New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-07-03


man-worshipers, the apprehension that one should be
thought TO he all tied up in the will of single man.
has acted in many 10 hold persons off and alOof
for fear they should be swallowed up in an unreason
able way. But in spite of all such repellances
flying from center. there has been-and quite in
dependent of any personality in the pastor-there
has been begoen III the hearts of the church by the
Holy Ghost deep religious life, earnest. spiritual,
continuous, increasing, and that has been the secret
Of the power of the church.
Now for two years. after q church history of great
prosperity, and after great many reasons why you
are in danger of pride and of vanity of spiritual
sortfor two years God has put this church into the
furnace and tried it gold is tried Tried it, not by
these ordinary trials not by affection simply in the
household not by the common discrepancies of life
and jars but tried it in its SOUL in its self life
tried each one tried them by that strong feeling of q
joyful and religious nature, sympathy for another, or
for others, rather than for yourself. And
my earnest desire is / might say in regard
TO this church--my want is that it should
out victorious not by the consent OF spectators.
not alone in the sight of men, who always must
judge specifically, but that the church may come
ont victorious in the sight of God, and that it may
seem more precious church to Him whose name it
bears, Jesus Christ. And that this may be so, it
must he that the trouble that you have had shall
work In you Christ likeness. You are strong, not
in yourselves you rich not in your own thought
or impulses 1t is by the indwell'ng of
God that you are strong and that you
are rich, and that Christ may dwell
in your hearts there must needs be snch prcpara-
ton in your hearts shall make 1t possible for the
spirit of peace, and gentlencss, and meekness and
humility to abide inyou. l do not propose, never
have, never SHALL do not proclaim any
charity that is inconsistent with the Judgment Of
the truth any charity that is inconsistent with
such proper steps necessary to vndcate truth,
but you must know that there is nOhng-that there
if nothing that gets quick the sweet milk
of conscience there is nothing that gets better
quick rs the honey of Justice, there is one cover
under which there is more apt to be self
deception than the sense of what is required of the
truth of what is required of justice what is proper
all those phrases behind which men throw up the
frework of their passions. Now while truth is
tried while we are not by charitable words to frtcr
away clear distinctions between right and wrong,
between what is manly and what is mean, what is
honorable and what is base, what is pure and what
is mixea-while we, to keep all these distinctions
sharp, while our conduct must needs be regulated
by these Fundamental and inelfaceable moral dis
tiuctions, on the other hand, we must administer in
the spirit of the inspired Apostle when he says,
Speaking the truth in love y" speaking the truth
in love-"
DUTY OF CHARITY AND FORGIVENESS URGED.
No man can be just toward a neighbor, toward a
Delinquent, that hates him. No man can, out of
heart either of malice or of bitterness or of anger or
Of coldness Judge correctly in respect to any human
being Now if you are to follow the example of
your Master you are, toward all that have wIongei
YOU to carry feeling that shall be better and'supe-
ror TO theirs, which belongs to nature. If God has
tried you to any purpose with dangers, profit should
appear in this that while you manly in
your Judgment, clear, true, and low
ing in your distinctions or Judgments
of things, it is trial the handspring of which, in
the feeling of Divine kindness. lie who is our
Master and our Model, and is to be our Judge and
our Savior, right when, i'll the very anguish OF
the crucitXiOn, without waiting for repentance OF
confession OF anything else, he prayed: Father,
forgive them, they know not what they DO" How
much more should you be able to speak from the
very fullnoss of your heart toward those that have
done You wrong, those whom you love, and say
"Father forgive them. they know not what they
do"
Some Of them are blind by zeal some of them are
blind by pride; some of them swept away by
the social sympathes in which they are acting and
some of them are weak and some only wickedly
weak; and some are swept away simply
because those on whom they depend for thought
and feeling and motive power are themselves swept
away. No matter what the reason is you owe to
every person. but first of all to those that have IN
jured yOu-you owe tins to them: rather
forgive them" And if you cherish amnesty
and bitterness if your hand longs TO hold
the rod if, when you speak OF them, your jaws
come together with an emphasis, yon are not i'll the
RIGHT spirit; YOU have not been chastised enough;
YOU have not been troubled enough. AS long as tie
lax is still it is not ready 30 be woven into the gar
meut of the saints. 1t is not until all the wood has
been broken up that is i'll it IL is not until the every
fiber of the flax is as flexible silk, that it is fit TO
be spun and woven and Worm
And now again say clearly, intellectual under
standing moral discrimination, and sense of right
and wrong, and CT the relative derecs-all these
ought to be operated by larger spirit of Christian
charity and Christian kindness. And let this dispo-
stiOn in Won govern your tongue first; Keep 1t III
silence very much and consequently, speaking wisely
and speaking gently, and often there is no severity
like genteness. hus prohting on your part, under
so great trouble, it will probably be preach
inu of the Gospel that YOU viii never have another
chance to make as long you live. The lsraetes
did not go through the Red Sea more than once, and
we have got through, and are on the other side,
while Pharaoh pulls out his chariot wheels III the
mud And with the sign of triumph, with re-
ioicing, remember with what rejoicing you have
and Offering you have, that thanks to Christ can
come in no other way so acceptable to Him as the
manifestations of the Christ hkeness-that sense of
Christ in you, which shall make your feeling and
your conduct toward them that have wronged
YOU, what His feeling was. He gave
Himself unto death for them that
were yet His enemies, while they were His enemies
and left for you the command to bless those that
curse you to pray for them that dcsptefully use
YOU. that you might be the children of your Father
for lie is one that rolls by every day the sunlight
and bathcs in golden glory the good and the bad