The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-10-11
ADIRONDACK MURRAY.
A Large Gathering in Music
Hall, Boston.
A Sermon on Moral and Spir-
itual Education.
RosroN Mas. oct. lo. 's75.

"A large congregation gathered IN MUSIC iAh WIS
morning 70 listen 70 the pastor Of 'the Church CT
Christian Unity" who selected his test from H. Peter
ill., ls:-'But grow in grace and in the knowledge Of
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ"
SERMON
The Scriptures are almost paterna in the direcnesg
and familiarity with which they address us. They talk
70 " as father might to his child To read them Is
TO receive counsel from God Thor exhortaons sound
like those Of fathers voice. They express authority
but Il Is the authority Of love and tenderness and anx
iey in behalf Whoever reads the Bible reyerontly
must feel that God is interested in him. The fathers
heart speaks through the fathers Words
In this tone Mr. Murray continued briefly to say en-
couraging words to his congregation, and then took up
the thread Of his discourse, saying:-I propose to
speak 70 you this morning in reference that moral
and spiritual education which possible TO all OF us;
nay, which is obligatory upon all Of US, and which
brings TO Us, il progresses the delights OF knowl-
edge and the toys which wait upon the gracious devel-
opment Of souls
The germ idea contained ia tho word education Is
that Of leading forth the natural capacity OF the man.
An educated person person who has been led forth
or brought out Or developed from what he was into
something larger and fuller and more complete Moral
education is therefore, the leading forth OF the moral
capacity of man. When his religious powers are trained
in legitimate exercises until they have reached their
regulated and adjusted fit spiritual basis when
the attitude OF his mind reverenta as regards tho
Deity, and his conduct upright US regards man. then
may he be said TO be regiousy educated. Education
Il not something therefore, you Sec which
comes to a from the outward; il is not something
that is brought to him as result, and added him.
making him the larger by this outward addition; but it
is something which takes place within him; the work.
ing out Of force or an influence or Of forces
influences, which push him upward and push him out
ward by genuine law of growth, natural aud beau-
full the growth Of tree. The impulse which effects
this development Interior and the history of educa-
ton the history OF changes from the to the
LIBERAL from the small to the great which go on, as
the days pass, within the heart and the mind.
He then went say that there is not a creation OF
God, there is not combination permitted by Him. tho
object Of which is not mans educaton you are to look
upon the whole world in all its growths in all its ever
revolving changes as ordained for your instruction and
assistance. There is not tree there is spre Of
grass there is not even daisy head that you passed
this summer in the fields that created aud put
in growth and bloom for you No looks at Nature
rightly unless he looks at il in all its profusion all
its sublimy having direct aud benevolent relations
to his soul, The whole earth is our school room in
which sit scholars studying the great objective
lessons with which He has covered its floor
and adorned its walls, and traced in golden lines
upon its vaulted ceiling Every natural creation
bodies some fact or expresses some law the Divine
mind'has carved some idea into every mountain form
some idea. All rivers teach the lesson of bcnevo-
lence. The stand for mighty conceptions The
heavens suggest His handlwork Day day uttereth
speech and night unto night showeth wisdom. The
ancients grew wise IN this schoo, which we noderns
dospise They were religious in their senses They
God with their eyes and heard Him with their ears,
and hence they mnisered unto in thousand
ways which we the arrogance OF bookish
knowledge reject Without surrendering methods of
religious growth il well for to avail ourselves
more fully than we do of theirs. The saying of tho
Saviour sExcept We become as little children We shall
| not qutn ar q a has mt mix
TO the attitudes OF our mind but to its employ
mcnts. Wherever you find law, wherever n chemical
combination deity made wherever germ force thero
| you find, and IN them, too, His Kingdom. For His
Kingdom is built in the midst of things, aud is founded
the basis Of laws, opcrant not only one, but
thousand directions and is peoped with facts Wis
dom to these is wisdom TO God and he is
regards the Creator who comprehonds most clearly all
the and relation of created things. To under
stand the catechsm, and not know anything OF
the tree that shades your door or the shrub the
flower IN your garden IS to be imperfect as to
knowledge To know theology, to have its defni-
tons at the tongues end, and not at the same time to
know the law OF gravaon out which come the forces
that make universal harmony in tho world Of NATTER is
be only half impressed with the majesty OF jehovah
The first thing for man TO learn when he moves into
a house is the location and OF its apartments
be able TO set its furniture in order and thus mako
its connection and convcniences helpful TO the family
life Now this earth is house into which have
moved its apartments arc many its furniture various
its connections happy. In all its arrangements the
wise provision of a Fathers thought and Fathers
hand is perceived. Not to know things, not TO feel
them to lose that 1ne Of connection with God
which every child Of His should bear in constant mem
CRY he nhabts the mansion prepared for HIM here
You are mastering the alphabet of that universal
knowledge which comes TO no one IN any perfect
ure on this earth but which continues TO come in fuller
and fuller measures Of perfection the inquiry pur-
sued And this pursuit is intermnabe; for you must
remember that you like the seeds cast into tho ground
in spring time, are only planted here-you are not
grown All OF the lives here in this audience, all OF
the lives being lived in the world, only many
seeds sowD out Of Gods hand. We are only rooted
here; by and By We shall push ourselves upward and
got altitude OF growth and become floral before God
IL matters little therefore. how small you be now,
If by and by you shall become great You may
he only bulb you may be only fragment OF root,
you may be only casto on tendrl; but If the bulb DO
vital If the root have lie in II, II the endrll is not ut
tcry wjthered IL shall grow aud spr0ut and begin TO
climb, and the number,ess ages TO which you are heir
shall furnish you With endless opportunities OF enlarge
ment church that is not in It's spirit in the admin
stration of its ordinances in the expression of pull
pit, in the feeling OF its membership sympathetic with
all humanity tolerant toward all opponents I'll opinion,
and peryaded with the sweet sentiment Of Christian
charity, is sure to prevent the very consummAton for
the accomplishment Of which it is nominally created
You cannot base church Of Christ on anything less
wide, loss liberal less sympathetic than the heart Of
Christ You cannot fence in few utteanccs and say
Within this enclosure can be found all truth Whoever
attempts to fence in truth fences more out than he
fences in. No segment OF the ssy VIII hold
/ the horizon line If you are to tabuate tho
mighty number You cannot include the truths OF the
/ divine naturc and administration in any theological
segment These truths everywhere and they
not revealed to any ono body Of men. They are not
comprehended by any one class o. minds they are
not discovered by any Que particular generation Of
soarchers. There is for new discoveries from
to age Original investigation Is forever IN order,
aud each century makes addition the bulk pre-
vlous accumuations Education is thus forever pro-
| gressive, and The human mind at the dawn Of each
generation goes in searcho the undiscovered as BIRDS
| 20 forth from the groves with the coming Of
every morning to canvass the fields for their
! food, and feel in the movement Of their
/ flight the Joy Of fresh experience
close with this word Of cheer. The theme suggests
it. Whatever your state spiritually may be, You need
not remain in Il Yon grow out Of that state into
4 better one You who have iacd grow out OF your
failure into success. II you Respondent you can
grow up into the condition OF hopculness In Won are
sad God Will lit you into Joy. II you are in the midst
of sin you DO redeemed or that sin ana become
upright. Ifyou weak In the structure oil your vr
you be braced with the bands of everlasting
power. Tho heavens arc fun or attractions ana 81
their swoei might you can be- lifted until you rgard
higher than the stars not what your I M ire
caro- not what your follics are | care MA
what your nhrinities You may be beyond hone
friends think "a III blvE 4