The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1894-04-27

Dy your own watch, and you Will mo
my estimate accurate, by which / do
not mean to say that sermons ought TO
be only I6 minutes long and prayers
only half a minute long. Christ had
such infinite power of compression that
he could put enough into his Is 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 l was
shown cotton press by which cotton
was put in such shape that it occupied
IN transportation only one car where
three cars We're 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 cam
die, the crystal of the SALT the cluck of
hen for her chickens, the hypocrite's
dolorous physicgnomy, the moth in the
clothes closet, the black wing of a raven,
the snowbank of white lilies, our ex-
treme botheration about the splinter OF
lmperfectiOn in some one else's charac-
ter, the swine fed on the pearls, wolves
dramatizing sheep, and the peroration
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. l do not
wonder at the record which says,
"When he was tome down from the
mountain, great multitudes fllowed
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
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 dle gospel
accommodated himself to sailors YER
nacular and said, ''This plank bears. 1"
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 a 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 II to 80
years Of age we hear nothing about him.
That intervening IS years l 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 autulnns. Our life
is short, but would God we might see
how much we could do in three years.
Concentration! Intensifcation! Three
years of kind words! Three years of liv-
ing for othersl Three years of self sacri-
! feel Let US try it.
Aye, Christ was lovely in his demise.
He had a 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 satur;l-
tion of tears and blood we sometimes
fail to see the sweetest face of earth and
heaven. Altogether lovely! Can cOldest
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 q marvel it is that all the ma
tiOns Of earth do not rise up in raptures
! Of affection for him! l must say it here
and now. [ lift my right hand Ill solemn
attestatiOn. l love him, and the grief of
my life is that do not love him more.
Is it an impertinence for me'to ask, Do
! you, my hearer-yOu, my reader, love
! him? Has he become part of your ma
ture? Have you committed your children
ON earth into his keeping, as your chill
| dren in heaven are already in his bosom?
Has he done enough to win your conf
dence? Can you trust him, living and
dying and forever? Is your back Or your
face toward him? Would you like to
have his hand to guide you. his might
to protect you, his grace to Comfort you,
his sufferings TO atone for you, his arms
to welcome you, his love to encircle you,
his heaven to crown you?
4 Grand Thought.
Oh, that we might all have something
Of the great German refOrmer'S love for
this Christ which led him to say, IF any
one 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
road of life, we can go right up into his
| presence and live with him world with
! out end?
And if, entering the gate Of that heav-
enly city, we should be so overwhelmed
with our unwOrthiness or the one side,
and the supernal splendOr on the other
side, we get a little bewildered and
/ should for few moments be lost on the
streets of gold and among the FURNISHED