Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1893-1895, 1894-04-25

commonly called rsThe Lords Prayer {"
was about half a minute. Time them
by your own watch, and you will find
my estimate accurate, by which do
not mean to say that sermons ought to
be only l0 minutes long and prayers
only half minute long. Christ had
such infinite power of compression that
he could put enough into his 16 minute
sermon and his half minute prayer to
keep all the following ages busy in
thought and action. Nome but % Christ
could afford to pray or preach as short
as that, but he meant TO teach US COM
lression.
Christ's Sermons.
At Selma, Ala, the other day / was
shown o cotton press by which cotton
was put in such shape that it occupied
in transportation only one car whore
three cars were formerly necessary, and
one ship where three ships had been re-
quired, and imagine that wo 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 can
die, the crystal of the salt, the cluok 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-
treme botheration about the splinter of
imperfection 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. 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
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 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 18 years 1 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 Intensifcationi Three
years of kind words Three years of liv-
ing for othersl Three years of self saeri- |
feel Let us try it.
Aye, Christ was lovely in his demise 1
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 himl Rocky cliff,
with hammers pounding spikes through
tortured nerves-that was the worlds
farewell salutationl The slaughter of
that scene sometimes hides the lowell
ness Of the sufferer, Under the satura-
tion of tears and blood we sometimes
fail to see the sweetest face of earth and
heaven. Altogether lovelyl 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 a marvel it is that all the ma
tions of earth do not rise up in raptures
Of affection for himl must say it here
and now. lift my right hand in solemn
love him, and the grief of
my life is that do not love him more.
Is it an inpertinence for me to ask, Do
you, my hearer-you, my reader, love
him? Has he become part of your ma
turef Have you committed your children
on earth into his keeping, as your chill
lren in heaven are already in his bosom9
Has he done enough to win your conf
lence? Can you trust him, living and
lying and forever? Ii your back or your
lace toward him? Would you like to
nave his hand TO guide you, his might
% protect you, his grace to comfort you,
lis sufferings 10 atone for you, his arms
% welcome you, his love to encircle you,
lis heaven TO crown youY
A Grand Thought.
Oh, that we might all have something
Il the great German reforner's love for
his Christ which led him to say, "If any
me knocks at the door Of my breast and
says, Who lives there?' my reply is,
Jesus Christ lives here, not Martin
yuther' viii it not be grand If. when