This is one of the reasons for the lamentable decrease in the number of conversions.
If ministers are set to be watchmen of souls, how shall they escape if they neglect the salvation of souls?
I think, too, that we cannot be mistaken in saying that there has been a decline in impassioned pulpit eloquence.

There is a change in the fashions of preaching.

Students are now taught to be calm and colloquial; to aim at producing epigrammatical essays; to discuss sociological problems and address the intellects of their auditors rather in the style of the lecture platform or college class room.

The great Dr.Chalmers "making the rafters roar" is as much a bygone tradition in many quarters as faith in the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch.

I have often wished that the young Edward N.Kirk, who melted to tears the professors and students of Yale during the revival there, could come back to us and teach candidates for the ministry how to preach.