Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1907-05-23
7Ho. 0UZyE-l
.I ;it};xsss! : '';E| co.
fMWhENDEeSpNW&'l''
Subject: The New Note.

Subject: The New Note.
Brooklyn, N. Y.-Preaching at
the Irving Square Presbyterian
Church, Hamburg avenue and Weir
field street, on the theme, "The
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, 1t has been found
to be fit guide for the leading of the
minds and hearts and souls Of men, q
true solvent for the evils of the
epoch and the age in which 1t has
been declared. Always it has pos
sessed 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 TO 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 ante-Reformation
days the truth was endangered by tho
regrettable unwisdom of the ecclesi-
astical authorities of that day and
time the compelling Gospel of Jesus
opened wide the treasury of written
truth that had been preserved in all
it's fragrance through the centuries
and a new era for mankind began.
AS in those times so throughout
Christendom it has been. Whatever
may have been the sins, the spiritual
yearnings, 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 Technology Of the
period. Every revival in Christian
history, especially in the history of
the last four hundred years, has had
it's peculiar message, adaptable to
the sins, the warnings, 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 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 a nation to whom freedom
was life. "Whosoever will may come"
was not all the Gospel then, nor is 1t
all the Gospel now; but 1t 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 1t may
be blinked in others. Many men
refuse to recognize it or they may fail
to have the insight to perceive it, but
1t 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.
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
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 1t, the
declaration of Gods love in the
mouth of Moody will not do it. These
are our places of departure. The
u ulu IudL IucoS lucH nave ueCldTGu,
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
to-day. Men know that God Is SOW
ereign; they know that the human
will is free, for are they not exercis-
ing 1t 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 correlative note in their own
souls and lead them back into har-
mony with the age-long chorus of the
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 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 epitomize our thought? About