ight issue at once from
a hundred pulpits of Italy or Egypt, if they were _tuned_ by the master
hand of the Roman or Alexandrian bishop." But much more than this may be
said. Wonderful is the power of oratory. Gibbon may have under-rated
it, for we know that he never could summon up the requisite courage to
make a speech in Parliament; but nevertheless rare power is his, who can
speak what will touch the hearts, and form the opinion, and mould the
lives of men. The more unlettered be the age, the more triumphant will
be this power; and when the theme is the stupendous one of religion--when
in it, according to the belief of preacher and hearer, eternal interests
are involved--woe that shall never pass away--joy that shall never
die--when, moreover, this living appeal is put in the place of dead form
or dreary routine, what wonder is it that before it should fade away the
pagan faith of Greece or Rome? The pulpit and Christianity are
identical. In times of reformation and revival, the pulpit has ever been
a power. When spiritual darkness has come down upon the land--when the
oracles have been dumb--when the sacred fire on the altar has ceased to
burn, the pulpit has been a form, a perquisite, a sham, rather than a
message of peace and glad tidings to the weary and heavy laden.

How comes it to pass that in these days the pulpit of the Establishment
has failed to be this? Mr. Christmas, a clergyman of the Established
Church, in a volume recently published, seeks to answer this question.
To use his own language, "the author had long felt that through some
cause or other the Church had not secured that hold on the attention of
the multitude without which her ministration could be but partially
effective." Why, even in these few lines we see a reason of the failure
which Mr. Christmas mourns. Clergymen live in a world of their own, and
will not look at facts as worldly men are compelled to do. Now, as a
matter of fact, the Church of England is not the church, but merely a
section of the church; and yet you cannot go into an episcopalian place
of worship but you hear what the church says--what the church holds--what
the church commands--when common sense tells every one that the speaker
is merely referring to the Establishment in England, and that even if he
were appealing to the custom and tradition of that body of believers
which, in all countries and ages, constitutes the church, the inquiry is
of little consequen