The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-01-05

then, was this religious truth and
spirit Look how slight the incident!
The woman comes to draw water, and
asking for drink. Christ goes on
touching naturally upon the spiritual
gift he had to bestow, the spiritual
water which springs up into well of
life; until convincing the woman of
mis- divine authority, he passes to the
highest revelations of God. There is
nothing forced in that, or constrained;
it was all free, spontaneous and nat
ural, because the religion of Jesus
Christ was real. The conversation
of Jesus with the woman of Samaria,
l think, is great lesson on preach
ing, as were all the lessons and teach
ings of Christ.
l have said that there never was
such teacher. You may put Christ
where you please; you may set him
up beside Socrates and Plato, and
speak of him merely as good man
uttering the truth, strip him of all
glory of divinity, and at the same
time you can not deny this: That
never a man taught as he taught.
There is a great deal of truth in what
the multitude said: "Never man spake
like this man." The multitude had
been so long used to the dry, husky,
technical teachings of the Scribes
and Pharisees, that when they heard
the Sermon on the Mount, they drew
long breath and said: "Never man
spake like this man." and no one ever
did. Why? Because he saw radical
truth everywhere. He took little
lily growing in the summer light,
and what missal of divine glory it
became-what a lesson of Gods
goodnessl He saw the bird steering
its way through the air, and it became
at once an illustration of Divine prov
idence. He took nothing but grain
of mustard seed, and the whole king
dom of God was involved in it.
Wherever he turned his eye he found
central and radical truth, and struck
out of it something right before the
people, that they could take hold of.
Now, my friends, this is the power Of
all effective preaching. 1t comes
home to the heart from realities.
Some preaching is simply the preach
ing of abstract doctrines of mere log
ical propositions, building up sharp
intellectual theory, and at the mere
end of it making an application per-
haps to practical life. The whole of
the rest is useless, and the application
is not perceived by two-thirds of the
people who have not followed the
subtle, sharp, shrewd, intellectual
propositions at all. The real preach
ing passes from the life up into doc
trines. not from abstract doctrines
down into life It is based upon the
realities of life. When you can jam
man up against great fact of life,
and ask him, How now? What does
this teach you? What does this say,
o man, to the deep heart within you?
What does that speak to the aspiring
thirsty soul? When you can do that
there is power in preaching; and if it
is only the leaf of the lily or the wing
of the Wild bird, it has infinite power
the moment it presses home the great
reality of the truth which it con-
tains.
Preaching has its greatest power
when it rests on great realities. If
you have to go far off to find a God,
your faith must be weak. If man
has not a proof of God in his own
soul, in his own conscience, l ain
afraid you can not convince him of
God by any of your logical argu-
ments. He is more apt to be con-
vinced of God by the touch of Gods
light that falls glittering upon the
insects wing.
Proof of Immortality.
Do you want proof of Immortality?
If you do not feel it; if your heart
and consciousness do not tell you of
it; if some great fact of life has not
brought it to you-some great loss,
the open grave of some friend, or
the consciousness of some limitation
against which you chafe and beat
if that does not bring immortality
home to you, you will never be con-
vinced of it; you won't be convinced
of the truth of Jesus Christ by histor-
ical arguments-by evidences like
those in the large volumes of Dr.
Lardner. If the truth of Christ is
spontaneous in your soul, if you have
a sense of such love as Christ gives
you, and no lack of living water to
your thirsty spirits, there is proof of