Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1884-07-14
Church Notes.
Voices from the City Pulpits-Doings
and Events Yesterday.

Voices from the City Pulpits-Dotngs
and Events Yesterday.
At Center church the afternoon service is
| omitted during the months of July and Au-
gust. Rev. DIR. Smyth preached yesterday
forenoon a very interesting discourse as
usual.
Rev. Mr.. Meserve preached at the Daven-
port church yesterday morning on the sub
jeet of faithful Christian living.
Rev Mr.. Lines, rector of St. Paul's church,
oficiated at the Jail yesterday morning in a
very acceptable manner. The prisoners APP
peared much interested in the address he
made to them.
CALVARY BAPTIST CHURCH.
Rev. Mr.. Samson preached his last sermon
for the summer at the Calvary Baptist church
last evening. His text was from Isaiah,
chapter K, I'd verse: ''To turn aside the needy
from judgment and to take away the right
from the poor of my people, that widows
may be their prey and that they may rob the
fatherless." The substance of the discourse
was as follows Ignorant and barbarous ma
tions always suffer when brought into contact
with civilized nations The vices of civilized
society are introduced into heather and saw
age nations by Christian nations. But it is
the reverse of this of which the text speaks
The period of the captivity in Babylon was at
hand and the prophet warns the people of Is
rael against learning the ways of the heather
with whom they were to come in contact
The warning is pertinent now. The nations
of the earth are near neighbors; the people
of Europe, Asia and Africa are part of
and Of
abroad we and our children will
meet them, will read their books,
imbibe their opinions and be more or less in
f1uenced by their habits and customs. It is
timely to consider the dangers of heathenism
against which Christians should beware
What are the ways of the heathens against
which the Christians are cautioned? The
prophet says that they are dismayed at the
signs of the heavens and that their customs
/ en- knows just enough of the true God
to excuse their idolatry. David says the
heathens declare the glory of God and that is
all. In all their universal voice they do not
whisper word of the kindness of God
1 The apostle says to the Romans By the
things that are made the external power and
godhead are known, but that God could be
| Just and justify the ungodly through Christ
was hidden from the Gentiles until the gospel
was preached. Now the practical influence
| upon the heather of this limited knowledge
of God was just enough to silence the con-
| victions of reason and voice of conscience.
| The ways of the heather which we may con-
| slider then are, first, merely formal religion
1 which does not consist in the worship of the
| true God as revealed in Christ second, a
morality which is a necessary outcome of
such a religion.
How may the ways of the heather be
| seen In the first place from immediate
! contact with error, we come to be influenced
| by it. Secondly, by imbibing the principles
of false doctrines we may be led into the ways
of the heather, and thirdly the negative fact
that man has not been spiritually removed
| by the gospel of Christ renders it certain
that he has not arrived at the
knowledge of the true God but
stopped short in the ways of tht
heather What are the effects of learning
the ways of the heather They saw awful
exhibitions of Gods power in the heavens
and deifed these. In the sun and moon,
comet and eclipse, and other celestial phe-
/ nomena, they hated while they worshiped.
But how differently these signs appear to the
Christian. He can say, my father made all
1 these things. My Saviour has all these as in
| struments to accomplish his work of redemp-
| ton. These troubles suggest that we owe a
1 duty to ourselves and duty to others. We
owe it to ourselves to become Christians and
| we owe it to the heathens to give them the
gospel.
L