National Republican., 1883-01-22
THE NEW WAY OF LIFE.

ELOQUENT SERMON At All SOULS CHURCH
ny REV. EDWARD EVERETT HALE.
There was very large congregation gath
cred at All Souls church, corner Fourteenth
and j. streets, yesterday morning to hear that
gifted divine, Rey. Edward Everett Hale.
His sermon was rs follows:
Thus Paul went oul from among them, but certain
mcn clnvc unto him ana believed, among wnom
was DionYius the Arcop'ghc, ana woman
Calod nam1ris, aud others with them. After
tlCse things he departed from Athens and came to
Corint1.-AOs frH
lie staid in Athens, tho university city,
given TO all sorts of speculation, metaphysical
and ethical, only two or three days. He came
to Corinth, one OF the great trading ccntcrs of
the world; and staid there u year and six
months, and established n church there. Paul
would have undoubtedly liked to live in Attn
ems, among accomplished men Of letters, more
than in Coriuth, among sailors and tent.
makers Spaniards from the hrthest west and
Indians from the larthcst cast who nrc in this
great mart for its convenience of trade. But
Paul sought u great Cuuler Of activity rather
than mere home of letters. That was his
way. FIVE were TO seek in our modern life
for a contrast rs strong il would he in the con-
trast between Oxford in England and Botany
Bay in Australia. only the Botany Bay in
st. Pnul's case was one of the great business
cmporiums of the world, and that was proba-
bly, the reason why he went there
The new way of life, men called IL the
new religion, was offered to people as unlike
each other as this dainty accomplished judge,
Dionysius, of the supreme court of Athens,
and the stcyCdurC8 on the pier mt Corinth.
Remember that and you will sec how wide
the range in modern life, and in life in those
times to which the apostles addressed them.
selves Not month before Paul preached in
Athens lie had been among n third set of
people rs far a3 the poles from these
high cultivated Atheninns on another
side. These were u colony of Gauls
from the west of Europe who
had marched last under Brcmus, and settled
in the uplauds Of Asia Minor, 200 or 900 years
before they retained the intense vivacity of
the Celtic race. And its unrcasonablcncss
and supcrstiton-its fondncss for forms of
display--quHlitics of this race with which we
are familiar, because we see them daily in the
Irish cmigrant on paul's first visit to these
people, in their enthusiasm for his preaching
they brought out oxen to sacrifice before him.
But with the natural impctuosity and nsta-
bility of this race, day or two after they
besct him, and stoned him and
dragged him out of their city for dead.
None the less did II Christian church
grow up among them to which Paul made
one or more visits, and addressed one of his
letters. We call il the cpistlc 20 the Gala
tians. In more modern phrase il would he
called his Cpistle TO the Colts. 1t thus hap
pens that Paul IL presenting Christianity, or,
what he called "thc way" 10 people of the
highest intellectual culturc--to people OK
posed to sensual temptation and greatly inter-
estcd in practical affairs, aud to these Cclts,
the fanatics of their time, who let enthusi-
asm have full sway aud do its worst. The
sane man has to present Christianity TO
thinkers, TO workers. and TO Ganciful fanatics.
Now, If his way of meeting their separate
conditions was simply TO argue and cOnlutc
there would have 90 be indeed one gospel for
intellect another lur men like these Corinth
ians of mere sensual life, and yet another for
the imaginative people easily led right and
let by one fancy and another. And then if
Celtic shepherd fell in with the gospel, an
'cpistlc written TO COrinthian stcvpdUre he
would be- able to make nothing of it. 1t would
be rs worthless to him aS Calvn's Institutes
would be to the dCCkhnnd Of IL Mis-
sissippi steamer. II an Athenian judge
read the gospel addressed to the special
condition of the Celtic shepherd he would
fare Us i'll and H. would be rs worthless to
him. Paul ncvur makes any such mistake.
If we follHH his methods more closely we
shou not iE olive ourselves in the difficulties
which always attend such personal attempts
on other peoples convictions, in our time as
much as in his time Invariably the masters
of the new way neglect and disregard the par
ticular error or weakness of the person they
would move. Invariably and wisely they at
tempt to make him take another position and
try another experiment. The new life is 70
be indeed new. 1t is not to be the old one
patched. The motives sought are in differ
ent aud larger plano Of being.
l know very well, for have often tried the
experiment, that ii is hard to make people
read 81. Paul in a day-vcry hard to make
young people read him at all. There is Il
great deal in The GpistlCs which is obscene TO
our timci there is Il great deal which does
not directly Gt our times. But all tho same
III this one general habit in which he bbgs,
persuadCs, or commands man or woman, judge
or shepherd, Indian tradcAman or Spanish
BtCVCdOrC to such Il larger liic--to live ON "A
wider plane than they have known before.
Paul makes I'm appeal which belongs TO this
century rs much rs TO his time, which is emil
nently practical and can bG carried out to-day
as well rs then lie was in the presence of the
school of Epicmus, and Of the school Of the
New PatOnistS in Athens. He did not say
five words ON the tenct5 Of either school, But
10 all men lIc says that such word splitting Is
open to each and ALL 1t i, to him in the
spirit, iu the Holy Spirit, To him in the
lifc--which is God, own ilc--and he rises to
vivid cloquouco in the wactica, appeal. "Il
we are his nthespirit let rs walk in the spirit.
Let us lead spiritual lives us in the idiOm
we say, let Us tukc hold on life, not rs ma
chimes who are run by other forces, not rs
parrots who talk in lesson committed to
memory, but rs those run or tall, who have
have their own living and motive power.
Or if We have addressed 20 him some
story Of temptation aud fall ho will
not stop 10 sully his language or his
thoughts by any ullusion either to the temp
tution or the failure. Again, lie addresses
man rs heiug who might be Godlikc, as this
child Of God Of infinite pains The temple
of God is holy and you are that temple You
viii not surely prolmc or bla-pheme the inf
mite God by any lcwlness or impulity in the
body which lie is willing toillumiuatc and to
command. To those wild Colts In the noun
tains He does not discuss this or that super
stition. He does say am afraid Of you when
/ hear Of This folly or of that, But with
them also here Is Ills appeals The fruit of
the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering,
goodness, taith mcekngss, temperance III
we live in the spirit let us show these fruits,
Jet n walk in the spirit.
But just here the intelligent man of practi-
cal good sense tells me that | wholly mistake
the world of his time if ! suppose people care
n great deal .ubOut what Paul said or did not
say, and he Is quite right, lie says that the
average thrift of opinion has no great interest
in what Paul did i'm COrmth, and that the
average man hUs not much faith i'm any mira
Gle that Is told Of Phillippi or Thcsalouca.
Undoubtedly that Is 80, Let us look then for
Que OF tO-days miracles. We shall iind that
the principle is just like all other principles
lust the BumG now as thcn,