Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1893-11-01

waited on. We do not complain because we
do not Immediately get the medicine. We
know our turn will come after awhile. And
SO, while all parts of a sermon NAV not be-
appropriate TO our case, If we wait prayer
iully before the sermon is through we shall
have the divine prescription. l say TO these
young men who come here Sabbath by Sab
bath, and who are going 20 preach the gos-
pel-these theological students-I saw TO
them, we want In our sermons not more
metaphysics, nor more imagination, nor
more logic. nor more profundity.
What we want IN our sermons and Chris
tian exhortations is more sympathy. When
Father Taylor preached in the Sailors Bethel
at Boston, the JACK tarS felt that they had
help for their duties among the ratlines ami
the forecastles. When Richard Weaver
preached to the operatives in Oldham, Eng
land, all the workingmen felt they had more
gr:r-, for the spindles. When DR.. South
preached to kings and princes and princesses
all the mighty men who heard him felt prep
aration for their high station.
Again remark that sanctuary help ought
to come through the prayers OF all the peo-
pie. The door Of the eternal storehouse is
hung on one hinge-a gold hinge, the hinge
Of prayer-and when the whole audience lay
hold OF that door, II must come open. There
are here many people spending their first
Sabbath after some great bereavement. What
Will your prayer DO for themp How will II
help the tomb in that mans heart? Hers
are people rho have not been in church be.
fore for ten years. What will your PRAYER
do Tor them by rolling over their soul holy
memories?
Here are people in crises OF awful temp
tition. They are on the verge of despair or
Wild b!underinS or theft or suicide. What
viii your prayer do for them this morning;
In the way OF giving them strength TO resist
WIZ you be chiefly anxious about the fit OF
the glove that YOU put to your forehead
while you prayed? Will YOU be chiefly
critical of the rhetoric OF the pastors
petition? No. No. A thousand people vii!
feel. THAT prayer is for me-" and at every
ste .! the prayer chains ought 10 drop of,
and temples OF sin ought to crush into dust,
and lubilees of deliverance ought to brandish
their trurpets. In most of our churches We
have three prayers-the opening prayer
what Is called the long prayer" and the
closing prayer
There ar. many people who spend the first
prayer in arranging their apparel after en-
trance, and spend the second prayer-ths
long prayer in wishing II were through,
and spend the last prayer in preparing to
start for home. The most insignificant part
of every religious service Is the sermon. The
more important parts are the Scrlptural les
son and the prayer. The sermon is only a
Is God talking to man. Prayer Is man talk
ing to God. Oh, If we understood the grand
eur and the pathos OF this exercise OF prayer,
Instead OF being a dull exercise, We would
Imagine that the room was full of divine and
angelic appearances.
But. my friends, the old style OF church
will not do the work. We might as well now
try to take all the passengers from New York
20 Buffalo by stage coach, or all the plSsen-
gers from Albany to Buffalo 10y canllbOlt. or
to DO all the battling OF the world with bow
and arrow, as with the old style of church to
meet the exisencies of this day. Unless the
church in our day will adapt itself TO the
time it will become extinct. The people read
Ing newspapers and books all the week, in
alert, picturesque and resOunding style, will
have no patience with Sabbath humdrum.
We have no objections to bands and sur
plice and all the paraphernalia of clerical
life, but these things make no impression
MAKE no more Ifnpr=ssiop on the great
masses of the people than the Ordinary bust
ness suit that you wear in Wall street. 4
tailor cannot make minister. Some of the
poorest preachers wear the best clothes. and
many a backwoodsman has dismounted from
the saddlebags and in MS linen duster
preached a sermon that shook earth and
heaven with its Christian elOquence. No new
gospel. only the old gospel in way suited
TO the time. No new church. but church
TO be the asylum, the inspiration, the prac-
teal sympathy and the eternal heIp OF the
people.
But while half of the doors OF the church
half OF the doors Of the church must be set
open toward the next. You and Itarry hero
only brief space. We want somebody TO
teach US how to get out of this life at the
right time and in the right way. Some
fall out Of life, some 80 stumbling out oflife,
some go groaning out OF life, some 20 ours
ing out OF life. We want TO go singing, ris-
ing, rejoicing, triumphing. We want half
the doors of the church set ia that direc-
ton. WeYant half the prayers that way,
half the sermons that way We want to
know how to get ashore from the tumult OF
this world into the land OF everlasting peaca
We do not want TO stand doubling ana shiv-
ering when we 90 away from this world. We
want our anticipation5 aroused to the high
est pitch.
We want to have the exhilaration of dy-
ing child in England, the father telling me
the story. When he said to her, SIS the path
narrow she answered: The path is mar
row. II is so narrow that l cannot walk arm
in arm with Christ, so Jesus goes ahead and
He says, Mary, follow Through these
church gates set heavenward how many OF
your friends and mine have gone? The last
time they were out of the house they came
to church. The earthly pilgrimage ended at
the pillar of public worship, and then they
marched out to a bigger and brighter assem-
blage. Some OF then were 80 old they could
not walk without cane or two crutcheS-
Now they have eternal juvenescence. Or
cept as the maternal hand guided them. Now
they bound with the hilarities celestial.
The last time we saw them tney were
wasted with malarial or pulmonIc disorder,
but now they have no fatigue and nc diff
Guilty OF respiration in the pure ar OF heaven.
How l wonder when you and l Will cross
over Some OF YOU have had about enouE n
of Me thumping and failing of this life. A
draft from the fountains of heaven would do
YOU good Complete release, you could
stand very we'll If you got on tue other
side and had permission TO come back, you
would not come. Though you We're invited
TO come back and join your friends on earth,
yo1l would say, mo, let me tarry here until
they come l shall not risk going back. II
a man reaches heaven. he had better stay
there"
oh, 1 join hands with you this morning in
that uplifted splendor!
When the shore is won at last,
Who will count the biilows paStt
In Freybourg, Switzerland, there is the
trunk of a tree 400 years old. That tree wai
planted to commemorate an event. Aboui
fen miles from the city the Swiss conquered
the Burgundians, and a young man wanted
TO take the tidings to the city. de took tree
branch and ran with such speed the ten miles
that when he reached the city waving the
tree branch he had only strength to cry "'lc-
tory |" and dropped dead. Tne tree branch
that he carried was planted. and 1t grew 10
be a great tree, twenty feet in circumference
and the remains of it are there to this day.
NV hearer, when you have fought your last
hattie with sin and death and he'll, and they
have been routed in the conflict, it will be a
ioy worthy of celebration. You will fly to
The city and cry "Victory" and drop at the
feet OF the Great King. Then the palm
branch of the earthly race will be planted, to
become the outreaching tree of everlasting
rejoicing.
When shall these eyes Thy heaven-built walls
And pearly gates behold;
Thy bulwarks with sa walton strong
And streets OF shining goldf o.
Give every man thy ear, but few tiny