Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-03-11

The InluatOry Service OF the Ne" raster.
The Rev. DR.. Dana preached his inaugu-
raj sermon yesterday morning, taking for
his text the words: 20 come let us worship
and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord
our maker" Psalms, 95th chapter, 9th
verse.
He said: It's certain, says keen stu
dent of human nature, that worship stands
in some commanding relation to the health
of man and to his highest powers, SO as to
be in some manner the source of intellect.
We are born believers, and worship is a
prime necessity of our nature. Nor is
there anything more logical than worship,
for when We read with the Psalmist 'sThe
Lord is great God and great king above
all gods, we cannot be rational and with
hold our homage-we go from the vision of
the works of Deity to communion direct with
him, and there is no such loneliness as
when the soul, bafhed in its search for the
infinite, cries out, oh! that I knew where I
might find Him. When however, it is in
us to say, 'for He is our God and we are the
structive act, that attitude that the reverent
and rejoicing spirit naturally assumes.
There is also some religion, some hope and
fear extended into the invisible-from the
blind boding which nails horse shoe to the
mast or threshold up to the song of the ell
ders in the Apocalypse. Every form of reli-
gion has been but mode of worship. The
human conscience wants an upright
life; faith wants communion with God.
Penitence aching with remorse wants
a savior, hence there must be a
nurture of these to keep them alive, to
enlarge their power and crafty them
and that makes the church relative to wor-
ship what school is to education. When
human beliefs seem to have spent their
force, and worship to have become aimless,
we must look for the cause in the decay of
the former. Men will cease to worship only
when their ideas of God are confused and
religion has degenerated into an idolatry,
wherein the whiteness of the ritual covers
the scarlet Of indulgence. Restore faith, and
ship. Among other functions of the church
is the taking up the ideas of religion, not
only to send them to the heather at home
and abroad, but to give them back to you
and me in new height and depth.
In setting apart to-day,w with the solemities
Of this dedication service, this now completed
chapel, it is fitting that the matter of worship
should engage our thoughts. For unless we
can, by means of this house built for religi-
Gus communion and worship, get further
away from all cant terms and customs, and
make it stand between human hearts and the
isolation the unobserved Sabbath begets, or
the Incidence and indifference that result in
the unbelief, we, disowning all dues of
fellowship, unless it shall aid in bringing to
those who may here assemble from time to
time the purest truth, such can know and
become place in which the thoughtful may
catch glimpses of the manifold wisdom of
God, and may find all the gates of life thrown
open, to seeking and burdened souls, it will
not prove to be the chapel we had hoped for,
nor the nursery of that worship that none of us
can at any time or in any place afford to dis
pense with. Standing, however, as a refuge
for the religiously needy, providing what
man has ever sought, an audience chamber
in which to commune with Deity, when the
down upon the world from the great heart
of Jesus, shall be found, it will, we are per-
suaded, foster worshipful spirit.
To begin WITH let us first. consider the
idea of worship, and whence it has it's gen
esis 1t is a necessity with us to go out of
ourselves in order to find an object of heart
felt devotion, of highest enthusiasm. The
restlessness of mind, this wasting fever of
the heart of mantle unwillingness to be
satisfied with any earthly good, attracted
the attention of ancient thinkers. The belief
in a power above US has been universal,
SO that no nation OF tribe has been found
devoid of some kind of religion and it's
consequent worship. The lowest, crudest
idolatries reveal this tendency of the human
heart to bow down before the unseen-the
geuius of spirit which was in strength and
wisdom. And SO all peoples have had their
deities to whom they made their offerings,
from whom they invoked inspirations
for lfe's great achievements and protection
amid all its perils. Worship was conducted
by offerings and these amounted to con-
fession of dependence. Man thinks of a
higher power as naturally as he thinks of
the world around him OF of himself and to
this power he instinctively yields homage
and trust; Christian worship is, therefore,
this reverence and faith of the heart exer-
cised toward God.
Christianity taught mankind to transfer it's
homage from all accidental municipalities to
a prince of perfection and peace, and in
what it represented God as being and doing
for the world, it furnished the incentive to
worship-to look up to him with faith, to
seek from him comfort and help and all
enrolling hopes.
The second part of the discourse of the
reverend doctor was devoted to the results of
worship. He said there is a vaster scope
and influence to Christian worship than we
have been wont to suppose. We have so
narrowed it's idea that it has reduced the
church to lyceum and made worship to
consent in listening to the preacher or the
chair as to some entertainment appealing
only to the esthetic nature. Slowly and
hardly have we been learning that true wor-
ship is spiritual; that the divine favor came
not to him who brought the richest presents
but to him who brought the purest heart.
The worship for which now the world is
yearning is that which shall take the souls
of men into the atmosphere of Jesus and in
to the all pervading presence of God, and
detain them there till sin shall become a
hated monster, and perfection of spirit the
heaven of this life as well as that of the life
to come Herein is the transforming power
of true worship. It ennobles the soul that
reioices to owe it's best wealth to hand
above, and without servilitylor sloth acknowl-
edge it. Oh, how this worship of God, if
sincere and intelligent, sweetens the air
around us, and penetrates natural things
with supernatural blessings. 1t counteracts
our selfshness, whispering in its sablest
guise, softens hardships, consoles sadness,
makes us feel that we are more than delivers
for wealth-we are immortal children.
watched over, and loved by an infinite
Father.
Next come to be noticed, GIL. s'Ihe helps
to worship To some natures worship
comes easier than to others. Some have
little reverence. Some find it hard to con-