VOICES OF LIVING PROPHETS A SYMPOSIUM OF PRESENT-DAY PREACHING COMPILED BY THOMAS BRADLEY MATHER, M. A., Tn. D. COKESBURY PRESS NASHVILLE VOICES OF LIVING PBOPMETS more than I can say. They are all busy men. Yet they found time to send me a sermon. I owe them all a debt of kindness. I am indebted also to the publishers of the Christian Century Pulpit for permission to use the ser mon by Dr. Newton on The Great Expectation. I am sending this book out with the hope that men will read it and find in it a new inspiration for the honor and Integrity of the ministry of Jesus Christ. I hope that these sermons will enable ministers and laymen all over the land to see in Christianity the hope of the world, and to agree with a recent preacher who said The future of Christianity Without it, there is no future. THOMAS BRADLEY MATHEE. JEFFEHSON Cmr, MISSOTTEI. CONTENTS PAGE I. THE TIMELESS QUEST 9 Gams Glenn At Jems II. THE LIGHT BRINGER 25 James Stanley Durkee III. CONQ. UERING ONES DOUBTS 43 James Gordon Gilkey IV. THE UNHIDDEN CHEIST 59 Edwin Holt Hughes V. THE WARFARE OF THE SPIRIT 81 Walter Russell Bowie VI. A STUBBORN FAITH 101 Ivan Lee Holt VII. REMEMBER JESUS CHRIST Ill Frederick William Norwood VIII. THE HEAVENLY VISION 128 Russell Henry Stafford IX. THE MANY-SIDED CHRIST 137 Charles Edward Jefferson X. THE BENEFITS OF WORSHIP 153 Samuel Parkes Cadmcm XI. THE GREAT EXPECTATION 161 Joseph Fort Newton XII. THE MIND OF CHRIST 175 Raymond Calkins XIII. RELIGIOUS FAITH PRIVILEGE OR PROBLEM. 191 Harry Emerson Fosdick 7 TOICES OF MVI3STG PKOPEGETS PAGE XLIV. RUNNING AWAY FROM LlFE 207 Albert Wentworth Palmer XV. KEEPING LIFE FRESH 219 Ralph Washington SocJcman XVI. A GOOD WORD FOR JACOB 231 Francis John McConnell XVII. THE RETURN OF SATAN 241 John Milton Moore XVIII. ETERNAL VIGILANCE 257 James Edward Freeman XIX. LENGTHEN THE CORDS 278 Angle Frank Smith XX. THE SIN OF NEUTRALITY 287 John Alexander Hutton I The Timeless Quest GAIUS GLENN ATKINS PEOFESSOE OP HOMILETICS AND SOCIOLOGY AUBTTEN THEOLOGICAL SEMINAEY ATJBUEN, N. Y. GAIUS GLENN ATKINS was born in 1868 at Mount Carmel, Ind. He graduated from Ohio State University with the degree of A. B. He received the degree of LL. B. from the Cincinnati Law School, and studied at Yale Divinity School. The hon orary degrees of D. D. and L. H. D. have been conferred upon him. He was ordained in the Congregational ministry. He has been pastor at Green field, Mass. Burlington, Vt. Detroit, Mich, at two different times Providence, E. I. He is now Professor of Homiletics and Sociology at Auburn Theological Semi nary, Auburn, N. Y. He is a contributor to many religious journals. He was awarded the Church Peace Union prize for an essay on Inter national Peace in 1914. During the war he was director of Foyer du Soldat with the French Army. He is the author of many books. Some of his recent books are Modern Religious Cults and Movements, Craftsmen of the Soul, The Making of the Christian Mind, and The Procession of the Gods. I THE TIMELESS QUEST GAITJS GLENN ATKINS And Tie removed from thence, and digged an other well and for that they strove not and he called the name of It Rehoboth and he said. For now the Lord hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land. GENESIS 26 22. THIS text is a sentence or two from an ancient story of disputed upland pastures, nomad peoples living in black tents, quarrelsome clans, and flocks and herds feed ing over the hillsides and needing, above all else, water. It is the story of a little fighting and doubtless much more noisy arguing over water rights, a show of valor, protest, and competition between swarthy folk in a sunlit land, where there was never water enough and where a well was a thing to be bequeathed by a father to his son to be treasured as a great possession or, if necessary, to be fought over. But there is a gleam through it all of something vaster...