which, if including the Northern States, would double the property valuation. This is a wonderful showing for the race."

VIII.-REFLECTIONS ON THE FOREGOING STATEMENTS.

A few general reflections in review of the whole subject are submitted:

1. The Race problem will find its solution in God's good time. Time is a great solvent. Under God's providential hand the now discordant elements will gradually assimilate politically, commercially, and industrially. The social question will settle itself as between the Races as it now does among whites of different types of culture and refinement.

Thirty-eight years after emancipation in Jamaica Frederick Douglas was in that island making observations on this subject. At my instance he attended a service in Wesley Chapel, in Kingston, where he saw in the same pew, here and there, parents of diverse colors sitting at opposite ends, with their children between them of all shades of mahogany. All through the chapel, where two thousand people were present, blacks and whites and colored freely commingled. He afterward stated his great pleasure in seeing the absence of friction and division, and that "there was not the smell of color caste about it."

2. From the facts shown in this paper it is obvious that the Methodist Episcopal Church in the South has been an important and helpful factor in laying the basis for the ultimate redemption of the colored people, and their peaceful relations at no remote day with their white fellow-citizens. The Methodist Episcopal Church has been the good Samaritan toward those battered, stripped, and wounded specimens of humanity. The wise liberality of that Church in all its lines of helpfulness, missionary, church extension, and education, is fully vindicated by the grand results attained. The motive is still urgent to continue and increase its good-doing in these lines.

3. The motive to all this good-doing is not only that of selfpreservation for our national liberties and blessings and our political safety and integrity, but also to save men's souls and elevate them in the scale of intelligence and virtue.

Thomas H. Pearne

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ART. V. THE PULPIT MIRRORED FROM THE PEW.

THE attitude of "the pulpit " toward "the pew " is naturally and justly that of superiority but not of domination, and the posture of "the pew" with regard to "the pulpit" should correspondingly be that of docility without obsequiousness. On the other hand, their mutual relations require co-operation in every respect and in each effort, and in order to this result it is proper, indeed it is needful, that they should thoroughly understand each other and be fully agreed on all essential points. In the absence of this accord there would be a lack of that intelligent and cordial sympathy which is as necessary to the moral support and spiritual encouragement of the preacher as it is to the personal benefit and religious usefulness of the hearer. The speaker who is not apprised of the preferences and wants of his audience cannot, except by accident and partially, meet them; and, reciprocally, the congregation that listens with prejudice and preoccupation will not appreciate or improve upon the wisest lessons or the most earnest appeals. This much at least, however, any candid and thoughtful occupant of the pulpit will concede, as every conscientious and diligent tenant of the pew will feel, that the best hour of the best day of the week devoted to the solemn privilege of expounding and enforcing, of learning and applying, sacred truth ought to command the highest skill and the warmest zeal of him who professes to teach and exhort, in order to deserve the profoundest reverence and the closest heed of those who place themselves in the position of pupils and practicers. It is in vain for the preacher to find fault with the people for not paying attention to his message if it be frothy in itself or if it be feebly and coldly delivered. The more he scolds at them the less will they care for him, and he may blame himself at last for empty seats and an invitation to quit. A change of place will make little difference. Methodist congregations are very much alike in this matter. Nobody likes a dull or commonplace discourse, but every body enjoys a lively and fresh one. The thoughts may not always be original, but if they are striking and pertinent they will be interesting; the style may not be peculiar, but if it is earnest and vigorous it will be impressive; the language may not be

elegant or even eloquent, but if correct and simple it will be clear and expressive; the gestures may not be according to any standard or manual, but if they are varied and spontaneous they will be effective; the intonations and inflections may not be strictly elocutionary, but if they are easy and natural they will be pleasing; the spirit may not be angelic or seraphic, but if humane and divine it will be penetrating and powerful. A tender tone will melt where vehemence only hardens, and a gentle word will win where disputation but alienates.

Let us first glance at some of the antecedents to success in the pulpit as to its influence over the pew, and then we will more particularly consider its immediate requisites and more palpable components. The basis of the clerical position is the pastoral office. There is great pertinence in the old phrase "the cure of souls," that is, their care, which designates the responsibity and functions of what we Methodists used to call "the preacher in charge," and which survives in the Anglican term "the curate." It is in visiting his people from house to house that the preacher gathers his best materials and his highest inspiration for his sermons. He thus knows their circumstances and their experience personally, and is enabled to adapt his ministrations to their wants. More than this, they enlist his sympathy, and reciprocally he secures theirs. Dr. Cuyler, in his valedictory to his congregation, admirably states this point:

Pastoral work has always been my passion. It has been my rule to know every body in this congregation if possible, and seldom have I allowed a day to pass without a visit to some of your homes. I fancied that you cared more to have a warm-hearted pastor than a cold-blooded preacher. To carry out thoroughly a system of personal oversight, to visit every family, to stand by the beds of the sick and the dying, to put one's self into sympathy with aching hearts and bereaved households, is a process that has swallowed up time, and I tell you it has strained the nerves prodigiously. Costly as the process has been it has paid. If I have given sermons to you I have got sermons from you. The closest tie that binds us together is the sacred one that has been wound around the cribs in your nurseries, the couches in your sick chambers, the chairs at your firesides, and even the coffins that have borne away your precious dead.

When the preacher ascends the pulpit stairs on Sunday it makes a great difference with his auditors whether they have met him in the sweet interchange of individual intercourse dur

ing the week or not. To a man whom they have thus learned to love personally they will listen as they can to no other. The Great Shepherd himself said to his disciples: "The sheep follow him, for they know his voice." And the apostle to the Gentiles testified to his converts among the rude Galatians : "If it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes and have given them to me." It is impossible for any preacher endeared and identified thus tenderly to say other than acceptable and impressive words to his flock. They must come from his own heart and they will go straight and deep to their hearts. It is true the itinerancy does not afford so favorable an opportunity for cementing this bond of sympathy as a more settled pastorate, but five years, or three, or even less is long enough, if wisely, diligently, and systematically occupied, to form and rivet very closely these personal and official ties. Yet pastoral visitation, if it is to accomplish this valuable result, must be not mere social gossip, a casual "dropping in to see you," or accepting an invitation to a tea-party. It is by kind and spiritual conversation with each member of the family, by earnest interest in their personal welfare, especially their relig ious life, and by the benediction of saintly prayer with them. that such devotion to their minister is engendered and fostered.

Let no preacher, however, imagine that mere pastoral labor, be it never so thorough and successful, will atone for deficiency in pulpit ministrations. It will powerfully supplement and enforce his sermons; but as preaching is his main business, and all the rest subsidiary, he must give his most careful attention to the preparation and delivery of these. Nevertheless, before proceeding to this consideration specifically it is well to note briefly the collateral parts of divine service as conducted from the pulpit, for a failure in them often mars the effect of the entire performance. Let us take them up in the order in which they usually occur as prescribed in the Discipline. I need say but "a word to the wise" on the preliminary matter of the preacher's entering the sanctuary punctually, deliberately, and in a devout and gentlemanly manner. In such a place the rule is imperative, "Let all things be done decently and in order." The first regular exercise is singing, and as three hymns are generally used in the course of the service it becomes impor tant that the minister's part in their rendering should be well

performed. I do not think it necessary to go into the details of their selection, or the tunes, etc., to accompany them, but shall speak only of the manner of reading them. This is too often done in a rapid, indistinct, slovenly way, especially with a sing-song emphasis, as if scanning each line. I have frequently thought, and not unfrequently said, that if the poet who wrote the hymn were present he would many a time feel like rapping the knuckles of the preacher who murders both its beauty and its meaning by reading it without either rhyme or reason. If Shakespeare is excusable for giving sharp directions to the stage manager or trainer of his performances on the subject of rendering his productions properly, surely the pulpit ministrator ought at least to acquire and practice the skill of a clerk in delivering with due effect the splendid sentiments and language of our noble hymnal. It is a shame to have them spoiled by a clumsy or careless reader. This is not the time or place to give or take lessons on the histrionic art; but every public speaker, let me say here once for all, is suicidal who neglects the study and culture of this most important element of æsthetics. The same remark applies to the second adjunct in divine service, namely, the Scripture lessons; which, instead of being illuminated, as they might readily be, by appropriate and impressive reading, are very often rattled over without previous study or painstaking at the moment. Not to speak of the actual miscalling or mispronunciation of words, especially proper names, very few preachers systematically emphasize the suitable syllable or the key-word in a clause; and in a great majority of cases the whole affair is done in a school-boy and perfunctory manner. I sometimes think, when listening to such an infliction, that it is enough to make the bones of Moses and David and Isaiah rattle in their graves, if they could hear the meaningless way in which their sublime passages are oftentimes read. Let our clerical brethren who are appointed to read for us in the churches bear in mind that there are generally some persons in their audiences who are competent to detect such faults, and are compelled, silently at least, to criticize them; and the mass of the congregation, without being able to give the reason, are more or less dissatisfied by the shabby rendition of magnificent language. These things are the "dead flies in the ointment," which scent the "reputation for wisdom and honor."