Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-11-23

urc. You see, | haven't brought the mus
tard seed. | cant find a place where
there has been no sorrow and no death"
"Oh!" says the god silva. understand,
your sorrows are no worse than the sor-
rows OF others. We all have our griefs,
and all have our heartbreaks."
Laugh and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone
For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough Of its
We hear a great deal OF discussion now
all over the land about why people do not
70 to church. Some say it is because
Christianity is dying ont and because PEG
pie do not believe in the truth of Gods
word, and all that. They are false rea-
sons. The reason is because our sermons
and celebrations are not interesting and
practical and helpful. Some one might
| rs well tell the whole truth on this sub
jcct, and so | will tell it. The religious
discourse of the future, the gospel ser
mon TO come forth and shake the nations
and lift people out of darkness, will be n
popular sermon, just for the simple rea-
son that it will meet the woes and the
wants and the anxieties of the people.
There are in all our denominations &C.
clesiastcal nummies sitting around to
frown upon the fresh young pulpits of
America to try TO awe them down, to cry
out: "Tut. tut, tut, Sensational" They
stand today preaching in churches that
hold a thousand people, and there are a
! hundred persons present, and If they can
not have the world saved in their way it
seems as if they do not want it saved at
all.
do not know but the old way OF max
| ing ministers of the gospel Is bettcr-a
collegiate education and an apprentice
shin under the care and home attention
OF some earnest. aged Christian minister
the young man getting the patriarch's
spirit ana assisting him in his religious
service. Young lawyers study with old
lawyers, young physicians with old ply
scians, and / believe it would be great
help if every young man studying for the
gospel ministry could put himself in the
home and heart and sympathy and under
the benediction and perpetual presence
of Christian minister.
But, | remark again, the religious dis
course of the future will be nm awaken
ing sermon. From altar rail TO the front
door step, under that sermon, an audi
cnce will get up and start for heaven.
There will he in il many staccato pas
sage. 1t will not be a lullaby. 1t will be
n battle charge. Men will drop their sins,
for they will feel the hot breath of pursu-
ing rctribution on the back of their necks.
1t will be sympathetic with all the phys
/ ical distrcsscs as well MS the spiritual dis
trcsscs of the world. Christ not only
preached, but he healed paralysis, and he
| healed epilepsy, and he healed the dumb
and the blind and the lepers.
Everyday Preaching.
That religious discourse Of the future
will be an everyday sermon, going right
down into every mans life, and it will
! teach him how to vote. how to bargain,
how to pillow, how to do any work he is
called to do, how to WELD trowel and pen
and pencil and yardstick and plane And
it will teach women how TO preside over
their households and how to educate their
children and how to initiate Miriam and
Esther and Nashti and Eunice. the moth
err of Timothy. and Mary, the mother of
Christ, and those women who on north
ern and southern battlcheds were mis-
taken by the wounded for angels of mer-
! cy. fresh from the throne of God.
Yes, ! have to tell you, the religious
discourse of the future will he reported
sermon. If you have any idea that print
ing was invented simply to print secular
books, and stenography and photography
were contrived merely to set forth secular
press is to be the great agency Of gospel
! proclamation. 1t is high time that good
/ men, instead Of denouncing the press.
employ it to scatter forth the gospel of
| Jesus Christ. The vast ma jority of peo-
pie in our cities do not come to church,
and nothing but the printed sermon can
| reach them and call them to pardon and
life and peace and heaven.
SO | cannot understand the nervous
ness of some of my brethren Of the min
istry. When they see a newspaper man
coming in they say. Alas, there is re-
porter" Every added reporter is 10000,
10000, 100000 immortal souls added to
the auditory. The time will come when
all the village, town and city newspapers
will reproduce the gospel of Jesus Christ,
and sermons preached on the Sabbath
will reverberate all around the world,
and, some by type and some by voice,
all nations will be evangelical.
The practical bearing Of this is upon
those who are engaged in Christian work,
not only upon theological students and
young ministers, but upon all who preach
the gospel and all who exhort in meet
ingS and all of you if you are doing your
duty. DO you eXhort in prayer meeting?
Be short and spirited. Do you teach in
Bible class? Though you have TO study
every night be interesting. DO you accost
people on the subject of religion in their
homes or in public places? Study adroit-
ness and use common sense. The most
graceful and most beautiful thing on
earth is the religion of Jesus Christ, and
if you awkwardly present it it is defama-
ton. We must do our work rapidly, and
we must do it effectively. Soon our time
for work will be gone
The End OF Time.
A dying Christian took ont his watch
and gave it to a friend and said: Take
that watch. | have no more use for it.
f. Time is at an end for me, and eternity
begins" Oh, my friends, when our
watch has licked away for us the last
. moment, and our clock has struck for
Us the last hour, may it be found we did
our work well, that we did it in the very
best way, and whether we preached the
gospel in pulpts, or taught Sabbath
classes, or administered to the sick as
physicians, or bargaincd as merchants,
or pleaded the law as attorneys, or were
busy MS artisans or husbandmen or as
mechanics, or were, like Martha, called
, to give meal TO a hungry Christ, or
like Hannah, to make a coat for a proph-
ct, or like Deborah, to rouse the courage
of some timid Barak in the Lords con
, ilict, we did our work in such way that
. a md hn fnEt o. l.. a