Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-11-23
GOSPEL OF CHRIST.
OR. TALMAeE'S VIEWS ON THE CON-
ING SERMON.
Now He Thinks Religious Truths
should He Presented - Ministers
"hould Preach the Living Christ,
Not Didactic TcchnicnIitics

WAsnINGToN, Nov. 19.-In this dis
course DR.. Talmage addresses all Chris
tian workers and describes what he
thinks will be the modes of preaching the
gospel in the future; text, Romans xii, I,
'Or ministry, let US wait on our minister
Ing"
While l was seated on the piazza of
hotel at Lexington, Ky, one summer
evening, gentleman asked me, "What
do you think of the coming Sermon l
supposed he was asking me in regard to
some new discourse of DIR. Cumming of
London, who sometimes preached star
Ting sermons, and replied, 81 have not
seen it." But | found out afterward
that he meant TO ask what | thought
would be the characteristics of the com
ing sermon Of the world, the sermons of
the future, the word Cumming as u
noun pronounced the same as the word
coming as an adjective. But my mis-
take suggested to me very important
and practical theme, The Coming Ser
mon"
Before the world is converted the style
of religious discourse will have TO be con-
verified. You might as we'll 20 into the
modern Sedan or Gettysburg with bows
and arrows. instead of rifles and bomb
y
TO conquer this world for God by the old
styles of cxhortation and scrmonology.
Jonathan Edwards preached the sermons
most adapted to the age in which he
lived, but if those sermons were preached
now they would divide an audience into
two classes-those sound asleep aud those
wanting to go home.
But there is a discourse of the future.
Who will preach it | have no idea. In
what part Of the earth it will hc born |
have no idea. In which denomination of
Christians it will be delivered | cannot
guess. That discourse of cNhortatiou may
be born in the country meeting house on
the banks of the ST. Lawrence or the
Oregon or the Ohio or the Uomhighee
or the Alabama. The person who shall
deliver it may this moment be in cradle
under the shadow Of the Sierra Nevadas
or in New England farmhouse or amid
the riceGclds of southern savannaS, or
this moment there may be some young
man In one of our theological seminaricS,
in the junior or middle or senior class,
shaping that weapon Of power, or there
may be coming some new baptism of the
Holy Ghost on the churches. so that
some Of us who now stand in the watch
towers of Zion, waking to Il realization of
our present ineiliciency. may preach it
ourselves. That coming discourse may
not be 80 years off And let us pray
God that its arrival may he fastened
while | announce to you what | think
will be the chief characteristics of that
discourse or eXhortation when it does
arrive. and | want TO make my remarks
appropriate and suggestive to all classes
Of Christian workers.
The Living Christ.
First of all, remark that that future
religious discourse will be full of n living
Christ in contradistincton to didactc
technicalities. A discourse may be full
of Christ though hardly mentioning his
name and Il sermon may be empty Of
Christ while every sentence is repeti-
tous of his titles. The world wants a
living Christ, not a Christ standing at
the head of formal system of theology,
but n Christ who means pardon and SYM
pathy and coincidence and brotherhood
and life and heaven, poor mans Christ.
rich mans Christ, an overworked
mans Christ, an invalid's Christ, farm
er'S Christ, a merchants Christ an arti-
sans Christ, an every mans Christ.
\ symmetrical and fine wofded system
of theology is well enough for theological
classes, but it has no more business in
pulpit than have the technical phrases Of
an anatomiSt or psychologist or a ply
stefan in the sickroom of patient. The
world wants help, immediate and world
uplifting, and it will come through a dis
course in which Christ shall walk right
down into the immortal soul and take
everlasting possession Of it, filing it as
full Of light as is this monday armament.
That sermon or cXhortaton of the flu
ture will not deal with men in the thread
bare illustrations Of Jesus Christ. In
that coming address there will be in
stances of vicarous suffering taken right
ont of everyday life. for there is not
day when somebody is not dying for 9TH
crs-as the physician saving his diph-
theritic patient by sacrificing his own
life, as the ship captain going down with
his vessel while he is getting his passen-
gers into the lifeboat; as the fireman con-
Stunning in the burning building while he
is taking n child out of n fourth story
window; as in summer the strong swim
mer at East Hampton or Long Branch
or Cape May or Lake George himself
persisted trying to rescue the drowning;
ms the newspaper boy one summer, sup
porting his mother for some years, his in
valid mother, when offered by a gentle
and he got it, and rushed up in his anx-
iety to deliver it and was crushed under
the wheels of the train and lay on the
grass with only strength enough to saw
ooh, what will become OF my poor sick
mother now" Nicarious sufTcring-the
world is full Of it. An engineer said to
me on a locomotive in Dakota I'VE men
seem to be coming TO better appreciation
than we used to. Did you see that ac-
count the other day Of an engineer who
to save his passengers stuck to his place,
and when he was found dead in the loco
motive, which was upside down, he was
found still smiling, his hand on the air
brAkeW And as the engineer said it to
me he put his hand on the airbrake to il
lustrate his meaning, and looked at him
and thought, "You would be just as much
a hero in the same crisis" Oh, in that
religious discourse OF the future there
will be living illustrations taken out from
everyday life of vicarious suffering-ilms-
trations that will bring to mind the ghast-
lier sacrifice of him who in the high
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