Milford chronicle., 1893-10-20
A sERNoNIzER on sERMoxs.

young people want it Just as much asthe
old. The old people sometimes seem to
think they have "a monopoly Of the rheu-
matisms, and the neuralgias, and the head
aches, and the physical disorders of the
world, but I 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 youngg Raphael died at 81;
Richard III at SO; Gustavus Adolphus died
at 3S Innocent III came to his michtiest
influence at 81; Cortez conquered Mexico at
30; Don John won Lepanto at %; Grotius
was attorney general at q, and 1 have no
ticed amid all classes of men that some of
the severest battles and the toughest work
comes before 30. Therefore we must have
our sermons and our exhortation 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 religiOn2 What they
wantishelp TO bear the whimsicalities ofpa-
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 krain racked,
hand blistered man care for Zwingle's
Doctrine of Original Sin" or Augustine's
"Anthropology2 You might as well go
to man who has the pleurisy 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, if it be Christian sermon
/ preached by Christian man, there viii be
help for every one somewhere. We 80 into
! an apothecary store. We see others being
waited on. We do not complain because
I 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. I 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 l
imagination, nor more logic, nor more pro- /
fundity.
What we want in our sermons and Chris I
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
DR. 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, I remark that sanctuary help
ought to come through the prayers of all
the people The door Of the eternal store
house is hung on one hinge, gold hinge,
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
them? How will it help the tomb in that
mans heart2 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 memories? 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?
VIII you be chiefly anxious about the fit of
the glove that you put to your forehead
while you prayed? VIII you be chiefly Y
critical of the rhetoric of the pastors petit {
feel "that prayer is for me, " and at every /
step of the prayer chains ought to drop of, I
and temples of sin ought TO crush into dust, 7
and jubilees of delivcrance ought to bran a
dish their trumpets. In most of our
churches we have three prayers-the open !
ing prayer, what is called the "long prayer" il
and the closing prayer. =
There are many people who spend the n
first prayer in arranging their apparel after a
entrance and spend the second prayer, the T.
'long prayer" in wishing it were through Ii
and spend the last prayer in preparing to "
start for home. The most insignificant
part of every religious service is the ser II
mon. The more important parts are the b
lesson and The prayer The ser
mon is only a man talking to man. The "
Scripture lesson is God talking to man. o.
Prayer is man talking to God Oh, if we
the grandeur and the pathos of
this exercise Of prayer, instead Of being a
dull exercise, we would imagine that the 81
room was full of divine and angelicappear- b
ances. 81
But, my friends, the old style Of church v,
win not do the work. We might as well cf
now try to take all the passengers from el
New York to Buffalo by stage coach, or all et
ihe passengers from Albany to Buffalo by ht
sllulDOdls CT no hAA lllG DAlLAkn8 Oh Llt fL
world with bow and arrow, as with the old IA
style of church to meet the exigencies of z
his day. Unless the church in our day
Yill adapt itself to the time it viii become
Extinct. The people reading newspapers
ind books all the week, in alert, pictur- D
isque and resounding style, viii have no so
patience with Sabbath humdrum er
We have no objections to bands and sur 1 {
,lice and all the paraphernalia of clerical
ife, but these things make no impression IS
nakeno more impression on the greatness m
S Of the people than the ordinary business u
uit that you wear in Wall street. A tailor
annot make a minister. Some of the poor
st preachers wear the best clothes, and
many a backw0odsman has dismounted wi
rom the saddlebags and in his linen dust i'm
r preached sermon that shook earth and Tia
.eaven with its Christian eloquence No ca
ew gospel, only the old gospel in a way on
uited to the time. No new church, but he
hurch to be the asylum, the inspiration, to
he practical sympathy and the eternal help 20
( the people. dl'
But while half Of the doors Of the church
re to be set open toward this world the an
ther half Of the doors of the church must
q set open toward the next, You and
rry here only brief space We want
'mebody to teach US how to get out OF this fo
fe at tic right time and in the right way q
1me fall out of life some 60 stumbling m,
1t Of life, some go groaning out of life, fai
me go cursing out Of life. We want to i'm
, singing, rising, rejoicing, triumphing tir
'e want half the doors of the church set ofi
that direction. We want half the pray to
s that way, half the sermons that way. wi
-e want to know how to get ashore from wf
e tumult of this world into the land Of tb
erlasting peace. Wedo not want to stand sb
,ubting and shivering when we go away on
ON this world We want our anticipa- as
ons aroused to the highest pitch, wa
We want to have the exhilaration OF dis
ing child IN England, the father telling mi
the story When he SAID to her, is les
@ path narrow?n she answered; "The
til is narrow. It is so narrow that