The Penn's Grove record., 1907-05-31
/ TIE RuLENF
"A SERMON MEGM
~ rig REV. AI
IAWhENDEHSoNWR
Subject: The New Note.

Az "1 1CdC11LS at
the Irving Square Presbyterian
Church, Hamburg avenue and Weir
field street, on the theme, "Fhe
Church's New Note" the Rev. I. w.
Henderson, pastor, took as his text
Mark 1890: Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart, and
with all thy soul, and with all thy
mind, and with all thy strength" He
said:
The adaptability of the Gospel is
wonderful. In every epoch and in
every age wherever the truth of God
as it has been revealed in Jesus Christ
has been preached, it has been found
to be a fit guide for the leading of the
minds and hearts and souls of men, a
true solvent for the evils of the
epoch and the age in which it has
been declared. Always it has pos
sessed a message that has been De-
culiarly adaptable to the individual,
and social iniquities and to the indt-
vidual and social spiritual y~earnings
and necessities of the society TO which
1t has been proclaimed. When in
apostolic times the p~reciousness of
budding human life was discounted
and largely unrecognized the vitaliZ-
ing oOoPSA VI OSSuo SlIISL IGN6dlGQ
the beauty and the value of life it.
self. When in the nte-Reformation
days the truth was endangered by the
regrettable unwisdom of the ecclesi-
Rstical authorities of that day and
time the compelling Gospel of Jesus
opened wide the treasury of written
truth that had been preserved in all
Its fragrance through the centuries
md q nnuT Nun Co., 1-,~J Lz-z-
AS in those times so throughout
Christendom it has been. Whatever
may have been the sins, the spiritual
warnings, the mode of thought, the
manner of expression, of any genera
ton, the Gospel has always adapted
itself and been found humanity adapt
able to the sins, the warnings, the
thoughts, the Technology of the
period. Every revival in Christian
history, especially in the history Of
the last four hundred years, has hal
Its peculiar message, adaptable to
the sins, the yearnings, the spiritual
needs, the thought and the terminol-
Ogy of the time in which it has been
preached. Historians tell US that
when in the days of Jonathan Ed
wards-days in which Christianity
was largely legalistic in thought ard
speech-the fiery prophet of the liv-
ing God wished to bring men into an
open realization and confession of
their sinfulness and their accounta-
bflity to God he preached them ser
mons on the essential fact and neces-
sity of Divine sovereignty; and with
burning zeal declared to humanity, as
God gave him opportunity to sow the
seed of His truth, the wisdom of
yielding self into the control of the
Divine Ruler of the universe. Wesley
preached the truth of the freedom of
the will to a nation to whom freedom
was life. "Whosoever will may come"
was not all the Gospel then, nor is it
all the Gospel now; but it is the lever
of truth by which men in the days
of that great r%evivalist were most
quickly turned to love and serve God.
The Gospel of personal responsibility
that Finney proclaimed was as truly
fitted to its time and hearers as was
Moody's message to his generation.
We are face to face with another
great worldwide revival. We are
in the midst of it. 1t may not be rec
ognized in some quarters and it may
be blinked in others. Many men
refuse to recognize it or they may fail
to have the insight to perceive it, but
it is here none the less. Evidencing
itself within the church it is express
ing itself more largely perhaps out
side of the church than within it.
The sins of u day are pressing
heavy on individual hearts and are
palling upon the social organism OF
which we are a part. The world is
yearning after truth and righteous
ness and peace and God. Material
ism is running it's race. Individual
ism run riot has disguised its very
votaries. Humanity has to too large
an extent for it's own welfare gone
forging ahead with too little regard
for the manner or the means or God;
and humanity is finding that progress
of that sort is a denial of human in
tegrity and of human worth. We are
amazed that so many things that in
themselves appeared to be so limo
cent could become so perverted as
they have become. We are astound-
ed at the revelations of our owr
moral ~purblindness. l am convinced
that we are becoming, if we are moi
already, ashamed.
Men are Gospel-hardened to the
messages of yesterday. Not that they
disdain Christ, but because the pro
CARNATIONS of the past have lost
through perfunctory familiarity witt
them, the power to cut deep into theil
souls. The edge of the truth has
become dulled for them. 1t needs K
be brought to the tempering fire of
flaming truth that shall startle anC
attract men. 1t must be laid hard OIL
the wheel of a compelling Divine yer
ity that shall put an edge on all tina
has become dulled. The preaching o
Edwards will not do it, the oratory o
Wesley will not do it, the burnin,
messages of Finney will not do it, tn,
declaration of Gods love in tn,
mouth of Moody will not do it. Thes,
are our places of departure. Thu
truth that these men have declared
the men-we-are-after know. w
must v~italize that dormant truth b!
f1inging a new message into theiI
souls. We must warm the chilled
embers of their own religious eX
periences with the blaze of a modern
message that, having its inspiration!
in the historic Christ, shall be in
dwelt of His presence and energizeC
of His spirit for a special ministr!
to-day. Men know that God is SOW
ereign; they know that the human
will is free, for are they not exercis
ing it against God every day? They
know that personal responsibility fol
personal sin or decency is inescapa
BILE; they know that God is love. W.
do not need to prove these things tt
them most insistently. What we neeC
to do is to proclaim before them {
new note from the old Anthem o
Gods revelation of His truth ant
Himself in Jesus Christ that shall
find a correlative note in their Owl
souls and lead them back into har
slony with the age-long chorus of tbs
redeemed of God. 1t is the business
of the church of Jesus Christ to strike
this note and to assume leadership.
Granted that these remarks b.
true, what then shall be our new
note? What note shall we strike
What word of God shall be our watch
word? What text in the Scriptures
-l-T -.-- ~