“Something Radically Wrong”

Back in 1879 a noted pastor wrote about the lack of mental alertness on the part of a large number of parishioners. Why this mental stagnation? Pastor T. Dewitt Talmage gave his answer in the Christian Herald of January 23, 1879; the answer is enlightening today: “When I was a layman, worshiping in the pews, I noticed that religion was very often associated with dullness. . . . I noticed what every layman notices and remarks, that there is something radically wrong in the Church of God at this day. In our boyhood days we tried every kind of art to keep awake in church. We ate caraway-seed, and cloves, and cinnamon, and held up one foot until it began to ache, and pinched ourselves until we were black and blue. Or we got stimulus from an older brother who stuck us with a pin. . . . What is the use of hiding the fact that there is much sleeping done in the churches? Many of our churches are great Sunday dormitories. Men who are troubled at home with insomnia and cannot sleep on the pillow at night, find in churches sometimes the needed anodyne. If we do not keep our audiences awake, it is the fault of us, the clergy, and not the fault of the people.”