The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1899-12-13

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I them. The sell satisfied. contented. easy
attitude of the fine figure and the re-
fined face in the pulpit had been dis
placed hv {; manner that could not be
compared with the old style of his de-
livery. The sermon had become mes
sage 1t was no longer delivered 1t
was brought to them with a love, an
earnestness. a passion, a desire. a hu-
mility. that poured their enthusiasm
about the truth and made the speaker
no more prominent than he had to be
as the living voice of God. His prayers
were unlike any the people had ever
heard before They We're often broken
Even once or twice the- had been actu-
ally ungrammatical in a phrase or two
When had Henry Maxwell so far for
gotten himself in prayer as to make
mistake Of that sort? He knew that he
had often taken as much pride in the
diction and the delivery of his prayers
as of his sermons. Was it possible he
now so abhorred the elegant refinement
of formal public petition that he pur-
posely chose to rebuke himself for his
previous precise manner of prayer? 1t
is more likely that he had no thought
of all that. His great longing to voice
the needs and wants Of his people made
him unmindful of an occasional mis-
take. It is certain he had never prayed
so effectively as he did now
There are times when a sermon has a
value and power due to conditions IN
the audience rather than to anything
new or startling or eloquent in the
words or the arguments presented Such
conditions faced Henry Maxwell this
morning as he preached against the sa-
loon, according to his purpose deter
mined on the week before. He had no
new statements to make about the evil
influence Of the saloon in Raymond
What new facts were thece2 He had no
startling illustrations of the power of
the saloon in business or politics. What
could he say that had not been said by
temperance orators great many times? !?
The effect of his message this morning
owed its power to the unusual fact Of
his preaching about the saloon at all.
together with the events that had stir
red the people. He had never in the
course Of his ten years pastorate men
toned the saloon as something to be re-
garded in the light of an enemy. not
only to the poor and the tempted, but
to the business life of the place and the
church itself. He spoke now with a
freedom that seemed to measure his
complete sense Of the conviction that
Jesus would speak 80. At the close he
pleaded with the people to remember
the new life that had begun at the Rec
tangle. The regular election Of city OFF,
GERS would be an issue IN that election.
What of the poor creatures surrounded
by the hell of drink while just begin
ming to feel the JOY of deliverance from
SIM Who could tell what depended on
their environment? Was there one
word to be said by the Christian disci-
pie, business man. professional man,
citizen, in favor of continuing TO license
these crimes and shame producing IN
stitutions? Was not the most Christian
thing they could do to act as citizens
in the matter. fight the saloon at the
polls. elect good men to the city Offices
and clean the municipality? How much
had praye helped to make Raymond
better White votes and actions had real
ly been on the side of the enemies of
Jesus? Would not Jesus do this? What
disciple could imagine him refusing to
suffer OF take up his cross in the mat
ter? How much had the members OF
the First church ever suffered in an at
tempt to initiate Jesus7 Was Christian
discipleship thing of convenience, OF
custom, of tradition? Where did the
suffering come in? Was it necessary.
in order to follow Jesus steps, to go up
Calvary as well as the Mount of Trans
fguration?
His appeal was stronger at this point
than he knew It is not too much to
say that the spiritual tension of the
First church reached its highest point
right there. The imitation OF Jesus
which had begun with the volunteers
in the church was working like leaven
in the organization, and Henry Max
we'll would. even thus eaIli-.' in his new
life. have been amazed if he could have
measured the extent of desire on the
part of his people to take up the cross.
While he was speaking this morning,
before be closed with a loving appeal to
the disc;plcship of 1000 Years lznowl-
edge Of the Master. many a man and
woman in the church was saying, rs
Rachel had said so passionately TO her
mother Il want to do something that
will cost me something in the way OF
sacrifice am hungry to suffer some
thirg." Truly. MaZzini was right When
he said NO appeal is quite so power
full in the END as the call. Come and
safer
The service was over, the great audi
ence had gone. and Henry Maxwell
again faced the company gathered IN
the lecture room as on the two previous
y,