The Farmville herald. [volume] (Farmville, Va.) 1890-1934, 1900-02-23
THE COMING SERMON.
DR.. Talmage on Future Modes of
Preaching the Gospel
How He Thinks Religious Truth.
should he PreSented-saNS Min
listers should Preach the
Living Christ.

In this discourse DR.. Talmage adj
dresses all Christian workers and de-
scribeS what he thinks viii be the modes
of preaching the Gospel in the future;
text, Romans 1921: "Or ministry, let
Us wait on our ministcring.@
While l was seated on the piazza of
hotel at Lexington, KY, one summer
evening, gentleman asked me: "What
do you think of the coming sermonY
supposed ne was asking me in regard to
some new discourse of DR.. Cumming, OF
London. who sometimes preached star
Ting sermons, and l replied: 81 have
not seen it," But found out afterward
that he meant to ask what / thought
would be the characteristics OF the COM
ing sermon of the world, the sermons of
the future, the word Cumming as
noun pronounced the same as the word
coming as an adjective. But my mis-
take suggested to me a very important
and practical theme, The Coming Ser
mon."
Before the world is converted the
style of religious discourse Will have
10 be converted. You might as well 20
into the modern Sedan or Gettysburg
with bows and arrows, instead of rifles
and bombsheils and parks of artillery,
rs TO expect to conquer this world for
God by the old style of eXhortion and
sermonOlogy. jonathan Edwards
preached the sermons most adapted TO
the age in which he lived, but if those
sermons were preached now they would
divide an audience into two classes
those sound asleep and those wanting
to go home.
But there is a discourse Of the future.
Who will preach it have 10 idea. In
what part of the earth it will be born /
have no idea. In which denomination of
Christians it viii be delivered cannot
guess. That discourse of eXhortation
may be born in the country meeting
house on the banks of the st. Lawrence
or the Oregon or the Ohio or the Tom
bigbee or the Alabama. The person
who shall deliver it may this moment
be in a cradle under the shadow of the
D
farmhouse or amid the riccficlds Of
southern sayannas, or this moment
/ there may be some young man i'm one OF
our theological seminarics, in the
Junior or middle or senior class, shaping
that weapon of power. or there may be
coming some new baptism Of the Holy
Ghost on the churches. so that some of
us who now stand in the watchtowers
of Zion, waking to a realization Of our
present inefiiciency, may preach il our
selves. That coming discourse may not
be so years off. And let us pray God
that its arrival may be hastened while
/ / announce TO you what / think VIII be
the chief characteristics of that dis
course or exhortation when it does ar
rive, and | want TO make my remarks
appropriate and suggestive to all classes
of Christian workers.
First of all, remark that that fu-
ture religious discourse will be full Of
a living Christ in contradistinction to
/ didactic technicalities. 4 discourse
NAV be full of Christ though hardly
mentioning His name, and sermon
NAV be empty of Christ while every
sentence is repetition of His titles. The
world wants living Christ, not Christ
standing at the head Of formal sys-
tenn of theology, but a Christ who
means pardon and sympathy and con-
dolence and brotherhood and life and
/ Heaven. a poor mans Christ, an over
worked Christ, an invald's Christ, a
farmers Christ, a merchants Christ, an
artisans Christ, an every man S CHRIST
A symmetrical and fine worded sys-
tenn of theology is well enough for theo-
logical classes, but il has no more Dusi-
ness in a pulpit than have the technical
Dbrases Of an anatomist or psycholo-
gist or a physician in the sickroom OF a
Datient. The world wants help, imme-
date and world uplifting, and it VIII
come through a discourse i'm which
Christ shall walk right down into the
immortal soul and take everlasting pos
session of it, filing il as full OF llght as
is this MONDAY armament.
That sermon or exhortation of the tu-
ture will not deal with men in the
tbreadbare illustrations Of Jesus
Christ. In that coming address there
viii be instances Of vicarious suffering
taken right out Of everyday life, Tor
there is not day when somebody is
not diving for others-as the physician
saving his diphtheritic patient by sacrl-
feing his own life; as the ship captain
going down with his vessel While be is
getting his passengers into the NE
boat: as the fireman consuming I'D the
burning building while he is taxing
,bild ont of a fourth-story window; as
in SIMMER the strong swimmer at East
Hampton or Long Branch or Cape May
or Lake George himself perished try
inc 10 rescue the drowning; as the
newspaper boy one summer, supporHng
his mother for some years, his Invalid
mother. when offered by gentleman
50 cents to get some special paper ana
he got it. and rushed up in his anxiety
10 deliver If and was crushed under the
wheels of the train and lay on the grass
with only strength enough to say: On
what viii become of my poor SICK
mother now?" Ncarious suffering
the world is full Of it. An engineer saio
n me on a locomotive in Dakota: I'VE
men seem 10 be coming TO better ap-
preciation than we used TO. Did you
100 .l,ot occount the other day Of an en-