The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-03-12

that go rom heart to heart, never ue- nied access or hospitality, and never enfeebled by use. The more of these truths the preacher has in command the more he will be able to realize what I spoke of at the beginning, the preach ing power of an audience. A truth of this sort when once it is In full play between the preacher and audience, how good it is to be either preacher or nearer. Hearing is the answering voice. It is "deep calling unto deep
 Grant that the preacher of to-day has humanity and authority, that he has the power to compel men to help him in his work of persuasion, and that he has sufficiency of truth in com mand what does he lack If he lack at all. in meeting the conditions of mod ern preaching. Is there any other quality which is peculiar necessity Of our age. and which. because of this necessity, the age has the right to de- mand of the pulpit. I answer unhesi- tatingly, yes the preacher of to-day must have faith. He must be able, that is, to give men elevation and out look.
 One cannot fail to see when looking
  view that it is not only elf-absorbed. but self-centered and Insufficient. We have broken the connection with other times. We are living in the iso- lation of their ignorance. We are so much to ourselves that we have reject ed the companionship of the past and are not anxious or even curious about the future. Of course this is kind of 1 provincialism, just as the resident of great city Is apt to be bounded by it to the degree by which he is enlarged by it. The average Londoner or Parsian or New Yorker lives more in his city than in his country. He is not so sen sitive to the national spirit as his | neighbor who is less overpowered by his immediate surroundings.
 | It is not to be wondered at that the average mind which is in and of this age is bounded by it. Not only is there more of the world than at any previ- ous time, but most of the things in the l world are worth more. One cannot calculate by just how much the valua- tion of the world is increased. This is not necessary The moral effect of it lies in the appeal which the world of | faith. In spite of the great contrasts in material condition, no one can mis- take the satisfaction which men take in the material world as we know it, as we possess it. With some it is a pure ly sordid qualification; the mere sensu- al enjoyment of prosperity. With oth- CTS it is the satisfaction which comes from the opportunity of search and
 struggle, the hot competition of the business world With others it is the joy of investigation and physical re-
 rearch, the pursuit of knowledge for the sake of knowledge. We cannot
 over-estimate the fact that the world
 this physical world, means more to us
 than it ever meant to living men,
 Never before did men possess So many
 lands or subdue so many seas. Never before did men know so well the secret
 of wealth. And never before have there been opened to them so many
 provinces in the invisible realms of matter
 Now it is not difficult to see that soon
 or late there will be spiritual reaction
 from this intense satisfaction in what
 we call the world. do not mean sim i ply d TedCllO1 ITOHl LOW dHu SOTulu
 worldliness, but from all which the ma-
 terial world has to offer The soul of
 man cannot live upon the income of
 material wealth. The soul of man can not live upon the discoveries of science.
 Extend the world as you will, there is
 no lasting satisfaction in it for the hu-
 man soul. And when the time of spir-
 itual dissatisfaction comes-no one
 knows how near 1t is-then we have
 this alternative. either the return to some kind of other worldliness, or the , advance into more spiritual conception
 of the world itself cannot believe in modern mediaevalism. I must believe in such a spiritual Interpretation of
 this world and in such spiritual use , of its forces as will satisfy the souls of men.
 ; But meanwhile the problem of the preacher is how to lift men above their time for spiritual uses, how to give them elevation and outlook You may be surprised when I say that one of the greatest incentives to faith in such a , time as this is the historic faith. Here lies the interpretative power of faith Balaam was right when he said of Is- rael, Israel has no need of diviner or soothsayer; it is enough to say in Isra- el what hath God wrought. The men of our time must be made to see and to know their place in the long plan of God. We need to go back far enough
 to get the grade on which the world has been moving, to feel the ascent in 7 the providence of God. The increasing , argument for faith lies in history. It } is the great argument against narrow : ness, against compiacency against low } outlooks. It lifts the spiritual horizon Z When we think of the peculiar office . of faith we naturally turn toward the r unseen. One of our first questions is 3 about immortality. Can the preacher } make that real to men to-day. Yes but not in the same way as at some other times. This world is not the same as when the contrast was first 3 made between 1t and heaven. The out l look into the future from Rome under Nero was very different from the pres ent outlook from England and Ameri.
 ca. Persecution offers no spur to hope 9 The Christian centuries have made 2 this world more desirable. We car l hardly sing, except under some spirit. ual exaltation, the hymns of mediaeva saints as they turned their hearts 3 heavenward. It is not possible there.