The New York herald., 1878-12-30
LIFE TO COME.
Pastors Looking from "the Bank
and Shoal Of Tine"
LAST SUNDAY OF THE YEAR
The BreVity and Grandeur OF
Human Existence.
CHURCH OF THE DISCIPLES.


How CHRIST HELPS Us IN OUR LIVES SERMON
BY THE REV GEORGE II. HEPwoRrH.
1t is privilege, said Mr.. Hepworth yesterday,
20 gather around the manger wherein Jesus lay,
70 express our gratitude for that good will to
which He represents. and to receive from Him cer-
tain TRANSPORTATION and moral responsibility. While
we are looking into His face remember our in
debtedness to that God who has spoken. not only
through our feelings. but through our hearts, not
only through the clouds that float over the noun
tain summit but through the lives of great men.
who Gods incarnated thoughts. the en-
bodiment of Gods purpose and plan respecting
man. Christianity is in such constant that. like
the sunshine that floods the EARTH apt to for
get how dependent upon 1t really are. But for
Christianity would know almost nothing about
God. about Gods relations to him. about his own
future without revelation tnat is distinct. clear
and divine religion is an impossibty and Theology.
ut best. a shrewd guess. Unless God fit to tell
about Himself it is utterly beyond our power to
aud Him out. The sharpest researches of intellect.
unaccompaned by revelation, only groupings in
the dark; they only feeling after God with
out touching Him with the finger
tips. Science plainly that there is
plan in the universe. bat it can no more than
that the universe is harsh machine which is grad
naily fulfilling that plan. The world is loom;
progress is shuttle; you and the many colorcd
threads. and all woven into general
pattern. IL the thread is imperfect it is broaen
ana thrown into the waste basket II it
match it is thrown into the waste basket; il
not properly coorcd it is thrown into the waste
basket Iii the theology OF science the waste basket
occupies most prominent place. The description
OF God which is given to rs By the Bible need not
tell you. is very different one.
A PERSONAL GOD.
The pecuartics of the Bible are personal God
and the human representation OF personal God
That IS the doctrine that upholds tine world. These
the inspiration OF all heroisu they startle
the bad and encourage the good and continue to be
the corner OF the Christian Church the wide
world over, and without which they would crumbie
into atoms at We have straight road for these
two facts. Scientific tell US, and they
teachers here that hardness and sofrncss
the qualities of matter. and that wisdom
and goodness are the qualities of char
acter. Looking around and about the world
the goodness and wisdom and we very naturally
conclude that they qualities of some character
and suppose that there is who possesses it,
tor character without personality is iInpossibity
We represent love III the Bible. and find out IL
God; that ii is God and that He suprene tnat
He is supreme IN heaven and on earth. and that we
permitted to call this God father. The human
race would never have arrived 1T that thought 1T all
unless God had openei HIS revelation u nia Jesus
is and the human representative OF God upon
the earth. When Paul preached to his Athenian
gregation he told the simple story OF Human lie,
and morality then offered. by this preach
ing Paul cntranced his audience and took 1t captive.
They went home to think not about u system,
but upon the life. Jesus represents to the
providence OF the Almighty, the love which God
bears TO His willingness to forgive His ability to
know about Him. That belief OF men lies dormant
in the mind 1T is like leaven, the moment 1t is
accepted it changes the character or the man; 1t
changes his standpoint it changes his onlook. it
changes his outlook. When it has Gone its
work he has been born again. Prayer is
the dearest privilege OK souls. 1t opens
mp the syInpathies or the heart and develops all
tnat Is good in Think OF the difference
Of the outlook of the sccpc and the outlook ot the
believer What IL the life Of a OF seventy years
hedged in by wall without any gate. He is q
man whose fear or tomorrow rubs out to-day.
OF a u2liu uts
the obstacles that inevitable and shows us the
way to overcome them. 1t IL not only the wisdom OF
the father. but it liz the love of the mother, which
says, My child, every door may be shut. but the
door Of love never is