The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-11-26
GO THOU AND PREACH

DIR. TALMAGE TELLS WHAT THE
FUIURE SERMON WILL BE
Tho World Wants. Living rhviss-ronden.
sati"n The Demand Of he Ags-Why Pee.
Pie do Not x" 20 C~hurch-Ap a ppe.i 70
the Cns-v-h suul
Most appropriate to the times we live
in is DR.. Talmage's discourse OF today.
All Christian worker will read it with
interest. His e x Is Luke IL, 60, "Go,
thou. and preach the kingdom Of God"
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 universal king
dom, and just as wide as that will be
the realm sermonic. go, thou, and
preach the kingdom Of God" We hear
a great deal about the coming man.
and the coming woman, and the COM
ing time. Some one ought to tell us
Of the coming m It is a simple
fact that everybody knows that most
of the sermons of today do moi reach
the world. The vast majority of the
people Of u great cities never enter
church.
The sermon Of today carries along
with 1t the deadwood Of all ages.
Hundreds Of years ago it was decided
what a sermon ought to be. and it is
the attempt of many theological semin-
l o-ioo on6 1ootn~~ ~ iN,f~ - A>-, ~
modern pulpit utterances into the same
old style proportions. Book sellers 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. It Is better. Some
say religion Is wearing out. when it is
wearing in. Some say there are so
many who despise the Christian relig-
ion. I answer there never was an age
when there we're so many friends Of
Christianity as this age has-our age.
as to others a hundred to one. What
is the matter. then? It is simply be-
, cause our sermon Of today, Is not suit
ed to the age. 1t is the canalboat in an
age Of locomotive n electric tele-
graph. The sermon will have to be
shaken out Of the old grooves or it
will not be heard and it will not be
read.
THE COMING SERMON.
Before the world is converted the SER
mon 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 fbombshells and
parks of artillery as to expect to on
quer this world for God by the old
styles Of s~ermonology. 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 W classes-those sound asleep and
those wanting to go home.
But there is a coming Sermon-who
will preach it I hav no idea. In what
part Of the earth it will be born 1 have
no idea. In what denomination of
Christians it will be delivered 1 cannot
guess. 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 Tombigbee,
or the Alabama. The person who shall
deliver it may this lie in a
cradle under the shadow of the Sierra
Nevadas, or in a New England farm
house. or amid the ricefields of south
ern savannas; or this moment there
AAAoy NC oOAAS ycdhS lIloI III jill u
our theological seminaries in the junior
or middle or senior class shaping that
weapon or power; or there may be
coming some new baptism Of the Holy
Ghost on the churches, SO that some of
us now stand in watch towers Of Zion,
waking to the realization of our pres
ent ineft1ciency, may preach it our
selves. That coming sermon may not
be 20 years off. And let us pray God
that it's arrival may be FASTENED while
I announce to you what I think will be
the chief characteristics of that sermon
when it does arrive, and I want to
make the remarks appropriate and
suggestive to all classes Of Christian
, workers.
First of all, I remark that that COM
ing sermon will be full of a living
Christ, in contradistinction to didactic
technicalities. A sermon may be full
Of Christ, though hardly mention his
lame and a sermon may be empty Of
Christ, while every sentence is repeti-
tious of his titles. The world wants a
living Christ, not a Christ standing at
the head Of a formal system of theO-
logy, but a Christ who means pardon
and sympathy and coincidence and
brotherhood and life and heaven. A
poor mans Christ. An invalid's Christ.
A farmers Christ. A merchants
Christ. An artisans Christ. An every
mans Christ.
THE WORLD WANTS HELP.
A symmetrical and finely worded
system Of the theology is we'll enough
for theological classes. but it has no
more business in a pulpit than have
the technical phrases Of an anatomist
or a physician in the sickroom Of a
patient. The world wants help, i'm
mediate and world uplifting, and 1t
will come through a sermon in which
Christ shall walk right down into the
immortal soul and take everlasting
possession of it, filling it as full of light
as the monday armament. That SER