The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1899-12-13


had come over th& minister since hb
had proposed to them the imitation of
Jesus inlconduct 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 manner 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, hu-
mility. that poured their enthusiasm
about the truth and made the speaker
10 more prominent than he had to be
as the living voice of God. His 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 phrase or two.
When had Henry Maxwell so far for
gotten himself in prayer as to make
mistake of that sort 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 formal public petition that he pur
posely chose TO rebuke himself for his
previous precise manner 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
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 n 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 passionate 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 Ee spoke now with a
freedom that seemed to measure his
complete sense 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 he'll of drink while just begin
ming to feel the JOY of deliverance from
sin? Who could tell what depended on
their environment Was there one
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, fght 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
ly been on the size Of the enemies of
Jesus Wouid not Jesus do this2 What
disciple could imagine him refusing to
suffer or take NJ his cross in the mat
ter? How much had the members of
the First church ever suffered in an at
tempt to initiate Jesus2 Was Christian
discipleship 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
figuration?
Continued next week
Il was nearly dead with dyspepsia;