Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-05-26
NO SINECURE AT ALL.
Rev. Samuel Maxwell's Roundup of
Seven Years Active Work
AS RECTOR OF TRINITY CHURCH.
His Farewell Sermons Preached to Large
Congregations.
THOUGHTS OF OTHER LOCAL DIVINES

Church, Rev. Samuel Maxwell delivered
his farewell and Whitsunday sermon yes
terday morning before large congregation.
The subject of his remarks was ''The Advent
of the Comforter" and he based them on
the text from ST. John xiv:26, reading: The
Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom
the Father will send in my name" He
said:
On this High Festival of the Holy Cath olic
Church we bring to devout and Joyous remem-
brance one Of the most momenuous facts in
hisrory-the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon
the disciples in fulfillment of the promise of
Christ We think of great miracle to-day,
wrought in the upper room in Jerusalem-a
miracle whose influences have been felt to the
remotest boundaries of the earth. In limited
measure the Spirit of God had come and
worked among men before. He had spoken by
the holy prophets, and had impaired many
precious gifts to the servants of God. But now
He came to abide with the church, to be in the
church as a principle of light. life and power;
to work among its members. imparting what
ever is eXpedieDI for them.
All the faith spiritual -mindedness, hope and
consolation in Christ Jesus are derived through
the presence and agency of the divine Spirit.
Through Him, good, pure, holy thoughts have
come into our minds-temptations have been
overcome, evil and corrupt affections been
subdued; kind, considerate. generous feelings
inspired: all emotions that are pure and lovely,
and that bring forth good deeds. The power
producing these influences is truly and essen
tally God. Indeed God cannot be conceived
as existing without the Holy Spirit Like the
Son. He is co-eternal and con-Subsfantlal with
the Father. He is the eternal product of the
mutual love of the Father and the Son-the
bond which makes the two one. In this sense,
we believe that doctrine to be true, which is
expressed in the Filioque clause of the Nicene
Creed. He is the power by which the believer
is united to Christ-by which Christ is present
with the believer. by which Christ Is formed in
the believer by which efficacy is given to the
ministrations of the gospel.
WRONG HAS CREPT IN.
Wrong ideas and beliefs concerning this
divine being have crepr in and established
themselves. How many make no express
recognition of the Spirit at all, but work out
their schemes of progress and reform inde-
pendent of His agency and power? BY how
many is the Spirit regarded as q mere emana-
tion and abstraction invented to fill a chasm
in theology or Promethean fire kindling into
life the marble form of a cold and classic philo-
sophy? What Christian patriot who is not
conscious that something is needed to give
greater permanence to this government and
the institutions of which we are pretty proud2
1esi something needed to take hold of
that from which government springs and
TO meet the wants of those whom govern
ment is designed. Whom? This great peo-
pie, filling the valleys and the plains of the
need? The influence Of tie holy Spirit. Super
ficial arrangements outside expedients, pallia-
tive remedies now employed will never reach
down to the roots of evils and diseases in our
midst. There must be exercised an ameliorat-
ing. Transforming power, the power that cometh
down from above. We can read the conditions
of our future dealings. and see what is needful
for our social preservation. and the paramount
want of the church, ere she can look forth at
the morning. fair as the moon. clear as the
sun and terrible as an army with banners" is
n a ltuFyv
present-not greater rubrical relaxation, but
the baptism of the Holy Ghost.
So thorough is my belief in the reality. the
existence, the agency of the holy Spirit that l
would have no hope for the future of the
church. and no faith as a minister at her affairs
did L not believe that there was an all
prevalent, vitalizing, Divine Spirit, working
throughout her borders. and for the putting
forth of whose power for the regeneration of
the world we should besiege the Throne.
Oh. for more faith in the Divine Spirit-the |
Lord and gIver of life-of life in the higher
directions! AS our faith in heaven increases
SO will our hope and courage in all Christian
effort; and what is the practical, direct Ques-
ton to be addressed to us all to-day? Is it not,
"Have you received the Holy Ghostr' His
presence is evidenced only by the effect pro-
duced upon the life and conversation.
-. THE PRINCIPLE OF LIFE.
Science may search for the vital principle
resident in these bodies of ours; the various
parts of our mortal frame may be dissected,
the veins be analyzed, the muscles be united,
the delicate tracery OF the nerves followed line
by line at last the surgeon will have pur up his
instruments and acknowledge that he has not
found the principle of life, a principle, how
ever, which the babe lying in your arms can
recognize, by the light the intelligence radiat-
ing from the eye, and by the force of the arm;
and so the presence of the Holy Spirit in the
heart though secret itself, is discernable in its
results and daily is He being glorifed
remarkable MASSAGE Occurs in the
published correspondence of that peculiar
man. Thomas CARLYLE. In letter to a
in heaven hallowed be Thy name Thy king
dom come. Thy will be done The other night
in my sleepless tossings about, which were
growing more and more miserable, these words,
into my mind with an altogether new empha-
sis, as il written and shining for me in mild, |
pure splendor, on the black bosom of the
night. Then when L as it were, read word for
word, it was with sudden check to my imper-
feet wanderings. with sudden sottness of
which was much unexpected. Not |
for perhaps 80 or 40 years had L once formally |
repeated that prayer! Nay / had never felt |
before now how intensely the voice of mans |
Soul il isr'
Surely in this instance of the morbid, unhappy |
Carlyle, we can mark the writing of the Holy |
Ghost, and believe Him glorified by the hon. |
age of great intellect. What we all need in |
our journey through this weary life, in our |
struggle with the waves of this troublesome |
world, isithe help of the Holy Spirit, the Com |
forter, one who will not be impatient at our |
little griefs, and at the poor way in which we |
bear them; one who will come to Us in our |
sorrow, and whisper words of consolatlon-yea, |
carry His holy peace into our hearts, that peace
" h1ch the world cannot give-the peace of |
God, which passeth all understanding How |
utterly inadequate are we of ourselves to |
attend to our duties as members of society and |
the church! We have sounded the world, and |
every time it has given back a hollow response; |
We have sounded our own hearts, ana they |
have returned the same empty dissatisfaction. |
THE ONE THING NEEDED.
Nothing has answered our wants until the
Comforter came to US, then we began to lean
he things that belong to our souls bealth
Then the Bible became to us a different book
han in former years; then church services and
he sacrament of our Holy Faith were not
ooked upon as merely high privileges. but as
actual necessities for the strengthening and re-
-reshing OF our souls. Then the Holy Spirit
vas as the pillar of q cloud, for shadows for
ight for defense, for guidance.
| speak to YOU now, beloved in the Lord as |
,lOse this sermon, few earnest, sincere, loving
his sacred place and on this day of peace! AS
ny ministry among you closes to-day, have no
to review the past. 1t is suficient
.o-day that from the time came here. more
han seven years ago, have had the evidence
IF the protection and leading of the Holy
spirit in the events of my own lie and In
he work of my high and holy calling.
rhat calling is no sinecure-its outles are
many, and SO are its cares. Those duties can
'e performed. those cares and burdens carried. |
Dnly in one way-by the help OF the Holy
spirit The Christian ministry shall meet with
declared the divine bishop.
This, from apostolic times. has been the ex-
'erience of those who have labored-in season,
tut OF season-foc the defense of the gospel.
See these men moved by the Holy Spirit in the
prosecution of their work-noI catering to pub
lc opinion or individual opinion and prejudice,