Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1869-11-07
SERMON.
Preached by Rev. VIM. J. Ellis, Rec
tor of Christ Church, Nashville,
Sunday, Oct. 81, 1869.

SERMON,
Preached by Rev. VIM. J. Ellis, Rec
tor of Christ Church, Nashville,
Sunday, Oct. 81, 1869.
Prove all things-I Thes. V: 81.
The prophets of woe tell US that the
fountains of the great deep are broken up
and the world isgoingt to be flooded with the
black poisonous waters CT infdelity. Those
who think of the Moral Governor of the
universe that he is such being as that he
hates man whose logical faculties do not
work well, or who has been misinstructed
in some religious metaphysics, and hates
him so bitterly that He is going to make his
soul writhe in torment forever and ever,
may well think that the fountains of the
great deep are broken up. / am glad
they are. / anticipate, as the ultimate re-
suit of the general prevalence of earnest
and honest thought concerning God and
the human soul, brighter era than ever
before daWned upon the world. We live
in but the early dawn of this movement.
''God wOrketh slowly; thousand years
He takes to lay of his hand off, y and we
who cannot see tendencies npen into eff
fects. do not have confidence enough in the
beniicent action of the laws of the uni
verse, TO believe that, as men honestly give
themselves up to their investigation and
their obedience, the result viii surely be
beneficial to the race, however unpleasant
and threatening may seem the elements as
they gather for the storm. We live in but
the early dawn of this movement. Mephitic
vapOrs hang heavy in the air; lurid CLEANS
shoot athwart the horizon; black clouds
hang poised above us; the ground seems
TO tremble beneath our feet; and as, du-
ring the earthquakes in South Amer
lea, the multitudes would almost
crowd out the walls of the church
es to get into place against
which the wrath of their God did not
burn-so now, seeing that doubt and in
fidelity come from the exercise of their
intellectual faculties, men rush frantically
into the caves of superstition and bigOtry.
Men may keep their faithso, but donot
believe that it is worth keeping; they
may have the qualification of very sell
fish feeling they may die, in rapture, at
The thought of the bliss in store for them,
but reckon il quite as certain rs our fu-
turc existence that whatever pain and
and anxiety and doubt may result from
the honest, earnest use of our faculties,
yet he who goes TO the grave complete ia
his tolole being, having labOred well and
truly, TO use all the faculties which God
gave to him, will be better off Onthe other
side of the grave than the man who has
ever so much faith and ever 50 little rea-
son for IT,
effectively, l believe Christianity to
be true-subiectivel | believe it is OF
worth; that a mans faith does him good
only as il widens the mind mellows the
heart, cnnobles the principles and stea-
allies the viii Whatever makes us big
otcd, prejudiCed, or weakens the viii for
right conduct, win make our future con-
dition worse. As you value your soul,
fight against everything which tends TO
belittle it. As you feel sure that the Ruler
of the universe is a Being worthy of
your reverence, feel sure, also, that He
cannot bc mad with you, because, 10 you,
certain intellectual conclusions seem to
result from certain perceptions, which you
think you have-that it cannot displease
Him TO see you engaged in the honest, ear
3 nest use of your faculties on the very
highest subjects on which they can be
engaged; andthat ifyou just determined 20
- go it blind, - 10 refuse 10 think, to sub
nit your affections to the manipulations
of priest or to blind adhesion to
any set of dOgmas, you, of necessity, viii
hurt your soul, your spiritual constitution,
by doing so.
Some of the httlcst people / have ever
l seen were Christians-so TO speak; they
thought that God had special favor to
them, and regarded almost as a personal
insult the suppOsition that God would let
ANYBODY into heaven who did not agree
with them in theological opinion, and to
make such suppOsitiOn was certain mark
that the supposer himself would never get
there.
Reasonable beings conceive SO poorly OF
the Judge of all the earth that with pros
elyters il is a common and an effective ar
gument that your only chance Of getting
TO heaven is to belong to their church, and
I have seen Christian men and women take
much comfort by listening to the doctrine
that those who did not receive the sacra-
ments, administered, too, by the right
hands, } dropped into The pitOf woe as fast
as they died. We do not really believe
such things, but we rather like TO have
them preached, because they bring some
into the church. That it belittles us TO
sanction such teaching, that it belttles the
man to be Influenced by it, never seems to
occur TO US, fOTwe think of heaven as 10
calitv, and if we can only get in there these
little mcannCssps and specks Of rOttenness
will make no material difference. A Baptist
tells me that immersion only is baptism.
e.. lie that bclieycth and is baptized shall
Dee saved - There is no promise of saliva
lion 10 the unbspiZcd. Every one admits
that immersion is baptism, and great
many deny the validity of any other mode,
aud so / take immersion as the safest.
The Anglican" tells me that cOntirma-
don is the means of receiving the Holy
Ghost, "thc seven-fold gifts of the spir-
It," These good impressions have, these
emotions of penitence, gratitude, love,
etc. may be the natural workings of my
own heart. The denominations admit
that we may he deceived in regard to om
feelings, and that confirmation needn't dc
any harm; | am assured that my receiv
inc 1t is an evidence, yea, even THE means
OF my having this gift of God; /" and 81
with a vague, confused sense that it may
do me GOOD and cannot do me any harm
get confirmed and DO not imagine
what is certainly true, that my
confirmation, II Il is the result Of sucj
fhOuqhts and feelings necessarily does
me harm. "The Roman Catholic tell
me that his Church is the ark out of which
no one can be saved, and as Protestant
Tadmit that Roman Catholics may ID
'savcd, il is plain that my safest plan is t.
ioin that Church This whole process
so common I'm all the Churchcs-tends L
hpljttle mans soul till there !
hardly ANYTHING left to he saved. No on
,ln usc. or encourage, or tolerate sucl
arguments without doing great harm t
his own spiritual being Purity OF alice
lion. elevation of principle, largencss an'
tenderness of heart, nobility of soul, in
tense burning love of truth and gOodnes
and hatred of their opposites, these consu
tutc the bliss of Heaven; and to think o
preparing for such place by cherishin
and acting from such bclittling concep
lions of God and of the human soul,
mere faulty ] am afraid that till tn
millcuniumsthcrc will be alarge percentag
of the wcak-minded, and that till the
there will not bc lacking priests who vii
creep into houses and with great swellin
words make merchandise of them. w
tolerate and rather encourage this state O
things. because by this craft we have on
wealth. and because these people need IT
Eoion and are not capable of taking BET
-,r articIe-peopie will he weak-minde
and silly, and we must use or toleral
.,Icb motives as we find viii intiuenC
them. and so religion, which is meant
correct our mental and moral alteration
and To enlarge mans whole being,
The Jealous ally of superstition an
higOTity.
We strong minded men only in hal
,,-s,, sogt of manner heleyein our religion