The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1897-11-26
THE COMING SERMON.
REV. DR.. TALMAGE TELLS WHAT IT
OUGHT TO BE.

Much Dead wood - The Sermon of bne
Future Will Be Short, Spirited, and II
Will Be Reported In the Press.
copyright, 1897, by American Press Asso-
citation.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 21.-Most appro-
pirate to the times we live in is DR..
Talmage' s discourse of today. All Chris
tian workers will read it with interest.
His text is Luke tx, 60, $50, 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 universal king
dom, and just as wide as that will be
the realm sermonic. $50, thou, and
preach the kingdom of Cod" 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 sermon 1t is a
simple fact that everybody knows that
most of the sermons of today do not
reach the world. The vast majority of
the people of our great cities never en-
ter church.
with it the dead wood 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 mod
ern pulpit utterances into the same old
style proportions. Booksellers will tell
you they dispose of hundred histories,
hundred novels, hundred poems, tn
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 who despise the Christian reli-
gion. l answer, there never was an age
when there were so many Christians or
SO many friends of Christianity as this
age has-our age; as to others a hundred
to one What is the matter then? 1t is
simply because our sermon of today is not
suited to the age. 1t is the canalboat 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 SER
mon will have to be converted. You |
might as well go into modern Sedan
or Gettysburg with bows and arrows in
stead of rifles and bombshells and parks
of artillery as to expect to conquer this
world for God by the old styles of SER
monology. Jonathan 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.
= The Sermon of the Future.
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; III which denomination OF
Christians it will be delivered l cannot
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 Tombigbee,
or the Alabama. The person who shall
deliver it may this moment lie in a
cradle under the shadow of the Sierra
Nevadas or i'll a New England farm
house or amid the ricetields of southern
savannas, or this moment there may be
some young man in some of our theo-
logical seminaries, in the junior or mid
die 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 watchtowers of Zion, wax
ing to the realization of our present in
efficiency, may preach it ourselves.
That coming sermon may not be 20
years off. And let us pray God that its
arrival may be FASTENED, while | an
nounce to you what think will be the
chief characteristics of that sermon
when it does arrive, and | want to make
the remarks appropriate and suggestive
to all classes of Christian workers.
First of all, | remark that that COM
ing sermon will be full of living
Christ, i'll COntradistinction to didactio
technicalities. A sermon may be full of
Christ, though hardly mentioning his
name, and sermon may be empty of
Christ while every sentence is repeti-
tious of his titles. The world wants a
living Christ, not Christ standing at
INT u6du VI u lOEuldl SYSTEM Oh Ul6OlOSy,
but a Christ who means pardon and
sympathy and coincidence and brother
hood and life and heaven, poor mans
Christ, an overworked man Christ, an
invalid's Christ, farmers Christ, a
merchants Christ, an artisans Christ,
an every mans Christ
A symmetrical and finely worded sys-
tenn of theology is well enough for the
illogical classes, but it has no more bust
ness in pulpit than have the technical
phrases of an anatomist or a physician
in the sickroom of patient. The world
wants help immediate and world up
lifting and it will come through a SER
mon in which Christ shall walk right
down into the immortal soul and take
everlasting possession of it, filling it as
full of light as is the MONDAY tirma-
ment That sermon of the future will
not deal with men in the threadbare il
Illustrations of Jesus Christ In that COM
ing sermon there will be instances of
vicarious sacrifice taken right out of ev- }
arvdav lifa for tbaro iS NOT a dav Gonna