Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1899-11-21

tCShhLNdi PhiasCc VI va -
psychologist or physician in the sick
room Of q patient. The world wants
help, immediate and world uplifting,
and 1t will come through discourse in
which Christ shall walk right down
into the immortal soul and take ever
lasting possession of 1t, filling it as full
of light as is this MONDAY armament
That sermon or exhortation Of the
future will not deal with men in the
threadhare 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 day when somebody is not dying
for others-as the physician saving his
diphtheritic patient by sacrificing his
own life; as the ship captain going
down with his vessel while he is get
ting his passengers into the lifeboat; as
the fireman consuming in the burning
building while he is taking Il child out
of fourth story window; as in sum-
mer the strong swimmer at East
Hampton or Long Branch or Cape May
or Lake George himself perished try
ing to rescue the drowning; as the
newspaper boy one summer, support
ing his mother for some years, his in
valid mother. when offered by gentle
man 80 coEts TO get some special pa
per. and he got il and rushed up in his
anxiety to deliver it 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 it. An
engineer said to me on locomotive in
Dakota: 1--WE men seem to be coming
to better appreciation than we used to.
Did you see that account the other day
Of an engineer who to save his passen-
gers stuck to his place. and when he
was found dead in the locomotive,
which was upside down. he was found
still smiling. his hand on the air.
brake" And as the engineer said II
to me he put his hand Oh the airbrakc
to illustrate his meaning. and looked
at him and thought: You would be
just as much hero in the same crisis"
ou, III tlllt TeliSlouS ulsCOuISt VI tllt
future there will he living illustra-
tions taken out from everyday life of
vicarious suffering - Illustrations that
will bring 70 mind the ghastlier sacri-
flee of him. who in the high places of
the field, on the cross, fought our bat
ties, and endured our struggle and
died our death. A German sculptor
made an image Of Christ. and he asked
his little child, 2 years old, who it was,
and she said, "That must be some very
great man." The sculptor was dis
pleased with the criticism, so he got
away on 1t two or three years, and
then he brought in his little child,
or 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
fed Oh my friends, what the world
wants is not cold Christ, not an in
tellectual Christ, not a severely magis-
terial Christ, but a loving Christ,
spreading out his arms of sympathy to
press the whole world to his loving
heart.
Short Sermons.
But | remark again that the religious
discourse of the future will have to be
short. Condensation Is demanded by
the age in which we live. No more
need of long introductions and long ap-
plications and so many divisions to q
discourse that it 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 Il half
hours to a religious discourse, and
''seventeenthly" would find them fresh
and clipper. In those days there was
enough time for a man to take an hour
to warm himself up to the subject and
an hour to cool off But what was a
necessity then is Il superHuity now.
Congregations are full of knowledge
from books. from newspapers. from
rapid and continuous intercommunica-
ton and long disquisitions of what
they know already will not be abided.
Ii a religious teacher cannot compress
what he wishes TO say to the people in
the space of 40 minutes, better adjourn
it to some other day.
The trouble is we preach audiences
into a Christian frame, and then we
preach them out of it. We forget that
every auditor has so much capacity of
and when that is exhausted
he is restless. That accident on the
from the fact that the brakes were out
of order. and when they wanted to stop |
the train they could not. stop, and
hence the casualty was terrific. In all |
religious discourse we want locomotive |
power and propulsion. We want at the |
same time stout brakes to let down at
the right instant. 1t is dismal thing. |
after hearer has comprehended the |
whole subject, to hear a man say, |
Now to recapitulate,' and "a few |
words by way of application, and |
Once more" and Finally" and Now
to conclude"
Paul preached until midnight, and |
Eutychus got sound asleep and fell out |
of window and broke his neck. Some |
would say. Good for him." would |
rather be sympathetic, like Paul, and |
resuscitate him. That accident is often |
quoted now in religious circles as a |
warning against somnolence in church. |
1t is just as much warning to minis |
wrong in his somnolence, but Paul |
made mistake when he kept on until |