The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1869-07-20
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in the walls of our houses, but at home In
life, at home with men, at home in the world,
at home in God.
Do seem to any one TO lay rough hand
on the finer sentiments of life when say
that we are to outgrow our dwelling places?
In reply to such let me ask, Is it not the
grand inspiring aspect of human life that we
are to outgr0w much OF our experience?
That our experience Is to this very end, to
educate us above itself, and give us new and
nobler views of life and being? Do grieye
that have outgrown the homestead? Do
mar the beanty Of any delicate sentiment when
/ say that no house attracts my attention
much, only the people that live in 1t. What
is all this kind ministry of time to assauge
past, but to give us the vantage OF new
thoughts purified of all local and limited acci-
dents? Is my relation to men, to persons,
to be damaged because my house is
dissolved? Is not that relation rath-
er to be purified and exalted by
outgrowing the house. No, / wrong no
fine sentiment when / teach that the tenden-
CIV of life IS to outgrow our dwelIing-place /
only reiterate what seem to me the promises
of God concerning us, that our experiences
shall rise higher and higher, seed becoming
blossom and blossom becoming fruit No
house that we can build will completely shell
ter us. This is no sentimentality, it is the
simple fact of our nature and experience
And 1t is for us to adapt ourselves, in the light
of reason and faith, to the fact.
q But our earthly dwelling-place furnishes an
intellectual and moral analogy higher that it,
self When we are young our thoughts are
local, narrow and small. We dwell in facts
and things. Principles have not yet dawned
on us. We are positive in our knowledge,
and hard in our Judgments We think that
we will have something fine, and that we will
have something strong. We dream not at
the beginning that the mind has subtle
chemistry that will dissolve all that II. can
not dwell in such habitation. bow stout we
were oncel What heaps of beliefs we piled upl
What ardent partisans! What jealous secta-
rians! What patrons of truth But ii our ex-
perience Is really increasing, if we are grow
ing, we have already outgrown those little
sW eet and happy homesteads of the mind
Our thoughts have gone abroad into the world
of men, and they can never be at home again
in the place where they were born. We are
larger than our party, truer than our sect, and
we would willingly serve The truth II she
would but condescend to take us under her
protection! We feel as IL far-off wind bad
cleared our atmosphere, and the heavenly
blue, without cloud or vapor, bent over US
from horizon to horizon. Our prejudices, our
personal dislikes, than which nothing on
earth seemed stronger, how small they seem
and unequal to our feelings and convictions.
A general federation comes in the larger
d dwelling-place OF our minds, and we like peo-
pie who are different from ourselves who
think differently, and whose education and
experience have not been parallel with our
own. People, humanity, human nature be-
come the supreme and emphatic aspect of the
world, and we believe in the world. and like
| it; and If anybody wonders at us Tor IL, we
| say, why shouldn't we like it and believe in
- ~ "a Ill. l. La -.
| shouldn't we? Ii he did not, be would not
keep it going so patiently. II he did not like
| it and believe in it; il he did not see the IN,
speakable glory OF moral universe, he would
have dashed it into black night ages ago. he
ought to have done it, he tooutd have done II; !;
any sentiment OF reluctant mercy would
have been immoral weakness, such as a moth
| er feels who has not strength enough TO send
| her child to the dentists because her senti-
| msnts are out of relation with her principles.
There Is a certain refining process in life,
| if we can only get out of our little east winds
of thinking and feeling, into the climate Of
| God. And as the clusters OF the vintage are
| flushed by gentle rays and genial ar, SO our
minds and hearts, our characters, are ripened
ii we viii only get into favorable location, The
| changes of our lot, the movement OF events,
| that mysterious effect and cause which we call
| experience, are all Provideutial arrangements
Il
steady peace OF mind and heart. When the
| great Hebrew says that God is his dwelling
place, he implies that the little habitations Of
| his mind have been outgrown, and thar he
has got on the Godward-side and heavenly
slepe of this world and human life. And this
| is the climax of all good experience. And if
/ man has come to that, care not whence he
has come. care not what novels or palaces
he has tried to live in. 1t is enough that he
L /. IS 10 fhOrrUbfc moi aQ-
commodate him, and offer large hospitality
| to God and men.
And this gives hint ofthe spirit and tenn
| per of religion and religious growth. 1t is
growth, maturing, ripening. There Is great
deal in the religious life OF individuals and So
ciety, that seems to me as kind of fuss, in
| stead Off patieut genial activity OF mind and
heart. An we kave to do really is to put our
| selves in Gods climate. You can't hurry the
mighty strength What changes it works
| upon the earth, transferring from barren, cold
| and desolation, to beauty and harVests and
| fruits! Let thy heart and mind reyolve with
| the year of God, and thy very being shall be
| changed, by little and little, thy cold and
| narrow thought shall become rich and bland,
and tolerant: thy bitter trials and griefs and
disappointments shall mature to fruits OF
luscious juices, and sweet affections shall grow
in the ere sices of the rocks. Thou shalt out
grow thy narrow dwelling and God shall be
thy habitation. ea
Since last stood here taking my leave of
YOU what events, what changes have passed
over the face of society," What teaching Of
instability, yet of the eternal steadinessi You
here, one ofthe Oldest cities Of the country,
whose foundations were laid in the early
historic days, have passed through calamity
which human Judgment beforehand wou;@
/ L. .a1 Ana
at mid- day, defying all check, taking no re-
4 buke ar bfndrance, the tyrant OF the hour,
laid the IN N in ruins. I, by provldential lot,
the 5en;ze,, of .. city three times laid in ashes,
vet rising afresh hv ~uehecked momentum oi
social force. am told Ia. s1 me neaYy ms S
fortunes of individuals here ave eurngS sS.o -
social good. Yonder upon the We Ilvs Iatast
| the city stands as poem by the sea, tn. -.
act of civilized man, and wonderful sugse-
| ton of the destinies of our earth. Amid all
change, there is a greater permanence; amid
all uncertainty there is eternal security; and
amid all the chances of the world, the king
dom of God wins.
The country convulsed by civil war, grows
quiet once again, and industry weaves her
mighty bands, and leads forth the shining
train of peace, and builds through valleys and
mountain gorges, and over impossible wastes
a highway for our God. And beneath. all
| fickleness of men, there is the deep slow
ground swell OF providential purpose.
But not only has the country and local So
ciety passed through great changes, yet show
| ing the eternal permanence; individuals have
also felt the changes that are part OF the
teaching OF hr man life, and an item in allthe
inventory of human experience AS stand
here, face to face once more, with not one tie
OF personal respect or friendship damaged by
weather, or cut by dire necessity, call to
mind those who have passed through the
browning experience OF human lite, TO the
clearer sight OF the moral and spiritual world.
Mr.. Charles S. Daseis was Christian gen.
tleman OF native elegance and refinement
No man that ever stood in this pulpit can lor-
get his mild and tender eyes.
Capt. John Williams when he came inlo
church never took his eyes off of me, and
seemed to attach too much TO Shat said A
cheerful man, greatly afflicted all his lite long,
yet who brought his sails into the wind and
came straight into port.
Mrs. Sarah Adams Day, a woman Of heroic
mould, yet womanly altogether; suffering,
with moral beauty whicl il displayed on
the conspicuous theatre OF events, would have
given her an apotheosis. IL
Mrs. julia Dearborn Clapp- bright sparkling,
witty, frank and open-hearted, who sala !ust
what she thought, and took 1t back again Just
as quick, If she saw it was wrong
Levi Morrell, whose Lame was synonymous
with all that was honorable, uprlgnt ana just.
Madam w inqate, whose vivacious glrihood
never left her. and whose talk carried you
hack m tbe days OF Washington.
T.ho n Carroll whose heart was