The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1888-08-13
PULPIT AND PLATFORM.
NEW JERUSALEM TEMPLE.


Russia who regard life as a burden, and take |
refuge in suicide or in strange, mystical and |
extravagant theories ofreigion and society," |
are so free froul suffering and so prosperous |
that we are either Indifferent to religious APP |
peals, or we measure the value of religions |
according to their ability to give pleasure. |
The popular preacher is he whose discourses |
are the most entertaining music and fashion |
help to fill churches; and many devices of |
the entertainment order receive careful at |
tention. Two attitudes towards happiness |
are possible. The name of Epicurus has |
long served to designate one attitude He |
made happiness the supreme end of human |
endeavor. This attitude presented good |
appearance in ancient Athens; it appears |
well in the homes of the rich and refined in
America but transplant it into the midst of
the wretchedness of the poor in Russia, and |
what would be the result? Or apply it to |
the life of the Christ, and what would be- |
come of Christianity? If He had adopted |
this principle He would never have come in |
to conflict with the Jewish church, and |
would never have died on the cross. The |
other attitudes towards happiness is imper |
1ectly exempllhed in the Stoics, who protest |
ed that happiness is not the supreme good, |
put falthfullness. 1t would seem to be just |
the attitude needed in Russia, or anywhere |
when human suffering is at its maximum. |
1t Is the stuff of which to make soldiers and |
statesmen. 1t gave to the ancients Epicte- |
tus and Marcus Aurelus. 1t has given to us |
some OF our noblest leaders in war and |
peace. But stolcism does not manifest the |
second attitude in its perfection. Under less |
favorable conditions we find stoicism deyel- |
oplng into the pride of cynicism, with its |
fantastic contempt for riches, honors and |
tQQTnlnn IN On fha nth h.. -
ancholy and despair Of asceticism In John. |
the Baptist, we find the utmost abjuration |
OF happiness and the utmost faithfulness to /
duty; and yet we feel his to be far from |
perfect :a life But in the Christ we find per- |
ieet life that satisfies us. No Stole shows so |
grand and perfect devotion. None faces |
PAIN and sorrow more bravely. But while |
the Stole hardened himself before pain or |
sorrow, schooled himself to indifference, |
turned INTO iron or stone, Jesus lost nothing |
Oh HIS sensitiveness. He loved Joy, was |
keenly sensitive to pain, and vet was ever |
faithful to duty. He teaches that righteous |
ness Is IS greater than happiness and greater
Kingdom n God and His righteousness. and |
all these things shall be added unto yon' |
righteousness always follows as a result of |
laitnlulness to God, and is always followed |
or accompanied by happiness Without il as |
? motive, faithfulness is empty and cold |
happiness delusiye and disappointing. Chris |
tianlty opens to view new principle of hu- |
man action. 1t shows the theory of rewards |
ana ana punishment as as the springs Of human ac-
tion to be low and external. They become |
means, under Divine Providence, of guiding |
and controlling us in our low and external |
states OF life But all that is noble in us |
anu Oh human worth responds to different
righteousness. Such motives alone make
earnest, Christian men and women. The |
Lord came into the world sseeking, not hap |
piness . put usefulness, to lay down His life
haro ;e
and place for pleasures. We find Jesus at |
the wedding festival at Cana; we find the |
people of Bethany giving a feast for His |
pleasure and honor; we hear His enemies |
calling Him "A man gluttonous and wine |
Dib1er, a friend of publicans and Sinners |
ana yet never was there a time or place |
when He could not truly say: He that sent |
me is with me; the Father hath not left me |
alone; Tor 1 do always hose things that |
please Him."
CHESTNUT STREET CHURCH.
Rev. j. r. Day, of Newbury, N. Y,
preached an interesting sermon at Chestnut |
street church, yesterday afternoon, taking |
his text from Hebrews l. and q:
"God, who, at sundry times and in divers man. |
prophets. -
Hath in these last idays spoken unto us by His |
Son. whom He hath appointed heir of all things, |
by whom also, He made the worlds"
The following is an abstract of Mr. Days |
sermon
1t is amazing; we are hardly sufficient to |
accept it that God should speak to man it so |
transcends our conceptions of the possible |
relation between God and His creatures that |
welnstlnctiyely say it cannot be- The dis |
lance between the Almighty and an arch |
angel is unreasonable; we can scarcely |
conceive of fellowship between them. How. |
then, are we able to cherish the thought that |
God will commune with us? In his natural |
state, man repudiates the statement, denies |
the most positive assurances, will not accept |
the most conclusive evidences; and yet, |
when you come to study man and under |
stand his nature, his aptitude for moral |
things, and think for moment of his vast |
destiny, of his discriminating thought as TO |
that which is right and that which is wrong. |
and the instructive sense Of thought of the |
judgment, of the adjustment of accounts, |
you think it a more remarkable thing that |
God should not speak to man. When You |
think of man adrift in the universe. |
capable OF aspiration for the good, desiring |
prolonged life, having heart that is capa- |
Bile OF love, and having nature that is ca
pable of the keenest the most acute suffer
ing, and the most unreasonable Joy and &C. |
stacy, you say If must be that that being that
created such a being and set him here.
thinks about him and will make provisions
for fellowship with himself. But then you
say how will God speak to man2 If He is |
going talk with a creature of course the in
timacy must be worthy of God, and so at |
this point you fall right into trouble, and so
you come to believe that God will not speak /
to man as man speaks to man, but that it |
must be In some mysterious, some marvel /
Gus, some mythical manner, this approach |
into the presence of the Divine, You are a |
little tempted to repudate anything SO made |
with human hands as a church, such thing
as Dook, such thing as service, and you
say II Ged is going to speak to man, why, he |
VIII speak to him in some SUBTLE some mys-
ferrous manner, and the approach will be
OF that character. So man is inclined to saw
Lnat God speaks to man through nature.
They say He will speak in the winds and
the waves, and in the thunders; that He will
speak out OF the Threats of birds, that God
will talk in the world which he has made
and so If man wants to hear from God he
has got to go out and sail upon the sea, or
stand upon mountains and get
the starlit sky and the sunlit earth; that he
must go out into groves to worship, that he
must hear Gods voice in the murmuring
brooks And SO there are those who tell us
that they worship God after this fashion,
anu tndI 10 Tie way In6y near the voice OF |
God to them. But when you come to look
into the history of the world, and | think
when you come to interrogate your neighbor
and your own heart you will find that God
does not speak to man through nature at all,
de has first spoken to man in some other
way.
A man comes up from the very extreme of
what have been speaking He hands me
a hook. He hands me the sublimest book
the universe has known. He hands me
book oat Of which all books have been made
that as worthy the making and he says here
God has spoken by an unalterabe sign and
symbol and word No, dispute that, God
has spoken even by the unalterable
words. symbols and signs. Gods voice is
not in the Book even so far as it is the word,
He has not spoken here the voice for which
/ am seeking; for which you want, because
the fact is there Is no ixedness in human
language, there is no permanancy in any
form Of utterance of this kind.
We want something said by the Almighty
that shall be the same sign and the same ut
terance in all nations and all times under the
sun. Then we come to examine the Bible
and what do we find in the conclusion of
what we have remarked That the Bible |
is is be laid asideP that the Bible is to be-
come 0bsoletep that God cannot be found in
the Bible2 By no means. The Bible will
endure because of the fact that the Bible is a