The Penn's Grove record., 1899-11-24

ana describes what ne Thinks VIII be the
modes OF preaching the gospel In the future;
text, Romans xii.,s Z, "or ministry, let us
wait OF our minlstering."
While l was scented on a piazza OF a hotel
at Lexington, KY, one summer evening n
gentleman asked me, "What do you think
of the coming sermon?1 | supposed he was
asking me In regard to some new discourse
of DR.. Cumming OF London, who some
times preached startling 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 coming sermon Of the world, the SER
mons of the future, the word "Cumnfng''
as a noun pronounced the same us the
word coming" as nm adjective. But my
mistake suggested to mt IL very important
and practical theme, 1.-THE Coming Ser
mon.n
Before the world is converted the style OF
religious discourse will have TO be con-
verified. You might as well go into the
modern Sedan or Gettysburg with bows
and arrows, instead OF rifles and bombshells
n parks OF artillery, as to expect to con-
quer this world for God by the old styles
of exhortatlon and ~sermonology. Jona-
than Edwards preached the sermons most
adapted to the age In which he lived, but
II those sermons were preached now they
would divide an audience into two classes
those sound asleep and those wanting to
go home.
But there Is q discourse of the flu ture.
WIZ will preach It'll have no idea. In what
part of the earth 1t will be born / have no
fdea. In which denomination of Christians
1t will be delivered l cannot guess. That
discourse of exhortation may be born in
the country meeting house on the banks OF
the st. Lawrence orthe Oregon or the Ohio
or the Tombigbee or the Alabama. The
person who shall deliver it may this mo-
meDt BIO In a cradle under the shadow of
thu Siarrn NayahOa or In n Naw ENGLAND
farmhouse or amid the rieelelds OF South
ern savanna, or this moment there may be
some young man In one OF our theological
seminaries, In the junior or middle or SEN
Tor 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 o realization of
our present efficiency, may preach it our
selves. That coming discourse may not be
fifty years of. And let US pray God that
its arrival may be hastened while I an
characteristics of that discourse or exhor-
tation when 1t does arrive, and l want to
mako my remarks appropriate n Hug-
gestiye to all classes Of Christian workers.
First of all, Iremark tina that future re-
ligious discourse will be full OF a living
Christ In contradistinction to didactic
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 repetitious OF His titles.
The world wants a living Christ, not n
Christ standing at the head of a formal sys-
TEN OF theology. but n Christ who means
pardon and sympathy and coincidence and
brotherhood and life and heaven, a poor
mans Christ, u rich mans Christ, nm over
worked mans Christ, an invalid's Christ, n
farmers Christ, a merchants Christ, an ar
tisan's Christ, an every mani Christ.
4 -, -, -, al taa ,,,I a M .1@rlal axrafnnn ~
theology Is we'll enough for the theological
classes, but It Inns no more business Ia a
pulpit Lhase have the technical phrases OF
an anaIomist or n psychologist or q p Asi'
elan In the slckroom OF n patient. Tie
world wants help, immediate and world
uplifting, and 1t will come through n dis
course in which Christ shall walk right
down into theimmortnl soul and take ever
lasting possession OF 1t. filling 1t as full OF
light as is this MONDAY armament.
That sermon Of exhortation of tue future
will not deal with men In the threadbare
Illustrations OF Jesus Christ. In that com
Ing address there will be instances OF
vlcurious differing taken right out OF
everyday life, for there is not a day when
somebody Is not dying for others-as the
physician saving his dlphtheritic patient
by sacrificing his own life; as the ship cap
tain going down with his vessel while he
Is getting lis passengers into the lifeboat;
a. tGS AStAAf t0aJ AtAbb - - -
building while he Is taking Il child out OF Il
fourth story window; as in summer the
strong swimmer at East Hampton or Long
Branch or Cape May or Lake George him
self persisted trying to rescue the drown
ing; as the newspaper boy one summer,
supporting his mother for some years, his
invalid mother, when offered by a gentle
man fifty cents to get some special paper,
and he got it and rushed up In his anxiety
to deliver it and was crashed unde the
wheels of the train I'M lay o tho grass
with only strength enough to say, "Oh,
what will become OF my poor, sick mother
now?" vicarious suffering-the world is
full OF 1t. An engineer said to me- on q
locomotive In DAkota: Two men seem to
be coming to n better appreciation than
we used to. Did you see that account the
other day OF an engineer who to save his
passengers stuck to his post, and when he
was found dead in the locomotive which
was upside down. he was found still smil-
ing, his hand on the air brake?" Aud as
the engineer said 1t to me he put his hand
on the air.brake to illustrate his meaning.
and looked at me and thought: "You
would be just as much a hero In the same
crisis
Oh, In tina religious discourse OF the
future there will be living i.lu STATIONS
taken out from everyday life of vicarious
Observation-Disclosures that will trlng to
mind the ghastlier sacrifice OF Him, who in
the ltgu places OIL tue nelu, on tue CROSS,
fought our battles, and endured our strng-
gle and died our death. A German sculp-
tor made an image OF Christ, ana he asked
his little child, two years Did, who 1t was
and she said, "That must be some very
great man, The sculptor was displeasel
with the criticism. so he got another block
OF marble and chiseled away on 1t two OF
three years, and then he brought In his
little child, fonr or five years OF age, and
said to her, 'sWho do you think that is2"
She said, "That must be the One who took
little children In His arms and blessed
them.' Then the sculptor was satisfied.
Oh, my friends, what the world wants l.
not q cold Christ, not an intellectual
Christ, not a severely magisterial Christ
but a loving Christ, spreading GU. His
arms OF sympathy to press the whole worit
to His loving heart.
But l remark again that the religious
discourse OF the future will have to b,
short. Condensation demanded by tn,
age In which We live. Nc more need o
long introductions and long applications
and SO mnny divisions to n discourse tba
1t may be said to DO hydra-headed. II
other days men got nil their information
from the pulpit. There were few books
and there were no newspapers, and ther'
was little travel from place to place, AM
people would sit and listen two and u hal
hours to a religious discourse, md "seven
teenthiy" would fnd them fresh and chip
per. IN those days there WAS enough tim
for a man to take IN hour TO wnrm himsel
up to the subject and an hour to cool OH
But what was n necessity then is a super
nulty now. Congregations are full o
knowledge from hooks. from newspapers
from rapid and continuous intereommunt
cation and long disquisitlons of what the
know already will not be abided. lin re
ligious tencher cannot compress what b.
wishes to say 10 the people in The space o
1 forty-ars lnSHites, better adjourn 1t Il