Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1858-03-30
ouR CITY CHURCHES.
Religious Services ut Several Of them Sunday
and Yesterday.
DY REV. MR. DODGE.


mon from text embodying perhaps as much
as any other, the interests incident to the pres
cnt great awakening in religion throughout the
country. 1t is found in Luke, 9th chap. & 26th
verse-reading:
s.For whosoever shall be ashamed Of me aud
of my words, of him shall the Son of Man be
ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory,
and in his Fathers, and of the holy angels
The remarks of the Rev. gentleman were
foreshadowed in a very appropriate prayer and
in the hymn commencing
''rm not ashamed to my LOrd,' sc.
After the reading of the text the speaker
opened his remarks by the query, as to what
there was in the person-the life, or teachings
of Christ, that that men should be ashamed of
him 1t was fact that such feeling very
prevalent, and had ever been. In the earlier
ages, succeeding the Christian Era, men had
stunned the confession of his name and his pre-
Icepts because he had died criminal-sutfered
Ian ignominious death. While almost all adj
United that he was n gooG man-that his doc
drines were pure, there was the humiliation that
the author of them had died with the thieves
upon the cross. Even in the days of the Savior,
he was Stunned by the masses. The Jewish
Rabbi and people tmistrusted and ignored him
! because they could not reconcile his low estate
to his PretcnsionS; because he came as u carpen-
ter-mangcr born-and a NaZarene-inStead
of coming clad in the glories of Solomon. Ma
ny men then, too, as now, believed but would not
! confess him. NicodeInus came coyertly bynight
to visit and take council with him. Even his
own immediate followers were not proof against
public opinion. Peter denied him and the other
disciples forsook him in his trying hour fled;
and SO TO this day he is i'll the eyes of the world,
"a root out of dry ground" Men always have
valued outward show; they value the Diamond
for that quality-for its glitter; and when his
contemporaries looked at the style of the Savior
his tha fishermen who his
attendants, they were ashamed to give counte-
nance to his teachings Now, at this day, his
doctrines meet with the same repulse which
once fashionable against his person: be-
cause, i'll both cases, humiliation was necessary.
Illumination was the first step TO be a Christian
and men. dreaded that step. Doubtless there
were persons present tonight who would be
ashamed to let people think they were devo-
tional. The Rev. gentleman related feelings of
the kind which had once obtained in his own
heart when in the presence of religion.
Men are not ashamed to be known BIAS
phemers-to be heard in the act; nor are many
in high and low places ashamed to concoct in
iquity-lay immoral schemes; yet are they
ashamed to be found among the people of God,
or patronizing sacred things. Even those who
went to the clOset-who were praying people,
very often started if ashamed if noise was
heard fsome one approaching. Why was this!a
Men did not start when they were standing in
the way of sinners. Many of them gloried in
sin. He had known cases of persons who glO-
ried in the invention Of curious-new V. tangled
and hideous oaths; men who bragne6 a,,a
boosted how often Iney mad been intoxicated
and how much liquor they could stand.
The cause of all this was found in the de-
lpravity of the human heart.
| The speaker thought he discovered here and
there in his audience those upon whom con-
science had been at work. Twas now the time
when the influence of religion was being felt
everywhere. There was a greatrevival through
out the land The present awakening was not
a mere excitement, as that word was generally
understood Twas true there was excitement
there need for it-no soul could be CONVEX
ted to God without being first excited at its
situation.
Why should not men turn away from their
| sins Twas no disgrace for the child to repent
and ask pardon of its parent Neither was it
for us to do so, when we had trespassed against
propriety. How then could it he thought !.
shame for sinners to turn tn God? Is it n shame
to be good, to be honest, SOBER moral, religious:
Was it n shame TO live purely, uprightly? Was
1T shame to try to win heaven with all its Bliss
Was 1t shame TO try to escape hell and it's
IcompanionshIp with devils and damned? Surely
not.
Turning away from this view of the question,
the speaker alluded to the great counterpart
OF all these notions OF shame and lunnlia-
ton which would obtain at the Second Advent.
Then Christ will come clad in the power, pomp,
and splendOr of heaven: then would these no
tons OF ours about high and low, rich and poor,
great and humble all be reversed. The Mile
mum would he great reversal of earthly usa-
gees. Then would be addressed to those who
had refused the ovcrtureS of grace, those words
to HIN (the speaker,) the most terri e in the
Bible: VIZ:
"Because have called and We refused: have
stretched out my hand, aud no man /, .;arded:
'Ie have set at nOught all my couscl, aud
would none of my reprooE will also hugh at
your calamity, | viii mock when ,uur fear
cometh.
'When yonr fear comcth as desolation, and
your destruction cometh on whirlwind; when
distress and anguish cometh upon yo"
The speaker, in conclusion, considered those
mercies of pardon and redemption offered
Through Intervention of the Savior and the in
Iducements which the Gospel held out. Religion
was beautiful aud attractive. 1t embraced the
beauties and purities of life. There we're no
such morals elsewhere. There was not a throne
nor place, nor distinction that held out such
lasting attractious-su promises, rs the pro-
fcsSion of Christian. How, then, and why,
should men be ashamed?
Ashamed ofJesus! Yes may,
! When Pve guilt away,
NO tears TO Wile-no good