Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1898-06-29
SERMONS OF THE DAY

Subject: "a Helpful Religion"-Reforml
of WOrship Urged - Some Practical
Suggestions For Bringing 1t About
Sing the Old. Old Songs.
TEXT: ''Send Thee help from the sane
tuary.''-Psalm 20: 2.
II you should ask fifty different men
what the church is, they would give you
fifty different answers. One man would
say, 1T is a convention OF hypocrites. u
Another, 1T as en- assembly Of people
who feel themselves a great deal better
than Others" Another, "It is a place for
gossip, where wolverine dispositions de-
YOUR each other Another, It Is Il place
for the cultivation OF superstition and
can't" Another, 1T is an arsenal where
theoiogians go to get pixies and muskets
and shot" Another, 1T is an art gallery,
where men go to admire grand articles,
and exquisite fresco and musical works.
and the Dantesque in gloomy imagery"
place on earth except my own home" If
l forget thee, o Jerusalem, let my right
hand forget her cunning"
Now, whatever the church is, my text
tells you what it ought to be: n great,
practical, homely, omnipotent help; "send
thee help from the sanctuary" The rew
ought to yield restfulness for the body.
The color Of the upholstery ought to yield
Measure to the eve 'rh., entity. .arvic.
ought to yield strength for the toll and
struggle OF everyday life. The Sab
the six days of the week drawing them
in the right direction The chnrch
ought to be magnet visiblv and
nightly affecting all the homes of
the worshipers. Every man gets roughly
iostled gets abused etc cnt GETS in
suited. gets sighted gets exas6erated
By the time the Sabbath comes he has an
accumulation of six days of annovance
and that is a staryeline church service
which has not strength enough to take
that accumulated ANNOYANCE and hurl it
into perdition. The business man sits
down in church headacby from the week g
engagements. Perhaps he wishes he had
tarried at home on the lounge with the
newspapers and the sinners That man
wants to he cooled off and cracions,v al
yerte8 The first wove Of the relioious ser-
vice ought to dash clear over the hurricane
decks and leave him drinnino with boIv
and Glad and baav.niy amnfton ..S.n,
thee helm from the sanc;norv ,,
In the frst nlace sanctuarv helm on.bt
to come from The mnsic wa,narp I,iar,
In ENGLAND nersistad in .in,,;rc ,n th ,aGt
moment Tbe attend,nts trias 70 nar-
snade her to ston sny;na n wnnl1 oyhaans+
her and make her disease worse She nn-
swered. .sJ must sjnc. Lam only nr.c,ioin,
Tor tho beayenIy cho;, - uusi dr a.rth -
FphpnTSnl N
But am NOT sneakino of the newt world
Sabbath song ourbt to Set nil the west to
mnsic We want NOT more tarmonv not
more artistic exnression INT more xniume
in our church music The Engliah d;ssent.
inD churches far snrnass oSr amarie,nn
churches in this resnect An English an
dience of one Thousand neonIe will Give
more volnme Of sacred sopo ,bnne an
American audience OF two tnoTsand neo-
pie. / do not know what the reason is
Oh Won ought to have heard them sing in
surrey chanel had the onnortnnity ~
nraacbing the onnivarcarvf thai tha
pninatia,h ann,yarsor, sarmon In ~,
inn5 Tfiii,s Old chaSoI anh ~, ~,
lifted their voices In sncred song it was
simnlv oyerwbeImino. and then In the
evening of the same day In Agricultural
Hall many Thousand voices lifted In 5ox-
olocy. It was like the voice of many
| waters and like the voice of MANY tbun-
| dortnps and Ike the voice Of heaven
We hear a great deal of the art of sing
| ing of music as an entertainment of music
| as n recreation. II is hiph time we heard
something Of music ns n helm n nracticai
heIp. In order to do this we must have
| only few bymns New times and new
HYMNS eyery Sunday make poor conprera.
tionaI singing. Fifty HYMNS are enough
| for fifty wears. The EpiscopaI Church
prays the same prayers every Sabbath and
year after wear. and century after century.
For that reason tbey have the hearty re-
snonses LET ma take a hint from that foct
ana Let ns sine the same songs SahhatS
after sabbath Only I'm TINT w9v we come
! TO the fulI force of the exercise.
Again I remark. that sanctuary helm
oupht to come from the sermon OF n
thousand peonle in any audience how
! many want sympathetic helm no Won
puess n hundredP Do Won guess five hum
dred? You have guessed wrong. will
tell you inst the nronortion Ont of n
|
lust one thousand who need sympatbetic
help. These Young people want II lust as
much ms the old The old people some-
times seem to think thew have n mopopolv
of the rheumatis II and the neuralpias and
| the headaches and the physicaI disorders
of the world. but 7 tell Won tbere are no
| worse heartaches than are felt by some of
| the younc people. have noticed among
all classes Of men that some Of the seyerest
battles and the toughest work come he
! fore thirty. Therefore wemust have our
sermons and our exhortations in nraver
meeting all sympathetic with the Young.
| And SO with these people further on in life.
What do these doctors and LAWYERS and
merchants and mechanics care about the
distractions Of religion? What they want
| is help TO bear the vbimsicalittes of patients
| the broW-beatfn0 of legal opponents the
unfairness of customers who have plenty
| of fault finding for eyery imperfection Of
handiwork but no praise for twenty excel
] lencies
/ While all Of n sermon NAV rot be helpfuI
alike to all, IL It be a Christian sermon.
preached by a Christian man. there will be
! helm for every one sOmewbere. We 90 in
70 an anotbecarv,s store We see otbers
heinp waited on: we do not conn plain be-
rnuse we do not inn mediately get the medi-
cine: we know our turn will come after a
: while. And so while ali parts of n sermon
may not be appropriate to our case. II we
wait prayerfuiIy. before the sermon is
/ through. we shall have the divine prescrip-
tion 7 saw to young men who are going
| 70 nreacb the Gospel: we want in our SER
mons not more metaphysics nor more
imnpination nor more logic nor more pro-
fundity. What we want in our sermons
Land Christian exhortations as more sym-
pathy.