The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1872-03-29

with the hour glass; and In which he comes to
God at the bapttsmal font. But man must, as
its symbol teaches, secure his election by true
faith, and frequently strengthening his faith
by the sacrament of the altar, and drink the
cup of salvation. Then will the eye of God
of life which the. star out of Jacob, the Virgins
son, will give us. Under the galleries are
twelve plain windows, commemorative Of the
twelve Apostlea who brought us the Word OF
God; and In the windows to the right and the
left of the altar, portraits OF Luther and OF
MelancthoD, his fellow-laborer. the lWo re-
formers who restored to us the Word OF God.
The two monograms on the front windows
signify Alpha and Omega. Jesus Henain,tns
SalUdtor-Jesus. the. Saviour of the world,
must be our beginning and our ending. Thus
does cur new house Of God preach 10 us, tn
symbols and pictures, the grand sermon OF
the Saviour OF The world; and II man should
ever cease to mention His name here, these
stones would testify of Him. 4.
And who has built this temple 3. You all
know its history. It required years of dillgent
labor, and many prayer ascended lrom long
Ing hearts to the great Master Builder OF the
Universe that We might seegits completion.
It Is not one mans work. A combination OF
favorable circumstances and personalities,
which were controlled by God, have brought
about the result which today we see With our
eyes. It was work. of faith. We commenced
with nothing. and God has not suffered our
faith to be put to an open shame. After years
of preparatory studies ard six months labor
and consultation with the architect, the plan
was maturcd, and beneath the hands OF the
talented architect arose the noble form whose
embodiment to-day delights our eyes. The
congregation, co operated faithfully with US.
Uuder great difficulties, In the face OF hard
times, which fer years have crippled our city,
were the large sums of money necessary to
the finishing ofthe building raised. The aged
and the young, the strong and the weak, have
gathered with the industry OF bees With un-
Wearied faithfulness and praiseworthy zeal
have both the church council and the congre-
CATION worked; nobly have our mothers
exeriions and made heavy sacrifices,
and q host Of little children have
often collected handsome contributions. With
unliring perseverance,, and In almost ira
and the architect work together. When we
this day, at our fret worship of God in this
newly consecrated house of God, mediate on
all these things, the heart oyerflows with
gratitude to all OF you, and 10 Him who melts
the heart, Yes, He has done great things Tor
ue, whereof we are glad. And when we re-
member that this house stands as q SHINING
monument for posterlty, which witnesseth 1t
to the children of tho faith of the fathers,
and cheerfully assisted at the work, can JOY
fully say I, too, have helped to make the
glory OF this latter house greater than The for.
mpr, the great Joy Of this solemn dedl3atiou OF
the house of God enters into the hearts, then
are we led to exclalm with Jacob: ain not
worthy of the least Of all the mercies, and Of
all the truth which thou hast showed unto
thy servant. Yes, the Lord has builded this
memorial into our midst unto himself, In
hidjorum del gtorian1.
This house Of God bears heuceforth, by vir-
tue of liza conservation, the name, "The Ger
man Evangelical Lutheran St: Matthew'S
the Gospel to do with any distinct tongue
Did not the Lord Jesus Chrlstseud his dlsci'
Piles to all nations and to all tongues Does
not st. Paul say there Is neither Jew nor
Greek We nevertheless hold fast to this
name and to our language even because We
are aud will also remain Germans; because we
cannot surrender the rich treasures OF our
language, and of our German spirit, without
surrenderIng ourselves; because we can also
teach It to our children If we are disposed; be-
cause the German has grand future before
him In this country; because the only hope oil
the regeneration of this country rests 10 the
German element; and because only the Ger.
man tongue upholds the German.
We will never forget, that during the
building of our church, the highest elevation
been Inscribed on the pages OF the history oi
the world. A united Germany unttes u.s.
Germauy's strength and greatness aroused our
seIf.consciousness. Those were strong anxili-
aries in our work, and we will gratefully rem
der our obligations to these factors, and the
enthusiasm of our people in the fatherland
shall be our monitor not to forget the work
ssEyangelica? Evangelical Is the golden,
hri1btlu chinInn chain 0f prpnna which, The
Lord In the sight of the whole world hangs
around our church. Who that but half 9
Christian would not willingly be called Evan
gellcal? And what Is Evangelical? " Is the
Church with the Eyangel-that is, the Gospel
with its grand tldings OF Joy to the world
!'For God so loved the world, that He gave Hit
only begotten Son, that whos0eVer believed
In Him should not perish, but have everlasting
life." When the Word of God Ills preached
according to Its pure Intent and meaning, and
the sacraments administered In conformity
with the Word Of Cod" there is the true Evan:
pelical Church. This Is the real and original
name of the Church of the Reformation.
And yet two names OF men have been afhx-
ed to our church-Luther and Matthew. As
regards the name of Lutheran" we bear 1t
10 common with 40,0O0,O0O Of men; and
renes" In the infancy OF the Christian Church,
we yet rejoice and esteem 1t nearly as highly
az the name of "tvaugelical." See here, my
beloved, at the time OF the Reformation and
since, all who left Rome wanted to be called
Evangelical. The Iconoclasts and the Anabap-
tlste, as we'll as the true orderly Christian who,
In all things, observed the word of God, and
there were the latter compelled to add the
name of the man in whose footsteps they trod,
and to whose doctrine they were fully deter
mined to adhere. As regards his faith, Luther
Is The normal personality In our church-the
type of q genuine Lutheran-and II 1t ls asked
why we love this name so much, gladly test1-
iy Of the superior excellency OF onr church.
Her superiority consists In this: That she Is
not Luther's, but the Lords church, for no
one was more ready than Luther to declare:
'sThe cause and honor, Lord Jesus Christ, Is
not ours. but thine. Among the churches and
secls In Chrlstendom she follows the golden
mean; she has taken off The external character
istics made up OF the leaven of tuman maxlms,
the proud churchly materlslism, and the high
claims Of the humanity historical succession a.
regards the church, by which Rome Is held
almost hopelessly chained. But che also
keeps as far away from the arbitrary, spiritual
IstIc ways of other churches and sects, which
80 lightly sever the historical connection with
the old Apostolic Church. It Is founded truly
and entirely on the Bible-on the whole
Bible-on living adherence to Christ, the
crown and star of the Scriptures. In her con-
fession is found an ideal purity OF doctrine,
such as has never manifested itself since the
Her glorious, pure cultns Is an organic whole,
with the constant and living participation OF
the congregation, with the preaching of the
Divine Word as It's centre. The sacrament Is
exempt from supersilious additions and un-
believing subtractons. She gives, In tempo
raj affairs. 10 Caesar the things which are
Cm:ar's; she never asplres to be the mistress
L. knrt y