The Monitor-register., 1897-11-26

press Cn6 WnOl6 WOrlQ 10 MS loving
heart.
But I remark again that the coming
sermon Of the Christian church will be
a short sermon. Condensation is de-
manded by the age in which we live.
No more need of long in~troductions and
long applications and so many divisions
to a discourse that it may be said to be
hydra headed. In other days men got all
their information from the pulpit. There
were few books and there were no news
papers, and there was little travel from
place to place, and people would sit and
! listen two and a half hours to a reli-
| gious discourse, and ''seventeenthly"
would find them fresh and clipper. In
| those times there was enough for
a man to take an hour to warm himself
upE tQztite subject and an hour to cool
of. Sat what was a necessity then is a
superiority now. Congregations are full
| of knowledge from books, from newspa-
pers, from rapid and continuous inter-
communication, and long disquisitions
! of what they know already will not be
| abided. If a religious teacher cannot
compress what he wishes to say to the
people in the space 81 45 minutes. bet
ter adjourn it to some other day.
The Time to Stop.
The trouble is we preach audiences
into a Christian frame and then we
preach them out of it. We forget that
every auditor has so much capacity of
attention, and when that is exhausted
The is restless. That accident IN the Long
Island railroad came from the fact that
the brakes were out Of order, and when
they wanted to stop the train they could
fo. In all religious discourse want
locomotive power and propulsion; we
want at the same time stout brakessto
let down at the right instant. 1t is a
dismal thing, after a nearer has compre-
hended the whole subject, to hear a man
say, Nov to recapitulate," and "a
few words by way of application, " and
"once more" and FINALLY, " and 'now
to conclude"
Paul preached until midnight, and
Eutychus got sound asleep and fell out
of a window and broke his neck. Some
would say, GOOD for him." 1 would
rather be sympathetic, like Paul, and
resuscitate him. That accident is often
| quoted now in religious circles as a
warning against somnolence in church.
1t is just as much a warning to minis
ters against prolixity. Eutyohus was
wrong in his somnolence, but Paul
made a mistake when heakept on until
midRight. He ought to have stopped at
II o'clock, and there would have been
no accident. If Paul might haxssgon&
on to too great length, let all those Of
us who are now preaching the gospel
remember that there is a limit to re-
ligious discourse, OF ought to be, and
that in u time we have no apostolic
power or miracles. Napoleon, in an adj
dress of seven minutes, thrilled his army
and thrilled Europe. Christ's sermon on
1.-THE mount-the model sermon-was less
than 18 minutes long at ordinary mode
of delivery. 1t is not electricity scatter
ed all over the sky that strikes, but
electricity gathered into a thunderbolt
and hurled, and it is not religious truth,
scattered over, spread out oversa vast
4 reach of time, but religious truth pro-
jected in compact form that flashes light
upon the soul and rives its Indifference.
When the coming sermon arrives In
this land and in the Christian church.
the ermon which is to arouse the world
and startle the nations and usher in the
kingdom-it will be a brief sermon.
Hear it, all theological students, all ye
just entering upon religious work, all
ye men and women who in Sabbath
schools and other departments are toll
ing for Christ and the salvation Of i'm
mortals. Brevity, brevityl
But Iremark also that the coming SER
mon of whicheIspealMwill ss%aspopular
sermon. There are those in these times
who speak of a, popular sermon as
though there must be something wrong
about it. AS these critics are dull them
selves, the world gets the impression
that a sermon is good in proportion as
it is stupid. Christ was the most popu-
lar preacher the world ever saw and,
considering the small number Of the
worlds population, had the largest au-
diences ever gathered. Henever preached
anywhere without making a great SEN
sation. People rushed out In the wilder
ness to hear him, reckless Of their phys
ieal necessities. So great was their anxi-
ETY. to heal Christ that, taking no food
with them, they would have tainted
and starved had not Christ performed a
miracle and fed them. Why did so
many people take the truth at Christ's
hands? Because they all understood 1t.
He illustrated his subject by a hen and
her chickens, by a bushel measure, by a
handful of salt, by a birds flight and
by a lily's aroma. All the people knew
what he meant, and they focked to him.
And when the coming sermon Of the
Christian church appears it will not be
Princetonian, not Rochesterian, not
Andoverian, not Middletonian, but Oil
vetio-plain, practical, unique, earnest,
comprehensive of all the woes, wants,
sins, sorrows and necessities of an au-
ditory.
Churches Will Be Thronged.
But when that sermon does come
there will be a thousand cleaning scim-
itars to charge on it. There are in SO
many theological seminaries professors
telling young men how to preach, them
selves not knowing how, and I am told
if a young nan in some of u theologic-
al seminaries says anything quaint or
thrilling or unique faculty and students
fly at him and set him right, and
straighten him out, and smooth him
down, and chop him Off until be says
everything just as everybody else says
it. Oh, when the coming sermon of the
Christian church arrives, all the
churches of Christ in our great cities
will be thronged. The world wants
spiritual help. All who have buried
their dead want comfort. All know
themselves to be mortal and to be i'm
mortal, and they want to hear about
the great future. I tell you, my friends,
if the people Of these great cities who
have had trouble only thought they
could get practical and sympathetic help
In the Christian church there would not
be a street in Washington or New York
or Boston which would be passable on
the Sabbath day, if there were a church
on it. for all the people would press to
that asylum of mercy, that great house
J Of comfort and consolation.
A mother with a dead babe in her
arms came 70 the god yeda and asked to
|THE DREADED