Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-05-11
SEMINARY COMMENCEMENT.
Tine "Ono LawSiver" and the Perfect LII

| SEMINARY COMMENCEMENT.
| Tine "Ono LawSiver" and the Perfect Law.
The present week IS that Of the COM
mencement of the Reformed theological
seminary in this city. Yesterday the
board OF trustees held the annual business
meet!n,, and transacted the routine bust
ness which pertains to their arrangement
OF its material affairs. The board of
visitors, composed of learned divines
who have charge Of the spiritual
affairs OF the seminary, have also
been in session and are continuing
the examinations to-day. The annual
sermon before the Society Of Religious In
quiry was preached before the students
aud professors of the seminary and a large
congregations Of college and tOwnspeople
in the First Reformed church last evening.
There were present quito u number of tho
board ot visitors, including Rev. Drs.
McCaulcy. of Reading, and Eshbach, Of
Frederick. aiid numerous representatives
of the lncal clergy. Tomorrow evening
the regular and final graduating exercises
will be held in the college chapel, whcn
eleven persons will he graduated and
theses will he read by four representatives
of the class.
| The Sermon Last Evening.
Rev. DIR. J.. '. Gerlart, president Of the
seminary, and Rev. \. II. krcmcr, ID. d.,
OF Carlisle, formerly pastor of the First
Reformed church. this city, and now presi-
dent of the board of visit Ors to the semi
nary, conducted the religious services
and the venerable DR.. Nevin introduced
to the audience Rev. DIR. Talbot Cham
bers, senior pastor OF ths (Dutch) Re-
formed church, New York city, tho
preacher Of the occasion. lie is u learned
divine of that body, and his invitation to
and acceptance of the position he filled SD
ably last evening are further evidences of
the Increasing aililiation of the two main
bodies of the Reformed faith.
The text Of his discourse was tho words
from st. James iv., II: "Thcre is one
iawSlye- who is able to save and to de
strOy.' The preacher described one tho
most painful signs Of the times to be the
weakening Of tie hold ON mems minds
OF the doctrine of future retributiOn-nOt
evidenced by the alterations Of creeds,
but by occasional sermons, books, articles
and the action Of local ecclesiastical bodies.
The opinion gains ground that there is no
eternal sin. and that all are somehow,
sometime saved that there is no endless
rctributIon and that the pains of the
future are corrective Not cter-
nal. The prevailing sympathy with
the offender is misfortune due
to the weakened conception Of the evil Of
sin. This state Of feeling is no doubt the
transition to something better. But men
have lost their conception of the law Of
God. His character, Us Il ruler, has been
forgotten in the idea of His FathcrhOOd, as
H.. IL. Y q
hold without order. Hence the necessity
OF reyerting to the words Of the text and
the ides, of God Us the "'orc lawgiver."
There are other lawyive.s than God, but
they act only by delegate power aud legis-
late in particular places or for particular re-
lations. He is the primal source of their
authority. He lays down the law and ad-
ministers it ctfcctually and finally, He is
the lawgivcr because He is the Judge and
the Creator. Whatever is, is owing to His
rule. Laws of nature there are, without
which science would be mere guess work,
but God is the lawsivCr for persons and
things. hcidiu. supremacy in the moral
sphere and in the natural world and man
ma(k. in the image Of his God carries with
him the necessity of law. He is endowed
with reason and conscience. and being
subiec: ~ passions i liable to- err. and he
must have Il rule of action. God might
have made Il being inialible and who
would act right upon every occasion. He
did E"t 81 make man. For even the
angels but had He 50 made them
| they would yet have been law
unto themselves. aud though they chose
| the ri.:l,, every time would have been sub
.icct to the Law. Without law man would
not BE- man nor God be God. The origin
| of law i III the being of the Maker. "ier
! scat is III the bosom of Cod says
Hooker in his majestic and eloquent con-
cludin. ap, 's;fophe. To Kant two objects
of cea>clcss alteration and wonder were
the starry heavens and the moral law,
| but while the planetary wonders and beau
ties connect man with the iinitudc of ply
sical creation the moral law takes hold
of his interior personality and links the
soul with spiritual iniiuitude.
Where then shall VIC find tho law and
its expression in LAM uage? In the consti-
tuition Of mans own soul, originally but
this formulation Of it havin. been weaken
ed by various causes it is set forth in the
holy scriptures, where, as III the statute
books .. legislators, the will Of the lawgiver
is expressed. tscOmprehensiyenesso of scope
and proportion is measured by the two
great commands to love God with all
power and strength, and soul and spirit,
and One's neiyhbOr as ones self. The
love for God embraces the intensest
exercise of every faculty, while that for
man is 20 be no more nor less than for
self. r., God the lawgiver is required
perfect obedience, absolute and complete,
from The cradle to the crave. Anything
short OF this would be sin, and the sane
ton by Almighty God of sin. The stand
ard of Divine authority cannot be lowered
to mans inpcrfections, else Satan would
be chief OF all entitled to such concession.
The law is perfect in duration. Indi-
vidual applications Of law arc to certain
citations and last only while the relations
asst us the institution of marriage, which
$ for life only. The underlying principles
which are the law Of God alone survive.
They follow man into eternity. They are
he guide for the spirits of the just made
'erfect, and hey follow tic condemned
o hell to- confront them there.
The law is perfect in tendency and the
fleet of the application Of it is to produce
ot tyranny but Freedom. Law and lib
rty are necessarily harmonious. Liberty
obedience tn law which the reason, con-
cience and the heart approve. 1t takes
way all that binders progress. and with
ut law there can be no freedom. As
squence the law Of God must be best