National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1881-01-03
PULPIT LESSONS.
SOME OF Yesterdays DIscouRsEs.
Rev. DR.. Rankin's New Years Sermon-Dr. Sun
derland's Remarks On the Vieissitudes Of
Life-Rev. Mr.. Mayo Speaks Regard
ing the Power Of Love.

Ing INC IoncI VI bVtcs
At the Congregational Church yesterday morn
ing large congregation was present. Among
them were Yung Wing, ofthe Chinese Legation, and
wife; Hon. Messrs Window, Monroe, Burrows, and
Haskell and their families who are regular worship
pers Mrs. Powell sang " One Sweetly Solemn
Thought" during the offertory. DR.. Rankin
preached from the twelfth verse ofthe Thirty
Pslam: Hear my prayer, o, Lord, for l am a
stranger with Thee, and sojourner, as all my
fathers were"
Life without God, the sense of passing years, of
opportunities forever gone, of the frailty of the
best purposes of the imperections of the best per
formances, the change in the complexion OF life,
the loss of friends by alienation by distance, by
death, and all of this without God, how lonely and
homeless it must be- Time is so precious that Cod
gives to us only grain at time. Every year we
invert the glass and these precious sands OF gold
begin to run through again. One-Seventh OF them
are Lit with the light of heaven. He calls them His,
but the more they are His the more they are ours;
and not one ofthem falls without marking an 0ppor-
tunity lost or opportunity improved, a victory
or a defeat, record of glory or OF shame. Time,
says Richter, is the chrysais of eternity Out Oft
how shall we come forth-to life everlasting or to
everlasting contempt? A stranger and sojourner
with God-this is the Psalmists idea of life. Let
us think ofitthis first Lords day inthe year. The
wGs not original with the Psalmist. He himself
says, =" as all my fathers were" We read the same
thing of Abraham and all the other patriarchs;
and even when Gods people here came into pos
session of the Holy Lands; He will not let them
become rooted there. He still holds them to the
idea that they are strangers and sojourners Every
Jubilee Year He loOses their hold of it, saying,
The land shall not be Sold for the land is mine"
Ie are my tenants at will. Whenever say, We
must break up and come home. The sacred poet
has put the same idea into the lines
Here in the body pent,
Absent from Thee / roam
Yet nightly pitch my moving tent
A days march nearer home"
The old nomadic life of the East; the life which
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob actively lived; the
life which David lived in early youth the life of
the shepherd wandering here and there for water
type of the life of faith it is the life of the stranger
and sojourner What it is to be q stranger in
strange and to hear in the streets the jargon OF
strange language; to see around us only foreign
sights; to be in affection under such circum-
stances as Abraham was when Sarah died, and he
was forced to buy of the children of Heth burial
place for her. God grant you and l may never
know: But there is something in every Christian
life which answers to it. But because we are pill
grms and strangers it does not follow that We are
not entitled to the best the world can give. True
religion IS not repression; it is expression; II i'm
plies the consecration of mems best to God; il i'm
plies JOY in all the departments Of power and ser
vice; II implies being rounded into the full-
ness of vigorous manhood; and it
takes all kinds of culture and oil kinds of expe-
solitary stranger and sojourner. He has COM
panion. He is a stranger and sojourner
with God. In this is implied three things, the
presence and society of God, the guidance Of God,
and Gods friendly guidance and society.
DR.. Rankin then reminded the congregation of
its members who had died during the past year,
comes and they are here no more forever. They
cease to be strangers and sojourners. They have
not ceased to be with God. To-day We eat the
bread and drink the wine which He has furnished
for His pilgrims. Let US take orr staff more firmly
in our hands for the heights that are before us.
This year may bring us deliverance. This year
nnrfl toll
home to God. Let us be found with the bride
groom watching"
DIR. Sunderland ON the Times.
The congregation of the First Presbyterian
Church listened to an interesting discourse by the
pastor, Rev. Byron Sunderland, yesterday morning,
his text being the fifteenth verse Of the thirty
first Psalm My times are in Thy hands" He
said times, in the Hebrew sense signified vicissi
tudes, fortunes and destinies, all of which were in
Gods power to give or take away. To everything
there was season or time, and the completest
enumeration of them was to be found in the third
chapter of EccleSiaStics, which stated that there
were twentyeight seasons or times in human life.
There was power behind the curtain which con-
trolled all these seasons; the Christian said it was
God and the infidel nature Both agreed, how
ever that it was a blind, unreasoning, re-
mOrseless power producing and destroying in
an unendins series of births and deaths.
1t continue lily lnterferrcd not only with the gen.
eral business of the world but with the life of each
human being down TO its minute details. Some
said that mems chances were in their own hands,
but this was an erroneous idea, as was proven by
the course of events for it was little that he could
do TO work out his own salvation without the help
of God and His angels. That our chances or times
were in their hands could be illustrated in the
matter of travel of to-day. The word of God pre-
dicted il long ago when it said that chariOtS with
flaming torches would rage through the streets
jOstle together in the roadways and run like the
lierhf n rir.ip Of
railroads. A vigorous winter came on. The sky
shed a soft fleece on the track which the wind
into the bank, which extinguished the fire in the
engine, and silence and cold reigned. How pitiful
and helpless mortals were then, but God with His
power held their fate in His. hands and
a system without God, in which there were
the same exposures to evil without the power 10
restrain them, the need of a comforter would be
known. In this life men were running race, for
which God held the watch. Every human being
was on the course but knew neither the goal nor
the time required to reach it. In this respect
eyes were sealed. To-day, for instance, there is
famous blind horse who wins races by his hearing
He was analogous of the human contestants in the
race of life. Although they could not see an inch,
they heard the voice of the driver and kept on. In
this day what value was placed upon time, the
aim of the whole world being to gain time, and
after the object was attained it was quick work,
and all was over. The condition of the world to-
day showed the wOndrous power of God, and
all nations acknowledged it, and their prosperity
in Hishands. Everywhere the drum beat of Chris
tan faith was heard calling mankind to prayer,
and the sun in his diurnal round saw ChriStendOm
bowed in supplication, crying, Thy will be done"
Rev. A. ID. Mayo on the Power of Love.
At All Souls Church yesterday there was quite
large congregation assembled ct the eleven a. m.
service to hear the Rev. A. D. Mayo of Boston, on
the subject Of For Loves Sake"
As the preliminary lesson, the reverend gentle
man read the fourth chapter of the First Epstle of
John, which is SO replete with exhortations to
brotherly love- and then selected as text for his
discourse Genesis, xxix:20-"And Jacob served
seven years for Rachel; and they seemed unto him
but few days, for the love he had to her"
From this eXquisitely beautiful story of the
Patriarchs sojouTn in the land of MeSapotamia
was evolved strain OF thought showing the
power of love, and its sway even over the passion
great motive and end in human life. With con-
Summate skill the speaker took up the theme of
mans daily life-its passions aid struggles and
pointed out how, by trifies the most minute the
heart is lifted above the dark pail of care when it
is required.
"Some burden new to bear
For loves own sweet sake"
He divided into three classes those who were
striving to nd themselves of ifes heavy burdens,
as follows
for iverting their minds from the letters that gall
Into the flesh, and dash into pleasure drown the
dull pain of care by endless round of toll that
leaves no room for thought.
The second depends upon the charity and SYM
pathy of their brethren, and cllnk their chains
increasingly to draw help from their stronger fel-
lows.
The third class are those who, though heaviest
burdened, hide their crosses from all eyes, and,
sustained by the mighty power of love, tread the
thorny pathway of life with smiling lip and beam
ing eye. These last are those who in every walk
OF life are found sinking self and sustaining the
dropping helplessness of Others on and On, even
until the shadow of death falls upon them and the
tired hands at last under the tOuph
DEATH 1t is for loves sweet sake that the rail girl
tolls in the noisy factory or behind the counter
from dawn until starlight, and then creeps back
with trembling limbs to her humble home, where
the smiles of those for whom she is wearing her
life away the sole joys of her dreary existence
Nations point to the good order and harmony ex-