HOMEILETIC SECTION

          Rev. J. T. S. White, D.D., Editor.




          "PROBLEMS WHICH CONFRONT THE PULPIT
                      OF TO-DAY."
               Rev. J. T. S. White, D.D.

          THE problems of the pulpit are essentially the same in all
          the ages. They vary in their intensity and the nature
          of their application.  This is due to the varying and ever
          changing  condition  of those  to  whom  the gospel  is
          preached, and to the relative advancement in adaptability,
          ingenuity and power of those who preach.  Even in the
          days of slavery the Negro  had his problems to meet,
          which were  peculiar to his time and  generation.  His
          mission was to preach the gospel in such terms as would
          uplift the head of the fainting slave, and point the bonds-
          man to a freedom that was to come. Even in those
dark days the slave preachers showed marked skill and ingenuity in
meeting the heart requirements of his times.
   Now as then, the problem of the pulpit is a preaching problem.  I do
not believe it can be said that we have produced a single educated man
in the last twenty years of the race's freedom who through his sermons
has been able to touch the people at all points as squarely, and to hold
them as securely, as did the preacher of slave times, or his untutored
successors immediately after emancipation. People no longer travel miles
and miles just to hear a sermon as they did in those days. In but few
places, if any, in our religious commonwealth, can it be claimed that the
pulpit is the chief drawing card of the church. Music, vested choirs,
organizations, catch-penny sensational subjects are resorted to in order to
get the people out to church. This may be a painful truth, but all thought-
                                 185




			

African Methodist Episcopal Church Review, Vol. 29, Num. 2

Homiletic Section

Volume:  29
Issue Number:  02
Page Number:  185
Date:  10/1912