Morning journal and courier., 1889-09-02
AN INAUGURAL SERMON.

AN INAUGURAL SERMON. The Rev. pr. McChesney Breaches His
 First Sermon as . Pastor In This
 City - Strengthening she PastOrss
 Hands-Tho Methods Which Brought
 the Doctor Here Purely Methodissic.
 The Rev. Simon McChesney, D. D., tho new pastor of Trinity Methodist church, preached hls inaugural sermon at that church last evening. His last pastorate was the Broad street church, Columbus, o. At the morning service yesterday the sacrament of the Lords supper was administered and six new members were admitted.
 Dr. McChesney made a most favorable i'm pression upon his people. His presence is magnetic and inspiring and his address hearty and pleasing. His remarks are weighty and language cultivated, and alto gether his congregation are more than grati-
 fed and anticipate a continuance of the church's marked progress and prosperity. In the evening Dr. McChesney preached his first sermon from the text:
 "And Jonathan, Saul's son, arose and went to David and strengthened his hand in God.'--I Sam uel. xxiii, 16.
 Some excerpts from the doctors address follow:
 At the commencement of the public efforts of pastoral term @ preacher is allowed un- usual latitude. In his inaugural discourse he is expected to depart somewhat from his usual type of sermonizing, both as to choice of subject and mode of treatment. It will be very convenient for me to avail myself of this conceded liberty.
 A fraad0un a1an of para0na1 a1luaion and reminiscence will not be regarded as in vio- lation of good taste, but may on the other hand facilitate our acquaintance. Allow me to say, then. first of all, that my transfer to the New York East conference and appointment to Trinity church was care | fully worded to take effect September 1st, to- | day. So that exactly at midnight, although | wholly unconscious of it at the time, my ec- | cesiastical status was changed. Last evening Iwhen retired was still the legal pastor of Broad street church, Columbus, Ohio, and 8 member of the Ohio conference. When l
 awoke this morning was a member of the New York East conference and legally the | pastor of Trinity church.
 This is good time to say that my appoint ment to the pastorate of this church from the | initial and subsequent action of the official | board of this church has been entirely in &C., | cord with the written and unwritten law of Methodism. The course of action which led | to my appointment to Trinity was in hearty accord with exact loyalty to Methodist usage. This is 8 point which I would like to | emphasize, because whom church has become strong it is an easy thing for some | one outside of the local organization to | imagine that the officials of the church have assumed some portion of the prerogatives | which belong to the appointing power. My | only relation to the consumation of this ap- | pointment has been that of consent. fAI 1-.~o | this pastoral charge deem it fitting that this | community should know and that the New | York East Conference should know these in- | disputable facts, that have come to New | Haven, and am here to begin this day the ! work of this pastorate and that am on the ground as the result of methods of action | in exact accord with the spirit and letter ot our Methodist economy-a fact 80 we'll es- ! tablished that it cannot be gainsayed by lay man or preacher, elder or bishop. am not insensible of the honor conferred | by the invitation of the official board of this | church to become your pastor, which invita- \ tion was given with the advice and consent
 of the appointing power.
 It is a pleasure to be invited to live in such city as New Haven-a place renowned | for its educational advantages-the home of so many learned men, not only occupying | the chairs of professors, but also other men of learning and power in the various pulpits | of the oity.
 have thought how New Haven has been favored by strong men as presidents of Yale college, and how they have impressed them
 selves not only upon the city, but upon the | affairs of the nation.
 For some reason my mind has travelled back for three quarters of a century to the time when Dr. Timothy Dwight resided here | and put his mark upon that great institution, | the mark of learning and eloquenoe and deep piety, who was never so busy as to forget young men, who was styled "the young | mans friend"-the man who, when on his death bed listening to the Sth of Romans, ex- claimed: "Oh, what glorious apostle" I have been reminded also of your cele- bration only few weeks since, of the cen- tennial of the introduction of Methodism into New Haven. When I read an account in the press of your celebration, Iregretted that
 I could not have been here to occupy the
 "amen" corner upon that occasion. There is another material fact which it gives me pleasure to mention. It is the | character of this auditorium. I have seen Methodist churches which cost more money | than this which may not be mentioned in | comparison with this. Here the people may ! sit, and all feel that they help to constitute the solidarity of the one congregation. The doctor here referred to the convenience and comfort of the parsonage and the excellent arrangements and advantages of the church and lecture room.
 There is fact which casts a chsstening in- | fuence upon the mind of the preacher this | evening. When consider the character of | the men who from the completion of this | enterprise have occupied this pulpit in the pastoral relation am chastened as one who | stands in the presence of great undertaking men who for scholarship and zeal and reps utation and pnlpit power and success have
 carried to other fields of exalted endeavor
 the high seal of the confidence of the church
 at large. Certainly you have been
 highly favored in the past to enjoy
 the rninistrations of those three men
 whose portraits I have noticed
 hanging in the lecture room, and whose la-
 bors in your midst have given to them per-
 mansnt place in the sanctuary of the souls
 of hundreds, whom their manifestations have
 blessed in this community.
 I shall greatly need your prayers and youl help while I shall stand where such men
 have stood. It is @ relief to remember just here that even as great 6 man as St. Pau | said "Our sufficiency is of God"
 Itis time for us to turn to our text. There
 are few things in this great volume more ten. der and more touching than the account i,
 contains of the relations existing between
 David and Jonathan. It leaves upon tho I-friendship always cultivated and cherish'
 ished upon the exalted plane of sincere and
 manly piety.
 | At critical time in Davids career Jona.
 than, that man whose friendship never vacil
 lated, went to him and strengthened his hand
 in God. David had been called from hum
 ble station in life and had become renowned
 also as a military leader-a mighty man O.
 vslor. But he was facing new responsibilities
 and exposed to new perils. David had mor'
 to fear from the envy of Saul than from thu
 spear of Goliath. It was an emergency II
 David's life. Emergencies may arise as oer-
 tainly by responsibilities imposed as by peril
 encountered. There are crises of responsi.
 bility as we'll as crises of peril. A responsi
 Dility may grow so large as to become peril | ous.
 There are men who take pleasure in com
 pairing the Scriptures with classical literatur,
 the ancient classics-that they may shov
 the superiority of the latter. My friends.
 have never been able to find anyone who ha
 found in the ancient classics such picture o
 friendship thus hallowed by faith in the in
 visible God.
 David had been accustomed from tn
 time when he was @ shepherd boy, @ mer
 stripling, to look to God for strength. Oftel
 did he celebrate this fact in sacred psalmody
 "The Lord is the strength of my life; o