terpreting the
Scriptures. We remember as we write a cold and depressing Sabbath
evening last autumn when we turned into Westminster Chapel. Only a few
years ago this great sanctuary was a wilderness in which might be
realised the tragedy that is contained in the phrase "a down-town
church." At this moment it is the home of a mighty spiritual
fellowship. On the night of our visit the immense temple was crowded
from floor to ceiling. The congregation had obviously been drawn from
all ranks and conditions of society. Professional men sat side by side
with horny-handed sons of toil, fine ladies with servant girls, the old
with the young. What new device of sensationalism had brought them
together? What startling announcement had been flung out over the city
to attract this mighty concourse? Absolutely none! The sermon was a
closely reasoned doctrinal address, full of quotations from the
Scriptures and of comparison of passage with passage. It was a sermon
to _tax_ attention. We mention this experience to show that doctrinal
preaching need not mean empty sanctuaries, as is often asserted. Here
was a great congregation and, better still, here was a living Church.

A further duty of the preacher, that the message may become approved in
the building up of the Church, is that of impressing the demands of
Jesus Christ upon those who bear His name. Preaching needs to be more
exacting than it is. There are vast multitudes in the Church whose
religious life--if indeed they have such a life--is absolutely
parasitical. They render no service; they offer no sacrifice; their
only confession of faith is a more or less intermittent attendance at
the public sessions of worship. By such people, one has humourously
said, the Church seems to be regarded as a Pullman car bound for glory.
Their chief desires are that the train may run so slowly as to enable
them to enjoy the scenery by the way; that the time-bill shall allow of
frequent and lengthy stoppages on the journey, and _especially_ that
the conclusion of the trip shall be postponed to as late an hour as
possible, as they labour under no extravagant anxiety to come to its
end. Are we uncharitable in suspecting that the chief reason many of
these people have for making some degree of preparation for Paradise is
that they cannot remain on earth and that Heaven is, on the whole, to
be preferred to the only other country available? Ah! the preacher has
much of this kind