The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1899-11-24
THE COMING SERMON.
DR.. Talmage on Future Modes of
Preaching the Gospel
How tie Thinks Religious Truths
should De Pr~sented-sa,- Mia
tstcrs should Preach the
LIvtna Christ.
Copyright. iss. by Loul. KlOpschJ

u pfebchthR lac tOsptl III me lulhle'
text. Romans 1891: "Or ministry. let
US wait on our ministering.-
While | was seated on the piazza Of n
hotel at Lexington, KY, one summer
evening. a gentleman asked me: What
do you think OF the coming Sermon |
supposed he was asking me in regard to
some new discourse of DIR. Cumming, OF
London. who sonnet imes preached star
Ting sermons, and | replied: IL have
not seen it," But found gu, 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 Gun ming" as n
noun pronounced the same as the word
coming Us an adjective. But my mis-
take suggested 20 me very important
and practical theme. The Coming Ser
mon"
Before the world IL converted the
style Of religious discourse will have
TO he converted. You might as well go
into the modern Sedan or Gettysburg
with bows and arrows, instead OF rifles
and bombsheils and parks Of artillery,
as 10 expect 10 conquer this world for
God by the old style Of eNhortion and
sermonology. Jonathan Edwards
preached the sermons most adapted TO
the age In which he lived. but il those
sermons were preached now they would
divide an audience into two classes
those sound asleep and those wanting
TO so home.
But there IA discourse Of the future.
Who will preach IL have no idea. In
what part OF the earth IT will be born
have no idea. In which denomination Of
Christians IL will be delivered cannot
guess. That discourse OF eNhortation
may be born in the country meeting
house on.the banks Of the 81. Lawrence
or the Oregon or the Ohio or the Tom
bigbee or the Alabama. The person
who shall deliver II may this moment
be In q cradle under the shadow Of the
Sierra Ncvadss or in a New England
farmhouse or amid the ricefelds Of
southern Savanuas, or this moment
there may bc 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 che churches, no that some Of
us who now stand in the watchtowers
OF Zion, waking 10 a realization Of our
present inefiiciency, may preach IT our
selves. That coming discourse may no;
be 80 years of. And let us pray God
that its arrival may be FASTENED while
| announce 90 you what | think will be
the chief characteristics of that dis
course or exhoriation when IL does ar
rive. and ! want TO make my remarks
appropriate and suggestive TO all classes
of Christian workers.
First of all, remark that that fu-
ture religious discourse will be full OF
a living Christ in contradistinction to
didactic technlcalities. A discourse
may he full of Christ though hardly
mentioning His name, and a sermon
may he empty Of Christ while every
sentence Is repetition of His titles. The
world wants living Christ, not Christ
standing at the head OF formal sys-
TEN 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 invalid's Christ, a
farmers Christ, a merchants Christ, an
artisans Christ, an every mans Christ.
A symmetrical and fine worled sys-
tenn Of theology Is well enough for theo-
logical classes, but II has no more bust
t,, Init ha hax q h. son m iau al
phrases OF an anatomist or psycholo-
gis, or physician in the sickroom of
patient. The world wants help, imme-
diate and world uplifting, and IL will
come through discourse In which
Christ shall walk right down into the
immortal soul and take everlasting pos
session OF Il, filling IL as full OF light as
is this MONDAY armament.
That sermon or exhortation of the flu
ture will not deal with men in the
threadbare illustrations of Jesus
Christ. In that coming address there
will be instances Of vicarious suffering
taken right out Of everyday life, for
there is not a day when somebody is
not dying for others-as the physician
saving his diphtheritic patient by sacri-
feing his own life; as the ship captain
going down with his vessel while he is
getting his passengers into the life
boat; as the fireman consuming in the
burning building while he is taking a
child out of four,h-story window; as
in sumner the strorg swimmer at East
Hampton or Long Branch or Cape May
or Lake George himself persisted try
ing TO rescue the drowning; as the
newspaper boy one summer, supporting
his mother for some years, his invalid
mother, VIXEN offered by gentleman
80 cents to get some special paper, and
he got it. and rushed up in his anxiety
TO deliver ii 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?" Vicarious suffering
the world is full of II. An engineer said
TO me on a locomotive In Dakota; 1--WE
men seem to be coming to better APP
probation than we used to. Did you
see that account the other day OF an en-
gineer who to save his passengers stuck
to his place, and when he was found
dead In the locomotive, which was up
side down, he was found still smiling,