The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1899-10-06

had come owe the minister since he
had proposed to them the imitation of
Jesus in conduct. The dramatic deliv-
cry of his sermons no longer impressed
them. The self satisfied. contented, easy
attitude of the fine figure and the re-
fined face in the pulpit had been dis
placed by a that could not be
compared with the old style of his de-
livery. The sermon had become a mes
sage. 1t was no longer delivered. 1t
was brought to them with a love, an
earnestness, a passion, a desire, a hui
mility, that poured their enthusiasm
about the truth and made the speaker
no more prominent than he had to be
as the living voice of God. Ills prayers
were unlike any the people had ever
heard before. They were often broken.
Even once or twice they had been actu-
ally ungrammatical in a phrase or two.
When had Henry Maxwell so far for
gotten himself in a prayer as to make a
mistake of that sort2 He knew that he
had often taken as much pride in the
diction and the delivery of his prayers
as of his sermons. Was it possible he
now so abhorred the elegant refinement
of a formal public petition that he pur-
posely chose to rebuke himself for his
previous precise of prayer? 1t
is more likely that he had no thought
of all that. His great longing to voice
the needs and wants of his people made
him unmindful of an occasional mis-
take. 1t is certain he had never prayed
so effectively as he did now.
There are times when a sermon has a
value and power due to conditions in
the audience rather than to anything
new or startling or eloquent in the
words or the arguments presented. Such
conditions faced Henry Maxwell this
morning as he preached against the sa-
loon, according to his purpose deter
mined on the week before. He had NO
new statements to make about the evil
influence of the saloon in Raymond.
What new facts were there? He had no
startling illustrations of the power Of
the saloon in business OR politics. What
could he say that had not been said by
temperance orators a great many times :?
The effect of his message this morning
owed it's power to the unusual fact Of
his preaching about the saloon at all,
together with the events that had stir
red the people. He had never in the
course of his ten years pastorate men
toned the saloon as something to be re-
garded in the light of an enemy not
only to the poor and the tempted, but
to the business life Of the place and the
church itself. He spoke now with a
freedom that seemed to measure his
complete n Of the conviction that
Jesus would speak so. At the close he
pleaded with the people to remember
the new life that had begun at the Rec
tangle. The regular election of city Off
GERS would be an issue in that election.
What Of the poor creatures surrounded
by the hell Of drink while just begin
ming to feel the joy of deliverance from
sin? Who could tell what depended on
their environment Was there n
word to be said by the Christian disci-
pie, business man, professional man,
citizen, in favor Of continuing to license
these crimes and shame producing in
situations? Was, not the most Christian
thing they could do to act as citizens
in the matter, fight the saloon at the
polls, elect good men to the city offices
and clean the municipality How much
had prayers helped to make Raymond
better while votes and actions had real
1u hoon IN thu cila5of %h1 o,o-1o "a
Jesus2 Would not Jesus do this7 What
disciple could imagine him refusing to
suffer OF take up his cross in the mat
teri How much had the members Of
the First church ever suffered in an at
tempt to initiate Jesus7 Was Christian
discipleship a thing of convenience, Of
custom, of tradition2 Where did the
suffering come in? Was it necessary,
in order to follow Jesus steps, to go up
Calvary as well as the Mount of Trans
His appeal was stronger at this point
than he knew. 1t is not too much to
say that the spiritual tension Of the
First church reached its highest point
right there. The imitation of Jesus
which had begun with the volunteers
in the church was working like leaven
in the organization, and Henry Max
well would, even thus early in his new
life, have been amazed if he could have
measured the extent of desire on the
part of his people to take up the cross.
While he was speaking this morning,
before he closed with a loving appeal to
the discipleship Of 1000 years knowl-
edge Of the Master, many a man and
woman in the church was saying, as
Rachel had said so passionately to her
mother: 81 want to do something that
will cost me something in the way of
sacrifice. l am hungry to suffer some
thing" Truly, Mazzini was right when
he said, "No appeal is quite SO power
full in the end as the call. Come and
suffer-"
The service was over, the great audi
ence had gone. and Henry Maxwell
again faced the company gathered in
the lecture room as on the two previous
Sundays. He had asked all to remain
who had made the pledge of disciple
shin and any others who wished tn no