WHAT THE CHURCHES ARE DOING.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 14275, 10 February 1912, Page 11

WHAT THE CHURCHES ARE DOING.

IS THE PULPIT DOOMED ? Church circle in the Old Country are considerably perturbed about an "extraordinary pronouncement on the inrt of an ox-d»airmah of the Notts Un-roKational l"n«©n. A- violent controversy has arisen, ami the echoes of the conflict hare .reached Sydney. It - ; ,, rh« o!<l coftipJ-"" 1 irom tho pew libubj* tho pulpit, and it asks anew t!ie ftiiestfou".: Jh the pulpit doomed? ,- *'„. sermons of real value 'i Is preaching effptc-' The 'Presbyterian" gives eiich a most emphatic negative for ti'.e Scottish pulpit has always Wn a great, if not the greatest, power L in-Srotlaii'J. Tho charge tbat the ser4 V-ino» » I^ 1 "K '*»' f° rce I,as often been hoard within tho Church of England, only to bo refuted by eloquent divines. •" Tit t> time the indictment is most om- " pbatic:— "I have l>?en calculating," Mr W. B. BajrsaJey, J. P.. said, ''that during the blxiv years that I have attended church, I have had COOO sermons preached inio mc. What good have "they done mc, or what good have they done otliors? Not that much," added ' ' Mr IlagEalcy, contemptuously, waving n piece , of blank paper. "Fewer sermons iihd more work is what is wanted , There are too many sermon* and eerand too littje real Christian work among the poor and outcast.' , Xo orie is likely to combat the statement that more Veal Christian work is noeded (s:iys the ''Sydney Morning --Hernlrl"). but the condemnation of the pulpit :r regarded as too sweeping and trfo w'-irmistic'to be taken seriously. It in preaching that supplies the incentive 'and the iunirat/on for Christian work When one reads the lives of Wesley, 'Knos, Whitefield, Spurgeon, Moody, Ttootlu Ward' Beecher. Canon Liddon, ami Jowett, and scores of other ineptred' preachers, there remains the conviction of the spiritual efficacy of the pulpit. It was the fiimple preaching tliat founded the Church, and that wetended- its influence abroad over tho ..world.

NEWS AND NOTES FOR PULPIT AND PEW,