the
hearer. It is to be feared that in these days the average church-goer
is not so well versed in Biblical knowledge as the assumptions of our
sermons might suggest. Most men nowadays live in a hurry, and are busy
about many things, and it cannot be pretended that the Scriptures
receive that reading and study which give such advantage to the hearer
of preaching. Probably an examination of any ten men chosen without
discrimination out of the congregation of one of our churches would
reveal a state of things both startling and sad. It is so easy to be
misled by appearances. The congregation is well dressed, respectable,
keen. There are the usual signs of education, even of culture. All
these things are consistent with great shallowness of sacred knowledge.
Men are careful to till their own fields, but common land is generally
sorely neglected. There is a scientist in yonder pew; in his own
science he is supreme. Near him sits a politician; few there are who
know the questions of the hour better than he. In the pulpit stands
the preacher; he is--shall we venture the assertion?--a man mighty in
the Bible. It is _his book_. It is, in a _general_ way, the book of
the scientist, of the statesman, of every person in the congregation,
but the preacher specialises in it and in all that relates to it. He
will make a mistake if he assumes too much either to the credit of one
man before him or another. Here a memory of many years ago rises to
the surface. Having to preach one Sunday to an audience which usually
contained two or three men of positions rather above the common run, we
confessed great nervousness to an aged minister of our church now no
more. "Never bother a bit, lad," was the reply; "remember one
thing:--You will know more about that subject than any man in the
chapel, because you will have been _working_ at it. The doctor will
have spent _his_ week mixing physic, the lawyer _his_ in mixing law.
You will have spent _yours_ in getting to know all about this text of
which, like as not, neither of them has ever heard." There was
consolation in the old man's assurances, though they recognised a
sorrowful fact too often forgotten. Probably if we knew everything we
should come to the conclusion that one fault of our sermons is that
they are not half sufficiently elementary.

Along the same line follows the remark, that it is also a mistake to
assume that the terminology familiar to the preacher and conve