The Portland daily press., 1883-12-24
CmREsTmAs sERvrCEs.
The Reference to the Great Festival in
the Churches observation-disclosures of
Hermons Prcached-The Music.

the Churches Yesterday-Abstracts of
Sermons Prcached-The Music.
Yesterday being Sunday before Christmas
was appropriately observed in many of the
churches, and Notwithstanding the severe
weather the congregations turned out in good
force. The Episcopal and Catholic churches
do not observe Christmas until the festival day
arrives, and at St. Lawrence street church
there will be a service Christmas morning at
II O'Clock. The following are the churches
yesterday observing our Saviour's birth
NEW JERUSALEM.
AT the New Jerusalem the choir sang Tudd's s
anthem "Christ is born," and Ringers an
them "While Shepherds watched their
1ocks."
THE CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM.
The Rev. Mr.. King took his text from the
13Sth Psalm 9th verse-"Though the Lord
be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly. I"
He began by saying: "The intuitions and the
reasoning faculties are the two specific chan
nes through which the Lord reaches man and
makes himself known to the soul. The intui-
tions are the soul which reason clothes with
body woven of the substance OF the knowledge
which is organized within it. Through the
intuitions man is made conscious Of an infinite
being; and they enkindle within the heart
desires which seek to realize God through
the reason; they struggle up through the chaos
within and cry to the reason for perfect
revelation of the heart of God. They pour their
God-ward longings into the ear of reason, aud
it becomes stirred and stimulated to action, ,and
seeks to furnish the intuitions with the light
they seek. But how marked and signal have
made in this direction. The ''Unknown God"
is inscribed an every altar it has erected for
the heart. 1t is not the province of the reason
ing faculties to create forms for the intuitions,
but to recsiye them from revelation, and then
make them serve as channels of light and life
to the religious instincts of the heart. Human
reason is blind of itself; and if the religious
impulses of the heart should be led by the un-
assisted reason, man would find darkness in
stead of light-natife instead of God. At
this point Mr.. King insisted upon the necessity
OF Divine revelation made in accommodation
to the limitations Of human reascn-through
which the heart might attain a knowledge of
him "whom to know Alright is life eternal"
He claimed that Revelation-the divine
reason descending down within the sphere of
human reason proved the harmonization of
the intuitive and the reasoning faculties. He
said: IF you take your stand in the realm OF
pure intuition-you will feel that there is a
Divine Being; bat in his unclothed and un-
revealed divinity he will not fall within the
sphere of the finite reason. But if you take
your stand in the realm of reason, and view
him in his human manifestation, then he be-
comes an object of definite thought and love.
That system which simply conceived of God
as the unknowable-the high and lofty one
dwelling within the sphere Of his own supreme
diyinity-with no respect unto the lowly, pre-
sents to the mind nothing more than the mere
glimmer of light which stirs the intuition. 1t
stops half way, and leaves out region of his
being, lying within the range OF his divine
consciousness, by which he is able to descend
from the dazzling heights of his infinity into
personal contact with finite humanity" This
point was illustrated by the philosophers
ability Of descending from his heights OF philo-
sophical thought and abstraction down within
the sphere of child's comprehension.
This faculty which God possessed of de-
scending to our land of life, Mr.. King said
"made the incarnation a possible thing"
He said, shat under the Jewish dispensation
God manifested himself to men by infllling an
angel with his spirit; and that the angel thus
inflled became the manifestation of God to
men. But the time came when the angeloph-
any of the old dispensation was to be sue
ceeded by an actual theophany or the mani
festation of God in the fesh'
"When this point was reached Jesus was
ly of the fundamentally of the natural fa-
ther, and divine conception was the result.
The inmost soul of Jesus Christ was Jeho-
yah himself. This divine soul. this infinite
essence descended from within until the
finite humanity born from Mary was entirely
displaced, and replaced by Divine Humanity
from God This in the Divine Humanity Of
Jesus Christ was baesd on eternal and abiding
theophany."
Mr. King then claimed ''that the incarna-
matt f},o and for hiror
necessity OF our humanity" He said, "the
idea Of pure divine essence without form,
without passions, without limits, ,peryadipg all,
comprehending all, transcendiDg all, Is too
vague to be grasped by the finite mind. GOD
in his unclothed and supreme dignity is above
u.s. Our mortal feebleness shrinks from
the contemplation with trembling awe. The
human heart cannot feed on sublimities; we
cannot take divine immensity by the hand
But in Jesus Christ we have a point around
which all the vague and shadowy conceptions
we have ever had Of the divine immensity
may condense; focus toward which every as
piration OF the heart after God may tend. In
Jesus Christ the hungry heart finds its
portion, and the weary soul rests its head on
the bosom of God. Christ as the Divine HUI
manity is the persona of the Father, the
thing that is sounded through Through
Jesus Christ as the word made. flesh every
human want may be met, every human sor-
row may be soothed"
Mr.. King closed by saying, that in the
New Church we worship as the only true God
the risen and glorifed Saviour Jesus Christ
and believe that in him "dwel}eth all the full
ness of the Godhead bodily"
FIRST UNIVERSALLY.
As usual Christmas Sunday was appropri-
ately observed at this church. The decora-
tions were elegant in effect though compara-
lively simple in design and execution Around
the large arch over the platform a cord of
evergreen extended. The gallery fronts and
sorgan were festooned with the same material,
while from the twenty-eight gas brackets
were suspended as many large wreaths. In
the centre Of the rear wall of the pulpit recess
was a large star and over it the words
'fThe Christ.
From the center point of the arch hung
crown of immortelles. On either side of the
pulpit were vases and baskets of lovely Cali
fornia grasses and flowers.
The pastor, Rev. Mr.. Blanchard, preached
sermon on 'sThe influence of Christ on the
condition of women," taking as his text the
words "She hath done what she could t" from
the fourteenth chapter of Mark. Beginning
with reference to the decorations of the
church as symbols of love and reverence for
Jesus Christ, Mr. Blanchard announced and
elaborated these three points: 1. Christ has
woman is his equal; 2 Christ has taught man
to rejoice in maintaining the freedom of
woman to 6eyelop fully all her powers; 3. In
this equality and with this freedom, oman
naturally becomes leader in all Christian
works-the works Of philanthrophy. Under
the first head of his subject, the speaker
showed that man easily considers woman his
inferior But Christmas teaches him that
woman is equally with himself a child of
God; He emphasizes the sacredness of the in.
dividual human soul; He shows that woman
also has aspiration for a noble life. Taught by
Christ, man gladly acknowledges that woman
is his equal. Mr.. Blanchard made au appeal
to women to recognize their debt to Christ.
Under the second head, it was shown that
this doctrine of inleriority led men to confne
women within narrow limits. In ancient days
the wife and mother were shut up to domestic
duties. 1t was the courtesan who was educated
Christ has taught man that woman, his equal
should be free to study to think, to act. Es-
pecislly is this true in our day and in New
England. Here there areEmore women than
men. These need vocations and for these fit
preparation. If woman wishes to become an
artistic, lawyer, physician, minister, let
her be free to do SO. Who so has the spirit of
Christ will gladly maintain that freedom.
Under the third head, it was argued that
woman has more time for philanthropic work
and is more fitted for it by her larger sympa-
thetic nature. Man is burdened by his labors
for the maintenance of his family; he is often