The New York herald., 1870-03-28
Ths Churches Yesterday.

Deeply obligated az mankind are to that dow
Of waters which, In obedience to the will Of the
Supreme Being, cooled and solIdiaed the
incandescent gases which foated In chaos,
thereby creating the earth on which we live,
we hardly think that the rain storm OF
yesterday deserves our thanks for quench-
ing vast amount of fiery zeal for
the strict observance Of religious duties.
When the Rev. John S. Willis, at tho Hedding
Methodist Episcopal church, gazed from the
pulpit down upon his scanty congregation he
must have felt the force of that passage In
Samuel which formed the text of his dis
course, and which saith that "man
looketh on the outward appearance"
Not man alone but woman also looked
at the "outward appearance" yesterday and
decided that 1t was unfavorable to attendance
on divine worship; for, with few exceptions,
the churches contained larger number Of
unoccupied pews than for many previous
inclement Sundays. Not thus, 1t is true, did
the early Christians keep away from the house
Of God when 1t rained; but 1t is equally
true that your noble Roman and learned
Greek seem to have never been troubled by
such ailments as colds and catarrhs, and, be-
sides, were not forced to pay extravagant
prices for broadcloth suits and silk walking
dresses, with paniers, their costumes being
simple if not neat.
Certainly the weather yesterday, however
beneficial in an agricultural point of view, was
not calculated to produce good crop Of saved
souls. Singularly enough, at all of the churches
1t was observed that but few ladies were
present, although one might have imagined
that the sterner sex, possessing the smaller
religious sentiment would have been in the
minority. At the Church of the Messiah Rev.
George II. Hepworth discoursed eloquently on
subject most attractive to the Protestant
heart He denounced Catholicism and the
Pope and insisted that the Catholics were
was time for Americans to awake to
the dangers that confronted them from
the Catholics of America. On the sub
ject Of the Bible in the public schools
Rev. Mr.. Stewart, at the Church of Our Lord
Rev. Mr. Steel, at the Second Avenue Metho-
dist Church, preached sermons denunciatory
of the efforts making to abolish the reading Of
this book in those institutions. At Plymouth
church the congregation was smaller than
usual, and Brother Beecher was not quite
so lively and spirited as he generally
is. The sermon, however, was thought
full and sensible. DR.. Chaplin, at the
Church of the Messiah. assured his hearers
that God was the Father of sinners not less
than Of saints, while at st. Paul's Methodist
Episcopal church Bishop Ames discoursed
on the ethics of the Bible and the
ethics of everyday life. In spite OF
the weather a large number of sinners
assembled at the Church of the Holy
Innocents, where the sermon and singing wero
fine, but where, we sincerely regret to record
it, the organ, being afflicted with the asthma,
with difficulty contributed its quota'of wind.
We need hardly say that at all the Catholic
churches, save those at which the aristocracy
worship, the attendance was large and the con-
gregations pious. There are no storms severe
enough to keep Pat and Bridget from mass.
In like manner the less pretentious Protestant
churches were we'll filed. We can therefore
claim that in this city, Brooklyn and other
places reported in the HERALD this morning
the cause Of religion was, on the whole, faith
fully served.
ONE MORE CHARTER.-In another column
we give the outline of a Charter that is to
be laid before the Legislature at an early