Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1899-11-21

His Idea of the Nature of the Com
ing Sermon.
copyright, Louis Klopsch, 1891
WASHINGTON, Nov. 19.-In this dis
course Dr. Talmage addresses all
Christian workers and describes what
he thinks will be the modes of preach
Ing the gospel in the future; text, Ro-
mans xii, Z, "Or ministry, let US wait
on our ministering."
While / was seated on piazza of
hotel at Lexington, KY, one summer
evening gentleman asked me, What
do you think of the coming sermon"
/ supposed he was asking me In regard
to some new discourse of DR.. Cumming
of London, who sometimes preached
startling sermons, and replied, Il
have not seen It," But | found out aft
erward that he meant to ask what |
thought would be the characteristics of
the coming sermon of the world, the
sermons of the future, the word Cum
ming as noun pronounced the same
as the word coming as an adjective.
But my mistake suggested to me q
very important and practical theme,
"The Coming Sermon
Before the woad is converted the
style of religious discourse will have
to be converted You might as well
go into the modern Sedan or Gettys
burg with bows and arrows. instead of
rifles and bombshells and parks of ar
70 fn
world for God by the old styles of ex
hortation 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 go home.
But there is discourse of the future.
Who will 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 can
not guess. That discourse of eXhorta
ton may be born in the country meet
ing house on the banks of the St. Law
renee or the Oregon or the Ohio or the
Tombigbee or the Alabama. The per-
son who shall deliver it may this mo-
ment be in cradle under the shadow
of the Sierra Nevadas or in a New
England farmhouse or amid the rice
fields of southern savannas, or this mo-
ment 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 real
ization of our present inetticiency, may
preach it ourselves. That coming dis
course may not be 80 years off. And
let us pray God that its arrival may
be FASTENED while | announce TO you
what / think will be the chief char
acteristics of that discourse or exborta-
ton when it does arrive, and want to
make my remarks appropriate and sug
gestive to all classes of Christian work
erS.
A Living Christ.
First of all, remark that that future
religious discourse will be full of a liv-
ing Christ in contradistinction to di-
dactic technicalities. \ discourse may
be full of Christ though hardly men-
tioning his name, and a sermon may be
empty of Christ while every sentence
is repetitious of his titles. The world
wants a living Christ, not a 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, rich
mans Christ, an overworked mans
Christ. an invalid's Christ, a farm
er's Christ, a merchants Christ, an
artisans Christ, an every mans Christ.
A symmetrical and fine worded sys-
TEN Of theology is well enough for the
illogical classes, but it has no more
business In a pulpit than have the