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


SERMON by REV. HENRY WARD BEEcHER.
/ have sometimes thought, said Mr.. Beecher,
that there is in spiritual matters such wave as
extends know not how, in light in electricity and
in heat. that for instance. when the faculty of
mirth itself in 1t sends electric wave to
every man who has a corresponding endowment OF
Inirthfulness, and he feels that from my sou
vibrate upon his And how do know he con-
tnued with great enthusiasm but this IL the great
law Of the uniyersethat the heart Of God il the great
battery Of the universe, shooting power through
space. and that every sentient being that has a
responding chord is sensitive to that wave and re
sponds to itY do not say 1t is but that it is per
fectly thinkable and that there anaogies for it,
MORAL CONSCIOUSNESS INTELLECT.
Mr.. Beecher advanced the theory in the opening Of
his sermon. which based upon passage in st.
John wherein the Saviour says He will longer call
His disciples servants, but friends He began by
defining the meaning word doos the original
and explaining the altered relation in which the
cipes then stood Jesus through their foregoing
spiritual elevation. What God in all the fulness
OF being could know. He to each
what his moral development enabled him TO and
feel II not by the intellect but by moral
iment that men could appreciate the Divine nature.
he felt first and interpreted the feeling by the intel
lect afterwari. There such complete
tainty that which flashed on the moral con-
pciousness without logic. 1t the conviction
OF the understanding in view ~ evidence which salts
hes the moral 1t absurd for in
searching for God 10 apply the same tests which they
used in respect to material things The preacher
went to discuss the various conceptions OF God
put forth at the present time. The men who did
right from fear of tod religious but not
Christians and the great bulk Of professed Christians
were only religious They reached any
higher conception Of God than Of fear power and
conscience. How many men came down here from
New England without any Christi They believe in
the divinity Of Christ, and that is all. A God
who is universal love has not vet 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 going 10 do wrong. and they go every
day begging and whining 70 God aud talking about
themselves being worms and all thee. humiliatng
and debasing images. IL Is perfectly proper for
man to such expression as that once or twice
In a lifetime. but that which II proper the express
sion of extraordinary and intense outburs OF feel
ing would bc abominable II used every day. There
hours in which the conception of God is 80 over
powering that in the contrast man does feel like
worm, but this az said, don't come To man more
than in lifetime.
SOME KINDS PRAYER
The deacon every morning [and here Mr. Beecher
with unconscious milnicry heightened ont his face
and spoke through his Dosel exclaims I'VE are all
worms before Thee" What kind of religion IL thaty
II my child came crawling to me TG-Id make him
crawl murc. tSmiles They sdduce texts to prove
and You not In . lions den. Nevertheless he
.ries "Oh, Lordi now hear u.s. Oh, Lord God of
majesty aud glory, behold uH poor shriyeled worms
ot the DUST" Well. he lies with great warmth. lie
knows he s not any such thing rs that. and II would
not be safe Tor TO tell him he was after prayers