Let the Shoemaker Stick to His Last
The Inter-Ocean is moved to commend the Rev. Dr. Munhall, of Philadelphia, for his views on the still opportune subject of non-attendance at church. Says Dr. Munhall: “People don’t care two raps for the preacher’s opinions. What they want is to hear the voice of God speaking to discouraged hearts and grief-burdened souls. It is God’s message and not the preacher’s that the people want to hear. Give them that message and there will be no lack of hearers.” The Chicago Journal fully indorses that opinion, and, after condemning the preacher’s seeking to speak with authority on matters foreign to his calling, adds: “When the preacher speaks of what he does know — of what he must be assumed to know, else is his office an inhuman mockery, and his presence in it a blasphemy — when, with the faith that knows no wavering and with the fear of God that is the beginning of wisdom, he delivers God’s message — he speaks as one having authority, and he is heard gladly, and will never lack hearers, because to discouraged hearts and grief-burdened souls his voice comes as the voice of God.”