Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1854-09-23

fon little church, too, tells OF rest
To all the summer air.
For the bell long since has ceased to peal
That calpd to praise and prayer.
But while stand mid these tall elns,
sound comes creeping near,
That falls like music heard in dreams
Upon my charmed ear;
Like music heard in dreams Of heaven,
That sacred sound doth steal
From where the old church aisles repeat
The organs solemn peal.
Now Heaven be praised gracious boon
Is this sweet to
How many shall this truth repeat
To-day o bended knee
How many weary heart it cheers,
How many aching breast:
Now Heaven be praised, gracious boon
Is this sweet Day of Rest!
LoRD's PRAYER.-Ths is an authentic
PRAYER which Christ set as model, not as
form. 1t is set before the human family. 1t
is the universal prayer. Besides its simplici-
ty, its depth, its comprehensiveness its mai
esty, there have gathered about this transpa-
rent model extensive interests. For now near
two thousand years, it has been the prayer of
all Christians. 1t was spoken by Christ. 1t
was remembered and used by the Apostles.
Their disciples adopted it. 1t became uni
versal PRAYER. 1t has lived both in the pure
and in the corrupt church. While the learn
ed and cultured felt its significance. and
breathedrit forth as part of their daily devo-
ton, the poorest laborers, the most ignorant
| Christian servants were also touched by it, and
| comforted 1t was imbedded into the con-
| glomerate liturgies of the church, and while
| in magnificent cities, and from the recesses of
grand cathedrals it was uttered by gorgeous
priests, amidst the smoke of incense, and
chanting choirs, it still retained its simplicity,
its Depth its spirituality. This sweet prayer
Law amidst the Romish ritual like some little
lake amidst mountains, piled up about it,
overgrown with rank luxurence, and full of
the pomp of the seasons, while the lake lay
TRANQUILITY rejecting heaven in its bosom.
But while cathedrals listened to it, so did
caves and dens of the earth, whittier fled
trembling and prosecuted Christians from the
wrath of corrupted hierarchs of corrupted re-
ligion. This prayer has served its benignant
purpose in all languages and under every sky.
Would you run eagerly to behold the spot
where some memorable battle was foughts
Would YOU turn aside and feel your heart
stirred when standing upon the spot where
Milton wrote his mighty epics Would you
feel the shadows of old days lowering about
| you, were YOU to stand in Luther's old church
| or university room Would you reverently
stand, as did, upon the place where Jona-
| thaii Edwards, missionary among the Stock
bridge Indians, wrote his mastery treatise up
on the Will All these are mental states
| most natural to noble natures that feel them
| selves spoken to and rebuked for their little
ness in every spot where some great heart has
lived and spoken to and inspired to heroism
in every place where great and imperishable
deeds have happened.
What then shall one feel in the presence of
this blessed prayers 1t is the Lords prayer.
1t has been the prayer Of the universal Church.
1t was this that our mother taught us. 1t was
the sacred sentences of this prayer that first
opened our infant lips with the language of
devotion. 1t is dear to our memory. 1t is
full Of the mists and budding desires of child
hood. 1t is perfumed with parents love. 1t
is full of suggestions of home, brother and
sister and mother. 1t was the eDening prayer.
When the sun had gone down, when shadows
stretched themselves forth more widely, when
the evening star hung silent over the horizon,
when evening insects were full of chirpings,
and the belated bat flung himself noiselessly
about for his food, then in the hush of the
day, Bonded before mothers knee, with lit
tie hands innoeently put together, and held in
hers, with stanmering repetition we echo with
our child voice, the soft, low voice of moth
er as she uttered with love and awe this di-
whist prayer.
1t is, therefore, as sacred as use, as love, as
memory, as devotion, as the hope of heaven,
and the love of goodness can make it No
using will wear it away. 1t is like the atmo-
sphere. Stones crumble under continual foot
steps, the hardest wood will wear under the
softest hands that do ply it for years but one
may rush through the air for ever, and ID can
not be chafed or worn. 1t has recovering
force like tabled spiritual natures, when
wounded, with insant power to heal itself.
And like that ethereal, sun-ht atmosphere is
this divine prayer, that remains fresh in ever
lasting youth; no uttering can make it trite,
no frequency can wear it out, no REPETITION
can tire the soul of it. 1t begins life with us,
it goes through life, dearer at every period;
ana when age begins to shiver and tremble
among our decaying boughs, this is that
which, like the damsel sought out for by Da-
vid, lies in our bosom, and lends us warmth,
and breathes another life into our decaying
life Henry Ward Beecher.
ORIGIN OF EyIL-1 Without committing
ourselves to the theological statements of this
article, we give place to it for its ingenuity.
1t does not touch, however, the underlying
question, Whence or how comes sin itselff]
''Ihe sole origin of evil is sin.
Sin is an unnecessitated act OF naked power.
Evil is the effect; it is necessitated by sin,
and only by sin; it has not, never had, never
can have any other cause, except only as
major can cause minor, a greater evil can
cause less.
Necessity determines whether an act be
sin or an evil: if necesstated, it is evil; if
not, it is sin; effects have no moral turpitude
whatever, and cannot be visited with moral
penalties.
Depravity can be nothing but an effect
Propensity is nothing less nor more than an
effect.
Therefore they are evils, not sins, not NOR
ally wrong, not moraasy punishable. s
When an effect has reflex power to cause
| its own cause: when an unnecesstated act of
| naked power can be necessitated, then, and