The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1899-11-23
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE EMINENT DIvINE's SUNDAY
DISCOURSE.
Subject; The Coming sermon-Inspiration
For the Future Religious Exbortation
win BE Drawn From tho Living Christ
Theology Must Tnke a naok Sent.


For the Future Religious ExhortatIon
win BE Drawn From tho Living Christ
Theology Must Take Back Sent.
, copyright. Louis Klopsch. 1921
WARRINGTON, d. C.-In this discourse Dr.
Taimage addresses all Christian workers
and describes what he thinks will be the
modes OF preaching the gospel In the future;
text, Romans Kill, 7, "Or ministry, let us
wait on our ministerlng."
| Whilo was seated on n piazza OF n hotel
Mt Lexington, KY, one summer evening n
gentleman asked me, "What do you think
of the coming sermou?" l supposed he was
asking me In regard to some new discourse
OF DR.. Cumming OF London, who some-
times preached startling sermons, md 1
replied, II have not seen It," But found
out afterward that he meant to ask what
thought would DO the characteristics of
the coming sermon OF the world, the SER
mons OF the future, the word Cumming"
| rs a noun pronounced tho same us tho
word coming" us nm adjective But NV
mistake suggested to me u very important
and practical theme, The Coming Ser
mon."
Before the world is converted the stvle OF
religious discourse will have to be con-
verted. You might as well go into tho
, modern Sedan or Gettysburg with bows
and arrows, instead OF rife and bombshelIs
and parks Of artillery, as to expect to CON
quer this world for God by the old STYLES
OF exhortation and Sermonology. Jona-
than Edwards preached tho sermons most
adapted TO the age In which he lived but
IL those sermons were preached now thew
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 1t have no idea In what
part OF the earth 1t will be born L have no
iden. In which denomination OF Christians
1t will be delivered l cannot guess. That
discourse OF exhortation may be born i'm
the country meeting house on tho banks OF
the st. Lawrence the Oregon or the Ohio
or the Tomblgbee or the Alabama. The
person who shall deliver It may this mo-
ment be in cradle under the shadow OF
the Sierra Nevadas or in n New England
farmhouse or amid the ricellelds of South.
orn savnnnas, or this moment there NAV be
some young man In ono OF our theological
seminarlcs, In the junior or middle or sem
ior clnss. shipping that weapon OF power.
or there may be coming some now baptism
OF the Holy Ghost on the churches, SO that
some OF us who now stand in the watch
towers OF Zion, waking to realization of
our present efficiency, may preach 1t our
selves. That coming discourse mny not bo
ntty yenrs OH. Ana let us pray God that
its arrival may DO hastened while | an-
nounce to you what Ithlnk will be the chief
characteristics OF that discourse or exhor-
tatton when 1t does arrive, and / want to
make my remarks appropriate and sug.
gestive to all Glasses of Christian work ers
First OF all, remark that that future re-
liglous discourse will be full OF living
Christ In contradstlnction to ddactic
technlcalities. A discourse may DO full OF
Christ though hardly mentioning Hts name,
and II sermon may be empty of Christ while
every sentence Is repetitious OF His titles.
me world wants living Christ, not
Christ standing at the head of formal sys-
tenn OF theology but n Christ who means
pardon and sympathy and coincidence and
brotherhood and life and heaven, II poor
mans Christ, rich mans Christ, an over.
worked mans Christ, nm inyalid's Christ,
farmers Christ, merchants Christ, an ar.
tisan's Christ, an every mans Christ.
symmetrical and fine worded system OF
theology Is we'll enough for the theological
classes, but 1t has no more business In u
pulpit than have the technical phrases oil
nn anatomist or u psychologist or II physi.
clan In the sickroom OF patient. The
world wants help, immediate and world
uplifting, and it will come through dis.
course In which Christ shall walk right
down into the immortal soul nnd take ever.
lasting possession OF it, filling it ns full OF
light rs Is this MONDAY armament.
That sermon of exhortation Of tho future
will not deal with men in the threadbarq
Illustrations OF Jesus Christ. In that com
ing address there will be instances oil
vicarious suffering taken right out oil
everyday life, for there Is not IL day when
somebody is not dying for ,others-as the
physician saving his diphtheritic patient
by sacrificing his own life; as the ship cap
tain going down with his vessel while ho
Is getting ..is passengers into tho lfeboat;
as the fireman consuming In the burning
building whilo he Is taking Il child out OF n
fourth story window; as In summer the
strong swimmer at East Hampton or Long
Branch or Cape May or Lake George him
SELF perlshed trying to rescue the drown
Ing; as the newspaper boy one summer
supporting his mother for some years, his
invalid mother, when offered by u gentle-
man fifty cents to get some special paper
and he got It and rushed up in his anxiety
to deliver 1t and was crushed under the
wheels OF the train and lay on the grass
with only strength enough to say, 'Oh,
what will become Of my poor, sick mother
now?' Vicarlous sufferng-tho world is
full OF 1t. An engineer said to me on n
locomotive In Dakota: "We men seem to
be coming to q better appreciation than
we used to. Did you see that account tho
other day OF an engineer who to save his
passengers stuck to his post, and when he
was found dead In tho locomotive which
was upside down. he was found still smil-
ing, his hand on tho air brake?" And as
the enGineeg said 1t to me he put his hand
on tho air-bfake to illustrate his meaning,
and looked ut me and thought: "You
would be just MS much n hero In the same
crisis"
Oh, in that religious discourse OF tho
future there will be living Illustrations
taken out from everyday life of vcarlous
suifering-illustrations that will trng to
mind the ghastlier sacrifice OF Him, who in
the high places OF the field, ON the cross,
| fought our battles, and endured our strug-
J gle and died our death. German sculp-
tor made an image of Christ, ana he asked
his little child, two years old, who 1t was,
and che said, "That must be some very
great man." The sculptor was displeased
with the criticism, so he got another block
OF marble and chiseed away on 1t two or
three years, and then he brought In his
little child, four or Ave years OF age, and
said to her, "Who do you think that is?"
She said, "That must be the One who took
little children In His arms and blessed
them" Then the sculptor wns satisfied.
oh, my friends, what the world wants Is
not cold Christ, not nm intellectual
Christ, not severely maglsterlal Christ,
but II loving Christ, spreading out His
arms OF sympathy to press the whole world
to His loving heart.
But remark again that the religious
discourse Of the future will have to be
short. Condensation Is demanded by the
nge In which we live. No more need OF
long introductions and long applications
and so many divisions to discourse that
1t may be said to be hydra -headed. In
other days men got all their information
from the pulpit. There were few books,
and there were no newspapers, and there
was little travel from place to place, and
people would sit and listen two and half