The Victor's Crowns; And Other Sermons (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1902 edition. Excerpt: ...I. The mortal hearers and speakers of the abiding Word. "Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live for ever?" It is all but impossible to invest that well-known thought with any fresh force; but, perhaps, if we look at it from the special angle from which the prophet here regards it, we may get some new impression of the old truth. That special angle is to bring into connection the Eternal Word and the transient vehicles and hearers of it. Did yon ever stand in some roofless, ruined, cathedral or abbey-church, and try to gather round you the generations that had bowed and worshipped there? Did you ever step across the threshold of some ancient sanctuary, where the feet of vanished generations had worn down the sand-stone steps at the entrance? It is solemn to think of the fleeting series of men; it is still more striking to bring them into connection with that everlasting Word which once they heard, and accepted or rejected. But let me bring the thought a little closer. There is not a sitting in our churches that has not been sat in by dead people. As I stand here and look round I can re-people almost every pew with faces that we shall see no more. Many of you, the older habitues of this place, can do the same, and can look and think, "Ah he used to sit there; she used to be in that corner." And I can remember many mouldering hps that have stood in this place where I stand, of friends and brethren that are gone. "Your fathers, where are they?" u Graves under us, silent," are the only answer. "And the prophets, do they live for ever?" No memories are shorter-lived than the memories of the preachers of God's word. Take another thought, that all these past hearers and speakers...