The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-01-12

Mr.. Beecher yesterday morning discoursed
to a large congregation on the influence of
words on the soul, with special reference to
the word Lord and its effect upon the
character and conduct of life Personal in
auence is the law Of nature, and nothing has
power to inspire souls but lives throbbing
with enthusiastic nature. Mr. Beecher ac-
knowledged his own Indebtedness to the
colored servants in his fathers family for
much of his spiritual inspiration and
love of the Bible. His double-edged
sarcasm at ritualism will be duly
appreciated by those Episcopalians who are
travelling so fast and so far to reach Rome.
He likens them to full-grown men trying to
get into cribs and beds intended only for
babes-a thing that seems to him too absurd.
God is the one fixed thing, and the realization
of Christ personally by the soul and faith in
God is the power, he thinks, that will keep
men tuned.
DR.. Chaplin held up the act of the woman
who washed the Saviour feet with her tears
and wiped them with the hairs of her head as
an example of great faith. She must have
seen in Christ righteousness unlike that Of
the Scribes and Pharisees, and she sought and
found pardon at his feet where the Doctor
would have all sinners 60 for pardon and
purity and peace.
Bishop Cummins continued his Reformed
Church services in Steinway Hall yesterday,
and preached sermon on the unity of the
Church, in which he refuted the theories Of
apostolic succession and the pretended gift of
the Holy Ghost by the laying on Of priestly
hands, and expressed his surprise that the
nineteenth century had stood such theories
so long. The Bishops definition of the Church
of God and of those who compose its member
ship, is so thoroughly orthodox that no
thoughtful man can object to it, and so simple
that the humblest can understand it.
The Church is the household of God; there is
but one Church, and no man is in the Church
unless he is saved. 1t is the failure to dis
criminate between the mystical Church and
the organizations called churches that leads to
endless confusion. The one baptism is that Of
the Holy Ghost-not of water. There is no
vicar Of Christ on earth in the Bishops creed.
He does not think that controversies can de-
stroy the unity of the Church of Christ, be-
cause it's members are all united to Him by
living faith.
Dr. Hall cited illustrations from history,
ancient and modern, to show how much
worse is the condition of nations and indi-
viduals whose repentance is not sincere and
thorough than if they had never repented.
Living without God, men die without God;
for in the grave the doom Of all remains in
everlasting silence and gloom. A man must
not be negatively good-he must be positively
so; but it is only through the Lord Jesus
that we can ever obtain permanent victory
over the Old Man, with his affections and lust.
could not let such live topic as the week Of
prayer pass by unnoticed. There is singing
irony in his pretended applause of
the sublimity of this institution-the
week of prayer Criticise it as we
will he thinks there is something pathetic in
the vision of these people who pray, leaving
their places of business and devoting week
for besieging the gates of heaven. Indeed, if
we can forget the superstition connected with it
it is sublime. The patience Of God in waiting
for these prayers is more touching than His
love. In the relation of work to prayer, how
ever, Mr.. rockingham has some practical re-
marks, which, if Needed, will do us oil good.
The Rev. William Harris, D. D., of Lon
don, told the Seventeenth street Baptist con-
gregation yesterday that revivals were known
long before Wesley or Luther. David prayed
that God might revive His people again, and
gave his reason that they might rejoice in Him.
If our prayers are not answered to-day, DR..
Harris thinks, it is not because we don't use
words enough, but because we don't wait for
the Divine answer. The only revivalist that
DR.. Harris knows or believes in is God. He
is not circumscribed as men are.
The coronation of the week of prayer as
Rev. J. Hyatt Smith described it, was the
/, grand union communion Of Baptists, Presby-
terians, CongregationaGsts, Methodists and
Reformed Dutch which took place yesterday
afternoon in the Reformed church, on
Bedford avenue. Brooklyn. 1t was q
sublime spectacle, and as DR.. Porter, at
whose suggestion and in whose church
it was held, remarked, never was such a
table spread on this Continent Two thou
sand people, of different and sometimes Of
warning denominations, sitting together in
one place and at one time at the table Of
their common Lord and Saviour and COM
memorating His dying love and their own
faith in Him and their union one with
another is sight seldom Witnessed. Az
DR.. Porter and Mr.. Holmes remarked.
it should give an inspiration to the COM
municants for all their future lives. Their
common creed was faith in Christ, as ex-
pressed in the ''Apostles' Greed, which the
entire congregation recited audbly. Such
scene Mr.. Smith thought should make
u...1al.. aud Woslav shake hands in the slxieS