The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1883-05-29 00:00:00

UPWEY.
CONGREGATIONAL CHAPEL ANNIVERSARY.

The C .ngregationalist. of Upwev and neighbour-
hood celebrate I the anniversary of the opening of their
besu,lful edifice with many manifestations of rejoicing
on Wedneeday, being favoured wih bsontiful weather.
The day 'e proceedings commenced with a service in
the ch *pet. beginning abut three p.m , at which the
Rev. B Bolton. of G ***** end, occupisd the pulpit,
and founded an eloquent seem ot on "Power with
God," taking for his text G-taseis xxxii, 28 -" A. a
prince beet thou power, nt..' awl Jams v, I 6—" The
effectual fervent prayer. etc." In the course of his
remarks the preacher sal l—we live in times of great
mental activity; the spirit of enqniry is abroad In the
world an tin the church. Men of all classes are busy
with bold noiseless questioniogs, and much of this
busy questioning is directed toward points of
religious belief —p dote which have to do with the
deepest spiritual interest of mankind. We cannot
regret that this should be the case, being confident that
all earnest enquiry must tend toward the final
triumph of the truth, sod the establishment of the
world's hope in God. But the immediate results of
this bold busy questioning are not altogether satis-
factory to those who desire the calmness of settled con-
viction and definite creed. Modern thought seems to
set adrift for a time many of the old belief., and to
create confusion if not fear, in religious communities,
just as the rising fi rod dislodges ibjects which have
long rested on the river's bank, and hurls them head.
long in the rushing current until the waters shall sub-
side, and the disturbed objects find fresh ground to rest
upon. It is well for u• to remember that disturbance
is not &Oro:lotion, th 4 it may lead to the greater
stability of what haw been disturbed, giving opportunity
for reconstruction on a better basis or foundation.
We doubt not it will be so with every essential article
ot the Christian (.Ith which is being tested:by the force
ot modern thought—" The counsel of the Lord
standeth for ever, the thoughts of His heart to all
generations" Many in them day. are mere gusteria.
, lists. They believe only in that which can be appre-
I honied by the severs principles of science, or the
exercise of the MISS& To such persons the spiritual
seems but an imagination, a blind force is their Got,
and a natural developerneot their highest hope. The
ifeo of notoral low ia so ind•rel nan eo inte•prived
by muse VI to exclude the rossi bilk? f freedom either
hu nan 4' Divine, and so all things are reduced to
mere necessity or mechanism. Thom the dark hideous
spectre of a hopeless fatalism rises out of modern
thought, which largely teed. toward the materialistic
doctrine of poetise philosophy, and the brightest
hopes of men wither under its blighting power. Many
moons have come to doubt, or even boldly
deny, man's personal relation to the Divine
Being, even supposing such a Being to exist, and the
Idea that the Infinite Is concerned with, or affected by,
the ciroumataiime or actions of men i• treated with
ridicule and cont.mpt. Now I know that the pulpit
is not the mat fitting place in which to deal with the
detals of modern science and philosophy, however
great the preacher's power of treating such topics; but
our Christian teaching should take account of whatever
may seem to touch the claims of the faith we hold, or
the Koster we loofas' to serve, and it is the preacher's
duty to counteract the sceptical thought and tenden-
cies of the times by a distinct affirmation of revealed
truth and the facie of human experience. Hence I
have chne.a these two testa as the ground of my
present address, the first being a reminder of a epeeist
and wonderful personal experience, and the second
a declaration of truth amply coofirmed by the history
of Godly men. Both texts, like a thousand others, are
distinctly euggestive as to the relation which may exist
between God and the individual man, and therefore
support a from f belief directly opposed to the
sceptical tendency of the time., and eapecially that
materialism f which I have spoken. God is some-
thing beyond the man him•elf, and beyond the material
universe, which is sudject to man'e scientific creep.
He is a living and intelligent something, not a mere
abstract force or principle. He is the great "I Am,"
the self-existent, " The King eternal, immortal,
Invisible." Canon Liddon says—" Against materialism
of his religious instinct, will ever protrat. The idea ~f
In all its forms the °online, se.. of man, not to speak
presentiment of God, everywhere rs aded in the mind
of man, is a fact sufficiently important to be treated
all something more than • superstition by those who
yet
tny to
o fhethe diac
beßve.fama
Unworthy oli
put forth any serious doctrine about human nature.
Annaw,ti,rtohny oafnapuzgr.eadthei . areeist.sis
the euhject .4 the Higher Power that are to be found
in the heathen world, some graphic after the Great
Unseen, some tentative intuition, some shadowy belief,
there is to be found always an I everywhere. Man
thinks of a Higher Power as naturally as he thinks of
Ilse world around him or himself,. But the exiatenos
of &Supreme Being admitted, tbe question Is still forced
noon us—What relation is there between God and meal
Will God indeed dwell with men, or can the Divine he
affected by communication with the hams° ? Ong
answer to this quesion is in the affirmative, and we
give it with confileoce True such answer implies
the mysterious and miraculous phenomena from which
some minds shrink, but Ills, we believe, a great fact
that mortal men have had close contact and Corn-
with the Almighty and Unsearohable, and we
intinion ...wept the teachings of Scripture on
unhesitatingly - -.elation of God has brought
this sullect. The eelf.rs.
Kim into and „a...a10e with the human
soul. By various methods he has come good taco to