Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-01-31
THE NEW FAITH.
ASermon Preached I'm McCIure's Hall,
Nashville. bv Rev. w. !. Ellis.

CONCLUDED FROM YESTERDAY
Look at the services of the book of
"Common Prayer" the very name ''ser-
vice. carries you back to those eastern
courts where lowly prostration and servile
adulation were the most acceptable "Ser-
vices the courtiers could render. In the
services and especially in the occasional
prayers" petitions for physical more often
occur than for spiritual blessings,
and both were evidently, by the
makers of the prayers expected to
be the arbitrary bestowment by God in the
same way as the gifts of a parent are often
because the winning ways Of the little
one has worked upon the parents feelings,
or in some way induced action whic-I the
mere consideration Of the child's needs
would not cause. The "Litany" was
formed for professional uses. In times of
plague, pestilence, or some great calamity
the doctrine of the day being that these
evils were sent directly by God to punish
them for their spiritual wickedneSs"-an
arr " of vested clericals, carrying the host,
cross, ETC., followed by a line of the faith
full, would march through the streets,
shifting their breasts, the priests beginning
the wailing petition and the people lifting
up their voices in the mournful refrain, 40
God, the Father Of Heaven, have mercy
upon us miserable Sinners and when they
got through the litany, as they went home
they would feel that Gods pity might so
have been touched that the pestilence
would cease Immediately, and some
times, perhaps, the cessation or abate-
ment Of the evil ,oas a quick Sc
quence, and then it was held for certain
that the saying of the litany had turned
away Gods anger. Often now when one
is sick, God sends the sickness as a pun
iShment Just as a mother whips her naugh-
ty child, and the prayer might cause God
to act ~analogously to the mother who is in
duced by the tears and beseeching of the
little one to let the offender off this time.
And bereaved ones often suffer keen an
guish in trying to imagine for what sins it
is God has taken away the-dear one. And
civil authorities in times of pestilence and
dearth appoint a day of fasting and prayer,
''that God may turn away his fierce an
GER"
This notion of prayer mixes up in utter
confusion the material and the spiritual,
the physical and the moral, and trains us
up to expect God to do at first hand what
our own wills and hearts and hands have
10 QO. anu lCSSClS lLll cplll " ODCulCuNC
TO the laws of nature which true reverence
demands, and is the remote cause Of many
an early death or sickly constitution, peo-
pie having a half belief that God may in
terfere to keep them from the natural re-
suits of thoughtlessness, ~imprudence and
improvidence. If prayer is petition in the
name of Christ which causes God TO inter
fere with the laws of nature, then prayer
never has changed the course of the uni
verse or of an individual in the slightest de
gree. But, indeed, this is superstition, not
prayer.
We do not believe that God resides in
the heaven of heavens and in the begin
ming set the machinery of the universe in
motion and every now and then, according
to oft recurring eXigences, "interferes"
with His laws. God is every where, in us
and around us; sin Him we live and move
and have our being" Gin Him and from
Him and to Him are all things" 'He is
an all peryading spirit slowly rearing the
fabric of creation, bringing it to perfection
in the roll of ages, developing himself in a
mysterious way in nature and in the hui
man SOUL" Not from a single atom Of
matter does He ever withdraw His superin-
tendence and support. He is ever present,
and with His laws which are but modes Of
His working.
The prayers which Carpenter and Tyndal
speak against suppose the universe to be
governed by an arbitrary supernatural will.
They are not scoffers or ir~religiOus or I'm
christian men, though their names are cast
out as evil by many, who manifest far less
of the christian spirit than they eyince
Carpenter says, "Intelligence may accept
| to its fullest extent the doctrine of eyOlu.
ton with an increased rather a diminished
reverence for the infinite cause which has
| chosen that mode of manifesting ITSELF and
''the phenomena of the material universe
are the expressions Of a mind and will OF
whichman'S-nOt the lowest but the highest
form ofman's willis an imperfect and lin.
ted type" and then goes on to show that i
mans wisdom was perfect and his viii
pure, he would not have to make "inter-
| ferences' with his plans. He asserts -
conscious vOlitional agency in God anC
| saws that the laws of the physical universe
are constant unifOrmitieS, because originally
| devised by infinite wisdom, any change
would be for the worse. He recognize.
ssthe universal and constantly sUstainin,
agency of the deity in every phenomena o.
the external universe" and says that sin il
we have the same distinct evidence of His
personal existence and ceaseleSS activity as
we have of tie agency Of intelligent minC
in the creations of artistic genius or in tn
elaborate c~ontrivances of mechanical skill
or in those written records of Thought whicl
arouse u nature into kindred activity
and that he, with Martineau ''lOoks upOI
the sublime face Of nature as the living ap
peal of thought TO thought" He says 500
governs the mOral worldly moraliaw ,whicl
are also immutable, and cites love. to Cos
and love to man as the two main ones. Ii
the longing and laboring after these Their,
is room and verge enough for prayer. Anl
now listen to Tyndal. Speaking Of tn.
true men of science he says, (and 1 wisl
our dOgmatists could say as much,O "The,
have but one desire, to know the truth
they have but one fear, to believe a lie
They have as little fellowship with tn
atheist, who says there is no God, as witt
the theist, who processes to know the min,
of Cod He continues: "TwO things,
said Emmanuel Kent, still me with awe
the starry heavens and the sense of mora
responsibility in man." And in his hour
of health and strength a%ndsanity, when tn
stroke of action has ceased and the pOwe
of reflection has set in, the scientific inveS
tigator finds himself overshadOwed by tn
same awe. Breaking contact with tn
hampering details of earth, it associate
him with a power which gives fullneS
and tone to existence, but which he CO,
neither analyZe nor comprehend" Til
is true prayerandinits highest form-to as
sOciate yourself within a spirit of admira
ton, love and obedience, to commune wit
that power which gives fulness and ton
to existence. Doing this gives full scOp
to cur religious faculties, to our devotiOna
feelings. Carpenter and Tyndal are boil
men of prayer, and, if what | hearSOf theI
is true, l wish all Christians would pray a
fervently and e~fiectually as they do. The
pay their debts, control their appetites, sub
due their passions, are courteous, compaS
s~ionate, benevolent, and live lives far abov
the average of professors Of religion" an
even of u "bishops and other ministers.
People profess a religion which is one {
noble principle and of pure, selfsacrificin
affection. On Saturday night they slee
the sleep of the ayaTicious and, perhap.
the tricky man, or Of the woman who's
whole soul is in ribbons and laces, an
such like, and on Sunday, or pei
haps at other times, they go thrOug
a process which they call 4
vine service, holding that in consequence
God interferes with his general law
l for their benefit; and the whole result
that they do not whit less sleep til
sleep of the devOtee of mammon or {
fashion Tbav Enanl dou-n in f,r,;l