The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1870-07-11
CLINTON AVENUE coyGsEeATloSAL cuUacn,


Secret Forces the Strongcst-Scrm0n by DIR.
CULVER, of Illinois.
1t must be a very pleasant thing to keep Sunday
Clinton avenue. One would very naturally call to
mind the old lines
Sweet day, 80 calm. so clear. 80 bright,
Ihe bridal or the earth and sky
on such Sunday as yesterday, walking under the
shadowy branches OF elm and maple, ON that quiet
and beautiful Brooklyn avenue. In company with
the sunshine, and the waving leaves and the tink.
ing fountains, IL seemed very easy to be good and
no doubt the denizens Of that astocratlc quarter OF
our Roody neghborng city are as good as it is con-
yenient to be in this evil world.
The pastor OF the Clinton avenue church, DR.. Bud
dington, is now abroad, and his pulpit Is ably ailed
by DR.. CULVER, president Of the Knox Female Col
iege, OF Galesburg, and pastor OF Chicago church.
Dr. GuillveG spoke eoquently upon the power of
SECRET AND NoIsELEss FORCES,
taking for his text the twenty first verse Of the
seventeenth chapter OF Luke:-'Neiher shall they
say 10, here or TO- there for behold the Kingdom
OF God Is within you" II Is general law that the
most potent agencies are the silent. The soft
falling dew, the moisture, cold, heat, light, cleo
tricity, chemical arinites the chief agents in
the realm OF nature, and they are all SILENT con.
cealed. Hidden forces made the strata or the
earth's crust threw up mountains, depressed basins
ana sunk great reservoirs. The shr iektng tornado
may spread desolatl0n and terror, but how much
more potent for evil is q frost In midsummer Il
lets YOU sleep undsiurbed 1t husies ali the winds
yet when it mngles Its breath with the still air 1t
shrivels every leaf II settles upon; in moment IL
mas robbed nations OF their wealth, In an hour IL
has disappointed millions. This is equally true in
the intellectual world. The men who gestlculate,
VINO are Iull or metaphors, whose fingers ever on
THE PULSE OF THE PUBLIC,
are called great, but they are only the foam that
en ass waVe ae real force is found those
they are shaking the ideas OF the world. These men
really control opinion but they seldom represent it.
Though the loquacious Americas gave his name to a
new world, Columbus evoked that world from silence
and darkness. Forces are silent and hidden just IN
proportion they are powerful. Now 1t was Clearly
the OBJECT or the saviour TO teach the disciples this
doctrine as applied to =
THE MORAL AND SPIRITUAL WORLD.
They could not see how mighty and glorious king
could be born In manger AT Bethlehem, could live
IN Nazareth and die as a maefac;or; hence when
the event took place that had been prophecled Tor
generations these actors In the scene knew IL not
Inc Messiah stood among the Jews, and yet they de-
manded or HI when he would come Our saviour
detected al once this inability 70 see power unless
clothed with pOmp and exernalitiel aud lie said the
kingdom OF God cometh not with observation. We
thus taught that there is concealed power In
| the spiritual world that is establishing new
universal Kingdom that Is revolutionlzug, to use
the expressive words of scripture, is overturning,
"tlll ne shall come whose right II IL to rule.n
II any pretend TO be the heraids Of this kingdom
and point you to the pomp OF an organized ritual,
to The spendor OF cathedrals aud the glory Of ART
saying,
To- HERE AND 10, THERE
KNOW tldt lHey are Idl3e, ana tnat the power Is
within your hearts, if you have 1t at all. The
new birthhs is the secret force that Is reyolu
tonize the world. You may ciyiiize men, you may
elevate them, you may cultivate them up TO the
Greek standard but so long as you do not succeed
In making men feel that the heart must be filed
with new purposes, and the whole man be shaped
anew under the moulding influences OF Gods nature
revealed 10 U.S. you do practically nothing. Educa-
ton IL auxiliary 10 tins
HIGHER CULTURE OF THE SOUL,
and Is priced by none SO much As those who believe
III the new birth, bit 1t is priced as means and not
as an end.
No expression Is so hard TO be understood by those
VINO have not experienced something OF It, as the
Kingdom OF heaven. One mans IDEAS OF religion are
connned 10 the benevolent side; another thinks 1t is
d developing power, and not q Tenovating; some
persons seem to know no other text than that which
says. "Pure eiglon and indebted Is visiting the
fAheresS and widow iii their aiilctlOn.r There are
different ways o. beginning the work of true religion
IN different hearts, but the end Is the same-the
renovation OF The whole nature: and the establish.
ment Of the place Of God In the soul. HeathendOm
IL all about There is plenty OF opportunity to do
missionary work IN every direction. People are
everywhere worshipping
THE IDOL or sELFIsHNEss.
There are temples OF Juggernaut all over the city
OF New York, and If You want to see men ragged
day, somewherel Think OF i'll The means Of ruin
OF body and soul supplied freely To the weak ana
tempted We have need OF q prohIbitory law inside,
and we had bette apply 1t there. The example OF
single pure, active CHRISTIAN IL wonderfully potent;
how much more OF u whole church, OF all the
this Change be ielt all else Will follow and the
new heaven aud new earth VIII appear, wherein
dwell Iighteousne S.