WE have no doubt that many professors of religion are greatly sinning, as well as disgracing and dishonoring their profession, in the manner above described. But there is one trouble in writing or publishing any thing for that class. They are beyond the reach of writers. They subscribe for no religious publications, pay for none, and read none. They read nothing, unless it be some silly love tale, book of fashion, or mere novel. They can only be reached at all through older, wiser, and better heads, and then only occasionally, and but slightly. In most instances, the slightest reference to their inconsistent lives of folly and vanity, is regarded as a mortal offence. We were threatened, not long since, with being held personally responsible for alluding to the mischief done by dancing masters, in a public discourse. It turned out that one was present, and, as if to publish himself as a live dancing master, distinguish himself and render himself as notorious as possible, immediately after the allusion to men of his calling, he cast his eye around the house, and saw all eyes upon him, when he bounced from his seat and went stamping out of the house, as if he intended trying the strength of the floor, every time he set down his foot. His profession was too sacred to be alluded to without his being insulted. Some of the people, we learned, called him Professor——! Talk of preaching for such men! of writing to reform them! They would not hear an angel from heaven, unless he would wink at their dancing. They would not hear one who would rise from the dead, unless he would wink at their sin. If they could, they would lead our fair daughters to ruin, chuckle over the feat achieved, and dance on the graves of heart-broken fathers and mothers. They are leeches upon society, sucking the very life’s blood from the veins of better people, who suffer themselves to be gulled by them, and, at the same time, grinning like a weasel while cutting the throat of a chicken, and sucking its blood.
The entire clan of amusement manufacturers, from the poor music grinder on the street, up to Barnum, are pulling down, discouraging and destroying the good built up by the hard toiling and struggles of good people. It is useless to talk of their being gentlemen, polite, or moral; their work is to pull down, to ruin, to destroy, and to sink men and women in hell. Their work is against every prayer, every exhortation and sermon; every Sunday school, church and gospel mission. We may preach and pray, toil and struggle in tears, with our hearts aching and bleeding, trying to save men, and so long as we countenance worthless and silly amusements, we shall not be successful in saving men. Not only so, but if we allow those who are determined to run their length in all these amusements, to hang upon us, they will sink us all.
[ACTIVITY IN THE MINISTRY.]
THE preacher’s life should be one of activity and industry, one of enterprise and diligence. The preacher can not be a gentleman of leisure. This is not his profession. He can not afford an hour or two every morning in primping, turning himself first this way and then that before a glass, smoothing down his hair, stroking his mustache and fitting on his attire. He can not afford another half-hour sucking an enormous cigar and filling a filthy spittoon, a thing that ought to be tolerated in no parlor, or genteel society. He should be a man of no idle habits, such as lounging upon cushions, loafing on the streets, at the corners, in shops, stores or places of business, or idleness. He should rise early, unless prevented from getting to rest sufficiently early, by preaching at night, dress himself out and out for the day in fifteen minutes, and spend at least five hours in his books. This should be a regular work, an every day work. Five hours only brings him to about ten o’clock in the morning, about the proper time to see sick persons, the poor, or any whom it may be his duty to visit. Three hours can now be devoted in this way. This brings him to one o’clock. Allow him two hours to take refreshment and rest himself. Now it is three o’clock, a good hour for him again to be among the people, where he may frequently spend two hours profitably.
If the preacher is a man of enterprise, he can have an engagement for a sermon, a lecture, a meeting for prayer, or something of the kind almost every night, either in the church, or some place in a short distance in the community, where he may be waking up some interest among the people. It is the business of the preacher to seek an opportunity for something of this kind, and have some work all the time going on round him, arresting the attention of the people, rousing them from their slumbers, setting them to thinking and working.
It is useless to stand and preach in one pulpit and wait for the people to come there, thus depending upon that wholly for saving men. We must go beyond that, find every nook and corner where a few people can be collected and preach the word to them, exhort them, persuade them and plead with them to turn to the Lord. The preacher must make it an every day work to preach. We must get in the way of preaching from house to house and from place to place, thus filling the whole land with the doctrine of the cross. We must be men of activity, perseverance and zeal, not waiting for “calls,” but penetrating the land from its center to its circumference. We must go into the field and do the work of the Lord, and the Lord will open the way and take care of us. We are anxious to see an army of zealous, powerful and enterprising young men, willing to go out into the world and convince the world of their ability and usefulness, by saving men, building up churches and extending the cause. In this way, they will soon make an opening for themselves and secure a permanent field of operation. How much more noble and manly this, than looking round for a rich church, raised up to hand by the labors of other men, where a young man can sit down with a fat salary and merely live upon the labors of those who have gone before him.