St. Tammany farmer., 1899-12-23

cause people do not believe in the truth
of Gods Word, and all that. The rea-
SON is because our sermons and ex-
hortations are not interesting and
practical and helpful. Some one might
as well tell the whole truth on this sub
iect, and so will tell it. The religious
discourse of the future, the Gospel SER
mon to come forth and shake the ma
tions and lift people out of darkness.
will be a popular sermon. just for the
simple reason that it will meet the
woes and the wants and the anxieties of
the people.
There are in all our denominations
ecclesiastical mummies sitting around
to frown upon the fresh young pulpits
of America to try to awe them down,
TO cry out: tut, tut, tut! Sensation
all" They stand to-day preaching in
churches that hold q thousand people,
and there are q hundred persons pres
ent, and if they cannot have the world
saved in their way it seems as if they do
not want it saved at all.
/ do not know but the old way OF
making ministers Of the Gospel is bet
ter-a collegiate education and an ap-
premiership under the care and home
attention of some earnest, aged Chris
tian minister, the young man getting
the patriarch's spirit and assisting him
in his religious service. Young lawyers
study with old lawyers. young physi-
clans with old physicians. and believe
it would be great help if every young
man studying for the Gospel ministry
could get himself in the home and heart
and sympathy and under the benedic-
tion and perpetual presence of Chris
tian minister.
But, / remark again, the religious
discourse of the future will be an
awakening sermon. From altar rail to
the front door step, under that sermon,
an audience will get up and start for
Heaven. There will be in it many a
staccato passage. 1t will not be lula
by. 1t will be battle charge. Men
will drop their sins, for they will feel
the hot breath Of pursuing retribution
on the back of their necks. 1t will be
sympathetic with all the physical dis
tresses as well as the spiritual dis
tresses Of the world. Christ not only
preached, but he healed paralysis, and
he healed epilepsy, and he healed the
dumb and the blind and the lepers.
That religious discourse of the fu-
ture will be an everyday sermon. 60
ing right down into every mans life,
and it will teach him how to vote, how
to bargain, how to plow. how to do any
work he is called to do. how to WELD
trowel and pen and pencil and yard
stick and plane. Andsi will teach wom-
en- how to preside over their households
and how to educate their children and
how to initiate Miriam and Esther and
Vashti and Eunice, the mother of Tim
othy, and Mary, the mother Of Christ.
and those women who on northern and
southern battlefields who were mis-
taken by the wounded for angels of
mercy, fresh from the throne of God.
Yes, l have to tell you, the religious
discourse of the future will be a re-
ported sermon. If you have any idea
print secular books. and stenography
and photography were contrived mere
ly to set forth secular ideas, you are
mistaken. The printing press is to be
the great agency of Gospel proclama-
tion. 1t is high time that good men.
instead of denouncing the press, en-
ploy it to scatter forth the Gospel of
Jesus Christ. The vast majority of peo-
pie in 'our cities do not come to church,
and nothing but the printed sermon
can reach them and call them to pardon
and life and peace and Heaven.
So / cannot understand the nervous
ness of some Of my brethren of the
ministry. When they see a newspaper
man coming in they say: "Alas, there
is reporter!" Every added reporter
is 10000, $4,000, 100000 immortal souls
added to the auditory. The time will
come when all the village, town and
city newspapers will reproduce the Cos
pei of Jesus Christ, and sermons
preached on the Sabbath will re-
vertebrate all around the world, and,
some by type and some by voice, all na-
tions will be evangelized.
The practical bearing of this is upon
those who are engaged in Christian
work, not only upon theological stu
dents and young ministers, but upon
all who preach the Gospel and all who
exhort in meetings and all of you If
you are doing your duty. Do you ex-
hort in prayer meeting? Be short and
spirited. DO you teach in Bible class:
Though you have to study every night,
be interesting. Do you accost people
on the subject of religion in their homes
or in public places? Study adroitness
and use common sense. The most
graceful and most beautiful thing on
earth Is the religion of Jesus Christ,
and if you awkwardly present it it is
We mus. do our work rap
idly, and we must do it effectively.
Soon our time for work will be gone.
A dying Christian took out his watch
and gave it to friend and said: 'Take
that watch. l have no more use for it.
Time is at an end for me, and eternity
begins" Oh, my friends, when our
watch has licked away for us the last
and our clock has struck for
us the last hour, may il be found we
did our work well, that we did ii in the
very best way, and whether we
preached the Gospel in pulpits or
taught Sabbath classes, or admins
lered to the sick as physicians. or bar
gained as merchants, or pleaded the law
as attorneys, or were busy as artisans
Or husbandmen or as mechanics, or
were, like Martha, called to give meal
TO a hungry Christ, or. like Hannah. to
make a coat for prophet, or, like Debo-
rah, to rouse the courage Of some timiG
Rarak in the Lords conflict, we did our
work in such a way that it will stand
the test of Judgment! And in the long
of the redeemed that march
around the throne may it be found that
here are many there brought to God
through our instrumentality and in
whose rescue we exult. But let none of
is who are still unsaved wait for that
'eligious discourse Of the future. 1t may
.ome after our obsequies. It may come
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