The Penn's Grove record., 1893-10-20

lOF LWlngle 'DOctrlne OF original Sln,' or
Augustine's ''Anthropology?" You might as
well go to a man who has the pleurisy and
put on his side q plaster made out OF 0r:
PARIS "Treatise on Medical Jurisprudence"
While all Of a sermon may not be helpful
alike to all if il be a Christian sermon
preached by q Christian man, there will be
help for every one somewhere. We go into
an apothecary store. We see others being
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 may not be
appropriate to our case, If we wait prayer
tully before the sermon is through we shall
have the divine prescription. L say to these
young men who CONF here Sabbath by Sab
bath, and who are going to preach the gos-
pel-these theological students I say to
them, we want in u sermons not more
metaphysics, nor more imagination, nor
more logic, nor more profundity.
What we want in our sermons n 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 n
the forecastles. When Richard Weaver
preached to the operatives in Oldham, Eng
land, all the workingmen felt they had more
grSos for the ~spindles. When DIR. South
preached to kings and princes and princesses
hhA nv hAA5hhJ Mc va
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 n hinge-a gold hinge, the hinge
of prayer-and when the whole audience lay
hold of that door, IL must come OPEN. There
are here many people spending their first
Sabbath after some great bereavement. What
Will y0ur prayer do or theml How Will II
help the tomb in that mans hearth 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
memories?
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 10 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 you prayed? Will you be chiefly
critical of the rhetoric OF the pastors
petition? No. No. A thousand people will
feel, THAT prayer is for me-" and at every
step of the prayer chains ought to drop off,
and temples of sin ought to crush into dust,
and iubilees of deliverance 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 ars many people who spend tine irst
prayer in arranging their apparel after on
trance, and spend the second ~prayer-the
''long prayer'-in wishing it 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 Scriptural les
son and the prayer. The sermon is only a
man talking to a man. The Scripture lesson
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
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 churchto
meet the eXigencies of this day. Unless the
church in our day will adapt itself 70 the
it will become extinct The people read
ing newspapers and books all the week, III
alert, picturesque and ~resounding style, will
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 impression on the great
masses Of the people than the ordinary bust
ness suit that you wear in Wall street. A
tailor cannot make a minister. Some of the
poorest preachers wear the best clothes, and
many a backwoodsman has discounted from
the saddlebags and in his linen buster
preached a sermon hat shook earth and
with its Christian eloquence. Nc neW
gospel, only the old gospel in a way suited
to the time. No new church, but a church
to be the asylum, the inspiration, the prac-
tical sympathy and the eternal heip of the
people.
But while half of the doors OF the church
are to beset 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 a 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 go groaning out oflife, some go curs-
ing out OF life. We want to go 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 an~ticipations aroused to the high
est pitch.
We want to have the exhilaration of a dy-
ing child in England, the father telling me
the story. When he said to her, SIS the path
narrow2' she answered 1.-The path is mar
row. 1t is so narrow that 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
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
out to a bigger and brighter assem-
- - - kl@-r .@..1I
not walk without a cane or two crutches.
Now they ave eternal juvenescence. Or
they were so young they could not walk ex-
cept 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 nc diff
Guilty of respiration in the pure air of heaven.
How l wonder when you and l will cross
Some of you have had about enough
of the humping and failing of this life. A
draft from the fountains of heaven would do
you good. Complete release, you could
stand very we'll. II you got on the other
and had permission to ome back, you
would not come. Though you were invited
TO come back and join your friends on earth,
you 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
oh, l Join hands with you this morning in
that uplfted splendor!
When the shore is won at last,
Who will count the pillows past?
In Freybourg, Switzerland, there Is the
trunk OF a tree 400 years old. That tree wat
planted to commemorate an event. About
len miles from the city the Swiss conquered
the Burgundians, and a young man wanted
to take the tidings to the city. He took n 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 'Vie-
tory r. and dropped dead. The tree branch
that he carried was planted. and 1t grew to
be- q great tree, twenty feet in circumference.
and the remains of 1t are there to this day.
My hearer, whenyo have fought your last
battle with sin and death and hell, and they
have been routed in the conflict, it will be a
10y worthy Of celebration. You will fly to
city and cry "Victory and drop at the
Ieet Of the Great King. Then the palm
branch OF the earthly race will be planted, to
the outreaching tree Of everlasting !
When shall these eyes Thy heaven,built walls /
And pearly gates behold;
Thy bulwarks with salvation strong
And streets of shining goldl |
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