efforts, we confidently hope for better things here in the near future; but I am still young in the ministry, and therefore have, as is often the case with young ministers, only a limited, a very limited, library of my own, and what is worse, I have no access to a large library. Now there is within the limits of my parish a strong element of "Spiritualists;" several of the leading ones have been to hear me preach repeatedly, and have requested me to come and preach for them in a schoolhouse in their district. In conversation with one of them recently, he made the remark to me: "Well, it is the duty of you ministers to instruct us if we are wrong. If you let me know one week in advance, I will insure you a full house."

I promised him I should try to preach for them some time in the future; but, of course, I cannot do this "intelligently" unless I am pretty well conversant with the principles of “Spiritualism;" and in my small library there is no authority on Spiritualism.

Will not some good fellow-worker in the ministry, who has access to a comprehensive library, have the kindness to write for the pages of THE HOMILETIC REVIEW quite a full review on Spiritualism," being careful, however, to be sure to state his authorities?

WILLIAM F. RAASCH.

Manner or Matter-Which? THE point made by S. Y. E. in the March number relative to the value of accuracy in pulpit rhetoric and grammar has some force. Good taste is always in order, and here and there a hearer of fine literary culture would doubtless be momentarily disquieted by the use of "transpire" instead of take place" on the part of the speaker, but is it true that a false note or a wrong syntax can ever spoil a service for a true Christian? Is the manner more important than the matter? Will the soul, bent on approaching very near to God, have eyes or ears for anything

beyond a reasonable felicity of form and appropriateness of manner? Assuredly not.

If I have correctly observed, the tendency every where is to worship form, to take greater offence at the breaking of a poor grammatical rule than one of the commandments. Respectability, propriety, high-wrought sensibility, unexceptional deportment-these things seem to be more highly prized than unaffected simplicity, earnestness, humility, and purity. It is straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel. The greatest stickler in the world for the fine points of ceremony and ritualism is the Catholic Church, and we Protestants are now trying to outstrip the Catholics in our voluntary slavery to phrases and proprieties. Meanwhile souls are perishing that know nothing about grammar, but only have burdened hearts. Oh, for common sense and greater spirituality! FLORA, ILL. J. F. FLINT.

Spurgeon's Sermons.

THE sermons of the great London preacher, Charles H. Spurgeon, fulfilled the exhortation of Paul to Timothy, "Preach the Word." They were free from human philosophies and metaphysical speculations. His illustrations were sometimes homely, but they were windows which let in the light on great scriptural truths. No higher commendation of Christ's preaching can be found than the simple words of His historian, "The common people heard Him gladly;" and this is eminently true of Mr. Spurgeon. The common people heard him gladly. He "brake to them the bread of life." He brought home to the consciences of his great audiences the Word which is "sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, . . . and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart." We might not always agree with his theology, but his simple analyses of his subject, his earnestness of manner, his forcible presentation of Bible truth, and

his enthusiasm for the salvation of souls disarmed all criticism. From the standpoint of the critic, Spurgeon may not be counted a great man; but from the standpoint of the benefactor of the human race, he was eminently great. The man who can write a splendid treatise on military tactics may not always be great on the field of battle. Spurgeon may not have been able to write a critical work on theology, but he was great on the fields of battle for righteousness, great as a preacher of the Word and a winner of souls.

CLEVELAND, O.

ROBERT MOFFETT.

"Does It Pay?" Yes.

PERMIT a word in reply to the question of S. W. L. in the March HoмILETIC as to the profit of an ordinarily imperfect acquaintance with Hebrew and Greek. It must be admitted that few pastors can have a critical knowledge of the original tongues or be authorities as commentators and judges of disputed translations. But it must also be remembered that the best commentators can be of but limited value to the reader who does not understand their references to the original text. The point of many an excellent comment, on which all authorities agree, is concerned altogether with some word form or grammatical construction or idiom.

Again, in reading the English Bible, one has much advantage in being able to call up some thought of the connotation in the original. The master of common English recalls the shadings of meaning and frequently figurative character of many words derived from the Latin, though apart from these reminders in his reading, he may have little remembrance of his old schoolbooks. So the teacher of biblical truth ought to have some thought of the breadth of conception in many Hebrew and Greek words, which no translator can put into a single English expression; and when the same word is variously rendered in different passages, a

clergyman ought to have enough He brew and Greek to know the kinship of the renderings at least. With our other work, we pastors cannot be scholars of note, but we can retain a working knowledge of the original of our great authority. Dead languages should not appear in our sermons, but our preaching will be less superficial and more lucid when we have not less, but more exegetical skill. J. F. C.

"The Resurrection of the Body." [THE following correspondence will explain itself.-EDS.]

Dr. J. B. Remensnyder.

DEAR BROTHER: Have just read your article in March HOMILETIC, and am well pleased with the general drift of your argument. I am led, however, to make just one inquiry-viz., Where in the " Scriptures" do we find the phrases "resurrection of the body” and our bodies rising again," or any reference to" that which has been committed to the grave, and sleeping there 'coming forth' at the last trump"?

Shall be much pleased to receive a personal answer from yourself. Holding, with you, the literality of the

"resurrection of the dead," I am sincerely yours, in Gospel bonds, E. P. WOODWARD.

PORTLAND, ME.

I WILL take the liberty of replying to the above courteous criticism of my article in the March number of THE HOMILETIC REVIEW in your columns. It is true that the Scriptures do not anywhere use the terms resurrection of the body" and our bodies rising again." To get at these statements we have to combine separate passages by the exegetical canon called the "Analogy of Faith." Thus the Scriptures teach (1 Cor. xv. 42) "the resurrection of the dead" and when, then, in the forty-fourth verse the statement is made: "It is sown a natural body, it is

raised a spiritual body," we know that what is raised is the body, and hence we learn "the resurrection of the body." The same is clear again from Phil. iii. 21, where, the subject being the resurrection, when it is said, “Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body," it is clearly taught that it is our bodies which are to rise again. But in Matt. xxvii. 52 we read more directly still : "And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after His resurrection." On this passage Alford comments: "The graves were opened at the moment of the death of the Lord; but inasmuch as He is the firstfruits from the dead, the Resurrec tion and the Life, the bodies of the saints in them did not arise till He rose, and having appeared to many after His resurrection, went up with Him into His glory." Indisputably the Scriptures here teach in verbal form the resurrection of the body." So with regard to the question, "Where in the Scriptures do we find any reference to that which has been committed to the grave, and sleeping there 'coming forth' at the last trump"? The phrases, "fallen asleep," "them which are asleep," "them also which sleep in Jesus," certainly refer to that which our Lord in John v. 2 speaks of as "in the graves,' " for these are to "hear His voice," and this voice is that 'trump of God," at the sound of which we are told (1 Thess. iv. 16) "they which are asleep," the dead in Christ shall rise." Clearly these passages teach that it is that which sleep in the grave that is roused at the voice of the last mighty trump of God.

NEW YORK.

99 66

J. B. REMENSNYDER.

Supersensitive People.

EVERY pastor is very likely to meet with those in church or congregation

What

who are abnormally sensitive. to do with them he knows not. Whether to pay particular attentions to such, and thus put himself under obligation to keep up such attentions lest a single omission cause disaffection, or, on the other hand, to let such persons severely alone as sharp-edged tools, is often a very perplexing question. Yet what goes by the name of sensitiveness is often pride and stubbornness. When a soul is affected in this way, it is hard to do it any good. The pastor must leave it in the hands of God for discipline. Such an one will lay up the least word spoken or even an illustration against a speaker if there is the remotest chance of the application attaching to that individual.

At a Thanksgiving or harvest home service I once requested of the audience a small bundle of grain. There were both wheat and barley in the harvest fields. The latter is used chiefly for beer, the curse of the vicinity. I did not want to exalt barley, therefore, and indicated my preference for the nobler wheat. "Do not mistake," I remarked, “and bring barley for wheat !" A good farmer present saw fit to take offence, because he thought I was intimating that farmers were not likely to know the difference between the two kinds of grain.

This man stayed from church for some months. He had laid this up against me, as well as two or three illustrations I had used from time to time, in which possibly farmers were referred to, but in no derogatory terms. I explained that I was brought up on a farm, and that some of my family were of that calling. The explanation seemed to have a good effect, for the family came back to church.

But alas! for the rarity of magnanimity versus narrow, self-appropriating sensitiveness, easily provoked, thinking evil when only good was intended. And this is a sample of the burdens of the minister who would be natural and spontaneous, abounding in love and good-will. E. N. A.

The Problem of the Down-Town Church.

How the Church of Christ is to meet the demands made upon it in our great cities is a question that is coming more and more conspicuously to the front in these days, when the increase in the ratio of the city population is assuming such remarkable proportions. It is a question that is having a full discussion from the religious view-point in almost all of our denominational journals. With the idea of securing expressions concerning it from a business point of view, we recently addressed a few questions to certain well-known business men in the metropolis, whose names would be a guarantee of candid as well as of thoughtful and intelligent consideration, and give herewith the answers received from some of their number. It is to be kept in mind that the questions were addressed to them as business men merely, and without regard to their denominational sympathies or ecclesiastical affiliations, of which we were entirely ignorant.

Having secured from official sources the number of churches below Fourteenth Street in New York City, and having ascertained, so far as possible, their custom as to the opening of their edifices for services or meetings of one and another kind through the week, we proposed the following inquiries :

1. Could any business concern, conducted as are these churches and chapels in their management of invested capital, anticipate anything short of speedy bankruptcy?

in

2. Does not the method pursued by these churches and chapels suggest, measure at least, the explanation of their failure to reach and win the masses?

3. Were the edifices now devoted exclusively to public worship so arranged as to provide facilities for intellectual instruction, physical develop

ment, social intercourse, and rational amusement, might not the church expect to strengthen its hold upon the masses and secure larger moral and spiritual results?

4. What, in your judgment, should be done by the Church to increase its efficiency and fulfil its obligation?

In reply to these questions, Erastus Wiman, Esq., writes:

"1. Having spent almost a lifetime in endeavoring to discern the basis of credit, and watching closely the elements which contribute to success and failure, my deliberate answer to the above question is: That any business, managed as are the churches and chapels in the down-town districts of New York, could result in nothing but failure. The large amount of money locked up in exceedingly valuable land, in costly buildings, and in the interior seating capacity, fixtures, etc., is practically idle five sixths of the time. True, it would be impossible actively to employ them all the time, but afternoons and evenings there might be some use made of these very costly investments. Then, the inactivity of the societies that control them, during intervals in such large proportion, would result in any other business in a failure every year or two. Judging by the standard of business, these churches and chapels are not conducted on principles that command suc

cess.

"2. Excepting the Roman Catholic churches, there seems no effort made by the down-town churches to reach and win the masses at all commensurate with the undertaking. While the churches at night are dark, gloomy, and forbidding, all around them the saloon, concert hall, theatre, and dive are in full operation, lighted brilliantly, with music, color, and activity, attractive in every way. Some plan to interest other than church-members, some mode to win their confidence and beget a liking

for the church edifice, would seem to be an essential, if in the contest between good and evil the good is to prevail.

"3. Judged by the success as to the number which attend the theatres, concert halls, and other resorts in the immediate vicinity of church edifices, it is certain that something is absolutely necessary if the Church is to strengthen its hold and secure a larger moral and spiritual result. It would seem as if a real business might be established in all the churches for the intellectual instruction of the community in which it is located. Certainly rational amusement might very readily be introduced into buildings now unoccupied, having abundant seating capacity, warmth, light, and every facility. Lecturesscientific, literary, and humorous-at a very small rate of admission might with propriety be provided. A regular schedule of lectures might be developed, and physical training might result in time in social intercourse. Simple and moral plays might with propriety be introduced. Certainly the young people of each church, who have the ability in this direction, might have it developed to a degree that would be very useful to themselves and influential for good in others. William Winter, the Christian dramatic critic of the Tribune, will testify that plays are far more powerful than preaching and praying to the great mass of the community, unless, indeed, the supernatural and the miraculous, attached to the latter, are taken into account. Judging from the condition of down-town New York, neither the supernatural nor the miraculous have yet done much toward redeeming it from sin and sorrow.

"4. The figures of the recent sanitary census show that out of a population of 1,600,000 over three fourths are living in tenements and flats; that in the tenement districts of New York alone there are no less than 276,000 families. This vast number of families represent the skilled labor and laboring men of the city. It is upon this class that the whole prosperity of the city depends,

and the nature and character of their homes reflect better than anything else their general condition. Now if the Church has a mission to perform aside from the provision of a home hereafter, it is toward the provision of a home on earth. Thus, in my judgment, the Church can have no holier or higher mission, so far as the present is concerned, than to contribute to the creation of better homes. So great a work can be done in this direction by the Church that it seems almost impossible to conceive that there should be any hesitation, or that long ago it should not have been undertaken. The suggestion is that each church should appoint a committee of its members to thoroughly investigate the operations of the building and loan associations. These institutions have done more toward making independent homes in the suburbs of the cities of Philadelphia, Boston, Brooklyn, and numerous other places than any other influence. In New York their operations have been in the highest degree beneficial, the only difficulty being that they are by no means sufficiently numerous, and there is no instrumentality by which they can be made effective, unless the Church takes a hand in the matter. If, after the committee of each church had investigated the advantages to the people in the church itself, and to the people in the locality where the church is situated, they should call a public meeting, and every church set in motion a firstclass building and loan association, an amount of good would be achieved that now cannot be estimated in the improvement of homes. Monthly or semimonthly meetings could be held of a purely business character, in which the elements of profit and loss, gain and good, would form an important part of the foundation laid for a contact with the people in the immediate vicinity, now almost entirely absent. The young people of the church could all be taught lessons of thrift by subscribing for the stock of these societies, and be taught by the periodicity of payment which