The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1870-05-03 00:00:00

DORSET CoUNTY ASSOciATION OF
INDEPENDENT MIN ISTELS.

Tueads• and Wednesday in last week were
grand days for the Indrpendents of Weymouth, IT
theta &rambled at our town the County Associstion
their minister,. The various pastors were, as usual
reosiert into the houses of those friends of the rase
who where libelsl enough to set th• cart of Gsins to
them, and this arrangement was the the means of mach
kindly intercourse.

The following Min filen attended :—Revs John Rmte't
Bedrort ; Thomas Orr, Poole; J. H. Wilson. London ; ineePh
Parker, Lend fl ; John Keymm,Wlmborne ; D. Hann. Lytcheet
Minister; Tolley, Parkstone: B. Orey, Bhuldford ,• F.
Beckley, Sherbome ; Wllllsms, Crionlestyle " G. J. Wood-
wstd. AhaksbuY ; G. IL Wall, Maiden Newton; Brown,
West Lula orth ; D. Th maw Corne Abbe.; 0. 11,dgeri,
Btii-
brid,, Olhlett Steele, Sturmlnster Marshall; Harwell,
new Brldport ; J. Constance, Bere Regis. F. Vaughan, Broad.
swinger: Scott, Corte Castle ; Diment. Castle Hill; Mr.
Monteith: delegate from Bridport ; R. S. Ashton, Gloucester
chapel, Weymouth; W. Lewls, Hops chapel, Weymouth, W.
W. Shorten, Portland, and many rulnisten of other denotulnw
lions beside the Independents from the town and nelghbour-
hood.

The public meetings were commenced en Tuesday
evening, when e service wee announced to take place
in the evening at Cfloace•ter-street phapel, at seven
o'clock, the sermon to be preached by the Rev. Joseph
Parker, D.D.

The service wu fully attended, the whole if the body
of the commodiotta chapel being early filled, and the
congregation In the galleries rapidly increasing, till they
were nearly full.

The ',reseeding' commenoed in the until way, the
' first hymn sang being "Come let us join our cheerful
songs." The twelth chapter of Ist. Corinthians was
read, and the congregation joined in singing hymn MO
of the Congregational Hymn book "Pour out thy
Spirit from on high."
The Rev. Joseph Parker, DD., then wen led the
Pulpit, and read with an impressive but peculiar deep
voices Romans xvi•, 1 to 16, containing the salutations
by Paul. From this he preaehed a remarkable sermon,
showing that St. Paul who is generally 'append not to
bee loveable man, WM in feet all love, that he found
. leisure to salute the members of the church by name,
, instead of doing as we do, in then telegraphic, days
sending our kind regards to them altogether. He also
need diserimination in his salutes!, and gave them
credit for different kinds and degrees of merit. This
must have been • trial to the church, seeing that some
members wets very highly preised ; but others in less
degree, and yet those who were less praised did not
take offence and leave the church. He noticed how
Paul acknowleged with love the suntan*, given to him,
and asked how mush more then would the Master of
Paul acknowledge and reward any labour given in his
cause. His remarks were very Patient, and his analysis
of human nature so keen, and his sketches of humen
weaknesses so natural, that many a smile was provoked
in the course of his address. We give • short speci-
men of Dr. Parker's sermon :—lt would be interesting
to inquire, why in a book ',bleb profanes to be •
revelation from God, we should have sash • loin Int
of moms as this.; Whet are they to us? Is this a
catalogue or • covenant? Is this • churchyard or •
church still ? Thew are strange , sae *heir
therefore names of .?rangers? What mean these little
personal civilities! There was somewhat at doctrine
which flowed out in these little courtesies, and my
object is to And out what uxdarlies all these names.
This is not the kind of thing one would have expected
in the epistle to the Romans. The apostle had been
uttering things hard to be understood, pursuing • pro-
found arirnment : but we reed out of all that to •
number of salutations by name. Many of us embitions
writrts, unskilled men, would bus paused in the
higher heights, as we should have deemed them, in the
heights of thunder ; but this man comae down to thank
and please men and women that had made his liege joy.
But just as we can see more of the magnitude and glory
of the eagle when bending over her young, then when
she is soaring above the °loads of heaven, so we get a
higher idea of the magnifieence of the apostle when
condescending to mention the names of his friends, and
to please those who had pleased him. Let us look at
these salutations as giving an idea of the Apostle Paul
himself, lie has been supposed not to be • vary
loveable man ; but I think these salutations show that
he was a most friendly men. He eq. "Who for
to, sake Ilan laid down their lives." Men do not
lay down their lives for mere logician., for
men of great theological attainments, or of greet
ratios:into)y powers, the apostle Paul did not say mach
about love ; hot be was love. 110 wrote that 13th
chapter in the book of Corinthians, before which al
othcr chapters, excepting three which refer to the acts
and words of our Lord Jesus himself, seem to fade
away. There are many persons of amiable countenanee
who know what it is to have the heart shaken
with the power of love. There may be a little flicker
and fiuno of affection; but no melting (enlace of love.
What a feat of memory it was to remember these names!
You count repeat them, although you have heard them
oft. I cannot repeat them, slthough I have the just
read text before me. Some people have no
memory for names, some people have no memory for
anything, and if • man be merely intellectual, he
will forget much that it would be well for him to
remember. You In this chapel have mottoes for the
year—here is a beautiful motto written in the
" I have you in my heart"—and that was
not a loveable man. True, he had an aim like •
bettering ram, he °said thunder and reason down many
a little foe. But be must have loved indeed, if he
carried the churches in his heart. Carry your friends
any where but in your heart, and they will be burden-
some ; carry them in your heart and they will be
blessings and joy. There are two ways of doing any-
thing, even in taking a flower from a child; you may
take it so that it will torn away as if it had committed
• fault, and you may take it in stub a way as tossed
it back for another and another, until the whole gardea
be robbed. There is great power of !appreciation show,
in the apostle's salutations. All great natures have
great powers of appreciation, they do not look at the
thing itself, but at the love which it represents, and in
this way the little becomes great, and the water wine.
Look at the one of the woman who entertained the
prophet. She.asid "We must do something for this
man that panes by our way. And she made him •
little chamber in the wall. There was not mush there,
it was only • bed, and a table, and • stool, and a candle.
stick, but when the prophet same, he looked all round,
and took it all into his heart, and said "Thou Mist
been careful for us with all this are." What an
exaggerated speech I What a hyperbolical speaker!
An exact man would have takse it all, and weighed
it in his dirty little scales; but the prophet took
it all into his bent, and the whole room glowed
likes magical chamber. lam not following the apostle
Paul in his argumeetative promisee on tbeologieal
topics; I us taking up these little things and showing
that he was • man of the greatest heart and tenderut
sensibilities, that he mot everything that was done for
him by men and women with the limiest spereciaejaa.
TAM if it were eo good a thing to help the serea4t,
what mast it be to serve the Master? If Paul takes a
little flower sad it becomes a garlend in his hand what
shall be said of Him who is" not unrighteous to (target
your work of faith and labour of love?" For the quality
of appleciation in Paul is • qutlity of Christ, only it
must be multiplied by infinity in Christ. Dr. Parker
went on to show that these salutations authorise the
employment of both men and women in religious envies.
There is abundance of work besides preening. hrto
the aisle !chamber especially, men go with • motion, an
agitation, and a none that makes the eick people kno •
that they are "come at last; but what infinite skill a
woman can enter and wiy the right things in the right
tones I Every woman must be • Christian, or if one had
not been, she nru,t be at mace melted down by the tan
of Christ with Simon and the woman who was • sinner.
The preacher also spoke of the salutations as warranting
discrimination in our estimate of Christians. The
apostle did net, as we do in these telegraphic days, throw
all the friends into a heap, and send kind regards to
the toe. But it must have been • grand church to whom
such discriminative greetings wine soot: —"Greet Mary,
who bestowed much labour on us." Good! Mary is
satisfied. Salute Tryphena and Tryphon, who labour
in the Lord." Hen I only "labour in the
Immediately ennell "Selina the beloved Penis, who
, laboured much in the Lord." On ti., if it were done
in the present day Try phen• and Tryphosa, would say
' who was Persia that she should be spoken of so
warmly? Really there is • point at whit', patience is '
exhausted, and so Trypheoa and Tryphon give 49 their
seats' and leave the chapel. They have }where bees
halfelay teachers, while Persia bad leboured the
whole day, and wished there was a raged school in
the evening Tryphens and Tryphota had perhaps
been of those who in the morning looked out of the
window, and thought that it might—perhape--sons•
time or other before night rain, and so they stayed at
home. But the beloved Persia bad gone to bar
Sunday work summer and winter, and never thought
about the rain stall. He would not discourage hail.,
day teachers. The person who could not give more
snail bale.,-day and gave it, should be aceepted as if it
were • lite-time, and the person who gave • mite and
that be all that could be given, it shed be chaneed to
gold, and Christ shall speak of it as • generous offering,'