The Washington herald., 1918-01-17

! fire as It vomits from the inferno be-
low. They want the deodorized. dis
infected sermons of the tabloid sis
! ter, they want the sermons about the
birds that sing in the woods and fiow-
ers that bloom in the spring, tra-la
about the babbling brooks that sing
on their way to the sea. rather than
/ the sermons about the songs of the
! redeemed. the Rose of Sharon and the
! waters OF life.
Oh! There are some women of cul-
| ture, perhaps and of society who won't
| come because their pink teas and their
bridge and their theatcr parties and
their cocktails and the care of their
poodles and the pomeranians, they
have not time to come. Oh. No! No!
No! Why should they cut cut such a
| thing and sit on a wooden bench with
| their feet in baled shaving and saw
dust. to hear a man preach Of righte-
BUSINESS and temperance and Judgment
| to come, when there are still pieces of
cut glass and chocolate rots and brIc-
a-brac to be won by shuffling the
! paste boards.
| When Finney went to London to
| preach, a noted infidel went around
to hear him and his wife noticed
difference in his actions. One day she
ventured the opinion as to the cause,
| by saying:
'T know what is the occasion OF
| this change in you, which is to me
/ such blessing, you have been to hear
that man from America, Finney,
preach"
He said: you insult him. That man.
| Ffnney. doesn't preach. He makes
plain what other fellows preach"
wish you might say that about
me while am here.
Preaching Desn't Save Souls.
If good preaching makes you be
| good; IL good preaching had saved
YOU, you would have been in heaven
long ago.
You need something else, now, but
good preaching.
And the foremost preacher of his
day was the apostle Paul. What he
! preached was not so much an ideal
ity, or a practicality, or a theology,
or didactics, or an eNegesis but a way
Of life-Ha! Ha! and 1 read about his
ministry in Ephesus that there was no
small stir that way.
I tell you things got a move on
them when Paul was on the job for
God. Paul was no perfunctory par
son dealing out soothing syrup to a
fashionable congregation in a silver
plated spoon, careful not to rebuke
their sins lest they might reduce
his salary.
Oh! there Is a kind of a preaching
under which men will sleep and the
devil. will never be aroused to roar.
but the gospel rightly understood
and faithfully preached and pro-
claimed. interferes-with every form
of iniquitous business. every spe-
cies of Illicit pleasures. 1t makes
war upon every false faith. and
peace is a thing greatly to be priced
but not peace at any price.
I read where the parish priest of
IOsterty climbed up in a high church
steepIe so that he might be near
God and hand his word down to his
people. and in sermon script he
daily wrote what he thought came
down from heaven and he dropped
it down on the peoples hesds-two
times one day IN seven and in his
day God said. Come down."
And the parish priest of osterty
cried out from the steeple, Where
art Thou. LordT'
And the Lord made reply. 'I am
down here on terra firma, come
down.
Modern Preaching Too Dainty.
Too much of the preaching now
adays is too pretty. it is too dainty,
it doesn't KILL it is given for the
Literary excellence OF the 1produc-
tion and II you got an adverb or an
adjective or noun or pronoun out
of joint. then 1t is all off.
had a friend and when tell
lyou newspaper boys. that he report
ed the Japanese and the Chinese
war and the Brazilian rebellion you
will get an idea of his brilliancy.
He was converted and he was in
great demand to tell his story out
in the West. One time he was ap-
lproached by a pastor OF a very rich
and fashionable church out In one
of our elite, little suburbs to come
out and give his story, and they
sat on the platform waiting for the
choir to finish up their vocal gym
lnastics and the preacher leaned
over and said to my friend:
May I ask you, without seeming
to trespass. upon what you intend
to preach this eveningT'
Ny friend said: II am trying to
get a line on that now. doctor"
IF you would permit me to make
a few suggestions without seeming
to further trespass," he said, don't
talk about the liquor question. that
subject has been tabood from this
pulpit" And he said: Don't speak
about the dance and the cards. the
bridge" he said, those subjects are
tabood, too"
Ny friend said to himself. That
is all the evidence that need, that
the gang needs preaching to right
along those lines"
But the preacher said to my friend
he said, do you see that woman sit
ting down there about fifteen seats
from the front. a finely dressed
woman"-great diamonds flashed Il
her ears.
Yes"
Now" he said. ''she Il the leadel
Of her social set and" he said. 7 an