Los Angeles herald., 1907-08-12
PEOPLE ARE
NUMBERING
MINISTER SAYS MANY SOULS ARE
ATHIRsT
TEMPLE AUDITORIUM is FILLED
TO OVERLOOKING
DR.. J. Whtcomb Brougher # Portland
Addresses Vast Throng at
Temple Auditorium on
Cup Against 1t"

DR.. ]. Whitcomb Brougher pastor of
the White Temple of Portland, ore, VINO
preached his first sermon at the Ienple
BAPTIST church yesterday, attracted
crowd that could not be accommodated
in the large auditorium. Several hunureu
persons were turned away.
'JJu Against 1t" was the topic an
nounced by Dr. Brougher and he kept
his hearers intensely interested by MS
eloouence during the service. He based
his sermon on the miracle of the feed
ing of the five thousand He said IN
part:
"A great multitude followed Christ be-
cause they beheld the signs which he
did on them that were sick. They did
not follow from entirely pure motives.
Many of them were only curiosity seek
ers, looking for something new or SEN
sational: some were full of aches and
palms. and desired to be cured; others
were attracted because crowd drew a
crowd We are told that there were
five thousand men present. They count
ed the men in those days. Today we
count the women. The women count for
more at church today than the men DO
Some preachers weigh their congrega-
tons l would, too, if l did not have
any to count. If we take in the women
and children present on the occasion of
this miracle, there was tremendous
multitude of hungry people listening to
Jesus. He had compassion upon them,
healed the sick and preached to them
the Kingdom of God.
Hunger for God
1.-THE Church of Christ is up against
this problem today. First of all they
must minister to a hungry multitude.
This is a characteristic of humanity.
The great mass of people are hungry
after God. 1t matters not whether they
are rich or poor, old or young, educated
or uneducated; wherever the people are
without God they are hungry. You can
read it in the faces you see upon the
street; you can hear it in the groan
of disappointed and dissatisfied human
ity. The crowd of people that were
gathered about Jesus in that wilderness
scene can be repeated today in any city
of our land. There is a longing of the
soul for perfection. People may not
this fact, but the longing for
something better and higher than they
have shows that men and women cannot
be satisfied with anything less than per-
lection. The perfect body. the perfect
intellect the perfect character-these are
the ideals towards which humanity tends.
There is also the longing of the soul for
pleasure. The perpetual rush of the people
'or enjoyment shows the effort they make
to satisfy the longings of the soul for
pleasure by the amusements of the
world. The church must meet this de-
mand, and give to the people pleas
ure that is without sin, and that will
satisfy as web as crafty the longings
of the soul.
Religion in Smile
"Christianity was never intended to be
a funeral. There is more religion in a
smile than there is in a snore. Smile,
and the world smiles with you; snore
and you sleep alone. Christianity was
intended to live by and to bring hap
piness to the world. The church must |
meet the demand of the people for true
10y and pleasure. 1t must meet the de- |
nands of the multitude for a future |
life The Christianity that will supply |
the needs of the present life will give |
assurance for the future. The great |
mass of people have these characteris- |
tics. They are hungry for perfection9 for |
pleasure and for perpetuity. The church |
must meet this demand if it would full
fill the mission of Christ on the earth. |
How shall the church do it?
ION the occasion of feeding the multi |
tude. the disciples said: Send the peo-
pie away that they may go into the viii |
lagos roundabout and buy for them
selves something to eat But Jesus said |
to the disciples: Give We them to eat
We have contrasted here two methods |
Of dealing, not only with the people, but |
with every problem of life. The dis |
ciples were up against it. They had been |
told to feed that multitude, and yet they
had only five loaves and two fishes 1t
seemed an impossible task They said
We cannot do it Jesus said: You
must do it. They must do the impos-
sible. Horace Bushnell has we'll said
Men are often and properly put under
obligation to do that for which they
have in themselves no present ability.
In other words, people are required to
do the impossible in this life. The dis
ciples said; Send them away. Many
people today expect to solve the prob
lem of life by lodging them; but no
problem is ever settled by running away
from it.
Face Your Own Task
Every man must face his own prob
lem and with the ability that he has,
work it out to success. None of the
problems of life can be settled by re-
it. Two young men enter col
lege; one grapples with every problem
and solves it, to come out master of his
own life; the other one avoids this diff
Guilty and that, seeks every possible
method to escape hard work, and at the
end of his course is really weaker than
he began. When Dewey was ordered
from Hong Kong, the message sent him
was simply this: Capture or destroy
the Spanish fleet Dewey did not run
away from the problem, nor seek to have
the Spanish fleet removed. He simply
went to do his duty. He reached Ma
Mia bay, and after the battle was over
sent back the simple message: L have
obeVed nv orders and DESTROYED the
Spanish fleet Every problem in life
can be settled by thus boldly and fear
lessly undertaking the task that is be-
fore us. The negro problem of the south
will never be settled by sending the
blacks to Africa. The problem of foreign
in our own country will
never be settled by keeping the people