Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1897-11-22

anywhere without making a great sem
sation. People rushed out in the wilder
ness to hear him, reckless of their phys
ical necessities. So great was their anxi-
ETY. to hear Christ that, taking no food
with them, they would have tainted
and starved had not Christ performed
miracle and fed them. Why did SO
many people take the truth at Cl1rist's
hands? Because they all understood it.
He illustrated his subject by hen and
her chickens, by bushel measure, by
handful of salt, by birds flight and
by lily's aroma. All the people knew
what he meant, and they fiocked 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
vetic-pIain, 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 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 young man in SOME of our theologic-
al seminaries says anything quaint or
thrilling or unique faculty and students
fly az him and set him right, and
strai2hten 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 street in Washington or New York
or Boston which would be 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
Veda said to her, "You go and get
handful of mustard seed from a house in
which there has been no sorrow and in
which there has been no death, and !
will restore your child to life So the
mother went out, and she went from
house to house and from home to home,
looking for a place where there had
been no sorrow and where there had
been no death, but she found more. She
went back to the god Veda and said:
"My mission is a failure You see, /
haven It brought the mustard seed. I
can't find place where there has been
no sorrow and no death. - "Oh, +" says
the god Veda, understand, your sor-
rows are no worse than the sorrows of
others. We all have our griefs and all
have our heart breaks. -
Laugh, and the 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 a 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 God 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 we'll tell the whole truth
on this subject and SO l 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 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-
tions 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-
tional' 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. I 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 spirit and assist
ing him in his religious service. Young
lawyers study with old lawyers, young
physicians study with old physicians,
and I believe it would be a great help
if every young man studying for the
gospel ministry could put himself in
the home and heart and sympathy and
under the benediction and perpetual
presence Of a Christian minister.
An Awakening Sermon
But, / remark again, the sermon of
the future will be an awakening SER
NOR, from altar. rail thc, f,.e,,t door.