The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-05-23
ought to present it in animated and spec

ought to present it in animated and spec
| Iacular manner.
Sabbath morning By Sabbath morning
address many theological students who are
preparing for the ministry. They come in
here from the different institutions l say
and look over the history of the church you
will find that those men have
brought most souls TO Christ who
have been dramatic. Rowland Hill,
dramatic; Thomas Chalmers, dramatic
| Thomas Guthrie, dramatic; John Knox,
dramatic; Robert McCheyne, dramatic;
Christmas Evans, dramatic; George Whit
field, dramatic; Robert Hall, dramatic;
| Robert South, dramatic; Fenelon, dramatic;
John Mason, dramatic; DIR. Mott, dramatic.
! When you get into the ministry, If you at
tempt to culture that element, and try to
WELD it for God, you will meet with
mighty rebuff and caricature, and ecclesias-
! tical council will take your case in charge,
aud they will try to put you down; but the
! God who starts you will help you through,
and great will be the eternal rewards for
the assiduous and the plucky.
What we want, ministers and laymen,
is to get our sermons and our exhortations
and our prayers out Of the old rut. I see a
| great deal Of discussion in the religious
| papers about why people do not come to
church They do not come because they
are not interested. The old hackneyed re-
ligious phrases that come moving down
through the centuries will never arrest the
masses. What we want to-day, you in
your sphere and in my sphere. is to freshen
up. People DO not want in their sermons
the sham flowers bought at the millinery
shop but the japonicas wet with the morn
ing dew; nor the heavy bones of extinct
megatherium Of past ages. but the living
reindeer caught last August at the edge OF
SchroOu lake. We want to drive out the
| drowsy, and the prosaic, and the tedious,
and the humdrum, and introduce the
brightness and vivacity, and the holy
sarcasm. and the sancti1ed wit, and the
epigrammatic power, and the bloJd-red
earnesJness, and the fire of religious
zeal, and do not know of any way of
doing it as well as through the dra-
matte. Attention. Behold Harkl Selah
Next, / speak of the Selah of perpetulty.
The Targun, which is the Bible in Chaldee,
renders this word of my text forever"
Many writers agree in believing and stating
that one meaning of this word IS forever"
In this very verse from which l take my
text Selah means not only poetic signif-
canoe, and intermissiou, and emphasis, but
it means eternal OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
Gods government forever, Gods goodness
forever, the gladness Of the righteous for
ever. Of course, you and have not sur
veyor's chain with enough links to measure
that domain of meaning. In this world we
must build everything on a small scale. A
hundred years are great while. A tower
500 feet is a great hight. A journey of 1000
miles is very long. But eternity II the
archaugef has not strength of wing to fly
across IT,, but f1utters and drops like a
wounded sea>gull, there is no need of our
trying in the small shallow Of human
thought to voyage across IL.
A skeptic desiring to show bis contempt
for the passing years, and to show that he
could build enduringly, had his own sepul-
cher made of the finest and hardest marble,
and then he mad put on the door the words,
For time and for eternity" but it so hap~
pened that the seed OF a tree somehow got
into an unseen crevice of the marble That
iced grew and enlarged until it became
tree, and split the marble to pieces There
can be no LIBERALIZATION Of anything earth
ly. But foreverl Will you and l live as
long as thnt9 We are apt to think
of the grave as the terminus. We
are apt to think of the hearse as our last
vehicle. We are apt to think of seventy
or eighty or ninety years, aud then a cessa-
ton. Instead OF that we t1nd the marble
slab of the tomb is only a milestone, mark
ing the first mile. and that the great journey
is beyond. We have only time enough in
this world to put on the sandals and to clasp
our girdle and to pick up our staff. We
take our first step from cradle to grave, and
then we open the door and start-great God,
whittier! The clock strikes the passing
away of time, but not the passing away OF
eternity. Measureless! Measureless! This
Selah of perpetuity makes earthly in-
CAPABILITIES 80 Insignificant, the difference
between scepter and needle, between AL
hambra and hut, between cdariot and
cart, between throne and curbstone, be-
tween Administer and bare floor. between
satin and sackcloth, very trivial. This
Selah of perpetuity makes our getting
ready so important. For such prolonga-
ton of travel, what outfit Of guide books of
passports. and of escort1 Are we putting
out on a desert, simeon swept and ghoul-
haunted. or into regions of sun-lighted aud
spray sprinkled gardens? Will it be Ely
stun or Gehennas Once started In that
world we cannot stop. The current is 80
swift that once in no oar can resist it, no
helm can steer out of it, no herculean or
titanic arm can battle it. Hark to the long
resounding echo "foreverln o wake up to
the interest of your desthless spirit Strike
out for heaven. Rouse ye. men aud women
for whom Jesus died. Selahl Selah! For
ever! Forever