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

sorrows of others. We all have ar
griefs, and all have u heartbr eaks.,
Laugh, and the world laughs with
you;
Weep. and you weep alone;
For the sad old earth must hSrroN lis
mirfh.
But has trouble enough of its Cw n.
we hear a great dead of discussion
now all over she land about why peo-
pied not go to church. Some say it is
because Christianity is dying our and
because people do not believe
| truth OF Gods word, and all that.
They are false reasons. The reason is
because our sermons and exhortations
are not interesting and practical and
helpful. Som n might as we'll tell
the whole truth on this subject, and so
l will tell it The religious discourse
of the future, the gospel sermon 10
lift people u Of darkness, will be q
popular rmo just for the simple
reason that it will meet the woes and
the want and the anxieties of the peo-
| pie.
There are in all our denominations
ecclesiastical mummies sitting around
to frown upon the fresh voting pulpits
of merica to try TO awe them down,
/ to cry out: Tut, tut, tut! Sensation
all" They stand today preaching in
churches that hold a thousand people,
and there are a hundred persons pres
ent, and if they n have the world
saved in their way it seems as if they
do not want it v at all.
I do not know but the old way of
making ministers OF the gospel is bet
ter-a collegiate education ard an aD-
| premiership under the care and home
| attention of some earnest, aged Chris
tan minister, the young man getting
the patriarch's spirit and assisting him
in his religious service. Young law
yers study with Old lawyers, young
physicians with old physicians, and I
believe it would be a great help if ev-
cry young man studying for uhe gospel
ministry could put himself in the home
INT heart and sympathy and under the
benediction and perpetual presence of
a Christian minister.
RELIGIOUS AWAKENING.
But, l remark again, tine religious
discourse of the future will be ar
awakening m From altar rail to
the front doorstep, under that sermon,
and audience will get up and start for
heaven. There will be in it many a
staccato passage. 1t will not be a lul-
laby. 1t will be a battle charge. Men
win 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 we'll 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 he lepers.
That religious "~-uurse of the future
will be everyday sermon, going
| right down into every mans life, and it
will teach him how to vote, how to bar
| gain, how to pillow, how to do auv work
he is called to do, how to WELD .roWel
and pen n pencil and yardstrvH Ind
plane, and it will teach women how to
preside over their households and how
to educate their children and how to
initiate Miriam and Esther and Vashrti
and Eunice the mother of Timothy,
and Mary, the mother of Christ, and
those women who on northern n
| southern battlefields were mistaken by
the und for angels of mercy, fresh
from the throne Of God.
Yes, I have to tell you, the religious
discourse of the future will be a re-
ported sermon. If lave any idea
that printing was invented simply to
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 proclaim
ton. It is high time that good men,
instead of d%enouncing the press, en-
ploy it to scatter forth ~thegospel of
Jesus Christ. The a. majority Of
people 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 I cannot understand the nervous
ness of some of my brethren of the
ministery. When they see a newspaper
man coming in, they say, ALIAS, there
is a reporter" Every added reporter
is 10, 900, so, 200, 100, 900 immortal sou
| added to the auditory. The time will
come when all the Village, town and
city wspaper will reproduce the
gospel of Jesus Christ, and sermon
preached on the Sabbath will rever-
berate all around the world, and, some
by type and some by voice, all nations
will be evangelical.
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 it
you are doing your duty. Do you ex-
hort in prayer meeting? Be short and
spirited. Do ron teach in Bible class?
Though you have to study every night