The New York herald., 1878-12-02
PLYMOUTH CHURCH.
TIE DIFFERENT ExTAST CONCEPTIONS OF GOD

TIE DIFFERENT ExTANT CONCEPTIONS OF GOD
SERMON BY REV. HENRY WARD BEEcHER
I have sometimes thought, said Mr.. Beecher
thst there is in spiritual matters such
extends. know not how. in light in electricity and
In heat, that. for instance. when the faculty of
mirth itself in IT sends electric wave to
every man who has corresponding endowment OF
mirthfuness. and he feels that wave from my sou
v1brate upon his. And how do know he con-
tnued with great enthusiasm but this is the great
law Of the the heart Of God great
battery of the universe, shooting out power through
space. and that every sentient being that has
responding chord is sensitive to that and re
sponds to it? do not 1t is but that it is per
fectly thinkable and there anaogies for it,
MORAL CONSCIOUSNESS AND INTELLECT.
Mr.. Beecher advanced the theory in the opening of
his sermon, which based upon the passage in St.
John wherein the Saviour says He will longer call
His disciples servants. but friends He began by
defining the meaning of the word doos in the original
and explaining the altered relation in which the dis
cipes then stood Jesus through their foregoing
spiritual elevation. What God in all the fulness
of being no could know. He to each
what his moral development enabled him to and
10 feel 1t not by the intellect but by moral
sment that men could appreciate the Divine nature.
He FIRST and interpreted the feeling by the intel
lect afterward. There such complete
tainty that which flashed the moral con-
sciousness without logic. II the conviction
OF the understanding In view of evidence which salts
hes the moral II absurd for in
searchng for God to apply tn. tests which they
used In respect to material things The preacher
went on to discuss the various conceptions OF God
put forth at the present time. The men who did
right from fear Of God were religious but were not
Christians and the great bulk Of professed Christians
were only religious men. They never reached any
higher conception Of God than OF fear power and
conscience. How many down here from
New England without any Christi They believe in
the divinity of Christ, and that IL all. God
who is universal love has not yet dawned
upon their minds. They not let out
yet They are in cages. They Gods servants
yet not his friends and they are afraid every day
that they are going to- do wrong. and they go every
day begging and whining to God and talking about
themselves being and all these huiniliating
and debasing images IL is perfectly proper for
man to such expression as that once or twice
in lifetimc but that which l. proper ~ the express
sion Of an extraordinary and intense onburst OF feel
ing would be abominable IL used every day. There
powering that in the contrast man does feel like
worm but this I said, don't come to q man more
than once in a lifetime.
SOME KINDS PRAYER.
The deacon every morning land here Mr.. Beecher
with unconscious mimicry heightened out his face
and spoke through his nosel eyclams I'VE arc all
worms before Thee" What kind Of religion is that?
II my child came crawling to me TG-Td make him
crawl more. (smiesl. They slduce texts to prove
how Daniel prayed Well 1 say you are not Daniel.
and YOU are not In lions den. Nevertheless he
-ries sOh, Lord hear usl OH Lord God Of
majesty and glory, behold poor shrivelled worms
OF the dusti" Well. he lies with great WARMTH He
knows he IL not any such thing that and II would
not be safe for you to tell him he was after prayers