The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1874-05-11

lie that is moved by Whittier OF touched by |
'urns, had some poetic elements N his nature;
lie who shares Agassizs enthusiasm for nature, |
haired, in some degree, his pc er to understand |
rganic life; all who, last evening, were |
ouched in their hearts by Paine's St. Peter, |
lad that for an evidence both of certain de- |
,ree of musical power ill them, and of a certain |
capacity for Christian sentiment and Christian |
,irtue. The rough soldiers in the Crimea who |
ooked with affectionate reverence even upon
he shadow of Florence Nightingale, proved
hereby the presence in their beasts of
/ spark of that divine love which
ylowed in her; and which after
ward manifested itself in the heroic self
devotion of so many laborers in our own sani-
tary commission. Each man had stored in his
own heart an infinite treasury of good; there
was chord ready to vibrat in response to any
and every glorious example of virtue. All the
virtues of all the saints had their SEEDS, or
roots. planted in every soul; we could choose
to cultivate or to neglect them. On the other
hand, there was, even in the best of men, the
nndeveloped possibilities of every crime; and
he who narrowly watched himself found him
self sometimes guilty of venial offences, which
had in them nature kindred to acts of the
greatest guilt.
Each man, from among the unnumbered po-
sitions which he might attain in the scale of
spiritual being, chose his own place. If dis
satisfied with it he might accept the oft
Renewed INVITATION OIL Jne lOfu W COlne' up
higher. But the longer the delay in accepting
it, the greater the difficulty. The soul grows
into an adaptation to the place which it chooses.
This law of our nature, essential to stability in
virtue, produced also obstinacy in sin. The
sensual man easily degraded himself far below
beastly nature. This fact was fearfully Illus
trated by thousands of men of high intellect
ual and moral power, who have yielded basely
to the Circean winecup, made shipwreck of
faith and conscience, Of honor and happiness.
of domestic joy and heavenly hope, and going
prematurely to a dishonored grave in which it
almost seemed as though soul and body had
persisted. The same fearful possibility was il
Illustrated by other sensual sins, in which men
of the highest natural gifts had wallowed,
sending anguish and misery into many other
souls and finally themselves dying more loathe-
some deaths than even that of the drunkard.
He that fears such an awful loss OF lIte
present and eternal, should remember that
there is no salvation from it except by turning
with trusting faith to the word OF the Lord
Jesus Christ. and laying hold of the hope set
before him there There is no safety against
going down except in perpetually going up.
The door stood ever open for an endless ascent,
nearer to Christ and nearer TO q ID. But what,
he asked, was The higher place; what was the
likeness to the Lord, which should open to US
the beatfic vision OF his face? 1t was the hum
BILE spirit of adorng love; the spirit of purity.
and of self-consecration to the service OF God.
It was the unfeigned love of man: the caring
for the interests and the rights of others; the
endeavor to do good to men, TO save them from
temptations. to help them in all good offices;
and to lift them into that spirit of good will 10
men and reverent trust in the promises OF de-
sus, in which we find our own foretaste of the
heavenly inheritance.
Yet the kingdom of heaven was here. Every
child Of man was born heir to its endless
riches; heir to all the wealth OF the universe,
all its truth, all its beauty, all lis joy, all its
loving affection He could become useful to
the church and the world, accepted of God and
beloved of men, Satan endeavored by lying
promises to cajole him out of this brthright;
offering him the pleasures of this life, or do
minion here below, or the applause OF meu:
But he that is deceived by these falsehoods of
the father of lies made terrible mistake. The
pleasures of life were gided apples of Sodom,
full of ashes and bitterness; the power gained
by selfish intrigues was poweress for any good ;
the plaudits of the world were translated by
conscience into hooking laughter, if not into
curses. Let he nearer be wise, turn deaf ear to
Satan, but open his heart to the word of Christ,
let him choose his own place, not with Judas
among the enemies of the Lord, aud the de
stroyers of themselves, among the suicides and
men without hope; but let him choose his
place with Peter, upon the Rock of Christs
word, upon the promises that can never fail,
among the excellent, the pure, the loving, up
on whom God hath set the seal of his likeness,
and whom He will admit to the everlasting
joys.
CASCO STREET CHURCH.
AT Casco street church in the afternoon Rev.
A. A. Smith preached his farewell sermon to a
large and attentive audience, taking for his text
Matt. xvi. Is, "And upon this rock will build
my church; and the gates of hell shall not pre-
vail against it,
The church of Christ is an institution of
great promise. The world looks upon it as
upon any other organized society, as one that
may succeed or may fail according to the
strength of favorable or adverse influences.
But it is not weak institution like those Of hu-
man origin 1t gees back of human reasoning
and has its beginning in the Will of Jehovah.
The world may trample its teaching sunder foot
but sooner or later it must accept the truth Of
its foundations.
1t matters but little whether any society
formed by the world lives or dies. Not so with
the church. The world cannot live without
that. 1t must have it or die.
The words of the text, if they show anything
at ali, show conclusively that external foes can
not triumph over the church. We say that it
will prosper if such and such influences are fav
orable, but we forget that it never flourished so
well as when opposed and oppressed by all the
world, If the church is true to God it will do
wonderful things, whether outside influences
are favorable or not
The church holds its own destiny, under God,
in it's own possession. 1t is successful accord
ing to the amount of true life, work and con-
secration which it possesses. And what is true
of the church is true of individuals.
What then is essential that we have sue
cessful church? In the first place, we must be
social in our life and must be in sympathy with
all the real wants of the age. We are too apt
to be exclusive. We pray and sing well togeth-
er but do hot carry our Joy out irto the world.
The world must be made to feel by experience
that the church loves it. When the church of
God hast cast off all its own woes and feels
at peace, it is apt to be contented and to forget
that there are hearts all around which need and
ask for consolation.
In the next place, the church should take
great care of all the interests that tend to in
fluence its spiritual life To this end every in
dividual member lould aim to maintain a COM
plete conservation to God. That alone will
produce spirituality. A church has no right
whatever to lose this spirituality. There should
never be any occasion for SpaSmodic efforts to
wake IN church members. l would have every
church live so near Christ as to have perpet-
ual revival. Then there must be care for the
sick and the weak and the frail If we see
brother or sister about to lay down the cross let
us not report the fact and so hasten the fall but
rather let us assist the falling one to RISE
ASdlh ouO SuuiOu WuSI Uc very cdTH6SG Ill 1tS
work to sustain the pastor. Do not look so
much in a pastor for greatness as for goodness
The world has to-day no visible Jesus, with
His miracles, His teachings, and His divine
presence. His only representative is His church,
and every heart that takes His vows upon itself
must work OF be untrue to its vows.
But there are glorious promises to the church
as well as responsibilities There are nine
promises in the Bible to the church to one for
everybody else.
In looking back over the history of this
church since my connection with it, l rejoice
greatly at our success but grieve that we have
some failures to mourn. During my connection
with the church have never said one word in
ire sacred desk to please any man or woman.
L have always endeavOred to show to the audi
ence that believe in Jesus of Nazareth. /
have always kept in view that after l had
preached sermon, my next meeting with you
might be before the bar of Ggd.
STATE STREET CHURCH.
I'm the moraing, the pastor, Rev. E. Y.
Hincks, preached from the words 'Come: for
all things are now ready" He remarked first.
upon the invitation. Second, upon the motives
which impelled the invitation. And third. of
the duties and obligations which rest upon us
from that invitation and the motives which call
ed itlforth
In his prayer, the preacher earnestly besought
the blessing of God upon the efforts which are
to he made tn cleanse orr ctv from intov;o,t;on