Sermons Not Preached by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jan 18, 1910

Sermons Not Preached

By Editor

THE Christian Advocate of New York quotes from an editorial in the St. Louis Christian Advocate which the former journal declares should raise most serious thought. The title of the editorial is "Sermons We Have Not Heard." And the writer of the article tells us that he has heard many sermons, many really good sermons on humanitarianism, ethics, esthetics, occasionally, and only occasionally, a really warm, earnest exhortation to personal piety, but "so far as our ears bear witness we have not heard a sermon on the religion of the home. . . . We have heard no sermon — not even an exhortation — on the family altar with the Bible, its song, its prayer, and the daily contact of the home life. We have heard no sermon — for a long time, at least — upon sin, its essence and its results, the awful danger to the soul, and the final ruin that follows its indulgence. We have heard no sermon upon the condemnation of the wicked and their eternal banishment. . . . We have heard no sermon on the call to the ministry — not one that we can remember. And yet the church is suffering to-day for lack of ministerial supply as rarely, if ever, before. . . . We have heard no sermon on the Passion, the supreme incident in the history of the world and the turning-point of human destiny. We often see the Christ in His more triumphal hours, and His exhibitions of sympathy for humanity, but it is rare that we see Him in the awful agony of the garden or the sufferings of the cross."

Surely such a statement as this from such a source ought to stir every true Protestant and make him think at least of turning back to the basic truths of the Gospel.