Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1880-06-05


mere the reporter cannot follow him,
ior it requires the eloquent enthusi-
asm of the preacher to do justice to
the subject, and that is unattainable
by US.
DIR. PALMER.
In the evening, at the Presbyte-
rian church, DR.. Palmer preached |
the commencement sermon to the |
students of the S.-W. p. University.
The large and beautiful building
was crowded; we doubt whether
there was a vacant seat in it. At
the Methodist church in the morn
ing Mr.. Barbee had announced that
there would be no evening service,
in order that the congregation might
have the opportunity Of hearing DIR.
Palmer.
The text was taken from the adj
dress OF the apostle Paul upon the
Areopagus of Athens to the Athe-
MAN people, with special reference
to the sentence
That htey might seek the Lord, II
happy they might feel after him and
find hinl.-ActS xviii, q.
We feel that we are doing injus-
tiee to this sublime discourse in
attempting to give even an abstract
of it.
He first briefly alluded to the
special bearings Of the expression
tfeeling after God" upon the people
to whom the discourse Of Paul was
addressed, the people of Athens, in
tellectually the keenest and bright
est among the nations, morally the
lightest and most frivolous. He
pointed to their eagerness to hear
him when they understood him to
be setter-forth of strange THAT is,
foreign) gods a new religion being
always a welcome thing to them as
something to talk and argue about.
In view of this eagerness to hear
anything new about the gods, the
preacher found a mournful pathos
about the expression "feeling after
him" as characterizing people toe
intelligent to be satisfied with the
mythic fables which contained all
that they had heard of religion, and
vet destitute of that moral depth o.
character, that spiritual insight
which recognizes the divine spirit
when once contact with it is OBJ
tanned; and so we have graphic
picture Of a people ever feeling after
| God and never finding him.
Then he came to a wider applica
ton of the idea. He maintained
that it was the irrepressible impulse
of every nationality and every indi
yidual that had any capacity fol
good whatever to be reaching out
after something better, purer, hOlier
stronger than itself. II was the end
less way of exemplifying this Prin.
ciple that manifested the inexhaust.
ible resources of the speaker-un'
fortunately the very copiOusness o.
the illustrations makes it impossible
for us to give even an abstract Of
them.
Thus he observed that all science
Is a reaching and feeling after God
Facts and phenomena, however
great their number, il contemplated
each separately from the others dc
not constitute science, but wher
they are studied in reference to theil
mutual dependency one upon the
other, Immediately we find an in
stinct aroused which demands 8
unity of purpose which, when ellie
tied and defined, becomes law, and
law, when truly understood, is
either nothing or it is the will Of
God, the manifestation of the Crea.
tors attributes in the Creators
work.
When, again, law and public NOR
ais are studied, we find that we are
aiming to treat human motives on
universal principles, principles APP.
plicable In all cases, and we are eX.
actly so far successful as we make
our laws and moral maXims accord
ant with those principles of human
nature which are universal; but
those principles were implanted in
humanity by God its author; conse
quently what we are really striving
to carry out is the will of God.
And in like manner those who
make beauty the object Of theil
search and endeavOr to define the
principles OF aesthetic art, are really
aiming at the realization Of the
divine mind itself, which is the
ultimate type Of ideal beauty. The
unhappy circumstance of all thes'
instances was shown to be that
while we cannot reach out our hand
in any direction for the better with
out coming i'm direct contact will
divinity, yet SO rarely do we recog
nize it when found. He defined the
dividing line between truth anC
error, between right and wrong Il
consist in the recognition of thi
very truth, while happiness or mis-
cry depends upon its apprehension
The sermon concluded with ,
fearful picture of the fate of tina
soul which eventually fails to fine
God. OF this we will not attemp
to convey an idea to our readers
1t was a piece Of impassioned elO
quence such as can only proceed
from the lips of a great orator, bu
from such lips it must be heard or i
is lost altogether.
ORATORS OF THE LITERARY SOCT
ETIES.
On Monday night the cabine
building was occupied by the repre-
sentatives of the Stewart and Wash
ington Irving literary societies
which each put forward two speak
ers. Messrs. G.. B. Harris and G