The Portland daily press., 1873-10-27


Lord be merciful to me sinner. he who
fails to take this step DIVORCES more and more
from the right path. Again, the fishermen
found the full net easier to draw than when
empty, and though it contained one hundred
and fifty and three fishes it was not broken.
So. many live on through toll and sorrow and
suffering; and their nets are not broken. Do
not wonder that the Lords people can bear
such heavy burdens; his everlasting arm is I'M
derneath them to bear them up, and his grace
is sufficient for them.
CONGRESS STREET NJ. E. CHURCH.
The pastor preached, in the morning from
Job xiv, g. Flowers are Gods idea of beauty
worked into form. They speak His love to
man. The poetry of flowers speak to the
heart. Flowers are preachers. They preach
about Gods delight in physical beauty; about
His desire to minister to the senses of man.
Flowers are all beautifully the tribes of human
ity are all beautiful not equally so perhaps.
Flowers preach mans mortality. Law says to
the flower, "You must die Law says to man,
s'You must die The prettiest flower is only
dust The lovliest human form is only beauti-
full dust The floral tribes are frosted 10 death
by degrees; the tribes of humanity wilt gradu-
ally. A bird may pick out the daisies life; any
tiny thing may kill man, A beast may kill a
flower; an angel cannot make one. This years
flowers are dead. dead in millions by the river
on the lea, ON the lawn The wild deer walk
beauty. Dead! The generations of the past
are gone. The great Mogul and his serfs are
gone. The winds of death are sweeping away
the millions of to-day. Sweeping over city and
hamlet. New flowers will soon bloom where
tn old ones died. Other lawyers, shop keepers
and preachers are rising to take the place of
the dead and dying. Humanity is fading. Not
only in the city of Memphis, but in Portland
and the world. Flowers decay to bloom again.
There is resurrection for man. When the
judgment trumpet sounds, immortal flowers
will sprng-spring amid songs or groans-
spring to eternal shame or eternal renown.
STATE STREET,
The sermon in the morning was preached by
Rev. Mr.. Merriman of Norwich, Conn. The
text was from Ephesians iii, II. 'That Christ
may dwell in your hearts by faith The sub
ject was Christ as the furniture of the human
heart. The beart was compared to be a temple
or palace which might be filled with all good
things or might be debased by low and mean
companionships. And it is only Christ that can
so furnish the heart as to drive out the evil and
give solid foundation to character.
The monthly s. S. concert at State street
church last night was very successful and
well ordered entertainment. A large congrega-
ton was in attendance. The accomplished Su
perintendent led the exercises with his accus-
toned efficiency. An interesting and efficient
address was delivered by Rev. Mr.. Merriman of
Norwich, Conn.
HIGH STREET CHURCH.
In the morning Rev. DR.. Manning the elo-
quent pastor of the Old South church, Bos-'
ton. preached from the text, Acts 9th, 81
''Then had the churches rest throughout all
Judea and Galilee, and Samaria, and were
edited; and walking in the fear of the Lord,
and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were
multiplied The words which fix our atten-
ton are those which speak of the early Chris
tian believers as walking in the comfort of the
Holy Ghost" God has always shown tender
| recognition of the Comfort of His people,
| and willingness to succor in each time of
trbuatiou. How frequently he thus appears
and what revelation is made of the Divine
heart, as was .instanced in his precious words
to the Apostle Paul and the Psalmst This
word may be used as designating Gods whole
character as shown to us in the third person of
the Trinity "The father ''the brother" 'sthe
comforter" these are the words which
usually express to us the whole Divine nature
and character. Gods people have rest and are
edited and multiplied only as they walk in
the comfort of the Holy Ghost We shall be-
gin to feel how indispensable to us are the con-
| forts of the Holy Ghost how utterly we must
| fail without His helping presence, if We con-
| slider our work under three aspects. the self
conquest which it involves, the adequate set
! ting forth of the Gospel, and persuading men
| to be Christ's disciples In each of these great
departments of Christian effort we learn every
day that we can do nothing. Which ever way
we turn, we need that Christ should say to us
as he did to the first disciples 81 will not leave
you comfortless. Let the Christian turn from
the matter of his personal holiness to that COM
mission to teach and preach which Christ has
| given him. and again the gift of the Holy
] Ghost appears as his only ground of comfort or
consolation. In communicating truth to other
minds, three things at least are essential,
First, that we should comprehend it; second,
that we should adequately express it; third,
receive it. Each one of these things involves
as we see natural impossibility. Reason
| teaches us that we cannot comprehend God.
| The ground of our confidence is that we have
| the spirit which searcheth all things, yea the
| deep things of God. He leads us into all truth
| Passing now to the matter of the actual obed-
ence of men to the truth, which we have sue
| ceeded in getting ceary,before their minds, the
encouragement in the text comes out to us with
| a still deeper and richer meaning All that we
| see around us to-day of sin and crime in the
| brightest centers of civilization, makes us feel
| as Paul felt when he looked out over the Pa
| gan world. If we have nothing but knowledge
| to move men, unaided by the spirit of God,
| though we spake with the tongues of men and
angels, we should be as sounding brass or tink
| ling cymbal. There is nothing visionary in
| exception of the universaltriumph of the Cos
| pei if we take into account the mission of the
| Holy Spirit to our world, How sublime the
motive to sntire conservation which we have
| Nothing of all we do for Christ shall ever be
lost. That is the successful life, the glorious
| and the ever blessed life which is yielded up to
J the Holy Ghost to be used by Him in carrying
| forward His regenerating work; and the lost
days, the dissfpated energies, the wasted pos
| sessions, are those which we do not so employ
| as to be Astounding in the work of the Lord.
FREE STREET BAPTIST.
The pastor preached in the morning from LIST
Peter 1; 15.-'sAdd to your faith virtue and to
virtue knowledge He remarked first that
the passage was part of the great problem of
addition in the Bible; that it was one of sue
cession of steps on the ascending grade in
Christian progress. All of the virtues are nee
| essary to form Christian character. He then
announced for his leading thought, "Religion
| should be consistent" Faith must be the foun-
dation for Christian to build upon. Without
| faith the others are useless. Virtue should be
| added to faith. Christian service is the only
| guarantee of Christian virtue. Inthe earlier
| days,a Christian had to be hero or not Chris
| tian, aud there never was a time when there
| was more CALL for Christian heroes than now.
| Men who set examples of faith in their lives,
leave them to be followed by those that come
| after He closed with an earnest appeal for
| churches of this city so that the poor might
have the advantages of worship equally with
| the rich.
| FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH
AT the afternoon service the pastor preached
| an excellent sermon from Romans iii. II. "And
the way of peace have they not known" The
| pastor remarked that these were descriptions
| of the past, but had real existence at the
| present time. His theme was announced as
being ''The way of Peace" The phrase means
state of tranquility. Many have sought for
| the way, and some have found it. The first
thing essential to find this way is to be at peace
with all mankind; second, we must be at peace
| with God. We owe Him certain obligations
that must be discharged and not neglected
Sinners must be justified by God before they
can be at peace. Third, we must be at peace
| with ourselves Reason and conscience must
have the sway. Intellect will net give peace
| The moral must have the supremacy over the
| intellectual. The preacher closed with an ear
| nest appeal to the impenitent.
ST. LAWRENCE STREET CHURCH.
In the afternoon Rev. MIR. Wright preached
from Matt II, l, g. His subject was the trans
| fguration of Christ, and he gave an interesting
exegesis of the passage showing that Christ