The Portland daily press., 1875-08-09
SUNDAY SERVICES.

preachers were announced to supply pulpits in
the city. called out unusually large audiences
for hot and sultrg day.
FIRST PARISH.
Nearly seat in the First Parish church was
niled to hear the sermon announced to be de-
livered by Rev. Horatio Stebbins of San Fran
cisco, former pastor of the church for several
years and dearly beloved by the society, and
generally respected by the religious commune
ty. Nearly all DENOMINATIONS were represent
ed in the large audience.
Mr.. Stebbins preached from the text found
in Psalms xcI: IA, Is and 16.
Because he hath set his love upon me. there
fore will deliver bin: will set him on high,
because he hath known my name.
He shall call upon me, and / will answer
him: will be with him in trouble; will de-
liver him, and honor him.
With long life will satisfy him, AID show
him nay salvation.
In presenting the claims of the inspired
teachings of the Bible, no argument respecting
its methods is necessary, no logical process, no
takirg apart, examination aud putting together
of parts to note the reason. The Christian re-
ligion is simply fact to be acted on. Those
who avail themselves of its benefit as set forth
in text, must accept the fact. The intellectual
adjustment of the doctrines growing out of the
fact must be left TO later experience if it is at
all necessary to consider them from that stand
point. The methods of inspired truth are jus.
titled because it is good and not because it is
proved. The text sets forth the religious meth
cd in its true sense. 1t is the mere fact of the
work which religion accomplishes, of the good
it brings, without an explanation of itself or
the evils which it proposes to remedy. We
know what evil is in the physical and moral
world. We appreciate the temptation, we
realize the amount of suffering which we can
endure; and beyond the power of physical pain,
we realize the power of moral and intellectual
anguish, when every thought and the imagina-
ton is full of measureless wee. Still we can
not give the reason. We must accept our Cir
cumstances as facts. If any man thinks he
has proved the reason of the goodness of God,
he must be mistaken. His reasons would be a
mere mixture of facts and speculations. The
Joy and the sorrow, the manifold conditions OF
our existence are beyond the conception of hui
man wisdom. II we will. we can wonder why
God did not make the world and our conditions
different from what they are, yet it will afford
no relief AT best finite analysis must come
to something unfathomable. And it is best SO;
goodness which required to be proved by in
telectual effort would not satisfy the needs Of
be for a parent to explain to a child his good
ness and kindness to him. What would a good
ness be worth which required explanation? The
preacher fully admitted that he could not I'M
derstand why things are as they are, but relig-
ion teaches that it is necessary. He cannot say
why this is SO. He would not say that we were
created weak and dependent in order that we
might lean on God-that we are weak for our
correction--that God established the present
conditions that we might be disciplined there
h. Ii. - t..,k
he accepted the fact. We know that it is the
sorrow of the world that has built its affairs,
The wall of woe, the agony that the results of
sin bring, has brought us to that blessed peace
which religion affords.
Here then is my conclusion. We confess the
fact of our fallible human condition and right
here when we accept this fact, religion takes
its stand not explain but to help, to lift us out
of our sorrows and struggles. Still Gods
mercy, patience and pity are not explained.
1t is a mistake that religion helps US by ex-
planning all the mysteries of human existance
and the condition of mankind. 1t simply
states that such is the case and goes to work to
relieve us.
1t is great mistake to decline the guidance
of all that religion suggests until we have set
tied hundred questions, speculations growing
out of religious truth, or that we must have
system of philosophy, or that we must first
know how we got into the dilemma we are in,
before we get out. These are matters entirely
secondary. Our condition and circumstances
are pressing fact and demand attention first.
1t is useless to waste time in inquiring why
God has made an imperfect world. 1t is pre-
sented as fact
Does any one say that he sees here a touch of
superstition? Something like child's play of
"Open your mouth and shut your eyes" l do
not discern in its nature remedy for our
present trouble. 1t is not an intellectual de-
duction. 1t is an act of our instincts, SO to
speak, which are nearer on a level with God
than are our intellectual faculties. The child
understands the parents love with its heart
when its feeble intellect cannot fathom the in
tellectual purpose or mental action of the par.
ent.
The speaker then passed on to note the ma.
ture of the consolation and delverance and aid
which religion offers. 1t is not that evil and
temptation SHALL not come to us, but rather that
the climate of the spirit be changed, the i'm
pulses, the interests and the affection turned
into new channels 1t will be seen in the tenn
per with which we bear our grefts Religion
is the natural restorer of our nature. Sancti-
fed by religion, grief will yield the soul a
bountiful harvest. Trial unhallowed by relig-
ion, is selfish. 1t is easy to forget the pain of
others in our own misery. 1t is hard to pluck
the barb of sorrow from the heart because grief
is the disintegration of spirit unless we have
the temper of religion to sustain us. There is
no grander sight on earth than the moral
grandeur of a man standing upright amidst
evil. This alone can come from religion.
In conclusion, tina speaker observed, that if
what he had said was true-that religion is a
fact and as fact was so potent to rescue us
from the temptations, the difficulties of life,
potent to give us peace and comfort in all Cir
cumstances and under all trials, then no more
important consideration can demand our atten-
ton than religion. We may be sure that no
philosophy can change or even explain our
condition; but for our weak condition SO need
ing help, religion has given remedy. This relig-
on,with all the blessings set forth in the gospel
is for us to accept or not. Shall we refuse to
accept the fact and the blessing because we
cannot understand the mysteries of the gospel?
No mere abstract can give proper concep-
ton of the sermon, as it requires the language
and illustration of the speaker to appreciate it's
force, originality and eloquence.
STATE STREET CHURCH.
In the morning Rev. John Hall, D. D., of
New York city, preached from Psalm evil, 1
and verses: 20, give thanks unto the Lord
for His mercy endureth forever. Let the re-
deemed of the Lord say so, whom He hath
redeemed from the hand of the enemy"
National songs take hold of a nations life
and al its feeling, not because they are full
of poetry, but because they are full of associa-
ton with the great deeds of the nation. The
"Marseillaise," ''God Save the Queen" "Hai
Columbia" are not very rich in pathos or
beauty, but they are SO closely wrought with
the history of their nations that they are like
echoes of thunder-peals to the people who sing
them. 1t is SO with the songs of the Hebrews
Many of the Psalms are spiritual songs which
rouse us to Christian thought and feeling better
than exhortation could do. This text is such a
song. Let us divide its lessons into two points
FIRST, The Lord has redeemed u.s. Second, Let
the redeemed sag so.
1. He has redeemed us from an enemy.
Who is the enemy? The Bible puts us on our
guard about this enemy, and tells us how to
overcome him. Christ said to the disciples,
Satan has sought you," in the plural Satan
had sought them all; but then he said to Peter,
But have prayed for thee" in the singular.
Now we have the same God who helped Job
and Peter to help us and show us how to route
the enemy. How do we come to be so in the
power of the enemy? Two forces keep men in
state prison-crinae and laaO The same two
forces keep men in the power OF the adversary.
The deliUerance from that adversary comes in
one of two ways: either by power or by media
ton, that is by making us right where we have
made ourselves wrong. He might have re.
deemed us by power or force, just such power
as Cromwell threatened Rome with; but He did
redeem us by the blood of His Sop. Here we