The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1907-05-31
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Subject: The New Note.

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 adaptabiity of the Gospel is
wonderful. In every epoch and in
every age wherever the truth of God
as IL has been revealed in Jesus Christ
has been preached, IL has been found
10 be 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 ii has
been declared. Always it has pos
sessed a message that has been Pc
culiarly adaptable to the Individual
and social iniquities and to the indi-
vidual and social spiritual yearnings
and necessities of the society 10 which
It has been proclaimed. When in
apostolic times the preciousness of
budding human life was discounted
and largely unrecognized the vitaliZ-
ing Gospel OF Jesus Christ revealed
the beauty and the value of life it,
self When in the te-Reformation
days the truth was endangered by the
.egrettable unwisdom of the ecclesi-
astical authorities of that day and
dme the compelling Gospel of Jesus
opened wide the treasury of written
truth that had been preserved in all
It's fragrance through the centuries
end a new era for mankind began.
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 yearnings, the
thoughts, the terminology Of the
period. Every revival in Christian
history, especially in the history Of
the last four hundred years, has had
Its peculiar message, adaptable to
che sins, the yearnings, the spiritual
needs, the thought and the terminol-
egy 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 and
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-
bility 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 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 revivalist were most
quickly turned to love and serve God.
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
20 have the insight to perceive it, but
it is here none the less. Evidencing
itself within the church ii Is express
ing itself more largely perhaps out
side of the church than within It.
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 with
them, the power to cut deep into their
souls. The edge of the truth has
become dulled for them. 1t needs to
be brought to the tempering fire of a
flaming truth that shall startle and
attract men. 1t must be laid hard on
the wheel Of a compelling Divine ver-
ity that shall put an edge on all that
has become dulled. The preaching Of
Edwards will not do it, the oratory of
Wesley will not do it, the burning
messages Of Finney will not do il, the
declaration OF Gods love in the
mouth OF Moody will not do it. These
are our places OF departure. The
truth that these men have declared.
the men-we-are-after know. We
must vitalize that dormant truth by
flinging a new message into their
souls. We must warm the chilled
embers of their own religious ex-
periences with the blaze of a modern
message that, having its inspirations
In the historic Christ, shall be In
dwelt of His presence and energized
Of His spirit for a special ministry
ereign: they know that the human
will is free. for are they not exercis-
ing IL against God every day? They
know that personal responsibility for
personal sin or decency Is inescapa-
BILE: they know that God is love. We
do not need to prove these things to
them most insistently. What we need
TO do is to proclaim before them a
new note from the old Anthem of
Gods revelation of His truth and
Himself in Jesus Christ that shall
find a correlative note in their own
souls and lead them back into har-
mony with the age-long chorus OF the
redeemed of God. Ii is the business
pf the church of Jesus Christ 10 strike
this note and to assume leadership.
Granted that these remarks be
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
shall epitemize our thought? About
what idea shall our preaching re-
volve? In my humble Judgment the
text which shall epitomize the mes
/ oaga ~ tho now revival is that which