The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-06-10

s The Parsons Preaching Yesterday.
The churches were comparatively well at
tended yesterday, yet not SO well as might be
expected. The sultriness of the atmosphere
drove many to the green fields and rustic
scenes in the vicinity of New York or shut
them up In the quiet of their own homes. But
the thousands who ventured out, we have no
doubt, we're well repaid and were Toasted with
spiritual food adapted to their wants and their
tastes. We give to-day our usual synopsis Of
some of the pulpit utterances of yesterdays
condemnation of the wit and wisdom which was
parcelled out among different congregations,
and hope that our thousands of readers may
draw their accustomed degree Of comfort
therefrom.
Unitarian faith is either very complex and
many-sided or else the Church Of the Messiah
is not very fortunate in its choice Of exponents
Of that faith. Yesterday it had the Rev. Dr..
Bellows, who ought to know whereof he
affirmed, and yet he is reported as ridiculing
the doctrine Of the Trinity and characterizing
it as 'tgross fanaticism." Touching the wor-
ship of Jesus Christ as God, the Doctor init
mated that such worship is nothing better
than idolatry, and then, with an air of
assumed triumph, he asks us to conceive q
God in the flesh if we cam A sufficient
reply to this query would be, conceive a
God out of the flesh if you can" Until Jesus
Christ-God manifest in the flesh, the bright
ness Of the Fathers glory and the express
image of His person-came among men they
had none but the crudest conceptions
Of God. Even to the ancient Hebrews,
who had the best and truest conception
Of the Deity, He was q God Of ven
geance, q consuming fire. destroyer, as
unlike what men now conceive Him to
be as the twilight is unlike the MONDAY,
and our conception Of God to-day would have
been little better had He not shown us His
true character in the person Of Jesus Christ
the Lord Our columns will bear witness to q
different doctrine preached from this same
pulpit and declared by other ministers to be
genuine Unitarianism. Which is the true and
which the false creedp
Yesterday was the children's Sunday in Dr.
peculiar manner led the little ones to compre-
bend the silent but steady progress which
Christ kingdom has made and is making in
the earth. No genius Of mechanism Of earth
can make q flower with its beauty, its colors
and its fragrance. The flowers are made
gradually, slowly and in silence, and the great
temple Of nature, of which these flowers are
the sweeteet decorations, is made in silence
The temple Of the body, too, is built up in
silence, and the structure Of the human char
acter, Of which the body is only the casket, is
o fairer temple still, built as silently. The
children were afectionately urged to guard
well this treasure.
From the Saviour's time to the present men
have made excuses, and still make them, when
the claims of religion are pressed upon them.
Some Of those excuses were examined yester-
day by DR.. Potter, who urged his self-excusing
hearers to accept the Saviour invitation ere
they make their excursions to distant lands
and be compelled, after feeding on the husks
Of the world, to return and accept it. Rev.
John Parker illustrated the change which the
Divine Spirit produces in the heart and upon
the character and life Of men. An alien is
made son +; o rebel becomes child of God.
And this spirit is given not by bishops, priests
or popes, but by God directly to His children.
And where the Holy Ghost is there is the
Church. What the Christian gains by this
indwelling spirit was amply set forth by DR..
Chapman, Of Brooklyn, in his exposition of the
text, "All things are yours God looks at us
through the works Of His hands, and comes
near to US in oil the forms of nature, so that
creation is kind Of mirror in which He re-
fleets His attributes. Hence this universe is
but the embodied thought Of God, the vesture
of the Infinite One, made Respondent by the
outbeaming Of His glory.
1t cannot be disputed that we are all crea-
lures Of necessity, and that God gives us
richly all things to enjoy. DR.. Clark, Of AL
bany, therefore insisted that we were bound by
q debt of gratitude to God and to our fellow
men to give as freely as we have received, and
to render to God our talents and energies and
the honors and wealth which we may possess,
to be used for His glory. Mr. Beecher uttered
an important truth yesterday when he said
that ''men taken collectively needed to have
clear views as to their relationship to Christ
for their theological views largely affected
their piety." His theme was personal
Christi Saviour near to every human heart,
who loves us as the mother does her babe, not
for what we are, but for what we shall be.
DR.. Storrs, in commenting upon the narrative
Of the lame man, who, sitting at the beautiful
gate of the temple in Jerusalem eighteen
hundred years ago, was healed by Peter and
John, related q story which was current in
Rome that the present Pontiff, after he had
been declared infallible, attempted to perform
q similar miracle upon lame man in that
city, but after two Intellectual efforts he gave
1t up, having only parodied that which he
undertook to parallel.