The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1899-11-25
THE COMING SERMON.
Dr.. %almage on Future Modes OF
Preaching the Gospel
How lie Thinks Religious Truths
should lie Presented-shSS Mtn-
listers should Preach the
Living christ.

] dresses all NhllNllaH WI NN'' "'N
scribes what he thinks viii be the modes
OF preaching the Gospel in the lutule'
text. Romans 1871: "Or ministry, let
us wait on our mnistering.
While | was seated on the piazza OF a
hotel al Lexington, KY one summer
evening. gentleman asked me; What
! do YOU think of the coming sermon
supposed he was asking me in regard 10
some new discourse of DR.. Cumming OF
.oudon. who sometimes preached star
Ting sermons and | replied: Il have
not SCENT But found out afterward
that he meant to ask what | thought
would be the characteristics OF the com
inc sermon of the world, the sermons OF
| the future, the word Cumming as
noun pronounced the same as the word
Coming as an adjective. But my mis-
take 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 converted. You might as well go
into the modern Sedan or Gettysburg
with bows and arrows, instead OF rifles
and bombshells and parks of artillery,
as to expect to conquer this world for
God by the old style of eXhortion and
sermouology. jonathan Edwards
preached the sermons most adapted to
the age in which he lived, but if 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.
Who will preach it | have no idea. In
what part of the earth it will be born
have no idea. In which denomination of
Christians it will be delivered | cannot
guess. That discourse Of eXhortatton
NAV be born in the country meeting
house on the banks of the St. Lawrence
or the Oregon or the Ohio or the Tom
bigbee or the Alabama. The person
who shall deliver it may this moment
be in a cradle under the shadow of the
Sierra Nevadas or in a New England
farmhouse or amid the ricetields of
southern savannas, or this moment
there may be some young man in one Oh
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 the churches, so that some OF
us who now stand in the watchtowers
of Zion, waking to a realization of our
present inefliciency, may preach it our
selves. That coming discourse may not
be so wears off And let us pray God
that its arrival may be fastened while
| announce to you what l think will be
the chief characteristics of that dis
course or exhortaton when it does ar
rive and | want to make my remarks
appropriate and suggestive to all classes
of Christian workers.
First of all, ! remark that that tu-
ture religious discourse will be full OF
a living Christ in contradistinction to
didactic technicalities. a discourse
NAV be full of Christ though hardly
mentioning His name, and sermon
NAV be empty of Christ while every
sentence is repetition of His titles. The
world wants living Christ, nota 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, poor mans Christ, an over
worked Christ, an invalid's CHRIST, a
farmers Christ, merchants Christ, an
artisans Christ, an every mans Christ
A symmetrical and fine worded sys
tenn of theology is we'll enough for theo
logical classes, but ii has no more bust
ness in pulpit than have the technica
phrases of an anatomist or psycholo
, gist or physician in the sickroom OF
patient. The world wants help, imme
date and world uplifting, and it vii
come through a discourse in which
Christ shall walk right down into thu
immortal soul and take everlasting pos
: session of it, filling it as full OF light
5 is this MONDAY armament.
: That sermon or eXhortation of the tu
d, ture will not deal with men in tn
!, threadbare illustrations of Jesu
v Christ. In that coming address ther
< will be instances Of vicariouS suffering
b taken right out of everyday life, 10
=. there is not a day whom somebody
), not dying for others-as the physical
n saving his diphtheritic patient by sacri
fcipg his own life; as the ship captain
poing down with his vessel while he
l. getting his passengers into the NE
v boat. as the fireman consuming in tn
It burning building while he is taking
=. child out of fourth-story Windows a
e in summer the strong swimmer at Eas
V HAMPTON or Long Branch or Cape Ma
is or Lake George himself persisted try
l. mo TO rescue tAe drowning; as tn
G. newspaper boy one summer, supporun
e his mother for some years, his lnVall
4. mother, when offered by gentlema
A 80 cents to get some special paper, an
he GOT it. and rushed up in his anXiet
TO deliver it and was crushed under IN
IS wheels of the train and lay on the gras
d. with only strength enough to say: "Ol
s what will become of my poor, sic
h mnther now?" Nicarous suffering
$ +bp world is full of it. An engineer sal
N TO me on a locomotive in Dakota: Nv
men seem to be coming to better al
te preciation than we used to. Did yo
e see that account the other day of an Ell
glneer VINO 10 save ms PdAsoI : oho 9I"-
ee to his place. and when he was foun
e. dead in the locomotive, which was u
I'd side down. he was found still smiling
h, his hand on the airbrake?' And as Il
s. engineer said it to me he put his har
on the airbrake to Illustrate his meal
- ing, and l looked at him and though
% "You would be just as much hero
O. the same crisis" Oh, in that religion
o. discourse of the future there will l
II. :. -, l. L. IL. - fro.