The daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1873-1877, 1875-11-27
PLYMOUTH CHURCH.
MI Rsechsr Protests Against the
Abandonment of Pleasure to
tho Worldly.
"Am to see the DEVILS Slaves Cunning
Away with the Pleasure OF This
World and not to Touch itP"
From the ", Y. Herald, of Monday.


World and not to Touch itp"
From the ", Y. Herald, Of Monday.
The unpleasant weather that prevailed |
yesterday did not diminish the throng
that weekly wends it's way to Plymouth |
church. Mr.. Beecher announced that the !
church had determined to hold series of
morning prayer meetings, but as much |
difficulty had been found to try and fix
upon an hour when all could attend that |
it had finally been resolved to hold meet
ings during the evening instead of morn !
ing. He invited ALL whether members of
the church or not, who wished to converse |
with him about religious matters to at
tend these me etings, which will be held in |
the lecture room at half past seven every |
evening. except that Of Thursday.
When he advanced to deliver his SER
mon Mr., Beecher said:-'I am sorry to |
inform you that have left my notes at
home Fortunately l don't deliver writ |
ten sermons, and so | am not brought to
the estate that many q man in like cir |
cumstance would be. The trouble is |
am afraid shall talk too long, for when a
man does not know exactly what he is go
ing to say it takes him longer to say it. |
Fortunately | rememember where the |
text is. 1t is the twentieth and twenty
first verses of the fourteenth chapter Of
Zachariah:-'In that day shall there be |
upon the bells of the horses Holiness unto |
the Lord; and the pots in the Lords |
house shall be like the bowls before the |
altar. &c.
At first, he continued the contrast
which you shall find by comparing the |
wise men of Judah ard the wise men Of
Greece is in nothing more striking than in
the forward looking Of the old Jew aud the
backward looking of the Greek.
THE GOLDEN AGE
was behind the Grecan. They spoke of
time Of simplicity and of purity and of ex-
cellence. when men were noble as of long
anterior age. But the prophet-and in
that he was in strict accordance with the
latest thought of mankind In our own day
always looked forward for a day to
be untolded which should have all
those blessings that the Imagination
can conceive as belonging to man
kind. This future of course they
were forced to describe with the best sym
bois and the best experience Of the time
in which they lived, and, therefore, as in
the case we have in hand, they declared
should come to its true manhood the very
bells on the horses should have inscribed
on them, Holiness to the Lord" and that
in the temple there should be no cutting
down of the bells of gold and silver, but
there should be a coming up of the pots
that had been for vulgar uses There
shorld be coming up-the kitchen should
be equal to the parlor in the temple. The
passage Of scripture does not mean that
the bells it used should have ins criptions of
sanctity upon them but that the bells of
ornament or OF beauty should be regard
ed as religious. Or, to drop the figure en-
tirely, that amusemenc and beauty should
be regarded as part of religion-nOt by
degrading religion, but by lifting up
amusement and carrying it higher and con.
sccrating it.
Common things cease to be common, and
low things cease to be low, cease to be vul-
gar, when they are performed under the
higher inspirations of mans nature, when
they carry with them not the flesh but the
spirit, and the spirit not in its lower forms,
but in its higher and divinely illuminated
forms. The under hireliDgs of hospital
are looked upon as disgustlul drudges; but
when Florence Nightingale walks through
the wards of scutari, or when, in our own
land, q Miss Barton or Miss Woolsey, or
any other of the thousand angelic wo.
men who have performed such self-sacri-
hcing deeds are named tears of admiration
and sympathy drop from our eyes, and We
can find no words to express our feelings
yet their deeds are the same as are done
by the hireling and the curmudgeon. Ii
one case it is done from noble motives fol
humanity, and in the other it is done only
Tor money, Thus we see there is wa,
by which the lower things can be raised
We all, however, fall into the habit of tn
age and the habit of the church-we ar,
attempting to make men admirable ant
large by separating them from lower uses
by taking them away from temptation
We are saying TO men, IF you love tn
Lord Christ, you will be much in prayers
much in your closet, much in the bible
much in the fellowship of the saints,
which is all true, but it is not the Who'll
truth, for, if God had designed that a
mems duties should be confined to tn
closet and the bible, with a little prayer
human society would have organized itsel
very differently from what it has. VIVA
are you going to do with that vas
outside world, with its shops, and it
thousands who are asking, what shal
we eatY'-this great multitude, numer
Gus as the drops of the sea, in which yo
llve,among which you have relations; wher
you are father or brother or mother O
sister, where you are employer or employ
ed; whether you are thrust out every day
whether you will or not, to do worldly AM
physical duties. How are you going t
say
WILL ABANDON ALL THESE THINGS
to be a Christain2 will have no cares
Where there is trouble | will drop it.
That Is, 1t the nerve aches cut it of
Christ did not say that man should b
taken out of the world. but that he shout,
perform all his duties in the world will
the exalted spirit that should glorify thei
everyday life. The world is to come up
nature is not to be forever simply the op
probrlous footstool on which philosopher
shall wipe their feet. | regard the doc
trine of being a better man by getting on
OF the way OF temptation as coward
doctrine
WHAT Is ENJOYMENT?
1t is thought, too, that if a man become
Christian he ought to mark the differenc
between himself and the world in the mat
ter Of pleasure-that worldly pleasures ar
not for Christian man. Well, what d
you mean by worldly pleasures? Why
company, dancing, and festive enjoyment
Where do you get your conception Of that
When God arranged by the inspiration @
Moses for the worship of His people al
thelr meetings were prolonged with feast
lngs end enjoyment such as the world ha
never seen since. We have fallen into as
in 4 IN