The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1894-04-23

$500
by your own watch, and you will find
my estimate accurate, by which l do
not mean to say that sermons ought to
be only 16 minutes long and prayers
only half minute long. Christ had
such infinite power of compression that
lie could put enough into his 16 minute
sermon and his half minute prayer to
keep all the following ages busy in
thought and action. No one but Christ
could afford to pray or preach as short
as that, but he meant to teach us com.
preston.
Christ's Sermons.
At Selma, Ala, the other day was
shown cotton press by which cotton
was put in such shape that it occupied
in transportation only one car where
three cars were formerly necessary, and
one ship where three ships had been re-
quired, and 1 imagine that we all need
to compress our sermons and our prayers
into smaller spaces.
And his sermons were SO lovely for
sentiment and practically and simplic-
ity and illustration. The light of a can
die, the crystal of the salt, the cluck Of
hen for her chickens, the hypocrite's
dolorous physiognomy, the moth in the
clothes closet, the black wing of raven,
the snowbank of white lilies, our ex-
IRENE botheration about the splinter of
| imperfection in some one else's charac-
ter, the swine fed on the pearls, WOW IS
dramatizing sheep, and the peroraGi IN
made up of cyclone in which you hear
the crash of tumbling house unwisely
| constructed. No technicalities, no split
ting of hairs between north and north
west side, no dogmatics, but great
Christly throb of helpfulness. I do not
wonder at the record which says,
"When he was come down from the
mountain, great multitudes followed
him." They had but one fault to find
with his sermon. 1t was too short. God
help all of us in Christian work to get
down off our stills and realize there is
only one thing we have to do-there is
the great wound of the worlds sin and
sorrow, and here is the great healing
plaster of the gospel What you and I
want to do is to put the plaster ON the
wound. All sufficient is this gospel if it
is only applied. A minister preaching
to an audience of sailors concerning the
ruin by sin and the rescue by the gospel
accommodated himself to sailors ver-
nacular and said, "This plank bears. "
Many years after this preacher was
called to see a dying sailor and asked
him about his hope and got the suggest
i've reply, "This plank bears
An Appeal For Love.
Yea, Christ was lovely in his chief
life's work. There were thousand
things for him to do, but his great work
was to get our shipwrecked world out
of the breakers. That he came to do, and
that he did, and he did it in three years.
He took 30 years to prepare for that
three years activity. From 10 to 80 |
years of age we hear nothing about him.
That intervening IS years think he
was in India. But he came back to Pal
estine and crowded everything into three
years-three winters, three springs,
three summers, three autumns. Our life |
is short, but would God we might see
how much we could do in three years.
Concentration! htensifcation! Three
years of kind words Three years of liv-
ing for othersl Three years of self sacri-
flee! Let US try it.
Aye, Christ was lovely in his demise.
He had right that last hour to deal in
anathematization. Never had any one
been SO meanly treated. Cradle of straw
among goats and camels-that was the
worlds reception of him! Rocky cliff,
with hammers pounding spikes through
tortured nerves-that was the worlds
farewell salutation! The slaughter of
that scene sometimes hides the lowell
ness of the sufferer Under the satura-
ton of tears and blood we sometimes
fail to see the sweetest face of earth and
heaven. Altogether lovely! Can coolest
criticism find an unkind word he ever
spoke, or an unkind action that he ever
performed, or an unkind thought that he
ever harbored?
What marvel it is that all the ma
lions of earth do not rise up in raptures
Of affection for him! l must say it here
and now. I lift my right hand i'll solemn
1 love him, and the grief of
my life is that 1 do not love him more.
Is it an impertinence for me to ask, Do
you, my hearer-you, my reader, love
MIN? Has he become part of your ma
lure? Have you committed your children
IN earth into his keeping, as your chill
lren in heaven are already in his bosom? ,
Has he done enough to win your conf
lence? Can you trust him, living and ,
lying and forever? Is your back or your /
ACE toward him? Would you like to !
lave his hand to guide you, his might {
% protect you, his grace to comfort you, I
lis sufferings to atone for you, his arms I
% welcome you, his love to encircle you,
lis heaven to crown you? I
A Grand Thought. +
Oh, that we might all have something 4
f the great German reformer's love for /
his Christ which led him to say, eff any I
ne knocks at the door of my breast and '
says, Who lives there? my reply is, (
Jesus Christ lives here, not Martin
luther. f" Will it not be grand if, when
We get through this short and rugged
Dad of life, we can go right up into his &