The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1874-06-08
SUNDAY SERVICES.

SUNDAY SERVICES.
| NEW JERUSALEM CHURCH.
The following is a sermon from Numb. XIV,
| preached by the Rev. Mr. Hayden Sunday week,
but crowded out by the reports of Memorial
Day:
Unbelief is treated in tho Scriptures Is a sin,
and the severest penalties Of transgression are
denounced against those who persistently con-
tinue in it.
This is wondered at by many, for it is main-
tanned that the mind is 80 constituted that it
must yield to evidence whom adequately pre-
sented; and, it is asked, why cannot God al
ways so present HIS Truth to mankind in such
way as to dispel uncertainty and remove
doubt?
The fallacy lying at the bottom of this
thought is that belief is not An act of the un-
Outstanding alone; the understanding being
largely influenced in all its operations by the
affections of the will
We fail to acquire many branches Of natural
knowledge, simply because the heart feels no
| interest in them; while from the mere preju-
| dice of an adverse feeling we refuse belief in
| the truth with respect to some of the panest
| ana COmmOQeSG OF GnlnXS.
How much more, then, in morals and relig-
| ion? The secret is that the natural, unregen-
| Grated heart leans the other way. With the
| heart we believe unto salvation and out of the
heart cometh the unbelief, which may
| lead to our destruction. 49,
| We are not apt to realize with sufficient dis
| tinctness and clearness the twofold structure Of
| the human mind, as taught in the Scripture;
the external, and the internal. There are in
| deed tapo minds in every man. the natural and
| tba Ia han tba
man." and ''the outer man." The one looks
up to heaven, the other looks down to earth.
This distinguishes man from the beasts. Ami
mails have but one mind, while man has two
Hence we read in the Book of Creation that
Good breathed into man the breath(not"of life
merely, but)of Hves," as it is In the original
tongues. Some commentators say, ''of too lives"
| So Job says, "There is spirit in (or within)
man, inside, that is, his outward, manifest
nature And this ''inner man. is what rem
ders us all immortal, spiritual religious beings.
The natural mind, or "outer man." is the
part that rebels. This part of US is, indeed,
before it is subdued, at war against our own
| salvation. For the flesh lusteth against the
spirit, and the spirit has to contend against the
| flesh.
| Unbelief skepticism, doubt in regard to divine
and heavenly things is thought and feeling car
ried on exclusively in the loacer or natural part
of the mind, to the neglect and forgetfulness of
the testimony of the upper or spiritual part.
"For the natural man receiveth not the things
|
unto him; neither can be know them, for they
| are spiritually discerned." These two parts of
the mind are like the two stories of house,
one above, the other below. The upper one
! lighted by the glorious sun of heaven, the lower
one only by the fitful flashes of the fire blazing
| on our own hearth. In the upper one resides
| the conscience, with the true reason, and all
our moral and spiritual faculties. In the low
er one reside the propensities, the lusts, pas
siOns, appettes, of our lower nature, with such
persuasive thoughts and reasons as the selfish
prudence of the world can supply or suggest
What wonder that skepticsm, doubt and un-
belief abound, when we are willing to dwell in
the lowest portion of the mind, neglectful of
the light which the Lord is ready to pour in
through the upper story, if only we will open it
to Him. The moral, healthy, growing. pro
| gressive altitude of the human mind is that of
| childlike trust in the Words of Heavenly Fa-
firmativo of every holy truth and every sacred
duty.
| FIRST PARISH
| The pastor, Rev. Dr. Hill, preached In the
morning from Matthew XIX, %, 26, on the in
suficiency of merely prudential motives TO
religious life; the necessity for love and
faith.
In Intervening he preached by request Of the
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to AMI
mails, taking for his text, Prov. XII, 10. "A
| righteous man regardeth the desires Of his
beast, but the tender mercies of tho wicked
are cruel" Cruelty was mark Of alienation
from God, and also a mark of brutality and
barbarism. He who feared God would remem.
Der that the Creator made the animals also to
enjoy their share of happiness, and would show
kindness to whatever God had made But the
preacher thought some sensitive persons lex
aggerated in their imaginations the sufferings
of animals. 1t was fact well established by
naturalists that no animal suffers so much pain
| as man.
| Yet they were capable Of pain, and Of pleas
ure, even of mental pain and pleasure; and
while the sensitive heart might find comfort in
the fact that their sufferings were less than
ours would be in their circumstances, the
cruel could find no justification in inflieting
unnecessary pain. The test of the wise He
brew was real test, cruelty to animals be-
trayed hardened heart, and ungrateful for
getfulness of the Creators mercy; It betrayed
this alienation from God; and it produced
it.
Animals, he considered society for the preven-
ton of injury to men. The law of the equality
of action and reaction held for spiritual things
blow at collision might be equal to each body,
| the effect on each might be very different
| The steamer suffered more than the icebergs
| Socrates said that he who Injuries another, in
| jures himself more. This is certainly true,
| when we injured an INFERIOR or brute He
| would not speak of the confessed injury to
| public health arising from cruelty and mat
| tention to the needs of mich COWS, and of beef
| cattle, swine and sheep; although the benefit
| to public health done from the action of such
societies as this, more than compensated for all
| the expense of maintaining them. But he
would press on his hearers attention the injury
done to human character by cruelty; the alien
alton from God, the snothering of humane
affections, the destruction of happiness and
usefulness produced by the brutaizng effects
of cruelty to animals.
Of course, DR.. Hill said, he would have all
efforts to prevent cruelty to animals. judicious
and sensible; but he trusted that the societies
would never be betrayed into any such zeal for
the rights of animals as should lead them to
forget the rights of men, Any petty and spy
ing interference between man and his beast,
any cognizance of actions which are not mani
testify and incontrovertibly cruel, would be like
ly to do harm to both man and beast, leading
the owner to resent what he deemed offlcious
lntermeddling, and vent his resentment on his
animal The preacher also thought that some-
thing ought to be done to prevent the wanton
destruction of innocent and even useful animals
under the name of sport The righteous, God
fearing man could not destroy the life of any
animal without first considering the question
whether he had Gods permission; whether
there was sound and sufficient reason for its
destruction. If man really believed in God,
that became the ruling idea of his life regulat-
ing his intercourse even with the brutas. The
love of God, the Hebrew fear of God, con-
trolled every thought and feeling and action of
life. This was the atonement wrought BY
the Lord Jesus Christ; He Stays the enmity Of
ha haarf inf no of GrJ