OCCASIONAL NOTES.

Southland Times, Issue 90124, 25 January 1886, Page 2

OCCASIONAL NOTES.

(From the Weekly Times.) * Professor Salmond delivered an addreaß on Sermons and-'Preabhiqg at the opening of the Synod, and a very good address it was. He said that though the subject was hackneyed enough, it was yet of'perennial interest and importance. 1 Though there is samewhat of a reaction at present against the pulpit, or I should perhapg rather say against long prosy, dogmateal sermons, preaching is not likely to go 0ut,. .0f fashion for a good *h le yet. Apropos 'of this tempo, rary reaction the Professor gave the foN lowing life-like sketoh of the good old preaching times in Scotland i—

♦• It is among the traditions of our Ohoroh and country to attach high value to the sermon, and to put a strong emphasis on the functioa of preaching as the chief aotivity of the miiii»ter'B lip. We were all trained with our eye fix d on the pulpit, and iti«, in many cases, the light shining from some pulpit that kindles in youthful minds the first passion for the ministerial office." To be a minister has been widely understood as synonymous with being a «ermbn writer and a preacher, Kveiything has been arranged so as to fire our ambition to excel in the pulpit, Popular election acts like an intimation that, let a man have all the qualifications in the world b sides, he will be held of no account with* out the gift of effective pulpit elocution, Scarcely ever is an ordination held but the joung man is warned, whatsoever he neglects, not to neglect the sermon, and the people warned to be moderate in all other demands, in order to retain the right to be inexorable in the demand for thoroughly good preach* ing. The watchword, in short, has been, 'JBlequent, powerful, Gtosptl sermons'— 'preaching, above all things preaching, 1 • Ohurcbeß are built that men may preach,' Truly wonderful, and in some of its aspect! even impressive, has been the eagersen of the demand of the Scottish mind for the effective sermon, and also the enthusiasm, aad even reverence, for the man who at all ap« preached their ideal and met the hunger of their minds. Emphatically our fathers went to church In order to .hear the Harmon, and the; liked it elaborate, loDg, thoroughly pre* pared—visibly evoking all the force ot the preacher's body, soul, and spirit. So fixed were their minds on the discourse that the devotional part of the seivice was often viewed as only a preliminary exercise, the main business starting with the asooacement of the text Being a member of the Church was ppoken of as 'sitting under 1 euch and sack, a man , for the church wa9 for inifcruotion-** a place for a pnlpit, not for an altar, The; church was often indeed, only a leoture hall, in which men heard favourite orators di«l couwf, and tbe only question afterwards put or answered was, ' How did you like him ?"»

I fancy Dr Salmond made rather tod much of the » severity of the competitioo to which the pnlpit is now exposed,' 1 and that he even went very Dear expressing a decided misapprehension of the Bubjectj The sermon he says "ie heavily handicapped by the newspaper} the religion periodicals, the poets, and the novelists/ Tbis at anyrate soands Very like a mie« apprehension, as also the following! «• We cannot, in short, hide from ourselves the fact that we have to addreea audiencei fastidious, critical, and semi-sceptical, while at the same time active, alive, and susceptible as never before.'' Now, not to say that the old Scotch audiences" which the Professor bad just so vividly recalled were even more critical than ordinary aadiences of the present day, and qnite aa active and susceptible, as they were most certainly unspeakably superior in biblical and theological knowledge, it must be clear to the meanest Understanding that if the Gospel is still the Gospel— i.e. some* thing different in kind from what is to be found in novels, or poetry, or phil* osophy, or science, or in what is nowa days called culture, wbicb, as far as I oan make out, means a of every* thing well mixed and flavoured with the tincture of priggism— it must be quite as easy to preach in the nineteenth century as it was in the first. But if the preacher wants to be anything better than soiauting brass or a tinkling cymbal he must preach the Gospel — this something different from all other things—and not bis own poor thoughts, however fine and philosophical he may think them, about the Gospel. It is this custom (this vile custom, as Professor Salmond would say), too prevalent I am told, even in the gttid and godly Presbyterian Kirk, that lowers the influence of the pulpit. If the preacher puts himself in competition with the jonr* nalist, the novelist, the litterateur, the poet, ani the philosopher, ho is sure to fail. There are a f ei* silly people, mostly iv town congregations (rastica have more sense), who like what is called literary preaching, but the bulk of chorch.goefa are above soch folly. I'd sooner "sit under" a downright ranter, or a Salvationist, than under your literary preacher; Hia very literature is for the most part as boor as his ffOßpel - a tawdry copy of the fashion of the hour as it is found in magazines, re« view?, and other suchlike productions* St, Paul knew a wrinkle or two, and he did not preach with enticing— or what, if he had been a small literary preacher, he frould have considered the enticing-»wordß of man s wisdom ; and when he talked about peop'e being saved by the footidhnastt of preacldnfh I rather think he didu't mean foolish preaching— a distinction which t comraend'to, and Which ought to be deeply pondered by, all 60-called literary preachers, But though Professor SalmoncC seemed for a moment to be on the wrqn£ tack, ho soon found his course and came swim* mingly into port, as the following will show;—

Still there seems to me no reason for taitog a despairing vie w of our function. The dead letter of books can never ba a rival to the Uwpf re|?e, rep^yciog lbs ibongh* &%

jMwsion of a living mind. -The Gospel is a living well-sprine, and surcharged with a secret force of its own, to which neither poetry nor philosophy care to lay claims The tree minister is girt about with a powoderived from his official position and hiw persona' character, from his labour of lov • i i the homes of the people, from the Word -t God, and lheneyer- with-held spirit of the Invisible, tort', and for these things elocution

is no sobMiUiU 1 , and talent no equit alenr: Helps of all kind abound, as never before ; * and, indeed, for that matter, crntcbe*,' too, for inch as need them. There is no reason for despair, excepting in the case of the man vwhoveheait prompts him to me the pulpit . for Bflf-difipUy, whose trust is only in b<s own talents and gifts of elocution, who is only a spoutcr and a pulpiteer, superior to drndgery and the bumble offices of unreqnitted ministering love. Such men will probably be, to an alarming degree, failures ; and the sooner the better, for the very idea of the pnlpit has not yet got ' possession of . bis mind, nor haY the spirit of the pastoral office once entered his heart ,

In reading'these sentences one quito forgets * the Profepadr's vilification of JSIr . PowniC Stoart's law, and almost wishes, with Dr Stuart, that he had not been tempted to forsake theology, for the barren field of .- metapheesica., x r ■■ .-.==■■, - ;

Speaking of Dr Staatt reminds me that the venerable pastor of Knox church had ; rather a bad time of it at the Synod this , year. He came in for a good many Pree- '■ by teria% blows and koocks, far more I am sore than ho* deserved. That " bnrly Pres- ,,. byt«r of J3*st Taieri " is a terrible fellow, and evidently no i respectbr of persons, ' k ■■■> trne member of the chorch militant, and the Rev. Mr Ry ley's beau ideal— if such a dilettante phrase can be used In such a ' connection— of a heroic ! defender of the faith. It ia long, since I have met with anything so deeply affecting in the ecclesiastical line as Ihe remarks made by the minister of Port Chalmers in support of Mr Will's motion— that Dr Copland should : be recpmmeßrded'fdr^ tße'vacant University •chair. He said, If he had a hundred votes h« would, givol, them all in favour of; Mr Will's motion— (Applause). After his grand speech in the morning he (Mr By ley) felt his old love for him and admiration—(laughter)—rekindled. He felt a warmth towards him that he had not felt for many years. — (Renewed laughter). There was really a ring about Mr Will's speech tbat did his heart good— (more . laughter)— and he could not help thanking '• God that one of the fathers arid founders of the Church had remained so true and loyal to her interests." Bat this redoubtable hammerer of heretics was all the same,

not over courteous to Dr Stuart, who -is certainly no heretic—'Unleßs it be rank . to say a {kind i word for the poor "(Agnostics" of the : Otago University. At one stage of the c■. appointment dißCUßsion the Doctor had to ' protest agßinßt the liberties taken with his name by bis ancient Taieri friend, and at a later stage he complained bitterly of the usage he had received in other respects. Twice at least he had been sat upon by the ■-. Moderator— bad actually .been forbidden - ■ t«* open ;his mouth. No wonder the good -■- Doctor haß taken a " scunner" at the Synod. On Wednesday last hfr>ssid "it wars with great reluctance that he rose to speak in that Synod. He supposed age was beginning to make him more nervous than he used to be> but after the manner in which be had been treated there that year he had been almost silenced, and had almost resolved tb make bis appearance at tHat Synod his last appearance there. ■_.■ He must Bay that he felt very much the way in which he had been taken to task about opening: bis mouthy on that matter." This is sad indeed, but now: that the hurly-burly is over, now that the ." Agnostics " have been diddled; by the i Synod, and thai the Moderator haß got the chair in spite of Dr JBtaart, who natnrally wished to keep him , amongst the faithful, lejj us hope there will be apologies and reconciliations all round, and that when January, 1887, pu i s in an appearance Dr Stuart, and Mr Will, and Mr Bannenhan, and all the rest of the Synod's warriors will assemble together again in the best possible hhumourr r and ready, if neoessary, for another scrimmage . By the w^y, what did Dr Stuart mean by saying that the reason why he did not take his r degree : was "because he unfortunately Buffered expulsion from his JJni veraity ." 1 remember the Doctor telling the people Of Duoedin that he had played some wild pranks in his boyhood on the slopes of Ben Nevis. This was in excuse of the larrikin tendencies of the colonial youth, for Dr Stuart's kTtti heart 'would prompt him to ■ay a good word even for the pair auld deil himsel 1 . But I was really surprised to hear that ho had been expelled from bis University. Gould it have been for taking Aold Clootie'd part in some unpardonably unorthodox fashion ? BtJSTICOS.