The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-06-18
SUNDAY SERVICES.

| ence which was only limited by the capacity o.
the room. Mr.. Cooks presence is very i'm
| posing. He is over six feet in height, with
broad shoulders upon which sits massive and
finely formed head. His eyes are blue, very
| large and very expressive. His hair is of 8
| light brown and he wears full beard. To a
| Portland audience he can hardly fail to call to
mind an eminent lawyer who has an Office in
| the Centennial Block. That he is man of
| intense energy is apparent in every look, act
| ann word
He is graduate of Andover Theological
| Seminary, to which school he went after the
best literary training old Harvard could give
| him; and, while there he so distinguished him.
| self as profound and original student and
thinker, that Prof. Park, the leading mind in
| the New England Calvanstc theology, de-
cared that he had more theology in that big
head than any other man in Massachusetts.
After his theological course, during which he
did Lot hesitate to declare his Professors to be
wrong on this point. and only partly right on
that one" lie attempted one or two small pas
torateS in the Congregational body, in which
he made rather conspicuous failures. Then be
went to Germany, and studied more theology
and more metaphysics; and, when he came
back, he was so full of both that to put him
into any one small pulpit would have been al
most as unwise as to set up the great Heidel-
berg tun on dinner table. He was an embar-
rassment to the ministry of his region on &C.
count of his size. One of them said: "There
is Cook, great steam engine. in splendid Or
der, and all fixed up; but nobody seems to
know how to put him to work" He took up
his residence in Boston year or two ago, in
the midst of the best society. gave occasional
lectures; wrote occasional articles for the mag
azines, and now and then poem; then dstn-
guished himself by his conduct of ries of
meetings under the auspices Of the Boston
Young Mems Christian Association; holding
his ground and biding his time, sure that Bos-
ton would sometime find him out and discover
use for him. Last year his hope was real
lied. He has made many influential friends
among the leading men of the city and vicinity.
Harvard was proud of him; Andover Endorsed
him; land the Y. NJ. G. A. declared he was a
genine, true-hearted Christian worker; so the
general admiration at length took form in pri-
vate association calling themselves the Boston
Lecture Committee, the object of which was to
furnish train for this huge locomotive to draw.
They raised him the sum of $4,000 for fifty pub
lie lectures and such other moneys as were re-
quired for rents, ETC.. and then Instead of put.
ting him in front of special car as Murray had
done with himself at Music Hall, they coupled
him on to all Boston-and he started it, The
young man who was not afraid to declare,
PROF. Park is wrong, and for nine reasons"
was not afraid of any other man in Massachus-
etts, nor yet in Connecticut He was ready to
match himself against any enemy of Orthodoxy
living or dead; and thus before he had been
long upon his new track, with the brain of Bos-
ton following his thought, he proceeded to get
up collision with that great idol of free-think-
ers, Theodore Parker. He attacks all unortho-
dox doctrines on the very ground that they are
unscientifc; and, with this citadel of unbelief
under such fire. no wonder the garrison are
watchful of the enemy. He says "You unbe-
levers boast of your scientific metho ls but the
religion Of the Old and New Testaments is the
only religion that stands the test of scientific
investigation. Yoa dou tless boast of your
superior brains; let me cite you specimen of
stance, though with more words than these
Then he proceeds to quote to those proud dem
eirs of the Divinity of Jesus Christ the opin-
ions of that great man, Napoleon the First who
at st. Helena, gave his adhesion to that great
tenet of the Chrirtian faith. Although Mr..
Cook is but about 40 years old he is now one
of the best read theologians of the times. His
papers are read and commented on by the bes t
literary minds in Europe as well as America.
Mr.. Cook is thoroughly an original man and
his services are conducted in manner in keep.
ing with his. whole being. At the services yes
terday after the choir had sung voluntary he
arose and offered short prayer, his tone being
such as be would use in conversing with per-
son he might meet on the street. A hymn was
then sung and he opened the Bible and an
nounced that he should read passages touching
upon conscience. which was the theme of his
discourse. He had no less than twenty pas
sages marked and he turned the leaves from
one passage to another something as lawyer
handles law book when citing cases in court
to prove a POINT. After another hymn by the
choir be offered prayer. At first he assumed
the tone as before and was quite moderate in
his manner, but as he progressed he became
intensely earnest, and more fervent supplica-
ton is rarely heard.
In his discourse he did not take any regular
text but quoted three passages for the founda-
ton of his remarks upon Conscience" as fol-
lows: John j, 8, ''That was the true light which
lighted every man which cometh into the
world" John j, l, "In the beginning was the
word, and the word was with God;' Acts XVI,
16, Herein do exercise myself to have con-
sicence." He began by saying that Shakes
speare declared that conscience was thousand
swords. Wesley said that God is a thousand
consciences. If this be SO, we wish to examine
the edge of these swords, for we must ever keen
company with conscience. If conscience is a
thousand swords, it is also a thousand blsses,
If God is thousand flames, He is also thou.
sand transformations. He is both through the
power of the word sought"
There are two schools of thought in treating
of the moral sense. One declares conscience to
be infallible. Kant said that an erring con-
science was chimera. On the other hand,
Paschal said that conscience was one thing
north of Pyrenees, and another thing south.
Authors of this class hold that conscience is a
matter of education and experience, an accum.
ulation of nerve tracks," an opinion evolved
from many experiences, and SO is not infallible
in its deliverances.
How shall we decide when learned men thus
differ? What is conscience? The popular re-
ply is, conscience is sense of right and wrong.
The scientific reply is, conscience IS the sense
of right and wrong in the choice between mo.
tives. If conscience is suffered to decide as to
the rightness of an external act we are calling
in judgment as an element of conscience, and
this leads us into confusion in definitions. Con-
science tells us whether we are following the
best motive we know. Motives are intentions.
The question is, what do you mean to do? A
man knows whether his motives are good or
bad; whether his intentions are evil or right
eous. In this sense mans conscience is in
falible
The deliverance of conscience is thus an in
tuition, automatic truth. 1t perceiyes with
automatic certainty, the right and wrong-of
external acts? No. OF choice of motives?
Yes. Our reason may teach us something of
the rjghtness of external acts, but conscience
alone can teach us tue moral quality of motives.
Ii you tumble down child's card-house it will
look to ask did you mean it? The conscience
is not different in different ages and countries
when it is defined in scholarly way. Good ia
what ought to be in the souls choice of me-
tives. Evil is what ought not to be in the souls
choice of motives.
Sailing into the eye of the wind, going to the
core OF this matter, the whole business lies in