Delaware weekly Republican. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1841-188?, 1857-11-05
APOSTOLIC PREACHING.

The apostles were content to preach only
what are doctrinal disconrses. In the texture
| both of their sermons and epistles, they woye
| up doctrine and duty together. These were
mingled as the woof and warp Of that loom,
| where the flying shuttle weaves the sail with
| which men catch the winds Of heavens, and
impel the bark onwards to her desired haven.
| We see these in the inspired preachers coming
down to the common business and practical
duties OF life-dewn from the throne OF God
| from the heights Of the cross--from regions of
such high speculation, that Peter owns him
self to have lost sight of Paul, just as in SUM
ner nay, when watching the lark as she arose
from the dewy grass, we have seen her mount
up on untiring wings till she became mere
dark speek upon the blue sky, and then, al
| though her song still came ringing down, van
ished from our field of vision. From heights
so lofty, the men who were moved by the Holy
| Ghost descended to expatiate on the most
| common topics that belong to practical piety.
| They taught masters how TO rule, and servants
how to work. They taught husbands how to
love, and children bow to obey. They laid
down rules for bishops table. They no more
thought it beneath their dignity to tell young
women how to attire their heads and dress
their hair, than 10 warn yonng men to g lee
! youthful lusts.' They lifted mp their warning
against the sins OF ordinary life. They raised
| beacOns on every quioksand and sunken rock
| They bnoyed out the channel of salyation.-
| Describing with downright plainness those
fruits of tho flesh which exclude from the king
dom, they did not sacrifice Gods truth, hl-
man virtue, and precious souls upon the altar
of a false and spurious delicacy. They went
in among corruption, like the sunbeam which
shows it, hut suffers no faint through the con-
tact. Descending from the lottiest TO the low
liest subjects, theirs was the course OF the angie
which, now on cond-cleaYlng wing, mounts
upwards, soaring out Of sight, and now sweeps
down to brush the heather, or settle in her
rocky nest. Overlapping all the laws Of spu-
rions delicacy, theirs was the noble spirit OF
the Roman. Men placed him at the bar OF his
country. They charged him with violation
of her laws. Fresh from the fight, covered
with the blood of battlefield where he had
led his country's armies to victory, he replied
-'s have broken the law, but j have saved
the State.'' And could /, by Gods blessing
save sinner, could pluck some perlshlng
one from ruin, and could successfully warn
that young man OF young woman who, alum
conscious OF their danger, are drawing near
the brink of destruction, would throw deli
cacy to the winds, saying, have broken ITS
laws but have saved Il soul.
With what plainness OF speech did Paul warn,
with what truth and tenderness did he plead
He looks on sinners az trembling mother on
her rash boy, when hanging half way over some
beetng cliff, he stretches down his hand TO
pluck from the rock its wild and withering
lowers. sf As my beloved sons" Paul cries,
" / warn you." He exhorts Timothy to rebuke
Gin season and ont of season." He eschews
those general denunciatiOns OF sin that are as
little felt as general confession { it are that
little things with broad blunt points, neither
pierce the skin nor penetrate the sore. The
apostle enters in particulars. One by one,
name by name, sin by sin, he writes out, on
several occasions, the long black catalogue OF
| prevailing vices And in these, as II, like the
poisoned garment that stuck to Hercules, 1t
could not pluck from the body Of humanity,
this vice of drunkenness--the sin, the shame,
| the weakness of our nation. The world knows
| that. Other nations taunt us with that. NOT
| do scenes at home allow me TO forget the
strange, but stinging remark of foreigner VINO
said--ss II is a blessed thing for the world that
1 you Anglo-Saxons are q drunken race. sueil
the world. .'h-GNthrie. =" 'Ana---aus