The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1899-11-24

EuaSllleT SdCTlHCe OF IllIu NuO III INK
high places of the field, on the cross,
fought our battles and endured our
struggle and died our death.
4 German sculptor made an image Of
Christ, and he asked his little child, two
years old, who it was, and she said:
THAT must be some very great man"
The sculptor was displeased with the
criticism, so he got another block OF
marble and chiseled away on il two or
three years, and then he brought in his
little child, four or five years of age,
and said TO her: who do you think
that is?" She said: That must be the
One who took little children in His arms
and blessed them" Then the sculptor
was satisfied. Oh, my friends, what the
world wants is not a cold Christ, not an
intellectual Christ, not n severely mag
isterial Christ, but a loving Christ,
spreading out His arms of sympathy to
press the whole world TO His loving
heartl
But / remark also that the religious
discourse of the future of which l speak
will be a popular discourse. There are
those in these times who speak of pop
ular sermon as though there must be
something wrong about it. 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, considering the
small number of the worlds popula-
tion, had the largest audiences ever
10 40 n, 1,or
without making a great sensation. Peo-
pie rushed out in the wilderness to hear
him reckless of their physical necessi-
ties. So great was their anxiety to
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
it. He illustrated his subject by n hen
and her chickens, by a bushel measure,
by n handful of salt, by birds flight
and by Hly's aroma. All the people
knew what he meant. and they flocked
to Him. And when the religious dis
course of the future appears it will not
be Princetonian, not Rochesterian, not
Andoverian, not Middletonian, but Oil
vetic-plain, practical, unique, earnest,
comprehensive of all the woes, wants,
sins and sorrows of an auditory.
But when the eXhortatiOn or dis
course does come there will be a thou
sand cleaning scimeters to charge on
it. There are in so many theological
seminaries professors telling Young
4Iar,-,1,-o-
knowing how, and | am told that if
young man in some of our theological
seminaries says anything quaint or
thrilling or unique faculty and students
fly at him and set him right and
straighten him out and smooth him
down and chop him off until he says ev-
erything just as everybody else says it.
Oh, when the future religious discourse
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 buried
their dead want comfort. All know
themselves to be mortal and to be i'm
mortal, and they want to hear about
the great future. l tell you, my friends,
if the people of our great cities who
have had trouble only thought they
could get practical and sympathetic
help in the Christian church. there
would not be a street in Washington or
New York or any other city which
would be passable on the Sabbath day
if there were n church on it, for all the
people would press to that asylum of
mercy, that great house of comfort and
consolation.
a mother with dead babe in her
arms came to the god silva and asked
to have her child restored to life. The
god silva said to her: You go and get
a handful of mustard seed from house
in which there has been no sorrow
and in which there has been no death,
and l will restore your child to life"
So the mother went out, and%she went
from house to house and from home to
home looking for n place where there
had been no sorrow and where there
had been no death, but she found none.
She went back TO the god silva and
said: MY mission is a failure. You
see, l haven't brought the mustard
seed. ! can't find a place where there
has been no sorrow and no death"
OH" said the god silva. Understand,
your sorrows are no worse than the
sorrows of others. We all have our
griefs, and all have our heartbreaks."
Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone;
For the sad old earth must borrow its
mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.
We hear a great deal of discussion
now all over the land about why people
do not 60 to church. Some say it is be-
cause Christianity is dying out and be-
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 l 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,
10 cry out: Tut, tut, tut! Sensation
all" They stand to-day preaching in
churches that hold a thousand people.
and there are a hundred persons pres
ent, and il they cannot have the world
saved in their way il seems as if they do
not want il saved at all.
! DO not know but the old way of
making ministers of the Gospel is bet
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