composed, Dr ever will be.

After the dedication of our church I went on with my duties for three
years, and then again broke down in health, able indeed, that is,
with physical strength, to preach, but not able to write sermons. The
congregation increased; many of is members became communicants; in the
last Tear before I went abroad once more, the church [83] was crowded;
in the evening especially, the aisles as well as pews were sometimes
filled.

It was this fulness of the attendance in the evening that reconciled me
to a second service; especially it was that many strangers came, to whom
I had no other opportunity to declare my views of religion. For I
judge that, for any given congregation, one service of worship, and of
meditation such as the sermon is designed to awaken, is enough for one
day. In the "Christian Examiner," two or three years after this, I think
it was; I published an article on this subject, in which I maintained
that there was too much preaching, too much preaching for the preacher,
and too much preaching for the people. It was received with great
surprise and little favor, I believe, at the time; but since then not
a few persons, both of the clergy and laity, have expressed to me their
entire agreement with it. What I said, and say, is that one sermon, one
discourse of solemn meditation, designed to make a distinct and abiding
impression upon the heart and life, is all that anybody should preach
or hear in one day, and that the other part of Sunday should be used for
conference or Sunday-school, or instructive lecture, or something with
a character and purpose different from the morning meditation, something
to instruct the people in the history, or evidences, or theory, or
scriptural exposition of our religion. Indeed, I did this myself as
often as I was able, though it tried the [84] religious prejudices of
some of my people, and my own too, about what a sermon should be. I
discussed the morals of trade, political morality, civic duty, that of
voters, jurymen, etc., social questions, peace and war, and the problem
of the human life and condition. Some portions of these last were
incorporated into the course of Lowell Lectures on this subject, which
I afterwards published. And it is high time to take this matter into
serious consideration; for in all churches where the hearing of two or
three sermons on Sunday is not held to be a positive religious duty, the
second service is falling away into