Connecticut western news., 1892-05-26


 salvation Selah." "The Lord shall count, when he writeth up the people, , that this man was born there. Selah." Let the world have its honors, and its riches, and its pomp. Let me have the Lord for my light, my peace. my fortress, my pardon, my hope, my heaven,
 What sinners yalue resign; Lnrdl lis enough that thou nrt mine.
 shall behold Thy bissful face, And stand complete in righteousness.
 This world is all an empty show, But lhe bright world to which go Hath ioNS substantial and sincere: When shall wake and find me there3 O glorious huurl o biesi abodel shall be near and like my God, And sin anh sense no more control The endless pleasures of my soul. But when l speak of the Selah of em- phasis 1 must notice it is startling, | dramatic emphasis. lt has in it the Hark. the Hist of the drama. That wakening and arousing emphasis we who preach or instruct need to use more frequently The sleepiest audiences in the world are religions audiences. NECESSITY OF DRAMATIC FORCE. Ton Sabbath school teachers ought to have more of the dramatic element in your instructions. By graphic Scripture scene, by anecdote, by descriptive ges. ture, hy impersonation urge your classes | to right action. We want in all our schools and colleges and prayer meet ings. and in all our attempts at reform. and in all our churches to have less of the style didactic and more of the style | dramatic.
 Fifty essays about the sorrows of the poor could not affect me as n little drama of accident and suffering I saw one slip pery morning in the streets of Philadel- phia. Just ahead of me was a lad, wretched in apparel, his limb amputated at the knee: from the pallor of the boys cheek the amputatiOn not long before | He had package of broken food under his arm-food he had begged, suppose. at the doors. AS he passed on over the | slippery pavement cautiously and care | fully, 1 steadied him until his crutch slipped and he fell l helped him up as we'll as 1 couid. gathered up the frag. ments of the package as well as could | put them under one arm and the crutch under the other arm: but when 1 saw the blood run down his pale clieek was completely overcome. Fifty essays about the suffering of the poor could not touch one like that little drama of accident and suffering.
 Oh. we want in all our different de. partments of usefullness-and 1 address hundreds of people who are trying 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, tu moan religion. to croak religion, to SC. pulchrize religion. when we ought to present it in animated and spectacular manner.
 Sabbath morning by Sabbath morning address many theological students who are preparing for the ministry. They come in here from the different institu- tions. 1 say to them this morning: If you will go home and look over the his tory of the church you will find that those men have brought most souls to Christ who have been dramatic-Row- land Hill, dramatic; Thomas Chalmers, dramatic; Thomas Guthrie, dramatic; John Knox. dramatic; Robert McCheyne, dramatic. Christmas Evans, dramatic; George Whitefeld. dramatic: Robert Hall. dramatic; Robert South, dramatic: Fenelon, dramatic; John Mason, dra. matic: Dr. Nott, dramatic. When you get into the ministry. if you attempt to culture that element and try to wield it for God you will meet with mighty re- buff and caricature, and ecclesiastical council will take your case in charge, and they will try to put you down. but the God who starts you will help you through. ana great will be the eternal rewards for the nssiduous and the plucky
 GET OUT OF THE RUT.
 What we want. ministers and laymen, is to get our sermons. and our exhorta- tions. and our prayers ont of the old rut see great deal of discussion in the re- ligious papers about why people do not come to church. They do not come be cause 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 in my sphere. is to freshen up People do not want in their sermons the sham flowers bought at the millinery shop, hut the laponicas wet with the morning dew; nor the heavy homes of extinct megathe. rium of past ages, but the living rein. deer caught last August at the edge of Schroou lake
 We want to drive out the drowsy, and the prosaic. and the tedious, and the hum drum. and introduce the brightness and vivaci;y, and the holy sarcasm. and the sanctiird wit, and the epigrammatic power, and tine blood red earnestness, and the fire of religions zeal, and l do not know of any way of doing it as well as through the dramatic. Attentionl De- holdl Harkl Selahl
 Next 1 speak of the Solah of perpetu. ity. The Targum, which is the Bible in Chaldee, renders this word of my text forever" Many writers agree in be- lieving and stating that one meaning of this word is forever" In this very verse from which 1 take my text Selah means not only poetic significance and iatermission and emphasis, but it means eternal reverberation--for Gods government forever, Gods goodness for ever. the gladness of the righteous for ever. Of course you and have not surveyors chain with enough links to measure that domain of meaning. In this world we must build everything on small scale A hundred years are a great while. A tower five hundred feet is great height. A journey of four thousand miles is very long, But eter- nityl If the archangel has not strength of wing to fly across it. but tiutters and drops like a wounded seagull, there is no need of our trying in the small shallow of human thought to voyage across it.