Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-11-07
Husks.

A little rebellion is embryoing itself
along, by inches, at Yale. Its initial devel-
Opment lnsterializes in protest, and unless
| this protest is needed revolution may I'M
wind itself in the interior of the institution
and upset and demolish some Of the vener-
able and time-wOrn features of this great
university, The students are TO raise the
standard of revOlt-nOt against beans as a
steady diet, for that is in complete consis-
! tency with the intellectual atmosphere that
envirOns Harvard-but against the pods or
huSks. They draw the line at the bean,
and protest against having the hod OF en-
easement thrust down their throats.
1t is neither the cook nor steward who
! is guilty of an attempt TO feed husks TO
these unfortunate thirsters and seekers after
knowledge, but the official preachers of the
| institution who have undoubtedly fallen
into the very prevalent error that the fine,
intelligent, rich-blooded and handsomely
attired lads, who have been nursed in the
| lap of luxury and pampered with dainties,
are Of superior race, TO whom
it would be an insult TO preach
the plain, straight gospel, unorna-
mented with brsss-mountIngs and filagree
work. That is TO say, the university
preachers seem to think these young bloods
are too good to be told that they are conf
mon sinners and need forgiveness and saliva
tioR quite as much as a hard-fisted coal
HEAVIER or dusky-visaged bootblack. So
feed them fine, elaborate discourses In
which sky-blre is artistically set off with
rOse-color and scarlet, in which they utter
what they suspect and conjecture about re-
| ligion, and air ingenious theoris, and tell q
vast amount OF what they do not know,
leaving the impression of brilliancy upon
their unfortunate auditors-and nothing
| else.
And, after a long period Of abounding
emptiness and prolonged intellectual suffer
ing and sufferance, these poor students
have been forced to protest. Let no one
plunge TO the easy inference that these
young thoroughbred are literary dudes or
intellectual snobs. They are not that kind
of blOOded cattle. They are men They are
also men Of sense and recognize that
they are of common clay, constructed on
the same general plan, and of the same ma
terial as other people, and especially, that
they are human beings, under the curse of
sin, and that they need to be saved from
themselves and enabled to overcome their
national impulses and tendencies to 90
wrong, and that their salvation must come
from a higher aud stronger power than
themselves.
What these practical young men demand
is straight goods, and no refined intellectual
tiuminery and fiub They want the
gospel simply, direct, unadorned,
Shom of all the modern Improvements and
defOrmities. They want something from
the sacred desk that will assist them in tie
great battle of life; something that will aid
them in overthrowing and properly utiliz-
| ing the world. the flesh and the devil;
something that will help them to be- better
men, of use in the world-pure, holy ana
complete-true gentlemen, goo9 citizens
-unselfsh. Christ-Ake, grand. They
want the clean kernel, the
pyIte-- mix of the cocOanut-the
sincere milk of the word-the solid truth.
the pure gold-Of the gospel-and they
ought to have it.
And this is all quite true of other people,
of the well-fed and elegantly-housed and
| artired miilionaire-of the intellectual pro
| feSSional man-of fba univarSirv graduate
who has gone into law, policy or states
manship. These do not go TO church to
listen to learned essays about the truth:
| they need and they want the truth itself.
They do not want man TO stand up in the
| sacred desk to preach the gospel, but to
preach the gospel, in its simplicity and
entireness.
Who are the men who draw the largest
audiences in the world? Who never ad-
dress anything g-anywhere or on any occa-
siOn-but crowded houses? They are the
men who utter the plain, essential truths
of the gospel, in such a way that ii is ap-
plicable 10 all classes and conditions of men
whether pampered aristocrats or beggars
oAAN soANSA SA-oAAlNos III a AildA al
can understand-in a wOrd-precisely as
Christ preached it making no distinction
among classes and recognizing no caste or
difference between races or grades of sOci-
ETY.. Such preacher as this is SpurgeOn.
who is one Of the simplest and most earn
est of preachers; and Dwight l.. Moody is
another man Of the same kind, who recOg-
nizes the need of all men for common
gospel and a common salvation from sin
and its effects and penalty. Then no man
can fail to understand and appreciate the
rugged plainness and the pointed directnesS
of DR.. John Hall; or the sledge-hammer
blows of Phillips Brooks, always delivered
at the centre of the target, the human
heart.
The gospel is a Ieveler 1t is the most
democratic and republican of ali the insti-
tutions the world ever saw. But it levels
up. 1t takes the lowest forms of humanity
and lifts degraded and corrupt men and
women into an atmosphere of light. and
purity, and holineSs-and it takes the
pharisee and transforms him into a simple,
unselfish, childlike and faithful follower of
the divine-human ideal
The day when intellectual gymnastics
and displays of literary pyrotechnics were
admired in the pulpit has passed away
The pulpit has been forced to adapt Itself
to the common people, and it has also dis
covered that only in so adapting itself can
it reach and transform all classes and con-
ditions of men. The man of blue blood
and fine culture needs and demands pre-
ciSely that clear and pure gospel truth