St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-12-28
Mr.. Beecher Makes God a Person and the
Development of Life The Result
of Human Will,
And Enters Into Discussion of What Oul
Wisdom and Our Skill Have
Done for Us.
DR.. Talmage Feelingly Discusses the
Closing Year at the Brooklyn
Tabernacle,
And Points Out Some of the Obstacles
in the Way of Getin. to
Heaven.
MIR. Beecher,s Sermon.
Special to tine clone.


NEW YORK. Dec. 27.-Rev. Henry
Ward Beecher preached this morning from
First Corinthians ill.,, 9: For we are la
bOrers together with God; ye are Gods hus-
bandry; ye are Gods building" He said:
We must think of God as person, although
the limitation of human personality is such
as by no means to cover the whole exte Mt
our personality represents more neatly
perfect conception of the divine existence
than any other point in human experience.
Personality may not express Him fully,
yet it is necessary to US; nor is that neces-
sity in any degree diminished by saying
that our conceptions of God must be in theiI
very nature limited. As far as they are to
be had at all they must be had with the lin
itations that belong to human conditions.
Any other method of thinking of God evap-
crates the divine being. That He is a
tendency to Righteousness" is all very well
in an essay or poem, but as an object OF
thought, influence and communion it really
takes away all thought of God. No man
ever wants to throw his arms around the
neck OF tendency. II we are to worship
God, and to love God, and
TO OBEY GOD,
there must be something that shall answer
to the training that we have had in human
life, and along which training our affections
and our obediencies, and our reverence have
had their outflow. We are fellow workers
with God. We are Gods husbandry and
may it not be just as well for US to spend a
few moments, not great many, in a con-
slderatlOn OF what our spiritual husbandry
has done for US; our will, our wisdom, oGr
consecrated purpose, what have they done
with the materials that God has planted
in us and around US? Who has brought in
any uncultivated land this year? Who has
redeemed anything in himself? Then what
have you planted? You know that this
brings US right to the very pivotal point Of
my ministry, and that is the figure in Fifth
Galatians, The fruit of the spirit" Did
you ever think of the words fruit of the
spirit of God?" that is, God is gardener
and is raising fruit. You are all of you
part of Gods garden q pity the garden Of
ten), but the fruit OF the spirit, let me name
them, few of them, and ask you how the
year has been in
YOUR HUsBANDRY.
The fruit of the spirit is Glove" Has
yours been deepened, has it been purified,
has it had wings that bore it toward heaven,
has it brooded and brought forth the thou
sand infections of love? That is one fruit
that hangs from the bough of regenerated
love, and with the spirit of God, like the
sun shining down upon it. The fruit
of the spirit is love, 10y" Has the gar
den OF the Lord in your possession been
fruitful of joy within you? How has it
been with you? And so | might go through
the whole catalogue-''love. joy, peace,
long suffering, gentleness. goodness, faith.
meekness, temperance" Do you know
that is God Almighty's creed? They are
the articles of the creed of Christ. Away
with all your hide-bouud creeds, and your
ordinances, and your governments. They
are all very we'll, but a government is not
fit to eat any more than rail fence is. 1t
is something that
PROTECTS YOUR FIELD,
so that when you raise harvests inside they
shall be good for something. But here is
the husbandry, the other is an exterior sur
rounding influence and the foundation, but
this is the harvest. If a man asks me
What do you believe?n ] tell him the
whole of the twenty-second and twenty
third verses of the fifth chapter of Gala
tians, that is what l believe in, that is my
creed. 1t is the work of Christ in the hu-
man soul when the soul is willing. That
is my farm, that is my garden, and that is
my husbandry, and if anybody says: Are
you laX?" No. am not lax in theology;
am stringent; 1 am radical; but insist
upon it that it shall be the theology of the
heart and of life. and not merely logic
and philosophy, and this is the inside of
the spiritual celebration of Christmas time,
the examination of what estate you are in,
what the year has done, what you have
done for the year and what your soul is as
garden or farm. And 1 beseech of you.
dear brethren, because the sermon is fancy
winged, do not think of it as poem or
song for wide forms of fancy; it is full of
the sOlidest practical fruit that concerns
you, that concerns me, and that concerns