New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-03-02
DIVINITY LECTURES,
,,r pppcpER ON PRESENTING GOD.

u
I'm. vu-1t LECTURE ON THE PREACHERS TREAT
vrNr OF DOCTRINES - THE DIVINE AND
x.ruKRIY 40 BE BLENDED IN THE PREsENTA-
,,or or GOD - CLERICAL IRREYEIsENCE - A
WISE sYnMETRY IN PREACHING.
',rnou AN occAaoSAL CORRESPONDENT OF THE rRiBuShJ
Nyw.N.vrN. Feb. 25.-The Rev. II. W. Beecher
delivered his fifth lecture The Preachers Treat
,nent of Doctrines" in the Chapel Of the Yale Divin
ity School, this afternoon. II was continuation oil
the subject of Preaching God" lecture third nav
ing emphasized the need of this; lecture fourth
having discussed The Realization of God" and TINS
one having to do with "1he Method OF Presenting
,Gcd7 Despite the violent snow storm, the Chapel
was filed, and he spoke with great fervor His
treatment of the subject substantially as fol-
lows:
. cad p,pst become The Unknown before He could he
-,,,,v known and then must become the Known again,
10, the truest knowledge. Idol worship started with
Tho purpose OF bn ng God nearer and so had shade
AZ right IN it, but 1t never lifted God into the highest
Geld Yet the abstraction of God int the highest heid
aud leaving Hin there, about as barren method
In bringing God TO therefore, He must he realized
ty familiar methods but by constantly eniargng pre-
sanitation: He must be lifted through familiar things
into higher realms His eternity selfexisence wisdom
ROVER goodness must he IN these ways emphasized tai
He should pass from ell things senSuous INTO
rooh vast sphere that the Thought Oh MN
would almost overcome with it's greatnesS-he
Inns becoming, by earthly methods as unlike
the earthly as suupalnted clouds at sunset are unlike
,oudav noos from which they evaporaed. SO, truly TO
know HIM lie must become the Unknown. But then
The reverse process must come in When science sho"eu
how unending were the details OF His work. IL was hdru
10 realize Him as personal and living God-as one Oh
sympathy and Of providential government; ana Se'
lost az that point FatherhoOd must be brought out
20 thai the power IN the Fatherhood would only aus
.,ent the ioy OF having Him Father. These pro
.esses were those of mstOryof generations OF eaemhg;
but tninister ecnlct these processes IN peIer
spans be IN processes kind of providence 10 MS poo
pie.
To these processes must he brought the imagination,
which in more sensuOu- fields, was despsed oV some
lint which had higher working. Philosophy could not
bo created without il 1t was the hest sense faith
the evidence of things not seem" 1t must WORK. Ill
teaching learning till God should be bouudieSs, ana
a palace where one might wander endlessly and come
upon new beauties something passing knowledge
overwhelming Only by this could eOnceit aud over
weening pride be taken out OF men; they might NC
driven out by bad usage but they left the man haDoy
they were in the strongest characters from the very
strength and when this high thought OF God came III
they went and left the humbed and yet strong as
Job was when he had batted the comiorters Nho
assaulted him. but ut Gods manifestation SAID Now
mine eve seeth Thee; Whereupon abhor myself
And only by this method could Christ be seen at His
greatest Nothing in the New Testament approached
The subimty OF the Old the power OF the Apocalypse
was only an echo of it, it the framework for the
New to rest upon; the like Of the manifestations 10
Moses Elijah Isaiah. and in JoD-the suohmest drama
ever written-could be found nowhere it was the up
lifting method against Christ was thrown as against
background II was nothing TO be gentle If one could
Dot help ones self 10 be merciful one didn't care
but II was He OF Sinai who was gentle, and He VINO
hated sin who was merufu; IL was He who was in the
fesh Of His realization OF Divinity who knew that
He came from God and went 10 God" who washed MS
disciples feet Parents unwise to prevent tneIr
children from reading the Old Testament grounds OF
.ieacy II il had sides IL life The preacher
should not be ashamed OF IT, he who was, bad not been
IN persecution. for it the great refuge OF the
troubled; II came Of stormy times and was helpful
IN them; If mountain rough TO live ~ all 'he
rivers out OF 10.
In applying this twoold process iITeverence was to
he avoided He wasn't reverent, except IN one or two
directions; he revered Jesus than jehovah but
II was his weakness which he realized and made ailo"
pce for IN mental processes Yet even he coue not
revolt from the trivial way in which the clergy too
often handled divine things" God did this and that
If He lived around the corner The Hebrews had an
name me est ready 10 SPEAK Cod
must be "a Father, which suggested that one took Der-
ties with father which were the more precious for
liberties which he dared not take MANY men who said
damn" didn't swear and many minister's IN saying
sGOd." did.
Then one must build not fron God as a center but
the souls OF men For Instructions sake theory
%. "a
he presented according 70 the needs or men,
PredestinatiOn keystone OF Cavinsm. but not OF
saving men, which the thing 10 seek There was "a
false symmetry in preaching. To preach this doctrine
one week and It's antithesis the next, was to work
around the ribs Of system 10 prevent It's becoming
IOpslded and yet was attempting what no one knew
enough TO do-to uphold perfect theory OF God One
might 10 TO please Gods feelings. but God did MT
care what of the person, bat OF the soul When
he preached in West, il 20 detrt-
tus where every tendency was 10 lndividu-
alizatiOu, dlsnte grafton and he preached the
raoredness Of the Sabbath, the necessity of church
organization and discipline the necessity of authority
the bad effects of awless freedom hut when he came
East where tendencies in the opposite direction,
he took an opposite He might have preached
philosophy out he would have lost souls. One
needle would through, but bunch OF 30 would n
1t not symmetrical medical practice IN give all
the yals by or. at least, IL unsymmetrical
health. plow and six yoke OF oxen were Mt the
thing for garden but were Indispensable on the
prairie. When milder means fell like dew on an alh-
gators back il time TO preach damnaton but that
carried all places for the sake OF te
system. out OF God from an inexhaustble armOry,
the right methods TO DO brought ana Just the right
OBes
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