Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-05-13
NO CROSS, NO CROWN.
GOOD WORDS SPOKEN FROM THE
PULPIT YESTERDAY.
The Significance of Christ's Sacri-
fce-Dr. Merrill's Lecture
Brief Sermons.

AT the SERVICES Oh the First u nitarian
Society yesterday, Rev. c. P. Massey spoke
from Mark ii 81: The Sabbath was
made for man, and not man for the Sab
BATH" The speaker alluded first to the
social and economic forces that are so alb
solutely tyrannical in their play, and re-
GREETED that power was here manifested
that was fostering in our modern life an
ever increasing secularization of Sunday
employment. He thought, however, that
men were frequently unduly alarmed
over condition of affairs for what no one
was individually responsible, aud said that
the moral instructor does not often enough
estimate the power of that eternal, not
ourselves, that makes for righteousness,
ne does not often enough consider how in
extricably the fortunes of mankind are
bound up together and that men animated
by purely selfish interests will have care
that morality shall have a place in the
economy of things. The conditions which
underlie the phenomena of modern life
may not be such as one can entirely ap-
prove, but he may at least accept them as
the conditions which are characteristic of
the age, and discriminate it from every
other, and SO simply by his influence to
maintain the integrity of his individual
life in the confidence that moral adjust
ments will be constantly made for
the lettering of mans material in
terests and the ennobling of his
spiritual nature. flor one, said Mr. Massey,
entertain this confidence, and can even
look on determination to increase the
responsible burden in some department of
industry, in supreme faith in God, and so
also in his human children, faith that in
structs me that in the EXTREMIST stress of
labor the trials which proclaim mans
nobility will yet be manifest, that human
tenderness will minister and human
sympathy as far as may be will divide the
burden, that the rich lessons of nature and
experience will continue to mediate Gods
providence to the souls of men, and that
exalted ideals will ever beckon humanity
onward to compass still larger possessions
in the moral domain. While paving
glowing tribute to the clergy as it stands
now and as history bears witness that
it has ever stood for individual and social
purity, for the amelioration of human
condition, and when the pages of that
history are read Discriminatory and with
a due regard for the limitations of an
earlier life, for individual as well as the
moral and spiritual advancement of the
race, he yet thought that the ministry FREE
quently erred as to the nature and scope of
Its authority. 1t has failed to understand
that religion is part of human life and of
human experience If minister possesses
any authority in the exercise of his voca-
ton over the people of his charge, it must
be based simply upon larger life and a
deeper experience, and any appeal to ex-
ternal things except as these things are
capable of being appropriated to the ex-
perieDce of men, is the emptiest of argu-
ments. As the product, then, of human
nature swayed by the spirit of God, the
Bibles of the world. the symbols which
contain the confessions of steadfast faith,
the sacraments which mediate to human
need the spiritual comfort humanity so
earnestly Graves. church and festival and
Sabbath all these can trace their origin
only to that common human heart which
the prophet in his higher vision saw as the
imperishable tablet upon which God shall
write his everlasting commandment. The
Sabbath then is not to be considered as an
institution that bases its authority on
special divine enactment in some miracu-
lous sense, but human day, instituted to
meet some general want, comfort, and
good. Its purpose is primarily rest, and
IL,
ever, that the opportunity and idea of the
day eliminate in worship; that worship
is the great ethic," and that
the recognition of Sunday by SO
many of the cultured and gentle
of the land as pre- eminently the
worship day of the week, is an acknowl-
edgment of it, not as an institution of d.
vine enactment but as human day, calcu-
lated to promote by its genial influences
the supremest interests of man. Care
should be taken, though, that we do not
enforce our standards arbitrarily on any
others. The purpose Sunday is to con-
serve is rest, and the occupations that in
the conditions Of one life may best sub
serve this end, may not be the occupations
that would accomplish the same purposes
with another. The exigencies of modern
life then, seem to require that on great lines
of travel there shall be uneeasing move
ment on Sunday, that thousands shall
labor that other thousands shall rest; that
the furnace fires shall burn with an un-
wonted feryor, and the mighty shafts with
steady repetition propel the wheels that
move car and steamboat on their
way, but we have e confidence that
human nature at heart is kind, and that
there are adjustments and compensations
constantly being made by which the burden
of toll is somewhat fairly distributed.
These arguments, the speaker said, are
made in view of conditions controlling our
modern life he did not see how 10 anchor
ate. To make Sunday subserye the pur-
pose OF the completest rest was simply his
desire. 1t is no argument to insist that the
day is often perverted from its proper uses.
and that wanton frolic frequently disgraces
1t. That this IS so is no reason why the
artisan and the tradesman shall be prohib-
tied from his stroll or ride, that with his
wife and little ones he may visit park and
riverside and hear the birds of heaven sing,
and receive the benediciion of it's sunshine
through few too-quickly passing hours.
Fhe speaker alluded 10 the custom which
permeated the organization of the Catholic
church OF dividing Sunday into sacred and
| secular uses, and expressed himself as glad
that the constituency OF the great historic
church, a constituency that numbers
among it so many of the sons and daugh-
| tiers of toll. could find so large a measure of
comfort in every passing Sabbath, and so
| be brought to view it as manifestation
| OF GODS tender grace. In conclusion, Mr..
Massey said, have not been disposed TO
put the smallest obstacle in the wav of the
| completest observance of our sacred day as
still meaning all that it has ever meant as
Gods gracious gift to the children Of men.
| Ii is 3 day endeared to US BIZ holy tradi-
tons and holier memories. day upon
which home, as summoned now to our re-
| membrance, presents its most beautiful
picture, and the house of God, which in
imagination yet holds the faces OF our loved
| ones, becomes again the gateway 10
hea'en Of pure desire and reverent feeling.
THE CROSS Is CHRISTIANITY SYMBOL.
At the Central 81. E. Church Rev. Mr..
Mckelvey, former pastor of the church.
was present and took part IN the services
The pastor Rev. Thomas Filbep, preached
in the morning from the text, God forbid
that | should glory. save in the cross OF
our Lord Jesus Chriss.1 He said: This
spirit of the socallsd rational and lib
eral gospel gets little comfort from the
Apostle Paul. The spirit to raiionalize the
gospel is not new. IL was abroad in Paul's
day. aud the whole epistle from which the
text comes was written 10 combat it. Men
objected TO his COUGHING OF the gospel
especially 10 such Of it as centered in The
eross. But it makes little difference what
this world objeets to. 1t always has re-
sisted wat rehukes lis seif.snfiiciency and
| cnnceit Of wisdom, aud what curos its de-
praviiy. And whatever men may choose
10 think OF 1t. the cross is the great sign of
whole gospel of elective redempticn. 1t
is all fhst is pre-eminent o. distinctive
about Christianity. and sects despising il
are not deserving 10 be called Christians
they have no claim Ia be- Without its Cal
vary Christianity would he as one with