The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1898-06-13
snou,a SPEAK tns,r Joys abroad.

6ympNneblc nGtpf 10 you guess lUUr DO
you guess SCOT You have guessed wrong.
/ will tell you just the proportion. Out Of
/ 900 people in any audience there are just
1 900 who need sympathetic help These
young people want it just as much as the
old. The old people sometimes seem to
think they have q monopoly Of the rheu-
matis,ns, and the neuralgias, and the head
aches, and the physical disorders of tho
world, but tell you there are no worse
than are felt by some Of tho
young people. Do you know that much Of
the work is done by the yOungf Raphael
died at 81, Richelieu ut 81, Gustavus
Adolphus died at 3s, Innocent III came to
his mightiest influence at 81. Cortes con-
quered Mexico at 80, Don John won L.
panto at 25, Grotius was attorney general
ut "a and have noticed amid all classes
Of men that some Of the severest battles
md the toughest work comes before 30.
Therefore we must have our sermons and
our exhortations in prayer meeting all
sympathetic with the young. And 10 with
these people further on in life. What do
these doctors and lawyers and merchants
and mechanics care about the distractions
Of religionp What they want is help to
bear the whimsicslities of patients, the
of legal opponents, the un-
fairness of customers who have plenty Of
fault finding for every imperfection Of
handiwork, but no praise for 20 excel
lences. What does the brain racked, hand
blistered man care for Zwingli's doc
trine Of Original Sin," or Augustine's
"Retractionsp'' You might as well 60 to
a man who has the pleurisy and put on
his side plaster made out Of DIR PARIS
"Treatise on Medical Jurisprudence.
Help For Every One.
While all of sermon may not be help
full alike to oil, If it be q Christian sermon
preached by Christian man there will
be help for every one somewhere. We go
into an apothecary's store. We sec Others
being waited on. We do not complain be-
cause We do not Immediately get the med
icine We know our turn will come after
awhile. And SO while all parts of SER
mon may not be appropriate to our case
If we wait prayerfully before the sermon
Is through we shall have tho divine pre-
scription. say to young men who are
going to preach the gospel. we want in
our sermons not more metaphysics, nor
more Imagination, nor more logic, nor
more profundity. What we want In our
sermons and Christian e1hortations is
more sympathy. When Father Taylor
preached in the Sailors Bethel at Boston,
the Jack Tars felt they had help for their
duties among the ratlines and the forecas-
ties. When Richard Weaver preached to
the operatives in Oldham, England, all
the workmen felt they had more grace for
the spindles When DR.. South preached
to kings and princes and princesses, all
the mighty men and women who heard
him felt preparation for their high sta
tion.
People will not go to church merely as
a matter of duty. There will not next
Sabbath be l0Opeople in this city who will
get up in the morning and say: 1.-THE b.
BILE says must go to church. 1t is my
duty to go to church. therefore will go
to church." The vast multitude of people
who go to church go to church because
they like it, and the multitude Of people
who stay away from church stay away be-
cause they do not like it. lam not speak
ing about the way the world ought to be
am speaking about the way the world is.
Taking things as they are, we must make
the centripetal force of the church mightier
than the centrifugal. We must make our
churches magnets to draw the people there
unto, so that man will feel uneasy if he
does not go to church, saying: II wish I
had gone this morning. wonder If
can't dress yet and get there in time? 1t
is II o'clock Now they are singing. 1t
is half past IL. Now they are preaching.
I wonder when the folks will be home to
tell us what was said, what has been going
on" When the impression is confirmed
that our churches, by architecture, by mu-
sic, by sociality and by sermon, shall be
made the most attractive places on earth,
then we will want twice as many churches
as we have now, twice as large, and then
they will not half accommodate the people.
Religious Humdrum.
say to the young men who are entering
the ministry we must put on more force,
more energy and into our religious services
more vivacity If we want the people to
come. You look into church court OF
any denomination Of Christians. First,
YOU will find the men of large common
sense and earnest look. The education OF
their minds, the piety of their hearts, the
holiness Of their lives qualify them for
their work Then you will find in every
church court of every denomination
group of men who utterly amaze you with
the fact that such semi-imbecility can get
any pulpits to preach in! Those arc the
men who give forlorn statistics about
church dccadence.. Frogs never croak in
running water; always in Etagnant. But
l say to all Christian workers, to all Sun
day school teachers, to all evangclists, to
MI ministers Of the gospel, if VIC want our
Sunday schools and our prayer meetings
and our churches to gather the people we
must frcshcn up.
The simple fact is the people are tired Of
the humdruIn of religionists. Religious
humdrum is the worst of all humdrum.
You say over and over again, Come to
Jesus" until the phrase means absolutely
bothing Why do you not tell them q
story which will make them come to Jesus
in five minutes? You say that all Sunday
school teachers, and all evangelists, and
all ministers must bring their illustrations
from the Bible. Christ did not when he
preached. The most of the Bible was
written before Christs time, but where
did he get his illustrations? He drew them
from the lilies from the ravens, from salt,
from candle, from a bushel, from long
faced hypocrites, from gnats, from moths,
from large gates and small gates, from q
camel, from the needles eye, from yeast in
the dough of bread, from a mustard seed
from fishing net, from debtors and cred
itors. That is the reason multitudes fol
lowed Christ. His illustrations were sc
easy and SO Understandable. Therefore