New-York tribune., 1874-04-13


Notwithstanding the unusually cold weather and
the high wind which prevailed yesterday, the
churches OF New-York and Brooklyn were well
filed Many Of the pulpits of the Methodist Episco-
pal churches were occupied by prominent members
of the New-York and the New-York East Annual
Conferences, both Of which bodies are now
In session. The sermons of the day, many
of which are published below, were largely OF doc
trnal Misunderstanding of matters of faith and of
the interior life. The sermon by the Rev. DR.. Vim
cent on foreign missions and that by the Rev. DR..
Scudder on total abstinence are marked exceptions
THE KINGDOM OF GOD WITHIN US.
III @ henry BAer Plymouth Church (CongreoatouaD.
The services at Plymouth Church yesterday
embraced the usual practical talk by Henry Ward
Beecher who took for the keynote OF his the
I7sh chapter of Luke last clause OF verse 81:
"For 10! the kingdom OF God is within you"
After referring to the frequency of this decara-
tion in the New Testament, running like a con-
tinuous thread all through it, and the truth of which
known IN a different form in the Old Testament ne
said that the power OF God did not lie in external things
but ,in the internal nature OF man. There was great
emphasis put upon by Savior and by his Apostles
You will find, for Instance. the Apostle In Romans ivth
saws that the kingdom OF God is not meat and drink
The Jews attached great significance to the
symbolic worship Of the temple. but the Apostle says
the kingdom Of God not these instruments OF worship
symbols OF truth, peace
IN the Hoy Ghost and this right inward disposition Is
orthodoxy PIT a man in any sect you please You may
set a diamond pewter lead or copper or BRASS or
silver or gold, IL is diamond in all settings and you
put man has the spirit OF Christ in him predoml-
nanty into any sect- dOn't care which one you caiI
the lead OF which the pewter, or which the god-put
him IN any Of them, it is the Christ disposition that
makes him approved and accepted OF God. That
determines his manhood. The kingdom OF God lies not
points Of belief not in doctrine, organized pnoSophi
cal doctrine though may be minstered TO by these
things but in power 1t is the mind force the v-
iug force Of the yng We accustomed to hear
that the kingdom Of God is in the Church hope 1t Isl
lut the Church is not the kingdom. No association of
good dstinctiyely aad prominently the king
dom. Tue kingdom itself Is in the individual; and
wherever single person has in shim righteousness JOY
love- peoce-wbere these dstinctvey Christian traits
rule IN him. there is the kingdom of God In the
Hebrew economy father the head of the family
When the father in the barbarous periods OF the
early age had committed sin the whole family was
punished The household, then, was the unit; ana
without sayiug anything on the subject the New
Testament quietly assumes that the individual is
the unit IN society; each one is for himself,
so that every one shall give account Of himself
20 God Now II You put your emphasis wrong yon
stumble on that passage. Very many men say: l say
then every OF US shall give account Of himself to
God" and ne thinks that solemn declaration Of ac
COuntalility But that is not the emphasis Every
one shall give account Of himself to God" We are not
thought Of by the composite elements OF tue
church members of family nation although
We hold these 10 be subsidiaries but looked upon
each an empire. each kingdom. This kingdom
Goes not exist in men by nature. 1t is not physical,
heshy kin gdom 1t IS that Is set up in each persons
heart carried step by step by discipline, by instruc
tOn carried far forward in this life even, but perfect
only in the life that is TO come.
We have been taught that outside the Church
without Holiness that by OF the fall Of
great ancestor all fell and that all OF us inherited
certain sOmehing-the want Of righteousness, that
we are not good by nature, by nature holy That
rs true as can be- Whatever Adam had TO do with it,
one thing certain every born into this life Is
empty Of the Kingdom OF God he can be Dorn
and ne lacks original righteousness he lacks original
muscle. He is bundle OF emptinesses. But dest
tu,e whon Of the spiritual element because
destitute OF everything. We begin below everything,
aud then develop step by step. Men have the same
faculties but in different proportions, SO that they start
teys We are accustomed TO say but all substantially
the gnerlcaly alike. specifically unlike. In this
work, then. OF building up the kingdom OF God, each
regarded ~ MS sepaTaeneSs before Go1 ana the
end object Of life is 10 develop and establish that
Kingdom IN man which is called the Kingdom OF God.
Now this development. IS call 1t, only another
hame Tor education carried on IN higher form OF the
faculties w understand perfectly what 1T is 10 de
yeop ,he physical kingdom the intellectual and social
liugdam. aud precisely by analogy to deveOpe
the kingdom oi Heaven or of the higher spiritual
elements. When sou educate man physically you are
Obliged to thnk oI thousand things 10 WaIcA over
linn, what he eats and does, but there Is no
same IL true i'm tho psthec intellectual social devel
ppmeut Dut when you come TO the higher realm there
central and sovereign disposition. which when 1t Is
brought into force into power regulates ana CONTROLS:
Testament fun and the o empty. This element
rXpes things that 10 be expelled lust as the vital
throws cXcrementOus matter IL harm0nlZes,
regulates, gives tone to the nlhd so tnat II man taxes
of that element alone IL viii take care OF all the
Without everything IS forced IKE the growth OF
flowers Winter; with 1t everything is spontaneous
without it everything is special; with 1t every thing is
The true work Of fe then the development OF the
DIVINE disposition in the SOUL not more for the thing
itself but for the Of all those other things which
educating force does in man. We do not come TO
this divine and dominant disposition by chance. If any
suppOses that persons born into life absolutely
good he knows but little OF human nature some men
are born Tar better organized than others, born with
relative advantages but after all of that an element
tendency TO which is not born IN man. No man gets
II by waiting and IL does not come accident Ii is
matter OF deliberate, intelligent choice The beginnings
kingdom Of God IN man are not knowledge,
zeal nor conscience, nor truthand that TOO with
out any imputatloDs upon these thngs-but the true
soufOree that Is to recreate IN every man and prepare
rim for Heaven, is this central disposition IT, then
thoughts and purposes Of men, will say III regard TO
morality IL is not thing TO be despsed or lnyelghed
he spirituality without morality, but morality alone
Of itself is simply cOniOrnatiye 10 external standards.
Now external standards are good and many OF them
admirable nevertheless the Kingdom Of God is not in
these. simple moral man Is ike grapevine fallng
on the ground IL is dirty ana ainpeo upon anu @ gen
orally useless, but when man Is surIoundeu, uy
family he is like that grapevine taken up ana Ialo on
ire He Is very proud % mat ne bs covers season an comes and
you ask Where is your frutP IL says, on, don't
care much about fruit but lust ioGk at my my leaves cav Zee
think IN regard morality in Just the same way: 81 am
good husband, good father, am an honest man ana
pay my debts, am good Deighbor, and am living all
right" Yes, III your lower nature you are But where
is your fruitf ,,
more than social creatures, more than civic crea-
lures, aud than inhabitants OF this horizon
bounded by time. The circuit OF the sun Is not
he oT ne