The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-01-28
PLYMOUTH MEETING-HOUSE.
The New House Of Worship Formally
Opened by Pastor McCullOch.
Historical Sketch of the Church and Its
COngregatiOn-Dr. Marine on FalIacies
Concerning a Broad Christianity.
LIFE"

The Sermon of Rev. o. G. McCulIoch at the
New Plymouth Church, Saturday.
The first services in the new Plymouth Church
were held yesterday morning. There are 800
opera chairs in the audience room, 600 of which
are ON the main floor, and $40 in the balcony,
and as all these seats were taken and additional
chairs were required to seat the audience, the
number of persons attending may be placed at
more than a thousand. The room is admirably
arranged for the purpose it is designed to fill.
Instead of white or papered walls, the sides of
the room and overhead are ceiled with poplar
wood, which, by reason of its resonance, aids in
making the acoustical properties of the room per
feet. The seats rise in a gentle incline from the
high platform upon which the pulpit, the organ,
and the choir are placed. and from every seat in
the house, apparently, an unobstructed view of
the stage may be obtained. The stage was
neatly but not effusively decorated with plants
and flowers, and the new church, on It's opening
morning, presented a most comfortable and
attractive appearance. The reporter noticed in
the audience a considerable number of Germans.
The aisles of the church are wide, and in case of
need, seating room for fully three hundred more
auditors could he furnished. Plymouth Congre-
HdllOldl NuuFCu WIS OTSdIllSu On Vie Jbu VI
August, 1857, the first pastor being Rev.
w. c.. Bartlett. He was succeeded in
October, 1858, by Rev. N. A. Hyde, who
was pastor for several years. The old church,
built on the corner of Meridian and Circle
streets, was begun in 1858 and completed in
1859, The third pastor was Rev. E.. P. Inger-
soil, who was followed by Rev. Mr.. Bennett, and
he, in turn, by Rev. Oliver S. Dean, who held
the pastorate about three years. Rev. Oscar c..
McCulloch succeeded Mr.. Dean. He came here
in May, 1877, and, after preaching through the
month of June, accepted the pastorate in July.
Of those who were members in 1857, but four
now remain-Albert G. Willard, Mrs. Sarah S.
Sinker, Mrs. Elizabeth Ferguson, and H. S.
Hockey. Mrs. Rebecca J. King, Mrs Sarah Suy-
dam, Mrs. Anna Bellows, and Miss Julia Bassett
connected themselves with the congregation in
1858.
The programme of exercises distributed among
the audience contained the following financial
statement:
1.-THE lot on which the church stands cost So,
500. The building, complete, has cost, as nearly
as can be ascrtained, $28, 600; total cost, $3s, 500.
There was raised, by subscription. 81, 600: by
bonds, $25, 900; total $36, 600, leaving a balance
unprovided for of s., 500. The bonds run fifteen
YGdrS lTOll CdllldIN L. 1909, diltt Dedf . per cent.
interest, payable s~emi-annually. The rentals
already secured amount to the annual interest,
so that no interest burden rests upon the congre-
cation. Any rentals received above the amount
needed for the interest will go into a sinking
fund for the extinguishing of the bonds. The
building will be used for religious, charitable.
literary, and educational purposes. The gates
of it shall not be shut by day A few of the
bonds are as yet u~ntaken, and are offered to the
friends of the church"
Uua nor4ov, Do- neao. n ATcC-1ool 49,,
mmssoke, his serssan being on Abundant LIFE
FL am come that they might have life, and that they
light have it more abundantly." John K. 10.
OF the many words of Christ, my thoughts
dwell oftenest and longest upon those where
he speaks of life. Life with him was the use
and enjoyment of all the faculties of our being.
Eternal life is to know God. Finding life is
hiding what we are and what we are for. Life
is a joyful service. 1t is a beautiful thing to
live; to live in harmonious respose 70 the call of
the many-colored wisdom of God. Fullest life
is that when every faculty is called into play by
the great nature-the manifestation Of God
without. Without is beauty, in flower and
form, in wonderful sunset, shimmering sea,
and the divine face of man. Within, responding
to it, is a perception of beauty. a joy III, it, a
the rhythmic beat of worlds that
go singing along their ~measureless
path, the tinkle of rain, the song of birds and
the laugh of children. Within is a recognition
VI II iAillIC lON hlNlObNF Att IlDIN = 0OAASr
Outside us is trutb-things as they really are
the hidden laws, the methods and the mean
ings; within is a perception Of order, a desire to
know. Outside us is a moral .order-a unity of
morals running through all animated nature. p"
Each thing under authority; justice lies at the
heart of a crystal and of a man. The very stones
keep faith with God, and joyful the stars per-
form their shinings." Within is a sense of obi
cation, duty, a love of justice. Without is a
world of joys and and sorrow--humanity in all
its beauty and pathos. Within is JOY and glad
ness, pity, sympathy, love, willingness to help.
Beauty, music, truth, righteousness, humanity.
These are the mind and heart of God impressed
on nature-immanent in nature. And life is re
spending to them, fulfilling them, answering
them. living at every point of them. Anything
less than this is incomplete life. AS he who
lacks sight or hearing isshut out from some of the
truth and beauty of God, so he who has no eye
for beauty, ear for music, heart for delight and
sympathy, desire to know, wish to be good, is
incomplete. Some one of the thousand strings
which God gave him to make music with is not
struck. The Creator hears no music from it.
Instead are ''sweet bells tangled out of tune, >
The Christ, in his day and age, saw life as a
whole. He saw the beauty in nature and in
humanity; saw the truth, and loved to think
Gods thoughts after him; saw the divine good
ness in rainfall ard sunshine; saw the Justice
which binds man to man in Social union, saw all
this, and responded to it. II do always the
things that please Thee" This-is why He has
been in the mind and heart of the world ever
since. The whole, the complete life was IN him.
He enjoyed life, overcame difficulty, used every
faculty for helping others. Can you doubt that
he would have kindly criticised all ideas of life
which were less than thisl A young man came
running to Him who was exceedingly rich, but
he had not life, for he had found no place to
serve. Nicodemus had not life, because he was
turning over musty palchments, shaping his life
by dead opinions Of men, PLATE was not alive,
since he did not, and dared not dc
justice. Mary of Magdala was not alive, for
She was prostituting her beauty for hire. So t.
the monk He would have said: ''This is not life,
this fasting and PAIN to the artist: Life Is
beauty, but mere-it is thinking high thoughts
and doing noble deeds" Life is when every
faculty is employed: the glad leap of muscle tC
Keplers mind; the patience of Darwin's obser
walton; the harmony of Beethoven's music; the
nhilanthrony of Milherfarce and Garrison; thS