Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-10-27
IN RELIGIONS REALM.
MATTERS OF INTEREST TO MINIS
TIERS AND LAYMEN.
Expressions of Opinion by Newspapers
Representing the Various Denom-
nations. ON Many Subjects.

show how God feels 1t enforces its teach
ings by this incident: A home missionary
was preaching to a frontier audience on the
prodigal son. After ne had described the
condition of the son in rags among the
swine, and had started him on his return,
as he began to speak of the father coming
to meet him, and ordering the fatted calf
to be killed in honor of the prodigaPs re-
turn, he noticed cowboy looking inter
ested, and he determined TO make per-
sonal appeal. Looking directly at his
nearer, the preacher said; any son, what
would you have done if you had had a
a son returning home in such plight? ~
"Pd have shot the boy and raised the calf"
was the prompt reply.
DIR. Arthur T. Pierson says, in the Homi
ietic Reuiep: at is absolutely essential TO
successful pulpit oratory that the orator
should interest his nearer. Rhetorical
sympathy is three-fold-sympathy with
the theme, with the audience, and with
| the occasion. To get the first, immersion
in the subject is the only method to as
sure the second and third, the study of the
men and the times so as 10 keep in contact
with living humanity is the necessary con-
dition. The recluse who buries himself
in his books and his study may burn with
his theme, but he will fail of sympathetic
contact with his hearers. "One advantage
of extempore discourse is this, that it helps
contact with the nearer. The eyes are not
! withdrawn to the manuscript, or turned in
ward to read the memoriZed discourse.
The eye Of the nearer is caught, and per-
haps the shades Of his responsive thought
are caught aud reflected. There Is win
ming manner and there is repelling man
ner. To be winning is to be wise, but it
must not be overdone. We have a friend,
an evangelist who got into the habit Of
calling his audience dear souls Inad-
vertently he would say, as he passed from
place to place, dear Belfast SOULS dear
Dublin souls,'-and before he knew ii he
was saying dear Cork souls p and convulsed
his Irish audience Dr. Broadus gives it
as one of his first rules, 'Propitiate your
hearers. Draw your auditors toward you;'
and he practices it. You do not hear him
but few moments before you are at ease
with him and prepared to like him. Cicero
gives a rule not unlike this, that at the
early period of an address the orator and
understanding
On the question of inspiration" the
London Spectator says: "What, then, shall
we regard as the unfailing test of true in
spiration? First, We should say that we
see it wherever we find conceptions of God
and duty far in advance of the age to
which they belong, and cutting right
across the grain Of the particular tribal or
national character affected by it, and es-
pecially where we see these conceptions
gaining steadily in their influence over
the life of a people such as the Israelites,
and wrenching them away from the char
acteristic worship and moral tendencies of
the tribes and nations round them. :
This is the true test of inspiration, when a
selfish and even sensual people are purified
by it into a spiritual mind, when pas
sionate and even blood-thirsty people are
| chastened by it into a gentle mind, when
proud and even stiff-necked people are
broken by it into an humble mind; when
David sings, Purge me with hyssop, and L
shall be clean: wash me, and ] shall be
clean when Elijah proclaims that God is
neither in the tempest, nor the earthquake,
nor the fire, but is in the still small voice
when John the Baptist drops the stern cry
Repent 20 proclaim Him the latchet
Of whose shoes he is not worthy to I'M
loose; when St. Paul, who could wrathfully
predict that God should smite the unjust
Judge for ordering him to be smitten con-
trary to the law, when sitting to judge him
according to the law, is compelled to chant
the praises of that charity without which
zeal even to the death is worthless, which
'sufereth long and is kind, envieth not,
vaunteth not itself, is not pulled up, does
not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its
own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no
evil The transformation Of the charac-
ter of race and of the personal character
istics of individuals under the immediate
breath Of higher spirit, is the very test
of inspiration; and in Scripture, no doubt,
we see in almost every page the marvels
and miracles which it effects.
And yet the inspiration no more implies
that there were no unrebuked bursts of
passion in the Old Testament, no blunders
in the New, no neutrality-suspicious. of
prophecy, no blanks where we look for
help, and no confusions where we need
calculation, than the writing Of the moral
law on the heart implies that there are no
perverted consciences in the human life,
no fiery acts of distorted and cruel zeal"
The Independent says: "The hymn
books Of the church, whether with or with
out tunes set to hymns, are, as TO their
contents to be richly filled with what Paul
calls the word of Christ He means by
this phrase the facts and doctrines, the
precepts and promises, and, in general, the
system of Christian truth taught by Christ
and His apostles. Psalms and hymns for
worship are TO be impressive, not simply
as specimens of fine poetry, beautiful i'm
ages, and a choice of words, but by reason
of their thoughts, and these thoughts are to
be Bible thoughts, or the word of Christ
will not be in them. Any one who will
carefully study the Psalms of the Old Tes-
lament or the hymns of the Christian
Church can hardly fail 10 be struck with
their profoundly intellectual and theologi-
cal character. While they are not formu-
lated creeds in the technical sense, they
are creeds in the spiritual sense-creeds
Of the heart, creeds for the express
sion Of the emotions and feelings of
the heart, and creeds which have
their basis in the being and attributes of
God and in the great work Of redemption
by Jesus Christ. They are not less such
because they are poetic with the general
license as to language which belongs to all
poetry. The Christology Of the New
Testament and the legal dispensation and
much of the history of the Old Testament
appear with great prominence in the
hymnolo2y of the Christian Church. This
hymnology would be absurd and false to
the heart of the Church, as well as to its
own purpose, were the fact otherwise. 1t
is this feature Of the songs Of the church
that gives them power and value, and
makes them so precious to the sensibilities
Of the Christian heart. They are as gen
eral rule, with here and there solitary
exception, the expression of an honest,
earnest, and heartfelt orthodoxy Of faith,
enriched with the fervors Of sacred pas
sion. An eminent writer has well said:
Good hymns are concentrations of the
deepest experience and ripest thought,
crystallized into the most beautiful forms
of language. A hymn should be a
concentrated sermon, compressed
force, entering the mind, there to
put forth expansive power, acting
with holy pressure upon heart and life'
The whole doctrine of Christ in His birth,
His life His tenderness and compassion,
His suffprinrq and deafb He ,ae,rraction