Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1897-11-30


God" 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 of the coming
sermon. 1t is simple fact that every
body knows that most of the sermons
OF today do not reach the world. The
vast majority of the people of our
great cities never enter church.
The sermon OF today carries along
with it the deadwood of all ages. Hun
dreds of years ago it was decided what
q sermon ought to be, and it is the at
tempt OF many theological seminaries
and doctors Of divinity to hew the
modern pulpit utterances into the same
pld-style proportions. Booksellers
will tell you they dispose of hundred
histories, hundred novels, hundred
poems, to 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
many who despise the Christian reli-
gion. | answer, there never was an
age when there were so many Chris
tians. or so many friends of Christian
ity as this age has-our age; as 20
others 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 canal boat in an age
of locomotive and electric telegraph.
The sermon will have to be shaken out
of the old grooves or 1t will not be
heard and 1t will not be read.
Before the world is converted, the
sermon will have to he converted You
might as well go into a modern Sc
dan or Gettysburg with bows and ar
rows instead of rifles and bombshells
and parks of artillery as to expect to
conquer this world for God by the old
styles of sermonology. 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 two classes; those sound asleep and
those wanting to go home.
But there Us coming sermon-who
viii preach 1t have no idea; in what
part of the earth it will be born nave
Christians it will be delivered l can
not guess. That coming sermon may
be born in the country meeting house
or on the banks of the st. Lawrence,
or che Oregon, or the Ohio. or the Tom
bigbee, or the Alabama. The person
who may deliver it may this moment
lie In cradle under the shadow of the
Sierra Nevadas, or in New England
farmhouse, or amid the rice fields of
Southern savannas. Or this moment
there may be some young man in some
OF our theological seminaries. in the
junior, or middle, or senior class, shap-
ing that weapon OF power Or there
may be coming some new baptisms of
the Holy Ghost on the churches, so
that some Of us who now stand in the
watch towers of Zion, waking to the
realization of our present inefficiency,
may preach 1t ourselves. That coming
sermon may not be twenty years off.
And let us pray God that its arrival
may be fastened, while / announce to
you what think will be the CHEF char
acteristics of that sermon when it does
arrive; and | want to make the re-
marks appropriate and suggestive to
all classes of Christian workers.
First of all. remark that the com
T.. ill 10 f,,n
Christ, in contradistinction to didactic
technicalities. A sermon may be full
OF Christ, though hardly mentioning
dis name, and sermon may be empty
of Christ while every sentence is repr-
titlous of his titles. The world wants
a living Christ. not Christ standing
at the head OF formal system of the
ology, but Christ who means pardon
and sympathy and coincidence and
brotherhood and life and heaven. A
poor mans Christ An over-worked
mans Christ. An invalids Christ. A
farmers Christ. A merchants Christ,
An art san's Christ. An every mans
Christ.
A symmetrical and finely worded
system of theology is well enough for
theological classes, but 1t has no more
business in pulpit than have the
technical phrases of an anatomist. or
a physician, In the sick room of a pa-
tient. The world wants help. imme-
date and world uplifting. and IL will
come through sermon in which Christ
shall walk right down into the i'm
mortal soul and take everlasting pos
session Of 1t, filling 1t as full of light
as is the MONDAY armament. That
sermon of the future will not deal with
men in the threadbare illustrations OF
Jesus Christ. In that coming sermon
there will be instances of vicarious
sacrifice taken right out of everyday
life, for there is not day somebody
is not dying for Others AS the physi-
clan, saving his diphtheric patient by
sacrificing his own life; as the ship
captain going down with his vessel,
while he is getting his passengers in
TO the lifeboat; as the fireman, con-
Stunning in the burning building, while
he Is takiLs child out of a fourth
story windo, as last summer the