Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1893-10-27

do not Immediately get the modidines NO
know our turn will come anet awhile. ana
So while all parts of a sermon may NOT De
| appropriate to our case, II we wait prayer
fully 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 to preach the Cos
pel-these theological students-I say 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 exhortatons is nore 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 and
the forecastles. When Richard Weaver
preached to the operatives In Oldham, Eng
land. all the workingmen felt they had mora
grace 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 l 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 Bhole audience lay
hold OF that door, If must cone open. There
are here many people spending their nrst
-.hhath after some great bereavement. What
will your prayer do for them? How will 1t
help the tomb in that mans heart? Here
are people who have not been In church be-
fore for ten years. What will your prayer
do for them by rolling over their soul holy
memoriesP
Here are people IN crises OF awful temp
tation. They are on the verge Of despair or
wild laundering or theft or suicide. What
will your prayer do for them this morning
in the way OF giving them strength to resist?
Will you be chiefly anxious about the fit OF
the glove that you put to your forehead
while -ou prayed2 Will you be chiefly
critical of the rhetoric Of the pastors
petition? No. No. thousand people will
feel, "That prayer Is for me- and at every
step ofthe prayer chains ought to drop off,
and temples OF sin ought to crush into dust,
and jubilees of deliveranee ought to brandish
their trumpets In most of our churches We
have three prayers-the opening PRAYER.
what is called the ''long prayer" and the
closing prayer.
There are many people who spend the first
prayer in arranging their apparel after en-
trance, and spend the second prayer-the
"long prayer"--in wishing 1t 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
man talking to man. The Scripture lesson
is God talking to man. Prayer is man talk
! ing to God. Oh, II 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 we'll now
try to take all the passengers from New York
| to Buffalo by stage coach, or all the passen-
gers from Albany to Buffalo by canalboat, or
| to do all the battling of the world with bow
and arrow, as with the old style of church to
meet the exigencies 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 resoundfng 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 mako no impression
make no more impression on the great
masses Of the people than the ordinary busi-
ness suit that you wear in Wall street.
| tailor cannot make minister. Some OIL the
| poorest preachers wear the best clothes, and
many a backwoodsmai has dismounted from
! the saddlebags and In his 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-
tical sympathy and the eternal help OF the
people.
But while half of the doors OF the church
/ are to be set open toward this world the other
half of the doors of the church must be set
open toward the next. You and Itarry here
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 go stumbling out oflife,
some 90 grooming out life, some go ours
ing out Of life. We want 70 so singing, ris-
ing, rejoicing, triumphing. We want half
the doors of the church set in that direc-
ton. We want 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 peace
We do not want to stand doubling and shiv-
ering when we)go away from this world. We
want our anticipations aroused to the high
est pitch.
we want TO have the exhilaratlon OF q dy-
ing child In England, the father telling me
the story. When he said to her, us the path
narrow" she answered: The path ls mar
row. It is 80 narrow that cannot walk arm
in arm with Christ so Jesus goes ahead and
He SAYS, MARY, follow" Through these
church gates set heavenwari how. many OF
your friends and mine have gone? The last
time they wore out of the house they came
to church. The earthly pilgrimage ended at
the pillar of public worship, and then they
marched out to bigger and brighter assem-
blage. Soma OF them were 50 old they could
not walk without cane or two crutches.
Now they have eternal juvenescence Or
they were so young they could not walk ex-
cent as the maternal hand guided them. Now
they bound with the hilarities celestial
The last time we saw them they were
wasted with malarial or pulmonic disorder,
but now they have no fatigue and no DIM
Guilty of respiration in the pure air OF heaven.
How wonder when you and l Will cross
over! Some of you have had about enough
of the humping and failing OF this lie; A
draft from the fountains OF heaven would 40
YOU good. Complete release, you could
stand very WE'LL If you got on the other
side and had permission to come back, you
would not come. Though you were invited
to come back and join your friends on eartb,
YOU would say, mo, let me tarry here until
| they come. shall not risk going back. III
a man reaches heaven, he had better stay
| there"
Oh, join hands with you this morning Lii
that uplifted splendor
When the shore Is won ut last,
Who will count the pillows pastf
Tn Freybourg, Switzerland, there is the
| trunk of tree 400 years old. That tree WIS
planted to commemorate an event. About
Ten miles from the city the Swiss conquered
the Burgundians, and q young man wanted
10 take the tidings to the city. He took q Tree
branch and ran with such speed the ten miles
that when he reached the city waving the
free branch he had only strength 10 cry VIC
tory - and dropped dead. The tree branch
that he carried was planted. and 1t grew to