Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-04-15
PLYMOUTH CHURCH.

PLYMOUTH CaURcH.
.0ur Lamps Como Out, or Extusuishcd
Faith"
Rev. Dr.. Dana delivered very forcible
and interesting Discourse at Plymouth church
last evening, having for his text, Matthew
XIV, 8: 6Dur lamps are gone out.
Here is picture, he said, which in its
leading features is still true to life. How
many start alike in profession and purpose |
religiously, who in the end turn out very
differently. Like the two classes alluded to |
IN the parable, they are seemingly alike, and
appear to be animated with the same spirit,
but the sequel of their career tells another
story. Alter all there is no such test of life
as the living it. For these years that come
and go so rapidly make sad havoc with our
early formed ideals and hopes. Not only
does life result otherwise than at first it
was supposed it could, but it proves SO many
to be unfaithful, destitute of the principle
| or constancy which conditioned the fulfill
ment of their better purposes. OF how
many must it be said, as you watched their
course through the years, that their con-
science had become deadened, and that they
themselves hada7deteriorated. Now in the
scene before us, all the company had lamps,
but time brought out, as it ever does, who
were really wise and who foolish. 1t was
| the uncertainty and WEAKNESS of delay, the
sleeping, and the need of equipment of such
hazards as these, in word, that which may
| fifty stand for the routine of life, which
brought out the differences and showed who
| were equal to life's strain and duty.
l. These lamps may stand in symbol for
all those lights kindled for man by Gods
spirit. All of us, think, are conscious of
increated light. We know there comes to
us ofttimes, new power of spiritual vision,
feelings and thoughts illuminate the mind
and heart. Much comes to us in receptive
years, before we have begun to acquire large
| ~ by ourselves. Man may be called light
gatherer, as we'll as light bearer. What
and how God communicates to our spirit,
few of us realize. The flower could not
ennmerate the forces that sustain it's life and
we are having lights provided for us by our
cence, OF divine hope, of a serene and man
ly faith, of a trustful and constraning love.
Ii. But now is it not equally matter of
observation aud of consciousness, too, that
some of these lights go out. This is to
many, one effect of life. On every side of
you can be seen men who in former years
were very different from what they are now.
There are some who once held the lamp Of
Christian life-and it lent a radiance to their
very persons. They walked by its light, and
rejoiced in the sheen threw upon their
daily faith. There are others who once bore
the lamp of q Chriatian belief, and because
of it they saw what the doubling and ire
igious could not. The word of God shone
before them with beauty and meaning il
no longer possesses. So all through the
world will you find those whose faith in
Christ has persisted, whose religious hopes
have become extinct. They are not profes.
sedly what once they were
Their love for the church
their conscientiousness, their faith in the
promises of God, their sense of this care
their prayerfulness, have all gone.
They stand before you, changed, sadly
changed, and can but mournfully answer K
your inquiry as to that better life in by-gont
days, Sour lamps are gone OUT
Ill. Here, then, may we find in what tht
text pictures, both warning and duty. 4
,, warning which needs to be needed by those
growing indifferent to things once 80 full O
interest for them, that is, to lose not earl,
religious beliefs and hopes. In coming t,
oo"AOA s's5o, ~ ID q II eau CA41uS " AlOH ACt
to preserve the boy nature that is in US, t.
keep to the purity and honor, to the consci
! entiousness and rei ious faith, we once had
: 1t is sad to see men, by becoming absorbe,
in business and politics, losing the bloom
and edge Of the beliefs of their better days
What JOY is comparable to that of keepin
up, through life, the Christian aims and feel
ings Of our home OF school days. See ho1
full, to-day, is the world, of those who wer
Ionce church-g oers, once Christian believers
once praying men, scrupulous in avoidin
: evil, and careful to keep an unstained honor
= and lead an earnest. devoted life. Let Their
tell you, if they will, of the lamps they ono
= bore, that have gone out, and you will hay
: the story Of what they have loss. Quenche
. ambitions, persisted hopes, abandoned ideals
laid aside obligations-all these indicat
what has been parted with, and left ther
altered characters
q But then, think of the duty suggested b
q such sad findings, that of going to One VIII
a can re-kindle and keep burning these light
y divine. If the lights within MS be darkness
= how great, indeed, is the eclipse. Yet, VIII
h need part with any holy hope or purit
+ which God once gave him? Who need allo,
business or pleasure to quench the light {
y conscience? May we not, all through on
: years. with their checkered experiences. pre-
serve, still, our early faiths, and carry tn
. lamps Of trust and obedience, and Christia
+ service? Surely we may, since, into ever
q heart is One ready to enter, who called Hin
self the light of the world, every mans tru
! light.