ever would. Let the minister come to his pulpit charged with a simple longing for those who will hear him, and let him say what he does say simply, and they will come again.

[Living Church.]

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