The New York herald., 1871-02-20
Practical Christianity.

1t is not often that our columns contain so
many sermons by the leading preachers of the
city upon the purely practical features Of
Christianity as they do to-day. Mr.. Beecher,
in discourse on sefshness, directed his
arrows at the pockets of the wealthy members
Of his congregation, whom he compared to
''magnifed augurs boring their own little
diameter, and the deeper they 60 the harder
they find it to turn round ''Selishness is
chord on which no angel will play" No truer
sentence was ever uttered, and, while our rich
men are giving away hundreds and thousands
of dollars annually for benevolent and Chris
tian purposes, there is greater need now than
ever to preach against selfshness, which threat
ems to be the besetting sin of the Church of
Christ in this age. There is not that true
recognition of a common brotherhood in man
by our rich men in their gifts that there should
manifested in the bestowmen: of them. And
as Mr.. Beecher further asserts that s'the law
of the individual should be the law Of ma
tions," it is even so to very great extent,
although it is becoming less SO from year to
year, and the best practical proofs that we.
have seen Of it recently are the spontaneous
contributions in this country and in England
for the relief Of the suffering French.
1t was in the same line of practical Chris
tian thought that DR.. Chaplin, in discoursing
upon the duty of Christians to bear one
another's burdens, appealed to his au-
dience to help the same PROSTATE people.
Humanity, said he, is loaded with burdens.
Some Of them are born with ourselves and
must be borne by US alone. But how often
have we not the power to tighten even those?
The exhortations Of these two divnes were
practically tested and collections taken up in
aid of France
Equally practical, though more local in its
bearing, was the sermon preached by DR.. John
Hall yesterday, on the duties and obligations
Of Christians toward each other and
toward the world. How sadly true it is
that many man on the lowest round of
the descending ladder Of life may turn about
and charge his Christian friends and neigh
bors with his almost helpless and hopeless
condition! We're Christians more practical in
their lives and more honest in their converse
ton and upright in their conduct how much
more good might be accomplished in the wor Id
and among men! If the unruly we're warned,
the feeble minded comforted, the weak sup
ported and Christian patience magnanimous,
long suffering manifested toward all men, how
many men, good and true, might have been
saved from perdition! But, as this eloquent
divine has SO ftly said, church members see
their neighbors and their neighbors children
running into vice and immortality, and they
philosophically speculate as to when change
may come over them. Had Jehovah thus
treated ruined world where should we be
to-day? .-.~sv,.~.
DR.. Hepworth was eminently practical also
in his comments upon that golden text which
SO forcisy expresses Gods love to mankind
in the gift of Saviour. And, in the words of
the speaker, eff we can make ourselves
worthy Of that revelation, and act according
to its spirit, how ennobled will our souls be-
come and how pure and beautiful will our
lives be- We can 60 to Him in our youth and
He will make our joys brighter; we can go to
Him in middle life and He will make our
duties palmer we can 70 to Him in age and