The Portland daily press., 1873-12-08
SUNDAY SERVICES.

was born blnd?' John tx, l, 2. The question
proceeds from the assumption that misfortune
and calamity are incurred always by some an
tecedent wrong-doing, and are witnesses of the
Divine dspleasure; in other words, that God
being just gives always good things TO the good
and bad things to the bad. There is degree
of pathos in the ancient struggles and faith
towards the maintenance of this conclusion,
even in the face of abouuding refutation. Ob
servation and experience clearly declare that
the wicked man does spread and flourish like
green bay tree, and is not always cut off in his
SINS The good do suffer misfortunes that the
wicked man, by his very wickedness escapes,
and hence arise perplexing problems of trust.
The wrong doer is not always punished by
calamity commensurate with his basely won
success. Events of recent occurrence in the
metropolis of our country do show that here
and there wicked man who faunts his vices
boastfully before an indulgent community and
reaches power by INSCRIPTIONS activity, may,
in the midst of his triumphs be cut off, even by
the hand of his own crime But what immu-
nifty in wrong yet remains! The wicked still
pass on and are not punished; they found the
illogical schools or enrich foreign missions by
their ill-gotten gains, and when they have pass
ed triumphantly through all their days, their
epitaph proclaims their virtues to an admiring
world.
Wrong doing, in not few instances, enjoys
an actual advantage over Righteousness. 1t is
easy to call to mind numerous class of con-
tingencies where the bold sinner takes long
strides, in the way of worldly advancement,
he l.; potitOr q nd
outstrips him altogether in the race for wealth
or power. .sd. t.l
The right-doer is not separated from the
wrong-doer, in the general calamity; but the
guilty and the innocent are held in equal re-
spect The destroying angel passed by the
homes of the chosen people in the days of their
Egyptian bondage. That was written because
that was thought to be just. God should pro-
tect bis own. And yet when the destroying
angel comes as a devastating fame and reduces
a city to ashes, there is then no talisman to
save the homes of the righteous. The broken
steamship carries to the depths of ocean the
righteous with the wicked; nor does the hun
cry wave hesitate to lngulf human frame be-
cause within it beats piOus heart. The ele-
mental forces make no more discrimination
than the rain and the dew; they wreak their
violence alike upon the just and the unjust.
What answer can be made to these problems,
How, notwithstanding, can we put our trust in
God and believe that He dOeth all things just
ly?
The common solution of the problem is that
which draws upon the life to come to satisfy
the present demands of justice, and this assur-
ance of immortality removes a portion of our
difficulty. For if, with God one day is as a
thousand years, it is not reasonable to expect
Him in our brief life to include all the conclu-
sions of justice. But in order that we may
cherish confidently this expectation as to the
future, we need some evidence in the present
that God is just
We find much evidence that the tabernacle of
God is, indeed, with men, and that all things
work together for good to those that love God
well enough to obey his laws. Admitting the
numerous exceptions, the rule still is: LIST, that
the wicked are punished, even in their outws I'd
preferred before the righteous to material pros.
perty, their success carries its own curse; and
Sd, that, though there be no special exemption
of the good, yet the paths of righteousness are
paths of safety H3.c ~ e.
But there are numerous exceptions to the OPP
erations o. this general rule. What shall be
done with them? Remember, in cOntem-
plating these, that to man the supreme and
paramount interest is not circumstance but
soul.
What if there were no such disorders? What
if the government of God were administered
with rigid adherence to the principle that ito
the victors belong the spoils?" Then obviously
men would strive for the spOils rather than for
the righteousness. Houses, lands, shops and
stocks would supplant the supremacy Of virtues
self.
This would happen: The spiritual heavens,
goal of ASPIRATIONS being thus blOtted out, as
piration itself would perish; faith in a higher
state OF being would be rebuked; visions of ex-
allied possibilties-those fair luminaries that
WOO and warn us from the upper sky-would
be closed in darkness, and, in the reduction of
the finer exercises of the spirit to a s0rdid
earthly le:el of give and take, gone forever
would be that ineffable confidence towards God
which can look up through the shadows and
the gloom , and the tears, and in the beatitude
of trusting faith can say to the Father, II will
trust Thee though Thou slay." IS s.t
Can we not, then, quite clearly see, and rev.
erently declare that it is better that there
should be in the Divine government this ele-
ment of mystery II is better that Providence
should manifest comparative disregard of
mans outward and material lot, if SO He may
fix mans first regard on the ordering of the in
ward life.
Mans true kingdom and Gods true kingdom
is t g soul. If there we can find indiscriminate
be oval Of good and evil, without exact re-
gard to personal DESERT then indeed, there will
be serious occasion to doubt if God loves and
reigns. If the bold transgressor, adding house
to house by successful fraud, wins also the
spiritual and eternal riches; if there are spirit
ual calamites that fall alike on the just and
unjust; If by any arbitrary election into saliva
ton, or by any formal acceptances of an al
legged historical atonement, the bad soul is
ever capricously preferred before the good in
the everlasting rewards of righteousness, then,
indeed, there is much reason to question not
only the providence but even tie existence OF
God; for then the sanctions of morality have
disappeared and this realm Of God is the play
ground of anarchy.
I he defer of Gods love may, indeed, have
good things outwardly, but he has, or shall
have, bad things inwardly. The se)f-denying
%nn Of S enc may appear to have been
saved in the hour of their calamity by the
strength given them to endure, by the love that
cast out fear, by the trust which hopes and
believes even in the presence of destruction.
coming sorrow, but they have charm within
which enables them to suffer and be strong"
CHESTNUT STREET CHURCH.
In the evening Rev. s. F. Jones delivered the
second of the series of temperance lectures
given by the pastors of the city.
Good men must never surrender the guar
dianship of society against any moral evil into
the hands of the law. 1t is for them to create
and foster that public sentiment which alone
makes the law honorable and effective.
For this purpose we have met tonight. The
foe of this conflict is drink-a foe more terrible
to-day than ever before. Facts drawn from
contrast of the present with the past support
thisstatement. There was more drinking in an
Gent times than now, but less of alcoholic bev-
erages They had no distilled liquors and tried
to prevent fermentation. Unfermented wines
were reckoned choicest. On this field of re-
form the foe is more terrible to-day than in the
days when Jesus taught and Paul wrote.
The alarming adulteration of our liquors is a
fact with which we are all familiar. 1t poisons
body and mind. The elements which make up
our nationality also contribute to this deplor-
able result The basic element is the Anglo
Saxon. The Anglo-Saxon always was drinker.
The American Indian learned to drink from
the white man. But our rude progenitors,
while savages in the woods. learned to collect
herbs and roots, brewed from them an alco-
holic drink, and many of them were drunkards
then. 1t runs in our blood to drink. The ac-
:,nse;rrs that have boon -sssi-~l - ta.io vriy--
inal stock have not been calculated to improve
it in this regard. The Irishman has come with
his proverbial love of whiskey, and the Ger
man with his inseparable lager beer.
These elements are fused. The result is our
American nationaity-a happy result in many
respects. but in this deplorable in the extreme
No nation ever stood in such danger of becom-
ing nation of drulkards as do We But do
not believe that this is to be our doom. Often
when God would destroy an evil he let's IL grow
hnA.r 49,