The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1899-1900, 1899-11-22
THE COMING SERMON.
DR.. Talmage on Future Modes of
Preaching the Gospel.
aOw He Thinks Religious Truths
should BE Presented-says Min
listers Should Preach the
Living Christ.
Copyright. 1899. by Louis Klopsch.)
Washington, Nov. 70.

"
of preaching the Gospel in the future;
text, Romans 1877: "0r ministry, let
us wait on our ministering."
While 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 DR.. Cumming, OF
London, who sometimes preached star
tling sermons, and replied: II 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
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 converted. You might as well go
into the modern Sedan or Gettysburg
with bows and arrows, instead of rifles
and bombshells and parks of artillery,
as TO expect 10 conquer this world for
Gcd by the old style Of exhortion and
sermonology. 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 and those wanting
to gN home.
Bu There is discourse of the future.
Who win preach it have no idea. In
what part of the earth it will be born l
have no idea. In which denomination of
Christians it will be delivered cannot
guess. That discourse of exhortation
may be born in the country meeting
house on the banks Of the St. Lawrence
or the Oregon or the Ohio or the Tom
bigbee or the Alabama. The person
who shall deliver it may this moment
be in a cradle under the shadow of the
Sierra Nevadas or in New England
farmhouse or amid the ricefields of
southern savannas, or this moment
there may be some young man in one Of
our theological seminaries, 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 watchtowers
of Zion, waking to a realization Of our
present inefficiency, may preach 1t our
selves. That coming discourse may not
be so years off. And let us pray God
that its arrival may be FASTENED while
/ announce TO you what 1 think win be
the chief characteristics of that dis
course or exhortation when it does ar
rive, and want to make my remarks
appropriate andsuggestive TO all classes
of Christian workers.
First OF all, remark that that fu-
ture religious discourse will be full OF
q living Christ in contradistinction tC
didactic techn;calities. A discourse
may be full of Christ though hardly
mentioning His name, and a sermon
may be empty of Christ while every
sentence is repetition of His titles. The
world wants a living Christ, not Christ
standing at the head of formal sys'
tenn Of theology, but Christ who
means pardon and sympathy and con
dolence and brotherhood and life and
Heaven. a poor mans Christ, an over
worked Christ, an inyalid's Christ, O
farmers Christ, merchants Christ, an
artisans Christ, an every mans Christ
A symmetrical and fine worried sys'
tenn of theology is well enough for theo-
logical classes, but It has no more bust
ness in pulpit than have the technical
phrases of an anatomist or psycholo
gist or physician in the sickroom of {
patient. The world wants help, imme
diate and world uplifting, and it viii
come through a discourse in which
Christ shall walk right down into thu
immortal soul and take everlasting pos
session of it, filling it as full of light a
is this MONDAY armament.
That sermon or exhortation Of the fu
ture will not deal with men in thu
threadbare illustrations OF Jesui
Christ. In that coming address Their
will be instances OF vicarious suffering
taken right out OF everyday life, fo
there is not a day when somebody il
not dying for others-as the physician
saving his diphthertic patient by sucri
ficing his own life; as the ship captain
going down with his vessel while he i
getting his passengers into the life
boat; as the fireman consuming in tn,
burning building while he is taking
child out of fourth-story window; a
in summer the strong swimmer at Eas
Hampton or Long Branch or Cape Ma!
or Lake George himself perished try
ing 10 rescue the drowning; as tn
newspaper boy one summer, supporting
his mother for some years. his invali'
mother, when offered by gentleman
50 cents to get some special paper, AM
he got II. and rushed up in his anxiet.
10 deliver it and was crushed under tn
wheels OF the train and lay on the gras
with only strength enough tosay: "Qt
what will become Of my poor, sicl
mother now?" Vicarious suffering
the world is full Of il. An engineer sal
TO me on a locomotive in Dakota; wv
men seem to be coming TO better ar
probation than we used TO. Did yol
see that account the other day OF an en-
gineer who-to save his passengers stuc
to his place. and when he was foun
dead in the locomotive. which was uT
side dnrrn he WAS found still smiling