The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1885-12-30
PULPIT THOUGHTS.
Beecher on the Lesson of Love-.
"Self- Culture" .-- Pulpit and
Press.

Mr.. Talmage's regular Sunday sermon not
being forthcoming, we give the following
resume Of ermons preached by three proni-
nent ministers-Revs. Henry Ward Beecher
and Charles R. Baker, of Brooklyn, and Rev.
R. Heber Newton, of New York:
mr. Reecher on the Lesson OF Love.
The deepest emotion that man could e1pe-
rience, said Mr.. Beecher in his sermon, was
loving. There was a wide difference between
it and liking or admiring. Love was the
bright star about which all nature was re-
volving. At present we were seeing the early
morning of love. Other ages would see the
brightness of the dawn and of the noontime.
The supposed proper Christian query was.
''Do YOU love Christi" and the orthodox an
swer was, 81 humbly hore I do" Il humbly
believe he DON'T" said Mr.. Beecher. Such
talk wa cant. He despised the man who
signed himself, "Yours, in the love of Christ"
How should ordinary men be able to love
Christ? There could be established an ideal
Of Christ by tho study OF His life, which
could be admired and loved just as the poet
or the painter or the warrior studied their
ideals in past ages, made themselves familiar
with them and came to admire and love them
as personalities.
But feeling was only the stream that
turned the Wheel of operation continually.
Love transmitted into conduct was love still,
but in another form. Even the mother love,
ct first a flame, changed into a careful at
tendance upon the child, making it COM
Portable and happy. So it was with the love
of Christ. The true way to love Him was to
transmute love into conduct and obey oil the
commandments of God.
But the reply to this is, ~ have no love to
begin d." This was the trouble with the
average man. But rs emotion could be
transmitted into conduct, so conduct in turn
could be transmitted into love. A good many
years ago MIR. Boecher aroused the ire Of a
Boston preacher by saying that the practice
of moral duties would produce morality and
love. The criticism of the Boston preacher
''who was in some respects very tail and 9th.
ers very smalr'-was that Mr.. Beecherurged
insincerity at first in order to develop truth.
The answer to that was that a child had to
creep before it could walk.
Conduct generated the reason of the con-
duct. A great clod WHO came from the coun-
try and Vio.ated all the rules OF good society
might sheer at the suggestion that he put on
lighter boots and more fitting raiment, and
satirical.y inquire whether refinement was q
matter of clothing. But very soon, when no
had changed his garb and tried, in a mechani-
cal way at first, to subscribe to society's
usages, he would appreciate the logic Of those
usages.
God came to men through godlikeness-
through those clements in Their nature that
were like His own. If a man would love
Christ he must 60 to school and learn how;
he must acquire those godlike elements in the
school of trying and keeping the command
! ments of God. 1t would be very easy for him,
Mr.. Bcecher said, to fill his church even more
than it was. He could have a revival and
work his hearers up to a high pitch of re-
1:r;o,,s opfb,,ciocrn onj 1at fharo oO q yov with
the impression that all that was needful was
to come into the ark and then let the flood
come. In that way there could be vast addi-
lions t. the membership of the church, but
would there be any increase in grace? Not &
bit.