The Yale expositor., 1897-11-26

realm sermonic,
Go thou and preach the kingdom OF
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 a 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 ii the deadwood of all ages. Hun
dreds of years ago it was decided what
sermon ought to be, and 1t is the at
tempt Of many theological seminarios
and doctors of divinity to hew the
modern pulpit utterances into the same
old-style proportions. Booksellers
will tell you they dispose of hundred
histories, hundred novels, a 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
wearing in. Some say there are so
many who despise the Christian reli-
gion. l 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 10
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 it will not be
heard and it will not be read.
Before the world is converted. the
sermon will have to be 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 sermonolosy. 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 ana
those wanting 10 go nome.
But there is n coming sermon-who
will preach it have no idea; in what
part of the earth it will be born nave
no idea; in which denomination OF
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 the 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 a 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 it ourselves. That coming
ctl nun may iOl NC bNthlg HtdIS Olt.
And let us pray God that its arrival
may be FASTENED, while l announce to
you what think will be the chief 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, l remark that the com
ing sermon will be full of a living
Christ, in contradistinction to didactic
technicalities. A sermon may be full
of Christ, though hardly mentioning
his name, and a sermon may be empty
of Christ while every sentence is repe-
titious 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 artisans Christ. An every man
Christ.
A symmetrical and finely worded
system of theology is we'll enough for
theological classes, but it has no more
business in a 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-
diate and world uplifting. and 1t will
come through sermon in which Christ
shall walk right down into the i'm
mortal soul and take everlasting pos
session of it. filling it 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
lis not dying for others. AS the physl-
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
ito the lifeboat; as the fireman, con-
Stunning in the burning building. while
he Is taking a child out Of a fourth