The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1873-11-08 00:00:00

SUNDAY AFTERNOON SERVICES FOR THE
PEOPLE,

Mr. Lloyd Harris, the energetic congregation-
alist minister of this town, has commenced to give
a series of Sunday afternoon services in the Corn
. . .

Exchange. The 'object of these is to attract those
who do not regularly attend any place of worship;
and the addresses delivered are of such a novel
and interesting character as to be thoroughly cal-
culated to effect this object. The title of the ad- I
dross delivered or. Sunday last was the "Rival
Claimants," and the following summary of it will, '
doubtless, prove interesting to our readers—
Frederick the Great, of Prussia, who had no
very great love, if any, for the elegant, was re-
quested one day by a young clergyman, to give
him an appointment in one of the churches at
Berlin. "Yes, said the King, if you can preach
without any preparation from the text which I
will give you." Sunday came. The King, the
Court, and all the Nobility were in the Cathe-
dral. On going into the pulpit, the minister was
presented with a pieta) of paper, by the King's
command. Nothing was written on the paper;
loth sides were blank. Taking up the paper, and
looking first on one side and then on the other, he
exclaimed, "Hem, is nothing, and there, is noth-
ing ; God has made the werld out of nothing."
From this motto lie preached a sermon, so eloquent
and ingenious, that the King at once made him
his chaplain. He (Mr. Harris), had not cited this
instance of calm self-possession in order to re-
mark upon the unscriptural character of the pro-
position—that the Creator formed the world out
of nothing, since Scripture said no such thing,
although many persons supposed it did. Ile had
quoted this in order to show that it was possible
to make a good sermon from no text at all. Of
course the man must be very ingenious who could
do it, and be sufficiently calm and self-cellected
to be able to call up all his knowledge, and make
it bear upon the point when he chess to start.
Now his (the speakers) case was not at all so bad
as that of the young Berlin clergyman. Still, he
could assure them that to take texts such as
every day topics suggested, was not always easy.
There were some nuts which had very sweet ker-
nels inside, but the difficulty was to get at them ;
the shell was so hard, that to crack it came not
within the ability of thebest set of grinders that
I a man over possessed. His text that afternoon
I was not a blank piece of paper, but a topic sug-
gested by the heading of a newspaper column
I appearing day after day it, the daily papers for
I the last six mouths. What do you think of the
Claimant," was a question asked by rich and
poor—learned and ignorant. Ho did not intend
to tell them what he thought of the Claimant's
position and prospects, because, in the first place,
he should not like to be called upon to appear at
the Court of Queen's Bench, and be fined for con-
tempt, and in the second place, he had before him
a more important task—that of calling their at-
tention to an estate far more valuable than the
Tichborne property, and the endeavour to obtain
which, had brought about a far more protracted
struggle than that which for the last six months
had occupied the attention of the public. The
estate he referred to was the soul of man, and
the claimants were the Lord Jesus Christ, the
rightful ownet ; the other was the being who bore
the name of Satan, the usurper. It would be well
for them that afternoon to weigh the evidence on
both sides, and honestly determine as in the sight
of God, who was worthy to come into pO,-session
of this valuable property. Let them look first at
the property itself—the soul, the soul. Besides
being animal, they were spiritual. When a man
committed a crime, they did not blame the body,
or the auhual; but the soul, or the spiritual in
him. They may call it mind, or spirit, or will, or
reason, even as the sea that washed various con-
tinents had various names. It included all these.
The soul touched the highest point of the uni-
verse. Nature ministerial to nature, but nature
could not feed the soul. The fish, and fruits, and
animals, could not contribute to the being of the
soul. All flesh was grass, and all grass was dust,
and the dust nature of man must descend to the
dust world, but the soul could not be destroyed,
and therefore must live. "We are dust and
Deity," said a great poet. That was true. They
must turn into reality the great fact that they
had a soul. Did they ever hear how Fichte awoke
the consciousness of those who were listening to
him? He pointed to the white wall. "Gentle-
men," said he, "I want you to think the wall.
Have you thought the wall? Now think themes'
that thought the wall." To do that was. to real-
ise to themselves their souls. And that soul had
au let ernal duration of existence. The year should
end, and should roll out into the dark ocean of
the ages, but the SOW should live on. The sea-
sons would roll; the chills of autumn, and the
sleet of winter, the sunshine of summer, and the
glories of spring would combine in twining their
chains of wild flowers around the world, but the
soul Shutild live on. Kingdoms, populous and
mighty, should rise, flourish, decline, and pass
away with their theatres, temples, trophies, arches,
and towers, but the soul should live on. Lifting
the telescope, he looked away into the darkness of
night and fancied he could see the conflagration
of expiring worlds, but his soul should live though
planets should be kindled, and planets or constel-
lations should expire. So much for the estate.
ILe would now direct their attention to the claim-
ants, and one of them was, MS he had said, Satan,
or the Prince of this World. Ile had no right to
the soul. He was the enemy of the being who
created it. All he wanted, to do with it, if he
could but win it, was to bring it to a condition of
eternal ruin, and that he may carry out his dia-
bolical design, ho scattered broadcast ever the
eitate, the weeds of scepticism, error, and vice,
a id were those grew the prospect was terrible in
the extreme. Christianity had blessed the lives
of all who had believed in it, but scepticism had
blighted the souls of all who had come under its
influence. Sceptics did not object to their chil•
dress following the example of Jesus and could
they tell him of any who, when the happy child
sung sweetly of the love of the Saviour, dare
whisper to her, " My daughter, the Bible is not a
true book; Jesus Christ was a deceiver, and can-
not help you." Sceptics were not anxious to re-
ceive the holy and virtuous faith of their children
in Christ. Lord Barrington asked Mr. Collins
why he an unbeliever, sent his servants to church,
and he had this reply. "I send them to church
to prevent them robbing or murdering me." Mr.
Wilmot, a sceptic, when dying, laid his trembling
hand upon the Bible, and exclaimed solemnly and
with unusual energy, "The only objection to this
book is a bad life. It was even so. Dionyeius
causing some musicians to play before him, pro-
mised them a, great reward if they played a long
time. They obeyed his behest and expected the
reward. Judge of their surprise, when they were
told in answer to their demand for payment, that
they were paid already, since they had had the
honour of playing before hint And, so Satan
holds out vain hopes to those he would fain bring
into the way of death. It may be that there was
a sceptic there that afternoon. God loved them,
and he was willing to give them grace to pull uy
that evil by the root from their hearts, so that
the future of their lives might be holy, happy,
and blessed. Satan delighted in producing in the
soul false notions about God. Ile (the speaker)
did not care who the man was if he regarded God
in any other character than that of a loving
Father, that man had false notions about God.
I The will of God was that men should be happy,
and he was prepared to say that there was no hap-
piness apart from God. It was some time before
he could bring himself to believe this, and why
Because of the sour faces and gloomy countenances
of certain individuals he knew as a boy, who
styled themselves christians. But when he knew
what christianity really was, he found that sour
tempers and gloomy countenances had no more to
do with christianity, than a piece of chalk had to
do with the making of cheese. If ever they saw
a man with a face as long as a draper's yard
measure calling himself a christian, they might
decide at once that he was not 20 miles from the
asylum or the gaol. And then as to the so-called
happines Satan gave—what was it. He asked
them to listen to the following extract from a book
written by one of the most eminent statesmen of
onr time, in which he described a passage in the
lives of one or two fashionable men :

"I never go anywhere, everything bores me
so.
"We!!, will you go to Epsom with us to•mor..
row, Alfred? said Lord Fltzheron.
"I feel used tip, add that's a fact, exclaimed
Alfred.

"it will give you a flip, said Mr. Berners ; do I
you all the good in the world.
"Nothing can do me good, said Alfred, throw-
ing away his almost untasted peach. I should be j
quite content if anything could do me harm. '
Waiter, bring me a tumbler of Badminton.
"And bring me one, too, sighed Lord de Pere."
Both Vad exhausted life in their teens; and all
that remained for them was to mourn, amid the
ruins af their reminiscences over the extinction of
excitement. And, again, in another place :
' " I vote we three do something to-morrow, said
Bertram.