The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1897-12-30

vessel, while he is getting his passen-
gers into the life boat; as the fireman,
consuming in the burning building,
while he is taking a child out of a
fourth-story window; as last summer
the strong swimmer at Long Branch,
or Cape May, or Lake George, himself
perished trying to rescue the drown
ing; as the newspaper boy, not long
ago, supporting his mother for some
years, his invalid mother, when of :
fered by Il gentleman so cents to get
some especial paper, and he got it and
rushed up in his anxiety to deliver it,
and was crushed under the wheels of
the train, and lay on the grass with
only strength enough to say: "Oh.
what will become Cf my poor sick
mother now?'
Oh. in that coming sermon of the
Christian church there will be living
| illustrations taken from everyday life
| of vicarious suffering illustrations
that will bring to mind the ghastlier
of Him who, in the high places of the
| field and on the cross. fought our bat
ties and wept our griefs and endured
our struggles and died our death.
A German sculptor made an image Of
Christ, and he asked his little child,
two years old, who it was, and she
said: THAT must be some very great
man." The sculptor was displeased
with the criticism, so he got another
block of marble and chiseled away on
il two or three years and then he
brought in his little child, four or five
years of age, and he said to her: who
| do you think that is!' She said: "That
must be the one who took little chill
dren in His arms and blessed them?'
| Then the scu ptor was satisfied. Oh,
my friends, what the world wants is
not a cold Christ. not an intellectual
Christ, not a severely magisterial
Christ, but a loving Christ, spreading
out His arms of sympathy to press the
whole world to His loving heart.
Paul preached until midnight, and
Eutychus got sound asleep, and fell
out of Il window and broke his neck.
Some would say: Good for him."
would rather be sympathetic like Paul,
and resuscitate him. That accident is
as warning against somnolence in
church. 1t is just as much a warning
to ministers against prolixity. Euty-
chus was wrong in his somnolence, but
Paul made mistake when he kept on
until midnight He ought to b ave
stopped at IL o'clock, and there would
have been no accident If Paul might
have gone On to too great length, lei
all those of us who are now preaching
the Gospel remember that there is
a limit to religious discourse OF
ought to be, and that in our time we
have no apostolic power or miracles
Napoleon, in an address of sever
minutes thrilled his army and thrilled
Europe. Christ's sermon on the noun
the model sermon-Was less than Il
minutes long at ordinary mode OF de
livery. 1t is not electricity scattered
all over the sky that strikes, but elec
tricity gathered into a thunderbol
and hurled, and it is not religious
truth scattered over, spread out owe
vast reach of time, but religion:
truth projected in compact form tina
flashes light upon the soul and rive!
It's Indifference.
But l remark also that the coming
sermon Of which l speak will be pop
ular sermon. There are those in thes
times who speak of a populas sermon
as though there must be somethin,
wrong about it. AS these critics ar
dull themselves, the world gets the in
preston that q sermon is good in pre-
portion as it is stupid. Christ was tn
most popular preacher the world eve
saw, and considering the small numbe
of the wold's pulation, He had tn
, largest audiences ever gathered. II
: never preached anywhere without al
: ing great sensation. People rushed on
t in the wilderness to hear Him, reckles
of their physical necessities. So grea
e was their anxiety to hear Christ that
l taking no food with them, they woul
: have tainted and starved had nc
t Christ performed a miracle and fe
them. Why did SO many people TAX
q the truth at Christ's hands? Becaus
they all understood it. He illustrate
l. His subject by a hen and her chicken
g by a bushel measure, by handful {
C salt, by birds flight and by a lily
IL aroma. All the people knew what I
g meant and they focked to HIM. Ar
y when the coming sermon of the Chri
: tian church appears, it will not
IS Prince tonian, not Rochesterian, n
vt Andoverian. not uMiddletonian, b.
l. Olivetic plain, practical uniq,
n earnest, comprehensive of all the woe
d wants, sins, SORROWS and necessities
or an auditory.
S But when that sermon does con
o. there will be a thousand gleamiI
n scimiters to charge on it. There a
It. 80 many theological seminaries profe
ID sors telling young men how to preac
Dr. themselves not knowing how; and
re am told if young man in some of o
lie theological seminaries says anythil
a quaint, or thrilling, or unique, facul
It. and students fly at him, and set hi
Id right, and stralghten him out, a
ne smooth him down, and chop him
III until he says every thing just as evel
al body else says it. Oh, when the co
of ing sermon of the Christian church