Morning journal and courier., 1884-04-12
Saturday, April 12, 1884.
Duty of Sacrifice.

Duty of Sacrifice.
 Fast Day sermon by Rev. pr. Goodsell at Ihs First M. E. Church-An Interest ing Discourse.
 At ths First M. B church yesterday morn ing Rev. Dr. Goodsell preached very inter esting discourse to his new charge. He ! based his remarks on the text found in Psalm cxviii, ,27, "God is the Lord which hath showed us light bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar" The verse which precedss the text is that with which the multitude welcomed Jesus as the Messiah, Blessed is he that oometh in the name of the Lord'' The popular in- telligence in Christ's time comprehended it as 1 relating to the Christ. It is no strain upon | it's legitimate intent and meaning therefore l to draw Christian lesson from it.. Let us ! see if we can ascertain what that Christian lesson is.
 And first attend to the expression (Which hath showed us light'' ''God is the Lord" presents no difficulty. That is the assertion < of the supremacy of Jehovah made daily by the devout Jew aud the devout Christian. When the priest gave his blessing to the con- gregation he said Jehovah make his face to shine upon thee" From the priests lips the l people caught the prayer, Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us" The l averted face of God was their calamity. It 1 may be that the yelling of the sun by clouds for days and weeks together helped them as it helps us to understand the calamity of the soul in the withdrawal of Gods favor. This I IL passed and which so lingeringly emerged into spring made US long, beyond expression, for
 the unf osted ground, the song of birds,
 the springing grass. the glory of the flow
 CTS. The ice, the snow, the deadhess of na-
 ture long continued and early begun have their depressing force on life and on the spirits. We welcome, as if entering
 world of light and growth, the sunshine,
 the warmth, the soft skies, the pansies and dafodils of the spring. The sun, the lord of ! this phy sieal world, lifted up the light of his countenance upon us. And nature smiles and
 rejoices. In one sense the elder people lived l closer to nature than we do. They knew little of the intermediate forces to which
 we have given names. To them God shone
 when the sun shone, God frightened when the heavens blazed, God spoke when the erat- ting crags among leaped the live thunder To them God shook the earth when they felt
 the earthquakes power. It may be thet we shall return to their faith and phrase some day. Our studies which have unfoided his WAYS 50 wonderfully have put him farther | from us But in the elder day of which we | are speaking the shining of the sun was the shining of Jehovah's face, and while they felt | that Jehovah was more than the sun and his ! spiritual favors more than the giaddening of the earth with the smiling spring, they gath cred their prayers and smiles from nature. God was their light and their portion forever and in his light they rSjoiced. They saw the
 darkness of the idolatrous world. They
 knew the limitations of nature which did
 not discern that God is 8 spirit and they
 crowded the courts with offerings to him | who had given new light. The multitude of
 the offerings was such that the animals for
 sacrifice were tied up all over the priests'
 court and even to the horns of the altar.
 But there is other than the significance of
 abundant offerings in this phrase, Bind
 them to the horns of the altar.". They were
 there not only to be ready for offering but ! to De OneroQ. mere they were to remain
 until the horns of the altar were sprinkled
 with the blood of sacrifice. Out of the pos
 session of the owner, es something set apart
 and consecrsted to Jehovah, were these gifts
 unto the most high; not to be taken back,
 but forever to belong to the Lord and to be
 proofs of a consecrated. loving and joyous people. On that day, v, 24. (which the
 Lord had made" day of signal rest and
 deliVersDcs, they exulted and were glad The court crowded with offerings was the
 symbol of joyous full and intelligent worship. | That which touches deeply and proves
 alliance with them is that they understood
 in some measure our joy in worship. The
 spirit of joy in sacrifice, then, is what we
 are to consider this day. See how this en- | tered into our masters life. "Who for the joy that set before him endured the | cross, despising the shame" We have spoken | so much of the man of sorrows and acqueint l ed with grief; we have dWelt SO much on his l loveliness in redemption; we have watched him in Gethsemane and have wept beneath 1 Mt. Calvary; that we have forgotten the inner life of Christ and it's abiding joy in sacrifice
 Once only it is recorded does he weep among men; once only the great drops, as it were of blood, ooze from his face. His daily ministry was of joy giving ! and receiving. He saw the beautiful things of life, human affection, the sweet ness of children. the beauty of flowers, the | glory of the cornfelds, the glint of the waves, ! than these he saw. The glory set before him l was the joy of redeeming 8 world; of putt | ting within bad humanity the spirit of 8 new life; of giving to stagnant souls the ferment | of growth and change; of translsting death l into life and the judgment into coronation; toward this his march was steady; it held him in kingly quiet and reserve when exam ined by Pilate, and it stayed his great soul in the moment when all was finished. I do not gather from his life that his joy was only in saving men from punish
 ment. The salvation he came to bring was
 more than that. Christ must have seen l while in Hades the bliss anticipated by the | righteous as well as the horrors apprehended by the impenitent. Both phases, off future life were before him, and both have been described by him. As we with dinner visr ion and earthly uncertainty sometimes fore-
 cast what we can do, so he foresaw how
 to give the first light to a darkened mind;
 the first hope to despairing soul the first
 thrill of power to 8 palsied will; the first
 exhiaration of purity to an unclean nature; l the first arrest of decay to 6disintegrating be- \ ing;the first Godward movement to devil-p DOS
 sessed mind; the first experience of heavenly
 riches to the spiritual pauper. Nor were
 these all the clements of new joy that were set
 before him: He was to be the author of faith,
 but fnisher as well. It was to be his joyous
 work to continue and train the new life ! he inspired. The young soul, i. e., young in -f10~@o@~S@f W
 in earthly life, was through him to walk with opened eye, with an sdoring heart, with a holy love, with a victorious strength,
 through the mysteries, impurities and un-
 friendly forces of the life on earth.
 Comfort, strength, joy, peace, meekness,
 all the fruit of the spirit he foresaw
 in the seed he sowed, the life he implanted,
 the growth he gave. We in our poor and
 human measure know something of this. A
 father said to me not a great while since,
 ''My greatest pleasure in life is to watch the
 mental growth of my son; to see how knowl- edge comes to him and how he combines the
 knowledge he has gained and is led on to greater by that which he already knows.' 1 We count our money and our care well be- slowed when thoughtful man grows out of 8 careless boy, or a true woman from the girl of dolls and play. So we are ad-
 mitted to see that God in Christ
 with a view which omits nothing and la memory which retains all, sees his ] spiritual children in all their growth and movement from the day of wrestling in penitence, to the alleluias of the crowned and established soul.
 And now in the next place we are to see ' AI-s Ii