Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1900-10-07

lad come over the minister since he had proposed to them the imitation of Jesus in conduct The dramatic deliv- cry of his sermons no longer impressed them. The self sstisfied, contented, easy attitude of the fine figure and the re- fined face in the pulpit had been dis placed by manner that could not Joe compared with the old style of his de livery. The sermon had become a mes sage. 1t was no longer deliv cred. It WAS brought to them with a love, an eafnestness, q passion, a desire hu- mility, that poured their enthusiasm about the truth and made the speaker no more prominent than he had to bs as the living voice of God. His prayers were unlike any the people had ever heard before. They were often broken. Even once OF twice they had been actu- ally ungrammatical in a phrase or two. When had Henry Maxwell so far for gotten himself in prayer as to make mistake of that sort2 He knew that he had often taken as much pride in the dietion 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 rrayer2 It 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. It is certain he had never prayed so effectively as he did now
 There are times when @ sermon has q value and power due to conditions in the audience rather than to anything new or stsrtling CT eloquent in the words or th q arguments presented. Such conditions fased Henry Maxwell t1is morning as he preached against tho 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 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 pastorafe 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. He 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 eers would be an issue in that election What of the poor creatures surrounded by the hell of drink while just begin ming to feel the joy of deliveranee from sin2 Who could tell what depended on their environment2 Was there one word to be said by the ChHstian disei- pie, business man, professional man, citizen. in favor of continuing to license these crimes and shame producing in stitutions? Was net the most Christian thing they could do to act as citizens in the matter, fight 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 side of the enemies of Jesus2 Would not Jesus do this? What disciple could imagine him refusing to suffer or take up his cross in the mat ter? How much had the members of the First church ever suffered in an at tempt to initiate Jesus? Was Christian diseipleship thing of convenience, of custom, of tradition? Where did the suffering come in2 Was it necessary, in order to follow Jesus steps, to go up Calvary as well as the Mount of Trans figuration9
 His appeal was stronger at this point than he knew 1t is not too much to say that the spiritual tension of the First church reached it's highest point right there. The imitation of Jesus which had begun with the volunteers in the church was working like leaven ill the organization, and Henry Max well would, even thus early in his new life have been amazed if he could have measured the extent of desire on the part of his people to take up the cross. While he was speaking this morning, before he closed with a loving appeal to the diseipleship of 3, 900 years, knowl- edge of the Master, many man and woman in the church was saying, as Rachel had said so passionately to her mother; II want to do something that will cost me something in the way of sacrifice 1 am hungry to suffer some thing Truly, Mazzini was right when he said, "No appeal is quite so power ful in the cad as the call, Come and suffer ."
 The service was over, the great audi ence had gone, and Henry Maxwell again faced the company gathered in the lecture room as on the two previous Ea bo1 ae1xa5 oil fg ,-,,,,a