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privilege. It is a privilege too long and too universally conceded in this land to be retracted now at a wild Irish howl. The privilege to parade peacefully through the public streets has been as free as to breathe the air; for Irish, German, Scandinavian, boot-blacks, news-boys and Fisk's regiment, temperance men and lager beer men, little fellows with paper caps and little drums, and Odd-Fellows with pretty sashes and little aprons, Democrats and Republicans with smoking torches and brimstone mottoes. It sometimes hurts our feelings to behold their saucy mottoes and saucy manners; it pains us to see the soldiers sweating so in bear skin caps on a July day, and to see the "Sir Knights" look so ridiculous in their "regalia," but we bear it; yea, we often "grin and bear it." So must our Irish friends, whether the Connaught men, the Far-downers, Orangemen or Catholics. It comes to be simply a question of government and order. Peaceful proces ions must be protected — peacefully if possible, but powerfully and, if need be, powderfully too, and that not with blank cartridges. Blank cartridgs have cost a mul itude of lives. Napoleon the First knew how to manage a mob. His method has never been improved upon.

SUNDAY LAWS. - The Sunday question is up in good earnest in Cincinnati. It follows close upon the Bible question. What with these and the free-liquo-, and the free-love, and the suffrage, and the labor, and the Chinese, and the Irish, and the Romish questions, the present generation will have its hauds full.

Our foreign friends have a queer way of taking refuge under the shelter of our institutions, and then devoting themselves at their earliest convenience to the destruction of our institutions. They flee from the old country and then do their best to drag us down to the level of the old country. Our Irish fellow citizens insist on the free fights of Tipperary, and our continental friends on crushing the Bible and the Christian Sabbath, the very lack of whose sweet influences make their countrymen at home incapab e of liberty. The wonderful vitality of our institutions and the greatness of their foundations appear in the fact that we have quietly swallowed and digested such an immense mass of foreign poison, and still lived and flour ished. Should they accomplish their end, they will prove to be killers of the golden-egged goose; if we suffer it, we shall be worthy of the name — and the fa'e.

BUSINESS AND BOOKS.- The question has lately forced itself much on our minds whether our Christian laymen interest themselves enough in the themes that do not lie directly in the line of business life. Such topics, for example, as constitute the staple of our best religious reviews; the themes that agitate the religious world in controversy with skeptics; literary and scientific questions; and even the institutions vitally related to their own church communions, beyond their particular churches. How very few of the laymen practically care for these things.

Is it not the gravest error? Do they not miss the highest functions, as

well as the best enjoyment, of intelligent Christianity? Do they not fail of the truest use of their business capacity, their practical sense, and their wealth too?

The thing is possible and feasible. A prosperous business certainly should afford leisure, for we have known the closest pressure still to leave time for culture. There are men who in the very midst of business cares do not forget the realm of thought. It is often the case that such men form the best jury before which to bring the current topics of discussion. We know business men who give their leisure, perhaps, to some special department, not forgetful of the rest. We knew one gentleman who, for the Christian pleasure of it, had learned to read his Greek Testament in mature years, and was contemplating the question of the Hebrew Bible. We do not mention it as a course that would be wise for others, but to show what a man can do.

Out of this lack of reading habits grows much of the indifference of laymen to colleges, theological seminaries, and enominational movements. They say, practically, "We do not care for all this it is your hobby." Now, if it was because they were so heavenly-minded, the case would be difficult. But we think they will hardly claim that.

THE

CONGREGATIONAL REVIEW.

VOL. XI.-NOVEMBER, 1871.-No. 62.

ARTICLE I.

THE VALUE OF SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY TO THE
PREACHER,*

The aim of Theological Seminaries is, not to send into the world learned theologians, but able and successful preachers Revealed truth is intended for the people at large, and accomplishes its purpose by its effect upon them; by elevating them in morals, imbuing them with religious sentiments, and placing them in a state of reconciliation with God. In this fact is to be found the test to which our theological seminaries must be brought. What effect do they have on the people? is the question of importance. What do the graduates of the seminaries accomplish when they address public congregations? Can they speak more powerfully, more successfully because of the theological training which they have received?

It is very clear if these questions are to receive a favorable answer, students in theology are not to be instructed simply in the system of Christian doctrines. The exposition and defense of creeds is ordinarily not the best method, much less

* An address by Rev. Geo. N. Boardman, D. D., at his inauguration as Professor of Systematic Theology in Chicago Theological Seminary, Sept. 14, 1871.

the only method of preaching. The people at large become wearied after a time with mere intellectual statements. Men fail to carry along the nice distinctions that separate truth from error; women fail to see what practical results are to flow from the demonstration of truths which they never doubted; children are unable to connect the arguments which sustain perseverance and effectual calling with what they have read in the New Testament. The Holy Spirit manifests no special affinity for preaching which has this as its chief merit, that it sets the science of theology among the sciences which the learned cultivate. Merely doctrinal preaching leaves the heart uncultivated. Though it may strongly inculcate the love which is a preference of God to the world, it fails to kindle that love which pants after God as the heart panteth for the water-brooks. It is the religion of song and tears, of confessions and promises that wakens aspirations and unlooses the grasp of worldliness. When Christain teachers spend their time in drawing lines and driving stakes, their pupils become spectators rather than an audience, and assent to what they see rather than become obedient hearers of the word. They become men of orthodoxy rather than men of faith. Communities that have fallen under the influence o such churches, have become irreligious, not through error, but because of the paucity of the truths they have believed, and the want of moving power in the doctrines they have been taught. From their irreligion they have fallen into error more general, if not more fatal, than any which could have entered a parish in which the Holy Spirit was giving constant demonstration of the truth.

A preacher who makes his appearance amid such churches. and such ministers with the Bible in his hand seems like one who has opened a fountain in a desert. When he comes to speak with authority, i. e., from personal knowledge of truths that are powers, and of experiences which show that God is with men, when he speaks of conversation and sanctification as

facts, the people hear and say, as they turn from their theological dogmas, "give us of this water that we thirst not."

On the other hand, an absolute eglect to preach the doctrines of theology is a most sad and ruinous failure in the discharge of duty on the part of the preacher. There is a time to set forth creeds, to say "I believe," and give a reason for one's faith. There are always some in a congregation who must be addressed through the intellect. Preaching will not be respected which does not sometimes prove the truth, and show how things ought to be. The times are not always the same. You can not preach to those who are indignant over political wrongs as you would to those suffering from a dispensation of God in His control of the natural world. You can not preach in summer as you would in winter. ter must not talk to the children always. There are texts in the Bible which warn him, who speaks for God, that he must set the divine works in revelation and redemption, by the side of the divine works in creation. The Spirit of God works in marifold ways, and the preacher must follow that divine. Guide. He must attempt so to preach as to profit all his congregation that one to whom is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom, and him to whom faith is given by the same Spirit, the disciple to whom it is given to discern spirits, and him to whom is accorded the power of interpretation.

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Moreover, there is very little preaching, to whomesover addressed, which does not rest directly on scientific doctrines. Almost every sentence of the Sermon on the Mount starts from a principle. You see and feel that it is firmly established in every precept. Each of the beatitudes ends with a reason, nearly one-half of every one follows the "for." "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." "Ye are the salt of the earth;" ""Ye are the light of the world; ' "Ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time," are all sentences which waken inquiry not to be answered in a moment. If we may judge of Christ's preaching by this

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