The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-09-29

Vital Power OF Gods vord-sps@ker
kSays He Comes with NO New Pslfloso-

| louisville Commercial. September ISL
Rev. Peyton Hoge, the new pastor
who has just been called to the War
rem Memorial Presbyterian church at
first sermon yesterday morning before
a large congregation. He took his text
from Matthew, eleventh chapter. verses
TO: What went We out into the will
derness to see" etc. DIR. Hoge said:
The time Immediately preceding our
Lords ministry had witnessed a great
religious phenomenon. Jerusalem and
emptied themselves into the barren Jor
! dan valley. OF this Jesus demands an
explanation. The effect must have a
cause. and the cause must be adequate.
and not only adequate, but reasonable.
Was il TO see a reed shaken by the
wind? Plenty Of them there. and IL
that is what men want to see that is
just where they would go to see IL.
But men do not sacrifice time and
comfort and business for the sake of
that which is trivial and commonplace.
Men are seeking everywhere the un-
usual and extraordinary. How men
flock year after yea TO the great nat
ural wonders OF our country-Niagara,
the Mammoth Cave, the Yosemite, the
Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon. In
what numbers do men cross the Allan
tic every year to see the treasures OF
art that they cannot see in their own
land!
But of all that is extraordinary men
are most interested in. the extraordi-
nary mantle man clothed in soft raj
ment-the men great from wealth or
position or personal deeds. How peo-
pie strain their eyes and crane their
necks to catch a glimpse OF one of the
money kings of our land. How
eagerly they read everything about the
splendor of their social positions, the
display of their marriage festivals. the
solemn ~pageantry of their funerals.
How they crowd after men in high
official position. One of the earliest
recollections of my childhood is of sit
ting amid a great bank of people on a
stand to see the Prince of Wales. With
in the last fortnight men have come
across the continent not only to attend
the convention of a great organization,
but with appetites whetted by eXpecta-
ton of seeing the chief magistrate Of
this great nation. And within another
fortnight multitudeS will be crowding
into the metropolis by the hundred
thousand to catch a sight of the Amer
lean most honored today-not only be-
cause he knocked a fleet to pieces be-
fore breakfast, but chiefly because, with
the eyes of the world upon him in the
most difficult and delicate situations
for more than a year, the world has
found nothing to criticise.
With this rush of the world after the
extraordinary it would be strange in
deed If the pulpit were not tempted
to meet the popular demand. One
thing is plain. The time has passed
if it ever ~was-when men can be
drawn to the church by the common
places of morality n by platitudin-
Gus exhortations. 1t is written s O
large that every n may read it, that
the pulpit must abandon the moral es-
say, and threadbare discussion of the
dry of theology, or the pulpit
itself will be
1t is not strange, then, 1 say, that
the pulpit has sought to crafty the
appetite for sensation with sensational
themes and sensational treatment.
Catchy and al~literative subjects are
flaringly advertised. Whatever is float
ing in the popular mind is made the
theme of pulpit discourse, while in
style and illustration every effort is
made to tickle the itching ears Of the
modern Athenians in search Of some
new thing.
But it ought to be evident at a glance
tI1ok IN oASh " SOAAiP 'tN ttS
world the pulpit is foredoomed to fail
ure. They tina wear soft clothing are
in kings houses" The church can
never compete with the world IN this
ground. Look at the forces with which
it must contend.
There is the daily press. The skill
full phrase maker of the pulpit must
compete with the headline artist Of the
great newspaper. The clerical monger
of sensations is but one. A powerful
newspaper has it's men everywhere
seeking by the fullest organization to
CLEAN the latest sensations from all
lands. Why should a man go to church
for sensation when the metropolitan
press furnishes it to him in far greater
variety in his own home? Then there
is the theater; laying under tribute the
best literary and dramatic talent; pre-
senting it's subjects with all the ad-
vantages Of scenic display, n pan
dering oftentimes as even the most
sensational preacher would not dare to
do-to the sensual element in mans
nature.
Then there is society-with the vast
prestige and power of fashion, and the
varied amusements with which ii graf
iies the craving for new sensations.
Within the past few months the church
has had to bow her head in shame
when one Of her own ministers ap-
| pcdleu W SOtlCty W pld1S uildcl I yah
those who violated one of Christ's
plainest commands, which the church
! was powerless to enforce!
No, in this field the church is at a
hopeless disadvantage. John the Bap-
fist in the wilderness was no match
for Herod and his court. The church
must make its appeal to a different
NJ in human nature, and must
bring in other forces. Its appeal must
be to the spiritual, and the power that
it uses must be the Word of God-the
revelations of the Divine. The church in
Johns day had substituted creed for
faith and dead formulate for the Hv-
ing Word. Herod, with his splendid
buildings, his gladiatorial shows and
the pomp of Roman soldiery, had given
Judea all new sensations that the
world could give. But the heart OF
Israel was hungry, and when the sill
ence of centuries was broken by the
voice of a living prophet, the cities
of Judea were emptied into the wilder
ness of Jordan. What went ye out
to zee? A prophet? Yea, I say unto
Won. and more than a