The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-02-17

would seem that the preachers took fresh
inspiration and endeavored to show the absent
ones, by contrast, how much they lost by their
absence from the sanctuaries.
The sermon delivered by Rev. Father
Cazau in st. Francis Xavier's church, we
especially commend for its Scripturalness, its
beauty and point and practical bearings upon
the daily life and conduct of individuals It
is especially appropriate to that large class of
Gospel hearers who stife conscience that they
may continue in sin. They must admit the
truthfulness of the picture of the oft-renewed
conflicts between conscience and lust; and
though it may be true that ''many sinners have
been recalled to Cod through the stingings
and lashings of remorse, it is also too true that
to many more remorse comes too late. They
have trided with the Almighty just a little too
long The ease with which we change our
views on Christian duties and mutual oblga-
tions is portrayed all too faithfully, we fear,
to be very acceptable to many of our readers.
Yet we believe the ministers are right, and
they are true to their divine mission when they
call us back into the old paths and warn us
against the dangers which lie ahead in our
own hayward courses. In this regard the
trumpet of Father Cazau yesterday uttered no
uncertain sound.
The Christian reader should turn from
Father Cazau's discourse to Mr.. Beechers,
and after reading both carefully say if there is
not much more of the Gospel both in letter
and in spirit in the former than in the latter.
Mr. Beecher's is nicely written essay, which
would read just as well without text as with
one. We are told, for instance, that ''God'
truth works not by visible means but by or
ganization." Which sentence would bear
little more light, it seems to us, ere it can be
comprehended by the uninitiated. Wendell
Phillips too, will have to rewrite his lecture
on the 'Lost Arts if it be true that s'there is
no evidence that any single truth or any in
vention has ever been lost" We have no fear,
that religious truth will either shrink or sink,
and we are glad that Mr.. Beecher shares with
us the same faith. The truth of God is i'm
mutable.
With the sketch of Father Kearney's sermon
before us his language seems incomprehensi-
BILE. He divides the Christian Church into
three classes-those who believe in the written
Word Of God alone, those who believe partly
in it, and those who don't believe in it at ALL
And the first of these, he declares, can never
form creed or law, because each interprets
for himself, and hence their dissimilar views
and interpretations cannot be concealed in
creeds. The second is the fruitful source of
new-fangled denominations, and the third he
dismisses altogether. But, with the evidence
of SO many creeds and denominations before
him, we cannot see the logic of the argument
that creeds cannot be formulated by the be-
levers in the right of private judgment
Rev. Mr. Clarke, looking for the Church's
foundation, finds it ''not on Peter, the infalible
master, but Peter feeding the sheep and teach
ing the children" And hence, while the
Catholic Church chose TO preach Gospel Of
love and peace to world full of cruelty, which
it did for five or six centuries it became a
mighty power. But when it abused this power
the Reformation came, and its purpose was
to convert the Church as master into the
Church as teacher; and all the institutions
of the Church and of the Gospel tend this
way. Forms and words were made for man;
but man himself was made for truth, love, JUS
tice, God.
Mr. Talmage, meeting the arguments of
those who intend to become Christians, but
not now, made an excellent point yesterday
when he asked his auditors if they ever
knew man to get away from an evil habit
by pursuing it? Of course not. They run
the wrong way. Hence the force of his
proposition that sin, instead of relaxing its
hold on the soul, throws out its graphing
hooks and captures the immortal nature of
man. Hence, also, there is no better time than
to-day to hear the Saviour's voice and to
answer His call to duty and to obedience.
The royalty of the Christian as a son of the
King of Kings was set forth yesterday by DR..
Ormiston. The contrast between our condi-
ton as children of wrath, miserable creatures,
without light or hope, and our condition as
sons of God, endowed with divine right to
be kings, is one so great and yet withal SO
marked and true it is surprising that millions
more do not accept the offers of the royal
Father and return to the household of faith.
But many are kept back in nominally Chris
tan lands by the vices of the age and the
tendency to plunge into infdelity. To
warn the faithful against these breakers was
the Office Of Father Gross yesterday. As an
illustration of the result of this tendency he
pointed to the Paris Commune and the agita-
tions in Spain. The sermon, however good
in itself, was spoiled in the application when
the traditions of men" and alleged
miracles wrought by pictures were made to
take the place of the commandments of God
All the eloquence that can possibly be be-
slowed upon such miracles" in this enlight-
ened age can never carry conviction to the