The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1897-12-03
SERMON OF THE FUTURE.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Describes It's
Probable characteristics.
1t VIII be Full of a Living Christ, and
VIII Contain No Didactic TechnI-
csIIties-It VIII be short, Pop
uIaF and Powerful.

Rev. I. Dewitt Talmage, in the fol.
| lowing sermon, presents theme that
Will be found full of interest to Chris
tian workers. The text is.
| Go thou. and preach the kingdom OF God
| Luke tx. o.
The Gospel is to be regnant over all
| hearts, all circles, all governments
| and all lands. The kingdom of God
| spoken of in the text is to be a univer-
sal kingdom, and just as wide as that
viii be the realm sermonic. Go
thou and preach the kingdom of God
| We hear a great deal in these days
about the coming man, and the coming
| woman, and the coming time. Some
| one ought to tell US of the coming SER
| mon. 1t is a simple fact that every
| body 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 it 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, a hundred novels, a hundred
poems, TO one book of sermons. What
is the matter? Some say the age is the
worst of all ages. 1t is better. Some
say religion is wearing out, when it is
wearing in. Some say there are so
many despise the Christian religion. l
answer, there never was an age when
there were 50 many Christians, or so
many friends of Christianity as this
age has-our age; as to others a hum
dred to one. What is the matter, then2
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 viii not be heard and it
will not be read,
Before the world is converted, the
sermon viii have to be converted.
You might as well go into a modern
Sedan or Gettysburg with bows and
arrows instead OF rifles and bomb
shells and parks of artillery as to ex-
pect to conquer the world for God by
the old styles of sermOnOlogy. Jona-
than Edwards preached the sermons
best adapted to the age in which he
lived, but if those sermons were
preached now they would divide an
audience into 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
what part of the earth it will be born
l have no idea; in which denomination
of Christians it will be delivered, L can
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 baptism of the Holy Ghost on the
churches, so that some of us who now
stand in the watch towers of Zion,
waking to the realization of our pres
ent inefficiency, may preach it our
selves. That coming sermon may not
be 20 years off. And let us pray God
that its arrival may be hastened, while
l announce to you what l think viii
be the chief characteristics of that SER
mon when it does arrive; and want
to make the remarks appropriate and
suggestive to all classes of Christian
workers.
First of all, l remark that that COM
ing sermon viii be full of a living
Christ, in .cOntradistinctiOn to didactic
A sermon may be full
of Christ though hardly tioniug
His name, and a sermon may be empty
of Christ while every sentence is repe-
titious of His titles. The world wants
a living Christ, not a Christ standing at
the head of formal system of theol- |
ogy, but a Christ who means pardon /
and sympathy aud coincidence and |
brotherhood and Heaven. A poor
mans. Christ. An overworked mans |
Christ. An inEalid's Christ. A farm !
er's Christ. A merchants Christ. An /
artisans Christ. An every mans Christ.
A symmetrical and inely-worded |
system Of theology is well enough for /
classes, but it has no more /
business in a pulpit than have tho |
phrases OF an anatomist, or /
in the sick room of a patient. |
The world wants help, immediate and |
world-uplifting, and it will come |
a sermon in which Christ shall /
walk right down into the immortal |
soul and take everlasting possession of /
It, filing it as full Of light as is the 1
noonday armament That sermon of /
the future will not deal with men in
the threadbare illustrations of Jesus I
Christ. In that coming sermon there 4
will be instances of vicarious sacrifices
taken right out of everyday life, 4
for there is not day some
body is not dying for others. A
The physician, saving his diphtheric
patient by sacrificing his own life; as
The ship captain, going down with his
vessel, while he is getting his passen-
gers into the lifebOat; as the fireman,
in the burning building.
while he is taking a child or Of
window; as last summer
the strong swimmer at Long Branch,
DIT Cape May. or Lake George, himself
perished try ing to rescue the drown
ing; as the newspaper boy, not long
ago, supper ting his mother for some
years, his invalid mother, when Of
fered By gentleman 90 cents 70 get