The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-06-10
ST. JOHNS METHODIST CHURCH.
The Christians Wealth-Serm0n by Rev,

DIR. Chapman.
Yesterday morning Rev. j. A. M. Chapman, d. d.,
the pastor Of the st. Johns Methodist Episcopal
church, Bedford avenue, preached from !. Corinth-
ans, ill.,, 21-"For all things are yours"
In his opening remarks the speaker said that 10
was the practice OF the ahrewdest and safest mer-
chants to take an account Of stock that they may
ascertain their real and relative condition. as to
lay plans for larger successes in the future or to
remedy the evils Of the past. II was also well for
the Christian to occasionally review the resources
that were at his command and the uses God de-
signs them to subserve in their gift. The high
est claim recognized by society to the
ownership OF goods that OF legal
title, and yet that did not involve
independent absolute and eternal possession the
goods to which 1t laid claim. Absolute ownership
inheres alone In God The earth-the silver and the
gold and the cattle upon thousand hhls-is Gods,
and even the fruits OF human industry were indi-
rectly the gift of God. Man Is simply steward,
holding In his possession for a brief period some
goods Of the Great Proprietor. A legal title to
goods cannot convey the ability with the right to
use. There may be the objective nominal possess
sion without the subjective real approximation. DR..
Chapman illustrated this point by referring to q
visit he recently made to the mansion OF a very
wealthy man, whose grounds were tastefully laid
out where fountains were ningng up their pearly
drops to fash and sparkle In the face Of the
sun, and where flowers from almost every
cline made the air redoent with perfume.
Although that man had spent thousands OF dollars
in identifying his residence he never gazed upon
its beauties, Tor his eyebas were sghtless; while
to the poor gardener, who did not possess dollar
and could not lay claim to- the smallest mower
which he flung away, the surroundings were o per-
feet paradise. Who did not see that that poor gar
dener possessed all that profusion Of beauty in a
| far higher sense than did the man who had simply
a legal title to It'll man who suddenly became
rich might adOrn his parlor with works OF masters,
| every stroke OF the brush but having no trained
eye and no cultivated intellect, he was unable to
might be that Tie servant gir who took care or his
parlor possessed OF soul to drink Inspiration from
SS% n nat1s Or art in
they were merely gilt, canvass, paints and varnish
to the other they spoke in silent and match
thrilled educated and ennobled the whole being.
The inference from those Illustrations was that
he who made the things by which he sur
rounded subserve the highest end OF their creation
possessed them In the truest sense, whether he
aa that the Christian ali nas ' Se
cause he and he alone made all things by which he
is surrounded subserve the highest end Of their
through the works OF His hands, and came near to
us in all the forms OF nature. Creation is kind Of
Psalmist had attained a high state OF moral and
spiritual perception when he discovered that the
ment shows His hanayWork He who does not see
God in all the works Of His hands, their highest
splendor intensified by the reflection Of His glory,
greatness, grandeur and significance When men
God In material things and hold fellowship with
Him through them they possessed them. In this
sense the world is the Christians and there is no
man so thoroughly In sympathy with nature as the
assured child OF NATURES God. This universe is but
the embodied thought OF God; 1t is the vcsture OF
the Infinite One, made respondent by the out
beamings Of His glory. All visible things are but
things, and he who made nature pathway, up
which he marched to God, made her answer the
capable. The next thought evolved by the preacher
was That things In this world are worthless In