The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1897-11-26

49, So
OF Christ In our great cities
will be thronged. The world wants
spiritual help. All who hav buried
their dead want comfort All know
themselves 10 be mortal and TO be i'm
mortal. n they want 10 hear about
the future. I tell you. my friends. IL
the people OF these great cities who
have had trouble only thought they
get practical and sympathetic
help in the Christian church. there
would not be a street in Washington or
New York or Boston which would be
passable on the Sabbath day. II there
were a church pm It; for ali the people
would press to that asylum OF mercy,
that great house OF comfort and conso-
lation.
A mother with a 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 60 and
get q handful OF mustard seed from q
house in which there has been no sor-
row n 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 a been no sorrow and
where there had been no death. but
IL VI tiotC- elk "thA JAIN ~ tuC
god Veda and aid MY mission is a
failure. You see. I haven't brought h
mustard seed. I can't find a place
where there has been nc sorrow IND no
death" oh" says the god Veda, "un-
derstand. your sorrows 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 and about why peo-
pie do not go to church. Some say IL
is because Christianity is dying out
and because people do not believe in
the truth Of Gods word, and all that.
They are false reasons.
WHY PEOPLE DO NOT GO TO
CHURCH.
The reason Is because our sermons
are not interesting and practical and
sympathetic and helpful. Some one
might as we'll tell the whole truth
on this subject and so I will tell 1t.
The sermon of the future-the gospel
sermon to come forth and shake the
nations 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 de-
nominations 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!
SENSATIONAL" They stand today
preaching in churches that hold a
thousand people, and there are a hun
dred persons present, and IL they can
not have the world saved in their way
1t seems as IL 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 get
ting the p%atriarch's spirit and assisting
him in his religious service. Young
lawyers study with old lawyers, young
physicians study with Old physicians,
and l 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.
But l remark again the sermon Of
the future will be an awakening SER
mon. From altar RAJ to the front door
step, under that sermon an audience
will get up and start for heaven There
will be in it many a staccato passage.
1t will not be a lullaby; it will be a
battle charge. Men VIII drop their sins.
for they will feel the hot breath OF pur-
suing ~retribution on the back of their
necks. 1t will be a sermon sympathe-
tic with all the physical distresses as
we'll as the spiritual distresses of the
world. Christ not only preached, but
he healed paralysis, m he healed ep-
ilepsy, 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 in
to every mans life, and it will teach
him how to vote, how to bargain, how
to pillow, how to do any work he is call
ed to, how to WELD trowel and pen and
pencil and yardstick and plane. And
it will teach women how to preside
over their households and how to edu-
ate their children, and how to initiate
Miriam and Esther and Vashti, and
Eunice, the mother Of Timothy, and
Mary, the mother Of Christ, and those
women who on northern and southern
battlefelds were mistaken by the
wounded for angels Of mercy fresh
from the throne Of God.
THE GOSPEL AND THE PRINTING
PRESS.
Yes, I have to tell you the sermon OF
the future will be a reported
If you have any idea that printing was
invented simply to print secular books
and ~stenography and photography
were cOntrived merely to set forth Sc
cular ideas, you are mistaken. The
printing press is to be the great agency
of gospel proclamation. It Is high
time that good men, instead of de-
nouncing he press. employ it to scat
ter forth the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The vast majority Of people in our
cities do not come to church, and NTH
ing but the printed sermon can reach
them and call them to pardon and life
and peace and heaven.
So 1 mo understand the nervous
ness Of some Of my brethren Of the