Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1906-10-04
THE PULPIT.
a SCHOLARLY SUNDAY SERMON BY
The REV DR.. F w. GUNSAULUS.
Subject: The Shut Door.

New York City.-The Rev. Frank
w. Gunsaulus, D. D., LID, of Chi
cago, is filling Dr. Donald Sage
Mackay's pulpit in the Collegiate
Church Of ST. Nicholas, and Sunday
morning to very large congrega-
ton, he preached on "The Shut
Door" His tsxt was Matthew yi:A,
Shut the Door" DIR. Gunsaulus
said:
l wish I could by some contrast.
impossible for me and possible only
In the experience of your own hearts
emphasize the difference between this
command, as it comes to us loaded
with Infinite love, and the commands
that Come out OF reco11ections of our
childhood, that might give us some
idea of the different texture of life,
the life from which the heart is al
ways moving into the infinite ranges
| of Gods life, into which we are in
vited day by day Shut the Door,"
think the instant demand, espe-
| cially upon American life, with it's
swollen veins and arteries, it's various
Commissions and starry look and stun
! bling feet, is to get out of the whirl
and hear a voice speaking with deep,
! fine authority, saying to us as we go
/
amusements and contradictions,
shut the door, This is the voice
! Of Jesus. He is telling us the secret
of prayer, in the closet-secret pray
er in which the human soul comes
alone into the presence of God; pray
er in which man finds his true alti-
tude and attitude; prayer in which
alone man is able to look into mo-
tives, perceiving the values of life, in
| which he gains his spiritual heredity
and in which he assumes his sonship
unto God through Gods grace.
The one thing that Jesus seems
most intent about, that you and I
should enjoy. the privilege OF prayer
and receive its benefits, is all ex-
planned and emphasized in these
words, "sShut the door," We are liv-
ing at time when prayer is a fact
and a force. The world of the mate
rialist has passed: thesworld of the
idealist is here. The scientists of to-
day are telling us, Let us pray" It
is not strange that we should begin
to realize the unifying and exalted
influence Of prayer upon mans men,
tai life. What, after all, is there to-
day in life, when ife's issues are SO
profound and even tragic, that will
|
of the mind and of the affections-as
will prayer? When I pray in secret
I am unified as a man. If man is to
be re-made, if he is to be made whole
; so that his various parts shall be no
longer fragments, each afar from the
other, he must be divinely unified.
But, my brother, if that is to be your
, experience, 'Let us pray Here is
the Master coming quietly from the
fields of Galilee into your heart and
I mine, urging upon us, as the old
deep harmonies of the religions OF
all ages sweep into His soul, urging
2 us, not only that we should pray, but
, | pray alone We see Him at Gethse-
name, at the very crisis of His life
leaving Peter and James and John
), behind, and going alone to pray.
think the most significant announce
: ment with regard to Saul, who was
> to become Paul, and his experience
on the road to Damascus was made
q unconsciously by the one who said
! Behold, he prayeth. What an en-
tire transformation! What pro
phecy of his future!
Do you think that Christ is calling
e you to an easy task when He says
e "Shut the dOor?" Do you even know
n the pathway back to the old closet o
). early days? The road is now al
), overgrown. But since that day ther
= have grown up brambles over tn
pathway. First of all, we must fin
s this path, If we are to find our man
l. hood and womanhood. Is it not al
astounding fact how little secre
prayer there has been in our lives
How this passion for publicity ha
t linked itself to our willingness to re
81 main away from the secret place
True. awhile ago. when We were
trouble, we found orr "ay bacl