New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-05-17
4 CHURCH NOT BUILT WITH HANDS.

AS these May Sundays increase in warmth,
the churches seem to receive an access of re-
lgiOus zeal; pews left empty during the Win
ter are filed to overlooking the anniversaries
crowd the city with strangers; the clergymen,
reused to new energy, bring out their weighticst
logic or rise to unknown nights of eloquencc /;
choirs are melted to emulation; while each
sacred building CLOVIS and brightens from nave
to transept with dainty, delicate dresses in all
the fresh colors of the Spring. The subjects of
thought presented by the different pastors are,
as will be seen by reference to this mornings
newspapers, very much the same as those of
other seasons of the year: Mans Deprayity,
Faith, PrcdestInation, the necessities Of some
missionary or charitable organization, etc.
We arc all apt to look about us compla-
Gently from our luxurious pews sometimes and
to contrast our condition with the wild cropping
faith of the heather. Apart from our knOwl-
edge of Christ, the dogmas of our own especial
sect appear to Ills so compact and perfect, our
favorite preacher is eloquent, the church mag
niicent, the music the best which high salaries
can secure. Our poor Saxon ancestors betOok
themselves at this season to the mountains as
if by searching to find out God there. Instead
of well ordered doctrines concerning fore
ordination or immersion, what absurd fables
they believed! The earth to these ignorant
pagans was q great giant, Ymir by name, the
sea was his blood, the mountains his bones,
Summer and Winter followed his fever and
his chills when he was fed with divine milk
from the breast of the dreadful AndLumbla,
new life stirred in his heart, the green leaves
appeared, roses covered the earth, birds and
beasts began to par-the Spring had come.
The Egyptians had their fable about it, too I;
Nature was Isis or Pasch, the awful, eternally
vailed Mother of us all: during the first days
of Spring they watched breathess, as children
might, for some token of her good or evil humor
toward them; they studied the color of the
soil, the gOings of the clouds and the birds,
the noises of cattle, to find messages from
her; the anemOne or wind flower carried her
especial greeting to them. Even the old
Hebrews, too, found the earth live creature,
instinct with God. 1t was the Spirit of God
that moved (or brooded) upon the face Of the
waters, that by miracle divided the firma-
ment, brought forth from the sea great whales,
and from the earth the bodybuilding seed and
every living creature thereon. Moses went up
into high mountain when he would speak
with God he saw Him in burning bush, he
followed Him for forty years in cloud by day
and fire by night. In that most ancient Of all
books job, a fragment that has come down to us
from the dusky ages when the world was newly
made, and the sons OF God and Satan among
them, walked among men, there is the story
of man set apart to be tried as by fire with
calamity. He sits alone in the wilderness with
his sorrow; God suffers disease, disaster and
death to bar him in Oh every side; and gives
him no comfort except to lead him out to Ma
ture and bid the poor wretch, broOding over his
own selfish pain, search for Him there; to con-
slider who it is that breathes order and love
through this great mystery, the earth; who
makes the morning stars sing together and
the cloud thick garment for the sea and
darkness q swadding band for it, and yet for
gets not to cause the bud Of the tender herb
to spring forth, or to mark the time for the
binds to calve. And Job Is lifted above him