The New York herald., 1879-07-07
PLYMOUTH CHURCH.

THE GLORY OF THE HIDDEN LIFE--sERMoN By
REV. HENRY WARD BEECHER.
Although many of the familiar faces were absent
from Plymouth Church in the morning. the congre
cation swecd to its usual size by strangers who
had taken advantage of the absence of many of the
regular attendants to occupy their places. 1t the
last communion service before the vacation.
and fourteen members were received nine
being admitted by letter from sister churches and
five upon a profession of their faith. Mr.. Beechcr
preached short sermon, and chosc for his text the
third aud fourth verses of the third chapter of
Colossians-"For ye dead. your life is hid
with Christ in God. When Christ who is our lifo,
shall appear than shall ye also appear with him in
glory"
Any enthusiastic reader of Shakespeare. said Mr.
Beecher finds that every line Of experience that
belongs to the courtly knight. or to the camp,
the ordinary transactions of men, every complexion
of feeling as set down somewhere by his maj chlcss
pen, and though in our thoughts and observations
and experience seem to seize and round out some
new maxim of life to breed some conccp-
ton, how far below the New Testament IL this i'm
mortal name in its teachings Of deeper liie-the
life OF the convictions and Of faith. In the New
Testament human experience is carried ms much
higher than Shakespeare carries IL in Shakespeare
human life and experience carried higher than in
lEsop's fables. Human language first used for
physical experiences, then sftorward by species Of
poetical transformation Tor the growing and
higher experiences. and we have nothing better for
words than those words which born Tor the
uses OF the BODY and for the lower forms social
life Therefore we are obliged TO put new meanings
and still new meanings upon words, and so IL comes
10 be that frequently there seems TO be almost
contradiction of language. SO 1t is said that lite is
"hdden' rs II mans life could be taken out of
him and carried somewhere away and hid; and when
hidden II is hidden in Christ" In any other than
spiritual Interpretation this might seem strange.
There were also many mystical and poctical notions
conveyed in like language. Christians were taught
that they were to bc buried In the sepulchre Of
Christ and that they to be there hidden away.
Hs IL were unconscious, unseen, unknown until the
last great day when there would be resurrection.
But TINS was not tue mind OF the apostle aud 1t
not the actual run OF human experience. The word
fe was used 10y men In variety Of ways to signify
that which constitutes the chief end OF this exist
encc. But there life which Is tar higher than
any that the ordinary man knows IL was lifc
which belongs not to the flesh. to society. to
the present but to the great beyond, where men
think OF themselves no longer creatures Of time,
but Az belonging TO the eternal spheres.
INFLUENCE or THE WORLD.
This life gives u man supremacy the influence
of men who around him in this life. and yet.
the word is constituted. we are being whipped
bthor anu thither. and IL is SIMPLY because men do
not know how 90 use their approba "a vcncss-aro
ntraid to do right things because they are afraid
what men Will say-that we are the Instruments OF
fashion ana foolish popular sentiment. We arc
pcrpetualy undcr the lash of mons opinions.
There are some men who would almost die
10 have their names in the newspapers. and Others
who woald almost die IL they them there.
just ms IL happens to take them; but st they are.
nevertheless, Just much slaves of mems opin-
lons-thcy rejoice when they go up aud suffer wncn
they rn down But th,y who lave this hidden lite
in Christ nre not troubled when men bunt them and
perplex them. They hide their reul life In that
other which is beyond all harm, and can say at is
Dot me they are hunting after: 1T IL the other and
the outer man" This dwelling in another life
nourishes in us the utmost that is highest: are
made Quite independent of those ambitions which
fret other men.
CENTRAL METHODIST CHURCH.
THE HIDING or HIS PowEB-sERMoN by REV.
DIR. NEWMAN.
The subject selected by DIR. Newman for his dis.
course WAS "Ihe Hiding Of His Power" taking his