The Portland daily press., 1874-01-12

drudgery in our lives. There seems very little
to minister to our higher needs A large part
of our time is consumed with toilsome work
and small cares. 1t is hard not to think much
of this waste. Now Christ knows the bitter
ness of all such regrets. However humble and
exhausting the details of any ones life. Christ
has undergone just such humble details By
those thirty years in Gailee we are sure of his
sympathy: But he gives us more than sympa-
thy 1t IS sympathy, not with our toll as an
gain. There are buildings in Boston far
away from the flow of the water, tall
and fine; five stories high and Of
brick aod stone, they rise in their soli-
dity. and you never would think as you look up
at them that once the tide had circled in where
they stand-that piles and loads of earth by
the thousand had gone beneath the street be-
I, re even brick could be laid yet a whole new
Boston rests on such thankless expense. 1t is
so with our lives. There seems nothing tall
and grand save as it rests on thousands of little
invisible efforts All your beauty grows up out
os deep and costly earthwork God puts us
here for teaching, tolay foundations, to learn
finish and thoroughness. He teaches the nigh
ty lesson of obedience through our tedious toll
as no other lesson could teach it. He teaches
us patience through our humdrum routine.
Higher yet he teaches us love and sympathy
with each other. through this homely drudg-
cry. There is no school like it towards love,
and what blessing it is. Why, the despised
slave tottering over the grave, who yet, by the
toll of his life, has been taught the meaning of
love, has surer foundation for the eternal life
than the mind of Goethe with that one lesson
wanting.
For what after all is gain? 1t is given where
man is more humble for his past years-more
loyal to all kinds of duties more loving to his
heavenly Father and people around him. By
comparison, can we think of anything else that
can count? And what else is the process of
gain than the common routine of our lives that
we falsely call drudgery.
But is there no waste in our lives? Yes, sure
ly, and much. Waste when we are neither
more Obedient nor more patient nor more low
ing for all our routine Waste when we de-
splse Gods little duties. Waste when our idle
ness throws our proper work on the shoulders
OF others. 1t is waste of which we are all of us
to some degree guilty. 1t is waste for which we
want Gods forgiveness to repair, but it is sure
waste that we will all of us try this new year to
treasure to glorious gain.
CONGRESS STREET CHURCH.
Rev. Mr.. Gibbs preached in the morning
from LIST Corinthians, iii, 11-"For other foun-
dations can no man lay than that is laid which
is Jesus Christi
The sermon was purely a doc trinal one.
The preacher began by saying that one can
safely predict what the building will be by the
kind of foundation laid, Just so in the foun-
dation Of character. Many have been ruined
by not forming a character at the start. We
n ust start right What is true in moral
sense is true in a religious sense. We do not
get the right idea at the start. Theories,have
been set up in the church and il there is any
one that does not prefer belief in these he is
called hereto. They try to lay other founda-
tons than that in Jesus Christ We need not
go back to Christ and ascertain what is the
true foundation. In turning to the Gospel the
searcher finds God the father of all souls The
old theory is that God would have us do just
what we would not like to do. But such is not
the fact. God would have us do just what is
best for us. God is never weary and is ever
ready to receive all that come to him. 1t is in
spring that the seekers after the truth are be-
coming decided on this point. This power con-
vinces and converts men. Seekers have found
another point in Christ's foundation.
The scripture teaches that Christ died for ALL
Many who have not seen this before are now
just beginning to see it The mission of Jesus
was universal. The admission that Christ
came for all means more than is noticed at first
This is the doctrine of old Universalism of
forty or fifty years ago. "This is the power
that is to more the world. when brethren will
dwell together in unity andilove God who look
ed upon the world and said it is very good, is
looking on now and says it well. Christ
has laid the foundation, and he leaves it for us
to say what we shall build thereon. We should
build up such temples as will stand, and if we
build we'll we may be sure that God will be
well pleased. But ON none other than the
foundation that Christ has laid is it safe for us
to build.