E. Bowen, D. D., Methodist, lately preached a semi-centennial sermon, in which occur the following remarkable passages. Having preached in that body for the past fifty years, he is well prepared to contrast the Methodist ministry and people of the present day, with what it formerly was. If the change in other churches has not been so marked, it is simply because other churches did not in the beginning take the high stand the Methodists took. They are all now fast descending to the same irreligious level. Who can look on this picture, and then doubt but that these churches have rejected truth and shunned crosses by which God designed that their godliness and spirituality should be kept alive. The Lord grant that Seventh-day Adventists may never by the adoption of creeds, and the rejection of the gifts of the Spirit, set bounds to their own advancement. We find our quotation in "The Earnest Christian" of June, 1864. But O the change that has come over our ministry in later times! How lamentable the defection observable within a very short period. Popularity is now the goal; and in order to reach it, the style and manner of preaching must be changed. The plain simple style of Jesus, of Wesley, and of Hedding, must give place to a turgid, bombastic display, which makes the illiterate masses gape and stare instead of "bringing them to repentance and to the knowledge of the truth." Popular sins must not now be meddled with, as they are too delicate a subject to be treated of in a popular assembly; or, belonging exclusively to politics, the Christian minister has nothing to do with them. Such is the pretext. The true reason is, that few of us can hew to the line in respect to these sins, but the chips will fly in our own face. And then, it would offend our fashionable hearers—driving them from our congregations, and cutting off their support—which will never do. The doctrines, the duties, the institutions of the gospel, every thing connected with religion, must be popularized and adapted to the public taste. "The offence of the cross must cease;" and cold essays, interspersed with anecdotes and poetry, and embellished with rhetorical flights and flourishes, must succeed to the preaching of "repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ." And besides all this, there is a numerous class of the community who can only visit places of amusement; and to secure the attendance of these, as well as to gratify our own carnal inclination, we must convert the Church into a sort of play-house; where the most fastidious pleasure-taker can find the entertainment he seeks. Our bombastic, highfalutin, moralizing declamation will not suffice for this class of hearers. There must be something to excite their risibilities, and fill their mouths with laughter; something of the ludicrous and the funny; something of the comico-pious type, by which the almost universal taste of mankind will be gratified, and the highest degree of popularity and patronage secured. The responsive "amen" of the devout worshiper is no longer looked for or desired among us. Nor is there much in our pulpit exercises to call it forth. Much less do we tolerate the old-fashioned Methodist shouting in our congregations. Such manifestations of pious joy would be esteemed quite disorderly—a palpable interruption of the order and solemnity of Divine worship—and not to be allowed in the house of God. But while we shrink from these pious demonstrations, lest our fashionable hearers should suspect us of sympathizing with a religion the world hates; we can well endure the bursts of carnal laughter, and rounds of clamorous cheering, excited by our comical, pantomimic, merry-making exhibitions, and might not be greatly disturbed in our feelings, were the scenes of the declining apostolic Church to return; when the people, instigated by the preacher, were accustomed to exclaim as he was proceeding with his discourse—"bravo, eloquent, most learned, second Apollos," and the like; to the very great satisfaction of their humble-minded pastor. Such a course has now become the highway to popularity, and must be resorted to at all events, for we must be popular, and there is no other way to gain our end. But the theme is too painful to be pursued, and we turn from it with disgust. Suffice it to say, we exceedingly loathe this religious buffoonery—this charlatanism of the pulpit—this holy fun—so much in vogue among the ministry of our day, and we would now and forever bear our protest against it. "'Tis pitiful
To court a grin, when you should woo a soul;
To break a jest, when pity should inspire
Pathetic exhortation."
We are deeply pained with such shameful prostitution of the sacred desk. Nor do we find any relief to our feelings in the reflection that the period is not distant when, at our present rate of deterioration, it will be impossible to distinguish between the pulpit and the stage.