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On Sleeping in Church
"And there sat in the window a certain young man named Eutychus,
being fallen into a deep sleep; and while Paul was long preaching,
he sunk down with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was
taken up dead."--Acts xx. 9.
I have chosen these words with design, if possible, to disturb some
part in this audience of half an hour's sleep, for the convenience
and exercise whereof this place, at this season of the day, is very
much celebrated.
There is indeed one mortal disadvantage to which all preaching is
subject, that those who, by the wickedness of their lives, stand in
greatest need, have usually the smallest share; for either they are
absent upon the account of idleness, or spleen, or hatred to
religion, or in order to doze away the intemperance of the week; or,
if they do come, they are sure to employ their minds rather any
other way than regarding or attending to the business of the place.
The accident which happened to this young man in the text hath not
been sufficient to discourage his successors; but because the
preachers now in the world, however they may exceed St. Paul in the
art of setting men to sleep, do extremely fall short of him in the
working of miracles, therefore men are become so cautious as, to
choose more safe and convenient stations and postures for taking
their repose without hazard of their persons, and upon the whole
matter choose rather to trust their destruction to a miracle than
their safety. However, this being not the only way by which the
lukewarm Christians and scorners of the age discover their neglect
and contempt of preaching, I shall enter expressly into
consideration of this matter, and order my discourse in the
following method:-
First, I shall produce several instances to show the great neglect
of preaching now among us.
Secondly, I shall reckon up some of the usual quarrels men have
against preaching.
Thirdly, I shall get forth the great evil of this neglect and
contempt of preaching, and discover the real causes whence it
proceedeth.
Lastly, I shall offer some remedies against this great and spreading
evil.
First, I shall produce certain instances to show the great neglect
of preaching now among us.
These may be reduced under two heads. First, men's absence from the
service of the church; and secondly, their misbehaviour when they
are here.
The first instance of men's neglect is in their frequent absence
from the church.
There is no excuse so trivial that will not pass upon some men's
consciences to excuse their attendance at the public worship of God.
Some are so unfortunate as to be always indisposed on the Lord's
day, and think nothing so unwholesome as the air of a church.
Others have their affairs so oddly contrived as to be always
unluckily prevented by business. With some it is a great mark of
wit and deep understanding to stay at home on Sundays. Others again
discover strange fits of laziness, that seize them particularly on
that day, and confine them to their beds. Others are absent out of
mere contempt of religion. And lastly, there are not a few who look
upon it as a day of rest, and therefore claim the privilege of their
cattle, to keep the Sabbath by eating, drinking, and sleeping, after
the toil and labour of the week. Now in all this, the worst
circumstance is that these persons are such whose company is most
required, and who stand most in need of a physician.
Secondly, Men's great neglect and contempt of preaching appear by
their misbehaviour when at church.
If the audience were to be ranked under several heads, according to
their behaviour when the Word of God is delivered, how small a
number would appear of those who receive it as they ought! How much
of the seed then sown would be found to fall by the wayside, upon
stony ground, or among thorns! and how little good ground would
there be to take it! A preacher cannot look round from the pulpit
without observing that some are in a perpetual whisper, and by their
air and gesture give occasion to suspect that they are in those very
minutes defaming their neighbour. Others have their eyes and
imagination constantly engaged in such a circle of objects, perhaps
to gratify the most unwarrantable desires, that they never once
attend to the business of the place; the sound of the preacher's
words do not so much as once interrupt them. Some have their minds
wandering among idle, worldly, or vicious thoughts; some lie at
catch to ridicule whatever they hear, and with much wit and humour,
provide a stock of laughter by furnishing themselves from the
pulpit. But of all misbehaviour, none is comparable to that of
those who come here to sleep. Opium is not so stupefying to many
persons as an afternoon sermon. Perpetual custom hath so brought it
about that the words of whatever preacher become only a sort of
uniform sound at a distance, than which nothing is more effectual to
lull the senses. For that it is the very sound of the sermon which
bindeth up their faculties is manifest from hence, because they all
awake so very regularly as soon as it ceaseth, and with much
devotion receive the blessing, dozed and besotted with indecencies I
am ashamed to repeat.
I proceed, secondly, to reckon up some of the usual quarrels men
have against preaching, and to show the unreasonableness of them.
Such unwarrantable behaviour as I have described among Christians in
the house of God in a solemn assembly, while their faith and duty
are explained and delivered, have put those who are guilty upon
inventing some excuses to extenuate their fault; this they do by
turning the blame either upon the particular preacher or upon
preaching in general. First, they object against the particular
preacher: his manner, his delivery, his voice, are disagreeable;
his style and expression are flat and slow, sometimes improper and
absurd; the matter is heavy, trivial, and insipid, sometimes
despicable and perfectly ridiculous; or else, on the other side, he
runs up into unintelligible speculation, empty notions, and
abstracted flights, all clad in words above usual understandings.
Secondly, They object against preaching in general. It is a perfect
road of talk; they know already whatever can be said; they have
heard the same a hundred times over. They quarrel that preachers do
not relieve an old beaten subject with wit and invention, and that
now the art is lost of moving men's passions, so common among the
ancient orators of Greece and Rome. These and the like objections
are frequently in the mouths of men who despise the foolishness of
preaching. But let us examine the reasonableness of them.
The doctrine delivered by all preachers is the same: "So we preach,
and so ye believe." But the manner of delivering is suited to the
skill and abilities of each, which differ in preachers just as in
the rest of mankind. However, in personal dislikes of a particular
preacher, are these men sure they are always in the right? Do they
consider how mixed a thing is every audience, whose taste and
judgment differ, perhaps, every day, not only from each other, but
themselves? And how to calculate a discourse that shall exactly
suit them all, is beyond the force and reach of human reason,
knowledge, or invention. Wit and eloquence are shining qualities
that God hath imparted in great degrees to very few, nor any more to
be expected in the generality of any rank among men than riches and
honour. But further, if preaching in general be all old and beaten,
and that they are already so well acquainted with it, more shame and
guilt to them who so little edify by it! But these men, whose ears
are so delicate as not to endure a plain discourse of religion, who
expect a constant supply of wit and eloquence on a subject handled
so many thousand times, what will they say when we turn the
objection upon themselves, who, with all the rude and profane
liberty of discourse they take upon so many thousand subjects, are
so dull as to furnish nothing but tedious repetitions, and little
paltry, nauseous commonplaces, so vulgar, so worn, or so obvious,
as, upon any other occasion but that of advancing vice, would be
hooted off the stage? Nor, lastly, are preachers justly blamed for
neglecting human oratory to move the passions, which is not the
business of a Christian orator, whose office it is only to work upon
faith and reason. All other eloquence hath been a perfect cheat, to
stir up men's passions against truth and justice for the service of
a faction, to put false colours upon things, and, by an amusement of
agreeable words, make the worst reason appear to be the better.
This is certainly not to be allowed in Christian eloquence, and
therefore St. Paul took quite the other course. He "came not with
the excellency of words, or enticing speech of men's wisdom, but in
plain evidence of the Spirit and power." And perhaps it was for
that reason the young man Eutychus, used to the Grecian eloquence,
grew tired and fell so fast asleep.
I go on, thirdly, to set forth the great evil of this neglect and
scorn of preaching, and to discover the real causes whence it
proceedeth.
I think it is obvious that this neglect of preaching hath very much
occasioned the great decay of religion among us. To this may be
imputed no small part of that contempt some men bestow on the
clergy, for whoever talketh without being regarded is sure to be
despised. To this we owe in a great measure the spreading of
atheism and infidelity among us, for religion, like all other
things, is soonest put out of countenance by being ridiculed. The
scorn of preaching might perhaps have been at first introduced by
men of nice ears and refined taste, but it is now become a spreading
evil through all degrees and both sexes; for, since sleeping,
talking, and laughing are qualities sufficient to furnish out a
critic, the meanest and most ignorant have set up a title, and
succeeded in it as well as their betters. Thus are the last efforts
of reforming mankind rendered wholly useless. "How shall they
hear," saith the Apostle, "without a preacher?" But if they have a
preacher, and make it a point of wit or breeding not to hear him,
what remedy is left? To this neglect of preaching we may also
entirely impute that gross ignorance among us in the very principles
of religion, which it is amazing to find in persons who very much
value their own knowledge and understanding in other things; yet it
is a visible, inexcusable ignorance, even in the meanest among us,
considering the many advantages they have of learning their duty.
And it hath been the great encouragement to all manner of vice; for
in vain we preach down sin to a people "whose hearts are waxed
gross, whose ears are dull of hearing and whose eyes are closed."
Therefore Christ Himself in His discourses frequently rouseth up the
attention of the multitude, and of His disciples themselves, with
this expression, "He that hath ears to hear let him hear." But
among all neglects of preaching, none is so fatal as that of
sleeping in the house of God. A scorner may listen to truth and
reason, and in time grow serious; an unbeliever may feel the pangs
of a guilty conscience; one whose thoughts or eyes wander among
other objects may, by a lucky word, be called back to attention; but
the sleeper shuts up all avenues to his soul; he is "like the deaf
adder, that hearkeneth not to the voice of the charmer, charm he
never so wisely;" and we may preach with as good success to the
grave that is under his feet.
But the great evil of this neglect will further yet appear from
considering the real causes whence it proceedeth, whereof the first
I take to be an evil conscience. Many men come to church to save or
gain a reputation, or because they will not be singular, but comply
with an established custom, yet all the while they are loaded with
the guilt of old rooted sins. These men can expect to hear of
nothing but terrors and threatenings, their sins laid open in true
colours, and eternal misery the reward of them; therefore, no wonder
they stop their care and divert their thoughts, and seek any
amusement rather than stir the hell within them.
Another cause of this neglect is a heart set upon worldly things.
Men whose minds are much enslaved to earthly affairs all the week
cannot disengage or break the chain of their thoughts so suddenly as
to apply to a discourse that is wholly foreign to what they have
most at heart. Tell a usurer of charity, and mercy, and
restitution--you talk to the deaf; his heart and soul, with all his
senses, are got among his bags, or he is gravely asleep and dreaming
of a mortgage. Tell a man of business, that the cares of the world
choke the good seed; that we must not encumber ourselves with much
serving; that the salvation of his soul is the one thing necessary;
you see, indeed, the shape of a man before you, but his faculties
are all gone off among clients and papers, thinking how to defend a
bad cause or find flaws in a good one; or he weareth out the time in
drowsy nods.
A third cause of the great neglect and scorn of preaching ariseth
from the practice of men who set up to decry and disparage religion;
these, being zealous to promote infidelity and vice, learn a rote of
buffoonery that serveth all occasions, and refutes the strongest
arguments for piety and good manners. These have a set of ridicule
calculated for all sermons and all preachers, and can be extremely
witty as often as they please upon the same fund.
Let me now, in the last place, offer some remedies against this
great evil.
It will be one remedy against the contempt of preaching rightly to
consider the end for which it was designed. There are many who
place abundance of merit in going to church, although it be with no
other prospect but that of being well entertained, wherein if they
happen to fail, they return wholly disappointed. Hence it is become
an impertinent vein among people of all sorts to hunt after what
they call a good sermon, as if it were a matter of pastime and
diversion. Our business, alas! is quite another thing; either to
learn, or at least be reminded of, our duty; to apply the doctrines
delivered, compare the rules we hear with our lives and actions, and
find wherein we have transgressed. These are the dispositions men
should bring into the house of God, and then they will be little
concerned about the preacher's wit or eloquence, nor be curious to
inquire out his faults and infirmities, but consider how to correct
their own.
Another remedy against the contempt of preaching is that men would
consider whether it be not reasonable to give more allowance for the
different abilities of preachers than they usually do. Refinements
of style and flights of wit, as they are not properly the business
of any preacher, so they cannot possibly be the talents of all. In
most other discourses, men are satisfied with sober sense and plain
reason; and, as understandings usually go, even that is not over-
frequent. Then why they should be so over-nice in expectation of
eloquence, where it is neither necessary nor convenient, is hard to
imagine.
Lastly, The scorners of preaching would do well to consider that
this talent of ridicule they value so much is a perfection very
easily acquired, and applied to all things whatsoever; neither is
anything at all the worse because it is capable of being perverted
to burlesque; perhaps it may be the more perfect upon that score,
since we know the most celebrated pieces have been thus treated with
greatest success. It is in any man's power to suppose a fool's-cap
on the wisest head, and then laugh at his own supposition. I think
there are not many things cheaper than supposing and laughing; and
if the uniting these two talents can bring a thing into contempt, it
is hard to know where it may end.
To conclude: These considerations may perhaps have some effect
while men are awake; but what arguments shall we use to the sleeper?
What methods shall we take to hold open his eyes? Will he be moved
by considerations of common civility? We know it is reckoned a
point of very bad manners to sleep in private company, when,
perhaps, the tedious impertinence of many talkers would render it at
least as excusable as the dullest sermon. Do they think it a small
thing to watch four hours at a play, where all virtue and religion
are openly reviled; and can they not watch one half hour to hear
them defended? Is this to deal like a judge (I mean like a good
judge), to listen on one side of the cause and sleep on the other?
I shall add but one word more. That this indecent sloth is very
much owing to that luxury and excess men usually practise upon this
day, by which half the service thereof is turned to sin; men
dividing their time between God and their bellies, when, after a
gluttonous meal, their senses dozed and stupefied, they retire to
God's house to sleep out the afternoon. Surely, brethren, these
things ought not so to be.
"He that hath ears to hear let him hear." And God give us all,
grace to hear and receive His Holy Word to the salvation of our own
souls.
Content of On Sleeping in Church [Jonathan Swift's book: Three Sermons, Three Prayer]
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