The missionaries bring
back the same report from every field, that it is the story of Jesus'
death that opens the hearts of the pagan world. Every now and then a
denomination has started, determined to get rid of the cross of Jesus,
or at least to pay scant attention to it, and in every case these
denominations have been at the end of the third or fourth generation
either decaying or dead. There is no interpretation of the Christian
religion that has in it redeeming power which ignores or belittles the
death of Christ.

If Protestantism to-day is not doing what it ought to do, and is
manifesting symptoms which are alarming to Christian leaders, it is
because she has in these recent years been engaged so largely in
practical duties as to forget to drink inspiration from the great
doctrines which must forever furnish life and strength and hope.
If you will allow me to prophesy this morning, I predict that the
preaching of the next fifty years will be far more doctrinal than the
preaching of the last fifty years has been. I imagine some of you will
shudder at that. You say you do not like doctrinal preaching, you want
preaching that is practical. Well, pray, what is practical preaching?
Practical preaching is preaching that accomplishes the object for
which preaching is done, and the primary object of all Christian
preaching is to reconcile men to God. The experience of 1900 years
proves that it is only doctrinal preaching that reconciles the heart
to God. If, then, you really want practical preaching, the only
preaching that is deserving the name is preaching that deals with the
great Christian doctrines. But somebody says, I do not like doctrinal
preaching. A great many people have said that within recent years. I
do not believe they mean what they say. They are not expressing with
accuracy what is in their mind. They do like doctrinal preaching if
they are intelligent, faithful Christians, for doctrinal preaching is
bread to hearts that have been born again. When people say they do
not like doctrinal preaching, they often mean that they do not like
preaching which belongs to the eighteenth or seventeenth or sixteenth
centuries. They are not to be blamed for this. There is nothing that
gets stale so soon as preaching. We can not live upon the preaching
of a bygone age. If preachers bring out the interpretations and
phraseology which were current a hundred years ago, people must of
necessity say, "Oh, please do not give