We wish to allude to some errors into which some elders have fallen,
for their advantage. We have an opportunity of being better acquainted
with some difficulties in churches than the elders themselves can.
When we visit some congregations, the elders complain that they will
not turn out to meeting. The brethren say the reason more will not
turn out is, that the elders are in the habit of preaching long and
uninteresting sermons, which they have heard over and over again, until
they know every comma and semi-colon. And now the congregation has
dwindled down to insignificance, and the few who are faithful enough to
attend are annoyed with a lengthy harangue on the subject of the
non-attendance of the members. There is certainly a great impropriety
in this course. But few men are able to interest an audience with a
lengthy discourse on every first day of the week. Those men who have
been most successful in holding large audiences, where they preach
very frequently in the same place, are usually very brief in their
addresses, and very fearful of wearying the patience of their hearers.
Some men of very fine talent have lost their audiences, on no account
but their tediousness; and if it thus fares with men of talent, what
may we expect from men of slender abilities? It is very wearisome to
those, who can hardly be induced to attend the place of meeting at any
time, to hear a brother of limited information, and a poor speaker, for
the space of an hour or an hour and a half. Time seems doubly long to
them.
The uneasiness seen in this class, causes all the rest to be uneasy,
and every one wishes the sermon to close. Some begin to leave, others
begin to button up their coats, get their hats and whips ready, look
at their watches, and appear almost on the rise, while some through
respect try to appear contented. Let the fault lie where it may in
such cases, it is as certain as any thing can be, that the preaching
is doing no good. If the same brethren would make their addresses
very short, and be as interesting as possible, they would not have
to complain half so often about the delinquency of their brethren in
attending meeting, and secure the reputation of much better preachers.
There is another kind of tediousness, almost as insufferable as long
sermons. The selecting and singing of long hymns, in a cold and formal
manner, after a tedious sermon, can have no good effect. Lengthy
ceremonies in administering the communion, are always in opposition
to its good influence, and very wearisome to the restless. But last,
though by no means least, it is not to be endured for elders to detain
the audience, while they may consult together five or ten minutes,
about appointments and other matters of this kind, and then be very
tedious in announcing them. All matters of this kind ought to be
despatched with readiness.