The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-12-01

spreading cut his arms of sympathy to
press the whole world 20 his loving
heart.
SHORT SERMONS.
But 7 remark again thai the religious
discourse of the future Wills ave to be
short. Condensation is demanded by
the age II. which we live. No more
need of long ~introductions and long ap-
plications n so many divisions 20 a
discourse hat it may be said TO be
hyd.a-teaded. In other days men got
all their Information from the pulpit.
There we're few books, and there were
10 ewspaper and there vas little
travel from place to place, and people
would sit and listen two and a 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 a superiority now.
Congregations are full of knowledge
from books, from newspapers, from
d. rapid and continuous intercommunica-
ton and long disquisitions of what
they knew already will not be abideC.'
II a religious teacher cannot express
what he wishes to say to the people in
the space of As minutes, better adjourn
1t to some other day.
The trouble is we preach audiences
into a Christian frame, and then We
preach them out of it. We forget thai
every auditor has SO much capacity of
attention, and when that is exhausted
he is restless. Tha accident on the
Long Island railroad years g came
from the fact that the brakes were out
of order. and when they wanted to stop
the train they could not stop, n
hence the casualty was terrific. In all
religious discourse we want locomotive
power and propulsion. We at the
same time stout brakes to let down at
the right instant. 1t is a dismal thing,
after a nearer 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 Nov
to conclude"
Paul preached until midnight, and
Eutychus SGT sound asleep and fell out
of a window and broke his neck. Some
would say, Good for him" / would
rather be sympathetic, like Paul, n
resuscitate him. That accident is often
quoted now in religious circles as a
warning against somnolence in church.
1t is just as much a warning TO minis
ters against prolixity. Eutychus "a
wrong in his ~somnolence, but Paul
made a mistake when he kept on until
midnight. He ought ito have stopped at
II o'clock, and there would have been
no accident. If Pau might have gone
Of to too great length, let all those of
us who are now preaching the gospel
remember that there is a limit to re-
ligious discourse, or ought to be, and
that in u time we a no apostolic
power of miracles. Napoleon in an ad-
dress of seven minutes thrilled his
army and thrilled Europe. Christ's
sermon on the mount, the model SER
mon, was less than Is minutes long at
ordinary mode of delivery. 1t is not
electricity scattered all over the sky
that strikes, but electricity gathered
into a thunderbolt and hurled, and it is
not religious truth scattered over and
spread out over a asst reach of time,
but religious truth projected in COM
pact form that flashes light upon the
soul n rives it's Indifference.
POPULAR DISCOURSES.
When the religious discourse of the
future arrives in this LAND and in the
Christian church, the discourse which
is to arouse the world and startle the
nations and usher in the kingdom, it
will be a brief discourse. Hear it, all
theological students, all we just enter
ing upon religious work, and We men
and women who in Sabbath schools
and other departments are toiling for
Christ and the salvation of immortals
-brevity, brevity!
But I remark also hat the religious
discourse of the future of which 1
speak will be of a popular discourse.
There are those in these times who
speak of a popular sermon as though
there must be something wrong about
1t. AS these critics are dull themselves,
the world gets the impression that
a sermon is good in proportion. as it is
stupid. Christ was the most popular
preacher the world ever saw and, con-
sidering the small number of the
worlds population, had the largest au-
dience ever gathered. He never preach
ed anywhere without making a great
sensation. People rushed out in the
wilderness to hear him reckless of
their physical necessities. So great
was their anxiety ito hear Christ that.
taking no food with them, they would
have tainted and starved had not
Christ performed a miracle and fed
them. Why did so many people take
the truth at Christ's hands? Because
they all understood 1T. He illustrated
his subject by a hen and her chickens,
by a bushel measure, by a handful of
salt, by a birds flight n by a liIy's
aroma. All the people knew what he
meant, and they f1ocked to him. And
WHICH IL 1Cli6lOuS ulSCOuTS0 OIL the
future appears it will not be Princeto-
MAN, nor Rochesterian, not Andover-
ian, not M~iddletonian, but Olivetic-
plain, practical. unique, earnest, COM
p~rehensive Of all the woes, wants, sins
and sorrows of an auditory.
But when that exhortation or dis
course does come there will be a thou
sand cleaning scimiters to charge on
1T. There are in so many theological
seminaries professors telling young
men how to preach, themselves not
knowing how, and I am told that if a
young man in some of our theological
seminaries says anything quaint or
thrilling or unique faculty and stu
dents fly at him and set him right and
s~traighten him u and smooth him
down and chop him off until he SAYS
everything just as everybody else says
it Oh, when the future religious dis
course of the Christian church arrives
all the churches Of Christ in our great
cities will be ~thronged! The world
wants spiritual help. All who have
h1Irin6 fhnir 1noI -y-- ~-