The daily press. (Cincinnati [Ohio) 1859-1859, 1859-05-02
Inaugural Sermon at the Free Church,
bv Rev. NJ. ID. Conway.

bv Rev. NJ. ID. Conway.
Our readers are already aware that the seces-
sion from the Unitarian Society has resulted in
the establishment of Free Church, which is
under the pastoral care of RSt, NJ. D. Conway.
The inaugural sermon was preached yesterday
at the chapel, corner of Fourth and Race
streets, to the largest congregation we ever saw
in the house.
Mr.. o., in an introduction, spoke of the
difficulty which had recently occurred, and
the victory they had gained, and also of him
self; of the charges which had been brought
against him, and said he had not been sur
prised, that the cost had been counted before
hand, and that the triumph was not his, but
was that of principle. He then passed to his
discourse, and opened it by saying that as
days, seasons and years had their different
periods, and astronomers had detected one
also in the solar system, so also the same could
be found in the religious nature of man, and we
were now approaching that one which should
pass us from the night of superstition to the
glowing twilight that heralded the dawn of
reason.
The childhood of the world was like the
childhood of man, full of high hopes, dreams
and visions Of beauty and of good in the fu-
ture' Then came in after life their realiza-
tion. Away far off in the East had arisen the
sun OF r'iigion, and as it advanced toward the
West like ne glorious orb above our heads it
would grow brighter and brighter, until here
it would at length shine upon us in the full
blaze # its noontide splendor The earth had
passed from its boyhood and the dreaming
youth to toiling manhood, and we were here to
write Arabian tales and Hebrew prophesies in
iron and marble. The ancient cities in the
East only gave promise of what would be in
the West. Solomons temple at Jerusalem. il
had been proven, was shanty compared to st.
Peters at Rome, and Nineveh and Babylon
and Tyre would be swallowed up by London.
or Paris, or New York. Bagdat was but n
dream, of which Chicago was the reality: and
when it was said in Isaiah that the wa.to
places would be made glad, it only meant tbot
the fruit was foreshadowed in prophesy then.
which now has to be perfected by toll. su-
perstition had already given way to science
and what was astrology and alchemy in the
past, were astronomy and chemistry in the
present. Plato had written Republic, but
America had reared one.
1t was time now, said the speaker, that
these dreams had been forgotten and that wo
had begun to act. A religion of forms and
ceremonies had given way to one of reason.
and from Jewish carpenter-shop light
had shone which had transformed those hours
Of visions into days of toll. Creeds must
give way to deeds, and beliefs to realities.
Athanosius, and Luther, and Calvin who
burnt Servitus, had written their articles Of
faith, but what did they know of America,
her people and their wants? These were
useless to us now, and had pershed Were he
asked what is that which was called God. he
would answer, Principle, Truth, Duty, and
Christ he called Humanity. He would
acknowledge no Infdelity, but Inhumanitv,
and no Atheism save violation of Duty.
We have not attempted in this very brief alb
stract to give more than the most meager idea
of the discourse, which occupied in delivery
almost an hour and half, and was listened to
throughout with the deepest attention. The
interest in the establishment of this church is
daily increasing, and we doubt not that the en-
terprise will meet with all the SUCCESS to which
its lberality and the intellect, culture and
independence of its pastor are so much en-
titled.