On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
forward and say , that the time is coming when even this cause of our decline will be counteracted . But painful it is to be obliged to entertain the idea , that while our young Ministers are receiving educations that would enable them
to employ the gifts of oratory to tike best possible advantage , they are either altogether neglecting the cultivation of this talent , or paying only secondary attention to that , which , while society remains in
its present formation , is of primary importance . Who that has the smallest share of sensibility , would not be more than doubly gratified , by the addition of the charms of eloquence , to a well written sermon ? But let us look
at the majority of many congregations . Are these most likely to be attracted by the language or manner of the preacher ? There are those doubtless , who say , that the judgment of such is not to be
regarded , and consequently we may presume , that it matters but little , in their estimation , to what particular doctrine they listen . These reasoners may , or may not care what becomes of the less in .
formed orders of society , but certain it is , that those portions of most congregations , likely to be cabgbt by the allurements of sound , have already been ensnared by the greater attractions of other sects . Here I must remark , that
it is a fact , that wherever one of our ministers has settled , who was to a certain degree possessed of those powers of elocution , so necessary to attraction , our cause has flourished , and several in * stances might bepoihted out ^ where the numbers have been more thfcn 4 QMbled . Oa the ^ other hattd , jv « thfcv « ] mi ground in the game
Untitled Article
ratio where , ( whatever were life other merits ) the minister hate not been recommended by Certain outward graces . I am not virtdi * eating noise or rant , in thus givifrg an opinion , but I affirm / that unless some steps are taken to
apply genuine eloquence to > the support of one of the best of causes ; that kind of oratory which has already so thinned many of our congregations , will still con * tinue to draw from us at least a
portion of those whose opinions are not firmly fixed . There a * e doubtless different views of the mode of cultivating the powers of eloquence , but I can hardly sup * pose that any will agree that the
plan now pursued at one of our institutions , to which # e tatfe constantly referred as the future support of our cause , is likely to effect much , while the students
are accustomed to trust so little to memory . Can a minister whose eyes are constantly fitted fcn a book dilrfag prayer , be so able to coinin and attention , as one who is free from the constraint to which thJs
must subject him . But facts fere after all , what must bo melted upon , and who that knows the result of the late examination in the department of elocution , At the
institution before alluded to , will persist in the support of such a system ? To the decision- of the previous year , it would be painful , and is perhaps unnecessary ( 6 refer . I am , Sir , &c . HENRY TAYtGifc * t
* Unwilling to give insertion to statements and alltfoioiifi w&ieh must offend some of our readers , ire at fkrst declined publishing the « bot « letter * which vrafc flt ^ nt to us tmder the tignstare of ^ Constant Reader $ but tfofc wMNFfNnripg « i « cc given u * ftfeMftfttfMfc W «« u > t
Untitled Article
484 On tf * e decline of Presbyterian Congregations .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1813, page 184, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2426/page/36/
-