The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1894-04-27
TALMAcE's SERMON Concluded.

CoHlAnonly called Inc LORD prayer,
was about half minute. Time them
by your own watch, and you will find
my estimate accurate, by which / dt
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
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. No one but Christ
could afford to pray or preach as short
as that, but he meant to teach US COM
preston.
Christs Sermons.
At Selma, Ala, the other day I 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 cam
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-
treme botheration about the splinter of
imperfection in some one else's charac-
ter, the swine fed on che pearls, WOW IS
dramatizing sheep, and the perora$i N
made up of a cyclone in which you hear
the crash of a 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 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 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 10 to 80
years of age we hear nothing about him.
That intervening IS years think he
vas in India. But he came back to Pal
sstine and crowded everything into three
years-three winters, three springs,
three summers, three autumns Our life
IS short, but would God we might see
low much we could do in three years.
Intensifcationl Three
years of kind wordsl Three years of liv-
ing for others Three years of self sacri-
feel 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
oeen 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
hat scene sometimes hides the lowell
hess of the sufferer. Under the satura-
ion of tears and blood we sometimes
all to see the sweetest face of earth and
Altogether lovely! Can coolest
criticism find an unkind word he ever
poke, or an unlzind action that he ever
performed, or an unkind thought that he
,ver harbored?
What marvel it is that all the ma
ions of earth do not rise up in raptures
# affection for him 1 must say it here
nd now. lift my right hand in solemn
l love him, and the grief of
ny life is that l do not love him more.
s it an impertinence for me to ask, Do
ou, my hearer-you, my reader, love
i'm? Has he become part of your ma
ure? Have you committed your children
n earth into his keeping, as your chill :
rem in heaven are already in his bosom?
las he done enough to win your conf :
ence? Can you trust him, living and :
ying and forever? Is your back or your !,
ace toward him? Would you like to !
ave his hand to guide you, his might {
} protect you, his grace to comfort you, :
is sufferings to atone for you, his arms
} welcome you, his love to encircle you, :.
is heaven to crown you? =
A Grand Thought.
Oh, that we might all have something :
the great German reformer's love for :
lis Christ which led him to say, eff any l
ne knocks at the door of my breast and "
avs, who lives there?' my reply is,
-esus Christ lives here, not Martin
luther. Will it not be grand if, when
q get through this short and rugged 4.
ad of life, we can go right up into his u
essence and live with him world with =
it end? -
And if, entering the gate of that heav- =.