THE DEMAND MADE ON THE PULPIT.
[To MI &HMI OP RBA HS ROTATOR."] Srn,—I have read your article on "The Demand Made on the Pulpit" with considerable interest, and I thank you for your admirable and timely remarks upon so grave a scandal as that you have discussed. I am of opinion that unless some drastic reform is speedily effected, the work of the pulpit will in- evitably decay. It is really lamentable to think of the immense mass of homiletical literature that is constantly issuing from the press, and the ignoble purpose to which it is put by so many of the clergy of all sects. It seems that not only printed and lithographed sermons are used, but also the autograph sermons of deceased preachers, whose libraries and manuscripts get into the bands of second-hand booksellers ; for I once witnessed the purchase of a batch of such sermons by a clergy. man who, I presume, preached them in due course as his own, thus literally verifying the words,—" He being dead, yet speaketh." Such an instance, which I sadly fear is only too common, would indeed be amusing if it were not so sad.—I am,
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