St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-11-30
Henry Ward Beecher breaches Upon the
Text, "Ye Shall Find Rest Unto
Your Souls"
The Beauties of Religion in the Life Of
Christians When in Deep Trib-
ulation.
Morning Prescribed Medicine
for All Ills.
He Tells of the Consolation Given the
Human Family by the Efficacy
of Prayer.
Beecher's Sermon.
Special TO the Globe.

w ara BeocnerS text THIS morning was.
''Ye shall find rest unto your souls" MAT
thew H., 29l Il think" said he, ''that of
all the uttered things in the New Testa-
Glent there is not one that for profound
pathos can compare with this. It seems
almost like a voice out of another sphere.
1t is the cry of compassion to diStempered
world. Christ stood in the midst of the
raging public sentiment of his time and up
braided the cities wherein most of his
mighty works had been done because they
repented not Then calm came over him
and his thoughts seemed to lift themselves
above the level of human life, and with a
serene vision of intimate intercommunica-
tion with his Father and Himself, with the
vision also in his mind of perfect happiness
and rejoicing, He exclaimed: Come unto
Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden,
and will give you rest. Take My yoke
upon you and learn Me- and ye shall find
rest until your souls, for My yoke is easy.
My burden is light If there be any one
thing which this world wants and lacks, it
is the spirit of usefulness; spirit not in
consistent with activity, not inconsistent
with aspiration, which men call ambition
in lower sphere, yet the power of a man
soul to return into itself and
REST AS BIRD
that all day long has been winging it's way,
oft chased. at times driven by winds. seek
ing food hither and thither, as the evening
draws on returns to it's nest. If one were
to go out into the world seeking knowledge,
he would find a great deal of what he
sought. If he were to go out under the in
spiration of imagination he would find
wonderous beauty, but beauty scant and
like torn veil lets through to sight great
many things besides; and when he comes to
look at the life of man upon the face of
the earth he would say beauty does not
bring rest. Less, perhaps, than anything
in the world. Beauty is cause of dissatis-
faction. So much is rude, uniformed and
harsh, that the the taste for the beautiful
rather separates a man from the flow of
common life and renders so sensitive, fas-
tidious even, that it becomes in the end
discord and trouble. But If he were to 60
out in the spirit OF human sympathy, feel
ing as we may suppose the benevolent
Fa ther in heaven feels, Whose bosom glows
with kind endeavor, with anXieties, if any
such can break the severity of the external
mind-anxieties for the happiness of His
creatures-what report would he bring
back? l think he would say that the ami
NAL kingdom as general thing are great
deal happier than the human family.
THEIR HAPPINESS
is not so wide in its range nor so intense
from all that we can judge, and not so long
continued. Nevertheless, they have no
care, no tomorrow before them, no anx-
ieties, no burdens, no sins. no remorse. no
self-condemnation. Coming into the human
family he would see life growing dull.
dented, notched, bent here and there, way
down, more full On the whole of sighs than
of smiles, my impression is that he would
say the savage condition of the barbarian
was happier on the whole than the civilized
and the Christian. That is to say, civiiiza-
ton awakens every part of a man and makes
every faculty hunger; and men being thus
reused, every faculty of their nature reflects
some desire, some feeling, and thus carry
ing themselves amid the mixtures, swayings
and swirl of human life, he would say, it is
doubtful whether they reap much happiness
in their excitements and wild ambitions, in
their mistakes and downfallings. in thei1
being trampled under feet of successful
men; and taking the sum O.. human happi-
ness the world over, he would say it is COM
paratively small. There could be no accu-
rate measure, but would not that be the
judgment of man who felt simple
with happiness, collecting all he could see
over the world? No doubt there is good
deal of happiness; but it is like the check
cred light of the sun shining through the
forest, here little gold, there a shadow.
| When, therefore, Christ looked out over
this storm m-driven world, and hearing from
afar off the echoes of war and revolution,
surrounded by the miserable poor and
wretched, it was like the voice of peace
thrown over the battlefield when, in spirit
of Infinite compassion, He said; "Oh,
| tempeSt-toSsed and not comforted world,
there is a harbor of rest. Come unto Me,
all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and
ye shall find rest for your souls" Auda-
cious man, if thou be but man. Won
derful art Thou if Thou art God or His Son.
''Come unto Me-" Not with any human
attainment could any man say that. Not
Michael Angelo would dare so. ''Who
would wish to know the gigantic and SUBJ
| lime, come to me, l will teach you.' Ra-
phael would not have dared, without con-
demnation of men, to say: ''Would you
know grace and beauty? Come to me. u
Not Alexander, not Caesar, not Napoleon,
but would have unnamed themselves to
have said: 'Let any one that wishes to
know the art of force and war come to me. u
NOT ONE PHILOSOPHER
| that ever lived; not Socrates, not Plato,
would have dared stand and say to the
world: ''Would you have knowledge and
| philosophy? Come to me-" And leaving
exterior and inferior things, and coming to
interior things. who ever dared to face the
world and say: Come to me, have the
secret of rest" The very innermost knowl-
edge. Yet this is what Christ did, and it
makes little difference to me whether,
arithmetically, you put Him in the Trinity
or not. l quite despise all those hair
| splitting arguments in regard to constitu-
ton of the Divine nature, things which lie
so far out of the reach of human conscious
ness or investigation that the arguments are
mostly a world chopping. But when one
stands up with the known life. example and
teachings of Jesus Christ, Whom the whole
world has agreed to acknowledge. if not
Divine, yet as the chiefest man that ever
dawned over the horizon of time-when He
stands and says, with perfect modesty, ap-
| pealing to the sincerity and the
MORAL CONSCIOUSNESS
of the whole human family: "Who in this
world wants rest let him come to Me-
confess that settles me. He is my master.
He is my teacher. He is my leader. /
follow him through life and death and this
is the call which he gives me, and as He is
the model let US look at the life of Christ.
1t has come to us strained through the
ascetic school and transformed by their
poisoned Imagination. He was full of en-
joyment and tranquility, yet because the
prophets said: HE is man of sorrow and
acquainted with grief" and because they
said, when you see Him there is nothing
to be desired" early art made Christ as
homely as sin. 1t was supposed that be-
cause He took upon Himself the
sufferings of others He must be
sorrowful. That is impossible. Those
who go about doing good are the happiest.
| There is power transmitted to the human