Dean Ramsay, the well known Scotch humourist, has been lecture
ing in Edinburgh on" Preachers and Preaching," enriching his dis- course with stories such as only he can tell. He was very severe on the " threatening style " of preaching so general with Calvinists, and adduced Robert Hall as on the whole the best exemplar for marrowy yet eloquent preaching. The statement, however, which seems to have attracted most general attention is one about the number of sermons preached in Great Britain in the year. There are in all about 37,520 places of worship in the island, and in the majority of these two sermons are preached every week, in a large minority three, and in a small number four, the fourth being known as the " week-day lecture.{' Taking, however, only two as an average, 3,902,080 sermons are preached every year, of which perhaps the odd 80 are worth the attention of a reasonable human being. It is lamentable to think that a power so tremendous and so diffused should be wasted by mismanagement, till the four million sermons have not a sixtieth of the practical effect of a song by Tennyson or a speech from Mr. Gladstone. They lecture like human beings.
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