Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1897-11-27

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selves not knowing how, and am told
if young man in some Of our theologic-
al Summaries says anything quaint or
thrilling or unique faculty and students
fly ut him and set him right, and
straighten him out, and smooth him
down. and chop him off until ho says
every thing inst 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 Tho world wants
spiritual help All who have buried
their dead want comfort All know
themselves to lie mortal and to be i'm
mortal. and they want to hear about
the great future | tell you, my friends,
if the people of these great cities who
have bad trouble only thought they
could get practical and sympathetic help
in the Christian church there would not
! be u street in Washington or New York
or Boston which would he passable on
the Sabbath day. if there were church
on it. for all the people would press to
that asylum OF mercy. that great house
of comfort and consolation
A mother with dead babe in her
arms came TO the god Veda and asked to
have her child restored to life. The god
Yedu said to her. You go and get q
handful of mustard seed from house III
which there has been no sorrow and in
which there has been no death, and l
will restore your child to life 7" So the
mother went out, and she went from
house to house and from home to home,
looking for place where there had
! been no sorrow and where there had
been no death, but she found none. She
went back to the god Veda and said:
my mission is failure You see, /
haven't brought the mustard seed l
can't find place where there has been
no sorrow and no DEATH . "Oh, says
/ the god Veda, understand. your sor-
rows arc no worse than the sorrows Of
others. We all have our griefs and all
have our heart breaks.
Laugh. and tho world laughs with you
Weep. and you weep alone:
For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth
But has trouble enough Of its own
We hear great deal of discussion
now all over the land about why people
do not go to church Some say it is be-
cause Christianity is dying out and be-
cause people do not believe in the truth
of Gods word, and all that They are
false reasons. The reason is because our
sermons are not interesting and practi-
cal and sympathetic and helpful. Some
one might as well tell the whole truth
on this subject, and so will tell it.
The sermon of the future-the gospel
sermon to come forth and shake the ma
! lions and lift people out Of darkness
will be a popular sermon just for the
simple reason that it will meet the woes
and the wants and the anXieties of the
people. There are in all our denomina-
lions ecclesiastical mummies, sitting
around to frown upon the fresh young
pulpits of America, to try to awe them
down, to cry out, Tut, tut, tut, sensa-
tionall'' They stand today. preaching
in churches that hold 1000 people, and
there are 100 persons present, and if
they cannot have the world saved in
their way it seems as if they do not want
it saved at all do not know but the
old way of making ministers of the
gospel is better a collegiate education
and an apprenticeship under the care
and home attention of some earnest,
! aged Christian minister. the young man
getting the patriarch s spirit and assist
ing him in his religious service Young
lawyers study with old lawyers, young
physicians study with old physicians,
and believe it would be great help
if every young man studying for the
gospel ministry could put himself in
the home and heart and sympathy and
under the bcnediction and perpetual
presence of aNhrlStian minister
An Awakening Sermon.
But, | remark again. the sermon of
the future will be an awakening SER
mon From altar rail to the front door
step. under that sermon an audience
will get up and start for heaven There
will be i'll it many staccato passage
twill not be a lullaby it will be bat
tie charge Men will drop their sins,
for they will feel the hot breath of pur-
suing retribution Oh che back OF their
necks 1t will be u sermon sympathetic
with all the physical distresses as well
as the spiritual distresses of the world.
Christ not only preached, but he healed
paralysis. and he healed epilepsy, and
he healed the dumb and the blind and
the ten lepers
That sermon of the future will be an
everyday sermon, going right down
into every man life, and it will teach
him how to vote, how TO bargain how
to plow how to do any work he is called
to, how to WELD trowel and pen and
pencil and yardstiok and plane, and it
will teach women how to preside over
their households and how to educate
their children and how to initiate Mir
lam and Esther and Vashti and Eunice,
tho mother of Timothy, and Mary. the
mother of Christ, and those women who
or northern and southern battletields
were mistaken by the wounded for an.
gels of mercy fresh from the throne OF
God.
Yes, 1 have to tell you the sermon Of
the future will be reported sermon. II
you have any idea that printing was in
vented simply to print secular books, and
stenography and photography were con-
trived merely to set forth secular ideas,
you arc mistaken The printing press is
to be the great agency of gospel procla-
nation. 1t is high time that good men
instead of denouncing the press employ
it to scatter forth the gospel of Jesus
Christ. The vast majority of people in
our cities do not come to church, and
nothing but the printed sermon can
reach them and call them to pardon and
life and peace and heaven.