I
y THE WEST SHORE.
L ,M-itio of the scriptures. They vision of things spiritual and divine; a
, un.lon.Und that, underlying this mind wholly m accord w th the mind 0
thing called a creed, there is a spiritual the Master. A ery few of such men but
hfe, the nature of which is intended to imagme that they are m full and unin
'to csr ote, in ita daily existence, terrnpted imm of all these supcri
amfthey want this as the spiritual food or qualifications. The imagination is
from the pulpit. Spiritual Christianity fearfully and wonderfully made in such
in.-n something, an.l the w holders men. When they come into the pulpit,
ant it pruned and presented. It will their measure is accurately taken by an
U niKl'nUl that a demand like thi?, intelligent auditor. They are either long,
and one that is gaining strength each dry and insufferably dreary; they are
year, will htit out from the work of the loud and muscular and essay the dra
minifttry, the hundreds of men, who, matic; they attempt high sounding words
judging them from their work in the and phrases; or they have gathered from
pulpit, and their daily lives, have en- the scatterings of the so-called evangel-ten-d
it a an occupation, merely, some- ist for the occasion. In the last case, it
thing that yields them a living, easy in is the amateur's endeavor to be sensa
ra, n nd which may lo entered or aban- tional. It generally amounts to a brief
don!, juitt as the individual chooses, literary strut. Some of these gentlemen
(ienerallj shaking, the ministry has in black have an idea that the modern
!een accepted as one of the learned pro- mind has, in them, come to its fullest
feMious, but the conditions of the work and best, when, as a matter of fact, and
have lvn of such an attractive nature so far as concerns the ideal modern min
that a good many men have become ister, there is very little mind at issue,
ccupanta of the pulpit, who, so far They talk, talk; yet they say nothing.
m scholarly attainment are concerned, They pile up words enough, but there
hare no fitness whatever for the work of is not the faintest clue to a ruggsd, hon
preaohing. Almost every reader of this est, manly thought, to which thinking hu
artJcl can recall the names of such men manity can cling. They have no knowl
in b immediate neighborhood. Some edge of what we call the finer sensibili
.f them may have a couple of Da affixed ties of the spiritual nature, and which
U the,r name but in thee case, it is a are sensitive only to the touch of spirit-cheap-John
aftar, for which the faculty ual genius.
-id u zUT" ,hrrioDofthe p
chant and cnend biuineTm ? dh&S f men of this character, this in-
cut no figure, except where the ,nte t " u " 6ffeCtiv6 tt Ught
tionismUeupof iple who are bei n t CntiDue8 to admit
land the age; though in the midst of it Jr . PP08 of
Th l.mei;Uble, ia thU caae i. , a gH CCUrring darin the past year,
tm-r the lack of scholarly attain! T -?g man Was wtod during a
-1 the neW MSS T " thi9 1688
oii-tw, than the almoat entire .K? &fter that incident, it was
c!er spiritual iUncU a hearTt T that he WM to Hia
Pure, acd reopUre 0f pW thiV P this chanSe' had that of
the ,XfjUfcioo of 5 y gj to a young man of ordinary business. H
' tW M no hool training of any particular