The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1898-06-13

the hinge Of prayer, and when the whole
audience lay hold Of thAt door 1t must
come open. There are many people spend
ing their first Sabbath after some great
bereavement. What win your prayer do
for them' How will 1t help the tomb in
that mans hearth Here are people who
have not been In church baRet0 ten
years. What will your prayer q bern
by rolling over their soul holy m61noriesf
Here arc people in crises of awful tempta-
ton. They are on the verge Of despair or
wild blundering or theft or suicide. What
will your prayer do for them in the way Of
giving them strength 10 resistP Will you
be chiefly anxious about the fit Of the glove
that you put to your forehead while you
prayedf Will you be chiefly critical Of the
rhetoric of the pastors petitionP No.
No. A thousand people will feel, "That
prayer is for me-" and at every step Of the
prayer chains ought to drop of, and tenn
pies Of sin ought to crash into dust, and
jubilees of deliverance ought to brandish
their trumpets. In most of our churches
we have three prayers-the opening pray
er, what Is called the "long prayer" and
the closing prayer There arc many peo-
pie who spend their first prayer in arrang-
ing their apparel after entrance and spend
the second prayer, the long prayer" In
wishing 1t were through and spend the
last prayer in preparing to start for home.
The most insignificant part Of every re-
ligious service is the sermon. The more
important parts are the Scripture lesson
and the prayer. The sermon Is only o
man talking to a man. The Scripture
lesson is God talking to man. Prayer Is
man talking to God Oh, If We under
stood the grandeur and the pathos Of this
exercise Of prayer, instead Of being dull
exercise we would imagine that the room
was full Of divine and angelic appearances.
The Old style Of Church.
But, my friends, the old style Of church
will not do the work. We might AZ well
now try to take all the passengers from
Washington to New York by stagecoach
or NIL the passengers from Albany to Buff
alo by canalboat or do all the battling Of
tho world with bow and arrow as with the
old style of church to meet the exigencies
of this day. Unless the church In our day
will adapt itself to the time it will become
extinct. The people reading newspapers
and books all the week, in alert, pictur-
esque and resounding style, will have no
patience with Sabbath humdrum. We
have no objection to bands and surplice
and all the paraphernalia Of clerical life,
but these things make no impression
make no more impression on the great
masses Of the people than the ordinary
business suit that you wear on Pehnsyl-
vania avenue Or Wall street. A tailor can
not make minister. Some Of the poorest
preachers wear the best clothes, and many
q backwoodsman has dismounted from the
saddlebags, and in his linen duster preach
cd a sermon that shook earth and heaven
with its Christian eloquence No new gos-
pol only the old gospel in way suited to
the time No new church, but a church
to be the asylum, the inspiration, the prac-
teal sympathy and the eternal help of the
people.
But while half of the doors of the church
are to be set open toward this world the
other half of the doors Of tho church must
be set open toward the next. You and l
tarry here only brief space We want
somebody to teach us how to get out Of
this life at the right time and in the right
way. Some fall out of life, some go STUN
bling out Of life, some go groaning out Of
life, some go cursing out OF life. We
want to go singing, rising, rejoicing,
triumphing. We want half the doors
of the church set in that direction.
We want half the prayers that way, half
the sermons that way. We want to know
how to get ashore from the tumult Of this
world into the land of everlasting peace.
Wo do not want to stand doubling and
shivering when we go away from this
world We want our authorizations aroused
TO the highest pitch. We want to have tho
Sxhilaration of dying child in England,
3he father telling me the story. When he
said to her, It's the path narrow shc an
swered 1.-The path is narrow; 1t Is SO mar
row that cannot walk arm in arm with
Christ, 80 Jesus goes ahead, and he says,
Mary follow" Through the church
gates set heavenward how many of your
friends and mine have gomez
The last time they were out of the house
they came to church. The earthly pill
grimage ended at the pillar of public wor-
ship, and then they marched out to big
ger and brighter assemblage. Some OF
them were so old they could not walk
without cane or two crutches. Now
they have eternal juvenescence. Or they
were SO young they could not walk except
as the ma ycrnal hand guided them. Now
they bound with the hilarites celestial.
The last time VIC saw them they were
wasted with malarial OF pulmonic disor-
der, but now they have no fatigue and no
difficulty of respiration in the pure air OF
heaven. How wonder when you and I
| will cross over! Some of you have had
about enough of the humping and failing
of this life A draft from the fountains
of heaven would do you good Complete
\ rtn wall va
got on the other side and had permission
to come back, you would not come.
Though you were invited to come back
and join your friends on earth, you would
say: "No let me tarry here until they
come. l shall not risk going back. If a
man reaches heaven, he had better stay
here
The Cry Of "vIctory!"
Oh, join hands with you In that up
lifted splendor:
When the shore Is won at last
Who will count the pillows pastp
In Freyburg, Switzerland, there is the
trunk of tree 400 years old. That tree
was planted to commemorate an event.
About ten miles from the city the Swiss
conquered the Burgundians, and young
man wanted to take the tidings to the city.
He took tree branch and ran with such
speed the ten miles that when he reached
the city waving the tree branch he had
only strength to cry "Victoryl' and drop
ped dead The tree branch that he carried
was planted, and it grew to be great tree
20 feet in circumference, and the remains
of it are there to this day. My nearer,
when you have fought your last battle
with sin and death and hell and they have
been routed in the conflict, it will be a joy
worthy of celebration. You will fly to
the city and cry "VictoryH' and drop at
the feet of the great King. Then the palm
branch of the earthly race will be planted
to become the outbranching tree of ever
lasting rejoicing.
When shall these eyes thy heaven built walls
And pcarly gates behold,
Thy bulwarks with salvation strong
And streets Of shining gold2
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