Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-01-25

Daniel Dorchester of Salem then made the dedi-
catory prayer, and scripture lessons from Chroni-
Giles VI, 18th to 23d, and Hebrews X, 18th to
28d, were read by RevfS. F. Upham of Boston
Highlands. Rev Mr.. Pentecost of the Laurel
street church read the following hymn which
was sung to the tune of Lenox:
Great King of glory, come
And with thy favor crown
This temple us thy home
This people as thine own:
Beneath this roof o degn to show
How God can dwell with men below
Here may the istning throng
Receive thy truth in love;
Here Christians join the song
OF the Redeemed above;
Till all, who humbly seek thy face,
Rejoice in thy Astounding grace.
The dedicatory sermon was by Rev. 7. NJ.
Eddy, D. D., of Baltimore from Acts xviG.
"And when they found them not they drew
Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the
CITY, crying these that have turned the world upside
down are come hither also"
Spiritual Revolutions" was the speakers
topic, treated under three distinct heads, as
given in the following abstract:
FirSt-Ihe theatre of spiritual revolutions
the world. In an eminent sense, the Christian
religion is the emancipator of physical forces
Pagansm leaves unused the agencies God has
stored in nature; treasures remain hid; men
are carrying burdens when lilters and bearers
are about them; grind in weary mills; aud are
servants instead of masters. Christianity re-
stores primal dominion. AT her bidding recuSant
forces return to their fealty; men comeforth from
grinding, for there are motors where God has
stored the carbon, brewed the springs or kindled
the flame. So the superstition which masked
divine beneicence is destroyed and men find a
universe OF friends. The kosmOs of the New
Testament is broken and dsordered 1t knows
not Christ though the divine glory is in his
face; the spirit though his breath is on their
souls; nor the father though the heavens de-
clare hissglory. Its 'Prince" is usurper; evil is
in its councils; over its masses broods the
shadow of death; its wheels are broken on their
aXles.
Second-The agencies of revolution. Convic.
ton Of its righness: We are to have it as a
conviction that SIMS a banned, lawless, rumous
thing; that its presence is an impertinence; that
its dominion is an outrage we are not to endure,
but that the boldest measures are demanded to
break up its sway. The lawful lord must be
declared
Competent leadership: Our Lord and Savior
has assumed this. "Now is the Judgment of
this world, and the prince of this world shall be
cast out" His love mission must have Its
armed prelude. 81 am not come to send peace
but sword" are the words Of him to whom
the angels sang their Chris mas anthem. He
orders in his train upheaval, restessneSs contrO-
vetSy.
His subordnates: He can and does use the
intelligencies of heaven, but men are his chosen
associates. RnmorS of the resurrection of Jesus
and the wonders of PentacoSt had come to
Thcssalonica, but had only caused the wonder
given stories of Olympian cccentriciies. But
suddenly two men came repeating the story of
incarnation, death, resurrection, saving, and
so every God in the Pantheon is startled, all the
city is in an uproar. CaSar's veterans are in
trepidaton because of the story of two men
Emerson well says, the power of a truth depends
upon the man who stands behind it, In spite
of our platitudes about the power of truth it is
sleeping if not dead until it finds living man
to voice it. The men who carry revolutions
are:
Men who think men who feel; men who do:
The men of IDEAS, the Pauls, keplerS and Cali
leOS are essential to Gods plans. He, the
thinker, calls them to interpret Him. Your
revolutionary leader must also be a man of fiery
emotion; terrible convictions and burning pulses
must drive him. Here we are to realize what
sin means and threatens. Our pulpit is weak,
because Its convictions are of the Study rather
than the heart. We want lath in our message
Then men Of deeds: Paul took his gospel
and dashed it against Hebrew bulwarkS, held it
up to unveil the heartlessness of Greek culture,
and challenged openly the massive strength of
Rome.
Many priest saw as Luther, felt as Luther,
but paced his coister floor in agony while DIR.
Martin nailed his theses to the old minser-door
Other clergy saw and felt as did Wesley, but
were content TO drule powerleSS prayers. He
prayed and went forth, the executor of his own
petitions They wept; he wrote, preached, or
ganzed. They are forgotten; we are just be-
ginning to understand his work. Sorrow, ignor-
ancc, sin cali for deeds. The demand is for ma
ture strength.
Spiritual war-cries: There is power i'm a bat
tle-cry Ours in this day is to be-the blood
the spirit. The one accepts the CORY sacrfce
the shame OF the cross; openly, squarely refuses
compromise with arrogant human reason, which
assumes to denounced it Blood! WHY. one law
is sacred because Of blood. The mountain or
river is never historic until crimsoned.
The other accepts the necessity of supernat-
uralism 1t means conviction, means suDer-
natural regeneration, means sanctifying agency.
These are the thoughts of power this day in our
ripeSt culture. Silence these and there is no
revolutionary power in Christianity.
Spiritual Power: We are not to 90 in reliance
upon aet or ideas, but upon promised influ-
euce. Here were traced the compensatious
which make the lowly, who only knows how to
believe as rightly as the thinker.
Third-Ihe Laws of Spiritual Revolution. OF
course these cannot be calculated exhaustiyelv.
for revolution goes outside of ordinary methods
Sometimes sudden. Babylon, long basieped
is entered by the bed of Euphrates. Romanism
worked through many decades to secure the
dogma ofintallibility-secprGdit and fell. Some
times the gospel comes with a challenge au as, |
saut, victory.
look for sudden and stupenduous changes
to come over heathendOm and whjlQm false re- |
ligion. So in REVEALS. Evil Is sometimes |
Yrenched away; flood tides sweep toward the |
cioss. Gods power walks in tempest. He is |
in earthquake and storm as well as in the still |
small voice. Let us accept sHch facts. Revolu- |
tons are not governed by the oapons Of estheiGs |
or beralded by Eolean harps
But they come in silence too. The frost de-
scends silently, 4 withered forest declares the
might Of its yoiceless campaign, SO in silence
came the doom of Senacherb and the man of the
world was changed.
You prayed fGc rain, seemingly against
heaven blue as steel and as hard You retiredi
then came hurrying cloudsj they came fold on
fold, skirting horizons, sweeping up to zenith,
hanging sable curtains over all the stars. Silent
ly came the mist, then gently the pearl drops.
You knew 1t not You were almost in despair
at morning when You saw clear sky, but az
you looked out lol Gods blessings had come,
and you knew it not There are dew-lalls of
grace, mists Of bessedpess; among silent star
beams of benedcton God is walking with muf-
he'd feet. The spirit is touching silently, aud nv
and by we see the results, Those who long for
cataract revelations must remember the prom.
lse, 81 will be as the dew unto Israel"
In turning the world upside down, he may
show his machinery, and You may hear the
freak OF puloys and see both lHorum and lever,
SO he it. He may lit il by the sunbeam aud
gently roll it over; so be ii, if it only comes,
'ight side up,
In conclusion he traced the necessity and
york of personal revolution in the soul, over
which sin has brought chaos aud old night.
sense is above faith, greed has conscience under
DOT, folly dominates reason, love grinds in the
nils of passions. lIo, for scaling ladders and
iege gursi Gods forces sit down 10 reduce
he delences and lead to surrender, The ten
ntry must be emanclpated and cnlranchlsed.
md we welcome the means
Tho lesson i'm palms gxsit
Rev. j. o. Peck, of Springfield, the congregation
eadng alternate lines from the printed pro.
,ramme.
The church was formally presented to the
rustoes, r. +. White president. Rev Loranus
)rowe, presiding elder, read the dedcatory
eryice, the Doxology was sung, aud the after.
loon exercises closed with the bencdiction, pro.
bounced by the pastor,