[EXTENT OF ONE MAN’S INFLUENCE.]
EVERY preacher that becomes secularized, and ceases to employ his energies in behalf of the poor, of mercy, of righteousness, of God, is an immense loss to the world. There is no calculating or estimating the difference in the condition of the world, in the day of judgment, all growing out of the indolence or indifference of one man, though he might see that he was effecting but little in his operations. Let any man of reflection select a preacher of but humble abilities, who was operating zealously in the great cause of truth only twenty years ago, and trace the effects which a finite being can clearly see have grown out of his labors, and he will be astonished to see how different the present state of society would have been, had he relaxed his energies. But, let his influence extend twenty years more, and where will be its boundaries? Let it extend one hundred years and who could compute it? But all this may be but a drop to the ocean of the vast train of influences that would all have been lost by one man failing to act his part. With this before us, is it strange that God should hold him highly accountable?
But this is not the worst case. Let a man of talent, influence and energy, fall from his station, and become an apostate and enemy, let the cause be made to bleed and suffer from his want of reputation, while he hurls back his javelins with all the malice and fury of the Prince of the bottomless pit; and then, compute the change made in the condition of the church and the world? No one, short of the Infinite Being Himself, can compute the vast number that will be seriously injured, in one century, by such a miserable being. Who, then, can tell the difference his conduct can make in the condition of the world, at the adjudication of all things? Let preachers, then, remember that they are laborers together, and that no one can be lost without an injury to all.
[PULPITS.]
WE have, in our own mind, long since repudiated pulpits entirely, as a useless, and worse than useless appendage. No work done, that we know of, with the idea of usefulness, more completely misses its aim than that of erecting pulpits in which for men to stand to preach the gospel of Christ. We have, for a long time, utterly refused to go into many of the castles we find around the country. In many houses the preacher is hoisted high in a pulpit, from twenty to thirty feet from the nearest person to him, and many of his hearers fifty and sixty feet off. This is all as irrational as it can he. If there had been a special study how to defeat the preacher, no better method than this could have been invented.
In a large house, there should be a platform some fifteen feet square and sixteen inches high, with a small table, the height of a common table, for a Bible and hymn book, which the preacher could set in front of him, if he desire it, or if not, set back against the wall. There should also be a few chairs on or about the platform for speakers, where there are several, or for persons hard of hearing. The speaker can then advance forward near enough to the people to address them effectively, and they can see him from head to foot. The floor of the house should rise some twelve inches in twenty feet. If the house is crowded, persons can then be seated all round the speaker, leaving him simply room to stand. There should be two brilliant lights back of him, near the wall, elevated a little above his head, and some ten feet apart, so as to shine down each side of him into the book before him. If the speaker desire to stand back near the wall, he can then do so; or if he prefers, as we certainly do, to stand on the front of the platform, he can have the privilege, and have room to walk about a little, which is both a relief to the speaker and audience.