The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-09-23
The Preaehers' Thoughts.

The genial warmth of yesterday invited the
pious souls to seek comfort and instruction in
their respective sanctuaries, while it invited
the non-relgious to seek rest and pleasure in
walk or drive in Central Park or on Fifth
avenue. 1t is to be presumed that all found
what they sought in their diverse roads.
Those who gathered in Lyric Hall yesterday
were entertained with lecture or essay by
Mr.. rockingham on ''Tyndal's Prayer Test. !"
The tone of the discourse from beginning to
end is a caricature on prayer and the idea of
a personal God. 1t is strongly impregnated
with inddelity, and it very naturally winds up
with sceptical question and conclusion.
eff prayers will save the sick, - he asked, " what
are physicians and medicine good for?" This
question is absurd enough on its face, but
the conclusion at which the preacher arrives
in his search after personal God is much
more so. "When one conceives the universe"
he says, cit is evident that he can ask for no
special gift. just as fast as men have begun
to understand the world they live in they have
ceased to pray. Our prayers are ANTICIPATED
and answered before we think of them" 1t
is very evident that Mr.. Frothingham's prayers
will not save the sick nor do away with physi-
clans or medicine.
DR.. John Hall saw in Ruth cleaving to
Naomi on illustration Of decision and force
of character, and this was the les
son of his discourse. And in contrast
with the character of her sister in-law this de-
cision is more apparent. The Doctor also
reminded his hearers that religion is not like
ON umbrella, to be used on rainy day and
then laid aside. It is rather the sunshine of
life-even life itself. And it is the duty of
every man to influence his neighbor to choose
religion as Ruth did. And, according to Mr..
Cheney, it is the duty of sinners, as we'll as
Christians to preach and to try to turn their
fellow sinners toward God. This is involved,
he believes in the obligation to love our neigh
bors as ourselves. The relations of divine
love and human love are so intimate that the
one follows close on the heels of the other in
the heart of the penitent, and they 60 hand in
hand in the heart of the believer. There is
consequently blessing to every man who
loves his neighbor andseeks his welfare. Rev.
John Weiss has raised question
between himself and Methodists, or
rather between Gods operations in nature
and His work of grace in human
hearts. There is not such thing as sudden
conversions, and he protested against being
FLASHED by camp meetings and pounded down
by the cant of COMMISSIONS In nature the
law is first, the blade then the ear, and after
that the full corn in the ear; and the growth
of grace in the soul is similar. And o soul can
be damaged only in the same gradual way.
We have known souls damaged by process
far more rapid than the budding and
fruitage of the seed in the ground, and we
doubt not Mr.. Weiss has too. The Saviour's
coll is for ''to-day' and for 'tnow," and He
would hardly be SO definite and specific as to
time if either He as the Saviour or the human
soul as the thing saved had to 60 through some
gradual process Of salvation. How easy it is
for man who does not want to be saved
''now'' or ''to-day" to find excuses for putting
off the day under such specious plea as this.
In ST. Stephens church the sorrows of the
Virgin Mary were the burden of DR.. McGlynns
discourse. 1t was q summing up of her
maternal care and anxiety for her divine Son,
who was set for the fall and rising of many,
and in whose redemptive work ''our heavenly
the mother of all the children of Adam, so is
the blessed Virgin 'the mother Of all the chill
dren of Christ" And ''as she is the mother Of
all the children of God" so must she be by just
title the mother of all the graces that flow from
the divine source Of Calvary and of the Chris
tan virtues-the flowers of penitence and
purity that spring from the soil at the foot of
the cross that is believed with the mingled
blood of Christ and the tears of the Magdalene.
Flowers sprung from such a soil find ready
and congenial shelter in the bosom of the Vir-
gin Mother, who is also the mother of sorrows,
and whom, therefore, in every age the Church
loves to salute as the Smother of Divine
Grace" Smother Most Pure and the
"Refuge of Sinners" Father McNamee, of
st. Patrick's Cathedral, believes Christ estab-
lished His Church for the purpose of perpetu-
ating on earth the power to forgive sins, and
he declares that ''the priests Of the Church ex-
ercise similar power ITO that of Christi, and
with telling effect both upon the souls and
bodies Of people" The granting of indul-
gences is one means Of remitting sins, and the
use Of an indulgence is to release from the
temporal punishment due to sin; but ten
thousand indulgences cannot remit one mortal
sin. The Rev. P. Dealy preached in st.
Francis Xavier's church on the law of mercy,
giving illustrations of mercy rejoicing oyer
Judgment,
While men are puzzling themselves about
creeds and about faith Mr.. Talmage, of
Brooklyn, yesterday defined the latter to be
reliance on the Lord Jesus Christ for saliva
ton, and baptism is public recognition and