The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-02-03
CHURCH OF THE MESSIAH.

/
Experimental ReIigfon"-sermon by
the Rev. Henry Powers.
The elegant Church OF the Messiah Park avenue
| and Thirty-fourth street, was well filed yesterday
morning with an intelligent and devout conRrega-
| tion The subject of the pastors discourse was
| "Experimental Religion" and the selected text
! l. Corinthians, H., 14-"But the natural man re-
| cevetb not the things OF the Spirit Of God for
| they are fooIishness unto him. Neither can he
| know Them because they are spiritually dis
cernedn Perhaps the most fruitful source OF error
and false doctrine, Mr.. Powers began. on the part
of the interpreters OF the Bible has been and is
their inability or at least their neglect, to put
themselves in the places Of its original characters
and writer's. We hear men say often
times, when an attempt Is made to en-
tighten them concerning the true meaning
of any portion of the sacred record by careful
study Of all its attending circumstances. son.
don't trouble me with your learning and explana-
tions take the Bible just as 1t reads; the plain.
unvarnshed truth Of 1t il enough for me-" Yes,
my friends If we do take it as it reads but this is
not the The fact IS that none Of us can take
the Bible just as 1t reals
WITHOUT MUCH STUDY
and great power Of imagination. We take this let
ter to the Christians at Corinth, from which the
text is selected in its English translation and not
in the Palestinian Greek in which 1t was originally
written we take 1t out OF it's setting in that ancient
| Oriental framework or rich ana cxuberant life to
which it refers and transport it to this Occidental
world Of ours, whose language Is intellectual in
stead of emotional, and whose life Is cold
| and subject to steady repression instead OF
| being warm and spontaneous snd enlorescent
as was theirs The average American, therefore,
bring to its consideration the prepossesslOn OF his
own SOUL the prejudices OF his own nature ana
nation and age and particular school In which ne
| has been trained, and his personal habits Of
|
his soul and the true meaning of the record which
orbds his reading 1t just Us 1T is. simply because he
| Is not
| as he was who wrote 1t, and also because he does
| and describe by their the same set oil circum-
stances. We must remember, then, that the Bible
| is q book, or a collection OF books, OF an Eastern
origin; that it cannot be understood by us, save IN
| the most elementary way, without q knowledge OF
the manners Of ire habits 81 thought and speech zen
time 1t was produced and for whose especiai
| benefit it designed. In short to know exactly
what Paul Is trying to say In the text we must be.
come far as possible, through an intelligent
! sympathy with tEem, members OF the Church at
Corinth and not members OF the Church of the
| Messiah here in New York In the nineteenth cen
tury And sO-assumng 1t was Paul's custom III
| his speeches and writings to
DIVIDE THE HUMAN RACE
into three grand divisions or classes two OF
which only are mentioned in the teXt-ln-
asmuch as the individual man Is made up ol body,
soul and spirit, so the human race he taught, ac-
cordng to the system OF his tlme which is the col
|
OF men. The frst class comprises all those
whose souls have been turned, through the con-
OF their natures towards God and the infinite good.
Spiritual men are those who have broken all their
chains and live life OF love- The second class Is
| MADE OF men whose souls turned through the
body, which is their earthly and temporal part,
towards sensual and finite good. These are the
| carnal men, whose appetites are
| wICKEDLy AND DEsTRUCTIvELY
supreme while both soul and spirit are held in fear
fusubecton thereto Besides these there is another
| n
become Immersed in earthly appetite or conversant
with spiritual truth. And the ''soul man., simply
is member OF this class, aud his state Is That oil
the great majority OF the human race, past and
and excited TO action by the revelation OF spiritual
things, together with those living non-religious
lie, though not definitely an irrelgious sensual
life. or the latter they are not sinful in the blame
worthy sense, anf
THEY ARE NOT RELIGIOUS
in any praisewOrthy regard. They belong to that
great middle class which for want Of better name
Is called worldly -minded. whose purposes and occu-
patlons and euJoylnents are limited to this present
iile they willingly receive the religion OF Jesus,
as q revelation from heaven but practically they
are not cont rolled by IL in thought and conduct
and So while the spiritual man believes spiritual
truth, loves spiritual happiness and aims at spiri-
tual improvement; while the carnal man believes
IN rational things enjoys sensual qualification
most OF all. and pursues 1t more and more from
year to year, the natural, or worldly, man Is guided
by tGe opinions OF this world,
LOVES HIS HEART
the honOrs and successes Of THIS present life, and
mas as yet no purpose Oh securing any greater
good than it Is able TO confer upon him. The ques-
ton, then, SAID Mr.. Powers, Is care these things
indeed, as Paul asserts themY His bread assertion
is that spiritual preparation Is necessary for the
discernment and appropriation OF spiritual truth
There is sufficient reason to be convinced that
the fact is subs antially And then the pastor
sketched the rounds OF this conviction In an able
manner. he held as his groundwOrks First, the
declaration Is thought to be true, because 1t
seems to be sensible ana in accordance with the
laws OF the universe or "the nature OF things"
Second, that experience goes far to substan tate
the assertion OF Paul in the text. In the third and
last place. Mr.. Powers made an application of the
eloquent and augmentative thoughts submitted.
He asked his hearers anu himself to which class Of
men, sketched, did they belong. Some were
JouDtiessly SPIRITUAL"
PROBABLY NONE "CARNAL,"
but many doubtless more less In the
''naturaln state. What, then, their dutyp
And here he advised them how TO act as unitarans
and how to reach that spiritual standpoint adj
vised The principle that love Is greatest should
be acted upon. Prayers persuasiOns and sacrifices
| should be used more than reason, or argument or
material resources, and in this manner the soul
| will be developed and the religion they confessed
greatly expanded
CHURCH OF THE DIVINE PATERNITY.