Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1897-11-27
ACCOMAC G. H VA SATURDAY NOVEMBER 81 1897

aid when he was found dead IN tho To-
comotivo, which was found upside down,
he was found still smiling, his hand on
the airbrako?" And rs the engineer said
it to me he put his hand on the airbralle
to illustrate his meaning, and l looked
ut him and thought, You would BIO
just as much Of a hero in the same
crisis -
Oh, in that coming sermon Of the
Christian church there will be living
Illustrations taken from everyday life
of vicarious sufferings = Illustrations
that will bring to mind the ghastlier
sacrifice Of him who. in the high places
of tho field and on the cross fought our
battles and wept our griefs and endured
our struggles and died our death.
A German sculptor made an image of
Christ, and he asked his little child, 3
years old, who it was, and she said,
"That must be some very great man.
Tho sculptor was displeased with the
criticism, SO he got another block Of
marble and chiseled away on it two or
three years, and then he brought in his
little child. or years Of age and no
said to her, "Who do you think that
is?' Sho said, "That must be the One
who took little children in his arms and
blessed them y Then the sculptor was
satisfied. Oh, my friends, what the
world wants is not cold Christ, not an
intellectual Christ, not severely mag
isterial Christ, but loving Christ,
spreading out his arms Of sympathy to
press the whole world to his loving
heart.
But l remark again that the coming
sermon of the Christian church will be
short sermon Condensation is de-
manded by the age in which we live.
No more need of long introductions 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 half hours to reli-
gious discourse, and "seventeenthly"
would find them fresh and clipper. In
those times there was enough room for
n man to take an hour to warm himself
up to the subject and m hour to cool
off But what was necessity then IS
superiority now Congregations arc full
of knowledge from books, from newspa-
pers, from rapid and continuous inter-
communication, and long disquisitions
of what they know already will not DO
abided If "a religious teacher cannot
compress what he wishes to say to tho
people in the space of do minutes bet
ter adjourn it to some other day.
Tho limo to Stop
The trouble is we preach audiences
into 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
he is restless That accident OH 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
not stop, hence the casualty was terri
fic. In all religious discourse we want
locomotive power and propulsion; we
want at the same time stout brakes to
let down at tho right instant. 1t is
dismal thing after nearer has compre-
hended the whole subject, to hear a man
say. Now to rocapitulate, and "a
few words by way of application, and
"onco more, and finally, " and now
to conclude.
Paul preached until midnight, and
Eutychus got sound asleep and fell out
of window and broke his neck Some
would say, Good for him. :" would
rather be sympathetic, like Paul, and
resuscitate him. That accident is often
quoted now in religious circles as
warning against somnolence in church.
1t is just as much warning to minis
tiers against prolixity Eutychus was
wrong in his somIolence but Paul
made mistake when he kept on until
midnight. He ought to have stopped at
II o'clock, and there would have been
no accident If Paul might have gone
on to too great length, let all those OF
US who are now preaching the gospel
remember that there is limit to re-
ligious discourse, or ought to be, and
that in our time we have no apostolic
power or miracles. Napoleon, in an adj
dress of seven minutes, thrilled his army
and thrilled Europe. Christ sermon on
the mount-the model sermon-was less
than Is minutes long at ordinary mode
of delivery 1t is not electricity scatter
ed all over the sky that strikes, but
electricity gathered into thunderbolt
and hurled, and it is not religious truth
scattered over. spread out over a vast
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 i'll the Christian church
the sermon which is to arouse the world
and startle the nations and usher in the
kingdom-it will be brief sermon.
Hear it, all theological students, all ye
just entering upon religious work, all
We men and women who i'll Sabbath
schools and other departments are toll
ing for Christ and the salvation of i'm
mortals Brevity, brevity
But remark also that the coming SER
mon of which speak will be popular
sermon There are those in these times
WHO speai; of IL popular sermon as
though there must be something wrong
about it AS these critics arc dull them
selves, the world gets the impression
that il sermon is good i'll proportion as
it is stupid Christ was the most popu-
lar preacher the world ever saw and
considering the small number OF the
world S population, had the largest au-
diences ever gathered He never preached
anywhere without making a great SEN
sation People rushed out in the wilder
ness to hear him, reckless of their phys
ical necessities So great was their anxi-