The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1897-12-25


of the coming sermon. 1t is a simple
fact that everybody knows that most
of the sermons of to-day do not reach
the world. The vast majority of the
people of our great cities never enter
church.
The sermon of to-day carries along
with it the deadwood of all ages Hun
dreds of years ago it was decided what
a sermon ought to be, and 1t Is the at
tempt of many theological seminaries
and doctors of divinity to hew the
modern pulpit utterances into the same
old-style proportions. Booksellers will
tell you they dispose of a hundred his
tories, q hundred novels, q hundred
poems to one book of sermons. WHAT'S
the matterP Some say the age is the
worst of all ages. 1t is better. Some
say religion is wearing out, when 1t Is
wearing in. Some say there are so
many who despise the Christian re-
ligion. / answer. there never was an
age when there were so many Chris
tians, or so many friends of Christian
ity as this age has-our age: ms to
others a hundred to one. What is the
matter, then? 1t is simply because
our sermon of to-day is not suited to
the age. 1t is the canal boat in an age of
locomotive and electric telegraph. The
sermon will have to be shaken out of
the old grooves, or it will not be heard
and It will not be read.
Before the world is converted, the
sermon will have to be converted. You
might as we'll GO into a modern Sedan
or Gettysburg with bows and arrows
instead of rifles and bombshells and
parks of artillery as to expect to con-
quer this world for God by the old
styles of sermonology. Jonathan Ed
wards preached the sermons best
adapted to the age in which he lived,
but if those sermons were preached
now they would divide an audience in
to two classes: those sound asleep and
those wanting to go home.
But there is coming sermon-who
will preach it have no idea; in what
part of the earth it will be born have
no idea; in which denomination of
Christians it will be delivered, L cam
not guess. That coming sermon may
be born in the country meeting house
on the banks of the st. Lawrence, or
the Oregon, or the Ohio, or the Tom
bigbee, or the Alabama. The person
who shall deliver it may this moment
lie In a cradle under the shadow of the
Sierra Nevadas, or in a New England
farm house, or amid the rice fields of
southern savannas. Or this moment
there may be some young man in some
of our theological seminaries, in the
junior, or middle. or senior class,
shaping that weapon of power. Or
there may be coming some new bap-
tism of the Holy Ghost on the churches,
so that some of us who now stand in
the watchtowers of Zion, waking to
the realization of our present ineffi-
cheney, may preach it ourselves. That
coming sermon may not be 20 years off.
And let us pray God that it's arrival
may be hasteaed. while I announce to
you what 1 think will be the chief
characteristics OF that sermon when 1t
does arrive; and l want to make the
remarks appropriate and suggestive to
all classes of Christian workers.
First of all, 1 remark that that COM
ing sermon will be full of living
Christ, in contradistinction to didactic
technicalities. sermon may be full
of Christ though hardly mentioning
His name, and a sermon may be empty
of Christ while every sentence is repeti-
tious of His titles. The world wants
living Christ, not a Christ standing
at the head of formal system of theol-
ogy, but Christ who means pardon
and sympathy and coincidence and
brotherhood and life and Heaven. A
poor mans Christ. An overw orked
mans Christ. An invalid's Christ. A
farmers Christ. A merchants Christ
An artisans Christ. An every mans
Christ.
Asymmetrical and flnely-worded sys-
tenn of theology is we'll enough for the
illogical classes, but it has no more
business in a pulpit than have the
technical phrases of an anatomist, or
physician, in the sick room of n pa
tient. The world wants help, imme-
diate and world-uplifting, and it will
come through sermon in which Christ
shall walk right down into the immor.
tai soul and take everlasting possession
of 1t, filling it as full of light as is the
MONDAY armament.
The coming sermon of the Christian
church will be a short sermon. Con-
densation is demanded by the age in
which we live. No more need of long
!ntroductions and long applications
and SO many divisions to a discourse
that it may be said to be hydraheaded.
In other days men got all their infor-
nation from the pulpit There were
few books ana there were no news
papers, and there was little travel
from place to place, and people would
sit and listen 91s hours to u religious
discourse, and "seventeenthly" would
find them fresh and chipper. In those
times there was enough room for