The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1879-01-27
SEEKING AFTER TRUTH.
Sermons Delivered in the Leading
Churches Yesterday.
PAUL'S IDEA OF PREACHING.
The Morality Of the Country as
Inferred from Cities.
CHURCH OF THE DISCIPLES.

PAUL's IDEA OF PREAcuINo--THE PULPIT AND
II. HEpwoRTH.
When Mr.. Hepworth announced the text as the
basis of his DISCOURSE the regular attendants among
the congregation settled themselves into earnest
listeners it had to hem in the light of current
rumors, q peculiar significance. The sermon, how
ever had personal reference to the preacher and
was only of general character. The text was
i. Corinthians, H., l. 2-"And l. brethren. when
to you, came not with excellency of speech or
of WISDOM declaring unto you the testimony of God
For determined not to know any thing among you
Jesus Christ, and him crfcihed.''
When man comes into midst. said Mr.
Hepworth, properly authorized, for the purpose
of embodying new idea in any institution listen
to his first utterances with the most intense interest
St. Paul went to Corinth hoping to found there
church, and in the words he uttered we are led to
discover the basis of his ministry the of his
power. We know that he man who had no
prepossessing appearance no peculiar magnetic
power with which to draw the crowd. and we wonder
where he will get his inspiration and on what
grounds he has a right to expect that successful
organization be built up by him. The words
which have chosen for my text this morning were
the stone of the church at Corinth. The CEN
trail impulse of St. PauIs ministry from the moment
of his conversion to that of his death. When we
look at the thought that is uncovered by the text
and SO large a spiritual influence could have come
from such a cause. The Corinthians were people
who presented unpromising theme for the
preacher; they were not only wealthy but given to
luxury and vice. and it was a community that was
corrupt politically and socially. The people lived in
tensely, caring nothing for eternal truth, desiring
only to have their appetites "a ade more keen by
novelty of expression, by strangeness OF thought
and by copious rhetoric which always attracts but
leaves effect behind than the passing of the
wind. Paul had no desire. whatever for what is
called popularity; he did not intend to be
pleased by numbers, but took great satisfaction
to himself if his ministry produced results His OBJ
ject was not to amuse but to win souls. He was
given earnestness in the last degree, full of the
holy spirit and gave utterance to the truth way
that was at once simple and yet exceedingly forcble
He aroused the hearts of his hearers order that he
might make them look at another whose shoe atches
he was not worthy to unloose. He desired to pro-
duce sensation without any Of the machinery of
modern sensationalsm 1t is one thing to entertain
people, but it is quite another thing to instruct them
longs to the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ If the
consciousness of sin should move men it is WELL to
move them in any other way is not well.
WHEN THE PULPIT DOES GOOD.
The pulpit has been productive of good in proper
ton to its ability to take mems hearts and to I'LL
men with the consciousness Of their unworthiness
and of the danger in which they stand, and to the
necessity of securing help from some before
the sun sets. Wesley produced a sensation. and so
did Whitfield; but they not in any degree sensa
tional as the modern term of sensational is under
stood. St. Paul used neither words of rhetoric nor
the theories of philosophy. He who breaches about
Christ breaches to very little effect he who breaches
Christ as a present Saviour has his place in the
world and is needed by sinful men. "The testimony
OF God, said st. Paul, 81 present to you, but not
with worldly wisdom not with a rhetorician's
power, but simply to be moulded into your own life,
that it shall become productive of your salvation
We little startled when We hear st. Paul say.
81 determined, l had definite purpose in my
mind, to know nothing among you except Jesus
Christ, and Him crucified."
This declaration, therefore. involves great deal;
1t involves on our part complete self-surrender,
and in that surrender we must give up all-sve up
everything to Him. Christ says. Il will be respon-
sible for you, and in that saying is the philosophy
of the Christian religion Paul spoke from expert
ence-he had tried it. We know what Christ has
done for the world We test Christianity only
by living by its rules. Test it in this way and
what it will do tor you.