"S. G. 0." writes to the Times to say that
the great cause of the unpopularity of sermons is "pulpit cowardice." The clergy are afraid, he says, to speak to the educated and the rich as they speak to the poor and rough. When they do, they are denounced as "personal." Our correspondent, "A Curate," on the other hand, says the educated expect a great deal too much, that the Church pays ability very badly, and that however much it paid, it could not secure lectures as good as "leaders" in all the pulpits of the kingdom. All these excuses are sound in their way, and so are a dozen others ; but they do not touch the main question. Be the sermons good or bad, why should attendance on them be com- pulsory, and therefore, of course, distasteful ? Eloquence is better than stupidity, but how many men would like to be compelled to hear Mr. Gladstone or Mr. Bright on the same theme once a week for ten years ? They would be as bored as they are now by sermons, and would, in the end, resist as, if the system continues, educated churchgoers will.
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