The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1894-04-27
FRIDAY MORNING. APR. q. 1894.

has had more men and women die for
him than all the other inhabitants of all
the ages have had die for them.
Furthermore he YVES lovely in his
sermons. He knew whon to begin, when
to stop and just what 10 say, The long
est sermon he ever preached, so far as
the Bible reports him-namely, the SER
mon ON the mount was about IL min
utes in de!iyery-at the ordinary rate OF
speech. His longest prayer reported,
commonly called '"rhe Lords Prayer"
was about half q minute. Time them
by your own watch, and yon will find
my estimate accurate. by which / do
not. mean to say that sermons ought to
be only l6 minutes long and prayers
only half minute long. Christ had
such infinite power Of compression that
lie could put enough into his is minute
sermon and HID half minute prayer to
keep all the following ages busy in
thought and action, No one but a 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-
CURED, and imagine that we all need
tocompress 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, tho crystal of the salt, the cluck of
a 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 a cyclone i'll which you hear
the crash of u tumbling house unwisely
constructed. No technicalities, no split
ting of hairs between north and north
west side, 10 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 l
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 ard the rescue by the gospel
accommodated himself to sailors YER
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 Go, 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 80 years to prepare for that
three years activity. From ~ to so
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 every thing 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! Intensitication! Three
years of kind words! Three years of liv-
ing for others! 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
world s 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?