St. Paul daily globe., 1888-01-30
Rev. S. G. Smith Preached to
a Large Audience at
the Grand.
The Ideal Man as Rev. Faith
er Fitzpatrick Pictured
Him.
Commercial Travellers Will
Not Turn Out for the Car
nival Festivities.
Summary of Sundays Local
News Gathered UP From
All Sources.
THE TEMPLE OF GOD.
An Able Address by Rev. =. O..
smith at the Opera House.

An Able Address by Rev. =. q.
Smith at the Opera House.
''Somc people have said they would
not come here TO worship" said Rev.
:. q. Smith in the course of his sermon
yesterday morning. These aesthetic
persons complain because we worship
in an opera house, and their sensitive
souls will not permit them to attend
amy service except i'll Christian
church. Well. those good people could
never have listened to the fiery elo-
Quence of Peter or the massive logic of
Paul. They preached wherever they
could find the people
The opera house was crowded
again when the sermon began. the
parquette. dress circle and the
balcony ali being filled. Under these
circumstances it was not at all SurpriS-
ing that Rev. DIR. Smith delivered one of
the ableSt and most eloquent diScourSeS
of his life. The regular opera house or
cheStra made its appearance for the
first time. and this, aided by piano and
an organ made the music. The subject
of the sermon was Man Temple"
and the text was l., Cor. iii, 10:
know We not that We are the temple
of God, and that the Spirit of God
dwelleth in you?"
THE SERMON.
Men in the sensual forms of re-
ligion," said DR.. Smith, ''were not salts
fed without visible symbols of the gods
they WorShiped; hence, they made
idols. For sacred images there must be
covering, hence they made temples.
This involved men set apart to care for
sacred things, hence the priesthood.
Priests desired exclusive control of
worship, hence ritual. But idol and
temple and priest and ritual were all
barriers between the heart of man and
the living God. When Moses instituted
worship it was compromise with
Egypt; it was a long journey to bring
the Hebrews out of the degrading poly
theiSm of their ancestors to the worship
of one true God. SolOmOn'S temple was
the visible sign of this compromise, but
when the spiritual prophet arose in the
later times as foreglints of the coming
day of mans deliverance, they began to
plead for spiritual worship. God no
longer dwelt in temples made with
hands, but had his abode in the humble
and cOntrite heart. To come to him
there needed no special sacrifice or ser
vice, but the eXh0rtation was: Let the
wicked forSake his way and the un-
righteous man his thoughts
MANY of you have doubtless seen in
the past few days that wonderful, artist
ic creation of
CHRIST BEFORE PLATE
''There are there three ideals: Plate,
represents secular power; the accusing
. priest, ecclesiastical order, and Jesus,
the ideal man. This was He who
leaned on Jacob well and talked with
the sinful woman of Samaria. To her
question as to the place of worship, the
Master said: The time cOmeth and
icv {o;n
nor yet at Jerusalem shall ye worship,
for God is spirit and they that wOr-
ship Him must worship Him in spirit
and in truth And with the Sledge-
hammer of this utterance He struck off
the ShackleS from the soul of
man and proclaimed him forever
free. The apostles built no churches.
They preached wherever they could find
the people: in the open air, or the
crowded street, or the busy market. by
the river side, OF i'll humble hired
house. For $50 years Christianity had
no home save in the hearts of men. 1t
worked without theories; it depended
upon facts; it was a new life from God,
and new life for man.
Man is himself a temple, and in him
is the true value. Institutions social,
political, religious are the scaffoldng
for man, and are only valuable as they
help to build him. Here and there are
little groups of men plotting as to what
they can do to save the church, when
the true question for them, and all of us,
is, what can the church do to save man?
As in architecture, the temple is the
artistic elimination, SD, in orea-
ton, man is the supremeSt build
ing of God. There are many
social and other artificeS to smother this
truth. We give ourselves so much to
the reverence of red tape and gold lace
that we have little heart left for the
true reverence of man. have known
ia this city little crooked cobbler who,
in the dignity and spiritual quality of
his life, far Outranks most bank Dresi-
dents and railroad millionaireS.
But man is 4 temple for the purposes
of worship. 81 will dwell in YOU and
walk in you, and ye shall be my sons
and daughters, saith the Lord Al
mighty" There is a famous cathedral
at Venice which you can better see
through the writings of Ruskin than
through eyes of your own. But when
and its domes of the Ascension, and
realize that it may be fifty called
"a BIBLE IN STONE"
You are then prepared to see in it
only faint symbol of the possibilities of
man himself. For what buttresseS are
there like the conscience and the moral
intuition? What superb arches may
rival those which the imagination of
man can uplift? What supporting
columns can compare in dignity and
beauty to the human reason and the
human Judgment? What frescoes out
of Scripture story can compare with
heart history when man day by day
comes to experience in himself the
truth and promises of God? Oh, there
are no Illuminated Bibles like those
made with the colOrS of eternity Oh the
fabric of human souls! And ritual of
chanting priest, or smoking incense, or
organ-burst Of choral song, are as moth
ing to that mightieSt ritual when the
Lord God himself draws near and sends
his surging hymn of victory through all
the aisleS of the human spirit.
But, finally, man is temple because
of his Sacredness. When our Master.
with the whip of small cords, drove out
the sheep and oxen, it was only to teach
us that no unholy thoughts or impure
purposes should come in, with bedrag.
gled garments and polluted feet, TO des-
ecrate this temple. Young men here
to-day, with your eye outward on the
world, inward upon yourself and up.
ward toward God, l bid you make tile
prayer of that great one of old. 81 pra,
thee, keep me inwardly pure" or re
member the Apostles word of warning
IF any man defi!e the temple Of God
him will God destroy, for the temple ol
God is holy, which temple ye are.''