The Portland daily press., 1875-04-05
SUNDAY n sERvICEs.



Rev. Mr.. Jones the pastor preached yester-
day morning from Mathew " 8, BLESSED are
the poor n'heart for they shall see God"
1t has never been charged against the reig.
ion of Christ that in its great reformative and
regenerative work its starting point is too high
| and its aim too low. 1t begins with the heart
| and lays its foundations in the utmost depths
| of being. 1t pronounces the heart depraved; /;
not slightly or partially SO, but totally de-
| praved. 1t is deceitful and deceitful above all
| things. 1t is wicked and Its Wickedness is des-
perate. The gospel places man at the lowest
extreme of depravty, steps down there and
meets him with the promise of elevation to the
loftiest heights of purity, purity that may
mingle in the society of angels and archangels;
a purity which may stand unabashed in the
very presence of God.
Purity of heart understood in its full extent
| implies that entire sanctifcaton by which the
| heart is cleansed from all evil and filled with
| all good. A pure heart is one from which 'oId
| thirgs have passed away and all things have
| become new." Such heart, the Saviour de-
| clares is the organ of spiritual perception.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see
God.
Man is religious being. He is moreover
creature of sense and sight. He wants God.
The deepest yearnings of his nature demand
deity. But he wants deity apprehensible by
the senses. Zaccheus climbing the sycamore
tree to get passing view of Jesus only mani
tested desire common to humanity. Lord
show US the Father and it sufficeth u.s. said
Philip, and every human heart responds even
SO Lord. But God is not, and cannot be, so
vealed to us. "He is the invisible God whom
orr COZ
understood, it is not the true God that man de-
slres to see and know. Not the God of Sinai, not
the God of Calvary, not the Holy One and
just the searcher of hearts and Judge OF all
men. A sense of guilt makes man afraid OF
God, he trembles at His approach and flies af-
frighted tromH is presence: The per
ception of the true God is impossible
to man in his natural state as we'll as
undesirable. He has no faculty that is adequate
to it. He is the creature of sense God can
not be apprehended by the senses. God is
Spirit, is spiritually discerned and cannot be
otherwise discerned. A knowledge of God can
never come through the understanding. 10
attempt to find out God by the understanding
is as absurd as if yoG should insist on judging
poetry by mathematics or learning algebra by
the affections. There cannot be spiritual per-
ception save through the organ of spiritual
vision. When the light is adequate and the
eye clear vision is clear. When the heart IS
pure, the spirits eye is clear, the indwehiDg
God is its light and therefore there is clear
open vision. The eye of the pure spirit be-
holds the pure spirit, aud when we become holy
as God is holy, then shall we see HIM as lie
is" Thus the pure in heart see God.
They see God in nature. They behold more
than mere beauty there. Out of nature, the
perfection of beauty, God shines Its order
He has arranged; its symmetry He has fash
ioned; its harmonies He has wakened. They
see Gods providence over the world. Earth,
the home of the living and not the sepuchre
OF the dead, shows clearly His sustaining and
preserving hand. The procession of the sea.
sons, the succession of events natural, social
and political all reveal the presence of. His
wonder working hand. History is God in
events as science is God in nature; not the
mere play of mems instincts and passions, but
the earnest. solemn, steadfast work of God.
The pure in heart see God in the special dis
pensatiOns Of His grace to men. When men
are enlightened and brought to knowledge
of the truth, convicted of sin and led to the
Savior, redeemed, regenerated, lifted up from
height to height OF purity and moral eXalta-
tion, and at last presented faultess in the
presence of infinite glory. in all this the pure
in heart see God. God working in men to will
and to do of His ood pleasure.
THE MUsEUM-Miss Chippendale's "Topsy"
has struck the popular fancy, and the placard,
standing room only,' bids fair to be hung out
at the Museum box office for week to come.
Indeed, at the matinee Saturday afternoon
there was not even standing room. Eleven
hundred people were crowded into the hal, land
over two hundred were turned away. The
lobby was packed, the aisles were swarming
with people, and many, in default of better
Seats perched upon the ratings. The role de-
serves all the favor with which it is welcomed.
Miss Chippendale's Interpretation is singulary
happy, and she has succeeded in creating
character part of which she has reason to be
proud. In the matter of makeup and dialect
she is well nigh perfect
The Measure of the audience is much added