Litchfield enquirer. [volume] (Litchfield, Conn.) 1829-current, 1851-07-31
ADDRESS :.

Temples to he honor of the Deity, are the
offspring of the religious sentiment. In all
+ countries. elevated even little above Daroa'
risn, men have no sooner begun 10 worship
than they have tuilt sancsuaries, and coIiSe-
Grated them to religious uses; under general
belief that the Deity, invoked by prayer and
sacrifice, W, uld manifest Himself there i'll u
peculiar manner. The Jews paid their reli
gious homage at the Tabernacle first, and at-
| forwards in the gorgeous Temple on Mount
! Moriah. The Greek, desiring response from
Apollo, sought it at the cave of Delphos; or
had he favor to ask of the hunter goddess,
where should he expect it. but at the shrine OF
the great Diana OF the Ephesianss Men Of
violence in the middle ages--knights and war.
riors stained with crime-could have plenary
absolution nowhere but at the holy sepulchre; ;
ami hence their long and painful pilgrlmageS
IS to seek in Golgotha Him dead who lives IN
Heaven = and at the present day, the plous
papist-pious according to his hgh1s-who
has q special boon to ask of the VII gin Mary,
must consult her at Loretto; or, if his infrm-
ties or his poverty forbid the pilgrimage, at
one of the thousand affairs and statues nearer
at hand, whore her marble feet are literally
kissed away by the lips of do"ting devotees
This propensity to localize the Divine Be-
ing, and crcumscribe within limits Him whom
the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain,| anu
induce Him there to give favorable response
to prayer though derived originally from the
Jewish economy Of religion, which, for tempo
rary and special reasons, made Jerusalem and
the Temple the centre OF worship anu the
place tor the Diva manites alton has long
outlived the exigency which gave 1t birth,
though so signally renuktd Ivy the Author OF
the spi> itua covenant under which We live.
He better under stand how little the Deity re.
CARDS the accideuth circumstance OF mere To-
cality in TIE ma ter ot accel table worship
and when we now bu:ld aud on ccrate to spr-
itual uses IL temple Of the living God, we Go 1t
in full mlndiulness Of his own declaration on
This suite $50 Tie Euur coutth when ye
shall neither in he mountain Of S"m"ra, n"r
yet ut Jerusalem worship the Fa'' or. lie
hour cumeih. AID now Is, hen tie itn VIZ
shippers shall worship tie I .hc = I tt
ana IN truth tor the ia lie, srct' Ia such 10
worship HIM thus distinctly !mplJ hS th"t
it matt ered not where, but low, the homage
was rendered.
Apurt, however, from the consideration, that
the Deity is as truly present IN enc place as
another; and independently Of the practical
use Of temples, W her Q the faithful Can meet for
sc al pray er and the hearing OF the word ;
there are reasons founded in the nature OF
man and tie constitution of the human mind,
why he should seek communion with God IN
localities separated from all other uses, and
constclafed to that particular purpose, and
at stated times devoted in a similar manner
1t is an invariabie law OF our nature, that
external objects become suggestive OF sent~
ments and emotions when they have been
once experienced together; and the ottener
this ext crience is repeated, the more indlsso-
luble does the bond become by which they are
nulted. 1t matters not what may be the M
ture Of the emotions they may be religious
or pI oinnce, v!rtuOus or evil: whenever, anu
IN the sight Of, or associated with, whatever
objects they have been once experienced on
rtv,s,t.hg thai locality, after the 1ntervenfloh
;.,t,t llIN hIf
the same en.uti, us return. Memory awaHes
| II ON her lum2 s,ulnher i'll her cell, and rene" S
b, a>srcIatrn the main of thoughts and feel
uus formerly tXperit need, whether secular or
holy, plcasurnb OF painful. This law "t our
,M,u,e is ,xtml fed in the every Gay to OF
every .naI,, though he mny never think OF H.
or IN fac, know an, thing about it. We re-
VISIT with reluctance the spot where we nave
suffered pain; iucnuse tie memory O1 tne
suffering Is revived by the presence OF the
lj,cts " hch witnessed it. The restored pa
Ia ut cannot tell. perhaps, why, on entering
AGAIN the chamber where he once lay pros
| rate for We ks IN sleepless misery the images
of his suffer- crowd on his memory yet so
It is Even sounds, like the warbiing OF n
bird Of peculiar sung, or II SIMPLE tune fam'l'
lar IN ehIldhood. heard again after the lapse
Vt yea. $. and perhaps in distant land. IN
SANITY trans port the mind back to the scenes
of youth and not only SO. but renew for the
time the emotions Of youth. :,
And So in regard to emotions purely rell-
gious and reverental They glow most vivid.
~ in rlaces where they have been eXpericn-
ced before, and are excited anew by the pres
ence of the same objects. No reverept mind
can entcr a church in which he has heen ac-
customed to unite with others in the oftlces OF
devotion, without feeling that this is the house
of Col, and that he is III the presence oI goa ;
| and for this, if for no other reason, should
| there be places hallowed and set apart for
PRAYER il is not that G cd is more truly pres
ent there than any where else: but that the
heart is more susceptible Of spiritual infuen-
ces when surrounded by the mementos OF for
mer piety. ,,,..
known to us only by description, either IN
narrative or through representations made by
the pictorial art, are SO capable of awakening
the trains of sentiment and emotion with which
they are allied, that when the originals come
to be seen, the corresponding emotions are
called into being. The spectator, staining for
the FIRST time ON the field OF Marengr ana
Waterloo and conyers mt only with the hlsto
nv of the tragedies there enac ed, sees moth
ing before him but the raging OF the battle
the serried lines of warriors, the charge, the
retreat, the victory hears nothing but the
thunder of cannon, the clash Of sabres, and
the means of the dying. The power OF a
mys,erious association at work in his mind
and the sight merely of the felt beneath his
eve, suggests whole host Of "reminiscences
connected with the spot
Wnen Tor the first time in his life, he en-
tiers the Cathedral, solemn, vast and - din
with religious light" ani gazes around and
nm ward at the cfumbllng sta ues OF Emlerors
c and Prelates, and Stored windows and el"s
tered ,iIlars, snI r.bbtd arches spring'ne
aloft does he involuntarily excl i'm: = How
dreadful is this place." and feel his spirit
awed into q reveicntal homage Because
apart from the embodyment before him OF the
sublime conceptions OF the architect" 1t ;,
i the House Of God and the gate OF Heaven
, that dedieated no " all the guds'--impresses