The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1892-05-06

course and be glorified.' That is the
true attitude of the church and that is
the true attitude of the pulpit and the
pew. Sam Jones and George Stuart
never had great meeting anywhere OF
themselves. Il is all q great humbug
when people say: we wonder If they
will have great meeting here and all
that sort of thing. The great meeting
comes from our being used as simple in
struments in Gods hands and through
the prayers of good people, and unless
we have faithful work on the part OF the
ministry and on the part of the pew, and
gracious work on tho part of God, these
meetings will be failures.
"Hou must not hang your hopes on
human hooks, or they will break; but
hang your hopes on God. want to say
to you whenever you find preacher
that is succeeding in this world. you
may write two things of him: First.
that he is man OF prayer himself, and
second, that people are praying for him.
A preacher without the prayers of his
peoples is equal to naught. | have Of
ten thought that if there ever was
man who could preach without
help, 1t was Paul, who was SO miracu-
lously converted to God and had divine
powers. When he wrote this text, he
was standing in Athens, the seat of
learning of the ancient word, where they
cad idols to the sun, to the moon and
every other thing they could think of,
and lest they shsuld have left out any
thing that should have been wor-
shipped, they built beautiful idol to
the Unknown God And as he looked
upon all these things, he wrote back to
the little church at Thessalonica,
Brethren, pray for us that the word of
the Lord may have free course and be
glorifed.'
He wanted to be in the race and see
the Church of God run alongside of
these superstitious dogmas. People
come here to see us SO that they may
pass Judgment upon US, but tell you
that human Judgment is q mighty poor
thing in some hands, and the biggest
fool in the world can form very poor
idea Of preacher. A little boy of minc
had been to church and when asked
how he liked the preaching, ho said it
was too long and too dry. Now, he got
that idea from somebody and hope to
God he didn't got it from me; but ]
think it was probably his own idea. If
| had brain measure and were to go
out into this audience and pick up the
biggest fool in the crowd, he would
have his idea about the preachers. But
you may say, do you want us to cut off
our opinions and mako us bow down to
everything you say, and do you propose
to assert your mastery and hush up all
opinion" No! no. no! But | say we
are not here for human Judgment of our
methods and of our WAYS; that whatever
they are, they are God.given to us.
I'm Vicksburg, Miss, a presiding
elder of the Baptist Church told me on
one occasion that they had been having
silly time for about three months;
that they had had dull preacher and
mad been trying to replace him, and had
tried several preachers but when they
went into the pulpit, the people looked
at him and looked at his watch chain
and at his cravat, and his dress, and to
see If he had manuscript or not and
watched him all the way through, and
that it was just like this, Jury, look
upon the prisoner-prisoner look upon
The jury If man is called of God 10
preach the gospel, and if he goes from
his knees to preach thatgospel, I say to
you that his message is not subject
for human adverse criticism, but il is
the everlasting word of God.
Now, want to say this, that l thank
God that you didn't make Sam Jones
and didn't make George Stuart, and
that you didn't call us to preach, and
that you are not responsible for our
preaching; and that God made US and
stamped our individuality upon us, and
that we are preaching here according
to our naturalness. We are here to
preach the truth, and you are not here
to Judge of our manner or methods, bat
to pray for the success OF the word of
God. There never was town that
hasn't got its cranks. 1t seems as
though they run letter machine bus
mess. They object to everything you
do, and they object to your methods.
would rather have one good colored
man In Roanoke praying OR his knees,
20 Lord, help these men to preach
than to have half dozen little one
horseeritics running around town.
There are lot Of singers ia this
town and they come here and sit down
In the audience inst to criticise the
singing and see how long the thing will
go on; but before long | reckon you will
have to have O policeman with his billv
guarding the choir to keep them away
from 1t. But they don't know where to
go or what to do. l like man or
woman who will walk up and trust the
think In Coils hands. | preached one
time at Chattanooga where | was ap-
pointed TO the First Methodist Church
ana on the first night | believe
preached from this same text.
IAN old lady heard me preach, and
she went home and said: % Lord,
have come homo troubled, and / am
afraid that we haven't had the right
kind of preacher. tie made the people
laugh In church to-day. Lord cut off
al these defects IN him and help him
Next Sunday she came back to preach
ing, and when she went home she said:
% Lord, he was better this SUNDAY than
he was last Sunday. Help him more.
She came to preaching the next Sunday.
and after that she said: % Lord ho To- a