LONG OR SHORT SERMONS.

North Otago Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4070, 28 September 1885, Page 4

LONG OR SHORT SERMONS.

+ An editor recently addreseed to several clergymen a query ub to the rlcsirable length of sermons. The replies, which wero duly published, cannot be said to settle thu vexed question. The Episco palian who, amongst others, was nskccl, "Do you boliove in loiif,' or short sormous," ropliod, "Short eornicnp, by all meano. Less preachii)!/, more praying, moro worship. Mine houso shall be called a houso (/f prayer, never ;i houso of preaching." Tho l'reshyteriau ropliod, •* That the avotago sermon of ihe average miiiinlor had better bo thirty miiiutoß long than forly. Sermons should Uut bo mado to tho yardstick, for all themes cannot bo handled with the mini© brevity." The Methodist believed in long and short sermons. The Baptist, in a lengthy reply, confessed that for years he had mado this same subject a matter of special study and observation. Ho thus Bums up tho roßults of his experionco: "As a rule, the lees a man has to say tho longor he takos to do it. I am fully persuaded that, stivo in very exceptional instances, whatever olao a oermon is about, it ought to bo abnut halfan-hour. I know men, otherwise gifted, who are failures in tho ministry, becauso they hit the nail on tho head tho flrßt time, and then keep hammering till they split the board." These replies, if they establish auything, show that sermons Bhould be weighed rather than measured. Satire is a sort of glass, where beholders generally discover everybody's face but their own— which is the chief reason for that kind of reception it meets in tho world, nnr] thnt so very few aie offended with it' —Sirift. Young Lady: "And how is Johnny getting on at the new school, Mrs Scatterpole?" Mrs Scatterpole : "Oh, beautifully, my dear I He's learning six languages-French, German, Latin, Greek, Algebra, and Kuc'.id !" "Lend me your earahiinute," remarked Mrs Brown to her husband, the other evening. » Will you give it back to me „ lie enquired, with mock anxiety " A r course I will, you idiot ; do you suppo S( r T want to start a tannery ?'» She got t b