Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1899-11-29
SERMON
Rev. Or. CaInlaet

Subject: The Coming Serinon-InspiratIon
For the Future Religious Exhortation
Will BE Drawn From the Living Christ
Theology Must Take Back Seat.
Copyright. Louis Klopsch. 1891
WASHINGTON, D. C.-In this discourse DR..
Talmage addresses all Christian workers
aud describes what he thinks will be the
modes OF preaching the gospel in the future;
text, Romans xiii, Z. "Or ministry, let us
wait on our ministerinG."
While was seated on piazza OF a hotel
Mt Lexington, Kv., 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 DR.. Cumming Of London, who some-
times preached startling sermons, and l
replied, II have not seen it." but found
out afterward that he meant to ask what
thought would be the characteristics OF
the coming sermon OF the world, the ser.
mons OF the future, the word Cumming"
as n noun pronounced the same as the
word looming" as an adjective. But my
mistake 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 con.
verted. You might as well 60 into the
modern Sedan or Gettysburg with bows
and arrows, instead Of rides and BON shells
aud 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 the sermons most
adapted to the age In which he lived, but
II 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 a discourse of the future.
bo mil hov Tn hot
part of the earth 1t will be born have no
idea. In which denomination OF Christians
1t will be delivered l 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 Tombigbee or the Alabama. The
person who shall deliver 1t may this mo.
ment be in a cradle under the shadow OF
the Sierra Nevadas or in a New England
farmhouse or amid the rice1elds Of South.
ern savannas, or this moment there may be
some young man in one OF our theological
semiparies, in the junior or middle or sen.
tor 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 watch
towers Of Zion, waking to a realization OF
our present efficiency, may preach It our.
selves. That coming discourse may not be
fifty years of. And let US pray God that
Its arrival may be hastened while I an.
nounce to you what think will be the chiei
characteristics of that discourse or exhor.
tation when 1t does arrive, and / want to
make my remarks appropriate and sug.
gestive to all classes OF Christian workers
First Of all, remark that that future re-
ligious discourse will be full OF a living
Christ in contradistinction to didactit
technicalities. discourse may be full o
Christ though hardly mentioning His name
and a sermon may be empty of Christ while
SontonpQ q ranatitinns nf His tftlaa
Th" world wants living Christ, not &
Christ standing at the head OF formal sys
ITEM OF theology, but a Christ who mean.
pardon and sympathy and coincidence ant
brotherhood and life and heaven, poo
mans Christ, a rich mans Christ, an over
farmers Christ, a merchants Christ, an ar
at. an every mans Christ.
AMI Q worded system .
zen enous.4 for the theeloE Ca
-.asses, Dut 1t has no more business In
pulpit than have the technical phrases o
an anato tomist or psychologist or physi
clan In the sickroom OF n patient. TIL,
world wants help, immediate and worlt
uplifting, and 1t will come through dis
course In which Christ shall walk right
down into the immortal soul and take ever
lasting possession Of it, filling 1t as full o.
light as is this MONDAY armament.
That sermon of exhortation Of the futur,
will not deal with men in the threadbar,
illustrations of Jesus Christ. In that com
ing address there will be instances o
vicaIous suffering taken right out o
everyday life, for there Is not a day wher
somebody is not d ying for others-as the
physician saving his diphtheritic patien
by sacrificing his own life; as the ship cap
tain going down with his vessel while b,
is getting lis passengers into the lifeboat
as the fireman consuming in the burning
building while he Is taking a child out OF
" m nytNn hs
strong swimmer at East Hampton or Long
Branch or Cape May or Lake George him
self perished trying to rescue the drown
ing; as the newspaper boy one summer
supporting his mother for some years, his
invalid mother, when offered by a gentle
man fifty cents to get some special paper
and he got ii and rushed up in his anxiety
to deliver 1t and was crushed under the
wheels of the train and lay on the gras
with only strength enough to sny, "Oh
what will become OF my poor, sick mother
| now2" Vicarious suffering-the world Il
full Of it. An engineer said to me- on
locomotive In Dakota: I've men seem t.
be coming to q better appreciation thar
we used to. Did you see that account th
other day Of an engineer who to save hi
passengers stuck to his post, and when h,
was found dead in the locomotive whicl
was upside down, he was found still smil
! ing, his hand on the air brake2" And a
| the engineer said 1t to me he put his hanC
| on the air-brake to illustrate his meaning
| and looked at me and thought: "Yo,
would be just as much a hero in the sam
crisis
| Oh, in that religious discourse OF th
| future there will be living Illustration
| taken out from everyday life of vicariou
ufYerinH-illustrationst that will FIRING t,
| mind the ghastlier sacrifice OF Him, who Il
the high places Of the field, on the cross
fought our battles, and endured our strug
| gle and died our death. A German scuIp
tor made an image Of Christ. ana he aske,
| his little child, two years old, who It was
and she said, 'That must be some YER
| great man." The sculptor was displease,
with the criticism, so he got another bloc
| OF marble and chtseled away on 1t two o
three years. and then he brought in hi
| little child, fonr or five years OF age, an,
| said to her, "Who do you think that Isl?
She said, "Thst must be the One who too
little children In His arms and blesse
them" Then the sculptor was satisfied
| Oh, my friends, what the world wants
| not a cold Christ, not an intellectual
Christ, not a severely magisterial Christ
but a loving Christ, spreading out Hi
| arms Of sympathy to press the whole worl
| to His loving heart.
But 1 remark again that the religion
| discourse of the future will have to b
| short. Condensation l. demanded by tn
| age in which we live. No more need @
long introductions and long application
and SO many divisions to n discourse tina
1t may be said to be hydra headed.
other days men got all their informatio
from the pulpit. There were few books
and there were no newspapers, and ther
| was little travel from place to place, an
people would sit and listen two and a hal
hours to n religious discourse, and "seven
teenthiy" would find them fresh aud CHR
per. In those days there was enough tim
for a man to take an hour to warm himse
up to the subject and an hour to cool of
But what was necessity then is super
nuity now. Congregations are full {
knowledge from books. from newspa per.
from rapid and continuous intercommun
cation and long disquisitions of what the
know already will not be abided. II n r.
igious teacher cannot compress what
wishes to say to the people In the space c
forty-f1ve minutes, better adjourn it t
some other day.
The trouble is we preach an licences int
| Chris ian frame. and then We .'rrar
hem out OF it. We forget that every aud