THE MODERN PREACHER.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16384, 15 May 1915, Page 15

THE MODERN PREACHER.

TO the editob. Permit me to lii&Dt you for your V,-ell-merited] tribute to the distinguished ' Jmnißtry of the Rev. W. Saunders in this city, and youir sympathetic reference in the \ course of that tribute to the work of the ' X 0! 6111 P reac " er - Imi inclined to think that you are even more than sufficiently sympathetic _ when you characterise "the faithful minister's .profession" as " increasi mgly arduous and- toilsome," for with all difficulties -we of that profession take more delight in it than, -we oould in any other. So often, however, are'we the object of quite other sentiments than sympathy that one is not disposed to object,to a shade of excess in the grateful experience. What moves me-to a word of criticism of your article is your. including—and, indeeti, placing first—among the causes of the modern preacher!s difficulties "the high educational standard of the occupants of the pews.'' No statement could more completely belie my own experience of more than a quarter of a century, as an Australasian minister. It is the (of course, from a religious, theological, Biblipal point of view) low educational 6tandaacl of the occupants of the pews that has been the trouble. One can say without exaggeration that a congregation of Scottish ploughmen in former days put the preacher more on his mettle intellectually than would the most fashionable congregation now among ourselves. I am not, of course, reflecting upon/ the general intelligence _of our modern congregations, nor forgetting! that in range of education they, ate superior' •to their fathers; what I have in mindi is their capacity—or, at least, inclination—for anything, l like deep and sustained thought and their knowledge of the sources of such. thought on the most important and practical Questions with which the mind of man can deal, and to deal with which adequately the modern preacher has, in 'many cases, passed through a long and elaborate training. . Nothing can be more i disheartening to a conscientious preacher of high intellectual as well' as eoiritual ideals than the mental shallowness and impatience so prevalent in modern congregations. He finds that his bast efforts are " over the heads " of the majority of his hearers, and in his desire to influence for good as many ae possible is fain to givo liis third or fourth beet—a far from- stimulating or even elevating course of action. One is always hoping for better things, and there are signs that better things are coming; but the state of matters which I have indicated- has for at least a generation been no mere academic fancy, 'jut-an impediment in our work, of which we have always been somewhat, and not seldom painfully, conscious. I can assure you, Sir, that many of us would draw a deeD sigh of relief if it came to pass Hat "the high educational standard of the occupants of the constituted a prominent' difficulty ,in our profession. The intellectual stimulus/ of such a 6tate of matters would gjvo a'zest to the hardest toil such as at present is too often lacking.—l am, etc., Presbtteb Scotictjs. May 13.