New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-06-29

| cnurCneS, altn0uRn there was ono marked
exception--Plymouth Church. Brooklyn-where
there a great throng Doubtless some of his
ditors expected renewal of the controversy which
| has caused so much excitement during the past
week, but they missed what they went to hear and
| had better compensation for the loss than they
| deserved in the strong sermon which Mr. Beecher
preached and which will be found in the main below.
| The life of Nine. Audubon of the prominent
| themes of the day. Ordination services were held
| in the Church of the TRANSPORTATION protestant
| EpiscopaD.
GOD NOT NATIONAL BUT UNIVERSAL
Henry Ward Bee Plymouth Church (Congregaonan
When the mercury runs up high among the
nineties the comparatively few people who cling to
llglous worship in the uncomfortable city churches
hardly have right to expect warmth in the ser
than In the sunlight but when this qualification Is
experienced audience may home positively re-
eshed instead OF enervated was noticeaby the case
with those who listened to Mr. Beecher yesterday The
scene inside Plymouth Church would have formed as
desirable a subject for artists peI'cil as for re-
porters for the building absolutely crammed with
a heated, half-sthed crowd OF men and women, VINO
themselves while tanning furiousy that
their superhuman struggles for entrance and good seats
had been successful and that they were not among
the hundred who regretfuly tracing their steps
home ward cool homes after seeking In vain to get
within hearing distance of tho pulpit The number OF
auditors unusual least for this fiery was due
largely to q rumor which flashed like electricity
over the City OF Brooklyn that Dir Beecher
had at last resolved, with the advice oil
his ablest counselors, to make decisive state
ment before his whole congregation. denying, OF
course, 1t said the stories circulating to his dis
credit and the scandal OF the church. and swift tongues
had even spread the suggestion. which obtained an
equal OF credence, that soon as this state
ment had been made the congregation woud In q DOuy
rise and express their confidence In their pastor by
resounding vote. The occurrences OF tho morning
service however, established the unsoundness OF tho
stories for the congregation were dismissed Win the
usual quet heartfelt benedcti0n and nothing was said
which could have construed to refer remotely
TO tho prevailing topic the community unless eryent
prayers calling upon than earthly aid in times OF
great trouble and trial could be so considered. The
comments OF mingled disappointment and appreciation
heard among many they loft the church proved how
| widespread had been the rumor anu now attractive
| had been It's force.
The sermon itself OF unusual power, and the
energy delivery marked by the perspration
that sreamed down the pastors face and by the I'M
mstakable expression Of exhaustion that fingered after
irs conclusion. Tie text taken from Isaiah Inv,
"For thy Maker is thy husband the Lord OF Hosts Is
His name and thy Redeemer the Holy One OF Israeli the
| God OF the whole earth shall he be called"
DO We take notice. said Mr.. Beecher that I'm this pas
sage the OF the Divine presence brought to
men by those symbols which have IN themselves the
most precious associations and which touch human
pcrence in its tenderest ponl IL is very striking
thing for one to call himself father" but you will OBJ
serve that here the relationships are carried ont. Tiny
Maker is thy husband. the Lord or Hosts Is HIS name
and thy Redeemer the Holy One OF Israel" Now,
what clements could have produced the magnificent
consciousness OF the glory OF an overriding God so
strongly this appeal to the tenderest love OF the hui
man sou-the family love-and to patriotism--or the
love Of country 81 am to you as the husband TO the
wife and the wife to the household am to y0u tho Holy
| of
od :" and thus having brought home to their conscious
ness by these extremely powerful suggestions and ten
der relationships He adds-and is this background
OF the paracaa, Of nationality thst 4 has ITS ssn
q ns or a hSnc erie of sSa
Himself to any single nation more previously and
clearly than to but the Goa OF the whole earth
The Hebrew idea OF God stands in marked contrast
with that OF other nations, for although national gods
abundant, although we have IL in incontestlOe
| history that very largely so the Divide idea grew
| among men, branched out OF AMI born from this
of the family and of the national lfe yet in
| TO hold that although Almighty Goa had made dsclo-
sures OF Himself To tho Jewish people transcendantly
account theirs only He was Of the world. The candle
does belong TO the candestck that holds it, but TO
every that in the where it Shines and the
knowledge Of God and the precousness OF the relation
ship does not belong to the nation which it first
ana most carefully disclosed They hold it as torch,
is that all may have the benefit OF Its shining 1t
stands still marked contrast with the polytheis
tic nations among whom historic personages, heroes,
&c.. to the stature Of gods. 1t was alsoi to be
| distinguished very clearly from pantheism OF
Itself in its sum total God and that by that term we
the sum OF all thinkers and thinking, the sum OF
all vitality and OF all phenomena; not personality, but
total system OF the universe The last mystic and
vailed OF that that which Mr. Arnold has set
forth in attempt wonderfully ingenious, and still
more wonderful other respects to show that the He
brews did not believe in personal God, but that they
| believed in extreme OF tenderness which make for
righteousness and it this great quality OF righteous
that they believe In an abstract principle and not
personal God but this Is OF the most astounding
literary maryeis OF any age: mat man should under,
God in every conceivable way, clothed Him In every
that belongs to personality revealed Him In every
conceivable way whose whole literature stands dis
tngushed FROM that O every other on the globe by the
intense personality that they give to God HIS universal
ty. His companionabeDess now and hereafter dld not
believe personal GOD at all Is one VI tue slupeuuous
literary maryelS OF the age
We are told IN the Scriptures that God s spirit that
He is absolutely incommunicabe, that he may be made
known relatively, partially, and that that knowledge
| must follow the development OF men themselves. No
where else there so much odesty as IN the reveal
ton Of God in Scripture. We are told That we know In
mart but that to know by and by In later stage
and In another development the full knowledge OF God,
n there be taken In the knowledge OF the in-
unite by the finite. There that given ~ Noses and
the more you read and think the more you Will be filled
with admiration for that disclosure or Goa recorded III
Tho oath chapter OF Exodus The for Ii Is very
snblime This great nation had been taken out OF an
tinnlty where they had been more or less affected by
dnatry stupidity and anlmaism, and were being led
forth 1t to know now TO rear the foundations OF
nation that Moses. asked God TO reveal
himself him. II there be any thing that the states
mann may ask it is in the discharge OF his duty to
his kind he may have something OF the knowledge or
God whose function 1t is TO discharge universal duties
| 70 universal being. l think II statesmen IN our day.
resdug the Constitution not the less won't 10
ask God all the more, make manifest 70 US what Is
ni,re truth entire honor. entire fidelity, entire benef
cencev we should have o much higher slate VI govern
| tnent than now have. good as II is
This people just starting national existence and
had together at the foot OF Mount Sinai
10 receive commands OF God and then In the midst
of tho most conconitans to the