The Express.
London, England, 1864-04-04 00:00:00

THE SPECIAL SERVICES. .AT WESTMINSTER

ABBZY.

Yesterday evening the first of the series of special
sorrier at Westminster Abbey took place in the presume
of an immense congregation, belonging chiefly, as it seemed,
to the middle chases the throng being so great that num*
ben of persons, unable to obtain even standing room except
on the very threshold of the abbey, where it must have
been impossible to hear, went away disappointed. The
service commenced at seven o'clock, and, with the sermon,
occupied about an hour and three-quarters. The arrange-
ments generally for the accommodation of those assembled
were the same as heretofore, and, but for frequent draughts
of cold air, which appear inseparable from such buildings,
there would have been no lack of adequate com-
fort. Prayers were read by the Rev. J. Flood
Jones, minor canti and/the lessons by the Rev. E. Nepean,
canon. The anthem wee the " Hallelujah Chorea," the
effect of which, reverberating through the vast interior of
the abbey, was marked by grand solemnity. The well-
kaown Easter Hymn commencing, " Jesus Christ is risen
to•day," also formed part of the service. The sermon waa
preached by the Dean of Westminster, Dr. Stanley, from
the following words in the 14th chapter of St. John's
Gospel, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." Every
Christian congregation, the preacher said, in commencing,
may, from time to time, be well asked this question, "Why
are 'we Christmas, what is the value of Christianity to us
and to the woesld. and what should we loss if we
lost hir Jesus Christ, nothing short of Jesus Christ,
and nothing beyond Him; He himself, his mind, his
spirit, his living person is the essence of Christianity.
Many answers might be given to the question, but he coo-
fined himself to these three, which Christ himself recorded
through hie beloved disciple, became He was " the way,"
because He was " the truth," because He was " the life."
First, He was " the way." 0 for one glimpse of the light
which would show them where to turn amid the labyrinth of
oontroversy, and in the dark domain of contradictory human
opinion ! 0 for a bright, open, straight road, where they
could walk aide by side, without being exposed to the
piercing bleats of doubt, and hatred, sad scorn sweeping
into their faces, and forbidding onward progress I Even
of those who had each some peculiar way to show
them, all agreed that Christ was the way which
next to show own they would most prefer. He
was the way through the roads of controversy. Be the
' country ever so bewildered, be the city ever so divided, be
the church ever so distracted, them was at least one way
which was clear and bright, and that was the way of Jesus
Christ. He reeembled OW of those mighty roe& by which
the Romans swiped their vast empire, and bound province
to provisos and nation to nation. Such a road, such a way
—a tea dolorosa, but also a Me oaera ; a via crisis, but also
a via funs, • way cemented with blood and watered with
tears hot still direct, obvious, all-embracing,
the very highway of the world, the very highway to God,
was the way of their Saviour Jesus Christ. Throughout the
conflicts and divisions of earth had every church known him,
and yet He Wormed to none—rather He belonged to ell,
by his Spirit, by his work. end by union with Rim. He
was the one way along which they could pass with friends
and foes alike onwards to their eternal home. He was the
way by which God descended to man ; for He was not only
the likeessa of what man ought to do, but the likeness also
of what God was, He who had known Christ had knewa
the Father, his love, his justice, his mercy, his forgiveness,
were no lees than those of God. Christ was the truth as
well as the way. He was all truth—that is to say,Fle was
all truthfulness, all reality, all sincerity. 0 what a word of
hope was that to many a vexed spirit, to many an inquiring
soul or this generauon. If there were any present who had
devoted themselves to science ; if these were any
them who were students, in any muse, of science
in nature, science in language, seisms in his
tory, and science in theology—if there were any in whom
truth seemed to be the leading pole star of their lives, be
they there, or be they far away from church
or abbey, they were conaciously or unconsciously,
' willingly or unwillingly, labouring in the service of Him
who is " the truth." As many as loved the truth might
come to Him without fear, for He was theirs and they were
Hit. They might come to Him, not becsum he taught
scientific truths, bet because He was " the truth." He
cams into the world that He might bear witness of the truth,
and He had declared that if any one knew the truth it
should "make him free." These words were the very focus
of all true searching. after knowledge. That
humility wherewith he entreated us to become as
little children, that calm " petiolate " wherewith
he bid us to " possess our souls," that " perfect
love" which in his true disciples " cast out" all " fear,"
except the fear of sin—these formed the very atmosphere in
which all philosophic study, all scientific research, all sound
isquity, lived, and grew, and flourished ; in which every
false pretension, every uncharitable judgment, every pious
' fraud, died and vanished away. Let them remember that
the eine against which the invectives of Christ's divine indig-
nation were levelled were not basest error or doubt, but
double-minded or worldly selfishness and religious hypo-
crisy. Those were the evils which He most ab-
horred. He condemned every artifice, and let it
be remembered that every fresh fact painfully
and honesty discovered, every old fact truthfully and
intelligently explained, was but another awaking of the
child of Bethlehem, another stone placed by reverend bands
on the cairn of Golgotha, another witness to "the truth as
it is in Jams." He was " the way ;" He was "the truth r
He was also "the life." Not only was He their example,
their teacher, their sacrifice, He was the life, the seal,
the spirit, the animating source of yeograr and ad-
vancement in all things wise and holy among the
race of man. He was the seam of all the charitable
establishments, of all the good deeds known and neknown,
of all the free institutions, pure literature, and true
philosophy peculiar to Christian nations ; He was the
essence and substance of that light which " lie:teeth every
man that cometh into the world." Centuries had rolled
away since the words of Christ were uttered, and yet they
seemed as though they were jest spoken, so wide was their
wisdom, so fresh their charity, so unbounded their novelty,
so unexhausted their aspirations. Christ was the life of the
world ; let Him be also, at least in some measure, the life
of their own homes, the life of their own hearts.
At the conclusion of the sermon, which was listened to
throughout very selectively, the congregation was dis-
missed with the usual form of words