Weekly hawk-eye and telegraph. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa) 1855-1857, 1857-05-13
Henry Ward Bcech.r About Isuphinr

Ill IEE4Ca
The New York Pos, Of Monday. the Goth.
says:
In his sermon yesterday mornin.. Rev.
Henry Ward i5eccher coutrasted the seryile,
cruuei,ing Worship OF God, with cheerful. con-
fding worship. The mind may be iniinenc-
ed By fear. by emotions. by yeneration, bY
sense ofInfniieneas and beauty by the sym
pa.lties. or beneroiencc and love But these
are not alike desirable although it is better
To be touched by the lowest than rot ut all
The earliest feelings towards God was that
of fear, and this is most universal The fear
God is OF two kinds-one belongs to gem
circus feelings the other is Il shrinking from
something that is doubtful or terrible The
cronching sersi!e fear of God, not only de-
bases God, but degrades the man who acts
under il; for fear, az a general thing, never
WORKS upon the inner nature towards good
ness but only upon the outer towards eor-
duct a man wIlo thus fears, is like the
man who should go to the Polar Sea think
wrong train, with the wrong engineer, and
instead of leading to life, the road leads to
death. There is no gospel in it.
There are many who think this seryie fear
is sign of grace. They are miserable with
/
shrinking awe, is popularity understood as
worship. To be religious with persons en-
tertaining it, is to exercise this homage
this crouching as a slave in the presence of
his master This is the religion of the Rom
ish church, and though Professionalism has
abandoned its forms, it has not abandoned
its spirit.
He did not ridicule this spirit in its place
h,t a. E,t- ~.
be- There are churches which are built in
obedience to this spirit, with gloomy walls Of
stone and coffin colored pews, which remind
one his last narrow resting place. the win
dows are darkened to shut out the light Of
heaven; and those, building such churches
depend upon the deep, solemn music, rolling
heavily along the shaded and gloomy aisles,
to impress the mind with sense of awe.
Awe is precisely what it is j, it is not wor-
ship-it Is awe and nothing more. And the
man who yields TO these influences, and is
impressed with the sepuichral gloom Of the
place when he goes out of the church draws
| long breath, breathes freely once more, and
thinks himself as good @ Christian rs the
rest a,#.
Such worship is always narrow. 1t is not
to see Christ smiling and saying II call you
Ifiehos, cone uhtO me IN every time OF need.
Railways sent SILVER over him to enter such
church. "There are thousands said the
| speaker, "who would be shocked to hear me
| talk as do about it, but | cannot help it
Your God is a jailor; my God is Father y
One Of the greatest obstacles minister
lad to contend with is this spirit of seryie
fear Men think that in order to be con
verted they must go through the Inferno, as
Dante did; they must snuff the birthstone.
| He regretted thatmen should be so mean and
| groveling in their thought, and not be will.
| ing to come to God as friend and father.
| The reverend gentleman said that minis
ter who should study to make an audience
laugh by q poor pun or IL joke, was not tit tc
enter the pulpit. Butt spontaneous smile
arose from the audience, he was notdiSturb
ed. He never ATTEMPTED to make them laugh
| neither did he try to stop them Laughing
| he thought, was just as good as crying and
Il good deal better Cheerfulness is ci,tsrac
teristic OF Christianity 5s.-...-....5
| 1t there were present any conscientious
liars in quest Of Il paragraph, he should ex
pect to see it going the rounds of the consci
entious religious press, that he said people
should go to church to laugh; but he called
the audience to witness that it would lie lie
he had said no such thing.