The Portland daily press., 1873-04-19
Fast Day.

| day was pleasant one tho the air was some
| thing cold, and people didn't look at all penn
| tential. Services were held at State street, a.
st. Lawrence street, at the First Parish anu -
the Payson Memorial churches, anu seii
delivered by their respective pastors We e.
| below synopsis OF the sermons eHcep' io.
Mr. u;nls, which we shall publish entlre IN
| our Mondays issue
FIRST PARISH
.ha First Parish there was quite large
| ,aionc. among which we noticed several cler-
o,,,,on of ether denominations. Rev. Dr. Hill
5eIyered an able sermon on our religious and
political duties. His opening prayer was hum.
Bile and earnest, and contained the following:
"Not according to our merit, but according
to the merit OF Jesus" may our faith in Thee
and in Him be accounted unto us for right
eousness. I'm Jesus name we ask for these
favors, for ourselves and for others for whom
Christ died.
The DR.. took his text from Mathew ODD,
chap. list verse: ''Render therefore unto
God the things that are Gods This question
OF the Pharisees and of the Herodians was the
hest concerted plot against our Lord of which
we have any account TWAS intended to snare
Him md render Him amenable to the Roman
law. The Jews held it not to be lawful to &C
hho"iCoSC TIC dutHOIity VI OCo"A' ANo sAS
Romans held the power and if He answered no,
they would declare it treason. 1t on the other
hand He replied yes, the common people would
loose faith ia Him as the Messiah Jesus
therefore gave only general answer, anu t ~
the Jews and not to Him or His work; Inc
question involves rule of religions and poit-
ical duty.
Two Questions of vital importance are to be
considered: First-Religion and politics are
entirely distinct fields. The word translated
politics. in the Greek sense covers the whole
ground of our social life. STANDARDIZATION
and politics are one and the same. Politics
cannot be substituted for relic ion, nor can re-
ligion be excluded from politics. There is a
largely increasing party in this country and in
England acting on the ground that philanthro-
Ply and humanity is the only religion. Accord
ing to this religion, pride, blasphemy and SEN
suality would be innocent if they did not injure
our fellow men. Men must have religious faith
in order to have any assurance Of peace. The
Joy that flows from faith, reverence and aspira-
ton after God, is higher than all other Joys.
There is no Joy that equals that of the Christian
heart reconciled unto God through our Lord
ness through the way He has appointed, viz:
repentance. No amount of service towards
our fellow men can take the place of repen-
lance for our sins and service to God.
The text also shows that certain religious
things are to be kept from worldly things. 1t
1t is rare to find business men recognizing re-
ligion in their business This is wrong. They
do not ask: SIS the business reputable?" but
us it proftable?" The question should be-:
rs it agreeable to God, useful and profitable to
myself" If men did this, what change there
would be- In the field Of politics the same er-
ror is made. Every man is responsible to God
for his vote and political influence I do not
advocate the formation of religious party.
What mean is, we have made our allegiance
to parties of sin and expediency superior to our
hQI o1Yr no1if tOol 0Iare
are carrying us into wrong we should leave
them
This question also relates to the duties we
owe to the church and parish, and may the
scrutiny to which we arc invited lead to self
scrutiny, to prayer and the faithful performance
of our duties.
PAYsoN MEMORIAL.
Rev. DR. Carruthers, at the Payson Memorial
Church, took for his text also, Proverbs, xiv
81; righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin
Is reproach to any people,"
These words are of the nature of an anti the
sis, presenting two contrasts, the one relating
to the character and conduct, the other to the
condition of nation or people. Both branches
OF the statement are of universal and perpet-
ual application. A nation will rise by right
eousness or fall by sin. History confirms this,
generations attest its truth and the time will
never come when the records of any communI
ty will fail to respond in tones of unqualified
acquiescence. And yet this statement runs
counter to the Judgment of multitudes in every
age, and experience has fai led to convince the
Maynard children of men that God is true
Many make mock of sin, considering it tri-
file that does not in the least affect public prog
ress or prosperity. In all christian countries
there are persons who expect to see society ad-
vanced in all that is essential to its interests,
without and against religion.
Righteousness is the synonym OF justice, and
justice consists in giving every one his due.
Justice is the cement of society, and the unjust
man is the confessed enemy of his kind, and
taboo by his fellows. Every mans rights
should be respected by his fellowmen, and he
who does not, forfeits his right to be considered
just or righteous. But has God no rights? Is
it just to withhold from him what is his due as
Creator and Moral Governor? Does it not
seem that we should reverently regard the in
stitutious he has established and guarded by
perfect legislation? Yet some men claiming to
be just, do not hesitate to rob God. Restricting
righteousness to what is due from man to man,
is of the essence of atheism. Righteousness is
religion; sin irreligion. The one dignifes ma
ton; the other disgraees it. The one promotes
national prosperity; the other is the precursor
of its downfall. Men of the world claim to
have other guarantees for national prosperity,
such as the science of political economy, the
advance of general knowledge, increase of civil
liberty, and augmentation of the nations ma
terial resources.
The science of political economy is simply "a
series of ingenious conjectures" Human policy
shaped by human knowledge and human pow
er is circumscribed in narrow limits. The
''logic of events" laughs at the predictions of
statesmen and human foresight Where now
is the English coalition policy of 1915, the Ma
poleonic Mexican policy, the American policy
of denying suffrage to the negroes? No system
of human policy has existed that has not per-
ished like the "baseless fabric of a vision. -
The extension of general knowledge will accom-
plish nothing for us as a nation, if not joined
with religious and moral principle, any more
than it did for Rome in the Augustan age,
Greece in the days Of her palmiest prosperity,
or France whose learned men overthrow her
liberties by undermining the safeguards of re-
ligion. We can scarcely exaggerate the worth
of civil freedom, but even this, apart from the
dominion and guidance of truth and virtue,
will do little if anything, for the real moral
prisons is by birth freeman. Every dshon-
estktradesman is free citizen. The annual
convOcation of our State and national legsla-
tors, and all their laborious counsels and enact
ments, show that freedom is no preservative
from crime. Nay, recent events demonstrate
that the appointed guardians of nations
liberties may unceremoniously put their hands
into the nations treasury and give the sanction
of their infamous example to any and every
species of theft
The amplitude and increase of our mat erial
resources is no safeguard of a nations well-be-
ing. The sacra James auri, with the lux ury,
venalty and dissipation in its train, took from
Rome her supremacy, and destroyed SPAIN 1t
is eating at cur vitals and necessitatiEg repres
sive measures unthought of in the days of the
nations poverty and purity. 1t is loosening
the hold of our greatest men on the esteem and
| confidence of their fellow citizens, relaxing all
the fibres and sinews of the body polite and if
not contracted will entail upon us the doom Of
| Tyre.
Righteousness, or religion, must not be con-
| founded with denominatiOnalsm. National
welfare cannot be promoted by sectarianism
Nothing would be gained b. changing any man
or body of men, from enr denomination to an
other Their pecularities are to religion what
| regiments are to an army. conveniently dis
| tinguishng sections. A coward will not become
| hero by a change of apparel nor will denomi-
| national change of position affect the status Of
| people. Religion is an affair of the heart and
of the life, and the real piety of people is the
only true gauge and guarantee of national pros
perity The addition of regenerate persons in
creases the power and purity of community
| and every instance of apostacy ploportionately
decreases it. Religion is recitude Of heart and
life, the habitual subsection of thought, utter
ance, and action to the supremacy of heavenly
| truth and the will of God. Real, living. earn
| est, upright Christians are collectively-to
| whatever denomination they belong-the ligh
of the world, the salt of the earth, the only con
| servators of what is worth perpetuating In ma
| ton.
| The doctor closed with the assurance tina
two ;,et;t,,f;opo dacarvad oY1r moqt cernuS ron