The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1879-01-23
THE EPHEsUs BONFIRE.

based his remarks on the following text; "There
arose no small stir about that way" Acts xix %
and he said j
THE EPHEsUs BONFIRE.
What was the matter? Why, Paul had beer
preaching sermons that seemed to upset every
thing. People wondered what he would do next
What is that bonfire in the streets Of Ephesus
Paul had been preaching against iniquity, and al
q consequence so 900 worth of bad books are tum
bled into the fire. Why does he not attend to hil
own business and preach doctrine2 The impu
dence of the Apostle seems to have no bounds, fol
he is assailing the temple of DIANA building
twice as large as st. Pauls of London, the rooi
supported by columns Of green jasper, its sculp
tured altary by Pfaxiteles and its paintings from
Parrhasius with an audience of 0O0O people. In
the month of May, when the city was full Of stran
gers who wanted to buy medallion representations
of this temple Paul was preaching against 1t, till
he ruined the whole stock Of trinkets, and the en-
tire medallion business was spoiled, and the mer
chants held an Indignation mass meeting against
him. Such a sensation was never heard Of before
or since The fact was, he was the great disturbeI
of his age. He went 10 Iconium and made SEN
sation, went to Corinth and made sensation, went
to jerusalem and made sensation. Wherever he
went, in the words OF my text, there arose nc
small stir about that way"
What do you mean by sensation3 Noah Webster
says 1t is a state of excited interest or feeling AS
the word conservatism he's been twisted from It's
noble sense to mean a stupid do nOthingisn, and
liberalism from generous demeanor toward 9th.
ers to mean surrender of Christianity, so the
word sensation has sometimes been driven out OF
shape to mean everything cratic and represents
BILE. But let me say that nothing good for Church
or State has ever been done without exciting sen.
sation. The charges made against me in this di
Tection take as a compliment, and wish 1t was
more thoroughly true, aud promise in future to
make 1t more accurate, and In this sermon, which
is the conclusion Of my anniversary discourse be.
gun last Sabbath, shall speak to you on "sensa'
tion versus stagnatiOn." Before becoming a min
lister found that religion was associated in the
minds Of many with dullness. l found people
wide awake In political conventions, when Gov
ernor was to be nominated but somnolent in
houses that had come for the coronation Of Christ
I saw people intense in assemblages where their
financial interests were being discussed, but max
ing an Intellectual struggle to appear vlgilant
when the question was whether they should be
forever mansioned or pauperized. l saw court
rooms agitated where one man was on trial for his
life, but whose aSsemblages were Indifferent when
the eternal life of 500 were in peril. thought
then what think now, and every layman thinks,
that there's something radically wrong about pull
pits and churches. To keep awake we used to eat
caraway seed or cloves, or hold up one foot, or
pinch ourselves, or count the WINDOW panes, or a
mischievous brother would stimulate US by the
stick of a pin, or an elder sister would give us a
reproving look, which would fill us with self alb
negation, until gazing at the pew where the seven
elders sat In the old Dutch church we saw the
seven sleepers, these good men having lost their
hold at the second head of the discourse, and then
we felt that after all there might be hope for US
when such good men were imperfect. What is
the use Of hiding the fact that there is more
SLEEPING DONE IN CHURCH
than there 10 In any other building in the world.
Many of the churches are great Sunday dormito.
ries. People who are troubled with what the doc
tors call insomnia at home that is they cannot ge
sleep on the pillow find the needed anodyne in
some of our churches, What morphine and chlOr
al and pillow of hops cannot do, the sermon and
a long prayer accomplish,
All sorts of stratagems people ply In church to
appear wakeful. sometimes during sermon putting
down their heads to give you the idea that they
are overcome with emotion, when they are merely
overcome with drowsiness. Ifan audience sleep,
1t is the fault off the minister When q Scotch
pastor cried out to one Of his sleeping hearers,
Donald, take pinch of snuff if you can't keep
awake" Donald replied, "You had better put the
pinch of snuff in the sermon" If with all the ar
tillery Of eternity in his hand, the preacher can
not keep an audience awake he has missed his
profession, If the people keep taking out their
wathes to see how near the sermon is done, II is
because they feel bored. What would you think
of man at banquet taking out his watch to see
how soon he would be able to stop eating cream
The gospel is'a banquet and our pop
ulations are starving for 1t. and they want some.
thing for the sou;tO eat, and they have no pa.
tience with an entertainment which is all napkin
ring and finger bowl, ALI this complaint against
people because they do not come to church shoUl
be put where 1t belongs. 1t is not so much the
fault Of the people as Of us, the clergy. say to
those young men preparing for the ministry, II
you want to get an audience, do as Paul did
AAhAo.h DAh pbAAs AhCAC hIOhO uO nudll bllE hDOuL
that way.''
Men will go where they get help. Help them
once and they will come again. What do they
care for the cOnventionalites OF the pulpit2 How
much Of your Latin do they understand They
see that your chief anxiety is lest you lose your
place in your notes. They see how particular you
are to have that soap.lock curl come down on the
rfQht Olnna m hat
1t back again with your hand, delicate and dia-
monded. What do they care about the Arian con.
troversy when the controversy for them is, how
they shall pay note $500 with 5000. and how
they shall be comforted when yesterday afternoon
they buried their only child2 I Judge others by
myself / cannot keep awake under a sermon
that lacks practicability, Some two years ago
having supply for my own pulpit I went into
one Of the most aristocratic churches In New York
for Sabbath service. Everything was beautiful:
the church beautiful: the song beautiful; the
preaching beautiful; the minister beautiful, Bot
got drowsy, and, after making manful resistance
said to my companion, "There is no use, can
hold out no longer" and putting my head on the
back Of the pew went into one of the most re
lreshing slumbers of my life. committed no
sin. The minister, by trying to feed me on posies
and didactics heavy as lead, committed the trans
Zression.
CIInging to the mere technicalites Of religion
In our puipits, few people may come to hear us
because they have been brought up to do 10, and |
because 1t has been eternally deereed that they |
should come, but the great masses Of the people |
will be no more attracted than they would to sit
ioWn in an ice house or spend the evening in the |
7ault ofa cemetery. My friends. the great con.
est in this country is not to be between lnfdelity
md Christianity, but between Christian sensation
md putrid stagnation. Let the Church wake up
lit all her banners blow her trumpetsior recruits
'nd give the battle shout and the victory is ours
u u twenty years. 1t is high time that we fetch up
4, ne cavalry. The big guns are stuck In the mud.
me great danger OF the Church Of God in this day
NOT nom sensation, but from stagnation. As
oio you In the former part Of my anniversary ser.
non' begun laet Sabbath, my frst resolution was
IN nIA - 49, 4