SERMONS.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR.")
Sin,—" Every Sunday ten thousand-- preachers preach twenty thousand sermons—mostly 'duds." So, it may be con- jectured, the relentless critics of the Churches are saying just now. But Sir William Forwood's letter strikes another note. May a preacher say how encouraging and refreshing its music is? I believe that there are debtors to sermons in every com- munity. Preaching, Divinely ordained, is a vital and an incalculable influence in the building up of life and character. Lady Astor, fresh from an extraordinary tour in America, exercising "God's lovely virtue," courage, confesses in the interests of mankind her care for "civilization based on Christianity." But Christian propaganda is inconceivable without sermons. Most sermons nowadays are preached under difficulties—sparse congregations, an unsympathetic atmosphere, the absence of expectation :— " What lark could pipe 'Neath skies so dull and grey?"
Whitsuntide is over once again. It is the sermon, season. The miracle of Pentecost was a miracle of speech. It recalled the saying of our Lord : "The words that I have spoken unto you are spirit, and are life." Are there, as some spiritual watch- men declare, close at hand "seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord "? Not all sermon-lovers love lady preachers. Yet they will not resent an unveiled secret in the life-story of Miss Maude Royden. One day she heard a sermon which led her to study the words of Jesus as she had already studied the teaching of Plato and Aristotle. The study, says the author of Painted Windows, failed. "But in this failure was a mystery. For the more she failed the more profoundly conscious she became of Christ as a Power." I read this story and then Sir William Forwood's letter in the Spectator to a preacher. He agreed with me that preaching is the most mysterious exercise in life. Most sermons may be "duds," but a few at least every Sunday are as vital as the light. Their effectiveness would increase if they were prepared and delivered better and if better congregations gave them a better oppor-
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