The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-01-19

Sermons Wise and Otherwise.
Ritualism and superstition received another
shot yesterday from Bishop Cummins While
he admitted and declared that man must have
a religion, and that religion has been tho
weightiest force and factor in human history,
yet blazing affairs, delicious perfumes, tho
exhalations of incense, operatic music and
other sensual ceremonies constitute clever
counterfeit presentment of the religion Of
Jesus Christ. How beautiful is such ritual,
he asked? But is it true2 That is
the main question. The Bishop does not
want to s.see affairs in churches the exact
counterparts of those in pagan temples.
There is no true altar but the Cross of Christ"
The Bishop is opposed also to paid choristers
in white robes and congregation praising
God by proxy. He much prefers congrega-
tional singing. A loveier sight than all the
glories of marble or canvas is the soul reflect
ing its RIGHTEOUSNESS in devout worship.
Whatever ritual leaves the heart of the votary
unmoved, unmarked by any self-sacri6ce, is
superstition, and not the worship Of God in
spirit and in truth.
Mr.. Beecher illustrated various conceptions
of God. In the Old Testament God is
revealed more forcibly under the representa-
ton of regnant power as God over all
nature and God over the nations-a God Of
adaptation to want In the New Testament
He is revealed as the God of goodness, gentle
ness, sweetness, patience and long suffering
tenderness Mr.. Beecher believes in Her.
bert Spencer, John Stuart Mill and men of
that class as workers with God and for God.
The Rev. Henry Powers had something to
say in favor of mental and moral culture and
their relations to the life of man. While he
would not pretend to say that man could
not be q Christian unless he is educated, yet
the advantages of knowledge and culture are
very great in helping man to bear the ills
and misfortunes of life. 1t is not good sign
for man to be long and doubtfully engaged
with the ordinary temptations Of life. The
he is not only equal to these Or
binary trials and temptations but SUI
perior to them. The good mans resources
of moral power, like his mental stores. are
cultivable and may be made so strong that
man shall in time feel no necessity for any
vigorous or even conscious conflict with the
world of sin. This is true in part. But the
power that can overcome sin when the spirit
ual life begins in q man is the same that
must always keep it down. That power is the
grace of God. Culture may help wisdom and
godliness, and hope may help but grace
alone can save; and without it all our Gull
ture will not keep us out Of perdition.
DR.. Duryea drew from the inquiry of the
ruler to Jesus, ''Good master, what shall do
to obtain eternal life, not the Interpretation
that sceptics give to it, that Christ disclaimed
any idea or right to be considered as divine,
but rather the very opposite, that He was
Himself God. Jesus did not reprove the man
for calling Him "good;" He did not disclaim
being good, but He sought rather in this way
to reveal Himself to the ruler whom He after
wards exhorted to sell all that he had and fol-
low Him. The rnler, in his recital of
the commandments that he had kept
from his youth, omitted the first, and
any other God beside Himself. Jesus knew
that while this man retained his riches and
trusted in them he could never save his soul.
He therefore advised him to dispose of them.
This man was type of many in our day, who
would be far richer if they sold all their earthly
possessions and followed Jesus instead of the
world. But, like him, they hold on with one
hand as it were to the world and with the other
try to catch the hand of Christ, and the result
is miserable failure
Father Bjerring yesterday set forth some Of
the doctrines Of the Greek Church. He does
not show himself as well posted in the Scrip
lures as public teacher of those writings
should be. AS one of the highly exalting
characteristics of the Virgin Mary he names
virginity, which he says was despised among
Jewish women, but which her pure soul re-
solved to embrace, when it is asserted by the
Evangelists that she was betrothed to Joseph at
the time of the Saviour BIRTH land by whom she
subsequently had children, SO that virginity
did not enter into her life's calculations. That
the Greek Church believes as the good
Father declares is simply saying that she does
not believe the sacred record on this point.
PRAYER to the Virgin and to the saints is an
other of the doctrines Of the Church. But
Christ, in His model and inimitable prayer,
gives no intimation that our pentions
should be addressed to them. Nay, rather
He declares that whosoever doeth the
will of His Father in heaven the same is His
mother and sister and brother Father
Bierring claims that his Church has preserved
the faith in it's original purity and yet, while
IL agrees in doctrine substantially with the
Roman Church, in doctrine the Greek Church
in some respects considers its Latin neighbor
as heretical as any Protestant sect can be-
Mr.. rockingham talked about "Public
Amusements' yesterday. He thinks we ought
! to have amusements, and because the Church