The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1893-11-04
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young people want it just MS much as the |
old. The old people sometimes seem to |
think they have monopoly Of the rheu-
matisms, and the neuralgias, and the head |
aches, and the physical disorders Of the |
world, but | tell you there are no worse |
heartaches than are felt by some of these !
young people.
Do you know that much of the work is |
done by the youngi Raphael died at 81; |
Richard III ut 33; Gustavus Adolphus died |
at IS; Innocent III came to his mightiest |
influence at 81 Cortez conquered Mexico at
80; Don John won Lepanto at 25; Grotius
was attorney general at "a, and | have no
ticed amid all classes of men that some of
the severest battles and the toughest work
comes before 80 Therefore we must have
our sermons and our eXhortaton in prayer
meeting all sympathetic with the young.
And so with these people further on in
life. What do these doctors and lawyers
and merchants and mechanics care about
the distractions of religion? What they
want Is help to bear the whimsicalties of pa
tients, the browbeating of legal opponents,
the unfairness of customers, who have
plenty OF fault finding for every imperfec-
tion of handiwork, but no praise for 20 ex-
cellencies. What does that brain racked,
hand blistered man care for Zwingle's
Doctrine Of Original Sin' or Augustine's
"Anthropologyf' You might as well go
! to a man who has the pleursy and put on
/ his side a plaster made out of DR. PARIS
Treatise on Medical Jurisprudence"
While all of a sermon may not be help
full alike to all, il it be Christian sermon
preached by Christian man, there will be
help for every one somewhere We 20 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 pray
erfully before the sermon is through we
shall have the divine prescription. say
to these young men who come here Sab
bath by Sabbath and who are going to
preach the gospel, these theological stu
dents--I say to them, we want in our SER
mons not more metaphysics, nor more
imagination, nor more logic, nor more pro
fundity.
| 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 and the forecastles. When Richard
Weaver preached to the operatives in Old
ham, England, all the workingmen felt
they had more grace for the spindles. When
DIR. South preached to kings and princes
and princesses, all the mighty men and
women who heard him felt preparation for
their high station.
THE HELP OF PRAYER
Again, / remark that sanctuary help
ought to come through the prayers of all
the people. The door of the eternal store
1 1 = IL
the hinge of prayer-and when the whole
audience lay hold of that door it must come
Open There are here many people spend
ing their first Sabbath after some great be-
reavement What will your prayer do for
themy How will it help the tomb in that
mans HEARTY Here are people who have
not been in church before for 10 years; what
will your prayer do for them by rolling
over their soul holy memoriesf Here are
people in crises of awful temptation.
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 you prayeds Will you be chiefly
critical of the rhetoric of the pastors petit
tioni No. No. A thousand people will
]
step OF the prayer chains ought to drop off,
and temples of sin ought to crush into dust,
and jubilees of deliverance ought to bran
dish their trumpets. In most of our
churches we have three prayers-the open
ing 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
entrance 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 SER
mon. The more important parts are the
Scripture lesson and the prayer. The ser
mon is only man talking to a man. The
Scripture lesson is God talking to man.
Prayer is man talking to God Oh, if we
understood the grandeur and the pathos of
this exercise of prayer, instead Of being
dull exercise, we would imagine that the
room was full of divine and angelic appear
ances.
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 to Buffalo by stage coach, or all
the passengers from Albany to Buffalo by
canalboat, or do an 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 reading newspapers
and books all the week, in alert, pctur-
esque 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 impression on the great mass
es of the people than the ordinary business
suit that you wear in Wall street. A tailor
cannot make minister. Some of the poor
est preachers wear the best clothes, and
many a backwoodsman has dismounted
from the saddlebags, and in his linen dust
err preached IA sermon that shook earth and
heaven with its Christian eloquence No
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 practical 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 churcn must
be set open toward the next. You and !
tarry 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 20 stumbling
out of life, some go grooming out Of life
, some go cursing out of life. We want to
! go singing, rising, rejoicing, triumphing
, We want half the doors of the church set
, in that direction. We want half the pray,