Morning journal and courier., 1880-03-08
Sunday Services.

siah-.-Revs MT. Adams at the First M. | E. Church. Z, Last evening Rev. MT. McAlister of the | George street M. E. church and Rev. MT. ! Houghton of the Church of the Messiah | (Universalist) exchanged pulpits. Taking in to consideration the prevailing storm, the at tendance at the George street church was as large as could have been expected.
 After the usual opening exercise, Rev. MT. Houghton, before commencing his text, spoke in substance as follows My friends, it may be something new under the sun for Metho- dist and Universalist cIergymen to exchange pulpits, but sincerely hope that by so do- ing we may be the means of doing each oth- CTS congregations some good, I was born and reared within the pale of the Methodist church. I have a mother, @ brother and sister who are earnest members of this branch of the Church of Christ. May I not hope then that we shall forget for the time that we are Methodists or UniversaIists, and if should say anything to do you good may not hope that you will treasure it in your heart The preacher then gave as the basis of his remarks the words found in the 139th psalm, 14th verse 1T will praise Thee, for am fearfully wonderfully made; marvellous are Thy works, and that my soul knoweth right we'll" He proceeded in substance as follows For untold ages these same common sympathies and and hopes have reigned in the human heart and when we take into consideration the millions who have gone before us, we must all consider that the under life of the world is all the same. There Is common tie that binds us to the animal and vegetable kingdom, and we shall find that the life of man is the same as in the lower orders of life. So whether we are Methodists or Universalists the same ties bind us together, and we are parts of the great family of man. It Is only as we At- tempt to cultivate the good that is within us that we are lifted to higher and better life. It seems to me that the best Christians in the world are those who have the largest individ uality and those who do the greatest good to their fellow-men. Under all circumstances we are governed by the same passions, the same sympathies, the same loves. 1t is way down in the human heart that we get the foundation of our civilization. I know there are men who tell us that we must believe nothing that is not proven by the intellect :; | yet we are forced to believe that mans intel | lect is not all of him, but we must dig down deep into the human heart. I congratulate you to night that as a denomination you | have been able to reach the heart of man, and that you are doing your share of | the great Christian work. I am thankful that this spirit of the Saviour that you have l has fought the devel, gathered the fallen to your fold and brought thousands to the foot | of the cross.
 When we come to the human heart we begin to branch. We understand that there l are affections that lift us up and carry us | down. While some hearts seem to be iron bound and the soul full of gloom, yet if we | could find the magic key we should find that | none are so low but that they can be redeem | ed. To me this whole world is beautiful. l Man is the king of the world and there is a common tie that holds us to all things be- | meath us and binds us to the great white | throne above. The greatest work of this cen- tury Is to battle down the partition walls be- | tween churches, and when we shall go to work unitedly to make the world purer and better. When Jesus was in the world He went about doing good, and this same work the Christian has to do. thank God for all the various ideas that we possess | to. day. would not have all Universalists, | all Methodists, or all Baptists but I would | have all work in their own way, and not put men down as heretics because they express l an opinion. All we want to do. to grow in l grace and Christian work, is to bow to the man who differs from us in opinion and try to partake more of the spirit of Jesus of Naza reth. We are all in 8 transition state, and is ii | any reason that the views of your denomina- | tion will suffer thereby? Not by any means I can only hops, that while as Christians we will not abate our Izeal one whit, yet we must adapt ourselves to the needs and advancement of ideas, and there must be something to meet the demands of the brain. I can only Say ir the language of the text, how fearfully ani l wonderfully are we made. The preacher closed his interesting discourse with an ap- propriate poetical quotation.
 CHURCH OF THE MESSIAH.
 Though the rain fell copiously and tht
 night was pitohy dark, a large audience heard
 the Rev. Mr. McAlister, pastor of the George
 street M. E. church, last evening, at tht
 Church of the Messiah, Uniyersalist the pas
 tor of the latter church occupying the Rev
 MT. McAlisters pulpit. Rev. MT. McAliste1
 gave an able and eloquent discourse, preach ing from the words in Matthew, 1920: 'sTh,
 young man saith unto Him, all these thing
 have kept from my youth up; what lack
 yet ?" The sermon was purely instructive
 and in behalf of an earnest devotion to thu
 service of Christ. fine picture of the youns ! man of the text was drawn, his virtues, socia l position and evident desire to win immorta
 life, and the lesson was very effectively ap
 piled. In enlisting In the service of the Mas
 ter the whole heart must yield. There mus
 be no barrier left remaining to hinder, bu
 there must be 8 total self-consecration. Tn
 sermon was listened to with great interest an.
 attention.
 At the First M. E. church, the pastor, Rev
 B. M. Adams, preached sn excellent sermon
 yesterday afternoon, passing his remarks o
 St. John, 19, XIV, ''Now there stood by tn
 cross of Jesus, his mother, and his mother
 sister Mary, the wife of Cleophas, and Mar
 Magdalene." Following is 8 brief abstrac
 of the discourse Every word of the Bibl
 is given for some special purpose. There is ! for S,,S SEo
 The incident spoken of in the text stands ou
 before us like a picture. No Christian ca
 read these words without thrill of admirs
 ton for the three brave Marys referred to
 Let us look at the scene. A little hill outsid
 the walls of Jerusalem, place consecrated t
 death, called Golgoths, where malefactor
 were taken to be executed, 8 place strewl
 with skulls and bones. At this place tn
 cross was erected, together with the othe
 two crosses for the two thieves. Near by tn
 walls of Jerusalem the people were gathere,
 to witness the tragedy. They were excited
 and maddened, bowling, sneering, frenzie,
 mob. Many of them had doubtless receive.
 great benefit from Him whose life was abou
 to be taken; but one desire only seemed t.
 pervade the n1ultitude let Him be cruciied
 Alone with this dark surging mass drowning
 upon Him without friend, stood the man o
 sorrows. Alone, did say? No, not alone
 We read, 'sThere stood by the cross thre,
 women." We see by this act on the part O
 those noble women who had the sublim,
 courage to come out conspicuously before tn.
 infuriated mob, 1st, confession on theil
 part of the master. It was a voluntary thing
 They had received no command from
 Him; their love and gratitude prompt
 ed them to draw near Him, 1T
 his hour of bitter agony, In this act we see them as facing the world. They stood out against what the world called responsibility, for Christ was considered a malefactor. We read of the defense of Thermopylae; of the young Roman who spurred his horse into the forum and defed those gathered there These heroic acts pale before the sublime courage and heroism that characterized the act of l these women. They defed the frowns of the | assemblage, and in forgstfulness of every ! thing but the fact that their Lord was being crucifed. We see in the second place that they | had implicit faith in the Lord Jesus Christ Women naturally are larger believers than men. She sees by intuition what man sees l through process of reasoning The Chris tian Church would have perished, humanly |