The Pulpit Use of Slang.
By The Standard
WHILE some defense may be found for the employment of unwonted methods of preaching, such as familiar and colloquial and anecdotal forms of utterance—partaking of the nature, if not, indeed, formed upon the model of the sensational; we insist upon it that there can be no excuse offered—or none admitted if offered—for the use of slang and slovenly expressions in the house and service of God. These we hear but too frequently, and while they are occasionally the outcome of defective education and taste, they are more frequently the affectation of young preachers who ought not to be allowed to plead ignorance in their defense. They probably would not do so, but would claim that the active force of slang phrases reaches the mind of the hearer quicker and more effectively than expression of a more sober and dignified tone. We grant that this may be true, but they reach the ear of all cultured persons to offend it, and of the majority of devout hearers, to produce the impression of a levity at utter variance with the solemnity of religious worship. We have heard preachers only recently use such slang phrase as "taking stock," "getting a square meal," "going the whole animal," "keeping his head level," "putting his foot in it," "getting a corner on brimstone," and many others, equally coarse and unfit for the pulpit—unless, indeed, the theory which some would set up is to be admitted, that the pulpit is no more sacred than the platform.—The Standard.