The Portland daily press., 1869-08-16
very pleasant interchange of greetings be-

very pleasant interchange Of greetings be-
tween the Doctor and his former parishionefs.
REV. GEORGE L. WALKER
One of Rev. Mr.. Walkers ablast sermons
was delivered to his old congregation at State
street Church yesterday morning. The text
was taken from Isaiah, LVIIIth chapter
portion of the 18th verse, 1.-THE repairer of the
breach" His first statement was that nature
in its origin was perfect, but that owing to sin
1t had become defaced and that the religion of
christ was meant as a restorer, in order to
bring man to his original nature as created. He
also went on to show that prayer alone, in the
morning, was inefficient. That the man must.
In addition, go out during the day and by
his works follow up his faith In other
words, faith must be conjoined with work"
A beautiful point was made in the statement
that man must permit himself to be repaired;
that carpenter in repairing an old house gives
the impression, to those who are ignorant of
his plans, that he is destroying instead of Gre
ating. That out of the dust, and turmoil, and
confusion, however, new beauties are constant
ly springing into llfe and old ones assuming a
more pleasing aspect and so with the nature
of the man who submits himself to the regen-
Grating influence of the Redeemer. Wereeret
exceedingly that we are compelled to make
such brief notice of SO fine sermon. After
\ the services, as at st. Luke's Church, there was
quite an enthusiastic greeting between the for
mer pastor and his old friends
REV. NIB ISRAEL
The Rev. Mr.. Israel, Of Wilmington, Del,
preached at the First Parish a most eloquent
sermon from the Epistle of James, lid chap
ter and 18th verse, "Who is wise man and
endued with knowledge among you, let him
show out of a good conversation his works
with meekness of wisdom" He began with a
short extract from Emersons lecture on the
method of nature, in which he showed truth is
always holy and holiness always wise. This
truth is in harmony with all revelation, and is
confirmed as true by the record Of the past
ages, and by the present, constant, conscious
teaching of the Divine spirit 1t is not gem
orally that holiness and intellectually are con-
| Joined in one character. BY God, soul and
| scripture they are COMBINED. BY correct in
| depreciation of the teachings of the Divine
| spirit there ever must exist an absolute and
| complete harmony between the mind of man
in its highest culture and the soul of man in
its hottest spirituality. Jobs eloquent an
swer to the question, "What is wisdom?' was
here cited. He then defined that good con-
versation, with meekness of wisdom, was a
state of holiness, its application to all the
forms and facts of revelation, and of science,
art and religion. Keeping this in view the
! preacher went on to show that the culture of
this Christian, philosophic spirit, so reverent,
| and earnest and honest, is the need of our
times. The conjunction of these elements of
holiness and intellectually enable man to
distinguish between the true and the false in
religion and regulate both faith and practice,
This was illustrated by several examples of de-
votion Another point was to distinguish be-
tween the true and the false in the practice of
religion. Some mems religion is judged by
their creed, others by their recognition of
| feasts and fasts, prayer, &c., and this was the
Pharasaic development of Christianity. The
| truly wise man at the same time sees that
practical piety is the same of all religion. The
truest, highest and fullest evidence of it is to
be found in the exercise of the spirit of love to
| God and all men, and the sum of the COM
| mandment is charity. The practical union of
intellectual strength and moral power enables
| the individual to retain and maintain all that
is true and useful in the old development of
religion, and to embace all that is new of the
same nature and quality.
Mr. Israel was listened to with great de-
light. He is man of great power, Of fine
| voice and rare Evolutionary ability, and his
reading of chapter of the Bible is equivalent
to good sermon.
| REV. e. n. CHAPLIN.
A very large audience was drawn to the Con-
gress Square Universaist Church yesterday
morning to listen to the Rev. E. Fl. Chaplin of
New York City. His discourse was taken from
Matthew 9th chap, 9Th verse: s'The faith of
the centurion" Wewere not fortunate enough
to hear this sermon, which we heard was spoken
of in the highest terms by all his hearers In
the evening there was another crowded congre-
cation, when Mr.. Chaplin preached from Luke
9th chap, 10th verse: "And as he prayed the
fashion Of his countenance was altered" The
first point which the speaker took up was the
fact that in whatever posture man puts himself
into communion with the Divine, he changes
| the fashion Of his human self and becomes
TRANSPORTED That there is always some ex-
preston in mans face or eye which lets you
| into the secret of his inner nature A liber-
| tines sensual thought, miser's greed at the
sight Of gold, become apparent by the express
sien that comes over the face at the sight of
that which excites their passions If, then,
these mere transitory events bring forth pre-
vailing characteristics, there are men. whose
lives shine forth in their appearance II men
| hon foo,
lives, humanity is TRANSPORTED by its religious
faith. Newton while searching the heavens for
discoveries is not so sublime spectacle as when,
his book finished, he offers up his thanks to God.
So when the vilest of the vile, the street cast
away, the off-scouring of depravty become
awakened to the sense of their sinfulness and
| put forth prayer to their Creator they are in
vested with regal dignity. He then deliver
ed beautiful rd-painting of the congresa-
tons gathered in country and city churches,
and said that when they are returning thanks
to their Creator the shadows of their mortality
disappear and they become TRANSPORTED. This
religious faith is the force that has had such a
| power over men from king to peasant, and is
an authentic instinct of the human soul, and
is closely allied to superstition. The act of
| prayer is the act of instinct. BY the very atti-
tude we adopt we show our religious faith We
must judge humanity not by its worst aspects
but by its grandest. Not by our elegant liber-
tines, our wax-headed tops, and our educated
| scoundrels, no matter how brilliant they NAV
be, but we must judge it by our best men. Men
whose lives attest in word and deed their worth.
The poor man, who dying had his single trust
in Christ, and had lived Christ taught life,
bore upon his death-bed an Importance that far
outrivalled the hearse of Napoleon rumbling
fhrouoh the straafs Of par;s orox,-.,a1