Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1892-06-02

me more laudanum, that l may not
think OF enternity and what is te
come" And dying Hobbies said. ~
leave my body to the grave, and my
soul to the great perhaps" It was
the discord Of All infidel's life breaking
down into the jargon OF despair; but
the Gospel makes the death OF the
Christian u Selah between redemption
and enthronement. "Almost WE'LL
said dying Richard Baxter; "almost
we'll" ''Play thosenotes over again
those notes which have been so great
delight and solace to me-" said the
dying Christian Mozart. "None but
Christ, none but Christ" exclaimed
airing Lambert.
4 next speak OF the Selah OF empha.
sis. Ewald, the German orientalist
and theologian, says that this word
means ascend; and that wherever you
find it, he says, you must look after
the meditation of the voice, and you
must put more force into your utter
unce. 1t is a Selah of emphasis. All
my friends, you and 1 need to correct
our emphasis. We put too much EN-
phasis on this world and not enough
on God and the next world. People
think these things around us are so
important, the things of the next are
not worthy of our consideration.
The first need for some OF us is to
change our emphasis. Look at
Wretchedness on q throne. Napoleon,
whileyet emperor of France, sat down
detected, his hands over his face. A
lad came in with tray of food, and
said, Sat, it will do you good" The
emperor looked up and said, "you
are from the country" thelad replied,
eyes "1our father has a cottage
and few acres of ground?" eyes"
"There is happiness" said the defect,
ed emperor. Ali Napoleon never
put the emphasis in the right place
until he was expiring at St. Helena.
On the other hand, look at satisfac.
ton amid the worst earthly disad-
vantage. II never saw until I was
blind" said christian man. ~ new.
err knew what contentment was while
had my eyesight, as l know what
content is now that l have lost my
eyesight. affirm, though few would
credit it, that I would not ex.
change my present position and Cir
cumstances for my circumstances
before l lost my eyesight." That
man put the emphasis.
IN THE RIGHT PLACE.
We want to put less stress upon
this world, and more ssress upon our
God as our everlasting portion. DAY.
id had found out the nothingness OF
this world and the all-sufficiency OF
God. Notice how he interjects the
Selahs. "Trust in the Lord at all
times; ye people, pour out your
hearts before Him. God is a refuge
for us. Selah." "Blessed be the Lord
who daily loads us with benefits,
even the God of our salvation. Sc
lah." "The Lord shall count when he
writes up the people, that the man
was born there. Selah.'
But when / speak of the Selah OF
emphasis I must notice it as a start
ling, q dramatic emphasis. 1t has in
the "hark," the "hist OF the drama.
That weakening and arousing en-
phasis we who preach and instruct
need to use more frequently. The
sleepiest audiences in the world are
religious audiences.
You Sabbath school teachers ought
to have more OF the dramatic ele-
ment in your instructions. By graphic
scripture scene, by anecdote, by de-
scriptive gesture, by representation,
urge your classes to right action. We
want i'll all our schools and colleges
and prayer-meetings, and in all our
attempts at reform, andin all church.
es, to have less OF the style didactic
and more of the style dramatic.
Oh! we want in all our different de-
partments OF usefulness-and l adj
dress hundreds of people who are try
ing to do good-we want
MORE OF THE DRAMATIC ELEMENT
and less of the didactic The tendency
in this day is to drone religion, to
whine religion, to cant religion, to
moan religion, to croak religion, to
sepulchrize religion, when we ought
to present it in animated and
spectacular manner.
What we want, ministers and lay
men, is to get our sermons and our
exhortations and our prayers out OF
the old rut. See q great deal OF dis
cussion in the religious papers about
why people do not come to church.
They do not come because they are
not interested. The old hackneyed
religious phrases that come moving
down through the centuries will never
arrest the masses. What we want
today, you in your sphere and I in
my sphere, is to freshen up. People
do not want in their sermons the
flowers bought at the millinery shop,
but the japonicas wet with the morn
ing dew; nor the heavy bones OF ex-
tinct megatherium OF past ages. but
the living reindeer caugh last August
at the edge OF Schroon lake. We want
to drive out the drowsy, and the pro-
sale, and the tedious, and the hum
drum, and introduce the brightness
and vivacity, and the holy sarcasm,
and the sanctified wit, and the cpl.
grammatic power, and the blood-red
earnestness, and the fire of religious
zeal, and do not know of any way
OF doing it, we'll as through the dra-
matte. Attention! Behold! Hark!
Selah!
Next, speak OF the Selah OF per-
petuity. The Targum, which is the