The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1907-07-17
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a SERMON A|&e
~ THE REV. AX6EslR
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Subject: The New Note.

] CuuISu Ilau1DulS oNSHoS
field street, on the theme, 1.-The
Church's New Note" the Rev. I. W.
Henderson, pastor, took as MS ext
Mark 1890: Thou shalt o q
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 ad~aptability 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 pc
culiarly adaptable to the individual
and social iniquities and to the 1ndl
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 V1tallz-
ing Gospel of Jesus Christ revealed
the beauty and the value of life it"
self. When in the ante-Reformation
days the truth vas endangered by the
| regrettable unwisdom of the ecclesi-
astical authorities of that day anu
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 81 throughout
Christendom 1t 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 warnings, the
thoughts, the Technology Of the
period. Every revival in Christian
history, especially in the history Of
tie last four hundred years, has hal
it's peculiar message, adaptable to
the 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 a%ccounta-
bility to God he preached them GER
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 reVivalist were most
quickly turned to love and serve God.
The Gospel of personal responsibility
fitted to it's 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. E~videncing
itself within the church 1t is express
ing itself more largely perhaps out
side of the church than within it.
The sins of our day r 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 its race. Individual
ism run riot has disguised it's very
votaries. Humanity has to too large
m extent for it's own welfare gone
forging ahead with too little regard
for the manner or the e 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 inno-
cent could become so perverted as
they have become. We are astound-
ed at the revelations Of our own
moral purblindness. I I'm convinced
that we are becoming, if we are not
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 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 tcmpering fire of a
flaming truth that shall startle and
attract men. 1t must be laid hard on
the wheel of a compelling Divine YER
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 it, 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
finging 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
il 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 ov-
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 for
personal sin or decency is inescapa-
bic: 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