Article November 1, 1913 Issue

From Our Exchanges

with contributions from R. J. Campbell, J. H. Jowett

[The Christian Register]

The modern minister in a large parish cannot be what the old parson was to a small group. We must respect that sturdy ideal which has disappeared, though we have rejected many of his doctrines and are unconvinced by his logic. In our mind's eye we can see him in the plenitude of his power, thundering from the pulpit with a voice of authority that is now seldom heard in our modern churches. Then the church was the great binding influence of the community; now it is only one of the many enticements and interests and opportunities life presents, and oftentimes the weakest. The sermon that once was the great motive power is now only onw of the attractions that cause people to enter the door of the sanctuary.

A great tenderness has grown up toward the listener and the pewholder. He must never be bored by long, dull discourses, but always considered and pampered, whereas in the old days he was made to endure hardness to the point of suffering. He often sat for hours in a cold meeting-house, and if perchance he fell into a gentle doze, he was rudely awakened by the beadle. Non-church attendance was severely punished in the early days, even to the point of imprisonment and fine. When we consider our luxurious modern churches, so perfectly warmed and lighted, and the difficulty there often is in inducing people to enter them in large numbers, we can appreciate what the church really meant to the devout souls of early colonial times.

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