Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1884-1886, 1886-06-29
DEDICATION.
Interesting Services at the EN-
poria Avenue Methodist
Church.

Church.
Intensely Interesting Sermon by Bishop
Bowman of St. Louis, Mo.
The Subscription-Ss56.3 a-Being $50
More Than the Deb, on the Church
The Emporia avenue 81. E. church was
dedicated with appropriate ceremonies iAf'
Sunday, by Bishop Thomas Bowman OF d.
Louis, senior bishop of tie Methodist Ep's-
copal church Of this diocese The church
was packed beyond its legitimate capacity
in short, every foot of space within the
building was occupied, and about one hun
dred, who were unable to gain access were
seated outside under the trees which sur
round the church, where seats had been
provided anticipating such crowd. The
church is q neat brick structure beautifully
/ situated in grove of handsome trees, on
south Emporia avenue. Everything about
| il has ar. air of cleanliness and beauty. It'll
well seated and csrpeted. and has very
beautiful pulpit M .de and contributed by a
carpenter in W. P. Stems shop.
The carpenter work which wa done BY
r. Meeks & Son, Is complete and artistic
| and displays the competence OF this firm to
turn out good job. The psIpi. was taste
| fully decorated with natural plants ard
flowers, and had bright and cheerful look.
Besides several of our local ciergymen OF
other churches. the following representa-
tives of the Methodist Episcopal church
! from neighboring to~as occupied seats on
the pulpit: Rev. d. w. Phillips, glDorado;
Rev. A. J. Taylor, Mt. Hope, and Rev. g. 5.
Bstroff, of Wellington.
The services opened with the singing Of
the ss2d hymn: "Enter Thy Temple, Lord"
etc, after which Rev. D. w. Phillips, d. D.,
of FL Dorado. offered most beautiful and
touching prayer.
The choir then sang the hymn: "rhese
Walls we to Thy Honor Raise" ETC.. and
when tho sweet strain of the heavenly music
died away, J. d. Bodkin, presiding elder,
stepped to the front of the pulpit and read
the first Scripture lesson from The 9th and
9Th chapter of the second book Of Chron-
icles, and Rev. J. c. Post resd the second
Scripture lesson from the 10Th chapter Of
Hebrews.
Then hymn 86S was read by Rev. T. S
Hodson, of the First n. Z. church, and then
Rev. n. Z. Harmon came forward and ex-
pressed himself delighted to see so many
present and then in few appropriate words
he introduced Bishop Bowman, and
that eloquent divine stepped to the Book end
took his text from the 10th chapter, 35th
verse of the Acts of the Apostles:
81 have showed you all things, how that
SO lsboring We ought to support the weak;
and remember the words..of the Lord Jesus,
how he said, it is mora blessed to give than
TO receive"
| His sermon or discourse was peculiarly
his own. 1t was not in the popular accep-
tation of these terms, either a sermon or Il
discourse, but was a succession of wonder
fully short crisp and clear illustration. he
would take up point he wished to impress
on his hearers and in few simple, plain
and pointed words would paint the idea in
the most striking manner. He carried his
auditors with him in the journey over life's
landscape, now over green meadows, next
among flowers, at one time in sunshine
and again in shadow, here tripping
lightly and merrily ever d
smooth landscape, and there coming sud
denly against rock wall. Whether it may
be termed sermon or discourse, it was full
of interest and was one of those sermons
which never tire.
The reporter will endeavor to give very
short, and necessarily imperfect, synopsis 81
the sermon, and as the bishop complained
of tattling reporters, who caught a sentence
here and there in bis discourses on other oc'
casions, and SO arranged them that he WAS
represented to say the very reverse Of wha!
he really did say, this reporter will state
right here that owing TO the poor facilities
for reporting on this occasion, he was una
BILE 10 keep the thread of the sermon, there
fore, while be will endeavor not to msrepre
sent the learned divine in any important
particular, the words are only in part those
of the bishop. He referred 10 a statement
concerning jay Gould which he made in
Chicago, and in which the reporters had
made him say jus: the opposise of wha. he
did say, and this was heralded all over the
country.
| Continuing, he intimsted tina: the state
ments Of newspapers should not be taken as
gospel. His advice to voters is to take the
best Republican papers and the best Demo-
cratic papers, read both sides, and then they
would be pretty able to judge correctly how
best to vote.
at is more blessed to give than to re-
ceive."
| The learned divine said he never though.
of that sentence that it did not bring up rec
objections of bis earlier experiences as a
christian and more especially as a minister.
He asked, "does any body here believe that il
is better to give than 10 receive, and does
fany minister here believe it?''
| When he first studied over the subjec. he
thought there must be some mistake in the
translation, but after a thorough search
among the commentaries he found there
was none. The translation was correct.
Then he proceeded TO hunt up where and
when Christ had said this. He perused
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, but could
find nothing Of it; but the apostles couldn't
write about everything. If they hsd, We
would have too large q book. He then
turned TO see what Paul had to say about it,
Paul, who was too honest to palm off .
falsehood on the people, but Paul was silent.
1t WAS hard TO believe that it is more
blessed to give than to receive, and msny
preachers didn't seem to quite realize that it
Was. He had no reference 10 those present.
He related an instance back in pennsylvania,
where he called on an old minister for
money, and although he had plenty of it, he
thought it the very height of audscity for
him 10 ask for it, and although he used this
ecriptural argument bu: he dida', get it. He
thought there must be reconstruction of
such ministers before they conld JON the
procession above. The same in the pew a: